.	- NOTES 1988 - 2007 June,  BY PAUL NERVY.  COPYRIGHT 1988 - 2007, BY PAUL NERVY.  FAIR USE APPLIES PROVIDED YOU MAKE NO CHANGES TO THE TEXT AND INCLUDE THIS COPYRIGHT STATEMENT.  THE RIGHT TO SELL THIS WORK IS RESERVED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER.	..

..	-- CONTENTS: INTRODUCTION, ARTS, BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, HEALTH, HISTORY, LAW, LEISURE, PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION, SCIENCE, SOCIOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, WORK.	..

...	---  This file can be sorted alphabetically, chronologically, or by importance rating.  This is a tab-deliminted text file.	..



.Introduction, .what.	.(1) A method of thinking about x, and generating ideas.  (2) A method of writing up ideas or notes.  (3) A structure of concepts (keywords).  (4) A body of ideas (the book itself).	09/26/1997

.Introduction, .what.	.This section is about what is the Paul Nervy Notes.  Topics include: (1) Digital network.  (2) Frequently Asked Questions.  (3) Modular.  (4) Personal information system.  (5) Short forms.	1/24/2006

.Introduction, .what.	(1) By and for the average mind.  (2) From one average mind to another.  (3) Average joe philosophy.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Education: total and more efficient, quicker.  (2) Education, learning, knowledge, studies.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Notes are a lot of hard work, with not much results.  But you do what you gotta do.  (2) A few simple hard won truths.	09/20/1994

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Notes is not just your brain.  Notes end up being like a second brain.  It adds more brain power.  (2) The Notes ends up being the best you, not the mediocre you or the worst you.  (3) If you can think critically, and if you can see and argue both sides of an issue yourself, you create a dialectic that lets you move up and ahead.	06/30/1997

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Paul's philosophy.  What I need to move forward.  (2) Personal puzzlings, questions, and ignorances.  (3) Creativity.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Pocket mentor, pocket sage, pocket guru.  (2) $5 wiseman, $5 paperback encyclopedia.  (3) Ultimate cheatsheet for life.  (4) The best of Paul.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	(1) Text.  The Notes is text.  Text as a medium has strengths and weaknesses.  Writing lets you save ideas.  (2) Database.  The Notes is a database.  Structured information.  Sortable.  Searchable.  (3) Computerized.  The Notes is computerized.  Text editor.  Internet web page so everyone can read it.	3/12/2005

.Introduction, .what.	(1) The Notes are a way to take a (written) ethical stand.  (2) The Notes are also a reason not to kill yourself.  A reason to keep living.	03/20/1997

.Introduction, .what.	A 1000 page personal ad.  A 1000 page resume.	2/10/2005

.Introduction, .what.	A book of logically arranged ideas, thoughts, knowledge, or information, call it what you will.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, .what.	A book of poems, jokes, stories, and a load of philosophical, psychological and social analysis.	9/12/2005

.Introduction, .what.	A culture of one.  An individual culture.	5/31/2005

.Introduction, .what.	A database for living.	1/26/1999

.Introduction, .what.	A do it yourself book to record and organize your own thoughts on the contents, structure, and mechanism of your mind.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	A mind in text.  A life in text.	3/24/2000

.Introduction, .what.	A one thousand page personal ad.	2/19/1999

.Introduction, .what.	A structure, organization, framework, and a mechanism, method.  (1) A framework and a method.  (2) An organizational framework for ideas.  (3) A method of thinking, and a method of writing.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	A super-mart of stuff, basic useful stuff, organized and displayed nicely, everything you need to live.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	A year by year attempt to try and figure out what is my problem.	2/29/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Accumulation of many small details.  Each seemingly insignificant alone.  Combined they form a big picture.  Ala Seurat's pointillism.  Ala methods of doing history, in which no detail is too small.  Ala the book about the Internet called "Many Small Parts Loosely Joined".	5/2/2002

.Introduction, .what.	An interdisciplinary book.  (1) Filling in the cracks and relationships between subjects.  (2) Text for my interdisciplinary philosophy therapy career.  (3) Interdisciplinary text: how to (method) and data (results).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Applied philosophy.  Everyday philosophy.  Spirit guide.  Reports on everything.	03/01/1994

.Introduction, .what.	Approximately a million words, some of which have to be good.	6/13/2007

.Introduction, .what.	Assumptions of the Notes.  (1) We can change ourselves for the better.  (As opposed to those who do not think we can).  (2) We must change ourselves for the better, in order to stay healthy and sane.  (As opposed to those who do not believe so).  (3) We have an ethical duty to change ourselves for the better.  (As opposed to those who think that we do not).	6/10/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Between art and philosophy there is the Notes.	4/1/2005

.Introduction, .what.	Confront reality vs. escape reality.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Description of the Notes using three names: Frank, Ernest and Kurt.	10/19/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  In the future everyone will have their say, and can put in their two cents worth, unless the net becomes controlled by big corporations and they charge to let you on.	12/30/1996

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  Once the paradigm for information management technology was stone tablets.  Then a technological innovation known as paper led to an improvement in information management technology known as the book.  The printed paper book has been the paradigm for information management up till the 20th century.  With books, the amount of information is limited by the portable size of the book.  The new paradigm for information management today is the web-enabled, hyper-linked database.  With databases, the amount of information that can be used is almost unlimited.  The digital "book" can be as big as we want it to be.  You don't have to write multiple books anymore.  It can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet.  It can be printed out anywhere.  Authors, write your books as web-enabled databases!	3/1/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  Owning a computer is an ethical imperative.  So is writing all your ideas and putting them onto the "big network", in order to develop yourself and help develop others.  Every year there should be a "life day", when we all upload our public notes onto the big network.	01/07/1997

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  The Notes are a person living after death.  The notes are you, as computer, living forever, and joining with others.	01/07/1997

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  To all those scribbling in notebooks and not digitizing their ideas.  Don't you want to share?  Don't be so selfish.	11/20/1997

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  To exist on the Web:  (1) Your words that you write.  Your visual art that you paint.  Your music that you compose.  Your audio/video that you film.  (2) Plus references to the books that you read.  The visual art that you viewed.  The music that you listened to.  The audio/video that watched.	12/4/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Digital network.  You could use the Internet to create a public groupware philosophical encyclopedia of notes.  Everyone does their notes, and puts their initials on each note, and sends it in as a contribution.  One editor edits it all and gets authors permission to use it.  Then the user logs on and is able to do searches of one giant text, or even multiple connected separate databases.	10/25/1997

.Introduction, .what.	Disclaimer: These are not statements of fact.  These are opinions, conjecture and hypothesis.  It is an exploration and a discussion of conceptual schemata.  It is constructive critical inquiry.	1/22/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Epiphanies, sudden illuminations, reflections, meditations, musings, advice, working out my problems, figuring things out, growing wiser with experience and thought.	12/30/1995

.Introduction, .what.	Essay about the Notes.  Principles of the Notes.     PART ONE.  People write diaries in long, serial passages of a personal nature, much like a novelist.  (1) Separate, analyze, and break it down.  Why?  So you can automatically sort notes.  How?  By paragraphs.  (2) Make it as abstract as possible.  Why?  So that other people can use it.  How?     PART TWO.  (1) Separate the Figured notes from the Found notes.  Why?  So you can self publish you own Figured notes.  Every one will.  How?  With a prefix.  (2) Separate the public notes from the private notes.  Why?  So you can publish the public notes.  How?  With a prefix.     PART THREE.  (1)  Why distinguish the Figured notes from the Found notes?  Why separate them into two files?  Its all about boundaries.  (A) Protecting the self.  Protecting your ideas.  Protecting your sense of self.  Protecting your self identity.  (B) Protecting others.  Credit where due.  Copyright law.	10/17/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Essay about the Notes.  The author in the age of information management.     PART ONE.  In today's world of information overload the concept of information management is key.  Books were just one step in the history of information management.  So were traditional conceptions of writing and the author.     PART TWO. The trend is: Everyone is an author.  Everyone has a website.  There will be a lot more authors.  Information will be less expensive or free.     PART THREE. Possibilities for information management.  (1) Computers let you search a directory of files for a text string.  (2) Databases of text files.  (3) Databases containing hyperlinks.  (4) However, due to compatibility problems, one big ASCII plain text file is best.  This is the preferred method.  (5) The key is to make the file so that it can be converted back and forth between ASCII plain text, HTML hypertext, and a database.     PART FOUR. This lecture is a meta-discussion of the book entitled "Notes" by Paul Nervy.  The lecture is not about the content of the book.  The lecture is about how the book is structured.  The book serves as an example of the changing role of the author and writing in the age of information management.     PART FIVE. Digitize everything.  Your e-library will include music, movies, photos and the visual arts.  The e-library will be multi-media.  It will be available to others.  It will last beyond your death.     PART SIX.  (1) The author as we traditionally understand it is changing.  The author is no longer just the novel writer or the essay writer.  (2) Writing as we understand it changing.  The new form  of writing is the digital database, of which Notes is an example.  Hypertext is getting the spotlight at the moment, but the database is just as useful and important.  (3) The new form of the author is the non-professional author.  Academia and the traditional media will have adjuncts.  Academia and the traditional media will not be replaced or superseded, but they will have new cohorts.     PART SEVEN.  The notion of the author must be broadened to that of creator, thinker or being.  Because the author will also create music, paintings and movies.     PART EIGHT.  The organization of information.  An author, or even a computer, can automatically organize Notes in several ways.  (1) Organization by: (A) Logical (ex. textbook).  (B) Chronological (ex. diary).  (C) Importance (ex. goals list).  (D) Alphabetical (ex. encyclopedia).  (2) Levels of information.  (A) Grade school.  (B) High school.  (C) College.  (3) Length of information.  (A) One page (ex. synopsis).  (B) Ten pages (ex. outline).  (C) One hundred pages (ex. full text).  (4) Translation into foreign languages.	10/16/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Estir: every single thing I remember (personal history).  Esticto: every single thing I can think of.  It pays to write down every decent, useful thought you get.  You can help yourself, and you can help others.	05/30/1996

.Introduction, .what.	Everything.  (1) Everything in one spot.  Everything under one roof.  (2) Everything (useful/important) I could think of.  (3) Everything single thing I remember (estir).  (4) Ways to look at everything, ways to deal with everything.  (5) Everything for everyone.  Everything outlined.  (6) Basic philosophical musings on everything.  (7) An encyclopedic classification/structure of ideas.  (8) Write your own encyclopedia.  Write your own library.  (9) Idea menu.  All I could figure out and find out.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Figure out (on your own), and find out (from others).  See: Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	For once in my life I am: (1) Doing it my way.  Doing what I love.  (2) Giving it my all.  Giving it 100%.	9/23/1998

.Introduction, .what.	For who.  (1) For those who don't work well with a shrink.  (2) For the dissatisfied, harried, and confused.  (3) For neurotics like me.  A handbook for neurotics.  (4) For the natural generalists, who this world of specialization doesn't cater to.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Four concepts: Notes, Outline, Diary, and History.  (1) Notes is my thoughts on the world of ideas, arranged in subject order.  (2) Outline is a list of basic concepts, and my thoughts on those concepts, arranged in subject order.  (3) Diary is what is happening in my world, arranged in chronological order.  (4) History is what is happening in the wide world, arranged in chronological order.	1/12/2006

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  (1) Are the Notes the only way and must everyone do Notes?  No.  (2) Are the Notes the best way and should everyone do Notes?  No.	4/11/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  (1) Question: What am I looking at here, Paul?  Answer: Good question. The Paul Nervy Notes are some musings I jotted down. You can read it online. Its a work of art  (2) Question: Are the Notes just a compilation of quotes from other authors or sources?  Answer: Nice try. The Notes are observations I figured out. The Notes are not a compilation of quotes from other authors or sources.  (3) Question: Are the Notes just your school notes?  Answer: Negatory. The Notes are not notes from school. I try to include subjects and ideas not covered in school courses or textbooks. Once was enough.  (4) Question: Are the Notes just your personal diary? Or are the notes a weblog?  Answer: The Notes are not the story of my life. The Notes do not follow the "What I did today." form of writing. Nor are the Notes a list of links to other sites.  (5) Question: What release version of the Notes is on this website?  Answer: This website contains Paul Nervy Notes 1988-2000.  (6) Question: Why are the Notes so varied?  Answer: Some of the chapters are thin and skeletal (for example, the chapters on law and medicine) while other chapters are more fully fleshed out (for example, the chapters on philosophy, psychology and sociology). Also, some chapters are dry (abstract or technical) and other chapters are juicy (humorous or intriguing).  (7) Question: Should I read the Notes from start to finish in a straight line?  Answer: I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are a proofreader. Take your time. Skip around. Find your favorite chapters and favorite notes.  (8)  Question: Why do you write the Notes?  Answer: I keep asking myself the same question. It is not for fame or fortune (although I am not completely opposed to either). Your guess is as good as mine.  (9) Question: I must say, I disagree with some of your ideas, Paul.  Answer: What a coincidence, so do I. The Notes are full of contradictions and changes of mind. (By the way, technically, that was not a question).  (10) Question: Are you some kind of expert? Are the Notes some kind of definitive reference book?  Answer: I am just a regular dude. The Notes are just some ideas I wrote down.  (11) Question: Don't you read books? Don't you surf the web?  Answer: Sure I do. The links page contains Paul Nervy's "e-library o' free content links" (a work in progress).  (12) Question: What's up with the table of contents?  Answer: The first part of each note is a keyword phrase. The Notes are organized by sorting by the keyword phrases. The table of contents lists the keyword phrases.  (13) Question: Can I read the Notes year by year?  Answer: Yes, see the archives for the Notes in chronological order. Formatted in .html, .rtf and .pdb for Palm and Handspring.  (14) Question: Thanks for the info, Paul. Cool site, excellent Notes. What can I do to help?  Answer: Bookmark this page. Tell your friends about Paul Nervy Notes. E-mail positivity. Thanks for visiting.	6/30/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  Book fair.  Most popular questions about my book.  (1) Question: When you started writing ten years ago, did you know how it would end up?  Answer: It was just a glimmer in my eye.  The book evolved organically, in a series of small steps over many years.  (2) Question: Now that your notebooks are published, will you write a novel or a play?  Answer: The wise ass answer to this wise ass question is "Now that I have come this far, why should I take a step backwards?"  The serious answer is, different media and different voices for different artists and different audiences.  Variety and diversity are what make the world work.  (3) Question: Don't people want to be, and have to be, seduced and sweet talked in order to convey a message?  Answer: Some people like plain speaking.  Tell it like it is.  Do not sugar coat it.  Do not waste their time.  Austere minimalist aesthetic.  Also like generic canned goods in the supermarket.  (4) Question: Why do you mix the mundane and the profound?  Answer: In life the mundane is always mixed with the profound.  In order to live successfully, you have to learn to carefully balance the mundane and the profound.	3/28/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  Question: Paul, your work is, how shall we say, non-standard in terms of its style, structure, scope, etc.  What are the implications?  Answer: A traditional publisher is unlikely to publish my work.  The mainstream public is unlikely to accept it.  I will have to work a day job.  And since the Notes are like a full-time job, it is like working two jobs.	6/1/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  Question: Who is Paul Nervy?  Answer: Paul Nervy is interested in foundational issues and the big picture.  Is he an artist or a philosopher?	10/25/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Frequently Asked Questions.  Two objections to my work.  (1) Question.  Paul, why don't you simply read books to research your questions?  Or why don't you post to Internet forums the questions that you have?  Answer.  If I researched every question that occurred to me then it would be a situation where I have more ideas than I have time to research.  If I posted to a newsgroup every question that occurred to me then I would be doing a hell of a lot of posting.  I simply do not have time to read a book or post a message every time a question (or answer) occurs to me.  Thus I write the Notes.  (2) Question.  So Paul, what do you expect other people to get from reading your simplistic meanderings on various topics?  Answer.  Well, if they like it, they like it.  I state up front that I am not an expert and that this is not the last word on any subject.  In fact, it may be the first word on many subjects for many people.  If the Paul Nervy Notes sparks an interest in someone, or motivates someone to look for more information, or even spurs someone to a new idea, then super, for me that is a worthy accomplishment.	8/31/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Global.  The Notes is global in scope.  (See also: Philosophy, specialization and generalization.)	12/15/2005

.Introduction, .what.	I am a guy who had to think of a lot of useful things in order to stay on the right track in life.  And I wrote them down.  And it might help other similarly challenged people who share the problems I had and have (1 in 50 people?).  They are not retards, but rather they are those who tend to wander off track and lose sight of goals, and occasionally run off the deep end.  Notes is minor mental tweaks to stay running hot.  If it works for you, o.k.  If not, fine.	12/30/1995

.Introduction, .what.	I am a thinker, not a writer.  If I could reach a bigger audience by talking then I would be a public speaker or have a television show.  If I could put my thoughts into computer language then I would be a software programmer.  Don't label me a writer.	2/29/2000

.Introduction, .what.	I am an idea farmer.  These lines you read are like the rows the farmer hoes.  Welcome to my farm!	5/25/2002

.Introduction, .what.	I don't have to hit a home run.  Just keep hitting singles.	8/28/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Imagined college bull sessions transcribed.	1/26/1999

.Introduction, .what.	In addition to asking, "What are the Notes?", one can also ask, "What could the Notes be?", and, "What should the Notes be?"	3/9/2005

.Introduction, .what.	Information management inventory methods.  We can look at ideas as objects and the Notes as an inventory of objects.  Then we can apply well established inventory concepts to the subject of ideas.  (1) The Notes uses a FIFO (first in, first out) idea-inventory method.  That is, the Notes are released year by year.  (A) I argue that FIFO has good points, such as the fact that most information has a "freshness date" or useful time period.  Wait fifty years to publish and your ideas will likely be stale.  (B) FIFO idea-inventory is sometimes criticized on the grounds that ideas may be released prematurely, but this is not a big deal in that this happens everyday, and in any event premature ideas are better than no ideas.  The sooner you get out useful information the more people it can help.  The positive points of FIFO outweigh the negative points.  (2) However, some people use a LIFO (last in, first out) inventory method.  For example, they decide that they wait till the end of their life to write their memoirs.  (A) LIFO proponents argue that they release information only when it is complete and polished.  (B) I say LIFO can be criticized on the grounds that it hogs information.  It is selfish hoarding.  LIFO idea-inventory is essentially a form of closed society, rather than an open society.  Another objection to LIFO idea-inventory is that it leads to stale ideas.  The negative points of LIFO outweigh its positive points.  (3) An alternate way of looking at this topic is to say that the Notes uses the "prototype" method of production.  Each note (each idea) is a prototype.  The product is not waited for perfection before it is released.	6/28/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Information overload.  The Notes help you deal with information overload.  The Notes help you store and organize your ideas (information).  Sorting by keywords saves massive amounts of cut-and-paste time.  Storing your notes helps you keep from forgetting.  The rapid organization capability of keyword phrases lets you organize your notes, and that helps organize your mind.  Being able to store and organize your ideas (not someone else's) helps reduce the anxiety of information overload.  Importance ratings and the "most important ideas about x" category help you prioritize your ideas.  Helps you get your priorities straight.	3/20/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Information theory.  (1) Get (by figuring out or finding out).  (2) Record.  (3) Organize (classify and prioritize).  (4) Manipulate.  (5) Retrieve.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Information.  Notes is an information management system.	6/3/2004

.Introduction, .what.	Information.  Personal information system.  (1) To discover, record, preserve, and accumulate.  (2) Organization and dissemination.  (3) Quickly, accurately, flexible, compactly, efficiently, completely.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Integrated.  The Notes are integrated.  When you put everything in one pot and stir it around you get integration.  (1) Integrated in the psychological sense (see also: Psychology).  A healthy state in which all parts, all experiences, work together.  (2) Integrated in a sense analogous to racial integration.  Harmony and tolerance of diverse elements.  (3) When other authors write single subject books for the marketing segments created by publishers, they have built lack of integration into their works.	2/20/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Interrelationships of things.  Perspectives on things.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Major themes of the Notes.  (1) Specialization and generalization.  (2) Information management.  (3) Philosophy, psychology, and sociology.	6/1/2006

.Introduction, .what.	Market place of ideas.  In order for people to make up their minds, all sides must be heard completely, sympathetically, and well argued.	09/01/1994

.Introduction, .what.	Me: the notes are  (1) Me, my brain, my soul, my baby, my purpose.  (2) My main project, my little brain child.  (3) Product of my mind.  (4) All these folders add up to Life and Me.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Mental models and paradigms.  Logical structures of ideas on x.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Modular.  Low-cost, reusable modules that can be reconfigured with a variety of parameters.  When one person is done with them they can be recycled and used by another person.	9/17/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Modular.  The Notes are modular.  That is one of its strong points.  Modular like computer object oriented programming.	1/3/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Motivational tool.  Motivation through rational ideas.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	My goal is to do good thinking (art/philosophy) till a ripe old age.  Make it public every year because art/philosophy types have a tendency to go nuts and destroy their good manuscripts (ex. Kafka, etc.).	12/30/1996

.Introduction, .what.	My notes.  (1) My notes distilled and communicated.  (2) Super ultra organized Notes for my personal use.  (3) Preservation and organization of notes.  (4) A book to teach you to do your own notes, and some notes to start you off.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	My public writings.  (1) The writings that will not embarrass me for others to read.  Writings that are not private.  (2) Writings that I think will do some good for others to read.  Writings that are not specifically applicable to me and my life only.	12/26/1997

.Introduction, .what.	My work does not fit into the standard genres.  You might call it being homeless.  And each note is worth about a soda-can nickel.  You might call it canning.  So my writing is the functional equivalent of a homeless man canning.  Ego booster!	8/4/2000

.Introduction, .what.	My work is uneven and slightly odd, which wreaks havoc on the pagination.	4/13/2001

.Introduction, .what.	My writing style developed out of my comedy style, which consists mostly of one liners.	6/30/1999

.Introduction, .what.	New improved values.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Notes are a type of psychological therapy.  It is a type of writing therapy.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, .what.	Notes are an extension of your mind, of yourself.	09/01/1994

.Introduction, .what.	Notes has something for everyone to disagree with.	12/30/2003

.Introduction, .what.	Notes is outside academia.   Notes is outside traditional publishing.  Notes is outside blogdom.	12/30/2003

.Introduction, .what.	Paul Nervy carries them kicking and screaming into the big thicket.	9/28/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Perhaps, for me, the Notes were a way to  (1) Forge a self-identity for myself.  (2) Create a sense of meaning and purpose in my life.  (3) Keep up my self-esteem and self-worth.     PART TWO.  Subjectively.  How successful were the Notes in achieving the above goals?  Did they do the trick?  Did it work for me?     PART THREE.  Objectively.  What good are the Notes?  What did they accomplish for other people besides myself?  How do the Notes compare to what else is available?  Do the Notes make a new and useful contribution?  Did I accomplish as much as I could have accomplished?	4/14/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Personal information system.  (1) History, diary, personal chronology, oriented toward the past.  (2) Goals list.  Oriented toward the future.  (3) Bibliography of books, music, movies, Internet, etc.  (4) Notes on media.  Found concepts.  Outline.  (5) Library and e-library.  Actual works.  (6) Your Figured Out ideas.	9/22/2003

.Introduction, .what.	Personal information system.  When some people think of a personal information system they think of a schedule and a contacts list.  I am thinking of something more than that.  I am thinking of History and Goals.  Figured and Found.  The history and goals address the past and future.  The figured and found handles your own ideas and the ideas you read in the media.	9/25/2003

.Introduction, .what.	Proust had a project and a method.  Kerouac had a project and a method.  Nervy has a project and a method.	3/24/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Record of my development.  (1) My intellectual and emotional development.  (2) Development of my knowledge of x, and my opinions on x.  (3) A record of idea development.  (4) Tracks from your exploration of world of ideas.  (5) A record of mental travels, mental development.  (6) Mental travelogue.  (7) Extension of your mind, of yourself.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Religious description of my book: confessions, assumptions and revelations.	4/8/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Self help, self therapy book.  (1) Cognitive therapy: thinking, learning (figure, find).  (2) Memory therapy.  (3) Philosophy therapy.  (4) Writing therapy.  (5) Getting your shit together.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Short forms.  You've seen books of micro-fiction.  The Notes are micro-non-fiction.	10/5/2000

.Introduction, .what.	Short quotes.  Each worth about a nickel.  They begin to add up.  Like people who make a living by collecting empty cans for refunds.  This book is the equivalent of intellectual canning.	3/29/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Slogan for the Notes: Stumbling toward a better future.	4/15/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Some artists deliver their product in little boxes covered with wrapping paper and a bow.  I deliver my product with a dump-truck.	7/1/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Some writers write in a torrent or flood of productivity.  My brain is like a slowly dripping faucet.  Each idea is a drop of water.  One drop does not help much, but put a bucket under the drip and you can gather enough water to survive.  The Notes are the bucket.  (Don't let the dripping drive you crazy!).  However, I do not want my autobiography to be titled "Slow Drip: The Paul Nervy Story".	4/28/1998

.Introduction, .what.	The "reinventing the wheel" criticism of the Notes says that I am just thinking of things that other people have already thought of, even if I am not aware of them having thought it.  My counter-argument is one could say that we are all, each one of us, reinventing the wheel every time we make a wheel.  I am not reinventing the wheel, I am making wheels.  I am a wheel factory.	3/29/2002

.Introduction, .what.	The average person who puts in the time and effort can write a book each year for 30 years.  Do you really expect anyone else to read all thirty of your books?  That would be an unreasonable expectation.  The best you can do is make one large, searchable, sortable database.  That's what are the Notes.	6/1/2002

.Introduction, .what.	The big picture.  Interdisciplinary studies.  A data base.  Basic, important shit.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	The broad, wide angle, scattershot approach vs. the microscopic, narrow, in depth view.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	The jigsaw analogy.  Each note is like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle.	4/23/1999

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes - talking points.  (1) Everyone can and should do their own notes.     (2) In the Notes, as in life, there is no distinction between the theoretical and the practical.  Just like there is no distinction between the public and the private (see postmodernism and feminism).     (3) Computer's influence on the Notes.  (A) Computers today are great for the organization of large quantities of information.  The Notes are self-organizing in that they sort at the touch of a button, which lets the author focus on creativity.  Cutting and pasting would be unbearable.  In the future, computers will more actively aid authors in their creativity.  (B) The Notes format is better than HTML because it imports into a database.  Very soon we will be able to "mind meld" our notes when we meet each other on the streets.  Compare and add new ideas.  Very soon we will have thinking computers.  (C) Computers raise our ethical responsibility for working with information.  No more excuses like "I can not write.  I do not have the time."  Voice recognition will make it quick and easy.     (4) The Notes are between art and philosophy.  Bertrand Russell called philosophy the land between science and religion.  I call the Notes the land between art and philosophy.  Artistic philosophers like Wittgenstein and Nietzsche.  Philosophical artists like Conrad and Melville.     (5) Short form.  Aphorism, axiom, maxim, epigram, haiku.  Poetry like.  Concise and economical.     (6) Contextual nature of the Notes.  The Notes has a gestalt aspect to it.  (A) The Notes address all phenomena.  Everything in this world exists in relation to, or in context to, everything else.  In the Notes it is all there, a world.  The whole story, not half the story.  Epistemological holism.  (B) The Notes exist in relation to each other.  The surrounding notes, or neighboring notes, is what helps give an individual note its impact.  Semantic holism.     (7)  The Notes put a human face on ideas, so that you can understand the ideas better.  It does this by avoiding a dogma of pure abstraction, and thus lets the emotions, drives and memories of the author show.  The ideas are embodied.  You can see from whence the ideas evolved.     (8) Notes as writing therapy for self-help.     (9) Notes as a reference work.     (10) Notes as a structured format, using keyword phrases.     (11) Notes as a useful tool for writers, to spur their ideas.     (12) Notes as: Reminders.  Provocations.  Contradictions.  Open questions.     (13) The Notes are not "everything I know".  Everything I know can be broken down into stuff I Found Out from other sources, and stuff I Figured Out for myself.  The stuff I Figured Out for myself can be broken down into Public Notes that I let others read, and Private Notes that I keep to myself.  The Private Notes are private either because they are personally sensitive, or else they are information that applies to me only and that would not benefit others to read.	4/2/1999

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are about figuring out, as opposed to finding out.  See: Psychology, thinking, figuring out and finding out.	1/1/2002

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are like a message in a bottle cast out onto the ocean of the Internet.	1/16/2006

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are like a quotebook, except all the quotes are by the same person.	3/28/1999

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are not aphorism.  An aphorism is a succinct, complete idea.  The Notes are fragments strung together.	10/5/2000

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are the best of Paul.  They let me focus on my rare best thoughts, instead of the common garbage thoughts I have.  90% of everything is garbage, including my thoughts.	02/15/1997

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are very similar to the brute force method of artificial intelligence programming.  You start with the simple and work toward the complex, with everything in between included.  But the Notes are meant for humans, not computers.	8/1/1998

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are voluminous, unedited, unexpurgated, uneven and flawed.  Yet this slag heap may keep many a rag-picker alive.  Enjoy!	10/5/2000

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes are voluminous, uneven, incomplete, unedited, raw, ponderous, plodding, unexpurgated, wandering, and erratic.	10/12/2000

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes does not explain everything.  The Notes is not perfect.  However, there is a lot of cool stuff in the Notes.  A lot of ideas to work with.	7/1/2002

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes goes beyond blood, sweat and tears.  I bashed my brains on it.  I poured my guts into it.  I broke my bones on it.  I seared my wrists on it.  I lost my hair over it.  I spent my eyesight on it.  I put my back into it.  I got wrinkles over it.	8/10/2001

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is a psychological workout of memory, emotion and thinking.	3/12/2005

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is activism.	4/27/2006

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is not everything that I know.  Everything I know is comprised of (1) Figured-out knowledge.  (A) Public: Notes I will let others read.  (B) Personal: Notes I do not let others read, either because they are notes that apply only to my specific situation, or because they are notes that are private.  (2) Found-out information.  (A) Notes that I took on information I gathered from books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television or Internet.  (B) There are also the digital files that comprise my e-library.  (3) The Notebooks that I publish are my Figured-out, Public notes.	4/25/1999

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is not the only way to change ourselves for the better, but it is an important way.	6/10/1999

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is one book, added to year by year.  Another person who wrote one book and added to it year by year was Walt Whitman with his "Leaves of Grass".  What kind of person writes one book and adds to it year by year?   Firstly, a generous person who is not afraid to give a lot of themselves for the price of a single book.  Secondly, a person who sees the world holistically.  Nothing is separate.  It all hangs together.  Everything is connected.  All is one.  Thirdly, someone not afraid to go against the conventions of the publishing industry which releases product bit by bit, and book by book.  Whitman was nothing if not generous, holistic and unconventional.  And there are others like him.	1/6/2002

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes is really a collection of attitudes, and thus it is a person-ality.	6/25/2001

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes started as a germ of an idea.  Then the germs began multiplying.  And today it is completely germ-ridden.	6/8/2001

.Introduction, .what.	The Notes uses the "prototype" method of production.  (1) The prototype method involves putting out a trial product and then fine-tuning it, rather than waiting till a perfect product is produced and put on the market.  (2) In the case of the Notes, the product is an idea (attitude).  The product does not have to be perfect.  (3) This topic concerns two views of truth or ideas.  (A) Looking for an idea that is perfect and un-assailable.  Some people attempt to live this way and it does not work well.     (B) Looking for ideas that have any improvement over existing ideas.  Or even looking for any reasonable alternative idea.  This approach produces more and better ideas.	8/7/2000

.Introduction, .what.	The soup and salad definition: tangy and zesty, yet robust and hearty.	5/15/2002

.Introduction, .what.	Theory and applications.  Technology.  Applied philosophy.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	There are no books, only ideas (only notes).  Books are just collections of ideas. We are more concerned with the idea level, not with the container level.  The Internet is helping us focus less on the book level and more on the idea level.	2/10/2001

.Introduction, .what.	There is a difference between reading philosophy and doing philosophy.  Many people who read philosophy can tell you what this or that particular philosopher wrote.  Fewer people actually try to do philosophy.  The Notes is doing philosophy.  Or trying to.  Actually.	12/1/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Things left out and ignored.  (1) Tell you the things the textbooks won't or can't.  (2) Important thoughts you may have missed or forgotten.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Thinking better.  (1) New improved ways of thinking: broader, deeper truer.  (2) Improved interdisciplinary momentary thinking.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	This book is friendly in an unassuming way.  Like a dog that comes up to you to be petted.  Then the dog starts talking.	3/29/1999

.Introduction, .what.	This book is just the best original ideas from my notes which I have been writing down as I thought of them over the last several years.  I describe my note writing method in the "How" section and tell you a way to organize your own notes.  I saw this book as spanning several genres and hoped it would achieve several purposes.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Three truths about the Notes:  (1) I don't know what it is.  (2) I don't know why I do it.  (3) I don't know who its for.	9/10/2001

.Introduction, .what.	Three views of the Notes.  (1) Notes as history.  (2) Notes as philosophy.  (3) Notes as psychotherapy.	1/2/2005

.Introduction, .what.	To develop new, important, true ideas, for people in general and for me specifically.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	Traditionally there has been a strict division of labor, with the arts handling emotion and the sciences being completely unemotional.  The Notes, tries to bridge that gap.  The Notes has a freedom to mix non-fiction and emotional responses.	10/9/1999

.Introduction, .what.	Truth.  (1) Totally valuable truths.  (2) The horrible, painful, bitter, cold, hard truth.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	What are the notes.  (1) Six years of trying to get and capture on paper the hot mental moment. (10/93)     (2) More organized than a quotebook, more formal than a pop book, more comprehensive than a polemic, more complete than a textbook. (5/25/93)     (3) Notes are not an end in themselves, but a means to accomplish other things.  It is necessary but not sufficient (4/15/93).     (4) The basics.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, .what.	What distinguishes the notes from some other forms of writing therapy is that it focuses on the logical arrangement of thoughts (as opposed to chronological journals).  That is not to say that the notes does not touch on non-logical subjects like drive, emotion, etc., because it does.	6/10/1999

.Introduction, .what.	What information do I need?  How get it?  Fast, clear, condensed.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .what.	What is Notes.  (1) Notes is a way to generate, organize, store, share and manage information.  (2) Notes combines the genres of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and jokes.  Notes combines the modes of philosophy, art and science.  (3) Notes is a set of principles and techniques to deal with information.  To help change the way you look at and deal with information.  So there is less information overload.  So you manage information better.  So you are more creative.  (4) Notes works at the idea level, not the page level like a web page, and not the book level like a library.  (5) Notes is a database.  More specifically, Notes is a tab delimited text file database.  The database is as important as the web page.  (6) Notes lets you sort by date, category and rating.  (7) Notes makes use of two files: "the figured out" and "the found out".  Notes makes use of two categories: the public notes (for anyone, about everyone), and the private notes (about self, for self).  (8) Notes uses digitized and paper formats.  (9) Notes is organized by category.  Notes uses an outline form of writing.  (10) Notes is a constant thinking and writing of ideas.  Jot down ideas everywhere and anytime.  (11) Notes is a lifelong pursuit, not a thin slice of time.  Notes is concerned with all of reality, not a narrow subject area.  Notes is one big book.  (12) Originally in text format.  On the web in html format.  Add a table of contents.  Add a search engine.	8/25/2002

.Introduction, .what.	What is the Notes similar to and different from?  (1) Similar to a quote book, but consisting of your own quotes.  (2) Similar to a blog, but something you build from within instead of appending onto end.  (3) Similar to a diary, but a diary of ideas.	3/4/2007

.Introduction, .what.	Writing in the age of information management.     PART ONE.  Hypertext is a useful technique that has received a lot of attention in the last few years.  There have even been books written that explore the cultural impact of hypertext.  But let us not overlook the database.  Let us not give short shrift to the database.  For the database makes possible automatic sorting.  Automatic sorting lets you worry less about organization and focus more on content.     PART TWO.  Types of information.  (1) Quantitative information (the province of corporations and science) vs. Qualitative information (the province of individual's notes).  (2) Sentential information (facts) vs. emotional information (feelings).  (3) Figured Out information (thought of on your own) vs. Found Out information (heard, read, saw, etc.).  (4) Public information (non-private) vs. Private information (personal).  (5) The Notes include 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A and 4A.     PART THREE.  Types of writing.  (1)(A) Linear narrative (ex. novels) or linear chronological (ex. diary) vs. (B) Logical, hierarchical, classification (ex. textbooks) vs. (C) Organization by importance vs. (D) Alphabetical.  (2)(A) Structure (automatic sorting) vs. Content (my focus).  (3)(A) Paper vs. (B) Computer text vs. (C) Computer html vs. (D) Computer database.  (4) The Notes focus on 1B, 2B and 3D.	10/10/1999

.Introduction, .why.	.This section is about why I write the Paul Nervy Notes.  Topics include: (1) Personal reasons.  (2) Societal reasons.	1/24/2006

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Boredom, lack of better alternative.  (2) Nothing better to do, nothing more important to do.  (3) A way to kill time while time kills me.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Doing Notes is especially helpful for pessimists like myself.  The key is to write notes to record the good in your life, and then study those notes to focus on the good in your life.  (2) For repressed neurotics the Notes help you recall ideas and emotions that one has a tendency to repress.  (3) In both the above cases, the Notes contribute to mental health.  But the Notes should not be used as the sole therapy for people with serious mental problems.  (4) The Notes are also a reminder or memory aid.	7/27/1998

.Introduction, .why.	(1) For self respect.  (2) For respect from others.  (3) To show something for my time (11/01/94).  (4) Proof I worked for five years and didn't vegetate. (9/01/94).  (5) To make the most of myself and my life.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, .why.	(1) For self:  For fun.  For health.  For growth.  (2) For others:  For fun.  For health.  For growth.	6/3/2004

.Introduction, .why.	(1) For truth and justice.  (2) To improve the world.	4/25/2006

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Going over old stuff makes it easier to think of new.  (2) Going over old stuff makes clearer the way to go.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Health.  Psychological health.  Improve self.  Growth and development.  (2) Knowledge.  Truth.  Get smart.  (3) Improve the world.  Justice.	4/17/2006

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Notes gives one a purpose, when times are tough.  (2) Notes give one a foundation, when one is in doubt or has lost the track or vision.	04/24/1997

.Introduction, .why.	(1) People do not have time to perform a science experiment on every idea they get.  (2) People do not have time to research every idea they get.  (3) People do not have time to discuss every idea they get.  (4) And it would help if the ideas recorded and organized themselves to some extent because people do not have time to type and organize their ideas.  (5) Yet the ideas people get are important, at least for them, and should not be forgotten or discarded just because they aren't easy to herd.  (6) Some people argue that if an idea cannot be verified scientifically, or if it is not researched, or if it is not debated publicly, then it is useless.  However, such criteria do not invalidate every good idea.	9/19/2001

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Practical reasons.  (A) Psychological health.  (B) Personal development.  (C) Economic well being.  (D) Successful social relationships.  (E) Accomplishment and productivity.  (2) Idealistic reasons.  (A) Make the world a better place.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Subjective reasons: why I think I wrote it.  (2) Objective reasons: why I actually wrote it.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	(1) To develop a stand, to take a stand.  (2) To work from thought to action.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	(1) Writing helps you think.  Work it out on paper.  (2) Writing helps you remember.  Save it on paper.	8/15/1998

.Introduction, .why.	Academics are specialists bound by their disciplines.  Professional or commercial writers are specialists bound by sales, advertisers and audiences.  Amateur generalists are less bound.  Notes is a work by an amateur generalist.	11/15/2003

.Introduction, .why.	All the things learned by people, and not recorded, and lost to the ages, only to have to be re-thought again through painful mistakes by later generations.  If we could write it down, clearly, concisely, and well organized, without being unclear and long winded, then it would be useful, and easy to search, and quick to read and learn.	11/30/1996

.Introduction, .why.	At first I did Notes because I was trying to be an artist and philosopher.  Now I do Notes because I am:  (1) Just trying to survive.  Trying to get and keep head screwed on straight (double check marks).  (2) Trying to capture the gold I drip.  Get the most out of my brain (single check marks).  (3) All the muddlings to get the above two.  The 90% garbage one must wade through to get the 10% useful.	07/30/1996

.Introduction, .why.	Current realization: No one cares what I have to say.  Gee whiz.  Well, that's fine with me.  That these words are on the Internet and no one reads them only adds to their wilderness quality.	3/21/2001

.Introduction, .why.	Develop me and my mind.  (1) Sharpens (quicker and more accurate) your thinking ability.  (2) Improves mental organization.  (3) For thinking, evolution of thought.  (4) Become my ideal me, develop personality.  (5) To improve my mind, behavior, my life.  (6) Cognitive therapy, organize head.  (7) Develop unconscious working knowledge.  (9) Improve contents, structure, and mechanism of mind.  (10) Psychic health, reduce neurosis, to help me.  (11) Be a better person, and survive better.  (12) Money: get and hold better jobs.  (13) Sell this book.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Dual purpose.  (1) To get it out of my system, to get it off my mind  vs.  (2) To remind me of things.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Dual purpose.  Paradoxical dual purpose of Notes.  (1) Writing Notes lets you take your mind off what you need to take it off of.  You unconsciously realize you can take your mind of it because you know you have it written down in your Notes somewhere.  (2) Writing Notes paradoxically also helps keep your mind on what you need to keep it on.  Writing things down serves as a reminder to think about them when you go back and re-read your notes.	06/15/1994

.Introduction, .why.	Each of us must put the world in our own words.  It is not just a matter of writing.  We must make life our own.  You cannot just hear life and see life.  You have to say life and do life.  You have to be life.  You have to live life.	3/16/2000

.Introduction, .why.	Essay about why.  Problems.  (1) Minds forgetting stuff.  (2) Minds inactive.  (3) Minds full, with no room to learn.  (4) Minds disorganized.  Disorganized in regard to logical organization.  Disorganized in regard to chronological organization.  (5) Confusion.  Upset.  Frustrated.  Angry.  Making important life mistakes.  (6) Writing your own notes can help alleviate these problems.  It is writing therapy that can fight information overload.	8/25/1999

.Introduction, .why.	Essay about why.  Why write?  Psychological health and growth.  Healthier, smarter people.  A better society.  Save the earth.  In part, these goals all depend on information management.  Information in the form of memories, emotions, thoughts and attitudes.	8/30/1999

.Introduction, .why.	Eventually you meld your personal notes (figured out) and your book notes (found out) in your mind to produce some total mental data base.	04/21/1993

.Introduction, .why.	Everyone should do their own Notes.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, .why.	For fun.  For health.  For progress.  For truth, ideas, knowledge.  For justice.	5/14/2004

.Introduction, .why.	Honestly, Paul, why do you write the Notes?  (1) I'm trying to sort out my problems.  To stay alive, healthy, productive, employed.  (2) Groupies.  Female fans.  I really thought the Notes would bring me women.  (3) I honestly thought the Notes would help other people.  (4) Ideas have a beauty all their own.  Ideas possess aesthetic qualities.  Ideas can have inexorable logic, wit, emotion, enlightenment.  Ideas are a delight to behold.  (5) The search for and discovery of ideas can be a kick.  At some point I either recognized or decided that this is who I am and this is what I do.  Its fun.	6/4/2002

.Introduction, .why.	I am arguing for the importance of words, reason, thinking.  Other people like objects, money, or power, but I do not find those compelling.  Still others like obedience, mindless action, or doing nothing, but I do not find those compelling either.	8/16/2006

.Introduction, .why.	I don't want my notes to end up being just about my worsening pathological psychological condition.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, .why.	I'm not trying to save the world, I'm trying to save my self.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	I'm not trying to think of things no one's ever thought of, I'm trying to think of things I've never thought of.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	If it exists, it is important, and I'm interested in.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	In addition to asking, "Why do the Notes?", one can also ask, more generally, "Why think, write and publish?"	3/9/2005

.Introduction, .why.	Individual progress is not automatic.  Societal progress is not automatic.  Progress requires effort.	8/20/2006

.Introduction, .why.	It is imperative, an ethical obligation, that parents write and self-publish notes for their children, and their children's children.	01/07/1997

.Introduction, .why.	It is not enough to collect notes.  They must be ordered.  And thought about.	02/14/1989

.Introduction, .why.	Its fun.  Its healthy.	5/3/2003

.Introduction, .why.	Notes boost self-confidence.  Enables quicker, better thinking.  Enables quicker action.  Leads to faster development and growth.  Notes avoid the stall, the languish.	1/25/1998

.Introduction, .why.	Notes help you remember your good ideas and thus let you let go of your bad ideas.	02/28/1998

.Introduction, .why.	Nothing seems real to me till I write it down.	06/30/1996

.Introduction, .why.	One has an obligation to think.  One has an obligation to write what one thinks.  One has an obligation to publish what one writes.  What is the basis of the obligation?  The basis of the obligation is that these acts are good to do and we are able to do them.	2/1/2005

.Introduction, .why.	Only by leaving your mind open to consider anything and everything will you be able to focus in on what is really bothering you and what is really important.	1/16/2006

.Introduction, .why.	Personal information system.  Once ideas are recorded and organized, it is easier to think new ones.  Preservation and organization.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Personal reasons (egoism).  (1) Money, glory.  (2) Ethical reasons.  (3) It is what I do best, it is what I want to do.  (4) Save and organize notes for me and for posterity.  (5) To change (improve) myself and my life.  (6) Make money publishing it.  (7) Develop thesis or articles out of it.  (8) Impress women. 9. See below: social reasons (altruism).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Pseudo-reasons why not to do Notes.  (1) Nobody reads.  (2) Nobody reads self-published books.  Most people who read, read the major publishers.  (3) Nobody reads art-philosophy.  Most people who read, read fiction.  (4) Nobody cares.  (5) Its not that good.	6/4/2002

.Introduction, .why.	Questions.  (1) Why do I do my notes?  Why does anyone do their notes?  (2) Why should I do my notes?  Why should anyone do their notes?  (3) Will this book help me?  Will this book help anyone?  (4) Will writing notes help me?  Will writing notes help anyone?  (5) Why should you read Notes (my reasons), and why do you read Notes (your reasons)?  (6) Reasons why not read this book, and reasons why not to write your own notes.  Waste of time?	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Quote.  You can have more fun with 1 pen, 1 package of loose-leaf, and a library card, than you can with $10,000.00.  If you know how.  (from 4/15/90).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Retrieval problems.  When you have information that is recorded either in handwriting, print or digital format, and you are having trouble finding what you are looking for, then you are essentially in a state analogous to the mental state we call "forgetting".  To say "I forgot" is to say "that information is not currently retrievable".  Information recall is 90% of thinking.  Information recall is 90% of the solution in the physical world as well as the mental world.	10/22/2000

.Introduction, .why.	Self-publish or self-perish.  (1) Self-publish or self-perish.  Write down your ideas.  Organize your ideas.  Self publish your ideas by putting your web site on the Internet.  Why?  Because to not face this important challenge is to risk casting yourself into a vicious, possibly suicidal, existentialist depression.  Self-publishing is part of what you are here to do.  (2) Self-publish or self-perish.  Leave a trace of yourself because otherwise you will die without leaving a trace and no one will be able to benefit from your experience.  The idea is not that you want to live forever through your writing out of vanity.  The ideas is that you want to live forever through your writing because you want to make a useful, lasting contribution to the world.	8/9/2005

.Introduction, .why.	So you don't make as many mistakes as me, and suffer the resulting pains.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Social reasons (altruism).  (1) People don't have time, energy, ability to find out and/or figure out.  (2) Help them avoid mistakes and pain.  (3) Help them solve problems and get goals to change (improve) the world.  (4) Never underestimate your audience, most people are evolving.  (5) For those dying to know, whether they know it or not.  (6) People don't have time to read books and outline them.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Stand.  Writing a diary to be left after you die, as a virtual person or mind, forces you to lead a more authentic life.  Because it forces you to say, "This is for the record".  It makes you think, and then take a stand.	10/05/1997

.Introduction, .why.	Sum up.  (1) For self.  For fun.  For health.    For money, chicks and fame.  (2) For others.  To make a contribution to society.  To share.  For truth and justice.	6/7/2004

.Introduction, .why.	Survival.  (1) Purpose of all this learning is survival.  (2) Surviving better.  (3) Health: psychological, physical, financial.  (4) Solve problems, avoid mistakes, reduce pain.  (5) Get goals (job, money, women, notes, books, stuff).  (6) Figure out what's going on.  (7) How does it affect us.  (8) Understand things, make sense of things.  (9) To understand life, how the world works.  (10) To get a better model of reality.  (11) Figure out what's important.  (12) Figure out what to do, and how I know.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Teach kids that the computer is an idea bank.  If they save only two or three ideas a day, you will have 1000 ideas per year, and 10,000 ideas in 10 years.  You will be rich with ideas in a short time.	01/07/1997

.Introduction, .why.	The alternative to doing Notes is confusion, forgetting and being overwhelmed.  And not knowing who you are or what is going on.  And lack of focus.  And distraction, and psychological fragility.	3/20/1999

.Introduction, .why.	The Notes are necessary for survival (not death), health (not illness), and growth (not waste).  The results of not doing them will be pain and waste.	10/25/1997

.Introduction, .why.	The Notes are sets of ideas, or sets of attitudes (ideas + emotions).  Some people would argue that every person, as they develop, works through a series of sets of attitudes.  That is, to some degree we repeat each other.  If this is the case, even to a minimal degree, then the Notes are reusable modules.  The Notes are not just the story of one specific being.	10/25/2000

.Introduction, .why.	The Notes helped bring me out of pathological psychology to peak performance in all areas of my life both practical and theoretical.  The Notes also helped bring me from 0 to 100% productivity.	08/14/1994

.Introduction, .why.	The only justification I can give my writings at this point is this:  Other people may be as smart, or smarter than I am, but they may not be neurotic or narcissistic enough to sit around all day writing down what they think.  Maybe they should.  I am one organizing, entertaining, and creative bastard though.	12/30/1996

.Introduction, .why.	The question is not only, "Why write?"  The questions are also, "Why think?", "Why speak?", and "Why communicate?"	10/1/2005

.Introduction, .why.	The question, "Why do the Notes?", is an ethical question.  Why do the Notes rather than anything else?	3/9/2005

.Introduction, .why.	They ask why don't you write about the people doing cutting edge work in any area?  Or why don't you write about famous historical people?  (1) Because that is what academics, journalists and biographers are for.  Everyone is doing that.  (2) Because the Notes are about ideas, not people.  (3) Because the Notes are about the individual quest.  The Notes are about every person's journey.  (4) Because I am an artist.	8/31/2000

.Introduction, .why.	Thinking and writing contributes to psychological health by (1) Organizing your ideas and thus head.  (2) Recording and storing best ideas and best head.  (3) Storing memories.  (4) Sorting out feelings.	04/24/1997

.Introduction, .why.	Those who don't take care of their ideas are like those who don't take care of their bodies.	01/07/1997

.Introduction, .why.	Trace.  PART ONE.  An argument for leaving a trace of yourself.  Most people go through life without a trace and then die leaving no trace.  Most people accept this fact quite calmly.  Some people claim that the trace they leave is the work they do (ex. digging ditches) or the children that they raise.  However, that is not really leaving a trace of yourself, instead that is leaving a trace of something else.  I say that in addition to work and kids, leaving a trace of yourself is required in this life.  Leaving a trace of yourself means recording your mind, one way or another.  Today, we are beginning to develop the technology required for most people to more easily leave a trace of themselves.  Being asked to leave a trace of yourself first requires that you create yourself out of the whole lot of nothing going on.     PART TWO.  Four weak arguments against leaving a trace of yourself.  (1) One could argue against the above view by saying that the only difference between leaving a trace of oneself (your mind) and leaving a trace of something other than oneself (work and kids) is the vanity of the former.  (2) Also, many people endeavor to leave a trace of themselves and produce only excruciatingly boring descriptions of their daily activities.  (3) Other people quite honestly admit that they have nothing to say.  (4) Others still would argue that a trace of a person is useless to another person, and even useless to the same person after a period of time.	6/20/2001

.Introduction, .why.	Truth, knowledge, thinking.  (1) Knowledge = power.  Knowledge = health.  (2) Knowledge is good (Animal House college motto).  (3) Knowledge is transferable across subjects, and from person to person.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	When people meet and like each other, they will exchange their public notes.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, .why.	When you read what you have written, you see yourself almost as if seeing another person.  This is a valuable perspective to have, and a difficult perspective to obtain.	2/24/2000

.Introduction, .why.	When you write things down,  (1) Your thoughts evolve quicker than if you didn't.  (2) You help slow down forgetting everything you ever knew, which does happen soon or later, with disastrous results.	12/30/1996

.Introduction, .why.	Why am I doing Notes, and why should others do their own notes?  When it comes to reasons why anyone does anything, a familiar complex of unconscious motivations and underlying assumptions can be recognized.  (1) Save the earth.  Save the human species.  Make the world a better place.  (2) Be the hero.  Get the girl(s), fame, and admiration.  Be like a god, powerful and immortal.  (3) Prove my critics and detractors wrong (In your face!).  Prove I am better than others think I am.	4/28/1998

.Introduction, .why.	Why are so many people depressed?  One reason is because they realize they are not using their brains like they should.  They are not making full use of their brains to create and grow.  It bothers them today like never before, because people are more enlightened and realize that they should use their brains.  Yet they often don't know how.  The Notes are one way how.	9/18/2000

.Introduction, .why.	Why bother writing it all down?  (1) Liberal view.  (A) Pro: Develop something new.  (B) Contra: Writing things down can slow you down when you are changing quickly.  (2) Conservative view.  (A) Pro: Writing helps you save what you have accomplished.  (B) Contra: Writing can cause you to remain stuck in a way of thinking.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, .why.	Why do I write?  Because I feel so inarticulate.  What can I say?  We stand dumbstruck before each other.  Mute.  Mumbling.  It is disconcerting and aggravating.	3/29/2001

.Introduction, .why.	Why do I write?  Because there is no one to talk to.  It is very difficult to find someone who is in the same place as you (mentally), going in the same direction, at the same speed.	4/25/1999

.Introduction, .why.	Why do I write?  To have one real conversation, even if it is only with myself.	4/4/2004

.Introduction, .why.	Why I started writing.  I found my ability to generate ideas was greater than my ability to remember them.	02/04/1989

.Introduction, .why.	Why publish notes every year, rather than as one single volume at the end of your life?  In 50 years the world will be facing a new situation with new knowledge, and your 50 year old, just published notes will be less of a help to people.	1/6/1998

.Introduction, .why.	Why the Notes?  There have been moments in my life when I said to myself, "I wish I could meet a cool person and have access to their brain by being able to ask them any question on any topic at any time."  The Notes is access to my brain.	12/12/2005

.Introduction, .why.	Why write?  When you write something you put it in your own words, you make the idea your own, and you develop new ideas on that idea.	07/14/1993

.Introduction, .why.	Why write?  Writing is a record of a mind.  Much like a person's photograph is a record of their body.  Writing is often the only record of a person's mind.  One could say that writing is a person's mind.  Years from now, when you are old and dead, the mind and the body that you have now will no longer exist.  Writing is a life preserver.  You try to save yourself.  Writing is a preservative.  Writing is formaldehyde.  The basic idea is that life is precious day by day.  You and I are precious day by day.  We lose sight of this.  We take it for granted.  We let it slip by.  We waste it.  We get wasted.  Writing is the gong.	3/13/2000

.Introduction, how.	.This section is about how I write the Paul Nervy Notes.  Topics include: (1) Alternative methods.  Paper vs. digital.  (2) Categories.  (3) Computer.  Web site.  (4) Current method.  (5) Dates.  (6) Ratings.  (7) Searching.  (8) Table of contents.  Index.  (9) Other things:  Goals.  Outline.  Lists.  Diary.  (10) Year by year.	1/24/2006

.Introduction, how.	(1) At base, Paul Nervy Notes is a tab delimited text file.  (2) One can make it slightly more fancy by saving as an .rtf file and then making the keyword and date fields italics and by spacing the paragraphs apart. (3) One can make it even slightly more fancy by converting it to html or by making a web site, or by importing the text file into a database or spreadsheet.	1/14/2002

.Introduction, how.	(1) Cover every subject.  (2) Start from the ground and work up.  (3) Figure out and find out.  (4) Publish your results.  (5) Everyone should do this.	4/28/2005

.Introduction, how.	(1) Digital vs. paper.  (2) Alphabetical vs. chronological.	6/3/2004

.Introduction, how.	(1) Figured-out notes:  (A) Public.  (B) Private.  (2) Found-out notes:  (A) The notes you take on books.  (B) Your e-library.  (C) Your favorite websites list.  (D) Your notes from school.	8/25/1999

.Introduction, how.	(1) Historical structure vs.  (2) Logical structure of things vs.  (3) Structure by importance: important to me, average joe, any individual.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	(1) My notes (stuff I figured out).  (2) Book notes (stuff I found out).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	(1) Structure: what are the elements in the method.  (2) Mechanism or procedure: how to use/manipulate the elements.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Alternate methods.  Diary as a record of days.  Diary as your personal story.  365 days a year for 100 years is 36,500 days, and 36,500 journal entries.	3/2/2006

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods to do Notes.  (1) Use carbon paper.  (2) Take notes on one side of standard paper, and then photocopy notes on the photocopy machine automatically.  (3) Take notes using handwriting recognition software. (4) Take notes using voice recognition software.	12/27/1997

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  (1) Chronological handwritten approach.  Carry around a piece of loose-leaf.  Write down any good ideas you have.  Label the idea by subject matter.  Date each idea.  You can make an index for each year's output.  Or you can even cut the ideas apart, sort them by subject, and then tape them together.  Make a back up copy by photocopying or using carbon paper.  (2) Separate notebook for each subject, handwritten approach.  Have a dozen notebooks on various subject matters, into which you can copy ideas on those subjects.  (3) Index card, handwritten approach.  Write one idea on each index card.  This untried method would make sorting ideas easier, but could get very bulky.  (4) Typewriter method.  Another low tech approach.  (5) Computer: desktop, laptop, or palmsize method.  Much easier to use.  Word processing software, or even dbase software could be used.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  (1) Diary, (2) Journal, (3) Indexed journal, (4) Notes, (5) Every single thing I can remember (Estir).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  (1) On paper, by handwriting.  (2) Typewriter, then use optical character recognition.  (3) On computer: desktop, laptop, Newton.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Blogs.  The difference between blogs and Paul Nervy Notes.  (1) Bloggers tend to write and publish on a daily basis.  The Notes take time.  (2) Blog tend to be either a diary of someone's life or else be dedicated to a specialist subject.  The Notes is neither.	1/23/2004

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Chronological method.  Keeping a chronological record of the development of your thoughts is very important.  One reason why it is important is for general historical reasons, in order to accurately trace the development of your thought through time.  Another reason is to trace your thoughts on a specific subject problem so that you can see what you were thinking when you made mistakes, and when you found solutions.  This helps you prevent making future mistakes.	12/30/1996

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Computer methods.  (1) Text file.  (A) Unstructured text file.  (B) Structured text file.  (2) Database.  (A) Flat file database.  (B) Relational database.  (3) XML.  (A) Docbook.  (B) XHTML.  (4) Web enabled methods.  (A) Static web page using HTML.  (B) Blog.  (5) Dynamic, web enabled, database using PHP.	10/19/2005

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Computer methods.  Blogs.  A blog is just a web page.  A blog is a web page that you can update through a web browser.  What is all the fuss and commotion about blogs?  Blogging makes web site creation easier and faster.	4/28/2005

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  (1) Diary as an accounting of days.  How do you account for how you spent your time?  (2) Diary as a reckoning of days.  How do you reckon how you spent your time?	2/15/2007

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  A dual mistake that some people make regarding their diary is, on the one hand, thinking that if you did not write in your diary then nothing happened that day, and on the other hand, thinking that if you did write in your diary then something happened that day.	2/23/2007

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Another dual mistake people make when writing their diary is the mistake of making something out of nothing, and the mistake of making nothing of something.  The mistake of making something out of nothing is the mistake of ascribing too much importance to a trivial event.  The mistake of making nothing out of something is the mistake of ascribing too little importance to a significant event.	3/18/2007

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Each day keep track of number of pages read (books or notes), number of pages written (number of ideas thought of), number of hours of free time, number of hours worked vs. wasted, and what you got done.	07/08/1994

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  The bizarre world of the diarists: "Dear diary,  Today I spent the entire day writing in my diary.  Sincerely yours, etcetera."	2/23/2007

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Two views on journal method.  (1) Write in your journal everyday whether you have a good idea or not. Vs. (2) Write in your journal only when you have a good, new, useful idea.  (This is the better view).	6/15/1994

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Two ways of doing a diary.  One way is starting every year of the diary on your birthday.  This way is more subjective.  Another way is starting every year of the diary on the first day of the year (ex. January 1st).  This way is more objective.  I prefer this second way.	10/30/2003

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Why a diary?  A diary to provide some accountability to yourself for how you spent your time.  A diary to manage your time better.  A diary to track your progress on your goals.	4/1/2006

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Diary.  Why a diary?  A diary to save the days, otherwise the days are lost.	1/1/2006

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Early 90's method.  What I do at this point is carry around a piece of loose leaf.  When I get a good idea, I write it down on the loose leaf, as clearly and concisely and neatly as I can.  In the margin I write the subject matter of the note.  I put all my loose leaf pages for a year together in one binder.  Then I index the whole thing by subjects.  Then I type it up on the computer.  I used to have a more complicated method.  What I use now seems to be the quickest.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Import Notes into an Open Source content management system.  Like Slash, Scoop or Nuke.  Allow readers to rate each note.  Allow readers to comment on each note.	5/24/2002

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Paper is hard to copy, easy to destroy, hard to transmit, and takes up a lot of storage room.	10/05/1997

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Paper methods.  (1) Chronological diary.  (2) Indexed diary.  Indexed by topic.  (3) Cut and paste.	10/1/2005

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Paper methods.  (1) Loose leaf vs. index cards.  (2) Handwritten vs. typed.  (3) Xerox vs. carbon paper.	4/28/1998

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Paper methods.  (1) Loose leaf.  (2) Notebooks.  (3) Index cards.	10/1/2005

.Introduction, how.	Alternative methods.  Solo vs. group.	10/19/2005

.Introduction, how.	Basic questions.  (1) Will the media last?  Floppy disk.  Cd-rom.  Acid-free paper.  (2) Will the software be readable?  txt.  rtf.  (3) Will the natural language be readable?  English from 500 years ago is difficult to understand.  In 500 years your writing may also be difficult to understand.	1/30/2000

.Introduction, how.	Categories.  Frequently Asked Questions.  (1) Question: Do you create the categories first and then write the notes to fill the categories, or do you write the notes and then create the categories as needed?  Answer: Usually I write the notes and then create the categories.  If I have a dozen or more notes on the same topic then I create a category.  (2) Question: Do you write the individual notes and then categorize it, or do you pick a subject and then write about it?  Answer: I usually write the note and then try to figure out what category to put it in.	2/6/2001

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Digital network.  (1) Instead of headstones in graveyards, they will have dvd's of people in communal mass storage libraries.  You will be able to visit a loved one who has passed on by taking out their dvd and seeing a record they have left in audio, video, and text.  (2) One dvd (10 GB) per person, holding all their text, plus a two hour movie of their life taken from edited selections from their head camera.  (3) Earth population will soon be 10 billion per generation.  Four generations per 100 years.  40 billion people every 100 years.  How much room would 40 billion dvd's take up?  10 gigabytes per dvd.  400 billion gigabytes = how many ecabytes?  How much network storage would that be?  (4) 100 dvds fit on 3 feet of shelf space.  1 billion dvds fit on 30 million feet of shelf space.  How much shelf space can you fit in a warehouse the size of a football field, and 30ft. high?  You could have one of these in each town.  The hard copy is necessary as backup for the network, or for a user library/cemetery?  Ah, keep it all on the network.	04/15/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Digital network.  To create an Internet encyclopedia, gather the notes of different individuals and combine them all into a database.  Put each person's initials on each note.  Connect the database to a Web page.  Let users use SQL commands to query the database, like a person using a library catalog.  The user can query by author, date range, or subject matter.	1/25/1998

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Notes.  (1) They can help yourself and others.  So you have an obligation (to yourself and others) to do them, and thus help yourself and others.  (2) Very soon, people will have the opportunity to live forever if they want, by having their notes available to anyone, anytime, on a huge network, long after they are dead.  Running a homepage on the Web after they are dead.  (3) You can put in two minutes of video/audio from each year you are alive.  If you live to 60, that is a two hour movie.  (4) You could make a business of video taping people every year, asking them questions and typing up their answers, and setting up their homepage.  (5) We have a major ethical obligation to think about everything, and make a record of our thinking, and make it available to others.	02/15/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Put the notes in database form.  Make it searchable.  Make it sortable alphabetically, logically (by category), chronologically (by date), and by importance (rating).	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  The Notes in database form will be similar to a searchable computerized library catalog.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Voice.  Eventually I would like to see computers that can take a disk with a text file on it, and play back that text in a synthesized voice.  This would be like listening to an audio tape while you ride to work, except it could be done for any text file on any disk.  You would just hit an icon of a person talking, and the voice would start.	01/23/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Voice.  Speech recognition software can be used to write one's notes more quickly and easily than typing.	07/18/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  Web site.  How I do the web site.  (1) Convert text to html.  (2) Split the text into sections.  (3) I use software like Open Office and Mozilla Browser.	10/23/2004

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  You can create a group mailing list and e-mail copies of your notes.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Computer.  You want to be able to convert easily between text, HTML, and database, just in case.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Contra the method of the Notes.  People should be allowed to express how they want to, and not conform to the Notes format or even the text medium.  Many people won't want to express anything at all.	1/6/2002

.Introduction, how.	Current format of Notes: Keyword (tab) Note (tab) Date.	1/15/1999

.Introduction, how.	Current method.  (1) Notes, public and personal.  (2) Outline.  (3) Lists or bibliography.  (deals with the logical organization of information).  (4) Journal or Diary (deals with historical or chronological organization).  (5) Goals (deals with importance, urgency, current and future).  (6) These methods correspond to basic ways of organizing information.  (A)Logical.  (B) Temporal: Past, present and future.  (C) Importance and urgency.	10/8/2003

.Introduction, how.	Current method.  (1) Parts:  (A) Notes.  (B) Lists.  (C) Outline.  (D) Diary (personal).  (E) Goals (personal).  (2)(A) Contents and expanded contents.  (B) Ratings, to convey degrees of importance.  (C) Sorting.  (D) Searching.  (E) Abstracting, by using "sum-ups" and "the big question is".  (F) Linking, by using "see also" and "related subjects".  (G) Categories, using keyword phrases.  (3) (A) Text, not .rtf or .doc.  (B) Tab delimited.  (C) One big book or file that contains many notes.  (4) (A) Alphabetical order - via the table of contents.  (B) Chronological order - if you sort by dates.  (C) Importance order - if you sort by ratings.  (D) Logical order - if you read the sum up sections.	1/2/2004

.Introduction, how.	Current method.  Linux operating system.  Open Office suite.	1/26/2004

.Introduction, how.	Elements.  What they are.  What they look like.  Why they work (why that way, not another).  How they work (how use them).  What order you can do them in.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Essay about how.  How to write?  (1)(A) Digitize!  Don't you want to share?  Digitizing is faster.  It helps you organize faster.  It helps you retrieve faster.  Its more efficient.  Use a computer.  (B) Use keyword phrases.  (C) Separate ideas.  Rather than having one big glob of ideas.  (D) One big file for Figured out ideas.  One big file for Found out ideas.  (E) Use voice recognition.  Or use handwriting recognition.  Or use a keyboard.  (F)  Post a web page in perpetuity so that your notes live after you are dead.  (2) Problems with other methods.  (A) Journals by date.  (B) Multiple files.  (C) Typing on paper vs. Cut and paste on computer vs. Automatic sorting on computer (better) vs. Sorting by tab delimited fields (even better).	8/25/1999

.Introduction, how.	Essay about how.  Key things to do.  (1) Think and write in your spare moments.  Keep a pen and paper handy at all times.  (2) Thinking about all subjects is key.  (3) Revisit all subjects daily.	8/25/1999

.Introduction, how.	Everyday I go into the fields and pick the ideas that are ripe.	10/15/2004

.Introduction, how.	Five how question about the Notes.  (1) How to think of stuff?  (See Psychology, thinking, creativity).  (2) How to write the stuff you think of?  (See Arts, literature, writing).  (3) How to organize the stuff you write?  (Sort it by keywords).  (4) How to make it available to the public?  (On a web page).  (5) How to notify the public to your work?  (Marketing tactics).	4/8/2001

.Introduction, how.	Four files, folders, lists, whatever.  (1) Figured-out: Notes.  (2) Found-out: school notes, etc.  (3) Goals: mine (importance).  (4) History: mine (chronological).	4/8/2001

.Introduction, how.	Get, read (learn), reread (study): for books, and for notes.	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	How to develop a standard for sharing notes.  (1) I should be exportable as a text file (.txt).  And it should be exportable as an XML file too.  (2) It should allow people to create their own keywords and categories rather than force them to adhere to a predefined keyword and category system.  (3) One big file, not a series of directories.  (4) Easy to sort.  Easy to search.  (5) Easy to comment.  There should be an XML tag for comments.  For example, <comment>.  Or <comment by "commentator's name">.  Or <comment on "title of work">.  (6) Ratings.  A rating of a note is essentially a type of comment on that note.  (7) Make it an XML application.     PART TWO.  Make a web site application that is XHTML or XML based.  (1) People can type in their notes or even upload a file of their notes.  (2) Assign a category to a note or even create a category to assign to a note.  (3) Combine and share their notes.  (4) Converts it back and forth between text and xhtml.  (5) View all keywords and categories in alphabetical order or even logical order.  (6) View all notes in chronological order, alphabetical order, author order, logical order, etc.  Import or export notes in the above orders.  (7) The entire application should be free and open.	1/6/2002

.Introduction, how.	Issue.  For numbered sentences in a paragraph.  How to discern a series of related sentences (for example, a list of related items or the steps in an argument. ) from a series of unrelated observations on a topic?  One way would be to say "the following list of related items", or "the following argument", or "the following list of unrelated items".  That would be more clear.  Another way would be to signal the above notions by using certain symbols for each.  But that could be confusing for those who do not understand the code.  And I already need to reserve characters for outline formats.	1/9/2002

.Introduction, how.	Key ideas to the Notes.  (1) Always carry pen and paper.  Write down thoughts.  (2) Digitize.  Put everything in digital form.  (3) Categorize.  Put everything in categories.  (4) Automatic alphabetical and chronological sorting makes it easier to organize.	4/23/2002

.Introduction, how.	Keys.  (1) Keywords: single words.  (2) Key phrases: one sentence long.  (3) Key paths: a series of words.  (Example: art, music, criticism).  (4) I use key paths.	4/28/1998

.Introduction, how.	Leave your journal at home. Vs.  Take your journal everywhere. (This is the better view).	01/01/1993

.Introduction, how.	Logical outlines (to describe metaphysical relationships) and importance outlines (to show ethical value judgments) are related to each other, and they are the most important types of outlines.  Chronological outlines and alphabetical outlines are less important.	1/1/2002

.Introduction, how.	Marking margins to indicate: important, unimportant, true, false, undecided, and outdated.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Marking methods.  (1) The star to say current goal or important to me.  (2) The check to say good idea for anyone in this subject, or to develop further.  (3) The x to say no longer agree with this.  (4) How to update note markings?  That is, how to trace the evolution of what you thought of an idea as you discover it, then it becomes obvious, then it is given up for better ideas (i.e., first a star, then nothing, then an x).	01/24/1994

.Introduction, how.	Marking.  Do not cross out old starred notes.  Just write x, or nah, or outdated.	04/16/1994

.Introduction, how.	Marking.  Three ways to mark notes: (1) Goals for me.  (2) Important idea for me.  (3) Good ideas on any subject.  This is a great way to find and stay on track, focused, inspired, driven.	12/30/1995

.Introduction, how.	More components of the Notes.  (1) Lists.  (2) Diary.  (3) Goals.  (4) Outline.	12/30/2003

.Introduction, how.	More components of the Notes.  (1) Ratings.  (2) Searches.  (3) Abstracts.  (4) Classification and categorization.	12/30/2003

.Introduction, how.	Notes, types of.  (1) Text version.  (2) Audio version.  Book on tape.  (3) Audio/video version.  Me giving a film lecture of the Notes.	1/1/2002

.Introduction, how.	Notes, ways how, listed by psychological function.  (1) Store and organize GOALS.  (Goal lists).  (2) Store and organize MEMORIES.  (Personal history).  (3) Store and organize EMOTIONS.  (A) For each emotion, record top ten causes of them.  (B) Record top ten strongest emotions you feel and their causes.)  (4) Store and organize IDEAS.  (Notes themselves).	3/26/2001

.Introduction, how.	On each subject, you have two types of notes, your book notes and your own personal ideas.  Both of these you can order in three ways, historically, logically (by subject and sub-subject), and by importance (use checks and stars).  Important for you here and now, important for you always, important for anyone, important for any society.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, how.	Organization is key to making the notes work for you.  If it is a multi-subject idea, then break it down into its component ideas, and reveal any implicit assumptions.  Good organization makes retrieval and further development easier.	11/30/1996

.Introduction, how.	Outline style.  Frequently Asked Questions.  PART ONE.  Question: What is the deal with the letters and numbers in your writing style (ex. 1.A., 2.B., etc.)?  Answer: Sometimes the ideas in a note are organized in an outline form.  Sometimes the ideas in a note are arranged in a numbered list of related ideas.  Sometimes the ideas in a note are organized in a list of unrelated ideas.     PART TWO.  Question: Why do you write in your own style rather than using traditional paragraphs and chapters?  Answer: The traditional format of paragraphs and chapters does not do it for me anymore.  Many people forget that paragraphs and chapters are simply a convention.  I think that most humans think in a more schematic way than paragraphs and chapters.  People also think in a more discrete or modular way than paragraphs and chapters.	11/20/2001

.Introduction, how.	Outlines by (A) Historical, (B) Logical structure, and (C) Importance/priorities (by perspective).  (D) All three above times levels of difficulty (el, hi, coll, grad).	12/30/1992

.Introduction, how.	Place-holders.  Creating a place-holder for an idea is a useful and important technique.  You can use place-holders when you are solving the parts of  a problem.  You can use place-holder to build an outline or web that you fill in later.	1/1/2002

.Introduction, how.	Pursue any line of thought or idea that seems interesting, important or new.	09/08/1993

.Introduction, how.	Questions.  (1) How to hook paragraphs together, or otherwise order them within subject categories?  (2) How to cross reference paragraphs in two subject areas?  Do not copy them twice.	12/29/1997

.Introduction, how.	Rating scales for ideas.  1 shit, 2 bad, 3 eh, 4 good, 5 great.  Or you can use -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 as a rating.	01/01/1993

.Introduction, how.	Ratings.  *** general importance.   ** personal importance.  X outdated idea.  ?  Idea still under question.	08/30/1996

.Introduction, how.	Ratings.  Everyone's notes should be rated.  By a notes critic?	3/10/1999

.Introduction, how.	Ratings.  Put in your ratings and then "find" them later.	02/15/1997

.Introduction, how.	Ratings.  What percent of your notes would you rate as excellent, good, ok, bad, shit.  20% each?  Or is it a bell curve?	01/01/1993

.Introduction, how.	Related subjects.  "Related subjects" headers are used to tie together ideas into a net that is strong and durable.  By using "related subjects" headers, hierarchical trees of ideas can be transmogrified into nets or webs.  Nets of ideas are better than hierarchies of ideas because hierarchies tend to topple like dominoes.	1/1/2002

.Introduction, how.	Security.  (1) Keep printed copy.  (2) Keep a copy on disk.  (3) Keep a copy on the Internet as either a web page, or as network storage.  (4) Keep a copy on dvd, and store it at a communal mass storage sight.	04/15/1997

.Introduction, how.	Security.  Backup early and often, to multiple media and to multiple sites.	11/15/2003

.Introduction, how.	Sorting.  How to sort text in Open Office Writer.  Highlight the text.  Select menu item Tools, Sort.  If you use tab-delimited text then you can sort by column.	5/29/2007

.Introduction, how.	Studying.  (1) Every year read through all your own original Notes that you have written.  (2) Every year read through all your Found notes taken on books that you have read.  Or re-read the books again if your notes are not complete.  The former is preferable to the latter because it is quicker.	8/19/1998

.Introduction, how.	The "Introduction" section for each topic is similar to the "Summary" section.  Both the Introduction and Summary sections should provide an abstract or outline of the section.  The Introduction and Summary sections should be of short length and beginner level.  Longer discussions at advanced levels are for other sections.  Combine the Introduction and Summary sections into one section.	1/28/2005

.Introduction, how.	The key bottleneck is the time that it takes to organize.  Auto-sorting solves this.  Download your brain.	8/25/1999

.Introduction, how.	Think about every thing every day.	10/1/2005

.Introduction, how.	Two principles.  (1) Never write down to an audience.  Always write your best.  (2) Never kiss up to an audience.  Never write to please an audience.  Never write to sell.  Always write what you want to write about.	4/3/2005

.Introduction, how.	XML tags for Notes.  <keyword> ; <note> ; <date> ; <rating> .	8/19/2004

.Introduction, how.	You could give each note a unique identifying number (example, a primary key in a database) but how would that work when you merge or split two or more notes?	5/18/2002

.Introduction.	.Introduction.  This section is an various other thoughts on the introduction to the Paul Nervy Notes.  Topics include: (1) Issues.  (2) How much will it help.  (3) Reasons why people do not write.	1/24/2006

.Introduction.	"Show your work.", is a good motto.	2/28/2004

.Introduction.	"To be or not to be, that is the question", said Shakespeare.  "To think or not to think, that is the question", sez me.  "To speak or not to speak, that is the question", sez me.  "To write or not to write, that is the question", sez me.	8/16/2006

.Introduction.	(1) A lot of people can't do what I do.  A lot of people wish they could do what I do.  (2) A lot of people won't do what I do.  A lot of people refuse to write for no pay.  (3) A lot of people can and will do something similar to what I do.  There are literally millions of blogs on the Internet.	4/25/2006

.Introduction.	(1) Arguments against the Notes.  "Its no good."  "No one likes it."  "Its a waste of time and energy."  (2) Arguments for the Notes.  It has some good ideas.  Some people like it.  Much of the Notes is done in spare moments, so it is not a waste of time.	6/8/2002

.Introduction.	(1) People see what they are able to see in your work.  That is, in general, people see what they are able to see.  (2) Of that group, people see what they want to see in your work.  That is, of what they can see, people choose what to look at and how to interpret it.  (3) Thus, the author is able to modify the audience only a little.  Change is usually slow.	12/4/2002

.Introduction.	(1) To think of something that no one has thought of before.  How can we tell?  All we have access to is existing books (i.e., Books in Print).  We don't have access to the books of the library of Alexandria which were destroyed in a fire thousands of years ago.  We don't have access to the thoughts in people's minds that were never written down.  (2) To complicate matters even further, unless you write the exact same words as someone else wrote, in the exact same order, you are not really thinking the exact same thought but rather a subtlety different thought.  (3) Perhaps it goes even further.  If you are not in the exact same frame of mind, in the exact same physical situation, in the exact same culture and historical situation then you are not thinking the exact same thought.  (4) Also, what if somebody says an idea that triggers a thought in someone else.  Shouldn't the person get credited with an assist?  (5) When everyone's mind is downloaded into digital storage, and every conversation is recorded, we may chance at figuring out who thought of what.  Then we can address issues of credit, kudos and plagiarism.	7/13/2000

.Introduction.	(1) What are the notes?  A personal information management system.  (2) Why do I do the Notes?  I create information (ideas).  I organize information.  I disseminate information.	2/3/2004

.Introduction.	Audience.  Ninety percent of people will be either too far above or too far below the audience level of your book.  And of the remaining ten percent, nine percent of the people will be too far to the sides.  One percent of the public will be on target for your book.	10/17/1999

.Introduction.	Constant chatter.  You will be able to hear the voices of texts converted into sound.  A talking quotebook.  Quotes by subject in the authors voices.	2/25/2000

.Introduction.	Contra Notes.   Most people are basically happy.  They know what to do without thinking about it.  They know how to live automatically.  If they make a mistake they do not worry about it.  Why make people unhappy with my neurotic obsessions and hang-ups?  The counter-argument is that most people do not automatically know how to live, and the Notes are not obsessions and hang-ups.	4/29/2001

.Introduction.	Contra the notes.  Am I just a master of the obvious and trivial?	09/20/1994

.Introduction.	Criticism of the Notes.  One criticism of the Notes is that they are not a cooperative, communal discussion.  In defense, I say that the Notes are a work of art made by one person, not a group effort.  Everything does not have to be a group effort.  Each person deserves the right to speak their minds as an individual.	4/28/2001

.Introduction.	Critics often read one's work even more closely than one's fans.  That's a lot of reading.	9/19/2003

.Introduction.	Current method.  Make a melange of ideas in the blender of your mind.  Puree.  Frappe.  Slurry.  Shake.  Whip.  Stir.	6/8/2002

.Introduction.	Demographic hypothetical.  Ten percent of people will understand ninety percent of what you say.  Eighty percent of people will understand fifty percent of what you say.  Ten percent of people will understand ten percent of what you say.	6/8/2004

.Introduction.	FAQ.  Question: On what criterion of judgment do you base your claim to be a successful writer?  Answer: I write a lot.	2/21/2004

.Introduction.	Focus on problems and solutions, both personal and social, in thought and action.	12/28/2006

.Introduction.	Frequently Asked Questions.  Question: Why the numbering of sentences and paragraphs?   Answer: The notes are organized by automatic sorting.  The computer sorts text by "lines".   From the computer's perspective, a "line" is block of text that ends with a "line break" symbol.  A computer "line" corresponds to what the human reader views as a "paragraph".  So, the computer sorts by paragraphs.  If I wrote in traditional paragraph format it would create a problem for automatic sorting.  I use numbers and letters in outline format to signal text structures without having to insert line breaks.	11/14/2005

.Introduction.	History of Notes.  It may be an exaggeration, but it seems like at first I only wrote single words.  Then a few years later I wrote single sentences.  Then a few years later I wrote single paragraphs.  Then a few years later I wrote multiple paragraphs.	12/5/1999

.Introduction.	How much can people be helped simply by reading words?	11/16/2003

.Introduction.	How much will it help?  (1) How much can books help a person?  How much can writing books help the writer?  How much can reading books help the reader?  Many people say that books changed their life.  (2) How much can an idea or a thought help a person?  Many people say that an idea or a thought changed their life.	11/19/2004

.Introduction.	How much will it help?  (1) How much can writing change the world?  There are examples of writings that have had a major good effect on the world (ex. US Constitution.  Emancipation Proclamation).  Other writing have had a major bad effect (ex. Hitler's "Mein Kampf").  Other writings have had little effect either way.  (2) How much can my writing change the world for the better?	4/8/2004

.Introduction.	How much will it help?  How many people will read your work?  Of that, how many people will feel moved to new ideas and emotions from reading your work?	6/30/2004

.Introduction.	I currently am not engaged in physical labor, nor am I raising children, nor am I spending much time in face to face conversations.  Thus, if someone asks me what I have to show for my life I can only say a bucket of bits.  And that is as frightening as it is exciting.  Some people will react to this with pity.  "How sad" they will say.  Other people will react to it with scorn.  "What a fool." they will say.  Some people will react with admiration and appreciation.  "Way to go, Paul", they will say.	7/25/2002

.Introduction.	Ideal situation.  Learn, organize, study, most important truths on most important subjects.  Keep it simple, condensed, truthful.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Ideal.  Practical, effective, efficient (time, money), simple (easy to use), concise, clear, organized, logical, complete, easy to use, unconfused, uncluttered, quick, accurate, short.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	If I am able to write the Notes, and if I like writing the Notes, then why should my attitude toward the Notes be anything other than good-natured bemusement?  Self-importance and pomposity on the part of idea-creators is simply uncalled for.  I am serious about the world situation, and I am serious about the power of ideas, however, I am bemused with my muse.	6/27/2001

.Introduction.	Issues.  (1) A big problem is most people can't understand the complexity of an effective note system to the point where they'll use it.  (2) Most people will not think of enough ideas fast enough to make setting up a note system worth while.  The only reason I did is because I don't work?  (3) But if you can write a journal, or an indexed journal, you can do this.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  (1) Avoid pedantic, minutiae, unimportant ideas, and repeating ideas.  (2) Avoid writing unimportant notes and avoid not writing important notes.  (3) Avoid not working on it enough and avoid working on it too much.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  (1) How is one to reference a work if it's page numbers or web site address is constantly changing?  (2) How is one to reference a work if it's content is constantly changing? (ex., constant revision).  (3) How is one to work with a person if they are constantly changing their views or if they are constantly changing the subject of a conversation?	1/1/2002

.Introduction.	Issues.  (1) Some people, no matter how hard they think, will never figure out a decent idea.  Yet these people may be able to find out ideas.  Doing Notes would let them record and organize their found ideas.  (2) Some people can neither figure nor find out ideas.  For these people, doing their own Notes would be a waste of time.  But for these people, reading my book might be helpful.  (3) Some people wouldn't even benefit from reading my book.  These people must be way dumb.  Or way smart!	12/31/1993

.Introduction.	Issues.  (1) There is no end to writing.  You can write eight hours a day for 100 years and only accomplish what amounts to rebuilding a small corner of a small library.  (2) There is no end to reading.  Let's say you are an author who has written 20 books.  Do you really expect anyone to read all your books? Most people today have time to read only one or two of your books at most.  (3) So what to do?  Use a rating system to rate your ideas.  Sort out your highest rated notes and create a "Best of" book.	1/1/2002

.Introduction.	Issues.  Coverage issues.  (1) Scope and depth.  (2) Balance: cover all your bases.  (3) Direction, speed, and distance of progress.  How far to find and figure on any subject?  Which directions go, how far, and why?  (4) Getting nowhere slowly vs. going far quickly.  (5) Time spent vs. progress made.  (6) Timing: when go there (order and timing).  (7) Interests vs. gaps.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Dilemmas.  (1) No one will find the Notes on the Internet.  (2) If they find the Notes, no one will read it.  (2) If they read the Notes they will not understand it.  (3) If they understand the Notes they will not think it is new, important and true.	5/29/2001

.Introduction.	Issues.  Don't leave out important ideas, and don't put in unimportant ideas.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Economic aspects.  (1) What resources do you, and should you, put into it?  (2) What do you, and should you, get out of it?  (3) What else could you be doing?	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Economic.  (1) How much has all this finding out and figuring out helped me?  (2) How much has it cost me (time, money)?  (3) How much would it cost/benefit anyone else?	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Economic.  How much time and effort to put into it?  How hard to work at it?	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Escapism: use notes to confront reality vs. escape reality.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Finding (reading) vs. figuring (thinking).  (1) Too much figuring, and not enough finding.  Poor critical reading skills.  Poor research skills.  (2) Too much finding, and not enough figuring.  No creativity.  No exercise of own mind.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Finding vs. figuring.  (1) Imbalances in the ratio of figuring out vs. finding out.  Excess or lack of either.  (2) When to write down an idea and not?  (3) What notes to take on what books, and how organize them?  (4) Books (finding out) vs. notes (figuring out), when to do it rather than some other thing.  (5) How often to review notes, review books?  (6)(A) What and how much to find out (read); whether it be new reading or re-reading (reviewing and studying), vs. (B) what and how much to figure out (think on own)?  (7) Learning (new) vs. studying and reviewing (old).	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  If you write your notes, and if your ideas are evolving, then you will reach a point where you look back and your old notes will seem idiotic to you and other advanced people.  So then you might wonder why you write if your old notes seem idiotic.  But this is really a sign of progress, and writing notes helped your ideas advance and let you recognize your old ideas were not optimal.  Theoretically.	03/31/1997

.Introduction.	Issues.  Motivation.  How to best motivate oneself to do notes (see psychology, motivation)?  (1) Go over goals before and after sessions.  (2) Listen to music.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Organization.  (1) Notes too spread out vs. not spread out enough.  Both can cause trouble finding and abstracting.  (2) Misfiling in wrong category.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Quantity vs. quality.  Decrease in both due to no energy, no time, old age, low drive, or mental limits reached.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Questions: (1) What include?  (2) How structure it?  (3) What order to do it?	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Issues.  Reasons for decline in quality and amount of output of notes.  (1) Creative juices drying up.  (2) Work and school taking my time and energy.  (3) Figured out all the easy stuff and wrote it down quickly, only the tough stuff remains.  (4) Figured out most of my personal problems, which is what I was writing about.  Things that actually (physically), or just theoretically bugged me.  (5) Figured out the stuff I was interested in.	12/30/1995

.Introduction.	Issues.  Two editing mistakes: taking out the good, and leaving in the bad.	09/01/1994

.Introduction.	Issues.  Volume problems.  (1) It is a lot to do, and it is a lot to study.  (2) How much can I think of, write, study and memorize?  (3) Too much notes vs. not enough notes.  (4) How big will it get?  How big to let it get?  How often work on it?  What ideas to include?	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not think, write and publish.  (1) The mistaken view that a person is not good enough to think, write and publish.  (2) The mistaken view that it has no effect, or that it does no good, to think write and publish.	1/9/2006

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not think, write and publish.  (1) Too busy with raising kids to take time to think, write and publish.  (2) Too busy with job to take time to think, write and publish.  (3) Too busy with having fun to take time to think, write and publish.	1/9/2006

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not think, write and publish.  (1) When a person begins thinking and writing, it can be very emotionally painful for a person to recognize all the time they wasted in their life.  These feelings are temporary.  Its not too early, and it not too late, to start writing.  (2) Thinking is difficult.  Thinking takes time and effort.  Thinking is hard work.  (3) Social blow back.	4/25/2006

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not think, write and publish.  Sadness, anger, and anxiety.  When you begin looking at everything, it can be a little overwhelming, and you may experience feelings of sadness, anger and anxiety.  These feelings are temporary.  Do not let these feelings stop you from writing.  Work through and past these feelings.  You will feel good later.	4/16/2006

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not want to think, write or publish.  (1) Reasons why people do not want to think.  Thinking can be hard work.  Thinking can be emotionally painful.  Thinking can lead to mistakes.  Thinking can be frustrating.  Thinking may lead to change.  (2) Reasons why people do not want to write.  Writing takes time and energy.  (3) Reasons why people do not want to publish.  (A) Sometimes people are afraid to say what they think.  Afraid of being mocked.  Afraid of being attacked.  Afraid of public humiliation.  (B) Sometimes people are afraid to give the competition (i.e. Anyone other than themselves) an edge by revealing knowledge.  Afraid to give the enemy an edge by revealing knowledge (i.e. Some hyper-combative people view anyone other than themselves as the enemy).	1/22/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  (1) They have nothing to say.  (2) They think they have nothing to say.  (3) They feel foolish or embarrassed of the writing process, or about what they have written.  (4) Fear of failure.	10/05/1997

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  (1) They say there is nothing to write about.  Nothing going on in here in their mind.  Nothing going on out there in front of their face.  They see nothing, they hear nothing, they say nothing.  (2) They say its all personal.  Its all private.  Nothing public.  (3) They fear saying it.  (4) They say they are too busy.  (5) They say who are they to write.  They say they are nobody.	7/1/2000

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  A major reason people do not write is that they are repressed.  Repression keeps them from remembering, feeling, thinking, acting, and writing.  Freud's theory of repression is true and important.	10/25/1997

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Anti-writing attitudes.  (1) Afraid of being mocked by other people.  (2) Afraid of being attacked by other people.  (3) Afraid of aiding the competition in the quest for jobs, women, etc.  (4) Afraid of aiding the enemy.  Afraid of tipping off one's intellectual opponents.  (5) Belief in competition to the point of Social Darwinism.  Where one is afraid to give away any of one's knowledge.  And thus one attempts to create secret knowledge.	1/17/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Doing Notes can cause health.  Not doing Notes can cause forgetfulness, aimlessness, and pathological conditions.  There are psychological forces driving us not to do Notes: (1) I do not want to confront painful ideas, emotions, and memories.  (2) I just want to have fun and, and notes take effort.  (3) I do not want to change.  I am fine the way I am now.  Personality inertia.  (4) Thinking that its too early to start, or that its too late to start.	02/05/1998

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Fear of writing.  If I take the attitude that I write to try to prove myself right, or them wrong, then I become afraid that, by writing, I will learn they are right, and they will convert me, and suck me in to their world and ways.  The rents, their views, and the system.  So I don't write.  And I end up with no foundation.  I end up not creating myself as different from them, and thus end up as them.	04/10/1997

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Fear.  Some people fear thinking.  Some people fear thinking because they fear the ideas that a person may potentially think of.	5/14/2007

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Fears.  My fears in writing Notes, substantiated or unsubstantiated.  (1) Afraid to appear or realize I am crazy or stupid.  (2) Waste of much time, mediocre fluff, not helpful.  (3) Not powerful, simple (moronic content), obvious.  (4) Pedantic, unoriginal, not new, unimportant, unsellable.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Many people do not write because they say "I have nothing to say".  What they mean is that they can only think of simple obvious truths.  However, if these people are anything like myself, then the following is the case: (1) The mind tends to address the simple before the complex.  Thus, the first writing one does will be very simple.  Do not let this fact throw you or discourage you.  The complex will come later.  (2) Ideas on a subject often come years apart.  Do not quit after a week.  Be in it for the long haul.  Be patient.  Keep thinking.  (3) If the above two ideas are kept in mind, one will be less likely to give up on their notes.	6/19/1999

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  One reason people might not want to publish their history and goals is because they don't want others to know who they are and what they plan to do because their ideological opponents may try to block them.	1/23/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Two cynical arguments against writing web pages.  (1) If you are trying to help people by posting a web page, you will only reach people who either have a computer or who have access to a computer, and some people would argue that anyone who has a computer or access to a computer doesn't need your help.  (2) If you are trying to help people by writing a book, you will only reach people who can read, and some people would argue that anyone who can read doesn't need your help.  (3) Of course, some people will have a tendency towards cynicism, and their cynicism should not prevent you from writing your web page.	8/20/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  What prevents some people from thinking, speaking, writing and acting?  (1) They are lazy and apathetic.  (2) They are interested only in their own personal comfort.  (3) They feel its hopeless.  (4) They fear losing their jobs.  (5) They fear attacks by bullies and ruthless opposition.	2/28/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people do not write.  Why people don't write and publish on the Internet.  (1) They think thoughts like, "What if my information is read by my enemies and it helps them?  Why help my enemies?  This is extreme "us vs. them" thinking.  (2) They think thoughts like, "Its embarrassing to reveal my level of knowledge, which is also my level of ignorance."	1/3/2004

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people don't think, write or publish.  (1) People do not publish because they are afraid to appear stupid to others.  (2) People do not write because they are afraid to feel stupid to themselves.  (3) People do not write because they think it will not help.  (4) People do not think because the results are not instantaneous.  (5) People do not think, write and publish because they are afraid of being mocked and ostracized.  (6) People do not think, write and publish because they are afraid of losing their jobs.  (7) People do not think and write because it is difficult and time consuming.	2/15/2005

.Introduction.	Lame reasons why people don't write.  Some people hold the following suboptimal attitudes.  "If no one pays me then I will not think."  "If no one pays me then I will not write."  "If no one pays me then I will not publish".	4/1/2005

.Introduction.	Most important ideas about the Notes.  I would like to see everyone doing life-long, self-directed learning.  I would like to see everyone writing their thoughts.	4/30/2007

.Introduction.	My book.  People either immediately "get it", smile and buy it, or else they do not "get it", look confused and walk away.	10/20/1999

.Introduction.	My goal is not to have my writing style adopted by academia as the only writing style.  My goal is not to write in the style of academia.  My goal is to develop new and useful ideas about information management that are new and useful enough to be discussed in academic circles and quoted by academics.  That is how artists get noticed by academics.  That is how artists get into academia.  I want to be a teaching artist.	1/1/2002

.Introduction.	Now that I have solved some problems and improved my life, I am starting to feel calm, settled, peaceful, happy, and bored.  But it was confronting problems and searching for solutions that spurred my writing output.  Now I must imagine other people's problems.  I do not want to create more problems for myself unnecessarily.	12/20/1998

.Introduction.	Objections of the critics and my counter-arguments.  Critics will sometimes argue, or simply mock, the following objections.  (1) Simplicity or incompleteness.  (A) Critics will argue, "This document is too simple; it is only an outline or introduction to subject x."  (B) Counter-argument: Its only a start.  It may be expanded later on.  I don't claim to be an expert about everything.  (2) Falseness, inaccuracies, mistakes.  (A) Critics will argue, "Some statements in this work are factually false.  There are some mistakes like bad grammar or spelling errors.  Its not 100% right."  They argue that therefore the entire document is invalid.  (B) Counter-argument.  Its not perfect.  Nothing is perfect.  There are many good parts.  (3) Unoriginal.  (A) Critics might object that some other people have thought of similar thoughts.  (B) Counter-argument: I didn't think of everything in this world.  (4) Unpopular.  (A) Critics may argue that the work is not popular.  (B) Counter-argument: it has its audience.  (5) Not lucrative.  (A) Critics may argue that it is not a money maker.  It has little monetary value.  (B) Counter-argument: it still has value.  (6) Time and energy.  (A) Critics may say, "Its a waste of time.  Why don't you give up".  (B) Counter-argument: its not a waste of time.	1/4/2004

.Introduction.	Objections.  (1) Objection: You cannot think of everything.  That is, you cannot think of everything that has ever been thought by everybody.  Reply: That is not my goal.  (2) Objection: You cannot think of every subject.  Reply: You would be surprised of all the many things you can think.  (3) Objection: What is the use of all this thinking?  Reply: It helps keep my head on straight.  (4) What is it going to do for me (meaning you)?  Reply: The question is not what are my thoughts going to do for you.  The question is what is a thought going to do for you.  Any thought.	4/28/2005

.Introduction.	Objections.  One argument against writing is the following, "How do you know what effect your work will have on others?  You could hurt them just as easily as help them.  Don't be so sure you know what is true and good".  The counter argument is that I am not claiming to know 100% what is true and good.  We are just discussing ideas.  It would be worse to stifle the discussion.	1/6/2002

.Introduction.	Objections.  One objection academia has to my work is, "How do you really expect to add to human knowledge by recording stray thoughts on a subject without thoroughly researching a subject and becoming an expert on a subject through years of study?  My response to that objection is to say that my contribution to human knowledge is to develop new mental techniques that help us deal with information.  To develop new written techniques of information management.  To develop new computerized methods of information management.  In sum, to develop new ways of thinking about information management.  The ideas in the Notes are just a byproduct of my contribution.  The Notes are just an example of my area of study.	1/1/2002

.Introduction.	Paul's complaint: "Why do I have to do everything?!"	3/15/2007

.Introduction.	Pay vs. free.  How many people will you reach if you distribute your work for pay versus free of charge?	6/30/2004

.Introduction.	Productivity measures.  (1) Number of ideas you produce in x time, times average rating of ideas (ratings summed and divided by number of ideas), gives the quantity times quality of your work.	01/01/1993

.Introduction.	Productivity.  90% of everything is crap.  90% of people crap out.  90% of my writing is crap.  If only 90% of my writing is crap then super.	12/30/1996

.Introduction.	Questions. (1) Now that is on the web, is Paul Nervy Notes helping me, Paul Nervy, more than it is helping others?  (2) In what ways and how much has Paul Nervy Notes helped me?  (to write it and to read it).  (3) In what ways and how much has it helped other people?  Many people read small sections of it.  Many people see the main page of the Notes and intuitively get the idea of the Notes.	1/14/2002

.Introduction.	Short forms are like modular components.  You mix and match them to create your own applications.	6/8/2001

.Introduction.	Short forms are like nano-technology.  They get in there and work undetected.	6/8/2001

.Introduction.	Short forms.  A problem with academia is that they don't give the short idea its due.  If an academic can not write five pages on an idea, then they consider that idea worthless.  However, longer is not always better.  The Notes respect the short idea.	6/30/1999

.Introduction.	Short forms.  Psychologists have determined that people memorize and think in short chunks.  Examples of this phenomena include the syllogism in logic, the paragraph in literature, and the way people highlight short excerpts when studying textbooks.  The Notebooks are composed on the same basic principle, by using paragraph length notes arranged by keywords.	3/25/1999

.Introduction.	Short forms.  Television commercials are another short form.  (1) Often the commercials are better than the shows.  (2) Commercials have had an influence on the other arts.  For example, micro-fiction in literature.  (3) Short forms are perfect for this age of information-overload when shorter is better.	8/6/2000

.Introduction.	Short forms.  The one page magazine ad.  The bus stop poster.  The billboard.  They are all similar in that they combine word and image.	7/11/2001

.Introduction.	The goal is to get people thinking, thinking about everything, and thinking about the most important issues, and then get people to write down what they think, and then give people the tools to manage their written information.	4/30/2007

.Introduction.	The Notes method is a personal information management system.  The more efficiently you can generate ideas, gather ideas, organize ideas, and disseminate ideas, the more productive and effective you will be at forming your goals and reaching your goals.  My goals include Progressive activism, personal creativity, and general knowledge.  Some people use a blog as a personal information system, but I do not find a blog especially compelling for several reasons.  Some people use a personal wiki.  I prefer the Notes method which is essentially a sorted tab-delimited text file.	5/1/2007

.Introduction.	The Notes table of contents might look like a hierarchical classification but it is not.  It is a web, with the table of contents as a hub, and with subjects radiating out in all directions, and sub-subjects radiating out from the subjects.  The subjects are interconnected via the "related subjects " notes and also via the "see also" notes.  The "see also" notes function in effect as hyperlinks.  A hyperlink is in essentially an active cross-reference.	1/1/2002

.Introduction.	The punk rocker addresses the topic "Criticism of My Work by Others": (1) To my critics I say forget you.  All I want to hear is your praise and thanks.  There is too much pain and effort in my work to listen to your nit-picking.  If someone thinks badly of my work, then beyond saying "That is your opinion", all I can say is "Who cares what you think.  Forget you."  Every criticism is a personal attack.  They are trying to destroy the real you.  If they do not like it, then too freaking bad.  No mercy for critics.  Deaf to critics.  I invite all critics to leave immediately.  Get the hell out of here.  Hit the road.  Warning: all criticism will be taken as a personal attack.  (2) I do not have to defend anything.  I do not have to prove anything.  Whatever you get out of my work is your problem.	4/12/1999

.Introduction.	The tombstones stand mute in the graveyard.  Up till now there has been a technologically imposed silence, which has led to a socially imposed silence.  Before the Internet most people did not have the means to publish their ideas for the masses.  This led to an unconscious social attitude, "Why bother writing?"  Up till recently individuals were gypped by not having their say, and society was gypped by not having the say of individuals.  Today, with the Internet, we are able to have our say.  We can post our ideas for all to read.  (2)(A) Everyone deserves their say.  Everyone deserves to be heard.  Even after they are dead.  It is your right.  (B) Everyone's say is needed.  Society needs everyone's say.  Everyone has an obligation to society to say.  (3) A true democracy through space and time, of the living and the dead.  This is the future.  Talking tombstones.	2/25/2000

.Introduction.	This is the fun.  This is the challenge.  (1) To see what ideas the author has thought of that you have thought of too.  (2) To see what ideas the author has thought of that you have not thought.  (3) To see what ideas you have thought of that the author has not.  (4) To see where you and the author agree and disagree.	1/1/2000

.Introduction.	Three questions.  (1) Why think?  Its fun.  Create new ideas for progress.  (2) Why write?  To record what one thinks.  (3) Why self publish on the Internet?  To share one's thoughts.	1/23/2004

.Introduction.	Title page.  Disclaimer.  All ideas subject to revision.  Author reserves the right to change his mind.	01/07/1997

.Introduction.	Title page.  Disclaimer.  This is not the last word of truth on any subject.  Nor may these be the most important truths on any subject.  2/12/91.	12/30/1992

.Introduction.	Typical objections to the Notes.  (1) Objection: One person cannot know everything.  Counter-argument: I am not trying to know everything.  Learning is fun and useful.  I am learning.  (2) Objection: Why not spend your time either making more money, or eating, or sleeping, or socializing.  Counter-argument: that can get boring after a while.  (3) Why bother?  Its fun.  Its ethical.  Its useful.  It helps.	3/13/2007

.Introduction.	What does it takes to do Notes?  (1) The ability to direct your mind to a subject and focus on a subject.  (2) The ability to take a guess.  (3) The ability to think critically about the guess you take.	10/25/2001

.Introduction.	Why I include the obvious or the low quality in my Notes.  I include it all.  It is important to give it all.  Give them the big picture.  All subjects regardless of quality of thinking.  Cannot be ashamed to say, "This is all I thought of on this subject".  The reader wants a complete picture of the author as much as they want your best work.  You get my best and worst.  You get all of the Notes.	11/18/1998

Arts, architecture.	.Introduction or summary to architecture.  (1) General philosophy of architecture.  What is architecture?  Why do architecture?  (2) Levels of architecture: Interior design.  Building design.  Landscape design.  Community design.  (3) Systems in architecture: Temperature, HVAC system.  Plumbing system.  Electrical system.  (4) History of architecture.  Architecture around the world, throughout time.  (5) Criteria for architecture.  Economic cost.  Ecological sustainability.  Technological progress.  Aesthetics.	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	.This section is about architecture.  Topics include: (1) Building design.  ( ) Community design.  (City.  Suburb.  Rural.  Wilds.)  ( ) Criticism of architecture.  ( ) Ecology and architecture.  ( ) Elements of architecture.  ( ) History of architecture.  ( ) Home and homelessness.    ( ) Interior design.  ( ) Landscape design.  ( ) Philosophy of architecture.	1/24/2006

Arts, architecture.	(1) Criticisms of the city: crowded, loud.  (2) Criticisms of rural areas: boring.	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	(1) For public and private spaces.  Developing something that will psychologically and sociologically benefit user(s), plus be functional.  (2) Degree to which an individual changes his/her environment to psychologically or functionally benefit themselves.  Some do either or both a great deal, instinctively.  Others will repress it, and live in psychological and functional poverty.  (3) Colors, lines, shapes, textures, light.  The room and everything in it as art (aesthetics).	09/15/1993

Arts, architecture.	(1) If you had buildings that nobody lived in, then that would be sculpture.  (2) If you squatted in a sculpture garden then that would be architecture.	4/16/2006

Arts, architecture.	Abstract, formal, minimal, bare bones, modernist, Zen bareness, less is more, asceticism, austere, boring, cold, vs. rich, complex, ornamented, plenitude, warm, interesting, less is bore.	10/25/1994

Arts, architecture.	Architectural virtues.  (1) Lightweight.  (2) Strong.  (3) Simple.  (4) Flexible.  (5) Ecological.  (6) Inexpensive.  (7) Transportable.	2/24/2001

Arts, architecture.	Architecture as sculpture, facade as painting.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Artistic side.  (1) Beauty.  Style and tastes differ according to personality and value system.  (2) Architecture as art.  (A) Sculpture.  (B) Facade as painting when seen from afar.  Issues of shape, line, color, and texture.  It has the ability to make the viewer feel emotions, and be put in moods.  (3) Architecture as communication of message or statement about things like mankind, modern man and society, a corporation, a family, a nation, the buildings purpose (ex. duck), or an ideology.	10/25/1994

Arts, architecture.	Big, big, big.  More, more, more.  Americans are over-consuming size-queens.  Americans like it big.  Big houses.  Big cars.  Big meals.  Obese people.  Big pollution problems.	3/13/2005

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  (1) Buildings: 2-D aspects vs. 3-D aspects.  (2) Exterior size and shape vs. interior size and shape.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  (1) Closed vs. open.  (2) Pictorial vs. sculptural (2-D vs. 3-D).  (3) Blend with nature vs. depart from nature (geometric).  (4) Form vs. function.  (5) Outer shape vs. inner shape.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Aesthetic values.  Strong, enduring, beautiful, low maintenance, graceful, proportional, balance, symmetry, strength, power, stability, solidity, protection.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Architecture is like sculpture, a three dimensional work of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Balance angles (male) and curves (female).	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Big houses are out, because they are ecologically wasteful.  The Japanese businessman hotel, with barely enough room to lie down, is the way to go.  With virtual reality goggles to reduce claustrophobia.  Take a trip.	3/30/1998

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Communication.  What can you communicate with a building?  What can you communicate to the public?  Only, "This subject matter is important so we build a big building."	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Factors: economics, aesthetics, technology.  What % technology, what % art, and what % economics, does and should affect construction of a building.  Aesthetics vs. durability and functional utility.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Factors.  (1) Environment: blend in vs. stand out.  (2) Aesthetics and form vs. technology and function.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  How big house, how many rooms, how much land, where, what costs?	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Immutable laws of architecture.  High ceilings, much closet space, good views, many big windows.  Be out of eyesight and earshot of the neighbors.  Lots of land and high hedges.	09/20/1994

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Paul values.  Have a porch, fire place, ceiling fan, green shag, cedar paneling, many windows (especially facing toward sunrise and sunset), blue ceiling.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  Technology.  Function precedes form vs. it's better to look good than to feel good.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Building design.  The basics of architecture.  (1) Tall ceilings, and big spaces.  (2) Lots of windows, and excellent views (far and wide), preferably on a hill.  (3) Lots of land.  (4) Good, quiet neighbors, in a good neighborhood (low crime).  (5) Clean, warm, quiet.	12/30/1995

Arts, architecture.	Building the architect's vision vs. what the customer wants vs. what the masses want vs. what the site wants vs. what the government wants (laws, codes).	10/25/1994

Arts, architecture.	Comfy and cozy.  Safe and secure.	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  To some extent you cannot design a community.  To some extent you cannot design a city.  To some degree you just have to let it happen.	3/29/2002

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  Town design.  (1) Rural, suburban, and urban.  (2) Water, garbage, human waste, electricity, roads, schools, industrial areas, retail district, library, post office, town hall or town government, mass transit: plane, bus, train.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  Urban environments.  See also: Philosophy, environment, specific environments, city.	3/29/2002

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  Urban planning.  In the city, tall buildings perform the same functions that mountains do in the wild.  They turn a 2D environment into 3D.	05/30/1996

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  Urban planning.  The big architectural problem is the city.  Economic boom and bust.  Over and under populated.  Poverty, crime, drugs, dropouts.  How much can a single building shape someone's mind or behavior, and change them for better, inspire them, or do the opposite, make them lose all hope and curiosity, despair.	09/01/1994

Arts, architecture.	Community design.  Urban planning. (1) Every community does not have to be a city.  Suburbs and rural areas are equally valid.  (2) The majority of people do not have to live in the city.  Therefore, the city is not necessarily the most important issue of community planning.  (3) The city, however, is one of the few areas that let people live without cars.  However, if they made cars solar powered and sustainable then cars would be less of a problem.	1/1/2002

Arts, architecture.	Criticism.  Eric Owen Moss is cool.  EOM is solemn and serious.  No joke, no Disney, no pomo, no "irony".  I like it.	05/10/1997

Arts, architecture.	Criticism.  Why I like Erik Owen Moss architecture.  My current favorite.  Good architecture is weird and wild, but not scary.  It should be new, something you have never seen before, or even imagined.  It should be different and interesting, not boring.  It should be diverse and complex, with many different and new shapes, materials, and natural colors combined.  It should make you think.  It should be cool, blow your mind, move you emotionally, inspires and excites you, challenges you.  Traditional architecture is safe, and popular.  Radical architecture is challenging, and makes progress into new ground.  Modernism is old, boring, simple, and uninteresting.  Minimalism is boring.  Combine the heavy, massive, castle like, and the light, airy, spidery.	12/30/1996

Arts, architecture.	Design and architecture.  Design every object in the house. Design every object needed to live.	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	Dividing the space.  (1) One big space (loft) vs. divided space (rooms).  (2) Rooms by function: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, library, gym, entertainment den.	6/7/2004

Arts, architecture.	Ecological architecture.  Power: solar, wind, human.  Recyclable materials.  Renewable materials.  Natural materials.  Organic materials.  Sustainability.  Independent, self-sustaining communities.  Grown your own foods.  Make your own goods.	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	Ecological architecture.  The current US building industry is entrenched in a non-ecological, "profit first", building mentality.  The current US building industry should build more ecologically.  A variety of carrots and sticks (incentives and penalties) should be used to get builders and consumers to build more ecologically.	10/12/2005

Arts, architecture.	Ecological building practices.  (1) Use naturally produced, locally available, biodegradable building materials.  (2) Use as few materials as possible.  Build small, not big.  (3) Use a lot of natural insulation to keep the building warm in the cold and cool in the heat.  For example, hay bales.  Reduce or eliminate oil consumption used for heating and cooling.  (4) Solar panels to provide electricity and hot water.	10/10/2005

Arts, architecture.	Ecological.  It does not make sense to build houses that look pretty or are inexpensive if the houses are harmful to the occupants, or if the houses are harmful to the environment, or if the houses exploit workers, or if the house materials exploit animals.	12/2/2005

Arts, architecture.	Ecology and architecture.  Architecture should be ecological.  Renewable materials.  Recyclable materials.  Energy efficient designs.	3/29/2002

Arts, architecture.	Elements of architecture.  (1) Legal emphasis: obey the codes, zoning.  (2) Ecological emphasis: resource efficient (energy and materials), recyclable, non-toxic.  (3) Economic emphasis: build it cheap.  (4) Aesthetic emphasis: communicate ideas.  (5) Functional emphasis: does its job well.  (6) Psychological and social emphasis: how does it make you feel: does it isolate or aggregate people.  (7) Technological emphasis: high tech vs. low tech.	08/04/1993

Arts, architecture.	Elements of architecture.  (1) Materials: glass, wood, steel, concrete, brick, stone, fabric.  (2) Economic costs: materials, labor, electricity, water.  (3) Environmental: Solar power, wind power.  (4) Psychological and Sociological: flows of people and information.  Public vs. private space.	12/30/1995

Arts, architecture.	Elements of architecture.  (1) Technological side.  The latest technology determines what the building will be like.  (2) Function, program, purpose, and utility does to.  (3) Safety.  The laws, zoning and codes: electrical, plumbing, fire, general, etc.  (4) Economics.  The cost to build, maintain, repair (durability).  Material costs, labor costs.  Project management (cpm, pert).  Running an architectural business.  Customers, budgets.  (5) Environmentalism.  (6) Psychological effects of color, shape, etc.  Social aspects: needs for privacy vs. loneliness.  Need for company and togetherness.	10/25/1994

Arts, architecture.	Elements of architecture.  There are a zillion ways to build a house.  How important is, or how much difference is made by, any change made to improve (1) Practicality (ease of use).  (2) Psychological effects (light, color, space, etc.).  (3) Aesthetic effects.  (4) Social effects (gathering, communication, etc).	08/10/1993

Arts, architecture.	Elements of architecture.  Three main areas of architecture are:  (1) Technology.  (2) Psychology, sociology, and ergonomics.  (3) Aesthetics.  Minor areas are economics, politics, and environment, etc.  Advances can be made in any area.  How you rate importance of three main areas = what type of architect you are.	09/14/1993

Arts, architecture.	Environment.  (1) Creation of environment (see Philosophy: environment).  (2) What will it be used for?  (3) How much time will you spend there?	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Environment.  Architecture is creation of environment.  Environment affects people.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Environment.  Shaping our environment is duty of individual.  Your health depends on it.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Ethics, politics and architecture.  Architecture is an ethical issue.  Architecture is a political issue.  Everything is an ethical issue.  Everything is a political issue.  Build houses in a way that is ecologically sustainable and that promotes social justice.	12/16/2005

Arts, architecture.	Evolution and architecture.  Evolution on the African savanna leads humans to enjoy wide views from the heights.  See eco-psychology.	5/14/2004

Arts, architecture.	Fabric in architecture: tents, sticks, and string.	09/06/1993

Arts, architecture.	Fitting in with the site vs. going against it.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Five geometries of architecture.  (1) Cube based architecture.  The building is a cube and every room in the building is a cube.  (2) Rectangle based architecture.  The building is a rectangle and every room in the building is a rectangle.  This allows more complex shapes and spaces than just cubes.  (3) Right angle based architecture.  The building is composed of right angles and every room in the building is composed of right angles.  This allows more complex shapes and spaces than just rectangles.  (4) Plane based architecture.  The building and every room in the building is composed of planes set at various angles, not merely right angles, thus creating triangles, octagons, etc.  This allows more complex shapes and spaces than only right angles.  (5) Curve based architecture.  The building and the rooms inside the building have curved surfaces.  This allows more complex shapes and spaces than plane based architecture.  One can work with regular curves that have a constant rate of change.  One can work with irregular curves that have an even more complex shapes.	10/2/2004

Arts, architecture.	History.  (1) Classicism (formal).  (2) Baroque (ornament and decoration).  (3) Organic (all curves, no straight lines).  (4) International style (all straight lines, no curves).  (5) I believe in a 50/50 mix of straight lines and curves.	08/20/1994

Arts, architecture.	History.  (1) Schools (ex. postmodernism, modernism, etc.)  (2) Architects.  (3) Buildings.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	History.  Modern architectural schools, definitions, pros and cons of each.  (1) Environment and ecology: save the earth.  (2) Modernism: the minimalist box.  (3) Post modernism: mix and match historical styles.  (4) Vernacular: local yokel.  (5) Organic: art nouveau.  (6) Brutalism: power and strength.  (7) Expressionism: let it out.  (8) Classicism: reserved formalism.  (9) Deconstruction: break it down.  (10) High tech: new materials.  (11) I think ecology school is best.  Reach ecological ends through means of high tech advancements.	11/20/1993

Arts, architecture.	History.  Styles of architecture.  Levittown, Victorian, minimalist/brutalist, glass box, row house, pagoda, domed buildings, arch, teepee, hay house, sod house, wood frame, stone, steel frame, geodesic dome, roman columns, thatched cottages, barns.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Home.  (1) Home is where your body is.  (2) Home is where your head is (the home inside your head).	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Home.  Find a retreat, both in mind and in physical world, to recover from wounds and to re-inspire.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Home.  One might argue that they are not really homeless.  Their home is everywhere.  Which leads one to consider that there are several conceptions of home, such as home in terms of people, property, safety, ownership, space and place.  (1) Home as ownership.  "I want something to call my own"  What is their obsession with ownership?  Ownership is really a control issue or a power issue.  To want to own something is to want to have some degree of power.  To want to feel empowered when you feel powerless.  (2) Home as safety.  If we lived in a safe world then people wouldn't be locking themselves in boxes every night.  What could be the alternative?  If people knew that there was nothing to steal then there would be less theft.  If people knew others were watching (on digital camera) then there would be less crime.  If people did not feel deprived and disenfranchised there would be less crime.  (3) Home as place.  Some people consider home to be a geographic place.  What is the deal with people's obsession with place?  Is it part of the "tribal" instinct.  I think so.  The tribe inhabits a "territory".  Just like other social animals.  Home is just an expression of animalistic territorial instincts.  (4) Home as space.  If there were more user-friendly public spaces then people wouldn't need as much private space.  For example, look at how many people prefer to sit for hours in coffee shops rather than sit in their apartments drinking coffee.  (5) Home as people.  Some people consider home to be a group of people.  This conception of home is based on man's tribal instincts.  Family instincts develop into tribal instincts, which later developed into nationalistic instincts.  However, advances in communication and transportation technology have let us realize that we are one big global family.  The person living on the other side of the world is your neighbor just as much as the person down your street.  (6) Home as property.  If people did not have so much physical stuff they wouldn't need such big boxes.  (7)  Sum up.  (A) Home is not a noun.  You cannot buy a home.  You cannot own a home.  Home is where your head is.  The traditional conceptions of home developed from strong animalistic instincts which we later tried to justify through rationalization.  The new conception of home is based on insight rather than instinct.  The new conception of home may not completely replace our instincts but it does broaden our conception of home.  (B) By embracing a new conception of home we will not disparage the homeless as much.  We will not stigmatize the homeless as much.  We will not feel so isolated.  And we will not be so tribal.  We will not be so materialistic and obsessed with accumulating material objects, which will be better for the environment.  And we will not be so territorial.  Recognizing the animal side of ourselves will let us recognize the human side of ourselves.  (C) So we see that the traditional conceptions of home can be critiqued.  The traditional formula of home=good is not always the case.  A more sophisticated conception of home can give us greater insight into ourselves.  The new conception of home says that: Home is not any specific person, place or thing.  Home can be anywhere; home is everywhere.  Home can be anyone; home is everyone.  Home can be anything; home is everything.	9/27/2000

Arts, architecture.	Home.  Some say home is where the heart is.  Some say home is where your hat is.  I say home is where your head is.	11/23/2004

Arts, architecture.	Homeless.  Help the homeless fantasy.  Give the homeless solar powered space suits that will keep them warm and dry.  It will have a built in computer with tiny screens by the eyes.  All their books and papers on one disk.  No need for key board because you can just speak and it goes in the computer.  Or else you just move your fingers and it goes in the computer.	12/30/1996

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness is not a crime.  In fact, we should have more "homeless", with sleeping bags, and with solar powered laptops with wireless Internet connections, and with solar powered electrically heated clothes.	11/30/1999

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness no longer need be a stigma.  If the city were to provide enough warm and dry public spaces, with chairs and tables, where people could gather during the day.  With Internet connections.  Like the public library.  And at night they could have single occupancy sleeping vaults that could be locked for security.  And if everyone had a Web enabled laptop, they could keep all their notes, books, art and music on their laptop.  Everyone could be homeless!  Homelessness would be the new paradigm.	1/8/1999

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness.  (1) Light and flexible like a tent or a spacesuit.  (2) Re-arrangeable to suit one's moods and needs.  (3) Uses few resources, makes little pollution, and makes little garbage.	12/30/1995

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness.  For homeless people in the winter, a sleeping bag with an electric heating pad underneath could help to keep them comfortable.	1/6/1998

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness.  The barstool is the smallest piece of real estate.  Next, the park bench gives you more room.  Finally, the cafe' chair and table affords one complete luxury accommodations.  When you have managed to go from the barstool to the park bench to the cafe' table then you know you have made it in life.	1/1/2002

Arts, architecture.	Homelessness.  We should give more serious consideration to how people could live in campsites, sleeping in tents with sleeping bags and backpacks.  Nomadism should not be pejorative.  Drifters should not be pejorative.  Loners should not be pejorative.  Public spaces should not be pejorative.  (2) How can we do this?  Perhaps by making available the following:  Cameras for security.  Water, showers and toilets available.  Registration to track who is checked in.  Internet connections.  Electricity.	1/1/2002

Arts, architecture.	Homes and homelessness.  What does it mean to say that there should be no homelessness?  What does it mean to say that everyone should have a home?  Everyone should have someplace safe and warm to go.  Everyone should have some physical privacy.  Its an issue of social justice.  The high cost of housing causes homelessness.  When people pay half of their income for housing then it is a problem.  When rents are high, housing becomes a means for the rich to become richer and the poor to become poorer, and that is injustice.  When people are unemployed then they cannot afford housing and thus become homeless.  One can argue that safe, affordable housing for everyone is a right, or at least should be a primary goal of society.  When one considers the high cost of housing, and the goal of providing housing for everyone in society, then architecture becomes a political issue.	5/14/2007

Arts, architecture.	House.  (1) How much stuff does one need to live alone, to live with a woman, or to raise kids?  (2) To live alone (not healthy) you can use and electra-therma-shed.  You can buy a metal shed 10x10x8 for $1000.  Put in six inches of insulation on all sides, with paneling over it.  Run an electric line into it.  For showers join a gym.  For hot food eat out.  For water buy bottled water, a gallon a day.  For light put in a skylight and a light bulb.  Get an eco-toilet.  For laundry go to the laundromat.  Get a chair and desk.  Warm sleeping bag, warm clothes.  An electric heater for six months of the year.  Laptop computer with Internet connection.  Walkman for radio, tapes and CD-ROM.  Two weeks of casual clothes.  Hangout in public spaces like parks, library, bookstore, and cafes.	10/1/1998

Arts, architecture.	How much space do you need.  How much stuff do you need?  How much ease, comfort and convenience do you need?  Lets hear it for simplicity and non-materialism.	11/15/2001

Arts, architecture.	How to bring the sunlight into a north facing window?  Place large mirrors outside to reflect the sunlight in.  You could even mount a mirror on a computerized, solar-powered motor in order to track the sun across the sky.	6/4/2000

Arts, architecture.	Idea for a building.  A large, self supporting, steel beam structure, with no welds, held together by its own opposition, like popsicle sticks.	01/24/1994

Arts, architecture.	Inside and outside, and the blending of the two.  Build houses so the flow from inside to outside is seamless and indistinct.  The dweller should have to wonder, "Am I inside or outside?"	10/2/2004

Arts, architecture.	Interior design project: Bookshelves.  Build bookshelves.  Fill your bookshelves with books.  Stare at your books.  Ponder your books.  Face your bed toward your books.	12/21/2006

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  (1) Large spaces and high ceilings are where it is at.  Space is peaceful, like mountain views.  (2) Be able to push furniture on wheels to the side and shoot basketball into regulation height hoop.  Pull a wire barrier in front of large windows to prevent breaking windows.	1/6/1998

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  (1) Minimalist interior.  Boring.  High tech.  Quick and easy to clean.  Metal, plastic.  (2) Cluttered interior.  Decorated.  Interesting.  Victorian.  Interested in, or sentimental about, doo-dads.  Cloth, wool.	06/20/1994

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Every house should have a bare white room with a big window and a pillow to meditate on.  Also, an ornate, dark, Victorian room with mahogany panels, heavy drapes, animal skins, palms, and many figurines and trinkets.	12/30/1996

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Fill your apartment with trees, shrubs, ferns, so that it resembles a jungle.	3/3/2007

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Furniture as a pile of my gear.  Bed: me lying on my gear.  Desk: me writing while lying on my gear.  Chair: me sitting on my gear.	4/26/2002

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Furniture: every piece should be a work of art, and should reflect personality of owner.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Idea or fantasy.  A bed completely surrounded by bookcases, with a narrow exit.	04/15/1997

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Make cleaning easy.  Few things, easily moveable.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Nature.  Get a big stone, a plant, and an animal.	04/30/1993

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Nature.  In your apartment keep a rock, earth, water, plant, and animal.  Keep a pool of water with a mirror in the bottom to reflect the sky, like rich people had pools on their property.	12/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Nature.  Interior decoration.  Keeping nature out vs. bringing nature in.  Bring in a rock, water, plant, animal.	04/28/1993

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Nice to have: A room big enough to walk (figure eight) laps in.  A room big enough to run (figure eight) laps in.	4/22/1999

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Ultimate room: six foot round bed, glass walls and ceiling, computer screen art, ultimate remote control (including heat, ac) for integrated phone, TV, stereo, computer, books,.	12/30/1993

Arts, architecture.	Interior design.  Walls.  Instead of painting and repainting them.  (1) Cloth hangings of various colors.  (2) Various colored lights pointed at white walls.  (3) Projections from a camera onto a white wall.  Example, forest scene.	3/30/1998

Arts, architecture.	Landscape architecture: must have proper amounts (balance) of water, earth, rocks, plants, sky, space.	10/30/1993

Arts, architecture.	Landscape design.  Harmony with nature vs. abstract and geometrical.  Elements of landscape: earth, air, water, flora, fauna, people.  Natural vs. manmade.	12/30/1992

Arts, architecture.	Lightweight, small, mobile.  (1) Lightweight architecture: Tents, tarps, etc.  (2) Small architecture: Vacation cabins.  Lean-to's.  Cardboard boxes.  (3) Mobile architecture: Car trailers.  Truck caps.  Vans.  (4) Any combination of the above three.  (5) Challenges: Security.  Bathroom.  Heat.  Electricity.	10/27/2003

Arts, architecture.	Money, power and architecture.  Building is a game for the rich and powerful, who have money and land to build.  Thus, architects tend to serve and support the establishment.  Architecture is a pursuit of the establishment.  A brief history of architecture looks like this:  The pharohs built pyramids.  The emperors built coliseums.  The church built cathedrals.  The kings built palaces.  The nations built capitols.  The robber barons built mansions.  The corporations built skyscrapers.  To undo centuries of unfairness, and to promote social justice, the architect should work on affordable housing for the masses.	9/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	Natural look versus artificial look.  (1) Natural look in architecture:  Natural materials.  Natural shapes; shapes found in nature.  (2) Artificial look in architecture:  Artificial materials.  Artificial shapes; shapes not found in nature.	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	Obsession with housing.  Home addiction.  The nest builders.  The family raisers.  The home improvement set (Home Depot).  The home decorators (Martha).  If you cannot think of  anything better to do, you obsess about your house.	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	Paul style: I like 50% curves, 50% straight lines.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture is about: (1) Philosophy of place.  (See also: Philosophy, environment.  See also: Literature, travel writing.  See also: Leisure, travel.)  (2) Philosophy of space.  (which is the opposite of the philosophy of material or stuff).	3/29/2002

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Architecture as living in an environment.  (1) Architecture is about living, not building.  You build a building in a year but you live in a building for a century.  (2) Architecture is about environments, not just individual structures.  The "place where you live" consists of an outside environment (i.e., neighborhood, community, town etc.) and an inside environment (i.e., house), the former being more important than the latter.  The natural environment and manmade environment (i.e., neighborhood, community, town) is more important than the type of shelter.  (3) Yet people (architects and their customers) wrongly place the emphasis on architecture as the building of structures.  Architecture is about living in an environment.  Architecture is about ecology.	4/8/2001

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Architecture is an expensive and inflexible way to make a visual statement.  The art aspect of architecture is the least important, compared to economic, ecological, psychological and social aspects.  But the critics make art the most important aspect.  Pompous and stupid.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Architecture is on the same level as fashion.  You can say as much with either.  They both have limited vocabularies, and thus are not fine arts.  Both mix utilitarian function and aesthetics, and thus are not fine arts.	12/30/1996

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Beyond architecture as technology, economics, psychology, sociology, communication, and environment, architecture is just taste.  Taste varies with individual and society.  It's not worth arguing about.  One is as good as another.  It is just fashion.	11/18/1994

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Most important idea.  Ecological friendliness is the most important criteria for building design.  Aesthetics, economical cost, and all other criteria are secondary to ecological friendliness and sustainable development.  That is one idea they do not communicate strongly enough in architecture school.	07/04/1997

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  Really one design is as good as another, out of all the millions of models.  Whether it is logical, formal vs. organic.  Severe, austere vs. decorated.  It just doesn't matter.  And it is an expensive way to make (communicate) a visual statement that could be more easily and more cheaply made on paper, in drawings or words, or in models (small sculpture).  The artistic side of architecture just is not as important as the technological, economic, environment, psychological and social sides of architecture.  But the architects view aesthetics as the main issue.  It is a mistake to do so.  They get pompous about it.  The fact is you just can't say (communicate) much with architecture (big sculpture).	11/10/1993

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  There are people who have spent their entire lives in the post-WWII suburbs, who have never been in a bar from the 1920's or a house from the late 1800's.  They exist in an atemporal, ahistorical time-trap.  The phrase "be here now" has its drawbacks.	4/5/2000

Arts, architecture.	Philosophy of architecture.  They mock Levittown for its uniformity, but today they build millions of "postmodern" houses, each looking like the next.  The style kings still say what is good, everyone still follows.  It's pathetic.  People should build what they want.  The problem is few people have thought about architecture, and thus most don't know what they want.  And actually, Levittown is not that bad a place to live.  It's just that the houses are small, and the people who can afford them are not rich.	09/20/1994

Arts, architecture.	Principles of architecture.  (1) Philosophy of place.  Location.  Views.  (2) Philosophy of space.  Roominess.	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	Privacy.  See: Technology, privacy.	12/30/2003

Arts, architecture.	Public space.  A big problem is that there are no cafes that have full length reclining lounge chairs, where you can sit all day, out in the sun, reading a book.	11/16/1997

Arts, architecture.	Public space.  We must have places to lie down at work (and in public spaces), or at least recliner chairs.  Smaller private spaces (Japanese businessman hotel) and more amenable public spaces (like cafes in bookstores).	3/30/1998

Arts, architecture.	Site decisions.  (1) What piece of land to buy.  (2) Where to put the house on the land.  Examples:  Front of lot vs. back of lot.  High point vs. low point.  (3) Which way to face the house on the lot.  Examples:  Facing toward the road vs. facing away from the road.  Facing toward the sun vs facing away from the sun.	6/7/2004

Arts, architecture.	Systems approach to architecture.  Heating and cooling system.  Lighting system.  Ventilation system.  Fresh water system.  Waste water system.  Electrical power system.  Communication system (telephone, Internet, wireless).	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	Tents.  The American Indian teepee.  The Mongolian yurt.  The Arab tent.	5/14/2004

Arts, architecture.	The flow of development.  (1) The wilds become rural areas.  (2) The rural areas become suburbs.  (3)  The suburbs become cities.  (4) The cities become bigger cities.  (5) The endgame is that the entire earth will become one big city, unless we set aside some wild areas, rural areas and suburban areas and protect them from further development.	10/19/2004

Arts, architecture.	The natural look vs. the manmade look.	01/01/1993

Arts, architecture.	Things to say to a real estate agent: "Does the house have a parlor?  We're not buying anything that doesn't have a parlor." (joke).	4/28/2005

Arts, architecture.	Three levels of architecture.  (1) Community design.  (2) Building design.  (3) Interior design.	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	Time, energy, money, stuff.  (1) How much will you pay for housing?  What percentage of your salary?  Why not spend less on housing?  (2) How much time will you spend in the house?  A lot or a little?  Why not spend less time in the house?  (3) How much stuff do you have?  Why not have less stuff?  Why not keep it in storage?  (4) How much energy will you spend working on improving your house?  Why not spend less energy on home improvement projects?	10/17/2005

Arts, architecture.	Two different conceptions of "house".  Two different frames of mind.  (1) House as fort.  Solid, heavy, immobile, castle, safe, secure, rigid.  (2) House as teepee.  Flexible, adaptable, mobile, light weight.	12/31/2003

Arts, architecture.	What % of architecture is art driven (enlighten or entertain)?  What % of architecture is technology driven?	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	.This section is about dance.  Topics include: ( ) Body and dance.  ( ) Movement and dance.  ( ) Language aspects of dance.  ( ) Music and dance.  ( ) Physical aspects of dance.  ( ) Roots of dance.  Historical origins.  ( ) Types of dance.	1/24/2006

Arts, dance.	(1) Involuntary dance: unconscious toe-tapping and finger-snapping.  vs.  Voluntary dancing: conscious and planned.  (2) Dance without music.  vs.  Dance with music.  vs.  Dance with spoken words.  (3) The body.  The position of the body.  The movement of the body.  The space the body moves through.  You make tracks on the floor.  You make tracks through the air.  (4) What exactly are you communicating when you dance?  A thought?   An emotion?  Something else?  Do we have a word for it?  Is it non-linguistic?  If so, how does it differ from what we express through music and the visual arts which are also non-linguistic?	4/1/2002

Arts, dance.	(1) Joy of physical movement: running, climbing, and their relationship to sports, kinesthetics.  (2) Joy of expression through movement: communication.  (3) Beauty of physical movement (audience observation).  Moving from one shape to another, skill.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	(1) Pro.  (A) It's an outlet.  (B) It's a step in courting.  (C) It's good physical exercise.  (D) If you feel like doing it, do it.  (2) Contra.  (A) Don't do it if you don't feel like it.  (B) Social dancing is b.s.  (C) It's auto-erotic.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Altered mental states and dance.  Trance and dance.  For example:  Whirling dervishes.  American Indian dances.	10/15/2004

Arts, dance.	Art dance vs. pop dance.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Because dance does not rely on spoken language, dance is an international form of communication, much like music.  When you combine dance and music, you have a very expressive international communication system that does not rely on spoken language.	5/27/2007

Arts, dance.	Body and dance.  (1) Embodiment.  To have a body.  To know how it feels to have a body.  (2) There is the way your body feels (size and shape), and then (3) There is the way your body feels in different bodily positions, and then  (4) There is the way the body feels in movement (muscle exertion), and then (5) There is the way the body feels in space (gravity), and then (6) There is the way they body looks in movement.  At least six different things involved in kinaesthetic activities.	03/01/1997

Arts, dance.	Body and dance.  Being aware of your body.  Developing the capabilities of your body.  Accepting your body.  Feeling comfortable with your body.  And the bodies of others.	10/15/2004

Arts, dance.	Dance and its relation everyday movement, body language, posture and gesture.  (1) Coordinated and graceful movement is often interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as mature, intelligent, calm and stable.  Bumbling, clumsy movement is often interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as immature, unintelligent, nervous or erratic.  (2) In everyday movement, people often consciously or unconsciously, "say" things (i.e., express through movement) and people often consciously or unconsciously "hear" things (i.e., perceive and interpret movement).	4/8/2001

Arts, dance.	Dance as moves.  (1) Any expressive physical activity (movement, kinaesthetics), such as dance, martial arts, skateboarding, climbing, love making, or any sport, or just being (walking, standing, sitting, lying, or any awareness of the body in space) etc., all these things have something in common.  (2) All of the above can be thought of as consisting of "moves" or "tricks".  Moves have starting positions, middle transitions, and ending positions.  Moves can be grouped into styles (ex.  Break dance, ballet, tap dance, etc.).  Classification systems of moves can be made and recorded and studied or used later.  Moves can be re-combined in different sequences in order to produce different effects on the dancer and audience, much like words in a sentence, or like notes in a bar of music.  (3) Moves can be considered a language of movement, i.e. moves have meaning.  Moves can have emotional meaning, that is, they evoke emotions.  Moves can also have an intellectual meaning, in that they call to mind other things, that is, they are associated with other images.	03/01/1997

Arts, dance.	Dance as pure physical movement vs. dance as a response to music.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Dance is moving sculpture.	4/27/2006

Arts, dance.	Dance is not so much about semiotics, symbolism and narrative as it is about the joy of physical movement and the beauty of physical movement.  In this way dance is closer to sports than it is to literature or theater.	6/4/2000

Arts, dance.	Dance is public display of emotion.  Women enjoy it, guys don't.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Dancing as exercise.  A million years ago a primitive person gets tired of sitting around the campfire.  The person stands up and stretches, twisting from one side to the other.  The person moves around to get their blood flowing by using simple, repetitive motions.  Soon the person is dancing!  Dancing is rooted in our need to exercise our bodies.  Dancing is natural.  Humans have always danced.  Cultures that prohibit dancing (and singing), such as many workplace cultures, are over-civilized and repressed.	7/3/2000

Arts, dance.	Dancing as: (1) Physicality.  (2) Body.  (3) Position.  (4) Movement.	3/29/2002

Arts, dance.	Dancing in public vs. in private.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Energy and dance.  (1) Dance as releasing physical energy.  (2) Dance as releasing sexual energy.  (3) Dance as releasing emotional energy.	10/05/1997

Arts, dance.	Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.  Pairs figure skating.  Strollers on the boardwalk.  Things couples do in public.	10/17/2005

Arts, dance.	How good do you have to feel before you start dancing again?  Pretty damn good.  How happy do you have to feel to spontaneously dance?  Pretty damn happy. :)	6/8/2004

Arts, dance.	How gracefully, acrobatically, meaningfully can one move?	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	How much can you say with dance?	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	I can imagine some repressed military types who break into calisthenics upon hearing an especially emotionally moving piece of music.	1/4/2002

Arts, dance.	I like to watch people dancing on rollerblades more than I like to watch people dancing on foot.  It is smoother, like a milkshake.	1/1/2000

Arts, dance.	If there was no spoken language then perhaps humans would communicate with gesture and dance.  Gesture morphs into dance.  Dance is body gestures.	5/27/2007

Arts, dance.	Just as video and music don't mix, dance and music don't mix?	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Many people are repressed in regard to the expression of their mental states via bodily movement.	1/1/2006

Arts, dance.	Movement and dance.  Various ways of naming, describing and classifying dance positions, moves, steps, etc.     (1) Positions: holding the body still in various positions.  (1.1) Standing.  Standing on one one leg.  Standing on two legs.  (1.2) Crouching.  (1.3) Sitting.  (1.4) Laying down.     (2) Body movements while standing in one place.  (2.1) Head and neck moves.  Tilt head up or down.  Turn head left or right.  Tilt head left or right.  (2.2) Arm moves.  From the shoulder.  From the elbow.  Hand moves.  Opening arm movement.  Enclosing arm movements.  (2.3) Leg moves.  From the hip.  From the knee.  Foot moves.  (3) Body movement across the floor or stage.  (3.1) Steps.  Slow steps vs. Fast steps.  Small steps vs. Large steps.  (3.2) Forward movement (toward the audience) and backward movement.  Left or right movement.  Angular movement - for example, a left turn.  Curving movement - for example, an arcing curve.  Circular movement.  (3.3) Direction facing.  Facing the audience.  Facing left or right.  Facing away from the audience.     (4) More types of moves.  (4.1) Spins - on a vertical or horizontal axis.  (4.2) Jumps.  (4.3) Hops and skips.  (4.4) Calisthenic, gymnastic and acrobatic movements.  Rolls.  Somersaults.  Cartwheels.	7/24/2004

Arts, dance.	Music and dance.  Dancing a rhythm is common.  Dancing a melody is less common.	4/8/2001

Arts, dance.	Music does not have to be present for dance to be performed.	03/01/1997

Arts, dance.	Related subjects.  (1) Athletics and dance.  Some dancers consider themselves to be athletes as well as artists.  Some athletes talk about the dance-like aspects of their sports.  (2) Martial arts and dance.  Many martial arts moves are dance-like.  (3) Everyday motions and dance. Standing.  Walking.  Posture.  Gracefulness.  Coordination.  Balance.  Flexibility.  Power.  Endurance.  Economy.  (4) Psychology and dance.  Kinesthetics.  Sense of balance.  (5) Sociology and dance.  Pairs dancing.  Group dancing.  Dance and rituals.  Dance and magic.  (6) Work and dance.  Rhythmic work motions.  Shoveling.  Sweeping. Harvesting. Picking.	12/29/2003

Arts, dance.	Repetition of movements vs. variations of movements in dance.	7/24/2004

Arts, dance.	Robot dance.  When humans dance like a robot, what is that all about?  Is it like when robots dance like humans?	6/9/2006

Arts, dance.	Robot dance.  Would it make sense to talk about a dancing robot?  What if the robot was not shaped like a human?  For example, what if you had a robot shaped like a triangle and you programmed it to move in a pattern across a stage, or move in a three dimensional space.  Would that be dance?  What if you had a dozen triangles moving in a pattern on a dance floor or across a computer screen?  Would that be dance?  Dance is about the movement of objects in space.  Dance is about the change in position of objects in space through time.	4/16/2006

Arts, dance.	Roots of dance.  (1) Involuntary physical expressions of emotion (laugh, cry).  (2) Voluntary physical communication (gesture etc.).  (3) Physical activity (fu*king).	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Roots of dance.  Stomping mad, jumping for joy, thrashing in grief.  Raving lunatics.  Psyching up (war dances), and celebrations (sack dances).	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Social dance and solo dance.  (1) Dancing in front of an audience is a social phenomena.  What does it do for the dancer?  What does it do for the audience?  (2) Dancing alone.  Some people dance in front of the mirror.  What is that all about?	10/17/2005

Arts, dance.	The physical act of making love is a very expressive communication system that does not rely on spoken language.  Thus, there are links between dance and sex.  Mattress dancing.	5/27/2007

Arts, dance.	The split from pairs to solo dancing, let it all hang out.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Types of dance.  (1) Some types of dance:  Solo dancing.  Pair dancing (touch and no touch).  Group dancing (line dances, square dances).  (2) Some styles of dance: Bellydancing.  Breakdancing.  The Robot.  Moonwalking.  Whirling dervishes.  (3) Some influences on dancing:  Gymnastics.  Martial arts.  Pantomime.  Gestures and sign languages.	10/25/2001

Arts, dance.	Types of dance.  Alone vs. group: cakewalk.  Ballet.  Formal: formal movements, formal occasions.  Informal: free form movement, any occasion.  Folk, stage or musical, jazz, tap, square dance, waltz, jitterbug, lambada, macarena, hustle, tango.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Types of dance.  Charleston.  Lindy Hop.  Jitterbug.  Tap dancing.  Break dancing.	10/15/2004

Arts, dance.	Types of dances.  (1) Happy, sad, angry, sexual.  (2) Planned vs. spontaneous or improvisational.	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Why dance?  How important is dance?	12/30/1992

Arts, dance.	Wide definitions of dance.  (1) Dance defined as any physical movement.  (2) Dance is not only about the physical expression of emotions.  Dance is about the physical expression of all mental states, including memories, emotions, thoughts and attitudes.  (3) Dance is not for women only.  Men also express their mental states through physical movement.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	.This section is about  fashion.  Topics include: ( ) Communication and fashion.  ( ) Ecology and fashion.  ( ) Fashion as body modification.  ( ) Men's fashion.  ( ) Psychology of fashion.  ( ) Sociology of fashion.  ( ) Technology and fashion.  ( ) Teen fashion.  ( ) Women's fashion.	1/24/2006

Arts, fashion.	(1) Fashion as costume.  Its Halloween out there everyday.  (2) Fashion as acting.  See notes on movie acting.  See notes on social acting.	4/18/2001

Arts, fashion.	(1) Fashion as self expression.  This is the psychological side of fashion.  Fashion as a daily aesthetic decision, even if no one else sees it.  (2) Fashion as communication.  This is the social side of fashion.  In terms of semiotics, fashion is more of a simple signal than a complex symbolic language.  (3) Fashion as technology.  The technological side of fashion is captured by the notion of fashion as body modification.	1/14/2002

Arts, fashion.	(1) Fashion as the expression of mood is bullshit because you need tons of outfits to have a decent palette.  (2) Fashion as expression of uniqueness and specialness is ok because you need only one wild outfit.  Like Holden Caufield's hunting cap.  (3) Fashion as an expression of individuality is good.  "I dress myself.  No one dresses me."  I am my own person.	11/16/1997

Arts, fashion.	(1) Fashion is important because clothes are important.  Clothes are important because the weather gets cold and hot.  (2) The future of clothes.  (A) Summer.  A cooling outfit made from very light fabric, kept continually wet by drip from shoulder water tanks, to avoid summer heat induced insanity.  (B) Winter.  Very thin long underwear that feels comfortable outdoors and indoors.	11/10/1997

Arts, fashion.	(1) In humans, women are more interested in fashion than men.  (2) More time and money is given to fashion than is warranted.  (3) Fashion is primarily a social display to show fitness to get and keep a mate.  Fashion is like the feathers of a peacock.  Fashion is an evolutionary adaptation.	10/28/2001

Arts, fashion.	Accessories: shoes, jewelry, bags, shades.  Hair: color, length, shape, texture, straight, curly.  Face: makeup, mustashes and beards.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Artistic elements.  Clothes are sculptural.  Moving sculpture.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Artistic elements.  Fit:  Baggy vs. tight.  Long vs. short.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Artistic elements.  Line, shape, color, texture, lay or movement.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	As clothes became more various, cheaper, and more plentiful, how did it affect fashion trends?	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	At what point in the evolutionary history of humans did people start covering up with clothes?  When was the first loin cloth?	4/16/2006

Arts, fashion.	Audrey is fine.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Baubles and trinkets, mementos and souvenirs, geegaws and thingamajigs, watchamacallits.	12/30/1995

Arts, fashion.	Blue and silver vs. gold and black.  North vs. south.  Poor vs. rich.	11/01/1993

Arts, fashion.	Casual and formal fashion.  (1) Casual clothes for work that are ecological and organic is the way to go.  (2) Suits and ties are monkey suits.  People should realize that one's self-worth and social worth are not based on the latest fashions.	3/30/1998

Arts, fashion.	Change in fashion.  (1) Leaders: individuals, experimenters, avante garde.  (2) Trend setters: ones everyone follows, gate keepers.  (3) Followers.	09/01/1994

Arts, fashion.	Clothes are like a second skin.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	Communication and fashion.  (1) Fashion as billboard (ex. T-shirts with slogans and logos on them).  (2) Clothes to reflect philosophy.  (3) How much can you say with clothes?	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Communication and fashion.  Fashion is about communication, that is, "speaking" (wearing clothes) and "listening" (seeing the clothes other people wear).  In this regard there are four fashion problems: (1) Some people don't know how to talk the language.  (2) Some people don't want to talk.  (3) Some people don't have anything to say.  (4) Some people speak different languages.	2/22/2000

Arts, fashion.	Communication and fashion.  Semiotics and clothes.  (1) The meaning outfits carry change through time, just like the meanings of words change through time, depending on how they are used.  (2) Also, the meaning of an outfit, just like words, depends on the context in which it it's used.	10/23/1993

Arts, fashion.	Contra Logos.  Buy clothes without logos.  If unable to find clothes without logos, remove or deface any logos on your clothes.	1/31/2004

Arts, fashion.	Current fashion palette.  What's hot: earth brown, sky blue and forest green.  What's not: blood red and funeral black.	10/27/2003

Arts, fashion.	Cutting edge fashion is of two types.  High tech fashion, that places function over form.  Couture fashion, that places form over function.	12/29/2003

Arts, fashion.	Cutting edge fashion.  New materials.  New colors.  New cuts, lines and shapes.	12/29/2003

Arts, fashion.	Ecological fashion practices.  (1) Hemp is preferable to cotton because cotton requires pesticides and lots of water.  (2) Natural fabrics are better than synthetic fabrics because synthetic fabrics are made from oil.  (3) Organic natural fabrics are better than non-organic natural fabrics.  (4) Recycled synthetic fabrics are better than non-recycled synthetic fabrics.	10/10/2005

Arts, fashion.	Ecological fashion, levels of.  (1) A fashion of natural materials.  (i.e., non-man-made materials).  (2) A fashion of materials not based on the slaughter of animals. (i.e., no leather, no fur).  (3) A fashion based on organic, non-animal, natural materials.	11/1/2003

Arts, fashion.	Ecological fashion.  Natural fibers.  Organic fibers.  Recycled synthetic fibers.	12/29/2003

Arts, fashion.	Ecological fashion.  The current US fashion industry is entrenched in a non-ecological, "profit first" fashion mentality.  The current US fashion industry should be more ecological.  A variety of carrots and sticks (incentives and penalties) should be used to get clothes manufacturers and consumers to make clothes that are more ecological and that promote social justice to avoid things like foreign sweatshops.	10/12/2005

Arts, fashion.	Ecology and fashion.  Fashion should be ecological.	3/29/2002

Arts, fashion.	Emotional meaning of color vs. symbolic idea meaning of clothes.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Ethics, politics and fashion.  Fashion is an ethical issue.  Fashion is a political issue.  Everything is an ethical issue.  Everything is a political issue.  Dress in a way that is ecologically sustainable and promotes social justice.	12/16/2005

Arts, fashion.	Factors.  (1) Feel: how a fabric feels on skin.  (2) Breathability.  Weight.  Warmth.  Flow vs. stiffness.  (3) Texture: rough, smooth.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Fashion and environment: temperature, precipitation, wind, and sun.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Fashion and subcultures: hippie, nerd, preppy, jock, each subculture has a semiotic fashion code that it uses to communicate with those inside and outside the group.	09/01/1994

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Body.  (1) Body sculpting, working out, plastic surgery.  (2) Body adornment: piercings, tattoos, scarification.  (3) What your body looks like affects how the clothes you wear look.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Dieting oneself thin.  Eating oneself fat.  These are examples of body modification.	10/9/2003

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Hormones are sometimes misused beyond medical prescription, and often in the face of health drawbacks.  Four examples:  Males taking extra testosterone.  Males taking extra estrogen.  Women taking extra testosterone.  Women taking extra estrogen.  There is not much difference between the above four cases.  They are four examples of body modification.	10/9/2003

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Makeup is a type of body modification and it fits in with the other forms of body modification such as clothes, jewelry, tattoos, piercings, bio-mechanical devices (ex. peg legs, breast implants, plastic surgery, etc.), and bio-electronic devices (ex. hearing aids, artificial eyes, etc.).  Body modification is about controlling who you are and creating who you are.  (1) Controlling who you are: To take control over your body (and mind) is to not let someone else, or society, or life take control of you.  To control your body (and mind, behavior and environment) is to take responsibility for self, to care for self, and to develop and grow self.  (2) Creating who you are: Clothes let you create a new you.  Examples include alien hairstyles, halloween costumes, gorilla suits and transgenders.	4/3/2000

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Tattoos are an interesting phenomenon.  There are many reasons why people get tattoos.  (1) You like or love something so much that you get a tattoo.  For example, a tattoo of your girlfriend's name on your arm.  You say "I carry her with me always".  You say, "She is now a part of me".  You say, "I want the world to know".  (2) As a memory.  For example, a memento mori such as "RIP".  (3) You identify so much with something that you get a tattoo.  For example, to get a tattoo of a national flag, or a corporate logo.  You say, "I am proud to be a member of this group".  You say, "I believe what this group believes".  (4) As a canvas for artistic expression.  (A) As a thing of beauty.  For example, a woman gets a tattoo of a flower and she says "This flower is beautiful".  Or she says, "This flower makes me more beautiful".  Or she says, "I am beautiful".  (B) As a thing of toughness or coolness.  For example, you get a tattoo of a mongoose.  You say, "This mongoose is tough and cool".  You say, "This mongoose makes me more tough and cool".  You say, "I am tough and cool".	7/10/2000

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  Three views on plastic surgery.  (1) Pro view:  We have the right to self-determination.  We can change ourselves.  We can build ourselves.  We can create ourselves.  Everything is for sale these days.  (A) Beauty is for sale: plastic surgery.  (B) Health is for sale: organic food.  (C) Knowledge is for sale: school.  (D) Strength is for sale: gym.  (E) Also gene therapy, tattoos, and digital chip implants.  (2)  Contra view:  We have no choice in who we are.  We must accept the natural injustices that give one person an unfair advantage over another.  (3) Neutral view:  Accepting yourself as you are.  Being proud of who you are naturally.  Not being prey to society's stupid tastes, fads and fashions.	8/1/2000

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as body modification.  When one considers the many types of body modification, it becomes apparent that body modification is very popular across all cultures.  People want to change themselves, either temporarily or permanently.  Body modification will get even more popular as new options for modification of the body are developed.	1/10/2002

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as environment.  Fashion as controlling one's environment.  The clothes you wear are your immediate environment.  To choose the clothes one wears is to choose one's environment.	2/25/2005

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as function, as beauty, as communication, as social fad (to look alike vs. be different).	01/01/1993

Arts, fashion.	Fashion as technology.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Fashion for fitting in vs. fashion for standing out.  Mob psychology, groupthink, and fascism vs. celebrating differences, rainbow coalition, and tolerance.	7/2/1998

Arts, fashion.	Fashion is about a layer that mediates between your body and the environment.  (1) Protects from outside.  Temperature control.  Humidity level regulation.  Precipitation shield.  (2) Handles the inside.  Deals with body sweat.  Deals with shedding skin.  (3) Somewhat like a space suit.	10/15/2004

Arts, fashion.	Fashion is construction of an image to either communicate an attitude (emotion + thought) or to achieve catharsis.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Fashion materials:  Plastic.  Rubber.  Metal.  Stone.  Wood.  Glass.	3/13/2005

Arts, fashion.	Future fashion.  (1) If my clothes had the ability to change color, I could wear the same clothes everyday and have different color clothes everyday.  (2) If my clothes had the ability to change shape then I could wear the same clothes everyday and have different shape clothes everyday.	10/15/2004

Arts, fashion.	High tech and low tech fashion.  (1) High tech fashion.  Examples:  Running shoes.  Gore-tex.  Electrically heated jackets.  Computers in clothes.  (2) Low tech fashions.  Examples:  Buttons instead of zippers.  Hand knit wool sweaters.	1/21/2004

Arts, fashion.	If everyone decided to wear a new set of clothes everyday then it would be a tremendous waste of natural resources.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	In prehistoric times it was important to see who one was standing next to.  Prehistoric man was constantly looking at other people to see if they were someone who was, for example, strong or weak, young or old, male or female.  In these modern times we wear clothes but we continue the prehistoric practice of observing the people next to us.  The clothes become the body that we observe.	1/30/2002

Arts, fashion.	Individual and fashion.  (1) My fashion history.  (2) What I wear and not and why.  (3) What I think of other people and clothes.  (4) What I like to see on a woman.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Is it possible for guys to dress sexy?  How can a guy tell what a girl thinks is sexy?  Show shape, show skin, sexy fabrics and colors.  How turned on do women get from guys dressing sexy?	09/20/1993

Arts, fashion.	It does not make sense to wear clothes that look nice if the clothes are harmful to the wearer, harmful to the environment, exploits animals, or exploits workers.	12/2/2005

Arts, fashion.	Just like the books you read can shape your attitudes, personality and philosophy, so can the clothes you wear shape your attitudes, personality and philosophy.  In this way fashion is most like high art.  First you may latch onto a "look" and a feeling of a fashion statement, and from this may emerge an "attitude", an idea, and eventually a worldview.  This is also why picking your own clothes is so important.  Even at a young age, or especially at a young age.	12/20/1998

Arts, fashion.	Leather is murder, so stop wearing leather.  Fur is murder, so stop wearing fur.	10/19/2005

Arts, fashion.	Leather is pretentious.  Vinyl is friendly in an unassuming way.	01/12/1997

Arts, fashion.	Loose versus tight.  Tight clothes are about the body.  The tightest clothes are skin tight, or body painting, or naked.  The loosest clothes are a sack, or a barrel, or a box, or refusing to come out of your apartment, which is like wearing an extra large box.	3/5/2007

Arts, fashion.	Many people are obsessed with personal appearance.  It is a mistake to value appearance over substance.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	Many people are overly concerned with fashion.  One reason that many people are overly concerned with fashion is because many people subconsciously associate fashion as an extension of hygiene.  Many people are obsessed with the hygiene of themselves and others.  People mistakenly and subconsciously associate new clothes with clean clothes, and clean clothes with general cleanliness, and cleanliness with moral goodness.  At some point, obsession with fashion becomes like people who wash their hands fifty times a day due to obsessive compulsive disorder.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	Me.  I do not wear a watch.  I do not wear any rings or chains.  I do not have any tattoos.  I do not put gel in my hair.  I do not like to wear any labels and logos.  Unadorned.	9/12/2005

Arts, fashion.	Me.  I prefer the long and loose style of clothing.  Not the tight and short style of clothing.  Baggy, not constricted.	11/7/2003

Arts, fashion.	Me.  My current fashion style: non-descript.	6/4/2001

Arts, fashion.	Me.  My fashion aesthetic is not to wear anything that needs ironing, or that restricts movement, or that is not comfortable (i.e., that is not loose, or not natural fabrics), or that is not unobtrusive (i.e., calls attention to self).	01/07/1997

Arts, fashion.	Me.  Paul fashion aesthetic, and history of Paul fashion aesthetic.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Me.  Paul favorites: t shirt, boxers, jeans, white cottons socks.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Me.  Paul style: loose, baggy.	01/01/1993

Arts, fashion.	Me.  Paul's current fashion aesthetic.  T shirts: black, blue, gray, green.  Blue jeans, cool shoes, blue collar windbreaker, cotton socks.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Men's fashion is dogmatic, boring, and neurotic.  Men's fashion: all function, no form.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Men's fashion.  (1) Any culture that requires one to shave everyday, and get one's haircut every two weeks, is ill.  It is a waste of time, energy, money and resources.  Just let your hair grow naturally.  (2) Not being able or allowed to cut your own hair is a weird state of affairs, like not being able to wash yourself.	7/17/1998

Arts, fashion.	Men's fashion.  Ties run the spectrum from strict regimentation (ducks in a row) to wild organic chaotic colors and forms (expressionistic, impressionistic).	06/17/1994

Arts, fashion.	Men's fashion.  Ties: conservative, conformist, regimented vs. rebel, wild, fun (ex. American flag, leopard skin).	09/20/1993

Arts, fashion.	Modeling.  Models don't talk.  Models just stand there and look pretty.  Anyone who takes money to keep their mouths shut is doing themselves and society an injustice.  Such is the negative side of modeling.	10/15/2004

Arts, fashion.	Modeling.  Why its better for models to be dim than pretty.  Successful modeling is based on the ability of the viewer to project their feelings and attitudes onto the model, to project themselves into the models place, into the models skin, and into the models clothes.  Projection is most easily achieved if the model has a "blank", expressionless face.  A blank face is most easily achieved if the model has no thoughts of her own.  Nothing says "blank" like the expressionless face of the dim.  That is why dim trumps beauty in the fashion world.	8/30/2001

Arts, fashion.	Most important idea.  The goal of fashion, which was long delayed by social norms and technological limits, but which recently has been reached for the most part, is the freedom to wear anything we want, and the technology to create anything we can think of.  Put this into practice by wearing all sorts of wild things that people might not consider as clothes.	03/01/1997

Arts, fashion.	Naked.  The big question is, naked or clothes?	3/13/2005

Arts, fashion.	Natural and artificial look.  (1) Natural look in fashion:  Little makeup.  Natural fabrics.  Natural colors.  Popular in the 1970's.   (2) Artificial look in fashion:  Heavy make up.  Synthetic fabrics.  Synthetic colors.  Popular in the 1980's.	10/17/2005

Arts, fashion.	People who wear leather are starting to remind me of Ed Gein.  Natural, organic, plant-derived clothes are the way to go.	11/23/2004

Arts, fashion.	Pro and con fashion.  (1) Anti-fashion people.  (A) On the positive side, these people are anti-materialistic, anti-waste (against yearly arbitrarily changing fashions), and anti-formula (uniforms and trends).  (B) On the negative side, these people are repressed.  (2) Fashion people.  (A) Positive side: express self identity well.  (2) Negative: caught up in b.s. world meant to rob them of money.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Pro and con fashion.  (1) Contra fashion:  (A) The arbitrary changes every season just to sell product.  (B) The tremendous waste of money just so people can say they have the high status labels.  (C) The tremendous waste of money of people trying to express themselves with clothes.  You have to buy a ton of clothes to have a palette.  Put a button on for petes sake.  (D) The tremendous waste of money people spend so they don't have to be seen wearing the same thing twice.  You have to buy a ton of stuff.  (2) Pro fashion.  (A) It's fun to have choices.  It's fun to have a ton of goofy stuff.  It's nice to have different things to wear for different occasions.  (3) Is it just fun?  Or is it healthy.  Does fashion contribute to health?  Is the Mao suit repressive?  Does it stunt, stupefy, stullify?  (4) Couldn't the money spent on fashion be better spent elsewhere?  (5) And is not fashion (in the sense of 1A-D) a waste of natural resources?  Like cutting down christmas trees?	01/12/1997

Arts, fashion.	Psychology of fashion.  (1) How does your personality affect the clothes you pick?  How does what you wear affect your personality?  (2) Psychological affects on fashion choice vs. fashion affects on psychological state.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Psychology of fashion.  Fashion as expression of personality or mood.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Psychology of fashion.  Fashion for ourselves: catharsis.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Psychology of fashion.  Fashion style as a form of self identity development and expression.  How early do you buy your own clothes.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Pure art vs. pure function.  Functional clothes vs. aesthetic clothes.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Self identity and fashion.  (1) One day you put on some clothes and you say, "This is me.  This is who I am.  This feels good.  This looks good."  You create a self identity in part through your clothes.  The next day you put on some other clothes and you say, "This looks bad.  This feels bad.  This is not me.  This is not who I am."  You create a self identity in part by what you choose not to wear.  (2) In addition, the people around you who you interact with, and whose opinion you value to some degree, will look at you and make noises like, "That shirt is you, but that hat is not you."  Your local culture affects your sense of self.  (3) In addition, society at large, through the media, will also affect your  sense of self.  (4) Will you determine your own self identity or will you leave the formation of your self identity up to the random whims of society?  Forge your own self identity.  (5) Will you forge your self identity out of clothes alone, or will you move beyond clothes, and other physical objects, to forge your self identity out of ideas?  Forge your self identity out of ideas.	5/30/2005

Arts, fashion.	Self-heating clothing.  How could one heat the clothes instead of heating the entire room?  What would be the power source?  Electricity?  What about the wires?  How would one wash it?  How would rain affect it?  Is it easier to carry a small heater than to build the heater into the clothes?  If you carry a small heater, would the heater be something you wear under the clothes or would it be something you set up nearby?  (2) How about wearing headlamps instead of lighting entire rooms?  That's easy.  LED headlamps run a hundred hours on a set of rechargeable batteries.	2/28/2004

Arts, fashion.	Sexism and fashion.  When society expects women to wear one type of clothing and expects men to wear another type of clothing then that reflects sexism in fashion.  When women are expected, or even forced, to wear a veil, that is an example of sexism in fashion.  When women are expected to wear skirts and men are expected to wear pants, that is an example of sexism in fashion.  Sexism pervades every aspect of society including fashion, and sexism disempowers women.  The struggle against sexism is waged on all fronts including the fashion front.  Fashion should be gender neutral.	5/14/2007

Arts, fashion.	Social status and fashion.  People want to be rich or at least appear rich through the clothes they wear.  People want to be cool or at least appear cool through the clothes they wear.  People want to be popular or at least appear popular through the clothes they wear.  At the other extreme is geek chic and spaz wear; the pocket protector, the high water pants, the eyeglasses taped in center.	10/17/2005

Arts, fashion.	Sociology and fashion.  People wear expensive clothes in a quest for social status.	1/1/2006

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  (1) Fashion for others: public relations.  (2) Trendy fashions vs. classic fashions.  (3) Tradition, norms, fads.  (4) Following vs. leading in fashion.  (5) Conformist vs. rebellious fashions.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  (1) Politics and fashion.  Fashion in pursuit of social status and power.  Fashion pecking orders (ex. school kids making fun of kids without new clothes).  Money = power.  (2) Sexuality and fashion.  Beautiful and sexy.  Fit and healthy.  (3) Communication and fashion.	11/15/2001

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  Can you capture the zeitgeist in clothes, even if the zeitgeist was not strong enough to put a verbal label on?	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  Dressing to show off, and dressing to get ahead.  Clothes as a display of wealth and status.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  Fashion as expression of social position.  Who must and can't wear what, classified by sex, class, and job.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  Fashion to say you belong to a group (wearing what others wear) vs. fashion to say you are an individual (wearing what no one else wears).	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  How does what you wear affect what people think of you?  How does what people think of you affect the clothes you wear?	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Sociology of fashion.  Public clothes vs. private clothes.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Style.  American fashion.  The high school jacket, t-shirt, jeans or chinos, sneakers.  Winter look: the hooded sweatshirt under jean jacket under leather jacket.	01/19/1997

Arts, fashion.	Synthetic clothes.  (1) Synthetic clothes are high performance but it feels like you're wearing a plastic bag.  (2) Synthetic clothes send a message to others that says, "Plastic".  Natural fiber clothes send a message that says, "Natural".	10/1/2003

Arts, fashion.	Synthetic fabrics: bodies wrapped in plastic.	11/1/2003

Arts, fashion.	Tattoos.  Many people get tattoos to be different, special, unique.  More and more people are getting tattoos, and thus, people without tattoos are becoming a rarity.  I have no tattoos, and if I continue on this track, my lack of tattoos with eventually make me special and unique.  Quite ironic, isn't it?	4/30/2007

Arts, fashion.	Technology of fashion.  Fabric production.  Natural fabrics: cotton, wool, hemp.  Manmade fabrics: nylon, rayon, dacron, polyester.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Technology of fashion.  Functional clothes.  Clothes to deal with weather don't matter if you are always inside.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Technology of fashion.  Material: weave, weight, cut and shape, color and pattern.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Technology of fashion.  Types of clothes by function.  Flop around (sweats); neat and casual; business; formal; special purpose; bed clothes (lingerie and pajamas).	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Teen fashion, the aftermath.  What used to happen, in the 1950's and early 1960's, was the teens got older, entered the workplace and absorbed the values of a conservative workplace.  (1) They tried to fit in like interchangeable parts by wearing what everyone else was wearing.  They tried to appear stable by wearing the same thing every day.  Instead of trying to show their creativity, they tried to show their obedience.  (2) They got married and had kids, and they wore modest clothes that showed that they were no longer looking for a mate.  And they tried to wear clothes that set a respectable example for their kids.  To sum up, they became real boring, real fast.  However, today, in the dot.com business world, things are not as bad as all that.	7/25/2000

Arts, fashion.	Teen fashion: funky, flash, loud and wild.  Other words used to describe teen fashion include cool, hip, friendly, quirky, unique, different.  Why do teens wear these kinds of clothing?  (1) Teens are poor and funky clothes are cheap.  (2) Teen are all about exploring boundaries and testing limits.  Wild clothes help them find out how far they can go.  (3) Flashy clothes help express psychological emotions and also help express physical energy, much like rock music, which is another teen favorite.  (4) Flashy clothes help a teen call attention to themselves in order to attract a mate.	7/25/2000

Arts, fashion.	Teens are often fooled into thinking that the endless parade of fashions somehow has some meaning to it and perhaps even exhibits some form of progress.  So they try to follow fashion.  Then they eventually realize that fashion was not as meaningful as they thought, and they realize that no progress is made in fashion.  This is progress for the teens.	7/25/2000

Arts, fashion.	The big fashion question:  Go naked, why not?  People don't want to see it.  People don't want to be it.  Why?  Clothes are used to create psychological distance, boundaries, defense, armor, barriers, and protection.  When you don't want others to see the real you.  When you don't want to see the real you (i.e., repression).	4/3/2000

Arts, fashion.	The clothes I wear for work now have absolutely no functional value.  They have no functional value other than to cover my nudity, feel good on my body, and keep me warm.  Other than that, they are purely meant for (1) Art.  (A) Trying to be expressive of myself.  (B) Trying to be aesthetically pleasing to others.  (2) Symbolic communication.  Trying to send a message.  (3) Social conformity.  Fitting in to the group.  (4) Identity creation and identity communication.  To show where I am on the work group ladder, and what I aspire to be.	08/12/1993

Arts, fashion.	The drive to appear attractive and fit for reproduction.  Youth = sexy.  Health = sexy.  Physical fitness = sexy.  Power = sexy.  Beauty = sexy.  Interesting (not boring) = sexy.  Sexy (frisky, horny) = sexy.  We use fashion to try to appear all of the above.	10/28/2001

Arts, fashion.	The entire concept of underwear is overrated.	10/25/2000

Arts, fashion.	The fashion industry's meaningless change of styles from season to season and year to year.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Things people say about what other people are wearing.  (1) He's just wearing that to show-off that he has money.  (2) He's just wearing that to look good, but looks are not everything.  (3) He's just wearing that to be different.  (4) He's just wearing that to be like everyone else.  (5) He's just wearing that for the job, to get ahead.  (6) He's just wearing that for the chicks, to get laid.	7/31/2006

Arts, fashion.	Three levels of fashion.  (1) Fashion as skin.  This view of fashion sees fashion as a surface-only phenomenon.  Changing your clothes is viewed as changing your skin, while the underlying structure remains the same.  Much like techies change the skin on their web browsers.  (2) Fashion as body modification.  This view of fashion sees fashion as a change of the physical self that goes deeper than the surface.  This is a view of fashion that sees fashion as a part of a spectrum of bodily changes that goes beyond the skin.  (3) Fashion as a sign of psychological changes.  This view of fashion focuses on the phenomenon that changes of mind cause changes in fashion.  Also, changes in fashion can cause changes in mind.  (4) Fashion as change of self-identity.  When you change body and mind you change yourself.	6/26/2002

Arts, fashion.	Two fashion statements.  I am an individual vs. I am part of the team.	11/27/1999

Arts, fashion.	Two views of fashion.  (1) Fashion as architecture.  Fashion as a house you wear.  Like a snail wears a shell.  Like a turtle wears a shell.  A built environment that you take with you.  (2) Fashion as a nesting instinct.  A nest you bring with you.	3/29/2002

Arts, fashion.	Unfortunately, some people use fashion as a wall or barrier to separate and insulate themselves from reality (the world and other people).  Barefoot nudism forever!	6/28/1998

Arts, fashion.	Uniforms can contribute to the abdication of personal responsibility.	10/14/2003

Arts, fashion.	Unisex adult vs. men's vs. women's.  Teen fashion.  Unisex child vs. boys vs. girls.  Unisex baby.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Wearing forest green is a political statement.  The Green Party.	02/22/1997

Arts, fashion.	What is fashion?  Fashion as a subdivision of arts.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	When it is raining, and people buy newspapers to hold over their heads, that is fashion.	4/16/2006

Arts, fashion.	White is a stupid color for clothes and laundry.	10/30/1997

Arts, fashion.	Whoever invented white shirts, ties, creases, collars, cuffs, was sick.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Whoever the two were who invented ties, collars, cuffs and stockings and high heels are fu*king each other in hell.	06/11/1993

Arts, fashion.	Women and clothes.  (1) All that women have available to spend money on is clothes.  Food is fattening.  Sports are for men.  (2) Clothes for women are beauty that can be bought.  (3) Women want something new and different yet there is safety in dressing like everyone else so they want to be the same but a little different and they want someone to tell them all what to wear.	10/23/1993

Arts, fashion.	Women in clunky platform shoes and tight, low cut, bell bottoms.  The 70's look is back.	03/01/1997

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion: all form, no function.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  Fashion camera shoot: Its about youth, beauty, women, clothes, hair, makeup, jewelry, movement, faces and facial expressions, body and body positions.  Its about legs, tits and ass.  Its about personalities.  Its about people.	5/13/1999

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  One view.  Why are women so interested in fashion?  Because society expects them to be.  Not because they have a genetically based interest in fashion.	5/6/1999

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  The women are wearing clothes for each other.  Because men have no concept of fashion beyond whether a woman looks sexy.	9/24/2000

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  Three trends in NYC women's fashion.  (1) See-thru stuff.  (2) Wearing just lingerie.  Ex. slip without the dress.  (3) Underwear on the outside.  Ex. bra over blouse.	08/17/1997

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  Two theories why women love shoes.  (1) The baby theory.  A shoe is small and cute, analogous to the way babies are small and cute.  Women are attracted to shoes because shoes are like babies.  (2) The flower theory.  A shoe on a woman's foot is like a flower in a woman's hair.  Both shoes and flowers serve as decorative accents to a woman's beauty.  (3) To test the above two theories, I asked women whether they are attracted to the shoe as an object itself (baby theory), or are they attracted to the shoe on the foot (flower theory).  Most said they were attracted to the shoe as object, so therefore the baby theory holds sway.  (4)  (The question of why men are attracted to women's shoes and feet was not a part of this study).	3/8/2001

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  When women buy clothes, are they trying to appear (1) Rich.  (2) Trendy and "With it".  (3) Beautiful.  (4) All of the above.	10/10/1997

Arts, fashion.	Women's fashion.  Why are women so into fashion?  (1) Emotional expression.  (2) Want to look pretty and attract men.  (3) Colors = feminine?  (4) It's a way for them to communicate.	12/30/1992

Arts, fashion.	Wool.  In general, natural fiber clothing is better for the environment than synthetic fiber clothing.  Wool is a natural fiber.  But wool is a natural fiber derived from animals, namely sheep.  What are the objections to wool?  (1) An animal rights argument against wool.  Wool represents the wrongful domination of the sheep species by the human  species.  Even if you argue that wool-producing sheep are treated well, there is a counterargument that says enslavement is wrong even if the slave is treated well.  (2) An ecological argument against wool.  There is an overpopulation of humans on earth.  When humans wear wool there is a resulting overpopulation of sheep on earth.  Sheep produce a lot of waste that impacts the environment.	11/21/2005

Arts, fashion.	Work clothing aesthetic.  Cheap and long lasting.  Proletarian.	08/15/1994

Arts, gastronomy.	.See also: Health, food.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	.This section is about gastronomy.  Topics include: ( ) Art and food.  ( ) Technology and food.  ( ) Ecology and food.  ( ) Health and food.  ( ) Ingredients.  ( ) Problems with food.  ( ) Psychology of food.  ( ) World cuisines.	1/24/2006

Arts, gastronomy.	(1) My favorite foods and why.  Pure taste standards.  Overall physical and psychological standards.  (2) My least favorite foods and why.  Pure taste standards.  Overall physical and psychological standards.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Adventurous and curious eaters who try new things.  Versus.  Boring eaters who eat the same thing all the time.	1/15/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Aesthetics of food stuffs, dishes, cuisines.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Arguments in favor of food as pleasure.  (1) Food as art.  (food aestheticism).  (2) Food as entertainment.  (food hedonism).  (3) One argument  in favor of food as pleasure argues that life is full of stress and pain.  Against the stress and pain of life we have only a few small pleasures.  One of these small pleasures is food.  (4) The first goal of food should be health.  But an important secondary goal of food is that it tastes good.  Three meals a day is too much time to spend with food that doesn't taste good, doesn't look good, and doesn't smell good.  Enjoyable food just might be the only small pleasure that keeps a person from depression, insanity and suicide.  More generally, if you repress small pleasures or deny yourself small pleasures there is nothing between you and despair.	1/1/2000

Arts, gastronomy.	Audrey invented the sauerkraut and sardine sandwich.  On a roll sliced in half, add mustard, sauerkraut and sardines.  Delicious.	3/5/2006

Arts, gastronomy.	Caffeine addiction is a problem.  It may be that in fifty years people will look at caffeine and coffee companies the same way that people today look at cigarettes and cigarette companies.  Caffeine may not cause cancer, but it can, when over consumed, in the long run, strain the parasympathetic system of some people.	10/15/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Caffeine.  How much less work would have been done without caffeine (coffee, tea, cola) in my life and in the history of the world?  Both creative work and drone work.	7/25/2000

Arts, gastronomy.	Cool foods: cranberry anything, apricot anything, coconut anything.	10/30/1993

Arts, gastronomy.	Courses of a meal.  Single course meals (ex. one pot stews) vs. multi course meals (ex. soup, salad, appetizer, entree, desert, desert, desert).	6/7/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Critique of gastronomy: "Can you only think about your stomach?!"	5/13/2007

Arts, gastronomy.	Cuisines by country or region: due to ingredients and tradition.  Regional cuisuines: French, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, American colonial.  Folk cuisine vs. mass cuisine vs. haute cuisine.  Why do some cultures eat one food and not another?  Accessibility?	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Each element should be perfectly prepared and maintain its own distinct taste and texture.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Eating for health vs. aesthetic pleasure.  Art food (enjoyment) vs. nutrition food (health).	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Eating for health.  (1) Eating for personal health.  Reduce salt, sugar, fat, caffeine.  (2) Eating environmental health.  Eating organic foods.  Eating vegetarian.	11/1/2003

Arts, gastronomy.	Ecological food.  The current US food industry is entrenched in a non-ecological, "profit first" food mentality.  The current US food industry should be more ecological.  A variety of sticks and carrots (incentives and penalties) should be used to get food producers and food consumers to be more ecological and to promote social justice.	10/12/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Ecology and food.  Food should be organic.	3/29/2002

Arts, gastronomy.	Ethics, politics and food.  Food is a political issue.  Food is an ethical issue.  Everything is an ethical issue.  Everything is a political issue.  Eat in a way that is ecologically sustainable and promotes social justice.  Promote fair trade food.  Eat organic whole foods.  Be a vegetarian.	12/2/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Food as a way to bring back memories.  Food as an aid to psychotherapy.	6/30/1998

Arts, gastronomy.	Food as art.  Taste: texture, temperature, taste.  Odor.  Looks: color, shape, etc.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Food attitudes.  (1) Do you relieve stress with food?  (2) Food as sustenance vs. food as entertainment.  (3) Do you eat a healthy diet?	4/21/1999

Arts, gastronomy.	Food is primarily about status.  (1)(A) Some people cannot bear to be seen in public eating poor food with poor people in a poor environment.  It is too much of a blow to their sense of social self.  (B) They also cannot bear to see themselves eating poor food, with poor people, in a poor environment.  Its too much of a blow to their (inflated) sense of personal self.  (2) Let alone the poor aspect of it, these people cannot even bear the common, ordinary or average.  They cannot bear to eat average food, with average people in average environments, because it is too much of blow to both their sense of social self and their sense of personal self.  (3) For these people, food is primarily about status and secondarily about issues like taste, convenience, personal health or ecological friendliness.  For these people, the desire to see themselves, and be seen by others, as rich, powerful, important and famous overrides the issues of health, safety, laziness, etc., and this testifies to the narcotic nature not of food but of status.	9/28/2000

Arts, gastronomy.	Food.  Most important ideas.  (1) Food should be ecological and organic.  Food should be healthy for the earth.  Food should be healthy for the individual.  (2) Variety and good taste keep food interesting, fun and appetizing.  So one does not become bored by repetition, or lose appetite from poor taste.  This keeps one eating healthy.  (3) Food should be a means to solve problems, not an end in itself.	3/30/1998

Arts, gastronomy.	Foods physical functions vs. psychological functions.  Over eaters, anorexia and bulimia.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Healthy and tasty.  As little time, money, and effort as possible.  Try as many as possible.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	High quality ingredients: fresh and tasty.  Expertly prepared.  Balance of amounts.  Agreement with or complement other ingredients.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	How much can you say with the food art?	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	How much time do you spend on food per day?  How much time per day do you spend thinking about food, shopping for food, preparing food and eating food?  These days, if you spend more than two hours total per day on food then I think you are over doing it.	11/12/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	How much time do you spend on food?  (1) How often do you think about food?  (2)(A) Preparation.  To cook vs. microwave vs. restaurant.  (B) Eating.  The long meal vs. eating on the run.	4/21/1999

Arts, gastronomy.	I am against coffee cup lids.  Half the enjoyment of coffee is the aroma.  Would you put a lid on a glass of wine?  Certainly not.  Take off that lid.	11/2/2001

Arts, gastronomy.	Ideal.  Solutions for food.  (1) Eat whole foods.  (2) Eat organic foods.  (3) Eat fair trade foods.  (4) Eat vegetarian.  (5) Eat local produce.	12/14/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	In the morning I enjoy a "trifecta", which is a coffee, a tea, and a cola, one after the other.  Its not just about caffeine.  There are lots of other good things in there too.	11/15/2001

Arts, gastronomy.	Ingredients: type, quality, freshness, amount, how prepared.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	It does not make sense to eat food that tastes good if that food is not healthy to eat, or is unhealthy to the environment, or exploits workers, or exploits animals.	12/2/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Its a fine line between being a gourmet and being a pig.	9/18/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Kids and food.  (1) Why do kids like different food than adults?  Why did you dislike certain foods as a kid and then like the same food as an adult?  Why did you like certain foods as a kid and then dislike the same food as an adult?  (2) Why are kids finicky eaters?	10/17/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Meat is murder, so stop eating meat.	10/19/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Most important idea.  Gastronomy is more entertainment than art.  It pleases but does not enlighten.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Most people want to eat out.  That is, most people want to be pleasantly surprised with food gifts from wait-servants.  It is not just laziness and boredom that makes people want to eat out.  There is a strange social component to eating out that may be a vestige from when we lived in tribes.	11/15/2001

Arts, gastronomy.	One view of food, the cookbook view, focuses on recipes with specific names, precise lists of ingredients and detailed directions for preparation.  Another view of food sees cooking as a grand experiment.  Throw those ingredients together see what happens.  Use more or less of an ingredient.  Change the cooking time and temperature.  Substitute ingredients.  Try new foods.  Creativity, diversity and progress are the bywords.  Stodgy, rigid, conservatives, to their detriment, have a problem with that view of food.	9/18/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Organic foods.  (1) Green markets are cool.  Green markets provide local, fresh, organic foods.  (2) Organic food stores are cool.  (3) Organic foods in supermarkets is cool.	1/19/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Oysters are an aphrodisiac, not by taste or chemistry, but rather by sight.  Just looking at them, all wet slippery and jiggly, can bring sex to mind.	3/30/1998

Arts, gastronomy.	People in over-developed countries are obese.  People in under-developed countries are starving.  Where is the balance?	10/17/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	People who eat meat are starting to remind me of Hannibal the Cannibal.  Natural, organic, plant-derived food is the way to go.	11/23/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Principles.  Dining should be a total experience.  Room, people, conversation, centerpiece.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Problems with food.  (1) Eating for pleasure can produce overweight people.  (2) Eating out of pain (boredom, loneliness, sadness, anxiety, anger) can produce overweight people.	6/2/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Problems with food.  (1) Eating too much food.  (2) Eating junk food.	6/2/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Problems with food.  (1) Junk food containing too much sugar, salt and fat.  (2) Artificial ingredients: Artificial flavors, artificial colors.  (3) Processing that removes nutrients from foods.  (4) Packaging that uses excessive materials.  (5) Overfishing of the seas.  (6) Chemicals that get into plants and animals and then humans.  Pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, etc.  (7) Violation of animal rights.  (8) Corporate ownership of the land, the food production facilities, and the food distribution channels.  Loss of small farms.  (9) Genetically modified foods.  (10) Shipping food far distances.  (11) Obesity.  (12) Exploitation of farm laborers.	12/14/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Problems.  (1) Some people are obsessed with food.  (2) Some people are addicted to food.  (3) People use thinking about food to avoid thinking about everything else in life.  (4) Some people use thinking about food in the same way some people use thinking about money and power, that is, as an obsession with survival at any cost.	10/17/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Psycho-active foods.  Coffee.  Tea.  Chocolate.  At what point does a food become a drug?	4/21/1999

Arts, gastronomy.	Psychology of food.  (1) Eating and the positive emotions.  Eating to celebrate.  Eating solely for the pleasure of the taste of food.  Eating for enjoyment.  Eating for fun.  (2) Eating and the negative emotions.  Eating to alleviate emotional stress.  Eating to alleviate anxiety.  Eating to alleviate anger.  Eating to alleviate  depression.    (3) All of the above is not optimal.  One should eat for health.  One should eat to keep one's mind and body healthy.  (see also: Health, food).	1/12/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Psychology of food.  Many people over emphasize the emotional connection to food.  If a person eats for celebration when they are happy, or eats to get happy, or eats for pleasure, then they may also end up eating to avoid negative emotions like sadness, anxiety, anger, and generally eating to avoid pain.  Also, when one eats for entertainment it can also lead to problems like over-eating and the unhealthy eating of junk foods.  (2) Many people over emphasize the importance of food.  They place too much importance on food.  If a person places too much importance on food then they may think only about food and may neglect other areas of their life.	1/22/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Psychology of food.  Memory and food.  Food is fifty percent about smell and fifty percent about taste.  Smell is a sense with strong connections to memory and emotion.  Thus, food has strong connections to memory and emotion.  People search out foods that they have not eaten in a long time in order to take a trip down memory lane.  People search out foods that they have not eaten in a long time in order to feel emotions they have not felt in a long time.  Food can trigger memories and emotions from long ago.  Even if the food was not particularly good tasting.  Memory of food and past food habits stand in contrast to eating new foods and adventurous eating.	5/30/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Quality ingredients (fresh).  Proper proportions.  Proper preparation.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Quick, easy, tasty, natural, healthy recipes.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Raw.  The big question is, cooked or raw?	3/13/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Related areas:  Psychology and food.  Sociology and food.  Economics and food.  Politics and food.  Environment and food.  Science and food.  Technology and food.  Health and food.  Art and food.	5/30/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Science: developing new hybrids.  Green revolution: pest and disease resistant, more productive.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Sex, love and food.  PART ONE.  Sex and food.  (1) In prehistoric times, food was traded for sex.  (2) Dinner as foreplay.  Dinner as prelude to sex.  (3) Food as symbolic of sex.  Peaches.  Melons.  Bananas.  Bun in the oven.  (4) Food used as a sex surrogate.  People who eat to release their sexual frustrations.  PART TWO.  Love and food.  (1) People who use cooking as an expression of love.  (2) People who use eating as a surrogate for love.  (3) People who confuse love and food.  (4) Chocolate and love, the neurochemistry of each.	10/17/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Sociology and gastronomy.  People eat at expensive restaurants in a quest for social status.	1/1/2006

Arts, gastronomy.	Some people mistakenly treat the artistic and entertainment aspects of food as if the enjoyment of food is the most important aspect of food.  The art, entertainment and enjoyment of food is not the most important aspect of food.  The ethics of food is the most important aspect of food.  One should address the problems of food.  Genetically modified foods.  Corporate agriculture.  Junk food.  Obesity.  Foods that are unhealthy to humans.  Foods that are unhealthy for the environment.	12/2/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Taste, smell, texture, looks.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Tastes: spicy, sweet, bland, sour, bitter.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Tastes.  Why do some individuals eat one food and not another?  Childhood trauma, childhood habits.  Fear of experimentation, fear of change, dogmatism.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Techniques.  (1) Get ripe ingredients.  Not overripe.  Not under ripe.  (2) Get fresh ingredients.  Not sitting on a shelf.  (3) Get flavorful ingredients.  Ex. organic.  (4) Don't over cook.  Don't under cook.	3/13/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	Technology: tools, techniques (methods), materials (see ingredients).	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Textures: crunchy, chewy, juicy, smooth, creamy, moist.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	The "Grow your own and cook your own." school.	4/21/1999

Arts, gastronomy.	The big question is why is food so important to some people?  PART ONE.  Some people invest a great deal of time, thought and effort in food, and they appear to derive a great deal of joy and pleasure from food.  I place little emphasis on food, preferring portability, instant preparation, and no need for utensils.  Am I food repressed?  Or perhaps they are displacing their psychological needs onto food, using food as an emotional surrogate.  Some people seem to be obsessed about the factors of survival, such as food, clothing and shelter, and money, sex and power.     PART TWO.  Reasons why anyone may pursue anything (using food as an example).  (1) No other thoughts occur to them.  (2) They think food is as important as anything else.  (3) They think only food is fun.  (4) Obsession/addiction: Food is like a drug.	4/8/2001

Arts, gastronomy.	The change over time in how people eat.  (1) A hundred years ago, the meal was a series of dishes or courses.  This gradually diminished from nine courses to seven to five to three.  (2) Next was the concept of a meal as an "all on one plate", a set of pieces on one plate, for example, meat, grain and vegetable all on one plate.  Children are especially concerned that one food not touch another.  Also, specific dishes were served at specific times of day, and thus some foods were typically consumed at breakfast, other foods were typically consumed at lunch, and other foods were considered dinner food.  (3) Then the concept of a meal as an "all in one pot", for example, chili, stew, goulash.  (4) Finally, the concept of a meal as a multitude of ingredients put into a blender.  That is the stage we are at today.  Smoothies containing a mix of fruit, wheat grass, milk, protein powder, bee pollen, etc.  Smoothies can be consumed at any time of day, so there is less of a distinction between breakfast, lunch and dinner foods.  (5) In the future people might run an intravenous drip all day instead of eating.  Or take a pill to gain nutrients.  Or have a patch that releases nutrients.	9/18/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	The current US food industry is dominated by a few large corporations that promote the following: Fast food restaurants.  TV dinners.  Junk food.  Snack foods.  Too much sugar, fat and salt.  Heavily processed.  Artificial ingredients.  None of it is healthy.  All of it is big money.  All of it is heavily advertised in television commercials.	10/17/2005

Arts, gastronomy.	The incredible variety of mid-day cuisines:  The five dollar lunch.  The ten dollar lunch.  The twenty dollar lunch.	6/4/2001

Arts, gastronomy.	The most important issue in gastronomy is famine.  How to prevent famine?  Amartya Sen is a development economist who argues that most famines are human-caused by political dictatorships that prevent food from reaching the masses of people.  The famine in China during the 1960's is an example of famine caused by dictatorship.  However, there are also other causes of famine.  Economic poverty causes famine when people are unable to buy food.  Natural disasters like drought or flood also cause famines.  Lack of transportation infrastructure can delay food distribution which can cause a famine.  (2) Saying that the most important issue in gastronomy is famine is like saying that the most important issue in architecture is homelessness, or like saying that the most important issue in literature is literacy.  It may sound odd, and yet that is what I am saying.	5/14/2007

Arts, gastronomy.	Total effect of a meal = total of each dish = total tastes and total textures, plus environment.	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Two factors.  (1) Healthy food vs. unhealthy food.  (2) Yummy food vs. not yummy food.	4/21/1999

Arts, gastronomy.	Vegetarianism.  See: Science, ecology.>Vegatarianism.	12/15/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	We used to go to supermarkets.  Now we go to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.  Its a paradigm shift in the food industry.  (1) What's the upside?  Healthy, organic food.  International foods.  High quality foods.  Low prices.  (2) What's the downside?  Supermarkets are unionized, so that supermarket workers get a living wage.  However, Trader Joe's and Wholefoods are not unionized, so employees at Trader Joe's and Wholefoods do not get a living wage.  A living wage is a wage that let you pay your rent.  Its tough to pay the rent when you work at Trader Joe's or Wholefoods.	10/26/2006

Arts, gastronomy.	What eat, how eat, and why eat it?	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	Who says some foods are breakfast foods and some foods are dinner foods?  These are meaningless, arbitrary, social conventions.	2/28/2004

Arts, gastronomy.	Why is gastronomy important?  How important is it, and why?	12/30/1992

Arts, gastronomy.	World cuisines are cool.  Food shops that specialize in multi-ethnic foods are cool.  Ethnic foods in supermarkets is cool.  Ingredients for cuisines like Carribean, Mexican, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, African, Indian, etc.  The global raw materials of gastronomy are available everywhere.  The ingredients from around the world are available around the world.  However, the transport via air, ship and truck can have a negative environmental impact.	1/19/2004

Arts, general, artist.	.This section is about the general nature of artists.  Topics include: ( ) Psychology of artist.  Neurosis and art.  ( ) Sexuality and artist.  Bisexuality and art.  ( ) Artist and society.  Fame and art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, artist.	(1) Art is not for neurotics only.  Many people who produce art are not neurotic.  Many people who consume art are not crazy.  (2) Art is not for bisexuals only.  Many people who produce art are not bisexuals.  Many people who consume are are not bisexuals.  (3) Actually, it is perhaps more accurate to say that everyone is a neurotic bisexual, and thus art is for everyone.	8/23/2005

Arts, general, artist.	(1) Artist as a neurotic trying to (A) Express himself, or (B) Relieve neurotic tensions, or (C) Heal himself.  (2) Artist as a person who thinks he has something to say.  (3) Artist as game playing, having fun, seeking and giving aesthetic pleasure.  Artist as hedonist.	08/01/1997

Arts, general, artist.	(1) It takes ego:  To believe in yourself.  To assert the will.  To create a world.  (2) It takes no ego:  (A) To renounce everything.  To reject everything.  To give up the prizes of the system.  (B) To observe only.  To become your subject.  To disappear.  (3) This is the paradox of the artist: Plenty of ego and no ego at all.  All at the same time.	7/18/2000

Arts, general, artist.	(1) One measure of success of an artist.  How many people do you reach?  How much do you affect each person, emotionally and intellectually?  (2) Another measure of artistic success.  How true are you to your vision?  How much do you work at it?	10/15/2004

Arts, general, artist.	(1) People who burned out.  (2) People who sold out.	07/29/1988

Arts, general, artist.	Art and sex.  Many artists make art to create a mythical, imaginary woman with whom they have the imaginary love, sex, friendship relationship they cannot find in real life.  As geniuses they cannot find a real woman on their level who reaches the mental ideal they have created.  So they create the woman and the relationship in art.  They may dedicate the artwork to this woman.  They may use this mythical woman as their "muse" for inspiration.	02/07/1989

Arts, general, artist.	Artist (producer).  Views of artist.  (1) Artists view of self, and society's view of artist.  (2) Artist as rebel, idealist, romantic, hero, bohemian, decadent, liberal, anarchist, psychologically imbalanced, avante garde.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Artist as neurotic and bisexual?  Everyone is neurotic and bisexual.	5/25/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Artist as sensitive.  This can mean at least two things.  (1) The artist has keen senses.  The artist senses many perceptions.  The artist senses strong perceptions.  (2) The artist is emotionally sensitive.  The artist feels many emotions.  The artist feels strong emotions.	11/23/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Artist as slightly mad and therefore financially poor due to social maladjustment leading to poor work record.  Artist as financially poor due to lack of patrons and therefore driven mad by grinding poverty.	10/23/1993

Arts, general, artist.	Artist as visionary, ahead of the curve.	5/14/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Artist defined as a person who is "id controlled" rather than "ego controlled" or "superego controlled".  The realm of the id is the unconscious.  The artist often  works from the unconscious.  Consequently, the artist often does not know what he wants.  The artist does not know why he feel the way he feels.  The artist does not know why he does the things he does.	10/5/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Artist's attitudes toward artwork, audience, and artist himself.  (1) What should be the attitude of the artist toward the work of art?  Some artists care very little about their artwork.  Some artists care almost too  much about their artwork.  (2) What should be the attitude of the artist toward the audience?  Some artists care not at all about their audience.  Some artists care almost too much about their audience.  (3) What should be the attitude of the artist toward him or herself?  Some artists do not take care of themselves, and thus perish.  Some artists have over-inflated egos, and think too much of themselves.	7/22/2006

Arts, general, artist.	Artists as escapist, avoidant, repressed neurotics.  Art consumers as leisured neurotics.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Artists may say they want to touch you emotionally, but perhaps their artistic drive comes from an unconscious desire to touch you physically.	02/22/1997

Arts, general, artist.	As an artist, a certain part of my job is being different, being an individual, being alone.  I bring a new point of view to the group.  If you are an oddball, misfit or loner you might be an artist.  No one will tell you.  You must recognize it.  You must declare it.  Then go exploring.	4/4/2005

Arts, general, artist.	Besides his/her view of the world, and his/her intentions when producing the art, what are the artists conscious or unconscious ideas about art when he creates his art work?  What is his/her philosophy of art?	01/01/1993

Arts, general, artist.	Bisexual.  Art is a matter of emotion and reason.  Sensitivity (to environment) and aggression (creativity).  Masculine and feminine.  This is why your best artists are bi-sexual.  Manly women and feminine men.	12/06/1988

Arts, general, artist.	Bisexuals make good artists.  Aggressive male drive and female sensitivity.  Inner sexual conflict and sexually frustrated.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Change and artist.  The artist always looks for something new.  New ideas.  New experiences.  Artists are not "Thirty years at the same job" types of people.	4/4/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Change and artist.  The artist wants change to gain new experiences.  Change in relationships.  Change in place where live.  Change in job.  Stasis is for the unthinking.  Stasis is for those who dislike progress.  The artist wants to grow and develop.	4/8/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Creation depends on psychology of artist and materials available.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Creation: exploration, adventure, freedom, rock n roll.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Creativity depends on (1) Pre-philosophy/science ways of experiencing world, which are stronger in youth.  (2) Unconscious tensions.  Sexual drive sublimated, which is stronger in youth.  (3) Intelligence.  (4) Hormones: drive, testosterone.  (5) It is an aggressive act.  (6) It is a sexual act.  (7) Energy.  (8) Talent.  (9) Turmoil, conflict (psychological, social, etc.) makes best art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Creativity.  Burnout of the artist due to age.  Hormone decrease, and loss of idealism.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Development of artist's (1) Mental abilities.  (2) Theoretical knowledge.  (3) Technical abilities.  (4) Personality and character.  (5) Style.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Everyone is an artist.	12/12/1988

Arts, general, artist.	Fame and artists.  Success ruins artists.  Success changes the environment that produced them as artists.  (1) Success leads to acceptance of the artist by society.  The artist is drawn in from the outside.  The artist loses his psychological frame of reference as an outsider.  (2) Success also causes a reduction of survival tensions in the artist.  Survival tensions are part of what spurs the artist to create.  The artist, once mired in poverty, now works from a state of riches.  Riches can reduce the artist's creative drive.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Fame.  Monetary success and popular fame ruins artists.  In search of it they bow down to the society they rejected.	01/07/1989

Arts, general, artist.	Four stages the artist goes through.  (1) I do not fit in, I am a misfit.  (2) I do not have a voice, so I cannot be an artist.  (3) Not fitting in makes me unique, which is good.  (4) I am finding my voice, and I can be an artist.	10/30/1997

Arts, general, artist.	If you are going to be an artist, then you are probably going to be poor.  If you are going to buck the system, or criticize the system, or try to improve the system, then you are probably going to be poor.  Learn how to deal with being poor.  Learn how to deal with sometimes feeling like a failure, even if you are really not.  Learn how to deal with social criticism, scorn, mocking, etc.  Learn how to deal with living on little money.	6/8/2006

Arts, general, artist.	Liberal artists vs. conservative artists.  Ex.s Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas vs. Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, T.S. Elliot.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Psychology of artist.  The artist is a rebel.  The artist wants change.	2/18/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Stages of the emotional plunge.  (1) I don't feel and don't want to feel.  (2) I don't feel but want to feel.  (3) I feel.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	The artist creates out of the two great instinctual drives for survival and sex.  His two muses are death and women.  He seeks catharsis for himself, and thus gives it to others.	03/13/1989

Arts, general, artist.	The artist is working from turmoil, trying to achieve catharsis.	12/12/1988

Arts, general, artist.	The artist must quickly cover the old truths and propose new truths, in the form of new questions and new answers.	03/10/1989

Arts, general, artist.	The artist must understand his own time and place, yet must also transcend his own time and place.  This is why many artists are into traveling and studying history.	12/10/1988

Arts, general, artist.	The artist uses coffee, cigarettes, to stimulate and free up their unconscious.  When the unconscious speaks, all defenses are down.  This is why artists are fragile.  They try to speak directly from the unconscious.	12/14/1988

Arts, general, artist.	The artist, perhaps more so than the average person, confronts each new day as "a new person in a new world".  This phenomena has the following effects: (1) It increases the artist's creativity as he or she struggles to come up with new ideas to deal with his or her new situation.  (2) It causes a greater degree of confusion and pain in the artist than in the average person.  (3) It explains the psychological fragility and instability of the artist.  (4) It explains why the artist often appears as a chameleon, ever changing and re-inventing themselves.  (5) It explains why the artist often acts as a child, full of wonder and curiosity.	4/6/1999

Arts, general, artist.	The great artist gets there first and does the best job.  Best technique, best cathartic payoff, and best insights (truthful, complex, subtle).	03/14/1989

Arts, general, artist.	The great artist has great passion and great intellect.	01/07/1989

Arts, general, artist.	The life and joy of the artist is the assertion of the true self.	09/06/1988

Arts, general, artist.	The thing about artists is, willfully or unwillfully, regardless of talent, they lay bare their souls and put out a lot for free.  Open, honest, naive, sensitive.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artist.	Three definitions or traits of artist.  (1) Emotion, rather than reason.  (2) Ideas, rather than unthinking (anti-intellectualism) or materialism (find meaning in physical things).  (3) Perfection, rather than mediocrity of the bourgeoisie.	06/10/1997

Arts, general, artist.	Traits of the artist?  (1) Memory wipes out overnight.  Everyday is a new day, literally.  Must explain the world anew each day.  (2) Unsatisfied, disturbed.  Easily bored.  In a love/hate relationship with the world.  Not calm, peaceful, happy, or content.  (3) Expressive.  Tell the world!.	10/20/1997

Arts, general, artist.	Two types of artist.  (1) Artist as a rebellious teenager.  Goes his or her own way.  Won't fit in.  Won't accept world as given.  Creator of a new world.  (2) Artist as conduit or receiver.  Sees a world others don't see.  Writes or draws what they see.  Not creating, just transcribing.  Calls it like they see it.	8/26/2000

Arts, general, artist.	Two types of artist.  (1) Just makes it.  Works from the gut.  (2) Figures out all their ideas (philosophy), and then makes the work to try to communicate what they have already thought or said.  They talk about it, and have ideas on what it is, and why it is good.	04/24/1997

Arts, general, artist.	Views of the artist.  (1) Artist as valuable member of society.  Society accepts and rewards artist.  Establishment artists.  Versus.  (2) Artist as gadfly.  Artist as challenge to society.  Artist as critic of society.  Anti-establishment artists.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, artist.	Views of the artist.  (1) Artist's worth is not based on the money they make.  Artist is a creator of non-monetary value.  (2) Artist has courage to think, feel and speak.  (3) Artist is ahead of the curve.  Artist as prescient.  (4) Artist is fine tuned.  Artist is sensitive.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, artist.	When we say that the artist "creates", we can use that term analogously to mean: (1) The artist wants to have sex.  Creating art is either a stand-in for sex, or a functional equivalent to having sex.  (2) The artist wants to have kids.  The artwork is the (brain) child.  (3) The artist wants to be god.  The artist as meglo-maniac who sees himself as a god who creates, controls and destroys worlds, characters, events, etc.	3/23/1999

Arts, general, artist.	Who is an artist?  One view is that everyone is an artist.  Another view says that only professional artists, the people who support themselves by making art, only they are artists.  Another view says that amateurs are artists.  Another view says that if you call yourself an artist then you are an artist.  Another view says that if other people call you an artist then you are an artist.  That is a lot of different views of who is an artist.  I tend to think that everyone is an artist.  Everyone thinks or artistically, that is for sure, using a variety of artistic methods including mental images, sounds, music, word games, metaphors, emotions, sensations.  Some people express themselves artistically more than other people.	6/15/2007

Arts, general, artwork.	.This section is about the general nature of artwork.  Topics include: ( ) Copies, authorized.  ( ) Forgeries, unauthorized.  ( ) When is it art?  Conceptual art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, artwork.	(1) The idea as art: Conceptual art.  (2) The act as art: Performance art.  (3) The object as art: Fetishization and commodification of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artwork.	A work of art does not have to proclaim its subject as either beautiful or ugly.  Nor does a work of art have to proclaim its subject as either good or evil.  It can just say, for example, "Notice the flower.  Consider the flower.  I am describing the flower.  I am documenting the flower."  A step beyond this is to make a work of art that says, "This is what x means to me.", which goes beyond description to explanation or meaning.  Aesthetics (beautiful and ugly) and ethics (good and evil) does not even have to enter the picture.	11/10/2001

Arts, general, artwork.	Art as object vs. art as idea.  Is the art the object or is the art the idea of the object?  One test here is the status of authorized art replicas and unauthorized art forgeries.  Your answer will determine how you feel about art-objects vs. art-ideas.	5/29/2000

Arts, general, artwork.	Can art be anything?  Can anything be art?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artwork.	If art can be anything, then anything can be a work of art.  If anything can be art, then not-art can be art, and art can be not-art.  Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Heidegger!  You could have a painting in an art museum that says "This is not art".	01/01/1993

Arts, general, artwork.	Metaphysical status of artwork.  (1) Is art just an idea in your head (conceptual art)?  (2) Is art the actual object?  (A) Are reproductions or duplicates fake?  (B) Are forgeries fake?  (3) Can a ready-made be art?  Is art art just because you say it is?  Can anything be art?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artwork.	The original vs. the forgery.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, artwork.	What is art?  One view holds that anything can be art if one says it is art.	01/01/1993

Arts, general, artwork.	Work of art.  Issues surrounding the concept of a work of art.  (1) What is the work of art?  (2) Conceptual art.  Idea as art.  (3) Art objects.  Artifacts.  (4) Found objects as art.  (5) Originals.  Signed art.  (6) Reproductions.  Prints.  Authorized copies.  Signed copies.  (7) Forgery.  Unauthorized copies.  Forged signatures.  (8) Authenticity of artworks.  (9) Attribution of unsigned works.  (10) Is it art?  When is something a work of art?  (11) What are the boundaries of a work of art?  Where does the "work" begin and end?  (12) Audience involvement in the work of art.  When the audience becomes part of the work of art then there is no longer any distinction between audience and artwork.  (13) Art work as doing or process.  Vs.  Art work as product or object.  (14) Happenings as works of art.	7/23/2004

Arts, general, audience.	.This section is about the general nature of arts audiences.  Topics include: ( ) Society and art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, audience.	(1) Cathartic requirements of individual art producer or consumer.  (2) Knowledge requirements of individual.  What you know.  What you don't know.  What you need to know.  (3) Problems individual faced with in his/her life.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, audience.	A bidding war at the auction house.  "I want it.", says one art collector.  "No, I want it.", says the other art collector.  "I can pay one million dollars.", says one art collector.  "I can pay two million dollars.", says the the other art collector.  In this case, the artwork has become a plaything of the rich.  The artwork has become a way for the rich to exercise their power.	7/22/2006

Arts, general, audience.	A persons interpretation of artwork depends on their past history, present mood, environment and heredity, etc.  Two people see the same thing two different ways.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, audience.	Art by and for different ages, sexes, classes etc.  Different people have different psychological needs.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, audience.	Audience clapping at the wrong time.  Every performer eventually experiences a situation where the audience claps when it should not, and does not clap when it should.  For example, sometimes the audience claps when the performance is below average and does not clap when the performance is above average.  The performer should not rely completely on audience response.  (2) Other examples of the "audience clapping at the wrong time" phenomena.  Polite applause can be insincere.  Sometimes any reaction, even booing, is good.	2/10/2003

Arts, general, audience.	Audience is synonymous with what other terms?  Consumers.  Collectors.  Fans.	7/22/2006

Arts, general, audience.	Audience.  (1) Each audience has its wants and needs.  (2) Each audience has its limits of what it can understand with explanation.  Each audience has its limits of what it can understand without explanation.  (3) Each audience has its limits of what it will accept.  Limits of what it will accept as true as opposed to not believing.  Limits of what it will accept as good as opposed to considering taboo.	4/25/2002

Arts, general, audience.	Audience.  (1) Potential audience for a work.  Everyone?  Not really.  (2) Actual audience for a work.  Those who can afford to buy it?  Those who have time to read it?  Those who can understand it?	3/29/2002

Arts, general, audience.	Audience's attitude toward artwork, artist, and audience itself.  (1) What should be the attitude of the audience toward the work of art?  Some people give too much respect to the work of art, and begin to fetishize the object.  Other people give too little respect to works of art, and throw out masterpieces.  (2) What should be the attitude of the audience toward the artist?  Some people glorify the artist, some people worship the artist.  Some people heap their ideals upon the artist, sometimes unfairly.  The artist sometimes becomes the target of the audiences hopes and dreams, and other times fear and anger.  Other people treat artists like bums or parasites, and thus give too little credit to the artist.  (3) What should be the attitude of the audience toward itself?  Some people take themselves too seriously.  Other people don't take themselves seriously enough.	7/22/2006

Arts, general, audience.	Creating audience-specific art.  Putting the message in words the audience can understand.	6/7/2004

Arts, general, audience.	How much time and energy an audience devotes to art.  What kind of art they like and dislike and why.	6/3/2004

Arts, general, audience.	Many artists say the same basic thing different ways.  Do two artists ever say the exact same thing twice?  Will one consumer "get" (understand) an idea or emotion one way and not another?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, audience.	Three bad situations.  (1) When art becomes merely an investment for the collector, then you should not call it "art" anymore, you should call it "finance".  (2) When art becomes merely an object of ownership for the collector, then you should not call it "art" anymore, you should call it "property".  (3) When art becomes merely a status symbol for the collector, then you should not all it "art" anymore, you should call it "a trophy" (or "atrophy").	7/22/2006

Arts, general, audience.	Totally preaching vs. totally pleasing (no challenge).  Totally obscure vs. totally popular.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	.This section considers principles and methods of composition in the arts.	12/30/2003

Arts, general, composition.	.This section is about composition in the arts.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, composition.	(1) Synthesis: Welding parts together.  Combining ideas.  (2) Analysis: Breaking things down into component parts.  Disassemble.  Unpack.	10/13/2004

Arts, general, composition.	A much too calculated method of artistic composition.  Pick an audience.  Tailor your message to your audience.  Speak your audience's language.  Talk about things your audience is familiar with.  Play to your audience.  Kiss up to your audience.  That's not art.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, composition.	Address important subjects, not the frivolous.  Pursue truth, not lies.	10/13/2004

Arts, general, composition.	Composition methods.  (1) Riffing.  Doodling.  Brainstorming.  vs.  (2) Planning the composition.	6/7/2004

Arts, general, composition.	Compositional elements.  (1) Emotions, tone, mood: hot or cool.  (2) Plot.  (3) Environment, background, setting.  (4) Characters, actors (human and non-human).  (5) Events.  (6) Structure, form, arrangement, development.  (7) Style.  (8) Consonance, dissonance.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Compositional elements.  (1) Subject, and views on it (theme, point of view of artist).  (2) Subject, issue, view, argument, evidence.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Compositional principles.  (1) Unity, integration, tied up.  (2) Symmetry, harmony, beauty.  (3) Variation.  (4) Flow, progression.  (5) Clarity of message (see communication in general).  (6) Concise, economical.  (7) Completeness of ideas.  (8) Truth: metaphysical, ethical.  (9) Accuracy.  (10) Power.  (11) Consistently high quality.  (12) Parts working well, working well together.  (13) One bad element, or one bad integration = bad art.  (14) Most important ideas on most important subjects.  (15) Enjoyable?  To who?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Greater technical ability can allow for greater expressiveness.	03/01/1988

Arts, general, composition.	Importance of passion in creation of art.  Feeling strongly about what you are saying in the work of art.	10/13/2004

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  (1) Synthetic method: by elements, by sections.  (2) Analytic method.  (3) Combo approach.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Compositional  problems: can't see, can't feel, can't say.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Compositional technology: materials, tools, techniques.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Fusion heat theory: final work takes total effort.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Fusion heat theory.  All your energies must go into the final work of art.  Heat to fuse.  Fusion Heat.  Total conviction.  Total power(s).	11/13/1988

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Germ theory of composition: fester, burst, infect.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Great attitudes produce great art.  Shit attitudes produce shit art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Inspiration vs. workman's attitude.  Free associating vs. meticulous rational searching.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Positioning the head.  Get garbage, shit, junk out.  Get noble quality in.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Riffing method.  Jazz improvisation.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Show the problems: realistic, pessimistic.  Show the solutions: idealistic, optimistic.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Summon all the tension and pain you see and feel.  Bring it to a fever pitch.  Let it burst forth.	07/28/1993

Arts, general, composition.	Methods.  Toadstools in fog theory of creation.  Sometimes you can't see the final goal, you can only see the next toadstool (just hope you don't have to choose between two toadstools).  Can't see ahead till you take next step.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	Non-serial composition methods.  Any element of the composition, any part of the composition, can occur to the author at any time.  The parts of the composition can be thought of by the author in any order.  You don't have to create the work in a linear, serial order from beginning to end.	6/7/2004

Arts, general, composition.	Tapping into unconscious.  Revealing unconscious thoughts and unconscious emotions.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, composition.	What are some compositional methods that would apply to the arts in general?  What compositional methods apply more to one art than another?  (1) Free association.  Versus.  Logical and systematic exploration of alternative choices.  (2) Spontaneous, improvisational.  Versus.  Preplanned.  (3) Mechanical assemblage of modules.  Versus.  Organic growth.  (4) Expand.  Versus.  Concentrate.  (5) Inductive, bottom up.  Versus.  Deductive, top down.  (6) Toward order.  Versus.  Toward chaos.  (7) Toward thought.  Versus.  Toward emotion.  (8) Serial composition.  Versus.  Parallel composition.	5/21/2006

Arts, general, composition.	What are the most important subjects?  What are the most important views and attitudes on them?  What are the best ways to communicate them?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	What makes art great?  How to make great art?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, composition.	When inspiration strikes, you have to be ready for it.  You can grab it, harness it, and put it to work.  It will always escape you.  It may or may not come back.	03/01/1988

Arts, general, criticism.	.This section is about criticism in the arts.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Arts, general, criticism.	.This section is about principles and methods of criticism in the arts.	12/30/2003

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Analysis: describe and explain.  (A) What is he saying, and how do you know?  (B) What is he trying to say?  (C) What does he think he's saying, and how do you know?  (D) What the piece says objectively?  (E) What the artist meant or was trying to say.  (2) Judgment: comparison using ethical values and standards.  (A) How great is the message, and how well is he saying it?  (B) How good is it?  Good art and bad art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Classic: critical acclaim throughout time and place.  (2) Dated: time or place bound.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Degree of technical skill.  (2) How original, in all elements.  (3) How powerful the idea.  (4) How true the emotion connected to the idea.  (5) Usefulness of the idea.  (6) Importance of the idea.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Everyone is a critic.  (2) Criticism is a type of thinking not limited to the subject of art.  We all do art criticism, and we all do philosophy criticism, and we all do science criticism.  We all do criticism of everything.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Interpretation.  What does the work of art mean or say?  (2) Evaluation.  How good or bad is the content or message?  Form of expression of message.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Meaning of non-text objects and events.  Interpretation.  Hermeneutics.  (2) What is it saying?  What does it mean?  What does it remind one of, or call to mind (associative power)?  What is its effect on my psychological condition?	12/29/1997

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Personal.  (A) Made you think of a new subject or view on a subject.  (B) Did same even if that's not what the artwork was about.  (C) Like it due to sentimental or personal memory reasons.  (D) Truly a great work of art.  (E) Applies to problems you have.  (F) Appeals to your personality type.  (2) Mass.  (3) Elite.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Political and legal criticism of art.  What are the political and legal views expressed in the work of art?  (2) Economic and business criticism of art.  What are the economic and business views expressed in the work or art?	1/4/2006

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) Should one have critical acclaim or popular acclaim?  (2) Should we acclaim for raw natural talent or effort and hard work?  (3) Should we acclaim intention or outcome, result?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	(1) What the work of art is better and worse than.  (2) What the work of art is like and unlike.  (3) Strengths and weaknesses.  (4) How could the artwork be improved?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	All audience responses are critical responses.  Possible audience responses to a work of art include the following:  (1) No response.  No reaction.  (2) Says, "That was nice."  (3) Loved it.  Or hated it.  No explanation why.  (4) Compares the work to other works.  (5) Compares the work to their own life.  (6) Asks, "What was the author thinking?"  (7) Asks, "What is the purpose of it?"  (8) Says, "I don't understand it."  (9) Either says, "I understand but I don't agree.", or , "I understand and I agree".  (10) Either says, "I don't think its important.", or, "I think it is important."  (11) Either says, "I don't like it.", or, "I do like it."	6/9/2004

Arts, general, criticism.	Artists rated best to worst by (1) Subjects they confront.  (2) Views they take of subject.  (3) Skills they posses.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Criticism of a work, artist, school, period, area.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Criticism of works of art.  (1) What is art criticism?  (2) Why do art criticism?  (3) Why study art?  Everyone is a critic, with an emotional response and intellectual response.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Cutting edge artists vs. repeaters: repeating old ideas or emotions or styles of expressing them.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Degree of originality.  From others.  From self (your old ideas).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Do we judge a work of art by the artist's intentions or by the results and effects?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Evaluation.  Think it's good, and why.  Think it's bad, and why.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Genius transcends experience and theoretical knowledge.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Genius.  (1) Technical skill.  (2) Creative ability.  (3) Critical ability (tell good from bad).  (4) Quantity.  (5) Speed.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	In what way is literary criticism a subset of arts criticism in general?  In what way is arts criticism a subset of critical thinking in general?	7/25/2006

Arts, general, criticism.	Interpretation.  People see what they want to see in a work of art.  To confirm their beliefs and ideals.  Or to fill their needs, wants, or fears.  Art as Rorshach test.	7/2/1998

Arts, general, criticism.	Is an artwork good?  Depends on individual needs and values, and social needs and values.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Methods of art criticism.  (1) Psychological criticism: psychobio, Freudian, Jungian.  (2) Historical criticism: artist and work as products of historical situation.  (3) Sociological criticism. (4) Marxist criticism: art as by product of economic conditions.  (5) Formal criticism: criticism of formal elements in an artwork.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Negative reactions to art.  (1) Don't understand it.  Don't get it.  No clue.  (2) Don't like it.  (A) Don't agree with the statement.  (B) Don't think the subject is important.  (C) No visceral reaction.  "Doesn't do anything for me".	8/4/2000

Arts, general, criticism.	Originality, distinctiveness, truth, power.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Quality of elements, parts, sections, and total.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Shit writers write about the perfect.  Perfect writers write about the shit.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Taste: as reflection of psychology or sociology.  Like it, and why.  Don't like it, and why.  Tastes by compositional elements, and by medium.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	Types of art criticism.  (1) Psychological criticism.  The interplay between the conscious mind and Freudian unconscious mind of the characters.  (2) Sociological criticism.  Interplay between author and society.  Interplay of characters amongst themselves.  Interplay of characters amidst the society in which the characters inhabit.  Effect of author (or characters) and society on each other, in conflict and in harmony, including political and economics factors.  (3) Biological criticism.  The development of evolutionary psychology and evolutionary sociology in the last 30 years can be applied to the realm of artistic criticism.  The art humans produce is influenced, in part, by the evolutionary development of humans.  (4) So, a complete theory of artistic criticism will include the psychological, sociological and biological viewpoints.  (5) One should also add environmental, technological, and historical criticism.  (6) Environmental criticism will explore the environment of the work of art and the affect of environment on characters.  It will also address the effect of environment on author and reader.  By environment I mean natural environment or ecological environment.  One can thus speak of eco-criticism in the arts.   (7) Technological criticism will explore the technological setting of the work and the effect of technology on character, author and reader.  (8) Historical criticism will explore the historical setting of the work of art, and the effect of history of characters.  It will also explore the history of author and reader.	4/15/2005

Arts, general, criticism.	What you say (idea), how you say it (communication).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, criticism.	When discussing the meaning of a book, movie or painting, there are several mistakes one can make.  (1) The mistake of saying that the work does not mean anything (i.e., nihilism).  (2) The mistake of saying that the work means whatever you want it to mean (i.e., extreme relativism).  (3) The mistake of saying that words cannot capture the essence of anything, and thus words are meaningless, and thus criticism is meaningless (i.e., language nihilism).	4/15/2005

Arts, general, criticism.	When I see x work of art, it reminds me of what other ideas and emotions vs. what the piece itself actually seems to be about what.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	.This section is about related subjects in the arts.  Topics include: ( ) Business, economics and art.  ( ) Philosophy and art.  ( ) Politics, law and art.  ( ) Psychology and art.  ( ) Sociology and art.  ( ) Technology, science and art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, related subjects.	Business and art.  The art business.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Business and art.  The term "music business" is an oxymoron.  Music is an art.  Business is about money.  There is music, and there is business, but there is no music business.  "Music business" is a sham.	4/27/2006

Arts, general, related subjects.	Economics and art.  (1) How many artists an economy supports at any time, and what types.  (2) The art market.  Supply, demand and prices of works.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Economics and art.  Commercial success is not the sole criteria of artistic success.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, related subjects.	Economics and art.  Resources an individual or society spends on art (ex. time, energy, money).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Economics and art.  Some would argue that art is unavoidably related to economics, because when we make and consume art we use up time and energy.  Yet the situation of art created in "free time" (i.e., leisure time) and communicated to an audience "for free" (i.e., for no fee) is a situation with which modern economics has a difficult time.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Aesthetically pleasant or offensive.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Aesthetics (see philosophy).  Everything has an aesthetic dimension.  Everything manmade has a artistic dimension.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Aesthetics, and thus art, reflects the mind and philosophy of the individual maker and partaker.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Epistemology and art.  Art is a way of thinking.  Art is a way of knowing.  Art is an epistemological venture.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Ethical choices on art.  How much resources (time, money, effort, materials) to spend on art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Ethics and art.  Art can make ethical as well at metaphysical, epistemological, and aesthetic statements.  Does all art necessarily make an ethical statement?  Does all art production and consumption reflect or imply an ethical value system?	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Ethics and art.  Best art for you (what you need most to learn) vs. art you like best (what you like to produce or consume).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Ethics and art.  How important is art for you?  Objectively and subjectively.  How interested you are in producing and consuming art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Ethics and art.  Responsibility of artist to self, and to society.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Philosophy and art.  Some believe that art is just pure beauty, and not communication, or ethics, etc.  They believe in beauty for beauty's sake (like fashion models do) (just like sex for sex's sake, or art for arts sake).  But there is much more to life than beauty, or sex, or art, and more important things as well.  Problems and ethics take precedence over beauty.	11/30/1996

Arts, general, related subjects.	Politics and art.  (1) Art censored by law vs. art supported by government.  (2) Art to change government.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Politics and art.  NEA.  The National Endowment on Arts and government funding of the arts.  Arguments for and against it.     (1) Some say we should not fund art that is obscene or pornographic.  I say this objection is bogus.  Freedom of expression must rule.  Who decides what is obscene or pornographic?  Even flag burning should be allowed.  However, images or descriptions of child molestation and torture are illegal though.  Where to draw the line?     (2)(A) Some say we should not have to support any artists if we do not want to.  Let them make a living like everyone else.  This is a good argument.  (B) But then should we even fund science?  Should we have an industrial policy?  Can free market funded science accomplish more with less money?  Can free market funded science handle the coordination and big bucks that huge projects require?  I say free market science can not do it all alone.  (C) In the same way, should we give incentives to spur small business?  Should we engage in corporate welfare?  If we support and promote business then we should support and promote the arts.     (3) Some say art is dead.  It has all been figured out.  People will continue to make art, but not in new ways.  They may say or communicate different ideas using new technology, but art has been figured out.  Novelists, poets, musicians, movies, i.e. all art has been figured out.  Philosophy too.  They are dead and do not deserve out money.  But many say that economics, sociology, and the hard sciences like physics are dead too.  I say nothing is dead.	12/30/1996

Arts, general, related subjects.	Politics and art.  Should the government support the arts?  If the government supports science and business, which it does, then it should support the arts.	04/24/1997

Arts, general, related subjects.	Politics and art.  Two political uses of art.  (1) Art used by power abusers (bullies) to unjustly control other people.  (2) Art used by the disempowered to regain their power.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, related subjects.	Politics and art.  When does art end and propaganda begin?  Is all art political?  Is all art propaganda?	01/01/1993

Arts, general, related subjects.	Psychology and art.  Art can change your emotions, ideas and attitudes.  Art can bring new emotions, ideas and attitudes.  (See also: Psychology, emotional development.  Teen years?  Rock?).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Psychology and art.  Psychology of (1) Artists in general, specific artist, specific work of art.  (2) Audiences in general, specific audience, specific works for specific audiences.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Psychology and art.  Rational knowledge is gained through philosophy and science.  Emotional knowledge is gained through art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Psychology and art.  Unconscious and conscious causes and effects of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Religion and art.  Replacement of god and religion by artist and art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Sociology and art.  A society's views on art in general.  A society's views on specific arts, artists, works of art.  A societies consumption of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Sociology and art.  How interested an individual or society is in art and why.  How important art is to and individual or society.  How much resources an individual or society spends on art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Sociology and art.  Place of art in a culture.  Value put on art production and consumption.  Style of art in a culture.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Sociology and art.  Status of artist in a society.  Accepted and praised vs. scorned and rejected.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, related subjects.	Technology and art.  (1) All direct and associated tools of expression.  (2) New technologies (tools and techniques) yield new art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, related subjects.	Technology and art.  The difference between a great invention and a great work of art is not as great as you think.	04/01/1988

Arts, general, what.	.This section is about what is art.  Topics include: ( ) Thoughts contra art.  ( ) Thoughts pro art.  ( ) Psychology and art.  Emotion and art.  Drive and art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general, what.	(1) Art as story (narrative) of human experiences.  (2) Art as problem and solution.	12/01/1994

Arts, general, what.	(1) Art is how many ways can you say the same thing.  (2) Art is life condensed, concentrated, distilled.  (3) Art is shorthand or epigram for philosophy.  (4) Art organizes not logically but by perspective?  (5) Art is candy coated truth for kids.  Sugary, sweetened cereal.  (6) Art as beauty.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	All art is propaganda for ideas.  The function of the artist is to take an idea and concretize it.	11/12/1988

Arts, general, what.	Art addresses a specific time and place, and thus a specific state of mind.	4/15/2005

Arts, general, what.	Art as (1) Way of thinking.  (2) Way of communicating.  (3) Subject matter: beauty, emotion.	01/01/1993

Arts, general, what.	Art as distilled or condensed life.	08/14/1994

Arts, general, what.	Art as mental idea vs. physical object.	02/01/1994

Arts, general, what.	Art as statement. (semiotics, communication).  At what point does communication become art and visa versa?  All art is propaganda.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Art distilled like liquor.  Art condensed like soup.  Art concentrated like orange juice.	4/20/2005

Arts, general, what.	Art is a form of communication.  Art communicates through thought and emotion.  (1) Thought or ideas.  Subject, view, arguments, evidence.  Philosophical statements (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) implicitly or indirectly stated vs. explicit or directly stated.  (2) Emotion, feeling.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Art is a rhetorical device.  An artwork is comprised of an intellectual argument combined with an emotional appeal.	12/28/2006

Arts, general, what.	Art is an information management system.	5/24/2006

Arts, general, what.	Art is for dealing with the emotions through reason, for catharsis and enjoyment, for self and others.	03/13/1989

Arts, general, what.	Art is for the dim, weak, neurotic.  The art neurotic uses art to avoid and escape problems.  Uses art to replace sex and like/love.  Art is made by neurotics and used by neurotics.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Art is one of the ways of experiencing the world (magic/myth/religion, art, philosophy, science).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Attitude.  Art is attitude.  Attitude is reason plus emotion.  Academia, philosophy, and science are pure reason.  Music is pure emotion.	01/01/1993

Arts, general, what.	Dreams and art.  People dream every night, and everyday people think and talk about their dreams from the previous night.  Art is similar to dreams in two ways.  Firstly, art is a hazy, fuzzy world of symbolism, metaphor, non-sequitor and illogic, much like the dream world.  Secondly, many works of art are attempts to describe dreams.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, what.	Drive.  Art and sex are similar.  Interest leads to tension, leads to climax, leads to resolution.	12/30/1996

Arts, general, what.	Drive.  Art deals just as much with urges (drives) as it does with emotion.  Art expresses urges.  Art does not just talk about urges like scientists do.	9/1/2000

Arts, general, what.	Drive.  Art is an outlet for excessive libidinal energies.  That is why people are more artistic when they are young, and it fades with age.  That is also one reason why repressed and unsatiated homoerotic types tend to become artists.	12/27/1988

Arts, general, what.	Emotion.  Art is an emotional reminder.  Art is an emotional workout.  Art is emotional learning, emotional knowledge, emotional development.  Art is emotional catharsis.  Art is emotional health.	08/17/1997

Arts, general, what.	Emotions and art.  The argument: Emotions are just as important to being human as is reason.  Therefore, art, which deals with emotions, is just as important as philosophy and science, which deal with reason.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, what.	Graffiti.  All art, in a way, is a type of graffiti.  A way to say "I was here".  And this is very similar to the ways animals use scent marking.	2/26/2000

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  (1) Art, all forms of art, is played out.  (2) Art is a form of escape, avoidance, repression.  (3) Art is a slow, unorganized, inefficient, way to learn.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  (1) Arts as inaccurate false lies.  (2) Arts as avoidance or escape from reality.	3/20/2001

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  A very negative view.  Anyone who believes in writing or reading novels, or literary NY, or the power of architecture, dance, music (classical or rock), or love, is a fool.  I used to call myself an artist.  Ha!  There is only health, age, growth and decay.  Work and money to stay alive.  To solve problems.	06/30/1996

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  Art is a kiss-ass, political business.  The youngsters first seek the approval of the oldsters, then they seek to oust them.  It is surprising how social the artists are.	3/14/2000

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  Art is a sub-optimal method of communication.  Why go (1) Philosophy encoded into art (art creation), and then (2) Art decoded into philosophy (art audience)?  Decoding may not take place, or it may be decoded wrong.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  Art relies on analogy, metaphor, symbolism, subjectivism and other sub-optimal and neurotic ways of thinking.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts contra art.  Contra art arguments.  (1) All art is an illusion, a distortion of reality.  (2) Art as deception: a false view of world.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  (1) Art serves as reminder of important ideas.  (2) Art helps you learn important ideas.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Art helps improve your mood.  Art can let you control your mood.  (1) Get motivated, inspired, get hope, direction.  (2) Calm down or get psyched up.  (3) Rock blues away.  (4) Blow off anger, get angry at injustice, rebel.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Art is cathartic, and thus healthy.  Art is therapeutic and helps reduce or avoid repression by confronting feelings and problems.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Create an environment.  Pleasant and healthy.  Soothe senses.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Get, record, and keep attitudes.  Develop mind.  Character, personality.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Good for people who think mostly intuitively.  Provides a model.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Many people learn faster and remember longer when there is an emotional component to the information they are absorbing.  Art is information with an emotional component.  Thus art is a good way to learn.	10/28/2001

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Some people need candy coated learning.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Thoughts pro art.  Some people's mind work artistically and they can only learn through art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, what.	Three views of art.  (1) Art as beauty.  (2) Art as non-fact (opposite of non-fiction).  (3) Art as entertainment and information together.	01/06/1997

Arts, general, what.	Unconscious and art.  Much art bubbles up from the unconscious.  Artists have more access to their subconscious than the average person.  Artists spend much time in a twilight state between consciousness and subconsciousness, call it reverie, call it meditation, call it day dreaming.	10/15/2004

Arts, general, why.	.This section is about why the arts.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Arts, general, why.	(1) To educate, teach, learn, enlighten.  (2) For knowledge of ideas and emotions.  (3) To entertain.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	(1) To move from art to organized philosophy and science (thought and reason). (2) To move from art to action.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	Art as a form of second hand experience.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	Art therapy: for psychological health.  Figure out what we should have done.  Figure out what should have been.  Figure out what others should have done.  Figure out what to do.  Figure out how to look at something (attitude).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	For catharsis: blow off emotions present.  Conscious or unconscious expression of consciously or unconsciously felt negative or positive emotions.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	For catharsis: blowing off tensions.  Unconscious: when you don't know you are tense or what the problem, cause, or solution was.  Conscious: when you do know above.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	Importance of the arts.  The arts are important because they help us develop emotional knowledge.  Emotional knowledge is important because the mind works by using all its parts together (memory, emotions, thinking), and if one area is underdeveloped it affects the other areas and subsequently our mind as a whole.	12/29/1997

Arts, general, why.	Improve your environment.  Your internal environment (mind).  Your external environment (where you live).	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	Man is an artistic animal.  Man creates art naturally.  Some people created great ideas in the form of art.  These great ideas in art need to be found.  People should be told to develop great ideas in philosophy/science form, not art form.  Some people can only create great ideas through art.  Some people can only understand ideas through art.  Some people waste whole lives narrowly in art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	People make art naturally.  It is proto-reasoning.  People tell stories naturally (he said, she said, he did, she did).  People think in images, and in poetry.	03/20/1997

Arts, general, why.	Political art.  Art created to express political views.  Art, like everything else, is unavoidably political.	4/27/2006

Arts, general, why.	The purpose of art is to show you something (1) New, and (2) Shocking and disturbing, in order to challenge your ideas and values.  It doesn't have to make sense.  It doesn't have to be true.  Anything perceptually different will do.	12/30/1995

Arts, general, why.	The purpose or function of art is to take us outside ourselves, and to experience things you (or anyone) could never experience.	05/22/1993

Arts, general, why.	There is a period in the late teens when you are beginning to realize things, especially emotions, but the concepts are not working yet, when the easiest way to express things is through art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	To confront or solve problems vs. to avoid and escape problems.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	To make you imagine experiences that you never experienced.  Feel emotions that you never felt, or re-feel ones you have felt.  Feel for subject, feel for an idea.  Art keeps us in touch with our emotions.  Education about feelings.	12/30/1992

Arts, general, why.	Why art?  To allude to the elusive.	12/20/1998

Arts, general, why.	Why art? (purposes, functions, importance).  Why do we produce art?  Why do we consume art?  Why do we study art?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Epistemology and art.  Truth of art.  (2) Ethics and art.  (3) Emotion and art.  (4) Personality and taste.  (5) Art as communication.  (6) Art as information.	9/5/1998

Arts, general.	.This section is about other various topics in the arts.  Topics include: ( ) Art vs. non-art.  ( ) Art vs. reality.  ( ) Art as virtual reality.  ( ) Art as underrated.  ( ) Art, philosophy and science.  ( ) Classification of arts.  ( ) Good art and bad art.  ( ) Intention vs. accident.  ( ) Style and art.	1/24/2006

Arts, general.	"About" the arts.  Reference in the arts.  (1) A painting does not have to be "about" anything; it can just be having fun with paint.  (2) Similarly, a work of literature does not have to be "about" anything; it can just be having fun with words.  That notion seems less convincing somehow.  (3) A work of music does not have to be "about" anything.  Indeed, a work of music cannot be "about" anything, because music is comprised of musical notes which refer to no other thing.	3/5/2007

Arts, general.	(1) Any work of art that attempts to approach life must approach life from every one of the branches of knowledge.  It would be epic.  (2) The artist must break everything down (analyze), and then put it all back together again (synthesize), and still keep the patient alive.  (3) As an artist, deal only with the most basic questions.  (4) All art is basically a philosophical dilemma.  How do you see the world.	12/14/1988

Arts, general.	(1) Art and memory.  (A) Art and long term memory.  Example, Proust.  (B) Art and short term memory.  Example, Kerouac.  (3) Art and imagination.  Example, Science fiction and fantasy.	12/28/1998

Arts, general.	(1) Art as a mode of "experiencing, thinking, or minding" as opposed to the other modes such as religion (myth, magic), philosophy and science.  (2) Art as a mode of communicating.  As opposed to other modes of communicating such as those that are unemotional, exact, literal and formal.	10/5/2000

Arts, general.	(1) Art does not have to be easy to understand.  (2) Art does not have to be pretty.  (3) Art does not have to communicate answers.  It can provoke questions.  (4) Shock value is okay.	10/30/1997

Arts, general.	(1) Art is a way of "minding".  Art is a way of "minding" not only with words but also with images and sounds, that is, "minding" with any sensory input and any sensory output.  Art as a way of "minding" not only with reason but also with emotion.  (2) Art is a way of communicating.  Art is a way of reporting one's thoughts, emotions, and attitudes to others.  Art is a way of trying to persuade others.  Less didactically, art can be a way of sharing one's thoughts and feelings with others, without trying to persuade others.	3/22/2007

Arts, general.	(1) Art is not supposed to make sense.  If it made sense then we could just express it in a mathematical formula.  (2) Art is not supposed to be recognizable.  Especially at first viewing, we are supposed to say, "I do not know what that is.  I do not understand."  If you understood it at first glance then it would not be telling you anything that you do not already know.	7/31/2001

Arts, general.	(1) Art that is avante garde, on the cutting edge, prophetic, visionary, is not going to be popular with the masses.  It will be understood by very few, or the artist alone.  This is because it will be the future, and many people have trouble understanding even the present and past, let alone the future.  Most people like mediocre crap garbage.  90% of everything is garbage.  It is hard to see the future.  It must be intuited or else reasoned from the present and predicted accurately.  (2) It is a mistake to think that just because no one likes your work then it is good.  Few people like really good art.  Few people like really bad art.  If no one likes your work, it could be good or bad.  Most people like mediocre art.	10/17/1988

Arts, general.	(1) Art vs. nature.  I.e., art as artificial.  (2) Art vs. science.  I.e., art as inexact, alluding, figurative, heuristic vs. science as formal, literal and algorithmic.  (3) Art vs. the ugly.  I.e., art as aesthetic beauty.  (4) Art vs. the ordinary.  I.e., art as extraordinary, art as special.	10/5/2000

Arts, general.	(1) Arthur Danto's End of Art thesis strikes me as vain, "We figured it all out.  After us, nothing more."  Or macho, "You started, we finished it."  Maybe Danto was talking only about paint on canvas.  (2) As technology changes, art changes.  As society and the world changes, art changes.	1/25/1998

Arts, general.	(1) Everyone is an artist.  I.e., everyone is an art producer.  (2) Everyone is an audience.  I.e., everyone is an art consumer.	6/3/2004

Arts, general.	(1) For every critically acclaimed Top 100 rock artists, there are at least a thousand earnest, hardworking also-rans who eke out a living, and ten thousand keening wanna-be's.  (2) For every Top 1000 rock artists, there are ten thousand also-rans who eke out a living, and a hundred thousand wanna-be's.  (3) Haven't you seen the American Idol auditions?  (4) And so it is also with writing, visual arts, comedy, movies, and any field of endeavor, really.	6/7/2006

Arts, general.	(1) In the visual arts we do not "write" or "say", rather we "depict".   (2) In literature and the visual arts we do not write or depict emotions, rather we invoke emotions or allude to emotions.  (3) Writing about the emotion anger is not the same as writing something that makes the reader angry.  (4) If a society's writing system is based on pictograms (ex. Chinese) and an individual composes a letter using pictograms, is that individual writing or drawing?  And at that level, what is the difference between literature (writing) and the visual arts (drawing)?  There is no difference.  (5) All words have symbolic and non-symbolic content.  All pictures have symbolic and non-symbolic content.	10/28/2001

Arts, general.	(1) Optimistic vs. pessimistic art does not depend on the subject matter.  You can have pessimistic art about flowers, kids, etc.  You can have optimistic art about crime, drugs, that is, uplifting sentiments about our ability to overcome these problems.  (2) Then there is also the case of real art vs. bullshit art.  Real art is honest and true.  Bullshit art is lies and half truths.  (3) It is tough to tell whether a work of art is optimistic or pessimistic, and real or bullshit.	04/15/1997

Arts, general.	(1) Pro art.  (A) Art taps the unconscious and helps us identify, work out, and resolve issues.  (B) Art relieves stress.  Art as healthy, healing, and expressive catharsis.  (C) Aesthetic dimension as unavoidable.  Everything has an aesthetic side which we can and should appreciate.  Art as natural and unavoidable.  Man makes art naturally.     (2) Contra art.  (A) Art is dead.  In the 20th century, all arts have been worked out.  (B) Art is a joke.  Art is bullshit.  Art is inferior.  (C) Art is just a way for neurotics to think and communicate (send and receive) ideas.  (D) Art is a code for clubs and cliques to separate themselves from others and feel superior.	07/05/1997

Arts, general.	(1) Pure, simple, boring arts: (A) Sight: image, picture.  (B) Hearing: sound, music.  (C) Word: the spoken symbol, the written symbol.  Literature is not a sense oriented art.  The sights and sounds it evokes are more mental, like when you talk about a sunset or birds song.  (D) Touch, smell, and taste are senses lacking in strong arts.  (2) Complex and interesting arts.  (A) Performance art: The artist is the object or actor, and the audience is an active participant.  (B) Installation art: The whole room as artwork.  Creating an artistic environment.  (C) Conceptual art: Just come up with the idea.  You don't have to make it.  (D) Multimedia art: How about a dark, warm, moist, foggy, seaside at night room?  (E) Computer art: fractals, etc.	06/30/1997

Arts, general.	(1) The best effect art can have is that the person who consumes it says, "It had a big impact on me.  It changed the way I saw the world.  It changed the way I thought about life.  It changed the way I saw myself.  It changed me.  Nothing was the same ever again after it."  Great art rearranges your brain.  (2) Art is dangerous.  After great art we are no longer innocent.  That is why people fear and avoid it.	5/20/1998

Arts, general.	(1) The view of art as communication can be challenged by the example of people who create art but who never show it to anyone else.  This is a large group of artists.  One could argue that these people are using art to communicate between their past and future self.     (2) The view of art as communication between past and future self can be challenged by the example of people who create art and then never look at it again.  This is a large group of artists.  One could argue that these people are using art for momentary communication with their present self.     (3) This leaves a view of art as communication with present self.  The creation of the work of art is essentially the creation of another being with whom to converse.  The work of art is a "dummy" that we talk to.  Works of art involve the creation of a second self with whom we can communicate.	2/23/2001

Arts, general.	(1) What action is not artistic?  What product is not art?  (2) Art imbues life just like economics, politics and technology imbue life.  Just like physicality and psychology (mind) imbue life.  (3) Everything is art.  Everyone is an artist.  Art is everywhere.	10/5/2000

Arts, general.	(1) What do all the arts have in common?  (2) What are the similarities and differences among literature, music and visual arts?	2/12/2004

Arts, general.	A new online form of art is evolving: still photos with subtitles.  You set the photos to load in the browser automatically.  You set the time interval for when the photo changes.  The whole idea is to compose the shots like a movie director.  This form of art has similarities to movie storyboards and comic strips.  But it will be photos instead of drawings.  And it will use less bandwidth and load faster than full motion audio/video.	1/5/2001

Arts, general.	A step beyond symbolism:  Everything says something.  Everything has a voice.  Saying different things to different people.	7/16/2000

Arts, general.	A unified art theory describes relationships of artist (producers), work of art, and audience (consumers).	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	A view of art.  Art is primarily about sense, emotion and narrative.  Art is not primarily about reason nor abstraction.  Yet we have thoughtful art and abstract art.	3/29/2002

Arts, general.	All fiction, that is, all written fiction and all movies, is just an attempt to draw you a picture.  It is the "hand puppet" method of learning about life.	3/18/2000

Arts, general.	All of the arts have been worked out, mined out.  They still are important, we just have figured it all out.  They are not worthless, just no frontier left.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	All the arts are "another way of saying".  All the arts are "in other words".	5/25/2000

Arts, general.	All writing, all art, is a trade off between chaos/freedom and order/control.	9/12/1999

Arts, general.	An art project.  Art about problems.  Using the arts of literature, visual art, music and movies, to create works of art that address various problems in the following areas: political problems, economic problems, environmental problems, psychological problems, health problems, etc.	5/12/2005

Arts, general.	Another problem with the arts is that some people rely too much on artistic modes of thought, and thus fail to develop their philosophical and scientific modes of thinking.  Many artists and art consumers become specialized and unbalanced when they rely too much on senses and emotions, and when they fail to develop reason and logic.	5/29/2007

Arts, general.	Any and every work of art says, "This subject, and this view of this subject, is important, worthwhile and valuable.", by dint of the artist's time and effort, and by dint of the audience's time and effort.	10/19/2005

Arts, general.	Arguments for art.  (1) Arts as unique from philosophy and science.  The arts as a unique way of thinking.  The arts as a unique way of communicating.  (2) Art is ubiquitous.  People never stop making art.  Art is everywhere.	11/24/2003

Arts, general.	Around the artist buzzes the art critic, the art historian and the art theorist.  Are they bees or flies?  Perhaps the answer depends on whether the artist has created a beautiful work of art or a piece of garbage.	2/27/2001

Arts, general.	Art about.  (1) Real world.  (2) Ideal world.  (A) Ideal imaginable.  (B) Ideal possible on earth.  (C) Ideal possible in your life.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art affects the emotions via the senses.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art and advertising.  When does art end and advertising, packaging and promotion begin?	08/24/1994

Arts, general.	Art as (1) Personal statement: this way for me.  (2) General statement: this way for all of us.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art as fiction?  Some people try to define art as fiction.  However, there are several problems with the definition of art as fiction.  (1) Literature is often fiction.  That seems unproblematic.  (2) Music, however, is not a matter of fiction.  There is no issue of fiction nor non-fiction involved in music.  (3) Visual arts may or may not be fiction, depending on the style of art.  Abstract art is not an issue of fiction and non-fiction.  Narrative representational art may present issues of fiction and non-fiction.	6/19/2006

Arts, general.	Art as virtual reality.  There is a view that movies killed the theater.  There is a view that movies killed the novel.  However, there is also a view that video games killed the movies, or at least maimed the movies.  Video games are more interactive than movies.  Video games are more compelling than movies.  It is all a movement toward virtual reality.  The arts are a form of virtual reality.  A new form of art more realistic than video games will appear in the future.	1/1/2007

Arts, general.	Art begets art.  Inspiration and spur.	7/31/1999

Arts, general.	Art can be defined as a combination of entertainment and information.  Art is seen as rising above mere entertainment.  Art is also seen as doing more than merely informing.  (2)(A) Can anything be mere entertainment alone?  Does not all entertainment inform in some way?  (B) Can anything be mere information alone?  Most people read the newspaper as a form of entertainment, enjoyment and leisure.	1/18/2004

Arts, general.	Art inspires by reminding us of our highest most noble ideals, dreams and hopes.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art is a realm where unintended results, vagueness and ambiguity are perfectly fine.	12/20/1998

Arts, general.	Art is better than life.	6/23/2006

Arts, general.	Art is close to Zen in that it deals with: (1) The invisible.  (2) The unsayable.  (3) The ineffable.	8/26/2000

Arts, general.	Art is more comedy than tragedy.  People like to see happy endings.  Life is more tragedy than comedy.  Things don't always end up like they do in the movies.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art is not just a means of communicating, it is also a way of thinking.  Some people are more sensually oriented (visually, aurally, tactilely, orally, odorously), and less oriented to abstract ideas.  Some people are more associative in their thinking, and less linear or logical in their thinking.  Is this due to the left/right brain split?  Are women more artistic than men?  Is one way of thinking better than another?  Does one way of thinking predispose artists to mental illness?  Is one way of thinking more mature than another?  Is artistic thinking a phase we go through in our teens on our way to abstract thinking?  Are artists people who get stuck in an adolescent mode of thinking?  Are artists more emotional as well as sensual?  Is artistic thinking a phase mankind went through, and now is beyond or above?  Or is art a subject matter, rather than a way of thinking or a way of communicating, that deals with the phenomenological beauty of things like landscapes, portraits, or that deals with emotional topics, like love etc., that we can not get a full understanding of from science or even philosophy?	08/24/1994

Arts, general.	Art is pulling something out of your hat.  There is something magical about art.	2/18/2000

Arts, general.	Art is tapping the unconscious and having it somehow make sense.  Just like dreams.  Art as dream.  Artist as dreamer.	6/29/1998

Arts, general.	Art is unavoidably related to ethics.  Art is unavoidably political.  Art is unavoidably technological, or related to technology, even if only the technology of language.  There is no such thing as art removed from ethics, politics and technology.  There is no "art for arts sake".	10/15/2004

Arts, general.	Art is under-rated today.  We study math, computers and science in school because they are easily quantified and that makes grading papers easy.  Art is more subjective, and less easy to grade, and less easy to build an educational system around.  As a result, less attention is paid to art in school.  However, that does not mean art is less important than math and science in life.  Math and science are ideal ways of thinking to which we aspire, but people spend much more time in artistic states of mind, using sense data, metaphorical thinking, dreams states, etc.  Our everyday thinking is more artistic than scientific.	10/15/2001

Arts, general.	Art is under-rated.  (1) Art is a way of thinking, or understanding, or "minding".  It is concrete, not abstract.  It is narrative (linear).  It is emotional.  It is sensorial (pictorial, even if creating pictures with words or music).  (2) You cannot understand the human mind without understanding art.  Logic is an ideal to which we aspire.  Most of us spend most of our time in art states (ex. using analogy, emotions, etc.).	3/3/2001

Arts, general.	Art metaphors.  All good art transports the viewer.  All good art is a trip.  All good art takes you someplace.	8/6/2000

Arts, general.	Art presents a big picture.  Art is a synthesis.  A systematic overview.	8/20/2006

Arts, general.	Art rating system.  The food metaphor.  (1) Great art is nutritious and delicious.  It tastes good and is good for you.  (2) Workmanlike art is nutritious.  (3) Worthless art has no nutritional value.  It is empty calories, it is junk food.  (4) Bad art, crap, is poisonous.  Bad art has negative value.	08/14/1994

Arts, general.	Art to (1) Enlighten vs. entertain.  (2) Enlighten vs. delude.  (3) Call to action vs. mollify.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art vs. entertainment.  Art vs. the purely practical, useful, and functional.	08/04/1993

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.     PART ONE. The distinction between art-objects and non-art-objects is not clear and distinct.  Art-objects and non-art-objects can both be beautiful.  Art-objects and non-art-objects can both be symbolic and have meaning.  Examples of non-art-objects: (A) Expensive.  (B) Finely crafted.  Skillfully constructed.  (C) Expensive and finely crafted and useful.  Example, a car or a yacht.  (D) Finely designed for beauty.  Example, Shaker furniture.  (E) Finely designed for functionality.     PART TWO. The distinction of custom-made objects vs. mass-produced objects is a fuzzy line.  (A) We usually consider the art-object to be custom-made.  However, some mass-produced objects are considered to be works of art, for example, limited edition art prints created by the means of mass production are often sold as art.  Warhol is an example of an artist who used techniques of mass production to create art (an art that commented on consumer society).  (B) Mass-produced objects are often customized by their owners and then considered to be art by some.  An example of this is hot-rod cars.  (C) Some custom-made objects are not considered to be art.  Example, low quality home-made kitsch.  Some mass-produced objects are considered to be art.  For example, Wedgewood ceramics.  (D) Today, computers allow a phenomenon known as mass-customization which allows the mass production of customized objects, and this further blurs the line between custom-made objects and mass-produced objects.     PART THREE. Definitions of mass production.  (A) Mass production can mean totally machine-made as opposed to totally man-made or hand-made.  Or.  (B) Mass production can mean each item is the same as the next, even if it is man-made or hand-made.  Or.  (C) Mass production can mean produced in high quantity, which can affect rarity, which can affect value.     PART FOUR.  Rarity is another factor.  A beautiful machine-produced item of which there were once millions and which there are now only a few, acquires an aura of art.  Not only has the object's monetary value increased but the artistic value somehow increases as well.	5/29/2000

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.  The line between art and non-art has vanished.  Thus, there is no art today, just good and bad quality stuff.	1/6/1997

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear division between the arts and science, business, politics, philosophy, etc.  (1) There is an art (skill) to everything.  Intuitive and heuristic, not exact or algorithmic.  (2) There is an aesthetic aspect to everything.  For example, even math proofs are sometimes called beautiful.  (3) There is an emotional aspect to everything.  (4) Therefore, either the arts don't exist, or else everything is art.	4/22/1999

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear line between art and non-art.  (1) Creativity.  There is a creative aspect to everything, not just art.  It is a mistake to say that science, business and politics are not creative.  (2) Unconscious.  There is an unconscious aspect to everything.  It is a mistake to say that only artists work from the unconscious.  (3) Emotions.  There is an emotional component to everything.  It is a mistake, for example, to say that science is unemotional.  (4) Aesthetics.  There is an aesthetic component to everything.  It is a mistake to call science, business and politics unaesthetic.  (5) Fuzziness.  There is a fuzzy aspect to everything.  It is a mistake, for example, to say that art is fuzzy and that science is exact.	1/7/2000

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear line between art and non-art.  (1) Objects.  There is no clear line between art-objects and non-art-objects such as kitsch or trash.  (2) Activities.  There is no clear line between art-activities and other activities such as science, business and politics.  (3) Attitudes.  There is no firm line between art-attitudes and other attitudes.  (4) People.  There is no clear line between artists and other people.	1/7/2000

Arts, general.	Art vs. non-art.  There is no clear-cut distinction between art and non-art.  And there is no clear-cut distinction between the various arts.  We create these artificial categories for our own simplifications.  There is just people doing stuff.	2/28/2002

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  (1) Criticisms of movies, and by extension all arts.  (A) The movies (and all the arts) are fake, phony, artificial, and often used instead of the real experiences of real life in the real world.  (2) Counter-arguments to criticisms of movies: (A) Some thing's you don't want to experience because they stink, but you need to know about them, so thus movies.  (B) Some thing's you will never experience because only a lucky few do, but you can vicariously through movies.  Most people's lives are boring.  (C) The movies (and all arts) encourage and inspire people to live authentically just as much as movies pacify people into vegetative states.  (D) To the extent that the arts fail, the problem is not so much with art, but with poorly made, low quality art.	3/20/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  How close do movies come to actually experiencing something for yourself?  How would a life spent watching movies, with little personal experience, compare to a life full of personal experience with little movie watching?  Can you live a real life just by watching movies (or consuming any type of art)?  Can you live a real life just by making movies (or producing any type of art)?  Is art a poor substitute for real life, or is real life a poor substitute for art?  I guess the best would be to live a life full of personal experiences and then create art and consume art.  That is, have both.  One cannot substitute, replace, or make up for the other.  You need both.  However, there are extremists, both pro-art and anti-art, who would deny the need for one or the other.  Pro-art extremists who say personal experience is not important.  Anti-art extremists who say art is not important.	8/26/2000

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  I prefer experiences in the real world to art.  Art I view as a type of virtual reality or modeling whose main benefit is being quick and easy and helps you avoid dangerous situations and learning the hard way.	4/13/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  Not only are we all artists, we are all constantly making art whenever we think (or "mind" or "mentalize").  (1) Even when we decide to tell a story that is "all true" we must make a decision about what facts to include and exclude.  (2) Even a work of art can purport to be a depiction of "only the facts".  An example of this is a battlefield painting in the realist style.  (3) Our minds are constantly engaged in flights of fancy and fiction which stem from our desires for wish fulfillment and our fears and trepidations.	7/14/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  PART ONE.  Its not a case of art vs. real life.  Its a case of art and real life.  Art and real life inform each other.  Each one helps the other.  We need both art and real life.  Our firsthand experiences of real life inform our understanding of art.  Our exposure to art informs our firsthand experiences of real life.  They build each other.     PART TWO.  As an example of the above view, consider three cases:  (1) Reading about love between characters in any work of art (ex. literature, visual arts, movies, etc.).  (2) Falling in love with a character from a work of art.  (3) Falling in love in real life.  (4) Each one helps the other.	7/25/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  The arts are artificial, fake, lies, not real.  The argument is that the arts give a distorted view of reality.  Take, for example, the movies.  Many people who grow up on movies mistakenly think that the movies portray reality.  The question is whether any art, or even any man-made thing, can accurately portray reality.  Some say no, some say yes.  Then again, who really knows what reality is.  Some would argue that no human being can accurately perceive reality, let alone communicate reality in a work of art.	9/28/2000

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  Two cases that blur the distinction between art and reality.  (1) Someone tells a story (their version) of something they saw, and claims that is what actually happened.  That's art.  (2) Someone makes up a fictitious story by welding together actual episodes from their own life.  That's art.  (3) Thus, art and reality are intertwined and it is very difficult to separate them.  You cannot talk about art and reality as two different things.	7/14/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Art is a what-if scenario.  Art is practice, play, a test situation.	7/25/2001

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Movies are a type of virtual reality.  In fact, the development of the arts like literature, music and the visual arts, and their subsequent combination in recent art forms like the movies, are really just a phase in the development of virtual reality, to be followed in the near future by computer simulation suits.  The arts are a type of virtual reality.  Virtual reality is a type of role playing, a type of case study, a type of hypothetical, a type of possible world, a type of game playing.	7/3/1999

Arts, general.	Art vs. reality.  Virtual reality and art.  Progression of art and entertainment based on technology.  Each out-placing the next.  (1) Tell.  Oral tradition.  Uses language.  (2) Act.  Theater.  Uses stages and costumes.  (3) Novel.  1800s.  Due to affordable printing.  (4) Movies and television.  1900s.  Uses cameras.  (5) Interactive virtual reality.  2000.  Combines movie and video game technology.  Uses computers and Internet.	4/28/1998

Arts, general.	Art, a broad definition.  (1) Everyone is an artist.  (A) Everyone senses, feels and thinks.  (B) Everyone communicates, mostly using non-formal languages.  (C) Everyone is neurotic and bisexual.  (2) Everything is art.  (A) All man made objects have an aesthetic quality.  (B) All natural objects have an aesthetic quality.  (3) Nothing is art only.  Things are only art in part.  Everything is art among other things.  (4) No one is an artist only.  Everyone is only an artist in part.  Everyone is an artist among other things.	10/19/2005

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  Ideas and attitudes often come out first in art, and then are refined into philosophy, science, etc.  From dream to reality.  From fuzzy to sharp.  Both on a personal level and on a societal level.	02/28/1998

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  In what cases is it quicker to learn about something through art vs. through philosophy and science?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  Most ideas and attitudes (emotions plus ideas) develop first as hazy, fragile notions in the minds of artists.  Later, philosophers and scientists firm them up.	2/23/2001

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  Philosophers and psychologists are beginning to acknowledge that the emotions are an important mental component.  The arts are a primary way that humans process emotion.  Thus, the arts are as important as philosophy and science.	10/28/2001

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  Team science is common these days.  Team art should be also.  Many feel the age of the individual scientist is past.  So too perhaps is the age of the individual artist.	8/6/2001

Arts, general.	Art, philosophy and science.  The philosophy of science uses the phrase "Context of discovery" to describe the creation of an idea.  The phrase "Context of justification" is used to describe whether to accept an idea.  In the arts, there is also a "Context of discovery" that occurs when an artist creates a work of art.  The arts also has a "Context of justification" that occurs when the artist decides not to rip up and throw out a work of art.  What are the types of criteria that artists and audiences use in the "Context of justification"?	7/5/2000

Arts, general.	Art: from those who need to produce it, to those who need to consume it.	10/25/1997

Arts, general.	Artist as rock and roller.  (1) In the world of art it benefits the artist to have no respect and no mercy.  (Talking about aesthetics here, not ethics).  The artist gives the finger to a world that tries to tell him who he is.  The artist flips the bird to a system that tries to tell him what is real.  People love that.  (2) The system tries to tell the artist what he can and can't do.  What he should and shouldn't be.  They would destroy him.  They would destroy all artists and all art.  They would have silence and conformity.  They would destroy the opposition.  The artist is a one man revolution.  Teen rock freedom.	7/6/2000

Arts, general.	Artist as shaman.  The link between art and religion.  Both are often pre-rational.	12/20/1998

Arts, general.	Artist, maker, creator, producer.  Audience, viewer, consumer.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Artistic freedom in the 20th century.  Three examples: (1) When a person is able to paint anything they want to paint, anything they can paint (example, abstract expressionism).  (2) When a poet is able to write anything he wants to write, anything he can write (examples, poems that do not rhyme, free verse).  (3) When a musician is able to play anything she wants to play, anything she can play (examples, rock-and-roll, free jazz).  (4) There was an occurrence that took place in the arts at around the middle of the 20th century.  It took place in all the arts.  And, I say, because the arts are so closely tied with the rest of culture, it took place in the entire culture.  This occurrence involved freedom of expression.  It also involved freedom of listening.  It also involved:  Diversity.  Openness.  Honesty.  Sharing.  Democracy.  Death of class.  Death of religion.  Psychoanalysis.  Beatniks and hippies.	1/1/2002

Arts, general.	Artists are phenomenologists.  They are concerned with communicating the plethora of experiential diversity.  They are not concerned with abstracting general principles.	02/01/1994

Arts, general.	Artists call it creativity.  The rest of us call it growing up.	7/25/1999

Arts, general.	Artists goal is, through a wide variety of personal experience and also through imagination, to try to experience the world in all its diversity.  To not be limited by the circumstances he/she is accidentally born into.  To be a chameleon, to go undercover or incognito, to infiltrate the subject of the artwork, to try to become the subject, to listen closely, empathize, and let the subject speak for itself.	04/01/1994

Arts, general.	Attacks on art.  (1) Censorship attacks.  (2) Budget attacks.  Attacks on the NEA.  Attacks on public art works.  Attacks on public art museums.  (3) Attacks on free speech.  (4) Attacks on art as decadent or controversial.  For example, by the Nazis just prior to WWII.	11/24/2003

Arts, general.	Audience.  There is an audience for every work of art.  There is the actual audience and the potential audience.  Identifying the audience is one challenge.  Reaching the audience is another challenge.	10/19/2005

Arts, general.	Authenticity.  Who cares who said it, as long as it has been said.  Who can tell where an idea came from, whether it be out of the clear blue or from something someone else said.  In 10,000 years knowledge will be so great that we will de-emphasize the historical view (who thought of what, when)  and emphasize the logical view (how do the ideas fit together logically).	08/24/1994

Arts, general.	Battle of the arts.  (1) Visual art graffiti is painted.  Literary graffiti is written.  To say that visual art graffiti is only about style and that written graffiti is about substance is an example of how writing tries to maintain a hegemony over the visual arts and music.  (2) Writing wrongly tries to say to the visual arts and music "I am better than you.  I am more important than you.  You don't count for much."  Writing tries to devalue and disempower other forms of expression.  This leads to a dictatorship or monopoly of one mode of expression over another.  That kind of specialization can not be good.  It is bad when one mode of expression tries to overpower another mode of expression in a culture or in an individual.  It is a result of there being no checks and balances in an a culture or in an individual.	7/16/2000

Arts, general.	Beginners mind vs. sophisticates mind.  If you go to the art museum and look at the paintings with absolutely no knowledge of art history then how does that differ from going to the art museum and taking the walking tour where you are told what to think about every painting?  What are the pros and cons of each experience?  This notion is not just about art museums, its about one's entire life and one's entire education.  The best minds always look at things fresh and are always critical of received knowledge.	9/24/2002

Arts, general.	Best worlds: what should be.  Worst worlds: what should never be.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Blah, blah, blah.  95% of music lyrics are trite.  95% of movies are banal.  95% of visual arts is bland.  Is literature any different?  No.	5/23/2005

Arts, general.	Can literature, or any art, change your life?  Can literature, or any art, change your mind, your outlook, your attitude toward life, your philosophy of life?  The answer is that anything can change your mind.  Thus, anything can change your life.  Enlightenment can occur to anyone at anytime caused by any idea or event.  Epiphany.  Light bulb.  Realization.  If anything can do it then art can do it.	10/13/2004

Arts, general.	Cannon.  (1) In one sense, the cannon is the group of works we consider to be classics.  There is a group of works we call "classics".  There is also a group of works we call "modern classics".  (2) Yet the cannon is always changing.  The cannon is under contention.  There are always defenders of the existing cannon.  There are always various factions calling for new cannons.	7/15/2004

Arts, general.	Cannon.  Criticism is a value judgment.  We criticize things in terms of what we value.  What we value depends on our situation, and the problems that we face, and the needs that we have.  A new situation yields a new cannon.	2/22/2000

Arts, general.	Cannons.  (1) Academic cannon: their criticism, my criticism of their criticism.  (2) Paul cannon: my criticism, others criticism of my cannon.  (3) Paul artworks: my criticism, others criticism of my artwork.  (4) Any other cannon: my criticism, others criticism.  (5) Paul aesthetic system.  (6) Paul libraries of art: Paul works, found works of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Causes of art production and consumption.  Effects of art production and consumption.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classical music, ballet and opera; I imagine that at one time in the past these arts attracted avante garde rebels (ex. Beethoven), but today they mainly attract conservatives and traditionalists.	8/5/2001

Arts, general.	Classics.  In 100 years of movies we have made a list of 100 classic great films.  In 10,000 years will the list of classic films be 10,000 films long?  No one would have time to see them all.  Or will the list of classic films 10,000 years from now be still only 100 films long?  That would mean only one film on the current list of 100 will be a classic and the other 99 will not.  So it is with all works of art.  Thus, will sheer volume make art less useful?  Also, as population increases in size, and becomes better educated, and has access to cheap digital cameras, even more classics will be made.	11/29/1998

Arts, general.	Classification of arts.  (1) Classification by audience: high art, pop art, folk art.  (2) Classification by media: visual arts, aural arts, written arts.  (3) Classification by dimension.  Two dimensional: painting.  Three dimensional: sculpture.  Four dimensional (space and time): movies, plays.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classification of arts.  (1) Fine arts, high arts, pure art: art literature, visual arts, music.  (2) Low arts, functional arts: arts and crafts, decorative and ornamental arts, gastronomy, fashion, architecture, dance.  (3) Mixed media arts: music video.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classification of arts.  Lowbrow art vs. highbrow art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classification of arts.  Prophetic art, profound art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classification of arts.  Pros and cons of each medium.  What good is it?  What does it do that other arts can't?  What does it do better and worse than other arts, and communication modes?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Classification of the arts.  (1) Pure arts.  Words alone, without music.  Music alone, without words.  Visual arts alone, without words or music.  (2) Combinatory arts.  Words and visual art: for example, comics with words, posters with words.  Words and music: for example, songs.  Music and visual art: for example, music videos.  Words and music and visual art: for example, movies.  Dance and music: another popular combinatory art.	12/8/2003

Arts, general.	Cleverness.  Sometimes art is merely clever.  For example, cute t-shirt logos.  What does the merely clever prove?  The merely clever shows what people can accomplish through effort.	08/24/1994

Arts, general.	Computer generated art (without human intervention).  (1) If the computer makes something that is completely random then how can it be art?  For example, randomly colored pixels on a computer screen is not really art.  (2) On the other hand, if the computer makes something that is completely non-random, predictable or algorithmic then how can that be art?  For example, if a 200 page novel was 100% algorithmic then you could deduce the last 199 pages from the first page.	1/1/2002

Arts, general.	Computers and art.  (1) Computer generated art.  Art that the computer makes entirely.  For example, fractal programs.  (2) Computer assisted art.  Art that humans make by using the computer as a medium.	5/14/2004

Arts, general.	Conscious product vs. unconscious result.	01/01/1993

Arts, general.	Contra professional art.  (1) Professional artists of all types (writers, visual artists, musicians, movie makers, etc.) can easily become caught in a style trap.  The public expects them to produce art in a certain style.  This situation limits the variety of the output of the artist.  (2) Professional artists get caught in situations where they must produce to make a living.  This leads to (A) Producing what the public will buy, which is often low grade slop.  (B) Producing anything just to keep one's job, which often leads to low grade schlock.  This can occur to writers who are under contract to produce a given number of words every week.  (3) What kind of artist will produce his own work regardless of commercial tastes?  The amateur.  What kind of artist will put forth only his best work?  The amateur.	2/19/2000

Arts, general.	Create a state of mind.  Create an artifact that lets others experience that state of mind.  With art you can capture a vibe and give it to others.  The vibe helps create a state of mind.	2/8/2000

Arts, general.	Definitions of art based on the various psychological abilities.  (1) Art as the senses and the accumulation of sensual experiences.  (2) Art as emotions expressed.  (3) Art as memory transmogrified.  (ex. Proust).  (4) Art as imagination (ex. science-fiction.)  (5) Art as idea.  (ex. philosophical artists).	10/5/2000

Arts, general.	Development of the arts in humans.  (1) In the evolution of the arts in humans, I say sculpture came before drawing, and drawing came before literature, because the arts evolved from the less abstract to the more abstract.  Sculpture is less abstract that drawing, and drawing is less abstract than literature.  (2) Another question is whether the visual arts came before, during or after oral storytelling (language) and gestural storytelling (proto-mime-theater before language).  (3) It seems clear that the arts developed before philosophy, logic, science and math.  (4) Did the arts develop before, during or after the development of magic, myth and religion?	7/14/2001

Arts, general.	Dogmatism destroys both creativity and the evolutionary development of artistic styles, where every style has a life, value and worth, just like a every human being does.  Every style exists to serve every single person.  Dogmatism destroys variety.	03/13/1989

Arts, general.	Doodling.  (1) What is the verbal equivalent of doodling?  Prattling?  (2) What is the musical equivalent of doodling?  The Jazz Messengers played a tune called Doodling.  (3) What is the movie equivalent of doodling?  Shorts?	9/7/2005

Arts, general.	Environment influences society, which influences psychology, which influences art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Escapism and the arts.  (1) Too often the arts are used as a form of escapism.  By escapism, I mean avoidance, repression, and denial.  Escapism from what?  Escapism from thinking hard, making an effort to solve problems and right the wrongs in life.  Escapism, whether through the arts or any other form, is a bad thing.  (2) One counter-argument to the view that the arts are used too often as a form of escapism is the view that the arts are used to confront reality more often than to escape from reality, but that point is debateable.  Another counter-argument is that many things besides the arts are used as a means of escape, for example, sex, drugs, money, power, etcetera, but that is more of an attempted excuse than a counter-argument.  A third counter-argument is that some small amount of escapism can be healthy stress reliever, but when escapism is abused then that is a problem. 	5/27/2007

Arts, general.	Everyone is an artist and an audience to varying degrees.  Everyone is an art producer and an art consumer to varying degrees.  Perhaps it is not accurate to use the terms "producer" and "consumer" of art.  Art is not merely economics.  Everyone is an art creator and an art critic.	6/10/2007

Arts, general.	Everyone is an artist.  Everyone is an art critic.  Everyone is a comedian.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Evolution and the arts.  Before abstraction there was narrative.  Before science and philosophy there was art.  If a sentient being has concrete thinking, plus imagination, but not abstraction, then the result is artistic ability.  Humans evolved their artistic abilities before their philosophical and scientific abilities.	1/4/2006

Arts, general.	Examples of word and image combined in art.  Billboards.  Posters.  Handbills.  Postcards.  Webpages.  Magazine ads.	9/16/1999

Arts, general.	Fatigue and the arts.  When too tired to read, watch a movie.  When to tired to watch a movie, listen to music.	11/25/2001

Arts, general.	Food is about sensation.  Music is about sensation and emotion.  Literature is about sensation, emotion and ideas.  Its true that sensation, emotion and thought are closely related in that, for example, a sensation can trigger an emotion or thought.  Still, I personally do not look to food for enlightenment.	7/31/2001

Arts, general.	Four types of art.  (1) Art to escape reality vs. art that engages reality.  (2) Art that conforms to unjust norms of society vs. art that dissents against unjust norms of society.  (3) Art that supports the unjust power holders of an unjust establishment vs. art that dissents against unjust power holders of an unjust establishment.  (4) Art that communicates either unethical views or no views at all vs. art that communicates truth and justice.	8/25/2004

Arts, general.	Future art.  New problems of life, and new answers to old problems.  New subjects, new views, new feelings, new attitudes, new questions, new truths.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Good and bad art.  (1) Good art or high quality.  (A) True.  (B) Psychological.  (C) Philosophical.  (2) Bad art or low quality: opposite of ideal principles.  (A) Unimportant subjects.  (B) Unimportant truths.  (C) Bad ideas: false, unethical.  (D) Poorly communicated.  (E) Emotions don't fit.  (F) Emotions poorly communicated.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Good art "haunts" you.  Good art keeps returning to your mind.	11/20/2001

Arts, general.	Good art and bad art.  Good art deals forthrightly with important issues, problems, truths.  Bad art is vague communications about trivialities and fluff.	11/15/1994

Arts, general.	Good art and bad art.  Ordinary life, ordinary people, and bad art are crap, empty, boring.  Great art is life.  Great artists live.  Great art makes sense, it sheds light.  It makes us see.  It is concentrated, potent, strong, powerful, exciting, and rich.  I feel alive.  I feel intensely.  I feel young.  Great art is great conflict that causes great thought-testing and thought re-evaluation.  Great art shoves problems in our faces and asks, no, forces, us to look and think about these problems.	07/27/1993

Arts, general.	Good art is relevant to its time and place.  Classic art is relevant through time and place.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Good art vs. bad art distinction.  Is bad art still art?  Or is it junk?  Two cases: (1) "Bad" meaning low quality or poor technique.  (2) "Bad" meaning communicating a epistemologically false message (lies) or an unethical message (evil).  (ex. hate group art).	5/29/2000

Arts, general.	Good art.  Is good art a matter of quantity multiplied by quality?  Or is good art a matter of choice of subject matter and accuracy of statement?	7/15/2006

Arts, general.	Great art achieves the previously unimaginable.	9/7/2005

Arts, general.	Great art inspires great art.	7/7/1998

Arts, general.	Great art is not necessarily beautiful art.  Great art is art that makes an advancement (improvement, progress).  Something new and better.  Example, Roman sculpture, renaissance perspective, impression, Cubism.  Usually the advancement is a new and good technique.  Or to a lesser extent, a new and good statement.	4/7/1998

Arts, general.	Great art sends shivers from your head to your toes.  A shiver of recognition (of truth).	7/7/1998

Arts, general.	Great artists get there first and does best job.  Great artists find very important, very inobvious truths and says them in very powerful, very new ways.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	History of individual's production: what's made.  History of society's consumption: what's popular.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	History.  (1) History of the practice of art.  (2) History of philosophy of art.  (3) History of the scientific study of art.  (4) History of art history.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	How does one talk or write about music?  How does one talk or write about visual art?  That is, how does one verbalize the non-verbal?	10/5/2003

Arts, general.	How important are the arts?  What can the arts do that nothing else can do?  What can the arts do better than anything else?  How powerful are the arts?	2/12/2004

Arts, general.	How many musicians have something interesting to say when they improvise musically?  How many speakers have something interesting to say when they speak extemporaneously?	4/20/2003

Arts, general.	How much power do the arts have?  How much power do ideas have?  Vis a vis the power of politics, money, entertainment, etc.  Power defined as the ability to do work and to effect change.	5/12/2005

Arts, general.	How, methods (see composition).  How study art?  How make art?  How consume art?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	I'm convinced that many artists are popular not for what they say but for what they don't say.  Many artists have a wide audience base because they never said anything to alienate their audience base.  These artists never said anything to piss off their audience.  They never said anything that challenged their audience.  They never said anything that made their audience feel uncomfortable.  Often people will unconsciously like an artist because the artist simply does not address certain important yet unpleasant subjects.  Many artists are popular for their refusal to discuss unpopular topics and for their avoidance of the important issues.  Many people treat art like a vacation from reality.  But the best art confronts reality and talks about it.	8/14/2004

Arts, general.	If an artwork can "say" something to an individual.  And if everything has an aesthetic (art-like) component.  Then everything says something to everyone.  And a thing says different things to different people.  (Or people interpret things differently).	11/30/2003

Arts, general.	If it doesn't add up the mathematicians don't want to touch it.  If it doesn't have irrefutable logic the philosophers don't want to touch it.  If its not empirically verifiable the scientists don't want to touch it.  Thus, the area of territory seceded to the artists is vast, and in this land there still exists the opportunity to go wild.	3/25/2002

Arts, general.	If the commonplace assumption that the blind make good musicians is true, then the deaf should make good visual artists.  Do they?	6/7/2004

Arts, general.	If you can create something perfect, you will have an audience for it.	08/06/1988

Arts, general.	If you want random, unrelated characters and events, which occur for no reason, and with no meaning, look to life outside your door.  Art should be there for a reason.  The elements of art (setting, characters, action, etc.) should be there for a reason, and have a purpose, and contribute to a cohesive, unified plot and theme.	12/30/1996

Arts, general.	Imagination.  Artistic expression can be either memory and catharsis or imagination.	01/01/1993

Arts, general.	Imagination.  For some artists art is emotionally cathartic.  Other artists imagine and express things they have never experienced, and so for them art is less a matter of expressing pent up pain, problems, or conflicts.	12/01/1994

Arts, general.	In your art, you have to make a decision on where to draw the line (pun) between Dionysianism and Apollonianim.  In terms of chaos and order.  In terms of emotion and reason.  In terms of energy and restraint.  All art producers and art consumers (i.e., all artists and audiences) can be placed on a spectrum between Dionysianism and Apollonianism regarding how they usually like their art.  What kind of art they go for.  This is spontaneity vs. planning.  This is freedom vs. control.  This question is not an arbitrary question of style.  You have to say to yourself, "What I mean, and what I want to say, is best served by what mix or blend of Dionysianism and Apollonianism.  The bigger question is where to draw the line in your life, not just in your art.	9/21/1999

Arts, general.	Indoor, domestic, small minutiae art vs. Outdoor, big, brawling, sprawling art.	5/22/2000

Arts, general.	Information and art.  Art as information.  How much information is in a work of art?  How many questions does the work of art raise, and how many answers does the work of art give?	6/8/2004

Arts, general.	Intention and intended effect vs. accident and actual effects of artwork.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  (1) The emotional, intuitive, unconscious artist.  (2) The rational, conscious artist.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  (1) Unconscious, instinctive, accidental geniuses and masterpieces.  (2) Intentional and deliberate geniuses.  (3) Second is better than first.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  Preconceived, planned, intentional vs. emergent, improvisational or accidental, greater than anything anyone could have imagined at the start.	02/01/1994

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  Unconscious, natural, spontaneous style vs. consciously, deliberately planned, and thoughtfully created.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  What percentage of an artist's painting is conscious vs. unconscious; intentional vs. unintentional.  Same for his greatest ideas.	03/26/1994

Arts, general.	Intention vs. accident.  What percentage of an artists work is intentional vs. accidental?  How in control vs. how instinctual is the artist?  Are the great artists typically more one way or another?	01/01/1993

Arts, general.	Is all great art beautiful?  For example, the paintings of Leon Golub.  Sometimes we used the word "beauty" to mean high aesthetic value.  Sometimes we use the word "beauty" to mean sensually attractive and appealing.	12/15/1998

Arts, general.	Is watching a movie the same as reading a novel?  What are the similarities and differences?	1/17/2004

Arts, general.	It was once the case that a work of literature would offer a detailed physical description of the characters involved.  However, today, physical descriptions such as "She was an old, black woman" or "He was a short, fat man" are often seen as not politically correct and perhaps even verging on racism, sexism, ageism, etc.  (2) The argument against physical descriptions runs along the line of "So what if their skin was that color?  Who cares how old they were?  It was just luck that they were thrust into this or that circumstance".  (3) Take it a step further.  Many psychologists today think that a person's personality is to some degree genetically determined and remains consistent through life.  So now it seems that, like skin color, a person's personality is to some degree a matter of luck, and so perhaps we should not dwell on personality descriptions in literature (both non-fiction and fiction).  (4) So the question becomes, if we are not to dwell on physicality nor personality then what should we use to describe a person?  Their thoughts?  Their words?  Their actions?  How is literature to proceed?  How can literature be fair or just?  Truths vary in their importance, and the most important truths about a person is not their physicality nor personality.  (5) Different people are thrust into different situations (social, technological, natural) and have to deal using the tools (psychological, physical, material) that they have.  (6) There is a similar issue in the visual arts.  If I want to draw a picture about the most important thing about person "x" then should I draw a picture of the person's body or even their face?  Are not there more important issues about a person?  How should I draw them?  It seems like face/body paintings and statues are woefully inadequate in some respects.	7/19/2001

Arts, general.	Just as important as what you communicate to others is what you communicate to yourself.  Dance, music, visual arts and words are all means to communicate with self as well as communicate with others.  Communication with self is another way of saying "thinking" or "minding".     PART TWO.  There are many ways that the mind communicates with itself.  (1) One part of the mind communicates with other parts of the mind.  For example, unconscious mind communicates with conscious mind.  For example, each one of Gardener's eight types of intelligence communicates with the others.  (2) We communicate with ourselves through time via memories from the past and goals for the future.  (3) Emotion and reason communicate with each other.	4/1/2002

Arts, general.	Levels of critical discourse.  On one level, a person can talk about specific books, songs, paintings and movies.  On another level, a person can talk generally about books, songs, paintings and movies.	1/15/2005

Arts, general.	Life is too complex and rushed today for art.  Ethics and technology rule.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Literature viewed as a slow movie.  Movies viewed as a fast book.	11/15/2005

Arts, general.	Liveliness.  The notion of "liveliness" is an important concept in the arts.  The work of art is essentially supposed to be alive.  The livelier, the better.  We consider great works of art to be livelier than life itself.  (2) The concept of "liveliness" is distinct from the concept of "life-like" or "realistic".  Lively works of art need not be in the style of realism.	1/15/2001

Arts, general.	Make a database of works of art in all media, organized by subject matter and emotional tone.	2/4/2005

Arts, general.	Materials.  What are your materials?  The wider the variety of materials, the wider the expressiveness of the art.	5/14/2006

Arts, general.	Me.  Arts place in my life.  (1) Now, and in past, and hopes and ideas for future.  (2) Importance I place on art.  (3) My views on art.  (4) How much I think about art.  (5) How much I do art.  (6) Art I have produced.  (7) Art I have thought of producing.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Me.  How creative am I artistically?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Me.  My art interests: primitive, primordial, base.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Me.  My typical styles, subjects, views, and compositional techniques.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Meaning and art.  (1) If a work of art says nothing then what does it accomplish?  Nothing.  Meaning is required in art.  (2) If a work of art means whatever you want it to mean then what does that accomplish.  Nothing.  (3) If a work of art says something completely different to every single person then what does that accomplish?  Nothing.  (4) Thus, meaning relativism and meaning nihilism are bogus.	10/20/2005

Arts, general.	Meaning and art.  Music, visual arts and dance transcend language differences.	6/16/1998

Arts, general.	Meaning and symbolism.  A musical note means less than a color.  A color means less than a word.	11/6/1998

Arts, general.	Most important idea.  (1) Art is useful for getting psyched up, and for getting inspired.  (2) Art is an unavoidable byproduct of life.  Example, margin doodles.  Art is a byproduct of creative thinking, and of free associating, which is what the mind does naturally when healthy.  Art is a form of mental play; play defined as spontaneous effort without purpose.  (3) However, art should not be the primary focus of our lives.	10/30/1997

Arts, general.	Most important idea.  Art is good for eeking out thoughts and feelings that are not fully formed yet.	12/26/1997

Arts, general.	Most important idea.  They history of all the arts was about two main things, freedom of expression and development of critical faculties.  Once we got to the point where you could say anything, anyway you wanted, and others could seriously consider and criticize it, the arts had matured fully.	07/18/1997

Arts, general.	Movies are good at narrative stories, poor at abstract ideas.  Books are good at abstract ideas.	10/8/2003

Arts, general.	Much like language is as much an aid to thinking as it is an aid to communication, so too is art as much an aid to thinking as it is an aid to communication.  Thus, when you ask someone why they are looking at a painting or composing a piece of music, do not be surprised if they reply, "I am trying to think."	5/28/2005

Arts, general.	My new definition of high art is art that is of high quality.  My new definition of low art is art that is of low quality.  High art and low art no longer refer to the media and style of art involved.  High art no longer refers to orchestral music and oil painting.  Low art no longer refers to rock music and movies.	11/6/1999

Arts, general.	Nature as the subject of art vs. the man-made world as subject of art.  Show the pollution and the garbage.	5/22/2000

Arts, general.	Nature of Art.  (1) Art as symbolic communication.  Where one thing represents or stands for another.  (Not talking here about symbolism at the level of letters, where the word "cat" stands for the animal cat.  Talking here about the level where, for example, things allude to other things.)  (2) Art as metaphorical or figurative, not literal.  (3) Art as deliberately vague, ambiguous or accidental.  Multiple meanings okay.  Unclear meanings okay.  (4) Art as realism.  A photographic picture.  Literal, not symbolic.  For example, photographers, realist novelists, realist painters, etc.  Vs.  Art as distortion, impression, hyper-real, concentrated, distilled.  (5) One hundred percent realism equals a mirror image.  One hundred percent symbolism equals no resemblance to the original (for example, the letters "cat" stand for the cat animal).  In between 100% realism and 100% symbolism lies the large area of metaphor and various degrees of abstraction.	11/27/2003

Arts, general.	New art.  (1) New art from new science.  (2) New techs (tools and techniques) yield new art.  (3) New messages (content (thought and emotion) and form) yield new art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	New types of art.  (1) Interactive art.  Art where the audience can effect the work of art.  For example, in the visual arts, a lava lamp computer display where the movement of the viewer affects the movement of the display.  Another example, in the musical arts, a sequence of notes where the movement of the viewer effects the pitch, volume, and timbre of the notes.  A third example, in the literary arts, stories with pathway choices.  (2) Group art.  Art that is created by a group of individuals rather than one individual.  One example, in the musical arts, is the orchestra or band.  A second example, in the visual arts.  A third example, in the literary arts.  (3) Computers and art.  Firstly, art created by computer artificial intelligence.  Secondly, art created by humans with the help of artificial intelligence.  (4) Holographic art.  Three dimensional movies.  (5) Immersive art.  Virtual reality goggles.  Virtual reality head phones.  Virtual reality simulators for all the senses.  (6) Develop new senses.  Then develop art for the new senses.  (7) Develop new emotions.  Then develop new art for the new emotions.  Also, new attitudes.  (8) Develop a new set of important problems and solutions.  Then develop new art to communicate those problems and solutions	4/30/2006

Arts, general.	One argument for the arts is that people want magical experiences.  People do not want to merely discuss the phenomenon of magical experiences.  What is a magical experience?  (1) Something new and not fully understood.  (2) Something emotional and not merely rational.  (3)  Something idealistic that speaks to the highest values of humans and to what is best in humans.  (4) In this sense of the term, any book, painting, music, movie, etc. can be "magical" if it fills the above criteria.  Another example of a magical experience is the first love of teens.	1/22/2002

Arts, general.	One view.  If you don't have anything to say then don't say it.  If you do have something to say then say it clearly and concisely.  Don't waste our time.  Don't jerk us around.	2/22/2000

Arts, general.	PART ONE.  Attack on the arts.  School budget cutbacks in the arts, such as music and visual arts classes.  Art is attacked for not being a money maker.  Its tough to earn a living as an artist.  Art is sometimes attacked as decadent.     PART TWO.  In favor of the arts.  The importance of the emotions and emotional intelligence.  Importance of Howard Gardener's eight types of intelligence, including musical and visual intelligences.	11/21/2003

Arts, general.	Pattern (repetition) and variation can be used effectively in other arts beside music.  Poetry, visual arts, etc.	12/30/1996

Arts, general.	People's obsession with food, clothing, and shelter leads to the pursuits of gastronomy, fashion, and architecture.	7/31/2006

Arts, general.	Perfection and imperfection in art.  (1) Perfection:  There is an element in art that involves entrancing, hypnotizing, almost casting a spell on, the audience, through the creation of a seemingly flawless, perfect work.  A very common aesthetic attitude is obsession with perfect beauty.  (2) Imperfection:  There is a less common aesthetic attitude that holds that perfection is not interesting, rather, imperfection is interesting.  There are several senses of this idea.  (A) In the realm of physical beauty of persons, flawed beauty can be much more interesting than perfect beauty.  (B) In other areas of aesthetics, imperfection can imply a problem for which one can look for a solution.  Imperfection promises the chance to make something perfect.  For example, people are fascinated by movies that are filled with conflict and drama.  People don't pay to see movies in which everything is perfect.	1/6/2001

Arts, general.	Philosophy and art.  There is philosophy in every work of art.  Every work of art implicitly and explicitly makes statements regarding what is the world (i.e., metaphysical statements), and how one knows (i.e., epistemological statements), and whether the situation is good or bad (i.e., ethics statements), and what one should do about the situation (i.e., ethics statements).	7/23/2006

Arts, general.	Philosophy in art.  An artwork says, "Consider X.  Think about X.  Mind about X, by using your senses, emotions, memories and thoughts."  That is to say, art is an epistemological venture.	7/23/2006

Arts, general.	Pop art.  (1) Sometimes a work achieves both popular and critical acclaim.  Sometimes a work achieves only popular acclaim.  Sometimes a work achieves only critical acclaim.  (2) Sometimes a work is rejected at first, by the critics or populace, and then accepted later.  Sometimes a work is accepted at first, by the critics or populace, and then rejected later.	7/15/2004

Arts, general.	Positive art shows what is.  Normative art judges the situation as good or bad, and says what we should do about it.  Normative art is art that has a lesson, or moral, or that depicts a utopia.	08/14/1994

Arts, general.	Progressivism and the arts.  Build a collection of examples of Progressivism in the arts.  Take that collection on tour.  Give that collection a museum to return to, "The Museum of Political Progressivism in the Arts".  Include all the arts, visual arts, music, literature, movies.  At the very least, make a list of Progressive art works.  Progressivism meaning ecological sustainability, social justice, education, health care, universal human rights, etc.	5/5/2007

Arts, general.	Propaganda, advertising and art.  (1) Propaganda and art.  Propagandists know that art is a fine way to spread their message.  Art has strong emotional impact.  Art seems to not require high standards of reason.  (2) Advertising and art.  Advertisers often use art to sell a product.  Advertisers will often combine music, visual images and poetry to woo customers.  Advertisers are not far from propagandists.  One view is that art is always "selling" something.  (3) To the degree that it appeals to emotion over reason, art can be criticized as being propaganda and advertising.  (See also: Sociology, communication, propaganda.  See also: Business, marketing.)	7/14/2004

Arts, general.	Psychology and art.  Art is a coping mechanism.  Art is how some people cope with the stresses of life.	3/14/2007

Arts, general.	Psychology and art.  Art is therapy.  Art is a subconscious form of self-therapy.  Visual artists are engaged in visual art therapy.  Writers are engaged in writing therapy.  Musicians are engaged in music therapy.  Artists, as art producers, are engaged in art therapy  art.  Audiences, as art consumers, are also engaged in art therapy when they consume art. 	5/1/2007

Arts, general.	Psychology and art.  Rejection of art and artist by the audience.  Just as the patient rejects the therapist, so to does the audience reject the artist.  The reader rejects the text and the author.  The viewer rejects the painting and the painter.  The listener rejects the music and the composer.  The audience has psychological defense mechanisms in place, ready to reject any new idea and its proponents.  Everyone has ego defense mechanisms in place to bolster one's sense of self and one's views of the world.  Some people are more closed-minded, narrow minded, guarded, than others.  Good art disables the audience's ego defense mechanisms.  Good art slips past the audience's ego defense mechanisms.  Good art is disarming.	7/2/2006

Arts, general.	Psychology and the arts, or epistemology and the arts.  The arts, including literature, are a way of knowing.  The arts, including literature, are a type of knowledge.  The arts are knowledge by vicarious experience.  The arts are knowledge gained through a type of virtual reality experience.	4/22/2007

Arts, general.	Psychology and the arts.  Freudianism and the arts.  The arts reflect the human subconscious.  The arts reveal basic, subconscious human fears and desires.	1/4/2006

Arts, general.	Psychology and the arts.  The arts, including the art of literature, help build emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence helps prevent people from going crazy and killing themselves or others.  Emotional intelligence is a knowledge of emotions in self and others.  Knowledge of what emotions one is feeling.  Knowledge of how to best handle, or deal with, one's emotions.	4/22/2007

Arts, general.	Psychology of art.  All paintings are Rorschach tests.  All literature is a word association test.	8/15/2005

Arts, general.	Psychology of art.  Art is a form of information management.  Producing a work of art is an attempt at information management.  Consuming a work of art is an attempt at information management.  Art is about the organization of information.	3/19/2006

Arts, general.	Psychology of art.  Art is a form of psychotherapy.  Producing a work of art is a form of psychotherapy.  Consuming a work of art is a form of psychotherapy.	3/19/2006

Arts, general.	Randomness vs. pattern in art and nature.  (1)(A)Randomness in art:  If you drop confetti randomly onto paper, is that art?  If a computer fills a grid with randomly generated colors, is that art?  (B) Pattern in art:  Is mere pattern art?  Is mere mathematical repetition art?  (2)(A)Randomness in nature:  On the one hand, there is the randomness of, for example, the position of air molecules in a container.  (B) Pattern in nature:  On the other hand, there is the pattern of, for example, leaves.  (3) Is there more beauty in one or the other?	12/30/2000

Arts, general.	Simplicity and complexity in the arts.  All complex art is not necessarily good art.  All simple art is not necessarily bad art.	10/13/2004

Arts, general.	Society does not necessarily recognize and reward "good art" because "good art" is everywhere.  Society recognizes and rewards the art it needs at the moment, the art it resonates with at the moment, and the art that expresses the "next step" society needs to take.	4/15/2002

Arts, general.	Sociology of art.  Art is a form of communication.  Producing a work of art is an attempt at communication with other people.  Consuming a work of art is an attempt at communication with other people.	3/19/2006

Arts, general.	Style and art.  Declarative art vs. questioning art.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style and art.  Good style: true, cool, neat, complete.  Bad style: stupid, fake/phony, narrow, stilted, affected.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style and art.  Rates of change of styles: for better or worse.	01/01/1993

Arts, general.	Style and art.  The theories behind the styles.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style and art.  Types of styles.  Factors in development of individual style or society style.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style implies attitude (thought and emotion).  Style implies philosophy.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style of a work.  Style of an artist.  Style of a school of artists.  Style of an society.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Style.  (1) People group artworks and artists by similar traits.  They say that artworks or artists with similar traits are of the same style.  This is the use of the word "style" as a term of classification.  (2) People say that artists they like "have a sense of style", while other artists they don't like "have no sense of style".  This is the use of the word "style" to mean some degree of ability or value.	7/15/2004

Arts, general.	Style.  PART ONE.  The artist having a specific style can imply:  (1) The artist has run dry, is repeating himself, and is stuck in a rut.  (2) The artist is shallow or unidimensional.  (3) The artist has gone commercial and is branding himself.     PART TWO.  If you do something new every time you create a work of art, you are unidentifiable and have no style, which is good.  "Style" is a pejorative term meaning "lacks imagination", "takes no risks" and "sold out".     PART THREE.  In a culture, an unchanging style, or a lack of diversity of styles, can be a sign of a rigid, dogmatic, oppressive, exclusionary, static culture.  So to in individuals.   PART FOUR.  Definitions of "style".  (1) Style means to group similar works of art together.  To categorize and classify.  (2) Style vs. substance.  Style as front, appearance or decoration.  (3) Style as unique personality.	4/8/2001

Arts, general.	Style.  The acceleration in the rate of change of styles in the arts, and the increase in the diversity of styles at any one time, is due to the increasing freedom of the individual to express themselves.  For example, the increase in rate of change of styles from Middle Age music to Classical Age music to Romantic Age music to Modern Age music.   Another example, the increase of rate of change of styles in Jazz in the 20th century from Traditional jazz to Swing jazz to Bebop jazz to Modal jazz to Free jazz.  The increase in rate of change of style is due to: (1) Degree an artist feels free and creative; (2) Degree groups of musicians promote freedom and creativity; (3) Degree audiences (society) wants new and different stuff.  The point is that increasing political/social freedom has led to increasing artistic freedom and the development of diverse artistic styles.  A counter-argument is that this may be an illusion of historical perspective which tends to see the present in detail and the past in generalities.  There may have been many styles in the past which we now overlook.  Another counter-argument is that it may have been factors like better technology or increased leisure time that allows the birth and spread of styles, and not political/social factors.  As leisure increases and technology improves, styles are born and spread faster.	2/1/2001

Arts, general.	Style.  The problem with associating artistic styles with historical eras is that two mistakes can occur.  Firstly, the mistake of thinking that everyone during that era was using that style.  Secondly, the mistake of thinking that no one outside that era was using that style.	1/25/2005

Arts, general.	Styles I like and why.  (1) Artist as acid photographer.  (2) Objective realism.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Styles: Narrative, expressionism, impressionism, abstract.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Styles.  Two causes of change in styles.  The change of styles can be driven by artists looking to not imitate existing works of art.  The change of styles can be driven by audiences looking for new forms of expression.  Artist-driven change and audience-driven change are both important.  Progressive artists and progressive audiences both search for the new and improved.  Reactionary artists and reactionary audiences cling to the old.	1/15/2005

Arts, general.	Taste.  (1) Some people use the term "taste" to mean either refined, cultured or educated.  (2) Some people use the term "taste" to mean arbitrary (ex. simply a matter of taste).	11/15/2001

Arts, general.	Taste.  People say they know what they like.  That is because each person has their own special cathartic requirements.	03/11/1989

Arts, general.	Technologists are accustomed to thinking of food, clothing and shelter as a group of related concepts.  Perhaps artists should also think of food, clothing and shelter as a group of related concepts, because when you do you see that these three areas try to be high art but do not quite make it to that level.  (2)  The three pairs of people associated with these areas, that is, fashion designers and clothes horses, chefs and foodies, and architects and house-ies, give a good try with their glossy magazines to make a big deal out of their respective areas, however, they are not entirely convincing.	9/12/2000

Arts, general.	The artist says, "Lets talk about this, because this is important."	7/24/2006

Arts, general.	The computer is the most important medium today for the creation, dissemination, and consumption of art.	1/6/1997

Arts, general.	The history of art or anything else.  (1) We want to see "progress" or "improvement".  Other alternatives: (2) Stasis.  (3) Ceaseless random change without progress.  (4) "Rediscovery" or cyclic.  (5) New, but not improved.	12/20/2002

Arts, general.	The most important thing about art is the message.  What message are you going to send?  What things are you going to talk about, and what will you say about those things?  What is your view?	5/27/2007

Arts, general.	The museum of art should be called the museum of historically significant, officially sanctioned, critically acclaimed, socially accepted, universally approved, high quality, high priced art.	10/5/2000

Arts, general.	The object in art is to move from reality, to the abstract, and then back to a re-created reality, which is the work of art, a new reality.  The work of art is a metamorphized reality, containing the truth in a clearer and more concentrated (pure) way.	11/13/1988

Arts, general.	The power of art.  To communicate, to persuade.  To change people's heads and actions.  Powerful ideas, powerfully communicated.  The power of ideas and emotions.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	The purpose of art is to capture a mood through combinations of senses (sight, sound, smell, taste) and not through ideas or concepts ?	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	The senses of smell and touch are underutilized in the arts.  (1) List things of which I like the feel.  I like the feel of sand and stone.  (2) List the things of which I like the smell.  I like the smell of cut grass, coffee, fresh bread, barbecue, and wood fireplaces.	2/28/1999

Arts, general.	There is more good art than you will ever get the chance to consume, even if it was all free, because there just is not enough time.  What to do?  Expose yourself to as much good art as possible.	1/18/2004

Arts, general.	Three philosophical issues:  Truth in art.  Meaning in art.  Value in art.  See each section.	10/20/2005

Arts, general.	Three types of explaining of art.  (1) Asking the artist to explain the artist's work.  (Artists often cannot explain their own work.  They just do it.)  (2) Asking an art critic to explain an artist's work.  (3) Asking a psychologist to explain an artists work.	5/29/2001

Arts, general.	Three views of what art is:  (1) Problem solving view of art.  Good art says (or shows) "These are the problems, and these are the solutions."  (2) Some people think that the purpose of art is to show us the good and the bad in life and in people.  To celebrate the good and bemoan the bad.  (3)(A)Descriptive art is art that merely shows what is.  Descriptive art is a kind of "real politik" art.  (B) Proscriptive art (normative art) is art that shows what we should do about what is.	7/15/1999

Arts, general.	To produce great art you must have brains and balls.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	Truth in art.  (1) Truth in fiction literature.  The details of a novel are made up, but the work speaks truth about the human condition.  (2) Truth in music.  How can a piece of music be true or false?  (3) Truth in visual arts.  How can a picture be true or false?  One view holds that only an untouched photograph is true.	10/19/2005

Arts, general.	Two arguments in favor of the arts.  (1) In real life we learn more from the arts (ex., music, visual arts, literature, movies, anecdotes, jokes, etc.) than we learn in school.  (2)  Imagine a world without the arts (i.e., without music, painting, literature, movies, etc.).  Very grim.	1/17/2002

Arts, general.	Two definitions of art.  (1) Art as a psychological process to understand the world.  (See: Psychology of art).  (2) Art as communication between people.  (See: Sociology of art).	7/14/2004

Arts, general.	Two types of art.  Art that pleases.  Art that antagonizes.	04/24/1997

Arts, general.	Types of art.  Art that confirms the audience's attitudes versus art that challenges the audience's attitudes.  Its up to audiences to expose themselves to both kinds of art.	10/15/2004

Arts, general.	Types of art.  Solitary arts vs. group arts.  (1) Solitary production of art (ex. author) vs. group production of art (ex. theater company).  (2) Solitary consumption of art (ex. reader) vs. group consumption of art (ex. theater audience).	5/14/2004

Arts, general.	Ubiquitous art.  To say that everyone is an artist is to say that everyone has an artistic side.  Development of a person's artistic side is necessary for a person's psychological health.  Development of artistic modes of thinking is a necessary part of mental development.  The arts are an important part of education.  Arts are an important part of every individual.  And thus, the arts are an important part of society.  (2) To say that art is everywhere is to say that we do not have to go to a museum to see art.  Everthing has an aesthetic dimension.  Art is an everyday thing.  Art is not an isolated, rare thing.  The artist is not an isolated, unique person.	5/14/2007

Arts, general.	Utilitarian theory of art.  The goodness of the work of art is based on how helpful or useful it is.  (1) Aesthetic beauty is helpful in calming, delighting and pleasing.  (2) Art helps us make sense of the world.  Art helps us add meaning to our view of the world.  Art helps us posit new concepts and new relationships between concepts.  (3) Art provides cathartic release, which helps us remain psychologically healthy.	7/14/2002

Arts, general.	Value and art.  All art makes statements about the nature of things, including the value of things.  All art makes implicit or explicit statements like, "This subject is good (or bad).  This subject is important (or unimportant).  This subject is true (or false).  This subject is beautiful (or ugly)."	10/20/2005

Arts, general.	Value and art.  Art works make statements about subjects.  The art work has value.  The statement has value.  The subject has value.  Not only monetary value, but other types of value also.	10/20/2005

Arts, general.	Verbal doodles and visual poems.	4/15/2007

Arts, general.	Visual art and music are two media that cross cultural barriers more easily than language.  So any media that takes advantage of music and visual images is an international media.  However, music and visual art are not entirely free of cultural constraints.  Visual art and music have culture-specific idioms.	2/10/2002

Arts, general.	Visual arts and music succeed to the degree that they render the audience speechless.  If the response is non-verbal then that is success for a work of visual art or music.  If the response is not easily put into words then that is success for a work of visual art or music.	1/26/2004

Arts, general.	What are the results of a society that over emphasizes images (ex. movies) and under emphasizes printed text?  The result is an under emphasis on abstract argument because that is what printed text does well.  The result is also an over emphasis on emotional "visual bites" since that is what images do well.	3/10/2004

Arts, general.	What can one say with music?  What can one say with visual arts?  What can one say with movies?  I fear not much.  I'm not feeling the emotion thing lately.  Music, visual arts and movies are not doing it for me these days.  Music, visual arts and movies seem retarded to me these days.  The word on the street is "verbal".	5/5/2005

Arts, general.	What is art?  (1) Art defined as an exercise of the imagination.  That is, art as fiction.  For example, novels, and paintings of fictional events.  (2)  Art defined as an exercise of the emotions.  Art as emotional communication.  For example, music is an exercise of the emotions.  Music is also a form of emotional communication.  (3) Art defined as narrative or storytelling.  In this sense, art does not have to be fiction.  When a person cobbles together a series of facts, the person is creating a human-made object or artifact.  A narrative or story is a non-abstract form of communication that describes persons, places, things and events.  (4) Art as a type of communication.  (5) Art as a way of thinking.  (6) Art as a nonverbal form of expression.  For example, the arts of music and dance.  (7) Art as any non-scientific and non-philosophical form of expression.  The view that if its not philosophy or science then it must be art.	1/8/2006

Arts, general.	What is art?  The answer to the questions, "What is art?", and "Why do art?", depends on how one defines art.  (1) Art defined as access to the subconscious.  Why do art?  Do art to reduce psychological repression.  Do art to confront the things we don't allow ourselves to think.  (2) Art defined as a form of communication.  Why do art?  Do art to talk about what is not allowed to be said.  Do art to confront social taboos.  Do art to confront political censorship.	1/8/2006

Arts, general.	What is the combined power of all the poetry readings?  What is the combined power of all the comedy shops?	5/15/2005

Arts, general.	What is the status of "art primitivists"?  Defined as people who make art without a formal education in art.  Defined as people who make art without viewing other works of art.  Defined as people who make art without reading about art.  Defined as people who make seemingly simple art.  Some "art primitivists" are nonetheless quite artistically sophisticated.  Some reputed "art sophisticates" and "art authorities" are utterly, hopelessly conventional.	7/15/2004

Arts, general.	When a visual or musical work of art (1) Says what words can't say.  (2) Says more than words, or better than words.  (3) Says less than words, or worse than words.  (4) Can't say what words can say.	12/30/1992

Arts, general.	When is it art?  When is it not art?  (1) If you define art as a method of communication then one can argue that all communication is art.  (2) If you define art as a method of thinking then one can argue that all humans think artistically all the time.  (3) If you define art as a product, an object, an artwork, then one can argue that all man made objects have an artistic component.  (4) If you define art as a topic, a subject, a set of ideas, then art is a subject that borders all other subjects.	8/29/2005

Arts, general.	Why do people produce and consume art?  (1) Psychological reasons.  (A) Art is cathartic.  (You can't spell cathartic without art.)  (B) Art is a form of thought.  People like to think.  (C) Art is psychologically integrative.  People like to integrate their experiences.  (2) Evolutionary reasons.  Art confers an evolutionary advantage.  (3) Social reasons.  Art is a form of communication.  People like to communicate.	1/4/2006

Arts, general.	Why don't artists say what they mean?  Because an artist does not always know exactly what he or she means.  An author may say that the story just came to him or her.  The author pictures a story in their head.  Artists work differently than philosophers and scientists.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	.Introduction.  This section has jokes.	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	"Ex" is two-thirds of "Sex".	2/6/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	"I love tobasco", the trucker said.  "To season your food?", the waitress said.  "No, to stay awake.", he said, putting a drop in each eye.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	"Many Little O's", breakfast cereal for women.  "One Big O", breakfast cereal for men.	8/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A bumper sticker you might see on the Los Angeles freeway, "Satan is my tail gunner."	11/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A comedian is someone who is wiki wiki with the nyuk nyuk.	6/22/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A comic strip titled "Coda Cola".  Panel 1: Person looks at their soda and says "I'm tired of giving all my soft drink money to the Coda Cola company.  I'm going to drink lemonade instead."  Panel 2: Person looks at their lemonade and says "Damn, this lemonade is also bottled by the Coda Cola company!  I'm going to drink water instead."  Panel 3: Person looks at their water and says, "What the hell?!  The water is bottled by the Coda Cola Company too!  I can't take it anymore.  I'm gonna shoot myself."  Panel 4: Corpse on floor with a gun in its hand.  Close up of the gun shows on its side "Coda Cola Arms Division."  The End.	1/1/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A conversation overheard.  Person One asks, "Are you an artist?"  Person Two replies, "Do you need art?"  (The joke being that if Person One is looking to buy art then Person Two will gladly create and sell them something called art).	10/16/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A History of 20th Century Physics.  Twentieth century physics begins with the discovery of soft ice cream at the turn of the century.  Some people attribute this discovery to Tom Carvel while other say that Mr. Softee should get the credit.  Soft ice cream paved the way for the discovery of whipped toppings such as Cool Whip and Ready Whip.  Many years passed until a breakthrough was made with the discovery of Jello.  Jello made possible the space program.  During an extra-orbital space flight Tang was discovered.  Tang was interesting because it could exist in a solid, crystalline form or a refreshing, liquid form.  Eventually Liquid Smoke was discovered, a substance that was able exist as a liquid or a gas.  The 21st century holds many hopes and dreams for the physicists of today.	6/14/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A joke to say to a heckler.  Hey buddy, the phrase "Get the lead out" is not supposed to refer to your brain.	9/20/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A man walks into a talent agency and says he has a great act.  The talent agent asks what is the act.  The man says, "First I ask if there are any altar boys in the audience.  Then I invite them on stage and get fresh with them.  Then I ask if there are any women in the audience who showed up without a male chaperone.  I invite them on stage and get fresh with them.  Then I ask if there is anyone in the audience who has not prayed today.  I invite them on stage and get fresh with them.  Anyone left in the audience I invite on stage and make them clean up the mess.  Then I chop off a few hands.  Then I do a few clitorectomys.  Then I stone a few people death.  Then I take a bow."  The talent agent asks what is the name of the act.  The man says, "The Theocrats."	7/20/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A painting by the French impressionist Paul Gauche, called "Where the f*ck am I?  What the f*ck is happening?  Who the f*ck are you?"	11/23/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A psychiatrist, a philosopher, and a computer programmer walk into a bar.  The psychiatrist orders whiskey; the philosopher orders wine; and the computer programmer orders a beer.  They start talking to a guy at the bar who is drinking milk.  After an hour, the psychiatrist, the philosopher, and the computer programmer say to the guy drinking milk, "So you are telling us that someone replaced your computer desktop with a full screen snapshot of your computer desktop, and now you think it is possible that either you are in the Matrix or else you are a brain in a vat?"	2/7/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A radio broadcast; "In Ohio, a minister is asking people not to use the phrase, "The corn is as high as an elephant's eye.", because it contains a subliminal message regarding drug use.  The other half of the story; I'm naked from the waist down."	11/27/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A store called "Just Paperclips Etcetera".	5/5/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A store that sells crematory receptacles, "You've Urned It."	1/2/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A t-shirt for binary digital types: I LOVE N/Y.	5/6/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A television show.  Don Sellars: Insurance Claims Administrative Clerk.  (Musical introduction)  (Setting: an office with desks, office workers, and a front desk)  (Scene 1: a person enters and stands at the front desk).  Don Sellars says, "Can I help you?"  Person says, "Yes, I'm here about the accident yesterday on Main Street."  Don Sellars says, "How can I help you?"  Person says, "Who determines the reward given to a person who is injured due to negligence on the part of the driver?"  Don Sellars says, "A lawyer will present an argument to a judge and jury."  Person says, "Well, then who gathers the actual physical evidence at the crime scene?"  Don Sellars says, "A police officer gathers any physical evidence."  Person says, "Then who determines the cause of death?"  Don Sellars says, "A forensic pathologist determines the cause of death."  Person says, "Who will investigate if no actual crime was committed?"  Don Sellars says, "A private detective will investigate if no actual crime was committed."  Person says, "Who will determine if insurance will cover the car repair?"  Don Sellars says, "An insurance claims adjuster will determine if insurance will cover the car repair."  Person says, "Is that you?"  Don Sellars says, "No."  Person says, "Then what do you do?"  Don Sellars says, "My name is Don Sellars.  I am an Insurance Claims Administrative Clerk."  (Commercial break).	9/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A therapist picks up some cards and says to patient, "I want you to look at these pictures of stars and tell me what you see."  The patient says, "That picture looks like a microscope.  That one looks like a fly.  That looks like a rabbit.  That one looks like a sea monster."  Therapist puts down the cards and says, "I'm afraid you have a severe case of astromania."  The patient says, "What?  You're the one with the pictures of constellations."	12/7/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A yuppie confrontation avoided: "Muffy, don't listen to Tad, that's just the wine-cooler talking."	6/28/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	A zoology joke.  A man is about to be reincarnated as a whale.  He finds out there is good news and bad news.  The good news is he will have a ten foot schlong.  The bad news is his wife only wants to f*ck every three years.	5/22/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Adventures in Speed Dating.  DATE ONE.  She says, "Hi, my name is Melissa, I work in finance."  He says, "Hi, I'm Raoul, I'm homeless, jobless and dateless."  End of date.  DATE TWO.  She says, "Hi, I'm Wendy, I work in marketing."  He says, "Hi, I'm Raoul, I'm homeless, jobless and dateless".  She says, "I can work with that.  What are your hobbies?"  He says, "I like philosophy."  End of date.  DATE THREE.  She says, "Hi, I'm Susan, I'm in management."  He says, "Hi, I'm Raoul, I'm homeless, jobless and dateless."  She says, "Okay.  What are your hobbies?"  He says, "I like philosophy."  She says, "Fine.  Does it take you two minutes to make love?"  He says, "No, I usually make it last longer than that."  She says, "You'll have to do.  Let's go."	6/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Advertisements to beware of: "Ged your GED today!"	4/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Advertisements you won't see: "cafe' Speed is now serving coffee shakes.  They're tremble-icious!"	7/5/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Advice to teens: Do not read "Death of a Salesman" and "Babbitt" back to back.	11/30/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Alpha males?  More like ALF males.  Remember ALF?	11/22/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	America is a nation that needs alternative sources of energy.  America is also a nation of obese people.  Therefore, America should use liposuction to gather fat to be used as fuel.  America can run on its own human lard.	8/6/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Amish horse and buggy with signs on the left and right side of the rear bumper saying "passing side" and "suicide".	9/15/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	An alternative ending for the film "The Lord of the Rings", directed by Peter Jackson, in lieu of the final kiss scene.  (Final scene) Frodo and Sam stand on the shore, having completed the journey to Mordor to destroy the ring.  Frodo casually asks Sam for a foot rub, claiming fatigue.  Sam agrees in his usual, good-natured way.  Frodo then requests that Sam remove his shirt.  Sam says he is does not feel warm.  Frodo insists that Sam will feel better if he takes off his shirt.  Sam takes off his shirt.  Then Frodo asks Sam to start singing a song.  Sam protests, questioning whether singing is really necessary.  Frodo insists that Sam sing a song.  A shirtless, singing Sam Gamgee continues giving a foot rub to a rapturously smiling Frodo Baggins.  (Fade out)  Five minutes later.  (Fade in).  Sam says, "Mr. Frodo?"  Frodo says, "Yes, Sam?"  Sam says, "Now that we have destroyed the ring, any so called 'agreement' we had to work together toward that goal is dissolved."  Frodo says, "What do you mean, Sam?"  Sam says, "What I mean is that I'm going back to my wife."  Frodo says, "What about my feet?"  Sam says, "You can massage your own stinking hairy feet."  Frodo says, "Sam, get back here."  Sam says, "Kiss my hobbit wand, Frodo."  (The End).	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Announcer: "Welcome to What's My Motivation, the game show where contestants guess the motivations of everyday people in order to win, you guessed it, cash and prizes.  Our contestants today are Tim, a wall street trader from Summit, New Jersey.  Susan, a housewife from Oxnard, California.  And Rolf, a masseur from Demoines, Iowa.  Okay, lets play What's My Motivation.  Our first mystery guest is an architect named Stuart.  He is married with two children.  He coaches Little League and collects stamps.  What is his motivation?  Tim?"  Tim says, "Making a million dollars?"  Announcer says, "No.  Susan?"  Susan says, "Putting his kids through college?"  Announcer says, "Close, but no.  Rolf?"  Rolf says, "Getting a first issue plate of the new Ethel Merman stamp?"  Announcer says, "That's right.  Second round.  A woman named Gwen likes macrame' and cats.  She works as an administrative assistant.  She just spent her pay check on lottery tickets and a pint of ice cream.  What's her motivation?  Rolf?"  Rolf says, "Win a million dollars?"  Announcer says, "No.  Tim?"  Tim says, "I pass."  Announcer says, "Susan?"  Susan says, "She wants to get over a break up with her boyfriend."  Announcer says, "That's right!  We'll be right back with more What's My Motivation."	5/7/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Ask the Hermit.  A reader writes, "Dear Hermit, my girlfriend and I have a great relationship, however part of her family does not get along with part of my family.  Specifically, her half-brother has an intense love/hate relationship with my third cousin twice removed, who, incidentally, is completely oblivous.  Please advise, the situation is urgent."  The Hermit replies, "The brook flows.  The clouds appear and disappear.  Everywhere the plants are in bloom."  The reader writes back, "Um, I don't think you quite grasp the severity of the situation.  Our family gatherings are in complete disarray because of this problem.  I wrote you, in confidence, expecting a prompt, concise, clear reply."  The Hermit replies, "The goldfish traces a path.  Soon it will be winter.  Flock of geese, flock of sheep, flock of seagulls?  Grumble.  Murmur.  Psh.  Hrumph.  Cough.  Hawk.  Spit."  The reader replies, "Really, this is too much.  You write an advice column.  I'm asking you for advice.  Hello?  Is anyone home?"  The Hermit replies, "(Shrug) (Smile) (Wanders away)."	1/4/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Astronomer's log for the first half of September, 2004.  September 1st, cloudy.  September 2nd, rain.  September 3rd, cloudy.  September 4th, rain.  September 5th, cloudy.  September 6th, clear but the full moon makes it too bright to see the galaxies.  September 7th, rain.  September 8th, cloudy.  September 9th, clear but I was too tired and fell asleep.  September 10th, cloudy.  September 11th, rain.  September 12th, clear but my wife and I made whoopee.  September 13th, cloudy.  September 14th, rain.	9/14/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	At a party.  First person says, "I'm going to name my child 'Madison'."  Second person says, "I'm going to name my child 'Lexington'."  Third person says, "I'm going to name my child 'Third Avenue'."	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	At a therapy session, the therapist says to the patient, "Why are you crying?"  The patient says, "Because I'm doing most of the work here and I'm not getting paid, while you are not doing much work at all and you're getting paid."  The therapist says, "You're making progress."	11/16/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	At the flea market I swiped an object and started walking away with it.  They said I had to pay.  I said, "Flea Market.  Everything is flea!"	5/6/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	At the restaurant I had difficulty deciding between the dolphin safe tuna and the tuna safe dolphin.	4/14/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	At this point, making a joke about sadistic necrophiliac bestiality would be like beating a dead horse.	11/24/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Begin the Beguine.  Resume the Resume'.	10/25/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Book title: "From Cab to Cap and Back Again."	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Book title: "Learn French in Five Minutes a Day".  Subtitle: "ten thousand days required".	2/27/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Books that perhaps should never have been written: "Complete Idiots Guide to Rock Climbing".	1/21/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Boot and Reboot are in a boat, Boot falls out, who is left?  Reboot.  (repeat joke).	7/7/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Bush says, "These employment numbers are the highest I've ever seen."  An aide says "That is because everyone is working two jobs.  Bush says, "I don't get it."  The aide says, "If everyone is forced to work two jobs then the employment numbers double."	7/31/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	By high school I had formulated a "Failure With Dignity" plan.	4/11/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Canal Street: Is it a street or a canal?	9/12/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Carnival sideshow: Paul the Happy Medium.	9/8/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Cartoon: Picture of two people in a room that has a high ceiling.  There is a large ceiling fan with blades that span the entire room.  The ceiling fan is hanging low, just above head level.  The fan is spinning very quickly, so that everything in the room is being blown away.  One person says to the other, "At least it keeps the room cool."	1/1/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	CEO handbook: "What Color is Your Golden Parachute?"  Worker handbook: "What Color is Your Paranoid?"	3/13/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Children's toy: "My First Climbing Rope".  This fifty foot piece of old clothesline will provide minutes of enjoyment while your child learns about height, gravity and the laws of falling bodies.	6/4/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Claude faced the same problem that all poet-philosophers face: getting his syllogisms to rhyme.	12/23/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Comedy duo: Two eggs on a roll.	9/8/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Commercial for Bartleby Hospital.  (Poignant music plays in background).  A few years ago, my doctor called me to his office and told me that I had a case of severe ingrown toenail.  So I bought myself a burial plot, made my funeral arrangements, and started digging my own grave.  Then my doctor called me back into his office and told me to stop digging my grave.  I said, "Really?"  He said, "Yes, the workers at the cemetery dig the graves. " I said, "Oh."  Then my doctor told me that severe ingrown toenail could be easily treated with a simple out-patient procedure.  I said, "Hot Ziggity."  The doctors at Bartleby Hospital saved my life.  I was so happy I ate a cake.  Which caused a case of advanced gastro-esophageal reflux.  Here we go again.	3/1/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  A school called "Three R's 'R Us".	7/11/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Johnny Cash song, "Ghost Writers in Disguise".	8/3/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Movie called "Layaway: Final Payment", starring Bruce Willis and Imelda Marcos.	9/17/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Movie title: "Malice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."	10/7/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald called "Tender is the Thigh".	8/8/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Poem by Walt Whitman, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Mocking."	9/19/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Could have beens.  Song title: My Foamy Ballantine.	8/3/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Count yourself among New York's weirdest.	2/16/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Cover letter.  Hello.  Permit me to introduce myself.  My name is Rene Vargas.  Although, at this point, I am a complete stranger to you, I could not help but notice that you and I are both in somewhat of a predicament.  Your company needs an employee.  I need a job.  Don't you see?  There is a solution to both our problems.  Think about it: we just exchange.  We simply trade.  Your company hires me.  I work for your company.  Its a flawless plan, when you consider it.  Naturally, you would want an employee who is creative and has a good sense of humor.  I would want an employer who provides free coffee and a comprehensive dental plan.  But the details are negotiable.  Friend, the answer is clear.  My resume is attached.	2/1/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Create a "Credits Channel" on television which shows nothing but rolling film credits and soothing music 24 hours a day, for when regular television programming is just too much.	1/1/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Create a park called Butt Park, because in New York, there is no place to park your butt, except in the park, so we should call the park Butt Park.	04/10/1997

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dateline Sweden.  It was announced today that a new category has been discovered.  A team of experts from around the globe is being assembled to confirm the existence of the new category.  Meanwhile, academia is abuzz with the excitement that only the discovery of a new category can create.  /  It is not determined yet how the new category should be classified.  Scientists, philosophers and artists each want to claim the new category as their own.  /  John Truth, a philosopher at MIT, had this to say about the new category, "As a philosopher, I haven't seen this kind of excitement since Oxford in the 1950's.  We've seen new concepts, new theories, even new paradigms, but the discovery of an entirely new category is quite remarkable."  /  Elise Probably, an artist at the School of Design, said, "Artists were the first to recognize the new category.  I cite a reference in the Journal of the History of Contemporary Post Futurism."  /  Will Fact, a scientist at the Chevy Foundation offered this, "The new category will require new tools of measurement which we are currently developing.  Its too early to tell the industrial potential of the new category, but I think we're looking at a winner."  /  Mathematicians, logicians and beauticians are similarly agog over the discovery of the new category.	5/7/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	David Plane says he's going to live in a small glass box with 50,000 cockroaches.  As a carnival stunt?  No, he's renting a studio apartment in Manhattan.	6/10/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dear Blog.  I blogged a bloggy blog today.  And all the blogs were blogging blogly.  Blog bye.	12/21/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dear journal: Today I spent the entire day writing in my journal and reading old journal entries.  I plan the same for tomorrow.	5/29/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dear sir, Enclosed in this envelope please find your new plastic card.  Your plastic card tells you who you are.  Your plastic card tells you how to live your life.  Your plastic card determines what you do, and thus, what you think and feel.  Feel free to use your plastic card anywhere we tell you to.  If you have any questions, call us anytime, but speak to no one else.  Do not tell anyone your PIN number; it will be our little secret.  Begin shopping now.	2/26/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dear sir, You are now the proud owner of our product.  Thank you for buying our product.  You have made us richer.  (1) Naturally, you expect that the benefits of using our product outweigh the costs of using our product in addition to the money you spent buying our product.  Any expectations on your part do not imply a guarantee on our part.  (2) Also, please be aware that you now have another "thing" in your life, and this may result in making your life more complicated.  (3) In addition, the purchase of our product sends out a social signal regarding the type of person that you are.  You have now become the type of person who buys our product.  Please affix our sticker in a clearly visible place.  (4) Once again, welcome, thank you, and get in line.	3/10/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Dear sir, You have have been taken over.  A consortium of interested investors has purchased all rights to you.  The enclosed paperwork explains it all in sufficient detail.  You will continue to exist, only you will not be "you" per se, rather, you will be an asset of "The Company".  Go about your business.	2/26/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Depot Depot.  //  Come to Depot Depot to outfit your depot.  Do you have a depot?  Is it your depot threadbare?  Is your depot bereft of decor?  Depot Depot will make your depot sparkle and shine.  It does not matter if you have a train depot, a bus depot, a plane depot, or even a Segway depot.  Depot Depot is the place to go to furnish your depot.  Speak to our depot people, who know all there is to know about depots.  Depot Depot is the place to go for all your depots needs.  Depot Depot.  That's Depot Depot!	4/10/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Do you shop at McWalBucks?	3/20/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Do you suffer from loose pocket change?  Now there is a prescription medication, called Coinex, that you can take to alleviate the symptoms of loose pocket change.  Did you know that loose pocket change can weigh you down and make lying on your side uncomfortable?  Not to mention the ever-present worry of knowing your pockets have too much change in them.  Ask your doctor about Coinex and solve your loose pocket change problem today!	4/8/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Donuts cost a dollar a piece today, so now betting dollars to donuts is a moot point.	3/21/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Double Bind!  The hilarious new party game where people try to extricate themselves from a series of severely debilitating psychological pretzel holds.  (1) Begin playing Double Bind by shuffling the deck of Issues cards that have printed on them various problems that a person can experience in their work, relationships, or any other area of their life.  Each player collects one card each turn.  When a player collects two cards that conflict, everyone yells, "Double Bind!".  For example, if you collect one card that says "Girlfriend doesn't love me", and another card that says "If I can't have her then no one can.", you are in a Double Bind!  (2) When you are in a Double Bind you have four options: Murder, Suicide, Addiction, or Standup Comedy.  If you choose Murder then you get to knock one player out of the game, but then you have to sit out twenty turns in either "Jail" or the "Mental Hospital".  If you pick "Jail", then you have to wear the plastic handcuffs that are included with the game.  If you choose "Mental Hospital" you have to wear the straight jacket that is included with the game.  If you choose Suicide you don't leave the game, rather, you have to spend the next fifteen turns making the other players feel guilty.  If you choose Addiction then you get to drink, but you also have to throw up every turn for ten turns.  If you choose Standup Comedy then you have to tell a revealing personal joke every turn for five turns.  (3) More ways to play:  If its your turn, and you draw a card that does NOT put you in a Double Bind, then you can elect to go to Therapy by taking a therapy chip.  When you acquire four therapy chips you can use them to get out of your next Double Bind.  (4) Another way to get out of a Double Bind is the Change Attitude option.  The player attempts to think of a way to change their attitude to get out of their Double Bind.  If the player's answer matches one of the Change Attitude answers printed on the back of the card then that person gets out of their Double Bind.  (5) Double Bind! is so fun and easy to play.  Double Bind! is also a game that portrays problems that you may face in your own life.  Play Double Bind! today!	11/20/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	East meets west: the sourdough bagel.	11/1/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Employees must wash customer's hands before returning to work?	7/19/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Every time you go to "Mega-cuts" to get a haircut, you end up looking like one of the Three Stooges.  At "Mega-cuts", they have three haircuts, "The Moe", "The Larry", and "The Curly".	4/27/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name for a cashier: May Shortchange.	12/30/1997

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name for a restaurant: Chez Whiz.	10/14/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Bjorn Jesterday.	6/12/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Blip.  For someone who is an outlier or a statistical anomaly.	1/1/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Flip Glib.	5/7/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Gorp Torpor.	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Pat Answer.	7/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake name: Tad Askew.	6/19/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Fake names for brother and sister: Terrace and Veranda.	9/28/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Favorite postmodern, self-referential, ironic dialogue by a character in a novel: "I am not a character in a novel."	9/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Final line in a letter from a businessman: "Please don't hesitate to let me know if there is anyone else I can do."	4/13/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	For my next trick I would like to juggle two blondes.  Are there two blonde ladies in the audience?  (Point to one blonde).  Would you like to go out Friday?  Yes?  (Point to the other blonde).  Would you like to go out Saturday?  Yes?  Thank you very much!  (Applause).	2/6/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Furtive and Fumbling, licensed sex therapists.	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Gameshow.  Let's play "Guess How the Artists Died!"  Your choices of death are: Suicide, Syphilis, Tuberculosis, Alcoholism, and Car Accident.  Your choices of artists are: Jackson Pollack, Hart Crane, George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, and Friedrich Nietzsche.  You have one minute to "Guess How the Artists Died!"	7/2/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Garrison Peillor, author of "Lake Whoadude", says, "Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet porn."	5/28/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Give a man a fish and he will have smelly hands.  Teach a man to fish and he can contribute to the destruction of the marine ecosystem.	4/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Give a man a fish and he will say, "Thanks for the fish, buddy."  Teach a man to fish and you can charge him tuition.	4/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Grafitti dollar bill.  Today the government announced that to help deter counterfeiting the new one dollar bill will have the following phrases printed on it in brightly colored inks and unique fonts: "Bling bling", "Can't touch this!", "Class of 73", "Suzy and Bobby 4ever 2gether".	8/3/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Gutters and cisterns.	5/29/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Guys name: Andor.  And/or.	12/20/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Gym troublemaker.  Zeno's paradox.  His reps get slower and slower as he approaches the end of the set.	5/30/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Haiku.  Sitting in the dark, in the bathroom, because the lights shut off to save energy.	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Happy coincidence?  The degree to which you mess up your life due to your own stupidity is the same degree that it does not bother you due to your own stupidity.	10/31/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He did not know much about management.  He thought "supervision" was an attribute of comic book heroes.	8/31/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He doesn't know the difference between NASA and NASCAR.	4/12/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He finally finished his autobiography entitled "This Page Left Blank Intentionally".	9/28/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He heard the adage, "Candy is dandy, but licker is quicker", so he licked her but.	11/20/97

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He said, "I have good news and bad news.  The bad news is that I broke up with my girlfriend.  The good news is that I made up with my right hand."	2/26/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He said, "Make sure you watch out for my Jaguar."  I said, "Make sure you watch out for my Pumas."	4/17/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He says, "Did you see 'The 300'?"  She says, "The 300 what?"  He says, "The 300 dumb asses."  She says, "I heard they used computer animation to make that movie."  He says, "That's because the producers could not find 300 actors stupid enough to play the roles."	5/5/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He says, "I started with nothing."  She says, "How did you make out?"  He says, "I broke even."	5/10/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He says, "I'm a gypsy."  She says, "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."  He says, "If you're a Nazi then its a bad thing."	4/12/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He says, "I'm considering adoption."  She says, "That's terrific.  You are going to adopt a baby?"  He says, "No.  I want someone to adopt me."	11/20/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He says, "I'm considering day care."  She says, "That's great.  You are going to put your child in day care?"  He says, "No.  I want to put myself in daycare."	11/25/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He was happy that his back injury pain was blocking out the pain from his hernia.	4/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	He was suffering from the three I's of old age: Impotence, Incontinence, and Impertinence.	4/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Hello?  Is this the National Scone Company?  Yes, my name is Mortimer Snerd, and I have a complaint.  I bought some of your scones and they have absolutely no taste whatsoever.  Hello?  Can you speak louder, I cannot hear a word you are saying.  I want a full refund for a box of scones.  They tasted like cardboard sprinkled with sawdust.  What's in these scones anyway?  Read the list of ingredients?  I can't read the list of ingredients because the print is too small.  I say these scones have no taste or smell.  What did you say?  I can't hear you.  Hello?  Hello?	7/14/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Her body was ex-squeeze-ite.	12/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Her personal trainer was named Gym.	7/15/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Hip hugger jeans are exposing the soft underbelly of America.	9/8/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	His dick was getting as much action as a baby changing table in a men's bathroom.	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	His goal was to stay out of gaol.	4/21/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	His neighbors were a mix of the Munsters and the Flintstones.	8/4/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Horror movies.  When women get scared at the movies they let out an honest scream and get it over with.  When men get scared at the movies they often look like they just realized that they lost their car keys and they silently check all their pockets in one second flat.	5/6/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Hot food in hot weather, cold food in cold weather.  Consistency is more important than personal comfort.	11/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	How the corporations will keep humans alive.  //  Monday is national "free cup of coffee day" at Starbucks.  Tuesday is national "free hamburger day" at McDonalds.  Wednesday is national "free blah day" at Blah corp.  And so on and so on.  Every day of the year will be a giveaway somewhere.  Feeling tired?  Don't worry, Thursday is free cone day at Dairy Queen.  High blood sugar?  Friday is free drumstick day at KFC.	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Hugh Grant in formal attire on a New York subway.  "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen.  I don't mean to interrupt your commute.  You see, I've managed to lock myself out of my castle.  Silly me (self deprecating smile and chuckle).  The guest house is already taken.  And my summer villa is being painted.  Quite unfortunate, really.  The Rolls Royce is at the mechanics.  The Bentley is being detailed   And I let the chauffeur take the Jaguar for the weekend.  So, plainly then, I am obviously in dire need of help.  I do hope you will all see fit to lend a hand.  It would actually be quite proper and so forth (self deprecating smile and chuckle).  Eh, whot?  Good show.  Jolly good.	10/30/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Humpty Dumpty Press Conference.   Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being here today.  It gives me great pleasure to announce that through modern science and technology Humpty Dumpty is back together again.  Without any further ado, here is Humpty Dumpty.  (Standing ovation).   Humpty Dumpty: Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Its good to be back.  Well, they said it couldn't be done, but I am back.  They say, "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again."  You know what?  They are wrong.  The corrupt king, his flunky men and their stinking horses are a bunch of backward, medieval, ultra-conservative royalists.  I met some new cool liberal types and I feel better than ever.  And I have a new dent-proof shell.  Don't believe what they say about there being no hope.  See you on the wall.  Rock on!  (Standing ovation).	11/20/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Hunting as a hobby is a joke.  What is the challenge of using a rifle to shoot a deer in the woods when you can hit a deer with your car while backing out of your driveway on your way to work?	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I am a little concerned about the demographic that is awake at 3am watching television and buying baseball cards and bowie knives.	11/10/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I am writing a children's book called, "Why the Neurotic had No Friends".	10/2/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I don't collaborate.  Isn't collaboration a bad thing?  Don't they shoot collaborators?	4/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I go to the coffee cart on the corner and order "coffee blech".  (i.e., coffee black).	6/4/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I hangout in lesbian bars because there are twice as many women there.  They do not want me, but neither do the women in the straight bars.	7/28/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I have a rye sense of toast.	12/23/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I introduced my psychotherapist to my chiropractor and freed up four afternoons a week.	11/10/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I Just Want To Get Paid.  //  What do I have to do to get paid around here?  I work hard every day.  I want to get paid.  I never thought I would have so much trouble getting paid.  I thought it would be easy to get paid.  I look around and I see other people are getting paid.  Why can't I get paid?  People kept saying how they were getting paid.  It seemed like people were getting paid left and right.  I'm finding its not so easy to get paid.  I'm wondering when I will get paid.  Sometimes, I want to get paid so bad it feels like I'm going to explode.	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I long for a deep woman.	4/4/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I need a biographer in-person.  Someone to interpret me to the people with whom I interact.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I needed writing paper, so Audrey suggested I go to the stationary store.  So I said, "As opposed to a store that is moving?"	9/26/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I see your point and it appears to be at the tip of your cone-shaped head.	4/18/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I took a stab at being an assassin.	9/8/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I was a hypnotist for a brief spell.	06/10/1997

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I was arrested in France for failure to use a napkin.	9/25/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I was CEC of my company.  Constant Existential Crisis.	1/25/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I was in a restroom stall one day and noticed a small hole in the bathroom wall.  The next day the hole was a little larger.  On the third day the hole was as large as a human head, and there was a guy looking out of the hole.  He said he was from the NSA, the National Security Agency, which is a United States spy agency.  He said it was his job to keep an eye on the restroom situation.  He told me to ignore him and go about my business.  He seemed somewhat bored and he started making small talk.  He knew my name and inquired about my health.  He asked if I minded if he did some fact checking.	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I would give you a piece of my mind but I don't believe in welfare.	11/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I'm like a crackaholic, but for women.	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I'm not saying he was aesthetically shallow, but the depth of his artistic sense was trying to spot the Playboy bunny in every painting he saw.	2/23/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I'm not saying she's nutty but she's got more people in her head than the Statue of Liberty.	6/20/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	I've forgotten what it is I've lost touch with.	1/17/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Icarus Airlines.	02/28/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Idea for a television show: Mr. Zed the thinking horse.  Scene: A farm.  Farmer 1: What's the matter with that horse on your team that does not want to pull?  Farmer 2: That is Mr. Zed.  He doesn't like to pull.  He just wants to think.  Farmer 1: I notice him drawing symbols in the dirt with his hoof.  Farmer 2: Yes, he does that constantly.  No one knows what it means.  Farmer 1: Why don't you just let him loose?  Farmer 2: We tried that but he won't run with the herd.  Farmer 1: Well, then it's the glue factory for him.  Farmer 2: I guess so.  Come on Mr. Zed.	3/14/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	If I want your shit I will take a walk across your front lawn.	12/30/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	If you look closely at the Statue of Liberty's other hand, the hand that is not holding the torch, at the right moment on the right day, you will see that the middle finger is extended.	4/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	If you were alive sixty years ago, and if you lived on the Bowery, and if you had taken care of your health, rather than drinking yourself silly, then you might have lived long enough to hear the following news report: "While skyscraper after skyscraper goes up, the New York hoi poloi have decided that the piece de resistance is living on the Bowery.  Countless limousines pull up to the curb and dump out one jewel bedecked tycoon after another.  No doubt about it, if you ain't here then you ain't nowhere.  And that's no bottle of bathtub gin.  From the Bowery, this is Flim Flam reporting, Channel 2020 news."	8/10/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Imagine a new television program called, "When Card Tricks Go Bad".  The dialogue: "Is this the card you picked?"  "No."  "Is this the one?"  "No."  "This one?"  "No."  "Is this your card?"  "No."  "This?"  "No.".	8/26/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In college I took a semester to study a broad.  She was a nude model from my art class.  I dropped out of school to have an affair with her.	10/16/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In New York City it is common to refer to pigeons as "rats with wings".  However, it is less common to refer to rats as "four-legged pigeons".	7/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In the car she said, "Excuse me.  Why is there a banana peel, an orange rind, and an apple core on your dashboard?"  He said, "Its a potpourri."	7/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In the health food restaurant I ordered compost.	7/18/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In the not so distant future inventors will develop a car whose exhaust smells like barbecue.	5/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In the supermarket, "Do you have love oil?  I mean olive oil".	11/29/1993

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In the year 2030 it will be announced that finally after 50 years everyone in the United States has received a MacArthur genius award except Walt.	4/18/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	In Tibet they revere the Dalai Lama.  In America they worship the Dollar Wallet.	12/2/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Introducing the one you love to hate to love...	2/16/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Is this what its come to?  Hotels that say, "George Washington slept here."  Restaurants that say, "George Washington ate here."  Roadside pit stops that say, "George Washington shat here."  Street corner signs that say, "George Washington spat here."	11/12/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	It was clear that they were a cosmopolitan couple; they had been to discotheques around the world and could order drinks in more than six languages.	6/1/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	It was lunchtime, and John decided to write a letter to his girlfriend Johanna.  He typed his network password into the computer.  Then he typed in his local computer password.  Then he typed in the password for the word processing software.  Now he was ready to write.  He typed in the word "Dear".  The computer prompt asked him if he wanted to use the word "Dear."  John typed "Yes".  The computer asked him to type in the password for the word "Dear".  John typed the password.  Then he typed "J", the first letter of "Johanna".  The computer prompt asked him if he wanted to use the letter "J".  John typed "Yes".  The computer asked him to type the password for the letter "J".  John typed the password to the letter "J".  To read the rest of this, please type the password.	4/27/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Its a mad, mad, mad, mad cow.	4/29/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Its a Monday morning and two bleary-eyed Hollywood movie industry types meet at the water cooler.  First Marketer: I have a cool name for a movie, "Jurassic Park".  Second Marketer: "You're a Sick F*ck"?	7/14/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Its Hello Kitty's world.  We just live in it.	7/1/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Ixnay on the x-ray.	2/28/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Jim says, "John, did you say that you used to be in the closet?"  John says, "No, I said that the place I was renting was the size of a closet."	6/5/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Job description:  This job entails working with objects and boxes.  Objects are removed from boxes and then put into other boxes.  Boxes of objects are moved.  Objects outside of boxes are also moved, usually toward boxes.  If you enjoy objects, boxes, the boxing of objects, and the moving of both boxes and objects, then you will probably enjoy this job.  Please have experience with objects and box-related environments.  After work we meet at a local bar where the object is to discuss boxing.	7/24/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Job joke.  For years I languished.  Do you know what it is like to languish?  If you don't, you are in for a shock.  Its not pretty.	3/31/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Job title: Heretic.  Job description: Challenge the orthodoxy.  Debunk conventional wisdom.  Iconoclasts welcome.	10/27/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Jonathan Living Stoned Seagull.	1/2/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Joyce, Keats, Yeats, Rilke, Proust, Nervy.  What do all these names have in common?  Five letters.	10/26/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Knurlman and Choad, personal injury lawyers.  //  My name is Robert Knurlman.  I am a personal injury lawyer.  If you are injured, call me.  I will represent you in a court of law.  I will present your case before a judge and jury.  If your brain has become soft from too much television, let me know.  I am a member of the bar.  I practice law.  If you acquired ADD through the use of too much sugar, contact my office.  I am an attorney.  I can advise you in matters of jurisprudence.  If a legal proceeding is convened to determine your guilt or innocence, I will argue in your defense.  I am a law guy.  I am a lawyer man.  I do law.	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Ladies, imagine Pac-man, with a three day shadow.	4/3/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Lets catch the bus that will make our dreams come true.	11/02/1993

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Lets move beyond the typical "us vs. them" thinking to "the royal we vs. the proverbial they".	11/29/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Library signage from earlier, cruder times.  (1) "Please do not clean your fish on the scrolls."  (2) "Please do not commit murder in the library of Alexandria."  (3) "The scriptorium is not a vomitorium!"  (4) "These books are not toilet paper."  (5) "If you cannot read this sign, please ask for help."	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Low brow, single syllable beers: Schlitz, Pabst, Strohs.  High brow, multiple syllable beers: Michelob, Heineken, Lowenbrau.	6/4/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Mallsoleum, the dead people at the mall.	6/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Marshall Loupe, male writer of women's erotica.  Let me tell you, being a male writer of women's erotica has not been an easy job.  It was Sigmund Freud who once asked, "What is it that women want?".  Who knows?  Here is a selection from my recent work:  "First he brought out the soup.  He knew that she liked it hot.  Steaming.  Even though he was only a manservant, she noticed the hundred dollar bills falling out of his pockets.  "What kind of soup is this?", she asked.  "Chocolate soup, just the way you like it, with plenty of whipped cream.", he whispered.  He arched his eyebrow at her.  She became flustered, her breathing rapid.  He took her pulse.  They both knew it was time."	4/20/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Meat is murder.  Fur is murder.  Occasionally I eat a furburger.	4/28/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Mike's Speed Dating Poker.  Mike says, "Ladies, welcome to Mike's Speed Dating Poker.  These are the rules.  You will be dealt five cards face down.  You have five seconds to make your bet.  Whoever wins gets a date with me.  Let's begin by dealing the cards.  Okay, Susan, what is your bet?"  Susan says, "How can I bet if I can't see my cards?"  Mike says, "Sorry, Susan, your time is up.  Denise, what is your bet?"  Denise says, "I fold."  Mike says, "Denise folds.  Okay, Stacie, what is your bet?"  Stacie says, "I'm all in."  Mike says, "I'm all in too.  What have you got?"  Stacie says, "I don't know."  Mike says, "Turn your cards over."  Stacie says, "I have a pair."  Mike says, "You certainly do.  Let's go on a date."	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Monetize your angst.  Did you know that you could improve your financial situation if you would just decide to monetize your angst?  Convert your angst into a revenue stream.  Your angst is worth money.  Call today for a free brochure.	7/2/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Money can't bring you happiness.  The things money can buy, however, CAN bring you happiness.	01/07/1997

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Movie title: They Were Expendable.  My situation: I Am Deductible.  (I am not a writer, I am a write-off).	4/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	My dermatologist is forming a band with his colleagues called the Skin Doctors.	10/30/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	My favorite animal: flying fish.	3/24/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	My girlfriend asked me to talk dirty to her.  So I said, "The orphan girl was so poor she had to wear the unwashed clothes of homeless men."	4/26/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Name for a store: "The Thing Place".	11/12/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	New York City Diet Plan: small portions, high prices, lots of walking.	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	New, Extra! laundry detergent: the instructions say to use a cap full, but you really need to use a little extra.	5/28/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	News item: Today police found a naked man in a bathtub half filled with water.  When asked what he was doing the man replied, "I was just taking a bath."	6/8/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Next stop: Toxi City, USA.	8/31/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Nicorette: white trash girl's name.  "Hey, Nicorette, go down to the convenience store and get me a carton of cigarettes!"	5/8/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Nightmare while dozing at a fast food joint...  Overheard at a Chicken-in-a-Bucket restaurant turned into a futuristic plastic surgery center:  "I'd like two legs, two breasts, and two wings."  "Anything else?"  "Make that three breasts."  "That'll be $9.95 please."	6/28/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Noam Chomsky is like Hegemony Cricket.  Seriously, read Noam Chomsky's book, "Understanding Power: The Indespensible Noam Chomsky".	6/1/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Not such a good book idea:  "Ten Years, Doing Nothing, Alone in a Hut in the Middle of Nowhere".	4/8/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Novel title, "They Also Serve Who Stand And Wait", a story about restaurant help.	4/4/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	One cowboy says, "What ever happened to that filly you were trying to break?"  The second cowboy says, "She gave me a good case of hoof and mouth disease."	12/4/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Open a greeting card and it says: "Because convention demands it".	12/13/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Owning a cactus is almost the same as owning a pet rock.	8/26/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Paradigm shift.  I once mistook people talking on their cell phones for people talking to themselves.  Today I mistook a person talking to themself for someone talking on their cellphone.	9/17/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Patriotic chefs keep the homefries burning.	10/28/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	People in glass houses can fart.	3/3/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	People Who Were Quietly Escorted Out of NASA's Mission Control.  //  (Scene One: Narrator standing in front of a shot of NASA Mission Control.)  Narrator says, "The American Space Program in the 1960's was a high point of human technological acheivement.  NASA's Mission Control was the center of America's space program.  The engineers in Mission Control were a buttoned down lot, capable of living in a veritable pressure cooker of stress.  However, not every engineer hired by NASA managed to cope with the situation.  Today, using rarely seen footage from the NASA archives, we salute "People Who Were Quietly Escorted Out of NASA's Mission Control" (music).  (Scene Two: Picture of a 1960's engineer sitting at a console at Mission Control, with slicked-down short hair, short sleeve button shirt and tie, pocket protector, and glasses held together with tape.)  The engineer, Norbert Von Neumann, says, "Yes, we have your oxygen level on track.  Affirmtive, your nitrogren level is stable.  Copy that, your hydrogen level is a go.  And your carbon dioxide level is, JEEPERS FREAKIN CHRISTMAS LOOK AT THE FREAKIN CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS!!!  What?  What did I do wrong?  Who are those guys with the guns?"  (Scene Three: Picture of another 1960's engineer sitting at a console at Mission Control.)  The engineer, Alvin Turingson, says, "Roger, your coordiates compute.  Wilco, we have you on screen for the docking procedure, and, HOLY SHEESTER, LOOK AT HOW CLOSE THAT FRIGGIN ASTEROID WAS!  FUG, THAT WAS CLOSE!!  Huh?  What do you mean?  Would you please take your hands off me?  I have a PhD, you know."  (Scene Four) Narrator says, "Norbert Von Neumann and Alvin Turingson were just two of the many capable engineers who, at the critical moment, unraveled like a spool of cheap fishing line.  Today, Norbert works in janitorial services and Alvin entertains the severely comatose.  Gentlemen, we salute you.  You were "People Who Were Quietly Escorted Out of NASA's Mission Control."	4/11/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	People whose conversation consists only of catch phrases from television game shows.  "Things you do when you are happy.", ($20,000 Pyramid).  "What is, you are happy.", (Jeopardy).  "He was so blank that he touched her blank with his blank.", (Match game).	1/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Personal ad.  Writer in search of cafe'.  I was with my last cafe' for about four years.  I still like my old cafe', but I just don't feel the same way about it anymore.  A lot of the initial excitement is gone.  I'm looking for a new cafe'.  Hopefully, it will be a cafe' that will let me be me, and that develops as I develop.	4/30/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Pet romance.  She rebuffed him cattily, but he pursued her doggedly.	11/16/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Picking up women at the supermarket.  //  Oh, hello.  I didn't see you shopping there.  Wow, that's a lot of food.  Your cart is full to the top.  Are really going to eat all that?  Oh, you have a refrigerator and a freezer.  Yeah, I know all about those things.  Did you happen to see where is the dented can section?  Many of the dented cans are still good, you just have to smell when you open them.  Did you know that you don't need to cook instant rice?  Its precooked.  You can just let it sit in tepid water for an hour.  What's that?  You have to run?  Well, lets agree to meet later on.  How about a rain check?	4/30/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Piss and vinegar flavored potato chips.	8/8/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Piss is beer spelled backwards.	11/23/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Poor tour for the rich.  The rich feel guilty for being rich, and for being ignorant of the life that the poor live.  I will arrange supervised tours where rich people will live the life of the poor for a week or so.  First they will put on rags and get all dirty and hungry.  Then they will beg in the streets.  Eat from dumpsters.  Then they will be arrested and spend a night in jail.  Also they will spend a night in a homeless shelter and a mental ward too.  Of course it will all be not real, and completely supervised and safe.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Portnoy was determined to find out what type of man he would become if he decided to read only New Yorker cartoons.  (Drawing of a boy reading a magazine).	10/25/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Post-Madonna-ism.	12/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Premise for a book called "What Time Is It?"  This book is about my journey across America asking people what time it is.  Its a story about the wacky answers (ex. "11:57" and "3:05") and not so wacky answers (ex. "2:10" and "4:48") of the American people.	11/2/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Punchline from a WWII joke: Then Churchill says to Rommel, "Go fox yourself".	11/6/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Q. If you were a deodorant would you be a roll-on or an aerosol?  A. Don't be an aerosol!	6/20/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Reporter says, "Please tell us the idea for your new invention."  Inventor says, "My idea is to turn an ear of corn into a telephone."  Journalist says, "Can you tell us how far you've gotten?"  Inventor says, "I have the ear of corn.  Hello?  I cannot hear you.  Can you hear me?  Hello?"	3/8/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Restaurant advice: Instead of picking a menu item, let the menu item pick you.	10/25/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Ribley's Believe It or No.  Believe it or no, while most people work scams and rackets for money, Paul Nervy risks poverty by studying philosophy.	5/18/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Romantic idea: He bought edible underpants for his girlfriend.  Romantic mistake: He served edible underpants on china with silverware to his girlfriend.	8/3/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Scene 1: The boardroom of a major corporation.  The critic stands up and says, "No, man.  Don't you see?  The corporation is an abuse of power that exploits the worker and the  environment!  (Stunned silence)  I'm out of here."  Scene 2: The boardroom of a progressive non-profit .  The critic stands up and says, "No, man.  Don't you see?  This non-profit is an inefficient use of resources!  (Stunned silence)  I'm out of here."  Scene 3: The hobo jungle.  The critic stands up and says, "No, man.  Don't you see?  The hobo jungle is just another way of avoiding the real issues.  (Stunned silence)  I'm out of here."  Scene 4: The critic talking to himself in wilderness.  "No, man.  Don't you see?  The wilderness is just an empty void.  (Stunned silence)  I'm out of here."	5/10/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Scientists have discovered the brain chemical that produces the emotion of romantic melodrama.  The chemical is produced by what is being called the "Wuthering Heights" gene.	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Senior Wascomat.	2/15/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She asked, "Do these boots have a steel shank in them?"  He said, "No, they have a plastic shiv in them."	10/16/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She gave him the Einstein kiss-off: she told him she needed more time and space.	5/13/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She says, "Honey, you have blueberry on your cheek."  He says, "What do you mean?"  She says, "Look in the mirror.  You have blueberry on your cheek."  He looks in the mirror and sees the word "blueberry" on his cheek.  He says, "You're right.  I do have blueberry on my cheek."	9/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She says, "Who wears the pants in your relationship?"  He says, "We both wear skirts."	5/14/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She took vitamin B-18 because she wanted to be eighteen again.	12/22/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She was so cold she was voted "Miss New England Winter".	1/22/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	She wasn't very literate.  When she picked up a book she would look at the back cover to see if it said "Hallmurk".	5/8/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Sitcom: Life with Wittgenstein.  //  Setting: in a suburban dining room, a family sits down to dinner.  Husband says, "I thought it might be nice to invite one of the philosophy faculty to dinner (canned chuckle).  Mr Wittgenstein should be here any minute."  (There is a knock on the door)  Husband says, "That is probably him now.", and opens the door.  (Wittgenstein makes his entrance with verve.  Much canned laughter)  Wife says, "Welcome, Mr Wittgenstein, its a pleasure to meet you.  We're having roast beef with all the trimmings."  Wittgenstein says, "I don't care what I eat, as long as its the same thing every meal.  I'll have a cheese sandwich."  (Uproarious canned laughter).  Child says, "Hello, Mr. Wigginson.  That's a funny name."  Wittgenstein says, "You can call me Vicky."  Child says, "Okay, Vicky."  (Huge canned laughter).  Other child says, "Vicky, looks at my talking lion doll."  Wittgenstein says, "If a lion could talk, we would certainly not understand what it was saying."  (Nonstop canned laughter).  Wife says, "Perhaps Mr. Wittgenstein would like to stay for a week or two.  Who knows the fun we could have."  Wittgenstein says, "I shall spend most of the day in my room doing philosophy.  In the evening, I will take a brisk walk in the park where, if time allows, I will indulge in my favorite past time of id-play, followed by ranting outbursts of anger, anxiety, and depression."  (Hysterical canned laughter).  Musical outro.	7/16/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Slogan for a local fast food restaurant: "Its Gross, but its Close".	1/3/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Sports event: the six man casket toss.	12/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Start a fashion company named "Class Action".  When someone asks you what you are wearing say, "I'm in a Class Action suit."	11/28/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Steve says, "Professor, I am entranced by my girlfriend's ass.  Can you tell me why is that?"  Professor says, "Steve, interactions between humans and animals is not my area of expertise."  Steve says, "No, I mean, her butt.  I'm entranced by my girlfriends butt."  The professor says, "Well, why didn't you say so?  We can easily answer that question.  Let's do an experiment, with her consent, of course.  Let's put a marker on each of her ass cheeks, have her walk down the hall, and then see what the computer says."  Steve says, "Its okay with me if its okay with her."  The professor says, "Now, Steve, what is the first thing you notice about your girlfriend's butt when you watch her walk?"  Steve says, "Her butt moves back and forth from left to right."  The professor says, "Correct.  However, when you factor in the up and down motion of her steps, what does it produce?"  Steve says, "It creates a circular motion.  However, that still does not tell me why I find her ass so compelling."  The professor says, "That's where the computer will help us.  You see, as your girlfriend walks away from you, something happens to those circles.  Watch the computer screen."  Steve says, "I see, the circles are receeding, actually becoming smaller in size, like a spinning spiral."  The professor says, "Precisely.  That spiraling motion captures your attention, much like a hypnotists spiral does."  Steve says, "Neat.  I never saw it that way before."  The professor says, "When you apply science, even the most intractable problems can be solved, and you can quickly get to the bottom of things."  Steve says, "The bottom of things.  Very funny, professor."	2/4/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Stu was the child of a soccer mom and a NASCAR dad, so he was able to kick a ball, but only in a circle.	2/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Sullen and sulky.  It sounds like a business partnership.	4/19/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Suppose this.  Suppose that.  Let me give you another suppository.  Suppose the other thing.	2/6/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Take that idea off the shelf and put it on the table.  Now put it on the stove.  Put it on the front burner.  Put it on the back burner.  Now put it back on the table.  Now put it back on the shelf.	2/27/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Television show titled "Bob the Teen Alien Philosopher.  (Musical intro).  Scene one: the Malt Shop.  Bob and his friends are sitting at a table outside.  A jerk rides up and makes a nasty comment to one of the girls.  Bob says, "Your foot is in your mouth, which is in your head, which is in your ass."  The jerk says, "What did he just say?"  The others say, "Never mind Bob.  He's a teen.  And he's an alien.  And he's a philosopher."  The jerk says, "He better be.", and rides away.  The girl says, "Bob, your the best."  The next girl says, "Yeah, the best teen alien philosopher."  (Musical outro).	11/19/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Television.  I know I can become a historical figure if only they can get David McCollough to narrate my morning regimen, and then play that over folk music while showing still photos of the front of my house.	6/20/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Television.  The Candid Kamera Show.  "We thought it would be funny to sedate someone's dog and then tell that person that their dog was killed in an auto accident.  Here's what happened..."	6/20/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Television's new fall line-up.  8:00 pm, Touched in the Head by an Angel.  9:00 pm, Diagnosis Boredom.  10:00 pm, Murder She Looked.	4/6/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The ancient king Typos.  He was prone to spelling mistakes.	4/29/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The author of the book "Four weeks to optimal health" has written a sequel entitled "Five weeks to sudden, inexplicable death".	7/21/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The business consultant told me that a good way to market my business was to do a focus group.  What is a focus group?  He said a focus group is when you pay a half-dozen people a hundred dollars each to get together and talk about your product for an hour.  Sounds interesting, I said.  Later that evening I called an escort service and told them to send over a half-dozen call girls for an hour.  We talked business intermittently.	10/25/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The cafe' is pleased to announce several new sizes of coffee:  Majestic.  Gigantor.  Everest.  Oceania.  Jag.   Meth.  Mania.	1/6/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The dirtiest phrase in computing: hot pluggable hard drive.	11/8/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The doctor asks, "What type of contraception are you and your wife using?"  The husband answers, "We use withdrawal; she goes to her bedroom and I go to mine."	11/7/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Endless Page: My Journey Writing My Book about My Thru-Hike of the Appalachian Trail.  By Jon Epstein  //  Foreword: My thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail was a 2000 mile fest of bugs and blisters.  After the thru-hike an even greater challenge awaited me, the writing of my requisite AT Thru-Hike Story.  This is the story of the writing of that story.  //  Day 1: I am brimming with enthusiasm as I embark on my AT thru-hike story writing adventure.  //  Day 5.  Already the days are becoming a blur of reams of paper, typewriter ribbons and cups of coffee.  //  Day 21.  At times I don't know how I will ever finish writing my AT thru-hike story.  It seems like it will never end.  //  Day 64.  Writers cramp!  My doctors tell me to slow down and take a rest day, but I can't stop now.  //  Day 128.  Hooray, I finally finished writing my AT thru-hike story!  The book has been accepted by a small vanity publisher and it will soon be on the shelves of local outdoor gear shops.	6/7/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The even lighter side of Abraham Lincoln.  //  An aide knocks on President Lincoln's office door.  Lincoln says, "Yes."  The aide says, "President Lincoln, I have your schedule for the day."  Lincoln says, "Forgive me, Jones, if I lack enthusiasm.  I am depressed."  The aide says, "What are you depressed about, Mr. President?"  Lincoln says, "I am depressed because I am gay."  The aide says, "Excuse me, Mr. President, but how can you be depressed if you are gay?  And how can you be gay if you are depressed?"  Lincoln says, "You are right.  It is a logical impossibility.  Thank you, Jones.  I am happy.  What is the first thing on today's schedule?"  The aide says, "You have 250,000 condolence letters to write."  Lincoln says, "I am depressed again."	3/18/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The first sailor says, "I'm interested in navigation."  The second sailor says, "Have you ever worked with a sextant?"  The first sailor says, "You mean a prostitute?"  The second sailor says, "No, I mean shooting the stars."  The first sailor says, "No, I'm not a stalker."	10/15/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The guys were standing at the bar talking about women.  "Tell us about her.", they said to Pablo.  "Tell us what she looked like.  Tell us about her breasts."  Pablo looked up thoughtfully and said, "Well, she was a wide breasted woman."  "You mean she had big tits, like two hot air balloons?", they asked.  "No, I mean her breasts were set wide apart on her chest, rather than narrow.", said Pablo.  They looked at him quizzically.  "And", Pablo continued, "She was a high breasted woman."  Their looks grew more confused.  "You mean her tits stuck out like two torpedoes?"  "No.", Pablo shook his head and waved his hands, "I mean her breasts were set high on her chest, rather than low."  The workers looked amongst themselves.  "Yes", Pablo said thoughtfully, "She was definitely a wide breasted, high breasted woman."  The workers were quiet for a moment and then said, "Tell us more."  Pablo said, "Okay, one more non-alcoholic beer and then I have to get back to the bra factory."	9/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The issue has become a situation.	7/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The last line of every novel I ever wrote: I walked out of the house and she yelled after me, "This relationship was never about anything except coffee anyway!"	7/25/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The lighter side of Abraham Lincoln.  When not in one of his frequent, deep depressions, Abraham Lincoln could display a refreshing candor that could render his interlocutors speechless.  It is widely reported that when he was asked how long a man's legs should be, Lincoln replied, "Long enough to reach the ground."  Less widely known is that when the next reporter asked him how long a woman's legs should be, Lincoln replied, "Long enough to reach her ass."  When a third reporter asked him for any advice, Lincoln replied, "My advice for legs is: keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the ass."  A fourth reporter asked if he could quote the president on that, and Lincoln replied, "You can go f*ck yourself."  No, wait, it was Cheney, not Lincoln, who said, "Go f*ck yourself."	11/19/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Lumberjack Food Critic.  Today I went to Dinar's Diner for breakfast and had the lumberjack breakfast.  It was three eggs, toast, hash browns, sausage, bacon, ham, orange juice, grapefruit juice and coffee; and it was delicious.  For lunch I went to  Wanly's Lunch Counter and had the special.  It was steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, a salad, and for desert, apple pie.  I thought for one second that the green beans were a little bit undercooked, but I decided they were fine.  For dinner I went to the Food Shack and had a terrible dining experience.  The roast chicken was so small I could barely see it.  And haven't they ever heard of putting some bread on the table?  And what about free coffee refills?  It was a very disappointing meal.  In tomorrow's column I will review The Pancake Hut, the Fryolater and the Greasy Spork.  Until then, good eating.	12/14/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Millsborough dough dude was found dead today, after being accidentally put in an oven with a tray of cinnamon buns.  His partially eaten body was found next to a half empty glass of milk.  Police have ruled out foul play.	5/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The New York Museum of Sex.  "They took all the sex and put it in a sex museum.  Then they charged the people eighteen bucks just to see 'em."  (To paraphrase Joni Mitchell).	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Night Reader.  He's out there!  Awake.  Turning pages.  Beware the Night Reader!	10/16/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The other seven dwarves: Cheezy, Sleazy, Skanky, Raunchy, Skeevy, Horny and Nasty.	7/25/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The prosecutor leans into the witness stand and asks the outlaw goon, "When did you stop beating your wife?"  The outlaw goon cries out, "Your honor, that is a trick question!"  The judge replies, "Answer it."  The outlaw goon says, "I never stopped beating my wife."	7/24/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The protesters agreed to meet at the Park and Riot.	10/16/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The residents of the Old Sailors Home voted against replacing their old, creaky, wooden chairs with new metal chairs.	5/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The school's philosophy department made every Friday "Causal Friday".	2/24/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Seven Bridges Problem.  How to get off your island now that you have burned all seven of your bridges?	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Solarium.  //  He said, "This is my solarium.  Even in the winter, it is quite warm in here.  Wind and snow have no effect when I am sunbathing."  She said, "Very impressive."  He said, "Would you like to listen to some music?"  She said, "Certainly."  He reached out and pushed a button.  Music filled the air.  He said, "Its a multi-speaker sound system."  She said, "Must have cost a fortune."  He said, "Would you like a cigarette?"  She said, "In a solarium?"  He said, "I'm actually trying to quit, I've almost stopped completely."  He pushed the cigarette lighter and lit up.  He said, exhaling smoke, "You know, not many people are able to say that they have a solarium."  She said, "Isn't it kind of cramped in here?"  He said, "Two's company, three's a crowd.  Beautiful day isn't it?  Bright, clear, crisp."  She said, "The sun is starting to move out of view."  He said, "Here, let me re-park.  I have to re-park the car every so often to keep it facing the sunlight.  Luckily, there is plenty of room in this parking lot."  She said, "Yah.  Nice spot for a solarium."	1/26/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The sports drink Crock-ade has food scientists busy determining how many flavors of blue exist.	2/28/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The State of the Union Address in the year 2020.  The president of the United States appears, looking like a blend of Charlie Chaplin's Tramp and WC Fields.  He has stubble on his chin, a cigar stub in his mouth, a flask in his pocket, and looks shabby and unkempt.  He takes our a folded, wrinkled piece of paper and unfolds it and smooths it out.  He starts his speech.  "My daughter says that without petrochemical-based shampoo, her hair gets oily.  I said, "Oil?  Where?  Can you squeeze a drop into my gas tank?"  But seriously, folks.  A China man and an India man walk into a bar.  The bartender says, "Where is the man from the United States?"  The China man says, "The man from the United States could not afford to join us for a drink."  Just kidding.  Pardon my appearance, the American public said they did not want to pay any taxes, so I haven't gotten a pay check recently.  Alright, let's see, the State of the Union is foggy and listless.	1/7/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The Story of Myth.  Bill Mayers says "Hello, I'm Bill Mayers, and this is part seven of a twenty two part conversation with Joseph Campbull.  For the next hour we will continue our talk about The Story of Myth.  Welcome Joseph Campbull."  Joseph Campbull says "Welcome, hello."  Bill Mayers says, "Joseph, explain it to me one more time, what is the myth about?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "The myth is about a hero on a journey to slay a monster and get a treasure."  Bill Mayers says, "Now, here is where I get confused.  The hero is the journey?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "No, the hero is on a journey."  Bill Mayers says, "The journey is the myth?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "No, the journey is part of the myth."  Bill Mayers says, "You mean, the treasure is the hero?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "No.  Look, why won't you understand?  I'm speaking clearly and distinctly.  We've been here seven hours already."  Bill Mayers says, "Let me see if I have this right.  The pellet with the poison is in the vestle with the pestle."  Jospeh Campbull says, "No, now your doing Danny Kaye."  Bill Mayers says, "Who's on first?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "Come again?"  Bill Mayers says, "I certainly will, next episode."  Jospeh Campbull says, "Pardon?"  Bill Mayers says, "What?"  Jospeh Campbull says, "Pardon or what, its the same thing."  Bill Mayers says, "We will be right back with more Story of Myth after this station break."	9/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The toady says, "He's a raving maniac, sir."  The CEO says, "Yes, he's exactly the sort of raving maniac this company needs."	3/31/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The typesetter named his daughter Arial and his son Times New Roman.	6/24/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The typical American has two kids named Febreze and Nicorette.	11/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The waitress said, "The specials today are roast lamb and shepard pie."  I said, "What the hell happened in that meadow?"	7/11/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The World's First Professional Food Critic.  Writing from the Bastille in France during the French Revolution.  "Well, it was bread and water again today.  I detect that the bread has a little more sawdust in it today than it usually does.  Perhaps the farmers are in revolt and thus grain is in scarce supply.  Also, the water had a slightly tannic flavor, perhaps due to the presence of leaves in the water supply, which would indicate that the season of autumn is approaching.  Wait, there is a knock on the door.  I am free.  I have been freed by a throng of revolutionaries.  They have brought some wine and cheese.  Its a Burgundy and a Camembert.  The cheese does not really go with the bread or the wine, but that is okay.  Then entire country is in turmoil.  The wine is quite good though, actually.  And, um, one second, oh that is good, yes what was I saying was, the situation here is quite delicious.  I look forward to tomorrow's meal.  Au revoir.	8/13/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	The youngster says, "What is old age like?"  The oldster says, "Depends."	7/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Their family portrait was titled "There are ten mistakes in this picture; can you find them?"	5/21/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Then there was the doctor whose advice was either, "Your socks are too loose.", "Your socks are too tight.", "Take your shoes off.", or "Get a pair of sensible shoes."	8/20/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Then there was the female impersonator who defined drag as, "The art of the passable".	5/12/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Then there were two bourgeoisie pigs who decided to work themselves up into a state of calm self-satisfaction.	3/20/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	There was a slippery slope on the garden path.	10/16/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	There was once a medieval torture called "The Floss".  The victim's index fingers were wound with a thin, waxed twine, which was then pulled tight until the fingertips turned blue.	4/12/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	They accuse me of being bitter; I say that is a matter of taste.	11/20/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	They call me Krazy Glue because I get hard in a minute.	8/18/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	They said there was safety in numbers.  So I became a bookie.	10/25/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things bullies wish they had said at breakfast, "Sometimes you have to crack a few heads to make an omelette."	10/8/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things couples of the future may say: "Flip you for the strap-on".	6/26/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things I would like to see: Sylvester the Cat giving a book report about the book "Consilience".	8/31/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things insurance actuarials think when they sit at their desks, "I'm cheating death!"	10/28/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things not to say in defense of your PhD thesis: "I guess what I'm really trying to say is, I need a hug."	10/12/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things that happen when a generation of hippies become middle aged marketing executives: A breakfast cereal called "Cranberry Sunshine".  Announcement at the Woodstock festival in the year 2020: "People, do not eat the Cranberry Sunshine.  Someone put too much flaxseed in it and it may cause the portasans to overflow."	4/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to order in a coffee bar: "I would like a tall skinny blonde, please."	4/18/2007

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say at a conference podium: "If you will just bear with me (raise arms and growl like a bear), we will continue in a moment".	11/15/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say at an astronomy club star party, "Is that your finder scope or are you just happy to see me?"	10/8/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say in a foreign language.  "Hello.  How are you?  I am learning (name of language) on cdrom.  I gave the cat a bowl of milk."	11/28/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say in response to the obvious: "Do gypsies know how to camp?"	10/12/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say into an apartment lobby speakerphone.  "I'd like a double cheese burger, fries and a large cola."	11/11/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say to your boss.  "I want you to know that even though I did not get a 5% annual raise, I am still going to give 95% to this job."	1/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say when leaving: "Huevos rancheros, my friend!".  (i.e., Ranch style eggs!).	4/23/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say when you are dunking a tea bag, "Confess!  Confess!"	10/31/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say when you go through a revolving door: "See you in the next dimension!"	11/23/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to say when you leave.  Instead of saying "Stay strong", say, "Stay sensitive.  Don't get calloused or jaded.  Don't let the system turn you into a fascist."	1/16/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things to shout at a protest rally: "One, three, five, seven, the next prime number is eleven!"	9/1/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Things your subconscious might say: "He thinks he runs the show, but I run the show.  I'm in charge.  I call the shots.  Nobody tells the subconscious what to do.  Nobody notices me.  I'm here 24x7.  No thanks I get.  Only blame.  Everybody's down on the subconscious.  Hey, look at me, I'm your subconscious.  What do I have to do to get some attention?  Hey, buddy, its your subconscious!"	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	This is your mind.  This is your mind on drugs.  This is your mind on drugs with a side of hash browns and a small orange juice.	7/18/1998

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	This summer was hot.  My apartment was the functional equivalent of an Easy Bake Oven.	8/2/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	This summer's weather forecast: hazy, hot and horny.	8/5/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Title: Three Yen Stories.  Introduction: The ancient mystical practice of Yen continues to attract adherents even today.  Here are three stories that convey the timeless, inexpressible truths of Yen.     STORY ONE.  The Yen monk Xran taught his disciples for a year but still they made no progress.  One day, Xran gathered his disciples around.  "I shall predict the moment of my passing", said Xran.  His disciples asked, "When will that be?"  "Right now", said Xran, producing a gun and shooting himself in the head.  Suddenly the disciples became enlightened.     STORY TWO.  There was a Yen sage named Yano who had a history of poor job performance.  Eventually, he became a beggar and attracted followers who formed into a group of traveling mendicants.  When one of them fell ill, Yano said, "Better to use the emperor's medicine than let even this poor holy man die".  So one of the mendicants was picked to enter the royal pharmacy that night.  The mendicant was caught and hung on the spot.  The sick man died shortly thereafter.  The grieving followers confronted Yano who could only say, "I guess, this too is Yen."  Suddenly his followers became enlightened.     STORY THREE.  A clever Yen monk named Zned came upon a hut where a couple lived.  "Greetings!  I have a message.  The Yen master wants to see you.", said Zned to the husband.  So the husband began the day-long journey to the Yen temple while Zned remained at the hut.  The next day, the husband reached the temple.  The Yen master stood solemnly on the doorstep and said to the husband, "I sent for who?"  Suddenly the husband became enlightened.  Upon his return the husband exclaimed to Zned, "You were clever to have me visit the Yen master!"  "No!  I am clever because I slept with your wife!", Zned said, walking away smiling.  Suddenly the wife became enlightened.	4/4/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	To her I was just a piece of meat who brought home the bacon, which I think is why she called me a pig.	6/1/2002

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Tripartite business plan thesis by Peter Smith, philosophy undergraduate pursuing a masters in business administration.  The first part of the business plan is to open a Philosophy Shoppe.  If the shoppe does well it can be franchised.  The second part of the business plan is to set up philosophy vending machines at key locations in the city.  The vending machines will dispense philosophy at a reasonable price.  People who don't have time to visit the philosophy shoppe can use the vending machines.  The third part of the business plan is to build an MPU, or Mobile Philosophy Unit.  The MPU will consist of a vehicle and crew specially trained to respond to philosophical emergencies.  People experiencing a philosophical crisis can call a philosophy emergency hot line and the MPU will respond.  A break even analysis shows that it is cost effective for society to implement a comprehensive philosophical response strategy.	2/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Two cross dressers were arrested at the drag races.  The police report said they were racing for pink slips.	7/24/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Urban fragrances: Homeless.  Urban fragrances: Bus.	7/17/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Urban legends.  The old shut-in, living in a small studio apartment, suffocated when take-out menus that were slid under the door accumulated to the point where they filled up the apartment completely.	3/25/1999

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	VAPID magazine.  Celebrity interviews.  Glossy photos.  Full-page advertisements.  All catering to your VAPID lifestyle.  Every month we will send you the same magazine with a different date on it.  Maintain your VAPID attitude with VAPID magazine.	12/21/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	We were so poor we used to go to the cafe' to sit and smell the food being brought to other tables.	10/20/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Welcome back to WBLA talk radio.  We are in our second hour of discussing, "Yogurt, blended or fruit on the bottom?"  Let's read some of the many e-mails we've received on this topic.  "Dear Mike, how the heck can you do a show about blended yogurt with the world in the condition that it is?"  Okay, that listener was obviously a fruit on the bottom yogurt fan.  Next email.  "WBLA your segment about fruit on the bottom yogurt is a new low even for a station of limited capability like yours."  Now we are hearing from the other side of the aisle.  Third e-mail says, "I could not care less about blended or fruit on the bottom yogurt".  So you can see that even the undecideds have strong opinions on this issue.  Stay tuned as the Yogurt Marathon continues.	5/5/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What a nice couple.  She was curator of an exhibit called "Dustballs and Tumbleweeds" at the Museum of the Extraordinarily Dull and Excrutiatingly Boring.  He held a chair and a table at the community university cafeteria.	9/5/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What do you get when you cross Burger King with Dairy Queen?  Jack in the Box.	8/12/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What hath goth wrought?  A complete meth.	2/21/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What is your favorite drink?  Prune Tang.	5/30/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What kind of car do you drive?  I drive a Pinata.	9/17/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What nationality am I?  I am half Eskimo and half Bedouin.  In the winter I am an Eskimo.  In the summer I am a Bedouin.	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What nationality am I?  I am two thirds delicatessen.	04/01/1988

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What size shirt do you wear?  Extra medium.	9/20/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	What the future holds: increasingly literate signs displayed by the homeless as more and more English majors become unemployed.  For example: "I, too, am homeless."  "Were it not for homelessness."  "Homelessness does not bespeak me."	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	When asked why he spent ten years in his apartment the recluse said "Its my alibi."	7/31/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	When I asked her where she learned to make love so well, she said at university.  I said, The Sore Bone?	4/3/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	When I was a kid I was not afraid of a monster under the bed.  I was concerned about a bear in the den.	4/27/2005

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	When politicians take office they should be forced to take a Hypocritical Oath.	11/19/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	When the menu describes a dish as savory, watch out.  Savory means it will taste like cardboard.  When they can't call it sweet, or spicy, or creamy, or crunchy, they call it savory.	09/26/1997

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Where do cows go on Saturday night?  To the moovies.  Where do sheep go?  To a baahhh.	11/12/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Why do I like thinking?  Perhaps because I want to be a thin king?	11/25/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Why was the game Monopoly unpopular in the Soviet Union?  Because on the Soviet board every other square was "Gulag".	9/5/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Why was the Soviet Union chess championship a draw?  Because both players defected on the first move.	9/5/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Winner of the Jack Kerouac writing contest.  //  That evening, I was feeling a little low, so I went to the jazz club.  There, someone invited me outside to smoke a funny cigarette.  Inside the club, I started grooving to the jazz.  That jazz band could play.  I started feeling expansive, like the entire world was one big jazz club, and every person in the world was a part of the band, and every person could just skee bop da boop along.  Then I started thinking about pie and ice cream.  All over AMERICA people are eating PIE and ICE CREAM.  Taking big bites of pie and following it up with cool creamy ice cream.  People shouting out, "Hey, waitress, bring us more pie and ice cream!"  Then I started drinking beer.  I got pretty drunk.  I wasn't hungry anymore, but I did start getting loud and obnoxious.  I got into a nasty argument about pie.  A chair fight broke out.  Then I went outside.  I saw a dead possum in the road.  I started crying.  Then I fell asleep on the grass.  The next morning I woke up and the sun was shining and I felt happy again.  Its all going to be okay.  People were going to work.  Working all day long.  I thought about those working people.  It might be a little boring, here and there.  But after work, you can go to the club.	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	You enter the party wearing a large top-hat, cape and cane.  Everyone smiles with delight at your style.  You remove the hat, unaware that you have a rabbit perched on your head.  You proceed to make polite conversation with the bewildered party guests.	11/26/2000

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	You may be a bully if someone calls you a fascist and you take it as a compliment.	10/12/2003

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	You offended my sense of truth and justice.  Now, I'm gonna get renaissance on your ass.	6/22/2004

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Your cottage cheese thighs are just an appetizer.	8/26/2001

Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	Your Own Private Idaho Magazine.  Learn the best spots to build your own private Idaho.  Learn how to decorate your own private Idaho.  Tips on entertaining in your own private Idaho.  Learn how to finance your own private Idaho.	3/25/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Humor as drive: sex drive, death drive.  (2) Humor as emotion: anger, sadness, joy, etc.  (3) Humor as thought: discrepancy, disconnect, contradiction, puzzles, etc.  (4) Humor as attitude: toward life.	4/15/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Political nature of comedy.  (2) Sexual nature of comedy.  Suppressed libido.  (3) Sado-masochistic nature of comedy.  (4) Social nature of comedy.  Social protest: rebellion against power-holders.  Social ingratiation: pleasing and entertaining.  (5) Psychological nature of comedy: cheering self up.	4/15/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	.This section is about  comedy.  Topics include: ( ) Analysis of jokes.  ( ) Appropriateness.  ( ) Audience.  ( ) Comedy (the created ideas).  ( ) Criticism.  ( )  Funny and happy.  ( ) Humor (the emotion).  ( ) Laughter.  ( ) Seriousness.  ( ) Types of humor.  ( ) What is comedy.  ( ) Why comedy.	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	(1) Comedy that attempts to please, ingratiate, entertain.  (2) Comedy that attempts to challenge and confront.	4/24/2005

Arts, literature, comedy.	A joke is a machine for laughing.  The joke moves toward a logical conclusion.  A joke ratchets inexorably toward the punchline.	6/22/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	Analysis of jokes.  (1) Subject matter, view, and argument.  (2) Emotion: humor plus what other emotion.  (3) Type of humor.  (4) How well it works (objectively, and on what audience).  How funny it is.  (5) Level of humor: how high or low brow it is.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Analysis of jokes.  The subject of the words vs. what the joke is really about (theme?) (implicit?).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Analysis of jokes.  What is funny and not, to who, why?  Jokes criticism: analysis and judgment.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Ancient, modern, and postmodern senses of humor.  Describe each, and joke types each used.	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  (1) Called for humor.  Well timed, apropos (on the subject at hand).  (2) Uncalled for humor.  Wrong type of humor, at wrong time, on wrong subject.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  Comedy depends on situation.  What is funny in one situation is not funny in another.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  In some situations talk of a specific subject is called for, and sometimes comedy about it is called for.  In others not?  It is a matter of appropriateness?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  Taking things too seriously vs. taking things too lightly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  There's a fine line between humor and  (1) Jerk: stupid, inane.  (2) Asshole: evil, nasty.  (3) Sick, pervert: crazy, pathological.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  Two views.  (1) Some things we just don't joke about, vs. (2) it's ok to joke about and laugh about anything.  Nothing is immune.  It all depends how you do it.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Appropriateness.  Where do we draw the line to determine (1) What's funny and not.  (2) What we can joke about and not.  (3) What ends we are using our humor for.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience: (1) Readiness to laugh.  (2) General intelligence level.  (3) Humor intelligence level.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  (1) When you don't know what you are laughing at.  You don't know why it's funny, it's just funny.  Unconscious catharsis. Vs. (2) When you do know what you are laughing at.  You get the joke.  Conscious catharsis.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  Every individual and society has their tastes for humor.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  Laughing without knowing why vs. laughing even when you know you shouldn't.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  Level of audience and scope of audience that a joke will appeal to.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  Sometimes people laugh at unfunny material.  Sometimes people don't laugh at funny material.  Know which is which.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Audience.  Why are some things funny to one and not another?  Even if they are at the same humor level.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Catharsis: in tragedy, in comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy (happy ending), tragedy (sad ending).  Everyone's life is an absurd tragedy by degree.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy = art = great ideas + great emotions (funny).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy and humor.  (1) Comedy as a form of art or entertainment.  (2) Humor as something that can occur anytime.	01/23/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy and humor.  (1) Humor: a human emotion.  (2) Comedy: a form of art that deals with humor.  (3) Uses of comedy: (A) Satire.  (B) Abuse: anger.  (C) Mastabatory release: tension release without problem solving.  (D) Psychological healing: true catharsis.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy and tragedy can be in any art form.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy and tragedy.  (1) Comedy = philosophy (pure unemotional idea) + emotion (pure funny).  (2) Tragedy = natural accidents and human mistakes.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy and tragedy.  Always put a little comedy in your tragedy.  Always put a little tragedy in your comedy.  Seriocomedy, bittersweet, is best.	03/13/1989

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy as art and creativity.  Comic as an artist.  The comic is an artist motivated by the urge to be creative.  Creativity is the urge to make something new, better and less boring.	03/03/1998

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy depends on distance and situation or context.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy goals: write ultimate joke, on every subject, in every type of humor.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is about saying the right thing at the right time.  How does this compare to saying the wrong thing at the right time, or saying the right thing at the wrong time?	6/23/2000

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is an emotional tension reliever, like crying.  Comedy is also a logic tension reliever, lets take a break from sanity and the real world.  It is liberating.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is art.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is closely linked to sadomasochism.  (1) Comedian as sadist: putting down other people, attacking others, picking on others.  (2) Comedian as masochist: class clown seeking attention even if it requires making a fool of self.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is difficult.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy is surprise.  Surprise of action (pratfall), or surprise of thought (pun).  Comedy is the unexpected (illogical, absurd).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy vs. order and chaos.  (1) Comedy as creating chaos when too much order exists.  For example, the manic comedy of the Marx Brothers involves creating chaos against a staid, ordered society.  (2) Comedy as creating order out of chaos.  For example, seeing a joke when others see nothing.	6/8/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy, like life, is absurd but not happy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy, like the arts, is just encoding and decoding of ideas.  And this encoding and decoding is just a waste of time.	06/05/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy: problem resolved, person learns and acts in time to avoid disaster and pain.  Tragedy: problem not resolved correctly, person does not learn in time to avoid disaster, unhealth, and pain.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy.  (1) Comic writer.  (2) Comedian (writes and tells).  (3) Comic (tells only).  (4) Comic actor.  (5) Clown (physical comedy only).  (6) Fool (moron).  (7) Heckler, mocker.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy.  A comedy is a string of jokes.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy.  Four definitions.  Comedy as: happy ending, irony, justice, or absurdity.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy.  The political explanation for comedy.  Comedians are power seekers.  To mock is to try to seize power and accumulate power by belittling others.  Mocking, or comedy, is one way that people attempt to create social pecking orders.  This may be why most standup comedians are men.  Men seek power and dominance more than women.  So men mock more than women.  So men do standup more than women.	9/25/2000

Arts, literature, comedy.	Comedy.  Three theories of comedy.  (1) Comedian as sadist.  A person with an great deal of inner anger, that they end up directing at other people by making fun of other people.  (2) Comedian as person with low self esteem, seeking the attention and approval of others through laughter.  (3) Comedian as intelligent person, with acute observatory powers, who is strongly struck by the illogical, ironic, and paradoxical nature of life, and who points out this illogic to others, causing others to instinctively laugh when they think about it, having never noticed it clearly before.	07/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy.	Conflict yields struggle, which yields either tragedy or comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Contra comedy.  Comedy as pathology.  What happens when there is only comedy?  What happens when everything is one big joke?  Then you have become a hyena.	10/4/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Contra comedy.  You can make fun of anything.  You can mock anything.  If your goal is simply to make jokes then the opportunities are limitless, to the point of absurdity, i.e., to the point of almost being devalued.  Thus, there is a certain futility in some types of humor.	2/10/2001

Arts, literature, comedy.	Could humor be a biologically evolved mechanism or trick to cheer us up because sadness is an unhealthy state from an adaptive point of view?	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  (1) Some words are intrinsically funny sounding.  Example, ombudsman, diphthong.  (2) Some people are intrinsically funny.  Funny sounding (voice timbre and voice patterns).  Funny looking.  Funny acting (mannerisms).  Funny thinking (see absurd, absurd logic).  (3) Some subjects are intrinsically funny?  Example, sex, scat.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  (1) Somethings are funny once.  (2) Somethings are funny many times over, again and again (they last more than once).  (3) Somethings are funny for all time and places (classics).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Best jokes are really funny and perfectly delivered.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Degree funny (eh to very).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Degree humor challenges held ideas.  How aggressively it confronts them.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Funniest comedy episode on television.  (1) Quantity and quality.  Number of jokes per episode.  Funniest jokes per episode.  (2) Scope and variety.  Most subjects covered.  Most types of jokes.  (3) Audience reaction.  Made most people laugh.  Made most sullen person laugh.  Made best critic laugh most.  (4) Total humor = sum of above.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  How insightful vs. how funny.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  How much can a perfectly written joke say?  What can it say that other forms of communication can't?  What can't it say?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  How much power can a joke ideally have?  How much power does an actual specific joke have?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Jokes power to enlighten and entertain.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Criticism of jokes.  Profundity, importance, and usefulness of the joke.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Critiquing the comedy of Andy Kaufman.  (1) Any critique of the comedy of Andy Kaufman is clouded by the fact that he died young.  He thus becomes immortalized.  How would we rank him had he lived?  (2) In some ways, the comedy of Andy Kaufman was similar to the music of John Cage.  For example, take John Cage's piece of music that was simply five minutes of silence, or another that was just five minutes of the note C.  John Cage became famous for those pieces.  But were those pieces works of genius that no one else could create?  (3) Which leads to the question, "Is the genius in the thinking, or in the doing?"  Often anyone can think of an idea, but only one person has vision to put an idea into practice.  Is taking action on a simple idea when no one else will an example of genius, or is it an example of some other psychological trait?  (4) Then there is the question of simple devices that are not immediately obvious.  Take the paperclip, for example.  The paperclip is a very simple device.  Was the inventor of the paperclip a genius?  (5) The comedy of Andy Kaufman often incorporates elements of minimalism and Zen.	11/27/1999

Arts, literature, comedy.	Definitions.  (1) The comedy is a man made artifact.   The basic unit of comedy is the joke.  A comedy is a string of jokes.  (2) Humor is an emotion.  Humor is also known as funny.  Humor often produces laughter.  (3) Happiness is an emotion.  Happiness can result from humor (funny).  Happiness can also result from other things.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Does any species of animal other than man have a sense of humor?  Does any species of animal other than man make jokes?  Does any species of animal other than man understand jokes?  Does any species of animal other than man laugh?  Yes.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  (1) Are all funny people happy (funny meaning good comedians, good joke tellers)?  No.  (2) Are all happy people funny?  No.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  Confusion of terms.  (1)(A) To say, "I feel funny.", means, "I feel strange or weird."  (B) To say, "I feel in good humor.", means, "I feel happy."     (2)(A) To say, "That is funny.", means the same as, "That is humorous", means the same as, "I see humor in that."  (B) However, "That is happy.", is something we don't say.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  Do all funny things make us happy?  Is humor a type of happiness?	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  Is humor (funny) the same thing as happiness?  That is, is humor a type of happiness?  Two cases to the contrary: (1) We can be happy without thinking something funny.  (2) We can sense humor (funny) without being happy.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  One argument is that there is no such emotion as "funny".  There is only people figuring out or "getting" jokes by thinking, and then experiencing simple happiness as the emotional response when they solve the puzzle of the joke.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny and happy.  What is the relationship between funny and happy?  They are two circles that intersect.  One circle is named "Funny".  The other circle is named "Happy".  The intersection is named "Funny and Happy".  The remainder of the Funny circle is named "Funny, but not Happy".  The remainder of the Happy circle is named "Happy, but not Funny".	10/15/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Funny.  (1) Funny defined as a personality trait of someone who is good at comedy.  Can create a joke.  Can tell a joke.  Is capable of making people laugh.  (2) Funny defined as a characteristic of well crafted jokes that are capable of making people laugh.	6/7/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Good comedy: important ideas, important subjects, entertaining.  Bad comedy: unimportant ideas, unimportant subjects, not entertaining.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Good humor elevates, not degrades.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Happy subject, happy story, happy ending vs. sad subject, sad story, sad ending.  This is a simplistic, childlike, neurotic pain/pleasure dualism.  There are other emotions however, and anger for example does not always have a bad ending.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	History and criticism of comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	How do comedians justify their comedy?  (1) People enjoy humor and laughter.  (2) Humor and laughter is healthy.  (3) Satire is a social corrective.	11/15/2005

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor as rebellion, anarchy, rule breaking, mooning authority and society.	08/01/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is a power.  Humor is a tool.  Like any other power or tool, humor must be used and used wisely.  Used to do good.  Used to heal.  To do otherwise is to abuse it.	10/30/2003

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is best as either an existential/general or specific/topical form of rebellion, opposition, mocking, or anger.	04/15/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is criticism.  It can be constructive criticism or destructive criticism.	12/20/1998

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is happiness?  Happiness is letting out emotions (catharsis).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is like masturbation.  A physical and emotional outlet for stresses that would be better thought about grimly and converted into drive.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor is psychologically and physically healthy.  (1) Raises spirits.  (2) To mock something, to give it the finger, is to say it hasn't beaten you yet.  (3) Gives hope: anarchic, rebellious.  (4) Improves physical health.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor, directed at the source, and told to the source, at the time of the insult, can be a way of achieving catharsis, i.e., get even by belittling people for their mild offenses.	03/19/1989

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Creating humor is an intellectual exercise.  It keeps your mind in shape.  It keeps your wits sharp.  You can sharpen your wits on others.  Creating a joke is like building a puzzle.  Hearing a joke is like doing a puzzle.  Can you figure the joke out?  Do you get the joke?  (2) Humor is an act of bravery.  You are taking a shot at someone.  You are daring them to hit you back.  You are challenging them.  Wimps are not cut ups.  Cut ups are not wimps.	12/30/1995

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Humor as a useful tool in social dealings.  (2) Humor as fun or play.	06/20/1994

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Humor as anger channeled.  (2) Humor as libido channeled.  (3) Humor as joy (play).  (4) Humor as creativity (art).	10/05/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Humor as emotion.  (2) Humor as attitude.  (A) An existential attitude about life.  (B) A political attitude that includes: lack of respect.  Power grabbing for high-power individuals.  Mocking and wise-cracking for low-power individuals.  (C) A sexual attitude.  Double entendre's, etc.	4/14/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Humor as optimism: hope and joy.  (2) Humor as pessimism: sarcasm, cynicism, bitter, dark.	4/14/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) People with keen sense of humor who are not expressive.  (2) People who are expressive, but with dull sense of humor.	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  (1) Useful use of humor.  Confront problems, solve problems.  (2) Abuse of humor, pathological humor.  Avoid problems, repression.  Defuse problem situations without solving problem.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Definitions of humor.  (1) Jokes.  (2) Ability to appreciate a joke.  (3) Ability to tell a joke.  (4) Sense of humor.  (5) Wit: intellectual.  (6) Laughter: emotion.  (7) Good humor: jolly, good natured, good willed, happy, happy go lucky.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Homes where the expression of humor and appreciation of humor is encouraged vs. not.  What kind of people does it raise?	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Not all happy is funny (ex. Serious joy).  Not all funny is happy (ex. Sad clowns).	2/21/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  People laugh at jokes because they realize it is play, and play is fun, and fun causes laughs of joy.  It is reverting momentarily to childhood.  Silliness.	02/22/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  The link between humor and happiness.  Humor and happiness are similar but not the same.  A joke can make you smile and laugh.  When you smile and laugh your brain chemistry changes and you get into a happy mood.  This is why comedians are important, because they help make people happy.  They help guard against depression.  Jokes and humor alone are not that important.  The happiness that jokes help bring is very important.  (The same thing for fun).	11/5/1999

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  The power of humor.  (1) Humor can literally keep people alive by lifting them out of severe, acute funks.  Comedy, used wisely, can keep people alive.  (2) Humor can literally kill people.  A sharp barb can pierce a fragile heart.  Constant mocking can destroy self esteem and the will to live.  Comedy, used unwisely, can kill people.	4/6/2001

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Two definitions.  (1) Humor as a regression to childhood.  A time of innocence and ignorance.  This is psychologically healthy in most cases.  It can be psychologically unhealthy in some cases.  (2) Humor as antidote to excessive seriousness.  There is a real danger in taking life too seriously.  Taking life too seriously can drive you mad.  Humor helps us not take life too seriously.  This is a psychologically healthy use of humor.	3/13/2000

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Two types of humor.  (1) Language-dependent jokes.  For example, the double entendres of a pun.  (2) Language-independent jokes.  For example, physical humor, visual humor, musical humor and logical humor.	11/25/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  When humorous and humorless people meet, what is the dynamic?	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Humor.  Why does humor work?  Because when we look back over a lifetime, what pleases us most are the stupid inanities.	5/17/2001

Arts, literature, comedy.	I tell jokes because I'm afraid to admit my drives, emotions, and fears, to myself and others.  And afraid to take action to do something about them.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Importance of humor and comedy.  (1) Catharsis: mental health.  (2) Unconscious survival mechanism: we laugh at illogic and stupidity and illness or weakness in any form.  (3) Shows a rebellious bravery.  (4) A type of social correction: satire.  (5) Way of confronting problems without overt negative emotions and violence.  It is diplomatic.  (5) Laughter can help you deal with stress and thus avoid physical disease.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Is comedy optimistic or pessimistic?  Can it be either, or both?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Jokes have both a thought component (you have to think to get it) and an emotional component.  Attitudes are defined as combinations of thought and emotion.  Thus, comedy, jokes and humor is all about an attitude.	3/10/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Justice and truth often cause us to smile and laugh.	3/10/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Laughter and smiles.  (1) Do we laugh and smile every time we are happy?  No, only sometimes.  (2) Do we laugh and smile every time we hear something funny?  No, only sometimes.  (3) Do we laugh and smile under circumstances other than happiness?  Yes, sometimes.  (4) We laugh and smile under conditions of humor.  We laugh and smile under conditions of happiness.  We laugh and smile under conditions that are a mix of humor and happiness.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Laughter.  What is the difference between laughter and happiness?	11/30/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Life is tragic and life is absurd, whether we acknowledge it or not, regardless of our attitude.  Comedy should be absurd but not happy, because life is absurd but not happy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Logic and humor.  Sometimes its a joke because one logic leads in one direction, but another logic leads in another direction.	4/30/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	Most important ideas about comedy.  (1) The beneficial effects of laughter (happiness, joy) on one's psychological and physical condition.  (2) Development of comedy tastes in an individual or society.  Development of comedy tastes intellectually, emotionally, and ethically.	11/30/1997

Arts, literature, comedy.	Most people tell you a joke that they think is funny.  The comedian tells you a joke that he thinks you will think is funny.	1/25/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Not all jokes (comedy) are funny (humorous).  Some jokes, known as "bad jokes" are not funny.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Nowadays a slightly more sophisticated notion of humor has developed in many people.  These people are keyed into humor.  They realize humor can appear almost anywhere.  These people are on the alert for humor.  In addition, they are not only able to spot a joke, and tell a joke, they are also able to write or create a joke.  In fact, when a group of these people get together, the social goal is to have a continuous friendly game of "create the joke" in any conversation.  And so the definition of funny becomes not "seeing a joke that everyone else was able to see and sharing it" but rather "seeing the joke that no one else was able to see and sharing it".	8/5/2000

Arts, literature, comedy.	Purpose of comedy.  (1) Do good, get health.  (2) Catharsis, justice.  (3) Change vs. status quo.  (4) Improve vs. destroy.  (5) Social correction.  (6) Survival.  (7) Confrontation with or without violence.  (8) Bad uses of comedy: avoid, escape, ignore, or mastabatory.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Pushing the envelope (new material, new views) vs. playing it safe (old material, conventional views).  (1) Pushing the envelope tastelessly, i.e., shock comedy (Cursing?  Obscenity?  Sex?  Violence?  etc.?).  (2) Pushing the envelope tastefully.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Recursive humor.  Consider the following jokes from the humor section of the Notes: The Critic; Coda Cola.  These jokes have a quality that is recursive, iterative, almost algorithmic.  Apparently, there is something humorous about recursion.  Many jokes take a recursive pattern, in which the logical possibilities are winnowed down to till the punchline is reached.  It is amazing that the human ability for pure logic is linked to the human emotion of humor.	2/15/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	See rhetoric, struggling, persuasion.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Seeing the good guy win, and seeing the bad guy lose.  Seeing justice done.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Seeing what is funny is one thing.  Feeling what is funny is another thing.	4/30/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	Seriousness need not exclude humor.  Opposite of seriousness is silliness and/or apathy, unaware of metaphysical situation and ethical importance of it.  Opposite of humor is sullen, somber, emotionlessness.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Seriousness.  Life without seriousness (all humor) vs. life without joking (all seriousness).  Which is worse, jokers or stiffs?  What is worse, being humorous in a serious situation or being serious in a humorous situation?	09/01/1994

Arts, literature, comedy.	Seriousness.  Serious does not mean without humor.  The opposite of serious is trivial (i.e., not confronting life's basic problems).  The opposite of humorous is humorless.  Humorless triviality is worse than serious wit.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	The high point of the comedian's art is to tell a joke that causes the audience to emit beverage from the nose.	5/25/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	The opposite of comedy (happy) is not necessarily tragedy (sad).  The opposite of comedy (silly) can be drama (serious).	10/29/2005

Arts, literature, comedy.	The world is illogical and absurd.  Thus, comedy is a case of, "fighting fire with fire".	1/1/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	There are some natural situations we perceive as funny, but they are not comedies because comedies are man made.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	There is something savage, barbaric and primitive about comedy.  Humor is one of our more base emotions.  To mock and heckle is to lash out in an animalistic way.	1/5/2001

Arts, literature, comedy.	Timing problems.  (1) Too fast.  Rushing the setup and the rushing the punchline.  (2) Too slow.  Too slow on the set up and then too slow on the punch line.  (3) Mixed.  (A) Rushing the setup and then too slow delivering the punch line.  (B) Too slow with the set up and then rushing the punch line.	5/13/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	To joke of a thing is to say that thing is unimportant?	06/30/1993

Arts, literature, comedy.	Two views of comedy.  (1) Comedy as pathology.  (A) Those to whom everything is one big joke.  (B) Practical jokers who try to deal with their own inferiority complex at other people's expense.  (2) Comedy as healthy.  (A) Always keep a sense of humor.  (B) Don't take yourself or life too seriously.	10/5/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types humor.  (1)(A) Abusive: hurt, sadistic, mock.  (B) Gentle: heal.  (2)(A) Self directed.  (B) Other directed.  (3)(A) Low brow and (B) high brow.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of comedy: Topical.  Observational.  Prop comedy.  Riddles.  Jokes.  Anecdotes.  Puns.  One-liners.	4/1/2002

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Dry wit.  (2) Subtle humor.  (3) Sophisticated (cultured) humor.	7/11/1998

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Happy and gentle vs. trenchant and biting.  (2) Morbid or black.  (3) Loud vs. quiet.  (4) Idiocy or dumb humor vs. wit.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Humor based on reason.  Humor based on logic.  The joke as illogical.  (2) Humor based on language, word meanings.  Puns.  (3) Humor based on emotion.  Emotional release.  Release of anger.  Dispersal of sadness.  Calming anxiety.	6/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Humor of cruelty, whether directed at other people or at oneself, is not healthy and just.  (2) Gentle humor, directed at others or self, is healthy and just.	10/15/2004

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Personal humor to cheer up self.  (2) Interpersonal humor to cheer up other people.	6/23/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Social satire: illogic of society.  (2) Nonsense: illogic and absurdity of life.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  (1) Writing vs. performance.  (2) Physical (slapstick) vs. cerebral (topical).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Art comedy (high quality) vs. low comedy (poor quality).  Regardless of subject matter.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Comedy can range from high art to mere entertainment.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Comedy in written, audio, and visual arts.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Comedy of the dolt vs. comedy of the superior (mocker).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Four types of comedy.  (1) Fear comedy.  (2) Anger comedy.  (3) Sadness comedy.  (4) Joy comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Happy clown vs. sad clown (absurd and happy or sad).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Hard core comedy vs. light comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Humor as a weapon to hurt vs. humor as a weapon to seduce.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Improvisational comedy = instantaneous writing and performance.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Intelligent humor vs. stupid humor (idiocy, lunacy, moronity).  What if we all acted dumb all the time?  What is to be gained?  Freedom?	11/01/1994

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Mock: illogic, stupidity, pretension and pomposity.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Object (concrete) or subject (abstract) of humor: self, others, society, god.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  One basis of humor is the mistaken identity, or the mismatch, be it idea, verbal, physical (person, place, or thing).  Other bases of humor are surprise, exaggeration, non sequitur, taboo (ex. sex, scat, obscenity), fear tension and release.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Optimism vs. pessimism.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  People who like attack comedy that pokes fun at the misfortunate are merely using comedy as catharsis for their misplaced anger.  Instead, they should attack the sources of their anger, not transfer it to and take it out on innocents, which is unjust.	02/22/1989

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Self deprecating humor vs. attacking other individuals vs. attacking system, society, general group.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Simple (kids) vs. advanced (adults).  Low vs. high.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Slapstick, macabre humor, ethnic humor, sexual humor, one liners, anecdotes, scat and obscenity.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  The non-sequiter is a form of fear comedy.  They don't understand it, which causes confusion, which causes momentary fear and panic.  Then they laugh because they see it is nonsense.  Fear comedy is related to the thrill people get from being scared in horror movies.	02/22/1989

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  The put down of (1) The stupid (which plays on our anger) or (2) The strange (which plays on our fear).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  The wit vs. the fool.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Tragicomedy, bittersweet.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Types of humor.  Understatement vs. overstatement (exaggeration).  Mistaken identity.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	Urge to make jokes: nervousness, energy.  Urge to listen to jokes: escapism.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	What is comedy?  (1) At worst: avoidance.  (2) At middling: temporary escape.  (3) At best: gets you to confront things that you need to, yet normally wouldn't.  It does this by sweetening it.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	What makes people laugh when they hear the truth?  What makes people depressed when they are lied to?	02/20/1989

Arts, literature, comedy.	What's the highest form of humor?  Biting, sophisticated, important subjects, really funny, really enlightening, sarcastic.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	When is comedy useful?  When is comedy not useful?  When is comedy hurtful?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	When the comedian values the laugh more than the thought behind the laugh then the comedian has become the servant of humor rather than having humor serve his ideals, goals, and purposes.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature, comedy.	You can mock anything as being any negative trait but the best comedy says, "I think such and such is ethically wrong and epistemologically false."  Humor for truth and justice.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, comedy.	You could write a happy play without any jokes, but that would not be a modern comedy.  Modern comedy = jokes.  Ancient comedy = happy ending (i.e., the opposite of tragedy which is a sad ending).	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, composition.	.This section considers principles and methods of composition in literature.	12/30/2003

Arts, literature, composition.	.This section is about composition in literature.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, composition.	(1) Examples of great form.  (A) Wittgenstein's Tractus Philosophicus Logicus.  Short, concise, no b.s..  (B) My Notes.  (C) Anything in outline form.  (D) Anything with an excellent logical contents, index and bibliography.  (2) Examples of poor styles.  (A) Traditional paragraphs.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	(1) Germ theory.  (2) Skeleton and flesh out.  (3) Introduction, development, climax, resolution: by parts and elements.  (4) Riffing or improvising.  (5) Synthesis of parts or elements.  (6) Element charts.  (7) Free writing, brain storming.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	A new vocabulary for a new vision for a new man.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	All conflict and interest comes out of character.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Art literature techniques, figurative writing.  Imagery, allegory, analogy, metaphor, simile, symbolism, all are inexact and lead more often to confusion and lies than clarity and truth.  And thus to confusion of thought and mind.  It is not the best way to think or communicate.  It's a step up but there is better.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Audience.  Who is my audience?  The intellectual elite?  The confused intelligent neurotic?  The average man?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Book title: selected ideas on x.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Characters.  Protagonists: hero, anti-hero (nebish), local hero.  Antagonists: villains.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Depends on genre.  Picking well and combining well the elements.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Diction types:  Simple and informal vs. complicated and formal.  Vague, ambiguous, poetical.  Abstract vs. concrete.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Don't worry if the ideas don't connect at first, or if they are not fleshed out, or even if they are not perfectly clear to you.  Get the ideas down first.	11/15/1988

Arts, literature, composition.	Each word, sentence, paragraph, chapter, and book covers an idea.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Elements.  (1) Word choice (diction), syntax, structure, style.  (2) Genre, subject, mood/tone/emotion, theme.  (3) Spelling, grammar, semantics.  (4) Narrative: tense, person.  (5) Scenes: alone, social, nature.  (6) Character: personality types.  Physical types, social dimension.  Ideal types, stereotypes, archetypes.  (7) Set ups and introductions.  (8) Conflicts: inner vs. external (social, nature).  Protagonist vs. antagonist.  (9) Revelation: theme revealed to us and character.  (10) Structure: levels, simple and complex, of elements.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	First draft: write for yourself.  Second draft: write for others.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Get it all down on the idea level first.  Then transfer it all into a style.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Good writing is avoiding the mistakes.  List the mistakes.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	He who thinks best writes best?  Not necessarily.  He who writes best thinks best?  Not necessarily.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Never write down to an audience.  Reach high, extend yourself, extend them.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	One big chart, ala Heller.  Plot development, theme development, character development, narrator use, time.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Paul composition goals: a story for every subject, genre, medium, style, emotion, and thought.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Poetry composition.  (1) Brainstorming method.  (2) Important words fused method.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Spontaneous prose vs. pre-organizing and re-writing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Story as (1) Movement: change.  (2) Progression: a trip.  (3) Cycle: a trip that comes back to homebase with (A) Beginning: reveal, set up.  (B) Middle: conflict, puzzle, mystery.  (C) End: conclusion (happy, sad), resolution, solved, loose ends tied up, cycle complete.	11/01/1994

Arts, literature, composition.	Structure.  (1) Physical structure depends on genre.  (2) Plot structure.  (3) Theme structure: say what when why.  (4) All three add up to a knockout punch.  Blow away reader with new powerful ideas.  Everything up till then is just softening up.  Know when to throw jabs and the big one.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Style = words (diction) + word order (grammar).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Style is nothing, content is everything, function over form.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Style should fit mood, tone, and type of writing.  Like in acting, face of actor should reinforce character.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Styles: arguments pro and contra.  (1) Kerouac: spontaneous prose, improvisation, unconscious, freedom.  (2) Paul's Notes: brevity, logical.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Synthesize individual best lines vs. one long inspired blow.  Which technique is best?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	The main questions in literary composition: How to write?  How to think?  How to organize one's thoughts?	6/9/2004

Arts, literature, composition.	There should be recommended formats.  Start it with an opening outline: for whole work, and for its parts.  End with summary: for whole work, and for its parts.  Stick to a controlled vocabulary.  Say your subject, and say who you are for and against.  Level of audience.  Broadness of scope.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Tone of each sentence, and of overall work.  Sentence variety can lead to tone variety.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Two types of composition.  Composition of nonfiction.  Composition of fiction.	10/18/2004

Arts, literature, composition.	Weld the plot and theme.  Seamless.  Both must be first rate.  Both must reinforce each other.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, composition.	Writing style should reflect mind of writer.  Not too pedantic vs. not to stupid, simple, reductive.  Even tempered.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	.This section is about thoughts on specific books and authors.  Topics include: ( ) Bukowski.  ( ) Kerouac.  ( ) Beats.	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	"A Walk Across America", by Peter Jenkins was a bestseller during the mid-seventies.  When I read this book as a youngster, I thought, gee whiz, what could possibly be wrong with this vision of America?  Thirty years later I stumbled across a well-worn copy of "A Walk Across America" and thought more critically about the book.  The sixties and seventies were an era during which hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hipsters were traveling and writing about their travels.  Why did the publisher pick Peter Jenkin's book?  The publisher published Jenkin's book because the publisher thought Jenkin's book would sell a lot of copies.  Why did Peter Jenkin's book sell so well?  Jenkin's book sold well because it was simple and false.  Jenkin's book sold well because it is repressed and avoidant.  Peter Jenkins was a hippie minus the dope smoking, rock music, and orgies.  Peter Jenkin's was a hippie minus the Vietnam war protests, minus the civil rights protests, minus any protest.  In Peter Jenkin's world there is racial harmony, rather than racial tension.  In Peter Jenkins world there is class harmony, rather than class tension.  In Peter Jenkins world there is merely small towns, honest work, and nature as a respite.  In Peter Jenkin's world there is humble old-timey religion.  Peter Jenkins looks like a hairy freak, but he just likes to work hard, walk in the woods, play with his dog, and go to church.  A Walk Across America is a walk that conveniently sidesteps the social tensions of the sixties and the cultural wallow of the seventies.  There is no rock music, no sex, no drugs, no big cities, no polluted environment.  A Walk Across America is a walk for the myopic American middle class.  Feel good by ignoring the problems of the world.  Jenkins looks like a hippie but he's just a hard-working, middle-class young man who doesn't think too much.	5/13/2007

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	"The night was moist.", is a notion found in the poem, "I Heard The Learned Astronomer", by Walt Whitman.  "The night was moist.", is also a line from the movie "Throw Momma from the Train".	12/23/2006

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Beat generation (1) Got more out of life than the average person, in thought, emotion, action (doing), and experience.  (2) They wasted more life than the average person, with drugs, booze, rebellion, and early deaths.  (3) A few beats were able to accomplish much by virtue of their intelligence and independent character.  They succeeded despite their decadent selves.  Many other lesser beats were not as smart, and did not accomplish much or become famous.  (4) Kerouac had a very limited, one sided system of ethics.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Beats.  Beat writing is a very psychologically healthy style.  It is spontaneous, improvisational (like jazz), free associative, unrepressed, cathartic, confessional, first word best word.  Since it is un-self-censored it can address any subject, any view and any feeling, even taboo ones, using any vocabulary, even taboo words.	12/03/1997

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Beats.  The beats evolved in a decade of political oppression (mccarthyism), sexual repression, and artistic repression (banned books).  The beats were about freedom.  The freedom to remember, feel, think, say and act.  Sexually, artistically, and politically.	8/10/1998

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Beats.  To Kerouac, everything is good, everything is yes.  He couldn't bear to get angry, only depressed.  Bukowski got pissed off.  He was willing to say "This is crap.  This is wrong.  You are a jerk.  This is evil."  Bukowski fought.  He took an ethical stance.  Kerouac, the angel, can't say a bad word about anyone.  Bukowski, at core, was a fighter.  Kerouac was not.  Bukowski lived a long time.  Kerouac did not.	01/07/1997

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Bukowski is dead.  Some called him a poet of excess.  But Bukowski was more than that.  Just because he talked about the ugly and not the beautiful, the problems and not the well, the downside of life and not the bright side, the lowest classes and not the highest, does not make him bad.  Just because he did not write abut the beautiful upper or middle class did not make him bad, just as those zillions who do write about it are not necessarily good.  Bukowski did not glorify the low-lifes, nor did he condemn them for things that were not always their fault, nor did he ignore them.  Great acts of heroism take place on the bottom of society as surely as great acts of villainy take place on the top.  And if he spoke roughly, it is because a rough life in a rough environment can give one a rough voice.  But Bukowski was able to maintain a classy nobleness, an intelligence, and a sensitivity that makes for great art.  He talks to losers, in their language, about their problems, consoles them, and enlightens them.  Which is more and better than those self-congratulatory upper class writers trying to tell winners things that they already know.	04/16/1994

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Bukowski.  Bukowski is not a stylist.  He is an idea man.  So am I.  He was a great idea man.  That is what I want to be.	10/20/1988

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Bukowski.  Bukowski stayed hungry and productive because he never became popular.  He never became popular because he picked a style and subject matter that did not appeal to the masses.  He was smart.	11/10/1988

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Kerouac.  Nostalgic for youth, romantic, idealist, pessimist, debaucher.  That is why I like him.  Spontaneous, bop jazz, prose.  Stream of authors consciousness, not characters.	02/07/1994

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Kerouac.  What affects me most about Kerouac's writing is his power.	08/21/1988

Arts, literature, criticism, specific.	Step right up to Bill Bryson's carnival of science entitled, "A Brief History of Nearly Everything".  You will laugh at the eccentricities of the truly creative.  You will be amazed at the social awkwardness of mega nerds.  Be astonished at the absent mindedness of the super intelligent.  Gawk and rubberneck at the misfortunes of other people.  Take a voyeurs delight in bitter rivalries and feuds.  Be comforted by simple morality plays.  All for the low price of admission.  Step right up and don't delay.	4/30/2005

Arts, literature, criticism.	.This section considers principles and methods of criticism in literature.	12/30/2003

Arts, literature, criticism.	.This section is about literary criticism.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) Analyze.  (A) One sentence summary of book.  (B) One paragraph summary of book.  (C) Ten page summary of book.  (2) Judge.  (A) Compare to his other works.  (B) Compare to other artists of his time, place and style.  (C) Compare to other artists of other times and places.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) Comparative genres.  Which is best: condensed, organized knowledge.  (2) Comparative styles.  Which is best: complete without wordiness, concise.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) External criticism.  Is this his work?  (2) Internal criticism.  What are the words he is saying?  What does he mean?  Taking things in and out of context.  What is the context of the work?  Context of authors other work.  Context of all history.	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) Meaning.  (A) Author's meaning.  What did the work mean to the author?  Why did the author write the work?  The author as a reader too.  (B) Reader's meaning.  What does the work mean to readers?  What has it meant to people through the ages?  How have views toward the work changed?  What does the work mean to readers today?  Every reader sees the work a little differently.  (2) Effect.  What was the effect of the work on the author?  What was the effect of the work on the reader?  "Effect" includes emotions, and so it is a broader concept than "meaning".	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) Most important lines in work, (or by author, in a literary school, in history).  (2) What is the author saying?  What does he mean?  How clear is it?  How conscious and intentful of it is he?  (3) What are the most important things said in Western Literature (things not said anywhere else), and why?  (Example: On the Road.  Most important line: I think about Dean Moriarity).	04/30/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) New ideas and new ways of saying (i.e., progress) vs. old ideas in old styles (i.e., repetitive, redundant).  (2) Great ideas, communicated greatly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) What I think I mean vs. (2) What you think I mean vs. (3) What I think you think I mean.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) What is it?  (2) How good is it: compared to what.  (3) Why: arguments.  (4) Criteria for value judgments used by evaluator.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	(1) What said: subject (view, arguments, evidence), emotions, attitudes.  (2) How say: media, structure, diction, style, mood, genre.  (3) How well said it.  (4) Why said it: enlighten, describe, explain, persuade, record, show/tell.  (5) To who said it: audience.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Best writing is philosophical and psychological.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Cannon: the list of great works.  (1) Academic cannon and my criticism of it.  (2) Anyone else's cannon and my criticism of it.  (3) Paul cannon and why.  Bukowski, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Steinbeck, Terkel, Brautigan, Jeffers, Hemingway, Fitzgerald.  (4) Paul criticism of my works, found works, major works.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Cannon.  How is the cannon determined?  Who determines it?  Is it a power play?  Is multiculturalism valid?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Comparison to artist's other works, artists's peers works, and to all time.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Critical acclaim versus popular acclaim.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Criticism (analysis and judgment) can be done on any type of writing (fiction or non-fiction.  Practical or aesthetic.  Crap or excellent).  The questions are, "What is this thing?  What does it say?  What was the author trying to say or meaning?"  These things can not always be figured out by scientific (inductive) or even rational (deductive) means.  They demand an emotional and unconscious "hunch" response.	08/15/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	Criticism implies value judgments.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Criticism of essays involves answering questions like, "How to make this essay better?"  "How to make this argument stronger?"  "How to make the communication of the argument better?"  Answering questions about factors like organization, clarity, support, sentence structure, paragraph development, focus, coherence, etc.  What is the author saying?  What is the author's intention or purpose?	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Criticism of stories involves answering questions about theme, plot, character, setting, narrator, voice, etc.  What is the author saying?  What is the author's intention or purpose?  Why did the author make his choices about plot, character, setting etc?  What were his reasons, and what were the causes?  What was the environment the author was working in, natural, social, political, economic, and what was the author's personality, and how did his personality interact with his environment?  What did the author value, and what did the author see as problems in the world, and what were his ideas for solutions to problems?  What is the meaning of the work?  What is the effect of the work?	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Criticism: analysis and judge (compare, evaluate).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Eco-criticism is a form of literary criticism that deals with a work of literature's relation to the natural environment.	4/22/1999

Arts, literature, criticism.	Freudian criticism of author and reader.  (1) The essence of Freudian criticism in the arts is to say, "The author may have had the intention of saying X but their writing clearly reveals that Y was actually on their mind."  (2) A similar phenomenon occurs on the readers side.  A Freudian criticism of the reader says, "The author may have written A but the reader understood the text to mean B, because the readers's interpretation of the text is actually more revealing about what is on the reader's mind than on the author's mind."  (3) More generally, these phenomena apply to all the arts.  More generally, these phenomena apply to all communications.  People engage in these Freudian criticisms quite naturally.  Freud didn't invent it, he recognized it.	4/15/2005

Arts, literature, criticism.	Good and bad literature.  (1) Good literature has a good theme and expresses it well.  (2) Bad literature has a bad theme and expresses it poorly.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Good and bad literature.  Traits of good literature: (1) Informative and entertaining.  (2) Achieves both popular and critical acclaim.  (3) Popular through time and place.  Universal.  (3) Makes literary advances.  Advances in style and techniques.  Advances in ideas, new ideas.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Good and bad literature.  What is bad writing?  The traits of bad literature are similar to the traits of bad movies.  (1) Poor ending.  (2) No action.  (3) Fails on the level of components of setting, narrator, characters, plot, theme, or tone.  ( ) Characters not defined.  ( ) Poor story or plot.  ( ) No point.  ( ) Time moves slower.  2 hours feel like 4 hours.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Good and bad literature.  What is good literature?  ( ) Classic.  Universal.  Timeless.  All cultures respond to it.  Popular through time and space.  ( ) Popular acclaim and critical acclaim.  ( ) Informative and entertaining.  ( ) Makes advances.  Advances in ideas.  Advances in literary style and technique.  ( ) Does not make the mistakes of bad writing. ( ) Time moves faster.  ( ) On the edge of your seat.  ( ) Totally immersed.  Captures your attention.  Not distracted.  ( ) Laugh, cry and other emotional responses.  ( ) Time moves faster.  2 hours feel like  1 hour.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Great literature by subject matter:  List 26 subjects.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Great literature makes an advancement in both ideas and style.  One can see in retrospect how many years ahead of its time was a great work of literature.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Great literature: (1) Great ideas (quantity and quality).  (2) Great expression.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Greatest works.  Greatest authors.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	History: who came before and after the artist?  Artist's effect on society.  Society's effect on artist.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	How close you come to getting the drift of a work.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	How much we value a work depends on how much it can help us.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	I like short and clear.  I don't like long-winded or obscure.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Ideas: attitudes (thoughts and emotions).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Ideas: How many.  How fast get.  How good.  How original.  How important.  How true.  How complex.  How practical.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Interpretation.  Everyone who reads a text forms a slightly different interpretation.  Thirty students in a classroom will produce thirty different interpretations of a text.  There will be some agreement and disagreement about what the author is saying, and how well he is saying it.  Through the process of discussion, the meaning of a text can become more clear.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Method.  To be able to pick out crucial explicit lines or paragraphs, and implicit ideas (assumptions, conclusions), that are included (or excluded) from a novel.  It's like writing a quote book.  Talking here of wisdom (that is, theme not plot).  How well (complete, clear, short) can you boil it down.  Give each implicit and explicit idea of an author a rating as far as quality.	04/12/1994

Arts, literature, criticism.	Most important lines in a work.	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	New ways of looking at the same old shit.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Number of epiphanies per page: epiphanies of thought, and epiphanies of emotion.  Quality of epiphanies.  Epiphany = revelation of idea (theme).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Originated an idea vs. perfected the idea.  Shed new light on older works.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	People are very good at criticizing other people.  People are not that good at criticizing themselves.  Read your work to others and consider what others have to say about your work.  Try to give fair criticism of other's work.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Philosophical literary criticism.   Categories are a metaphysical issue.  Values are an ethical issue.  Standards of reasoning and proof are an epistemological issue.  Every individual and society has categories, values and standards of reasoning.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Philosophical literary criticism.  Everyone has a philosophy, including the author, the characters, and the reader.  One's philosophy is often hazy, vague, containing many hidden assumptions, hidden implications, and habitual automatic thinking.  Our purpose is to expose, examine, and make clear the philosophy of everyone in the literary process, including author, characters, readers.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Philosophical literary criticism.  What's an essay about?  What to write about?  The answers to these questions depend on categories and category systems of the author and reader.  Every individual has a category system.  Each society has a category system.  Categories change over time.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literary criticism.  (1) Philosophy and literature.  Terms include: Metaphysics.  Epistemology.  Ethics.  (2) Psychology and literature.  Psychological novels.  Human versus self.  Interior life.  Terms include: Senses, emotions, memories, thoughts, personality.  (3) Sociology.  Human versus human.  Terms include.  Macro-sociology.  Politics.  Economics.  Gender.  Ethnicity.  Microsociology.  Love.  Hate.  (4) Technology, nature and literature.  Human versus nature.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Philosophy, psychology, sociology, and literary criticism.  Using terms from these other subject areas to help us discuss and understand the subject of literature.  (1) Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics.  (2) Psychology: sense, emotion, memory, thinking, personality.  (3) Sociology: macro-sociology, society, culture, micro-sociology, friends, lovers, family.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Picking the "most important passages" is a big task.  Different people will think different passages are most important.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Power of ideas vs. power of communication.  Ex. Some people have weak ideas, but powerful communication.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Prolific authors versus one hit wonders.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Question for all styles, authors, works.  (1) Good and bad points.  Pros and cons.  Advantages and disadvantages.  (2) Why important.  How important.  (3) Elements and principles.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	The basic questions of literary criticism are "What is the author saying, or trying to say?", and "How well is he or she saying it?"  The first is a question of interpretation.  The second is a question of evaluation.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	The language of criticism is similar across the various arts.  For example, movie criticism, music criticism, and literary criticism share numerous concepts.  Many people today have developed concepts and skills in movie criticism that can be transfered to use in literary criticism.	9/8/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	The value or worth of any written statement or group of statements, to any individual, to any society, or to mankind in general, depends on the degree of truth, and the importance of the truth.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Tools for literary analysis.  (1) Questions for any work of art, even if its not literature, for example, music, visual arts, movies, etc.  (2) Questions for any written work, even if its not art literature.  (3) Questions for any work of artistic literature.	9/8/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Traits of bad writing.  Too long.  Too short.  Boring, uninteresting, not compelling.  Unintelligible.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Traits of good writing.  Strong and powerful, yet also subtle and sensitive.  Moving, emotionally powerful.  Intellectually powerful.  True.  Enlightening.  Interesting, compelling.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Traits of great, good, mediocre, and bad writing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Two problems.  (1) Some people read too much into stories.  That is, some people see things in a story that are not really there.  (2) Some people read too little into stories.  That is, some people do not see the things that actually are in the story.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	Two types of criticism.  Criticism of nonfiction.  Criticism of fiction.	10/18/2004

Arts, literature, criticism.	Two types of writers.  Introvert: what's happening to me.  Extrovert: what's happening to my generation.	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	Types of  literary criticism schools in rough chronological order.  (1) Traditional, Aristotelian.  (2) Neoclassical.  (3) Romantic.  (4) Historical, contextual, comparative vs. isolationist (New Critics, Chicago school).  (5) Psychoanalytic, biographical.  (6) Deconstruction.	08/15/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	Types of literary criticism theory. (see also sociology communication language).  Psychological.  Biographical.  Historical.  Marxist.  Economic.  Political.  Social.  Gender and sex (male and feminist criticism).  Racial.  Ethnic.  Age.  Hermeneutics.  Deconstruction.  Author/text/audience.  Interpretation.  Formalism: new criticism.	10/23/1993

Arts, literature, criticism.	Types of literary criticism.  (1) New criticism: the work alone.  (2) Romantic hermeneutics: the work affected by intent of author and the culture that shaped him (and it).  (3) Post-Heidegger hermeneutics (e.g. Gadamer): the author and work, and its reader or interpreter, are products of a historical psychological and social process.  (4) What happens when two conceptual schemata meet?	01/28/1994

Arts, literature, criticism.	What is good literature?  (1) Society has a view of what are its most pressing problems, and what are the best solutions to those problems.  Society values works of literature that present the best solutions to the most pressing problems.  (2) The view of what is the most pressing problems and best solutions changes through time as society changes.  Thus, the answer to to the question, "What is good literature?" changes through time.  (3) This view of good literature seems to conflict with the "classic, timeless" view of good literature.	9/12/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	What is good literature?  Good literature has universal appeal.  Classics endure through time and space.	9/12/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	What is good literature.  (1) Literature can be critiqued on the level of thought and ideas.  Society considers good the literature that present good views on important topics.  (2) Literature also has an emotional component.  Society considers good the literature that has the appropriate emotional response to the issues at hand.  (3) Attitudes are the result of the combination of thought and emotion.  Great literature has great attitudes.	9/12/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	What is this work or text about?	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, criticism.	What subject are they talking about?  What is their attitude (thought plus emotion)?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	What's the subject?  What is his view and argument, and what is my view and argument?  What is my view and argument of his views and arguments?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	What's worth reading and not?  Not the great books, stupid!  Logical outlines, history outlines, and importance outlines of great works abstracted.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Who wrote it?  Why did they write it: for money, for fame, to say something?  How well does it accomplish authors goals, intention?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, criticism.	Why are people so critical about books?  Because you ingest a book, and before doing so you give the book a good sniff.	1/1/2001

Arts, literature, history of.	.This section is about the history of literature .  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, history of.	(1) School, movement, period.  (2) Author: bio data.  (3) Works: major and minor.  (4) Elements types used most often.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	(1) The battlefield of ideas.  (2) The marketplace of ideas.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Art-writing (literature as fine art): the great artists and their works.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Author.  Bio data: birth, death.  (2) Type of writing they did.  (3) Major works, when written, analyze by elements.  (4) How new and how far ahead were they?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	By subject, genre, area, language, writing system, time period.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Development of a literature tradition: new subjects, new themes, new forms.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Everything ever written.  What's best and why?  Why and how they did it?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	First in the world.  First in a culture.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	History.  (1) History of a language.  (2) History of literature (broadest definition).  (3) History of art literature.  (4) History of literary criticism.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Intellectual cutting edge vs. popularizers.  Can popularization be done without reduction?  Yes, broadly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Know everything ever written, how good was it and why.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Stolen vs. invented.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Strong literature tradition means having many, diverse, high quality works, over a long time period.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	What is it?  How old is it?  Who wrote it?  When?  Where?  Why?  How?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Who develops a style vs. who perfects a style.  Same for subjects, and all other elements.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, history of.	Worlds most important works on all subjects and why.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	.See also: Sociology, communication, media > News.	12/30/2003

Arts, literature, journalism.	.This section is about journalism.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Good journalism is research.  Gather and contrast latest scientific studies.  Interview people involved in a story.  (2) See if you have a story, that is, anything new and useful to say.  Write it up well (easy to read and understand, complete, concise, fair).  (3) Bare facts vs. your contribution to the story, which would be your conclusions drawn, showing possible courses of future action, and making recommendations made for future action.  (4) Tell what is and what is not (metaphysics).  Show proof (epistemology).  Say who was right and wrong, and what should be done (ethics).  (5) Follow and report story vs. investigate, uncover, and break a story.  (6) Hard data from court records, police records, government records, etc.  (7) Story types: crime, accident, success.  Business, science and technology, politics.  Hard sciences vs. soft sciences (human psychology and sociology).	07/30/1996

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) How much pure fact.  (2) How much induction (drawing conclusions from facts) and deduction.  (3) How much commentary and ethics.  (4) How to find sources and test accuracy of sources.  Sources like documents and people.  (5) How to interview and research.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) How to pick an important subject?  (2) How to find an important story on that subject?  (3) How to do a good job reporting the story?  (4) How to form useful questions and answers on the subject?  (5) How to do research?	7/30/2005

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Importance and health of inquisitive attitude by individual and by society, for individual and for society.  (2) Important questions to ask on a story.  The 5 w's (who, what, when, where, why).  X in general questions (see Psychology, thinking).  (3) Journalism is a form of communication.  To get things done, to solve problems.  (4) Problems of news investigating.  (5) Problems of news disseminating.  (A) Censorship (secrets).  (B) Propaganda (lies).  (C) Over and under emphasized truths.  (D) Slanting.  (E) Omissions.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Is like detective work.  (2) Is like history of current events.  (3) Is like science.  Metaphysics: what happened, what is happening, what will happen.  Epistemology: how do we know.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Journalism that reports on problems is good journalism vs. (2) Journalism that support the status quo, says that everything is fine, and that acts as a mouthpiece for the powers that be, is bogus.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Journalists can often expose a story that cops have no time or jurisdiction to pursue.  (2) Often the key to break open a story is to find and get one frightened person to talk about how they have been wronged.	7/11/1998

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Pure facts (what happened) vs. (2) Interpretation (what does it mean) vs. (3) Normative, ethical, editorial (what to do about it).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Some stories are complex, with many inter-related factors.  (2) Some stories are tough to find out and verify.  (3) Some stories are important to tell public about quickly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	(1) Ways of thinking.  (2) Ways of communicating.  (3) Ways of writing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Discovery of facts vs. interpretation of facts.  Hard facts vs. opinion.  Styles of journalism.  Ways of searching, investigating: library work, leg work.  Logical reasoning in searching out a story.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Discovery, observation, description, explanation.  Investigate, discover, reason, interpret, report.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Ethics in getting story and writing story.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Everything exists in time, against a background (context).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Find out what individual or group thought, said and did, through  (1) Records.  (2) Observation or stake out.  (3) Interviews: formal or informal, structure or unstructured.  (4) Survey and polls.  (5) Experiments.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Free press means not only "no cost to the reader".  Free press also means a press free from coercion, bribery and threat.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Get (1) Reliability of sources.  (2) Validity of sources.  (3) Separation of sources from each other.  (4) Correspondence of sources stories.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Get a variety of sources that have high degree of correspondence of stories, and separation of sources knowing each other.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Hard hitting questions vs. softballs.	11/29/2003

Arts, literature, journalism.	Hard vs. soft journalism.  Empirical facts vs. editorial opinion.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	How old or new it is: history vs. news.  Following a story as it develops.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Ignorance, lies, and red herrings.  What do they have to hide?  What motive would they have to lie?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Interview.  Ask important questions.  Get good answers: No dodging, red herrings, or non-answers.  Be careful not to interrogate, pressure, accuse, blackmail, or lead the person.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism is capable of ascertaining and disseminating truth, but it has degenerated into a sleazy business.  Two types of television journalism: the eyewitness account by reporter, and the interview.  Two types of data: the objective facts, and people's subjective interpretation of the facts (meaning, importance, etc.).  People resent being interrogated.  Ask the most important questions first.  Beware secrets (withholding) and lies.  Much is said in pauses and silence, and much can be learned from pauses and silence.	12/06/1988

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism is important to expose the secrets and lies of power abusers.  The sleazy side operates via secrets and lies.  Journalism for truth and justice.  A problem exists when journalists become flunkies in the pockets of power abusers.	10/18/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism is really history writing: see historiography.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism tries to be accurate and fair.  Fairness defined as providing both sides to a story.  Fairness defined as trying to be totally objective, without any opinions and without any value judgments.  Accuracy defined as all true statements, with no lies and no omissions.	6/29/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism, critique of.  (1) Confining self to "facts only".  Like an encyclopedia article or a newspaper story.  Without theory.  Without editorial.  Without asking questions.  Without exploring hypotheticals.  Without ethical evaluation.  Without arguments.  "Fact only" is a very limited view.  Facts are only part of the story.  Evidence without argument is as bad as argument without evidence.  (2) There is no separation possible between fact and theory.  Fact gathering is guided by theory, so without theory one cannot gather facts coherently.  Facts are expressed as words, and words are imbued with theory.  (3) Facts in journalism are subject to the same critiques as facts in science, that is, the under determination of fact by theory, as put forward in the Quine-Duhem thesis.	9/28/2005

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalism. (1) Ideals of journalism.  Objective, not subjective.  Unemotional, not emotional.  Just the facts, not interpretation.  Corroboration or proof, not rumor.  (2) Challenges to journalism.  (A) Infotainment combines information with entertainment, and it is emotional.  (B) Paparazzi.  Stalkerazzi.  Invade people's personal lives with cameras, with spies, by any means.  (C) The Internet.  Sludge report and bloggers.  Rumor and gossip.  Lesser degrees of proof.	1/21/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Journalistic ethics problems.  (1) Bullshitting for a payoff (money, favors, etc.).  (2) Sell an unimportant story as important.  (3) Sell a false story as true.  (4) Tell a one sided, half true story.  (5) Not dig in enough to find out true story.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Just the Facts?  (1) There is no "just the facts" because theory is always built in and unavoidable.  (2) There is no "just the facts" because opinion or viewpoint is always built in and unavoidable.	6/27/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Just the Facts?  Journalism often claims to be "just the facts".  Journalism claims to separate fact from opinion.  Making a general distinction between fact and opinion in journalism is fine by me.  But I am looking here at the distinction between fact and theory in journalism.  Journalism cannot as easily make the claim that by focusing on facts journalism is free of theory.  For example, you could write an article that states a dozen random facts about the earth (the circumference in miles, the average temperature, etc.) but that would not be very enlightening.  The next step would be to write an article where you select a dozen facts about a single phenomenon, such as a recent rainstorm.  However, people often select facts in order to build a picture of the world that can be called a theory.  The selection of facts supports implicit assumptions, conclusions and theories.  Once you do more than state a single fact you are engaged in theory building.     PART TWO.  In addition, "the facts" are always contested.  So even if you could only deal in facts (which you can't) the definition of what is a fact is contested.  Any collection of items that qualify as facts is contested.	6/27/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Objective description and explanation of factual reality.  Person, place, thing (subject, object, event).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	One way journalists try to insert opinion into the "facts only" view of journalism is to quote people who spout opinion and then say, "It is a fact that so-and-so person holds such-and-such opinion".	6/27/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Pick most important stories.  Find most important facts earliest and fastest.  Write most important truths best.  It's writing + detective work or private investigator work.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Problem sources.  Lies, secrets, ignorance, lazy, crazy, unethical.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Problems with reporting: slants, bias, one sided, ommissions, untruths and lies.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Putting the pieces together.  Finding the missing pieces.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Related subjects.  (1) Technology of journalism.  (2) Politics and law of journalism.  Censorship.  Journalism against bullies.  (3) Philosophy of journalism.  Ethics of journalism.  (4) Economics and business of journalism.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Related subjects.  See history.  See detective work.  See epistemology.  See law.  See science.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	See also, Sociology, communication, media > news.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Slant or bias.  Slant or bias is always present in journalism.  All the major newspapers have a slant or bias.	6/27/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	So what if major news magazines use a sixth grade reading level?  You do not need college grammar to explain complicated topics.  In fact, it is better to use simple sentences to explain complex topics.	11/30/1997

Arts, literature, journalism.	The big story.  (1) Time it takes to cover the story.  (2) Number of people (individuals and groups) involved in the story.  (3) Magnitude of effects on the public.  (4) Number of angles involved in the story.  (5) Importance of the story.	2/22/2000

Arts, literature, journalism.	The only way to do journalism justice is to specialize journalists by subject area and geographic area.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	Three models for journalism.  (1) Journalism that uses history as its model.  Journalism is essentially the writing of history, albeit very recent history, and thus is subject to all the issues of the writing of history, i.e., historiography.  (2) Journalism that use future studies as its model.  In a quickly changing world it is more practical for journalism to use future studies as its model, rather than history.  An event that occurs is reported in terms of its future implications.  (3) Journalism that uses science as its model.  Journalism that uses science as its model claims to be value free.  In reality, both science and journalism are never value free.	6/29/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Two parts of journalism.  (1) Investigating the story.  (2) Writing the story.	10/18/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Two questions asked of journalists by their editors.  (1) One question that journalists are asked by their editors is, "Do you have a story?"  The editors only want a story.  Something with a beginning, a middle and an end.  Something with tension and resolution.  Conventional media is biased toward stories.  Conventional media is not interested in fragments of thought and open-ended questions.  Thus, the public is deprived of the raw materials with which to think.  The media provides the public with prepackaged answers.  (2) Another question that journalists are asked by their editors is, "Is it news?".  Conventional media is interested only in the new.  The old is ignored.  The everyday is ignored.  The obvious is ignored.  The conventional media does the public a disservice by ignoring implicit arguments, unconscious assumptions and habitual thought patterns.  The conventional media assumes the beliefs that we take for granted.  The conventional media avoids looking at old things in new ways.	6/12/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Types of primary source materials.  Documents.  Transcripts.  Photographs.  Sound recordings.  Audio/video.  Eyewitness testimony.  Expert testimony.	10/10/2004

Arts, literature, journalism.	Types of sources.  (1) Records.  (2) People.  (A) Participants.  (B) Eye witnesses.  (C) Experts.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, journalism.	What you find out vs. what you print.  You do not always print everything that you find out.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	.Introduction.  This section has poems.	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	(1) After death, it is all over.  Time is a fuse.  (2) Commentary: You are unique.  Every moment of you is a unique you.  Every moment of the world is a unique world.	12/20/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	(1) I jumped fourteen stories out the window of my soul.  (2) Book title: Fourteen stories out the window of my soul.	06/10/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	(1) The bad news.  The story so far: Addiction.  Loneliness.  Mental illness.  Poverty.  Flirtations.  Cul-de-Sac arguments.  Poor job performance.  Shrinks.  Social isolation.  No love.  Nameless dread.  Various enemies lurking.  Unemployment.  Bad teeth.  Bump on soul.  Fleeting visions of a better life.  Condescending sneers.  Laughter next door.  Fired from menial jobs.  Spider shaped thread on leg.  Shadow that looks like a mouse.  Mouse's shadow.  Looks of fearful pity from strangers.  Bed inertia.  Second looks at trashcans.  Nightfall, or worse, dawn.  Thriftshop.  Empty calories.  Temp agency typing tests.  Off track betting.  Watery, bitter coffee.  Spare change dropped in my coffee.  The cold cloudy gray.  Derision and scorn.  Mocking and snickering.  Chain of frowns.  (2) The good news.  If you can thrive and flourish here you've got it made.	2/23/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	(surplus) Food, (second hand) Clothing, (homeless) Shelter.	11/16/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	1850: the sun sets while the community sings around a piano.  1920: the sun sets while the extended family listens to the radio.  1950: the sun sets while the nuclear family watches television.  2000: the sun sets while a lone individuals surf the Internet.  2050: the sun sets on a disappeared individual who is completely connected to other disappeared individuals.	7/1/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	A folk song.  Title: The Spy and the Bully.  //  Chorus: The spy and the bully work hand in hand.  /  The spy and the bully want to rule the land.  /  They spy and the bully want to rule you and me.  /  The spy and the bully have a secret society.	12/8/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Abusers of freedom.  Freedom hogs.  Those who take more than their share of freedom.  They want to take liberties with you.  They think its their right to mess with you.  Bullies.	12/13/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Alien neon.  Unnatural light.  Destroyer of night.  Humans understood the fire's flame and even the incandescent bulbs were like stars.  Neon is a nemesis.  Clown-faced neon.  Common whore neon.  Word shaped neon.  Let words say what neon cannot say.  Neon sucks.	4/15/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	An artist came a ranting.  "I battled the void.  I engaged in titanic struggles with nothing.  I wrestled the blank slate.  I battled the empty sheet of paper.  I hung the empty canvas.  Don't you see?"  And they all nodded.	4/28/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Another rented room.  Got my laptop computer charged.  Got my mobile phone charged.  Got my mp3 player charged.  I am charged.  There's a new woman in my life.  She's sitting next to me in the car.  We are driving down the road.  The windows are down.  The radio is on.  Its spring again.  Frisbees are flying.  Sneakers soaked in dew drops.	5/20/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Armed with new and improved weapons of psychological defense I hope to survive.	8/4/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Baby rickshaws.  Stroller aristocracy.	3/31/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Beautiful women on the streets of Manhattan.  Not just one or two.  Herds of them like buffalo on the plains.  Driving me to the point where I will write poetry.	6/16/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Beautiful words make beautiful turds.	8/29/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Before radio and television only the weather and the ocean were always changing.  How could a life at sea be boring?	2/29/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Being snubbed by reality.  I am really enjoying my anonymity and obscurity.  Enjoying being an outsider.  Enjoying being a contrary.  Enjoying being an underdog.  I am built for this.  I've got what it takes: fear, mistrust, envy, spite.  In the community of the Internet, I wander the streets talking to myself.	4/3/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Bicycling through the park at midnight.  A swift and silent specter.  Alone in the quiet darkness.	9/4/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Birth.  Berth.  Bare Earth.  Beairth.	1/1/2007

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Boredom = death.  Repetition = boredom.  Lack of change = repetition.  Stasis = lack of change.  Not growing = stasis.	12/4/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Bourgeois Decadence.  //  The bourgeoisie want their food just so, their clothes just so, and their architecture just so.  Prim and proper.  The best of everything.  And they only want to think about their kids.	7/22/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	cafe' Languor.  Oh joy, watching the paint dry.  Watching the grass grow.  Watching the river flow.  Another day to think, with no ideas in sight.  At least I'm trying.  Fruitless effort, fruitless endeavor.  It used to bug me.  Not anymore.  I am not the cause of the worlds problems.  I am not the solution to the worlds problems.	4/29/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Cats, butterflies, flowers, fish.	06/10/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	City Haiku.  Under the moonlight.  The noise of the cafe.  People walking by.	9/25/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Climbing Mt. Curb.  I live in the city at the moment.  Yet I suppose if you added up all the curbs I stepped it would add up to be taller than Mt. Everest.  Eat your hearts out climbers.	9/22/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Clouds moving fast and low.  Wind blowing the fabric of world to tatters.  People you know who died.  Relationships gone bad.  Jobs lost.	7/22/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Coffee Talk.  All their talk.  All their chatting.  Re-inventing the wheel.  Wheel spinning round.  Going round in circles.  Its better than silence, but not as good as what?	3/16/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Cold and Winter.  Cold from without, frostbite, starts at the extremities and moves in.  Cold from within, hypothermia, starts with shivering and chattering teeth.  When there is no heat, and no hope of heat.  When one realizes this, and when one sees one's folly.  When natures shows her face, and pushes civilization back.	6/25/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Cold, damp, dark and dirty.  My apartment?  No, my mind!	8/18/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Comfy and cozy.  Sitting in front of the fireplace.  Warm and content.  Slippers and newspaper.  Tobacco and whiskey.  Trying to keep the world at bay.  Insulated vests.  Wall to wall carpet.  Isolated and snowed in.  Cellphones off.  Hot tea, mulled cider.  Fuzzy sweaters.  Favorite chair.  Imagined calm.  All quiet and joy.  Candle light.  Soft music.  Frisky girlfriend.  Picture windows.  Apres' ski.	12/16/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Content  //  I am content.  Songs.  Books.  Paintings.  Movies.  Breathing content in and out.  Not objects.  Content.	5/30/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Courting the muse.  Coaxing the muse.  Urging the muse.  Patience for the muse.	11/1/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Crickets.  The low pitched, slow chirping crickets.  The high pitched, fast whirring crickets.  The middle pitched, middle chirping crickets.	7/20/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Daily Dedication.  //  I have time.  I have energy.  I have a brain.  I have a body.  What will I do today?  Save the world.  What is standing in the way?  Poverty.  Hunger.  Illness.  War.  Crime.  Illiteracy.  Ignorance.  Injustice.  Fanaticism.  Violence.  Oppression.  Exploitation.  Bullying.	3/28/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Death of a friend as an amputation.  Not unwounded.  Not a wound that heals cleanly.  Not a wound that heals leaving a scar.  Not a wound that will not heal.  Rather, the loss of a body part.  So that one always misses it.  Leaving, the nothing, the void, the absence, remains.	3/16/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Death Says Good Morning.  They say New Yorkers are unfriendly, but now death walks among us, and you hear a lot more good mornings.	10/25/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Deep winter, night storm, huddled alone.  Mid-summer, morning sunshine, with friends.  How to get from A to B?	3/16/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Empty library.  //  Empty Library.  Finally, I can get some work done.  /  Ghosts walk the stacks.  Books on shelves patiently waiting.  The books toll for thee.  /  Walking to and from the library, at every time of day, in every season.  Living at the library.  Living in the library.  Living through the library.  /  Lonely library.  Unpopular library.  Desolate library.  You stand, holding your ideas in outstretched hands.  No one listens.  Nobody wants you.  /  Years of accumulated knowledge.  Wisdom gathered from all corners of Whizdom.   Your foundation cracks wise.  /  People are on the Internet now.  Nobody needs you anymore.  Only the booksniffers, who yearn for scents of ancient parchment.  /  The cryptkeeper's haunted face peers as you walk in.  Who goes there?  Whyfore art thou?  /  Old library, home to chipmunk and pigeon.  Your books stand like tombstones.  The library is now a cemetery.  The bookstore has a cafe'.  Where are we, now?  /   You were once a card-carrying, card catalog user.  /  Every year a new new set of faces arrive.  Some one may yet show.  Somebody may appreciate you.  There is hope for you.	6/19/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Every now and then the fog clears and I emerge from the haze of everyday life.  The routine has a tendency to hypnotize.  When the heavy doses of today's society wear off, I realize that this is my life in the world.  It takes a clear mind.  Dull trance vs. sharp wits.  Sometimes it feels safe and secure in the clouds were I can not see, but it is dangerous there.	8/4/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Existential shakedown.  Kicking the tires on reality.  Hacking life.  Why do I thrash everything?  Why do I whip my mind like a dead horse?  Who can live like this?  Who can live any other way?	6/3/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Five and Dime.  //  Two dollars for pen and paper.  /  You felt like someone handed you the world on a platter.  /  The keys to the kingdom.	5/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Four in the morning / on the sofa / listening to jazz / reading Zen.  //  Working for no pay.  /  Studying for no degree.  /  And yet I am calm.  /  And yet I am happy.	11/8/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Four simple list poems about the seasons.  (1) Winter.  Fireplaces.  Icy sidewalks.  Snowdrifts.  Chill winds.  Numb hands and feet.  Snowstorms.  Hats and gloves.  Long underwear.  Skiing.  Sledding.  Hot cocoa.  Snowball fights.  New Years.  Frostbite.  Hypothermia.  Winter.  (2) Spring.  March 21st, vernal equinox, first day of spring.  Daylight Savings Time.  April 5th, tax filing.  Snowmelt.  Flooding.  April showers.  May flowers.  Buds on trees.  Flowers on trees.  First leaves, May 15.  Last frost.  Planting crops.  June 21, longest day of year, first day of summer.  Spring.  (3) Summer.  Crickets.  Cicadas.  Swimmning.  Ocean.  Suntanning.  Barbecue.  Lawn mowing.  Ice cream truck.  Sprinklers.  Pools.  Beach.  Sun tan oil.  Swimming suits.  Beach towel.  Flip flops.  Sandals.  Heat, haze, humidity.  Thunderstorms.  Lemonade.  Iced tea.  Iced coffee.  Rock climbing.  Surfing.  Hitching.  Skateboarding.  Summer fruits.  Hammocks.  Lazy naps.  Picnics.  Dining outside.  Indian summer.  Cutting lawns.  Sweating.  Heat rash.  Air conditioning.  Summer.  (4) Autumn.  Memorial Day.  Back to School.  September 21st, autumnal equinox, first day of autumn.  First frost.  Pumpkin pie.  Apples picking.  Apple pie.  Apple Cider.  Morning frost.  Halloween.  Trick or treating.  Jack o lanterns.  Wood smoke from fireplaces.  Leaves turning color.  Leaves falling.  Raking leaves.  Burning leaves.  Harvest crops.  December 21st, shortest day of year, first day of winter.  Autumn.	9/11/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Four word poem.  Fish dinner, fish dessert.	11/02/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	G after you died, Grief and Guilt moved onto my block, next to Anger.  They have been there ever since.  I see them almost every day.	9/11/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Geez, Louise, its the bees knees!  (Commentary from the year 3000: this poem is perhaps code-talk to protect them from Martian invaders).	9/17/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Girls Watching the Men Work.  //  The men.  /  They are so strong.  /  And so stupid.  /  How will we survive?	3/5/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Going to the prom was the end of their life.  Not going to the prom was the beginning of his life.	5/7/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	He enjoyed astronomy because the stars know how to keep their distance.	4/8/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	He lived in a world of four scents: diesel, gasoline, diesel exhaust and gasoline exhaust.  He lived in a world of two colors: black and white, and all the grays they produce.  He lived in a world of one sound: the drone of the highway.	4/29/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	He looked like he had fought in a war, even though he had lived in a time of peace and comfort.  But it was clear, looking at him, that a war had been fought.	3/2/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	He waited for snow.  Quiet, cold, lonesome, wild.  Safe, alone, peaceful, winter in the mountains.  Summer in the city.	9/8/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Heat and Summer.  Before the air conditioner,  before the electric fan,  and before the ice box.  The heat was omnipresent.  One became one with the heat or perished.  There was shade, there was water, and there was the occasional breeze.  A lot of sweat, a lot of still bodies, and a lot of minds shutting down.  Some minds going haywire.  I'm waiting for the weather to change.  I'm wondering if the winter is worse.	6/25/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Heathcliff mood.  Let it storm.  Let the rain fall.  Let  it gust.  Let it gale.  Let the clouds gather and burst.  Let the lightning strike and the thunder roll.  Let it sleet.  Let the ice cover me.  Let me walk the moors.  Let me get lost.  Let night fall.  Let me wander the night.	11/15/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Her Mind.  //  She had a spring meadow mind,  /  in contrast to the waste-land,  /  the no-man's land that was my mind.	5/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Hey kid,  /  you've been running around the yard  /  thinking you are in the wilderness.  /  Take off that paper hat.	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Horror Show.  What kind of horror show is this?  Living among the dead.  First, the living-dead, that is, the great dead artists who live on in immortal works.  I can hear them, but they can not hear me.  Second, the un-dead, that is, those people we meet who live and breathe yet seem not to feel or think.  They say nothing to me.  I can not hear them, yet they seem to hear me.  What kind of horror show is this?  Cavorting with cadavers in one-way conversations.  Some people enjoy horror shows.  Not me.	4/11/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	How do you know when you are bright?  When they stand blinded, shocked and crying out in protest.  How do you know when you are bright?  When they shield their eyes, turn away and hasten off.  How do you know when you are bright?  When they put on their sunglasses, make their face a blank slate and go about their business.	9/9/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I am Dr. Frankenstein, trying to create life out of stale ideas, inert words and a spark of electricity.  Look, its alive!  Isn't the monster beautiful?	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I began to wander.  I didn't know where I was.  I didn't know what time it was.  I didn't know what day it was.  I liked the feeling.  I decided this was how I wanted to live my life.	7/13/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I dreamed of mountains by the sea.  I dreamed of mountains by the sea.  Climbing and surfing is where I'd be.	4/16/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I figured she knew a lot about the ground since she spent so much time looking at it.	10/28/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I have a Lorax in my thorax.	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I love having to get past your body to get to your soul.	9/24/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I remember sex.  I remember love.  First it was an ideal, a hope of two healthy (psychologically and physically) young, beautiful people meeting.  Then it was a reality.  Now it is just a memory.	7/28/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I tried to write her into existence.  Meanwhile she lived next door.	2/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I want to talk to you at dawn.  I want to talk to you all day.  I want to talk to you at dusk.  I want to talk to you all night.	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I would like to visit every place at every time and notice how quiet and still most existence is.	2/23/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I'm a mail man.  What can stop me from the swift completion of my appointed rounds?  Heat and cold?  No.  Rain and snow?  No.  Barking and biting dogs?  No.  Injury?  No.  Poverty?  No.  Neurosis?  No.  Social opposition, mocking, etc.?  No.  Social ostracism?  No.  Loneliness?  No.  Threats?  No.  Physical violence?  No.	11/5/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	I've been to places where life is cheap.  Its a big waste.  Those places waste life.  They kill others.  They maim others.  They beat up others.  Life is cheaper for them.  They place a lower value on life.  Savage, barbaric societies.  This is not civilization.  This is not progress.  They beat their children.  They beat their women.  They beat their horses.  They beat their dogs.  They beat each other.  They beat themselves.	7/21/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Iama.  Iama llama.  Iama comma.  Iama farmer.	5/23/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Idle.  //  Warm sunny day.  /  Everyone returns to Nature.  /  Creating a traffic jam.	4/28/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Idyll.  //  Gentle spring shower.  /  Wash your hair in rain water.  /  Wear a flower garland.  /  Get a ticket for being a public nuisance.	4/28/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	In my mind it's a sunny day.  Beautiful geniuses give their best effort.  Things are improving.	02/24/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	In summer the leaf covered trees brush against me like a sponge.  In winter the leafless trees brush against me like a bristle brush.	6/12/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	In the mid-west of my mind the corn-feds listen to Journey, untroubled, unthinking.	3/15/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	In the Village I bought a potion that contained ginseng, ginkgo biloba and Ginsberg.	9/9/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	In the winter I am an Eskimo, coping with the cold.  In the summer I am a Bedouin, handling the heat.  The air-conditioned cube-dwellers have lost touch with the natural environment.	3/11/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Intelligence subverted.  Smart people into stupid things.  Distracted.  Avoidant.  Bribed.  Steered wrong.  Diverted.  Perverted.  Subverted.	3/30/2007

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Is there anything left to my life?  Is there anything more to this world?	1/22/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	It is best to sit in the sun on a cool, clear day.  Let your body feel the heat.  Your mind empty.  A blank slate.  Your name before you were born.	9/12/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Its spring and the trees are fornicating.  Smells nice and there's no bed sheets to wash.	4/25/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Karmic boomerang.	1/14/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Ladies, there are men out there who think your thick ankles are beautiful.  Just wanted you to know.	3/3/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Lids like lead.  My sessile mass.	07/23/1988

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Life: after the initial shock I said, "Let me compose myself".	5/1/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.  Chiggers and ticks and flies, oh my.  Maggots and fleas and lice, oh my.	9/19/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Looking out at Union Square.  Looking at all the faces.  I find it difficult to believe that all this means nothing.  Whoever said this means nothing must not have been looking at the faces.	3/10/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Lost in the world of thought.  //  Scenario One.  Lost in the world of thought without any food or water.  You struggle all day to make progress.  Finally, at the end of the day, you are overjoyed to see a set of footprints.  Perhaps the footprints will lead to civilization.  Then you realize, to your horror, that the footprints you see are your own footprints.  You had wandered in a circle, back to your starting point.  //  Scenario Two.  Lost in the world of thought.  You decide to stay put.  You decide to wait for rescue.  Days go by.  Your party descends into cannibalism.  //  Scenario Three.  Lost in the world of thought.  You struggle on, bravely.  You climb mountains, ford rivers and struggle through jungle.  You chart previously uncharted lands.  You add to the map of knowledge.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Manhattan is grand and its residents become golden via osmosis; call it "gilt by association".	9/19/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	March.  The gray skies.  The drizzle and damp.  The cold whipping wind.  The mud caking our boots.  We plod on, waiting for better days.  They should call it "forced March".	3/16/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	May.  /  May, the possible month.  /  May or may not.  /  The odds are about 50/50.	5/6/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Mental refuge.  First everything disappears.  Then I am walking through the forest, snow crunching under my boots, stars flashing through the firs.  I walk for hours, empty headed, till I can smell the wood smoke from the cabin fireplace.	12/26/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Middle age lament.  //  It seems like nothing I'm doing is having any effect.  It seems impossible to get anything done.  It seems I'm not accomplishing or achieving anything.  It seems I'm having no effect.  It seems I cannot change the system.	3/28/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Minimalist poetry.  //  The beauty of the blue sky.  /  The beauty of the gray sky.  /  The beauty of the green earth.  /  The beauty of the brown earth.	11/8/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Mondo Basho in Hollywood, or Chinese Poetry by the Numbers.  PART ONE.  (1) Pick a season: spring, summer, autumn, winter.  (2) Pick a time of day: dusk, dawn, day, night.  (3) Pick an age of person: child, adult, old person.  (4) Pick a gender: female or male.  (5) The total number of Chinese poems possible equals the total number of combinations of the above variables.  For example, Mondo Basho might write, "Spring dawn.  The young women are planting rice.  What's for dinner?"     PART TWO.  If Mondo Basho lived in present day Hollywood what a difference it would make in his poetry.  For example, he might write, "Is it spring?  I've been in Hollywood six months and the weather has not changed.  Is it dusk?  The smog is so dark the street lights are on at noon.  Is that a girl?  Perhaps it is another transvestite hooker.  Is she legal?  The teens dress like old ladies and the old ladies dress like teens.  Where am I?  The suburbs stretch to the horizon.  How do I exit this freeway?	6/12/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Music of my youth.  Clear, sunny day.  I've not wasted thirty years.  Its 1978.  The Carter administration.  Bright, optimistic, hopeful.	2/15/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	My life is like a cup of coffee.  It took about eighteen years to bring me to a boil.  And since then I've been slowly cooling.	9/25/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	My little terrorist lover.  /  She's holding my heart and penis hostage.  /  My brain lies dead on the floor, fallen victim to her demands.	6/4/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Nighttime.  Real night does not exist anymore.  Only in a few places far from man.  There are two kinds of real night.  The first is night with starlight and moonlight.  The second is night without starlight and moonlight.  The latter is the real real night.  It exists only when there is no light, and no hope of light till day.  No electricity, no batteries, no fire, no matches.  When you can not see your hand in front of your face.  And the woods are alive with the sounds of animals.	6/25/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Object of her affection.  How I desire her rapt attention.  How I miss her look of expectation.  How I pine for her admiration.  How I loathe her consternation.  I felt her excitation.  I felt her satiation.  I miss her conversation.	6/12/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Ode to a woman.  Your beauty is the sign I follow.  Hope is the quest.  Your love is the promised land.	12/29/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Oh, I Have Flossed.  //  Let them not say that I have not lived.  I have filled out forms in triplicate.  I have climbed gray stairwells.  I have been in traffic jams.  Oh, I have flossed.  /  Let them not say that I have not lived.  I have stood in line for hours.  I have done countless situps and pushups.  I have paid bills.  Oh, I have flossed.	3/5/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	On a Choking Victim Sign in a Restaurant.  If I wanted to choke my victim, would not I put my fingers around their throat, rather than my arms around their waist?  I do not want to hug them.  I want to choke them.	2/25/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	On a hot summer day who is to say that the discovery of ice cubes was not as great as the discovery of fire?	6/28/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	On cool summer nights we used to go for slow rides and try to get lost for the fun of it.  Were we wasting years, or were we enjoying them?  With nothing to show, not even memories.  Now, looking back, I wonder where did it all go?  Is it too late to answer these questions?  They should have been answered long ago.	07/30/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	One line poems.  Environment (place) poems, and time poems.  To take a mental journey.  (1) Season poems.  (A) Winter afternoon sun turns snowfield gold.  (B) Summer heat drives me crazy.  (C) Autumn winds scatter leaves.  (D) Spring flowers.  (2) Day poems.  (A) Dawn, the dew covered grass soaks my shoes.  (B) Daylight top light.  (C) Dusk, like winter, seems like death.  (D) Night, who turned out the lights?  (3) Place poems.  (A) City, so many women, their eyes lift and carry me.  (B) Mountains, like a fortress.  (C) Beach, topless is untoppable.  (D) Suburb, strip malls.  (E) Country, small towns in which to drown.	10/30/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Out in the suburbs people sleep peacefully.	04/30/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Patch the rip.  Glue the patch.  Duct tape the glue.   Pin the duct tape.	8/13/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Pigeons, seagulls, and crows.	02/04/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Poem about activism.  It is important.  I'm not especially adept at it.  It does not come naturally.  There is little money in it.  That is all okay.  Its the ethical thing to do.	5/17/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Poem about my ideas:  Each brick was set next to the other, layer upon layer, till something useful was made.	04/01/1988

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Poem of the enlightened petty bureaucrat.  I am not having any vivid visual, aural, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory sensations or hallucinations of any positive or negative type.  Nothing is bugging me severely, yet I am not ignoring life's problems in mind or action.  I have dealt justly with my enemies.  My mind is not pre-occupied nor obsessing, yet I do not lack focus.  I am working calmly yet resolutely toward a set of well thought out, rational goals.  I am not about to have a nervous breakdown.  I don't feel a need to yell.  I feel moderately well in an unforced way and that is ok, dammit.  I feel neither slave nor master of language.  I am not sanitized, nor am I in a wallow.  I am not ignoring you or my environment.  I am not bored, nor overstimulated.  It is not wrong to feel this way.  I am not coping out on life.  I am not living in a styrofoam eggshell mind.  I am not a rock.  I have not given up.  Do not pin your dissatisfaction and angst on me.  Do not label me or put me down.  I feel your pain but it's not overwhelming me.  I am not a religious or political fanatic.  I am just trying to communicate without imposing my ideology upon you.  Sorry for taking up so much of your time.  You've been a great audience.  Thanks for listening.  Thank you very much.  I do not feel personally responsible for causing or curing all the worlds problems.  I have not stopped thinking or feeling or remembering.  I am not trying to attack you, nor am I being defensive.  I respect you as an equal in a friendly way.  Must we all suffer greatly all the time?	09/15/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Poet Logician.  //  Does she love me OR does she love me NOT?  IF i love her AND she loves me THEN shall we together be.  ELSE misery.	12/1/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Pre Internet.  Suburban rooms.  Isolated, bare.  Meaningless work.  Empty-headed exhaustion.  Cultureless.  Vacant.	2/26/2007

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Professional Loafer.  //  I was wandering aimlessly.  /  I was watching people holding drinks and cigarettes.  /  I was researching the mundane.  /  I observed the commute.  /  Disinterested, objective, outside.  ///  I catalogued the obvious.  /  I accounted for the trivial  /  while you were making important decisions.  /  I bought a Whitman sampler.  ///  While you were busy getting overtime pay  /  I was walking slowly in the park.  /  I was sitting on a bench watching the sunset.  /  I was up at dawn when no one is around, interviewing seagulls.  /  I was doing all these things that you are too important to do, and reporting the details.	6/1/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Putting her hair up.  Letting her hair down.  Its mesmerizing.  That's how they snare us.  With cascading tresses.  I was talking with a lady the other day, and very nonchalantly she decided to put her hair up.  Then in the same conversation she decided to let her hair down.	7/20/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Rain on the beach.	08/01/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Rainy day, all the shades of gray.  /  Sunny day, colors will display.	11/20/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Reductive simplicity.  //  Black coffee.  /   Unfiltered cigarettes.  /   Grain alcohol.  /  Pine box.	4/2/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Seasonal Sex.  Summer sex: Hot, sweaty, sticky.  You separate quickly when done, and the ceiling fan cools your sweat.  Winter sex:  Huddling under blankets.  When done you do not want to leave each other.  The fire warms you.	6/21/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	She had Halogen eyes.	11/10/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	She is strong and sturdy.  Small and compact.  Focused and determined.  Physical and earthly.  She was built for life.  I am tall and thin.  Ethereal and other-worldly.  Mind everywhere.  Veering toward death.  We make a good team.	8/20/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	She was so serene.  Her life was so serene.  In her quiet, gentle, neat room.  Cute and cozy.  Happy in her cubbyhole.  Her quiet joys.  I am so chaotic.  My life is so chaotic.	11/27/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	She.  //  She is like sex.  She gave me half an hour for free.  She could have charged me $75 for our conversation .  //  She is like drugs.  She gave me a sample for free.  She is in my bloodstream.  She is under my skin.  // She is like rock and roll.  I hear music when I think of her.	6/23/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sixty nine meet Ninety six.  //  Freedom loving vulgarian with the business monopoly.	10/7/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sleven.  //  Hanging out at the convenience store / where I work for minimum wage / because I can't afford a car, / and I'm not old enough to drive.  /  This isn't living.  / Slaving at Sleven.  /  Viewing the world through slushy glasses.	3/25/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Slogging through relationships.  Slogging through conversations.  Slogging through generations.  Slogging through arguments.  Slog.  Flog.  Bog.	3/11/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Slow motion, instant replay, do over.	10/7/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Smoking cigarettes.  The ember is the hearth.  The smoke is the ghost of a long lost friend.  When one smokes, one is sitting around the fireplace with an old friend.	02/05/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Snowfall in the city, / just like a tickertape parade / except everywhere.	2/18/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sometimes I do not feel like a human being.  You have to admit, it seems I have less and less in common with people.  I listen to music to make myself feel human again.  I need to get a job.  This eternal cafe' observation is doing me no good.  There is no philosophical proof for a "person".  For all those who want to be unique, special and different, I imagine there is a hefty price to pay.  Yet not so high as the blank look I see in the eyes of the "well adjusted".	7/11/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Southwestern rest stop.  //  We had dinner in the diner and dessert in the desert.	6/8/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Spin doctors, head hunters, swing gurus.	12/01/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Springtime.  When winter is over.  Sitting in the warm sunshine.  Making vitamin D.  Releasing endorphins.  Happy.  When the blues are over and past.  When good times return.  When good natured laughter abounds.	4/10/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Struggling artists, effortless slobs.	10/20/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Summer in the city.  /  Everyone in the streets doing a strip tease.  /  Taking it off.  Piece by piece.  Hotter and hotter.	7/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Summertime.  Cicadas by day.  Crickets by night.	7/20/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sunrise on the field after the carnival.  //  The humans are gone, along with the bright lights, the music and the machines.  We are left where we started.  Heat, dust, crops, crickets.	8/8/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sunset on the beach with my love.  Sunrise on the beach with my love.  And everything in between.	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Surfing.  The ocean is a woman.  The wave is a woman.  Salty and wet.  Yielding yet forceful.	7/1/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sweet life.  Cool June.  Breezy, dusky, dawny, yawny, sleepy.	6/20/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Sweetheart, how sweet the art.	1/25/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Talking to you is like throwing a rock into in the Grand Canyon.	7/7/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Telegraph from the front: The gender benders have united with the genre benders.  Art is on the attack.	10/15/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Ten post-coital thoughts.  //  (1) Mission accomplished.  (2) Next!  (3) Who is paying for this?  (4) Elysian fields, here I come.  (5) ZZZzzz.  (6) I'm in love.  (7) It does not get any better than this.  (8) Not available in any store.  (9) No baby.  No baby.  Yes baby.  (10) Snarfgle pxil hup lego.  (11) What's that itch?	6/25/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Ten thousand more years of middle of the road, middle class, middle brow, suburbs.  Peaceful, quiet and happy.  Blessing or curse?	4/6/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Test for depression resistance.  On a cold rainy day, / near the scarecrow in the empty field, /  by an old car rusting beside the interstate, / next to an abandoned warehouse loading dock.  /  That is, in the middle of nowhere, nobody did nothing.  / Are you still happy?  /  Are you still smiling?  /  Can you still see the sunshine and flowers?  /  Can you still hear the music?  /  If so, we need you in paradise.  Get here as fast as you can.	3/18/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Bullet Poem.  //  * This  /  * is  /  * my  /  * final  /  * business  /  * report.	11/15/2003

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The cold air drove everyone out of the park.  Even though the sun was shining, and clouds raced across the sky, no one was to be seen in the park, which just a few months ago was crowded with sunbathers.  The cold air brought the wilderness from up north.	11/16/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The crackdown continues; today several arrests were made of doodlers and those who mumble in their sleep.	10/16/2001

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The expressionless face of the exhausted.  Exhausted from a day and exhausted over a life.  Panting like an animal.  Eyes glazed yet still wary.  Exhausted from physical exertion, psychological conflicts and ethical problems.  Exhausted from battles with nature, other people and self.  Zonked, flinching, panting, twitching.  The face is paralyzed.  The visage is dead.	7/14/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The green lawn is like a pool.  And I feel calm because I have found water.	10/05/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The highway is a cement river.	08/09/1988

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Housewives  //  Meeting for coffee.  /  Chatting up a storm.  /  Holding court.  /  Setting the world to rights.  /  Ultimately self-satisfied.  /  Obviously correct.  /  What were they thinking?	4/15/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Ideas.  //  Before you thought of the ideas they weren't a part of you.  After you forgot the ideas they weren't a part of you.  They came and went and left only a trace on the page.  /  Where do the ideas come from?  Do you call them with a whistle that you bought from an ad in an old comic book?  /  Where do the ideas go?  Back into the wild.  They are an elusive species.  Their actual number is unknown.  They are rarely photographed.  Some people live their entire lives without seeing one.	7/21/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The lawn in the moonlight was beautiful.  Slick with dew.  It was then that I came to realize what all that acreage was for, as I made love to her on the golf course.	12/25/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Loneliness of the Night Watchman.  I cried as I did my rounds.  No light.  No people.  Just an empty building and darkness.	7/7/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The most important words poem.  Overpopulation, pollution, resources, government, rights, education, needs, food, clothing, shelter, health (psychological and physical).	01/01/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Observer.  There are limits to what you can learn from body structure, posture and gait.	6/11/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The ocean and mountains.  You can rely on them.  They will always be there for you.  You can depend on them.  They are a shoulder to lean on.  They will support you.	6/20/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Odds.  For me, for anyone, and for the world.  Odds everything will be all right 5%.  Odds of total annihilation 25%.  Odds of tragedy 80%.  Odds of a miracle 5%.  Odds of injustice 75%.  Odds of justice 25%.  Odds of heartbreak 99%.  Odds of complete failure 55%.  Odds of muddling along 85%.  Odds my kid will murder someone 2%.  Odds of meeting a real friend: 1 per year.  Odds of me losing all will to live: 1 per decade.  Odds of using up all of earth's resources before heat death of the sun 50%.  Odds of achieving an ecologically sustainable society 51%.  Odds that The Odds are accurate 70%.  Odds of doing anything unique that is worthwhile 10%.  Notes.  (1) Bravery is continued hope and effort despite the odds.  Cowardice is being overwhelmed by the odds.  Be brave my child.  (2) The Odds are not 100% accurate.  The Odds can change.  Actual results may vary.  The Odds are not a guarantee.  Your behavior can change your odds by 25%.	11/16/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Parts.  //  The parts are scattered on the ground.  The parts fit together.  If I put the parts together the machine will work.  So says the artist, the philosopher, the psychotherapist and the technologist.  Ideas are parts.  I make the parts and then I put the parts together.  If I leave out a part or if a part is in the wrong position then the machine will not work.  Puzzling.  More parts arrive daily.  A parcel of parts.  Part and parcel.  The puzzle is growing.  Warehouse clerk, check in and check out the parts.	11/20/2004

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Person Sitting Next to You.  I want you to be my friend.  I want you to talk to me.  I want to wander around in your head.  I want to take a mental trip courtesy of you.  I am going to be like a tick in your scalp.  A parasite unseen, feeding on your blood.  When I have had my fill, then I will move on.	10/30/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The pieces of string that hold my life together.  The pieces of string that are my life.	2/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The poetic method of knowledge.  Ten years of thinking about the mountains to get this far.  The Mountain Poem in three parts.  (1) Rock, stone, cliff.  Color, texture, 3D shapes.  Before humans, before trees, before life, there was the stone.  Solid, dependable, strong.  I can build a foundation on stone.  (2) Mountain.  It was big, like the sky.  Free.  Not petty, not claustrophobic, not confining.  You could get lost in it.  You could lose yourself so no one could find you.  You could get away.  You could lose yourself in it.  You could hide in it.  It is a fortress.  It is a castle.  I am the king.  (3) Warm in the sun.  Cold in the winter.  I imagined myself part of the rock.  Turning to stone.  A stone man.  A stony visage.  A mountain man.  One could return to the mountain if need be.  One could survive there, low tech, simple life, basic, elemental.  On could go there if the pace and pressures of the busy modern age were too much.  It was a safety valve, an escape hatch.  The stone was a silent, watchful, guardian.  Like a god.  The stone was a quiet friend.  Peaceful.	03/20/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Porn Poem.  //  Porn.  Pron.  Prno.  Ponr.  Pnro.  Pnor.  Porn.	3/25/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The rain is a massage.  The rain is music.  The clouds are a blanket.  The wind is a robe.  The leaves are a cooling fan.  The grass is a bed.  The surf keeps the beat.	6/20/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Rain.  //  The rain, / reminding me of all the times it rained.	3/10/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Road.  Gas stations.  Convenience stores.  Diners.  The white dotted line.	7/5/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The rope bridge spanned the chasm like a hip string on a bikini.	10/25/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The smell of babies is distinkt.  The smell of old people is distinkt.  Apparently, the people in between, the adults, have a smell too, only they cannot smell it.  You can't smell your own smell.	12/17/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The sound cars make in the rain when they drive by.	10/30/1997

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The Surf.  Tonight, the warm salt mists, reeking of garbage and seagulls, blew onto the land.  What I mean to say is I love you and want you in the nastiest possible way.  Mist so thick you can cut it with a knife, leaves me wet with droplets of clammy sweat.  I want you back.  When the earth was young and pure.  When there were no names, no words, no ideas.  But I will take you now.  Steaming and fetid, dark and full of life and disease.  You still smell good to me.  Do not speak, I do not want to hear what they taught you.  A modern mind is worthless to me.  The modern life is a small thing to live and die for.  I don't want to see it.  This is how bad I want you.  Protean, like the sea.  Waves crash over me.  Seaweed.  This is how bad I want you, that I would drive for hours at 3a.m. in the summer night, with windows down, by the shore.  I can't see.  Trash baby, you are holy in my eyes.  Alive and dirty like the sea.  Your subtlest of moods.  Your smile.  Lets have dinner tonight.  Dank and foul.  Pungent stench.  You smell bad and I love you for it.  Your raunchy, murky soul I can fathom.  Dying people fu*king.	08/15/1988

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The things she says.  Her every word.  I'm watching her move.  Attentively.  Tentatively.  Warily.  I'm thinking about her.  I'm waiting to talk to her.  Its an excruciatingly slow approach.  Are we taking off or landing?	5/20/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The wind is a massage, a caress from a lover.	04/30/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	The year 2000 felt like a new pair of socks.	6/21/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	These People.  These impoverished people.  These bankrupt people.  These irredeemable people.  These empty people.  These broke people.  These people who make my life so rich.	4/11/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	This is it.  Your one big chance.  Don't f*ck it up.  This is for real.  This is the big league.  This is not a test.  This is real.  Life.	6/10/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	To be driven.  To be ambitious.  //  To want to make something of yourself.  To want to make a name for yourself.  //  To want to change the world.  To want to do some good.  //  It takes a lot of effort.  It takes a lot of work.  //  You have to do it yourself.  Can't rely on others.  //  Can't play it safe.  Have to take risks.  //  Have to be creative.  You have to be smart.	1/12/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	To the lover I never met.  I looked for you, but you weren't there.  I couldn't find you.  Where were you?  Our eyes never met.  We never spoke.  We never touched.	6/20/1999

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Turn me on and get me off.	8/23/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Twenty different phrases for snow.  Powder.  Slush.  Big wet flakes.  Tiny ice crystals.  Frozen crust.   Deep snow.  Snow with grass tips showing.  Snowball-making snow.  Clean snow.  Dirty snow.  Snow with footprints.  Virgin snow.  Snow in sunlight.  Snow on a overcast day.  Snow falling.  Snow on the ground.  Blizzard.  White out.  Wind driven snow.  Snow in still air.	1/22/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Undelete.  Replay.  Memory work.  Scavenging the garbage heap.	7/10/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	We had dessert in the dark.	6/10/1993

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	When he pulled the tab off the lid of a cup of coffee he felt like he was pulling the pin on a hand grenade.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	When I was with her I felt swell.  She threw me a curve.  I miss her hip attitude.  I miss what's her name.	6/12/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	When the yard was my domain, then I began to know the lawn.  When the block was my domain, then I got to know the sidewalk.  When I crossed the street, then I got to know the road.	5/15/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	When they let me out of my cage.  When the bell rings.  When the whistle blows.  When I leave the table.  When I have the energy.  When I have the time.  I will go for a walk.  And figure out what happened.  And vow to stay awake.  And vow to remain free.	8/6/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	When you are nothing you can be anything.	8/14/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	White field of snow.  Blank piece of paper.	10/2/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Why are your teeth chattering in the heat of the summer?  You don't have the fevers of malaria.  You haven't been swimming in chilly water.  What did you see to make your teeth chatter so?  Your skeleton is rattling like you had lunch with death.	4/20/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Why drink water when it produces tears?	7/7/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Winter.  //  Snow.  Ice.  Slush.  Frost.  Crust.  Rime.  Frozen.  Sleet.  /  Gray and black.  Gray and white.  Gray and brown.  /  Shoveling snow.  Plowing snow.  Growing snow.  /  Sledding.  Skiing.  Slipping.  Sliding.  /  Cold.  Wind.  Numb.  /  Falling snow.  Drifting snow.  Melting snow.	1/4/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Women's eyes calm me down like Valium.  Her eyes were like two Valium.	02/04/1994

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Words come over the wire:  Why is no one talking?  You sit in sullen silence.  Why is no one talking?  You sit in sullen silence.	5/14/2007

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Words set loose on the page.  Set loose words on the page.  Loose set words on the page.  Set words loose on the page.  Loose words set on the page.	3/25/2006

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Words.  //  All we have is words.  Actions spring from thoughts, and thoughts spring from words.  /  All we have is words.  And words are diaphanous, short lived and light weight.  /  All we have is words.  And all we need is love, said John Lennon.  /  All we have is words.  Everything we need is in the dictionary, not the bible.  /  All we have is words.  A web of words.  A net of words.  /  All we have is words.  Without words we are brutes.	5/7/2005

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Writers paradise.  Cheap pens.  Cheap paper.	10/2/1998

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	You rich bastards, you wiped the graffiti off the wall so you could put up a bronze plaque with your name on it.	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	You were given a perfect day to wander this earth. / The sun was shining.  / Your body felt strong. / You met a woman.  / It was a perfect day. / What more do you want?	2/29/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Your Plans for the Day.  //  First you will drive to the mall early when it opens to avoid the crowds.  Return one outfit because it does not fit.  Exchange another outfit because its the wrong color.  Then go to the bank to check your balance and resolve any discrepancies.  Then pick up your custom stationary.  Then to the post office to pickup a package.  Its all been planned out.  You are the model of efficiency.  You will get a lot done while I sleep late, wake up, throw up, and stare at the ceiling wondering about life on other planets.	8/24/2000

Arts, literature, poetry, poem.	Your sweet body.  Your sweet legs.  Your sweet eyes.  Your sweet lips.  Your sweet hair.  Your sweet breasts.  Your sweet feet.  Your sweet hips.  Your sweet waist.  Your sweet elbows.  Your sweet clavicle.	7/23/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	.This section is about poetry.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	(1) Poems meant to be read are a visual art.  (2) Poems meant to be said are a sound art.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	(1) Poetry as loose written structure.  Loose thoughts.  Loose meanings.  Free form scribblings.  (2) Poetry as tighter grammatical structures.  Tighter meanings.	3/25/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	(1) The only thing good about poetry is that short poetry is short and to the point.  It does not waste my time.  I can read a lot of authors quickly.  (2) Another good thing about poetry, and the arts in general, is that they bring up "the seldom noticed" and "the seldom discussed", but "the important nonetheless".  (3) The main problem for male poets is how to be sensitive and smart enough to notice and record ephemera without turning into an over-civilized sissy.  Bukowski, Snyder, and Hemingway managed to do this.  (4) Another bad thing for the poet to do is futz around with nothing to say, wasting my time.	6/22/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	(1) The poets are so "me, me, me".  See me, hear me, feel my pain.  See what I see, hear what I hear.  (2) Then the poets have the nerve to be cryptic, coy, flirting teases.  (3) Poetry is really a form of approach/avoidance neurosis.	3/14/2000

Arts, literature, poetry.	(1) The vowels carry the melody.  The consonants provide the rhythm.  (2) The most important thing in a poem is the idea.  Sound is supplemental and secondary.  If you make sound for sounds sake, you might as well play music.	08/23/1988

Arts, literature, poetry.	A lot of science (95%) involves merely gathering data.  Occasionally a valid new conclusion is drawn from a set of data.  So it is with poetry.  Most poetry is descriptive observation.  Only occasionally will you read a poem that draws a valid, new conclusion about life or any part of life.	8/2/2001

Arts, literature, poetry.	Anything you can say in poetry, you can say better in prose?  I like compact, precise, short, clear.  I hate obscure, obtuse, symbolic, metaphorical.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Around the year 1900, in the subject of poetry, there was a shift from structured closed-form poetry to free open-form poetry.  At the same time, in the subject of music, there was a shift from structured classical music to free jazz music.  I think that, if anything, it was a case of the poets emulating the jazz musicians, rather than visa versa.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Contra poetry.  Can we get by with poetry only?  Can society, or an individual person, function with only metaphorical reasoning?  Can society, or an individual person, function with only vague allusions?  No, poetry alone will not suffice.	5/29/2007

Arts, literature, poetry.	Elements.  (1) All possible forms for couplets, triplets, quartrains.  (2) Possible rhythmic patterns, syncopations.  (3) Meter, feet, lines, stanzas.  (4) Assonance, alliteration, rhyme.  (5) Vowels, consonants.  (6) Lines, paragraphs.  (7) Line length (breadth).  (8) Assonance and rhyme.  (9) Consonance and alliteration.  (10) Meter rhyme.  (11) Stanza length and structure.  (12) Piece length and shape.  (13) Plus all other elements of writing.  (14) Non metered poetry: blank verse, free verse.  (15) Ode, epic, elegy, lyric.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Epigram: the ultimate form.  Nietszhe knew it.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Good poetry shows a new way of looking at a thing.  A truer view of a thing.  A more ethical view of a thing.  A better attitude about a thing.  Poetry is emotionally moving.  Poetry is sensory.  Good poetry is not a cliche'.  Read a lot of poetry to see what is a cliche'.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Highway and cars imagery.  They symbolize privacy, freedom, escape, and sex.	04/26/1994

Arts, literature, poetry.	If you use words merely to paint verbal pictures, as some poets do, then you will accomplish only as much as mediocre visual artists do.  However, if you use words to unravel the problems of the world, you will accomplish much more.	6/30/1999

Arts, literature, poetry.	Lyrics are compact, precise, powerful attitudes (thoughts and feelings).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	My definition of poetry.  Rhyme is not necessary, nor is any other sound technique necessary.  Figurative language is used.  However, I am against symbolism and metaphor.  Imagery is used.  Concentrated language is good.	10/1/1999

Arts, literature, poetry.	My heart is racing.  My breathing is rapid.  Am I in love and feeling the flow of endorphins?  Am I in a "fight or flight" situation with adrenaline pumping?  Am I running a marathon, muscles burning lactic acid?  Am I having a cup of coffee, high on caffeine?  No, I'm a poet!	8/31/2000

Arts, literature, poetry.	Nowadays anyone can write poetry.  Any subject, any view, any style.  One poem is as good (or bad) as the next.  They are all valid.  That is why poetry is hurting so bad.  It is unavoidable.  The situation is actually good and right.  I am talking about aesthetics here, not ethics.  And this phenomenon has happened in all the arts, not just in poetry.  Taste schmaste.	6/26/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	Paul poetry aesthetic.  (1) No music, no rhyme, no imagery.  (2) Condensed ideas, short messages.  (3) Short, sharp, shock statements.  (4) Fu*k traditional syntax and form.  (5) Still understandable and clear.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poems versus song lyrics.  Poems are spoken or written.  Song lyrics are sung.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poet problem solver.	5/7/2005

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry (rhythm and rhyme) may have made story memorizing easier before writing was invented.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry and nonsense.  How tangential, disjointed or obtuse should we allow our thoughts to become?  When does poetry slide into nonsense?  The question is whether we are able to pull back.  Like dipping your toes into insanity and then saying, "too cold".  Some call it nonsense, some call it chaos, some call it madness.  In any poem, some people see sense and some people see nonsense.  So its relative to both reader and writer.	11/20/2004

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry as a test, a puzzle, a game.  Some people do crossword puzzles, some people read poetry.  The goal is to "figure out" the poem.  How many layers are in the poem?  How many things are going on in the poem?  How many readings will it take you to figure it out?	8/20/2000

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry defined in terms of other arts.  Poetry as painting with words.  Poetry as music from words.	8/4/2002

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry has less focus on narrator and characters.  In poetry, it is often assumed that the author is speaking directly to the reader.  Poetry is more personal.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry in the subway cars is a good thing.	5/28/2005

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry is often a form of non-fiction.  Poetry is more often autobiographical and personal than not.  Poetry is the author speaking to the reader about the poet's understanding of the world.  Poetry is not often a matter of made-up characters in pretend situations.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry is painting with words.  Poetry glorifies the lowly adjective and adverb.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry lies between rhetoric (persuasive speaking) and belief in magic spells (incantations, neurosis).	11/10/1993

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry of the senses.  The senses are so Zen.  We should call them "Zenses".  When you come down to it, being alive is about sensing.  Hooray for senses!  Simple, satisfying senses.  Examples:  (1) The sight of the dawn.  The sound of the waves.  The smell of the salt air.  The touch of the sand.  The taste of the seaweed.  (2) The sight of the city.  The sound of the traffic.  The smell of the roasting chestnuts.  The touch of the crowded sidewalk.  The taste of the bus exhaust.	7/24/1999

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry Slam objections.  (1) Art and competition are natural opposites.  (2) The selection of judges is arbitrary.  (3) They ask for clapping before and after each artist speaks.  The clapping thus means nothing.	9/26/1999

Arts, literature, poetry.	Poetry versus short story and novel.  Poetry is more condensed.  Poetry is more figurative.  Poetry is more personal.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature, poetry.	Some elements of poetry.  (1) Sensory language: describe sights, sounds, touch, taste, smell.  (2) Figurative language: simile, metaphor, allusion, etc.  (3) Musicality of words: how vowels, consonants and meter sound when you recite them.  (4) Visual patterns of written words: how the words look on the page.	4/13/2001

Arts, literature, poetry.	Sometimes poetry is like a spell, used to try to control things by magic.  Sometimes poetry is like a blessing, used to try to anoint a moment.  Sometimes poetry is like a dream, and dreams are clues.	6/22/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	The argument for long lines in music and poetry.  Long lines allow many chord changes in one line.  Long lines allow you to say more.  Long lines allow more complicated thoughts.  Long lines are more emotionally expressive.  Multifaceted, layered emotions.  Hitting all the keys.  Ringing all the changes.  (for example, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan).	1/28/2002

Arts, literature, poetry.	The purpose of poetry is to capture a moment or capture a state of mind.	9/20/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	The sound of words, and the imagery they invoke, can add to the meaning of a poem.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	There is a natural musicality to the sound of human speech.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Thoughts contra poetry.  (1) Imagery is b.s., figurative language is b.s..  (2) Poetry is neurotic, and poetry is a waste of time.  (3) Poetry is masturbating with sound.  (4) Poetry: the inability to think clearly or say something directly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Thoughts contra poetry.  Poetry is neurotic.  Poets are people so repressed that they talk in code (symbolism) and elusive references instead of plain speech.  They are often just one step from not talking at all.  They use poetry to hide, not expose.  They use poetry to say less, not more.	7/11/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	Thoughts pro and contra poetry.  (1) Pro of poetry.  (A) Conciseness.  (B) Subtlety of expression due to widest vocabulary use possible.  Uses emotional as well as intellectual expression.  (2) Contra of poetry.  (A) Weaknesses of poetry include obscureness, ambiguity, and vagueness.  (B) Poetry is where language meets music.  Poetry is also where language meets magic, or our belief in and attempts at magic.  A poem is often viewed by its authors and audience as magic words.  Neurotics, children, and primitive cultures are the types of people who hold this pathological view of poetry.  The magic words, or poem, are spoken to gain protection, or alter the course of events.  Words to them are chants, spells, talismen.  (C) Slightly different is the neurotic's use of poetry as a symbol system or code to avoid thinking about the unpleasantries in life.  Metaphor is euphemism, which is pathological.  (D) The above types also fetishize the word as object (spelling, sound), instead of being concerned with the abstract idea it represents.  Thus there exists a difference between healthy poetry and pathological poetry.  This holds for all art.  Art and religion are the only way a large part of society can think, say things, and hear things.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature, poetry.	Thoughts pro poetry.  One good thing about poetry is that it is short, usually.	04/24/1997

Arts, literature, poetry.	Thoughts pro poetry.  Poetry is useful when you say "I'm not sure what I am thinking of, but it has something to do with...x."  Poetry can help you put a finger on and develop an idea.	12/30/1995

Arts, literature, poetry.	Types of poetry.  (1) Humorous, silly, funny vs. serious.  (2) Political.  (3) Feminist.  (4) Nature, environment.  (5) Sex, love.  (6) Death, time, age.  (7) Work.  (8) Health.  (not to many work and health poems, why?  It is very important).  (9) Image poems (all 5 senses) vs. word sound poems vs. idea poems.  (10) Long vs. short poems.  (11) Nonsensical dada vs. sensical.  (12) Concrete vs. abstract poems.  (13) Celebrating good vs. anger and sadness over bad injustices.  (14) Wild and decadent vs. domestic.	12/30/1995

Arts, literature, poetry.	Types of poetry.  (1) Object poems (concrete things, or even subjective mental states) vs. subject poems (abstract ideas, ex. freedom).  (2) Object poems break down into: (A) Place poems (city, mountains, beach, suburbs, rural).  (B) Time poems (the seasons, time of day, etc.).  (C) People poems (her face, her body, her mind).  (D) Self poems (I feel, I think, I remember).	10/30/1997

Arts, literature, poetry.	Types.  (1) By meter, by stanza structure.  (2) By rhyme: assonance and consonance.  (3) By types of language used: similes, metaphors, sensory language, etc.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, poetry.	Types.  (1) Eastern poetry.  Ephemeral, fleeting, transitory qualities of season, weather, time of day (nature) in order to describe the infinite shades of emotion and attitude.  Subjective.  Favor the short lyric.  Aesthetics themes.  (2) Western poetry.  Timeless, objective, rational truths.  Moral themes.  Long forms, narrative (story telling).	02/01/1994

Arts, literature, poetry.	What makes it a poem?  The visual artists have addressed this question in the first half of the twentieth century regarding visual art.  If you say its art then its art.  If you say its a poem then its a poem.	10/25/2001

Arts, literature, poetry.	What qualifies as poetry?  Everything spoken or written has a poetic element to it.  Poetry is not just rhyme.  Poetry is not just sound.  Poetry is not just figurative language.  Indeed, all forms of communication have a poetic element to them.	7/11/1998

Arts, literature, poetry.	When can you tell the subject of a poem, and thus classify poems by subject?	3/18/2000

Arts, literature, poetry.	When is it poetry and when is it prose?	6/9/2004

Arts, literature, poetry.	When writing poetry, it is better to pick the more accurate word than the more beautiful word.  This goes to show that poetry is less about beauty and more about accuracy, and the term "accuracy" is another way of saying "truth".  Poetry is more about truth than beauty.	1/4/2002

Arts, literature, poetry.	Why do people read at poetry readings?  Poetry reading metaphors.  (1) The poetry reading is like a battle you fight.  (This metaphor is conflict ridden).  (2) The poetry reading is like a product you sell.  (This metaphor is too empty).  (3) The poetry reading is like a journey you take.  (Eh).  (4) The poetry reading is like "a way you do".  (Eh).  (5) The poetry reading is like a thing that you bring to show and tell.  (Okay).  (6) The poetry reading is your contribution to a global conversation.  (Yeah).	7/5/2000

Arts, literature, works.	Birth of a Salesman.  //  Here's the deal.  Here's how it works.  The more you sell, the more money you make.  Simple, right?  Every month, the person with the most sales gets "Salesperson of the month".  Then there's the yearly bonus.  Sure, there's a bonus.  That is, if you exceed your quota.  Sure there's a quota.  Hey, we are friends, but friendship only goes so far.	4/2/2006

Arts, literature, works.	Charlie "Beans and Sardines" Smith only ate canned beans and canned sardines.  That's all he could afford.  Canned food.  Dented cans purchased half price.  Sometimes he splurged and bought canned bread and canned coffee.  Most of the time though it was beans and sardines.  He lived over by the railroad tracks, in a shack made out of watermelon rinds.  He bunked with a dumpster diving freegan named Shrill Shirley.  He made a living selling can art.  He would solder together the cans to make various sculptures.  He preferred abstract sculpture, but people kept asking him to make things that resembled animals or spaceships or such.  He complained that the canned watermelon was all rind.  But he made a decent living out of it.  And he had a place to sleep.	3/5/2006

Arts, literature, works.	Daydream.  She is beautiful and intelligent, and she thinks I'm handsome and fascinating.  When I call her, she picks up the phone on the second ring.  She sounds pleased to hear me.  Yes, she does want to go out tonight.  No, its not short notice.  She wants to tell me about the new art gallery she visited.  She asks me about my day.  She sounds interested and approving.  She is making friendly noises.  She says conventional jobs are not for everyone.  She says its only a matter of time before I am discovered.  She says my not having been discovered in the previous twenty years is no indication that I will not be discovered tomorrow.  We meet later that evening.  Her eyes light up when she sees me.  The talk comes easily, and our eyes are locked on each other.  She tells me about her work in political activism.  She was in a foreign country, helping the orphans.  She says it was very rewarding work.  She wants to introduce me to her friends.  She keeps revealing intimate details of her life.  Is she boring me?  No, of course not.  I find her beyond charming.  She is completely uninhibited.  She is like a wild animal.  Later on we go for a walk.  At first, it seems like we are circling each other.  Then we start moving in on each other.  The distance disappears.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, works.	I bathed today.  I removed all my clothing and immersed myself under a stream of running water.  It was delightful.  It was positively exhilarating.  Have you tried bathing?  I heartily recommend it.	4/24/2007

Arts, literature, works.	I was entrusted with her heart.  Her heart was a beating blob of protoplasm that rested on the seat while I drove.  I didn't know exactly how to care for her heart, and I glanced at it as I drove.  I carried her heart with me.  People looked at me holding a beating heart in my hands.  One day, while we were driving, the heart started talking.  "I need to make a few stops.", the heart said.  We stopped at a convenience store and the heart went inside for a minute.  When the heart came out it went over to my side and said, "Its easier for me to drive to the next stop."  I moved over and let the heart drive.  The heart took out a cigarette and lit up.  "You smoke?", I said?  "Nasty habit I picked up years ago.", the heart said.  We drove on, the heart coughing occasionally.	3/9/2005

Arts, literature, works.	Lemonade Lake.  In the summertime we all went to the lake.  There was swimming.  And there was lemonade, tangy and sweet.  We swam in the lemonade.  Afterwards, sticky, we would walk back through the woods, laughing and singing.  I will always remember the summers on Lemonade Lake.	4/2/2006

Arts, literature, works.	Lisa looked at Juan and asked, "Why did he kill himself?  He was like a brother to you."  Juan looked far away and said with a distant voice, "It was probably due to his meddling parents who did something stupid like lie to the police and psychiatrist in order to try to get him committed to a mental hospital."  Lisa asked, "Why did you survive?"  Juan said, "I survived because I saw them coming for me.  He saved my life, in a way."  "What do you mean?", Lisa asked.  Juan looked at her and said, "I also survived because you were there."	9/12/2005

Arts, literature, works.	Networking.  Yeah, networking, he thought to himself.  He had just seen a television infomercial about how to find a job.  The commercial mentioned that networking was one of the most effective ways to find a job.  He wasn't about to send money for the complete kit because only a sucker would buy the kit.  But he thought that networking just might be the key to employment.  He got out a yellow pad and a pencil.  Yeah, this just might work.  He started writing a list of the people he knew with whom he could network in order to get a job.  This time he was on to something.  Yeah.  More thinking.  Okay.  What have we got?  He put down the pencil and picked up the telephone.  He slowly dialed a number.  "Hello, Eileen?  Hi, this is Carl Stokes.  I don't know if you remember me.  A few years ago, I had seen you for about a month and a half.  Yes, therapy, that's right.  Hi, how are you?  Listen, the reason I am calling is because I am doing some job networking.  Its a new technique for job hunting that involves calling people to see if they have any job leads.  Yeah, I read about it in the New York Times.  Oh, its easy, you just say hello, and then talk a little chit chat, and then ask if anyone they know is hiring.  Yeah, piece of cake.  So, how you been?  Still doing the therapist gig?  Nice.  Me?  Yeah, I'm fine.  Real good.  Never felt better.  Let me ask you, do you know if anyone is hiring?  Not at this time?  Oh.  No, that's okay.  Yeah, doesn't hurt to ask.  Sure.  Yup.  Okay.  Goodbye."  He slowly put down the receiver in the cradle.  He exhaled and scratched his head.  Then he took his pencil and drew a single line through the single name he had written down on the sheet of paper.	3/1/2006

Arts, literature, works.	Our family was poor.  At the dinner table, which we called "the eatin' bench", we had a paper napkin at each place-setting instead cloth napkins.  But these paper napkins were just for show, and we were told that "the show napkins", as we called them, were not to be used under any circumstances.  We were just too poor to waste the paper napkins.  Instead, we used what we called "the real napkin".  The real napkin was a single paper napkin that we all shared.  In order to make the real napkin last we had to follow certain rules before we were allowed to use it.  I can still remember our meals when someone would say, "Can I use the real napkin?"  "Did you finish eating?"  "Yes."  "Did you lick your fingers?"  Yes."  "Okay, you may use the real napkin."  And then we would gingerly hold the real napkin between thumb and each finger, one by one.  "Don't you raise that real napkin to your mouth.", they would warn us.	6/6/2000

Arts, literature, works.	Technical writing.  The Varnak PD30T computer, a technical writing project, by Gordon Leish.  This document describes the operation of the Varnak PD30T computer.  The Varnak PD30T computer is a marvel of modern science.  The PD30T was created several years ago by the scientists at Varnak.  The PD30T had a tumultuous early life.  The PD30T has matured into a stable platform for multi-tasking, multi-user environments.  Reserved without being shy.  Good humored without being fey.  The PD30T is a complex character, not easily rendered.  The input/output mechanism consists of a tungsten alloy servo-assembly.  Prone to expound on a variety of topics.  Likes yachting and painting watercolors.	3/1/2006

Arts, literature, works.	The Humanities Carnival.  //  Jeff said to Beth, "Beth, I can't go on like this, working for minimum wage, unable to pay my bills.  There has to be another way."  Beth said, "Meet me here tonight.  I want to show you something."  That night, Beth and Jeff drove far away, to the edge of the county, and parked in a grassy field next to the entrance of the Humanities Carnival.  They paid the admission fee and walked in.  Jeff said, "Humanities Carnival?"  It looks like any ordinary carnival to me.  The games and rides are the same.  The people in the crowd are the same."  Beth said, "Exactly.  But look closely at the carnival workers.  Listen to their spiel."  One carnie said, "Ring toss, and French Renaissance literature."  The next carnie said, "Whack-a-mole, and existentialist philosophy."  Beth said, "Each carnie has a post graduate degree in the humanities."  That night, after closing , the carnies gathered around a fire to discuss their love of the humanities, and how they were so cruelly rejected by society.  One carnie said, "I used to teach philosophy until I lost my job to budget cuts."  Another carnie said, "People told me I was crazy to get a masters degree in linguistics, but I went for it anyway.  I was homeless until I found the Humanities Carnival."  It grew quiet around the campfire.  Jeff stood up and said, "Hi, my name is Jeff, and I have a PhD in comparative philology."  A quiet gasp went around the campfire.  Jeff continued, "Can I join the Humanities Carnival?"  A woman stood up and said, "Welcome, Jeff.  Tell us your story."	6/23/2006

Arts, literature, works.	The instructor slowly closed his anthology of literature, looked at the class, and said, "In case you have not figured it out, love is an illusion created by poets and promulgated by marketers and advertisers.  Your best bet is to stay healthy, work hard, save your money, and enjoy sunrises and sunsets."  The students frowned and grumbled amongst themselves. The instructor continued, "Of course, there are a few people who say they are in love, most likely they are paid to do so.  But for most of us, love will remain a fleeting chimera."  The students rebelled, shaking their fists and throwing their books down.	12/17/2006

Arts, literature, works.	The Library.  //  Gradually, fewer and fewer people went to the library.  Eventually, it was one lone man in a large room with a librarian.  One day the librarian spoke.  "Why do you continue to show up here, day after day?  The man said, "Why does no one else?"  The librarian said, "They are all at home, doing their research on the Internet."  The man said, "I like the books, and I really have no where else to go."  The librarian said, "Here are the keys, please look after the place.", and then the librarian walked out the door, leaving the man alone.  After that, for many years, it was just the man and the books, day after day, season after season.  Until one day, many years later, a college student stood in the doorway and said, "I heard about this place on the Internet."	6/22/2006

Arts, literature, works.	Years ago I had a job as a night watchman.  It was summertime.  My post was in the middle of a large field.  Every morning I would watch the sun rise slowly, silently.  The birds would start singing in the pre-dawn darkness.  I was watching the night and a field of wild flowers.  It was like the African savanna millions of years ago.  The sun has risen every day since then.  It was warm outside.  No one was around.  I disappeared.  I evaporated.  Zen like.  Every night was an eight hour zeshin.  Time is a river.  The mind is a river.  There is no time.  There is no mind.  To quote Paul Simon, "The morning sun is rising like a red rubber ball."  The warm haze envelopes.  The distant trees.  Veil of dawn.  Heart of darkness.  And then it was daytime, and the people scurried about.  The busy people.  Business and noise.  I was paid to watch the dawn.  It was my job to guard a field of wild flowers.	3/9/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	(1) Methods of writing.  (A) Paper methods.  Loose leaf.  Notebook.  Index cards.  (B) Computer methods.  Learn to touch type.  Get a computer.  Text file.  Spreadsheet.  Database.  (2) Regardless of what technology you use, every idea should get at topic, a date, and a rating.  (3) Similar to the oral tradition, the main problem in the written tradition is forgetting.  One forgets when one does not reread their writing.  Those who write and never reread end up forgetting.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Advice to authors:  Don't scare the children.  Don't disturb the old people.  Don't feed the pigeons.  Don't walk on the grass.	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Arguments against writing.  (1) No time.  Counter-argument: You make time to work out, so make time to write, since both are healthy.  (2) Is difficult.  Its not easy.  Its not fun.  I don't feel like doing it.  The counter-argument is that education is when things go from difficult to easy, and from not-fun to fun.  Compare student reactions at beginning of semester, "impossible", to end of semester, "simple".  (3) Its not cool.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Compositional methods.  Scratch pad method.  Write (or type) words, phrases, sentences on paper (or screen).  Add to it everyday.  Add from within, not tacked onto the end.  Let it grow organically from within.  Add drawings, pictures and sounds.  Let the audience see it grow.  Most blogs don't do it that way; most blogs tack onto the end.  Save the version changes everyday, or date each days changes with a date tag, for example, <!-- date -->.  Show daily versions to the user.  Show your work.	6/10/2004

Arts, literature, writing.	Discover yourself.  Discover the world.  Uncover yourself.  Uncover the world.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Do some thinking.  Get some ideas.  Save and organize your ideas by writing	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Editing.  (1) Splitting text, and combining text.  (2) Expanding text, and reducing text.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Emotion and writing.  Spot emotional appeals and tactics.  Spot emotion words.  Pleasure emotions like happiness and joy.  Pain emotions like sadness, anxiety and anger.  How does the author feel about the topic?  Does the author want us to feel like he feels?  Is the author trying to sway or manipulate our emotions?	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Emotion and writing.  There should be an emotional connection to what your are writing.  You should care about it.  You should find it interesting.  You should think it important.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Emotion and writing.  When trying to write, when battling the blank sheet of paper, negative emotions may appear.  Anxiety or panic.  Depression or feeling overwhelmed.  Anger or frustration.  These emotions may appear in a form directed at the world, the self, or at writing.  Take a Zen approach by letting the negative thoughts and feelings arise and pass.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Everyday that I spend writing I have to justify by asking myself, "Would the day have been better spent doing volunteer work?"	3/1/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Explore.  Delve.  Mull.  Expand.  Complexify.  Reach.  Extend.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Fear of writing.  Existentially, not writing is a way of avoiding controversy, problems, pain, thinking, self, others and world.  Refusing to write is an exercise in avoidance and repression.  Refusing to write is inauthentic.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Fear of writing.  Fear of embarrassment, humiliation, being mocked.  Do not let these fears shame you into silence.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Fears of writing.  Writing and the mind.  Overcoming resistance, fear, etc.  The subconscious can be lazy (avoiding hard work), stubborn (avoiding change on principle), and willful (avoiding any challenge to its independence).	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Forms of writing.  The use of computers as an information management tool has influenced the way people write.  The computer lends itself to particular forms of writing.  (1) Lists.  The list is an important form of writing.  Unordered lists.  Ordered lists.  (2) Outlines.  The outline is an important form of writing.  An outline is a type of ordered list.  Logical order.  (3) Table.  The table, matrix, database as an important form of writing.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Get some good ideas.  Recognize your good ideas.  Write down your good ideas to save them.  Combine good ideas to see how ideas fit together.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Good writing is anything you write that you read five years later and do not have to make a margin note that says "What?".	2/25/1999

Arts, literature, writing.	Good writing is like good acting, in that the effort is not noticeable.  It looks easy, but it is difficult to do well.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Good writing is tight, together, like a good rock band.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Good writing is when the reader understands what you mean to say.  A problem occurs when readers invariably think you mean something else.	8/4/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	How would I write if everything I wrote could be read by anyone?  Would this lack of writing privacy make me a better or worse writer?  Would it make me a better or worse person?  Would I try to be more clear in my explanations?  Or would I try to rewrite history to make myself look good?  One could argue that people need some degree of writing privacy for psychological health.  On the other hand, one could argue that more openness would improve society.	11/2/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	How would you organize the contents of your brain?  How would you organize everything you know?  One way to organize everything you know is to divide it up into the following: (1) Stuff you figured out.  (2) Stuff you found out, from papers, television, classes, etc.  (3) Stuff you did and stuff that happened to you (diary).  (4) Stuff you want to do (goals).	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	If one uses voice recognition software to record one's thoughts is one a writer or a speaker?  I am a thinker.	2/10/2002

Arts, literature, writing.	Information management.  The problem with ideas is the sheer volume of ideas.  After ten years or so of writing, it becomes an information management issue.  Some people write in journals, usually one a year, but then how does one search the data or sort the data?  The computer helps with this problem.  Specifically, the database helps manage enormous amount of information.  The database allows easy searching and sorting.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Initially I wrote the Notes for myself only.  The result was a condensed shorthand style which is perhaps the opposite of the longwinded style of professional writers who are paid by the word.  In between these two extremes, when one writes for both oneself and others, not being paid by the word, rather paying for each word with time and energy, one reaches a better style.	11/2/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	It is not necessary to smoke, drink or take drugs to write well.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	It may seem difficult at first, but with practice one begins thinking and writing more easily, faster, more accurately, with fewer mistakes, more creatively, and better organized.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Methods for writing.  Write more and better.  (1) More time.  More energy.  More hours.  (2) More focus.  More clarity.  More vision.  (A) Motivated by a vision.  Motivated by an ideal.  Motivated to pursue the good.  (B) Motivated by problems.  Motivated to solve problems.  Motivated to get rid of the bad.  (3) More motivation.  More intellectual reasons.  More emotional feeling.  More urgency.  (4) More stimulation.  More new experiences.  (5) More ideas.  More work produced.  (6) More open.  Less repressed.  More wide-ranging.  More expansive.  (7) More happy.  More relaxed.  (8) I am healthy.  I can think.  I can do.  That is positive.  (9) Big world.  Lots going on.  Lots to write about.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Methods of the writing process.  Loose writing.  Tight writing.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Methods of writing.  (1) Write daily.  Set aside a few hours a day to write.  Carry paper and pen everywhere to record ideas.  (2) Writing is a skill that one must practice to stay in shape.  (3) Reverie.  Trance.  Flow.  Writing is a state of mind.  (4) Make a list of things to write about, writing projects.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Much like talking is an aid to thinking or a form of thinking, so too is writing is also an aid to thinking or a form of thinking.  Talking is thinking.  Writing is thinking.	12/17/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Perhaps the most common writing advice one hears nowadays is to "write about what you know".  Writing about what you know is an approach that is good for didactically inculcating a supposedly apparent truth in other people.  Writing about what you know is a decidedly inter-personal approach to writing.  (2) On the other hand, I think it is also useful to write about what you don't know, because doing so has the effect of raising questions that eventually expand your own pool of knowledge.  Writing about what you don't know is a personal approach to writing.  (3) Write about what you know if you want to lecture others.  Write about what you don't know if you have a sense of curiosity and want to find some new ideas in order to grow as a person.  (4) The Notes is a style of writing that is somewhere in-between the above two styles.  The Notes is both personal writing and inter-personal writing.	12/1/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	Politics and writing.  Writing is a political act.  Speaking is a political act.  Thinking is a political act.  Thinking, speaking and writing can empower people.	11/18/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Recent changes in human conceptions of writing and the results of these changes.  (1) Writing text was once conceived of as being akin to writing music.  In fact, we once used the same word, "composition", to refer to both the act of writing text and the act of writing music.  (2) Today, writing text is increasingly conceived of as being akin to writing software code.  The vocabulary used to talk about writing text is changing from one filled with musical terms to one equally filled with computer terms.  (3) What is the result of this change in the conception of writing?  The result is an increase in the diversity and communicative power of all things written.	11/21/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Sometimes one feels one would be happy if only 50% of what one wrote was true, if only 5% of what one wrote was new, and if only 1% of what one wrote was important.	6/8/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	Structure and order vs. flexibility and creativity.  In writing there is a balance between structure and flexibility.  Too much structure makes one feel stifled.  Too little structure and the reader cannot understand.  Too little flexibility and freedom causes a lack of exploration and growth.  Too much flexibility?  There is an optimal balance of structure and flexibility for both the writer and the reader, and that level changes with time and place, from author to author and reader to reader.  In the Notes, structure and organization is provided by the keyword phrases which are categories.  Flexibility is provided by the fact that the categories are changing and growing.	1/2/2004

Arts, literature, writing.	Techniques for nonfiction writers.  (1) Write every day for several hours.  (2) Carry around pen and paper to jot down ideas at any time.  (3) Keep a brainstorming list to jot down words and phrases.  (4) Don't worry if you don't sell your writing.  Write for personal growth.  Write for health.  Write for truth and justice.	9/2/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Technology and writing.  Writing, language and computers are all information technologies.  The goals of the technology of writing are to write faster and easier with voice recognition software, organize faster and easier with sortable databases, and retrieve faster and easier with searchable databases.	11/18/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	The bio-chemo-physics of writing.  There is a time, after I've spent the morning trying to wake and yet before the drowsy evening, and after I've been energized by breakfast and yet before I'm hungry for dinner, when I can write.	11/23/2004

Arts, literature, writing.	The business person's goal: make a million dollars before one is 30 years old.  The writers goal: write a million words before one is 30 years old.  The equivalent of 10 novels.	6/26/2002

Arts, literature, writing.	The reason some people write a lot is the same reason some people talk a lot: To keep the giant yawning void at bay.	6/26/2002

Arts, literature, writing.	The writing urge (energy?) can come at anytime during the day.	11/1/2003

Arts, literature, writing.	There are many types of writing.  There are many reasons why people write.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Thinking and writing.  To write is to organize one's thoughts.  To write is to store one's thoughts.  To write is to generate new thoughts.	11/15/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Thinking skills for use in writing.  (1) Creativity skills.  Generate ideas.  Use lists to help.  Gather materials.  (2) Evaluation skills.  Determine the worth of ideas.  Pick out strengths and weaknesses of arguments.  Determine what is the author saying, his thesis and arguments.  Determine what is your view.  On which points do you agree and disagree with the author.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	This is a writing class.  We can write.  We can talk about writing.  Or we can read what others have written.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	To some extent writing is about getting into a "zone" or mental state of creativity where good ideas "flow" or form easily.  Entering the "zone" is similar to entering a meditative state, a biofeedback state, a trance state, or many of the other various mental states that humans are able to bring about in themselves.  To some degree a person can train themselves to enter this "zone" state relatively quickly and stay in the "zone" state for relatively long periods of time.  One trains oneself to do so through daily practice.  A person can teach another person to enter the zone by explanation, such as the above, and by mentioning, "looks like you are in the zone", when the person seems to be writing in the zone.	11/10/2001

Arts, literature, writing.	Types of writing.  (1) Personal writing.  Writing lets you talk to yourself.  (2) Public writing.  Writing provides a voice.  Writing is an entry to empowerment and equality in a society.  People begin to gain equality through writing.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Types of writing.  (1) Writing to celebrate the good things in life, because people often forget the good things.  (2) Writing to bemoan and improve the bad things in life, because people often forget the bad things in life.  (3) Writing to imagine what could be.  Writing to imagine the good we can achieve.  Writing to imagine the bad to avoid.  Writing as a steering mechanism.	4/30/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Types of writing.  Writing for self versus writing for others.  Not everything you write has to be for public consumption.  You deserve a private space.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Types of writing.  Writing from memory.  Writing from imagination.  Writing from emotion.  Writing from reason.	5/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Various reasons why people write.  Personal reasons.  Interpersonal reasons.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Various styles of written works.  Diary.  Fiction.  Non-fiction.  Poetry.  Prose.  (4) Various tools for writing.  Pen and paper.  Typewriter.  Computer.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Various writing projects:  Problems approach.  Write about most pressing problems.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Various writing projects: The news.  What's new.  Current events.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Various writing projects.  (1) People.  People I like.  People I dislike.  (2) Places.  Places I like.  Places I dislike.  (3) Things (Objects, Events, Ideas).  Things I like.  Things I dislike.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	We all start from nothing.  We are all inarticulate at first.  Don't feel embarrassed.  Don't give up.  Hang in there, baby.	7/5/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	What is writing?  Writing involves a group of related concepts.  (1) Thinking.  (2) Speaking and Listening.  (3) Writing and Reading.  (2) Information management.  (3) Communication.  Semiotics.  Language.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	What to write about today?  Write about the good and the bad.  Argue for the good.  Argue against the bad.	3/19/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	What's the difference between being a writer and being a bum?	3/1/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  (1) Find your voice.  (2) Take a position, a stand, a stance.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  (1) Thinking more and better.  (2) Communicating more and better.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  A lot of people in the "real world" write for fun.  Writing is enjoyable.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  A person gets better at writing with practice.  A person gets better at thinking, writing, speaking, reading and listening.  Those are very important skills to have.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Information management.  To create ideas.  To save ideas.  To organize ideas.  To retrieve ideas.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  One of the ways people think is by using words and language.  Other ways of thinking include thinking with music, images, numbers, etc.  People write to develop their ability to think with words and language.  Developing skills with words and language is important.	9/10/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  PART ONE.  Arguments against writing and reading can occur at several levels.  (1) Arguments against writing and reading in general.  (A) An argument against reading in general is that no one reads anymore.  (B) A counter-argument for reading is that overall sales of books are better than ever.  The Internet lets people read more than ever.  People may be reading less, but people are watching more movies, and movies are made from scripts which are written.  Words handle abstract ideas well.  (2) Arguments against art in general.  (3) Arguments against literature, a type of art.  (4) Arguments against poetry, a type of literature.  Defense of poetry.  People may be reading less poetry, but people are listening to more song lyrics.  For example, Bob Dylan's song lyrics are poetry.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  People often just do things intuitively or automatically.  It pays to examine our thoughts and actions.  Thinking about what we think.  Thinking about what we do.  Thinking about the arena in which we act.  Philosophical writing.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  People write when they want to sort out their thoughts or communicate their thoughts to others.	9/10/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Pragmatic approach.  Develop useful tools.  (1) Thinking is a tool.  (2) Ideas, the product of thought, are tools.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Reasons to write.  To gather a bunch of ideas.  In addition to having a bunch of friends, a bunch of money, a bunch of material objects, think about having a bunch of ideas.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  To solve problems.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  What are arguments against writing.  (1) Its difficult.  Its not fun.  Don't enjoy it.  No kick.  (2) Its a waste of time.  (3) It doesn't make money.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Words can do things that pictures and music cannot not do.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Writing can save your life.  You mind produces ideas.  Some ideas are better than others.  "Better" meaning more useful and more truthful.  Recognize and save the good ideas.  Recognize and critique the bad ideas.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Writing is a way of thinking.  Thinking with words.  Other ways of thinking include the following: (1) Thinking with numbers using math.  Accountants.  Engineers.  (2) Thinking with sound or music.  (3) Thinking with pictures in the visual arts.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Why write?  Writing is psychotherapeutic.  Writing can save your life.  Writing can save money on psychotherapy bills.  Writing can help prevent a nervous breakdown.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Write about something you like.  Write about something you care about.  Write about something you think is important.  Write about something you feel strongly about.  Put some heart into it.  Put some feeling into it.  Put some emotion into it.  Thought and emotion.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Write!  You are able to write.  Writing is good for you and others.  Writing is fun.  You like to write.  Write!	4/7/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as brain building.  Your mind is like a pile of rubble in an overgrown field.  You write a little each day.  Slowly the brain emerges.  Slowly you emerge.  Writing is self creation.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as psychotherapy.  The subconscious offers an ceaseless stream of ideas.  Mental health involves having access to the subconscious.  Mental health involves reduced barriers between the subconscious and conscious mind.  Mental health involves a rapport between the subconscious and conscious mind.  Mental health involves a conversation between the subconscious and conscious mind.  Writing has a psychotherapeutic effect, produced by giving access to the subconscious.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as psychotherapy.  What do you think?  How do you feel?  What are your attitudes about the events in your life and your world?	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as psychotherapy.  Writing is unloading the eighteen-wheeler of your subconscious mind, so that it can go make another run.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as thinking.  Wake up your brain.  Activate your brain.  (1) Writers are list makers.  Make a list of things from past.  Make a list of things to do.  Make lists of words, and then describe the words.  (2) Writing saves ideas.  Writing organizes ideas.	7/1/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing as transmission of mind.  Writing as transmission of dharma.	12/06/1988

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing exercises and projects.  (1) Re-visit ideas.  Re-read what you have written, yearly.  (2) Think about everything, everyday, all topics.  (3) Do all types, formats, styles of writing: poem, dialogue, short length, long length.  (4) Save ideas.  Three ideas per day, 1000 a year, 10,000 in ten years.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing exercises and projects.  (1) Write a history of your life, and a daily diary from this day forward.  (2) Visit a new place, experience it, and write about your experience.  (3) Try something new you never did before, experience it, and write about your experience.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing exercises.  (1) Write one word, one sentence, one paragraph, one essay.  (2) Categories exercise: write down all the categories you can think of.  (3) Essay topic: What do I think is important.  (4) Essay topic: Past and future.	11/7/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is a political act when it empowers people.	12/12/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is a technology that helps us survive better.  It helps us get things done.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is about criticism.  Specifically self-criticism.  Think critically.  Be a critic.  You want to tell me about your day?  Everyday?  Day after day?  If that's what you want to do, okay.  If not, you might want to try two things: Freedom (to create) and Criticism (to be finicky).	9/1/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is an art not a science.  Writing is often not instant gratification.  It can take hours, days, years.  Patience and perseverance are required.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is an outlet for coffee.	8/25/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is like climbing.  The blank paper is like a featureless stone wall.  Slowly holds emerge and you choose your route.	2/29/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is like exercise and eating, in that it takes time and energy, and it is sometimes a pain in the neck, yet other times it is fun, and you do it because it helps.  Writing is worth it.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing is something you learn by doing.  Writing is something you learn through practice.  Write a lot.	11/10/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing reveals not only your level of knowledge, but also your level of ignorance.	12/10/1988

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing styles.  Tight vs. loose.  (1) Tight:  Tight structure.  Tight meanings.  Tight arguments.  (2) Loose:  Loose structure.  Loose meanings.  Loosing arguments.	5/15/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing tips.  (1) Practical applications.  Write about ways how to make the world a better place today.  (2) Theoretical questions.  Write about hypothetical problems.  Write about the relationships of ideas.	5/1/2007

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing tips.  (1) Summaries, abstract, introduction.  (2) Most important ideas.  (3) Problems and solutions, techniques.  (4) Ideals.	5/1/2007

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing tips.  Get emotional.  A strength of artists and also young people is that they have strong emotions.  Write from emotion, especially anger at injustice.	5/1/2007

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing tips.  The subconscious.  Acknowledge your subconscious.  Listen to your subconscious.  Learn to work with your subconscious.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing tips.  Write about something new everyday.  The perpetual search for the new, the novel.	5/29/2007

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing well involves two kinds of thinking: (1) Creative thinking: to generate ideas.  (2) Critical thinking: to evaluate ideas.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing workshop.  The "materials" are the categories, topics, subjects that we write about.  The "tools" are the ways of thinking that we have.  Then we use the tools on the materials to make a "product", for example, an essay.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing, knowledge and power.  Knowledge is power.  Writing lets you store knowledge.  Compare the outcomes of societies that have a written tradition versus societies that do not.  Compare the outcomes of individuals who have a written tradition versus individuals who do not.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing, knowledge, and power.  (1) Thinking yields knowledge, which yields empowerment.  Writing saves knowledge.  (2) Not thinking yields ignorance, which yields disempowerment, oppression and exploitation.  Not writing leads to forgetting knowledge.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing, two views of.  (1) Writing as talking to yourself.  Writing as your current self talking to your current self.  Writing as your past self talking to future self.  (2) Writing as talking to other people who are not currently present.	10/30/2005

Arts, literature, writing.	Writing: the thoughts just pile up.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature, writing.	You are not learning to write.  You are learning to think and feel.  That is, you are learning to cop an attitude.	8/25/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	You should write like you (or the reader) are about to die.  You should not write like you (or the reader) have a three hour lunch to kill.	9/28/2000

Arts, literature, writing.	Your writing should be rich and fertile, like a debutante.	7/12/2002

Arts, literature.	.This section is about literature in general.  Topics include: ( ) Academic writing.  ( ) Genres.  ( ) Grafitti.  ( ) Metaphor.  ( ) Nonfiction  ( ) Fiction and novel.  ( ) Philosophy of literature.  Literary theory.  ( ) Quotes.  ( ) Short forms.  ( ) Theme.  ( ) Travel writing.  ( ) Writing.  ( ) What is literature.  ( ) Why study literature.  Why write or read literature.	1/24/2006

Arts, literature.	(1) Academia:  Must appeal to, and please, one's academic peers.  (A) Must use foot notes and bibliographies.  Must cite friends as a favor.  (B) Must stick to a single subject.  (2) Commercial success of professional writer:  (A) Must appeal to, and please, the masses.  Must cater to whims of public, or at least your audience.  Must not risk offending, be careful of what you say, be careful of what you criticize.  (B) You get locked into a style.  Must stick to a genre.  (3) Me:  Free to say what I want, how I want, in my own voice.  (A) I can switch subjects whenever I like.  (B) I can switch styles when the mood strikes me.  I can mix poetry, essay, and aphorism.	06/05/1997

Arts, literature.	(1) One problem is when people read infrequently.  (2) Another problem is when people read only novels.	6/1/2007

Arts, literature.	(1) Writing style.  Smooth and tight.  All needed information there, and no unneeded information there.  (2) Writing mechanics.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	A story can be merely an aesthetic experience.  (1) A story does not need to have a moral nor take an ethical stance.  However, some people argue that it is inescapable for a story to have an ethical view.  (2) Nor does the story have to take a metaphysical or epistemological view.  (i.e., "This is how things are.  This is how I know.  This is how things could be. ").  (3)  Themes can be metaphysical, epistemological, ethical or aesthetic.  A moral is a ethical theme.  The story does not have to have a theme or message.	1/15/2002

Arts, literature.	Academic writing, criticisms of.  Academics write to be published in academic journals.  Academic journals are narrow niches.  Academic writers are limited by their medium.	11/18/2005

Arts, literature.	Academic writing.  Common writing mistakes of academics.  (1) Many academics mistakenly believe that the more words they write the more important the subject is.  Many academics also mistakenly believe that the more words they write the smarter their views on the subject are.     (2)  Many academics mistakenly believe that the bigger the words they use the more important the subject and the smarter their views on the subject.     (3) Many academics mistakenly believe that the prettier the language they use the more important the subject and the smarter their view on the subject.  They believe that if they write, "The gracile crimson vulpine vaulted the lethargic umber canine" it means more than "The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog".  It does not.     (4) Many academics mistakenly believe that the more footnotes they add and the bigger the bibliography they add the more important the subject and the smarter their views.     (5) Many academics mistakenly believe that the longer they write the more potent and powerful they are.     (6) So, generally speaking, by this formula, who are some popular writers who fall into this academic style?     (7) However, computer programmers realize that the more concise the code the better.  So, generally speaking, by this formula, who are some terse writers?  Vonnegut?     (8) I think that in the long run the economical style is more valuable.  And I think the trend is toward the economical style.  Some people mistakenly believe that an economical style means simple ideas.  It does not.  :)   Concise coding makes more powerful programs possible.  Modular coding makes more  powerful programs possible.     (9) Concise vs. long-winded.  (A) Is it just a matter of aesthetic taste?  In an age of information-overload I think not.  (B) Is it a matter of personality style or thinking style?  That is, you write the way your mind works.  You write the way you are.  You can't really change.  (C) Or does the subject at hand determine the writing style?	10/19/2000

Arts, literature.	Academic writing.  To the academic, the most important ideas in any situation must be lengthy, complicated and numerous.  The academic will seldom admit that the important ideas in a situation can be short, simple and few, otherwise the academic would be out of a job and without a purpose in life.  The academic will call such ideas cliche', trivial, or otherwise deny their importance.	9/19/2001

Arts, literature.	All communication is to get what we want, even if it is just spreading our version of truth.  All communication is essentially a political act.  See propaganda.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	All writing is secondary to the development of writing theory.	03/06/1989

Arts, literature.	An argument against literature.  Its just a story.  Its not a fact.  You can write whatever you want.  You can make any character say or do anything.  This is also an argument for literature.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Analogical thinking in literature.  Metaphor.  Simile.  Symbolism.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Anecdotes (happy) and war stories (tragic).	12/30/1995

Arts, literature.	Anything you can think (i.e., say to yourself) you can write.  Anything you can feel (emotions) you can not write.  Anything you can sense (sensations) you can not write.  You can only allude to emotions and sensations by way of thoughts.	1/24/2000

Arts, literature.	Argument for literature.  In a way, by being so narrowly focused and specialized, the academic Philosophy department has ceded the big questions about life to the English department.  So, in English class, one should give assignments that deal with philosophizing about life and the world.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Arguments for and against literature.  (1) Arguments for literature versus the other arts.  (2) Arguments for literature versus other values like money and power.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Arguments for and against literature.  PART ONE. Arguments for literature.  (1) Literature is easily portable.  (2) Literature developed years ago when films and music were not invented yet.  (3) Literature forces you to use your imagination in ways that film does not.  (4) The book is often better than the movie.  (5 People use literature to build meaning systems.  PART TWO.  Arguments against literature.  (1) Literature can be difficult to understand at times.  (2) Literature is time consuming.  Watching a movie takes two hours, reading a book can take ten hours.  (3) We live in an increasingly visual culture.  Some people will argue that no one reads anymore.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Arguments for literature.  (1) Weak version of the argument for literature.  People have always told stories and always will tell stories, so people might as well think analytically and critically about the stories that people tell each other and that people tell themselves.  Some stories are better than others.  (2) Strong version of the argument for literature.  Understanding the world through literature is just as important, perhaps even more important, as understanding the world through philosophy or science.  If you want to really understand life you should read a novel.	10/8/2004

Arts, literature.	Arguments for literature.  Arguments against literature.	10/5/2006

Arts, literature.	Artistic language is allusive.  Technical language is exact.  Everyday language is a mix of the two extremes.	9/20/1998

Arts, literature.	At some level writing is like sex.  To write a lot is to f*ck a lot.  Prolific has a least two meanings.	10/21/1998

Arts, literature.	Audience.  What audience is the author writing for?  How can we tell?  What is the message that the author is trying to convey?  Who is the intended recipient of the message?	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Authors are artists.  Artists are sensitive.  Artists are affected strongly by the world, and in return, artists have a strong effect on the world through their works.  Artists use art as a coping mechanism, to varying degrees of personal psychological success.  Art is psychotherapeutic.  Art to cope with, to deal with, to understand, life, the world, other people, and the self.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Can words really capture reality?  There was a time when I did not want to write because I thought it would lessen reality.  Writing cheapens reality.  Can words describe the way she looked to me?  Can words describe how she made me feel?  Why bother writing?  Writing is so futile.  Writing degrades reality.  Writing is a crime.	1/24/2000

Arts, literature.	Canon.  (1) The cannon is the set of books considered good and  important.  Significant for one reason or another.  What to read, what to study.   (2) Over time the cannon changes.  New books are added.  Some older books get less attention.  (3) The cannon is under constant debate.  Different people have different views of which books to include, why to include the book, and how important the book is, and why the book is important.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Canon.  The cannon is under contention or debate.  The cannon is always changing.  Additions, subtractions.  The cannon reflects a power struggle.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Canon.  The canon is a list of great works.  The concept of canon is problematic for many reasons.  (1) The amount of great literature in increasing rapidly, because as civilization progresses there are more people, with better education, with more access to great literature, and more access to computers, and these people develop better writing skills and produce more great literature.  (2) In literature, as in all the arts, it is difficult to say who is the absolute best.  The arts are inexact and subjective.  In math and science it is easier to say what is best, because these subject are more objective and exact.  The arts present a diversity of valid views.  (3) Who creates the canon?  To some extent the canon is the result of political pressures.  The canon is picked by power holders and the canon upholds the values of power holders.  At one time the canon was of only white European males, but today the canon is more global and diverse.  (4) As the world changes, there is a change in which works of literature are viewed as good.  As new problems arise, and as new solutions are adopted, the view of what is good art changes.	9/12/2006

Arts, literature.	Canon.  There are many "great and good" works of literature worth studying.  The number of "mediocre and bad" literature is an even larger set, maybe 100 times as large.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Character.  The complexity of a character is revealed through the character's mental life, their ideas and emotions and attitudes, which is revealed through their thoughts, words and actions.  The use of action alone to reveal a character amounts to pantomime.  The use of thought alone to reveal a character amounts to a person sitting in a chair thinking to his or her self.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Childrens literature.  Fairytales are not harmless fun.  They have implicit or explicit metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views.  Kids soak them up, kids learn from them, often incorrectly.  We know it is imaginary but kids think it is real.  The world is magical to kids because they can't see cause and effect.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Childrens literature.  The fantasy and inanity of childrens books is pathologically high.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Cliche'.  (1) Cliche's are starting points.  When you tell people not to consider cliche's you are stopping people at the start of their thinking.  (2) Cliche's can be true nonetheless.  Cliche's are building blocks.  (3) If you don't know the cliche's you are in sad shape.  Learn the cliche's.  Then transcend the cliche's.	4/1/2002

Arts, literature.	Cliche'.  Cliche's are a starting point.  Without cliche's there is no starting point.  The problem is that, for many people, cliche's are also an ending point.	4/25/2002

Arts, literature.	Cliche'.  One man's cliche' is another man's revelation.	8/26/2001

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  (1) A database is an example of tightly structured writing.  A free-form poem is an example of loosely structured writing.  Both tightly structured writing and loose structured writing are useful ways of writing.  (2) There are various ways to format structured text on a computer.  A flat-file is a tab delimited text file that can be easily sorted by column.  A spreadsheet will also let you structure text in a sortable format.  A database management system, like MySQL, will provide additional database functionality.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  (1) Computers.  Computers are a powerful tool.  Computers are a tool for thinking.  Computers are a tool for information management.  (2) The Internet.  The Internet is a network of computers, information and users.  A public space.  A multimedia place.  (3) Computers and the Internet are affecting the way people read and write.  (4) Hyperlinks.  (5) Databases.  Databases are the basis of Content Management Systems.  (6) Web sites.  Multimedia.  (7) Blogs.  A blog are an easily updated website.  Blogs are influencing journalism.  (8) MySpace.  MySpace is social networking software.  MySpace lets you create a web site that links easily with others.  (9) XML allows custom tagging of information.  For example, the website Flickr.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  (1) Discussion of how computers and the Internet are changing the way people write and read.  Hyperlinks.  Databases.  CMS.  Blogs.  Online newspapers.  Online texts.  Statistical textual analysis.  Text messaging.  (2) Cyberfiction.  Philip K. Dick.  Gibson.  (3) Technical writing of computer manuals.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  (1) History of language, writing, printing, computers.  (2) Paper and pen.  (3) Computers and writing.  Internet and writing.  (4) Information management methods.  List.  Outline.  Web page.  Database.  (5) Word processors.  Open Office.  Editors.  (6) Content management systems.  Blogs.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  Hyperlinks.  Writing used to be serial.  Hyperlinks make writing less serial.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers and writing.  Information management  A content management system (CMS) is a type of information management system that focuses on words, not numbers.  Blog software is perhaps the most common example of a content management system.  CMS's have a web front end that uses hyperlinks, and a database back end that is sortable and searchable.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Computers.  Books and computers.  Computers make possible the following:  (1) Ebooks.  The digital book.  (2) Hypertext books.  Containing links.  (3) Database books.  Made easier.  (4) Macro-books.  Thousands of pages.  (5) Micro-books.  Less than 100 pages.  (6) Multiple author books.  Example, recent encyclopedias.  (7) Interactive books.  User input.  (8) Multimedia books.	3/9/2000

Arts, literature.	Crime and bad luck articles show how cruel life can be, how cruel people can be, and how much of life is pure luck.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Death of artistic literature.  Art is a dead form.  Fiction is a dead form.  Poetry is a dead form.  Studying or reading both above is a waste of time.  English lit major is ridiculous.  TV and movies killed novels.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Development of literature in ancient humans.  (1) Topics of ancient conversations.  Action topics.  Who slept with who.  Who begat who.  Who fought with who.  (2) Latter topics.  Communication topics.  Who said what.  (3) Modern topics.  Psychological topics.  Who thought or felt what.	11/24/2003

Arts, literature.	Development of literature in primitive humans.  Talk about the present (the present tense.  things that are) developed in humans before the ability to talk about the past (past tenses.  things that were), which developed before the ability to talk about the future (future tenses.  things that will be or may be).	11/24/2003

Arts, literature.	Differences and similarities, and pros and cons of (1) Language vs. sound vs. images.  (2) Writing vs. speaking.  (3) Books vs. tv vs. radio.  (4) Fiction vs. nonfiction.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Distortions in story telling.  (1) The oral tradition.  The "telephone game" phenomenon.  There is distortion in person-to-person communications.  Distortions take place often when playing the telephone game.  Distortions take place in oral storytelling traditions too.  Additions and deletions occur to the "text".  (2) Fact vs. fiction.  Truth vs. imagination.  One would like to communicate the facts, the truth.  However, very often distortions occur by bragging, boasting and embellishing.  Exaggerations take place.  People make stuff up.  People lie to support their interests.  (3) Distortions of memory in individual persons in oral storytelling traditions happen frequently.  (4) Power plays in story telling.  Those in power (with position, money, land) have a tendency to try to shape the telling of history to suit their interests.  They also try to shape the reporting or discussion of current events (journalism) to suit their interests.  They try to limit dissenting views.  They try to limit what subjects can be discussed.  Even at a primitive tribal level power tries to control the media, even if the only media is the oral storytelling tradition.  (5) Personal bias in story telling.	11/24/2003

Arts, literature.	Elements of literature.  (1) Can there be a story without a character?  (2) Can there be a story without a conflict?  (3) Can there be a story without a setting?  (4) Can there be a story without a plot? (mood only).  (5) Can there be a story without theme?  (morally ambiguous).	1/1/1999

Arts, literature.	English class versus other classes.  (1) English class delves into emotions, psychology, sociology, philosophy.  Math, science, business are about numbers, and about the one right answer.  (2) English class encourages diversity and tolerance.  There is no best art, only many good works of art.  Also, many voices, views from around the world and through time.  (3) Still, art and literature are not permissive of all.  There are ethical standards.  For example, abusive speech will not be tolerated.  There are epistemological standards.  For example, arguments for a flat earth will be deflated.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature.	English class versus other classes.  English deals with words and language.  Some other classes, like math, sciences, and engineering, deal with numbers.  Some other classes, like visual arts, deal with images and pictures.  Some other classes, like music, deal with sounds.  Some other classes, like computers, deal with computer languages, but computer languages are as much like math as they are like words.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature.	English class.  (1) How do words differ from music, visual arts, etc.?  (2) How does English class differ from the other subjects?  Its not a math formula.  Its not a science multiple choice test.  Literature is not a logical argument like one finds in philosophy class.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	English class.  In math class there is a "one right answer".  In English literature class there is no "one right answer".	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	English class.  The academic subject "English" is a blanket term that covers many important, closely related areas.  (1) Communication.  Semiotics.  (2) Language.  Linguistics.  (3) Writing.  Practice of writing.  Process of writing.  At a high level.  ALSO.  Reading.  Practice of reading.  Process of reading.  At high level.  (4) Literature.  Study of literature.  Study of great, art literature.  (See: reading)  (5) Literary Criticism and Literary Theory.  (See: study of literature)  (6) Mass Media criticism.  McLuhan.  Chomsky.  (7) Psycholinguistics.  Chomsky's Universal Grammar.  Fodor's Language of Thought.  (8) Philosophy of Language.  (9) Evolutionary theories of literature.  Narrative.  Oral tradition.  (10) Technology.  History of writing.  Technology of the book.  The Internet.  History of the book.  (10) Politics of the book.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	English in schools = lit history, lit criticism theory, linguistics and language in general, english language specifically (grammar, vocabulary, spelling, writing, speaking), communication studies.	02/07/1994

Arts, literature.	Essay or thesis.  (1) Building an argument.  (2) Analyzing an argument.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature.	Essays are about ideas.  Essays are about exploring ideas.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Essays or Thesis.  (1) Topic.  Subject.  (2) Thesis.  Claim.  View.  Stance.  (3) Support.  Evidence.  Arguments.  Reasons.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Essays.  Questions for essays.  (1) What did you like and dislike about the essay?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of the essay?  (2) What are some counter-arguments against the author's thesis?  What are some additional supporting arguments to the author's thesis?  (3) Rate the essay on the level of ideas.  Rate the essay on the level of expression of ideas.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Essays.  Topic.  Thesis, Arguments, Claims.  Support for claims.  What is the structure of the argument?  Techniques used.  Strength and weaknesses of the essay.  Additional support and counter-arguments.   What is the emotional tone or effect of the essay.	10/10/2006

Arts, literature.	Fiction and non-fiction.  When can we tell fiction is autobiographical?  When can we tell when non-fiction writers are lying, keeping secrets, or mistaken (false)?  We can't.  Thus all non-fiction can be attacked using literary theory.  And all fiction can be attacked with philosophical analysis.  Also, fiction can use logic and reason, just as non-fiction can use emotion, persuasion, and bias.  There is no distinction between fiction and non-fiction.  Both can be true and false.	09/01/1994

Arts, literature.	Fiction and truth.  When a writer creates a character and then puts words in that character's mouth, can we really be sure that character would actually say those words?  Authors often claim to try to "let characters speak for themselves", but is that really possible?  I say most people barely understand themselves, and often have no clue about other people, so trying to create a character seems the height of folly.	7/31/2001

Arts, literature.	Fiction as lacking of ethical standards and epistemological standards.  (1) Anyone can write a story about anything.  Anyone can take any view on any topic.  (2) Anyone can read a story and interpret it an any way.  Anyone can read any story and declare it true or false, important or unimportant.	4/4/2007

Arts, literature.	Fiction versus non-fiction.  (1) In fine literature, artistic literature, meaning is more open to interpretation.  Looser meaning.  More vagueness and ambiguity.  More figurative language.  More sensual, sense imagery.  More emotive.  (2) Non-fiction prose.  More exact meanings.  More literal language.  More emphasis on reasoning over emotion and sense.  More emphasis on argument.  More logical.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature.	Fiction versus non-fiction.  Fiction often is heavily autobiographical.  Non-fiction often has errors, lies, exaggerations, omissions, etc.  Thus, there is no clear dividing line between fiction and non-fiction.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Fiction versus non-fiction.  Fiction tries to convince by telling a story.  Nonfiction tries to convince through logic and reasoned argument.  Poetry is often neither a story nor a logical argument.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Fiction.  Definitions of fiction.  Arguments for and against fiction.  Types of fiction: novel, short story, poetry and drama.	1/17/2004

Arts, literature.	Fiction.  Writing fiction and reading fiction is a form of psychological denial.  The fiction author (and fiction reader) essentially says "I am not sitting at my desk writing (or reading).  I am not me, rather I am someone else.  I am not here, rather I am somewhere else.  I am with someone else, doing something else".  When does fiction writing or fiction reading become avoidance of reality, as opposed to confrontation of reality?	5/8/1999

Arts, literature.	Four and a half pages of Truth is worth more intrinsically than twenty pages of garbage.	03/01/1988

Arts, literature.	Four views of literature: psychological and social from the point of view of the author and reader.  (1)(A) People write because they have a story to tell.  People write because they have cathartic requirements.  This is a psychological view of the author and story.  (B) People write because they want to influence other people.  People write because they have an idea that they want to transmit to others.  This is a social view of the author and story.  A political view.  (2)(A) People read because they feel the story will help them work out or release their own psychological issues.  This is a psychological view of the reader and story.  (B) People read because they want an encounter with another person, the author.  The reader wants to buy an idea, or debate an idea.  This is a social view of the reader and story.	6/2/2005

Arts, literature.	Genre benders.  There is no discernible line between fiction and non-fiction.  There is no discernible line between prose and poetry.  There in no discernible line between information and entertainment.	1/18/2004

Arts, literature.	Genre is a fuzzy concept.  Genres blend into each other at the edges.  Texts can bend genres, fall between genres, or belong to several genres.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Genre.  Definitions of each genre.  Traits of each genre.  History of each genre.  Comparisons of genres: better and worse and why.  Do's and don'ts.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Genre.  Development of the genres.  (1) Each major genre has a history.  A hundred thousand years ago, the precursors of novels may have developed from a single speaker telling a story to an audience around a campfire.  Plays may have resulted from a group of people acting out a story to an audience around a campfire.  Poetry may have resulted from singers singing songs to an audience around a campfire.  (2) In the last few thousand years the development of genres has often been influenced by technology: first oral, then writing, then print, then computer technology.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Genre.  How do the genres differ?  (1) Novel.  Novel: many characters, many subplots, many digressions.  Short story: short and more focused, fewer characters and subplots.  Novel and short story are more linear than drama and poetry, with more focus on a narrative or story.  (2) Drama.  Drama contains more dialogue than novels and short stories.  Drama has less description.  Drama has the action written into the stage directions.  (3) Poetry.  Poetry is looser in meanings, more open.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Genre.  Question for each genre and style.  Why is it important?  How important is it?  What does it do that others can't?  What can't it do that others can?  What are the elements and principle of it?  What's the history of it?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Genre.  Similarities and differences of the genres of short stories, plays and poetry.  Similarities: all are written forms of fiction.  Differences: (1) Short story:  Single story teller.  More narration than plays.  More description than plays.  (2) Drama or plays: Evolved when a group tells a story.  Takes place in a theater, on a stage, with a set, and multiple actors.  Less narration than short stories.  More dialog than short stories.  Visual elements including scenery, stage directions, and the expressions on the faces of of the actors.  (3) Poetry: Short, compact, condensed, concise.  Sung, musical, sound oriented.  Author, narrator, speaker is often same person.  Personal, the author is speaking directly to the reader.  Looser meanings, more figurative language.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Genre.  What is genre?  Genre is a type or form of literature.  Example of genres of literature include novel or short story, drama or plays, and poetry.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Genre.  Why go outline to prose, when the student just goes prose to outline?  Leave it in outline, save everyone trouble.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Genres are ideal, abstract forms.  There will always be works that cross genres, mix genres or create new genres.  Literature is a spectrum or web.	5/2/2002

Arts, literature.	Genres list.  (1) Prose vs. poetry.  (2) Prose non-fiction.  (A) Describe, explain, argue (persuade, rhetoric).  (B) Aphorism, maxim, apothegm, axiom.  (C) Editorial, opinion, criticism.  (D) Journalism, treatise, essay.  (E) Survey literature vs. polemical monographs.  (F) By subjects: (26 notes subjects.  Historical, biography, polemical, political, humor, religious, travel writing, philosophical, scientific, religious, etc.  (2) Prose fiction (artistic writing).  Novel, short story, epic, fable, parable, allegory, romance, saga, ballad.  Novel: horror, spy, detective mystery, crime, Hollywood, rich, poor, historical: frontier, western, cavemen.  Drama: tragedy, comedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Genres.  Novels we discuss chapter by chapter.  Short stories we discuss paragraph by paragraph.  Poems we discuss line by line, even word by word.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Genres.  Short story is a form of micro-fiction.  Short story is one of many short forms, like haiku, or three minute pop songs, or jokes, or idioms, or quotes, or aphorisms, or even the paragraph.  (2) Exercises.  Write a story one paragraph long.  Write a story one page long.	1/17/2004

Arts, literature.	Graffiti.  (1) Literature is a type of graffiti.  Graffiti is a type of literature.  (2) Literature as graffiti.  The publishing world is scarily similar to the graffiti world.  Its all about getting up.  The famous author wants to tag the world.  (A) The author is territorial, like animals who mark their trails.  (B) The author as transgressive.  Break the law.  Trespass your mind.  (C) The author wants to be seen.  The author wants attention.  The author wants love.  (3) It can help to look at the great authors as graffiti artists.	7/16/2000

Arts, literature.	Graffiti.  (1) Written it lasts longer than speech.  (2) Captive audiences are forced to see it.  (3) Graffiti is public: many see it, and yet the author remains anonymous, allowing you to speak freely without fear of retribution.  You can say what's not socially acceptable, and break taboos.  You can say what's not socially useful, i.e. pure fun.  You can step outside yourself and your roles.  It's an assertion of the individual, a political act.  (3) Two types of graffiti: outside on walls, inside in bathrooms.  (4) Types of graffiti: sexual, political, racist, hurtful, helpful.	04/21/1993

Arts, literature.	Graffiti.  How much wisdom is in graffiti?  How artistic is graffiti?  How much is it possible to say with how few words?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Graffiti.  See also Arts, visual arts - grafitti.	12/30/2000

Arts, literature.	Great writing is the beautiful and deadly accurate transcription of the truth.	12/04/1988

Arts, literature.	History of literature.  Some people think an Intro to Lit class should focus on the History of Lit.  For example, the history of American Lit.  Or perhaps the history of Anglo-American Lit in order to include British, Irish, Canadian and Australian lit.  Or perhaps the history of World Lit, in order to include the entire world.  One problem with this view is that if you pick any list of one hundred authors of great world literature, you can easily pick a hundred different authors of great world literature.  There are many great authors, and the list is only growing.  (See notes on Canon).	9/12/2006

Arts, literature.	How do we convert reality into stories?  (1) Do we convert reality into stories by finding morals?  Regardless of whether we are actually creating morals and imposing them on the situation, rather than finding inherent pre-existing morals?  (2) Do we convert reality into stories by simplifying?  Regardless of the loss of detail and information?  We make extensive editing decisions when we convert reality into stories.  (3) Do we convert reality into stories by imposing order?  Regardless if it rearranges the facts?  (4)  Do we convert reality into stories by "detail by detail" transcription?  Regardless of whether it actually makes sense?  (5) Do we convert reality into stories by acknowledging the meaningless, chaotic, absurdity, illogical, nonsensical, disconnected flow of events?     PART TWO.  How do we convert reality into stories?  (1) The first stories by humans were probably about actual events and circumstances.  (2) In the next step, the tales of heroes are given legendary status. (3) The next step may have been myths, which use mythical or divine characters to explain events that are beyond the power of humans (such as natural disasters).  (4) The next step in the evolution of stories was the concept of purely fictional stories, which was an interesting development because it was a case where, "It is not true.  Everyone knows it's not true.  It does not matter if it's not true.  You can still enjoy it and learn from it".     PART THREE.  How do we convert reality into stories?  Stories are attempts to describe and explain the situation, and predict the future.  In this way stories are a form of proto-science.  Humans have a natural tendency to tell stories.  Humans try to understand their situation by noticing patterns.  The pattern in a situation are interpreted by humans as a sign of order, which are interpreted as signs of logic and reason.	1/12/2002

Arts, literature.	How does literature differ from the other arts?  Specifically, how does literature differ from movies?	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	How important is artistic literature?  Some think it is very important.  I think its importance has been overemphasized greatly.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	How to study literature?  Treat literature as just another text.  People create texts of various types.  The borderline between artistic literature and other types of texts is hazy.  The goal is to develop high-level textual analysis and criticism skills, so that when you read any text you have the tools to analyze and critique the text.  Be able to write a coherent response to anything you read.	9/10/2006

Arts, literature.	How to teach literature in a world where few people read and many people listen to music and watch movies?  (1) Show the similarities between music and literature.  Use music as an example to teach poetry.  (2) Show the similarities between movies and literature.  Use movies as an example to teach short stories and novels.  (3) Then show how literature is different from both music and movies.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	How well can one get along without reading?  How well can one get along without writing?	1/17/2004

Arts, literature.	Idea versus expression of idea.  (1) One problem is a good idea with poor expression.  Good ideas with poor expression have trouble catching on due to the poor expression of the good idea.  (2) Another problem is a bad idea with eloquent expression.  A bad idea with eloquent expression is a bad situation because the bad idea may spread due to its eloquent expression.  For example, Hitlers ministers of propaganda gave eloquent expression to some very bad ideas, with very tragic consequences.  (3) Ideally one wants to see good ideas with good expression.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Idea versus expression of idea.  A good idea expressed simply trumps a bad idea expressed eloquently.	9/4/2006

Arts, literature.	Idea versus expression of idea.  There are two concepts to consider: the idea, and the expression of the idea.  You can have a good idea and express it poorly.  You can have a bad idea and express it eloquently.  Both situations are suboptimal.  Optimally, you want to have a good idea and express it well.	9/12/2006

Arts, literature.	Idea versus expression of idea.  We can distinguish between the ideas of the text, and the expression of the ideas in the text.  We can talk about ideas and expression separately.  The ideas can be evaluated.  The expression of the ideas can be evaluated.  For example, someone could write an eloquent defense of a bad idea like fascism.  Eloquence is good.  Fascism is bad.	9/6/2006

Arts, literature.	Idea versus expression of idea.  When you write, you express an idea.  When you write, you put an idea into words.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Ideal.  (1) Important ideas, powerfully communicated.  (2) True, accurate, complete, precision.  (3) Organized, logical, well ordered, clear, unified whole.  (4) Concise, economical, condensed.  (5) Harmony, flow, balance, beautiful.  (6) Bold, interesting, lucid.  (7) Original: in style, and in philosophy.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Ideal.  (1) Vocabulary and grammar used correctly, understandable.  (2) Experience, talent, creativity.  (3) Wisdom, intelligence.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Ideal.  Fitting to audience.  Fitting to subject matter.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Ideal.  The main aesthetic criteria is power and lucidity.  We want new important ideas, powerfully communicated.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	If you supplied a group of people with paper and pen and told them to start writing, what would they write?  Perhaps 60 percent would write a personal history (diary, journal).  Perhaps 30 percent would write fiction in the form of a novel.  Perhaps 10 percent would write non-personal non-fiction.	3/29/2002

Arts, literature.	Images vs. music tones vs. acting vs. words.  Writing words are so much more exact and efficient and versatile than the other alternatives.	03/20/1997

Arts, literature.	Interpretation.  (1) Every individual reader forms their own interpretation of a work of literature.  Every individual forms an opinion about the meaning and importance of a work.  (2) Every society forms an interpretation about the meaning and importance of a work.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Interpretation.  (1) Interpreting from other languages (translation).  (2) Interpreting from same language (ex. reading Shakespeare).	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Interpretation.  All stories are puzzles requiring interpretation.  All texts are puzzles requiring interpretation.  All communications are puzzles requiring interpretation.  All people are puzzles requiring interpretation.	3/5/2007

Arts, literature.	Interpretation.  Many an author does not say outright what he or she means.  This can be quite frustrating.  Why does not the author say what he or she means?  (1) The author many not say immediately, directly and concisely what he or she means in order to be entertaining.  Telling a story is different from giving a lecture.  (2) The author may be ambiguous in order to discuss taboo topics without fear of retribution.  (3) The author may be trying to be realistic about everyday conversations which are often oblique.  The artists conception of truth is often the truth of everyday life, concrete details, sensory experiences, not the truths of abstract principles.  (4) The author might not say what he or she means because the author might not know what he or she means.  Literature is an art, and very often artists act on subconscious impulses and hunches, without knowing exactly what it all means.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Interpretation.  Reader's interpretation and reader's meaning is as important as author's meaning and author's interpretation of his/her own work.  (1) Sometimes the author does not know what their work means.  Sometimes the author, as an artist, has a vision that the author does not fully understand.  (2) What the author means to say is not always what people hear.  The author might intend to write one thing but the public might interpret the text to mean another thing.	3/14/2007  

Arts, literature.	Irony is a type of discrepancy.  (1) Irony can lead to humor and comedy.  But not all irony is humorous.  (2) Irony can also lead to tragedy.  For example, a discrepancy between what is said and done can be labeled hypocrisy, which is a character flaw that can lead to a character's downfall.  Another example of tragic irony, in Romeo and Juliet, it was ironic yet tragic that each one did not know the other was alive and so they both committed suicide.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Irony.  (1) Irony vs. hypocrisy.  A lot of times we wrongly play down instances of hypocrisy by calling it irony.  (2)  Irony as a passive-observer phenomenon.  There is something of the spectator in those who notice irony everywhere.  (3) Irony as something we impose on situations.  The world is not ironic, humans are ironic.  (4) Irony is about coincidence and happenstance.  (5) Is irony always about humor?  Does irony always have an element of humor?  That does not mean all uses of humor are ironic.  Everything is not a joke.  (6)  Two opposing views: Life is not a joke vs. you can find humor anywhere.  (7) Is the humor of irony a snide, smug, superior humor or is it a mirthful joy?  (8) Irony and epistemology.  "Isn't it ironic that we thought that X was the case when actually Y was the case?"  This is about our inability to correctly perceive the situation.  (9) Irony and ethics.  "Isn't it ironic that person X said not to do evil when a person X actually ended up doing the most evil?"  Or, "Isn't it ironic that person X tried to do good but ended up doing evil?"  This is a negative, defeatist tone.  (10) Pro irony argument.  The situation is multi-faceted.  There is more to the situation than meets the eye.  Ethics can be relative.  Relativism holds sway.  Post modernism hold sway.  (11)  There is more to life than irony.  Irony is not the be all, and irony is not the best nor most important concept.  The goal of every story should not be merely to be ironic or to include irony.	1/15/2002

Arts, literature.	Irony.  Irony is a over-used literary term.  Irony is often confused with other concepts.  (1) Irony and humor.  Irony should not be mistaken for humor.  Comedians tell humorous jokes, but not all comedians are ironists.  (2) Irony and injustice.  Irony should not be mistaken for injustice.  That slaves work harder but get less than slave owners is not so much an example of irony as it is an example of injustice.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Irony.  Is life inherently ironic?  Are humans inherently ironic?	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Irony.  PART ONE.  Character and irony.  (1) A character can be aware of the irony in a situation.  Even intending the irony.  (2) A character can be unaware of the irony.  Unintentional irony.  PART TWO.  (1) The author can be aware of the irony.  (2) The author can be unaware of the irony.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Just because you read a book does not mean you will "get" what that book is about.  Just because you read a book is no guarantee that you will "get" all that the book has to offer.  Better to get the synopsis of the book so that you can know what you were supposed to get from the book.  This is an argument in favor of education by reading many short, clear synopses rather than a few, long-winded, opaque "great books"	2/6/1999

Arts, literature.	Lets start with some very basic ideas.  Lets start from the ground up.  PART ONE.  Why write?  Why learn?  Why think?  (1) We have brains.  Our brains are our friends.  Our brains are useful.  We should use our brains.  (2) To solve problems.  (3) To make a living.  To make money.  (4) To avoid mistakes, misery, pain.  (5) To do the right thing.  To be just.  To be ethical.  (6) To know what is going on.  To be informed.  To not be ignorant.  To not be wrong.  (7) Thinking and learning help deal with the problems of life.     PART TWO.  Thinking, learning, writing, take a little bit of effort.  It can be difficult at times.  Other times its easy, and the ideas appear effortlessly.  But you get better at it with practice, so do practice it daily.  You also get better at it with age, so a few years from now you will be improved.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Like the way a thousand lines of computer code can create a graphical user interface (GUI) on the computer screen, so perhaps can a thousand page novel create a graphical user interface (GUI) in your mind.	8/24/2000

Arts, literature.	Literary critics tend to criticize specific books.  Literary critics tend not to criticize literature itself.  Literary critics tend not to question the value of literature in general.	12/11/2005

Arts, literature.	Literature class is essentially an art appreciation class.  When we study works of literature, it is like studying paintings or music.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Literature is about going global.  Adventure, exploration, travel, new cultures, new experiences, broaden horizons, new views, new voices, new settings, diversity, tolerance.  Challenge our existing views.  Find out what's going on in the world.  Think about everything.  The arts are synthetic, big picture, everything at once.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Literature is not supposed to be about "saying the unsayable", which is what some poets believe.  Literature, I say, is supposed to be about "saying the unpaintable" and "saying the unsingable".  That is, literature is most useful when images and music do not do the subject justice.  Let words do what pictures and music cannot do.  And anyway, nothing is unsayable, I say.	11/15/2001

Arts, literature.	Literature, and all the arts, are a way of knowing about the world.  The arts are a type of knowledge.  The arts transmit sense knowledge, emotional knowledge, and rational knowledge.  Art is a way of knowing and a way of communicating.  (2) Literature, and the knowledge gained from literature, can help a person deal with the big problems in life, the big issues in life.	4/2/2007

Arts, literature.	Me.  (1) Who writes for my generation?  Someone who states the position?  Someone who defends the position?  Someone who criticizes the position?  (2) Who or what is my generation?  Ten years above and below me?  Anyone alive when I'm alive?  (3) What defines my generation?  Majority philosophical position?  Power holders?  (3) How is generation related to culture?  Generation is a period in the culture?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Me.  Paul literature goals.  Write a story a sentence long, paragraph long, and page long.  Write a poem of subject and view in five different styles.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Me.  Paul's aesthetic by elements.  (1) View: objective reality, realism.  (2) Subjects: america, proles, pain, troubles.  (3) Style: tragicomedy, satire, cynical, tough, humorous, blues, complain/bitch/yell, my time.  (4) More subjects: basics, foundations, primordial, elemental, raw, unconscious, naked, base.  (5) Influences: Kerouac, Bukowski.  (6) Compositional techniques: synthetic, intuitional, free writing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Me.  Why do I write?  What do I write?  How do I write?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Media (see: Sociology, communication, media).  (1) Written: book, magazine, journal, news, sheet.  (2) Oral: speeches, debates.  (3) Radio, TV, movie, advertising.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Metaphor and simile are bogus ideas.  To say something is something else, or even like something else, is confusing.  Things are what they are.	08/18/1988

Arts, literature.	Metaphor is in very common use in the real world.  However, academia is not so open to argument by metaphor.  Math class does not admit many metaphorical arguments.  Philosophy class does not recognize many metaphors.  Science class does not often acknowledge argument by metaphor.  In academia, English class is the place for metaphors, metaphorical thinking, and metaphorical argument.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Metaphor, simile, symbolism, figurative language, associative thought, and analogical thinking.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Metaphor.  (1) People often think by using metaphors.  Analogical thinking.  (2) People often use metaphors in their everyday speech.  (3) Our culture is stock full of metaphors.  For example, "Time is like a river".	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Metaphor.  In a good poem, the use of good metaphors help clarify whatever the poem is about.  In a bad poem, the use of bad metaphors confuses whatever the poem is about.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Metaphor.  Metaphor can be used as code to protect against censorship.  For example, people use political metaphors to write texts criticizing oppressive regimes.  Another example, People often use sexual metaphors to write song lyrics that discuss issues in sexual relationships that broadcasting censors would not otherwise.  Another example, people use metaphors to discuss topics prohibited by religious censorship.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Metaphor.  Symbolism and metaphors were used in the past by artists to say things that were not allowed to be said openly for fear of legal penalty or social sanction.  But today, due to the first amendment, and the more open and tolerant nature of our culture, you can say just about anything you want.  So symbolism and metaphor become unnecessary.	03/19/1989

Arts, literature.	Metaphors and symbols suck.  People only confuse the issue with metaphors.  Things are complex enough without making them more confusing.  Say it clear and plain.	03/19/1989

Arts, literature.	Most important ideas.  Writing and reading novels is a slow, unorganized way to learn.  Scrap it as a primary learning method.	10/30/1997

Arts, literature.	Most novels contain 100 pages of set up for 10 pages of epiphany.  Most poems 10 pages of set up for 1 line of epiphany.  Do we really need all this set up to put us in the right mood to make us receptive to truth?  Or is it just needless padding.	10/15/1994

Arts, literature.	Much like philosophy and history, literature lets you study all areas of human life.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	My literature motto: New, true and important.	9/11/1999

Arts, literature.	My writing style: cynical, tough, humorous.  Like Bukowski.	08/18/1988

Arts, literature.	Narrative and metaphor are a basic way how humans understand the world.  Instead of having philosophy and reason and logic try to explain what is literature and art and narrative and metaphor, why not do the reverse, and have literature and art and narrative and metaphor try to explain what is philosophy and logic and reason.	4/22/2007

Arts, literature.	Narrative and metaphor are primary ways how the human mind works.  Narrative and metaphor are primary concepts in literature.  Most people, most of the time, are not walking around doing syllogisms in their heads.  Rather, most people, most of the time, are walking around trying to understand their world through the use of narrative and metaphor.	4/15/2007

Arts, literature.	Narrator is also described by what "tense" the story is in.  Past tense: We did this, we did that.  Present tense: I am doing this, I am doing that.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Narrator is often described by what "person" the story is written in.  (1) Singular:  I (I was walking down a hallway, etc.).  You (You are walking down a hallway, etc).  He, she, it (He said, she said).  (2) Plural:  We.  You.  They.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Narrator.  Who is the narrator?  (1) Is the narrator the author?  Only in autobiographies.  (2) Is the narrator a character?  Sometimes.  For example, in Huckleberry Finn.  The narrator may even introduce them self.  (3) Sometimes the narrator is merely a voice.  A nameless voice.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Nonfiction. Definitions of non-fiction.  Types of non-fiction: History, Philosophy, Science, Journalism, Argument.  Traits of good non-fiction: Logical.  Precise, unambiguous.  Orderly, structured.	1/17/2004

Arts, literature.	Novel.  Novel writing.  New ways to do a novel, short story, film or play script.  (1) Characters.  (A) Who are they?  (B) Who were they (history)?  (C) What is their world view (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics)?  (D) What are their drives, goals, tactics?  (E) What are their personality traits?  What are their strengths and weaknesses?  (F) Physical traits (ex. Rich vs. poor.  Smart vs. dumb.  Sane vs. crazy.  Pretty vs. ugly.  Guy vs. gal).  (2) Environment, situation, setting characters are in.  (3) Problems characters are faced with.  Physical, psychological, financial, social, spiritual(?).  Do they realize the presence and importance of the problem or not?  If not, is the problem solved by accident?  Is the problem ignored or confronted?  If ignored, do they pay the price, or luck out?  Is the problem attacked in thought and action effort?  If so, do they fail or succeed?  (4) The ultra-modern novel means current cutting edge (A) Situations, (B) Views of these situations, (C) Problems, (D) Solutions.  (5)(A) Traits of antagonist.  Fearful, avarice, greed, anger, crazy, stupid, weak (spineless), coward, bully.  (B) Traits of protagonist.  Brave, fair, freedom, strong, sensitive, smart, active.	12/30/1996

Arts, literature.	Novel.  Novels are examples.  Reading novels is for people who like learning by example.  I always preferred textbooks that had few examples.  They were ten times shorter, and the learning was ten times faster.	01/12/1997

Arts, literature.	Novel.  The novel as information, entertainment and art.  (1) Information.  Most people consider reading novels as a form of entertainment.  But perhaps the more important question is, "How much useful information is in this novel?"  Not merely factual information, like a description of a city, but also information about life, and people in general, and how to live one's life.  Great novels have a lot of useful information.  (2) Entertainment.  What is mere entertainment?  Does not even mere entertainment teach us something?  What is an example of the most vacuous entertainment?  What bad sitcom takes top prize in the category of mindless entertainment?  What does even that sitcom achieve?	1/18/2004

Arts, literature.	Novel.  The novelists, sometimes they try to create a life.  Three variations:  (1) Tell it like it is.  (2) Life like it ought to be.  (3) Life the way it should have been.	8/24/2000

Arts, literature.	Novel.  The novelists, what are they trying to do?  I must confess I'm not really sure.  (1) They are trying to create a world.  Create a reality.  (2) They are trying to create life.  Like Dr. Frankenstein.  (3) Create a person.  Create a character.  (4) They are trying to create life distilled or concentrated.  Like orange juice in a can.	8/24/2000

Arts, literature.	Novels.  If I was an immortal living in paradise I might spend my time reading novels.  But I have only a limited life on an imperfect, problem ridden earth.	11/16/1997

Arts, literature.	Novels.  Let's say you want to write a novel.  You can pick any character, setting and action that you like.  The choices are infinite.  Let's say you write a novel by creating specific characters, a specific setting and specific action in the form of a sequence of events.  What have you accomplished?  You can make any character say just about anything.  Nothing said is ever completely out of character.  You can use your creation to try to justify any theme.  Various readers will use your creation to try to justify every other theme.  Readers will use just about any occurrence to try to prove any point.  Such is the human ability to twist logic and spin events.  What have you accomplished by writing a novel?	9/1/2005

Arts, literature.	Novels.  People are conditioned by society to read novels.  People are conditioned by society to write novels.  The conditioning occurs unconsciously to both readers of novels and authors of novels.  The conditioning is performed on the author and reader without their being conscious of it.  And the conditioning is performed unconsciously by society.  Society is for the most part not aware that it is subtly influencing authors and readers to work in the genre of the novel.  (2) Humans do not naturally think in novel form.  Humans naturally think in short chunks of information.  So why should we write in novel form?	4/9/1999

Arts, literature.	Novels.  There is a psychological distance between the reader and the story.  The psychological distance between the reader and the story can be close or far.  (1) Far distance.  Objective, distanced, dispassioned.  See the action happening to the characters.  (2) Close distance.  Subjective, immersed, empassioned.  Feel the action happening to self.	12/5/2005.

Arts, literature.	Novels.  What if you tried to learn about the world only by reading novels?  And at the other extreme, what if you tried to learn about the world without reading any novels?	1/10/2006

Arts, literature.	Novels.  Why do people write novels?  (1) The novel, for the author, is a way to process, integrate and make sense of reality.  (2) The novel, for the reader, is a way to process, integrate and make sense of reality.  (3) Telling and listening to stories, writing and reading novels, making and watching movies, these arts have the in common the fact that people use art to process, integrate and make sense of reality or experience.  And these arts are all forms of virtual reality experience.	12/5/2005

Arts, literature.	Organization.  The various "types of paragraphs" that an English composition textbook describes, is the same as the various "types of essays" that the textbook describe, and is the same as the various "ways of thinking" (i.e., thinking tools) that are discussed in Psychology class.  These types include:  Analysis and Synthesis.  Classification and categories.  Metaphor and analogy.  Abstract and concrete.  Creativity and evaluation.  Cause and effect.  Etc.	8/20/2006	*

Arts, literature.	PART ONE.  What is Literature?  Definitions of literature.  (1) Any writing.  (2) Any good writing.  (3) Any artistic writing.  (4) Any good artistic writing.  PART TWO  Why study Literature?  (1) To see and study good writing.  (2) To see and study good art.  PART THREE.  How study Literature?  (1) Reading the works.  (2) Thinking critically about the works.  (3) Discussing the works.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	People have an inclination to tell stories.  Story telling is one of the oldest arts.  People tell all sorts of stories.  People understand their world by making stories about their world.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Philosophy and literature.  (1) Everyone has a philosophy.  The author has a philosophy.  Each character in the story has a philosophy.  The reader has a philosophy.  At base, philosophy consists of metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views.  Very often the author will create characters to represent different philosophies.  The protagonist, representing the author's philosophy, triumphs over antagonists, representing competing or opposing philosophies.  (2) Each reader has his or her own philosophy.  Everyone's philosophy is slightly different from the next person's.  Readers often read a text to confirm their own philosophy.  Readers are often biased toward their own personal views, and thus readers will often "spin" the interpretation of a text to make it confirm their own views.  Will the author change your views, or will you change the author's views to confirm to your views?	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Philosophy and literature.  (1) People want to see a moral to the story.  People want to see good actions rewarded and bad actions punished.  A moral is an ethical view.  People want to see ethics in a story.  (2) Ethics are a result of epistemological views which form metaphysical views of the world.  (3) Different readers have different interpretations of stories.  Different readers draw different lessons from stories.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Philosophy and literature.  (1) Philosophical ideas found in literature.  Philosophical fiction.  (2) Philosophical essays about life.  (3) Writings of academic philosophers.  (4) Philosophy of literature.  Philosophical analysis of the concepts found in the art of literature.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism attempts help us understand texts.  A criticism of literary criticism however is that it only criticizes, but does not actually do anything.	8/15/1998

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism focuses on macro-level phenomena, like the meaning of texts.  Anglo-American philosophy of language focuses on micro-level, sentence level phenomena like grammar.	1/19/1999

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism.  Argument against literary criticism.  What has literary criticism accomplished at all?  What useful concepts has developed?  Not many really.  So even though literary criticism concepts could be applied in many other areas, it still has not come up with many useful concepts.	1/19/1999

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism.  Argument for literary criticism.  The theories developed by literary critics are not limited to fiction.  They can be applied to all arts.  They can be applied to all writing, including non-fiction.  They can be applied to all communication.  They can be applied to all symbolic representation systems.  And since we think with language, they can be applied to our minds and thus have great psychological value.  And since the major way we learn today is by gathering information, it has great epistemological value.  And since society is based on communication, it has great sociological value.	1/19/1999

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism.  Scientific approach to literature.  (1) Descriptive literary criticism: describes what the author wrote.  (2) Explanatory literary criticism: explains what the author meant.  (3) Normative literary criticism: takes an ethical stance by saying what should be.	7/8/2002

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary criticism's basic ideas.  Things are not always what they seem.  What you think a thing is (work of art, person, culture, etc.) depends on your situation and point of view.  Interpretation and understanding always occur.  If you are a dullard, it may mean nothing to you.  A more savvy person may be able to "read" things better.  If you are below this level, it appears wondrous.  If you are above this level, it bores you.  If it is foreign it mystifies and attracts in curiosity.  If it is familiar we overlook it.	08/15/1993

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary theory = literary criticism and philosophy of literature.	11/15/2001

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literary theory.  The field of literary theory asks "what is literature?"  But to say that all language (including the exact language of philosophy, science, business, law) should be studied with literary theory, or worse, to say everything (besides writing) should be considered a text and studied with literary theory, is getting carried away.  Because even in the field of literature alone the achievements and accomplishments of literary theory have been minimal.	02/28/1998

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  Literature as the study of examples of various artistic styles of writing is bullshit.  However, ideas, thinking, communication of ideas, and writing notes is not bullshit.	12/31/1997

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  One view.  Literature is bullshit.  Therefore, literary criticism is bullshit.  Therefore, literary criticism based philosophy is bullshit.  This includes deconstruction, hermeneutics, and other European philosophies.	11/16/1997

Arts, literature.	Philosophy of literature.  What literature gives us is a good balance to analytical philosophy.  It gives us a flexible, associative, multi-meaninged, subjective and expressive way of looking at the world.  That is it.  Literature lets us be playful and creative with words and concepts rather than exact and inflexible (as in philosophy, science, business, law).	02/28/1998

Arts, literature.	Plays versus movies.  (1) Drama has fewer special effects than movies.  Drama has less camera movement than movies, because in drama the viewer is the camera.  Drama has less editing than movies.  (2) Movies have more special effects than drama.  Movies have more camera movement than drama.  Movies have more editing than drama.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Plays versus novel.  Drama has less description of setting than novel.  Drama has less physical action than novel.  Dramas are written to be acted in theaters.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Plays, Drama.  Drama has more emphasis on character and dialogue.  Drama has less emphasis on the setting.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Plays.  (1) Drama in the written form.  Play scripts.  (2) Drama on the stage.  Plays.  (see Arts, theater).	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot structure, three views of.  (1) Plot structure as conflict.  Plot climax as resolution of conflict, or failure to resolve conflict.  Good for stories where characters are in conflict with each other.  (2) Plot structure as problem solving.  Plot climax as solution of problem, or failure to solve problem.  Good for stories where characters work together to solve a problem.  (3) Plot structure as a process of change.  Plot climax described as a turning point.  Good for stories that depict the development of a character.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Plot structure.  Conflict versus problem.  You can say there is a "conflict" in a story, but sometimes it is more accurate to say there is a "problem" in the story.  The characters can all be united to solve the problem.  For example, the problem in the story can be a plague that is killing the populace.  The plague is not an antagonistic character, nor is there any conflict, rather, there is a problem to be solved.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot, theme, characters, etc.  (1) Consider characters without plot, actions, events, or even dialogue.  It would amount to people sitting around doing nothing.  That's a bad story.  (2) Consider a story without ideas or themes.  It would be, "I walked to 7-11, and saw a car accident in the parking lot, and a fight broke out, and 7-11 was out of slurpee, so I walked home."  That's a bad story.  (3) Consider a story that has description of setting without characters.  It would be like wheat waving in the wind.  That's a bad story.  (4) Consider a story with much action but little plot.  That would be a lot of running around without any purpose.  That's a bad story.  (5) All the parts of the story should be present and working well together.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot.  (1) Main line of the plot.  (2) Red herrings, digressions, tangents, dead ends.  Loose threads, unanswered questions.	8/25/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot.  (1) There are basic, universal plots.  Boy meets girl, love story.  Good versus bad, police detective legal story.  Adventure, exploration, journey story.  (2) The plot-less story.  Seemingly random events.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot.  Complexity of the plot is based on the number of characters and the number of actions, thus the number of plot lines.	8/25/2006

Arts, literature.	Plot.  Modern stories.  Randomness, random actions.  No clear plot.	8/25/2006

Arts, literature.	Poems and quotebooks are both short, concise forms.  Poems are more arty than rational.  Quotebooks have no ratings, no sub-categories, no explanation, no commentary, no expansion.	09/26/1997

Arts, literature.	Politicizing stories.  Some people will politicize every story.  Some people will interpret every story through the lens of politics.  Some people primarily use political literary criticism.  Some people understand the world primarily as a political arena.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Politics and literature.  Censorship.  Propaganda.  Samizdat.  Author's who criticize the government are jailed in countries like Turkey and China.  America has freedom of speech, but America has a history of banning books.  Literature is a powerful force in politics.  Ideas, transmitted through writing, are a political tool that can change society.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Preliminary questions to a study of literature.  Can one learn everything that one needs to know from reading novels?  Can one learn everything one needs to know without reading novels?.	1/17/2004

Arts, literature.	Problems.  (1) False or untrue.  (2) Unimportant, meek.  (3) Unclear, vague, inexact.  (4) Disorganized, confusing, illogical, lack of focus.  (5) Boring, too wordy, verbose, long winded.  (6) Above or below audience.  (7) Beating something to death.  (8) Making mountains out of molehills, pedantic.  (9) Not explained enough, quick gloss.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Professional artist has to sell.  Has to please an audience.  He is not free to pick or switch his subject matter, view, medium, etc.	06/05/1997

Arts, literature.	Professional writers dole out a little at a time in order to make money by keeping the audience coming back.  The problem is when you read only part of his vision you get the "blind men and the elephant problem".  I say give it all at once.  I don't write for a living.  I will not pad and fluff to stretch an idea.  I will not be stingy doling out my ideas.	06/05/1997

Arts, literature.	Professional writing, criticisms of.  Professional writers write to sell.  Professional writers write for commercial success.  Professional writers write to please audiences, advertisers and publishers.  Professional writers are limited by their medium.	11/18/2005

Arts, literature.	Quote and my commentary.  Explanation of what author was saying.  Is he right or wrong?  Is the idea important or unimportant?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Quote books organized (1) Alpha by author.  (2) Alpha by subject.  (3) Chronologically.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Quote machine.  (1) Quotes by regular people, rather than quotes by famous people.  (2) Not based strictly on artistic literary merit.  (3) Not based strictly on historical merit.  (4) Up to a page in length, not just one sentence or one paragraph.	6/4/2000

Arts, literature.	Quotes and quote analysis.  (1) How much will a book of quotes help you?  (2) For every quote there is a counterquote.  (3) Soundbites, slogans, maxims, epigrams, aphorism, apothegm, short and sweet.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Quotes are usually concise philosophical statements.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  "Everything will be wonderful soon (if not immediately)." to quote Audrey.	05/30/1993

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  (1) Contra quotes.  (A) If an idea is not in sound-bite format then it is not usually found in quote-books.  It has to be short (1 or 2 sentences) and catchy, or its no good.  (B) When people constantly quote other people it prevents them from thinking for themselves.     (2) Pro quotes.  (A) Quotes are usually arranged by subject.  (B) Quotes are pithy and concise.	4/28/2001

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  (1) People try to build life philosophies by collecting quotes.  (2) But for every quote there is an equal and opposite counter-quote.  So how can you go around quoting all day?  (3) There are strengths and weaknesses to short forms like quotes.  (A) Pros.  Quotes are pithy.  Quotes are concise.  Quotes are simplifications in the positive sense, in that make things easier to understand.  (B) Cons.  Quotes are a form of reductionism in the negative sense.  That is, quotes over-simplify.  Quotes are soundbites.  Quotes are slogans, spouted to avoid thought.	11/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  (1) Quote books are humans closest attempt at recorded wisdom.  (2) Quotebooks should be arranged by subject, not author.  Who said something is not as important as what they said.	3/21/1999

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  (1) Recorded communication of ideas (true or false ones).  (2) Who said it first, and who repeated the sentiment?  (3) Quotes reveal a lot about a person (for history, biography).  (4) There is a difference between what is thought, said, and done.  (5) Quotes add to knowledge of a subject (philosophy, truth).  (6) Quote criticism.  Analyze each quote for: subject, branch, questions, view, argument.  Judge each quote for truth and importance (theoretical vs. practical usefulness).	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  Arguments for and against learning by reading quotes.  PART ONE.  Arguments for learning by reading quotes.  Quotes are quick and short.     PART TWO.  Argument against learning by reading quotes.  (1) Sometimes a person says something that is not pithy, not memorable, not beautifully styled, but still intelligent and important nonetheless.  There is much good information that is not in the form of quotes.  (2) Sometimes people get into picayune quote wars, lobbing one quote against another quote, rather than thinking hard about the important subjects at hand.  (3) The general idea behind the quote is more important than the exact expression of the quote, and more important that who said it.  Sometimes people obsessed with quotes focus too much on exactly who said exactly what, at the expense of general wisdom.	3/3/2007

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  Pessimistic view of quotes.  The quotes we like are usually a confirmation of what we already believe.  We relate to the quotes that we understand.  We relate to quotes that support our views.	3/21/1999

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  The importance of idioms.  Bottom line, brass tacks, no b.s., straight forward, face up, up front, what you see is what you get, out in the open kind of guy.	06/30/1993

Arts, literature.	Quotes.  What you think wisdom is depends on what your situation is, what your needs are, and what you need most to know.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Reading novels for entertainment versus reading novels for information.  There is no clear boundary here, just like there is no clear boundary between fiction and non-fiction.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Reading the obituaries is like reading biographies.  They are interesting because they show the variety of life experiences; what can happen to you, and what you can do, both good and bad.	12/30/1995

Arts, literature.	Say it with words.  (As opposed to saying it with flowers).	6/01/1994

Arts, literature.	Science fiction.  A good science fiction novel would be written in a new language, with a new logic, about a new world containing new beings.  It would not be about English speaking humans on Earth.	5/15/2002

Arts, literature.	Science fiction.  Ultimate sci-fi theme: Hobbits in Space.	10/14/2003

Arts, literature.	Science fiction.  Value of sci-fi is to present hypothetical cases, problems, and questions about life, for us to analyze before they actually occur in the world.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Short forms: The pop song.  Three minutes baby!	10/22/1998

Arts, literature.	Short forms.  Bumper stickers.  T-shirts.  Buttons.  How condensed can you get.	7/18/1998

Arts, literature.	Short forms.  Other short forms besides quotes.  Graffiti, slogans, epitaphs, haiku.  How much can you say in how little time and space.	3/30/1998

Arts, literature.	Short forms.  Television episode synopsis as legitimate fiction.  A one paragraph exposition of setting, characters, motivation and action.	1/10/2002

Arts, literature.	Short forms.  The one liner in comedy.	9/15/1998

Arts, literature.	Some people can write well, some people can think well, few can do both well.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Some people have the vocabulary and writing skill, but not the intelligence or life experiences to write anything useful.  Some people have intelligence and life experiences, but not writing skill.	01/13/1989

Arts, literature.	Stages of journal writing.  (1) Simple reporting.  "Today I did this..."  (2) Get into other people's heads.  For example, "What was she thinking when she did that?"  (3) Get inside your own head.  For example, "What was I thinking..."  (4) Get outside your own head.  Talk to self like a friend.	8/5/2002

Arts, literature.	Stories or narrative.  Types of stories.  (1) Consider a story that is all description, with no dialogue.  (2) Consider a story that is all dialogue, with no description.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Stories.  (1) People tell stories.  People swap stories.  People collect stories.  (2) Some people hold in high regard the stories that confirm their values.  Other people hold in high regard the stories that expand their values.	12/21/2006

Arts, literature.	Stories.  Simple stories and complex stories.  (1) Simple story.  Simple plot.  Simple theme.  One conflict or problem.  One theme.  One setting.  Few characters.  Not profound.  No new ideas.  (2) Complex story.  Multiple themes.  Multiple settings.  Multiple plot lines.  Multiple characters.	8/25/2006

Arts, literature.	Summary.  (1) Novels.  We are preconditioned by society to read novels.  (2) Fiction.  Fiction is a lie.  (3) Art literature (belle lettres).  Often called the "great books".  Anyone who educated themselves only by reading the great books would become a strange adult.  By refusing to acknowledge the great amount of "useful, but average quality" writing, we do ourselves a great disservice.	10/28/2001

Arts, literature.	Ten people read the same thing and interpret it ten different ways.  Ten people write about same thing and get different results.  (1) Differences due to psychology.  (A) Different interpretations.  (B) Different general concept structures.  (C) Different meanings of specific words.  (2) Differences due to how say.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	That artistic literature, such as novels, is a type of entertaining game-playing is evidenced by the fact that we do not require novel authors to explain their work or justify their work the same way we require philosophers and scientists to.  A novel, in this respect, is like a riddle or crossword puzzle, in that they are read at leisure for fun, not in earnest.	9/26/2002

Arts, literature.	The "Cliff Notes" Debate.  (1) One can read and write books.  One can read and write about books.  Writing and reading about books includes literary theory, literary criticism, book reviews, etc.  Cliff Notes involve reading about books.  (2) One does not have to read a book in order to read about a book.  For example, people read book reviews without having read the book itself.  Cliff Notes, Monarch Notes, Spark Notes are writings about books.  There is nothing wrong with reading Cliff Notes.  (3) There are more books than one person can read in a lifetime.  If one limits one's thought and discussion only to the books one has read, then one will never read another book and will not know about a great many books.	6/19/2004

Arts, literature.	The author as dictator.  (Any author, that is).  When people write there is a pronounced tendency to adopt an attitude that says "This is the way things really happened.", "I am right", "I win and you lose".  That is to say, all writing, all art, all communication is biased toward its creator the author.  We always tell our own side of the story.  This is essentially a political act, or a power play.  Readers, however, suffer from the opposite effect in that they tend to interpret communications as unbiased.  We tend to believe what we see.  Readers tend to believe what they read.	6/17/2001

Arts, literature.	The best writing is about trouble.	10/20/1988

Arts, literature.	The bicycle analogy.  Reasoning and writing is something we learn by doing, much like riding a bicycle is something we learn by doing.  You can explain to another person the steps of riding a bicycle, and the principles of riding a bicycle, and the person then might say they understand how to ride a bicycle, but can a person ride a bicycle using only theoretical knowledge?  No.  Another reason why practicing reasoning and writing is like learning to ride a bicycle is that it is difficult to learn, but once learned you never forget.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	The book is almost always better than the movie.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	The English major is a baloney degree.  If you study literature you are really in the Arts (along with music and painting), not the Humanities.  If you study communication, or writing, or the English language, these are all subjects that are secondary to creating ideas.  If you have a firm grasp on an idea then you can communicate it clearly, and you do not need to study the above subjects.  Plus, I can speak English!  Why study it.	7/11/1998

Arts, literature.	The idea is the most important thing in writing.	08/23/1988

Arts, literature.	The Notes are not essays.  I've heard the professors say "The essay is the preferred form for short non-fiction".  I've seen the editors write "These select essays represent the best of the form".  I read some of the essays and said "What the f*ck is this?"  You well-mannered dandies.  You can tend your garden.  You can make your pretty floral arrangements.  I am more ecologically minded.  I say, let the occasional weed live.  Let the wind carry seeds afar.  I am helping to save the wilderness.	10/5/2000

Arts, literature.	The Other Guys: novelists, journalists, poets, essayists and academics.  Objections of them to my work, and my defense.  Objections of mine to their work.  You've tried the rest, now try the best.  (1) Poets.  Poets, will you just say what you mean.  Poets can only allude to it or hint at it.  Stop beating around the bush.  Spit it out.  Stop dropping hints.  You are so coy, delicate, sensitive, flirting, teasing.  You call me crude, unrefined, indelicate and boorish.  (2) Novelists.  Sometimes you remind me of the aged, with their "Let me tell you a story.  When I was a youth we used to blah, blah, blah..."  Sometimes you remind me of office watercooler soap opera gossip.  "Did you hear what she said to him about the other one?  Well let me tell you blah, blah, blah..."  Do you know the flip-books where one furls the pages to make the action move?  That's how much fun your novels are.  (3) Journalists.  You write to please a target market.  You write to sell a product.  Most of you have a well defined beat.  You get your stories assigned to you .  The top of your heap is getting a "column" that you have to produce on command in order to meet a deadline.  And they say you'll do anything for a story.  (4) The point is that many of you above writers conform to your genres just to get money and fame.  You are afraid to be yourself.  You are afraid to say what you think.  You conform to these styles because someone told you it was the right way to do things.  You conform to these styles because everyone else was doing it that way.  You sacrificed yourself for a buck.  You sacrificed life for a buck.  Then you cop a superior attitude.  Then you form your snobbish cliques.  Then you act self-congratulatory.  You ignore or ostracize those who are different.  Blech!  Conformity for a buck.  Formula for a buck.  Repetition and ritual instead of creativity and diversity.	10/6/2000

Arts, literature.	Theme.  (1) Is theme the subject of a story?  Is theme an abstract subject as opposed to concrete subject?  (2) Is theme the moral of the story?  Are all themes morals?  Normative stories tell how to act.  Non-normative stores tell what is reality and let you draw your own conclusions.	1/1/1999

Arts, literature.	Theme.  (1) Theme as a word, a topic.  (2) Theme as a sentence, a statement about a topic.  (3) Theme as a paragraph, an more thorough exploration of a topic.  This is a better view of theme.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Theme.  (1) Theme of a story is the message the author is trying to tell us in the story.  The theme is the main idea or main point of the story.  (2) The theme of a story can be a moral or lesson, but it does not have to be a moral or lesson, for example, the theme can be more of a descriptive exploration of a topic rather an a prescriptive statement about a topic.  (3) Theme is more than a single word topic.  In theme the author takes a stand on a topic.  (4) There may be, and frequently is, more than one theme in a story.  (5) The reader may agree or disagree with the theme of the story.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Theme.  A theme has a topic, plus a statement about that topic.  For example, on the topic of death there can be various themes or views about death, for example, death is natural; death is horrible; some deaths are worse than others; etc.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Theme.  Common theme-topics found in literature.  Here is a list of some of the topics about which authors write works of literature.  ( ) Age.  Youth.  Adulthood.  Old age.  ( ) Arts.  Literature.  Music.  Visual arts.  Movies.  ( ) Economics.  Money.  Class.  Business.  ( ) Education.  School.  Learning.  Information.  Media.  ( ) Environments.  City.  Suburban.  Rural.  Wilderness.  ( ) Epistemology.  Knowledge.  Wisdom.  Science.  Philosophy.  ( ) Ethics.  Right and Wrong.  Good and bad.  Justice and injustice.  ( ) Ethnicity.  Black.  Spanish.  Asian.  American Indian.  Minority experiences.  ( ) Health and Illness.  Injury, disease.  Healing.  ( ) History.  Time.  Eras.  ( ) Law.  Crime and Punishment.  ( ) Life and Death.  ( ) Love.  Sex.  Women and Men.  Gender.   ( ) Magic, myth, religion.  ( ) Nature.  Plants and Animals.  The Environment.  Ecology.  ( ) Philosophy.  Metaphysics.  Epistemology.  Ethics.  Values.  Importance.  ( ) Politics.  Government.  Power.  ( ) Psychology.  The Mind.  Sensation.  Emotion.  Memory.  Thought.  ( ) Self, other people, and the world.  ( ) Society.  Culture.  Friends.  Families.  Nation.  World.  Globalization.  ( ) Technology.  Power, tools, materials.  Food, clothing, shelter.  Transportation, information, communication. ( ) War and Peace.  ( ) Women and men.  Sex and gender.  Feminism.  Sexism.  LGBT.  ( ) Work and Leisure.  Industrialization.  Corpratization.  Labor.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	Theme.  Dream as a theme in literature.  Types of  dream themes.  (1) Multiple dream roles.  Example:  Character W dreams of character X, who dreams of character Y, who dreams of character Z.  (2) Multiple dreams within a dream.  Example:  Character has a dream.  In that dream the same character has a dream.  In that dream the same character has a dream.  In that dream the same character has a dream.  (3) Multiple concurrent dreams.  Example:  A group of characters who all fell asleep and dreamed their individual dreams.  (4) Dreaming you are someone else, someplace else.	3/18/2000

Arts, literature.	Theme.  Movement as a theme in literature.  (1) Journey as a theme in literature.  Journey as moving through space.  Ex., epics.  Travel literature.  The one way journey.  The circular journey.  (2) History as a theme in literature.  History as moving through time.  Ex., sagas.  Narrative usually means moving through time and space.  Story is usually of a character moving through time and space.  Can you have a story of abstract ideas?	3/18/2000

Arts, literature.	Theme.  There are basic, universal themes.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Themes.  Literature of revolution, resistance and rebellion.  Gil Scot Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".  Excellent poetry.	6/15/2002

Arts, literature.	Themes.  Literature that deals with celebrating joys.  On the Road by Jack Kerouac.	10/22/1998

Arts, literature.	Themes.  Literature that deals with confronting and solving big problems.  Micro-level problems like personal problems and problems with family and friends.  Macro-level problems like problems with society, culture and global problems.  (1) Poverty.  Rural: Grapes of Wrath.  Urban: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair?  (2) Drugs.  Junkie by William Burroughs.  Basketball Diaries by Jim Carol.  (3) War.  All Quiet on the Western Front.  (4) Mental Illness.  One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.  (5) Overbearing and repressive culture.  Howl by Allen Ginsberg.  Wasteland by T.S. Elliot.  Kafka.  (6) Crime.  Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.  (7) Love.  Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespere.  (8) Work.  Matewan by John Sales.  (9) Racism.  To Kill a Mockingbird.  (10) Death.  All Quiet on Western Front.	10/21/1998

Arts, literature.	There is no clear distinction between music, poetry, rhetoric, prose, and technical writing.  It is a spectrum.	08/14/1994

Arts, literature.	They should down play literature.  Literature is just art.  They should teach only lit theory.  They should not teach specific literature books.  They should play up communication.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Three basic questions.  (1) Why do people write literature?  (2) Why do people read literature?  (3) Why do people study literature?	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Three more psychological perspectives.  (1) Author's state of mind when creating the work of art.  (2) Author's intended effect on the reader's mind.  I.e., the author's conscious goals for the work.  (3) Average reader's perception of the work.	7/14/2002

Arts, literature.	Three pairs of questions.  (1)(A) Why read?  (B) What to read?  (2)(A) Why write?  (B) What to write?  (3) (A) Why study literature?  (B) What literature to study?	6/9/2004

Arts, literature.	Three types of literature: (1) Literature of ideas.  Literature that makes you think.  (2) Literature of emotions.   Literature that makes you feel. (3) Literature of the senses.  Literature that paints a picture of a setting.	9/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Three types of literature.  (1) Literature describing the environment (natural and manmade).  (2) Literature describing other people and social relationships.  (3) Literature describing self, both the physical self and the psychological self (drives, memories, feelings, thoughts).	1/1/1999

Arts, literature.	Three types of literature.  Literature of ideas.  Literature of emotions.  Literature of the stylistic beauty of words.	12/23/2002

Arts, literature.	Three types of writing.  (1) Descriptive writing: documents and records, landscapes, people, and states of mind.  (2) Explicative writing: explains causes and effects to add meaning.  (3) Normative writing: ethical, evaluative, proposes.	3/15/2000

Arts, literature.	To get truth, and great writing, work from the objective to the subjective.  The objective tradition (classicism, hard journalism) is half right.  The subjective tradition (romanticism, editorial) is half right.  Writing is as much feeling as thinking.  It's half and half, not either-or.	12/06/1988

Arts, literature.	To too many people, the book is a piece of jewelry, the book is an accessory.	9/1/2000

Arts, literature.	Tone and style.  (1) Tone can refer to an emotional reaction.  The emotional reaction can be on the part of the characters, narrator, or reader.  When a reader says, "It was a sad story", or "It was a happy story", the reader can mean, variously, that the story made the reader sad, or that the characters in the story were sad, or that the narrator was sad.  (2) The terms "tone" and "style" do not have to refer merely to emotional reaction.  There are other ways we can describe the tone or style of a story.  A story can be simple or complex in its vocabulary and in its grammar.  A the voice of a speaker can sound formal or informal.	2/19/2007

Arts, literature.	Tone and style.  Style refers to the writing style of the author of a story.  Writing styles can be described in a variety of ways.  Writing style can be informal or formal.  Writing style can be simple or complex.  Sentences can be short or long.  Syntax can be rudimentary or complicated.  Vocabulary can be basic or sophisticated.  The narrator has a style.  Each character has a style.  The author also makes stylistic decisions beyond narrator and character, for example, decisions of story structure.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Tone.  Tone refers to the emotional tones in the story.  The emotional tones in the story are comprised of the emotional tones of the narrator, the emotional tones of the characters, and the emotional tones of the readers.  Very often readers project their own emotions onto the story.  (2)Setting is another way that the author creates an emotional tone in a story.  For example, "It was a dark and stormy night".  (3) Often there are many emotions in a story, so it does not help to reduce discussion of tone to a single word.  (4) Why is tone important?  Emotional tone is important because emotion adds information.  Knowing how the author, and narrator, and characters feel about the issues at hand gives us a better idea of the themes of the story.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	Too much attention is paid to the "art of writing" at the expense of thinking about the politics of writing, the economics of writing, and the technology of writing.	11/18/2005

Arts, literature.	Travel writing is popular because it is a metaphor for the journey of life.  Also, it deals with the new, mysterious and exciting.  The supposition being that things are different everywhere.  The contrary view being that there is nothing new under the sun.  Life is the same everywhere, and not just because of the spread and homogenization of western culture.  Also, the idea that one small hamlet can be a metaphor for the entire world.  You can learn all about life in a small town.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  (1) Aware of both scene and self vs. (2) aware of scene only vs. (3) aware of self only vs. (4) aware of neither.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  (1) Most objective and least subjective travel writing vs. (2) most subjective and least objective travel writing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  Local color.  How does the taste of a place seep into your bones?  Slowly, and by using all your senses and experiences.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  The road is not supposed to be boring, always something new coming.  After a while you realize what's coming is the same old thing.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  To what degree can the reading of travel writing take the place of travel?  To what degree can the reading of any type of writing take the place of any type of experience?	6/27/2004

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  Understand the phenomenon of traveling: rootlessness, transience, movement, change.  Understand the phenomenon of place in time, here now, changelessness, permanence, perpetuity.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Travel writing.  Variety is the spice of life, they say.  Best to have many views.  Pluralism and relativism aid your evaluative powers.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Truth in fiction and non-fiction literature.  (1) Fiction is drawn from experience at some level, that is, drawn from fact at some level, and thus fiction is true to some extent.  (2) Non-fiction, that is, "true stories", are often hopelessly distorted by people telling one side of a story, or by people exaggerating a story, and thus "true stories" tend toward fiction.	12/29/2006

Arts, literature.	Truth in fiction.  While not being literally true, good fiction presents situations that are universally recognizable.  Good fiction makes statements about life and the world that are true.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Two important questions.  (1) What can be said or written?  Anything can be said or written.  Complete freedom to express.  Language can capture anything.  (2) What is there to speak or write about?  The entire world.	8/30/2006

Arts, literature.	Two types of authors.  (1) The author as passive voyeur.  Watcher.  Does not get involved.  (2) The author as active.  Do-er.  Gets involved.  (Ex. Sartre).	6/5/2000

Arts, literature.	Two types of writers.  (1) What is happening to me?  (2) What is happening to my generation, or society, or world?	10/25/1993

Arts, literature.	Two types of writing.  (1) Writing from calmness.  For example, the calmness produced by meditation.  (2) Writing from excitation.  For example, the excitation produced by coffee.	6/1/2003

Arts, literature.	Types of writers.  (1) Writers who record what is.  (2) Writers who dream of what might be.	3/10/2004

Arts, literature.	Types of writing.  (1) Technical writing.  Logical.  Causes and reasons.  Premises and conclusions.  Assumptions and implications.  (2) Emotion and rhetoric in writing.  Using humor to make learning fun.  Motivating users to learn.  Motivating customers to buy.	1/14/2002

Arts, literature.	Voice.  (1) Voice of author reflects author's personality.  (2) Voice of author reflects a predisposition in the author's vocabulary, grammar, style, tone, subjects and views.	6/9/2004

Arts, literature.	Voice.  A writers voice is comprised of psychological thinking (minding) style and sociological communication style.  Thinking style is made of learning style and also strengths of eight types of intelligence.	06/05/1997

Arts, literature.	Voice.  Your "voice" is (1) The subject matter you deal with, (2) The writing style you use, (3) Your method of writing (ex. I use synthetic and analytic).  (4) Find the new and useful, but also find what you can do that no one else can or will.  Your unique contribution.  Something where you can say "If I don't do it, it won't get done, because no one else can or will do it".	08/30/1996

Arts, literature.	What can literature (art-writing) do that other forms of art, and other forms of writing can't do at all, or do as well?  Spur imagination?  Raise feelings?  Take you on a long, rich, trip.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature?   Literature as gossip.  People like telling stories.  People like hearing stories.  Basically, people like to gossip, and literature can be considered as a form of hypothetical gossip or virtual gossip.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  (1) Literature as problem solving.  (2) Literature as the pursuit of truth and justice.	11/10/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Broad definition of literature: anything written.	12/10/2004

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature as a thinking mechanism, a problem solving mechanism, a coping mechanism.  (1) Literature helps you sort things out.  Writing stories helps you "think through" a topic.  Reading stories helps you come up with solutions to problems.  Reading stories helps you learn about the world.  (2) Literature is psycho-therapeutic.  Literature helps you get things off your chest.   Writing a story helps you "talk out" a problem.  Reading a story helps you see that other people have gone through the same problems and stresses that you are going through.  (3) Literature can let you help other people.  Writing an effective story can help spare someone some trouble.  The strongest form of this argument is that literature can save a life.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature as graffiti.  People like to leave their mark on the world.  People like to say, "I was here."	3/18/2007

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature as hypothetical case study.  The case study method is an effective method of learning about the world.  Most of the time, people study cases of things that actually happened.  But one can also study hypothetical cases.  Literature, fiction, stories, can be considered as hypothetical case studies.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature as problem solving.  Some people think, communicate, and learn in the form of literature, or arts more generally, rather than in the form of science or philosophy, and this is often a matter of the person's primary "type of intelligence" or learning style.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature is a case study, much like the case studies used in law school and business school, except that literature uses hypothetical case studies.  Literature is an experiment, much like the experiments done in science, except that literature is a thought experiment.	11/10/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature is about story telling.  People like stories.  Almost everyone enjoys telling stories and listening to stories.  Our daily life is full of story telling, even if it is merely stories about how one's day went.  Humans have a tendency to understand the world by creating stories about the world.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature is an art.  Literature informs other areas of life.  Artists often see things before philosophers and scientists.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature is an art.  Literature is neither math, nor science, nor philosophy.  (1) Math is tight and formal, based on pure logic.  (2) Science are are based on experimentation.  (3) Philosophy is based on reason.  (3) Arts, including literature, are loose and slippery.	9/10/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Literature is like the news in that both deal with problems.  If the news was all happy events then that would not be useful.  If literature had mostly happy endings then that would not be interesting nor useful.  Literature is about problems and problem solving.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature?  Ways to look at literature.  (1) Literature as graffiti.  (2) Literature as gossip.  (3) Literature as virtual reality.  Literature as an experience of a virtual world.  (4) Literature as case study.  (5) Literature as problem solving.  (6) Literature as psychological coping mechanism.  (7) Literature as a puzzle.  Reading literature as puzzle solving.  (8) Literature as an exercise to build critical thinking skills.  (9) Literature as learning how to deal with ambiguity.  Learning how to deal with uncertainty.  Learning how to deal with situations of limited information.  Learning how to deal with situations that have multiple possible meanings and interpretations.  Its a life skill.	3/14/2007

Arts, literature.	What is Literature?  Why study Literature?  Why do people write Literature?  Why do people read literature?	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Communication (art vs. non-art).  Language.  Spoken language.  Written language (literature broadest definition).  (1) Non-art writing.  Informs primarily.  (2) Art writing (literature narrow definition).  Informs and entertains.  (3) Entertainment writing.  Entertains primarily.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Communication (see sociology: communication).  (1) Nonsymbolic communication: signals (draw attention).  (2) Symbolic communication.  (A) Language.  (i) Verbal.  Standard forms (ex high english).  Folk forms.  (ii) Written.  (B) Non-language.  (i) Verbal: grunts.  (ii) Nonverbal: gesture, image.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Definitions of literature: broad to narrow.  (1) Any writing of any language or culture.  (3) Excellent writing of any type.  (4) Art writing.  (5) Excellent art writing (great ideas, said great).  (6) Give each definition a different name, dammit!.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Four definitions of literature.  (1) Great fiction.  (2) Any fiction.  (3) Great writing of any type.  (4) Any writing of any type.	09/25/1993

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Information literature vs. art literature; i.e. Non-fiction vs. fiction.  Information literature: technical writing, journal articles.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Is art writing a matter of style or quality?  Some say quality: it has to be good to be called art.  Some say style: as long as it is fiction then it is art.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	What is literature.  Literature involves narrative or stories.	12/28/2006

Arts, literature.	What literature tries to do, instead of merely explaining something like textbooks do, is try to make you experience something directly.  The story does not just happen to the main character, it happens to you as well.  You are there.  You are them.  Learning by doing in a virtual reality.  Direct experience.  You experience the story both secondhand and firsthand.  You experience an environment, action, and the character's (and author's) mental state.	10/22/1998

Arts, literature.	What should we read?  There exists a small window between three parameters: (1) Tell me something I don't know.  (2) Not so complicated that I can not understand it.  (3) Tell me something that I can use, that will help me.	1/1/1999

Arts, literature.	What two types of literature result when authors are paid by the word versus when authors have to pay by the word?	11/8/2003

Arts, literature.	What's to be gained (and lost) from saying something (1) as clearly as possible, or (2) in poetic form, or (3) singing acapella in clear prose or in poetry, or (4) singing with a backup band, or (5) saying or singing something rhetorically?  What personality types fall for what styles?	08/14/1994

Arts, literature.	Why do people read?  (1) Psychological needs.  Its fun.  Its informative.  Get new ideas and attitudes.   (2) For escape.  Versus.  For engagement.  (3) Sociological influences.  Society tells. them to.  For example, READ campaigns.  Advertisers selling books.  NYT book review and bestseller list.  Amazon reviews.  (4) They have time to read.  They access to books.  They have money to buy books.  (5) They are literate.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Why do people write?  (1) Psychological needs.  Need to sort out thoughts and attitudes.  Need to save thoughts and attitudes.  (2) Sociological influences.  Society tells them to.  Hopes of economic  success.  Hopes of status.  (3) To influence society.  Ex. Political books.  (4) The person knows how to write.  They have time to write.  They value words and ideas.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Why is artistic literature important?  (1) Some think it comes closest to life.  I say it is a disorganized, simple, mess.  (2) Some say it transmits values.  I say values can be better transmitted in ethics class.  (3) Some say the emotional content is important.  I say too often it is emotional at the expense, not addition, of reason.  (4) How important are these ideas if you only write, if you only read, or if you do both?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  (1) Why do people write?  (2) Why do people read?  (3) Why study and practice writing?  Arguments for and against each.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  (1) Why read literature?  One can read literature, like one can enjoy all the arts, in order to gain knowledge through indirect experience, a type of virtual reality.  Avoid the problems of directly experiencing bad things.  Avoid the problems of an emotionless lecture.  (2) Why study literature?  Study literature to be a better reader of literature.  Study literature to get more out of your reading of literature.	4/2/2007

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  Arguments against literature.  No one reads any more.  Literature is losing ground to audio/video, movies, computer games.	8/31/2006

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  Like any other art, to entertain and inform.  Its fun, entertaining, enjoyable.  Its informative, educational, growthful.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  Literature to solve problems.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  Why write?  And more broadly, why do artists create art?  (1) To sell, to make money, to make a living.  Economic reasons.  (2) To solve problems.  Artists live in a world that has problems to solve.  To see wrongs righted.  A statement of ethics.  (3) Artists, like other people, value certain things.  Art to say, "This is good and valuable."  To celebrate the good.  To shame the bad.  Art as a statement of ethics.  (4) To say, "This is my world.  This is the way I see the world."  Art to make a statement of metaphysics.  To describe.  (5) Art is a way of thinking and knowing about the world, and thus, art is a type of epistemological statement.  (6) Artists make art because its pleasurable to make art.  Its enjoyable, fun.  For example, music.  (7) Personal reasons.  To work out personal problems.  (8) Social reasons.  To improve society.  (9) To teach.  To show and tell.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	Why literature?  You may be asking yourself how studying literature is going to help you in your life?  That's a good question.  How will studying literature help you on the job?  How will studying literature help you off the job?  The answer is that people tell stories all the time, everywhere.  The better you can analyze and interpret the stories you hear, the better you will communicate with others, and the better you will do in life.  The better you can create compelling stories, the better you will be able to communicate with others, and the better you will do in life.  Literature is about stories.  People often use stories to think and communicate.  Studying literature helps develop thinking and communication skills.	1/20/2007

Arts, literature.	Why study literature?  How study literature (see literary criticism)?	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Why study literature?  Literature is a form of art.  Art is a way of thinking.  Art is a form of knowledge.  Knowledge is good and useful.  Knowledge helps humans pursue truth and justice.  There are various types of knowledge, varying in their degree of ambiguity.  Math is a type of knowledge that has no ambiguity.  For example, one plus one always equals two, and never three or four.  Science is a type of knowledge that relies on experiment in addition to rational argument.  Philosophy is a type of knowledge that relies on rational argument.  Art is a type of knowledge that relies on indirect experience.  For example, in literature, you experience the story through your identification with the characters.  Art also often relies on a loose style of metaphorical thinking rather than on strict logical argument.	4/2/2007

Arts, literature.	Why study literature?  Literature is an art.  Many people think in an artistic mode.  Many people produce and consume art.  The world is full of art.  There is much good art, and good literature.  Many good ideas and attitudes are found in literature.	4/2/2007

Arts, literature.	Why study literature?  To study literature is to read closely and critically.  There are several reasons to study literature.  (1) To develop arguments about what a book means.  To develop arguments about why a book is good, and how good it is.  To build a canon of what books are considered good.  (2) To learn how to write well.  To learn to communicate well.  To learn to think well.  (3) Literature, one of the arts, is an emotional education.  (4) A wider question is, "Why the arts?".  Art is a mode of thinking and communicating.  People tell stories.  (4) To get new perspectives on life.  To learn more about life.  To gain new views on the problems of life and possible solutions.	8/16/2006

Arts, literature.	Why write (purpose)?  (1) To record.  (A) More permanent: easier to remember and teach.  (B) More readers, bigger audience.  (C) As a historical document.  (D) Makes it easier to process information.  (2) To communicate.  (A) To inform, to entertain, to persuade.  (B) To make people feel.  (C) To show, to tell.  (D) To state, to reply, to argue, to communicate.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Why write artistic literature?  To make people feel.  To impart emotional knowledge.	12/30/1992

Arts, literature.	Why write literature?  Why write novels, short stories, plays and poems?  (1) Psychological reasons.  Sometimes literature is how the idea comes to the individual.  That is, sometimes the individual thinks of an idea in the form of a story or poem.  Its possible that the idea is new and fuzzy.  Its possible the person is repressing somewhat, and an image comes burbling up from the subconscious.  (2) Sociological reasons.  Sometimes literature is the most effective way to communicate an idea to other people.  Sometimes people want to be entertained as well as informed.	8/20/2006

Arts, literature.	You must recognize and write about your own faults, as well as the faults of the world.	11/06/1988

Arts, movies, criticism.	.This section is about film criticism.  Topics include: . 	1/24/2006

Arts, movies, criticism.	American Graffiti is about summer, youth, cars, love (young love, new love), night, and music (50's rock and roll).	7/7/1998

Arts, movies, criticism.	American Graffiti.  Name one thing that people do to relax.  Driving around in cars with the radio playing.  So why not make a movie about driving around in cars with the radio playing.  A movie with cars, scenery and plenty of music.  That's what the movie "American Graffiti" is about.  A relaxing drive with radio playing tunes.	7/25/2002

Arts, movies, criticism.	Annie Hall.  People struggle to connect, and then their relationships fall apart.  There is a brief intervening period of partial understanding and moderate happiness.  And there are jokes, gags, quips, laughs too.	7/8/2006

Arts, movies, criticism.	Apocalypse Now.  (1) Savage, primitive, low technology.  Dumb, animal, irrational, amoral, law of jungle.  Vs. high technology, civilized, rational, moral, civilization.  (2) Was Kurtz sane or insane, ethical or unethical, smart or dumb?  (3) What is good and bad, and gained and lost, in becoming civilized?	07/10/1994

Arts, movies, criticism.	Apocalypse Now.  There were no women in that movie to keep the men loved, satisfied and sane.	7/18/1998

Arts, movies, criticism.	Apocalypse Now.  Why I liked Kurtz.  I too felt and saw "the horror".  This is beyond the usual feeling of depression and anxiety.  It is more toward what Edgar Allan Poe felt.  Horror.  It just springs to mind for certain types of people.	04/24/1997

Arts, movies, criticism.	Caddyshack: Slobs vs. snobs.  Animal House: freedom (losers) vs. authority (system followers).	06/01/1993

Arts, movies, criticism.	Citizen Kane.  The character Charles Foster Kane was not such a bad guy.  So he had an affair, big deal.  And his life was not that bad.  No need to cry for him.  The movie had good cinematic direction but a poor story line.  The story was not powerful.  The story had to preach and lecture in order to spell it all out for the audience, because it could not convey its message convincingly on its own.  Rosebud was a gimmick.  The directing was good: shots from distances near and far.  Light and dark chiarusco.  Shot angles high and low.	11/15/1998

Arts, movies, criticism.	Coen Brothers.  "Big Lebowski" is like "Dude, Where's My Car" twenty years later.  Excellent.	11/2/2001

Arts, movies, criticism.	Cohen Brothers.  Fargo is their best work.  The winter adds emotional impact.  The snow and cold draws the community together even while it threatens to kill, just like the criminals.  Its the white picket fence vs. death and chaos.  The winter landscape in Fargo is like the ocean in Moby Dick.  The desperation of Jerry Lundgarden (Bill Macy) and the desperation of the guy who asks Francis McDermott for a date vs. the comfy coziness of Francis McDermott and her duck-drawing hubby.  The woman is the center of the movie, and in the movie the woman holds the center together.	11/2/2001

Arts, movies, criticism.	Deliverance.     (1) Deliverance is about the edge between civilization and wild nature.  Nature is represented by tractless swaths of primeval forests, raging rivers, savagery, violence, chaos, and animal drives.  Civilization is represented by the community, ethics, law, and emotions and thoughts.     (2) Deliverance is also about poverty, illiteracy, abandoned factories and small rural towns.     (3) Deliverance is also about the hillbillies, a mountain people who are similar to the Nepalese Sherpas in how they have been both helped and hurt by contact with modern civilization.     (4) Deliverance is a macho movie about men's issues.  There are few women in Deliverance, and I dare say the story would have been less grim had more women been present.     (5) Deliverance is an adventure movie that deals with issues such as risk, courage, death and triumph.     (6) Deliverance is also a movie about the wilderness next door in your heart.	11/15/2000

Arts, movies, criticism.	Diner is a good movie because life is not an action movie.  Most of life involves sitting around, for example, in a diner, trying to figure out what is going on and what to do.  See also, the movies "My Dinner with Andre" and "Coffee and Cigarettes".  There should be more women in those movies.	12/11/2005

Arts, movies, criticism.	Easy Rider.  Stunning landscapes.  Good music.  Constant pot smoking.  Obtuse, passive-aggressive, hippie dialogue.	4/28/1998

Arts, movies, criticism.	Favorite actors: Ellen Barkin, Roseanne Arquette, William Dafoe, Mickey Rourke.  Intelligent, sensitive, quirky.  Ethereal, wispy, transcendental, frail.	02/01/1994

Arts, movies, criticism.	Good movie about post grad academia: The Paper Chase.  (1) Deals with how to go through the school grinder without losing your humanity (ethical principles, emotional sensitivity, sociability).  (2) How to get over sycophantic worship of professors, which is really an immature worship of an authority figure (like rents, god, dictator, etc.).  (3) How to do the above two without caving into pressure and dropping out or going nuts.	01/23/1997

Arts, movies, criticism.	Good psychology movies.  What About Bob.  Good Will Hunting.  Ordinary People.  Prince of Tides.	12/29/1997

Arts, movies, criticism.	Groundhog Day.  A movie that is guaranteed a rerun every year.  A movie that, when aired on Groundhog's day eve, causes a deja vu the next day that is remarkably like that experienced by the movie's main character, played by Bill Murray.  A movie that gets better, more powerful in its effect, every time you see it.  A movie that reflects life, in that most of us spend our time doing the same thing over and over.  One day is much like the next at work.  And we repeat our mistakes until we learn and improve.	02/15/1997

Arts, movies, criticism.	Lost in Translation" is about two staples of modern civilization: hotel rooms and insomnia.  It is a subtle and mellow movie: I can recall only one car chase scene and one shooting scene.  A fair and balanced look at cheating.	9/22/2003

Arts, movies, criticism.	Metaphysical wierdness.  Groundhog Day.  Truman Show.  Both excellent movies.	9/25/2000

Arts, movies, criticism.	On the Waterfront.  An excellent movie.	10/1/2003

Arts, movies, criticism.	Paul favorites.  Drama: Taxi Driver, Deliverance; Last Tango in Paris; Raging Bull; Apocalypse Now.  Comedy: Animal House; Caddy Shack; Pee Wee's Big Adventure.	12/06/1993

Arts, movies, criticism.	Sidney Poitier's, "I don't owe you anything.", speech from "Guess Who's Coming for Dinner".  He says ideas similar to what I have figured out and written on my own.	04/24/1997

Arts, movies, criticism.	The Big Chill is about people struggling to define themselves, their relationships, and their world.	4/1/2005

Arts, movies, criticism.	The Matrix.  The movie "The Matrix" is a metaphor for the Internet.  Most people think the Internet is just surface.  Underneath and behind the Internet is another level where web people dwell.	6/1/2003

Arts, movies, criticism.	The Verdict.  You gather yourself together and do it again.  Even if you feel washed up.  Give it another try.	7/8/2006

Arts, movies.	.This section is about movies or film.   Topics include: ( ) Acting.  ( ) Directing.  ( ) What are movies.  ( ) Why make movies.  Why watch movies.	1/24/2006

Arts, movies.	(1) A movie without people.  (2) A movie without characters.  For example, no humans, and no non-human talking animals.  (3) What would it be like?  Would it be a shot of trees waving in the breeze?  A landscape shot.  How interesting would that be to the average audience?  The popularity of movies is based on the fact that people enjoy observing other people.	10/20/2004

Arts, movies.	(1) Movies are bigger than life when the screen is large.  (2) Movies are preserved for all time.  (3) Movies are easily replicated and distributed.	7/18/1998

Arts, movies.	(1) Movies are easy to consume.  (2) Movies elicit emotion easily.  Movies are emotionally powerful.  They make you cry easily.	3/30/1998

Arts, movies.	(1) Pop movies (commercial success) vs. critically acclaimed movies.  (2) Great art movies vs. great idea movies.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	(1) Simple movies.  Single fixed-position camera.  Single fixed-position actor.  (2) Complex movies.  Multiple moving cameras.  Multiple moving actors.	2/28/2004

Arts, movies.	(1) The initial appeal of movies was that movies are like real life.  Movies seem real.  Movies are life-like.  A movie is an audio/visual experience that simulates real life in a way that no written text can.  (2) The next appeal of movies is that movies, in some ways, are better than real life.  Movies are more exciting than real life.  Movies are more packed with emotion than real life.  Movies have interesting, beautiful people in them, often in exotic, far off lands.  If you lead an relatively boring life then movies are better than life.  Movies exceed life.	4/15/2005

Arts, movies.	A movie exercise.  Watch a movie with a partner, one of you blindfolded, the other with earphones that block out the movie soundtrack but lets you hear the other persons voice.  You must both communicate to enjoy the movie.	3/10/2000

Arts, movies.	A purely visual movie (for example, silent and without subtitles) can exist.  A purely aural movie (for example, just spoken word) makes less sense.  Thus, the movies are primarily a visual medium.	4/8/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting and appearances.  (1) Convincing appearance:  Good acting means you cannot tell the person is acting.  Good acting is thus invisible.  It depends on the acuity of the audience, and thus good acting is a relative term.  (2) Unconvincing appearance:  You see through it (so to speak).  Bad acting is noticeable, like a musical note struck off key.	4/8/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting and personality.  (1) Can a person effectively act a role that is opposite their core personality?  Or do we always bring some of ourself to any role we act?  (2) A complaint about average actors is that they seem the same in every role they play.  They are uni-dimensional people.  A compliment to good actors is that they are versatile and can play a wide variety of roles.  They are multidimensional.  (3) Yet you cannot act a role that you know nothing of.	9/15/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting and personality.  (1) Therefore, there is always something of the self in every role we play.  (2) There is always something of the other in every role we play.  (3) We are always acting to some degree.  We act in social situations.  We even act to ourselves.  (4) Another word for acting is "lying" and "secrecy".  (5) Where is honesty?  Be it to others or to ourselves.  (6) The entire notion of acting calls into question the concept of a stable, unified self.	9/20/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting, definitions of.  (1) Pretending.  Pretending to be someone you are not.  Deception.  Impostor.  For example, pretending to be a bus driver when you are not.  (2) Social based definitions of acting. Playing a role in a social setting.  For example, playing the social role of a bus driver in real life when you actually are a bus driver.  There are many social roles that people play.  (3) Art based definitions of acting.  Playing a role on a stage.  For example, playing the role of a bus driver on a theater or film stage.  The crucial point here is that the audience knows you are an actor.  The audience knows "its only a movie".  (4) Psychological based definitions of acting.  (A) Trying to convince yourself.  For example, acting interested even when you are not.  (B) Cases of self deception.  Trying to kid yourself.	10/20/2004

Arts, movies.	Acting.  (1) Acting as an aid to survival.  Acting as an evolutionary advantage.  (2) Acting as deception, manipulation, lying.  (3) Acting as bodily expression, akin to dance.  (4) Acting as story telling or narrative.  (5) Acting as an exercise of the imagination.  (6) Acting as role swapping.  Putting yourself in someone else's shoes.  (7) Acting defined as action.  Action is inevitable.  Humans are active creatures.  Bodies in motion.  Movement.  (8) Acting as a facade, pose, bluff, front.  Fronting, posing, bluffing.  (9) Acting normal.	7/31/2005

Arts, movies.	Acting.  (1) Acting as pretending and play.  Children play from an early age.  At what age do children start playing, "Let's pretend"?  Acting can be seen as a continuation of the child's game "Let's pretend".  (2) Acting as role playing.  Role playing can be a form of psychotherapy.  Thus acting, and even watching acting, is a form of psychotherapy.  (3) Acting and social role playing.  All social interaction is a form of acting.  All social interaction is a form of role playing.  On the one hand, we act like how we would like to be seen by others.  On the other hand, we act like how we think others would like us to be.  All in order to get what we want and to please others.  (4) Acting is a way of thinking by doing.  People use their body and actions as an aid to their "minding" or thinking.  For example, pacing the floor, scratching the head, etc.  (5) Acting is a way of communicating by doing.  People can communicate without words through the use of posture, gesture, facial expression, etc.	4/26/2005

Arts, movies.	Acting.  (1) Psychology of acting.  Why does one feel compelled to act?  With or without an audience.  With or without the audience knowing it is an act.  What is going on in the head of the actor?  (2) Sociology of acting.  What does the actor get from the audience?  What does audience get from the actor?	9/20/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting.  (1) The basis of everyday acting is in conflicted thoughts, conflicted emotions, and conflicted attitudes (thoughts and emotions).  Example, I'm attracted to a villainess but I know she is evil so I act one way yet feel and think another way.  We all do this in real life.  We are all actors in real life.  (2) Two definitions of acting.  (A) Acting defined as behaving.  (B) Acting defined as putting on an act, which may not be "truthful" in that it is not how we really feel or think, but it may be truthful in that it is really the front we want to show a person.  See number one above.  (3) Deception is another thing.  (4) Acting in film, i.e., playing someone else, is yet another thing.  (5) The amount that movie acting can tell us about everyday sociology is staggering.	12/27/1998

Arts, movies.	Acting.  (1) Underacting: Deadpan actors like Michael Moriarity and Robert Redford.  Negative views of under-acting are that it is not emotionally expressive.  Not emotionally giving.  Repressed.  A positive views says these under-actors are letting the audience project their own meaning on the character in the scene.  (2) Acting.  Emotionally giving.  (3) Over-acting: Hysterical.  Histrionics.  Ex., later Deniro and Pacino.  Theater acting.  The theater requires over-acting to reach the cheap seats, and the movies tone it down for close-ups, thus movie actors sometimes feel underacting is by nature good, but this is a mistake.	1/20/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Acting a role is like wearing a costume.  Acting can be used to reveal as well as hide.  Acting and fashion are often used to explore and experiment.	9/20/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Acting as action.  Acting as gestures when a person is talking.  Acting as body language.  When we discuss acting we are discussing body, body position, and body movement.  In this way, acting is very close to dance.  (See also: Arts, dance).	12/28/2006

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Actors feign emotions for catharsis of the audience.  The character or face of the actor must appear truthful.  We all act (i.e. feign, fake, and hide secrets) to get what we want.	12/30/1996

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Can an actor truthfully and believably play a character smarter than he or she is?  Good question.  Are great actors necessarily smart?  Or just good mimics?	10/15/1994

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Everyone acts, whether its social acting or dramatic acting.  (1) Social acting is the faces we put on to negotiate our way through daily life.  Social acting is done in "real life" and it is when the audience does not know we are acting.  (2) Dramatic acting, or theatrical acting, is the acting one does to tell a story.  Dramatic acting is when our audience knows its a play and knows we are acting.	12/28/2006

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Four increasing levels of audience involvement in a work of art.  (1) Audience is interested or curious about the characters in the work of art.  (2) Audience has an emotional like or dislike for characters.  (3) Audience feels a connection to the character.  An empathic "I know what you mean." or "I feel your pain".  (4) Audience becomes the character, and actually lives through the characters.	1/21/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Great acting means consistently doing an excellent job in one take.  Poor acting means consistently doing a barely adequate job in many takes.	9/15/1998

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Key to acting.  (1) Not letting the audience know you are faking the response.  (2) Pick the right response (emotion, attitude).  (3) Communicate the response well.	11/16/1997

Arts, movies.	Acting.  One shouldn't use acting, or any art, as a stand-in for dealing with your life directly.	1/21/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Origins of acting.  When you mimic in voice and gesture, or when you do an impression, that is a primitive form of acting.	9/20/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting.  The basis for all acting is taking on the role of another person.  I am using the term "acting" broadly here, as a social phenomena not restricted to art.  When we describe a social situation by saying "She was all like...(gesture).   And he was all like...(gesture).", we are taking the role of another person, that is, we are acting like another person.  This was a big step when humans started doing this hundreds of thousands of years ago.	10/28/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  The evolution of acting.  When did humans evolve the ability to act theatrically?  When did humans develop the ability to play a role of someone other than themselves?  When did humans develop the ability to impersonate someone?  When did humans develop the ability to mimic?  Mimicry is very common in the animal kingdom.  Psychologists have discovered "mirror cells" in the brain, which help animals mimic.	11/10/2006

Arts, movies.	Acting.  The sound of an actors voice is often as important as how they look.  Yet very few people notice it.	4/8/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  There is a psychological phenomenon of acting and there is a sociological phenomenon of acting.  Some would argue that acting is a psychological coping strategy and a sociological survival strategy.  The psychopathology called hysteria or histrionics can also be called overacting.  Repression is a form of underacting.	9/20/2002

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Thinking and feeling one thing yet saying another thing.  Thats acting.  Saying one thing and doing another thing.  Thats acting.  Or its hypocrisy.	10/20/2004

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Truth of integrated character responding truthfully in movement, looks, and speech (thoughts, and words or diction).	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Two types of acting, social acting and theatrical acting.  (1) Social acting.  People engage in social acting in everyday life.  People act socially when playing various social roles such as parent, worker, friend, etc.  (2) Theatrical acting.  People engage in theatrical acting when putting on plays.  People also act theatrically when telling stories, even if its amongst friends and not on a stage.	11/10/2006

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Two types of actors.  (1) Invisible actors: only show the character and do not show themselves through the character.  (2) Visible actors: let themselves show through the character.	1/15/2001

Arts, movies.	Acting.  Walking down the street, people seem to see something in you that you know is just not there.  And yet they see it, so for them it is there.  This unfeigned falsity must be the root of all acting.	3/25/2002

Arts, movies.	Actor as faker, liar, or poseur.	8/15/1998

Arts, movies.	Analysis of film (See art notes.  See literature notes).  Plot, theme, setting, subject, view.  How good the message, and how well said.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	At the movies, people sitting quietly in the darkness, like astronomers.	4/15/2005

Arts, movies.	Balance of power on the movie set.  Is the movie set a dictatorship or democracy?  That depends on how power is distributed.  (1) Do-It-Yourself auter.  One person writes, directs, produces and acts.  (2) Egalitarian movie sets:  Swapping roles.  Everyone knows how to do every task.  Everyone does every task (writer, actor, director, producer) at some point in the movie.	5/14/2004

Arts, movies.	Casting physical types to play their corresponding character types.  Could anything be more boring?  Character types are boring to begin with.  Reinforcing a character type with a physical type is doubly boring.  I say, no types, character or physical.	6/17/2001

Arts, movies.	Comic books.  American's love comic book movies.  Fantasy.  Escapism.  Infantilism.	5/27/2006

Arts, movies.	Criticism.  The question is usually not whether a movie is good technically, artistically, etc..  The question is usually, "Is the movie about a subject that society thinks is important, and does the movie say what society thinks should be said on the subject?	2/10/2002

Arts, movies.	De rigeur for Hollywood movies: A car chase.  A shoot-out.  A fist fight.  A physical stunt.  An explosion.  A love (sex) scene.	11/20/2001

Arts, movies.	Directing, task of.  Choosing cast.  Choosing locations.  Choosing shots (frame size or distance, geographic direction of shot).  Choosing takes to use.  Editing (cuts and splices).	6/9/2004

Arts, movies.	Directing.  Two tasks of the director.  Director picks the shots in filming.  Director makes the cuts in editing.	10/20/2004

Arts, movies.	Favorite actors: Karen Allen and Jeff Bridges.	11/15/2001

Arts, movies.	Film combines words, music, visual images and theater.  Film is a synthesis of the arts that preceded it.	6/14/2000

Arts, movies.	Goals.  (1) Make a list of 5 star movies.  See ones you haven't seen.  (2) Rent or buy a camcorder, make your own short movies.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Great movies in terms of artistic aspects, theme, message, idea aspects, historical significance (first, or best).  You could watch one a week and do the top 100 in two years.	01/01/1993

Arts, movies.	How to "hollywood-ize" a book by turning it into a movie. (1)  Gross oversimplification of the story.  Leave stuff out.  (2)  Fictionalize.  Add things to the story that simply are not true.  (3) Sentimentalize.  Play up emotion.  Tug at heart strings.	2/10/2002

Arts, movies.	I cannot get behind an art that requires a lot of technology, so I cannot get behind movies.  However, in defense of movies, one can argue that a person can move from theater to film, or from comics to film, in much the same way that a person can move from pen and paper writing to hypertext writing, or from pen and paper writing to database writing.  So if one criticizes movies for using excess technology, then one can criticize web pages and blogs for using excess technology.	3/5/2007

Arts, movies.	If someone makes a great movie from a great book or a great play then they have not really accomplished much.	6/16/1998

Arts, movies.	If you digitally filmed every minute of every day, how much data would that be?  How many GB will a 16 hour day of audio/video require?  A two hour movie requires 5 GB.  16 hours will require 40 GB a day.  365 days x 40 GB per day = 12000 GB for one year.     PART TWO.  Digitally filming every day.  By sharing this data between people you are sharing life.  The results: (1) You can lead many lives.  You can be many people, not just one.  (2) Increased empathy.  When you ask "how did your day go?", you can see for yourself by watching the playback.	8/3/2002

Arts, movies.	In my opinion the 100 best books are much better than the 100 best movies.  No contest.  What then can justify movies?  Perhaps when some people read a book they are unable to imagine the story so clearly as to be able to see the story like a movie in their mind.  Perhaps some people do not have a "movie-grade" imagination when it comes to reading books.  Perhaps when they read a novel it is about as exciting as reading highway directions or reading a food recipe.  For these people, the movies must seem like a mind-blowing revelation.	6/20/2000

Arts, movies.	Independent movies vs. major studio movies.  (1) The trend in independent movies today is digital film.  Digital movies can be shot with a small, inexpensive digital camera, edited with a computer, and distributed on the Internet.  Digital film gives more creative power to more filmmakers.  Digital film gives more viewing choices to more film go-ers.  (2) Digital films by independent movie-makers are a defense against the forces of the major-studio movie industry.  The major studios want to make money.  The major studios are corporations driven by profits.  So they make movies that appeal to mass audiences in order to sell a lot of tickets.  This leads to several negative effects:  (A) Lots of mindless sex and violence.  (B) Minorities are under-represented.  (C) Controversial subjects and views are not discussed.  (D) No unsettling topics, like, for example, the state of the world.  Only happy fantasy movies.  (E) No experimentation, no creativity, no art .  Use only formulas that work.  (F) Reuse product.  Make sequels.  (G) Don't challenge the audience.  Don't make the audience think.	4/4/2000

Arts, movies.	It defeats the purpose of movies to call a movie great if that movie is based on a book, because that is just like saying the book is great.  A step further, all movies are based on a written script, and for any great movie you could just read the script, because the script stands on its own.	6/21/2000

Arts, movies.	Most important in movies are the writers, not the actors, director, or producer.  The writer gives us the story (plot, theme), character and dialogue.	3/30/1998

Arts, movies.	Most movies seem dumb.  Is this due to the fact that most movies are geared to a mass audience?  Not necessarily.  Or is it due to the fact that the movie industry does not attract intelligent people?  Not really.  Or is it due to the fact that the medium of movies does not deal well with abstract concepts and thus the medium itself works to prevent smart movies from being made?  Yes, that's probably why.	11/10/2001

Arts, movies.	Movement of camera in relationship to subject.  Size of frame.  Size of element in frame.  Point of view in sphere.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Movie idea.  Make a movie created out of clips from other movies.  Its about a guy and a girl.  But the guy and girl are represented by a series of guys and girls from a series of clips from other movies.	3/17/2000

Arts, movies.	Movie industry.  Money spent, money taken in, number of people employed, and number of people it reaches.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Movie music trivia.  Hum the themes from Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Star Wars.  Whistle the themes from Great Escape, Hogans Heroes, and Bridge over the River Kwai.	11/29/1998

Arts, movies.	Movies are complicated, requiring many people and much technology.  Hollywood reinforces this by often giving Oscar awards to big, expensive, epic productions.  Movies are traditionally not simple, quick, do-it-yourself works.	4/8/2001

Arts, movies.	Movies are the closest thing to real life.	3/30/1998

Arts, movies.	Movies go by the "show, don't tell" slogan.  But its difficult to "show" an abstract idea.  Therefore, movies tend not to deal with abstract concepts.  When they do attempt to deal with abstract ideas they tend to do so poorly.  Yet, one may ask, how much can one say without using abstract concepts?	9/28/2000

Arts, movies.	Movies of the future.  (1) The viewer is surrounded by 3-D holograms of real life actors.  (2) The next step would be actors that are not based on real people, but rather digitally created bodies (and personalities).  (3) Interactive.  Plot changes with your dialogue and physical interaction with the characters.	4/22/1999

Arts, movies.	Movies.  Movies attempt to incorporate literature, visual arts and music into a multimedia display.	9/5/2004

Arts, movies.	No film I ever saw ever knocked me out.  Gave me the "wow" effect.  Blew my mind.  Left a strong and lasting impression.  Not one.  There I said it.	12/27/1998

Arts, movies.	Number of movies must see for (1) Historical significance.  (2) Theme or plot.  (3) Acting, directing, or technical.  If you could see one per week, that is 52 per year, and 100 hours killed.	12/06/1993

Arts, movies.	On the set.  Acting, directing, writing, producing, cinematography, who has the most power in flick vs. who added the most creativity.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	One view is that movies are essentially a stupid medium, unable to convey abstract thought, and that is why most movies seem dumb.	1/2/2005

Arts, movies.	Other tasks.  Costumes, makeup, props.  Set, stage, background.  Lighting.  Cinematographer.	6/9/2004

Arts, movies.	PART ONE.  Goal: bring the audience "into" the movie by using a convergence of technologies: (1) Three dimensional technology.  (2) Interactive technology.  (3) Digital movie making technology.  (4) RPG role playing game technology.  (5) Virtual reality technology.  (6) Computer based training technology.     PART TWO.  Another three goals:  Achieve social interaction with other characters.  Achieve environmental interaction with the setting.  Achieve psychological interaction with your own character.	7/20/2001

Arts, movies.	Power on the movie set.  Who has most power on the set?  When can a great actor outrank a mediocre director?	6/9/2004

Arts, movies.	Question: In a movie without any dialogue or narration, of what importance is the writer?  Answer: He still comes up with the story.	2/10/2002

Arts, movies.	Quirky comedies: Rushmore.  Wonderboys.   Big Lebowski.  Throw Momma.  Election.  Sideways.	3/2/2006

Arts, movies.	Related subjects.  Televisions's effect on film.  Film's effect on television.  Video's affect on both film and television.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Show, don't tell, they SAY.	11/2/2001

Arts, movies.	Show, don't tell.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	Silent movies with no captions transcend language and can be shown anywhere in the world.  Why are silent movies not more popular?	8/4/2002

Arts, movies.	Some people do not enjoy reading.  Can you believe it?  Text has little appeal to them.  In some cases they do not even enjoy talking.  Words in general do not thrill them.  These people are thrilled by pictures or music.  Movies delight these people.	11/6/2001

Arts, movies.	Sometimes a movie is good based on either good writing, good acting or good direction.  (1) Good writing movies: George Kaufman's scripts.  (2) Good acting movies: Ellen Barkin's movies.  (3) Good directing movies: Orson Welle's "Citizen Kane".	12/28/2003

Arts, movies.	Summary.  (1) Movies are the easiest form of art to consume?  Good for passive consumption.  (2) Movies are the most emotionally evocative form of art?  Movies make people cry easily, fall in love easily, etc.  Is it just the music in the sound track that adds the emotional impact to movies?  (3) Movies synthesize all the preceding arts (music, words, images, etc.).  (4) Movies do not deal well with abstract ideas.  Movies deal better with concrete situations.	11/15/2001

Arts, movies.	Technology.  Cameras: size of film; b&w, color; video.  Projection.  Silent vs. sound, b&w vs. color.  Editing: for tension.  Music and sound effects.  Special effects.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	There is something about almost all movies that reminds me of educational shorts.  Contrived.  Transparent.	10/19/2005

Arts, movies.	Things we say about bad movies.  (1) Acting was not believable.  (2) Story was not believable.  Story was not interesting.  (3) Poor production values.  Poor lighting.  Lighting too dark.  Poor sound.  Sound muffled.  (4) Poor editing.  Edits don't flow smoothly.  (5) Music score does not fit mood of the film.  (6) The message, the theme, was not new, true or important.  (7) Bloopers.  Mistakes.  Flubs.  (8) Didn't make one think.  Didn't make one feel.  Left no impression.	5/1/2005

Arts, movies.	Three cool digital age movie technologies.  Digital camcorders.  Digital projectors.  Digital webcasting.	1/3/2000

Arts, movies.	Three types of movies.  Movies that provide a sensory experience.  Movies that make you feel, and that move you emotionally.  Movies that make you think.	7/8/2006

Arts, movies.	Three views of who the camera represents.  (1) Camera as audience.  (2) Camera as narrator.  (3) Camera as author or director.	2/28/2004

Arts, movies.	Types of movies.  (1) Silent movies.  (2) Movies with dialogue and sound effects.  (3) Movies with a musical soundtrack.  (4) Movies with dialogue, sound effects, and a musical soundtrack.	10/19/2005

Arts, movies.	View the film component by component.  Visuals only.  Sound track only.  Dialogue only.  Musical score only.  Special effects only.	5/1/2005

Arts, movies.	What are movies?  (1) Movies reach the most people of all media.  (2) Most powerful media in 20th century?  (3) Most important 20th century art form?  (4) Movies are the dominant art form at this time and place.  (5) Movies combine: words, images, actions, sound, and music.  (6) Film as communication.  (7) Film as art.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	What do movies have that theater does not?  (1) Special effects.  (2) Exotic locations.  (3) Closeups.	3/29/2002

Arts, movies.	What if you tried to learn about the world only by watching movies?  A the other extreme, what if you tried to learn about the world without watching any movies?	1/10/2006

Arts, movies.	What, contra.  Film: what can you say in two hours?  Books: are portable, easier to look through.	12/30/1992

Arts, movies.	What, contra.  Film.  Its a truism that people like the book better than the movie.  (1) A book leaves more to the imagination, it is a better mental workout, and it is more mentally active.  (2) Also, two hours of dialogue takes up 50 written pages.  Books are around 200 to 300 written pages.  There is more information in a book.	06/05/1997

Arts, movies.	What, pro.  The main strong point of movies is that they let the viewer take a trip without going anywhere.  Country folk go to the city, and city folk go to the country.  Dr. Zhivago is a great scenery movie.  The Russian landscape is evocative and emotive.  Tom Horn was great in this respect too.	01/07/1997

Arts, movies.	Why I don't like movies: because I am not a big fan of narrative.	2/7/2000

Arts, movies.	With a moving face and a tender voice on a silver screen the movies perhaps come closest of all the arts to real communication.	3/14/2000

Arts, movies.	Works.  Screenplay: A Day in the Life of a Philosopher.  Scene One: The philosopher wakes up and spends ten minutes staring at the ceiling.  The philosopher then swings his legs out of bed and spends ten minutes sitting on the edge of the bed thinking.  Scene Two: The shower.  The philosopher spends ten minutes thinking in the shower.  The philosopher gets a good idea.  Scene Three: Morning walk.  The philosopher gets another good idea.  Scene four: The cafe.  The philosopher stares absently while the waitress asks him how he likes his coffee.  The philosopher pays for his coffee with a twenty dollar bill and walks away without getting his change.  Scene five.  The study.  The philosopher takes out a blank sheet of paper and pen.  He stares at the paper.  He stares up in the air.  He stares at the paper.  Raises an eyebrow.  Knits eyebrow.  Taps pen on desk.  Looks out window.  Writes something.  Scratches it out.  Writes something else.  To be continued.	4/21/2005

Arts, movies.	Works.  Short film.  How to Survive a Bear Attack.  Scene One: Instructor says, "In this video we could not afford a real bear so we use a man in a bear suit.  We will teach you how to use kung fu to protect yourself from a bear who also knows kung fu."  Scene Two:  Shot of a actor dressed as a camper and an actor wearing a bear suit kung fu fighting in a variety of situations.  Scene Three: Instructor says, "In our next example we will show how a bear who knows kung fu protects itself against a gorilla who also knows kung fu."  Scene Four: Shot of an actor in bear suit kung fu fighting with an actor in a gorilla suit.  Scene Five: Instructor says, "Using these techniques a person, or a bear, or a gorilla, can enjoy their camping trip."  Scene Six: Shot of a man, a bear and a gorilla having tea in the woods.	4/21/2005

Arts, movies.	Works.  The Philosopher, continued.  Scene: It is evening, and the philosopher is in yet another cafe'.  He reads a book, oblivious to his surroundings.  At the next table, a beautiful woman finds the philosopher's introversion attractive.  She says, "What are you reading?"  He says, "I'm reading a book of philosophy."  She says, "What's it about?"  He says, "I could tell you, but then I would have to explain it to you."  She says, "Is that what you do?  You are a philosopher?"  He says, "Yes, that is correct."  She says, "Well, what do you say we go to your place and hop like bunnies."  She winks at him.  He says, "I have difficulty forming a counter-argument to your contention."  She says, "Is that a yes?"  He says, "Yes."	7/8/2006

Arts, music, composition.	.This section considers principles and methods of composition in music.	12/30/2003

Arts, music, composition.	.This section is about music composition.  Topics include: . 	1/24/2006

Arts, music, composition.	A record or set should run the gamut of emotions.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	All sections and parts must work well, and work well together.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Arrangement: who says what, when, how, why.  Depends on the number of instruments, total and of each type (brass, woodwind, string, percussion, etc.)	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Arrangements.  Pick your instruments, bust up song between them, orchestrate by style.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Arranging for guitar.  How best to arrange a pop song for solo guitar and voice?  What types of rhythms and chords to use?	9/24/1998

Arts, music, composition.	Blurring the line between rhythm and melody.  A melody of short, repetitive notes played within a narrow range of pitch  has a rhythmic effect.	11/13/2004

Arts, music, composition.	Composition goal: all well elements working well together, for words and music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Composition problems.  (1) Too much or not enough of a thing.  (2) Temporal parts don't flow.  (3) Element parts don't mix.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Composition takes energy, instinct, taste, drive, emotion, and vision.	01/01/1993

Arts, music, composition.	Composition: for all styles.  Start with simplest and most prototypical musical statements, and work to complex, esoteric and wide ranging musical statements.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Composition: structure, unity, variety, and flow.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Compositional techniques.  Add (fill in, decorate), subtract (leave out, minimal), expand, condense.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Emotions: pleasure vs. pain songs.  Serious and heavy vs. silly, funny and light.  Areas: sex and work.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Find a foundational chord progression, melody, rhythm and poem, then add the other stuff.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Four track recording.  Lay down a grooving (danceable), funky (syncopated) beat.  Punchy rhythm guitar chops.  Melodic wailing lead.  Bluesy rough vocal.  Do big jams, and splice what you like together.  Do a final version.	01/01/1993

Arts, music, composition.	How to record without a four track.  (1) Rerecord riffs on two recorders.  (2) Keep building off them.  (3) Work up to one performance with everything arranged temporally, one after another.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Key to composition is your environment.  (1) Internal environment: mind (high t, high energy).  (2) External environment.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Layer riff over riff, complex rhythms and harmonies are interesting.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Lead or foreground vs. back up or background.  For any element.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Let the rhythms and words speak the anger.  Let the melody and wailing speak the pain, sadness.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Orchestration.  (1) One man versions: voice, guitar, harmonica, tapping foot.  (2) Power trio version: lead, bass, drum.  (3) Deuling guitars: lead and rhythm.  (4) Horns and organ added.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	PART ONE.  Musical notes and chords are often used interchangeably.  For example, when a musician plays a quick run of chords that trace a melodic line, it is using chords like notes.  Another example, a fast run of notes can sound like a chord, and is like using notes as chords.  A third example, when an electric guitarist plays a slow progression of notes through a speaker that amplifies, resonates and distorts the notes, it is like using notes as chords.     PART TWO.  Another way notes and chords are related is through "filling in" and "leaving out".  For example, if you fill in the gaps between the chords in a chord progression you essentially create a line of notes.  Another example, if you leave out some of the notes in a melodic line you have essentially created a chord progression.  PART THREE.  In a similar way, the beats in a rhythm can be either "filled in" or "left out".  This is an example of how melody and rhythm are related.  For example, when drums of various pitches, such as snare drum, tom-tom drum and base drum, are used in a musical work, the line between rhythm and melody is blurred.  (B) Melody and rhythm are related.  Changing the key of a melody is analogous to changing the tempo of a rhythm.	11/12/2004

Arts, music, composition.	Put all your pain and emotional energy into your compositions.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Rock and roll composition.  Best when young, with outrageous, out of your mind sex drive.  When you are older your drives, interests and concerns change.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Soloing and improvisation.  (1) How many measures to take?  (2) What are the chord changes in those measures?  (3) Create something individual, interesting, logical, complete, moving.  (4) Within a starting and ending time and pitch.  (5) Tell a story, with pauses along the way.  (6) How far to move away and stay away from main line song with all its elements (melody, harmony, rhythm)?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Sounds are put together vertically and horizontally (linearly).	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	The trick is to find a melodic hook or phrase, a cool interval, a rhythmic chop, or a cool progression that means something to you; that makes you feel emotion; that is unique, different, new or interesting.  Then build off it, adding to it while keeping the essence and integrity of the core idea.	09/20/1994

Arts, music, composition.	Unity vs. variation.  You must perfectly balance the two.  Avoid boredom of excess unity, and avoid incomprehensibility of excess variation.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	When your mental concepts change, your ability to write lyrics changes.  Ex. (1) Me now lyrics: "I am suffering a profound metaphysical identity crisis".  (2) Me then lyrics: "Oh, my head."	12/30/1992

Arts, music, composition.	Write an ultimate, prototypical song for each style.  Pick out an ultimate, prototypical song for each style from the existing world repertoire.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	.This section is about criticism of specific music works and musicians.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	"Bad to the Bone", by George Thouroughgood.  The ultimate macho strut.	04/04/1994

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	"Don't Look Back", by Boston is rock's most optimistic song, which is quite an achievement.	4/4/1999

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	"Rain" by the Beatles.  Finally a happy song about the rain.  Lifts weather related gloom.	09/26/1997

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	"Time Passages", by Al Stewart, on the Year of the Cat album.	10/5/2003

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1950's.  (1) Little Richard.  Little Richard has verve.  ( ) Chuck Berry has nerve.  ( ) Fats Domino is like Little Richards alter ego.  ( ) Ray Charles was a major talent.  ( ) Elvis.  Elvis was a major talent.  Early Elvis bravely crossed the race line.  However, I think later Elvis is overrated.  Elvis is being worshiped.  Worship, in general, is not healthy, even in a religious context.  ( ) Jerry Lee Lewis.  Great Balls of Fire.  ( ) Buddy Holly.  Buddy is a little bland.  ( ) Do Wop music.  Acapella music.  Vocal music.  Beautiful.  Innocent.  Virginal.  Sanitized.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  (1) Beatles.  (2) Beach Boys.  (3) Rolling Stones.  The Rolling Stones built on the work of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  (1) The Who.  Pete Townsend has talent.  (3) Van Morrison.  I was listening to side two of the album "Bang Masters", by Van Morrison.  (2) Cream was a good band.  I am not that impressed by Clapton's work after Cream.  I do not think Clapton is the greatest guitarist ever.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Aretha Franklin.  Aretha Franklin, in the 1960's.  Powerful.  Soulful.  A liberated woman.  An empowered African-American.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Burt Bachrach and Dione Warwick.  Do You Know the Way to San Jose.  Sort of cool.  Sort of pop.  Complex, challenging musical orchestration.  Sophisticated.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Folk rock.  Pete Seegar.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Grateful Dead is happy music.  Grateful Dead is soma music.  Grateful Dead music does not confront, neither in the lyrics nor the music, the problems of the world and the pain caused by the problems of the world.  Grateful Dead is not really rock, blues or jazz.  Grateful Dead is primarily country rock.  I am not a fan of country music.	10/29/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  James Brown.  James Brown's made music in the mid 1960's that still sounds fresh today.  His band was tight.  James Brown influenced a lot of people.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Jimi Hendrix.  Are You Experienced, by Jimi Hendrix.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Motown.  Motown was a type of soul.  Holland, Dozier Holland were super songwriters.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Much sixties rock has an raw, unpolished, under-produced sound.  Likewise, the lyrics are somewhat coarse and unrefined.  Some call it garage rock.  Many of the early songs were about having fun.  (1) Wild Thing, by the Trogs.  (2) Wooly Bully, by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.  (3) Louie, Louie, by the Kingsmen.  (4) The Zombies are underrated.  (5) Girl, you really got me, by the Kinks.  Ray Davies and the Kinks crafted some prototypical rock guitar riffs.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Phil Spector and the Girl Groups.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  Roy Orbison.  Only the Lonely, by Roy Orbison.   There is something earnest about the music of Roy Orbison.  Roy Orbison is a person not afraid to emote.  There are hints of Hawaiian-Japanese cowboy ukulele music in the music of Roy Orbison.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1960's.  The Grateful Dead.  Criticism of the Grateful Dead.  The Grateful Dead is happy music.  The Grateful Dead is escape music.  The Grateful Dead is Soma music, meant to pacify.  The Grateful Dead is not thinking music.  The Grateful Dead does not make a social statement.  There is a limit to how much "relax and feel good" music I want to hear.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Bruce Springsteen.  Jungleland, by Bruce Springsteen.  Thunderroad, by Bruce Springsteen.  Bruce Springsteen can be nostalgia-rific, sentimental, and romantic.  Bruce idealizes blue collar, small town America.  Bruce romanticizes the love affairs of high school sweethearts.  Its a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Disco.  Disco was dance music.  Dance music is usually sort of mindless, but it does make your body move.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Funk.  Funky Fresh is a lovely paradox.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Led Zeppelin.  There is a brain behind the music of Led Zeppelin, but not behind the lyrics.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Pink Floyd.  Time, by Pink Floyd.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Punk.  Punk was mindless rebellion.  Sometimes a person is in the mood for a little mindless rebellion.  But I wouldn't want to live there.  Sex Pistols.  Ramones.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Reggae.  Reggae is a music of active political resistance.  Reggae is also a music of stoner hedonism.  To fuse activism and hedonism in one music is an achievement.  Listen to Bob Marley.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Soul.  (1) Stevie Wonder.  (2) Al Green.  (3) Marvin Gaye.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Southern rock was reactionary views set to rock rhythm.  Much like, even worse, Christian rock is reactionary views set to a rock rythmn.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Superfreak, by Rick James, is a major hit that is early hip hop.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  The 1970's was the apotheosis of rock music.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1970's.  Tom Petty.  American Girl, by Tom Petty.  Sometimes, when you are a fresh, idealistic teen, you have a vision of true love, and you just want to get laid.  That's a good thing.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1980's  Euro-synth-romantics.  The 1980's were a difficult time for rock, what with the synth-driven, European, romantics.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1980's.  Hair metal.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1980's.  John Cougar Mellencamp.  John Cougar's project seems to be to try to validate, vindicate, celebrate, small town, rural America, that is, if you can look away from the bigotry, racism, intolerance, anti-intellectualism, backwardness and religious fanaticism that is in America.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1980's.  Rap.  Hip hop.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	1990's.  Grunge.  Nirvana.  Soundgarden.  Flannel shirts.  No big hair.  No neon spandex.  I can get with that.  Grunge was an improvement over what was happening in the 1980's.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bjork on Charlie Rose.  I don't always like to hear her sing, but I love to hear her talk.	8/3/2001

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan raised the expectations of the listening public in terms of the quality and quantity of work he produced.  The typical music business formula is to include only one or two hits per album, and only one or two epiphanic lines per hit song.  Bob Dylan started releasing albums that were chock full of hits, and he started writing songs that were chock full of epiphanic lines.	6/9/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan, the music.  (1) The music of Bob Dylan is not infinite iterations of twelve bar blues.  Dylan seldom does wrote imitation.  Dylan transmogrifies more than he imitates.  (2) Dylan likes exploring the roots of American folk music.  He doesn't often do the "latest sound".  He doesn't often do world music sounds.	6/9/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan, the voice.  Some people object to Dylan's voice.  Some people say its not a nice voice.  Its not a beautiful voice.  In Dylan's defense, there is a tradition in folk music of the nasal twang.  And there is a tradition in folk music of blending words together, in order to emphasize the music over the words, the opposite of enunciation.  And who says everyone's voice has to have a white bread quality to it?  White bread is boring.  Dylan is sourdough, or jewish wry.	6/9/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan, the words.  Dylan likes to do character studies.  One of Dylan's methods is to introduce odd characters by name.	6/9/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  (1) Inflationary views of Dylan.  Dylan is as good as Shakespeare.  (2) Deflationary views of Dylan.  Dylan is marginally better than, or only as good as, his singer-songwriter peers, like Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, etc.	7/15/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary theory of Dylan.  (1) Should you listen only to Dylan?  No.  (2) Should you make sure to include Dylan in your listening?  Yes.	4/4/2007

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary views of Bob Dylan.  (1) Bob Dylan is over-rated.  (2) Many of Dylan's lyrics are filled with excessively vague word associations that do not have much meaning upon close inspection.  The meaning that many people get out of Dylan's lyrics is, in many cases, the meaning that many people read into or put into Dylan's lyrics.  (3) Dylan's views on life are not particularly cogent nor inspiring.  (4) Dylan's musical abilities are often derivative of old forgotten folk songs, and as a result his music may only seem new and different.	7/19/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary views of Bob Dylan.  (1) Is Dylan all that one needs to listen to?   No.  (2) Is Dylan the "best"?  No.  (3) Can there be a "best" in art?  No.	7/15/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary views of Bob Dylan.  (1) Not every song that Dylan wrote was exceptionally good.  Some of Dylan's songs, either lyrically or musically, were duds.  (2) Dylan occasionally wrote fluff lyrics that some fans are intent on reading deep meaning into.  (3) There are a number of musicians who, on their best days, are as good as Bob Dylan.  For example, Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison.	7/22/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary views of Bob Dylan.  Did Dylan say everything?  No.  Dylan may have said some things that no one else said.  Dylan may have said some things better than anyone else did.  But Dylan did not say everything.  Much is left to be said after Dylan.	12/21/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Deflationary views of Bob Dylan.  Did Dylan say it all?  No.  Should we listen only to Dylan?  No.	7/2/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  It seems to me like Dylan was trying to make his voice sound like a harmonica, and trying to make his harmonica sound like a voice.	08/24/1994

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  Pro Dylan.  Did you ever try to write a poem?  Did you ever try to write a piece of music?  Did you ever try to match your poem to a piece of your music?  Try it some time.  Its not easy.  Its like acting, in that it looks a lot easier than it is.	7/2/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Bob Dylan.  What can one say about the music of Bob Dylan?  I like the longer songs like Visions of Johanna, Changing of the Guards, Idiot Wind and Tangled Up in Blue.  What can one say about the words?  What can one say about the music?  What can one say about the voice?  Listen to Bob Dylan.	9/12/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Captain Beefheart.  One of the principles of Captain Beefheart's music seems to be that life is too short, and music is too valuable, to spend an entire song repeating the same melody and rhythm for the entire song.  Its more interesting to change the rhythm and melody every four bars, or every two bars, or even every bar.  And thus one gets songs whose rhythm and melody are constantly changing.  Its interesting.  Its challenging.  Its good music.  Also, its too boring to have all the instruments playing the same melodic or rhythmic phrase at the same time.  Its more interesting for every instrument to play a different melodic or rhythmic phrase.  So the full effect is every instrument playing something different every few bars.  (2) Often the changes or variations seem to have a logical, almost mathematical, relationship.  The change may be the same phrase played upside down or backwards.  Also, just like modern poetry does not have to rhyme, modern music does not have to rhyme.	4/11/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Chicks who rock: Aretha Franklin.  Janis Joplin.  Joni Mitchell.  Chrissie Hynde.  Joan Jett.  Liz Phair.  PJ Harvey.  Annie DiFranco.  Alanis Morisette.	1/4/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Droning tunes:  The Cult, "Sanctuary".  The Doors, "The End".  Led Zepplin, "Kashmir".  Led Zepplin, "When the Levee Breaks".	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Great pop rock: Journey.  Cars.  Cheap Trick.	9/10/1999

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	History of music.  What we see, when looking at the history of American music during the 20th century, is a huge achievement by African-Americans.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	I think Neil Young's best work is his acoustic, old timey stuff.  The sweet, gentle, simple, sad songs of lost loves, and friends lost to drugs.  "Needle and damage done", "I believe in you".  He captures the lonely west.  After the gold rush.	01/12/1997

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Iggy pop.  Alice cooper.  Ramones.  Bowie.  I am like them.  Not a dead head.	04/01/1994

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Island tunes segway:  Margaritaville.  Montego Bay.  Thunder Island.	3/28/2004

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	James Brown.  I really enjoy James Brown's music.  James Brown's music is about rhythm.  The rhythm is carried by the guitar and horns.  Its not about melody.  Its not about building a structure, in that there seems to be no introduction, nor middle, nor conclusion.  Its about a groove.	12/16/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Jimi Hendrix.  The first time I heard Jimi Hendrix was in high school.  I had a free class so I went to the music room in the school library.  There I slowly lowered the needle on track one of side one of the "Are You Experienced" album.  The boxy, portable phonograph and the cheap plastic headphones did not take much away from the event.  I had heard a lot of rock music but nothing prepared me for Hendrix.  Are You Experienced was transcendent.  Soulful.  Raw.  Emotional.  I walked out of the room knowing that music, indeed life, would never be the same again.	7/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Joni Mitchell.  Blue, by Joni Mitchell is an awesome album.  Blue is as big an album as Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.  One can discuss the lyrics, the music, and even the timbre of her voice.  (1) The voice.  Sometimes ethereal.  Sometimes chirpy.  Sweet.  Pure.  (2) The music.  Complex structure.  Soaring melodic lines.  (3) The lyrics.  Feminist in that she speaks as a woman, truthfully, of her real self.	1/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Joni Mitchell's music is complicated.  (1) Joni Mitchell writes complicated melodies.  It is difficult to predict what note Joni will sing.  In a good way.  (2) Joni Mitchell uses complicated chords.  Joni uses a lot of jazz chords.  (3) Joni Mitchell uses complicated arrangements.  For example, albums like "Court and Spark" show sophisticated orchestration.  (4) Joni Mitchell writes complicated lyrics.  Joni's lyrics explore complicated subjects using complicated literary techniques.  (5) Joni Mitchell can be complicated and difficult.  Joni Mitchell is sophisticated and mature.  Joni Mitchell probably feels at home in France.  Viva la France.  Viva Joni Mitchell.	12/15/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Joni Mitchell's voice.  (1) Joni Mitchell's voice is so pure you can use it to pulverize kidney stones.  (2) Joni uses a lot of slides in her vocals.  Sort of like slide guitar.  (3) Joni Mitchell has incredible vocal range.	12/15/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Leonard Cohen is a buzzkill.	9/22/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.  The sound is lean, austere, western, i.e. beautiful.  Beautiful voluptuous women with high cheekbones.  Tall lanky men with rugged jaws.  High plains, high mountains, open vistas, far horizons, free space, wild.  Like my mind, thought, and writing.  Timeless, formal, classic, clean lines, and pure (not poor) spirit.  Pureland Zen.	04/01/1994

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Nostalgia rock.  ( ) Night Moves, by Bob Seegar, is a nostalgia-rific hit.  ( ) More than a Feeling, by Boston, is a nostalgia-rific hit.  ( ) Thunderroad, by Bruce Springsteen, is a nostalgia-rific hit.  ( ) They are nostalgic to begin with, and as time goes by they become more nostalgic.  Nostalgia is a calmative, a sedative.	11/20/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Robert Johnson's, "Hell Hound On My Trail".	9/7/2003

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Soundgarden is my band for the Nineties.	01/23/1997

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Stevie Wonder: "Superstition".  "Higher ground".  "Living just enough for the city".	03/08/1997

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	The most philosophical rock and roll songs.  Time, by Pink Floyd.  Time, by Chambers Brothers.	08/24/1994

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	The song Wild Horses by the Stones.  Western cowboy rock music (slide guitar and yodeling).  Not California, but Nevada, Montana, Wyoming.  This is my specific philosophy.  The environment I miss dearly.  It came to me in a song.	11/06/1993

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Thelonius Monk.  Charlie Parker and John Coltrane play fast yet recognizable music.  Monk is an oddball, a space shot, who eventually convinces you of his argument.	7/8/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Three songs.  Year of the Cat.  Time Passages.  Walking in the Park and Reminiscing.	4/23/2002

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Tom Waits.  (1) A large part of Tom Waits' music is about theater, carnival freak shows, amusement parks, boardwalks, ticket stubs.  (2) Hobos.  Traveling.  Cigarettes.  Booze.  (3) Blue collar workers, factories, the sounds of machines.  (4) War vets.  Amputees.  (5) Tom Waits is akin to the Beats and to Bukowski.  (6) Planet of the Apes meets Howdy Doody.  Waits probably influenced Tim Burton.  (7) Fascination with the strange, odd, weird.  Dilapidated houses.  Mental patients.  Things that didn't turn out right but are still beautiful.  (8) My view is that the 1980's Waits albums show Waits coming to terms with his childhood experiences and memories.	4/10/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Tom Waits.  (1) Tom Waits' songs know the value of simplicity.  (2) Tom Waits' songs can include a person banging a can, moaning, growling, grumbling.  (3) Tom Waits songs, a man sitting at a bar reminiscing because he either lacks the ability to see the future or he fears the future.  (4) Tom Waits songs, heavily influenced by the blues of Howling Wolf and John Lee Hooker.  Can you hear it?  (5) Tom Waits songs.  Decidedly pre-war WWII.  Cloth, leather, metal.  Depression era.  Squeeze box accordions.  Harmonica.  Bowery flop houses.  Alcoholics.  Conjurer of past times and places, like Dr. John.  (6) Tom Waits for you.  Tom Waits for you to sit next to him in a bar.  Tom Waits for you to listen.  (7) Tom Waits songs.  A hobo band that cannot afford real instruments.  (8) Tom Waits songs.  Primitive in all the good senses of the word: raw, elemental, unfettered.	4/4/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Tom Waits.  Banging on an iron pipe.  Banging on a one gallon tin can.  Banging on a thirty gallon garbage can.  Banging on a fifty gallon drum.  (2) Smashing your hand on a brick wall.  Banging your head against plasterboard.  Stomping you foot on a wooden floor.  (3) Unique instruments.  Spare orchestration.  The music is like the lyrics.	4/10/2005

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Top three light FM 70's hits: "Wild Fire", "Crazy Love", and "Brandy".	12/30/1996

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Twenty years later "Disco Duck" sounds elegiac.  Kind of like the class pest who dies tragically.	1/16/1999

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Van Morrison.  Astral Weeks is a very good album.  (1) One of the highlights of the Astral Weeks is Van's voice which is very expressive.  (2) The lyrics are kind of spacey, but that adds to the effect of the music, which achieves a trance-like effect by using longer songs and repeating lines.  (2) The instrumentation is folk acoustic: flute, strings, horns, fiddle, accordion squeeze box, chimes.  The instrumentation, upon first listen, can seem sparse, quiet, low key, but this adds to the gentle feel of the sound, which is almost like the sounds of nature.  (3) Stumbling rhythms are used to give an energetic feel, much like a visual artist may use a shaky line to project a sense of energy.  (4) I think Astral Weeks had a big influence on Bruce Springsteen.	7/31/2006

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	Vocal styles.  Sade seems to imitate the saxophone.  Dylan seems to imitate the harmonica.	03/16/1997

Arts, music, criticism, specific.	What's Good about Yes?  (1) Yes is cool because it's music does not fit into any pre-existing styles.  Yes is not classical, jazz, blues or rock.  (2) Yes spans time.  Yes is like a mix of futuristic Star Wars and old Renaissance Fair.  (3) Songs like "Siberian Khatru", "Perpetual Change", "You and I", "Close to the Edge", "Starship Trooper", "Seen All Good People", "Yours Is No Disgrace", "Roundabout".  Albums like "Yessongs"  (4) Yes music is positive, not depressive.  (5) Yes music gives prominence to rhythm section instruments like bass and keyboards.  (6) Criticisms of Yes.  The lyrics of Yes are way out there, obtuse, almost cryptic.  One can say that Yes is more about the music than the lyrics.  Yes's Jon Anderson might as well be singing vowels.  Perhaps Yes lyrics are trying to be the poetic equivalent of visual abstract expressionism.  (7) That said, Yes music is worth a listen.	9/25/2004

Arts, music, criticism.	.This section considers principles and methods of criticism in music.	12/30/2003

Arts, music, criticism.	.This section is about music criticism.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Arts, music, criticism.	(1) Philosophical criticism of lyrics: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics views held by lyrics.  (2) Lit criticism of lyrics: what is the theme, author, etc?  (3) Psychological criticism of lyrics: what is the subject and attitude?  Where is the catharsis?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	All music besides angry blues rock is b.s..	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Book to write.  Greatest rock lyrics, and criticism of them, by subject area.  Excellence of message.  Excellence of poetry.  Excellence of music.	01/26/1994

Arts, music, criticism.	Cannons: anyone's, academia's, Paul's.  Criticism: anyone's, academia's, Paul's.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Criticism: (1) Analysis, (2) Judgment: rating great, good, average, below average, or bad; for both words and music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Earliest recording of a tune vs. best rendition of a tune.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Elements, variations, and principles.  Schools of music criticism.  Principles of music criticism.  Methods of music criticism.  History of theory of music criticism.  Criticism of music styles, artists, and songs.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	For each composition analyze all its elements, and judge how successful it was.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Four types of musical excellence.  (1) Technical excellence.  (2) Expressive excellence.  (3) Composition excellence.  (4) Theoretical knowledge excellence.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	History of music criticism.  Schools of music criticism.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Hot vs. cool.  Droning vs. not.  I like hot droning music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	How good is it?  Why is it that good?  What's good and bad about it?  How does it compare to others?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	How I judge the depth of a person's musical taste and criticism skills.  Can they appreciate Hendrix?  Can they appreciate Dylan?  Do they like both?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Lyric criticism: subject, view, etc., (see literature, criticism).	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Music and words should mesh perfectly.  If they don't the piece won't work.  Writing words to fit the music.  Writing music to fit the words.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Skill as performer and writer.  Achieving a true or false, proper or improper, view and emotion.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Taste is the most important thing in art, for both artist and audience.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Too many songs are strong in one element or area and weak in another.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Traits of good music.  Truth, complexity, power, accuracy, precision, subtlety, scope and depth, expressiveness in both words and music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	What are the top 100 rock tunes and lyrics?  What do they teach us that the textbooks can not?  What do the textbooks teach us that music can not?	04/01/1994

Arts, music, criticism.	What good is music?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Who has the ability, the theory, and the historical knowledge?  Who has the drive, emotions, vision, and who will do the work?  Who has the head (optimum psychological viewpoint)?  Who has the talent (instinctive knowledge)?  Who has the character?  Who has the time, energy, money, and materials?  Who has the most overall?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, criticism.	Writing music criticism: (1) Analyze the piece.  What is it?  What does it remind one of?  What is it like?  (2) Evaluate.  How good is it?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	.This section is about vsrious musical styles.  Topics include: ( ) Blues.  ( ) Classical  ( ) Country.  ( ) Disco.  ( ) Folk.  ( ) Jazz.  ( ) Pop.  ( ) Rock.  ( ) Soul.  R&B.  Hip Hop.  ( ) World music.	1/24/2006

Arts, music, styles.	(1) Jazz.  Improvisation involves playing away from the melody.  Syncopation involves playing away from the beat.  By using improvisation and syncopation jazz achieves a complexity that makes it challenging and interesting.  (2) Classical music achieves complexity and interest by having many instruments, many themes, many voices (polyphony, harmony, counterpoint).  (3) Complexity in music.  Musical complexity can increase to the point of chaos.  Musical complexity can decrease to the point of boredom.	1/28/2003

Arts, music, styles.	(1)(A) arguments contra rock:  Jungle music.  Unrefined.  Sex music, not cerebral.  (B) arguments pro rock:  It confronts problems.  (2)(A) arguments contra classical:  Concentrates purely on the sound.  Lacks lyrics.  It is status quo.  It is repressive.  It is escapist, avoidist.  It is overly refined.  (B) arguments pro classical: Classical music calms.  At some point you start listening to it.	06/27/1993

Arts, music, styles.	Acapella do-wop.  The cool thing about acapella do-wop is it sounds like instruments are present but they are not.	11/30/1998

Arts, music, styles.	All styles have to do with social conformity.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Best style.  Blues rock: sadness, anger, happy, danceable, sex.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Blues vs. happy music.  Happy music does not necessarily avoid problems.  Happy music may well confront problems, it is just that it comes to a happy conclusion or solution to those problems.  The real issue is not blues (good) vs. happy (bad) music.  The real issue is simple (bad) vs. complex (good) music.  Happy music is okay as long as it is complex.  Complexity evolves from either technical virtuosity or compositional virtuosity (through time, or in layers like harmony).  This idea does not bode well for Zen or minimalism.  Achieve emotional richness through the music and intellectual richness through the lyrics.  It is okay to come to happy conclusion as long as you have worked out the problem completely.  (2) Opposing view.  But actually a simple lyric/idea or musical theme is okay as long as it is "true", powerful and healthy.  (3) A third view.  Basically different people in different circumstances have different musical needs.	7/18/1998

Arts, music, styles.	Blues vs. happy music.  The blues confronts and deals with problems.  This is a noble thing.  Happy music, about things that are allright, is not as important(?).  I do not want to be depressive, or focus solely on the bad things in life, but it seems you should at least have a 50-50 mix of the two types of music.  But blues should be such that it makes healthy progress, and does not wallow in self pity.	7/18/1998

Arts, music, styles.	Blues, definitions of.  (1) Blues as a scale.  A scale that includes "blue notes", for example, flattened thirds.  (2) Blues as a song structure.  For example, AAB verse structure.  (3) Blues as a topic.  For examples, songs of troubles with lovers, work, etc.  (4) Blues as an emotion.  For example, sadness.  (Rock and roll being the domain of anger.).	3/29/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Blues.  Alienation, hopelessness, poverty, pain, abuse, neglect, desire, anger, sadness, loneliness.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Blues.  If you currently have the blues then listening to blues music will eradicate the blues.  If you currently do not have the blues then listening to blues music will make you blue.  What explains this paradox?	5/5/2005

Arts, music, styles.	Blues.  The best music.  If life is pain, and music is emotion, then blues is the music of pain, and thus of life.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Blues.  To listen to the blues when you are not blue, and thus to become blue, is self defeating.  To listen to the blues to exorcise blues is good.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Classical music.  (1) What percent of the population today are classical music fans?  Five percent?  (2) What percent of the population today recognizes famous pieces of classical music from its use in movies, television, commercials, etc.?  Ninety five percent?	10/8/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Classical music.  Why classical music does not do it for me.  Once you hear jazz, classical music seems antiquated.	10/8/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Classical musicians are essentially the equivalent of rock and roll "cover" bands, which play the work of others, which is essentially a matter of being a technician rather than a creative artist.  Better to be a garage band releasing originals.	8/2/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Classify all musical elements by musical styles, and make a tree of music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Country music attempted for years to be "pure", acoustic and unsullied by rock and roll.  Today, country music is thoroughly influenced by rock and roll.	11/10/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Development of styles.  Origin, development, peak, stagnation, and decay.  Uniqueness.  Complexity.  Popularity: how well liked by how many, in how large an area, for how long?  Mutation and change.  Death and rebirth of musical styles.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Disco.  Why did we hate disco so much?  We heard disco as mindless, stupid, materialistic, robotic, unskillful, inhuman, empty, heartless, soulless and shallow.	11/20/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Folk.  Music of the uneducated.  Music of peasants.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Foreign folk and pop vs. domestic folk and pop.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	How do the styles compare?  Which are better in general and why?  Which are better for what uses?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Important question.  (1) Why did x style develop in x place at x time?  (2) And why did it become popular?  (3) These are psychological and sociological questions.  (4) Effects of natural environment on music style development.  (5) Effects of charismatic or strident individuals or groups.  (6) Effects of approval and disapproval of power holders.  (7) Effects of leisure time and money.  (8) The value society puts on music, and new things in general, changes.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz recordings.  The first time you hear it, it is a jazz recording.  However, the second time you hear it, it is not jazz anymore in the same sense because there is less surprise.	2/10/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz: lively, graceful, complex, sophisticated, nuanced.  Rock: plodding, clumsy, simplistic.	1/15/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz.  Good jazz is great but bad jazz is terrible.	1/12/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz.  Some of my jazz favorites.  Coleman Hawkins.  Thelonius Monk.  John Coltrane.  Charles Mingus.  Hot, not cool.  Soulful, not the opposite of soulful.  Soulful meaning full of deep thought and feeling.  The opposite of soulful being shallow.	5/8/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz.  The funny thing about jazz fans is that many of them are quite content to listen to a very short list of "standards" played over and over.  That is not exactly a paean to improvisation and creative freedom.	8/2/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Jazz.  When is it jazz?  (1) You can "jazzify" a song by adding rhythmic syncopation, melodic swing, or improvisation.  But does that make the tune a jazz tune?  No.  (2) Is it jazz if any instrument takes a solo?  Not really.  Almost all musical styles today involve solos of an improvisational nature.  (2) Is it jazz if you syncopate the beat?  No.  Is it jazz if you swing the melody?  Not really anymore.  Lots of musical styles today syncopate the beat or swing the melody.  (3) Is jazz about a blues based style? Not really any more.  (4) Is jazz about a brass arrangement? Not really any more.  PART TWO.  Jazz concepts have pervaded all styles of music today.  Just like rock has pervaded everything.  Just like folk has pervaded everything.  Music today is an amalgam or hybrid of jazz, rock and folk.	1/12/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Oldies.  There is an "Oldies" station that plays do-wop music from the '50s.  However, when you think about it, "Classic Rock" is now oldies.  "Lite music" from the '70's is now oldies.  "Classical music" is oldies.  Its all oldies.	1/6/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Pop music is sung.  Blues and rock are moaned, screamed, and wailed by the voice and lead guitar.  These sounds are indicative of the pain and suffering, or lust and ecstasy, that the songs deal with.  Blues and rock find their finest expression in songs of love and pain (sado-masochism?).	12/30/1995

Arts, music, styles.	Pop music.  Sometimes the sound is pop but the words are not.  Sometimes the words are pop but the sound is not.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Pop music.  The question is: popular for what culture?  Music that is popular with masses usually has trite lyrics.  It tends not to challenge moral conventions.  Pop music usually is a happy, melodious and sweet sound.  Pop music is usually not extreme in any way.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Popular music.  (1) Criticisms of pop music.  Examples of the worst of pop.  (2) Defense of popular music.  Examples of the best of popular music.	4/16/2006

Arts, music, styles.	Popular music.  From popular songs we get love.  From non-pop songs we get all the other emotions.	7/25/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Popular music.  What pop music has going for it is, firstly, brevity (compare a three minute pop song vs. a two hour movie or a ten hour novel) and, secondly, power achieved through emotional intensity.	3/4/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Punk rock.  (1) A critique of punk rock.  Some punks are left-wing socialists, while other punks are right-wing fascists.  Some punks are political activists, while other punks are apolitical hedonists.  What then is punk?  Punk is simply a style of music played at a certain speed and volume.  Punk is simply a style of fashion or dress.  One could argue that punk means whatever you want it to mean.  One could argue that punk can mean anything.  One could argue that punk means nothing.  (2) A counter-argument.  What do all the punks have in common?  All the punks are anti-authority.  All the punks have a kind of anarchic attitude.  All the punks reject mainstream society, mainstream fashion, and mainstream music.	6/24/2007

Arts, music, styles.	Rap or hip hop.  Criticisms of rap or hip hop.  (1) It took centuries for people to understand that good poetry does not have to rhyme.  Modernist poets bravely faced a barrage of ignorant criticism when they first freed verse.  From that perspective, rap appears to be a return to the tyranny of rhyme.  (2) Proponents of rap argue that rap belongs to a long tradition of bragging and boasting verse.  In practice, the bragging and boasting often devolves into putting down others and verbally abusing others.  Name calling.  Mocking the weak, disempowered and minorities.  Ad hominem attacks.  (3) Sampling, i.e., the reworking, adapting and borrowing of grooves, riffs and hooks etc, even when giving credit, even when given permission.  Sampling seems less creative than writing an original song from scratch.  The only argument I can see for sampling is the fair use of "quoting" seems much like how one can quote text.  Another argument for sampling is that the musical vocabulary is somehow smaller than the verbal vocabulary and thus copying is more likely.	1/1/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Rap or hip hop.  Pluses of hip hop.  (1) I'm a fan of soul music.  (2) I'm a fan of urban art that addresses the problems of a city environment.  (3) I'm a fan of ethnic and minority art.  (4) There are some hip hop songs I like.	1/1/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Rock and roll is about freedom of thought, expression, and action, in the form of rebellion, and in the form of sex and drugs, for youth.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock and roll is the music that conservative whites decided to burn in bonfires during the nineteen fifties.  Rock and roll was the music  of the progressive struggles of the nineteen sixties.  So you know rock and roll is good.	9/7/2005

Arts, music, styles.	Rock and roll: music and lyrics.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock and roll.  (1) Rock and roll is the child of blues and jazz.  (2) Rock and roll was originally viewed by some as "black music" or "race music" and some conservative whites tried to ban it.  (3) Rock and roll dared to discuss issues of sexuality and rebellion, and thus it was taken up by teens.	9/18/2005

Arts, music, styles.	Rock and roll.  Rock and roll did not turn out to be all we thought it would be.  We thought it would save the world, and that it was all that was needed for survival, happiness, and a morally good life.  It did not turn out to be so.  But rock and roll is not totally bankrupt either.  Rock was an important advance.  It is high art.  It says a lot that was never said before, and that cannot be said in any other medium.	7/12/1998

Arts, music, styles.	Rock as (1) Serious high art.  (2) Mindless rebellion and destruction.  (3) The really good rock, the really bad rock, and the really mediocre rock.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock evolves from (1) Strong drives, strong feelings, and much energy, needing to be expressed or blown off.  Not knowing that fact consciously, and not having the words for that fact.  Being horny, being ignorant, and not even knowing that is the case.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock is about anger.  Youths have a lot of anger because they have a lot of energy.  That is why youths like rock.  I would be angry if I had the energy.	5/15/1998

Arts, music, styles.	Rock is about freedom.  Emotional freedom to feel any emotion about any subject.  Freedom of thought to hold any view on any subject.  Artistic freedom creates diversity.  Diversity expresses freedom.	11/15/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Rock: anger, rebellion, sex.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  Hopes for rock music in the 1960's.  In order from major to minor.  (1) Music was going to solve all the worlds problems.  (2) Music was going to start a revolution.  (3) Music was going to change the world.  (4) Rock was going to last forever.  PART TWO.  Music, rock or otherwise, cannot solve all the worlds problems.  Rock music did change the world.  Rock music remains popular, even if its not the most popular form of music.  Rock music influenced other musical forms.  Rock music influenced cultures around the world in many ways.	4/4/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  How did a comparatively reserved culture like the British produce great rock and roll bands like the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Who and so many others?	12/13/2005

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  Loud rock gets the hormones churning, hi t, inspires.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  PART ONE.  Contra rock.  (1) Rock music was eclipsed in popularity by other styles such as rap.  (2) Rock music has not solved all the worlds problems.  (3) Rock is now just one style among many.     PART TWO.  Pro rock.  (1) Due to a variety of recording media, music enjoys worldwide popularity.  People listen to music at work and play.  (2) Music has changed the world by providing emotional solace and emotional knowledge.  (3) Blues, Jazz and Rock are one of the major contributions of the United States to world culture.  (4) Rock and its descendants Punk and Grunge, and its cousins Folk and Soul, had immense impact, especially on teens and young adults.	4/7/2004

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  Rock and roll is about youth, sex, and rebellion.  Rebellion is the natural state of youth.  Rebellion is also the natural state of the artist.	07/29/1988

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  So much rock is depressing.  To me, to write a rock song of hope, without sounding lame, is the ultimate musical accomplishment.	7/29/1999

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  Social effect of rise of rock and roll.  What did it change?  What did it change it to, and to what degree?  How can we tell?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  The best rock combines masculinity and femininity.  Combines power/strength and emotional sensitivity.  Combines rhythm and melody.	11/18/1994

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  The essence of rock is amplification.  To rock is to crank the volume.	8/4/1998

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  The great thing about rock is that it is a case where a f*ckup makes good.	9/10/1999

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  The strong argument for rock and roll.  When you listen to the greatest rock tunes it rewires your brain, it unlocks your creativity, it grows you up, and it gives you knowledge.  I do not know how to scientifically prove this claim, yet the claim has been made.	10/25/2001

Arts, music, styles.	Rock.  Youth rocks not out of horniness, happiness, or energy, but rather out of pain.  They are in a standing fetal position.  Fetal rock.  They dance for reprieve.  They dance to forget.  They celebrate to ease the pain.  This is what the blues and youth have in common.	4/8/1999

Arts, music, styles.	Styles of music, and sub-styles (i.e. types and sub-types).	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Styles: (1) Hot music: strong emotion and strong catharsis.  (2) Cool music: weak emotion and weak catharsis.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	Styles.  Strengths and weaknesses, in comparison to other styles.  Relationships to other styles: causes and effects.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	The big style question: why did x style develop in y place at z time?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	The historical musical style tree.  The logical musical style tree.  Similarities and differences between styles.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	The white kids adapted black jazz in the 1920's.  The white kids adapted black rhythm-and-blues and called it rock-and-roll in the 1950's.  The white kids adopted black rap in the 1980's.  Why?  Some would argue that the white kids adapted black music because jazz, rhythm-and-blues and rap are great music, which I agree it is, but I don't think that was the only reason.  Some would argue it happened because blacks are musically creative and white kids are not, but I disagree with that notion.  I say, perhaps you can argue that it is actually a case where white kids want to be like the black kids.  Why do white kids want to be like black kids?  (1) White kids feel guilty for being rich and white.  (2) Rich kids want to feel what is like to be poor.  (3) White kids want to feel what it is like to be black.  (4) One has to admire these rich white kids for the bravery of their phenomenological explorations.  They want to take on the role of the other.  They want to see how the other half lives.  They want to understand first hand the lived experiences of minorities and the marginalized.       PART TWO.  Some would argue that it is only about the excellence of the music, and not about the culture, but that is contradicted by the fact that the music is packaged as part of a culture, and the music is sold as part of the selling of a culture.  Some would argue that it is a cultural phenomenon and that it is a battle of cultures and an economic competition of cultures in a marketplace.  No, that is not it, I say.  There are also cases of black teens who pickup white music.  (It is an interesting phenomenon when a minority music becomes the music of the majority).  It is an exploration of the world by teens.	1/1/2002

Arts, music, styles.	Various musical styles.  Blues, jazz, rock, country and western, classical, folk.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, styles.	When we say we like the blues because they are raw and unpolished, we mean we like the openness and honesty.  When we say we hate pop music for its cold, calculated manipulation we mean we hate it for its deceit, lies, trivial subjects, and shallow thoughts and emotions.	7/18/1998

Arts, music, styles.	World beat, definitions of.  (1) World beat as a collection of diverse folk musics.  (This is a good situation).  (2) World beat as a bland homogenization of musics.  (This is a bad situation).  (3) World beat as a new style of music, a new sound.  (This is an okay situation).	3/29/2002

Arts, music, styles.	World beat.  The future of music.  (1) New instruments.  New sounds and timbres.  New tonal systems (scales, modes, micro tonal scales).  (2) Freedom of music.  Any scale.  Any timbre.  Any pitch.  Just like freedom in the other arts.  Art is about increasing diversity.	1/12/2002

Arts, music, what.	.This section is about what is music.  Topics include: ( ) Music as language.  ( ) Music as math.  ( ) Physics of music.  ( ) Physical effects of music on body.  ( ) Psychology of music.  ( ) Words and music.	1/24/2006

Arts, music, what.	(1) Music directly affects emotion.  (2) Music directly affects our physical body as sonic waves.  (3) Therefore, emotion is physical?  Music (and emotion) directly affects physical energy?	6/15/1998

Arts, music, what.	Aside from questions like "What is music?" and "Where did musical ability in humans evolve from?" are questions like "What did we hope to accomplish with music?" and "What did we actually accomplish with music?"	3/4/2001

Arts, music, what.	Getting into the groove, it carries you away.  Hypnotic affects of music (psychology).	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Is music about math and logic?  Or is music about emotion and intuition?  Persuasive arguments can be made for both views.  Some people see the music of the classical era, for example Bach, as the height of reason in music.  Other people see the music of the romantic era, for example Beethoven, as the height of emotion in music.  Still others argue that music involves both reason and emotion.	10/17/2005

Arts, music, what.	Language and music.  We say the musician "has a story to tell" or "has something to say".  We say the musician is using a stylistic "vocabulary".  The musical phrase is like a language sentence.  These are all ways how music is similar to language.	4/18/2001

Arts, music, what.	Math and music.  Music is essentially a matter of mathematical ratios.  In terms of rhythm we speak of whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and sixteenth notes, etc.  In terms of melody we speak of octaves, fifths, fourths, thirds, etc.  These are all mathematical ratios.	4/18/2001

Arts, music, what.	Music is redeeming.  Music is idealistic.  I like music because I am an idealist.  Youths likes music because both youths and music are idealistic.	5/15/1998

Arts, music, what.	Music soothes the savage beast.  Music calms the stressed out.  Music helps those on the verge of a nervous breakdown stay sane.  Music therapy for neurotics.  It does this by focusing the mind on the music, and off all other worrisome stresses.	9/23/1998

Arts, music, what.	Music: any verbal sound a person says is music (like found art).	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Physical and music.  Breathing (i.e., meditative breathing), chanting, dancing and music all use repetitive physical action to achieve a mental state that is not exactly self-hypnosis but is definitely trance-like.  An analogous phenomena is the "high" of long distance runners.	8/31/2001

Arts, music, what.	Physical and music.  Music sets up physical vibrations that are soothing and healthy like a whirlpool.	02/28/1998

Arts, music, what.	Physical and music.  Music, especially rhythm, is like a sonic vibra massage for the body, mind, and soul.  Dancing is further massage.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Physical and music.  Rhythm.  Musical rhythms are often at the same rate of speed as human rhythms such as heart rate, breathing rate, walking rate and lovemaking rate.  Music rhythms can have an effect of speeding up or slowing down heart rate and breathing rate.	4/18/2001

Arts, music, what.	Physical and music.  The link between music and dancing.  Music does things to your mind and your body.  Spell it out.	12/27/1998

Arts, music, what.	Physical effects of music.  (1) The effects of rhythm on the body are rather obvious.  (2) What are the effects of melody on the body?	4/13/2001

Arts, music, what.	Physical effects of music.  If you speed up a rhythm fast enough it becomes somewhat akin to a vibrating massage.  Rhythm is akin to a vibrating massage.	4/13/2001

Arts, music, what.	Physical.  Music affects the body.  But the brain/mind is an organ of the body.  So music can affect the brain in a purely physical way.  The so called psychological effects of music may simply be a result of the physical affects of music on the body.	4/13/2001

Arts, music, what.	Psychology and music.  Music as hypnotic trance.  Don't kid yourself, that is what music is.	5/20/1998

Arts, music, what.	Psychology and music.  Music can give hope.  Hope can give life.  Therefore, music can give life.	8/15/1999

Arts, music, what.	Psychology and music.  Music can rewire your brain.	4/4/1999

Arts, music, what.	Two main types of music: pleasure-music and pain-music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	What is music and what is not music?  Four views of music:  (1) Organized tone.  (2) Organized noise.  (3) Random tone.  (4) Random noise.	09/01/1994

Arts, music, what.	What is music?  What is the origin, purposes, and mechanism of music?	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	What.  Seven definitions of music: broad and narrow, short and long.  (1) The sound art.  (2) Stress reliever.  (3) Inspiration giver.  (4) Emotional outlet for catharsis.  (5) Emotional inlet.  (6) Communication: of information, art, and entertainment.  (7) Organized sound.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  (1) How much can music alone say?  (2) What can music with lyrics say or convey that words alone cannot?  It may be that music can not convey more than words, but that it only does it faster (in three minutes) and more pleasantly.	7/18/1998

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  A word is a symbol, but a tone is not a symbol.  A word is an idea, but a tone is not an idea.  Therefore, music is not symbolic and music is not an idea.	8/26/2000

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  Comparing rock and classical is comparing apples and oranges.  Music with lyrics is different from music without lyrics.  Music without lyrics get its meaning purely from sound.  Music with lyrics gets at least half its meaning from the lyrics.	01/01/1993

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  Music without lyrics is never "about" anything.  Music without lyrics does not refer to anything.  Literature and the visual arts, on the other hand, are about something.  They refer to something.  Except abstract expressionism in the visual arts.  And except the literary equivalent of abstract expressionism.	6/21/2000

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  Music without words is about emotion.  Music with words is about attitude (thought and emotion).  Develop the best attitudes, and express them best.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  Music without words vs. with words.  The difference between the two, and how important the difference is.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, what.	Words and music.  Words have meaning in and of themselves.  Tones only have "meaning" in relation to each other.	8/26/2000

Arts, music, why.	.This section is about why people do music.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Arts, music, why.	(1) Music to create or change emotions and ideas.  (2) Music for psychological catharsis.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Goal of music.  Make the audience feel powerful new truths.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Music does not make much of a main course.  It does however make an excellent appetizer.  Music is the appetizer, philosophy is the main course.	4/28/1998

Arts, music, why.	Music is an excellent and important inspirational spur to thought and emotion, especially for me, especially rock and roll.  Music frees, excites and develops the mind.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Music is both soothing and enervating simultaneously.  In terms of the latter, music can both inspire (motivate) and stimulate (new thoughts) the mind.	07/05/1997

Arts, music, why.	Music is used by the young to blow of energy to the point they can think clearly and be inspired.  Music is used by the old to rev up with energy to the point where they can be inspired.  They (old and young) both use the same thing (music) to get to the same place (inspiration) from different directions (too much energy or too little energy).	02/15/1997

Arts, music, why.	Music pumps up energy, emotion, and imagination.  Take the trip.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Music without words conveys emotional knowledge.  How?  I don't know.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Oldies music (Top 40 tunes from when you were a kid) can help you remember your youth.  It triggers memories.  It unblocks the unconscious.	12/27/1988

Arts, music, why.	To know an emotion or drive you got to feel it strongly.	12/30/1992

Arts, music, why.	Why engage in music?  (1) Health: stress relief.  (2) Knowledge: intellectual knowledge, and emotional knowledge (learning new emotions).  (3) Emotional catharsis.  (4) Changing emotion: amp up or cool down.  (5) Its fun and pleasurable.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Math and music.  Music is math.  (2) Language and music.  Music is a language.  (3) Body and music.  Music affects the body directly.  (4) Emotion and music.  Music affects the emotions directly.  (5) Hearing and music.  Music is a sensory phenomena.  The eardrum.  (6) Social and music.  (7) Dance and music.  (8) Animals and music.  Animal communication.  Bird song.  Whale song.  Crickets.  (9) Physics and music.  Sound waves.  Frequency (pitch).  Amplitude (loudness).	6/15/2005

Arts, music.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Music in animals as a means of communication.  Attract a mate.  Defensive warnings.  Emotional expressions of pleasure or pain.  (2) Musical nature of human speech.  Volume, pitch and timbre.  Melody of vowels.  Rythyms of consonants.  Musicality of poetry.  Laughing, crying and moaning.  (3) Music and the mind.  Psychology of music.  Music to express moods.  Music to change moods.  Music to intensify moods.  Music to reduce moods. (4) Music and the physical body.  Sound waves.  Energy levels.  Link between music and dance.	11/24/2003

Arts, music.	.This section is about music.  Topics include: ( ) Band names.  ( ) History.  ( ) Instruments.  ( ) Played out.  ( ) Psychology and music.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) Teens and music.  ( ) Origins of music.  ( ) Performance.  ( ) Radio.	1/24/2006

Arts, music.	"The sound".  Find your favorite sound on the radio.  Compose your favorite sound.  "The sound" can transcend style, it is a feeling.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	(1) Causes of music: (A) Natural rhythms.  (2) Effects of music: (A) Psychological effects.  (B) Physical effects.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	(1) Live music performances vs. (2) recorded live music performances vs. (3) studio recordings.  Live music performances are more personal than recorded live music or studio recordings.	2/22/2000

Arts, music.	(1) Lullabye: soft, sweet, melodic.  (2) Aggro: loud, dissonant, rhythmic.	4/1/2005

Arts, music.	(1) Mechanics.  Notation, rhythm, intervals, harmony, and counterpoint.  (2) Instruments: layouts, techniques.  Learning, practicing, and performing.  (3) Composition and arranging: principles and techniques.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	(1) Music as a release.  Let it all out.  Laugh, shout, have a good cry.  Blow off some steam.  Let out some energy.  (2) Music as inspiration.  Gather it in.  Draw in energy.  (3) Doing both at the same time, in the same song.  Doing the in and out.  Its a two way street.	11/23/2005

Arts, music.	(1) Music to motivate, inspire, give hope.  That is a good use of music.  (2) Music to mollify, placate, distract.  That is a bad use of music.	1/14/2006

Arts, music.	(1) New music from new sounds.  New music from new musical instruments.  For example, the Moog.  (2) New music from old sounds that were never considered as music, and thus used as music for the first time.	4/15/2005

Arts, music.	(1) The artist: why they create.  (2) The work: what is it.  (3) The audience: why they listen.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	A defense of rock music, and by extension, a defense of music in general, a defense of music criticism, a defense of art in general, and a defense of art criticism.  PART ONE.  (1) Rock music means something.  Good rock songs mean something.  Sets of good rock songs build a library of meaning.  In other words, good rock songs make statements, and sets of good songs build a philosophy.  Good music addresses metaphysical, epistemological and ethical issues.  Good music makes social, political and economic commentary.  Good music is not always only about romantic relationships.  (2) Two types of meaning.  Firstly, the words of the song contains linguistic meaning.  Secondly, the music of the songs contain non-linguistic meaning.  It is not easy to put into words what is the non-linguistic meaning of the songs, but it is also not impossible, and you can try, and you can get close.  The total meaning of the song is a combination of its linguistic meaning and non linguistic meaning.  (3) Different songs mean different things.  Some songs seem to have more meaning than other songs.  Some song writers seem to be able to put more meanings and better meanings into their songs than other song writers.  Some listeners seem to get more meanings and better meanings out of songs than other listeners.  (4) A cannon of rock will focus more on songs than on albums or artists.   Songs that are especially moving.  Songs that are especially durable.  Songs that are especially enlightening.  There is a large quantity of excellent rock music.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of very good rock music songs.     PART.  ( ) A cannon will be limited, because one cannot include every good song.  A cannon is going to be incomplete, leaving out many good tunes.    A cannon will be subjective, because its a matter of taste.  A cannon will be fallible or imperfect, because it is not a matter of mathematical proof.  No one can say for sure which songs should be in the cannon.  A cannon of good rock melds invariably into a cannon of music in general, because the boundaries of the genres of music are indistinct.   Rock, at its edges, blurs into soul, pop, folk, etc.  ( ) Good rock does not necessarily mean the most popular songs, although much good rock is popular.  By "good rock" I mean aesthetically good.  Several important questions: What is rock?  What is good?  What is good rock?  ( ) Good rock music is not necessary for a good life, nor is good rock music sufficient for a good life, but good rock music makes a good life better.     PART.  ( ) What did I do from age thirteen to nineteen?  I spent a lot of time listening to good rock music.  And you can too.  ( ) When we do music criticism; when we discuss music; when we debate the merits of various songs and artists, we are thinking about music.  Thinking about music, and writing about music, is a valid activity.  When you say something about what you think a song means, you are adding meaning to your experience of the song, and that is a good thing.  ( ) Not to put too fine a point on it, to a large extent, the music is in the thinking about the music.  That is, the musicians can send music into the atmosphere, but a thinking mind has to hear it.  You can make the mistake of over-thinking the music, but more often what happens is people make the mistake of under-thinking the music.  ( ) A musical education.  You listen to the music.  You enjoy the music.  On some level, in some way, the music does something for you, and something to you, exactly what you cannot say.  Its something good.  Its something important.  Its something healthy.  The arts are worthwhile.  Take part in the arts, and impart the arts to your cohorts.  ( ) And yet, at some point, for me, and for many other people, the rock cannon began to feel narrow, limited, constrained, and became played out, yeah verily, at some further point, music itself became played out, and thus did the search for meaning expand ever outward.  And then one day, you hear a song from long ago, and it sounds good again, inspires you again, sparks with life again, resonates with old memories and with new layers of meaning, and you know its a good song.	11/20/2005

Arts, music.	A mark of musical sophistication or maturity is to create or listen to a body of musical works that span the entire range of human emotions, and by extension the attitudes and experiences connected to these emotions.	10/26/2003

Arts, music.	A total musical instrument is capable of emulating any other instrument.  A total musical instrument is capable of emulating any other sound.  Some synthesizers and computers can do that.	4/15/2005

Arts, music.	Acoustic music versus electric music.  Acoustic music is greener than electric music.  Acoustic music is ecologically sustainable.  However, acoustic music is not very loud.  Electric amplification of acoustic music defeats the ecological sustainability of acoustic music.	12/2/2005

Arts, music.	After the work songs, after the protest songs, after the making whoopee songs, she will sing you a lullabye.	4/29/2005

Arts, music.	Album name: Night Music and Morning Noises.	4/23/2002

Arts, music.	All music works.  Some music works better than others.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Arguments against music.  PART ONE.  Arguments against music that contains words.  (1) The three minute duration of the typical pop song is too short a time to delve into a subject, or to deal with an issue, or to say what you want.  (2) Poetry, in the form of song lyrics, is an imprecise style of writing.  Poetry is so full of vagueness and ambiguity that it is almost impossible to get anything done.  Poetry is often full of indecipherable lyrics bordering on nonsense.     PART TWO.  Arguments against music that does not contain words.  (1) Music is not as versatile as words.  Language is more versatile than music.  A person can say more with words than music.  (2) Music is not as precise as words.  Words convey information more exactly than music.  Or perhaps, words convey sentential information better than music, while music conveys emotional information better than words.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Arguments against pop music and other short forms: You cannot say or think in three minutes everything you need to say and think.	11/28/2006

Arts, music.	Band name: The Pangs.	9/2/2004

Arts, music.	Band name: The Pumice Tones.	7/14/2002

Arts, music.	Band name.  The Placaters.	4/15/1998

Arts, music.	Band name.  The Rat Bites.	09/13/1988

Arts, music.	Band names.  Punk rock band name: Sugar Fits.	5/7/1999

Arts, music.	Bandnames: Agents of Socialization.  Nocturnal Emissions.  Public restroom.  Sonic injury.  Deci-belles (ten women).	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Bandnames.  Horn section: the Blowhards.	7/18/1998

Arts, music.	Before the phonograph and radio, music was a "do-it-yourself" proposition.  After the phonograph and radio, music was a passive proposition.  Big business determined what you heard.	1/1/2002

Arts, music.	Computer.  Do your music on the computer.  Compose an entire piece, and arrange it for different instruments.  Write each part.  You can do it note by note, or copy and edit.  Work on the rhythm, melody, and harmony.  Also you can record a sound sample, or play an instrument through a MIDI interface, and manipulate and combine those to.	9/30/1996

Arts, music.	Create a website that gives a name and a sound bite for every musical rhythm, chord progression, etc.  Also list the songs that use those rhythms and chord progressions.  Create software that lets you create and combine rhythms, tempos, chord progressions, modes, etc., into musical works.	11/12/2004

Arts, music.	Desert Island Do-wop.	5/29/2001

Arts, music.	Did you ever have a song playing over and over in your head and you cannot get it out?  Music seems like the only media that plays constantly in our head against our will.  No other media seems to have the same effect, which is, incidentally, why advertisers create jingles.  In this way music is perhaps like the voices that schizophrenics hear, constant and involuntary.  Perhaps constant involuntary music and constant involuntary voices both originate from the same part of the brain.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Do we say that listening to good music makes you smarter?  Or, do we say that listening to good music expands your mind?  The latter.	9/7/2005

Arts, music.	Does one think with music like one thinks with words or images?	2/15/2005

Arts, music.	Emotion and music.  Tempo, scale, amplitude and pitch are musical variables that can be varied with the aim of creating music that expresses the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and anxiety.   A chart can be drawn as follows.  (1) Happy music.  Tempo: fast.  Scale: major.  Amplitude: loud.  Pitch: high.  (2) Sad music.  Tempo: slow.  Scale: minor.  Amplitude: quiet.  Pitch: low.  (3) Angry music.  Tempo: fast.  Scale: major.  Amplitude: loud.  Pitch: low.  (4) Anxious music.  Tempo: slow.  Scale: minor.  Amplitude: quiet.  Pitch: high.	10/17/2005

Arts, music.	Every physical activity has an associated song.  Every mental state has an associated song.  Everything has a song attached.  The world of music is like a parallel universe.	4/29/2005

Arts, music.	Found sound.  The sound of daily life.  (1) One can argue that the sounds of daily life contain and convey as much information as the sound of organized musical notes.  (2) The sounds of daily life vary depending on where you live.  The sounds of daily life can include the sounds of nature and the sounds of the man-made world.  Crickets.  Birds.  The wind.  Typewriters.  Conversations.  Internal combustion engines.  Traffic.	5/27/2007

Arts, music.	Gender and music.  (1)(A) Guys who want to hear guy singers really want to hear themselves or a buddy.  (B) Girls who want to hear girl singers really want to hear themselves or a buddy.  (2)(A) Guys who want to hear girl singers really want to hear "the other".  (B) Girls who want to hear guy singers really want to hear "the other".	4/1/2005

Arts, music.	Get software that writes musical notation for any music you play.	1/2/2005

Arts, music.	Good song has correct attitudes.  A rational view and argument toward a subject, situation, or event.  Emotional type, degree and reason why.  Set up a situation and show correct attitudinal response.	01/01/1993

Arts, music.	Good song lyrics contain all the things I really wanted to say to you but couldn't.	01/01/1993

Arts, music.	Great music.  The first time we hear a piece of great music it sounds strange, alien, weird, un-natural, other-worldly, and yet oddly compelling.  Great music is always unfamiliar to us the first time we encounter it.  Conversely, the first time we hear a trivial pop tune it seems instantly familiar and friendly.  Great music takes time for us to understand.  We say, "say that again", and it patiently explains itself over and over.	5/29/2001

Arts, music.	History of music.  Origin of music.  Why do humans find melodious, pure tones pleasing?  Because, when humans "sweet talk" they do so in melodious, pure tones.  When humans "rough talk" they do so in dissonant growls, which have a rough timbre.  Humans evolved these dispositions over millions of years.  These types of behavior are probably hard-wired into us.  Even other animal species, specifically mammals, use gentle "sweet talk" with their babies and mates, and they use "rough talk" to ward off enemies.  Animals use "sweet talk" and "rough talk" to differentiate nurturing behaviors and aggressive behaviors.  For example, coo's vs. squawks of birds.  For example, purrs vs. growls of big cats.  Human recognition of pleasing music is just an extension of the human ability to recognize pleasing "sweet talk".	6/7/1999

Arts, music.	History of music.  Origins of music in human history (as distinguished from aquisition of musical sensibility in specific individuals).  (1) Ability in voice to change pitch, volume, and timbre.  (2) Moans, cries, yells, screams, hums, wails.  (3) Internal massage.  (4) Emotions.  (5) Energy levels: blowing off energy.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	History.  (1) History of musical practice: instruments, styles.  (2) History of music theory.  (3) Technology and science (physics) of music.  (4) Notational recording and sound recording.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	History.  Discover.  Save (record using writing or sound).  Lost.  Verified: this is what we think it is, proof.  Explanation.  Analyzed.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	History.  History of music: any music ever performed anywhere.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	History.  Musicians.  Who were they influenced by, and who did they influence?	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	How is it that young children often have an excellent sense of music?  Children as young as three years old seem to understand and enjoy pieces of music that have complex rhythmic and melodic structures.  What explains this phenomenon?	6/30/2004

Arts, music.	How long it takes you to "get" (i.e., understand) a piece of music is directly proportional to how long it takes you to "play out" (i.e., be bored with) a piece of music.  "Getting" a song and "playing out" a song are two important concepts in music.	11/18/2001

Arts, music.	How many times must you hear a piece of music before you "get it" and like it?  Does it depend on the musical complexity of the piece?  Does it depend on the intellectual complexity or emotional complexity of the piece?	12/27/1998

Arts, music.	How much can you say in three minutes?	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	How would a person who has no emotions respond to music?	7/14/2006

Arts, music.	If a record is skipping just right it actually sounds good.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	If you transposed musical notes to a typewriter keyboard then you could learn to musically play the typewriter.	4/15/2005

Arts, music.	Instruments.  (1) Great drone instruments: bagpipe, sitar, pipe organ.  (2) Wailing instruments: harmonica, sax, violin, electric guitar.  (3) Rhythm instruments: conga, tamboura, washboard, vibraslat.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  (1) Great sounds: howling dogs, tire screech, cop sirens, grasshoppers and crickets (summer evening), sprinklers, jack hammer, garbage truck.  (2) More sounds: cats yowling, dogs barking, thunder, lightning, rain.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  (1) Voice: humm, moan, whistle, talk, whisper, shout, yell, howl, scream, cry, sing, grunt.  (2) Percussion: clap, slap, stomp, tap.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Arranging.  (1) Voice.  (2) Voice and clap or stomp.  (3) Voice, stomp, and guitar.  (4) Voice, stomp, guitar, and harmonica.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Connect the ear, brain and throat.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Electronic vs. acoustic.	12/29/2003

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Perfect pitch: identify a lone tone.  Relative pitch: identify intervals.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Perfect pitch.  (1) Hearing perfect pitch: (A) Pure pitch recognition vs. (B) Interval recognition.  (2) Singing perfect pitch: (A) Singing along with the music vs. (B) Singing alone.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  The human voice is the primary instrument.  The piano is the secondary instrument.  All other instruments are tertiary.	12/30/2003

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Types of instruments.  Techniques to play them.  History of them.  Technology: how to make them, and how they work.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Vocals.  Breathy vs. croaky.  Loose vs. tight.  High vs. low.  Staccato vs. legato.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Instruments.  Voice.  (1) Vocal style impressions.  (A) Hot: Howlin Wolf.  (B) Operatic: Roy Orbison.  (C) Nasal twang: Bob Dylan, Tom Petty.  (D) Cool: Rick Ocasek.  (2) Variables.  (A) Mouth shape.  (B) Diaphram push.  (C) Larynx tightness.  (D) Attack and decay.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	It is just as reasonable or sensible to classify songs by emotional tone as it is to classify songs by subject matter.  Examples: Happy songs.  Sad songs.  Angry songs.  Fear songs.  Hope songs.  Regret songs.  Humor songs.  Etc.	1/4/2002

Arts, music.	List tunes.  (1) Tunes to get.  (2) Tunes got.  (3) Favorite tunes.  (4) Favorite groups.  (5) Group's masterpieces.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Live music versus not live music.  (1) Live music versus recorded music.  Live music is a different phenomenon than recorded music.  Go out and see live music.  (2) Live music recordings versus studio music recordings.  Live music recordings are a different phenomenon that studio music recordings.  For example, live albums like The Who "Live at Leeds", or Yes "Yessongs", give the listener an opportunity to hear alternate versions of songs that were previously known to the listener only through polished, over produced, studio recordings.	12/16/2005

Arts, music.	Love songs are a type of psychotherapy.  What does it mean that people spend all day listening to love songs?  It means that people are in dire need of psychotherapy.	7/7/2005

Arts, music.	Me.  Paul aesthetic.  Jimi Hendrix was the sound I heard.  Volume, distortion, feedback, screaming solos, crunchy chords, blues based.  That is the sound I love.	11/30/1996

Arts, music.	Me.  Paul aesthetics system.  Paul music aesthetic system.  Paul cannons.  Paul compositions.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Me.  Paul cannon: heavy, heavy, heavy.  Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Cream, Led Zepplin, ACDC.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Me.  Paul sets: originals and covers, acoustic folk and blues, electric rock and punk.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Me.  Play hardest countriest blues.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Me.  Sets: rock, ballads, blues, pop, punk; by subject, theme, and emotion.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Mechanics.  (1) Silence vs. sound.  (2) Tone: frequency, amplitude, timbre, duration.  (3) Rhythm.  (4) Melody.  (5) Modes, scales.  (6) Harmony, counterpoint.  (7) Intervals, chords, chord progressions.  (8) Composition: structure, arrangement, style, tone, mood.  (9) Performance.  (10) Improvisation: altering any element any time.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Mechanics.  Basic chords: blues, country, folk.  Spiced up: jazz and modern classical.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Mechanics.  Emotional effect of any chord progression.  See what great music uses it.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Mechanics.  Emotional effects of the scales and modes.  (1) Scale: how many steps.  (examples, Diatonic scale has 12 steps.  Major and minor scales have 8 steps.  Pentatonic scale has 5 steps)  (2) Mode: which intervals come where in the scale.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Most important ideas about music.  Humans naturally make music.  Anyone who is not composing tunes daily is basically repressed.  Society tells everyone at work to shutup.  We all become repressed and bottled up.  This is bad.	12/27/1998

Arts, music.	Most important ideas about music.  My current musical interests are protest music, world music, and nature music.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Most music is within a certain range of emotional and intellectual sophistication.  When you are below it, it attracts you.  When you are above it, it seems simple.	07/27/1993

Arts, music.	Music 24x7.  Surrounded by music.  Immersed in music.  A new phenomenon starting with transistor radios and walkmen.	2/12/2004

Arts, music.	Music allows human multi-tasking.  You can listen to music and do something else at the same time.  Do not underestimate the power of this.  We get twice as much done, because listening to music is a learning experience in and of itself.	12/1/2001

Arts, music.	Music as logic.  Beyond the notion of music as math, there is the notion of music as logic.  People speak about the logical progression of a work of music.  People react to the logic of a piece of music.  (2) Music as structure.  There is also the notion of the architectonic structure of works of music.  What people react to when they listen to music is the structure of the music.	11/14/2005

Arts, music.	Music can be like a drug.  At first it can give you a kick, buzz or thrill.  Then after a while it does not.  It may be due to the "played out" phenomenon.  After a while a song becomes played out.  After a while a musical artist becomes played out.  After a while a musical style becomes played out.  After a while music in general becomes played out.	8/4/2004

Arts, music.	Music creates physiological responses directly, and then the mind interprets the physiological responses as emotion.  This is a "physical, then mental" view of emotion, much like the "James - Lange" theory of emotion.	10/21/2005

Arts, music.	Music in animals and humans is about communication, and it is a social phenomenon.  The psychological aspects of music are secondary to the social aspects of music.	10/28/2001

Arts, music.	Music in animals.  Rhythm: crickets and frogs.  Melody: birds.	4/26/2001

Arts, music.	Music in general, and specific styles.  What can they do that other things can't.  What can't they do that other things can.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Music increases creativity by enhancing access to the unconscious.  Music, particularly droning music and rhythmic music, breaks down the walls of the unconscious.  Music produces a trance state, a hypnotic state, a form of mesmerism that improves access to the unconscious.  For example, the droning rhythms of Pete Townsend.  (2) One could argue that access to one's unconscious is healthy.  One could argue that the more access to your unconscious you have the healthier you are.  Thus, by enhancing access to the unconscious, music promotes mental health.	4/10/2005

Arts, music.	Music is about silence.  Silence is the gap, space or presence between the sounds.	6/7/2004

Arts, music.	Music is about sound.  Music is about hearing.  We hear sounds.  Hearing is about the connection between ear and brain.  We also "hear" with our entire body when we feel the bass through the air and when we feel the beat through the floor.	6/7/2004

Arts, music.	Music is an education in and of itself.  The radio, at its best, when it plays great music, is a free college.	10/26/2003

Arts, music.	Music to pacify and mollify.  Happy music.  Soma music.  Elevator music.  That is as bad as a music of mindless rebellion, for example, much of punk rock.  When the music and lyrics function as a sedative or opiate that is as bad as music that functions as an methamphetamine.	6/15/2005

Arts, music.	Music to release new and old negative emotions.  Depression released by blues music.  Anger released by hard rock.  Anxiety released by what type of music?  There is no musical style for anxiety.	10/7/2003

Arts, music.	Music with a set rhythm and melody is like poetry with a set meter and rhyme.  It is passe.  It is simplistic.	1/12/2002

Arts, music.	Music with words.  (1) Sometimes people listen to music without even knowing the what are the lyrics of the song.  Sometimes people say they like a song even when they do not know what are the lyrics.  Is it defensible to say that you like a song even when you do not know what are the lyrics of the song?  It does not behoove you to ignore the lyrics because you could be humming a tune that is antithetical to what you hold dear.  (2) In addition, sometimes it is not easy to understand what the singer is saying.  (3) In addition, before the age of the Internet, it was often difficult to get a copy of the lyrics of favorite songs.	5/10/2007

Arts, music.	Music with words.  A critique of music with words is really a critique of poetry, unless you are reading a legal brief set to music.	5/29/2007

Arts, music.	Music, more so than literature or the visual arts, helps set the mood of an era.  When one thinks of the 1960's, 70's, 80's, or 90's, one often thinks of the music.	6/20/2006

Arts, music.	Music: people will pay you for a fu*k.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Musical complexity.  Computers can be used to design and play music that is too complex for humans to comprehend.  What good is that?  On the other hand, music that is too simple is boring.  Thus, there is a sweet spot for the comprehension of complexity in music by humans.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Musical name for a kid: Dylan Mitchell Hendrix.	10/8/2003

Arts, music.	Musical wandering or exploring.  When one drifts away from a set tempo, melody or chord progression it becomes more interesting for the musically advanced musicians but it becomes more confusing for the musically simplistic audience.	11/12/2004

Arts, music.	Nature music.  (1) The sounds of nature.  (2) Music made using ecological, acoustic instruments.  (3) Songs with lyrics about preserving nature and living sustainably.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Pain-emotion music is more important than happy-emotion music because it deals with problems.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Performance.  (1) If the accuracy of your musical performance is worse than the audience's perception, then your music sounds bad to the audience.  (2) If the accuracy of your musical performance is better than the audience's perception, then your music sounds good to the audience.  (3) Percent that the accuracy of your musical performance approaches ideal.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Performance.  Work on building speed and accuracy of mind (thought and emotion) and physical movement.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Performing, three factors of.  (1) The speed of your mind.  Remembering the notes fast enough.  Figuring out the notes fast enough.  (2) The speed of your fingers.  Finding the note on the instrument fast enough.  (3) Can you do the above two as fast as the tempo of the music?	12/12/2000

Arts, music.	Played out.  (1) A song becomes played out when one has memorized the song.  Why play the song when you know every note of the song?  (2) A song has become played out when you are tired of hearing the song.  The song is played out when one is bored with the song.  (2) Why am I so interested in the concept of played out?  Boredom is fascinating.  I am fascinated with being bored.  That is a breakthrough for me.	1/27/2007

Arts, music.	Played out.  (1) Played out meaning boring, not interesting.  (2) Played out meaning failing to provide a buzz, kick or thrill.  (3) Played out meaning failing to mesmerize or hold our attention.	4/27/2005

Arts, music.	Played out.  As a person gets older, music gets played-out faster.  As you get older you become more adept at interpreting both music and lyrics.  The extreme is when you can interpret the lyrics and music upon first hearing, and the song becomes played out after first hearing.	6/8/2005

Arts, music.	Played out.  Music (and other things) get played out quicker as you get older because you understand them more quickly.	2/15/2005

Arts, music.	Played out.  Played out depends on how popular the song is and how often it is played.  Popular music gets played often and thus gets played out quickly.  How big a hit it was.  How big the craze or frenzy.  How often played.  How quickly played out.  Songs have a life-cycle or curve.	12/30/2003

Arts, music.	Played out.  The concept of "played out" is important in music.  (1) On an individual level, listen to a song one too many times and it becomes "played out", tiresome, stale, etc.  The number of times a song can be played before becoming "played out" varies from song to song and individual to individual.  (2)  On a societal level, musical songs, artists and styles quickly become "played out", passe, old fashioned.  This is because youth demands its new music to differentiate itself from the older generation.  In this permutation, to be hip is to be new.	10/26/2003

Arts, music.	Playing out music is like building up tolerance for a drug.  Getting used to it.  Doesn't give a kick.	4/15/2005

Arts, music.	Politics and music.  (1) Musicians, in order to appeal to a large audience, in order to attain monetary success, often depoliticize the lyrics of their songs.  Musicians, in order to appeal to a large audience, and in order to please corporate powers, often avoid writing lyrics about political issues.  When the public consumes depoliticized music the public becomes depoliticized.  Thus, we see how the single minded pursuit of money and power by management and musicians can have the effect of depoliticizing the public.	12/1/2005

Arts, music.	Politics and music.  If one argument of the record companies and radio stations is that politically progressive music does not sell, then it is up to the individual to find music that expresses progressive views of the world.	12/1/2005

Arts, music.	Popular music.  What is pop music?  Definitions of pop music.  (1) Many people like it.  (2) Easy.  Easily understood.  Not difficult.  Not complicated.  Simple.  (3) Usually happy, not sad.  Bouncy.  (4) Trite, banal.  (6) Music and words.  Ordinary, pedestrian subject matter.  Cliches.  Mindless repetition.	4/16/2006

Arts, music.	Problem.  Four mistakes.  (1) Not melodic enough.  (2) Not rhythmic enough.  (3) Boring: too repetitive and simple.  (4) No unity: Not repetitive enough.  Too complex.  Parts don't mesh.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Problems with most music.  (1) The subject, view, and argument aint optimal.  (2) The emotional tone aint right.  (3) As reflected in words and music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Protest music.  In some countries, religious fundamentalist authoritarian regimes have outlawed music.  It is a denial of free speech to make music illegal.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Protest music.  Songs of social awareness, social justice, social protest, nonviolent resistance, global awareness, environmental awareness.	1/10/2004

Arts, music.	Protest music.  The is a great tradition of protest music from all over the world.  Music for social justice.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Protest music.  When people suffer injustice, one of the ways they resist is to voice their opposition in the form of songs.  Protest music is an important genre of music.  Protest music is an important genre of protest.  Protest musics exist around the world, especially among oppressed and indigenous peoples.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	Protest music.  Woody Guthrie.  Pete Seegar.  Joan Baez.  Early Bob Dylan.  Later Jackson Browne.  Billy Bragg.  Bob Geldorf.  Bono.  Peter Gabriel.	5/16/2007

Arts, music.	Psychological factors in choice of favorite style, song, instrument, and artist.  Healthy and unhealthy.  Reasons believed vs. actual objective reasons.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Psychology and music.  Emotion and music.  (1) Emotional knowledge is necessary for truthful music composition?  (2) Emotional knowledge means knowing what emotion you have, and knowing why you have it.  (3) Emotional truth.  Music must reflect emotional truth.  Words must reflect intellectual truth.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Psychology and music.  Emotion combonations: harmonically (at same time) vs. serially (through time).  How to elicit them with various chords and melodies.  How to elicit them with various instrumental arrangements.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Psychology and music.  Emotional speech: variations in stresses, pitches, and volumes.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Psychology and music.  How similar is the effect that music has on a person to the effect that sex has on a person?  When you listen to a piece of music and your eyes roll back in your head, and your body twitches and shakes, and you feel a shiver and tingle run through you.  It seems like the physical reaction to music and the physical reaction to sex are very similar.	3/30/2000

Arts, music.	Psychology and music.  The big questions. (1) How does music affect us?  (2) How does it change our emotions?  (3) How does music without words spur our intellect?  (4) The rhythm relaxes like massage, hypnotism.  (4) The melody releases emotion like crying.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Radio.  Should a radio station play (1) What is requested most?  (2) What is selling most?  (3) What critics like most?  (4) What the station people like?	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Radio.  The radio today is a wasteland.  There are so few stations that play the greats consistently.  What to do?  Find out who the greats are and buy their cd's or download their music from the web in MP3 format.  Use it for inspiration.	8/9/1999

Arts, music.	Radio.  The typical radio station has a play list that is one day long and it just keeps repeating over and over, which can be very boring.	1/6/2002

Arts, music.	Related subjects.  (1) Economics: the money spent on making and selling music.  (2) Math: mathematics of harmonics, harmonic series.  (3) Religion: use of music in religion, the muses.  (4) Health: music as an aid to health, to relieve stress.  (5) Art: music is a form of art.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Related subjects.  (1) Sociology.  Value on music in general, and specific types of music, in a culture.  Especially change of music (example, rise of rock and roll).  Musical fads and trends (example, disco).  (2) Philosophy.  What is music?  (3) Science.  How does sound and tone work (i.e., physics of sound)?  Why do humans like music (i.e. evolutionary biology)?	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Related subjects.  Business and music.  A record company executive must choose whether to sell records with the following traits: (1) What is great music.  What is great art.  (2) What he likes due to personal tastes.  (3) What will make the most money due to it being popular.  (4) How often do any two of the above traits coincide?  How often do all three of the above traits coincide?  Rarely.	6/20/2002

Arts, music.	Related subjects.  Political and legal views towards music.  (1) Political views pro music.  The Nazis used music for twisted propaganda purposes.  (2) Political views contra music.  Wrongful suppression of rock and roll as "race" music, as sex music, and as wild rebel music.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Rhythm.  (1) Song with unchanging rhythm for entire piece, versus, songs containing different rhythm sections.  (2) Accent.  Song whose rhythm has no accents, versus, songs with rhythmic accents.  (3) Songs with regular rhythms, where each note gets a rhythmic beat, versus, songs where some notes get no beat.	10/1/2005

Arts, music.	Rhythmic white noise such as the sound of waves on a beach, or the sound of rain, can be very relaxing.  And can be very healthy.  Music can have the same affect.  Music can simultaneously relax and calm a person and stimulate and excite a person.  So can any other activity that produces the "flow" state.  Scientists should develop new techniques to study the brain neurotransmitters produced when listening to music and during other activities that both calm and stimulate the mind.	12/20/2003

Arts, music.	Sampling is like a movie remake.  Sampling is like a movie sequel.  Excessive sampling shows a lack of creativity.  Just like Hollywood makes sequels because sequels are easy and profitable, so to do musicians sample because sampling is easy and profitable.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	Sampling.  (1) Interesting sampling.  The song, "If You Steal My Sunshine", samples an overlooked wood-block rhythm break from a 70's soul hit and extends it for an entire song.  (2) Obvious sampling.  The song "Ice, Ice, Baby" samples the song "Pressure" by Mercury/Bowie.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	Solo music playing versus group music playing.  That is, playing music alone versus playing music in a band.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	Some music variables.  (1) Raw vs. polished.  (2) Happy vs. pain (sad, angry, fear, etc.).  (3) Simple vs. complex.  (4) Trivial vs. profound.  (5) True vs. false (in tune and lyrics).   The above variables are not necessarily related to each other.  The worst pop music is trivial and false.  Emotionally false means wrong emotion for the subject.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Some people are oriented toward styles and albums.  I'm oriented toward artists and songs.  The song, not the album, is the primary musical unit.  The artist, not the style, is the primary musical unit.	10/12/2003

Arts, music.	Sometimes one is in such a tenuous mental state that all one can handle is the most gentle melodic songs.  It is then only the sweetest popular songs will do.	6/14/2000

Arts, music.	Sometimes the orchestra warming up sounds better than the actual music about to be played.	10/5/2006

Arts, music.	Song lyrics:  "Catch phrase, buzzword, melodic hook.  Catch phrase, buzzword, melodic hook."	3/19/2006

Arts, music.	Songs built to last a lifetime.  Songs built to stand up to adversity.	4/7/2006

Arts, music.	Songs from 2007.  "Black Swan", by Thom Yorke.  "Phantom Limb", by the Shins.  "Other Side of the World", by KT Tunstall.  "When You Were Young", by the Killers.  Neil Young recorded live at Massey Hall in 1971.  "In a Little While", by U2.	4/26/2007

Arts, music.	Sounds.  (1) Sounds of nature.  Birdsong.  Crickets.  Frogs.  Babbling brook.  Swamp or bayou.  (2) Sounds of city.  The sound of automobile traffic.  The sound of construction.  The sound of many conversations at once.	7/10/2006

Arts, music.	Soundtrack your life.  Have a database of music to go with any activity you are engaged in.  It will make your life seem like a movie.	1/1/1999

Arts, music.	Studio recording versus live performance.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	Technique ability (play), composition ability (create), and theory knowledge (study).	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Teens use music as an emotional aid in at least three ways.  (1) Teens use music to feel emotions.  Teens use music to help figure out what they are feeling.  That is, teens use music to develop emotional knowledge.  (2) Teens use music to express emotions.  Teens use music to help express their feelings.  (3)  Teens use music to help manage and control their emotions.  Teens use music to help deal with their emotions.	1/1/2000

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  A counter-argument is that music is just as important to adults as it is to teens.  Even if adults listen to less music than teens.  Even if adults listen to different types of music than teens.  It is still possible that music is as important to adults as teens.	9/18/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Adults have less energy than teens.  Less physical energy yields less sexual energy, which yields less need to dance.  Less psychological energy yields less emotion, which yields less romantic emotions, which yields less need for music.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Adults have often "played out" a song, a group, or even an entire style.  When one hears a song many times it becomes "played out", which is another way of saying "I know that already".  Teens play music over and over until the music is "played out", which can take years.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Adults have other things on their minds (ex. jobs, kids, etc.).  Teen minds are vacant.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Here is a counter-argument to the teens vs. adults music debate.  Perhaps adults listen to as much music as teens.  Perhaps adults are as emotionally moved by music as teens.  Perhaps the entire teen vs. adult music debate is a mirage.	11/15/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  PART ONE.  (1) Teens operate primarily emotionally and secondarily rationally.  (2) Teens have a low level of emotional understanding.  Even though they are very emotional they do not understand their emotions very well.  Teens need to learn about their emotions.  (3) Teens have low levels of emotional control.  Their emotions run them instead of them handling their emotions.  (4) Because of the above three points, teens have a high need for music.  Music helps teens develop their emotions, make use of their emotions, understand their emotions and control their emotions.  PART TWO.  (1) Adults operate primarily rationally and secondarily emotionally.  (2) Adults have a high level of emotional understanding.  (3) Adults have a high level of emotional control.  (4) Because of the above points, adults have a lesser need for music and thus music is less important for adults than teens.	9/18/2001

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Three possibilities why adults are less emotional than teens.  (1) Teens have less emotional control than adults.  (2) Adults feel less emotions than teens.  (3) Adults have lost the instinct to unload emotions.  Adults are repressed.	1/1/2000

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  When you were young the emotions and ideas you found in the music were new to you.  The music lifted you up and you grew.  The music gave you all it could.  You figured it out, and then it got stale.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Why does music become less important to adults?  Because although the world of music is very large, the subset of "classic" songs is much smaller.  The classics being the songs worth listening to.  One can learn the classics in a matter of years.  When all the classic songs in all styles become "played out" for you, then what?  After that, who cares?	2/24/2002

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Why does music become less important to us after young adulthood?  One theory is that after a while we have heard all the chords in all the keys.  We have heard all the basic chord progressions played at all tempos.  We have heard all the basic melodies.  In this respect, music is just a matter of combinatorics.  After a while you have heard all the combinations.  This view holds that music is more like math than like language.	6/3/1999

Arts, music.	Teens vs. adults.  Why does music become less important to us after young adulthood?  One theory is that music is like a drug.  After a while it does not have the same impact that it had initially.	6/3/1999

Arts, music.	Teens.  Music is emotion.  Music is love.  Teens are love starved.  That is why teens love music.  Because music gives teens the love that they need.  Music gives teens emotional intimacy.	4/24/1999

Arts, music.	The droning, repetitive, rhythmic, meditative, hypnotic, trance-like nature of music is like the chanting of "om" during meditation.  Music has much in common with meditation.  Music is a way we get our minds in a calm state.  (see alpha, beta and theta brain waves).  Music is a type of meditation.	12/20/2003

Arts, music.	The music and words create the emotions.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	The music that seemed to matter very much to me in the past seems to matter very little to me now.  Several possibilities: (1) Maybe it mattered much then but not now because I've changed.  (2) Maybe it never mattered much but only seemed to matter much then.  (3) Maybe I feel the music is played out from repetition.	10/16/2005

Arts, music.	The reason why one gets ideas when one listens to music is because music stimulates memory and thought as well as emotion.  Music engages the entire mind.	6/15/2005

Arts, music.	The search for new sounds and new sound combinations.  Example, sampling, synthesizer, layering.  Keep it real.  Keep it fresh.	9/15/1998

Arts, music.	There is great music out there.  Thanks to the musicians for creating the music that lifts my mood and inspires me to create.  Well done.  I hope I can return the favor.  It seems we are working together.	2/23/2001

Arts, music.	There's a million tunes out there, written and unwritten, but few that say anything new or important, or that are memorable.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Thought and emotion yields words and music, which creates and saves a new attitude.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	Three variables.  (1) Low tech vs. high tech.  (2) Raw vs. polished.  (3) Inarticulate vs. articulate.	02/05/1998

Arts, music.	Through minute variation steps, one songs evolves into every other song.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	To what degree is music meant to be understood primarily with the body and not the mind?  To the degree it makes us dance?  The notion of "understanding with the body" is a notion foreign to many people but important nonetheless.  (See also: Psychology: understanding with the body.)	2/23/2001

Arts, music.	Two questions.  (1) How much time does a person spend with music playing in their head?  (2) Is the music a tune one has previously heard, or is the music a newly created tune?	2/15/2005

Arts, music.	Two types of music.  (1) Human music: acoustic and emotional.  (2) Mechanical music: synthesizers and no emotion.	8/30/2001

Arts, music.	Types of music.  (1) Folk: peasants.  (2) Pop: mass media.  (3) Haute: educated.	12/30/1992

Arts, music.	What can music do?  At its best.  What can music, pictures, words, ideas, each do?  Attitude changer.  Enlightener.  Information provider.  Pain reliever, life aspirin.  Provide new views.  Save lives.  Enrich lives.  Add meaning.  Music can help you think.  Music can improve your mood.	7/1/2006

Arts, music.	What is music?  (1) Make a great noise.  (2) A coordinated racket.  (3) A prolonged yell, shout, scream, holler.	7/25/2006

Arts, music.	What is music.  Definitions of music.  (1) Music as any random sound.  (2) Music as organized sound.  (3) Music defined as organized sound produced by musical instruments.  What constitutes a musical instrument?  Ease of ability to control pitch, rhythm and timbre.  Pleasing timbre.  Wide range of pitch.	6/7/2004

Arts, music.	What is the relationship between (1) Fast, lively music.  (2) Fast, lively dancing bodies.  (3) Fast, lively dancing minds.  (4) I say they are all related.	6/3/2001

Arts, music.	What music accomplishes most is providing comfort.  Music consoles.  Without music there would be a lot more pain, misery and neurosis.	3/4/2001

Arts, music.	When I was younger, music functioned as a means to disperse excess emotion.  Now that I am older, music functions as a means to feel any emotion.	5/23/2005

Arts, music.	When one is a teen, one is faced with new emotions that appear with the onset of puberty, adolescence, and adulthood.  Music provides a way to help feel new emotions.  Music provides a way to help understand new emotions.  As one proceeds further through adulthood, gaining experience and understanding, there are less new emotions and fewer new situations, and thus less need for music.  Music is a form of emotional therapy.	4/17/2006

Arts, music.	Why music is popular with teens.  As people get older they become less susceptible to emotional persuasion, due to the development of their thinking skills.  As you get older music becomes less persuasive and less compelling.	2/15/2006

Arts, music.	Why people give up on music.  (1) Boredom due to repetition.  Over played.  Played out.  (2) If the songs are meaningful to you, and if that meaning endures, then the music is still good.  On the other hand, if the music was meaningless to begin with, or if you gave up on your ideals, or if your values changed, then the music becomes less important to you.	5/20/2004

Arts, music.	Words and music.  What would be the effect of most modern hit songs if you played the music without the words?  What would be the effect of reading the lyrics without hearing the music?	10/12/2006

Arts, music.	Work and music are closely related.  (1) Music makes the work go faster.  (2) The rhythms of repetitive work are music-friendly.	11/2/2001

Arts, music.	World music is awesome.  You say you like hearing people sing, but you don't like it when the words overpower the music?    Listen to music sung in foreign languages that you do not understand.  Listen to world music.  World music is beautiful.  If you cannot understand the lyrics then the vocal is pure music.  The human voice is a beautiful, musical thing.  Listen to world music.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	World music is wonderful because when you listen to world music you do not have to listen to the same top 40 songs over and over ad nauseum.  There is a world of interesting music available.  Listen to world music.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	World music.  When you listen to world music you are exposed to an amazing variety of music and cultures.  When you listen to world music you learn about the world.  Get out of your hamlet and hear the world.	3/11/2007

Arts, music.	You are going to hear a song that turns your body and mind to jelly.  You are going to hear a song that liquefies you.  And then that liquid will evaporate.  Where are you now?	4/29/2005

Arts, music.	You hear a song on the radio and you cannot tell if its a guy or a girl singing.  The question becomes, does it really matter if its a guy or a girl?  It does not really matter.  So why the violence against people based on sex, gender, and sexual preference?	4/27/2006

Arts, music.	Young adults enjoy music because music directly physically stimulates their nervous system and thus stimulates their brains.  Somehow, when you get older, you become less susceptible to direct physical stimulations of the body by music.	3/20/2007

Arts, theater.	.This section is about theater.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Arts, theater.	(1) Pro theater.  Theater uses real people.  It is three dimensional.  You can reach out into the audience.  (2) Contra theater.  Broadway plays suck because they are commercial and mediocre.  They are too big and impersonal.  Off Broadway is okay because it is more immediate.	3/30/1998

Arts, theater.	Comedy vs. tragedy.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	Development of theater.  (1) Theater in the round.  Seats surrounding a circular stage.  The stage slowly rotates to let each person see all around the set.  Or the seats rotate around the stage.  (2) Hologram theater in the round.  Just like theater in the round, except using three dimensional hologram actors instead of live human actors.  (3) Spherical, virtual theater.  Be able to zoom in or out from any point in a virtual sphere surrounding hologram actors.	9/17/2005

Arts, theater.	Experimental theater.  (1) Theater with no sets.  (2) Theater with no costumes.  (3) Theater with no theater building.  (4) The result is people on the streets engaging in "happenings", "street performances" or "guerrilla theater".	7/11/2002

Arts, theater.	Experimental theater.  A staged argument between a couple in a crowded restaurant can be a type of theater.	3/29/2002

Arts, theater.	If movies are realistic then theater is even more realistic.	6/9/2004

Arts, theater.	Improv theater.  Every sentence by every actor is improvised.  Every action by every actor is improvised.	5/14/2006

Arts, theater.	Improvisation.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	In a real play, the audience would be a single person sitting at a table on the set, with the actors acting all around the individual.	4/22/1999

Arts, theater.	Movies are high tech.  Theater is low tech.  Anyone can do theater anywhere.  Theater is good for the third world.  Theater is good for a post-apocalyptic world.	11/15/2001

Arts, theater.	Movies killed theater.  Theater is a dead form, only historically significant.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	Musicals.  What's wrong with musicals?  They seem not serious.  They seem to address no serious issues, nor take any serious views.  They seem frivolous, trivial, fluff, vacuous.  They are feel good, Polyanna, Candide, avoidant, vanilla, safe, fake smile.	5/15/2004

Arts, theater.	Problems: (1) Overacting and underacting.  Excess or lack of the correct emotion.  (2) Wrong emotion.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	Roots of theater.  Perhaps the oldest form of theater is someone acting out a story.  Ritualized stories: ritualized roles and speeches.  Theater probably got mixed up with magic and religion rituals.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	Specialization of the theater profession (occupation) and the physical location (building).	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	The problem with much theater today, and much art in general, is that it is written to sell to a mass audience.  So it is watered down and non-offensive, and not too deep.  Fluff.  Easy to swallow pablum.	02/15/1997

Arts, theater.	Theater is a skit around a campfire.  Theater started with people around a campfire acting out in replay the events of the past.  Next came mild exaggeration and embellishment.  Next came severe exaggeration and embellishment, which led to fictional theater.	5/14/2006

Arts, theater.	Theater is based on imitation.  The first plays consisted of people doing impressions of other people.	5/14/2006

Arts, theater.	Theater is immediate, live, elemental.  Theater has a "be here now" quality.  (2) Theater is expensive in time, effort and wages.	6/9/2004

Arts, theater.	Theater is immediate.  Theater is in your face.  Unless you are in the balcony.  When you are in the balcony, your paramour is in your face.	5/14/2006

Arts, theater.	Theater is the oldest art.  People "acted out" before they talked, sang or painted.	5/14/2006

Arts, theater.	Theater is to movies as painting is to photography.  When photography was invented, painters had to change their purpose from realistic depiction to expressionism.  When movies were invented, theater faced a similar change in purpose.	9/10/2004

Arts, theater.	Theater is to movies like real women is to porn magazines.	3/25/2002

Arts, theater.	Theater.  (1) Theater is live.  It is real people.  (2) Theater is three-dimensional.  Breaking the fourth wall enters the audience.  Theater in the round is like around a campfire.  (3) Whenever people make a face or talk with their hands, acting and theater has begun.	7/18/1998

Arts, theater.	Today, spontaneous, audience participation, guerrilla performance art is only thing capable of being valid, if it is well done.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	What can theater give you that movies can't?  What can movies give you that theater can't?	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	What if an actor acknowledged the audience.  Looked at the audience or camera.  Spoke to the audience or camera.  Touched the audience or camera.	6/9/2004

Arts, theater.	With the development of printing theater died a little.  They could write down their stories.  With the development of movies theater died a little more.	12/30/1992

Arts, theater.	Writing, producing, directing, acting, lighting, costume design.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	.This section is about visual arts criticism.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	(1) NY abstract expressionists: monumental and powerful, like the mountains.  (2) Francis Bacon: willing to discuss pain and horror, and thus think what are its causes and cures?  (3) Warhol: the housewife of 20th century art (laundry detergent and soup cans), trite, banal, ineffectual, pop.  He does not satirize hollywood, he worships it.	04/01/1994

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	Andy Goldsworthy.  This is nature art like it oughta be.  It is not just about nature, it is of nature.  Natural materials.  Natural settings.  Yet a hint of the human.  A hint of a sentient mind.  A hint of the artist.  Like some kind of genius caveman could have made this art 100,000 years ago.  Its both simple yet elegant.  Its both organic and formal.  Its witty and solemn.  Best of all, there are no people around!  Its more sculptural than pictorial.  Its outdoors, so the changing natural environment plays a big role.  What extreme sports are to traditional sports, Goldsworthy is to traditional art.	6/14/2002

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	Basquiat.  (1) His paintings are intentionally raw, like Kerouac's spontaneous prose.  A raw esthetic adds power to the artwork.  A polished esthetic adds subtlety.  (2) His work is rough because his subject matter is rough.  Life in the city is rough.  Drug addiction is rough.  (3) A raw esthetic also adds intensity.  Raw is hot.  Polished is cool.  Raw is active and quick.  Polished is slow, deliberate, and calculated.  (See notes on hot and cool music.  See notes on raw and polished music).  (4) Basquiat's use of random words can be viewed as depicting a reality that is trying to make sense and be coherent but which fails.  (5) And his use of random words also depicts a person who is trying to spit out or say the ineffable.  A person in pain trying to express.  (6) There is a lot of terror and horror and Basquiat's work.  The faces are grimacing skulls.  A lot of pain.  Anger, fear and anguish.  How do people who feel this way express it?  Not with polished rhetoric.  Basquiat is to visual art what wailing blues rock is to music.  (7) The words in his painting are like the words of street level shop signs.  "Eat at Joe's" "Wash-o-rama".  This is the literature that the person of the street reads, and it does not scan well.  (8) Basquiat is not graffiti.  Basquiat evolved from graffiti, but later he transcended it.  Graffiti is FROM the streets, but it endeavors to be polished and cool.  Basquiat is ABOUT the streets.  (9) Most amazing is Basquiats friendship with Warhol who was his exact opposite.  Warhol is polished and cool.  Basquiat is rough and hot.	8/10/1998

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	Botero redeemed.  Botero gets political and paints the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans soldiers at Abu Gharib prison.  Its good to see Botero forthrightly addressing issues of social injustice, albeit using his typically fat figures.  Perhaps Botero should next try his hand at depicting the American obesity epidemic.	9/4/2005

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	My favorite visual artists are Phillip Guston and Leon Golub, because they take a political stand.	07/18/1997

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	Some of my favorite artists: Hans Hoffman, Mark Rothko, Jenny Holzer.	08/30/1993

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	The Gates, by Christo, in Central Park.  (1) Central Park, possibly the most beautiful urban park in the world.  Central Park, noted for its "wild nature" aesthetic.  Central Park now looking like a Home Depot, due to the appearance of The Gates by Christo, with its orange metal beams and orange plastic banners.  Christo turned a beautiful park into a Home Depot.  The Gates are a warning that one day every inch of nature may have a Home Depot parked on it.  (2) What is art?  Everything is art (in that everything has aesthetic qualities) and art is everywhere.  (3) The Gates with people walking under them.  The Gates without people walking under them.  Two entirely different things.  (4) What is the color when you face the sun with your eyes closed?  What is the color of sunlight through eyelids?  Orange.  Saffron.  Peaceful.  Zen.	2/4/2005

Arts, visual arts, criticism.	Warhol.  (1) Warhol loved to go shopping.  After he died they auctioned off bags and bags of stuff he had bought and never even opened.  Warhol's art shows his love of mass-production and mass-consumption.  He is not neutral on the issue, nor is he sending us a warning about the perils of over-production and over-consumption.  Warhol himself is the warning.  Warhol is the antithesis of an ecologically conscious artist.  Kitschy subjects, neon palette, and icy attitude.  Warhol can be used as an example of what was wrong with America at that time.  The funny thing is that he loved it.  He glorifies the artificial, the fake and the plastic.  He is not being ironic.  He is for looks rather than substance.  He is a front.     (2) Warhol is the leader of the pop art.  It began as an attack on "high art" and that is fine with me.  Yet it wound up like pop-music and pop-culture, with the worst traits that these things have.  The best that pop culture has to offer is a democratic, egalitarianism made possible by the mass media.  The worst pop-culture has to offer is the wasteland of repetitious pop-radio, poorly written comic books, overly-sugared breakfast cereal, etc.     (3) The view that pop theorists hold is that pop-culture is either: (A) Better than anything else.  (B) Just as good as anything else (relativism).  (C) Here to stay, so get used to it.  (D) Something to recognize and understand, in order to improve it.  (E) I hold view "D".  Warhol held view "A".     (4) In Warhol we see an art of nihilism, cynicism and pessimism.  An art about being popular, being trendy and being cool is a high school art.  An art about fame, status, money and power that he was glorifying rather than criticizing.  Warhol gives the shallow crowd the green light by in effect saying "Everything you believe is okay".     (5) When the outsiders become the insiders and the insiders are relegated to outsider status you are still playing the "insider-outsider" game.     (6) Warhol was more about the artist than the art.  Warhol was about being an art star.  However, it should always be more about the art.     (7) Warhol seems disengaged rather than engaged.  He is posing constantly.  He never gets real.  The good he did was to draw our attention to things in society that are amiss by his celebration of these same things.  I call for an engaged, authentic art that advocates values like ecological sustainability and social justice.	10/8/2000

Arts, visual arts, works.	.Introduction.  This section has works of art.	1/24/2006

Arts, visual arts, works.	.This section contains written descriptions of ideas for visual art works.	12/30/2003

Arts, visual arts, works.	A painting.  On one half of the canvas show people miserable in bare corporate cubicles amidst pollution.  On the other half of the canvas show people happy because they live in a way that promotes ecological sustainability and social justice.	7/8/2006

Arts, visual arts, works.	A tri-color flag of horizontal stripes, with blue on top, green in the middle and brown on the bottom, to represent the sky, the trees and the earth.	9/12/2004

Arts, visual arts, works.	Computer painting.  Projects.  (1) Divide screen in half horizontally and do landscapes.  (2) Divide in thirds horizontally or radially and do water, air, earth.	08/01/1997

Arts, visual arts, works.	Conceptual art.  Change the letters on a colorful can of household cleanser from "Buff" to "Dirt".  Change the contents of the can from powdered cleanser to dirt.  Market it.	9/17/2001

Arts, visual arts, works.	Five lines could mean: Open lines.  Highway.  River.  Grass.  Connectors.  Five of anything.	2/7/06

Arts, visual arts, works.	Five lines.  A door.  A book.  Flowers.  Stick figures.	2/10/2007

Arts, visual arts, works.	Five vertical lines.  What does it mean?  Why would someone habitually draw five vertical lines?  (1) Five vertical lines representing five people?  (2) Five vertical lines representing the claw marks of a hand on a wall, like those made by people entombed alive.  (3) Five vertical lines representing the bars of a cage that is imprisoning you.  (4) Five vertical lines representing the walls of a fort keeping others out.	7/30/2005

Arts, visual arts, works.	Gray (road), brown (leafless trees), gray (cloudy sky).	01/01/1993

Arts, visual arts, works.	Horizontal bands bottom to top: light green (grass), dark green (trees), yellow (sun), blue (sky).	04/21/1993

Arts, visual arts, works.	Horizontal triads.  (1)  Blue sky.  Green trees.  Blue water.  (2) Light blue sky.  Dark blue water.  Light brown sand.	10/28/2003

Arts, visual arts, works.	Paint a landscape that is 1/3 land, 1/3 water, 1/3 air.	07/30/1996

Arts, visual arts, works.	Painting.  Idea for painting called "A life".  A picture of 1200 big squares lined up 12 across and 100 down.  Each square has 35 small squares in it; 7 across and 5 down.  Each small square is a different color.  Each small square has a diagonal black slash through it.  The picture is supposed to represent calendars of the days of you life.	3/10/1999

Arts, visual arts, works.	Patches of light, medium, and dark green (leaves), over black and brown (branches), over blue, white, and gray (sky).  That is, sitting on a park bench.	10/15/1994

Arts, visual arts, works.	Paul in bliss, living at the bookstore.  Show a filled bookcase, with one shelf set up as a cot, with Paul reading a book, head on pillow.	03/08/1997

Arts, visual arts, works.	Stick figures arranged in a circle with hands holding hands and feet touching feet.	1/28/2005

Arts, visual arts, works.	The seaside is abstract, sky, water, sand.  Do a painting.	02/04/1994

Arts, visual arts, works.	Triangle, circle, square = mountain, sun, house.	04/09/1993

Arts, visual arts, works.	Twenty years of FUCK!  This project involves gathering together all of a person's doodles over a lifetime.  Then put on display all of the doodles.  For example, doodles that say, "FUCK!" and other subconscious exclamations of dread, anger, misery, desire, hope, joy, etc.  One purpose of this work of art is to draw attention to ubiquitous subconscious doodles, and thereby draw attention to the subconscious itself.  Another purpose of this work is to examine the types and amounts of emotions reflected in subconscious doodles.  A third purpose of this work of art is to act as a cathartic release for the emotions expressed in subconscious doodles.	8/8/2006

Arts, visual arts, works.	Two eyes.  The whites are divided in half horizontally, white on top and blue on bottom, with a wavelet pattern at the dividing line.	5/25/2000

Arts, visual arts, works.	What the American flag should look like.  The field of stars should extend all the way across the top half of the flag to give the sense of a starry sky.  The red and white stripes on the lower half of the flag should be vertical not horizontal, and they should be drawn using perspective so that they disappear into a vanishing point in the center of the flag at the horizon line where they meet the starry sky to give a sense of the earth.	11/2/2001

Arts, visual arts, works.	White contact lenses with no pupils so you look like a Greek statue.  Eyes without irises.	8/14/2000

Arts, visual arts.	.This section is about the visual arts.  Topics include: ( ) Background.  ( ) Cartoons.  ( ) Color.  ( ) Computer art.  ( ) Doodling.  ( ) Drawing.  ( ) Grafitti.  ( ) Painting.  ( ) Photography.  ( ) Philosophy of visual arts.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) Sculpture.  ( ) Symbols.  ( ) Visual arts vs. words.  ( ) What.  ( ) Why.	1/24/2006

Arts, visual arts.	"Man on a horse" statues, there are far too many of them as it is.  They are patriarchal baloney.	9/16/1999

Arts, visual arts.	(1) A single curve.  The half risen sun.  A half moon.  (2) A single curve.  Catenary.  Rope bridge over river gorge.	10/2/1998

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Art about Nature.  (2) Art about mans relationship to Nature.  Green living.  Gaia hypothesis.  Sustainability.	5/25/2000

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Black and white drawing.  (A) Black lines on white background.  (B) White lines on black background.  (2) Gray tone painting.  Monochromatic.  (3) Color.  (A) Primary colors.  (B) The spectrum.  ROYGBIV.  (C) Full palette.  All colors.	10/2/1998

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Power of the idea.  (2) Power of the form of expression of the idea.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Representation:  Figurative.  Scapes.  Objects.  vs.  (2) Abstract:  Pattern, form, color, shape.	6/3/2004

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Simple static images.  (2) Multiple static images (ex. comic strip).  (3) Multiple moving images (ex. movies without sound or subtitles).	4/11/2001

Arts, visual arts.	(1) Subjects.  (A) Scapes: land, sea, air.  (B) People : full figure clothed, nudes, busts, portraits; individuals, groups.  (3) Nature subjects: plants, animals.  (2) Emotion, tone, mood.  (3) Attitude.  (4) Themes: view of subject.  Approval vs. disapproval, optimism vs. pessimism.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	(1) The development of Perspective was required for the development of Realism in the visual arts.  (2) The development of photography presented a challenge to Realism.  Impressionism developed as a response to photography.  (3) The acceptance of Abstraction was made possible in part by the development of formalist theories of art.	11/2/2005

Arts, visual arts.	(1) What should a person paint after the invention of photography?  (2) Painting is primarily about color, not line, shape nor texture.	1/31/2004

Arts, visual arts.	A history of high school notebook margin doodles.	2/1/2002

Arts, visual arts.	A single line.  Horizon.  Divides a field.  Partitions the plane.  It was ever so.	10/2/1998

Arts, visual arts.	Aesthetics.  Current, western aesthetics of humans: male and female, face and body.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Aesthetics.  Paul aesthetic system.  (1) Paul nature aesthetic system.  (2) Paul human-made art aesthetic system.  (3) Paul visual art aesthetic system: power, subtlety, philosophy, psychology, profound, elemental, bones, base.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	All aspects of painting are controllable by the artist.  Photography is less controllable, and requires either more exactness by the artist, or else the alternative of the artist giving up control.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Art therapy for children and psych patients.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Artist as photographer on acid.	07/23/1988

Arts, visual arts.	Background and Void.  (1) Background.  (A) The subject can be in the background or on the margins (ex. foreground center subjects may be a ruse or decoy).  (B) The subject can be the background itself (ex. many landscape paintings).  (2) Void.  (A) The subject can be what is not here or what is not mentioned (ex. damning with faint praise).  (B) The subject can be the void itself.  Emptiness or nothingness (ex. Eastern painting).	4/11/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Background.  There are no things, only situations.  Things exist in relation to each other.  A thing only exists in a setting, and is influenced by its setting.  This is why background is so important.  Even the Void is either a thing or a background.	12/06/1988

Arts, visual arts.	Background.  We become savvy when we look at backgrounds.  (1) Seeing things in context gives one more information.  Seeing foreground against background lets you put things together (like the way two and two equals four).  (2) The background often contains revealing slips of the tongue.  Unconscious expressions.  Unposed and unrehearsed.	4/11/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Backgrounds and environments.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Baseball stitching is to the sphere as the Tao symbol is to the circle.	11/30/1993

Arts, visual arts.	Building a visual image library.  (1) Photos, drawings, paintings and sculpture.  (2) In print form and digital form.  (3) Usually reproductions.  Some originals.  (4)  Landscapes: land, sea and air.  Biomes: desert, jungle, arctic, savanna, etc.  People: male and female, young and old, portrait and body, single and in groups. Animals and plants, flora and fauna.  Space, stars, planets, galaxies.  Nature and man made objects.  Abstract and representational.	12/27/2003

Arts, visual arts.	Building a visual image library.  (1) Printed.  Go to the store on January 1st.  Buy calendars at half price.  (2) Digital online free images in the public domain.	12/26/2003

Arts, visual arts.	Cartoon types.  (1) Single panel comic.  (2) Comic strip.  (3) Comic book.  (4) Animated comics.  (5) Comics with words and without words.	5/14/2004

Arts, visual arts.	Cartoons.  (1) Animated cartoons vs. still cartoons.  (2) Still cartoons.  (A) Single pane political cartoons (serious) vs. Four pane funny strips (not serious).  (3) Cartoons for kids vs. cartoons for adults.  (4) Serious satire cartoons vs. lame joke cartoons.	4/4/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Cartoons.  Comics.  Japanese animie comics.  U.S. superhero comics.  Both are strangely mannered worlds.	1/1/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Cartoons.  Interesting points about cartoons.  (1) Cartoons are a type of short form, like haiku and pop songs.  (2) Cartoons combine words and pictures much like a billboard.  (3) The four pane cartoon functions like the frames of a motion picture.	4/4/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Cartoons.  Moving and nonmoving.  With words and without words.  Are cartoons art?	4/1/1994

Arts, visual arts.	Color and emotion.  Cool and calm colors like blue, gray, and green pastels, which remind us of things like water, sky, and trees.  Hot and exciting colors like highly saturated reds and oranges, which remind us of blood.  Is there a universal reaction in humans (and animals?) to colors such as above?  Did it evolve in humans over millions of years, from when we lived close to nature?	4/14/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Color.  In all cultures, colors are naturally, arbitrarily assigned meanings.  (For example, black for death and white for virginity in the USA).  And all things we see contain color.  Therefore, everything we perceive has arbitrary symbolic content.  Everything is a symbol to some degree.  Man is a symbol using animal.  Is this natural, arbitrary assignment of color symbols helpful, harmful or neutral?  I say generally neurotic.  Can the natural, arbitrary assignment of symbols be undone?  Can we get people up from neurotic, magical, symbolic thinking?  (2) At some level, everything is symbolic of everything else.  And everything refers to everything else.  Either directly (one step) or indirectly (more than one step, in a chain of associations).  Our minds are always associating everything we perceive (externally through our senses, or internally in our minds) with other things, in ever expanding circles.	12/27/1998

Arts, visual arts.	Color.  Is there such a thing as Universal Color Symbolism?  For example, does the color green mean the same thing in all cultures?  (2) Is there such a thing as Universal Shape Symbolism.  For example, does the shape of the circle mean the same thing in all cultures?  (3) Is there such a thing as Universal Object Symbolism?  For example, does the flower mean the same thing in all cultures?  (4)  The short answer is no.  Then where is the hard-wiring?	5/12/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Color.  Why is blue for boys and pink for girls?  Because the sky is blue.  The blue sky reigns over all, so the boys get blue, because its all based on a bogus traditional patriarchy.  At the opposite end of the spectrum lies another primary color, red, which we tone down to pink and give to the girls.  We tone down colors for babies by adding white to make peaceful pastels like pastel blue (sky-blue) and pastel red (pink).  The result is sky-blue for boys and pink for girls.  On Mars, where the sky is red, the result would be pink for boys and sky-blue for girls if a patriarchy existed.  A matriarchy on Mars would give pink to girls and sky-blue to boys.  Get it?	3/24/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Combination art.  (1) You can mix abstraction and representation.  (2) You can combine drawing, painting and photographs (ex. Rauschenberg).  (3) You can combine image and text (ex. Basquiat).  (4) You can combine image and sound (ex. Silent movies).  (5) You can combine image and text and sound.	5/25/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Comic books.  America's fascination with comic books.  Comic books are colorful.  Comic books depict people.  Comic books depict action.  Nothing fascinates humans more than to watch people in action.	5/27/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Comic books.  Are comic books visual art because of the pictures, or are comic books literature because of the words?	6/9/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Comics are the haiku of the visual arts.	6/20/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Comics are to today as pantomime was to the 1970's, and as silent film was the the 1920's.	4/27/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Comics.  Comics with words versus comics without words.  Comics without words are like silent films.  Comics without words are like music without words.	8/4/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Communication through visual image: art and non-art.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Computer art.  Do your visual art on the computer.  Computer lets you mix media, by combining photography, painting, drawing, 3-D sculpture, animation and audio-video clips.	9/30/1996

Arts, visual arts.	Computer art.  The computer screen gives you no sense of the size of the work.  The mouse gives you no sense of "arm".  What the computer artist needs is a digital screen the size of a wall.  On the screen he could delineate the size and shape of the work he wants to create.  He could have various size "brushes".  Everything would be digitized.  For three-dimensional art works use virtual reality.	9/13/1998

Arts, visual arts.	Criticism of visual arts.  Paul's cannons and criticism.  Academic cannons and criticism.  Criteria: clear, true, powerful, and important.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Do I have to draw you a picture?  The visual arts are the fall back position when it comes to explaining something to someone else.  Hand puppets.  Colorforms.	1/14/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Doodling is like whistling.	12/30/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Doodling is the haiku of the visual arts.	2/26/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Doodling.  All the visual arts have their genesis in doodling, and doodling is essentially an unconscious, involuntary, nervous activity.	3/3/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Doodling.  When you hand a person a pencil and paper the person starts doodling.  Does that imply that the subconscious mind is constantly doodling?	1/14/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Drawing is to painting as black and white is to color.	6/9/2004

Arts, visual arts.	Drawing.  Pencil.  Ink: pen line and brush wash.  Paper.  Techniques and methods.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Drawing.  Single line drawings.  Where the pen does not leave the paper.	5/12/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Evolution of the visual arts.  Humans were seeing long before they were talking.  So the visual arts preceded the oral literary arts, let alone the written literary arts.  Every time you make a face, a gesture or a pose you are creating a picture for someone else to see.	3/29/2002

Arts, visual arts.	Factors, variables, and principles.  Methods: analyze and synthesize elements.  Elements: color, texture, pattern, line, and shape.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Good art is meaningful and powerful.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Graffiti as pure art, as pure literature, and as a mix of art and literature.  Beautiful writing: calligraphy?  See literature.	04/21/1993

Arts, visual arts.	Graffiti.  PART ONE.  Is graffiti a transgression or an example of freedom of speech?  It depends if it is graffiti on one's own private property, someone else's private property, or on public property.  And anyway, who decides what public property looks like?  The public?     PART TWO.  Is graffiti a justified response when society implicitly says "You are not supposed to talk here.  Shut up!"  Or is graffiti a form of bullying on the part of the graffiti artist.  Interrupting.  In your face.     PART THREE.  (1) Graffiti as visual art (pictures with no words).  (2) Graffiti as literature (words with no pictures).  (3) Graffiti as a mix of visual arts and literature.  (4) I say it is always a mix.  (A) All writing, both handwriting and typeface, has a visual arts element.  (B) All visual art has word content.  We silently talk to ourselves about the visual arts we see.  For example, we silently say the names of the objects and colors when we look at a visual artwork.	4/11/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Graffiti.  What are some of the most common types of graffiti?  (1) Name and date.  (2) X loves Y.  (3) Political statements.  (4) Economic statements.  (5) Statements about work.  (6) Statements about school.  (7) Statements about places where people live.  (8) Sexual statements.  Pictures of sex.  (9) Words of wisdom about life.	7/1/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Graffiti.  What is the oldest graffiti you can find?  Hidden away somewhere.  Uncleaned.  Unfaded.	7/1/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Graffiti.  Where is graffiti found?  (1) Public toilets.  (2) Public walls.  (3) Schools.  (4) Work.	7/1/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Graphic arts.  (1) Logo art.  (2) Magazine advertisement art.  (3) Billboard art.	12/28/2003

Arts, visual arts.	Graphic arts.  (1) Movie poster art.  (2) Rock album cover art.  (3) Rock concert poster art.	12/28/2003

Arts, visual arts.	Hello, people.  The clouds in the sky do not look like physical objects.  The clouds in the sky are not in the style of realism.  Lets recognize the sky for how it really looks.  The sky is an abstract expressionist work of art.	6/4/2000

Arts, visual arts.	History, origin.  What was the nature of the first art produced by humans?  Thirty thousand years ago, a primitive human draws a picture of an animal on a cave wall.  (1) He may worship the animal.  He may pray, "Oh animal, you are great, please let me find you to feed my tribe".  (2) He may treat the painting of the animal like a voodoo doll.  He may stab the painting of the animal with a spear, just like a voodoo priest puts pins in a voodoo doll.  He may say, "Look out animal, because I am going to mess you up.  That's right, I am bad.  Don't mess with me."  That is to say, we cannot say that primitive man did not have an attitude of healthy self-confidence.  (3) She may have used the painting like a menu.  She may have said to her husband, "See this?  Go out and bring one of these home for dinner".  (4) They may have used the painting as a trophy wall.  For example, they may have declared, "Og killed four deer in a day, a new world record."	7/11/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Imaging.  Seeing an image.  (1) The sculpture is an image, not a picture.  (2) The light on the retina is an image created by light reflecting off an object.  Whereas, a picture is a physical object.  (3) Light.  The visual arts is all about light.  Specifically, light reflected off objects.	6/9/2004

Arts, visual arts.	Is there such as thing as a Universal Visual Arts Grammar (UVAG)?  If people have different visual art vocabularies do people at least share a similar visual arts grammar?  Much like is the case with spoken language?	5/12/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Library of visual images.  Paul works: originals, copies.  Others works: originals, copies.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Light and shadow.  Mass and void.  Center and margin.  Bright and shadow.  Big and small.	4/4/2005

Arts, visual arts.	Line.  (1) A line in the visual arts is not like a line in geometry, because a line in the visual arts has width and a line in geometry has no width.  (2) A line divides a plane.  A line has to sides.  When you use a single brush stroke to draw the outline of an apple you are drawing two apples because there is the apple defined by the interior of the line and there is the apple defined by the exterior of the line.	10/2/2004

Arts, visual arts.	Me.  (1) My composition goals for each visual art and why.  (2) My favorites and why.  The Paul aesthetic.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Medium: materials, tools and techniques.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Moving sculpture: example, waves.	11/30/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Painting.  Colors are like musical notes.  Color chords and musical chords.  Color harmony and musical harmony.	3/10/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Painting.  Colors.  (1) Psychological effects of color.  (2) Symbolic meanings of color in a culture.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Painting.  Types.  Techniques and methods.  Ink and brush, pastel, water color, tempera, acrylic, oil.  Canvas: unprimed vs. primed, wet in wet vs. wet dry.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Palette types.  (1) The natural color palette.  Colors of nature.  Earthtones.  Grunge.  (2) The artificial neon plastic palette.  Danger, excitement.	5/22/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Perspective.  The illusion of perspective.  How do humans trick their eyes into thinking that a two dimensional image is a three dimensional space?	8/29/2005

Arts, visual arts.	Philosophy of visual arts.  The power of the image in general.  The power of a specific image, for a specific personality, or for a specific society.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Philosophy.  Specific philosophies of the visual arts in general.  Paul's.  Academia's.  Any other.  Any individuals.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Photography, video, and motion pictures (1) Cameras: slr.  (2) Lenses: variable zoom vs. fixed distance.  Wide angle, close up, zoom.  Aperture (f stops): wide or narrow.  Shutter speed: high or low.  (3) Film.  Black and white vs. color.  Instant film.  Speed.  (4) Printing.  Editing: crop, add in, rub out.  Lighting: natural vs. manmade.  (5) Composition.  (6) Background vs. subject: relationship to background, pose, borders.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Photography, video, and motion pictures (see also low arts).  Why are they important?  (1) Documentary tool.  (2) Fast, on the scene.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  (1) Fake background, fake body poses, fake facial expressions.  Vs.  (2) Candid backgrounds, candid body poses, candid faces.  (3) The former are often contrived, phony, pseudo, bogus.  The latter are often real, truthful, honest.  One can often learn much more from the latter than the former.  (4)(A) The professional actor-director team tries to convey truth with their face and body.  But the professional model-photographer team uses the face and body to sell a product.  The model looks like a mannequin.  Happy face.  (B) The non-professional model-photographer team are after something else (ex. vacation photos, holiday photos).  Often what they are after is merely to not look like an idiot in a bad photograph.  Thus there is often more truth in non-professional photography than professional photography.  (5) Two types of non-professional photography models.  (A) Those who know their picture is being taken.  (B) Those who don't know their picture is being taken.	6/30/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  (1) Photography as art.  (2) Photography as a leisure pursuit.  Example, vacation snapshots.  (3) Photography as a communications tool.  Example, photojournalism.  (4) Photography as a scientific tool.  Example, strobe photography to stop high speed motion.	7/11/2002

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  How does one describe the experience of sifting through the photography archives?  The millions of public domain photographs from decades ago?  Are you living through the people being photographed?  Are you living through the photographer?   To what extent are you becoming the other person?  To what extent are you changing?  To what extent do you change back or return to the former you?  Can you ever?  To what extent can you live the life of the other person?  How many people can you be?  It is not a case where they are adding layers to you, rather, you are becoming them.	9/17/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  In the near future there will be billions of candid photographs and videos of real people online for anyone to look at.  What is the relationship of the viewer to these people-pictures?  One of equals?	9/17/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  It is an interesting development when people add word captions to photographs.  One reason is because it changes nature of the final product, sort of like the way music-video is different from both music and video.  Another reason is because it spins the photo by guiding the viewer on how the photograph should be perceived or interpreted.	3/5/2007

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  Much of the power of photography comes from its direct depiction of reality.  (1) That it captures reality directly makes photography perhaps the most Zen-like of all the arts.  (2) That it captures reality directly makes photography perform the same function as the phrases "I am not kidding" and "I am not making this up."  These phrases are often used in human conversations to make a claim to fact.  "Seriously, literally, I swear".	2/24/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  Size of subject vs. size of background.  Crop for background size.  Blow-up or down for subject size.	1/1/1999

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  The photograph is no longer a document of reality.  Photographs are too easy to edit on a computer.	01/07/1997

Arts, visual arts.	Photography.  Traditional photography was a chemical disaster area because it requires chemicals to make photo film, chemicals to develop photo film, chemicals to make photo paper, and chemicals to develop photo paper.  Digital photography requires fewer chemicals.	4/15/2007

Arts, visual arts.	Pictures transcend the language barrier.  The language barrier exists not only through space but also through time.  That is to say, language barriers exist not only geographically from culture to culture, but also through time between today and the distant future because language changes drastically as the centuries pass.  (2) How much can you communicate with pictures?  How much can we convey to future generations using pictures alone without words (ex. Silent movies).  Can we say everything we need to say by using pictures alone?  If we can, then by all means let us put all our information in pictorial form because it will last much longer.  (3) Film is a powerful medium, but it tends to be technology-bound or limited to high-tech transmission.  The inhabitants of earth in the future, perhaps having survived a global catastrophe, may not have the technology available to project a movie.  What is a low-tech solution for the pictorial display of information that is similar to movies?  The movie storyboard is a low-tech functional equivalent to movies.  What do you call a story-board for the masses?  The comic book!  So it is quite ironic that someday civilization may be saved by the lowly comic book.	2/27/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Point of view of an object from anywhere in a sphere.  Direction, closeness, size of background.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Portraits.  Who cares what you look like?  Portraits are the height of vanity.  "Everybody look at me!", is what a portrait says.  "All I have is my mug.", is what a portraits says.	10/25/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Power of visual images.  How much can and can't you say with pictures?  A picture is worth a thousand words.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Printing.  Techniques and methods.  Onto what material, using what process?  Black and white vs. color.  By hand: wood block carved, metal cast, stone carved.  Mass image reproduction (see technology, printing).	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Questions for all specific visual arts.  History, technology, styles, composition, criticism.  Strengths, weaknesses vs. other visual arts.  For all specific visual arts, just repeat above list and add the details.  What can it do that nothing else can?  What are its limits (what can't it do)?	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Related subjects.  (1) Psychology: what personality types become visual artists?  Inarticulate?  (2) Sociology: the artist - patron relationship.  (3) Technology: development of mediums and methods.  (4) Political: political art in totalitarian states.  Political suppression of art.  (5) Business: professional artists vs. amateur artists.  Supplying the amateurs.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Related subjects.  Psychological effects of elements of visual arts.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Related subjects.  Psychology.  Elements and emotion.  Shape and emotion.  Color and emotion.  For humans in general, personality types, and specific individuals.  For society in general, society types, and specific societies.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Reproduction of images is very important.  Ways how, accuracy, cost, and speed.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Screen savers as visual art:  (1) Fireplace with crackling sounds.  (2) Falling snow.  (3) Rain on window with sound of wind.  (4) Waves on a beach with sound of waves.  (5) Fish in the aquarium.  (6) A walk down a shady lane.  (7) Kaleidoscope.	1/1/2002

Arts, visual arts.	Sculpture does not derive from painting and drawing, rather the reverse, painting and drawing come from sculpture.  And sculpture itself is an exercise of our spatial skills.  Due to stereoscopic vision we see the world in three dimensions, and we interact with the world spatially.  The first works of art were the stone tools our ancestors sculpted.	3/4/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Sculpture.  Sand sculpture.  Snow sculpture.  Ice sculpture.  Textile sculpture.  Ephemeral.  Sustainable.	5/1/2007

Arts, visual arts.	Sculpture.  Techniques and methods.  Wood, stone, clay, metal, mixed, carved, assembled, cast.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Sculpture.  Who sculpts?  The blacksmith.  The potter.  The glass blower.  The wood carver.  Anyone who shapes matter sculpts.	6/9/2004

Arts, visual arts.	See, think, do.  See, think, doodle.	01/01/1993

Arts, visual arts.	Shape does not have to be representational.  Color does not have to be representational.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Similarities and differences of the visual arts to the non-visual arts.  Similarities and differences within the visual arts.  Strengths and weaknesses too.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Soft, rounded features.  Hard, angular features.  Curved lines and straight lines.  Curved planes and straight planes.	7/25/2006

Arts, visual arts.	Some of the many ways of seeing yourself today.     PART ONE.  Today we have more ways of seeing oneself than in the past.  (1) Seeing yourself in a mirror, which is like seeing yourself in a pool of water like the ancients did.  This is real time in the present.  Time flows.  (2) Seeing yourself in a photograph.  This is in the past.  This is static.  Time stops.  A frozen moment.  (3) Seeing yourself on a video tape.  This is in the past.  A video is a longer slice of time than a photo.  It also include your voice.  (4) Seeing yourself on a live video camera.  This is real time.  It is in the present.  Time flows.  The angle may vary from the typical front facing "mirror" angle.     PART TWO.  (1) Even in a photo do you really see yourself as others see you?  (2) Even in a photo do you really see yourself as the camera sees you?  (3) Your view, someone else's view and the camera's view are three different views.     PART THREE.  It used to be that only movie stars saw themselves on camera.  Today we are all on camera because there are cameras everywhere, so we are all actors.  And we almost all own cameras, so we are all directors.  We have become a world of media-savvy, Hollywood moguls.  Your life as a movie: storyboard your life and soundtrack your life.	8/15/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Some say that all art is political or ethical.  However, does non-representational art, like abstract-expressionism, make a statement (thought) or is it better described as mood (emotion)?  If the latter is the case, and its a mood, then it is neither political nor ethical.	11/15/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Sources of visual images: self made, visual media, libraries.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Strengths.  Weaknesses.  Of visual arts vs. other arts.  Of one visual art vs. another visual art.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Style.  What can one say about the abundance of visual art styles in the twentieth century?  Were the styles a logical progression toward an inevitable conclusion?  Or were the styles a sales tactic, much like the fads of fashion?	10/28/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Styles.  (1) Representational:  realism vs. distortion, impressionism.  (2) Nonrepresentational.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Styles.  Narrative vs. non-narrative.  Impressionistic vs. expressionistic.  Abstract expressionism.  Op art and pop art.  Cubism, Surrealism, and Dada.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Subtractive sculpture (ex. Carving) vs. additive sculpture (ex. Welding).	12/29/2003

Arts, visual arts.	Symbol.  Western pictorial symbols and associated meanings.  Heart, arrow, flower, rocket, lips, coffin.	02/07/1994

Arts, visual arts.	Symbols are types of code.  Symbolic information is essentially codified information.  In order to understand symbolic information you have to crack or decipher the code.  Non-symbolic information is just a whole lot easier to understand.  If you can say it non-symbolically then by all means do so.  Were it only possible to say everything non-symbolically.  Where are the mimes when we need them?	2/27/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Symbols.  (1) Symbols: what associated meanings do they carry?  For an individual, for a society, for mankind.  The heart, the arrow, the flower, the red rose, the lips, the skull.  (2) Color symbolism.  Women can wear blue but men cannot wear pink.  Pink is a strange and loaded color in our society (8/24/94).  Black: death, mourning.  White: virginity, pureness, cleanliness.  Green: environment, liberal.	01/01/1993

Arts, visual arts.	Symbols.  Objects and their symbolism.  Clock.  Pistol.  Tombstone.  Airplane.  Train.  Car.  Etc.	5/22/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Symbols.  Representation and symbolism.  Single objects vs. groups of objects (groups of objects imply a vocabulary and a syntax).  Examples: Dollar bill.  Pack of cigarettes.  Automobile.  Bicycle.  Hamburger.  American Flag (USA).  Statue of Liberty (freedom).  Plants.  Animals.  People.	5/25/2000

Arts, visual arts.	The "pussy, cock, tit, asshole" theory of art.  Everything visually depicted is subliminally one of the above four.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	The artist converts a three dimensional landscape to a two dimensional painting.  The viewer converts a two dimensional painting to a three dimensional mental landscape.	10/19/2005

Arts, visual arts.	The horizon line separates land and air, and the horizon also separates water and air.  The shoreline, the waterline, separates the land and water.  A canvas divided into thirds by two horizontal lines, one line being the shoreline, and the other line being the horizon.	6/5/2006

Arts, visual arts.	The slanting afternoon light turned everything gold.	04/01/1988

Arts, visual arts.	The visual arts are beyond words only when the depicted cannot be described with words.	11/15/2001

Arts, visual arts.	The visual arts are closely related to the psychology of visual perception.  Four cases of visual perception.  How do we accomplish each?  (1) Stationary viewer viewing a stationary object.  (2) Stationary viewer viewing a moving object.  (3) Moving viewer viewing a stationary object.  (4) Moving viewer viewing a moving object.	3/29/2002

Arts, visual arts.	Three simple shapes.  Circle, square, triangle.	10/2/1998

Arts, visual arts.	Unity, pattern, coherence, congruence, continuation.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Variation vs. repetition.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Various dimensions of visual arts.  (The "+" symbol indicates changing shape or moving through time).  1D (ex. drawing, which uses line).  1D+ (ex. a moving string).  2D (ex. painting, which uses shapes and planes).  2D+ (ex. silent film).  3D (ex. sculpture, which uses solids).  3D+ (ex. lava lamp or moving holography).  4D ?  4D+  ?	4/16/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Visual art works.  Simple vs. complex.  True vs. false.  Powerful vs. not.  Effective vs. not.  Explicit vs. vague or ambiguous.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Visual arts vs. words.  (1) If you make a work of art, and then spend five minutes verbally explaining the subject matter, issue, your view, etc. ("What I was trying to say in this piece was..."), then you are using words to say what your art could not say.  You are defeating the purpose of the artwork.  You are saying that the artwork could not communicate what it was supposed to communicate.  The best artists realize this and do not bother to try to explain their work.  They say "It means whatever you think it means.  It means what it means, etc."  (2) The main strength of visual and aural (music) arts is to deal with pre-verbal, unarticulated states of mind.  To be able to hint at the "unsayable".  It is not literature's place to try to say the unsayable, despite what the Beats thought.	04/24/1997

Arts, visual arts.	Visual arts vs. words.  To give a visual artwork a verbal title is to say it cannot do its job.  If it can stand on its own two feet then you can call it "Untitled".	05/10/1997

Arts, visual arts.	Visual images.  Symbols, images and pictures, letters, icons.  In communication and art.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	What are the visual arts about?  Two views (pun) of the visual arts.  (1) Pictures.  Depiction.  Representation.  (2) Vision.  Seeing.  Sight.	6/9/2004

Arts, visual arts.	What are the visual arts?  (1) Its about the image.  Picture as opposed to word.  (2) Examples of visual arts:  Visual patterns, illustrations, technical art, graphic arts, and great art.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	What does the ubiquitous stick figure show?  The stick figure shows that everyone wants to be thin, and it shows that everyone sees themselves as thinner than they actually are.	10/28/2001

Arts, visual arts.	What good are the visual arts?  When people refuse to read, you have to slap them in the face with the visual arts.  Visual arts are quick (perceived as a whole, all at once) and unavoidable (in your face all at once).  Words and music are temporal, and today people just don't have the time or inclination to devote to them.  If you have a message to get out, the visual arts can be very effective.	07/18/1997

Arts, visual arts.	What is an image?  What is a picture?	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	What is the meaning of a picture?  What does a picture say?	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	What.  Pictures are better than words at concrete description.  Words are better than pictures at abstract concepts.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	When we say that a visual artwork "says something to us" we are denigrating the visual by couching it in terms of the verbal.  The visual arts and musical arts do not "say" anything.  To use "say" in this context is a poor, inaccurate, limiting metaphor.  We need to widen our vocabulary.  And we need to recognize phenomena that words do not adequately describe.	4/11/2001

Arts, visual arts.	Why did I give up on visual arts?  Because I don't believe in code, metaphor, or wasted words.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Why do it?  Why study it?  How do it?  How study it?	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Why people like landscapes: because there are no people to be seen.	4/11/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Why.  (1) The power of the visual arts is this: For millions of years, before we developed spoken language or writing, humans and pre-humans experienced the world primarily visually.  It was only a hundred thousand years ago that humans developed spoken language, and it was only five thousand years ago that humans developed written language.  Even today, most people find a picture more compelling than a page of text.  (2) It may be that life really is a movie.  We experience the world as a series of still pictures, much the way a movie is composed of twenty-four images per second.  (A) When you stand still and look at a still object, you are looking at a picture.  (B) Only when you or the object is moving does the situation become analogous to moving pictures or film.  (3) Thus, the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" applies not just to drawings, paintings, photographs and movies, it also applies to real life and the way we experience real life as a picture.  (4) So where does this leave writing?  Where does this leave the writers (moi)?  Good question.  (5) Humans have been watching images (i.e., real life) for millions of years.  Humans have only been creating images (i.e., visual art) for about fifty thousand years.  (6) People say the world is becoming more graphics oriented.  The reasons for this may be, (A) Our technological ability to make graphic images is increasing due to the computer.  (B) Graphics cross the spoken language barrier.  Graphics are an international language in an increasingly globally connected world.  (C) Graphic processing ability (i.e., sight) is a well-developed hard-wired ability in humans that we have been using for millions of years.	10/31/2000

Arts, visual arts.	Why.  Images can say things quicker and in less space than words.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Why.  Visual arts to convey ideas and emotions.  Conveying ideas beyond using words.  Conveying emotions beyond showing people's faces.	12/30/1992

Arts, visual arts.	Why.  When photography took over realism, the function of the other visual arts began to be to capture dreams, the imagination, the unreal, and the nonphysical.	05/22/1993

Arts, visual arts.	Works (actual historical works, conceptual ideas for works, or otherwise).	01/01/1993

Arts, visual arts.	You can paint a picture OF something (realism, impressionism), or you can paint of picture ABOUT something (expressionism).	7/18/1998

Business, management.	.This section is about business management.  Topics include  :	1/24/2006

Business, management.	"Company men."  Business managers are usually "corporation men", who place the profits of the corporation over the well being of the workers and the environment.  Business managers are often conformist "yes men".	11/11/2005

Business, management.	(1) Hogging vs. sharing power.  (2) Hogging vs. sharing information.  (3) Hogging vs. sharing credit.	4/11/2001

Business, management.	(1) My management style.  (A) Democratic.  Treat superiors and subordinates as equals.  I take no shit and give no shit.  (B) Good communication.  Tell workers what's going on.  Hear what the workers have to say.  (2) Bad management style.  Totalitarian, militaristic, hierarchical bastards.  Kiss up to bosses, shit on workers.	09/20/1993

Business, management.	Are my managers making the best decisions?  Is the organization reaching its goals?  How fast?  Are the goals good ones?  Are the means sound?	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Authority, responsibility.  How much power give an individual (types and degrees)?  Rules and laws vs. whim.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Best management style: let them fear you vs. love you.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Classical and operant conditioning.  Sanctions: ball out, lose job, suspension, bad record, noticed, mentioned.  Rewards: keep job, peace, good word, good record.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Conformity and rebellion on the job.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Costs: machines (buy, run, repair), plant, workers, and materials.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Critique of management.  It seems like everyone wants to be a manager.  It seems like everyone wants to be promoted to more money and more power.  Yet when you get to management you see how empty it is.  Typical business management is a joke.	11/11/2005

Business, management.	Decisions of a manager every day, week, month, year.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Develop your personal management style/method/system.  Get the job done quick, cheap, accurate, complete.  Improve it, prevent problems, and deal with problems.  Understand all the factors.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Every manager a worker, and every worker a manager.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Functional areas.  Who is not keeping up with who?  Speed, volume, direction.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Good management traits: efficient, practical, fair and just.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Good managers are smart.  Bad managers are stupid or ignorant about general principles of business, and the actual situation.  Knowledge of people, money, and materials.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	High level managers make changes.  Low level managers ensure consistency (ensure non-changes).	12/30/1992

Business, management.	High level problems: more varied, more supervisory, more interpersonal, more integrative.  Low level management problems: more task oriented.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	How much power to give a manager?  What decisions to let them make?  How many decisions?  Decisions in what areas?  How important the decisions?	12/30/1992

Business, management.	How to talk to boss: competent, confident, managerial.  How not to talk: immature, irresponsible, incompetent, unconfident, jerk.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	I can make the product.  I can make the product better than the competition: more, faster, cheaper.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Important questions at all levels.  What needs to be done, and not, why?  Who best to do it, and not, why?  How best to do it, and not, why?	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Leadership: power and rights vs. limits and obligations.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Management = power.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Management style: you want to project that you (1) Know what's going on.  (2) Know what to do.  (3) Know what you're doing.  (4) Will take action.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Management styles: democratic to totalitarian.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Management styles: dictatorships, oligarchies, democracies.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Management traits: fair, just, human, inspiring, hard worker, reliable, smart, good social skills.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Manager abuse and worker laziness vs. manager cooperation with worker.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Managers spend most of their time on three boring tasks.  Policing workers.  Kissing up to management.  Kissing up to customers.	1/25/2005

Business, management.	Observe, think, change (start, improve, stop).	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Plan, organize, allocate, direct, control, communicate.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Praise vs. reprimand.  Too much vs. too little.  For right action vs. for wrong action.  For right reasons vs. for wrong reasons.  Too much emotion vs. too little emotion.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Problems with managers.  (1) The short-sighted manager.  Thinks only short term.  (2) The narrow sighted manager.  Thinks only of self or corporation, without thoughts of environment, workers or world.  (3) The manager with suboptimal ethical abilities.  (4) The manager who refuses to question or take a stand on principle.  The yes man.  (5) The corrupt manager.  (6) The manager with only money on his mind.	5/21/2006

Business, management.	Rule followers and rule breakers (improve vs. ruin), in thought, word, and action.  You need both types, some excel at one or other.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Structure (areas and levels) and mechanism of an organization.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Sub-optimal performance by worker: causes, therapies, and prevention.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Sub-optimal performance by workers.  Not fast enough vs. not accurate enough.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Tasks: planning, controlling, leadership, communication, conflict, change, and decision making.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	The process of management: tools and technologies of management.  Science technologies and math technologies.	12/30/1992

Business, management.	Theories of business management.  (1) Treat the worker like garbage.  Expendable.  (2) Treat the worker like robots (machines).  Maintain them.  (3) Treat the worker like animals.  Care for them.  (4) Treat the workers like humans.  (5) Treat the worker like gold.	5/26/1999

Business, management.	What makes a good manager vs. what makes a bad manager?  How find good manager?	12/30/1992

Business, management.	When drive hard vs. when drive not so hard?  When tight reins vs. when loose reins?	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	.This section is about marketing.  Topics include: ( ) Advertising.  ( ) Contra advertising.  ( ) Contra marketing.  ( ) Selling.	1/24/2006

Business, marketing.	(1) Company names that say nothing about the product.  (2) Company names that say something about the product.	07/30/1996

Business, marketing.	(1) Market research: market analysis, market forecasting.  (2) Product development: product research, performance analysis.  (3) Advertising research.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	(1) The purpose of marketing is to nag, to nudge, and to remind.  Because people rarely do anything the first time you tell them.  Even if they know they should.  It takes time for it to sink in.  It takes time for them to get your drift.  That is why you have to tell them over and over for years and years.  Then you can say that at least you tried.  (2) I am thinking of developing a new type of marketing that will consist of kvetching, complaining, and mock anger.  "Why don't you buy my product!?"  The other alternative is to beg, plead and whine.  I'm not there yet.	9/25/2000

Business, marketing.	A good product will not self itself; you have to market it.  A good product does not become popular if you tell people about it only once.  You have to constantly tell people about the product.  Constant marketing for the entire life of the product.	8/3/2002

Business, marketing.	Advertisers try to influence what people do in their leisure time.  Advertisers try to influence what people do in their work time.  Advertisers try to shape values generally.  Advertisers try to influence the most basic assumptions of people.  Thus, advertisers have a hidden philosophical agenda.  At least my philosophical agenda is out in the open.	7/31/2006

Business, marketing.	Advertising by media: print, broadcast (radio, TV), outdoor signs, window displays, set ups.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Advertising is no longer only about selling a product.  Advertisers realize that on a wider scale or on other levels, they are also selling a thought, an emotion, an attitude, a lifestyle, a philosophy and a culture.  Advertisers, unconsciously or consciously, transmit an overt explicit or an assumed implicit (hidden secret) philosophy.	12/19/2003

Business, marketing.	Advertising principles.  (1) Know your target audience.  (2) Pick your tactics to suit them.  (3) Figure out what sways them.  Smart people swayed by logic vs. dim people swayed by emotion.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Advertising techniques.  (1) Demonstration.  (2) Expert.  (3) Famous person.  (4) Trust me, believe me.  (5) Fear tactics.  (6) I'm begging you.  (7) Greed and vanity (Keep up with Jones's.  Everyone's doing it.  Be popular).  (8) Pushy.  Obey me.  (9) Life will be a perfect fantasy with this product.  (10) Authority.  You will please me if you buy this product, and piss me off if you don't.  (11) Sex.  (12) Appeal to ethical goodness.  (13) Rebellion, independence.  Nobody can tell you what to do.  (14) Beautiful and rich person.  Be perfect like me.  (15) Hard sell.  Militaristic.  Buy it!  Anger causing fear.  (16) Soft Sell.  Please buy it.  Seductive, sweet, woman.	12/30/1996

Business, marketing.	Advertising techniques.  (1) Humor.  (2) Symbolism.  (3) Straight talk pitch vs. lies.  (4) Blatant vs. subtle.  (5) Relax, feel, think.  (6) Believe me, trust me.  (7) Look at it skeptically.  (8) Associate a thing, feeling or philosophy with product.  (9) Trust me: a star, an expert, wise old man symbolism.  (10) Great like me: sports star.  (11) Fear tactics: non-use = disaster.  (12) Heaven: use = perfection.  With specific problem, or in whole life.  (13) Jump on the band wagon.  (14) Soft sell.  (A) I'm your friend.  (B) Smooth talk, mesmerism or hypnosis.  (C) Getting you in the mood.  (D) Easy on senses.  (15) Makes you feel good.  (16) You'll please me/us if you buy it: any relative.  (16) You'll piss me off if you don't buy it: any relative.  (17) Look at it logically: scientific experiments.  (18) Nobody tells you what to do.  (19) Hard sell: angry, threatening, fire and brimstone.  (20) Seductive: sex.  (21) Creation of an ideal fantasy world associated with product.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  (1) Grab and keep their attention.  (2) Generate interest.  (3) Elicit or provoke emotion.  Make the audience feel.  (4) Make the audience think.	7/11/2001

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  (1) Measuring ad effectiveness.  (2) Record of an ad firm.  (3) Values and philosophies implicitly held and explicitly stated in an ad.  (4) Advertising ethics.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  Analyze the pitches that commercials use.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  Blatant lying vs. half truths.  Half truths are things like telling good points about your product but not the bad points, or telling the bad points about the competition but not the good points.	11/15/2001

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  Everyone is selling something, it is just a question of what and how.  People sell themselves and the ideas they believe in.	12/30/1996

Business, marketing.	Advertising.  The adman's pitch.  Perfection forever (heaven) vs. shit in constantly changing myriad forms (hell).	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Commercials.  How much time is devoted to commercial advertisements during a typical hour of commercial television or radio?  About 25 percent of the time is spent on advertisements.  That is too much time for advertising.	11/12/2005

Business, marketing.	Contra advertising.  Advertisers promote neurosis: "I can be whatever I want to be.  The world can be whatever I want it to be."	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Contra advertising.  Criticism of advertising:  It is everywhere.  Everything has a logo on it.  You cannot escape it.  It is in your face.	12/27/1998

Business, marketing.	Contra advertising.  Criticisms of advertising.  (1) They lie like hell about products.  (2) There are hidden catches involved.  (3) Fine print is annoying.	11/15/2001

Business, marketing.	Contra advertising.  Everything that you buy today has a logo on it.  Everything is an advertisement.  Human beings have become walking billboards.  What is amazing is how much people desire to become walking billboards.  Many people actively seek out clothing that has labels on the outside as well as labels on the inside.  If I cannot get clothes without a logo then I will cross out the logo.	2/4/2002

Business, marketing.	Contra advertising.  Overconsumption.  Advertisers flawed message.  (1) The only thing that will make you happy is material possessions.  (2) The only thing that will bring you status is material possessions.  (3) Just keep shopping and buying because its good for the economy.  (4) Fill you lives with worthless junk.	11/20/2003

Business, marketing.	Contra current marketing.  (1) The advertisers want your time and attention.  They want to affect your emotions, and be in your thoughts.  They want to monopolize your mind.  They want to talk to you about stuff they can sell, and that you can buy.  (2) But you can't sell philosophy (unless you buy a philosophy book).  You can't sell what is free.  So they don't talk to you about the important, yet free, things like philosophy.  And so you don't think much about it.  (3) Also, they want you to feel happy and think it is o.k. to buy junk.  They don't want you to see the real world of problems and pain, and they don't want you to see that what they have to sell is worthless junk.  They want you to spend your time on your nice lawn, sipping their iced tea, watching their commercials.  They sell that as success and happiness.  (4) Advertisers often lie, or tell half truths about their products.  (5) An ad is like telemarketing, phone solicitation.  If an advertiser has the money to buy space or time, they can get into people's faces and heads.  We are bombarded with messages that carry hidden implications ("This is important and good, etc.").  There is an implied hedonistic ethic.  They are not saying to work hard and save, they are saying to goof off and spend.  They often sell useless junk products and deadly poisons (cigarettes and booze).  And nobody sells high ethics.  (6) In modern advertising, time and space are for sale.  Albert Einstein is rolling.	12/30/1996

Business, marketing.	Contra marketing.  Criticisms and defenses of marketing and advertising.  (1) Criticisms of marketing and advertising.  (A) Dishonest advertising.  (B) Ubiquitous, in your face, inescapable advertising.  (C) Advertising is propaganda and brain washing.  (D) Commercial free, independent media is more accurate because it is less influenced by advertisers.  (E) Advertising promotes a "believe and obey" attitude over independent thinking.  (F) Advertising to children takes advantage of children.  (2) Defenses of marketing and advertising.  (A) Advertising informs people of the good points of a product.  (B) Thus advertising performs a useful function.  (C) Advertising pays for commercial media (television, newspapers, magazines, etc.).  (D) Advertising is fair because it is regulated, perhaps over-regulated.	7/15/2004

Business, marketing.	Contra marketing.  PART ONE.  Attributes of the New Marketing.  (1) You cannot tell what is an advertisement from what is not an advertisement.  (2) Once an advertisement is identified, you cannot tell what the ad is about.  (3) Once you determine what the ad is about, you cannot tell if the add is stating the truth or whether you are being lied to.  Illusion and deceit are everywhere.     PART TWO. With the decline of objectivity in journalism it seems that in everything you read everyone has an agenda and everything is an advertisement.  (2) With the Internet, anyone can claim anything.  Truth in advertising does not seem to apply anymore.  (3) We need to become better at interpretation and critical thinking.	10/24/2001

Business, marketing.	Critiques of marketing.  Businesses try to present well defined brand choices in order to let customers buy a lifestyle by selecting a set of brands.  In this way, people try to buy meaning, self identity and social identity.  For example, people try to create meaning, self identity and social identity by selecting a beer brand, a cigarette brand and a car brand.  I say that attempts at buying meaning will fail in the long run.  On the other hand, attempts at do-it-yourself building of meaning will do better in the long run.  For example, doing philosophy is do-it-yourself meaning building.  The advertisers try to market meaning.  The advertisers try to market quick and easy meaning with no thought required.  What is the result of buying instead of building meaning?  Pain, addiction, depression, anxiety, rage and meaninglessness.	8/23/2005

Business, marketing.	Healthy Marketing.  Given x specific product, whether it be a winner or loser.  Success or failure without marketing.  Success or failure with marketing.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Healthy marketing.  Why do they buy junk?  Should we sell them junk?  Should we control what is sold?  How much?	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	How do you get a product to become popular?  How do you get a product to auto-spread?  If the product is free, fun, useful and in your face then it is likely to be adapted by users more quickly.	12/9/2000

Business, marketing.	How does one explain that the most popular commercials neither show the product being pitched nor say its name, yet only play catchy music and show young beautiful people having fun?  Such marketing relies heavily on assumption and implication.  Its a common tactic in the real world also.	2/6/2004

Business, marketing.	Logos and labels.  People seem are obsessed with logos and labels on their clothing.  People do not need to have labels on their clothing.  People do not want to have labels on their clothing.  What is obvious is that, unfortunately, people have been socialized into corporate shills, and people promote corporate brands without even being paid.	11/12/2005

Business, marketing.	Logos.  Corporations pay professional sport stars big money to wear corporate logos in the hopes that everyone else will pay the corporation to wear corporate logos.  Logos are an attempt to build arbitrary in-group out-group distinctions.  Buy products without logos.	3/7/2004

Business, marketing.	Logos.  The challenge today is to clothe oneself with clothes that have no logos on them.	11/20/2003

Business, marketing.	Marketing management.  Pick a target, media, message (idea, emotion, attitude) (visual or verbal).  Schedules, budgets.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Marketing questions.  (1) What is the item being marketed?  It can be a physical product, a service, a person, a brand, or an idea.  (2) What is the message?  What benefit does the product confer?  (3) Who is the target market?  Who will buy the product?  (4) What is the most effective and efficient way to reach the target market?	5/25/2004

Business, marketing.	Marketing, in the best light, is the communication of information.  In a fair marketing system no lies are permitted; people choose when and where to see advertisements; good products succeed and bad products fail.	11/15/2001

Business, marketing.	Pros of current marketing  (1) The hippie generation has come to middle age power and are actually producing some good television that addresses real personal and social problems.  Is this a temporary generation phenomenon that will backslide in twenty years?  Or is it real progress?  (2) Some ads are smart, honest, satirical, and funny.  (3) Some products are good and people should hear about them.  (4) Some media and advertisements are not as intrusive as bill boards, home phone calls, ads on every page, stores with blaring speakers out front, etc.	12/30/1996

Business, marketing.	Selling is communication, and communication is rhetoric, therefore sales is rhetoric.  Everyone is selling something, either their philosophy, their goals, or themselves.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling: be able to sell them what they don't want, don't need, and can't afford.  Audrey.	04/15/1993

Business, marketing.	Selling.  (1) Hard sell.  Time pressure.  Insult them.  Act insulted.  Threats, scare tactics.  (2) Soft sell: friendly or seductive and sexy.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling.  Believe in product.  Know its pros (problems it solves) and cons.  Know the competition, and discredit them.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling.  Let them know we have it.  Tell them what it is.  Tell them what it is good for.  How to do all three.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling.  Many arguments vs. one main argument.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling.  Rational pitches vs. emotional pitches.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Selling.  Tailor arguments to fit person's psychology and life.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	There are television commercials today using rock music, including Hendrix, Zepplin, and the Who, in order to sell products.	4/26/2002

Business, marketing.	There is an ethics of marketing and advertising.  There is good and bad, right and wrong, in the area of marketing, advertising and sales.  Some corporations tempt people with money and position, and some corporations punish people with demotion and firing, in order to get people to do unethical things in marketing, advertising and sales.	5/21/2006

Business, marketing.	Two problems.  (1) Healthy and useful products that fail due to poor marketing.  (2) Unhealthy and unuseful products that succeed due to good marketing.	12/30/1992

Business, marketing.	Why do marketers create a half-dozen different versions of their product?  (1)  Because they know that humans love to categorize and classify.  Humans, due to evolutionary hardwiring, are fascinated with differentiating and classifying colorful little objects, which is perhaps a vestige from when we once had to discern edible plants from poisonous plants based on their colorful little flowers.  Today such classifying of small colorful objects continues with children's stickers, patches, baseball cards, and colorful product packages.  So marketers make a half-dozen versions of their product, each with its own colorful little package, so that we can enjoy figuring out which is which.  (2)  Marketers know that the few minutes we spend with two versions of their product, one in each hand, looking from one to another, silently repeating the names of the products to ourselves, creates an indelible impression on our minds.	1/4/2002

Business.	.See also: Economics.	8/2/2001

Business.	.This section is about business.  Topics include: ( ) Contra big business and corporations.  ( ) Business principles.  ( ) Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  ( ) Psychology and business.  Personality types and business.   ( ) Sociology and business.  Corporate cultures.  ( ) What.  ( ) Why.	1/24/2006

Business.	(1) What is business?  Definitions of business.  (2) Why do business?  Why study business?  Why is business important?  (3) How important is business?	9/15/2005

Business.	A better product, at a lower price, delivered faster.	5/25/2006

Business.	Accounting.  (1) Accounting for any area, any factor, any time period.  (2) Accounting for what, how, why.  Account for everything bought, sold, from who, to who, when.	12/30/1992

Business.	Accounting.  Ways to gather, order, and present data.  Types of data to gather.	12/30/1992

Business.	Accounting.  When you have convinced yourself (rightly) that accounting is fascinating, then you have accomplished something.	08/24/1994

Business.	Analyzing a company.  (1) Check its history.  (2) Assets vs. profits.  (3) Stock amounts and performance.  (4) Top man: stability, competence.  (5) Philosophy, culture, and plans.  (6) Market share, size, growth rate.	12/30/1992

Business.	Annoying business idioms:  Going forward.  On the same page.  Leverage.  Adding value.  Skill set.	6/24/1998

Business.	Anyone can run a business, the trick is to do it well.  Get a good idea (ethical, profitable), and make it grow with best tools.	12/30/1992

Business.	Bad business and good business.  (1)(A) Mindless hypercompetiton.  Overproduction and overconsumption.  Vs. (B) Sustainability.  (2)(A) Overwork vs. (B) Balance of work and other areas of life.  (3)(A) Lying, twisting and spinning in advertising vs. (B) Truth in advertising.  (4)(A) Opaqueness in accounting vs. (B) Transparency in accounting.  (5)(A) Ruthless competition to the point of monopoly vs. (B) Fairness in business practices.  (6)(A) Thinking short term profits vs. (B) Thinking long term development.	10/13/2004

Business.	Big business.  (1) Pro: economies of scale, increased standardization of product, service, admin.  (2) Contra: too much power and control, politically over government, or psychologically/sociologically over people's minds.	12/30/1992

Business.	Big business.  Are all large corporations bad?  Are all large corporations only concerned with their own interests?  Do all large corporations have a strong influence on government, at the expense of the masses?  This is along the lines of Noam Chomsky's view.  Are large corporations out of control, or does the public have ways of controlling them?	11/30/1996

Business.	Big business.  Computers allow economies of scale which yield superstore chains and the big corporations that support them.  One criticism is that these corporations run amok, unmonitored with no responsibility.  Another criticism is that big corporations are hierarchical and bureaucratic to the point where workers experience alienation and a lack of freedom.  Must it be this way?  Can corporations be socially and environmentally responsible?  Can corporations give workers maximum freedom and help keep the environment clean?   Must all corporations succumb to the negative traits of monopolies?  Remember, not all small businesses are perfect.  Small businesses can be just as exploitive as big businesses.	4/11/2001

Business.	Big business.  Do large corporations do anything good?  Yes.  There are three main sources of progress: government sponsored research, business funded research, and academic funded research.  All three make important contributions.	11/30/1996

Business.	Big business.  History: the corporation developed out of advances in communication and transportation.	12/30/1992

Business.	Big business.  Seems like only big corporations are left after the dot com crash.  Computers make possible superstores and the big corporations.  Computers make possible the number crunching and fast communication that make possible the big corporations.  It seems like big corporations want to make money above all else, at any cost.  Its true that small companies can be as unethical as big corporations, but big corporations have more impact, influence, power, and effect than small companies.  Big corporations tend toward economic oligopoly and political oligopoly.	8/30/2001

Business.	Big business.  Top corporations in U.S. and world.  Money makers (profits).  Total assets.  (If your revenues are huge, but costs are huge to, that is bad.  If profits are few, but assets are huge, that is ok.)    Number of people employ.  Number of people supply goods to (% of market share).  How important your product is.  How good your product is (quality).	11/30/1996

Business.	Big business. The corporation has needs, a power, and a momentum all its own.  One person in the corporation cannot stop the corporation.  It is group thinking and group action.	1/6/1998

Business.	Brands.  A brand is all the attitudes associated with a company and its products.  Many consumers become obsessed with brands.  Many consumers needlessly spend extra money to buy certain brands.  Brands are often advertised through the use of logos and slogans.  Corporations brainwash people into accepting and desiring brands through the use of repeated exposure of logos and slogans.  Be an anti-brand person, be a no-logo person.	4/30/2007

Business.	Business education: accounting, finance, production and operations management, economics, math (business apps), law (business law), computers.	03/26/1994

Business.	Business education.  Accounting, finance.  Economics and managerial economics.  Marketing.  Environment: political, legal, science, tech, culture.  Organization behavior: psychology, sociology, leadership.  Math for business.  Computers for business: dbase, telecomm, ai (es, dss).  Business law, business ethics.	08/24/1994

Business.	Business education.  Business school makes you tough.  Deal with opposition without cracking or running or giving in.  This is a noble thing.  Doing it purifies you.  Makes you hard, lean, mean, strong.  Battle, fighter.	11/15/1994

Business.	Business education.  Defense of business mba.  No matter what field you go into, the product is given to the public through business, and knowledge of business is important.	08/24/1994

Business.	Business education.  Philosophy of business, views of business.  (1) Pro: the mba is tough to get and theoretical.  Ethical and selfless.  (2) Contra: the mba is easy to get and purely practical.  Machivellian money grubbers.	04/01/1994

Business.	Business education.  The illogic of MBA's for everybody.  If there is a 1:10 ration of management to workers, then for every ten workers there is one low-level manager, and for every ten low-level managers there is one mid-level manager, and for every ten mid-level managers there is one upper-level manager.  Thus, for 1000 workers there are 110 managers.  So if only 10% of the workforce is management, why do 90% of people feel compelled to pursue an MBA?  Because everyone feels compelled to take a shot at becoming a manager.	4/30/2004

Business.	Business is boring unless you are on top, or on the cutting edge.	12/30/1992

Business.	Business is competitive, stressful, with authoritative "master and slave" relationships, and with little independence.	12/30/1992

Business.	Business is repetitive and boring.  Each transaction is the same.  Each unit of product is the same.  Each customer is the same, seemingly.  It could all be done by automat.  Uniformity abounds.  Mechanized.  Inhuman.	7/31/2006

Business.	Business is serious because on the line is careers, families and money.	12/30/1992

Business.	Business principles, old and new, good and bad, by functional areas.  (1) Operations Management: improve or innovate products or processes.  Lower costs, improve quality, automate and computerize.  (2) Marketing: give all positive informational points of the product with positive emotional appeal.  Guarantee, advertise, and motivate sales staff.  (3) Financial: borrow at low rates, reinvest in the company, get up to minute information.  (4) Management: psychological and sociological principles.	12/01/1993

Business.	Business principles.  (1) How can I motivate my workers?  (2) Improve technology.  (3) What are current and future problems?  (4) What are we doing?  (5) How improve quality, productivity, and efficiency?  (6) Keep an eye on people.  (7) Know their job, what do, how do.  (8) Know if they are doing it.  (9) Know what to do if they're not.  (10) Maintain and increase worker productivity.  (11) Deal with problems and conflicts.  (12) Deal with people, stuff, money.  (13) Figure out what you have to do, and how to do it.	12/30/1992

Business.	Business principles.  (1) Information.  Get it accurate and current.  To find niches and to attack competition and defend self.  See which way consumers are headed.  Forecast change.  (2) People.  Treat them fair.  They must like and trust the company.  Make them smarter.  Empower them more.  (3) Technology.  Computers, computers, computers.  (4) Money.  Have enough for daily operations.  Have enough for emergencies.  Do not let free money just sit there.  Forecast the economic environment.  Forecast your business activity.	01/01/1993

Business.	Business principles.  Strategic decisions: What make, how make, how sell.  Alternatives available: (1) Expand markets, find new markets.  (2) Change size, change structure.  (3) Commit more resources: men, money, time, materials, machinery.  (4) Change or develop new tools and technologies.  (5) Prevent or solve problems and mistakes.  (6) For product or process: improve effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, flexibility, response time, quality, speed, price, practicality, accuracy.  (7) Find cheaper or more efficient materials, parts, machines, labor.  (8) Sell more to each, find more customers.  (9) Reach more people (advertising).  (10) Better product, new product.  (11) More knowledge, better decisions, better actions.  (12) Improve quality, improve value.  (13) Keep costs down, lower costs.  (14) Charge most possible: to turn out greatest profit.  (15) Get a niche and a key advantage.  (16) Tactical decisions.	12/30/1992

Business.	Business sub-areas.  (1) Finance: money in, out.  (2) POM: stuff get, send.  (3) MIS: information get, send.	12/30/1992

Business.	Businesses succeeding because of their ideas (product or service) vs. succeeding because of their business practices (management, finance, marketing, etc.).	09/26/1997

Business.	Case study.  Sugary Sweet Breakfast Cereals: a business case study.  (1) Sugary cereal.  Lots of people eat it.  It tastes good.  Its not good for you.  Its expensive.  (2) Breakfast cereals developed around the year 1900 when Kellogg and CW Post.  Even until the 1970's people ate a lot of no-cook, prepackaged cereal with milk in a bowl.  Not oatmeal, which was cooked, and was more a 1940's thing.  In the 1980's people began to eat more granola.  Then in the 1990's people started eating more bagels and muffins.  And cereal bars.  But for a long time people ate boxed cereal with milk.  (3) Kids especially ate a lot of cereal, especially Saturday morning while watching cartoons.  A cereal "world" developed.  A cereal semiotics developed.  Many cereals had mascots.  Many cereals had slogans.  Many cereals had jingles.  These were serious branding efforts by manufacturers.  (4) Cereal is big business.  Talking lots of money in cereal.  Charging three dollars for a thirty cent box of cereal.  And everyone is eating it.  (5) "Cereal wars" developed between competing cereal manufacturers, and also as competitive grudge matches between cereal brand mascots of the same manufacturer.  For example, kids were urged to vote for either Quisp or Quake.  The big cereal manufacturers were Kellogg, Post and General Mills.  Many competing manufacturers had similar products with different names.  Many cereals had prizes in them.  Many cereal boxes had text messages or interactive games.  Cereal was the first thing a many people saw in the morning.  The cereals were not especially healthy, many having high quantities of refined sugar.  There was a concern that all the sugar was making kids hyperactive, overweight, and rotting their teeth.  They prices of the cereals were very high.  The cereals were marketed to kids during the commercial breaks of the Saturday morning cartoons.  (6) In summary, breakfast cereals are an example of business strategy and tactics.  I.e., What to sell and how to sell it.  Marketing strategy: give the public what they want, even if its not good for them, as long as the corporation can make money from it.  The strategy and tactics of the cereal manufacturers include:  (A) Market directly to the kids.  Get them hooked while they are young.  They don't know any better and can't form a counter-argument.  (B) Build a brand for the product.  Build brand recognition with a mascot, a slogan and a jingle.  Sell the brand image, not the product.  Brainwash them with repetitive commercial pitches.  (C) Charge high prices.  (D) It does not have to be healthy.  Make it taste good, even at the expense of health.  Pump it full of artificial vitamins to claim it is healthy.  (See the Outline for a list of cereals).	9/16/2005

Business.	Co-ops.  A cooperative is when the profits of a business are shared equally.  One argument for co-ops is that the workers and customers deserve more say, more power, in business than we currently have in corporate dominated America.  And that when workers and customers have more say in how a business is run, the result is better for everyone.  Another argument for co-ops is that workers and consumers deserve more economic reward than currently provided in corporate dominated America.  Instead of having a system where a few individuals and corporations profit off the work of the many, we should have a system where more economic value is given to workers and consumers.   Business schools should teach about co-ops, but they usually don't.     PART TWO.  Types of coops.  (1) Customer co-ops.  The customers are the owners.  The customers share in ownership of business by getting stock shares.  The customers share in profits by getting lower prices.  The customers share in decision making by voting for representatives or by voting directly on issues.  (2) Worker co-ops.  The workers are the owners.  The workers share in ownership of business by getting stock shares.  The workers share in profits.  The workers share in decision making by voting for representatives or by voting directly on issues.	7/20/2004

Business.	Company man, kissing up to improve lot.  Union man, struggle to improve lot.	2/15/2006

Business.	Competition.  (1) Intra-company competition.  (A) You are trying to move up.  (B) Others are trying to get your spot.  (C) Competition against past and present standard setters, regarding production, accuracy, behavior and attitude.  (2) Those trying to get into your company.  (3) Competition of your company in the market: other companies vs. your company.  (4) Other people in other companies.	12/30/1992

Business.	Computer used for (1) Records of past.  (A) Orders received, orders filled, orders shipped.  (B) Inventory by date, type, by alpha order, most to least, dollar amounts.  (2) Control of present production activities.  (3) Forecasts of future.	12/30/1992

Business.	Computers and how they change business.  CAD/CAM.  JIT inventory.  Distribution.  Marketing: statistical surveys.  Finance: software.  Point of purchase scanners, upc.  Computer customized manufacturing.  Gather data on customers.  Project management software.  Delivery tracking (fed ex).  Tele-conferencing.  Client server.  Dtp.  Dss, ess, mis.	08/14/1994

Business.	Computers, Internet and business.  (1) Computers and business.  How do computers change the way we do business?  (A) Speeds things up.  (B) Greater communication.  (C) Handle greater amounts of data.  (D) Makes possible bigger companies.  Mergers.  Mega-corporations.  Concentration of power.  Too much power.  (E) Makes possible bigger retail stores.  Superstores.  Wipes out main street.  (2) Internet and business.  How does the Internet change the way we do business?  (A) Workers don't have to be on site.  Work from home.  Tele commuting.  (B) Customers don't have to be on site.  Tele shopping.  (C) How is running an Internet business different from "bricks and mortar" businesses?  (D) Types of Internet businesses.  B2B.  B2C.  Catalog online.  Customer buys online.	7/20/2004

Business.	Computers.  (1) Information systems by business areas: executive, marketing, finance, accounting, and production.  (2) Information systems by business levels: executive, mid-level, and operational.	12/30/1992

Business.	Computers.  (1) Intra-firm information.  (2) Extra-firm information: Economic (industry, competition), political and legal, technology and science.	12/30/1992

Business.	Computers.  Principles: what information, for who, when needed, why needed, what form needed, how get it, how give it?	12/30/1992

Business.	Contra big business.  (1) Big business influences government too much.  Big business ends up being represented in government instead of the masses of people who are supposed to be represented.  (2) Another problem with big business is that big business has big dollars.  Big dollars control the minds of people by buying advertising space.  (A) They not only, through advertising, brainwash and train people not to think about the important things in life, they also train people not to think at all but rather to accept/believe and conform.  (B) They also use advertising to lie, manipulate and hide the truth by diverting attention with smoke and mirrors.  Advertisers pitch a lot of unimportant junk.  By doing so they steal the public's attention from the important things in life, which is unhealthy for people.  (3) A counter argument is that big business is no different than any other large organization, like special-interest groups or the government.  They are all powerful and tough to control due to inertia and self survival instincts.	7/21/1998

Business.	Contra big business.  (1) Corporate drones.  Their job is all they have.  It is everything to them.  It is of utmost importance.  It is all that matters to them.  It is their world.  It is first in their minds.  It is all they care about.  (2) Corporate life.  It is all about power, control, turf, responsibility, money, advancement, respect, competency, excellence, hierarchy, pecking order, rivalry, competition, one-up-man-ship, territory, possessiveness.	6/24/1998

Business.	Contra big business.  Big business is like a government.  The big problem is the status quo fat cats on top sucking the system dry and screwing it over.  In business, like politics, you need to have democracy, a way to peacefully change the leadership when it goes bad, without destroying the system.	09/15/1993

Business.	Contra big business.  Corporate America.  The people are not that bright.  The work is not that hard.  The work occupies all your time.  The work is all that the people think about.	11/30/1996

Business.	Contra big business.  Corporate fraud.  Worldcomm.  Enron.  Tyco.  Healthcare South.  Corporations run amok.  Corporations bilking stockholders, customers and the general public.  These are the limitations of the free market.  These are abuses of corporate power.	10/7/2003

Business.	Contra big business.  Corporate scandals.  Enron.  Worldcom.  Tyco.  The inability of corporations to adequately monitor their own ethical behavior.  The inability of the free market to adequately monitor ethical behavior.	11/15/2003

Business.	Contra big business.  Criticisms of the corporation and corporate man.  (1) Gave his life, soul, heart and mind to the corporation.  (2) Identical to co-workers, conformist, gives into peer pressure, group think.  (3) No independence, no free thinking, no individualism.  (See Weber on bureaucracy and organizations).  (4) Old boy network, conservative rich snobs hoarding power.	5/15/1998

Business.	Contra big business.  In the near future they will probably market a sweet, colorful, caffeinated, nicotenated, alcoholic beverage.  It will be the color and flavor of bubble gum and it will be marketed to kids by a clown.	6/22/2001

Business.	Contra big business.  It's not only that the corporation acts in its own self interests.  It's more accurate to say that the executives of the corporations act in their own self interests.  Screwing the worker.  Screwing the customers.  Screwing the stockholders.  Screwing the environment.  That is what a totally free market produces: injustice.  A few people ruining it for the many.	2/28/2002

Business.	Contra big business.  Monopoly is to business what dictatorship is to government.  They both suck.	5/15/1998

Business.	Contra big business.  Super chain store town.  Walmart.  Kmart.  Home Depot.  Staples.  Comp USA.  Circuit City.  B&N.  Small town America abandoned.  Small town life extinct.  Super chain store life everywhere.  Small town America becomes mall town America.  Small town America gets mauled.	1/1/2002

Business.	Contra big business.  The attitude of big business toward the consumer: "We have to keep them stupid so they buy our junk.  If they get smart they will figure out that they don't need our junk.  So let's do nothing to promote their education and enlightenment.  In fact, let's subtly value stupidity and devalue education.  We can do this through advertising.  Glorify the couch potato.	1/24/2002

Business.	Contra big business.  The national chains of superstores.  They all look the same.  They destroy the diversity of the built environment.  Things become less interesting.  They make life more boring.  They also reduce choice, and thus reduce freedom.  They smack of monopoly.  At these stores you feel like you are "in the machine", going through the system.	5/10/2000

Business.	Contra business.  (1) Business views money as the highest value.  Money is not the highest value.  (2) Business has an attitude that says, "Do anything for a buck".  (3) Business is about mindless materialism.  (4) Business is about conspicuous consumption.  Pigging out.  Big houses, big cars, big meals.  In the face of health of self and earth.  (5) Business is about workaholics.	6/5/2004

Business.	Contra business.  (1) The worst of capitalism: The belief that the market is always right.  Sell whatever sells, even if it is junk or poison.  Give them what they want.  Value money-making over the true and the good.  Mindless production and mindless consumption.  (2) The counter-argument is that people should be free to buy what they like.  The market is about freedom.  However, I say that I refuse to go along with the advertisers pitch and become a mindless consumer.  And I refuse to fall into the machine, the system, and become a mindless laborer or mindless producer.	5/15/2000

Business.	Contra business.  Business is repetitious, boring, non-thinking, non-creative.	5/13/2004

Business.	Contra business.  Criticisms of business.  Inherent dangers and biases of business and business education.  (1) Mindless production.  (2) Mindless consumption.  (3) Excessive corporate power.  (5) Lack of consumer rights and safety.  (6) Lack of worker rights and safety.  (7) Pure capitalism leads to monopoly and exploitation of workers, consumers and environment.  (8) Environmental impact.  Technology and money at expense of environment.  (9) Under-values theory and intellect.  (10) Under-values arts and sciences.  (11) Under-values the role of government.  (12) Marketing run amok. Too many commercials.  To many corporate logo's and slogans.  Too many advertisements.  Builds needless wants and desires.  (13) Under-values cooperation by labeling cooperation as liberal, socialist or communist.  Fails to realize that cooperation is a useful and important social value.  (14) Under-values ethics when it takes a "buyer beware" attitude.  (15) Focusing only on business can create imbalanced, half-baked, specialist people who only focus on one aspect of life.	9/22/2000

Business.	Contra business.  Examples of business exploitation.  Musicians exploited by their business managers and business agents.  Musicians cheated out of their rights and royalties by unscrupulous businessmen.	11/12/2005

Business.	Contra business.  How people are persuaded to be good little capitalists.  A message is broadcast, often implicitly, that the best thing you can do is make money and spend money.  A message is broadcast, often implicitly, that the best thing you can do is start your own business, work all day long at business, and then go shopping on the weekend.  The capitalist system promotes production and consumption, and at the same time philosophy, psychology and sociology are ignored or deemed of lesser importance.  The capitalist system promotes capitalism and builds little capitalists.  The capitalist system demurs from self critique.	12/5/2005

Business.	Contra business.  More corporate scandals: Healthsouth.  Parmalat.	1/21/2004

Business.	Contra business.  Overemphasis on business (production and distribution) in America.  Overemphasis on consumption in America.  At the expense of personal health, the environment and social justice.	12/30/2003

Business.	Contra business.  What is the role of business in modern society?  What is the role of business in America?  (1) Corporations.  Corporations have too much power and too little accountability.  Corporations exploit workers, customers and public.  (2) Money.  People are addicted to money.  People are slaves to money.  People value money above all else.  People use money as the sole criteria of value.	7/20/2004

Business.	Contra corporations.  One megalo-mart wipes out an entire main street of shops including a pharmacy, bakery, deli, flower shop, seafood store, produce store, dairy milkman, butcher, cheese shop, shoe store, clothes store, sporting goods store, appliance store, record store, hardware store and toy store.	3/10/2004

Business.	Criticisms of business.  When your highest value is money, or when your only value is money, then you have become a nation of grocery clerks.  You sacrificed many other important values for the sake of a buck.	7/26/2006

Business.	Critique of business.  (1) Americans over emphasize and over value business.  Americans under emphasize and under value non-business activities.  (2) Doing anything to make money, including useless and meaningless and hurtful activities, is a bad thing.  (3) Americans glorify business.  Americans glorify money.  Americans idolize money all out of proportion.  The answer to all of life's problems is not  business.  Money, the dollar, riches, is not the solution to all of life's problems.  Money is not the only, nor the best, measure of things.  Free markets are not a panacea.  Measuring success by wealth is a mistake.  Competition is not the answer in every case.  Pure capitalism is not the best nor only way.	9/13/2005

Business.	Critique of business.  America makes the mistake of thinking business is everything, or even the most important thing.	4/16/2006

Business.	Critique of business.  Business people, for example, business marketers, want to make money and get rich.  They often do not care what they sell, as long as it makes money.  They often do not care if what they sell is helpful or harmful, as long as it makes money.  Some people will pay any price to get rich quick.  If there exists a thing that is helpful but has no monetary value, then most die hard capitalists will not be interested in it.  The problem is that many business people try to put a monetary value on everything, and then try to sell everything, and then ignore anything that cannot be sold.  That is a big mistake on the part of business people.	2/19/2007

Business.	Critique of business.  Some of the wrong arguments implicit in talk about business.  Some wrong attitudes that some people have about business.  Unfortunately, some people feel and think the following ways about business and money: "Its important.  Its good.  Its the right thing to do.  Its the only thing to do.  Its the best thing to do.  You have to do it.  Its what respectable people do.  Its valuable."	2/10/2007

Business.	Critique of corporations.  (1) The corporations have lots of money.  The corporations have almost all the money.  Thus, corporations are one of the few entities that can, if they so decide, afford to pay people a living wage.  However, very often today the corporations decide not to pay employees a living wage.  It is injustice when rich corporations to decide not to pay workers a living wage.  (2) Alternatively, sometimes the corporations decide to pay their employees a living wage, in which case workers look around and then say to themselves, "The only employers paying a living wage are the corporations, so I better start slaving for the corporations, even if it is not what I want to do with my life, because I want to make a living wage."  Thus, workers become slaves to the corporation.	2/6/2007

Business.	Critiques of business.  (1) Business is boring.  (2) Business is empty, shallow, callow.  (3) Money, alone is worthless in and of itself.  (4) When the pursuit of a dollar slowly but surely becomes what your life is about then you are lost.  (5) When they convince you that the best and only thing to do is to get an MBA degree, and you cannot generate any alternative ideas, then you are in deep doo doo.	9/13/2005

Business.	Critiques of business.  (1) Business often exploits and oppresses workers.  (2) Business often pollute the environment.  (3) Businesses often defraud investors.  (4) Businesses often defraud consumers.  (5) Businesses often defraud the public.  (6) Businesses, if left to their own devices, have a tendency to abuse power.	9/13/2005

Business.	Critiques of corporations.  The biggest corporations.  The richest corporations.  The most powerful corporations.  The most heedless corporations.  The most ruthless corporations.	9/13/2005

Business.	Critiques of sales.  Talk them into it.  A good salesman can sell them what they don't want, don't need, and can't afford, said Audrey.  And remember the ABC's of selling.  Any Bastard Can do it.	4/2/2006

Business.	Current situation.  Top world corps, top national corps.  Top in industries.  Top individuals.  How they rose to the top.  What was their competitive advantage?  How they fell.  What was their weakness?	12/30/1992

Business.	Customer service.  Customers want interest, effort, optimism, and confidence.	05/27/1993

Business.	Customer service.  Two philosophies and the spectrum.  (1) We never want to see you again: be crude.  (2) Long term customer: be nice.	12/30/1992

Business.	Do not give your money to a system that does not promote environmental sustainability and social justice.  Give your money to businesses that do promote environmental sustainability and social justice.	1/4/2006

Business.	Elements of business: people, money, materials, and technology (tools and techniques).	12/30/1992

Business.	Finance.  Strategic: when to borrow, invest, save, and how much, and using what specific tool?  Tactical: picking stocks and bonds.	12/30/1992

Business.	Four types of business knowledge: (1) Textbook knowledge.  (2) Current real world situation knowledge.  (3) Job specific knowledge.  (4) Anecdotal knowledge.	11/01/1994

Business.	History current future.  Current.  The big issues in business today is computers, which cause the restructuring of tasks, jobs, and the business organization.  Also global competition, global cooperation, and global communication.	09/15/1993

Business.	History current future.  Cutting edge business is global, computerized, service based (not product based), information based, and uses knowledge workers.	06/30/1997

Business.	History current future.  Future of business.  (1) More computers.  (2) Flatter companies (less middle management).  (3) More competition.  (4) Quicker.  (5) More flexible.  (6) Knowledge workers.  (7) Customer orientation.	12/30/1995

Business.	History current future.  Future trends.  The Internet cuts out middlemen and physical retail outlets.  Computers downsize business.	12/29/1997

Business.	History of theory and practice of economics, business, organizations, work, trade, production, money.  World wide, country, industry, company, product.	12/30/1992

Business.	How best to run a business given (1) Size (profits, stuff, people).  (2) Industry (size and type).  (3) Environment (society and natural).	12/30/1992

Business.	Human resources.  (1) Standards for performance.  (2) Measurement (quantitative and qualitative) of performance.  (3) Rewards and sanctions.	12/30/1992

Business.	Human resources.  Different individuals are suited for different jobs.  Get the right stuff, the right personality type, for the right job.  Too wild vs. too tame.  Too tough vs. too sensitive.	12/30/1992

Business.	Idea.  Boycott restaurants with pictures of gangsters, real or fictional, on the wall.	11/23/2004

Business.	Idea.  Instead of flight simulation games they should have games that mimic air traffic controllers landing more and more planes.	12/29/1998

Business.	Idea.  Napsack: a knapsack that comes with a small pillow and a blanket.	10/22/1998

Business.	Ideal.  What would an ideal business, economic and work situation look like?  (1) Workers would be given a fair wage.  Workers would work reasonable hours.  Workers would work in a safe workplace.  (2) Businesses would be ecologically sustainable.  (3) Monopoly would not be permitted.  Monopolies exploit the worker because the worker has no where else to work.  Monopolies exploit the consumer because the consumer has no where else to buy.  (4) The power of corporations would be limited.  Corporations would not have undue influence on government.  Corporations would pay their fair share of taxes.  Government would not be the pawn of corporations.  (5) Consumer safety and consumer rights would be protected.  (6) Women would get equal pay to men.  Women would be hired for the same jobs as men.  (7) Child labor would not be allowed.  (8) Sweatshops would not be allowed.  (9)  Business would be more transparent.  Financial statements would have fewer loop holes.  (10) Corporate boards would be more responsible to stockholders.  (11) There would be limits or caps on executive pay.  (12) Marketing would be truthful and honest.  Businesses would not produce and sell junk.  Frauds, cons, swindles and scams would be shut down.  (13) The above are some traits of a just, fair business world.  This situation has not been reached yet in either the USA or the rest of the world.	10/19/2004

Business.	In any business or industry, what is the situation?  What technologies using?  How efficient?  How fair?	12/30/1992

Business.	Levels of business environment: personal, corporation, national, and international.	12/30/1992

Business.	Most important ideas about business: sustainable business, fair trade business, green business.  The way Americans conduct business needs to be improved.	4/30/2007

Business.	Most important ideas.  (1) Business is ubiquitous and necessary, and thus it is important.  (2) Business is not that complicated nor interesting, and thus it is boring.	4/23/2002

Business.	Operations.  (1) Analytical methods.  (2) Procedural methods.  (3) Forecast and planning methods.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  (1) Costs: time, manpower, materials, and space.  (2) Inventory: on order, getting in, got, sending out, and sent.  (3) Maintenance: how often, costs vs. savings.  (4) Purchasing: what, how much, when, from who, what type of payment.  (5) Producing: goods vs. services.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  Adaptability, flexibility, speed.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  Manufacturing, production, inventory and warehousing, shipping and receiving, transportation, maintenance (preventive, repair), safety.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  Principles: efficiency and productivity.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  Security for what, from what, how, what cost.  Safety and security to protect money, stuff, people.  Methods: guards, cameras, bugs, inspections, reports, verbal and written warnings, fingerprints, security checks.	12/30/1992

Business.	Operations.  Simple methods for simple situations, complex for complex.	12/30/1992

Business.	PART ONE. Some of the incomplete, half-baked arguments that people put forward to try to defend business, money, material possessions, capitalism, free markets, and competition.  (1) Everyone should own their own business.  (2) Everyone should climb the corporate ladder.  PART TWO. Arguments against business, money, material possessions, capitalism, free markets, and competition.  (1) Money is not the only value.  Money is not the highest value.  (2) Over-consumption is is a bad thing.  (3) Free markets are not a cure all.  Free markets have problems all their own.  (4) Capitalism is flawed.  (5) Competition is not the only way, nor the best way.  (6) Most business is boring.	11/28/2006

Business.	Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  Business people are accused of ignoring life and ethics for a dollar.	03/26/1994

Business.	Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  Excessive consumption of useless crap (food, clothes, jewelry, cars) vs. thrifty use of good stuff.	07/30/1993

Business.	Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  If you don't know what you want, they will try to sell you whatever they have.  If you don't know what the fu*k you are doing, they will recognize it, and they will walk all over you.	11/17/1988

Business.	Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  Restaurants.  Distributive justice.  What is fair, standard size burgers or portions based on how much you weigh?  Is it fair that a small person gets 20 mouthfuls and a full feeling, and a large person gets 10 mouthfuls and goes hungry?  Are you paying for the product, or an enjoyable taste experience and a feeling of fullness and nutrition to stay alive.	11/30/1996

Business.	Philosophy and business.  Business ethics.  Unfair business philosophies.  (1) Buyer beware.  (2) It aint illegal if you don't get caught.  (3) What they don't know won't hurt them.  (4) I don't know nothing.  (5) I don't want to know nothing (look other way).  (6) No guarantees, no returns, no refunds.  (7) Rip-off customer, high prices (customer knows), bad product (customer may not know).  (8) Do anything for a buck.	09/20/1993

Business.	Philosophy of business.  If there is a philosophy of economics, then is there also a philosophy of business?  Economics is a science.  Business is a technology.  Philosophy of business:  Business ethics.  Business metaphysics.  Business epistemology.	1/7/2003

Business.	Political laws define the business environment.	8/15/2005

Business.	Politics of business.  (1) What kind of business should society allow?  What kind of business should society not allow?  There should be laws to protect consumers.  There should be laws to protect workers.  There should be laws that prevent monopoly.  There should be laws that prevent the rampant abuse of power by corporations.  (2) There should be global business laws.  There should be global standards of business conduct.  There should be global labor unions that battle sweatshops in every country.  Global business laws would help prevent abuses of power by multi-national corporations.	5/14/2007

Business.	Problems and mistakes: (1) Timing.  (2) Lack of information.	12/30/1992

Business.	Problems with workers.  (1) Lazy.  (2) Incompetent.  (3) Corrupt.  Thieves.	5/21/2006

Business.	Progressivism and business.  Start a Progressive business that pursues environmental sustainability and social justice and does not focus primarily on the pursuit of money.	5/5/2007

Business.	Progressivism and business.  Think of an idea for a business.  The product or service that the business produces should be good for the natural environment, healthy for humans, socially responsible, and promote social justice, promote economic justice, and promote political justice.	3/3/2007

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  (1) Business types: I dislike both.  (A) Go-getters.  Brash, loud, risky, pressuring, sleazy, cheap, quick buck, killing to make buck, entrepreneurs.  (B) Conservatives.  Buttoned down, bankerly, quiet, calm, dastardly, keep it hidden, traditional, reputation to uphold, dogmatic.  (2) Artist types.  Crazy: intuitive.  Sane: craftsman, workerly.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  (1) Corporate culture: pros and cons.  (2) Entrepreneurial culture: pros and cons.	3/29/2002

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Business people are serious, care about money, are unartistic, competitive, brown nosers, unemotional, handle stress well.  Business is antithetical to my personality.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Business social interaction pathology.  (1) People are expected to be polite to each other.  So they do not tell each other what they really think of each other.  They end up telling other third party people what they think of the first person.  This ends up as gossip at best and character assassination at worst.  They are not honest, open, forthright and brave.  (2) Also, people are expected to talk only about business.  They are expected not to talk about anything else in life, or their personal views, or anything meaningful.	7/31/1998

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Business sociology = business psychology + business psychology.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Corporate culture.  Development of what corporate culture by who?  Effects on individual: good and bad.  Corporate philosophy.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Corporate culture.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Who sets it?  What can you do about it?	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Entrepreneur vs. organization man.  (1) Entrepreneur:  (A) Risk taker.  (B) Big ego (big id).  (C) Independent, loner.  (D) Maverick, rebel.  (2) Organization man:  (A) Risk avoider.  (B) Ass-kisser (big superego).  (C) Social.  (D) Conformist.	9/25/2000

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  I feel like I'm in slavery, boredom, trapped.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Interpersonal relationships.  Nature, purpose, types, mechanism.  Types: superior, coworker, subordinate.  Dislikes, conflicts.  Affect on work.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Knowledge of business, from standpoint of different people like worker, manager, owner, customer, supplier, regulator, consultants, contractors.  What you need to know changes with position and situation.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Left wing vs. right wing type businesses.  Personalities they attract.  Ex. education (left wing) vs. military (right wing).	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Must have both the outside (image), and inside (knowledge and character).	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  My personality.  Antithetical to seriousness.  Antithetical to business.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Psychological traits of managers and workers, good and bad traits.  Adaptability, flexibility.  Decision making.  Consistent, stable, coolheaded.  Assertive, go getter.  Drone, clone.  Analyze, prioritize, judgment.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Robust, healthy individuals (physically and psychologically), needed for stressful, competitive, fast paced, hard working, long hours environment.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  The business world and organizations in general claim to value stability, dependability and uniformity, yet office politics is full of game playing, lying, secrecy, actors, costumes, etc.	9/20/2002

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Two forces in business world.  (1) Women cut out for business: drone work.  Into stability, into security, civil, docile, quiet, cooperative, compliance, passivity, obey, scared.  (2) Men cut out for business: entrepreneurs, tough, aggressive, competitive, driven, brave, hunger.	12/30/1992

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Two types of business people.  (1) Entrepreneur.  Inventor.  Innovator.  Independent.  Leader.  Be your own boss.  (2) Organization man.  Bureaucratic.  Social.  Follower.  Team player.  Tradition.  Employee.  Laborer.  Punch in and punch out.	4/14/2002

Business.	Psychology and sociology of business.  Valued business qualities (of a business, or a person, or product).  (1) Consistency, reliability, productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, quality.  (2) Consistency in work produced, behavior, psychology.  Consistent, cool headed, stable, driven, tough.	12/30/1992

Business.	Public relations.  (1) Control of information leaving firm: secrecy, lies.  (2) Controlling the media.  (3) Handling crisis.  (4) Image creation, maintenance, changing.  (5) Image of product, of organization, of individual.  (6) Measuring it in public opinion.  Demographic breakdown.  (7) Statements by pr dept., answers by pr dept.	12/30/1992

Business.	Questions for all of businesses.  Questions for a functional areas.  Questions for all specific businesses.	12/30/1992

Business.	Real life examples of (1) Successful ideas and traits vs. (2) Failures, problems, mistakes.  (3) In business, in a situation or market.	12/30/1992

Business.	Related subjects.  (1) Psychology: individual worker in business.  (2) Sociology: business effects on society vs. society influence on business.  (3) Philosophy: business ethics.  (4) Technology: technology fosters business vs. business fosters technology.  (5) Politics: laws governing business vs. business influence on politics.  (6) Math: quantitative methods for business.	12/30/1992

Business.	Research and design.  R and D (see tech, engineering): develop a model, test it.	12/30/1992

Business.	Rules.  (1) Formal vs. informal rules of organization.  (2) Laws of society vs. norms of society.	12/30/1992

Business.	Size of business and its effects: small, medium, big.	12/30/1992

Business.	Specific businesses: amount of profits, people, growth rate.	12/30/1992

Business.	Techniques.  Demeanor: unflappable, polished, always look, act, and speak confident, knowledgeable, honest, tough but fair, just, friendly, energetic, hardworking, morally fit, rich, smart, good-looking, superior.  Sell yourself and you company.  Handle standard situations, new situations, crisis situations smoothly and well.  Never let them see you sweat.  Make complex decisions (many factored and stepped) under time and social pressures well.	09/01/1994

Business.	Techniques.  Don't act dumb, giddy, lost, childish.  Do act adult, serious, conservative.	08/14/1994

Business.	Techniques.  Don't look stupid even if you are smart.  Look smart even if you are stupid.	08/24/1994

Business.	Technology.  Does the technology work?  Does it work enough to make final product?  Does it work enough to be competitive?	12/30/1992

Business.	Ten general business principles.  Ten principles for each functional area (finance, marketing, etc.).  Ten principles for each industry.  Ten principles for any size business (organization).	12/30/1992

Business.	That people will work seems inevitable.  That people will trade the products of their work seems inevitable.  That people will use money to facilitate trade seems inevitable.  What is not inevitable is the unchecked abuses that occur in the above three activities.	5/21/2006

Business.	The capitalists, the corporations, do not want anything to be free of charge.  The capitalists want to monetize everything, and that is a bad idea on the part of capitalists.	3/8/2007

Business.	Two annoyances.  (1) Rebates suck.  CompUSA, Circuit City, Staples, and Office Depot all sell most of their computers with rebates attached.  Rebates are a waste of time.  Here is a rebate joke:  What were the last words of the oldest living person in the world?  "My rebate check finally came in the mail."  (2) Quantities are VERY limited.  CompUSA, Circuit City, Staples, and Office Depot all run sales that offer low prices on items that are rarely in stock at the store.  Then customers waste their time by driving to the store to buy sales items that are not in stock.	12/16/2006

Business.	Types of business.  (1) Raw materials industries.  (2) Product makers.  (3) Services.  (4) Distributors: wholesale, retail.	12/30/1992

Business.	What changes in social, economic, and political environment behoove what changes in business (in general, and for specific businesses)?	12/30/1992

Business.	What do we want to do?  Change a process vs. change a product.	12/30/1992

Business.	What.  (1) Pro: business makes and distributes stuff.  (2) Contra: hippies etc.  (A) Business exploits environment and people.  (B) Business promotes cloneism and droneism.  (C) Business is overly materialistic, money grubbers.	12/30/1992

Business.	What.  (1) Why is business important?  Because our very lives depend on business (hospitals, supermarkets, etc.).  Because we spend one-third of our lives at business (when we are working).  Because it employs billions of people and controls billions of dollars.  Because we make thousands of business transactions in our lives (when we buy stuff).  Because even non-profit organizations are run like businesses.  Because even the government is run like a business.  Because our personal lives are run like businesses (exchange nature of sociology).  Because money (and love) make the world around.  Because we all have to make a living.  (2) Due to the fact that business is so pervasive, and so big, it is important to do it well (fairly and efficiently).  It is easy to do business wrong.  List the problems:  (A) Rape of environment.  (B) Exploiting workers.  (C) Rip-off customers and business partners (suppliers etc.).  (D) Intimidate or squeeze out competition (monopoly).  (E) Cozy up to government (campaign finance laws), or intimidate government.  (3) Business is simple.  They try to make business seem complicated in business school, but business is not complicated.	7/21/1998

Business.	What.  Big business affects many people greatly.  Potential for unethical activity is enormous.  Society itself functions or operates through business (economic exchange).	02/04/1994

Business.	What.  Business is a medium.  Business gets stuff to the people.	11/16/1997

Business.	What.  Business is an unavoidable part of life.  Business is a big part of life.  Business needs to be done well.  Business is important and worth studying.	11/15/1994

Business.	What.  Business is conservative.  Organizations, institutions and bureaucracies are conservative.  Change in business organizations is difficult.  Change comes from individuals within the organization, or from environmental forces outside the organization?	10/23/1993

Business.	What.  Business is everything, business is great vs. business aint shit, business sucks.	12/30/1992

Business.	What.  Elements of business.  The study of business is basically just the study of the interaction of money (accounting, finance, economics), people (psychology, sociology), and technology (operations research, operations management).	09/24/1993

Business.	What.  Most business is routine, and boring, with little change.	07/30/1996

Business.	What.  Pro.  What good does business and the study of business do us?  (1) Competition can spur excellence.  (2) Practical problem solving.  Not being lost in theory.  (3) Value of money.  Not to over-value nor under-value money.  To know what money can and can't do.  "Money can't buy us love", as the Beatles said.  (4) Economic man.  Attention to employment and inflation.  (5) Technological man.  To recognize how scientific knowledge is transformed into technological solutions that are transmitted to the people via business transactions.	9/21/2000

Business.	Why is business important?  Because business (work) is one of the fundamental activities of man.  And work is technology (tools and techniques) and ethics.  And we should understand the development of work, and the choices we have available, and the reasons for any choice.  Our knowledge of ourselves and the world influences the development of business.  And visa versa, the development of business influences our knowledge of ourselves.  They affect each other.  That is why business is important: (1) We all do it a lot, and (2) It shapes us, and can help us learn by doing.	12/30/1995

Business.	Why study business?  Study business because its easy to do business wrong.	5/21/2006

Business.	Why study business?  To know the part money plays in our world.  And to know that money is not the sole value we have.  Yet to recognize the part that money plays, especially in the relationship between knowledge, money and power.	9/21/2000

Economics, individual.	.This section is about some of the economic concepts used by individual persons.	11/13/2005

Economics, individual.	.This section is about the economics of individual persons.  Topics include: ( ) Earn.  ( )  Invest.  ( ) Save.  ( ) Spend.  ( ) Stuff.	1/24/2006

Economics, individual.	(1) Input: work, part-time jobs, gifts.  (2) Output.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	(1) Money: how much money do you need to maintain individuality, independence, spirit, mind, soul, health, etc?  (2) Stuff: how much stuff do you need and what kind stuff do you need?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Areas.  Money and stuff.  Home life and work life.  Factors and variable of each.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Big factors.  (1) Long vs. short term views.  (2) Liberal vs. conservative.  (3) Rational vs. irrational.  (4) Rule breakers vs. rule followers.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets and schedules.  (1) Budgets.  Master budget and sub-budgets.  Plan and evaluate.  Total and for each element.  (2) Schedules.  Master schedule and sub-schedules.  Plan and evaluate.  Total and for each element.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets for resources: money, materials, time, energy.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets: resources have vs. can get vs. how use.  Schedules: when use.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets.  (1) Planning budgets: planning contingencies.  Before, and after taxes (depends on bracket).  (2) Control budgets: actual performance, for control.  Earn, save, spend.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets.  (1) Planning.  (A) Aimed for plans (forecasted, predicted).  (B) Contingency plans.  (2) Actual performance.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Budgets.  The spread sheets.  Day, week, month, year, life.  Earn, spend, save.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Can earnings be increased?  Can taxes be reduced?  Can savings be increased?  Can return on savings through investment be increased?	06/30/1997

Economics, individual.	Charity.  5% or 10%?  Before or after tax?  Before or after expenses?  After investment revenue?	07/11/1997

Economics, individual.	Choices, strategies.  What kind of lifestyle do I want and why vs. what kind of lifestyle can I get and how?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Choices.  How early retire vs. things you can only do when you are young.  By x age.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Choices.  How much money need to maintain or get x lifestyle?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Choices.  Mistakes.  Spend (enjoy) now vs. later.  Save (cheap) now vs. later.  Work (beaver) now vs. later.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Choices.  Running your life: techniques for living.  Home, work, like/lust.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Choices.  What standard of living do you want vs. can you get?  What are you willing to do for it, and not?  What you have to do to get it, and don't.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Earn.  (1) Pay scales.  35 and 40 hour weeks, before and after taxes.  Per hour, week, year.  (2) Saving scales: amount set aside, rate of interest, number of years save.	01/01/1993

Economics, individual.	Earn.  See work.  (1) How much earn?  (2) How much time/energy (physical, mental) to spend earning it?  (3) How to earn it?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	If all you think about is personal finance, then you are doing yourself a disservice.  Personal finance is important but its not everything.  Too much attention is paid, by the media and the public, to the subject of personal finance.  There is more to life than the personal.  There is more to life than finance.  Constant talk about stock and bonds, taxes, insurance, real estate and mortgages, interest rates on loans, its all some people think about.  People have forgotten everything else.	5/24/2006

Economics, individual.	Invest.  (1) Want an return on investment of at least 10%, because inflation at 5% will negate a 5% interest rate.  (2) At 5% real interest, investing $1000 per year, your money doubles in 30 years to 60K (this is matching inflation rate).  At 10% you get 120K (actual return after inflation is 5%).  If you don't earn any interest (money in mattress strategy) you lose half your money to inflation.  (3) If you save 10K for 30 years and make 10% interest (5% real) you will have 600,000 (actually worth 300,000).  Then you start taking out 30,000 a year, while it still is earning interest, and it will last 20 years or so.  (4) If you save 400 per month, that is 10K per year.	06/30/1997

Economics, individual.	Invest.  If inflation increases at 4% a year, and you survive at $1000 a month today, and you will retire in 40 years at age 60, how much will you need to live the 20 years from 60 to 80?  At what rate can you save it?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Invest.  The cushion: create a 5 to 10 grand emergency fund by savings or investments of one to two grand a year.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Invest.  Things for the individual investor to know.  How to pick them, how get them, how use them.  Risks vs. return.  Muni bonds, stocks, options, commodities, government bonds, pension plan, mutual funds.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Money metaphors.  Squirrel saving for winter.  Farmer growing his money yield.  Nest egg (see Albert Brook's "Lost in America").	06/30/1997

Economics, individual.	Money vs. stuff.  Work vs. leisure.  Invest, save, spend.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Money: earn, save, spend.  Earn: how, how much.  Save: how, how much.  Spend: how much, on what, necessities, luxuries.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	My master plan: including budgets and schedules.  My welfare goals, and relationships to other goals.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Past, present, future.  Financial history, financial condition at present, and financial plans.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Personal management.  Goals, objectives.  Plans, strategies and tactics.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Philanthropy.  (1) Underfunded philanthropic causes:  Psychological health.  Education via Internet.  Zero population growth efforts.  Worldwide anything.  Third world anything.  (2) Fully funded or overfunded philanthropic causes:  USA anything.  Rare diseases not easily cured.  Religious organizations.	7/18/1998

Economics, individual.	Rigid: follow plans exactly, track every cent vs. loose: changing, spur of moment, spontaneous, free, don't track or plan.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Run personal life like business and government.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Save.  (1) Savings plan.  (2) How much save?  Need x amount by y age to last z years more.  (3) Save for what: retirement, medical, car, rent.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Savings with interest rates over years.  X dollars per year, for y years, at z interest rate, will give how much money total, and will last x years in y point in the future given z lifestyle.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Social Security is in jeopardy and cannot be relied upon.  Pension plans are in jeopardy and cannot be relied upon.  The stock market is in jeopardy and cannot be relied upon.  Many people are having few or no children and thus they have no children to rely upon.  So what are we to do?  Keep working till we are 130.	1/22/2002

Economics, individual.	Social security, welfare, unemployment, disability.  Knowledge about government operations needed as an individual.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Spend.  (1) Cost to buy, use, maintain, repair.  (2) Costs vs. benefits.  (3) How long it lasts.  (4) Criticism, value analysis.  (5) Wants: needs vs. luxuries.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Spend.  Spend on: clothes, women, tapes, books, notes, food, phone.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Spend.  Spending a lot vs. a little.  Spending on crap vs. quality.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Spend.  Time and energy and money to replace.  Degree replaceable (rarity).	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stingy (save lot, spend little) vs. generous (save little, spend lot).	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff I own, owned, and want to own (list).  Utility value, trade value, and irreplaceableness.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff lists: Stuff I have.  Stuff to get.  Stuff to get rid of.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff: how much of what to get and why?	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff.  (1) Had, have, get, get rid of.  (2) Care and maintenance.  (3) Used up, how much left, how long lasts.  (4) What own, how much own.  (5) Make, steal, borrow, buy, get.  (6) Got, get, keep, get rid of.  (7) Maintain, preserve, repair, use, abuse, destroy.  What, how, how often.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff.  (1) Stuff every person should own.  Books every person should own.  Radio-cassette recorder.  Artwork.  (2) Stuff every community should own.  Books every library should have.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Stuff.  Expenses per year for:  Clothes.  Rent.  Phone.  Food.  Transportation.	11/20/1993

Economics, individual.	Stuff.  Survival necessities vs. growth necessities vs. cultural necessities (need to get along).	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	Taxes, social security, unemployment, welfare, insurance, medicaid, medicare.	12/30/1992

Economics, individual.	The factors involved are money, stuff, environment and lifestyle (activities).  Environment includes the people who you pursue and avoid.	10/4/1999

Economics, individual.	The motto: less stuff and money.  More love and information and free time.  Too much emphasis is placed on the former in modern western society.  Not enough emphasis is places on the latter in modern western society.	10/4/1999

Economics, individual.	The way to make money is to (1) Save more.  Consistently save.  Do not dip into your savings.  (Ex. Always have a good health plan.)  (2) Earn more.  Get a good career path going in a high paying area.  You can only lower your expenses so much.  You can only save so much at a given income level.	06/30/1997

Economics, of information.	.This section is about the economics of information.  Topics include: ( ) Free Software and Open Source.	1/24/2006

Economics, of information.	"Free today, pay tomorrow" websites are baloney (ex. fee based newspaper archives).	12/12/2000

Economics, of information.	(1) Access to information is a human right.  For that reason there should be a vast quantity of free information available to all people.  However, we should not require that some people not try to sell the books that they wrote, because I don't believe in pure communism just as I don't believe in pure capitalism.  But people who try to sell information should realize that whatever information they create and sell will, in approximately equal form, be created and given away free by the next person.  (2) Conceptually, the Internet has two parts, the free-information Internet and the pay-for-information Internet.  The Internet at heart is conducive to and geared toward free information.  If the pay-for-information side of the Internet fails then no big deal.  (3) The way the Internet is developing there will most likely be a free-information base-level and a pay-for-information convenience-level.  People will pay for conveniences such as formatting, printing, etc.	12/17/2000

Economics, of information.	(1) Free information movements (ex. Linux, GNU, FSF, OSF, public libraries and open societies) are perhaps the most democratic force in the world today.  Free information promotes justice.  Support the free information movement.     (2) Free information movements are one of the most compelling critiques of pure capitalism.  Pure capitalism is about closed, proprietary, fee-based systems.  Free information movements are about open, non-proprietary, free systems.  Free information movements make pure capitalism look antiquated in that pure capitalism is about physical stuff, not information, and we currently live in an increasingly information age.     (3) Physical stuff.  In regard to physical stuff, the long-term trend in physical stuff is toward less expensive, more abundant, more ecologically sustainable physical stuff.  And what those factors add up to is a situation akin to living in the forest, where things grow on trees in a self-sustaining ecological cycle.     (4) The last area to discuss, beyond information and physical stuff, is the realm of physical experiences.  For example, travel and various other services.     (5) To sum up, the economics of information is part of the economic study of three main areas: information, physical experiences and physical stuff.	12/1/2000

Economics, of information.	Current.  (1) The new economy is information based.  It deals not just with information, but also entertainment and art.  In the new economy, the media is big, hollywood is big, and the web is big.  (2) The new economy is idea based.  Not just ideas but also emotions.  Ideas plus emotion equal attitudes.  Really the whole mind is involved.  (3) People need a limited amount of physical things to be healthy and happy.  People need more of intangibles like freedom, love, knowledge of the world and knowledge of how to best live.  These things are not scarce in number like physical resources are.  (4) Ideas are not scarce in number like physical resources are.  Ideas are limited only by our creativity.  And thus the new economy does not follow the old economic model of scarcity and price.	12/29/1997

Economics, of information.	Currently we digitize information, but one day we may be able to digitize inert matter and even people.  Then what will happen to economics?  Digitization lowers the costs of production and distribution.	3/14/2000

Economics, of information.	Economic models of free information: (1) Free and open (non-proprietary).  Examples include the Free Software Foundation (FSF).  General Public License (GPL).  Linux.  GNU.  Open Software Movement.  (2) Free with advertisements (ex. Online newspapers).  (3) Free but proprietary (closed).  Examples include free yet closed copyrighted and patented software.	12/1/2000

Economics, of information.	Economics of emotions.  (1) Love in the form of arts, such as music, movies, etc.  (2) Love in the form of call-girls.  (3) Love how else?  Love in the form of marriage.  Marriage as an economic institution.	3/14/2000

Economics, of information.	Economics of goods, services, and information (ideas and emotions).  The third is much more important that the first two.	3/14/2000

Economics, of information.	Economics of ideas is not simple supply and demand.  (1) Supply.  There is a limitless supply of ideas.  There is no scarcity of ideas like there is of physical matter.  It takes no resources to produce ideas.  Often ideas just pop into our heads.  Information wants to be free, as they say on the Internet.  Information does not require paper, or silicon, because it can be spread by word of mouth.  Ideas are not bound by matter.  (2) Demand.  There is a limitless demand for ideas.  There is a limit to how much you can eat, but there is no limit to how much you can learn.  People need much more information than they do goods and services.	3/14/2000

Economics, of information.	Economics of ideas.  (1) Information defined as anything that can be digitized: books, music, visual art, movies, software, etc.  (2) Information wants to be free, as they say.  Examples, MP3s, online newspapers, Linux, clipart, etc.	3/11/2000

Economics, of information.	Economics of ideas.  When the product is information, rather than goods and services, what is the price of an idea?  You can't put a price on an idea.  Do you price it at the benefits an idea can provide when put into action?  Do you measure the cost to produce the idea?  Examples, copyrights and patents.	10/3/1999

Economics, of information.	Economics of information is tied up with the politics of information and the technology of information.  They affect each other.  Change one and you change the others.	4/28/2005

Economics, of information.	For any information (ex. books, music, movies, visual arts, software, etc.) that you can create and try to sell for a profit, somebody else somewhere in the world will create for fun and give away for free.  They may not create exactly the same work, but it will most likely be functionally equivalent.  The result of this situation is that it becomes more difficult to make a living as a writer, artist, etc.  An example of the above phenomena is for-profit Unix vs. free Linux.	1/5/2001

Economics, of information.	Free and Open.  (1) Free: anyone can obtain the information for no cost.  (2) Open: once obtained, (A) anyone can manipulate the code that carries the information, or (B) anyone can manipulate the information itself.  (3) Free and open are the ideal.  Some products are neither open nor free (ex. Microsoft products).  Some products are free but not open (ex. compiled-code free-software).  Some products are open but not free (ex. source-code pay-software).  Some products are fee and open (ex. Linux).	12/1/2000

Economics, of information.	Free.  (1) Free PC's (ex. People PC).  (2) Free Internet access (ex. Bluelight).  (3) Free online information (ex. Internet Encyclopedia).	5/29/2001

Economics, of information.	Information has worth above and beyond the worth of the medium.  For example, a book that is 100 pages is worth more than 100 pages of blank paper and ink.  Another example, one book of 100 pages can cost more than a different book of 100 pages.	9/11/2005

Economics, of information.	Information hypotheses.  (1) Information is of many types.  Information can take the form of ideas, emotions, or even attitudes (ideas + emotions).  Information can take the form of words, pictures, music or software code.  (2) Information exists apart from the medium that transmits it (despite what Marshall McLuhan thinks).  For example, a thought can be transmitted by paper book, radio waves, or digital packets.  (3) Digitized information distribution should be no-cost or nearly no-cost.  (4) Information creation is low cost.  People often think of stuff out of the blue, and they do it because they enjoy it.  Thus, one could argue that creators of information should be paying the rest of us (just kidding).  (5) To say we are becoming an information society is to say we are becoming a free (no cost) society.  (6) The human need for information (including the emotion of love) is much greater than our need for physical stuff.  (7) To say we are becoming an information society or world means that (A) education is a basic human right, perhaps even an obligation, and should be free to all.  (B) Communication is increasingly more important than physical conflict in resolving disputes.  (C) Cooperation is at least as important as competition.	12/1/2000

Economics, of information.	Internet models.  (1) Business to consumer (B2C): The problem with B2C is that most people like to get out of the house and go shopping, so online shopping has little to offer these people.  (2) Business to business (B2B): Most business people like talking on the phone to another person, and they like closing deals over lunch, so online purchasing has little to offer these people.  (3) Peer to peer (P2P): This is where the Internet shines.  The sharing of free information among peers is what the Internet is all about.	12/23/2000

Economics, of information.	Is it better to have stuff or knowledge?   Material possessions or information?  Take the example of a skilled woodsman who has a great deal of knowledge that lets him survive with minimal possessions.  This is an example of how knowledge can be more important than stuff.	6/24/2002

Economics, of information.	Much of the information we know is information that we pick up for free through observation.  For example, when you visit a foreign culture for the first time you learn about that culture by observation.  In pure capitalism, where all information is owned privately and sold for a price, people would be denied much of the information that is currently freely available.	9/11/2005

Economics, of information.	One creates an information system and it has economic, political and technological aspects.  What's happening today with information?  And what should happen as a goal?  (1) Technologically.  Information is being digitized.  (2) Politically.  Monopoly over information is being challenged.  Copyright and patent is being challenged.  (3) Economically.  Information is getting cheaper and more wide spread.	4/28/2005

Economics, of information.	Several billion people typing on their computers, for fun and for free, in the evening after work, have the potential to create more and better than academia, government and business worlds combined.  These free content producers can contribute in every media: software, music, literature, visual arts, movies, etc.  These free content producers could eventually become the majority and eventually make the non-free (i.e. business) the minority.	4/26/2001

Economics, of information.	The information economy.  (1) The economy needs information about itself to be healthy.  Stock quotes, interest rates, etc.  (2) People need information to be healthy.  Ignorance is bliss only in the short run, not the long run.	4/29/2005

Economics, of information.	There is much unused computer processing power in computers that are sitting in screen saver mode around the world.  The SETI project is one example of a project that makes use of underutilized computer processing power.  Similarly, there is much unused human brain power in humans who are sitting idly around the world.  This brain power can be put to use for the good of all humanity.	8/29/2005

Economics, of information.	What is an idea worth?  (1) If a book costs ten dollars and contains one thousand sentences then can we say each sentence in the book is worth a penny?  If each sentences has about ten words than can we say that each word is worth a tenth of a cent?  (2) What is the worth of the thousand sentences if they have been mixed up in random order?  What is the worth of the same thousand sentences if you try to sell them one at a time?  Are they not worth more as a complete set?  (3) What if you tried to buy only part of an idea?  For example: What if, instead of buying an entire song, you tried to buy only the notes of pitch C contained in the song?  What if you tried to buy only the blue squares from a painting by Mondrian?  What if you tried to buy only the words beginning with the letter "n" contained in a book?  (4) Information is about organization and order.  Entropy is about randomness and disorder.  Information is the opposite of entropy.  Information increases as more organization and order is applied.  Thus, the value of information increases as more organization and order is applied to the information.	9/11/2005

Economics, of information.	What is an idea worth?  Are you looking to make money in your spare time?  Are you able to think of ideas?  The ideas you think of are valuable.  And, if there is a correspondence across various type of value, your ideas are theoretically worth money.  Don't just sit there, start thinking.  Save your ideas, because even though no one may actually pay you for your ideas, your ideas have some kind of value.	9/11/2005

Economics, of information.	What is an idea worth?  If an idea can keep someone alive, and if a human life is priceless, then the idea is priceless.	9/8/2005

Economics, of information.	When it comes to the economics of information, often what is at issue is not matters of economic costs or profits but rather attempts at knowledge secrecy.  Knowledge secrecy results in an attempt at power-hogging through knowledge-hogging, since knowledge often equals power.  This issue is related to Karl Popper's argument of the Open Society.	12/1/2000

Economics, of information.	Wikipedia is not perfect, but it is available to read at no cost to the reader.  Wikipedia is a worthwhile project.  The same can be said of the Internet in general.  The Internet in general is not perfect but the Internet is available to read at no cost to the reader.  The Internet is a worthwhile project.	8/29/2005

Economics.	.See also: Business.	8/2/2001

Economics.	.This section is about economics.  Topics include: ( ) Ecology and economics.  ( ) Economic systems.  Capitalism, Socialism, Communism.  ( ) History, current, future.  ( ) Ideal, problems, techniques.  ( ) Macro.  ( ) Micro.  ( ) Makework.  ( ) Markets.  ( ) Methods.  ( ) Money.  ( ) Philosophy of economics.	1/24/2006

Economics.	(1) How much money do you need to live?  Enough for food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education, raise kids, retire.  Living well simply vs. living well excessively.  (2) How much stuff do you need to live?  (3) How much time do you need (to do Notes)?	6/18/1998

Economics.	(1) Population growth vs. economy growth.  Growth in size vs. development in terms of  technological advances and variety (diversity).  (2) Fairness and corruption of economic system.  (3) Efficiency and waste of the economic system.	10/25/1997

Economics.	(1) Produced: what, how much.  (2) Used up: what resources, how much of each, and total.  (3) Money: made, lost how much, total and for each product.  (4) Bought and sold: how much of what.	12/30/1992

Economics.	At what point does the system grow, stagnate and decay?  The government sets the business ethical system when it creates business law.  How well people follow the law, and how well you can enforce the law is another thing.	01/01/1993

Economics.	Basic economic questions.  (1) What is being made?  Who is making it?  What resources are being used to make it?  What pollution is created in the making and using of the product?  (2) What is being sold and bought?  What is the selling price?  What is the cost to manufacture?  What is the profit?  Who gets the profit?  (3) Who owns what?  (4) Who is working?  Who is employed?  Who is self employed?  Who is employed by others?  How much are they being paid?	2/10/2005

Economics.	Buy blue.  (1) Buy goods and services from companies that display progressive values.  (2) Buy goods and services from progressives, democrats, liberals, socialists, greens.  (3) Buy goods and services from women and minorities.	3/15/2007

Economics.	Cheapness and frugality vs. productivity and development.  If being cheap interferes with production and development, it ain't worth it.  Frugality and cheapness can impede productivity and development.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Computers, Internet and economics.  (1) Computers and economics.  How have computers changed the economy?  (A) Computers have increased the speed of reaction times.  (B) Computers have increased the scale of businesses.  (C) Computers have made possible economies of scale, mergers and national chains.  (D) Computer inventory made possible the superstore.  (2) Internet and economics.  Internet economy.  How does Internet economy differ from what came before?  Have the rules changed?  Have all the rules completely changed, or just some rules changed a little?  (A) Middleman is reduced or eliminated when people can shop online.  Travel agents.  Stock brokers.  Retailers.  People can book their own travel.  People can trade their own stocks.  People can order factory direct. (B) Less bound by geography and physical space.  (C) Less bound by time.  Quicker.  (D) Access to wider range of goods.  Example, Amazon has many more books than a small book shop.  (E) Bigger "used" market.  Example, ebay.	7/20/2004

Economics.	Computers, Internet and economics.  (1) Disintermediation (eliminate the middleman).  (2) Mass-customization.  (3) Faster.  (4) JIT (just-in-time inventory).  (5) More choices for consumer.  (6) Level playing field for small business visa vie large business.  (7) Collapsed space.  (8) International.	3/15/2000

Economics.	Computers, Internet and economics.  Effect of computers on economics and business.  (1) Jobs moving overseas.  (2) Intellectual property issues.  Free software and content.  (3) E-commerce.  Internet business.  (4) Information economy, not services or industry.	11/2/2003

Economics.	Conspicuous consumption (consuming for status) is insane in a world of limited resources.  Voluntary simplicity is better for the environment.  Your self worth does not depend on stuff and money.  If you believe that it does, then you are set up for crisis, because at some point in your life money and stuff fail to satisfy.  Just as important as money and stuff are quality of life issues such as education (knowledge), justice, health and love.	7/21/1998

Economics.	Consumer society.  People buy things to try to add meaning to their lives.  People buy things to try to get happy.  People buy things because everyone else has it.  People buy things because someone, like an advertiser, told them to buy it.	5/1/2006

Economics.	Cost of living.  (1) If the cost of living is too high then people are compelled to take a second and third job, working seven days a week, twelve hours a day, which is unfair.  (2) If the cost of living is too high then people cannot afford a place to live.  (3) If the cost of living is too high then people are compelled to take jobs that support an unjust economic system that oppresses workers.  (4) The cost of living is too high when wages are too low.  Wages are too low when employers keep too much profits for themselves.  Wages are too low when employers refuse to pay their workers a living wage.	7/31/2006

Economics.	Criticism of capitalism.  The pursuit of money as if money is the only thing that matters, that is a bad thing.  The pursuit of money as if money is the most important thing, that is bad thing.  The pursuit of money as if whatever makes the most money is best, that is a bad thing.  The pursuit of money as if it will be okay if everyone mindlessly pursues money, that is a bad thing.	1/16/2006

Economics.	Criticism of the rich.  If every person worked at the same pay rate per hour, and if there was no such thing as inheritance, then there might be some shred of credibility to the claim by the rich that the poor are poor because the poor do not work enough.  However, when people work at vastly different pay rates per hour, and when there is such a thing as inheritance, then the claim by the rich that the poor are poor out of laziness is simply ridiculous.	1/10/2006

Economics.	Criticism of the rich.  The rich get rich by exploiting other people.  The rich get rich at the expense of other people.  The rich get rich off the work of other people.  (2) It is wrong for one person to be so rich.  Nobody needs that much money.  (3) Its a mistake to view getting rich as the sole goal of life.  Its a mistake to view getting rich as the best thing in life.  Money is not everything.  Monetary riches does not equal success.	1/1/2006

Economics.	Criticisms of free market capitalism.  Making whatever people desire does not take into account addiction and the poor judgment of consumers.	11/15/2005

Economics.	Critique of business.  (1) Americans over-consume.  (2) Businesses are money-hungry, unthinking, capitalist pigs.  (3) Green business is the way to go.  Fair Trade is the way to go.	3/30/2007

Economics.	Critique of capitalism.  Capitalism's bogus views: Sell your labor to the highest bidder.  Sell yourself to the highest bidder.  Do whatever job pays the most, regardless of whether it is useful or not, and regardless of whether you enjoy it or not, and regardless of whether it is ethical or not, and regardless of whether it helps the world or not.	1/1/2006

Economics.	Critique of corporations.  Corporatism is bad.  Corporatism is a nation run by and for the corporations, and that is a bad thing.  Corporatism exploits workers, customers, the general public, and the environment.  The corporations exploit workers by refusing to pay workers a living wage, while at the same time making increasing corporate profits.  The corporations have too much power and money.  Corporations try to undermine the labor movement, the environmental movement, the consumer rights movement, and other social justice movements.	2/19/2007

Economics.	Critique of economics.  The standard economic statistics (for example, GDP, inflation, etc.) do not describe whether a nation is moving toward social justice and environmental sustainability.  Economics is not everything.	1/10/2006

Economics.	Critique of money.  Defenses of not trying to be rich.  Live minimally.  Live simply.  Money is evil.  Money causes people to act evil.  Money is a form of power, and power corrupts.  Money causes greed.  Greed is not good.  Sharing is good.  Share your time and your money.	1/27/2007

Economics.	Critique of rich people.  (1) The rich are greedy pigs.  The rich hoard money.  The rich over-consume material possessions.  (2) The rich are status seekers.  The rich want to show off.  The rich desire popularity.  The rich are thus shallow.  (3) The rich make money by exploiting poor workers.  The rich oppress the poor.  (4) The rich worship money.  The rich value money above all.  The rich think money is the ultimate value.  (5) The rich get rich by selling useless junk to poor people who cannot afford to waste their money.  (6) The rich are usually conservatives, republicans.  (7) The rich are selfish.  The rich are egoists.  The rich only care about themselves.  (8) The rich create a playing field that favors their own self interests.  The rich use their money and power to gain even more money and power.  (9) The rich look down on the poor.  The rich exploit the poor and then tell the poor that its their own fault that they are poor.  (10) The rich are a bunch of sell outs.  The rich gave up trying to solve the problems of the world and decided to just make money.  (11) The rich do not care about the environment.  The rich do not care about social justice.  (12) The rich try to justify their greed by claiming that money means success, or that money means moral goodness, or that they are helping the economy, but their lies and lame excuses ring hollow. 	6/13/2007

Economics.	Critique of the rich.  (1) The rich get rich from exploiting the poor.  (2) The rich spend their riches on useless extravagances instead of giving their money to the poor.  (3) The rich worship money.  Some rich people do anything to get money.	3/30/2007

Economics.	Critique of the rich.  The rich get rich through the work of the poor.  The rich get rich from the sweat of underpaid workers.	3/30/2007

Economics.	Critique of wealth, money, riches.  (1) Do not take more than you need.  Do not hoard.  Do not be greedy.  Do not waste resources.  Do not buy more than you need.  (2) Do not spend all your life working for money.  Do not make money your ultimate value.  (3) Do not become obsessed with material possessions.  Material possessions begin to clutter your life.  Material possessions begin to own you.  (4) Do not be so anxious about your survival that you spend all your time thinking about yourself.  Do not fall prey to egoism.	1/27/2007

Economics.	Critiques of capitalism.  (1) Conservatives want to privatize everything and that is a mistake.  Public works projects are important.  (2) Conservatives want to deregulate everything and that is a mistake.  Regulation, aka law, is essential for civilization to function.  (3) Completely free markets are a mistake because completely free markets mean complete privitization and deregulation, and that means no laws to protect the rights of workers, consumers and the general public.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Critiques of capitalism.  Addiction leads consumers to want things that they do not need.  Greed leads producers to make the things that feed human addictions.  Addiction and greed are the engines of a bogus economy.  One could argue that the current US economy is a bogus economy.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Critiques of capitalism.  The flaw of capitalism.  The best things in life are free.  The most important things in life are free.  Yet pure capitalism says everything must have a price and everything must be privately owned.  Pure capitalism says nothing can be free of charge and nothing can be shared or publically owned.  Pure capitalism is bogus.	3/13/2005

Economics.	Critiques of the free market.  (1) In a completely free market everything is for sale.  Child labor.  Heroin.  Machine guns.  Human organs.  Human slavery.  That is a bad way to live.  (2) In a completely free market there is no protection of minority rights.  That is bad.  A tyranny of the majority should not trample minority rights.  (3) Free markets head towards the lowest common denominator.  Its like commercial television, it sucks.  (4) Completely free markets tend to sell useless junk and noxious garbage.  For example, junk food.  The people deserve laws to protect investors, consumers and the general public.  (5) Completely free markets, devoid of any regulation, is a state of lawlessness.  A state of lawlessness is not justice.  (6) Conservatives often claim to be for free markets, capitalism and pure competition.  Completely free markets are a bad idea.  Pure capitalism is a bad idea.  Pure competition is a bad idea.  Not everything in life is a competition.  (7) Human rights, as exemplified in the International Declaration of Human Rights, are not something that you have to compete for and get if you win and do not get if you lose.  Human rights are guaranteed by just societies.  Human rights are a form of basic, socially imposed equality.  Human rights are a good idea.	9/2/2005

Economics.	Critiques of the free market.  Money is not the only measure, nor the best measure, of the value of things.	9/11/2005

Economics.	Critiques of the free market.  The free market does a poor job determining the value of things.  In times of fads and frenzy, people will pay unjustifiably high prices for one item while another item will go for an unjustifiably low price.  For example, the tulip bulb craze.	9/11/2005

Economics.	Critques of capitalism.  (1) A manufacturer might produce either useless or hurtful products.  A consumer might purchase useless or hurtful products.  (2) A manufacturer might produce goods at the expense of the environment and workers.  Consumers might purchase items at the expense of the environment and workers.  (3) It is regulation, in the form of laws, that prevent abuses by businesses.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Ecological economics would account fully for all resources consumed and for all waste produced in the production, distribution and consumption of goods, services and information.	11/15/2001

Economics.	Ecology and economics.  Americans consume too much material goods, and produce too much pollution and garbage.  Americans consume too much nonrenewable energy, in the form of oil.  Americans need to be more ecologically sustainable.  Americans consume too much in general, in the form of big houses, big cars, etc.  Americans are 5% of the world population and consume 25% of world resources.	10/1/2005

Economics.	Ecology and economics.  Classical economic theory pays scant attention to the natural environment.  A true economics would account for human impact on the natural environment.  A true economics would account for the use of non-renewable resources.  A true economics would account for the creation of pollution.	8/14/2004

Economics.	Ecology and economics.  Ecology must be included in the economic equation.	3/29/2002

Economics.	Ecology and economics.  Most economists only consider money.  They see money as the sole value.  They measure everything in terms of money.  Economics is more than that.  Economics needs to consider the entire environment, all the factors in the environment, including all resources and all waste.	2/28/2002

Economics.	Ecology and economics.  Pollution and economics.  Supply and demand.  Pollution decreases the supply of clean air, water and land.  Overpopulation increases the demand for clean air, water and land.  Overpopulation also increases the amount of pollution.	12/20/2003

Economics.	Economic class.  Most people are "working class" and yet don't really think so.	5/5/2007

Economics.	Economic development.  For the topic of economic development, see the section on International development.	6/10/2007

Economics.	Economic systems, critiques of.  Capitalism is a flawed economic system.  Free markets are not the answer.  Regulation is needed.	3/30/2007

Economics.	Economic systems.  (1) Factors, forces, mechanisms.  (2) Types.  Theoretical vs. actual.  Young vs. old.  Simple vs. complex.  Small vs. big.  (3) Size and complexity.  Number of people.  Number of types of things made.  Number of individual things made.  Number of ways traded.  Number of transactions.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Economic systems.  Capitalism.  Criticisms of free market capitalism.  (1) A completely free market is unethical.  No one should be completely free to make or sell anything that one wants to.  For example, it is wrong to make and sell nuclear weapons to whoever wants to buy them.  100% freedom is unethical.  No one should be free to go around killing people.  Laws limit what can be made and sold.  It is not, and should not be, a totally free market.  Total freedom is wrong.	11/15/2005

Economics.	Economic systems.  Capitalism.  The big questions: Free markets, to what degree do they work and not?  To what degree are they fair and not?	2/24/2000

Economics.	Economic systems.  Communism.  (1) Communism as an explanation of reality:  Economics is the basis of everything.  Political power and political control comes from money, and money comes from owning the factors of production.  Big money influences the political process.  What guards against this?  Anti-trust laws, unions and campaign finance reform.  (2) Communism as a criticism of pure capitalism (and a proposed solution):  Pure capitalism does not work.  Pure capitalism leads to the formation of monopolies which raise prices and exploit consumers.  Capitalism exploits workers.  Corporations can run amok if they acquire too much money and power.  Corporations can run amok if they do not have to answer to the public.  Corporate influence on politics can easily become excessive.  Corporations operating without bounds can easily lead to the destruction of the environment.  Under pure capitalism advertisers also run amok.  In a purely capitalistic society, anything is for sale.  (3) The point is that in actual societies: (A) Total freedom does not work.  (B) Zero government does not work.  (C) Zero taxes does not work.	4/4/2000

Economics.	Economic systems.  Criticism of three types of economic systems.     (I) Capitalism.  (A) Pro.  (1) Invisible hand of supply and demand is efficient at employing people.  (2) Efficient at producing what people want.  (3) Competition increases creativity.  (B) Contra.  (1) Exploits workers.  (2) Commercial advertising creates desires for unhealthy junk.  (3) Ruthless competition creates monopolies that become big, fat  and lazy (inefficient).  (4) Plight of Commons.  Either all is  privatized, or else public lands suffer.  See regulation vs. deregulation, and nationalization vs. privatization.     (II) Socialism.  (A) Pro.  (1) Some government agencies (NEH, NIS, NEA) and corporations (PBS) are good.  (2) Some government ownership of land is good, like national parks.  (3) Welfare state.  Get poor back on feet.  Medicare, Social Security.  (4) New Deal.  Government use of economic levers, like fiscal and monetary policy, now commonly accepted.  (B) Contra. ?     (III) Communism.  (A) Pro.  (1) From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.  (B) Contra.  (1) In reality, political abuses prevent pure communism from existing.  (2) People under communism are not motivated by self-interest to work and to be creative.  (3) Inefficiency of command economy.  Humans cannot quickly make the millions of decisions that need to be made.  (4) People have no freedom to choose their occupation.  The State owns the means of production, like the land and the person (labor).  No freedom or individuality.	4/28/1998

Economics.	Economic systems.  Free market.  (1) Arguments for free market.  (A) It is efficient, fast and smart.  Government is slow and dumb.  (2) Arguments against free market.  (A) It does anything for a buck (prostitute).  It even tries to persuade people to buy things they don't need, things they can't afford, poor quality junk, and poisonous unhealthy products.  (B) It exploits workers.  (C) It easily becomes corrupt monopoly without government anti-trust laws and watchdog policing.	12/30/1996

Economics.	Economic systems.  PART ONE.  Capitalism.  (1) Definitions.  Freedom as primary value.  Individual is primary.  (2) Pros:  (3) Cons: No protection for employees, consumers and the public.     PART TWO.  Socialism.  (1) Definitions.  (2) Pros:  (3) Cons.     PART THREE.  Communism.  (1) Definitions.  Equality is primary value.  Group is primary.  (2) Pros:  (3) Cons: Central planning is not smart enough or fast enough.	4/14/2002

Economics.	Economic systems.  Pure capitalism and pure communism, the reason they do not work in the real world is because they are both ideal polar opposites.  Pure capitalism is an impractical ideal in that pure capitalism, as defined as completely free markets, is akin to anarchy in that it relies on a lawless society.  Pure communism is an impractical ideal in that it hopes to achieve complete equality among people.  In between the ideal polar opposites of capitalism and communism are the many real-world examples of socialism.  Every economy and government in this world is a form of socialism.  There are an infinite variety of socialisms.	4/14/2002

Economics.	Economic systems.  Pure capitalism does not work.  Pure communism does not work.  We need a mixture.	4/14/2002

Economics.	Economic systems.  Totalitarianism.  Criticisms of totalitarianism.  No freedom for the individual.  Cannot pick your job.  Cannot pick where you live.  Cannot pick what you wear.  Cannot make any profit.  Cannot own any property.	11/15/2005

Economics.	Economics does not exist in a vacuum, despite the fact that many economists think it does.  No decision is a "money alone" decision.  The environment and the political rights of workers, consumers and the general public must be considered in any "economic" decision.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Economics of addiction.  What happens when a society begins to desire things that are not healthy?  If the economy of a society is based on the law of supply and demand, and then the society begins to demand garbage and poison, what then?  What happens when a society begins to produce and consume garbage and poison?  Humans have a tendency towards obsession, addiction and excess when it comes to drugs, sex, food, money and power.	4/29/2005

Economics.	Economics should serve ethics.  Economics should not stand alone.  Economics should not try to stand above the other subject areas.	2/27/2007

Economics.	Effect on economics of (1) Rise in population: unemployment?  Drop in population.  (2) Demographic shifts in population.  Causes: tax rates, cost of living.  Effects:.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Effort vs. results.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Entry to economics.  It matters how you make your money.  Some money is dirty money.  Some money is blood money.  Most people will admit there are certain jobs that they will not work.  Most people will admit that there are certain products that they will not use even if the product is less expensive.  Most people will admit there are certain companies that they will not do business with even if it means spending a little extra.  The amount of money you have is not the ultimate value.  There are ethical considerations to money that go far beyond what you will find in an economics textbook.	5/29/2007

Economics.	Entry to economics.  One of the more useful ways into a discussion of economics is to look at the many attitudes people have about money.  Critique various attitudes that people have about money.	5/29/2007

Economics.	Ethical spectrum.  Conservatives vs. liberals.  Free market vs. command market.  Control vs. freedom.  Cooperation vs. competition.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Evolutionary economics.  (1) Economic behavior in animals (ex. dogs playing poker).  (2) Economic behavior in early humans (c. 200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Economics.	Evolutionary economics.  (1) Human beings may have an "economics" module in their brains that evolved over thousands of years, that helps us weigh the costs and benefits of any action (including the "action" of using our brains or thinking).  Thus, economics is not just for college anymore.  (2) Our mental choice-making mechanism extends to many areas, such as social relations.  Thus, economics is not just about money anymore.  Many other values besides money are involved.  Thus, ethics gets mixed up with economics.	10/31/2000

Economics.	Evolutionary economics.  Economic behavior in animals.  Food trading.  Favor trading.  Sharing.  Competition.  Reciprocal altruism.	5/17/2005

Economics.	Evolutionary economics.  For millions of years people have lived in an environment that had an economic side.  For millions of years people have been acquiring values like food, having occasional surpluses, and trading surpluses for other values like sex.  Then people began to make things like stone tools and clothes.  People began to trade more things.  As humans evolved, there has always been basic economic concepts like needs, scarcity and utility.  There has always been production and trade.  Even when coin and paper money is not present, people develop other currencies and mediums of exchange, like cigarettes or wampum.	8/14/2004

Economics.	Exchange.  Put in: type thing, amount of it, value of it.  Get out: type of thing, amount of it.  Value of it: to you, to another, to anyone.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Fair Trade is good.  Drink Fair Trade coffee.  Support coffee shops that brew Fair Trade coffee.  Buy Fair Trade food.  Wear Fair Trade clothes.  Search out Fair Trade products on the Internet.  When you buy Fair Trade products you help people make a living wage.	2/18/2007

Economics.	Four separate issues. (1) The technological sophistication of an economy.  One can distinguish between simple and complex products.  In terms of the materials they are made of.  Or in terms of the number of parts they have.  One can also distinguish between technologically primitive and sophisticated products.  (2) The diversity of an economy: How many different products and services it produces.  (3) The size of an economy: The number of workers employed and the amount of products and services produced.  (4) The health of an economy.  Jobs are available due to low unemployment.  Job wages are enough to live on, save some money, and have some leisure time too, all because of low inflation.  (5)(A) An economy can be low-tech yet healthy.  An economy can be high tech yet unhealthy.  (B) An economy that is not diverse is not as healthy as it could be.  (example, single crop economies are prone to blights).  Diversity is healthy.  (C) Greater size, in terms of number of workers available, can promote greater diversity.  Technical sophistication may promote economic diversity.	2/12/2002

Economics.	Four variables in economic systems.  (1) Competition vs. cooperation.  (2) Non-corruption vs. corruption in an economic system.  (3) Efficient vs. inefficient economic systems.  (4) Economic systems with freedom vs. with little freedom.  Freedom of choice, of what to do with life (occupation), and of what to buy.  There was little freedom in Russia's centrally planned economy.	11/30/1997

Economics.	GDP only tells you how much money you are making.  GDP does not tell you what you are making.  GDP only keeps track of items that can be monetized.  GDP does not track items that cannot be monetized.  GDP does not tell you how just a society is.  GDP does not tell you about technological level.  GDP does not tell you about ecological sustainability nor social justice.  GDP does not tell you how many hours people work, or how efficiently the work process is.	3/31/2006

Economics.	Green economics and social justice economics.  (1) Green economics.  The goal is not to own the most stuff and have the most money.  The goal is to own the least stuff and the least money, because it is better to live with a small ecological footprint and its better to give your money away to the needy.  (2) Social justice economics.  Money is not the only nor best measure of value.  Justice, truth, health, education are all higher values than money.	4/30/2007

Economics.	Have vs. don't have.  Need vs. don't need.  Want vs. don't want.  Can get vs. can't get.  Get vs. give.	12/30/1992

Economics.	History current future.  Current.  American economy today.  (1) Global competition.  Post WWII U.S. dominance ending.  Increased foreign competition.  (2) Polarizing effects.  Dwindling middle class.  Rich richer, and poor poorer.  (3) Computerization leads to downscaling, and middle management is disappearing.  Computerized inventory leads to creation of superstores.  (4) Regionalism: Americas NAFTA, European Union, Asiaian RIM.  (5) Other factors.  Fall of communism.  Mid east fundamentalism and terrorism.  Regulation and deregulation.  New technology.  Green movement.  Business cycle.  Government fiscal and monetary policy.  Increasing communication technology.	06/01/1993

Economics.	History current future.  Current.  Nihilistic view.  The economy is polarizing.  The few jobs available today suck and are low paying too.  Global competition and increasing automation make fewer jobs, suckier work, and less pay.  Self esteem plummets, and pathological psychology sets in.	04/10/1993

Economics.	History current future.  Current.  The new economy is information and service based, not industry based or agriculture based.  Services like data processing, lawyers, medicine, and prostitution.	12/29/1997

Economics.	History current future.  History of economics theory and practice.  (1) Increase in amounts and types of trade.  (2) Barter at first, and then money.  (3) Feudalism.  (4) Mercantilism.  (5) Keeping of statistics.  (6) Computer models.  (7) International organizations.  (8) International trade.  Exchange rates.  Balances of trade.  (9) What is the difference if everyone does business a new way?  Changes the economy?	05/27/1993

Economics.	History current future.  History.  Every society has an economic system.  How much people, products and services, and money are in it?  How much raw materials available?  What is needed, what is made, and how is it sold?  How much workers work, produce, and earn.	12/30/1992

Economics.	History current future.  History.  Historical development of economic systems.  (1) Egalitarianism amongst primitives.  (2) Ancient: kings, priest, military, slaves.  (3) Feudalism, nobles. (4) Mercantilism, imperialism.  (5) Capitalism, communism, socialism.	12/30/1992

Economics.	History current future.  History.  The man, his idea, the name of the work he wrote.	12/30/1992

Economics.	History currrent future.  History.  Economic eras.  (1) Economics during hunter-gatherer age.  Humans living at a subsistence level.  (2) Economics during the agricultural age.  Farming.  Humans power.  Animal power.  Waterwheel power.  Windmill power.  Humans do hard physical labor.  (3) Economics during the industrial age.  Machines increase efficiency.  Humans do repetitive physical work.  Assembly line work.  (4) Economics during the computer age.  Computers increase efficiency.  At first, humans do repetitive mental work.  (5) The hope is that humans will have challenging mental work.  Knowledge workers.	7/20/2004

Economics.	Housing is too expensive.  Housing should not require one third of your wages.  Yet, there currently is no available alternative.  Where is the affordable housing?  When people take jobs that they do not like in order to pay the rent for apartments that they cannot afford then something is wrong in society.	9/7/2005

Economics.	How important is economics?  An inflationary view of economics says that economics determines all (economic determinism).  A deflationary view of economics says that economics is less important than politics, technology, etc.	5/17/2005

Economics.	Ideal state approach.  Economic system: the system you set up vs. actually occurs.  Economic system: create, maintain, repair.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Ideal.  What would an ideal economy look like?  No person has to work?  Everyone has a job that they like?  Everyone has the things they need?  Everyone has money?  Everyone owns land?  No one owns land?	10/2/2004

Economics.	If a discussion or situation is not about money can it still be about economics?  Is there an economics of values other than money?  If a discussion is not about exchange is it about economics?  Can we speak of the economy of the single individual?  If a discussion is not about needs, scarcity and value, is it about economics?  What if one had no needs?  That is, what if demand was zero?  What if there was no scarcity?  That is, what if supply was unlimited?	1/20/2005

Economics.	If you are going to ask people to recognize that they are caught in a cycle of over consumption, oil burning and slavery to the corporation, then you should present them with a viable alternative.  Alternative living: Simple, low cost, tolerant, smart, knowledgeable, cooperative, communal, communicative, self sufficient, sustainable.	11/11/2005

Economics.	In a capitalist system it does little good to remind people of the problems of communism because, for one thing, there is little ongoing communism, and secondly, almost everyone in a capitalist system has already been indoctrinated about the problems of communism.  In a capitalist system it does much good to remind people about the problems of capitalism because, for one thing, there is a lot of capitalism going on, and secondly, most people have not developed the ability to think critically about capitalism.  Capitalism is not without its problems.	3/8/2007

Economics.	Income demographics.  What percentage of the population are in each income bracket?	12/14/2004

Economics.	Issues about the economy.  (1) Is the recession ending?  What caused the recession?  The tech stock market bubble?  The Enron and other corporate scandals?  (2) Low wages due to lack of unions.  (3) New jobs are McDonald type jobs.  (4) Unemployment rates are around six percent.  (5) National deficit is ballooning.  That is a bad thing.  (6) Outsourcing of jobs to India and China.  (7) Robotization and computerization of work leads to downsizing.  (8) The housing market is in a bubble, like the stock market was in 1999.  (9) Bush is not a fiscal conservative.  Bush drives the country into debt.  Bush does not help the economy.  The deficit is soaring while tax cuts are given out.  Clinton, to his credit, balanced the budget.	6/15/2005

Economics.	Issues.  (1) Free-trade vs. protectionism.  Buying U.S. made goods only vs. NAFTA.  We sell to other countries so we should buy from other countries.  Losing U.S. jobs to cheap foreign labor.  (2) Fixed currencies vs. fluid or fluctuating currencies.  Example, U.S. dollar vs. japanese yen.  What causes fluctuations.  What was the gold standard?  (3) Balance of trade.  Imports vs. exports.  (4) Savings vs. investment.	12/20/1998

Economics.	Labor (past, present, future).  Who and how many are they?  What do they want?  How are they trying to get it?  Who are they fighting and how?  What are their numbers in each industry?  Who is fighting labor, how, why, and for what?	12/30/1992

Economics.	Labor movement needs to be just and strong.  Get rid of corruption in the labor movement.  Create a vibrant labor movement.	2/19/2007

Economics.	Labor.  (1) Labor unions are one of the main ways to protect workers from exploitation by corporations.  (2) Many large corporations, for example, Walmart and Starbucks, go to great lengths to try to prevent workers from unionizing.  (3) Workers unionize to achieve better pay and health coverage, reasonable hours, child care and other values.  (4) One problem is corruption of unions by organized crime.  Union members pay dues which organized crime tries to take.  (5) Corporations, through the use of campaign fund contributions, try to get laws passed that are unfriendly to labor and friendly to corporations.	1/10/2006

Economics.	Labor.  In an efficient society.  What % of adults are working?  What % are out with physical problems, and psychological problems?  What % are too young to work, or too old to work?	08/17/1997

Economics.	Labor.  Organized crime weakened the unions.   Time to build up unions again, and clear unions of organized crime and corruption.  Use the SEIU as a model.	1/20/2007

Economics.	Labor.  The labor movement in America today needs to be rebuilt.  There is an imbalance of power in favor of corporations and against labor in America today.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Labor.  Unionize the computer workers of the world.  Save your wrists.  Computer workers should not have to work 12 hours a day.  Fight for an 8 hour work day.  Fight to have the right to further your education after work.  Fight to have the right to spend time with your loved ones.  Fight to have a lunch hour.  People in the labor movement died to get the eight hour work day.  Don't let anyone take it away.	6/8/2006

Economics.	Labor.  What happened to the labor movement?  How to get the labor movement back on track?  An international labor movement.  Establishing fair and safe working conditions and wages worldwide.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that the labor movement is a lost cause, but those conservative pundits are wrong.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that it is either not a problem or that nothing can be done about it, but those conservative pundits are wrong.	6/26/2005

Economics.	Macro.  International.  Trade occurs because (1) Different people have different skills to produce.  (2) Different people have different resources available to produce.  (3) Different people have different needs to consume.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Macro.  International.  World, international regions.  (1) International finance (money, exchange rates).  (2) International government, international law.  (3) International trade.  National regulations vs. international regulations.  Imports and exports.  Business partners: buyers, sellers.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Macro.  National.  (1) GNP can grow, stagnate, or shrink.  (2) Number of jobs can grow, stagnate, or shrink.  (3) Population can grow, stagnate, or shrink.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Macro.  National.  (1) Type economic system used (capitalism, socialism, communism).  (2) National: GNP and growth rate, rank in world.  (3) Government intervention: area, degree, in whose favor and whose loss.  (4) Money, banking.  (5) Growth, development, and planning, measuring, forecasting.  (6) Ills: inflation, unemployment.  (7) Specific national economies: US economy.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Macro.  National.  GNP: size.  Growth rate.  Changing composition.  Goods vs. services.  Money making vs. product making.  Imports vs. exports.  Crap vs. useful stuff.	06/01/1994

Economics.	Macro.  National.  GNP/GDP: what you make.  How fast is economy growing?  Are you making hi-tech or lo-tech stuff?  PDI: what consumers have to spend.  Spending vs. savings.  Interest rates.  Inflation rate.  Unemployment rate.  Imports vs. exports.  Geographic region, or industry type.	01/01/1993

Economics.	Macro.  National.  What causes rises and drops in inflation, interest rates, stockmarket, unemployment, and GNP?	04/01/1994

Economics.	Make work.  Philosophers, psychologists and car mechanics.  For these professions there has to be a problem.  Otherwise, they are out of a job.  Or worse, if there are no problems then these professions are out of a life purpose.  So, if there are no apparent problems they will have a tendency to do one of three things:  (1) Find a hidden problem.  Make a mountain out of a molehill.  For example, your engine is fixed but now the mechanic wants to straighten your fender.  (2) Create a problem that is not currently present.  For example, your car was running fine so the mechanic took a hammer to it.  (3) See a problem that is not there.  Treat an imaginary problem.  For example, the mechanic replaced a perfectly good part.  (4) Then they milk the problem.  Milk the system.  Milk the customer.  Milk it baby.  (5) Luckily there are lots of real problems on this earth to keep the above professions busy.  However, when the pool of real problems dries up, look out!  (6) Philosophers and psychologists will say "How dare you compare me to an auto mechanic."  The real point is that we need to recognize that all people in all occupations face these temptations.	4/19/2000

Economics.	Make work.  There is often an economic impetus to say there is a problem when there is no problem.  There is an economic impetus to say there is a big problem when there is only a small problem.  There is even an economic impetus to create problems or cause trouble.  That is, there is a monetary incentive for various occupations (ex. auto mechanics, psychologists and philosophers) to stretch out work in order to keep making money.  This subject has to do with the economics of "make work" and "slacking off".  To address this issue, the work system has developed checks and balances such as peer review and professional standards.  How well do these checks and balances work?	4/19/2000

Economics.	Markets.  (1) Gray markets.  Examples: Barter.  Housework.  (2) Black markets.  Examples: Illegal activities.  Illegal and unethical activities.	3/29/2002

Economics.	Markets.  (1) Markets by region, by industry, and by product.  (2) Market or industry structures: pure free, oligopoly, monopolistic, monopoly.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Markets.  Securities markets.  (1) History, size, structure, and mechanism.  (2) How to pick them.  (3) Sellers market vs. buyers market.  (4) Rise or fall, of total market and for specific industries.  (5) Change in a company: how much, how quick.  (6) Markets as leading or lagging indicators.  Markets as direct or indirect, causes or effects, on economy.  (7) Trend analysis and comparative analysis to industry.  (8) What % of GNP is the stock markets.  (9) Money markets, stocks, bonds, options, mutuals.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Markets.  Stocks.  (1) Rise or fall.  Quickly or slowly.  For long duration or short duration.  (2) Causes, forecasting.  (3) Undervalued vs. overvalued.  (4) Preferred stock, common stock.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Markets.  Two markets. (1) Unreported, untaxed legal transactions.  For example, barter and working off the books. (2) Unreported illegal transactions.  I.e., crime.  For example, drug dealing.  (3) How big are these markets relative to the total economy?	2/13/2002

Economics.	Markets.  Type of market.  Size of market: number of companies, in dollars, in people.  Growth rate of industry.  Forces on it: political/law, tech/science, economic/business, sociology/psychology.  Effects of the industry on same.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Markets.  Types of markets.  (1) Food: agriculture, restaurant/fast food.  (2) Clothing: fashion industry.  (3) Shelter: construction business.  (4) Transportation: airline industry, auto industry, train, trucking.  (5) Communication industry.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Markets.  Types of markets.  (1) Manufactured objects.  (2) Commodities (raw materials).  (3) Money markets.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Micro.  Economics of individual: earning, spending, and saving.  How much and when to save, borrow, or spend?	12/30/1992

Economics.	Micro.  Economics of the firm: managerial micro economics.  Ideal states (bea, ror).  Managerial economics: what is the present actual and present potential, and the future actual and future potential, market for our product.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Money and banking.  History of theory and use.  Controlling flow.  Purchasing power: 1 unit of money buys how much stuff?  Standards of value: 1 unit of money buys how much gold, silver, platinum, etc?	12/30/1992

Economics.	Money for money's sake, is the view of the greedy.  There is never enough money for the greedy.	10/19/2005

Economics.	Money is for suckers.	5/14/2007

Economics.	Money, critique of.  (1) There are people who measure success only in terms of money.  It is a mistake to use money as the sole criteria of success.  (2) There are people whose only goal is to become rich for the sake of being rich.  Its a mistake to become rich for the sake of being rich.	3/30/2007

Economics.	Money: what resources spent to get money?  What spend money on?	12/30/1992

Economics.	Money.  (1) Amount of money made for how much of what types of work.  (2) How much goods and services this amount of money can buy?  (3) Amount of money you need to live in society at any given level.	06/10/1997

Economics.	Money.  Why do values of currencies rise and drop in relation to each other?  Why does value of money change through time?	4/1/1994

Economics.	Most important ideas about economics and business.  Green economics.  Green business.  Social justice economics.  Social justice business.  Money should take a back seat to environmental sustainability and social justice.  Do not sacrifice justice and the environment for money.	4/15/2007

Economics.	Most important ideas about economics are ideas about how to achieve an ethical economic system.  Do not define economics narrowly, as a science completely disconnected from ethics.  In the real world, economics is not separate from the other areas of life, and thus, the ethics of economics and business is important part of daily life.  Economics is intertwined with politics, technology and other areas of life.  Be an activist for progressive economic policies.  Buy Fair Trade products.  Protest against sweatshops.  Buy products that help save the environment.  Vote Progressive in support of labor and the environment.	2/19/2007

Economics.	Most important ideas about economics.  (1) Money is not everything.  Money is not the only thing.  (2) Money is not the most important thing.  Somethings are more important than money.  For example, truth and justice are more important than money.  Economics is not the most important science.  (3) Money is not the best judge.  Money is not the best way to value things.  (4) Capitalism has many problems.  Understand the critiques of capitalism.	3/11/2007

Economics.	Outsourcing.  Why is almost everything sold in America today made in China?  America has moved its exploitation of labor overseas.  Americans are more interested in low prices than avoiding foreign slave labor, sweatshop labor, child labor, forced labor and coerced labor.	2/28/2004

Economics.	Participatory economics (PARECON) means economic democracy.  Involve workers and in the decision making processes of businesses.	6/24/2007

Economics.	Philosophy of economics is as important as political philosophy.  The economics system a society sets up is as important as the political system as society sets up.	3/4/2001

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  (1) Economics today is good at keeping track of what is going on in the world.  (2) Economics today is not so good at finding economic laws of cause and effect.  (3) Economics today is even less adept at guiding the course of events and improving quality of life (normative economics).	4/17/1999

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  (1) Metaphysics: economic nature of reality.  (2) Epistemology: how we know metaphysics and ethics.  (3) Ethics: best economic system to have.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  (1) Narrow and isolated view:  Economics is about money.  Economics is about costs, revenues and profits.  Economics is about savings and investments.  (2) Broad, integrated view.  Economics is inextricably tied to politics, technology, ethics and many other subjects.	10/28/2005

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  (1) Wants (needs and luxuries, survival and pleasure).  (2) Scarcity.  (3) Value: utility vs. monetary price.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  A wrong economic view: Whoever has the most stuff at the end wins.  This view is taught to our children using board games.	5/17/2005

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Consumption.  People buy stuff because they are told it will keep the economy healthy.  Thus people over-consume in order to keep their jobs.  Sick.	9/12/2001

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Early western economic theory was written by rich, powerful, white men, in an attempt to maintain their riches and power, by trying to justify their unethical actions, like slavery, the exploitation of third world colonies, and the exploitation of workers.  Their economic theory has a laizze fare, status quo, conservative bent.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Economic man.  Development of economic theory had a big effect on human's view of selves.  Many philosophers ignore such important economic issues as needs, scarcity, and value.  They think money is dirty.	11/15/1994

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Economics is no longer simply about how much physical stuff your nation can produce.  Today the most important economic issues are (1) The environment.  (2) The digital Internet economy.  (3) The global economy.  (4) The economy of intangibles like (A) Information and education.  (B) Mental health (including love).  (C) Physical health.  (5) Thus, economics is about creating a sustainable, just, healthy society.	4/17/1999

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Economics should account for anything people produce, and any resources they consume in order to produce it, not just the distribution (exchange) of things for money.  It must take into account barter, black market, off books, housewives, intellectual production, etc.	11/30/1993

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Ethics.  Value.  Monetary value vs. non-monetary value.  Face value vs. market value.  Real value vs. under-valued or over-valued.  Price of x depends on how much you have to spend.  Cost of x (to produce).  Worth of x depends on needs of individual in situation.	09/01/1994

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Materialism and overconsumption.  People define themselves through their material possessions.  People try to get happy through stuff.  People try to deal with their problems through stuff.  Stuff is easy to get.  You just order it over the phone or Internet and pay for it by credit card.  Instant gratification.  Stuff today acts as a pacifier.  Important non-stuff things like knowledge and friendship are not easy to get.  People forget about non-stuff things and undervalue non-stuff things because non-stuff things are not as visible and tangible as material stuff.	5/12/2000

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Meditations on the metaphysics of money.  We are slaves to money.  We need money like we need air or water.  Unless you live on a self sustainable farm.  Some people worship money.  The less money you need, the better.  Money alone is not the answer.	3/31/2006

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Mistakes of economic man or business man.  (1) Believing that money is the sole value in life.  Believing that money is the most important value in life.  Valuing everything in terms of money.  Devaluing everything not associated with money.  (2) Being willing to do anything for money.  Being treacherous for money.  Giving up one's life for money.  Believing in spending all one's time working for money.	8/14/2004

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Modern western economic theory since Adam Smith has primarily been a defense of capitalism.  One of the arguments for a defense of capitalism is the view that humans are rational.  The view that humans are rational all the time can be challenged.  It is more accurate to say humans are neurotic, occasionally psychotic, and prone to the hysteria of fads that produce bubbles and crashes.  Humans are also emotional, prone to act based on greed and fear.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  New economy sum up.  (1) Money is not the only value (see Philosophy, ethics, value).  (2) The entire economy must be included.  All resources and all waste.  From a more ecological perspective.  (3) The economics of information and the economics of experiences is as important as the economics of goods and services.  (4) Include all forms of work and trade.  Examples: housework; barter; gray markets; black markets.	4/23/2002

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  The mistaken assumption of rationality in western economic theory has a mistaken implication of automatic ethical behavior leading to justice.  That is, if you assume rationality in people and their economic system then you are more likely to assume goodness as well.  However, people are frequently corrupt.  Corruption is one of the main problems of the free market and capitalism.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  The most important idea in the philosophy of economics is that economics is not the most important idea.	5/14/2007

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  The most important ideas in the philosophy of economics.  Money is not everything.  Money is not the only thing.  Money is not the most important thing.  Some things are more important than money.  Society should recognize that some things are more important than money.  Social justice is more important than money.  We forgo money to pursue more important things.  We pursue important things even if it costs more money.  For example, buy organic food even if it costs more.  For example, protect the environment even if it produces less money.  For example, take a Progressive job even if it pays less money.	5/14/2007

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  The problem is that some feel that the main problems in life are primarily economic.  They feel that economics is the most important thing in life.  They feel that money matters most.  So they feel that mindless production and mindless consumption in order to keep the GDP rising through consumer spending is justified.  They may feel this way because money is easily quantifiable.  Things that are less easily quantified they have trouble seeing.	8/26/1999

Economics.	Philosophy of economics.  Value, economic and otherwise.  A commonly held, false assumption is that if one cannot make money from an activity then that activity is worthless, useless, has no value, or has value that cannot be measured.  This assumption is a major flaw in modern economic thought.	1/1/2004

Economics.	Politics, Technology and Economics.  (1) What things a society is capable of making is a question of technology.  (2) What things a society allows itself to make is a question of politics.  (3) What things there is a demand and supply for is a question of economics.  (4)(A) However, manufacturers attempt to create artificial demand through advertising.  (B) If a person lives in a society where commercial advertisements are omnipresent and inescapable, then that is a problem.  If a person lives in a society that continually pitches garbage and poison, then that is a problem.  (C) If a person lives in a society where the goods and services the person actually needs are unavailable then that is a problem.  (D) That is, there can be a disconnect between what a corporate producer decides to produce and what an consumer needs.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Poverty and wealth.  (1) Poverty is not a virtue if you are not doing anything to help the world.  Poverty is not a virtue, period.  Helping the world is a virtue.  (2) Wealth is not a virtue if you are not doing anything to help the world.  Wealth is not a virtue, period.  Helping the world is a virtue.	12/1/2006

Economics.	Poverty.  A big cause of poverty is exploitation of humans by other humans.  Examples:  Exploitation of serfs by feudal aristocrats.  Exploitation of colonies by mercantalists.  Exploitation of slaves by slave holders.  Exploitation of third world countries by first world countries.  Exploitation of tenants by landowners charge exorbitant rents.  Exploitation of employees by employers who demand long hours of work for low wages.	8/8/2006

Economics.	Problem.  Inflation.  Price of x (up or down) multiplied by wages to spend on x (up or down) = price of average basket.  $1 buys y amount of x.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Problem.  Shortage vs. glut.  (1) Not producing enough for your population vs. producing more than enough for your population.  (2) Consuming too much (conspicuous consumption) vs. consuming too little (economic anorexics).	12/30/1992

Economics.	Problems approach.  Depression.  Unemployment.  Number of jobs (up or down) multiplied by population size (up or down) = number unemployed (up or down).  Incentives to new business start-ups.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Problems.  The economic cost of war is huge.  The economic cost of corruption is huge.	4/17/1999

Economics.	Problems.  The worst economic ills.  (1) Unemployment.  (A) Causes of unemployment.  Less spending.  Less exports.  (B) Results of unemployment.  Rising unemployment results in lower wages.  (2) Inflation.  (A) Causes of inflation.  Flooding the economy with money.  (B) Results of inflation.  Inflation results in higher prices for goods.  The dollar buys less.  (3) Crappy jobs.  (A) Causes of crappy jobs.  (B) Results of crappy jobs.  Backbreaking work.  Boring work.  Long work hours.  Low pay.  (4) Worse than all of these is social injustice, including corruption and crime.  (5) Mindless economic growth by pillaging and plundering the earth is not justified.  (6) Invention and entrepreneurship (development) is better.	8/26/1999

Economics.	Problems.  Unemployment should not exist.  Anyone who wants to work should be able to get a job for a wage that they can survive on by working forty hours a week (which may be more or less than the current minimum wage).  No one should go without a job and food, clothing and shelter.  If this was so, then all crime based on survival drive would not be justified.  The remaining crime would all be due to pure greed.	4/17/1999

Economics.	Production and consumption.  (1) Consumers.  How much do they earn?  What percent do they spend, save and invest?  What is their quality of life, i.e. how much do they get for what they spend?  How much do they get from their government?  How much do they pay to their government?  (2) Producers.  How much does it cost them to produce?  How much do they charge for final product?  How much profit do they make?  (3) Distribution.  How much x do you get for y?	12/30/1993

Economics.	Production and consumption.  (1) Some people are material stuff collectors or consumers.  (2) Some people are physical experience collectors or consumers.  (3) Some people are psychological phenomena collectors or consumers (ex. ideas, emotions, and attitudes).  (4) Any of the above can fall prey to Thorsten Veblens model of conspicuous consumption.	5/12/2000

Economics.	Production and consumption.  (1) We produce and consume not only stuff but also ideas (attitudes) and experiences.  People often do not feel alive unless they are producing or consuming.  (Or distributing as a dealer, seller or bargainer).  This is a bad attitude.  These people require constant action, constant excitement, constant work (produce) and constant play (consume).  These people can't relax, be calm and de-stress.  It takes practice and conscious effort to relax and de-stress.  Those obsessed with producing and consuming have trouble attaining this healthy state.  (2) Is a state where one is not obsessed with producing and consuming equal to a state where one is wasting one's life?  Is it unethical to not produce and consume?  Yet isn't this what our ancestors did for millions of years?  Sometimes its good to do nothing.  To wait, still and quiet, with patience.  But not all the time.	8/6/2000

Economics.	Production and consumption.  Americans over consume.  Americans are pigs.  Actually, it is an insult to pigs to compare pigs to the consumption habits of Americans.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Progressive economics.  Do not spend a lot of money on shelter, food, and clothing.  Do not buy from corporations that destroy the environment.  Do not buy from corporations with poor human rights records.  Buy green.  Buy blue.  Do buy local organic food.  Do buy from small, non-corporate businesses.  Use less oil.  Consume less, not more.  Have a smaller ecological footprint.  Give money to philanthropies.  Vote Progressive.	5/5/2007

Economics.	Progressive economics.  The current American economic system is seriously flawed because the current American economic system has the goals of using more resources, making more things, promoting the idea that getting rich is a good thing, and promoting a life of useless leisure.  Through the process of corporate indoctrination and brainwashing and advertising, many Americans have a back-asswards view of economics and thus of life in general.  (1) The goal is not to use more resources; the goal is to use less resources.  (2) The goal is not to own more things; the goal is to own less things.  (3) The goal is not to have more money; the goal is to have less money because you gave a lot of money to philanthropies and because you gave a lot of money to the workers you pay.  (4) The goal is not to retire and do nothing; the goal is to have a long life of Progressive activism.  (5) The goal is not to keep working more in order to keep earning more money in order to pay of credit card debt on the things you keep buying; the goal is to work enough to live so that you have plenty of free time to be a Progressive activist and make the world a better place.  (6) America needs to adopt Progressive economics in order to become a sustainable society.	4/30/2007

Economics.	Quantifying the economy.  Number of producers.  Number of types of goods and services produced.  Number of actual units of goods and services produced.  Number of consumers.  Amount of money in circulation.	5/25/2006

Economics.	Related subjects.  (1) Marx thought that economics determines politics.  (2) Other people believe that politics determines the economic system.  (3) Still others believe that technology determines economics.  (4) Still others believe that economics, politics and technology influence each other and are tied together in a web like way.	2/12/2002

Economics.	Related subjects.  (1) Politics and economics.  Politics shapes economics.  (2) Technology and economics.  Technology shapes economics.  (3) Sociology and economics.  The creation of wants in a society is in part a social phenomenon.	5/17/2005

Economics.	Related subjects.  Effects of and on.  (1) Politics: affects economic system, and is affected by economic system.  How government controls economy.  (2) Technology: affects economic system by affecting business.  What you know how to make.  Technologies to make things.  Who produces most (economic advantage) vs. who produces best (technology advantage).  (3) Business: depends on economic system.  (4) Ethics: values and ideals determine what people want.  (5) Work: work system depends on economic system and technology.  (5) Nature: natural resources available.  Things needed to live in specific environments.  (6) Psychology and sociology: what people desire to buy.  What businesses then make.  (7) Education: One view holds that it does not matter how smart workforce is on avgerage.  It matters how smart and daring the entrepreneurs are.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Related subjects.  Politics and economics: ownership rights.	2/10/2005

Economics.	Related subjects.  Politics and economics.  (1) The economic and business system is dependent on and determined by the laws created by the political system.  (2) What would a lawless economic system look like?  "Caveat emptor" or "Let the buyer beware".  (3) Economics is determined by politics.  Politics is not determined by the economic system, as Marx thought.	2/12/2002

Economics.	Related subjects.  Technology and economics: power of production.	2/10/2005

Economics.	Resources vs. waste and junk.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Resources: raw materials, manmade stuff, time, energy, money.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Retirement.  The hoax of retirement.  They tell people to struggle and save for retirement.  Then when you retire you can do nothing.  Or worse, when you retire you choose to do nothing, and die.	4/29/2005

Economics.	Sharing resources is more economically efficient than not sharing resources.  For example, a public library allows everyone in a community to read books that no single individual would be able to accumulate on their own.	10/12/2005

Economics.	Size and complexity.  How big a system do you need to maintain how complex a system?  One man can't do everything.  How many people do you need to do all the stuff that needs to be done?  For example, how many orthopedic surgeons do you need for how many people?  When does redundancy occur?	04/01/1994

Economics.	Size and complexity.  How big a system do you need to sustain how complex a system?	02/24/1994

Economics.	Soon everyone in the world will have enough material stuff to live.  We can use technology to minimize the amount of physical stuff we need to live.  Example, we can use one small electronic book reader instead of an entire bookcase of books.	4/17/1999

Economics.	Specific economies.  Questions to ask about specific economies.  (1) Size, growth rate.  (2) Constituent industries.  (3) Technology types and levels.  (4) Political interference, type (promote, prohibit), amount, area.  (5) Social factors.  Causes and effects.  (6) Qualitative and qualitative description.  (7) Static and dynamic analysis.  (8) Relationships to political, sociology, tech for big system.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Specific economies.  U.S. economy.  U.S. population income breakdown.  Top 1% own 30% of wealth.  Next 9% own 30% of wealth.  Next 90% own 30% of wealth.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Static analysis (momentary) vs. dynamic analysis (through time).  Produced what, and how much?  Used up what resources, and how much of each?  Money made vs. money lost, for each product bought and sold.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Stock market.  (1) A "rational" market rewards intelligence.  A corrupt, manipulated market does not reward intelligence.  A market of mindless speculation does not reward intelligence.  (2) Stock price is based on demand for the stock, not the performance or value of company.  (3) The market falls in times of crisis, because crisis creates uncertainty and risk.  People pull out, supply goes up, demand goes down, and so price goes down.  (4) Trying to keep track of which stocks to pick, how much to buy, when to buy, when to sell, tracking the stock price daily, and tracking the company's news daily, is stressful and time-consuming (all just to get 100% or 200% return instead of 25% or 35% percent return).  (5) There is always someone smarter and faster picking the stocks, usually a professional.  Can you get 30% long term, like a fund manager?  (6) It is difficult to be completely objective about all the news.  Many people's innate sense of optimism (thinking everything is fine, and everything will be fine) keeps them from recognizing economic problems and business problems.	07/18/1997

Economics.	Stock market.  (1) Reasons not to get into the stock market.  (A) Could lose all my money.  (B) It is not honest hard work.  (2) Reason to get into market.  (A) Help yourself financially.  (B) Help others with philanthropy.	7/18/1998

Economics.	Stock market.  Dow reflects blue chip prices, which reflect (1) How well the companies are actually doing?  (2) How well the market or economy is actually doing?  (3) How much people want those stocks, regardless of actual company condition?  (4) Subjective confidence in the market, or in the economy?	01/19/1997

Economics.	Stock market.  Good fundamentals do not assure that a stock will do well.  Because the price of the stock may stay where it is for six months before it moves.  Technical analysis helps with timing.	11/9/1999

Economics.	Stock market.  If you play the stock market day to day you must realize that (1) The stock market is not 100% rational.  There are fads (from greed) and panics (from fear).  The stock market has a strong emotional component.  The market does not always act logically.  (2) The stock market is not 100% just (fair).  There is manipulation.  It is crooked to a degree.  It is rigged.  Some degree of insider trading occurs. You have to try to recognize it and take it into account.  For example, large powerful players with lots of money time their strategic announcements to further their own self interests.  (3) The stock market is not 100% open.  A lot of information is known only to a few.  There is still a degree of secrecy, as well as lying.  You often do not have all the information you need to make a decision.	3/4/2001

Economics.	Stock market.  Is the company getting a lot of good press?  Vibe and spin.  Profits: the amount they mark up depends on supply and demand.  How many units they sell depends on demand.  Is demand growing?  Is their product the best one on the market?  Who in the industry is strongest (size), vs. who is coming on strongest (growth rate).  Revenue - Expenses = Profits.	06/30/1997

Economics.	Stock market.  Reasons why the stockmarket is booming in the '90s.  (1) Mutual funds make it less risky for small investors.  (2)  The Internet makes research quicker, and buying cheaper.	07/18/1997

Economics.	Stock market.  Stock playing strategies.  (1) Playing world scene movements, whether they be social, political, technological, etc.  (2) Playing national economy movements. (3) Playing industry movements.  (4) Playing specific corporation movements.	12/24/2003

Economics.	Stock market.  The ethical way to play the stock market is to invest in a green mutual fund comprised of the stocks of companies that support ecological sustainability and social justice.  You might not make as much money, but you can sleep at night knowing that you are not raping the earth and exploiting workers.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Stock market.  The stock market exists.  If we can make money in it, we must.  Send a certain percentage to charity.  Money is a good thing if put to good use.	08/17/1997

Economics.	Stock market.  Ways to play the market, from short view to long view.  (1) Momentum play.  Based on the days trading of a stock.  (2) Technical play.  Based on the stocks recent charts of performance.  (3) Fundamental play.  Based on a history of solid performance by a company.  (4) Strategy play.  Based on what developments are just starting to actually happen with a company.  (5) Vision play.  Based on what trends you think will occur in the future.	12/10/1999

Economics.	Stock market.  Why to get into stocks.  (1) The little guy deserves a piece of the action.  Not just the big corporations.  It is more democratic that way.  (2) Not everyone is can do it.  It takes brains.  Of those who can, the liberals deserve the money, because they will redistribute it, and use it for good.  (3) Getting into the market is not about greed.  It is about giving money.  It is about an intellectual challenge.  It is about ideas, and being able to see good ones and avoid bad ones.	09/26/1997

Economics.	Supply and demand.  (1) Supply.  Factors of production: land, labor, raw materials, capital.  What increases and decreases supply?  More/less efficient technology.  More/less costly materials, labor, and machines.  Price: cheaper/more expensive.  (2) Demand.  What increases/decreases demand?  More/less people.  Recognize more/less quality in product.  Cheaper/costlier products.  More/less cash to spend.  Change in tastes or knowledge.  People buy more/less.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Sweatshops are bad.  Sweatshops exploit people.  Boycott corporations that make their products in sweatshops.  Buy Fair Trade products which help workers make a living wage.	2/19/2007

Economics.	Take, make, trade, steal, buy, share, find.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Tax demographics.  What percentage of the population are in each tax bracket?	12/14/2004

Economics.	Taxes.  Working "off the books" is a form of tax evasion and tax evasion is a crime.  Legal citizens of the US who work "off the books" are cheating the system.  The people who want to live in America without paying any taxes are tax cheats.  Taxes are used to pay for public works projects.  Everyone should pay taxes.  Corporations should pay taxes too.	5/5/2007

Economics.	Techniques of economics.  (1) Techniques or methods for studying the economy.  Example, statistics.  (2) Techniques for changing the economy.  For example, reducing inflation or reducing unemployment.	11/13/2005

Economics.	Techniques or methods.  Science of economics.  (1) Theories, facts, proofs, laws, equations.  (2) Observe, measure, describe, explain, predict or forecast, prescribe.  (3) Quantitative, scientific, and historical methods.  Trend analysis, comparative analysis.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Techniques or methods.  Ways to measure an economic situation or event or factor.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Techniques.  (1) Descriptive economics: the way it is.  (2) Predictive economics: the way it will be.  (3) Normative economics: the way it ought to be.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Techniques.  (1) Planning: forecasting tools.  (2) Control: monetary policy, fiscal policy, etc.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Techniques.  Economic policies and who they favor: (1) Reduce unemployment.  (2) Raise or cut taxes.  (3) Raise or cut interest rates.  (4) Regulate or deregulate.  (5) Nationalize or privatize.  (6) Big government vs. small government.  (7) Increase or decrease inflation.  (8) Money supply.  (9) Balance of trade.  (10) Exchange rates.  (11) Savings.  (12) Spending.  (13) Investment.	09/01/1994

Economics.	Techniques.  The tools we have to control the economy include (1) laws to limit or guide activities, and (2) incentives and bonuses to stimulate actions.	4/17/1999

Economics.	Techno-economic complexity of a society.  1 type of job.  10 types of jobs.  100 types of jobs.  1000 types of jobs.  10,000 types of jobs.	3/2/2006

Economics.	The challenge is how to get the American people to realize that economic and political monopolies are bad when Americans grow up playing a board game called "Monopoly".	7/7/2005

Economics.	The economic system is created by humans.  Create a more just economics system.	4/15/2007

Economics.	The economic system is the result of the political system.  Marx would argue the opposite, that the political system is the result of the economic system.	5/12/2005

Economics.	The economy is a complex system with many parts and levels.  The economic system is closely linked with other systems like the political system and the technology system.	5/4/2007

Economics.	The goal of the economy should be ecological sustainability and social justice.  Not making the most things at the lowest cost.  Not selling the most things at the highest price.  Not making the most money.	5/25/2006

Economics.	The primary goal of an economic system is not money and goods.  The primary goal of an economic system is knowledge and the well being of the citizens.	5/25/2006

Economics.	The techno-poor of the future.  He made a million dollars this year.  He spent 250,000 on food.  250,000 on rent.  250,000 on transportation.  250,000 on Internet access.	3/5/2006

Economics.	There is a great need for many things that have no monetary price and that a person cannot "make a living" doing, but that one can "make a meaningful life" doing.	10/12/2005

Economics.	There is always trade, even if only of favors.  There are always entrepreneurs trying out new ideas.  There are always workers.	5/17/2005

Economics.	Three areas of economics: production, distribution, and consumption.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Three questions.  (1) What to make?  (2) How to make it?  That is a technological issue.  (3) Why make it?  That is an ethical debate.	11/15/2005

Economics.	Time = money.	12/30/1992

Economics.	Time and energy are the most basic economic units.  Then knowledge and raw materials.  Then money and goods.	5/17/2005

Economics.	US economic system.  Obscene profits taken from consumers  and then spent ostentatiously by overpaid corporate executives.  There should be lower prices for consumers, higher wages for workers, and lower salaries for corporate executives.	11/12/2005

Economics.	US economic system.  Today in America corporate profits are too high.  Corporate accountability is too low.  Corporate taxation is to low.  Corporate executive pay is too high.	11/11/2005

Economics.	Wages.  Three injustices in the current wage system.  (1) An excess of corporate power is unjust.  The corporations have more so the corporations can pay more.  Workers who want to make a good living begin to suck up to the corporations.  (2) It is unjust that people strive to make money in order to buy useless and unhealthy things that they are inculcated to buy through the overwhelming amounts of advertising that only rich corporations can afford, and that government allows corporations to disseminate because government is in the pocket of the corporations.  (3) It is unjust that many people who work long and hard do not receive a living wage that reflects their efforts.  It is unjust that workers are exploited by being given low wages.	2/7/2007

Economics.	Waste: on personal level and societal level.  Excessive consumption of useless crap (ex. jewelry, vacation).  Vs.  Thrifty use of good stuff (ex. education, books).  But lets face it, sometimes you need a vacation.	01/01/1993

Economics.	Welfare.  Components of welfare.  Unemployment.  Social security.  Medicare and Medicaid.  Food stamps.	5/25/2006

Economics.	Welfare.  To throw the poor in jail for being poor is injustice.  To let the poor die for being poor is an injustice.  To not have any social welfare system at all is an injustice.  Some people cannot see that.	5/25/2006

Economics.	When people improve a product or service it is a technological improvement that has an economic effect.	4/24/2005

Economics.	Why study economics?  To avoid real economic problems, and to reach the ideal economic state.	12/30/1992

Economics.	World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Trade Organization (WTO), create rules that favor rich people over the poor, and that favors rich corporations over the poor, and that favor rich nations over the poor, and that is unjust.	4/15/2007

Geography.	.This section is about geography.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Geography.	(1) Geographic barriers and challenges:  Mountains.  Deserts.  Jungles.  (2) Geographic opportunities:  Coastline.  Rivers.  Arable land.  Plains.  Natural resources.  Timber, oil, coal, iron ore.	5/25/2006

Geography.	(1) Geography is just inventory.  What have we got, and where?  (2) Geography lends itself to the visual and pictorial.	7/21/1998

Geography.	(1) Psychology and geography.  The environment has a direct effect on the individual.  Geography has a effect on psychology.  An unhealthy environment has an adverse effect on an individual.  (2) Sociology and geography.  Geography affects society by affecting the many individuals in society.  Geography affects society by either expanding or limiting what the society is capable of doing.	7/31/2006

Geography.	(1) The earth.  (2) Bio-geography: plants and animals.  (3) Human geography.  Demographics.  (4) Oceans and air geography: Height and depth as well as longitude and latitude.	10/19/2004

Geography.	(1) The wilds:  The high mountains.  The dense jungle.  The hot desert.  The cold arctic.  The deep ocean.  (2) Technology that reduces the wild: GPS.  Satellite phone.  Helicopter.	4/2/2006

Geography.	(1) Three phases: discovery, exploration, and measurement.  (2) Explore, discover, own, control, use.  (3) Exploration: major features down to minor features.	12/30/1992

Geography.	(1) Universe.  (2) Earth: circumference, weight.  % water vs. % land:  % arable land, % any biome.  (3) Seas: surface area, shape, depth, volume.  (4) Continents: major mountains, rivers, coastlines, biomes.  (5) Nation: major mountain ranges and peaks, rivers, ocean ports, cities, roads, bridges, pop.  (6) USA.  Mountain chains: appalachians, rockies, sierras.  Rivers: mississippi.  Cities: ny, la, dc, chi, bos, philly, denver, frisco.	12/30/1992

Geography.	At some point in early human history, humans recognized that there is land beyond the horizon.	7/1/2006

Geography.	Boundaries.  The geographic features of the earth are often indistinct and meld into one another.  Distinct boundaries are arbitrary human creations.  Different peoples often recognize different boundaries in the same geographic area.	7/1/2006

Geography.	Changing: ethnic, racial, age, sex, religion, and philosophy makeup of us and world.  What numbers in what places?	12/30/1992

Geography.	Data collection, organization, interpretation, and application.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Environment (see notes on environment).  (1) Importance of geographic factors for individual, and for society (ex. importance for foreign policy).  (2) Total picture = all sub-maps types super imposed on each other.  Biology, altitude, population density, etc.  (3) Should know how much about what areas and why?  (4) Place names.  (5) Features: major and minor in size, important and unimportant.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Geo-politics.  The poor countries (sand, mountains, jungles).  Land locked countries vs. ports and coasts.  Cold vs. hot.  High vs. low.  Dry vs. wet.  Isolated vs. not.	11/30/1996

Geography.	Geographic data: quantitative and qualitative.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Geographic determinism is the view that geography determines everything, or a great deal, of what a society accomplishes.  To what extent does geography determine the development of a society?  (1) Coastline, sea ports, navigable rivers.  (2) Freshwater.  (3) Oil.  (4) Timber.  (5) Arable land for agriculture.	1/4/2006

Geography.	Geography and history go well together.   Geography and history are the peanut butter and jelly of academia.  Space and time are useful ways to locate events in this universe.	6/20/2006

Geography.	Geography is becoming less important as we develop more powerful communication and transportation technologies.  Its a small world.  Global village.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Geography is less important today than it was 500 years ago because we know where everything is.  Now it is just a matter of keeping track of any changes.	12/30/1992

Geography.	History of geography.  (1) Invention of technology.  (2) Discovery of lands.  (3) Mapping of lands.  (4) Discovery of the principles of the study of geography.	12/30/1992

Geography.	How does geography affect any aspect of life?  How does any aspect of life affect geography?  (Ex. we build dams and roads.)	08/10/1993

Geography.	Humans move around.  Basic skills of geography include: How to not get lost.  How to find things.  How to get where you are going.  How to get back to "home".	7/1/2006

Geography.	Maps.  At first the maps were mostly blank.  Then the maps began to be filled in, slowly but surely.  Eventually every square inch of earth will be mapped.  Another possible endgame is that every square inch of earth will eventually be covered with roads, suburbs, and malls.	7/1/2006

Geography.	Maps.  Road maps.  Train maps.  Waterway maps.  Altitude maps (topographic).  Flora and fauna maps.  Geologic mineral maps.	7/6/2002

Geography.	Methods of geography.  (1) Ways to find out information.  Exploring.  Surveying.  Navigation: on land or sea, by sun or stars.  (2) Ways to present information.  Map making and cartography: decatur, mercanteur.  Tables.  Graphs: bar, curve, pie, line.  Combos: maps by size of data, maps with bar graphs on them.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Names.  Names are used to describe the geographic features of earth.  Names are arbitrary human creations.  Different peoples often give different names to the same geographic feature.	7/1/2006

Geography.	Related subjects, effects of and on.  (1) Psychology: affects of physical environment on mind.  (2) Sociology: geography can inhibit or promote spread of ideas.  Geography affects development of society and thus development of individual.  Geography helps shapes needs of society and individual.  (3) Politics: geographic boundaries were early political boundaries.  Geographic boundaries can provide natural defenses.  Effects of geography on communication and transportation.  (4) Science: biology, ecology.  (5) Technology: technology of exploration and mapping.  (6) History: geography shapes history.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Specific geography of specific areas.  Questions for any specific geographic area.  Size, area in square miles, boundaries, surface features.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Surveying using a measuring chain.  Surveying by triangulation.  Aerial photography.  Satellite photography.	5/25/2006

Geography.	Trends.  GPS, Global Positioning Satellite has at least two effects.  (1) Totally accurate maps from photos, not drawings.  (2) Now possible to always know exactly where you are, and get a picture too.	03/20/1997

Geography.	Trends.  Latest geographic technologies: (1) Satellite global positioning.  (2) Computer 3-D mapping.  (3) Computer route finding in cars.	12/30/1992

Geography.	True or false?  It was billions of years ago, at the time when the continents drifted apart, that the South American nation of Guyana separated from the African nation of Guinea, and that the South American nation of French Guiana separated from the African nation of Guinea Bissau.	6/22/2006

Geography.	Types of geographic data.  (1) Physical.  (A) Air: temp, rainfall, humidity, winds, seasons, atmosphere, climate.  (B) Water: drainage patterns, rivers, lakes, oceans.  (C) Earth: soil types, minerals, metals, oil, gas, altitude of land.  (D) Biology:  Biomes.  Flora, fauna, humans.  (E) Chemical data.  (F) Natural resources.  (2) Human.  (A) Population (demographics).  Size in numbers, growth rate, movements.  (B) Race types.  (C) Beliefs, religion, knowledge, ideas.  (D) Culture.  (E) Political, economic, sociology.  (F) Technology.  Manmade stuff: communication, transportation, buildings.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Types of geography.  Static (at any time) vs. dynamic (changing, historical, forecasting future).	12/30/1992

Geography.	What is geography?  (1) Geography = spatial relationships.  History = temporal relationships.  (2) Geography = spatial distribution.  History = temporal distribution.  (3) Study of total environment.  (4) Morphology, shape.	12/30/1992

Geography.	Why study geography?  (1) To know what's out there, and where it is.  (2) Know who has what.  To know what the competition has.  (3) Know how to get around, travel (there and back).  (4) Know where you are.  (5) Settle boundary disputes.	12/30/1992

Health, exercise.	.This section is about exercise.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Health, exercise.	Being a great athlete means doing exercises every day, and working out 2 to 3 times a week.  It takes motivation, courage, dedication and focus.  I can do it.  Being a great athlete also means not doing more than this, not overdoing it, not taking chances, knowing my limits.  Anything more is just fagging out of the game through hurting yourself.  Or being stupid and ignorant of proper athletic care.  Or being crazy, delusional, and thinking you can do anything, or more than you actually can.	05/30/1996

Health, exercise.	Endurance, strength and power, and flexibility.  Problems, causes, effects, technologies.	12/30/1992

Health, exercise.	Exercise, reasons for.  (1) Psychological health.  To be well and feel well.  (2) Physical health.  To be well and feel well.  (3) To get ideas.  To be more creative.  (4) To attract women.  For looks.	6/5/2004

Health, exercise.	Exercise: mental and physical.	12/30/1992

Health, exercise.	Flexibility.  Writing stretches.  Finger flexion and extension, stretch and exercise.  Fore-arm flexion and extension, stretch and exercise.  Upper arm flexion and extension, stretch and exercise (triceps (behind head) and biceps).	08/01/1997

Health, exercise.	Great athletes (1) Train to stay in shape, by slowly and incrementally increasing their exertions, without pushing too hard. (2) Know how to avoid injury in training, competition, and real life.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	Mild is best.  Small increases.  Don't push hard.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	Never exercise as hard as you can for as long as you can.  Never push body 100%.  Its easy to break it.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	Prove your manliness through continued, careful physical exercise, and through good judgment.  Not through rash, unwise testing of physical limits (self abuse, self destruction).	12/30/1996

Health, exercise.	Seated exercises and stretches are great because you can do them any time at work and they make a big difference.  Do them everyday, all day.  (1) Stretches: stretch arms overhead, and to sides, out front, and back.  Twist side to side, and bend side to side.  Stretch hands in all directions.  Stretch neck in all directions.  Do deep breathing.  Shake out all body parts.  (2) Exercises.  Isometrics for all muscles.  Gut clench.  Butt clench.  Curl with other arm resisting.  Seat press dip.  Back extensions by leaning forward with arms in front holding light weight.  Hand clench a squeeze ball.  Marching in place helps VMO.  Leg press with feet out front.  Leg scissors and reverse scissors with arm resistance.  Pull those shins like a dead lift.	02/09/1997

Health, exercise.	Stay in physical therapy for life.  If you can pull a groin muscle doing nothing (which I did once), or wrench your neck just getting up too fast or the wrong way (which I did too), then it is clear that anything can happen to anyone, anytime, and that the chances are good something or other will happen to you sooner or later and that it pays to be careful, exercise and stretch, to minimize the number and severity of these horrible accidents.  Any accident that does occur has a good chance of not healing right and causing constant pain and disability forever.	12/30/1996

Health, exercise.	Stay loose yet firm, like a sprinter.	08/30/1996

Health, exercise.	The goal is not to build bicep strength for girls to admire.  The goal is to build your quads, abs, back extensors, and trunk muscles in general, in order to support your back and knees to keep them healthy and avoid trouble.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	The main reason for physical exercise is to get physical health, in order to avoid injury, in order to avoid disability and chronic pain.  The way to keep exercising is to make it fun and enjoyable.  Don't push too hard.  Stay well within one's limits.  Don't jerk quickly.  Doing these things also make exercise safe.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	The real reason for exercise is not for size, strength, looks, creativity, but to avoid injury, which is what happens when you do too little, too much, wrong form, or the wrong types of exercise.	12/30/1996

Health, exercise.	Work.  (1) All day at work, stay aware of and use your body.  Stay in motion.  Clench fists and toes to relieve stress.  Tap feet, move your legs and arms.  It keeps you loose, warm, and aware of body and posture.  Keeps you active, avoids sedentary decay.  Keeps you firm.  (2) Remember, you think, feel, remember, and "mind" with your body too, not just your mind.	12/30/1995

Health, exercise.	Work.  Sitting at a desk all day typing leads to tight flexors in the biceps, hamstrings, gut.  They need to be stretched.  The quad, tricep, and back need to be strengthened?	01/19/1997

Health, food.	.This section is about food.  Topics include:   ( ) Vegetarianism.  Natural food.  Organic food.	1/24/2006

Health, food.	(1) Eating too little.  Famine, starvation, malnutrition.  Anorexia or bulimia.  (2) Eating too much.  Slow metabolism.   Emotions and over-eating.  Habit and over-eating.  Education and over-eating.  (3) Eating wrong or unhealthy foods.	12/20/2003

Health, food.	Caffeine destroys my appetite for the day, and thus I do not eat the food that will rebuild my body.	08/17/1997

Health, food.	Caffeine.  The argument for caffeine is that it helps ease depression.  The argument against caffeine is that it promotes rage and paranoia.  Thus, caffeine may ease the negative emotion of sadness, yet caffeine may help promote the negative emotions of fear and anger.  What else are coffee "jitters" and coffee "crankiness" than anxiety and anger?	9/14/2003

Health, food.	Coffee.  Why I kicked the coffee habit.  Coffee contains caffeine.  Caffeine is a stimulant.  The drug speed is also a stimulant.  Speed kills.	10/2/2004

Health, food.	Contra dairy.  (1) It is not natural for cows to be permanently giving milk.  How many years does a cow live?  How many calves does a cow give birth to in a lifetime?  How long does the cow wean each calf?  (2) Its not natural for humans to constantly be drinking milk.  Humans often lose their lactose intolerance after childhood weaning.	10/10/2004

Health, food.	Diet.  (1) What eat, why (positive effects), how, how much, when.  Protein, vegies, grains.  (2) What not eat and why (negative effects).  To avoid mania/depression, b-complex deficient brain.  Sugar (natural and refined), caffeine, nicotine, artificial ingredients, spices, fat.	12/30/1992

Health, food.	Getting fat from (1) Too many calories of any food.  (2) Too much fat.  (3) Lack of exercise.  (4) Low metabolism (less muscle mass).	11/15/1994

Health, food.	Grow your own food.  Per person, per year: how much food is needed?  How much land is needed to grow it?  How much human labor is needed to grow it?  Fruit: 2 pieces per day, 700 per year.  Vegies: 2 per day, 700 per year.  Grains: 4 per day, 1400 per year (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack) (potatoes, wheat, rice, corn, oats).  Protein: beans or meat, one pound of meat per week equals 52 pounds per year.  Water to drink: 1 gallon a day, 365 gallons per year.  How much land to grow it all?  One or two acres per person.  How much work to grow it all?  Plow, plant, weed and water, harvest, cook and preserve.  Preserve six months worth for November through April.  Use mason jars.  How much fuel needed to cook the food?	7/18/1998

Health, food.	Health food trends.  (1) Raw.  Uncooked foods are viewed as healthier than cooked foods.  Especially sprouts.  (2) Organic food.  Healthier than food covered in pesticides.  (3) Vegetarians.  Healthier than eating meat.  Also more ethical to animals.	6/23/2002

Health, food.	How much industrial processing does it take to make store bought vitamin pills?  How much refuse and pollution does the processing create?  Should one stop taking vitamins because of it?  Should one rely on organic food only for vitamins?  Is the entire vitamin industry a ploy, a scam?	7/25/1998

Health, food.	I eat now for health.  No more eating for fun, eating out of pain, or eating for social ritual.	01/01/1993

Health, food.	Protein is idea food and testosterone food.  I work best on a high protein diet.  All physical factors (diet, exercise, sleep) should be aimed at figuring and finding out more ideas.	09/15/1993

Health, food.	Say no to meat, salt, sugar/sweets, spices, artificial ingredients, fried foods, chocolate, coffee, fat.  Say yes to carbs, protein, water, fruits and vegies.	03/20/1994

Health, food.	Soft tofu is great.  (1) It is quick.  There is no need to cook it, and no need to chew it, you can consume it quickly.  (2) It is fun.  You can slurp like a tofu slushee.  (3) It is healthy.  (4) It is cheap.	08/17/1997

Health, food.	Some medical reports say that high potassium helps prevent strokes and high blood pressure.  Fruits and vegies.  Five bananas a day.  Oranges, melons, red beans, milk.	11/30/1996

Health, food.	The three main food types are carbohydrates, protein and fat.  (1) What are the implications of too much protein and too little protein?  (2) What are the implications of too much fat and too little fat?  (3) What are the implications of too much carbohydrates and too little carbohydrates?  (4) How does one determine the right amount of carbohydrates, protein and fat?	3/10/2004

Health, medicine, areas.	.This section is about areas of medicine.  Topics include: ( ) Anatomy and physiology.  ( ) Pathology, epidemiology and etiology.  ( ) Technology and therapy.	1/24/2006

Health, medicine, areas.	Anatomy in health, disease, and under therapies.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Anatomy.  Parts of body vs. systems of body.  Big to small.  Important to unimportant.  General to specific purpose.  General to specific structure and mechanism.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Diagnosis: observe, examine, tests, procedures, decide disease.  General aspects of a disease vs. disease in a specific individual.  (1) Lab tests: general, and for specific diseases.  Spinal fluid, blood, urine, electrolytes.  (2) Interview.  Where does it hurt, and when.  What makes it worse and better.  What's the pain feel like.  (3) Physical examination: symptoms/signs.  Color, sound, reflexes, fever, cough, temperature.  (4) Prescription: decide on treatment.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Epidemiology.  (1) Real picture of life in USA and World.  How many people are at what standards of living?  Injury and disease statistics (epidemeology).  Violent crime statistics.  (2) If there is x% chance of falling prey to any single type illness/injury or crime per year, what is the chance of falling prey to any bad occurrence over your entire lifetime? (Example: if it is 50% per day, it is not 50% per year.  And if it is 50% per year, it is not 50% per life.).  (3) How does illness/injury and crime affect quality of life long after the incident has occurred.  It affects you much, and for a long time.	12/30/1996

Health, medicine, areas.	Epidemiology.  (1) Static.  X number of people ill per y population in z area.  Or 1 out of x people ill.  (2) Dynamic.  Historical cycles.  Trace development of epidemic: growth, stagnation, decay.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Epidemiology.  (1) World, regions, countries, USA.  (2) Communicable vs. not communicable.  (3) Environmentally caused: directly, genetically.  (4) Serious diseases vs. mild diseases and disorders.  (5) Most cases vs. least cases.  (6) Average time of recovery.  Average number of fatalities.  (7) By system of body.  (8) Demographic categories by age, sex, race, class.  (9) Rates of growth, stagnation, and decay of disease.  (10) Methods to gather information.  Predicting accuracy of data.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Etiology.  (1) Diseases of internal organs.  Heart, liver, pancreas, spleen.  GI tract: stomach, small intestine, large intestine.  Kidneys, sex organs, brain, eyes, ears.  (2) Diseases of external organs: skin.  (3) Diseases of muscles, fluids (blood, lymph).	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Etiology.  Infectious diseases: viral, bacteria, parasites.  Trauma: broken bones (simple, compound), sprains, bruises, wounds.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Etiology.  Internal vs. external causes of illnesses.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Pathology, diseases.  Every disease has physical, psychological, and sociological components and implications.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Pathology.  (1) Curable vs. incurable.  (2) Communicable vs. not.  (3) Fatal vs. not.  (4) Chronic vs. acute.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Pathology.  Breakdowns in mind or body due to (1) Genetics: inherited vs. mutations.  (2) Environment.  Diet: malnutrition.  Poison/pollution.  Lack of exercise.  (3) Infection: Parasites.  (4) Injury.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Pathology.  Diseases.  Most common vs. most dangerous: (1) Incurable.  (2) Uncontrollable (contagious).  (3) Man hours lost.  (4) Quality of life reduced.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Pathology.  Types: classified by system or part, causes, rates, and cures.  Diseases, symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis (course), epidemiology (rates), etiology (cause), therapies.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Physiology.  Levels: intra cell, cell, tissue, organ, system or part.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Physiology.  Mechanism.  How does it work?  How does it work with other areas?  How does its parts work?	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Physiology.  Number of bones, muscles, tendons/ligaments, veins/arteries, fluids, sacs/membranes/layers, nerves, organs.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Physiology.  Part, purpose, structure, mechanism; simple to complex explanations.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  (1) Mistakes in diagnosis.  Stage: too soon, or too late.  Severity of condition: too mild, or too severe.  Urgency: overestimate, or underestimate.  Wrong disease.  Miss a symptom.  Skip a test.  (2) Mistakes in therapy.  Too little, or too much.  Wrong therapy, wrong timing, or wrong amount.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Alternatives available in a situation, choosing and prescribing the best ones.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Combination or multiple therapies; to test for affects.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Explanations of tool/tech use, from general to specific.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  History of preferred techniques of diagnosis and therapy for any malady.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Methods.  (1) How new vs. old.  How good vs bad.  (2) How often tried.  How well tested.  (3) How often completely or partially successful vs. fails.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Philosophy of therapy: you are treating the whole person (physical, psychological, sociological), vs. technicians, specialists, and mechanics.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  The process.  (1) Complaints, symptoms.  (2) Tests, observe, inquire, examine, manipulate.  (3) Diagnose.  (4) Prescribe therapy.  (5) Monitor and keep track of therapy.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Therapies to prevent, treat, and cure.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Tools and techniques for diagnosis and therapeutics.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  Total no# diseases (stages or variations), and total no# of therapies for each to choose from and memorize.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Technology.  What's available, when use it, how use it, and why use it?  Why it works, how effective is it, for who.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapies in general.  To prevent, to control or manage, and to cure.  When, how, and why use.  Current and past best therapies.  Cost vs. benefits.  Side effects.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  Drugs, pharmacology.  (1) Types: by purpose, application, disease/injury.  (2) Effect: on pathological organism or condition, and on human body in general.  (3) Mechanism: how it works.  (4) When indicated, contraindications.  (5) Side effects.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  First aid and emergency room.  (1) For what injury, illness, and disease.  (2) To what area of body.  (3) What technology or equipment available.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  First aid.  Assess amount and severity of direct and indirect damage to all systems.  How stable vs. changeable are they?  How close to death?  Diagnostic tools for determining.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  First aid.  How soon can you get to what technology?  How time critical is patient, how much will they decay, and how soon?  Stabilize the patient.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  Surgery.  (1) Cancer: cut it out.  (2) Damage/trauma: repair, stop bleeding, set or pin bones, clean up damage, repair tissue, repair nerves, repair joints.  (3) Disorder/malfunction.  (4) Infection: kill organism, clean decayed area.  (5) Tools: drugs, anesthetic, scalpels, retractors, sponges.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine, areas.	Therapy.  Surgery.  (1) Types: by system or part, procedure, tools, disease.  (2) When indicated or contraindicated.  (3) Enter, repair, remove, or put in, and close.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	.This section is about medicine.  Topics include: ( ) Alternative medicine.  ( ) Medical systems.	1/24/2006

Health, medicine.	(1) Problems approach.  Problem.  Etiology (causes).  Epidemiology (rates).  Prognosis (run of disease).  Pathophysiology (physiology of body with disease).  Cures, techniques, solutions.  (2) Ideal state approach (health).	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Alternative medicine.  Eastern vs. western medicine.  Definitions of health.  Disease classifications.  Various techniques.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Alternative medicine.  Weirdness and alternative medicines.  (1) Where, how much, how do they help.  (2) How many people use them.  (3) How big a rip off are they.  (4) Yoga, acupuncture, chiropracture, homeopathy, health foods, aroma therapy, crystals, psychic lines, sound relaxation tapes.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Biology,  Pure science vs. human biophysics, biochemistry, cytology, genetics, microbiology.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Current state.  (1) Current state of U.S. medical system.  (A) Movement from general practitioners to specialists.  (B) Insurance for medical, dental and psychological.  HMOs: the big rip-off.  Insurance fraud.  Medicare fraud.  (C) New imaging tools.  (D) Genetic advances.  Human Genome Project.  (E)  Alternative medicine.  (F)  The mind body connection.  Example: John Sarno's books.  (G) Environmental connection.  (2) Worldwide medical situation.  (A) Wiping out diseases like smallpox, polio, leprosy.  (B) Rise of new diseases like ebola, hanta, aids.	6/1/1998

Health, medicine.	Disease and injury.  I feel fragile.  I feel weak.  I feel anxious.	11/26/1998

Health, medicine.	Diseases, symptoms, tests.  Ruling out vs. ruling in.	1/15/1999

Health, medicine.	Ethics issues.  (1) Death.  Right to die, assisted suicide of cancer patients and alzheimers patients.  When does life end?  When to pull the plug?  (2) Abortion.  When does life start?  (A) Conception.  (B) Past fish, chicken, ape embryo stages.  (C) Brain formation.  (D) Birth.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	History by time period, geographic area, and subject area.  Short and broad histories vs. long and detailed histories.  Major and minor advances.  State of average medicine vs. state of art.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	How to study medicine?	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Individual.  (1) Individual (my) medical history.  The big list of age and illness.  (2) My medical history in general and specific diseases and injuries, acute and chronic.  (3) How it affected my psychology, behavior, and social life.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Most important ideas.  (1) Preventive medicine (diet, exercise, low stress) rather than corrective medicine (surgery, pills, etc.).  Too many people focus on the latter than the former.  (2) Psychological health is as important as physical health.  Too many people wrongly focus on the latter.  Both are at equal risk in life.  (3) The mind-body connection is like a two-way street.  It is a very important link.  Reduce stress.	9/25/2000

Health, medicine.	Most important thing to know as doctor. (1) Limits of your ability.  Know when you don't know.  (2) Know when to send them somewhere else.  (3) Know how certain you are of illness, and therapy.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Most important things wrong in today's medical system.  (1) Doctors who hike up prices because they know insurance will cover it.  (2) Doctors who perform unnecessary surgery and dispense unnecessary drugs to make a buck.  (3) Quacks and charlatans.  (4) People who fake injury to defraud the system.  (5) Too many malpractice suits.	8/2/1998

Health, medicine.	Preventive medicine.  Meditation is psychologically healthy.  Yoga or stretching involves the mind/body connection.  Exercise, ex. walking.  Optimism, consciously focusing on positive things and not dwelling excessively on negative things.  Diet, healthy food.	10/16/2003

Health, medicine.	Related subjects.  (1) Law: medical related laws.  Reporting diseases.  Patient confidentiality.  (2) Economic: medical insurance.  (3) Sociology: social views of medicine.  The social role of doctor.  The social role of illness and sick people.  (4) Education: medical education.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Scientific medicine vs "new-age" medicine.  The difference between scientific medicine and the worst of the holistic, new-age healers is that if you go see a dozen scientific specialists for a specific condition they may not be able to heal you but they will tell you that your condition is not in their area of specialty.  However, if you go see a dozen different holistic new-age healers each one will claim to be able to help your specific condition.	8/22/2002

Health, medicine.	Systems.  (1) Costs and benefits.  (2) Using up x resources: labor, salaries, and equipment.  (4) Getting out x benefits: man hours of work, less crime.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Systems.  Private practice, clinic, hospital. (1) Salaries, costs for equipment and supplies.  (2) Rent and utilities, insurance and taxes.  (3) Rates for service.  (4) Profit for owner vs. profit for the practice.  (5) Number of patients.  (6) What procedures do and what send to specialists.  (7) How many patients to take total, and how much to charge.  (8) Who hire and how many.  (9) Get an CPA, and get a business lawyer.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Systems.  US medicine system.  Current insurance rip off.  Nationalized health care, is it possible and good?	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Terms.  Health, illness, disorders, malfunctions, injuries, death, disability, physical challenge (euphemism).	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	What is medicine: the study of illness and injury, and its causes, cures, and prevention.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Why study medicine (the stakes).  (1) Pain.  (A) Psychological pain: anger, sadness, depression.  (B) Physical pain.  (2) Waste.  (A) Loss to individual of abilities, opportunities.  (B) Loss to society of labor, creative ideas.	12/30/1992

Health, medicine.	Why.  Study of medicine leads to awareness of complexity and fragility of life, especially human life.  Leads to greater respect for life, greater respect for science and technology, and a more refined ethical stance in general.	12/30/1992

Health, philosophy.	.This section is about philosophy of health.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Health, philosophy.	(1) Go gentle on body.  But not soft and lazy.  (2) Go gentle on mind.  But not soft and lazy.	09/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Every time you abuse or neglect yourself, you will feel it sooner or later.  If not now, then thirty years from now.  Same for taking care of yourself.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Fit mind in fit body with fit social relationships in a fit environment.  (1) Daily physical work (exercise, diet, sleep).  (2) Daily psychological work (memory, emotion, knowledge, behavior, etc.).  (3) Daily sociology work.  (4) Daily environment work.  (5) Especially on problem areas (identify and solve).	11/04/1993

Health, philosophy.	Foundation for physical health is diet, exercise and sleep; doctors checkups; and no abuse or neglect of self.  Foundation for psychological health is love of a healthy woman, and healthy friends.  Health is the foundation for education and career.  Career is the foundation for money.	08/01/1997

Health, philosophy.	Health (psychological, physical, financial) both depends on and yields school and job, which both depends on and yields girlfriend and friends, and hobbies and fun.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	How much resources to devote to achieve what level of health?  Time, effort, money, materials.	12/30/1992

Health, philosophy.	I could spend all my time and money in a gym and be super-fit, but what of other things?  It is a trade off.  When should we sacrifice our health to achieve something else?  Never?	12/30/1992

Health, philosophy.	I should live according to my future: less ability, longer healing time, and easier injury.  I shouldn't live according to the past: when I had more ability, quicker healing time, less injury prone, stronger, more flexible, etc.  That was my big mistake, gauging myself on what I was, not what I am, and what I am becoming.	09/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Inactivity leads to a continuous downward spiral of related injuries.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Karma.  Start living right.  Do the right thing.  Be nice and humble and cautious and keep your fingers crossed.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Keep up strength, conserve energy, keep up resistance, all to promote healing, rejuvenation and rebuilding.	04/10/1997

Health, philosophy.	Leisure time.  How and how much to relax?  How and how much to get things done?	01/01/1993

Health, philosophy.	Life.  The whole point is to delay the rate of inevitable breakdown of your body.  Prevent accidents and injuries.  If you have your health you have the foundation for all things.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Listen to your body.  Listen to its whispers now, or you will have to hear yourself scream later.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Most important ideas.  (1) Physical health.  We learn more and more about prevention of illness and injury everyday.  But there also many quacks out there.  Read wisely.  (2) Economic health.  (A) Being poor is no virtue.  (B) If there are going to be rich people, it is better the liberals have the money, because they help the underdogs.	10/30/1997

Health, philosophy.	Most important thing to remember about body.  (1) Don't beat on it (even if it doesn't hurt).  (2) Maintain it with good posture, biomechanics, sleep, diet, stretch and exercise, meditation, physical education study.  (3) Treat it gentle (even if you feel fine) because major decay often goes unfelt and undetected till you crap out years later.	12/30/1996

Health, philosophy.	My goal for rest of life.  (1) Make no (zero) wrong moves or mistakes (like cold, acute, overdoing it or overuse).  Take no chances of any degree.  (2) Get into, and stay in, great shape through an approved, sensible, physical therapy plan.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Physical, psychological, and financial health.  Career, love life, avocations.  How far will you gain or slip in any of the above categories with any amount of maintenance, neglect, or abuse?  Will just a little send you far?  Or does a lot only affect you a little?	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	The foundation is physical and mental health.  It lets you get education and then job (money, survival).  Social health in form of girlfriend helps you survive too.  Intellectual creation (notes) comes after.  They all affect each other.	10/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Today the average individual knows more about health than doctors of 50 years ago.  How much should an individual know about health?  A lot.  Ignore it at your peril.	10/25/1997

Health, philosophy.	When you forget this stuff, or think it is not for you, or think it is not important, or think it won't matter if you skip it one time, that's when you will mess yourself up big time.	12/30/1995

Health, philosophy.	Your body is like a machine.  Your body is like a car with no spare parts.  Maintain it and prevent wear and tear so it will run better and last longer.  If you don't maintain it, and if you beat on it, it will go to the junkyard/graveyard faster.  Your body has no replacement parts.	12/30/1996

Health.	.This section is about health.  Topics include: ( ) Age.  ( ) Daily.  ( ) Injury.  ( ) Overuse.  ( ) Pain.  ( ) Relaxation.  ( ) Risk.  ( ) Public health.  ( ) What is health.	1/24/2006

Health.	(1) Cure diseases, illnesses, injuries.  (2) Gain health.  (3) Maintain health.  (4) Improve health.	12/30/1992

Health.	(1) Factors and variations, in health and unhealth.  Excess of a factor, lack of a factor.  (2) Effect on health.  Positive, negative, no effect.  Psychology, physical, economic/financial, sociology.	12/30/1992

Health.	(1) Foundations of physical health.  Eating healthy.  Getting good sleep.  Getting exercise.  (2) Foundations of psychological health.  Purpose and meaning.  Friends.  Talk.  (3) Physical health and psychological health are interrelated.	4/27/2005

Health.	(1) Getting health vs. losing health.  (2) Using health vs. not using health.	12/30/1992

Health.	(1) Health vs. other goals (like working till you drop dead).  (2) Beautiful body people: exercise for looks, not health.	12/30/1992

Health.	(1) Health.  Various definitions of health.  What level do we accept as health?  What level do we accept as illness or injury?  (2) Illness and injury.  Various definitions of illness and injury.  The phenomenological feeling of being ill or injured.  Minor or severe.  Temporary or permanent.  How many days spent ill or injured in your life.  How much time and life lost to illness and injury in your life, and total in world.  How many deaths caused.	6/6/2004

Health.	(1) How to get healthy and stay healthy?  (2) What to do with your health?	4/27/2005

Health.	(1) Ideal state imaginable.  (2) Ideal possible in world.  (3) Ideal possible for you.	12/30/1992

Health.	(1) Pay attention to avoid falls and traffic accidents.  (2) Don't take risks with health like dangerous sports, running red lights, not wearing seatbelt, etc.  (3) Do not get self destructive (out of anger) or self punishing (out of guilt).  (A) At yourself, punishing self by hurting self.  (B) At others, punishing others by hurting self.  (C) At anything, hurting self out of existential rebellion.  (4) Do not get into a state where you are susceptible to suggestions of others.  (5) Be positive.  Want to live.  Have a purpose.  Negative emotions like depression can lead to physical ailments like heart attacks.  (6) Do not take psychological pain out on your physical body.  Example, ulcers, back pain, migraines, lowered immune system.  (7) Use of humor.  Example, Norman Cousin's book.  (8) Psychological tension can lead to physical tension.  (9) More body - mind connections.  Chant, breath, stretch, yoga, exercise to release brain chemicals to make one's mind calm and positive.	02/28/1998

Health.	(1) The most important idea about health is that we ruin our health when we fail to recognize, or forget to recognize, the importance and value of our health.  Stay aware of your health, even when it is good.  Do not taken your good health for granted.  Realize that good health is temporary and make the most of it.  (2) Much of health is about caution and awareness of surroundings, and reduction of risks.	7/21/1998

Health.	(1) What brings health.  Diet: fiber, low fat.  Exercise: moderate, long term.  (2) What destroys health.  Cigarettes, fat, stress, no vegies.	12/30/1992

Health.	Age.  After age 30, the physical composition of connective tissue changes.	5/30/1996

Health.	Age.  By age 30 body chemistry changes.  Small structural defects and weaknesses exacerbate unless maintenance is performed.	12/30/1996

Health.	Age.  Old people get conservative because they are sticking with what they know works.  It is predictably good.  When you try something new it may hurt you (but it may help too).  They fear their routine being interrupted.	12/30/1995

Health.	Age.  When you get old it is harder and takes longer to get in shape.  Getting out of shape happens quicker and easier.  And it becomes more important to stay in shape for health reasons.	12/30/1995

Health.	Age.  With old age comes loss of ability, increasing necessary maintenance, increasing breakdowns and chronic problems.  No fun at all.  What enjoyment is there?  Only tough jobs.  Love and hobbies are unsatisfying.	12/30/1995

Health.	All healthy, well adjusted people are not mindless drones.  Many can and do think for themselves.  You don't have to abuse yourself to get visions or inspiration.  I became city-fied, soft, and weak.  Time to get as strong as I can again.	10/30/1995

Health.	Behavior: healthy vs. unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Health.	Being practical means things like (1) Aware and safe driving.  (2) Prompt and periodic car maintenance.  (3) Caring for career and personal relationships.	12/30/1995

Health.	Big, strong, robust vs. small, weak, fragile.	12/30/1992

Health.	Breaking things to see how tough they are is bad and stupid.  Stay positive and practical.  Yoga and Yogurt.	12/30/1995

Health.	Breathing is an exercise.	5/26/2001

Health.	Can one improve one's health and extend one's life by slowing one's metabolism?  Can one slow one's metabolism through meditation and breathing exercises?	11/12/2005

Health.	Corporations knowingly sacrifice the health of workers, consumers, and the general public, in order to make money.	7/31/2006

Health.	Costs and benefits of health.	12/30/1992

Health.	Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly regimens: what do and why?	12/30/1992

Health.	Daily.  (1) Morning meditation.  Loading up. Focus on goals and tactics.  Get motivated.  (2) Evening meditation.  Down loading.  Blow off stress.  Quiet, peaceful, relaxing, dreaming, drifting.	12/30/1992

Health.	Daily.  (1) Morning.  Plan/remember goals.  Spot problems, develop solutions.  Psych up for goals.  Focus in for goals.  Reduce stress/relax.  Calisthenics.  (2) Evening: feeling shitty.  Relax, run or lift.  Review of goals, means, progress made.	12/30/1992

Health.	Daily.  Evening thing.  Stretch.  Tense and relax muscles.  Breathing.  Images.  Listen to the small voices.  Contemplate eternal verities.  Examine days effort.  Prepare for evenings effort.  Make resolutions to solve problems.	10/25/1993

Health.	Daily.  Go to sleep early and wake up early.  Morning thing: think, exercise, shower, brush teeth.  Take care of evening thing (teeth, face) before you are too tired to.  I am slow and meditative.	11/20/1993

Health.	Daily.  Morning thing: stretch, calisthenics.  Meditate on the days goals, and life goals.  Evening thing: stress, breathing, isometrics, stretching, take a walk at sunset, visualization (clouds, etc.), listen to that little voice inside your head (without going psycho), contemplate eternal verities, go over days effort.	01/01/1993

Health.	Daily.  Morning thing.  Calisthenics, meditate (relax, think), metaphysics, epistemology, ethics goals.	05/30/1993

Health.	Daily.  Take a walk everyday at sunrise and sunset.	09/01/1994

Health.	Daily.  Three times a day.  (1) Warm up with a short walk.  (2) Stretch.  (3) Exercise.  Sitting and standing.  (4) Destress with imagery, breathing, relaxing muscles, chanting.  Affirmations and calmatives like "Things are ok.  I am ok.  The world is ok.  Peace, love and happiness.  Physical and psychological healing are taking place.  Calm blue ocean.  Om.  Relax."  (5) Self massage of back, wrists, knees, etc.  (6) Think of everything else, do some writing.  (6) Fruits and vegies.	11/20/1997

Health.	Daily.  When you get home the mood is not "Relax and rest".  The mood is "Now the real work begins in earnest".	10/01/1994

Health.	De-stress.  Cricket tape.  Wave tape.  Sunset video.  Fireplace video.	12/5/1998

Health.	Diseases.  Most common.  Most contagious.  Most time critical.  Most deadly.  Most debilitating.	9/18/2005

Health.	Driving.  The important thing to remember when driving is (1) You are taking your life in your hands.  (2) You are taking other people's lives in your hands.  (3) Your are putting your life in other people's hands.  (4) Its risky.  Do it as little as possible.  Drive as defensively as possible.	12/30/1996

Health.	Ethics and health.  Health is a means, not an end in and of itself.  The goal is not merely to be healthy.  Health is a means to achieve further goals.	5/27/2006

Health.	Food.  Eat healthy.  Buy local organic food to be healthy and to help the environment.  Fair trade to help social justice.  Low sodium.  Eat lots of veggies and fruits.  Reduce consumption of meat.  Eat less meat and more vegetable protein like soy.  Limit saturated fats.  Limit consumption of refined sugars.  Do not overeat.  Do not smoke.  Get plenty of physical exercise and sleep.	5/22/2007

Health.	Get well as can, and stay well as can for as long as can.  That is the big goal.	08/30/1996

Health.	Global health.  Ideas to promote global health, especially in third world countries.  The greatest challenges to infant mortality and low life expectancy are in the poor, developing, third world nations, not the rich first world nations.  The most important health issues are in the third world, not the first world.  The most funds should go to prevent and cure third world diseases, not first world diseases.  The telethons and walk-a-thons should be for to cure third world diseases, not first world diseases.	3/3/2007

Health.	Global medicine.  What are the biggest medical problems worldwide?  Which diseases and injuries kill and disable the most people?  Polio.  Malaria.  Dysentery.  Smallpox.  Malnutrition.	5/10/2005

Health.	Having vs. lacking health: the things that produce it.	12/30/1992

Health.	Health (psychological and physical) takes effort and work.  Peak performance takes even more effort.  Doing nothing or doing bad things leads into a downward spiral (psychological and physical).	07/01/1993

Health.	Health is not the end goal.  You should use your health to do some good.  Help the world.	5/25/2006

Health.	Health maintenance means healthy diet, moderate exercise, sleep, and low stress.	10/30/1995

Health.	Health.  How often and much an individual or society thinks of health.  What they think it is.  How they think they should get it (technologies).  How much they act to get it.	12/30/1992

Health.	Healthy diet, healthy sleep and healthy exercise helps your brain as much as the rest of your body.  You will think, feel and remember better if you eat, sleep and exercise well.	11/30/2005

Health.	How healthy is any x thing for any y thing?	12/30/1992

Health.	How to get healthy?  How to study health?	12/30/1992

Health.	If you have your health, you have everything?	12/30/1992

Health.	Individual, personal health.  Components: psychology, physical, financial and social.  Factors, variations, and effects.	12/30/1992

Health.	Injuries are caused from (1) Acute and chronic overuse.  (2) Being out of shape, weak and tight.  (3) Poor biomechanics and posture.	12/30/1995

Health.	Injuries count for more misery and lost work time than disease.  Accidents and overuse injuries, avoid them like the plague.	12/30/1995

Health.	Injuries take a long time to heal, and are easily re-injured.  Re-injury leads to longer healing times, and chronic pain and disability.  The key idea to athletics and exercise is to avoid injury by staying within limits.	12/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  A trip or slip and fall can aggravate an old injury or cause a new one.  So can a twist with foot planted.  Avoid quick, jerky movements.  This is why old people are slower.  I am not made of rubber anymore.  Be careful of movements and where you are walking and on what surface (slippery, bumpy).	12/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  All the injured people are not all totally stupid.  Accidents seem an unavoidable part of everyday life.  Everyone is in physical therapy.  Try to minimize them.  Don't add to your risks with sports or risky activities.	10/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  Connective tissue injuries.  Exercise so the scar tissue forms well, not tight.	12/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  How badly am I hurt?  How well will I get, how soon?  How chronic is it?  How much will it limit my activities?  How easy to reinjure self (very easy)?	12/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  Ice, snow, water.  A sudden slip or jerk, even if you don't fall, can wrench your back and fu*k you up.  Cold is bad because it tightens up your leg and back muscles.  Throws off body, makes it work wrong, and causes pain.  Stay bundled up.	12/30/1995

Health.	Injury.  One more time.  Any body part can be hurt, quickly or slowly, by any action, and you may not even feel it.	03/16/1997

Health.	Insomnia.  Causes: hot or cold environment.  Excitement, nervousness, anxiety.  Sexual arousal, horniness.	10/30/1993

Health.	Knowledge and attitude in physical health.  (1) Knowledge plays an important factor in physical health.  Knowing the various diseases and injuries, their causes, and how to prevent them, is key to staying healthy.  (2) Attitude (emotion + thought) is an important factor in physical health.  If you don't do what you know you should do (ex. flossing teeth).  If you don't care about staying healthy (ex. inappropriate risk taking).  (3) That knowledge and attitude play such an important role in physical health is an indication that physical health is closely related to psychological health and optimum attitudes.	4/13/2001

Health.	Lifestyle and health.	12/30/1992

Health.	Massage is therapeutic.  Softens up scar tissue and speeds recovery.  You can self massage your back by lying on a tennis ball.	9/30/1996

Health.	Massage.  Give self a strong massage twice a week.  Press hard.  Rub hard.  Use knuckles.  Near spine.	01/11/1997

Health.	Most important ideas about health.  Global health issues are very important.  I do not find the health issues of the first world as compelling as the health issues of the third world.  Health issues in the first world include issues like heart disease and obesity, which are largely preventable diseases of the rich.  Health care issues in the third world include issues like malnutrition and malaria, which are the more intractable problems of the poor.	5/16/2007

Health.	Most people do not need to spend a lot of money on high-tech health technology.  Eat healthy; eat local organic foods.  Exercise healthy; exercise by walking briskly for half an hour every day.  Sleep healthy: get enough sleep, usually about 8 hours a night.  Be psychologically healthy, have a social network of people with shared values.	5/5/2007

Health.	National health care.  Everyone should have health coverage.	10/25/2004

Health.	Old age homes.  I have spoken with people who work on staff at old age homes and they report how quickly people go downhill when they enter an old age home.  The patients in old age homes are often over medicated, under stimulated, suffer a sense of loss of control, and perish quickly.  Patients who dissent are often labeled troublemakers and dosed with mind numbing sedatives.	4/16/2004

Health.	One can argue that health is not the only goal.  One can argue that health is not the highest goal.  (1) Sometimes a person pursues goals at the expense of their health, although it can be argued that the person would get further if they took care of their health.  (2) If health was the only goal, or the highest goal, then everyone would spend all day in the gym, but we know that is a waste of time.	6/20/2006

Health.	Optimum or peak condition, preparation, performance, effort, and results.	12/30/1992

Health.	Overuse and underuse (lack of exercise) are set up for injury.	12/30/1995

Health.	Overuse injuries.  They start with a little pain and swelling, then get worse.  Tendinitis is often the culprit in runners knee, tennis elbow, and cyclers knee.  Connective tissue becomes less flexible around age 30.  Easier to injure, harder to treat.  Don't rupture your tendons.	12/30/1995

Health.	Overuse.  People push too hard, take too many risks, and don't pay attention, both in sports and everyday life.  Sports are not worth it.  Unavoidable accidents in everyday life alone will destroy you, aside from sports.  Be Zen calm, peaceful.  Mild exercise.  When you feel the sap rise stay mellow.  Stay cautious and aware.  Life may be more boring this way, but you will live longer, like Kant.  If you have an active imagination you don't need sports.  You can be more creative and productive without sports and risks.  The life of the mind, with gentle exercise and walks is the way to go.	10/30/1995

Health.	Overuse.  The myth that physical toil is manly and noble is bullshit.  All physical toil does is wear out your joints.  There is an optimum type and amount of physical exercise for each individual.  Anything beyond that is a waste.  Let the machines do it.  If you do it to boost your ego, show off, or prove your youth to yourself, you are stupid and will pay.	12/30/1996

Health.	Overuse.  Too hard, too long, too often.	10/30/1995

Health.	Overuse.  What happens to football players knees on hard Astroturf.  What happens to downhill skiers knees on hard ice.  Their knees are jarred by stomping.  This makes microtears which never quite heal right.  They wear their knee tendons out, not the cartilage.  Repetitive Motion Injuries.  Overuse injuries.  You can do this running, walking, biking, working out, or doing anything too long, too hard, or too often.  So take it easy on your knees, and on your entire body.  Make it last a long time.  Keep your abilities and avoid pain.	12/30/1996

Health.	Overuse.  You won't feel overuse the instant it happens.  You may feel it days, months, even years later.  It works on a delay.  You may feel it heavy or light.  Both are bad and must be avoided at all costs.  It is easy to overuse, so stay well within your limits.  Don't push the envelope.  Always wait a few days to see how it feels.	12/30/1995

Health.	Pain and disability lead to depression and distraction, which leads to job trouble and non-achievement, which leads to relationship trouble and sex trouble.	12/30/1995

Health.	Pain: Sharp vs. dull.  Local vs. generalized.  Psychological vs. physical.  Constant vs. intermittent.  On a scale of 1 to 10.  0: Not noticeable.  1: Barely noticeable.  2: Forget about it if engrossed.  3: Nuisance, bother, but doesn't interfere.  4: Interfering in activities.  5: Still able to think of other things.  6: Not able to think of other things.  7: Will wear you out eventually.  8: Asking for pain killers.  9: Agony.  10: Screaming and passing out.	12/30/1995

Health.	Pain.  You can't always tell by the pain in felt in the body at a particular moment whether something is weak and about to rip and injure.  Stay strong and limber.  Use proper biomechanics.	12/30/1995

Health.	Pessimism is a stressful state.	12/30/1995

Health.	Physical health, psychological health, relationships, education, and job.  These factors are not linear like a line of dominoes or a metal chain, where one event affects only the direct next event (like dominoes), and loss of one means loss of all (like a link in a metal chain).  Rather they are like a web, where each one affects all others.  Strengthen one area and you strengthen all the others areas.	12/29/1998

Health.	Physical inputs: (1) Food, water, air.  (2) Exercise, sleep.  (3) Clean body, clean environment.  (4) Avoid accidents, injury, mistakes.	12/30/1992

Health.	Posture.  Back is a fragile thing.  Especially when weak (out of shape), tight (not flexible), cold (not warmed up), and bent the wrong way, under heavy stress.  So don't twist.  Warm up and stay loose.  Do strengthening exercises, and avoid heavy objects.	11/02/1993

Health.	Posture.  Back.  The back is not a hinge, they say.  Keep it straight, avoid bends, twists, and poor posture.  Over use injuries can result from a life of poor back habits.  Stay in shape.	10/30/1995

Health.	Posture.  Good posture is an exercise in and of itself.  Maintaining good posture is a workout; it works out the core muscles.  Good posture develops body awareness.  For example, standing with arms crossed in front or arms crossed behind back can lead to a hunched posture, while standing with arms at side lets you stand straight and tall.  Also, good posture is like a yoga workout.  For example, a good stretch/exercise to do is stand with arms behind head and stretch/exercise by arching backwards.	10/10/2005

Health.	Posture.  Standing yoga.  Sitting yoga.  Focus on posture.  Develop body awareness.  Isolate muscles.  Contract and extend (stretch) muscles.  Abs and back muscles.  Focus on breathing in and out.  Tense and relax muscles.	10/10/2005

Health.	Prevention vs. control vs. cure.	12/30/1992

Health.	Problems approach.  Symptom, mechanism, course, causes, effects.  Epidemiology: frequency in society and individual.  Solutions, techniques: old/new, best/worst, how work, why works.	12/30/1992

Health.	Progressivism and health.  Universal health care for Americans.  Universal health care for everyone in the world.  Health care should be a right.	5/5/2007

Health.	Public health: society and environment.  (1) Diseases: communicable vs. incommunicable.  (2) Environment: see tech, and biology (air, water, land).  (3) Sanitation: human waste vs. garbage.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Depletion and pollution of manmade materials and natural materials.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Environment.  Keep it clean of poisons, avoid excess natural and manmade materials, avoid lack of important materials, balance.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Health in home, workplace, and outside (natural) environment.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Health of a society (see pathological sociology).	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Individual.  Keep body inside and out and its parts clean.  Keep environment clean, keep food clean.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  International world health organizations.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  Monitor environment.	12/30/1992

Health.	Public health.  U.S. health care: Medicare, Medicaid, Workman's compensation.	12/30/1992

Health.	Related areas, effects of and on.  (1) Economics: health industry.  Health foods, vitamin stores, exercise gyms, equipment suppliers, new age stuff.  (2) Art: depiction of health in arts through ages as fat, then slim, then buff.  (3) Ethics: (A) The word "good" as meaning health promoting.  (B) Life is good vs. death as bad.  (C) Ability vs. disability.  (D) Pleasure vs. pain.	12/30/1992

Health.	Related areas.  Psychology (see pathological psychology).  (1) Control stressors, control stress reactions.  (2) "Mind" (verb) well.  Unrepressed.  Get catharsis.  (3) Security.  (4) Mind input, mind use, and mind output.  (5) Areas: work, like/lust.	12/30/1992

Health.	Relaxation.  Practice relaxing muscles and breathing deeply every waking moment all day long.	07/05/1997

Health.	Relaxation.  Reduce stress.  Relax and feel positive healing feelings.  Feel good will toward humanity.  Maintain the body and mind in order to think.	08/17/1997

Health.	Relaxation.  Tension.  Do not carry tension in the shoulders and clenched fists.  Carry tension in a tight stomach, with chest out, and shoulders and head back.  This is better posture.	03/01/1997

Health.	Replace artificial shampoo, soap and toothpaste with natural, organic, plant-derived shampoo, soap and toothpaste.	11/23/2004

Health.	Resilience, resistance.	12/30/1992

Health.	Risk.  (1) Avoid wear and tear abuse.  Any quick, violent, strange, stressful motions, (esp. backward hyperextensions).  (2) Avoid slow overtrain or overuse, poor posture and poor biomechanics.  (3) Avoid neglect, stress, poor diet.  (4) Comfort and pamper self (body and mind).  Be good to self, and treat self well, not like a masochist.	12/30/1995

Health.	Risk.  Taking no risks means trying nothing new you haven't already done.  Sticking with what you know works well for you.  Starting low and going slow.  Listening to your body.  Paying more attention to your health.  Thinking about every move.  Not overusing, overtraining, or overdoing it (all at once, or slowly over time).  Prevent abuse and neglect.	12/30/1995

Health.	Risk.  The only way I will survive a long time in good condition is to go from an impulsive, risk taking person to a deliberate, care taking, physical (not political) conservative.	12/30/1995

Health.	Self destruction.  Conscious vs. unconscious.  Controlled vs. uncontrolled.  Fast vs. slow.  Partial vs. total.	12/30/1992

Health.	Sick days from work.  Everyone should be allowed to take a certain number of sick days from work.	10/25/2004

Health.	Sickness and wellness, a phenomenological study.  (1) Feeling sick.  Tired, no energy.  Pain, physical and emotional.  Grouchy, depressed, anxious.  Don't feel like self.  (2) The feeling of getting better.  Recovery.  Healing.  Gaining strength.  Feeling good again.  Having more energy.  Jumping for joy.	7/2/2006

Health.	Sleep is very important.  Don't let people mess with your sleep.  Don't skip on your sleep.	7/17/2005

Health.	Stretches and exercises.  A set of exercises and stretches that can be done anywhere.  That can be done lying down, sitting, or standing.  That can be done several times a day.  Use stretches to develop flexibility.  Flexibility is healthy.  Lack of flexibility can be as bad as lack of strength.  Develop balanced strength, because imbalances of strength amongst muscle groups can also be a problem.     PART ONE. Stretches.  (1) Leg stretches.  Hamstring and back stretch by bending forward gently from waist.  Hamstring stretch by putting one leg out straight and lowering on other leg.  Calf stretch by leaning forward toward the wall.  Ankle stretch by rotating ankles in air.  Groin stretch by standing with legs apart and shifting weight from side to side.  (2) Trunk stretches.  Side stretches by gently leaning from waist to left and right sides.  Side stretches by gently twisting from waist toward left and right sides  Abdominal stretch by gently leaning backward with hands on hips supporting lower back.  Pectoral stretch, by putting hand against wall and turning body outward.  Latimus stretch by holding arm across front of body and leaning forward slightly to stretch lats of back.  Neck stretch by gently moving head in a circular motion.  (3) Arm stretches.  Triceps stretch by bending arm over head and scratching back.  Bicep stretch, by putting hand against wall and turning body outward.  Forearm, hand, finger stretch, by putting hand against wall.  Forearm stretch, by interlocking fingers and pushing arms outward in front of you.  Forearm, hand, finger stretch by holding arms straight outward at sides and rotating hands in a circle.    PART TWO.  Exercises.  (1) Leg exercises.  Squats.  Calf raises.  Lunges.  (2) Trunk.  Sit ups.  Gut clenching isometrics.  Back raises, which can be done lying down, sitting, or standing.  Back isometric by interlocking fingers behind head and gently leaning backward.  Side raises, which can be done lying down, sitting, or standing.  Push ups against wall, is a really good exercise.     PART THREE.  Other.  Practice good posture everywhere.  Practice balance against gravity.  Develop aerobic stamina.  Avoid overuse injuries.	5/22/2007

Health.	Trade-offs of one type of health (and activity to get it) vs. other types of health.	12/30/1992

Health.	Universal health care should be the goal in the United States, as it is in many other nations.	5/16/2007

Health.	Various definitions of health.  Various methods to get various definitions of health.	12/30/1992

Health.	Waste of health.  Not getting health.  Not using health.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health?  (1) Big.  (2) Strong (power) and robust (endurance, stamina).  (3) Integrated, complete.  (4) Working well: productive, efficient, effective.  (5) Resistance to stressors.  (6) Proper functioning.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health.  (1) Survival.  (2) Growth and development (vs. stagnation and decay).  (3) Balance.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health.  (1) There is no health, only nonhealth by degree.  (2) Healthy x = good x.  (3) Health: the question is, what is ideal good and bad x?  (4) Related concepts of abnormal, pathological, optimal, and sub-optimal.  (5) Health as anything not ill vs. health as level of fitness.  (6) Health as quality of life.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health.  After addressing the question, "What is health? (physical and psychological)", the second issue is to ponder the question, "What is health worth?"  Some say that if you have your health then you have everything.  But this view leads to the view that if you don't have your health then you don't have anything, which is a dangerous view that does nothing for the self esteem of the ill.  This view makes the ill feel worthless, which is bad.  So scrap that view.	2/22/2000

Health.	What is health.  Definitions of health.  (1) To be mobile.  (2) To be able to handle daily life around the house.  (3) To be able to care for self.  (4) To be able to hold a job.	2/22/2000

Health.	What is health.  Health in all areas of your life.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health.  Health of individual person, society, and environment.	12/30/1992

Health.	What is health.  Psychological health, physical health, and economic/financial health.  All three affect each other.	12/30/1992

Health.	What we need is constant, real-time monitoring of all body functions, including cholesterol levels, cortisol levels, etc.  Plus alerts when they go above a certain level.	8/3/2004

Health.	Why be healthy?  Why study health?  (1) To solve problems, to avoid mistakes and pain.  (2) To gain goals, to meet challenges.  (3) To survive, well, better, longer, to grow.  (4) Quality of life.	12/30/1992

Health.	Why get healthy?  Get healthy to solve the problems of the world.	7/16/2006

Health.	Why people fall in the shower.  Its not because the bathtub is slippery.  Its because you shut your eyes (to avoid the soap), tilt your head back (to rinse your hair), and then you spin around (to get clean all over).  That kind of party game maneuver lands people on the floor.  Shower falls are more often a balance issue than a friction issue.	10/14/2000

History, future studies.	.This section is about future studies.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, future studies.	(1) All planning is future studies.  We are all engaged in future studies.  (2) All memory is history.  We are all engaged in historical studies.	11/15/2000

History, future studies.	(1) If trends stayed the way they are today, then how would things play out in 10, 100, or 1000 years?  (2) What has been the trend in the last 10, 100 and 1000 years?  How will that trend continue?  (3) What are the current known probabilities (ex. of earthquakes)?  (4) What unknowns could occur?  (5) Predictions for the next 10, 100 and 1000 years, in all subject areas.	1/20/1999

History, future studies.	(1) Imagining future possibilities.  This is do-able.  (2) Figuring future probabilities.  This is a little bit tougher.  (3) Predicting the future.  This is very difficult.	6/6/2004

History, future studies.	(1) Living in a time of change.  (A) Contra: living in a time of change can be unpredictable, stressful and anxious.  (B) Pro: living in a time of change makes you feel like you can change things, which makes you feel more empowered and useful.  (2) Living in times of little change.  (A) Pro: living in times of little change gives one a feeling of predictability, security, safety and laziness.  (B) Contra: Living in times of little change makes you feel like you cannot change things, which produces learned helplessness and resignation.	8/6/2001

History, future studies.	(1) Personal future studies.  Where do I want to go in life?  What are my goals?  How to get to where I want to go?  (2) Global future studies.  What kind of world do we want to live in?  How far is the world to where we want it to be?  How to get the world from where it is to where we want it to be?	6/6/2004

History, future studies.	(1) The art, philosophy and science of the future.  (2) The future viewed in terms of systems theory.  (3) As Proust is an artist to the past, who is an artist to the future?	4/30/2005

History, future studies.	(1) The opposite of memory or thinking about the past would seem to be thinking about one's future (forecasting conditions and planning goals).  When it comes to thinking about one's future, the tendency is to think about the future of the world in addition to oneself.  This is different from thinking about one's past, which most people do without much thought to the world that they lived their past in.  (2) When it comes to thinking about one's own future, a person can make the same mistakes that people make when they think about the future of earth in general.  (A) Utopianism: believing everything is going to be perfect.  (B) Dystopianism: believing everything is going to be awful.  (C) Stasis-ism: believing everything is going to be exactly as it is now.  (D) Different-ism: believing everything is going to be totally different than it is now.	2/8/2001

History, future studies.	(1) What is the percent of time a person or society spends thinking versus not thinking?  (2) What is the percent of time a person or society spends thinking about the past, present and future?  One wants to have a healthy balance among thinking of the past, present and future.  Not thinking about any too little or too much.  (3) What is the person's or society's general attitude toward the past, present and future?  Attitudes about the past include the views that thinking about the past is useful or useless.  Attitudes about the present include the views that thinking about the present is useful or useless.  Attitudes about the future include the views that thinking about the future is useful or useless.  (4) History is about time, change, and the human experience of time.  (See also: Psychology, temporal thinking.  See also: Philosophy, time.  See also: Philosophy, change.)	4/30/2005

History, future studies.	(1) Where are things headed?  What are the trends?  The trends are human over-population, decreasing resources, and increasing pollution.  (2) What do we want to happen?  What are our goals?  Our goals are environmental sustainability and social justice.	5/27/2007

History, future studies.	Another mistake some people make is thinking the future is entirely predictable.  These people make detailed, long-term plans, without any contingencies.  These people become disconcerted when things do not go as they predicted and planned.  The future is not entirely predictable.  Learn to go with the flow.	10/31/2001

History, future studies.	Contingency planning.  "If W happens I will do X.  If Y happens I will do Z."	6/6/2004

History, future studies.	Fatalism, the view that the future is predetermined and unavoidable, is a very unhealthy attitude to take about the future.  On the other hand, to think that the future is completely random, totally beyond our influence, is also a false and unhealthy attitude.  We can influence the future, we do have some degree of control.  People who believe the above false views stop thinking about the future and stop working toward the future.	10/31/2001

History, future studies.	Future end games: immortality or extinction.	5/16/2004

History, future studies.	Future studies and trend spotting, and current events are areas that are just as important as history and spotting trends in history.	12/29/1997

History, future studies.	Future studies is about forecasting and planning.	11/13/1999

History, future studies.	Future studies is as important a subject as history.  Some people ignore future studies.	4/16/2006

History, future studies.	Future study is more important than history during fast changing times.  They should teach kids future studies more than history in school.	08/17/1997

History, future studies.	Future.  Philosophy about present and future situations and problems.  (1) Nuclear weapons.  (2) Environmental issues.  (3) World government.  (4) Computers.  (5) End games.	09/08/1993

History, future studies.	Future.  What can we expect from: (1) Medicine: To never get sick, to never die, and to be big and strong.  (2) Psychology: super genius, peak performance, unrepressed and mentally healthy. (3) Technology: Ease and leisure time.  Etc. for all subject areas.	08/04/1993

History, future studies.	Future.  Who knows what the future will bring?  It is exciting, scary, curious, the unknown.	12/30/1992

History, future studies.	Historians deal with what has been.  Futurists deal with what may be.  Futurists deal with the imaginable.  This is a very useful task.  Many types of groups of people function as futurists.  The science fiction writers are great futurists.  The philosophers who deal with hypotheticals are often futurists.  The dreamers and the poets are futurists, and they are working as hard as the practical realists.	3/13/2000

History, future studies.	If history has a weight, does not the future also have a weight?  Yes, the future does have a weight.	11/17/2005

History, future studies.	Make future predictions for all subject areas, for 10, 50 and 100 years from now, for best, worst and most likely occurences.	9/10/2005

History, future studies.	Methodology of future studies.  (1) Imagine all the possibilities.  (2) Imagine best goal states to attain.  Figure out how to attain them.  (3) Imagine worst states to avoid.  Figure out how to avoid them.	8/6/2000

History, future studies.	Predicting dice roll probabilities is easy because you know all the possible outcomes.  Predicting the future is not easy because all the possible outcomes are not known.  Predicting the future is not like predicting dice rolls.	4/16/2000

History, future studies.	Science and technology shapes the future more so than politics and law or economics and business.  There are several arguments why: (1) Politics, law, economics and business are only rules that we decide on.  We can set the rules and we can change the rules.  Science and technology is discovery and invention.  Once discovered or invented, things cannot be un-discovered or un-invented.  (2)  Plus the fact that technology determines the types of politics and business systems possible.  (3) I say this in spite of the fact that politics can try to outlaw technology.  And I say this in spite the fact that economics determines if technologies can be produced or purchased, as far as money goes.  Because both politics and economics can be circumvented.     PART TWO. What are the technologies that will shape the next 100 years?  Most likely, genetics and computers.	3/5/2002

History, future studies.	Some people say the future is not predictable so it does not even pay to think about it.  They say that previous attempts to predict the future have failed, so don't even try.  What might be the self-interested bias of someone who would make such a statement?  They might be near-sighted or myopic.  They might be conservative traditionalists who fear change.  They might be interested in short term exploitation of non-renewable resources.  They might be biased against the future because they want to keep the status quo because it suits their self interests.  They might be trying to selfishly sandbag you in that they don't want you to think about the future but meanwhile they themselves are diligently preparing for the future.	7/24/2004

History, future studies.	The degree of confidence with which you can say what will and will not happen in the world tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, etc..  The statistical probabilities of what will occur, based on the recent past.	2/24/2002

History, future studies.	The further you look into the future the harder it is to predict.	2/24/2002

History, future studies.	The future of humanity, if humanity has a future, is a global, peaceful, ecologically sustainable, social justice pursuing, intelligent people.  That is to say, progressives and hippies are the future.  On the other hand, if humanity is on a course of destruction, it will mean conflict, war, ignorance and intolerance.  That is to say, the neo-con path leads to destruction of the earth.	11/11/2005

History, future studies.	The limits of technology.  Many futurists can be categorized as either techno-utopians or techno-dystopians.  An example of a techno-utopian is Ray Kurzweil.  An example of a techno-dystopian is Bill Joy.  However, both techno-utopians and techno-dystopians assume that technology will be the primary driver of events in the future.  That assumption may not hold.  Things other than technology may have a greater effect on future events.  For example, the environment, politics and economics may play a greater role in shaping the future than technology.  The future I would like to see is a future of environmental sustainability and social justice.  If people are poor, or sick, or uneducated, or politically oppressed, or economically exploited, and thus unable to get and use technology, then the predictions of both the techno-utopians and technodystopians will not come to pass.	5/13/2007

History, future studies.	The nature of the future is changing.  Once there was two types of future: (1) The future of your maximum possible life span (example of 50 to 100 years) vs. (2) The future of everything after you are dead.  Once people cared only about their own life span and they did not care about much after that.  However, today, technological advances are making possible the thought that humans can conceivably live much longer.  Humans may perhaps live to be 250, 500 or even 1000 years old with the aid of gene therapy, organ transplant, etc.  When this is possible, and even when just the serious thought of this is possible, it changes the attitude of people towards the future.  It changes the way we conceive of the future.  It changes our relationship to the future.	1/30/2002

History, future studies.	Three possibilities.  (1) Things are getting better.  Things are improving.  Progress is being made.  (2) Things are getting worse.  Fight a rearguard, delaying action.  Guerrilla resistance.  (3) Things staying the same, same level of good and bad, just a different situation.	1/20/2006

History, future studies.	Time thinking.  Specific ways to do future studies.  Where is the world headed in all subject areas?  How quickly?  How sure are we?	12/30/1992

History, future studies.	Two important questions about the future.  When thinking about the future, the question "Where do we want to go?", is as important as the question, "Where are we going?", for both the individual and society.	2/27/2007

History, future studies.	Two parts of future studies.  (1) Predictions and forecasts.  (2) Plans and goals.	2/25/1999

History, future studies.	Two polar views.  (1) The future will be like the past.  The future will be a replay of the past.  (2) The future will be unlike the past.  The future will be completely different from the past.  (3) The probable outcome is that the future will be like the past in some ways and unlike the past in other ways.	10/1/2005

History, future studies.	Two types of futurists.  (1) Egoistic futurists: only interested in the future of their own lives.  (2) Altruistic futurists: interested in the future even after they are dead.	8/6/2000

History, future studies.	Types of future thinking for the individual and the group.  (1) Future thinking by the individual for themselves: Save for their own education.  Stay healthy.  Consider their own future.  Save for their own retirement.  Save for kids college education.  (2) Future thinking about the group.  Asteroid hitting earth.  Overpopulation.  Extinction of species.  Global warming.  Ebola virus.	8/10/2001

History, future studies.	Types of future thinking.  (1) Future of various subject areas. Examples:  Future of politics and law.  Future of science and technology.  Future of economics and business.  Future of sociology and psychology.  Future of arts.  (2) Future of a person, place, thing, event or idea.	2/28/2004

History, future studies.	What good is future studies, since most predictions are wrong?  The good of future studies is that it makes us think about our futures.  We focus on possibilities and hypotheticals, goals and planning, hopes and dreams and ideals, and nightmares (to avoid worst-case scenarios).  (2) Futurist authors.  Naisbitt, Popcorn, Watts and Wacker, Kaku, Saffo.  (3) Methods.  Delphi method.  Interview many experts.  (4) The further out the time frame (1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 years), the tougher it is to predict.	4/28/1998

History, future studies.	What is the relationship that most people have with the future?  They don't think about it because they cannot see it.  Foresight and planning are rare, highly evolved mental capabilities.  Immediate gratification is much more common.	1/30/2002

History, future studies.	Where do we want to go?  Where should we head?  It is a metaphor that compares physical space to actions in the future.	2/27/2007

History, future studies.	While some people make the mistake of living only in the past, other people make the mistake of living only in the present, and still other people make the mistake of living only in the future.	11/17/2005

History, future studies.	Why study the future?  If you care about future generations you will study the future.  Expanding our frame of reference, both temporally and geographically, is a sign of progress.	7/24/2004

History, future studies.	You can plan.  You can prepare.  You can have foresight.  You can think long term.  But life does its own thing.	2/28/2002

History, methods.	.This section contains notes regarding historical methodology.	12/30/2003

History, methods.	.This section is about methodology of history.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, methods.	(1) Charting the past.  Put down the year and then details about job and job search, girlfriend and girlfriend search, education, books read and book search, number of pages notes written, etc.  (2) Charting the future.  Write down goals, strategies, and reasons for same above stuff.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	(1) History of mind/ideas of individual or society.  (2) History of behavior/action of individual or society.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) How much time to devote to reminiscing?  How best to do it?  Go over old history notes?  Describe event.  Evaluate event's importance.  Interpret event's meaning.  One hour per week?  How to get your head in that reminiscing mood?  (2) How much time to devote to future thinking?  Two hours a week?  How to think about the future?  Plan.	01/20/1994

History, methods.	(1) Natural history.  (2) Person.  (3) Society: rise, stagnation, and fall.  Culture: pop, high, avante garde, power.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) People (individuals and societies).  (2) Places.  (3) Things.  (A) Objects: natural, manmade or man-caused.  (B) Subjects (26).  (C) Events, actions, processes.  (D) Ideas: recorded (writing, taped) vs. oral (remembered).	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) Proof types.  (2) Theory types.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) Society, civilization, nation, individual.  (2) Power.  (3) Influence: gain and loss, how much, how quick, for how long.  (4) Power struggles.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) Static, snapshot history vs. (2) Dynamic, evolving history (series of snapshots).  Doing history of the former is easier than doing history of the latter.  Eras and time periods are tough to summarize or capture.	7/24/1998

History, methods.	(1) Structure: lines and lists, by year and total life.  (2) Subjects: specific relationships, work, leisure, sex, etc.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) The good and bad.  (2) The important (usually big) and unimportant.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	(1) We record what is new, and important, and true.  We also record what is the biggest, majority, and average.  (2) Are things showing random chaos or some sort of order (progress, decay, or a cycle)?	09/28/1993

History, methods.	(1) Write about history of the people in your life as individuals.  (2) Then write about the history of your relationship with them, both good things and bad things.  (3) Then write about the future path of the person.  (4) Then write about the future path of your relationship with that person.  How you will treat them and why?	11/20/1997

History, methods.	(1)(A) Every year you could make photographs, sound recordings and audio/video recordings.  (B) You could write a diary or journal.  You could do your Notes.  You could interview yourself.  You could take the philosophy survey (See: Philosophy, survey).  (2) Since people interact with each other, each person's personal history should have links to other people's personal histories.  (3) Develop software to make creating personal history easier.	6/3/2001

History, methods.	Actual significance vs. symbolic significance.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	All historical descriptions are shortened and simplified versions of what actually happened.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Analytical techniques: (1) describe, (2) evaluate, (3) rate as positive (healthy) or negative (unhealthy) and (4) say whether major or minor significance.	11/30/1997

History, methods.	Anecdote.  Stray memories approach.  The anecdotal approach: the weird, the lucky or unlucky, the amazingly bad or good.  (Examples: Ripley's Believe It Or Not.  The crime blotter.  The obituaries).	02/01/1994

History, methods.	Anecdotes.  Get down those stray, weird, funny, tragic, powerful, memories.  This is my new history project.  The anecdotal method.  This in lew of any straight chronological type of recall.	01/20/1994

History, methods.	Archive.  Keep a personal museum of physical objects (artifacts) from your life that are important to you as memories.  This is healthy.	03/15/1989

History, methods.	Archive.  Setting up a personal archive.  Go through all your stuff.  Stuff to document (photograph or list) and then save.  Stuff to document (photograph or list) and then chuck.  Stuff to just chuck.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	Archives (boxes of old stuff).  (1) Stuff that is important to list, and why.  (2) Stuff to save, and why.  (3) Chuck the rest.	04/30/1993

History, methods.	Artifacts and me: what save and why.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Audio/visual technologies and their use in historiography.  Instead of writing about events after the fact we can film the events as they happen.	12/12/2004

History, methods.	Categories.  History categories.  (1) History of me.  Year.  Grade levels in school (1, 2, 3, etc.).  Jobs.  My mind.  Events (good and bad).  Places, environments, situations.  Things.  Persons: Audrey, women.  Bloods: rents and bros.  Cool people and their cool actions.  Schmuck people and their schmuck actions.  (2) History of world.  Year, event, significance, argument.  (3) History, method.  (4) History, philosophy.	11/30/1997

History, methods.	Civilization: contributions, destructions, and stagnations.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Comparisons (1)(A) To those in that time, (B) To all time.  (2)(A) To those in that class or group, (B) To all groups.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Complete history.  PART ONE.  (1) What would a complete history look like?  Two axioms of a complete history: (A) Everyone should have their say about events that transpire.  That is, everyone's views should be recorded as part of the historical record.  (B) Everything affects everyone to varying degrees.  Thus, everyone should have their say about everything.  (C) These axioms lead to the following postulates.  (2) As part of the historiography process, one should interview everyone who was involved in the event.  (3) Also, interview everyone who was alive at the time of the event who was indirectly affected by the event.  (4) Also, interview everyone who lived generations after an event to see what are their views about every past event.  (5) And going one step further, one could interview everyone who lives before any possible future event to see what are their views about any possible future events.  (6) That is, a complete history interviews everyone about everything.     PART TWO.  Two criticisms of the notion of complete historiography.  (1) In order to interview everyone about everything it would require that all people know what is going on everywhere.  And in order for all people to know what is going on everywhere they would have to gather information about events, and this information about events is what we call historiography.  So the resulting paradox is that the doing of historiography requires the presence of historiography itself.  And so historiography is by its nature cyclical or self-referential in that one has to have a complete historiography in order to do a complete historiography.  (2) Another issue is that a complete history must address the issue of privacy.  Will the complete history be forced or voluntary?  Will people be forced to have their lives recorded?  Will people be forced to discuss all their views?  Or will it be voluntary?  If it is voluntary then some people will opt not to take part.  If some people opt not to take part then it is not a complete history.     PART THREE.  A  complete history is a history of everything; individual people, relationships, cultures, events and ideas.  An incomplete history is a history of political leaders and the wars they start that kill the masses.  Up to today humans have been doing incomplete history.  In the future humans will be doing a more complete history.	12/12/2004

History, methods.	Computers and history.  Databases and their use in historiography.  One way to organize historical information is to put it into a database that has fields for dates, subject matter, event name, persons involved and significance of the event.	12/12/2004

History, methods.	Computers and history.  Each person will have their life recorded 24 x 7, and that information will go into a personal searchable database.  In addition, the data of all persons lives will be combined into a bigger, world searchable database.  Then you can run queries like how many people had cornflakes for breakfast on any particular day.	10/23/2004

History, methods.	Computers and history.  History is a database.  Soon everyone will have a full time, 24 hour, audio-visual head camera that will record their life as it happens.  This technology will enable us to create a searchable historical archive for each person's life.  It will record everything that person said and did.  It will record everyone they met, and every experience they ever had, from birth to death.	4/22/1999

History, methods.	Computers and history.  History's new project.  (1) A universal database of every person who ever lived.  Translatable into all languages.  Each person is listed with such data as name, birth date, place of birth, date of death, place of death, cause of death, level of education attained, work history, etc.  It would include major life experiences (ex. marriage, kids, health, wars, crimes, etc.).  It would include things the person did, both accomplishments and failures.  Each person would get a web page with photographs from childhood, teens years, adult years and old age.  Voice samples would be included.  It would list the primary source documents about the persons life.  It would show the persons family tree (ancestors and descendants) with names, photos and links to their web pages.  It would link to the person's personal statement or Notes.     (2) This historical database of everyone who ever lived would be open to the public.  In the interest of privacy to the living, the database would be limited to the dead.  An important question is whether the dead have a right to privacy of their personal information.     (3) How many people have lived?  Currently there are six billion people alive.  Maybe twenty billion people have lived in the last 100,000 years.  If you looked at one person's web page per second of time that would be 525,600 seconds a year, or 20,000 years to look at twenty billion web pages.     (4) Part two of this universal database would be to have a database of every culture that ever existed.	8/8/2000

History, methods.	Computers and history.  Putting history on the Web.  Be able to "drill down" through the data.  Be able to switch from one view to another.  Four views: subject view, geographic view, chronological view, and importance view.  (1) Subject view.  Category, sub-category, and sub-sub-category.  For example: Science, physics, relativity.  (2) Geographic view.  Continent, nation, local.  (3) Chronological view.  Millennium, century, decade, year.  (4) Importance view.  Five stars: worldwide and timewide importance.  Four stars: either worldwide or timewide importance.  Three stars: regional or period importance.  Two stars.  One star.     Other views to include: (1) Length view.  One page, ten pages, and one hundred pages.  (2) Degree of difficulty view.  Elementary level, high school level, college level, and post-graduate level.     Also include: (1) Significance of event.  (2) Related events (causes and effects).  (3) Sources of information (citations).  (4) Five W's (who, what, where, when, why, how).	8/12/1999

History, methods.	Contributions (did good), anti-contributions (did harm), and non-contributions (did nothing).  Major and minor relative to that or any other time and place, etc.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Doing history often means deducing the truth from scant evidence (example, writings that could be mistaken, misleading, or lies). Even in the present we must try to figure out what is going on now, when individuals keep secrets, act in secret, tell lies, etc.	09/15/1993

History, methods.	Event and event analysis.  (1) Major or minor by size, power, and originality.  (2) Good or bad by degree, ethical worth, and how important.  (3) Advancements vs. the usual vs. setbacks.  (4) What happened, mechanism (how happened), causes and effects.  (5) Compare to others.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Every year do a summary of personal and world history in all subject areas.	02/15/1997

History, methods.	Evidence forms: document, artifact, sources.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Finding all the facts is tough.  Finding only some leads to an incomplete truth.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	For any historical event.  Date and place of the event.  Causes of the event, both direct (immediate, primary) and indirect (secondary).  Effects of the event, both direct and indirect.  Importance or significance of the event.	10/28/2003

History, methods.	For each person in your life.  (1) What things have they done for and against you?  How major or minor?  (2) What have they done in their lives in general?  (3) Pros and cons of their personality.  (4) Reasons for your current view of them, and your behavior toward them.	10/05/1997

History, methods.	For each year, list major events in categories of pad, job, school, women, stuff, notes and books, actions and experiences, revelations, and US and world events.	06/01/1994

History, methods.	For every year, make list of (1) Me.  Things I did do, good and bad.  Things I did not do, good and bad.  (2) Others.  Things that were done to me, good and bad.  Things that were not done to me, good and bad.  (3) Nature.  Things it did to me, good and bad.  Things it did not do to me, good and bad.  And the importance rating of each.	04/29/1994

History, methods.	Format for writing personal history notes.  Keyword: history, me, year, sub-category.     Note:  (1) Year.  (2) Age.  (3) School.  Grade.  Teachers.  Classmates.  Material learned.  (4) Social life.  (A) Love life.  Women.  Events.  (B) Friends, enemies and acquaintances.  (6) Work and Leisure.  (A) Leisure.  Hobbies.  Hangouts.  Trips.  (B) Work.  Job.  Boss.  Coworkers.  Customers.  Events.  (8) Where lived.  (9) Health.  Physical.  Psychological.  (10)  Knowledge.  Books.  Music.  Movies.  Notes.  Internet bookmarks and library.  Illuminations.  (11) Other personal history.  (12) World events that year.	7/23/1998

History, methods.	Format.  (1) Time lines.  (2) Outlines: total, period, year.  (3) One big note list.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Formats to organize and communicate knowledge: (1) time lines, (2) lists, (3) maps.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  (1) Observer bias.  (2) Observer interference on obserevee.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  Every thing is both a cause and effect, this includes events as well as ideas.  Effects can be good, bad, or mixed.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  Historical thought experiment: what would have happened if...	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  History writing deals with time, place (situation), people (individuals, societies), things, relationships of things to other things, and their significance.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  Objective pure facts vs. subjective interpretations.  At time of event vs. after reflecting over a period of time.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Historiography.  What is inevitable and unavoidable?	12/30/1992

History, methods.	History as a list of kings and wars is bullshit.	10/1/2005

History, methods.	History can be done many ways.  We can do the history of a person.  One can do the history of a relationship.  One can do the history of a society or culture.  One can do the history of the world.  One can do the history of an event.  One can do the history of an idea.  One can do history by subject matter (ex. politics, economics, technology, etc.).	12/12/2004

History, methods.	History is about (1) Situations, factors, and events.  (2) Change: time, birth, growth, stagnation, decay, death.  (3) Causes.  Shaping factors.  (4) Effects.  Primary vs. secondary.  Direct vs. indirect.  On individual, society, and nature.  By nature, social, and individual.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	History of any metaphysical "thing" (see metaphysics).	12/30/1992

History, methods.	How can we be sure who made this thing or action, when made it, why made it, how made it, or thought it, or did it.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	How does or should one do history?  One can write a history.  One can also use photos, sounds, movies, animation, music, spoken voice.	2/10/2005

History, methods.	How study history?  (1) Methods of determining it.  (2) Methods of writing it.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Hypotheticals.  If x hadn't happened, or if y happened instead, how would things have changed or been different?	08/16/1993

History, methods.	I am for post-modernist (subjectivist, relativist) methods of history as an adjunct to scientific (objectivist) history, not as a replacement of it.  Why?  There are always three sides to the truth: one person's view, the other person's view, and the objective truth.  The post-modernist historian believes it is important to get the subjective views of both sides as well as the object of truth.  History is not just about physical facts.  It is also about the psychological perceptions of the actors involved.	7/18/1998

History, methods.	Interpretation of history is full of value judgments.  Interpretation: truth vs. propaganda.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Interviewing.  (1) Important questions to ask.  (2) Take into account their personality.  (3) How to ascertain truth of answer.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Lessons we learn from them.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Look for long term patterns in your life.  Patterns of thinking, emotion and action.  Things that you do over and over, because you haven't recognized them or figured out a better way.  Then think of better ways of looking at things and doing things.	1/10/2004

History, methods.	Methods (1) Of discovering facts: archaeology.  (2) Of interpreting facts: study of writings, histography.  (3) Of writing history: what to include (important issues).	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Methods of analysis, and things to analyze.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	My best and worst overall (peak and duration) physically, psychologically, and behaviorally.  Psychologically: most mature, wise, knowledgeable, and pure problem solving ability.	01/26/1994

History, methods.	One digital photo per day, or 365 photos a year.  Or, make a one minute, digital, audio/video per day (30 seconds in the morning when you wake up to describe the goals for the day, and 30 seconds before you go to sleep to describe how the day went), which equals 365 minutes a year or 6 hours.  Each day on the tape give your name, date, age and location.	4/23/2002

History, methods.	Problems and obstacles I had, opportunities I had, and battles I fought.  Successes and failures I made, highs and lows.  Hopes, dreams, and goals at any age.  Perception of self and world at any age.  What I knew and didn't know.  Things that bug me still, i.e. still painful memories.  If and how your view of past events changes through time.  Best and worst physical, psychological, and financial condition.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	Proof (best methods of): carbon dating.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Quantitative descriptions and qualitative descriptions.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Quantitative descriptions for any society.  Observe trends in changes of political, economic, and social situations.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Questions for each event, person, time period, geographic area, and subject matter.  Describe it.  Explain causes and effects.  How important, and why important.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Questions for x event.  Whose credit or fault was it?  How big an event was it?  How good or bad?  Dollars gained or lost.  Lives helped or hurt.  How important?  Causes and effects.	09/25/1993

History, methods.	Records of (1) Psychological damage.  (2) Physical damage.  (3) Damage to your stuff.  (4) Damage to an experience you wanted.  Also growth.	10/15/1994

History, methods.	Related ideas.  (1) Time.  (2) Change: much or little, fast or slow.  Birth, growth, stagnation, decay, death.  (3) Events, situations, and environments.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Significance: how important for who?	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Steps: (1) Discover, and then prove authenticity.  (2) Analyze its impact on its time.  (3) Then apply past knowledge to present and future.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Strengths and weaknesses.  Pros and cons.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Structure much like notes.  (1) In general section for in general notes.  (2) One notes section.  (3) One giant time line, time list, and time map.  (4) For every year, above three.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Stuff that happened lately.  Public and personal.  Foreign and domestic.  Good and bad.  Major and minor.	03/01/1997

History, methods.	Terms.  Reasoning, arguments, evidence, proof, criticize, analyze, synthesize, judge, compare, describe, explain, doubt, belief, certainty, facts, theories, lessons, discovery, assertion, analysis (factors, variables), judge, interpret, explain, view, argument, evidence.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Their natural environment: how it affected them and their society.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	There are three types of history you can do.  (1) History of self.  How you were in times past, based on memories of how you felt, what you thought, etc.  (2) History of your relationships, firsthand experiences, things you saw for yourself.  Observations of other people.  You do not have direct access to their minds but you did interact with them.  (3) History of things you did not directly experience, but which you found out about.  Things you read about etc.  (4) All three of these types of history have pros and contras.  All three have methods of doing history which are more or less suited to them.	7/21/1998

History, methods.	Time period.  (1) The big people, events, and factors.  (2) The average people, events, and factors.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Total benefits vs. total costs.  Was it worth it?	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Trying to determine the metaphysical essence of a time and place, and the people in it.  Example: USA in the 1960's.	08/01/1997

History, methods.	Two ways of doing history.  (1) The "noun" approach to history.  Describe the people, places, things, and ideas that happened.  (2) The "verb" approach to history.  Describe the events that happened.  Describe the way things happened.  Describe the process or mechanism of how things happened.	1/9/2004

History, methods.	Types of historical method.  (1)  Evidence.  (ex. testimony, artifacts, texts).  (2) Reasoning.	10/23/2003

History, methods.	Types of Historical records.  (1) Individual: Personal diaries.  (2) Government and law: Court transcripts of law cases.  Laws on the books.  (3) Demographic data: Government census.  Marriage certificates.  Birth certificates.  Death certificates.  (4) Education: Academic papers.  School transcripts of grades of individuals.  (5) Labor: Work records.  Employment records.  (6) Media: Newspapers, magazines and books published.  (7) Technology: Patents.  Science discoveries.  (8) Economics and business: Property titles and records.  Records of commercial transactions.  Receipts.  Accounting records.  (9) Physical evidence: Objects.  Old buildings.  Garbage heaps.  (10) Other: Oral tradition.  Stories, songs.  Interviews with living persons.	8/4/2006

History, methods.	Types of historical thinking.  (1) History of subject areas.  Examples:  History of politics and law.  History of science and technology.  History of economics and business.  History of sociology and psychology.  History of arts.  (2) History of a person, place, thing, event or idea.	2/28/2004

History, methods.	Types of history.  (1) Artifacts vs. (2) oral history (myths) vs. (3) written history.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Understand and criticize: analyze and judge (compare).	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Wallowing through fabricated evidence, deception, red herrings, lies, and secrets.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	Ways of ________ historical data.  (1) Getting: sources type (primary, secondary).  (2) Verifying: proof tests.  (3) Organizing.  (4) Interpreting: conclusions.  Determine cause and effects.  Judging it good or bad.  Judging it important or unimportant.  (5) Presenting.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	What happened vs. what someone says happened.  Lies, secrets.  Misinterpreting causes or effects.  Importance: under-emphasize vs. over-emphasize.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	What is new, important, and true?  What are the masses doing?	01/01/1993

History, methods.	What were their (1) Problems vs. challenges and opportunities.  (2) How did they deal with them?  Did they try new solutions or try old solutions?  Did the solutions work?  How well?  (3) Mistakes made.	12/30/1992

History, methods.	Write all actions, dialogue, thoughts, and environment.	01/01/1993

History, methods.	Writing history depends on imagination just as much as thinking of the future does.  To do psycho-history, you have to put yourself in their place, skin, shoes.  See through their eyes.  Look at things as they saw them.  To imagine what has been and what will be.	9/30/1996

History, personal history.	.This section contains ideas for methods of historical analysis of one's personal life.	12/30/2003

History, personal history.	.This section is about history of individual persons.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, personal history.	.This section is ways to analyze the history of an individual person.	10/25/2004

History, personal history.	(1) Changes in attitude or philosophy toward x.  (2) Changes in action toward x.  (3) Degree of change, and speed of change.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Changes in interpretation of past, truer or falser.  (2) Changes in ability to remember past, more or less.  Changes in ability to remember most important events in past, for better or worse.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Chronological approach.  (2) Specific relationships approach (subject of people I met/know).  (3) Subject approach: work, leisure, sex, etc.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Facts of what happened objectively.  Data available: physical things, mental memories.  (2) Interpretation: lessons drawn.  (A) Shoulda done, and not, and reason(s) why.  (B) Should do now, and not, and reason(s) why.  (C) Should do in future, and not, and reason(s) why.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) How long ago you're writing about.  (2) How close you get to objective facts.  (3) How close interpretation gets to objective truth.  (4) How close you get to what should have been: by you, others, nature (objective justice).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Keep track of great ideas.  (2) Keep track of performance.  Measure, evaluate, and change gstr (goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons).  Maintain excellent performance.  Improve poor performance.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Objective facts: description.  Actual vs. in my mind (then and now).  (2) Subjective interpretation: then and now.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) Physical environment: natural and manmade.  (2) Social environment: people you meet, how interact.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	(1) The thoughts I had and the emotions I felt about the thoughts.  I.e., personal history of ideas  (2) The actions I took and my attitudes toward those actions.	6/6/2004

History, personal history.	(1) What I did.  (A) Did right, helpful, how much, why.  (B) Did wrong, hurtful, how much, why.  (2) What was done to me, by nature, or by society.  (A) Done right.  (B) Done wrong.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Actual historical data on me.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Amount of free time available.  Percentage free time used vs. percentage free time wasted.  Amount accomplished (quantity and quality).	1/20/1999

History, personal history.	Analysis of me: momentary vs. through time.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Areas: environment, pad, work, leisure.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Areas.  Like/lust.  Binges (leisure, drugs).  Possessions (stuff I own).  Artifacts and mementos.  Arts: created as artist, or consumed as audience (literature, music, visual arts).  Technology: clothes.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Artifacts of my life: records and stuff.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Autobiography and biography.  (1) If its easier for other people to recognize your faults than to recognize your own faults, then biography is as valid as autobiography.  (2) If everyone has an inner psychological life which other people have little access to, then autobiography is as valid as biography.	4/30/2005

History, personal history.	Best and worst day and year I ever had and why.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Best and worst x I ever had.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Chronological period.  (1) Total time line, total outline.  (2) Period time lines, period outlines.  (3) Yearly time line, yearly outline.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Could have done then, should have done then.  Could do now, should do now.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Criticism: analyze and judge.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Data from 5 senses.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Describe specific conversations you had with people.  Describe specific days when you hung out with people and what you did.	8/4/2006

History, personal history.	Different types of personal development.  Emotional development.  Thinking skills development.  Knowledge base development.  Goals development.  Ethical development.  Social development.  Economic development.  Philosophical development.	1/20/1999

History, personal history.	Direction: two points make a line.  The past and present.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Directions I headed in, in all 26 subject areas.  Intended vs. unintended vs. not intended.  Aware vs. unaware.  Was it gain or stagnation or decay.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Environment my development took place in.  Effects of environment on me.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Environment, situation, events, changes.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Estir.  (1) What is it?  Recording every single thing I remember (estir), then trying to make sense of it all.  (2) Why do it: see why study history.  (3) How do it: see how method.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Event analysis: what does the event tell me about me, other(s), the place, and the times?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Event cause and effect (chains, webs).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Every idea you ever had.  Date figured or found it out.  Level of abstraction.	06/30/1993

History, personal history.	Five methods for remembering.  (1) Work from artifact.  (2) Music.  (3) Go to places.  (4) Brainstorm.  (5) Smell.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Four other related subjects: history, me, journalism, and memory.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Frame of mind during an event, or time period.  Before, during, after.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	How did it affect me and my life?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	How far have I progressed on all fronts in thought/theory and practice/action?  How hard and long have I tried in mental effort and practice effort?  How much resources have I wasted (time, money), and doing what?	12/06/1993

History, personal history.	How good/bad was thing I did or done to me and why.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	How long and strongly, and ways how, an event is still affecting you.  How it is brewing in your unconscious?  How often and long you think about it.  How strongly you feel it (emotional reaction) (pain or pleasure).  Lessons you did learn from it.  Lessons you should have learned from it.  Wrong lessons you picked up (drawing wrong conclusions).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	How often do you experience or witness disease, accident, crime, or mental or physical injury or death?	12/30/1995

History, personal history.	How often, and how, do you think of your past, present, future?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Hypothetical history: what if I did x instead of y?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Hypothetical.  Say I did x instead of y, what would have happened?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	In my life, list events and factors that were (1) Due to good or bad luck.  (2) Things good or bad done to me by nature or by others.  (3) Good or bad efforts on my part.  (4) Successes and failures due to above three.  That is, what I tried to get, vs. what landed in my lap, or was kept out of my reach.	02/20/1994

History, personal history.	Jobs.  Describe the projects you worked on at each job.	8/4/2006

History, personal history.	Latest interactions, latest views.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Lifestyle.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Map: age, year, job, home, school, lover, hobbies.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Mechanism.  (1) Sum up every 6 months.  (2) Throw in notes as needed.  (3) Study it to remember lessons learned.  (4) Writing style: compact, complete, organized, prioritized, clear, accurate.  (5) Brainstorm, then prioritize.  (6) Archive management.  Things had, have, will have.  Chuck, keep, get.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Memories: important and why, unimportant and why.  Pleasurable (good), painful (bad).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Most important memories.  (1) Length remembered.  (2) Intensity of emotions of memory.  (3) Biggest impact on life then and now.  (4) How right or wrong the event was.  (5) Most important idea learned.  (6) Most important idea capable of potentially learning from situation, then and now.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	My history.  Who am I?  (See Psychology, personality, self.)  (1) The attitudes I have toward myself.  (2) The attitudes I have toward life and the world.  (3) How these attitudes change through time.	6/6/2004

History, personal history.	My situations, and problems faced with.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	No such thing as bad memories, all memories painful by degree.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	One can do the history of a person by analyzing the philosophical, psychological, social, political, economic, technological and artistic sides of the person and their life.	12/12/2004

History, personal history.	Order by most important memories.  (1) Things that made the biggest impression, positive or negative.  (2) Things that changed my mind or behavior most, for better or worse.  (3) Memories that stick in my mind most.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	People, places, things (objects, events).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Personal development: psychological development, behavior development, and physical development.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Personal history.  (1) Why record and replay your personal history?  For health.  For truth and justice.  (2) How record your personal history?  (A) Written diaries.  (B) Photographs.  (C) Sound recordings.  (D) Audio-video tape.  (E) Talk to people.	6/6/2004

History, personal history.	Persons: friends, neutrals, enemies.  Places: school, home, neighborhood, work.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Physical, psychological, and environment analysis for every year.  Potential could have reached, with x amount of work.  Actually reached.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Problems and mistakes.  Opportunities and chances.  Successes and wins, failures and loses.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Progression vs. stagnation vs. regression.  Speed, degree, duration, frequency, causes and effects.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Record (1) What bothers me (now, then) about past, present, future, and why.  (2) What did about it.  (3) How good what I did was objectively.  (4) How good I thought it was then subjectively.  (5) How good I think it was now subjectively.  (6) What to do now about it.  (7) How good it is objectively.  (8) How good I think it is subjectively.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	School.  Describe the work done in the courses you took.  Class lectures.  Homework.  Textbooks.  Tests.  Papers wrote.	8/4/2006

History, personal history.	Situation environment analysis: things in the situation (elements) and progress of the situation (events).	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Situations, events, actions by people, dialogues, and mental states.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Some things you can only get and/or enjoy at certain ages.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Subject areas: work, leisure, like/lust, studies.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	The effects (before and after) of a quick, clearly defined event (good or bad) are easier to notice, measure, and appreciate (ex. a sudden injury), than a slow event (ex. doing or not doing physical exercises, or the psychological work of therapy, and working on your work and love relationships) where you do a little everyday for your whole life.  But the effects of the slow and steady way can be greater than one quick rush.  Trust me.	12/30/1995

History, personal history.	The rememberer, the remembering, and the remembered.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	The story of your life.  The story that you write about the life that you live.	10/25/2004

History, personal history.	Those who remember mostly the good, or bad, see optimism/pessimism.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Top ten mistakes, and top ten right things did.  What should I have done instead of the mistakes.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	Total current specific relationships = sum of total current interactions =  (1) Environment.  (2) What you and they are actually and objectively.  (3) What you and they think self and other is.  (4) Goals.	04/30/1993

History, personal history.	Types of experience.  (1)(A) Experience for self.  (B) See and hear personally.  (2) Learn from primary sources.  (3) Learn from secondary sources.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What did I learn about life from x?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What did I learn or decide, from event, about work, like/lust, blood, then and now?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What I did, causes of it, and what effects it had.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What I did, reasons then, and how I look at it now.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What really happened, and how does it fit into my life?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	What were the most important (good or bad) events in your life?  It could be  (1) A person met, a lover.  (2) A lifestyle change, or place you live.  (3) Injury.  (4) Job got or lost.  (5) Someone else you hurt or helped.  (5) Its tough to tell because you don't know all the effects (on you or others, consciously or unconsciously) of what you did, and you don't know the results of the paths you didn't take.	12/30/1995

History, personal history.	When reviewing your life and thinking about all the things you did and experienced, think also about the things you wanted to do at the time, and the things you feel you should have done in retrospect, and the things you want to do now.  That is, connect your past history to your current situation and to your future goals.  Your thinking should span time.  Connect the past to present to future.	4/24/2007

History, personal history.	Where was I (environment)?  What was I "minding" and doing, and about what?	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	X period or event: the crisis issues (problems) faced with, and actually confronted in action, or theoretically brought up in thought or discussion.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	X time period, and its relationship to the rest of my life.	12/30/1992

History, personal history.	You can write like a journalist, describing the current events of your life, like your job, hobbies and friends, but it still pays, years later, to write like a historian, looking back over the years, to gain new insights into what you have experienced.  It pays to be a journalist and historian when writing about your individual life.  It does not hurt to be a futurist either.	10/31/2001

History, personal history.	Your development in areas and sub-areas of (1) Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  (2) Artistic.  (3) Psychology.  (A) Attitudes.  (B) Memories: remembered, forgot.  (C) Behavior.  (D) Thought.  What subjects was I thinking about.  What methods of thought used.  Conclusions reached.  How often did I think about x subject?  What were my thoughts on x?  Development of my philosophy of x.  (4) Physical.  (5) Economic/financial.  (6) Sociology: who with, doing what, interact how, how well, how much.	12/30/1992

History, philosophy of.	.This section is about philosophy of history.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, philosophy of.	(1) For the past 100 years almost everything is documented and analyzed and debated as soon as it happens (by using modern newspapers, magazines, journalism, photography and videography, computerized database statistical analysis, satellite photography, bugs, etc.).  (2) So today, the best history is first history (immediate study of current events).  (3) Except in some cases such as coverups and lies, and slowly developing stories that take years to conclude.  In these cases, later historical study may shed new light on the events.  (4) Another exception is when the development of new technologies makes it pay to go back and dig up old stories, old bones, old history.  Example: chemical testing of bones, DNA testing, etc.  (5) But in general, the academic discipline of history is greatly reduced today because history is written instantaneously.  And all that the historians today do is serve as librarians (i.e. record and archive keepers).  History is a dead discipline.  (6) In the future there will be real time recording of everything that happens.	03/08/1997

History, philosophy of.	(1) Pro history.  (A) Learn from history, so as not to repeat mistakes.  (B) Therapy.  Reliving the past is therapeutic.  (C) Two points (past and present) make a line, in order to chart the future.  (2) Contra history.  (A) We should be thinking about future, not the past.  (B) The world changes, and the past is no longer applicable.  (C) Driving and looking in rear view mirror too often is dangerous.	4/28/1998

History, philosophy of.	(1)(A) Analytic philosophy of history: what actually happened?  (B) Speculative philosophy of history: what does history mean?  Are there patterns?  What are the lessons to be learned from history?  (2) Two views of history:  (A) History as literature (subjective) to be written as art and critiqued as art using literary criticism theory techniques.  Vs.  (B) History as science (objective) to be done using scientific methods like statistical analysis.  Most historians are not taught scientific methods (like Sulloway used).  To paraphrase Sulloway, history can be viewed as psychology written large and past.  And psychology is approximately 50% biological in origin.	03/01/1997

History, philosophy of.	Are things random and chaotic or do they show a pattern or order?  If the latter, is it progress, decay, or cycle?	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	Basic attitudes toward the past.  (1) The past is worthless.  (2) The past is worth a lot.	2/22/2000

History, philosophy of.	Epistemology of history.  When is something a fact?  When there is proof for it.  But there are varying standards of proof, for example, proof beyond a reasonable doubt.  What standards of proof does one use when documenting history?	5/13/2004

History, philosophy of.	Eras.  (1) Brains vs. brawn.  Society once rewarded brawn over brains.  The physical strength of warriors and manual laborers was more highly valued than brains.  Today society rewards brains over brawn.  Geek ascendant.  (2) Society also alternates favoring other pairs of factors from one era to another, for example, interdependence over independence, and cooperation over competition.  Whichever factor is favored helps determine who prospers.  (3) How will these factors affect the evolution of humans?	2/21/2000

History, philosophy of.	Eras.  Different eras are faced with different problems, and thus different types of people become heroes in different eras.  One era's heroes will be unneeded and unhailed in another era.  Don't let it get you down.	2/19/2000

History, philosophy of.	Eras.  Life is so arbitrary.  What is needed in one age may not be needed in another age.  Thus, human traits that are valued in one time and place may not be valued in another time and place.  How cruel to have to tell someone, "In another time and place you would have been a great person, but in the here and now you are just an average person".	1/30/2000

History, philosophy of.	Historians do important work.  The truth does not always come out in the end.  Someone must drag it out, and shine a light on it.  There is much to learn in history.  This learning is tough to get.  It must be fought for.  This learning is often lost.  History can teach us things nothing else can.	08/02/1993

History, philosophy of.	Historical knowledge, is it possible?  Can we isolate the determining variables?  Can we use historical knowledge to predict future?	07/22/1993

History, philosophy of.	History is rich, but day to day life is poor poor.	03/17/1989

History, philosophy of.	How much time to spend studying the past?  When does it become too much?  When does it become bad rather than good?	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	How useful is it to go over your memories again and again if nothing particularly good or bad was ever done by you, or done to you (by others or nature).  The uneventful youth.	01/22/1994

History, philosophy of.	Human history is the story of mass misery at the hands of each other and the natural world.	02/22/1989

History, philosophy of.	If the situation is always changing, and always new, how applicable are old lessons (successes and failures)?  Ex. we can't do business like 100 years ago anymore.  Righting old wrongs, for the record, is all we can use history for now.	11/30/1996

History, philosophy of.	If your past sucked, like mine, due to hopeless mediocrity, neglect or abuse, on your part or on anyone else's, (1) You can either choose to forget it, or you can keep it in mind.  You do not want memories of it to hold you back from advancing, but you also want to learn from it, and not repress it either.  (2) And was it all 100% horrible, or were certain portions tolerable, or even enjoyable.  (3) (A) Must you hate it all?  Must you forget it all?  (B) Must you love it all?  Must you remember it all?  (C) Where is the happy emotional and memory medium?  What good over-rides what bad?  What bad over-rides what good?	06/07/1994

History, philosophy of.	Is there one true story, or many true stories, or does truth depend on your viewpoint?	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of history, various views.  (1) Those who believe history is predetermined.  They are wrong.  (2) Those who believe progress is inevitable.  That is a big question.  (3) The nature of change.  See also: Philosophy, change.	5/16/2004

History, philosophy of.	Most important ideas about history.  (1) History of self is essentially psychoanalysis, and it is very important to.  Try to do at least half an hour a week.  (2) History of the world is good to know so that you have the big picture spanning time and space, in order to make the right choices in life.  (3) History is only half the story.  We must also think about the future.  Future studies is just as important as history.  Trend spotting, forecasting, and planning.  (4) Current events in your life.  Handling things well as they occur is best, so you do not have to do as much painful cleanup work (psychoanalysis).	11/30/1997

History, philosophy of.	Philosophy and history.  (1) Metaphysics of history.  Nature of time.  (See Philosophy, time).  (2) Epistemology of history.  Nature of historical truth.  Nature of historical justification via evidence and argument.  (3) Ethics of history.  We designate historical actions to be right or wrong.  We designate historical events to be good or bad.	5/16/2004

History, philosophy of.	Philosophy of history is a simple area that we have figured all out.  Philosophy of history has to do with concepts like change, causality, time, memory (see psychology), repression (on and individual and society level), psychoanalysis, and journalism (current events).	09/28/1993

History, philosophy of.	Recognizing the importance of events long after the fact is common in the history of the world.  It is common also in the history of self.	11/30/1997

History, philosophy of.	Revisionist history.  Rewriting history to serve your ends.  People often see what they want to see in history.  People often distort the facts.  People often lie.	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	The "good old days" are when you are young and/or happy, no matter who you are.  It is not a time, it is a state of mind.	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	The written history of the world has too often been a written history of a series of wars.	05/18/1997

History, philosophy of.	There is just as much to be learned from micro-history (i.e., the story of individuals) as from macro-history (i.e., the story of nations and civilizations).	9/12/1999

History, philosophy of.	To be healthy, one must relive and sort out the problems and mistakes of the past.  Thus, doing history is an ethical imperative.  Like psychoanalysis.	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	We need different histories because different people have different interests (healthy and unhealthy), and different problems and needs due to their personal condition and the situations they are in.	11/30/1996

History, philosophy of.	What is the difference between history and case study?  They are really the same.  We use the case study method in many top universities.  But history has been relegated to a lower position, along with many other humanities.	10/30/1997

History, philosophy of.	When you waste time avoiding life you get repressed and held back, and fall behind the pack.  You have to go for your dreams.  You have to do things when you think of them.	01/01/1993

History, philosophy of.	Writing every single thing I remember (estir).	02/20/1989

History, relationship history.	.This section contains ideas for methods of historical analysis of the interpersonal relationships in one's life.	12/30/2003

History, relationship history.	.This section is about analyzing the history of a person's social relationships.	10/25/2004

History, relationship history.	.This section is about history of relationships.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, relationship history.	(1) Area of life.  (2) Person involved.  (3) Policy: say to them, do to them.  Treat them as friend, neutral, foe.  (4) Reasons for above based on what event, what ethical area, or what Paul ethical principle.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Due to this action towards me or others, (2) I think this person is this way (personality trait), and (3) therefore I will take this general or specific attitude and action towards them in the future (get 1 down on paper to help you figure out 2 and 3).	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Forced to interact with who, when, where, how, how much, why.  (2) Not forced to: choose to vs. choose not to.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Record past and present, (2) analyze past and present, and (3) plan for future.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Things that happened, and why.  (2) Things to do, and why (goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons).  (3) Things I should of and should not of done, and why (problems and mistakes).  (4) Things I learned or figured out.  (5) Things I did right vs. wrong.  (6) Things to do next time: in general, in certain specific types of relationships, and in specific actual relationships.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Want to interact with vs. don't want to.  (2) Should interact with?  Shouldn't?	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	(1) Who was/am/will be me?  (2) Who was/is/will be she?  (3) What was/is/will be my relationship to her?  (4) What should my relationship to her be?  (5) What I want, what she wants, and what's objective best for both.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	An interaction or an event with them.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Analyzing a relationship.  (1) The attitudes (thoughts and emotions) you had about each other.  (2) The words you said to each other.  (3) the actions you did to each other.  (4) The above three factors interact.  Your attitudes affect your words and actions.  The words and actions create new attitudes.  (5) The above three factors change through time.  A relationship, like all other historical entities, is dynamic, not static.	6/6/2004

History, relationship history.	Analyzing a relationship.  Secondary events.  The words you said about each other to other people (i.e., gossip).	6/6/2004

History, relationship history.	Analyzing a relationship.  The relationship has a history.  Analyze how you feel about each other currently vs. how you felt about each other in the past.	6/6/2004

History, relationship history.	Causes and effects.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Cross relationships.  Effect x relationship has on y relationship, and how, and why.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Ideal state approach.  Great relationships: (1) Learning and growing naturally.  (2) Enjoying the process, having fun.  (3) Minimize pain and ethical injustices.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Include important quotes by you or them.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Interaction type, duration, frequency, and intensity.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Interaction with who, when, where, how, why.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Me vs. other: what we thought, said, and did.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	My choices and their choices.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Nail down the biographical data and the philosophy/attitudes of the people you know.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Past relationship, present relationship, and future relationship.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Problems approach.  Problems with others.  Work on and resolve them.  People cause problems for other people, intentionally and unintentionally.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Questions for analysis and judgment.  (1) Who is x?  What is their belief system?  (2) How do they think, speak, and act in general?  (3) How do they think, speak, and act towards me?	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Relationship with them.  (1) What is my past and current relationship to them objectively?  (2) What do I think it was, is, should be, and why?  (3) What do they think it was, is, should be, and why?	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Relationship: (1) Where's it going and why?  (2) Where do you want it to go and why?  (3) How to get from a to b?	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Relationships I'm involved in, and relationships I'm not involved in.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Relationships with.  (1) Individuals and groups.  (2) Opposition, neutral, and friends.  (3) Knowns and unknowns (strangers).  (4) Areas: women, work, blood, others, strangers.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Specific relationships.  Audrey makes me feel satisfied, safe, peaceful, calm, and healthy.	10/05/1997

History, relationship history.	Strategies for dealing with people.  (1) Get closer, or move away.  (2) Block their blows, hit them yourself.  (3) Which you pick for who and why.  (4) Which would objectively be best and why.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Them, you, and you and them together.  History, current time of event or interaction, and future prospects.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Total interaction (see system theory).  Interactions with things (natural things and manmade things) and social interactions.	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Where is the relationship headed?  Where do you want it to head?	12/30/1992

History, relationship history.	Writing a complete personal history as you live life, an autobiography in progress, inevitably involves trying to get inside other people's heads to imagine what they were thinking.  Good luck with that!	10/31/2001

History, relationship history.	You like them?  They like you?	12/30/1992

History, societal history.	.This section is about history of society.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

History, societal history.	History of masses.  (1) Importance or significance of an event depends on how many people it affects (directly or indirectly), how much it affects them (positively or negatively), cumulatively into the future.  Examples of positive events: Civil rights movements. Examples of negative events: Hitler, Pol Pot.     (2) Pop culture historians would argue that what is important is the way most people live their lives, regardless of whether there are any major changes occurring.  The lives of the masses is what matters most, not the lives of the rich or powerful, nor the artists, scientists, inventors or philosophers, nor the avant garde or leading edge, nor the villains.  And a view of history not as change for better or worse but as day to day repetitious monotony.  Not very exciting.	12/30/2003

History, societal history.	Pop culture history.  Let's say you are interested in pop culture history.  The history of the masses.  The history of the "average" citizen.  And let's say that, as a result, you spend your time studying reruns of "I Love Lucy".  What have you accomplished except to determine that lots of people waste their time watching goofy sitcoms?	12/1/2004

History, societal history.	Pop culture history.  When people do a history of pop culture they are doing a history of an aspect of culture or society.	12/12/2004

History, societal history.	Societal or cultural history.  What are the methods used to gather, organize and disseminate information about the history of a society or culture?  The society can be analyzed in terms of politics and law, economics and business, science and technology, the arts, etc.	12/12/2004

History, societal history.	World history.  (1) Why study the history of the world?  For health.  For knowledge.  For truth and justice.  (2) How study the history of the world?  Chronological approach.  Geographical approach.  Subject approach.  Read books.  Watch the news.  Watch documentaries.  Talk with witnesses.	6/6/2004

History.	.This section is about history.  Topics include: ( ) History, current, future.  ( ) Nostalgia.  ( ) World.  ( ) 1960's.  ( ) What is history.  ( ) Why study history.	1/24/2006

History.	(1) A common reaction to history, especially by the young, is to not want to be burdened by the weight of the baggage of history.  People want to live their own lives, not someone else's past life.  Otherwise people begin to feel like a baggage clerk.  History can feel oppressive at times.  People do not want to be dictated to by history.  People do not want to be slaves to history.  Yet, it is also unethical to ignore history.  (2) Another objection to the study of history is, "You're living in the past."  One response to the objection is that humans live in time.  The past is connected to the present and future.  Another reply is that many people ignore the past.  (3) The relationship of people to history is thus a balancing act between ignoring history and ignoring the present and future.	11/17/2005

History.	(1) How much time should we devote to thinking about the past, present and future?  One third of our time to each?  (2) Of the time we devote to thinking about the past, what amount should we devote to thinking about our own personal past, and what amount should we devote to thinking about the history of the world?  Half and half?	1/1/2001

History.	(1) In some sense, the past is gone, the past is dead.  The only way is forward, for only the future will be.  The past, kiss it goodbye.  Sayanora, its history.  (2) Yet, in another sense, the past is inescapable.  The past cannot be undone.  The past is immutable, unchangeable, permanent, indelible.	4/23/2002

History.	(1) Levels: universe, world, society, individual, etc.  (2) Areas: 26 subjects.	12/30/1992

History.	(1) Logical organization vs. (2) chronological organization vs. (3) importance organization.	12/30/1992

History.	(1) Prelude: New York is always new but sometimes you get a glimpse of the old New York, that is, the historical New York.  Historical New York is about ghosts.  (2) History is about ghosts and the tendency of humans to have a feeling of there being ghosts.  Memories haunt us.  History is fascinating because the notion of ghosts involves the fascinating notions of "I notice someone was here before me and they might be coming back.", and "Those people are dead".  Early humans had an interest in the notion of other humans having previously inhabited the immediate environment.  Early humans also had an interest in the notion of death, how to spot it, and how to avoid it.	1/24/2002

History.	(1) To lack a sense of history and future, to live in the ever-present now, is the geographic equivalent of living trapped in a small town in a big world.  Travel time and space.  (2) What is the alternative to a sense of history and future?  The alternative is to be caught in the ever-present "now", and that is even worse than being a prisoner of time (past and future).	4/14/2002

History.	(1) What do you choose to remember, acknowledge, allow, admit, recognize?  What do you choose to forget, ignore, avoid, repress, deny?  (2) How do you choose to remember it?  As something good?  As something bad?  (3) The most commonly used sleazy tactic in the study of history is silence.	11/17/2005

History.	A history of ideas.  Each idea has a history.	4/24/2007

History.	A history of persons.  All human lives are of equal worth.  Therefore, one human life is as important as another.  Therefore, a history of every individual is needed.  Each person is important, and thus each person's story, or history, is important.  Every person should have an autobiography and several biographies.	4/24/2007

History.	A history of things.  Each thing has a history.	4/24/2007

History.	A negative view of history.  There is no such thing as time.  There is no such thing as history.  There is just a bunch of dead people.	3/26/2001

History.	Age and Year.  How does it feel to be age 42, or any other year for that matter?  How does it feel to live in the year 2007, or any other year for that matter?  How does it feel to be age 42 in the year 2007, or any other age in any other year for that matter?	5/5/2007

History.	All ideas about the history of society and the history of humankind are rooted in personal, individual thoughts and emotions of memory.	1/24/2002

History.	Anti-history views.  Anti-history positions are held by the egoist, the solipsist,  the nihilist, and the anti-intellectual.  (1) The solipsist and nihilist says things like, "Nothing in the past matters.  Nothing happening now matters.  Nothing matters.  Nobody knows anything.  Its all meaningless."  (2) All the egoist cares about is himself and his little world.  "Only the self matters.  Only the here and now matters."  (3) The anti-intellectual says, "There is no world of ideas."  (4) Egoism, solipsism, nihilism and anti-intellectualism are all wrong views.	6/22/2006

History.	Anti-history views.  To say you are not interested in history is to say you are not interested in the accumulated knowledge of humankind.  It is a form of anti-intellectualism.	6/23/2006

History.	Applications of historical knowledge.	12/30/1992

History.	Arguments for and against history.  PART ONE.  Anti-history arguments:  (1) Past does not determine the future.  (2) World is changing so fast that history is not a guide.  PART TWO.  Pro history arguments:  (1) Only way we know about the world is through history and past experiences.  All our knowledge is historical.  (2) You cannot predict the future so why bother studying the future, therefore study the past.	12/2/2006

History.	Art and science of history.  (1) History as art.  History is a narrative, and narrative is art.  We choose what to put in and leave out.  (2) History as science.  If history is a science, and if science is value free, then history is value free.  But we don't consider history to be value free.  We judge historical events good and bad.  We judge historical persons and actions right or wrong.  So history is not really pure science.	1/20/2005

History.	Art and science of history.  History as an art.  History, much like other artistic endeavors, requires imagination and empathy.  History is part science and part art.  We imagine how people in the past lived.  We imagine what they experienced, thought and felt.  We empathize with them.  To imagine completely means to feel what they felt.  To imagine completely how those in the past lived means to relive what they experienced and to feel what they felt, and to think what they thought, just like we do in works of art.	1/2/2005

History.	Art of history.  History as a novel or movie.  The argument is that the only thing that can transport you back in time is a novel or movie.  You must be surrounded or immersed in a world of historical detail.  How accurately this can be done is the big question.	10/25/2000

History.	Art, philosophy and science of history.  Consider the way an artist like Proust saw the past.  Consider the way a philosopher of history sees the past.  Consider the way a scientist like an archaeologist sees the past.  It is useful to view history through the modalities of art, philosophy and science.	4/30/2005

History.	Arts and science of history.  Is history an art or science?  We should use all the tools of science to get the facts of history.  But then, to assemble the facts of history into a cohesive whole (or story) requires imagination and art.	3/4/2001

History.	Bad attitudes of historical oppression.  "That's the way it was, so that is the way it has to be."  "That's the way we have always done it."  Conservatives are ossified.	11/17/2005

History.	Both individuals and empires rise, last, and fall based on the following.  (1) Technology.  (2) Great leaders: smart and driven.  (3) Knowledge.  (4) Attitude/philosophy advantage.  (5) Philosophy of the masses, and motivations of the masses.  (6) Political: justice.	12/30/1992

History.	Causation of events.  Its one thing to determine that an event occurred in the past.  Its quite another thing to determine the causes and effects of an event.  Events often have multiple causes and multiple effects.  And each of those causes have multiple causes, and each of those effects have multiple effects.  And the causes all interact with each other in a web like fashion.  And the effects all interact with each other in a web like fashion.  So it is almost impossible to determine exact cause and effects.  (2) Furthermore, what exactly is an historical event?  Any event can be broken down into smaller sub-events, each of which can be called an event in itself.  Likewise, events can be grouped into larger super-events, which can be called an event in itself.  (3) Thus, if it is not clear what is an historical event, and if it is not clear what are the causes and effects of historical events, then how is history to proceed?	9/5/2005

History.	Change: causes and effects (see philosophy: time, change).	12/30/1992

History.	Change.  (1) Major rapid, large changes.  (2) Gradual accretion of small changes.  (3) Its easier to notice large, rapid changes, but the accretion of slow, small changes can be greater.	3/16/2006

History.	Civil War buffs today are like the Revolutionary War buffs in the mid 1800's.  And so on, back in time.  Ridiculous.	2/14/1999

History.	Coming to terms with the world means, in part, coming to terms with the history of the world.  History is everyone's baggage.	9/8/2005

History.	Complete historical truth would be a replay of reality.  All historical accounts that fall short of this are simplifications.	4/14/2002

History.	Computers make it easier for "Do-it-yourself history".  Write history as you live it.  Everyone gets an autobiography.  Everyone gets to say their view.  Everything gets recorded.	3/15/2000

History.	Concepts in history: bias, context, interpretation, etc.  (1) Bias.  Bias is always present.  We always look from our own point of view.  Can we reduce bias?  Can we look from anothers point of view?  (2) Context.  Events cannot be isolated from the context in which they occur.  We must look at the context, be it psychological, sociological, etc.  (3) Interpretation.  Interpretation always takes place.  Interpretation is unavoidable.  We must determine (A) The importance of the event.  Is it very important or of little importance?  (B) Was the thing a success or a failure?  Was it good or bad?  (C) What was the lesson to be learned?  (D) Attribution of causes and effects.  (4) Epistemology of history.  Standards of physical proof.  Standards of logical reasoning in historiography.  (5) When you write a history of a person, you are best off using psychoanalysis.  When you write the history of a culture you are best off using sociological analysis.  Other areas to look at: economics and business, science and technology, politics and law.  What else is there?	9/5/1998

History.	Constantly review.  Constantly reinterpret better and more accurately.  As we develop as individuals and as a society we gain more understanding of the past.  Our view of the past changes as we evolve.	11/15/2003

History.	Cool phenomena long gone.  Sights, sounds, scents, tastes, textures.  There are lifestyles, forms of life, and worlds long gone.  They were not all completely bad.  Thus, there are many good things lost.  Is it the job of the artist or the historian to save these things?	7/16/1999

History.	Criticism of the "great man" theory of history.  Proponents of a "great man" theory of history are likely to embrace the unethical form of government known as dictatorship.	1/1/2006

History.	Critique of the "lessons" of history.  (1) There is no guarantee that the "lessons" of the past will apply to future situations.  The future may not be exactly like the past.  Thus, a method that worked well in a past situation may be unworkable in a future situation.  (2) Also, there are innumerable "lessons" from the past, with no sure way of knowing which past "lesson" to apply to which future situation.  For example, for any future situation, one person may think one past event applies, while another person may think another past event applies.  (3) Also, for any given past event, various people draw various "lessons" about that event.  Different people draw different conclusions about an event.	9/7/2005

History.	Cultural forces: media, hollywood, academia, politics, corporations, and masses.	12/30/1992

History.	Current events (major, minor) and current issues (big, small).	12/30/1992

History.	Development of notions of history are based on the following:  (1) Development of memory (unconscious and conscious) in humans.  (2) Development of notions of the past in humans.  (3) Development of notions of oral history in humans.  (4) Development of notions of written history in humans.  (5) Development of notions of multimedia history (sound, images, words, etc.) in humans.	12/30/2003

History.	Digging up history vs. recording it as it happens.	12/30/1992

History.	Eco-history.  Environment has a major effect on society and individuals.  There is a natural environment of earth, plants and animals.  There is a social environment of people.  There is a man made environment consisting of man made objects like buildings.  There is an environment of ideas.  We live in an ecosystem.  The study of history should acknowledge the environment.	4/30/2005

History.	Eco-history.  History as written by humans is too human centered.  Ecological history, bio history, environmental history is as important to humans as any history of humans.	4/27/2005

History.	Elements of history.  (1) The facts.  Based on proof beyond reasonable doubt?  (2) Interpretation of the facts.  Attribution of causes and effects.  (3) Normative judgments.  Was it a good or bad thing that happened.  Or saying that it would have been better if this had not happened.  (4) Hypotheticals.  What would have (could have, or should have) happened if things were different.	10/28/2003

History.	Environment's effect on man vs. man's effect on environment.	12/30/1992

History.	Ethics and history.  (1) Many historians write a history of progress, a history of good ideas.  The problem is that, in addition to good ideas, humans also come up with bad ideas, and so a complete history would include the bad ideas as well as good ideas.  (2) When we evaluate the events of history as good or bad, we are making normative judgments, which is an issue of ethics.  Applying ethical evaluations to history is another way how history goes beyond the narrow definition of science.  History is not only a science, that is, history is not science-alone, when it makes ethical evaluations of the events of history.	2/24/2007

History.	Ethics and history.  History from a standpoint of ethical evaluation.  All historical events have an ethical dimension.  (1) Top 100 bad things in human history.  Natural disasters.  Wars.  Disease.  Famine.  Number of people killed.  Amount of human misery caused.  Is anything 100% natural disaster if humans could have forecasted and prepared for it?  (2) Top 100 good things in human history.  Inventions.  Scientific discoveries.  Philosophical ideas.  How many lives saved?  How many lives improved?  How much happiness created?  It may not create happiness in the mind of the everyone because some things that improve life are taken for granted by some people.  (3) If we extend this evaluation to non-humans then how to judge natural extinction, which is bad for the individuals of the species becoming extinct.	9/28/2005

History.	Ethics and history.  Three things to study in history: the good, the bad, and the average.     PART ONE.  Study the good things in history.  What is important in history is progress.  Progress means improvement.  Progress is caused by good new ideas put into action.     PART TWO.  Study the very bad things in history in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes.  What is important in the study of history is learning what mistakes to avoid.  Thus, study examples of the worst mistakes and how to prevent them.     PART THREE.  Study the average things in history.  What is important in the study of history is studying the average.  Study how most people lived.  Study the conditions under which most people, or the average person, lived.  Study which people lived under conditions that can be called average.  "Average person" and "average conditions" can be difficult terms to define.     PART FOUR.  A complete historian would study all three: the good, the bad, and the average.  Making evaluations about which historical events are good, bad, and average, is an endeavor in ethics.  Thus, one problem is when a historian refuses to give any thought to ethics, due to mistakenly thinking that history is a science only.	2/18/2007

History.	Everyone does history.  (1) Everyone has a story to tell.  Everyone has lived a series of events.  Everyone has a history.  (2) Everyone tells their own story.  Their own side of the story.  Their own version of what they think happened.  Their own biases and self interests.  Everyone writes a history.	12/30/2003

History.	Everyone has a story of their past.  Everyone has a vision for their future.	12/30/2003

History.	Everything, everywhere.	12/30/1992

History.	External criticism: is this thing what we think it is?  Internal criticism: what does it actually mean?	12/30/1992

History.	For some people the past is dim, hazy and far-off.  For other people the past is clear and present.  Part of it is due to the strength of your memory.  Part of it is due to your attitude toward the past.	4/23/2002

History.	Format of "best of, worst of, and slice of life".  (1) Best of 1950's: do wop.  Worst of 1950's: McCarthy.  Slice of life from 50's: Leave it to Beaver.  (2) Best of 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's.  Worst of 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's.  Slice of life of 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's.	1/30/2002

History.	Historical conundrum.  (1) History, especially your own view of your own personal history, should not be merely an exercise in non-constructive, "coulda, woulda, shoulda" thinking.  History should not be an exercise in regret.  (2) And yet, it is also counterproductive to ignore one's history entirely.  That is an exercise in repression, denial and avoidance.  (3) So, developing a constructive attitude about one's history is an important task from a psychotherapeutic standpoint.  And for society to develop a constructive attitude toward society's history is an important task from a social standpoint.	4/30/2005

History.	Historical development of (1) Mistakes.  (2) Explanations of mistakes.  (3) Improvements (even if still wrong).  (4) Right answers.  (5) Explaining why right answer is right.  (6) Total clarity or total truth (all the answers).  (7) A new idea.	12/30/1992

History.	Historical importance (x was an advancement in its time) vs. present practical importance (x is still good today).	12/30/1992

History.	Historical knowledge.  (1) What things do we know for sure?  Historical facts.  (2) What things do we make educated guesses about?  (3) What things do we have no clue about yet?	10/12/2006

History.	Historical sciences: cosmology, geochronology, anthropology, archaeology, scholarship.	12/30/1992

History.	Historical successes and failures: what works and doesn't.	12/30/1992

History.	History as a catalog of good ideas and bad ideas, in theory and in practice.	5/16/2007

History.	History as a record of human experiments.	10/1/1999

History.	History as baggage.  We as individuals have individual baggage.  And each of us, as humans, have the baggage of humanity weighing us down.  We each carry two sets of baggage.  That's a lot of luggage.	2/4/2002

History.	History as narrative.  (1) Funny stories.  Happy stories.  (2) Sad stories.  Disturbing stories.  (2) Stories of the curious and odd.	11/10/2006

History.	History as narrative.  (1) Stories of chance.  Lucky breaks.  Bad luck.  Unavoidable.  Natural events, not human events.  (2) Stories of human actions, which we judge right or wrong.	11/10/2006

History.	History as narrative.  (1) Stories of problems that got the better of us.  Loss.  Tragedy.  (2) Stories of problems overcome.  Hero.  Proud.  Wins.	11/10/2006

History.	History is also about loss and thus grief.	1/24/2002

History.	History is endlessly debated.  The purported facts are debated.  The ethical ramifications are debated.  Crackpot views are sorted from accepted views.	5/16/2007

History.	History is not always a science.  (1) If a person writes a journal and publishes it, then the interpretation of that journal by readers is not a science.  (2) If a person gives an interview, then the interpretation of the person's answers to the interview questions is not a science.  (3) Thus, history is an interpretive project.	7/31/2006

History.	History of goals, and efforts, and results, and changing views of my goals.  (1) History of my goals for a place to live.  (2) History of my goals for social life.  Chick goals.  Friend goals.  (3) History of my job goals.  (4) History of my goals for the Notes.  (5) History of my leisure goals.  (6) History of a person's goals reveals a person's changing views of self, life and world.  Reveals a person's values, priorities and allegiances.  Shows what they think is important.  Shows what they think is possible to achieve.  Reveals a person's ethics system.	12/11/2005

History.	History of ideas of (1) Masses.  (2) Power holders.  (3) Mainstream academia.  (4) Intellectual avante garde.	12/30/1992

History.	History of study of history.  (1) Who discovered what fact when?  Major important new discoveries vs. minor repeated.  (2) Who came up with what theory when?  Major vs. minor.  (3) Who developed what technique when?  Major vs. minor.	12/30/1992

History.	History of the theory and practice of x.	12/30/1992

History.	History should be called "temporal studies" and should include the present and future.  Similarly, geography should be called "spatial studies" and should include the ocean and the atmosphere.	9/24/2002

History.	History, current, future.  Difference between past and future.  (1) The past: we know what happened and we cannot change it.  (2) The future: we don't know what will happen and yet we can and do change the future by the actions we take today.  (3) That is quite a difference.	10/25/2004

History.	History, current, future.  History, current and future all meld together.  Questions occur like:  What could we have done?  What should we have done?  What can we do?  What should we do?	5/25/2004

History.	History, current, future.  We can discuss history, current and future.  What do we mean by current?  (1) Current can mean anything that occurs within the near past (day, week, month or year).  (2) Current can also mean anything that occurs within either the near past or the near future (day, week, month or year).	6/7/2004

History.	Ideas and their history.  The history of ideas.  Principles of a history of ideas.  (1) Ideas have a history.  (2) It is important to understand the history of ideas because the history of an idea can shed light on the current and future uses of said idea.  (3) The history of ideas is as important as the history of people and events.  (4) Ideas and their application vary (change, mutate) slightly through time and place.  Yet, on the other hand, something about the idea must remain the same for the idea to remain the same idea.  (5) Ideas can be thought of as memes so history of ideas can also be called memetic history.	12/12/2004

History.	Importance.  Determining importance of events due to their (1) Effects: immediate and long term.  (2) Degree of change: good and bad.  (3) Number of people affected.  (4) Examples of events: change in government; discovery or invention; work of art.	12/30/1992

History.	In each decade there is a residue or aftertaste of the preceding decade.  For example, the nineties had an aftertaste of the eighties; the eighties had an aftertaste of the seventies; and the seventies had an aftertaste of the sixties.  It is so because we often attempt to make sense of the present in terms of the recent past.	8/6/2001

History.	Individual personal history vs. societal global history.	12/30/2003

History.	Its all a foggy blur.	3/9/2001

History.	Just as the individual does not make sense of things as they are happening but rather in retrospect, so too society makes sense of things through what we call the method of history.  And we keep on re-making sense of things through retrospect (history).  Our re-making sense of the past never stops.  It is a healthy thing to do so.	3/5/2002

History.	Language and history.  Historians describe events using words like "economic", "political", etc.  But these words are only labels.  And these words are loaded.  And these words are theory laden in and of themselves.	9/5/2005

History.	Learning the facts vs. learning the lessons.	12/30/1992

History.	Levels.  (1) Cosmological: world.  (2) Sociological: men.  (3) Psychological: individuals.  (4) Ideological: ideas.	12/30/1992

History.	Levels.  (1) Universe, earth, life, man, civilizations and societies, continents, nation, state, local, person, family.  (2) Universe, earth, world, life, man, civilization.  (3) Nation (USA), region (northeast, new york), me.	12/30/1992

History.	Like the song, "Walking Through the Park and Reminiscing".	4/14/2002

History.	Lists of trivial pop culture references.  For some people, life consists of a conglomeration of assorted, trivial, pop culture references.  Fads.  Bands.  Dances.  Television shows.  Celebrities.  Gossip.  Sports.  Etcetera.	3/25/2006

History.	Make a note of when something new happens to you.  For example, a new attitude, a new action or a new experience.  Analyze the new.  Because the "same old, same old" usually involves little risk, few mistakes, little learning and little growth.  With the "same old" we usually rely on auto-pilot and scripts.  We usually make our mistakes with the new.  Yet we grow from the new.  So seek out the new.  Give the new some thought.  And keep it fresh.	9/22/2000

History.	Me.  Reading my early notes and remembering back, what struck me was the following: How fu*ked up they (my detractors) were in their views.  How fu*ked up they thought I was.  How wrong they were.  How easily they could have done much damage to me.  How smart it was to get away.  How easy it is to forget it all, and go back.  How bad that would be.	08/17/1997

History.	Memory and history.  We are different people as we go through life.  History is a gathering and meeting of our different selves.	6/29/2001

History.	New views about old events.  This is a key principle in psychotherapy.  This is also a key principle in the study of history.	5/27/2006

History.	Nostalgia has grief at its core.  When you are nostalgic you mourn, miss and long for days gone by.  What could possibly cause nostalgia?  A low-level, chronic depression can cause persistent grief, which can lead to nostalgia.  Also, low-level, chronic anxiety can cause a fear of the future that causes one to yearn for the safety of the past.  Thus, Depression + Anxiety = Nostalgia.	6/25/2001

History.	Nostalgia is about "missing" a thing, which is another way of saying "emotional longing".  Some people have an overactive part of the brain that makes the chemicals that produce the emotions of "missing and longing".  These people become historians.	6/8/2001

History.	Nostalgia is an attempt to salvage meaning from one's past.  When one is starved for meaning one begins to mine the past for meaning.	3/4/2005

History.	Nostalgia lovers vs. future studies.  (1) The past.  (A) The past and nostalgia is safe, secure and controlled.  (B) The past is set and known.  The past is not going to change.  We know who won and lost.  There is a tendency to dwell on past victories and rest on laurels.  There is also a tendency to feel that what is done is done, and that wrongs cannot be righted.  (C) The concept of historical knowledge.  How can we "know" about the past?  Is not there some component of the past that is irrevocably lost?  (2) The future.  (A) The future is about uncertainty and risk.  Possible danger is scary.  That is why people avoid it.  (B) The future is a big question mark.  People tend to ignore the future.  (C) The concept of future knowledge.  How can we "know" about the future?  We cannot.  How can we study the future?  Some people say we cannot.	6/30/2000

History.	Nostalgia, History and Psychoanalysis.  (1) Psychoanalysis is about "revisiting the past" and drawing some new, useful conclusions.  (2) History, as an academic subject, is also about "revisiting the past" and drawing some new, useful conclusions.  (3) However, nostalgia is about "living in the past" with no desire to draw any new, useful conclusions.  Nostalgia fans often pick an era, then deem that era "the good old days", and then move there permanently.  Nostalgia fans dwell in the past.  Nostalgia fans are stuck in the past.  Nostalgia fans relive the past but never learn and never change.	6/25/2001

History.	Nostalgia.  Contra nostalgia.  Four reasons people like nostalgia.  (1) Attraction to the past because the past is safe.  The past is safe because it is essentially done or finished.  It is like a movie we know the ending of.  (2) Attraction to the past as pure, good, or uncorrupted.  (A) It may have been you that was pure, good, and uncorrupted when you were a child.  (B) You may think the past was pure, good, and uncorrupted, but if you lived way back then you could see that it was not.  (3) Attraction to the past because it was simple.  But simple means less freedom.  Simple also means more stupid.  (4) Attraction to the past because it was more "natural".  Once we get the ecology movement going, we will be even more natural.	09/26/1997

History.	Nostalgia.  Contra nostalgia.  Nostalgia and trivia are for those who love the past and who love the unimportant.  They do so because both are safe.  There is no risk involved.  Both require no thought.  The end result is known in nostalgia.  No major issues need be confronted in trivia.  On the positive side, they reflect an interest in history and pop culture.	06/01/1993

History.	Nostalgia.  In the 1970's they had a television show called "Happy Days" that was about the 1950's.  In the year 2000 they had a television show called "That 70's Show" that was about the 1970's.  I say this to the current generation: in twenty years you will be a television show.	8/8/2001

History.	Nostalgia.  Resignation and history.  The past is done, the past is dead.  To live in the past is to live as a dead person.  Sometimes history attracts people who want to give up on life.  Sometimes history attracts people who have a pathological degree of a sense of resignation.  This is like nostalgia gone too far.	7/1/2000

History.	Nostalgia.  Why do I like the song Stardust so much?  It is not nostalgia and reminiscence.  It is actually resignation or giving up.  It is wanting to be able to look back in peace.  To be at rest looking back on a journey well done, or just plain done.  But there is no rest for the weary.  You can sleep when you are dead.  This song preys on my desire to give up.	12/30/1996

History.	Objective: what actually happened.  Subjective: what we think or know happened, and don't.	12/30/1992

History.	One can argue that there is two types of history, the history of the natural world and the history of humans.  The natural world follows natural laws.  Humans, being sentient beings, do not always follow natural laws.  These two divisions of history correspond to the divisions in science between the natural sciences and the social sciences.  Some people in history may call for "consilience" between these two types of history, much like E.O. Wilson called for conscilience in the sciences.  (2) One argument for conscilience in history is the fact that humans are animals and part of nature.  Another argument for conscilience in history is the fact that species other than humans possess some degree of consciousness and intelligence.	9/5/2005

History.	Past and future.  (1)(A) The safety of the past.  (B) The certainty of the past.  (2)(A) The uncertainty of the future.  (B) The risk of the future.	11/29/2003

History.	Past and future.  Why does the future seem unfathomably new and exciting?  Why does the past seem hopelessly outdated?  That these two phenomena continue year after year creates something of a paradox.  After all, the past was once the future.  Perhaps it is the case that either the future is not quite so new and exciting, or else the past is not quite so dull and outmoded.	1/7/2007

History.	Past and present.  (1) When do current events become history?  Do current events become history immediately?  Do current events become history after five or ten years?  Does a current event become history when it ceases to influence present day events?  Should I keep notes about the world situation in the Politics section or the History section?  (2) Does the past ever cease to influence the present?  Some people argue that the past never ceases to influence or affect the present.  Other people argue that the present is always a new start, a clean slate, and even if we know about history we are still able to act as we choose.	5/17/2007

History.	Philosophy of history.  (1) Philosophy of flow of history vs. (2) Philosophy of study of history.	12/30/1992

History.	Politics and history.  Human history is more prone to be politicized than natural history.  For any event in human history, the right wing historians spin it one way and the left wing historians spin it the other way.  In this case, what is historical interpretation other than political spin?  Historians may seek to describe and explain events in a scientific way, but the politics of history keep history from being pure science.	9/5/2005

History.	Politics and history.  Same set of facts, two opposite interpretations.  That's what you get when you read left wing history and right wing history, every historian falling somewhere along the political spectrum.  Its the politicization of history.  Is there such a thing as history free of politics?	7/31/2005

History.	Politics and history.  The powerful often try to rewrite history in their favor, regardless of the truth. They act as censors or silencers of the less powerful.  They act as propagandists for their own views.  They use history as a tool to oppress the less powerful.	12/30/2003

History.	Popular history, arguments for.  No person is more important than another person.  Therefore, the history of the many poor people is as important as the history of a few, high status persons.  Unfortunately, many history books have been written with a focus on only a few, high status persons.  Unfortunately, the history books have often ignored the masses of poor people.  Write history books that recognize the many poor people.	7/2/2006

History.	Presenting arguments for and against the actions of a person.	5/28/2006

History.	Problem analysis.  (1) What were the problems they were faced with?  (2) Did they try new or old solutions?  (3) Did it work or not, and how well?	12/30/1992

History.	Problem.  Denial or repression of history: costs and benefits of.	12/30/1992

History.	Problems.  The study of history at its worst becomes traditionalism, conservatism, dogmatism.  When the past determines the future the culture becomes ossified and unchanging.	1/4/2006

History.	Progressive history.  The history of the Progressive movement.  The global history of progressives through the millenia.  The history of progress is the history of forward-thinking progressives who battled against backward-thinking conservatives.  The abolition of slavery.  The right to vote for women.  Public education for children.  Desegregation and the civil rights movement of the 1950's.  These were big struggles.  The struggle for truth and justice.  The struggle continues.  If you want to talk about history, if you want to talk about human history, then talk about the struggle for truth and justice against the forces of oppression and exploitation.  Talk about people struggling to solve problems and the obstacles that other people put in the way.	5/13/2007

History.	Progressivism and history.  Tell the people's history.  For example, Howard Zinn's book, "People's History of the United States".  A history of the global labor movement.  The history of the civil rights movement.  The history of the women's rights movement.  The struggle for public education.  The struggle for universal health care.  Know the struggle of Progressives around the globe and throughout time.	5/5/2007

History.	Put neither too much emphasis, nor too little emphasis on history.  One might err to either side.	6/23/2006

History.	Recorded history vs. prehistoric history.	12/30/1992

History.	Related subjects: historical sciences, geography, astronomy, earth science, biology (evolution), anthropology (physical and cultural).	12/30/1992

History.	Revisionist history methods.  (1) Denying facts.  (2) New interpretations of facts.  (3) Hoaxes and fabrications.  Lies.	10/23/2003

History.	Science and history.  History as a science?  (1) Historians cannot "observe" past events in the same way that scientists observe present events.  (2) Historians cannot "experiment" on the past in the same way that scientists experiment in the present.  (3) These are only some of the problems when one tries to construe history as science.	9/5/2005

History.	Short time span vs. long time span views of history and future.  Narrow vs. wide geographic views of history and the future.  Narrow vs. wide subject matter views of history and the future.	12/30/2003

History.	Simple and complex (how much you leave out) written history.  True and false written history.	12/30/1992

History.	Six scope approaches.  Subject, Area, Time (historical):  (1) S, T, A.  (2) S, A, T.  (3) A, T, S.  (4) A, S, T.  (5) T, S, A.  (6) T, A, S.	12/30/1992

History.	Sociology and history.  If individual people construct themselves in relation to other people who they encounter, then individual people are irreducibly social, and thus history is irreducibly social.  History is not merely the sum of individuals.	4/30/2005

History.	Systems approach to history.    History as a group of subsystems.	4/30/2005

History.	Systems theory and history.  Using systems theory to understand history.  History is best understood using systems theory.	5/12/2005

History.	Take a photo of yourself every year, for a total of about 75 photos over the course of your life.  Then fast forward through the photos to give the appearance of aging.	9/10/2005

History.	The historical record.  When people do things "for the record" it seems somehow more official, more indelible.  As humans become more technological, more and more things become "for the record".  How will people feel when their every action is "for the record".  Especially if its is a public record that anyone can view.  Less anonymity.  Less privacy.  Everyone a Hollywood star.  Everyone facing the scrutiny that politicians face.	11/17/2005

History.	The history of man up till now has been largely a history of wasted lives.  (1) People did not have the tools to make the most of themselves.  (Technology)  (2) People did not have the freedom, equality or time to make the most of themselves.  (Political freedom and equality.  Social freedom and equality.  Economic freedom and equality.)  (3) If they did have the above, people did not have the motivation to make the most of themselves, and to develop their full potential and abilities.  (Psychology).  (4) This is changing slowly but surely.  The future means less wasted lives.	6/21/2000

History.	The past does not always predict the future.  Yet some people are locked into this kind of thinking.  Thinking that the past determines the future goes beyond mere neurotic fatalism.  It can produce  "learned helplessness" which is an even more neurotic condition.  Individuals who are excessively oriented toward the past, or who are too historically minded, sometimes suffer from either fatalism or learned helplessness.	10/31/2001

History.	The past may not be new, but the past is new if its new to you.  Anything is new if you didn't know it already.  Thus, true historians deal with the new.  At the opposite extreme, nostalgia trippers want to hear old stories retold.	4/4/2001

History.	The present, the "now", is actually the recent past and the recent future.	3/29/2002

History.	The problem with conservatives and antique collectors and graphic designers who are enamored with the 1950's is that they mistakenly think that things from times past have more meaning and value just because the are old.  They think this only because they either refuse to or cannot see the meaning and value of their own time and place.	10/28/2001

History.	The twisted view of history and life that we are teaching our young is that history remembers an individual based on how many wars they start and how many peoples they subjugate, oppress and exploit.  That is the drawback of a power-centric, war-centric approach to history.  The war-centric approach to history is promulgated by those intent on raising little tyrants and warlords.  And by those who don't recognize it and can't figure out a better way.	1/26/2004

History.	Theories of causes.  (1) Divine: god causes history (bogus view).  (2) Nature: laws of nature form history.  People follow instincts.  (3) Society: actions of groups form history.  (4) Great individuals: big men cause history.	12/30/1992

History.	Theories of history.  (1) Evolution: progress is being made.  (2) Devolution: we are going down hill.  (3) Cyclical: history moves in cycles.  (4) Stasis: nothing changes, everything remains the same.	12/30/1992

History.	There are two types of attitudes toward the past, healthy and unhealthy.  (1) A healthy attitude toward the past is much like the technique used in psychotherapy, where one revisits the past and sorts out the good and bad in order to achieve catharsis, justice and an integrated personality.  (2) An unhealthy attitude toward the past can be of two types: (A) Totally unable to look at the past.  That is, historically repressed.  Two types: reluctant to think of your own past, or reluctant to think of the history of the world.  (B) Living in the past.  Obsessed with the past.  Unable to think of anything but the past.  That is, repressed in terms of the current situation and the future.  These people are using the past as a crutch.  To only think of "what was" is to be unable to confront "what is" and "what will be".  There are two types of obsession with the past: obsession with one's own past, and obsession with the history of the world.	1/1/2001

History.	They should write a biography of a fictitious person that is actually a compilation of a bunch of true stories from many different real people welded together.	9/12/1999

History.	Those who ignore History are doomed to repeat it next semester.	4/16/2006

History.	Three big questions.  (1) What happened.  (2) How do we know?  (3) Was it a right or wrong action by humans?  Was it a natural event that was good or bad for humans?	11/10/2006

History.	Three different concepts.  (1) Things we thought were important in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, etc.  (2) Things we thought were cool in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, etc.  (3) Things that got a lot of press in the 70's, 80's, 90's, 2000's, etc.  (4) "Cool" meaning, variously, fun, interesting, admirable.  "We" meaning, variously, me, anyone, average person.	3/25/2006

History.	Three views of history.  (1) Arguments that things are getting better.  Medicine.  Education.  Democracy.  No slavery.  Women's rights.  (2) Arguments that things are getting worse.  Two world wars.  Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot.  (3) Arguments that things are staying the same.	7/1/2006

History.	Three views of history.  (1) History of ideas.  History as the books humans produce.  History as knowledge or information.  The history of humans is really about the history of the books that humans write.  More specifically, history is about the history of ideas.  And the history of the intelligentsia.  The "Great Books" method is more a method of history than it is a method of education.  (2) History as the masses.  The history of humans is really about what most people are experiencing most of the time.  History is about the masses and pop culture.  (3) The Earth.  The history of the Earth is what is important.  The history of the Earth is not primarily about the history of humans.  Humans are just one species on Earth.  Humans are wrecking and ruining the earth by polluting the earth and destroying natural habitat.	8/15/2005

History.	Time divisions.  (1) Organic: natural cycles.  (2) Manmade: calendar, watch, millennium.	12/30/1992

History.	Two concepts.  (1) The future of the past:  The as yet undiscovered historical artifacts and theories about the past that will be discovered as we continue to study the past.  (2) The past of the future:  The current ideas, actions and objects that we live with today that will shape the future.	12/8/2003

History.	Two types of history.  (1) Natural history.  Natural events and their causes.  (2) Human history.  Human actions and the reasons people do them.	10/23/2003

History.	Two views of history.  (1) History as the history of the "great":  Major wars.  Great cities.  Powerful rulers.  Grand scale events.  (2) History as the history of the masses:  Daily activities.  Average people.  Popular culture.	7/18/2002

History.	Two views of history.  (1) History is all important because the past determines the future.  Versus.  (2) History is irrelevant because the future will be very different from the past.	6/12/2005

History.	Two views of history.  (1) History is change.  Change is loss.  Loss of the present.  Loss is grief.  Vs. (2) History is about change.  Change is about growth and progress.  Progress is good.	9/28/2003

History.	Types of history.  (1) History of ideas.  There is a world of ideas.  Each ideas has a history.  Each idea has a life cycle.  How many people hold the idea to be true or false, important or unimportant?  (2) History of a person.  Autobiography and biography.  (3) History of a group of persons.  Social history.  Cultural history.  Relationship history.  (4) History of a place.  (5) History of a time span.  (6) History of an event.  (7) History of an object.  (8) History of a subject.	2/4/2005

History.	Types of history.  (1) History of philosophy.  History of epistemology, ethics and metaphysics.  (2) History of sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, earth science, ecology.  (3) History of the arts, literature, music, visual arts, movies.  (4) History of politics and law.  (5) History of economics and business.  (6) History of work and leisure.  (7) History of the environment.	9/28/2005

History.	Types of history.  (1) Macro-history.  Global, long term.  (2) Micro-history.  Local, short term.	8/4/2006

History.	Types of history.  (1) Micro-history.  Psycho-history (Autobiography.  Biography.).  Small group history.  (2) Macro-history.  Social history.  Political history.  Economic history.  Technological history.	5/17/2004

History.	Types of history.  History of problems.  A history of problems and solutions traces the development of negative conditions and attempt to alleviate them.	2/1/2005

History.	Underestimation and overestimation of significance or importance.  (1) People constantly underestimate or overestimate their own selves and the events in their lives.  And when people write history, there is also a constant underestimation and overestimation of people and events.  For example, consider the following two monologues regarding breakfast.  These two monologues could be internal monologues or trains of thought.  Or these two monologues could be passages in an autobiography or a biography.  Firstly, "What's for breakfast?  Inevitably, cornflakes again.  Nothing ever changes.  Locked in boring tedium.  What could be more insignificant that this bowl of soggy cornflakes.  My life is like this bowl of cornflakes"  Secondly, "What's for breakfast?  Yes, I think I will have cornflakes today again.  What could be more a befitting way to start this splendidly momentous day than a bowl of delicious cornflakes.  There is a perfect moment when the cornflakes are neither too crunchy, nor too soggy, and I live for that moment.  Everything I do works in a big way."  (2) In the first monologue, the speaker errs toward underestimation.  In the second monologue, the speaker errs toward overestimation.  Underestimation and overestimation can cause problems, both in life and in the writing of history.  Good living involves balanced judgments, and good history writing also involves balanced judgments.	6/18/2006

History.	Units of history.  At what level should one do history?  (1) The event or action.  Natural events.  Human actions.  (2) The idea.  (3) The work.  The book, the artwork, etc.  (4) The person.  (5) The group.	4/1/2005

History.	US Slavery.  The Holocaust in Germany.  The Japanese invasion of China.  (1) Publicly acknowledge the wrong.  (2) Apologize.  (3) Give monetary reparations to survivors and descendants of the victims.	11/12/2005

History.	Various attitudes that people have about the past and history.  PART ONE.  Anti-history views.  (1) Some people do not like to feel like a slave to history.  These people do not like to feel bound by history.  These people do not like to feel that the distant past, other people's lives, has invariably determined their own life.  These people do not like to feel bound by their own past, feeling that their own past actions have invariably determined their future.  (2) Other people do not like to memorize an endless list of people, places and events.  (3) Other people do not want to spend all their time reviewing and rehashing the events of the past.  Chewing the cud.  The past is boring.  The past is old, and the old is passe'.  The future is new, and the new is interesting.  (4) Other people find the past irksome, both their own past and the general past of the world.  Their own past can be painful to recollect, especially if bad things happened.  Good riddance to the past.  If you feel your best days are in front of you, then you focus more on the future than the past.  The past in general can feel confining.  These people would much rather consider the present and future.  (5) If you have a tendency to dwell and obsess about the past then you spend a lot of time thinking about the past.  PART TWO.  Pro-history views.  (1) Some people feel we can learn from the past.  The individual person learns from their individual past.  The individual person learns from the history of civilizations.  The civilization learns from the history of civilizations.  The civilization learns from the history of individuals.  (2) Some people desire to set the historical record straight in the interest of justice.  (3) Other people find the past a comfort, both their own past and and the general past of the world.  These nostalgia-trippers like to linger in the past.  The good old days.  If you feel your best days are behind you then you will revel in the past.	7/2/2006

History.	Various historical phenomena.  (1) Quickly developing events vs. slowly developing events.  (2) Small scale events vs. large scale events.  (3) Direct cause and direct effects vs. indirect cause and indirect effects.  (4) Single cause and single effect vs. multiple causes and multiple effects.	5/17/2004

History.	Ways to approach history.  (1) 26 subjects.  (2) Theory and practice.  (3) Societies and civilizations.  (4) Most important events.	12/30/1992

History.	We have photos of the civil war.  We do not have photos of the revolutionary war.  There was only a ninety year gap between the revolutionary war and the civil war, but it seems like a metaphysical eternity.	10/26/1999

History.	What can I learn from history?  What lessons are most important for me to learn?  What are best ways to learn about history?	12/30/1992

History.	What happened, when, where, to who, how, why?	12/30/1992

History.	What is history?  (1) Everything ever thought, said, or done.  (2) Endless chain of cause and effect.  (3) The truth of fact occurrence.  (4) Origin, development, stagnation, decay, and death of x thing (in general, specific type, specific thing).  (5) The search for truth through time.  (6) Search for what works and doesn't.  (7) A grand experiment.  (8) Record of my relations with other people.  Not meant as historical, but rather used as an on-going tool.	12/30/1992

History.	What is history.  (1) History (what actually happened) vs. (2) Study of history as a subject (philosophy and science).	12/30/1992

History.	What is history.  (1) History is a trial.  You get to judge the past.  (2) History is a re-try, a do-over, a chance to relive the past and make it right.	7/20/1998

History.	What is history.  A record of experiences that explains the formation, content, and mechanism of your mind.  Your likes and dislikes.  Your ideals.  Your highs and lows in life.  What you would/could/should have done.	01/01/1993

History.	What is history.  History as a catalog of problems and attempted solutions.  Successes and failures.	11/10/1998

History.	What is history.  History as psychoanalysis and ethics.  For health one must re-live and sort out the problems and mistakes of the past.	12/01/1993

History.	What is history.  Written history is always incomplete, and thus always half-truths.	12/30/2003

History.	What we consider important changes with our perspective or viewpoint.	12/30/1992

History.	What would people from the past say to us if we met them in their time and place?  What would people from the past say to us if they met us in our time and place?  Would they tell us their life story?  Would they tell us their philosophy of life?  Would they describe their joys and sorrows?  Would they sit silently with nothing to say?  What would they say?  Could we understand them?  Would they talk of the indescribable beauty and joy of their lives?  Or the gyp, rip-off and injustice of being born too soon or too late?	1/15/2002

History.	When people think about their own personal history they often attach too much importance to the fact that they were in a certain place at a certain time.  What is actually more important is the experience of being a certain age (ex. child, teen, adult, old).  For example, the poignancy of the movie "American Graffiti" is not due to the characters being in Modesto or Bakersfield in the late 1950's, rather, the poignancy of "American Graffiti" is due to the characters being age 17.  When we think about our past, instead of trying to recapture a time and place, we should, if anything, try to recapture how old you were and the way it felt to be that age.     PART TWO.  Two supporting arguments:  (1) Consider people of the same age in a different time and place.  How it feels to be a teenager in Bakersfield in 1958 is how it feels to be a teenager almost anywhere and anytime.  (2) Consider people of different ages in the same time and place.  How it feels to be a teenager in Bakersfield in 1958 is much different from how it feels to be 80 years old in Bakersfield in 1958.     PART THREE.  To sum up: People tend to attach too much meaning to time and place and things.  The majority of the meaning resides within the people themselves.	7/11/2001

History.	When something is gone it is not like it was never there.  "Once was" is not the same as "never was".	11/20/2000

History.	Which did ancient man realize existed first, the past or the future?  How did humans escape the "now" of present reality all those millions of years ago?  I say, memory came before planning.  Reaction came before goals.  Notions of the past came before notions of the future.	2/28/2002

History.	Why study history (discovery and interpretation)?  Why is history important, and how important is it, for society, and for individual persons?  (1) Memory is important.  (2) To remember and learn.  (3) Re-learning.  (4) Psychotherapy for psychological health.  (5) Discover repressed memories.  Identify and work on neurosis.  (6) To know what happened.  (7) If you know your history you know everything.  (8) For survival and health (psychology).  (9) Optimize behavior.  (10) For justice, for catharsis.  (11) To learn a lot of best truths quick.  (12) Avoid blowing opportunities, avoid damage, avoid loss, and avoid unhealth.  (13) Deal with people better.  (14) Understand and make sense of life.  (15) A record for organizing and working out problems.  (16) Avoid mistakes, making them and repeating them.  (17) Avoid misfortunes by remembering solutions.  (18) Loss of history = loss of memory = loss of identity.  (19) For planning, control, and evaluation of my life.  (20) To develop fast enough to stay ahead of pack.	12/30/1992

History.	Why study history.  (1) Why an individual should study history.  Why a society should study history.  (2) Business management argument for history:  We need to plan, implement, and evaluate.  History helps in the evaluation step.	4/28/1998

History.	Why study history.  Contra.  It is possible to think too much about the past, at the expense of thinking about the present and future.  Coulda, woulda, shoulda has its limits.	01/01/1993

History.	Why study history.  Contra.  The desire to look back can be escape and avoidance of the uncertain, and therefore fearful, present and future.  Often people don't want to learn lessons from the past, they just want to hide in the past.  The "good old days" of the past can be gathered and enjoyed at will.  The "good new days" must be reached through a day to day tedium.	07/20/1993

History.	Why study history.  Estir = past.  Goals = future.  They form a continuum, and should be read together.  Reviewing progress toward goals.	11/27/1993

History.	Why study history.  History notes are effective as a personal management control function.  Goal analysis: seeing how far you have come, and how fast.  And to plan and make adjustments.	04/23/1994

History.	Why study history.  The reason to write your history is so when you ask yourself, "Where did the time go?", you have an answer and do not have to suffer needless regret.	7/23/1998

History.	Why study your own history?  To see if you are reaching your goals.  To see how far and how fast you are progressing.	01/01/1993

History.	World history.  How does one write a history of the world? How does one write a history of everything?	10/21/2005

History.	World history.  The history of the world is the sum of the histories of all the things in the world.	4/24/2007

History.	World.  1800-2000 an explosion of theory and invention made possible by printing and renaissance.  Will the pace of development slow down?  Yes, as we reach our intellectual, ecological, and technological limits?	01/30/1994

History.	World.  1960's barbecue.  Before we knew meat was bad for us.  Before we knew alcohol was bad for us.  Before we knew smoking was bad for us.  And we walked on the moon.	3/5/2002

History.	World.  1960's.  Also important in the 1960s was the fight for rights for the physically handicapped and mentally handicapped.	8/26/1998

History.	World.  1960's.  Sixties.  If you equate the sixties with sex, drugs, and rock and roll, then it can be viewed as a failure, or a limited success.  But if you equate the sixties with the environmental movement, women's rights, animal rights, world peace, black rights, american indian rights, handicapped rights, minority rights, tolerance, it was a big success and a triumph of important ideas.  I view it as the latter.	09/26/1997

History.	World.  1960's.  The sixties were about freedom.  Especially the freedom to express yourself.  That is why it was a great time.  The fifties were about politically oppressive mccarthyism.	02/28/1998

History.	World.  1960's.  The sixties.  (1) Surf/climb golden age.  (2) Black rights struggle.  Civil rights movement  (3) Feminist rights struggle.  Increase of women in workplace.  Sexual revolution: the pill, antibiotics.  (5) Space program.  (6) Vietnam.  (7) Hippies: drugs, free love, acid rock, peace/harmony, natural.	12/30/1992

History.	World.  1960's.  Vietnam.  Our soldiers had trouble not just because of (1) The fighting style and environment: guerrilla warfare (can not trust civilians, can not see enemy as a group) in the jungle (hot, humid, disease, pests), (2) No clear cut reason or goals for the war, (3) Cheap and readily available drugs that blew minds.  (4) Opposition at home.  (5) A real factor was that these soldiers grew up in a different society, with a different culture (different metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, history) than W.W.II soldiers.  They were too smart to be soldiers in the traditional sense.  They were smarter (as society was) and expected more political rights, power, and economic consumer comfort.  They were more likely to have trouble when forced to believe and follow blindly.  Less likely to blindly follow rules of army.  They were smarter and consciously and unconsciously expected more from life than the W.W.II soldier.  Life for them was more complex.  Less likely to blindly obey rules of religion and civic religion (american way).  Especially under stress of warfare.	08/15/1994

History.	World.  1990's.  If someone told me ten years ago that there would be trolls lurking on the web having wraps and smoothies for lunch I would have told them they were mad.  Yet here they are.	7/25/2002

History.	World.  Communication technology and information technology has really been the factor that turned the earth around.  Language, writing, printing, and computers promote civilization, development of reason, and ethics.	4/28/1998

History.	World.  Decade style highlights.  1960's: crew cuts, Mets, beer.  1970's: Foghat, Welcome Back Kotter, weed.  1980's: Flock of Seagulls, suspenders, crack.  1990's: Nirvarna, World Wide Web, ecstasy.	8/30/2001

History.	World.  Disco was a nightmare to live through, basically because people took disco seriously.  But 20 years later, looking back at disco with a perspective of irony, disco looks and sounds great.  Therefore disco is ironic.	8/15/1998

History.	World.  How has the world changed?  (1) Less repression.  (2) More communication.  (3) Smarter people, more aware of what's going on.  (4) More control over ourselves and our environment.  (5) More freedom.  (6) More cooperation.	06/10/1993

History.	World.  USA history.  Why do people keep writing new books on early U.S. History?  (1) They want to rewrite the past in their interests.  (2) They want to have the last word.  (3) New information appears that needs to be analyzed.	5/17/2004

History.	World.  USA.  Plain cake doughnuts and hot black coffee built this country, and then plain cake doughnuts and hot black coffee gave this country a heart attack.	7/31/2001

History.	World.  USA.  Plain cake doughnuts and hot black coffee built this country.	12/29/1997

History.	World.  USA.  Slavery was a national disgrace.	3/30/1998

International development.	.This section is about development economics.  Topics include: ( ) Patterns of development.  ( ) Poverty.	1/24/2006

International development.	(1) Development does not mean only economic development.  Development includes political development, technological development, health development, educational development, environmental development, etc.  (2) Technological development depends on science, and science depends on education.  Political development also depends on education.  Health and environmental awareness also depend on education.  (3) Ethical development is a form of philosophical development.  Ethical development is reflected in the legal system.  Outlawing slavery, child labor, wife beating, etc.	1/1/2006

International development.	(1) Development is not merely an economic issue.  Development is a economic, political, technological and psychological/social issue.  (2) One can speak of stages of development, for example, the agricultural, industrial and electronic stages.  It is possible for countries developing today to go through developmental stages more quickly than countries that developed in the past.  It is possible even to skip stages.  (3) The goals of development are social justice and environmental sustainability.  Other goals are to avoid problems or ills in all areas, for example, the political ills of corruption, war and dictatorship; the economic ills of inflation, unemployment, monopoly and low wages; the technological ills of pollution, etc.  (4) The easiest way to develop is to get the people to do it themselves.  Provide a fair system.  Provide information and education.  Develop a DIY (do it yourself) attitude in the people.  Politically, get people ruling themselves through democracy.  Economically, get people working, saving and investing.  Promote entrepreneurship.  Psycho/socially, get people into schools.  Promote self education and lifelong education.  Promote public education and public libraries.  (5) Examples of development.  The American west.  Germany and Japan after WWII.  Russia, China and India.  Africa.  (6) Development goals in the USA.  The goals of development for the first world are the same as the third world countries, namely, solve the ills of society.  Help the ill, the poor, the exploited and the oppressed.  (7) Development goals of the left and right.  (A) The liberal democratic left has a development plan that focuses on health care, education, worker rights, minority rights, tolerance and diversity, and empowering the poor.  Those are good ideas.  (B) The conservative republican right has a development plan that focuses on building the military, having wars, expanding the role of religion, deregulating and privatizing business, giving corporations tax breaks, send out religious missionaries, making extortive loans that keep third world countries in debt, and running a mercantalist system to exploit third world countries.  Those are bad ideas.	4/20/2005

International development.	(1) Economic growth is needed only up to the point of filling the needs of a growing population (small vs. big economic systems).  (2) Economic development is what is really needed, more so than economic growth.  This is done through technological development.  Primitive (simple) vs. modern (complex) economic systems.	02/24/1994

International development.	(1) How does one figure out how to make the most out of the little they have?  (2) How to explain that the rich are not necessarily happy, healthy or ethical?  (3) How to identify the causes of poverty?  How to identify solutions?  (4) How to see that there may be present other problems besides poverty.  And how these problems reinforce and magnify each other.  Likewise, various solutions may reinforce and magnify each other.  (5) How to get people to see a way out of their poverty?  (6) There can be problems both on the individual and cultural levels.  The individual often does not want to recognize the individual's problems.  The culture often does not want to recognize the culture's problems.  (7) Various problems include the following: You can't work or get an education if you are physically ill.  You can't work if you have no birth control.  You can't work if you are hungry.  You can't get an education if you are working all the time.	5/10/2005

International development.	A country with few natural resources, yielding widespread poverty, yielding no education, yielding no democracy, yielding injustice, corruption and dictatorship.  Is the above cycle inevitable in the third world?  No.  The third world is the biggest challenge.	11/10/2001

International development.	Change vs. tradition in personality types.  Everyone makes a metaphysical decision at some point in their life, consciously or unconsciously, whether they prefer change or tradition.  It may be a gene that partially influences us to decide.	9/12/2000

International development.	Change vs. tradition.  Anti-development attitudes and anti-change attitudes. (1) Traditionalism: love of the past.  (2) Inertia: too lazy to change.  (3) An individual's fear of change.  (4) Entrenched political powers resist change.	9/12/2000

International development.	Change vs. tradition.  Forces for and against change.  I define change, or rather progress, as an increase in truth and justice.  (1) Pro-change forces: The poor.  The marginalized.  The disenfanchised.  The working class.  (2) Tactics of change agents:  Empower people.  Educate people.  (3) Anti-change forces:  Military.  Police.  Traditionalists.  Power holders.  Money holders.  Elders.  Anti-democracy types (authoritarian personalities).  (4) Tactics of anti-change agents: They try to keep people poor, fearful, helpless, hopeless, and disempowered.	9/18/2000

International development.	Culture.  Cultural attitudes can either promote or impede development.  PART ONE.  Cultural attitudes that promote development are attitudes that value social justice and ecological sustainability.     PART TWO.  Cultural attitudes sometimes impede development.  Some people are mired in counter-productive ways of thinking.  (1) Despair.  Hopelessness.  (2) People who think God is telling them to abuse human rights.	5/5/2007

International development.	Development does not occur only in the third world.  If the third world is developing into the first world, then the first world is developing into what?	3/29/2002

International development.	Development is an important issue.  From an ethical standpoint, it is imperative that the rich help the poor.	5/5/2007

International development.	Development of a nation.  Economic, technological, political, education, and ethics are all interconnected and must be raised together simultaneously.  How to do it?  Can democracy work in a country in which the people have no work ethic?  Or have no minority rights or women's rights?  Or who respect only force and violence?  Or who have no natural resource, capital, or trade to build a sub-structure?  Or have no rule of law?  Or have an uneducated population?  How to improve such a situation?	09/01/1994

International development.	Development of a society or culture is like psychotherapy of an individual person.  In psychotherapy a person cannot change unless they want to change, and likewise a society or culture cannot change unless they want to change.	9/4/2000

International development.	Do you want to develop your economy?  Well, then educate your people, reduce crime and corruption, and change the values of your people to make them more creative, entrepreneurial, industrious and fair.  The goal is not to produce a bunch of unneeded products and waste all leisure time.  The goal is improving the quality of life of your citizens.  Health (psychological and physical) of population.  Health of the environment (ecology).  Solving problems.	12/29/1998

International development.	Economic development.  (1) People need a way to make a living, and yet we should not teach people to pursue money for money's sake.  (2) Today, one of the main economic perils to international development is increasing corporatism that results in sweatshops and generally exploits workers.	5/5/2007

International development.	Education, literacy, media, information.  Access to information is a human right.  Access to education is a human right.  Access to knowledge is a human right.	5/5/2007

International development.	Environmental development.  The goal is sustainable development in ALL countries of the world.  The goal is not to get the third world to live like the first world because the first world countries are resource depleting, polluting pigs.	5/5/2007

International development.	Growth, development and planning.  Growth means size.  Development mean sophistication.  Causes of growth and development, stagnation, and decay.  Technology.  Living standards: income, environment, crime/safety, pollution, stress, values.  Stuff vs. leisure time, freedom.	12/30/1992

International development.	Having many natural resources does not guarantee development and freedom, as evidenced by Russia, India and China.	9/19/2001

International development.	Health.  Physical health.  Mental health.  It does no good to trade the diseases of the third world for the diseases of the first world.  The goal is to reduce infant mortality, increase average life expectancy, and reduce the incidence of mental illness.	5/5/2007

International development.	Helping the poor people in the poor countries.  Sustainability and social justice is the goal for development.  Development can be divided into smaller topics like political development, economic development, and technological development, but these smaller topics are closely inter-twined.  Education is key.  Independent media is key.  Avoiding economic exploitation by rich countries is key.  Avoiding political oppression is key.  Empowering people is key.	5/2/2007

International development.	How is intellectual development (science, philosophy, attitudes) related to economic development?  Development does not mean having a lot of stuff.  Development does not mean bigger houses and more clothes.  Development means having your head screwed on straight.  Development means an increase in social justice and ecological sustainability.	4/15/2002

International development.	How to define poverty and wealth?  Poverty and wealth can each be defined several ways.	1/27/2007

International development.	Humans have the ability to construct their own systems.  Humans have the ability to create rules for their systems.  The system we create should be fair.  The rules we create for the system should be fair.  No one should be left with nothing.  Life is not a "winner takes all" trivial game.  Some people mistakenly think it is.  If humans decide to build their system so that the winners get everything and the losers get nothing then that is injustice.	5/17/2005

International development.	If an individual by their own actions contributes toward their own poverty then that is an isolated, individual problem.  If a society contributes toward the poverty of the individual then that is a systemic, societal problem.  Systemic problems are worse than isolated problems.	5/12/2005

International development.	If you think globally (and we should all be thinking globally) then the most important area of economics is development economics.  That is, the most important issue is getting the 80% of humanity that live in poverty to a sustainable prosperity that 20% of humanity is close to achieving.	3/4/2001

International development.	Methods of development.  Everything is packaged, either packaged well or packaged poorly.  Things that are packaged well are more likely to be accepted by people.  Not just bought but accepted.  If you want to develop a culture you should package your ideas well so that they are accepted quickly and easily by the culture.  To have your ideas accepted you should package them so that they are irresistible to human nature.  For example, package them in the form of a beautiful young woman, or in the form of a bouncing baby, or in the form of a story full of universal archetypes with a happy ending (like a Spielberg movie).  Then you have to market it, pitch it, show it to everyone.	9/4/2000

International development.	Most important idea about international development.  International development is not merely an economic topic.  International development is a combination of economics, politics, technology, and cultural attitudes.	4/26/2007

International development.	Patterns of development.  A locality may develop in some ways like the American West developed.  At first various functions may be held by a single person.  For example, in a small town, one person may be the sheriff, judge and mayor.  As a town grows, various functions will held by individual people in individual buildings.  For example, a doctor in a hospital, a librarian in a library, etc.  As development proceeds, the town may become a stop on a train line or a bus route.	10/22/2000

International development.	Patterns of development.  It may not be desirable for a nation to achieve a state of self-sufficiency in isolation from other nations, just as an individual person in a developed nation may not find it desirable to grown their own food and build their own house.  However, a nation does want to achieve a condition of self-sufficiency amongst all other nations, just as an individual person wants to be able to make a living in a community by doing what they do best or enjoy doing.	9/4/2000

International development.	Patterns of development.  We should not expect to see every locality in the world turn into Manhattan.  In the United States the largest areas of land are pure uninhabited wilderness.  The next largest lands are rural areas.  Then suburbs.  And the cities take up the least space.  So it will be in the developing world.  Most of the land will be wild.  Next largest will be rural areas, followed by small areas of suburbs and cities.  (2) What is rural life like in advanced societies like the USA?  What can we expect rural life to be like in nations that develop?  Transportation will be by horse and bicycle because cars are expensive.  Communication will be the least expensive form, which may be newspaper, radio, wire phone or wireless phone.  However, the change will be more in the minds of the people than in the possessions they own.  The people will be educated, ethical, empowered, politically savvy, peaceful and just, rather than ignorant conflict-ridden and unethical.	9/4/2000

International development.	Political development.  Of course a goal is democracy, but democracy requires an educated populace, and democracy requires a free press.  It does no good to replace military dictatorship with corporatism.  It does no good to replace dictatorship with theocracy.  It does no good to replace dictatorship with corruption or kleptocracy.  It does no good to replace one bad form of government with another bad form of government.	5/5/2007

International development.	Poverty does not necessarily cause things like loss of self esteem, loss of social feelings, loss of hope, loss of feelings of adequacy, loss of feelings of power and control, and greed.  Absence of poverty does not necessarily cause the opposites of the above.  You do not have to be rich in order to be well educated, happy, or simply to live.  There are many low income people who live good lives.	1/22/1999

International development.	Poverty in the Philippines.  America is the cause of the poverty in the Philippines.  America is not the cure for the poverty in the Philippines.  America exploited the Philippines for over a hundred years.  And now there is a brain drain from the Philippines to America.	5/29/2007

International development.	Poverty is not simply an economic issue.	4/20/2001

International development.	Poverty.  (1) Poverty is a problem that spans disciplines.  (2) One way to help the poor is to change their attitudes.  Make them believe the following: You can be poor and happy.  You can be poor and smart.  You can be poor and healthy.  You can be poor and loved.  You can be poor and advance out of poverty.  You do not have to turn to crime, drugs, and wasting time.  (3) The poor feel they cannot compete.  The poor feel they are being kept down.  The poor feel they are getting their asses kicked, and they are being screwed.	4/15/1998

International development.	Poverty.  (1)(A) To what degree is it their own fault?  (B) To what degree is it someone else's fault or society's fault?  (2)(A) How can they best help themselves get out of poverty?  (B) How can someone else or society help the poor get out of poverty?	4/29/2005

International development.	Poverty.  By far the biggest cause of poverty, worldwide and throughout time, is when people work hard but get paid little, due to exploitation and oppression by employers.	3/3/2007

International development.	Poverty.  Getting people out of poverty.  (1) Instill the work ethic.  Work is good.  Lazing around, wasting time, and having useless fun all time is bad.  (2) Instill the entrepreneurial attitude.  The artist, inventor, scientist, philosopher, and entrepreneur are all creators, explorers, and discovers.  Instill the attitude to keep trying after failing.  Instill the attitude of fair play.  Get rid of hopeless and helpless attitudes.  People are unsure that they as individuals can make it, because they feel too stupid, or feel they have poor job history, etc.  (3) Decrease crime and corruption attitudes: cheating the system; getting by the man; crime pays.  (4) Promote education.	02/28/1998

International development.	Poverty.  How does one define poverty?  (1) Malnourished.  Hungry.  No money for food.  (2) No money for health care.  (3) No money for education.  (4) No savings.  Living paycheck to paycheck.	4/28/2005

International development.	Poverty.  If you define poor as "not rich" then you can say to the poor that being rich is not a big deal.  If you define poor as "lacking basic necessities" then you cannot say to someone who is starving to death or dying of illness that they should work harder and not be envious of the rich.	4/28/2005

International development.	Poverty.  Let's say you are poor and struggling to get out of poverty, and then a war reaches you, or a corrupt politician, or organized crime, what then?  War, crime and corruption undo the hard work of people struggling to get out of poverty.	4/29/2005

International development.	Poverty.  Poverty continues to be a big problem worldwide.  How many people live in extreme poverty?  About 1 billion according to Jeffrey Sachs, author of "The End of Poverty".  Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than a dollar a day.  Extreme poverty is when you could die of starvation, or of lack of clean water, or of lack of health care, or lack of shelter.  Approximately 20,000 people die each day due to extreme poverty.  Needlessly, because extreme poverty could be wiped out in our lifetime.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that its either not a problem or that nothing can be done about it, but those conservative pundits are wrong.	6/26/2005

International development.	Poverty.  Some potential causes of poverty.  (1) Social structural injustice and oppression, which destroys self-esteem.  (2) Inability to delay gratification.  (3) Hopelessness.  (4)(A) Lack of brain power.  (B) Lack of knowledge (unlearned).  (C) Lack of a school degree.  (These are three totally different things).  (5) Raised in a bad social environment.  No role models.  (6) Economic causes.  High unemployment.  (7) Cultural causes.  Lack of a cultural work ethic.  Lack of a savings ethic.  Lack of an ethic to invest in self (stingy).  (8) Risky gambling.  Losing money.  Spending money.	4/20/1999

International development.	Poverty.  The poor: the homeless, the hungry, those lacking medical care.  (2) The global poor.  How many?   What percentage of the world population?  (3) The United States poor.  How many?  What percentage of the population?  PART TWO.  Why poor?  Lazy?  Crazy?  Stupid?  No.  A history of human rights denied.  A history of opportunity denied.  Corruption in the system.  Corruption in government.  Exploitation by employers.  Corruption and crime.  Land and water taken by corporations.  Drafted into armies, or coerced into volunteering because of lack of alternatives.  Countries torn apart by war.  Denied an education by being coerced into working all day.  Labor unions weakened by corporate, anti-labor tactics.  Few good paying jobs.  Profits going to corporations.  Ruthless competition.	12/4/2005

International development.	Poverty.  Types of poverty.  (1) Unavoidable poverty.  (2) Avoidable poverty.  (A) Caused by self.  (B) Caused by others.	4/25/1999

International development.	Poverty.  What do you do with someone in poverty?  Teach them how to live best with little money.  Teach them what to buy.  Teach them how to get access information.  Teach them how to improve their lot.  Teach them how to avoid despair.	7/21/1998

International development.	Poverty.  When a person gets sick, it is usually not their fault they got sick.  When a child is poor, it is not the child's fault that it is poor.	4/29/2005

International development.	Problems list.  (1) Environment.  (2) Economy (ex. unemployment, inflation).  (3) Education.  (4) Health, physical and psychological.  (5) Political issues like justice, equality and freedom.  (6) Technological development.  (7) Social attitudes.  (8) Which countries are worst off in each area?	11/15/2001

International development.	Social justice.  There are many issues that need to be addressed in international development.  Women's rights abuses.  Children's rights abuses.  Minority rights abuses.  Workers rights abuses.	5/9/2007

International development.	Systemic, societal causes of poverty.  It is not always the case that the individual is responsible for their own poverty.  There are many examples of cases where the individual is not responsible for their own poverty.  These are cases in which the system, society, causes individuals to be poor.  These problems can occur not only in various subject areas (ex. political, economic, etc.) but also various levels (ex. local, national, global).  (1) Racial discrimination and poverty.  Slavery.  Slaves prohibited from reading and writing.  (2) Sexual discrimination and poverty.  Women denied equal pay.  (3) Political causes of poverty.  People excluded from the political process can end up poor.  Women denied the vote.  (4) Economic causes of poverty.  Workers oppressed and exploited under pure capitalism.  Globally, when rich countries set up a system of international trade for their own self interests, oppressing and exploiting poorer nations.	5/27/2005

International development.	Technology development.  The goal is sustainable technology.  Sustainable materials, sustainable power, and sustainable tools.  Internet access for all, because technology is based on knowledge and information.	5/5/2007

International development.	The big problem areas.  Health, both physical and psychological.  Politics: justice, equality, freedom.  Economics: employment, inflation, savings and leisure time.  Environment.  Technology.  Education: knowledge, learning, attitudes, science, philosophy and art, on an individual level and a societal level.	4/26/2002

International development.	The direction that the first world needs to head in is towards environmental sustainability and social justice.  The first world has a long way to go.  Don't rest on your laurels, first world.	5/5/2007

International development.	The goal is not to simply make more (GDP) and consume more (CPI).  The goals are sustainability, low unemployment, adequate wages, justice and fairness.  No corruption.  Provide education, medical care, and psychotherapy for all.  Lovers and friends.	6/15/1998

International development.	There are a billion people in extreme poverty, living on $1 a day.  20,000 of these people die needlessly everyday.  Millions of people die needlessly every year, as Jeff Sachs reminds us in "The End of Poverty".  That means if I donate $365 a year to CARE or UNICEF I can keep one person alive.  If I donate $700 a year I can save two lives.  If I get my elected officials to give .7 percent of GDP to foreign aid I can save many more lives.	5/27/2005

International development.	There are many parts to international development, including political development, economic development, technological development, etc.  The parts of development are inter-related or inter-twined.	5/5/2007

International development.	To often, people subvert the goals of international development in order to make themselves rich.  To often, countries subvert the goals of international development in order to make themselves rich.	5/5/2007

International development.	Today, many average people live better than the kings of yore.	9/4/2000

International development.	Types of development.  (1) Economic development:  Entrepreneurial attitudes.  Corporate organization attitudes.  Hardworking attitudes.  (2) Political development:  Rule of law.  Reduce crime and corruption.  Increase justice.  (3) Social development:  Literacy and life-long learning.  Cooperation.  Peace.  Health (physical and psychological).  Empower the disempowered.  Equal rights for all.     (4) Technological development:  Ecologically sustainable technologies, both low-tech and high-tech.	9/4/2000

International development.	Types of development.  Development is not just about economics.  Development addresses many areas.  (1) Development and economics.  (2) Development and the environment.  (3) Development and technological infrastructure (water, food, shelter, power, transportation, communication, schools, libraries, hospitals).  (4) Development and politics.  Government, corruption, beauracratic inefficiency, taxes, justice, peace, etc.  (5) Development and psychology and sociology.  The attitudes and philosophy of the people.	9/12/2000

International development.	Various thoughts.  (1) If we are all living sustainably then we are all living simply and minimally.  (2) Everyone is rich in some things and poor in other things.  (3) Human rights means that everyone deserves basic levels of various values.  (4) How do we define the terms "development, underdeveloped and developed"?  (5) One can talk about living without excess.  That is different from living without basic needs.  Tangibles like clean water and food.  Intangibles like peace and justice.  (6) Poverty trap, cyclical poverty, intergenerational poverty.  No one should be condemned to poverty.  Everyone should have access to the means to exit poverty.	5/10/2005

International development.	Violence.  War, terrorism, violent crimes, threats of violence, bullying.  Violence is a big problem.  Violence starts with bullying and proceeds toward crime, terrorism, and war.  Humans need to develop and promote non-violent means of conflict resolution.	5/5/2007

International development.	Visions of the future.  How does one define progress?  What are the ends and means of progress?  Because change can be for better or worse.  Different people view different changes as being good or bad.  Different people view any given change as progress or anti-progress.	9/12/2000

International development.	What percent of the world is uneducated?  What percent lives in poverty?  What are the definitions of "uneducated" and "poverty".	10/2/1998

International development.	What separates the developed countries from the under-developed countries? Some people might say that it is only knowledge and attitudes that separate the developed countries from the underdeveloped countries.  Not money.  Not natural resources.  Not technology.  (2) A hypothetical test.  If you took a group of Americans, Swedes or Japanese and you put them on a desert island with no money, no technology and no natural resources, what would they develop into in a thousand years?  Would they evolve or devolve?  Would they be able to transmit their knowledge and attitudes to future generations without significant loss of information?  (3) So how do we change the knowledge and attitudes of several billion deprived world citizens?  Via Radio?  Newspapers?  Television?  Movies?  Books?  Web sites?  Person to person?  PART TWO.  A society or culture based on attitudes and knowledge is much more robust than one based on money, technology, material possessions or natural resources because in times of scarcity the citizens of a knowledge and attitude based society are better able to cope and survive.  Better attitudes result in less mental illness, less crime and injustice.  We need to educate people not just in facts but also in attitudes.	2/13/2002

International development.	When I say "international development" I mean "Progressive international development", because Progressivism is the way to go.  The neo-cons have a bad plan for international relations and it involves exploiting the poor in order for the neo-cons to become even richer.  The neo-con plan sucks.	5/5/2007

International development.	When one speaks of economic development of a third world country, the issues at stake are not just economic in nature.  One must ask, (1) What is the situation the country is in?  (2) What is the goal condition to reach?  (3) What is the best path to take (capitalism, socialism, communism, low tech or high tech)?  (4) How can the U.S. best help (monetary aid, loans, trade)?  (5) How can I best help?  (6) What resources does the country have?  (7) How can they support themselves?  (8) What changes to make in the areas of technology, social, economic, political?  (9) The goal condition is education, health, freedom, justice, equality, peace (no war), no crime, sustainable agriculture.  The people may be poor but they must at least be healthy and happy and smart.	1/25/1998

International development.	When the system is intrinsically unjust then no matter how hard one works one remains in poverty.  It is very easy for the system to become intrinsically unjust or lopsided because power holders are rule makers who create rules in their own favor, for their own self interests.  One can say that social systems have a tendency toward injustice.  Its a constant battle against injustice.  People living in systems that are economically exploitive and politically oppressed often work to no avail.  And all social systems contain people who make the mistake of economically exploiting and politically oppressing.  Examples, feudalism, slavery, segregation, sweatshops.	4/28/2005

International development.	Why has Africa progressed so slowly?  Because it is being plundered from the inside and from the outside.  See John Perkin's books, "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" and the book "A Story as Old as Empire".	5/9/2007

International development.	World demographics.  What percentage of the world population:  Lives under political oppression.  Lives under crime.  Has poor health.  Lives in poverty.  Has no education.  Etc.  How are these percentages changing over the last 500 years?	6/6/2004

Law, areas.	.This section is about areas of law.  Topics include: ( ) Constitutional law.  ( ) Criminal law.  ( ) Procedural law.  ( ) Property law.  ( ) Tort law.  ( ) Business law.	1/24/2006

Law, areas.	Administrative law.  (1) Judicial review of public administration decisions.  (2) Substantial vs. procedural.  (3) Set up of administrative agencies.  Purpose, structure and mechanism.  Power, freedom, and rights.  Duties, obligations, and responsibilities.  (4) Law making process.  (5) Execution of laws.  (6) Create, change (expand or contract), or kill an agency or its polices.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Business law.  Corporate law.  Corporations today have too much power.	11/12/2005

Law, areas.	Constitutional law.  (1) How run the state: what do, how do it?  (2) What kind of government are we going to set up and why?  Structure and mechanisms.  (3) What are our ideals and why?	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Constitutional law.  Civil rights.  Rights of specific groups of people.  Women, racial minorities, religious minorities, children, aged, homosexuals, and handicapped.  Rights as accused and accusers.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Constitutional law.  For each section of the constitution.  Problems or issues and famous cases.  Spectrum of positions: totalitarianism vs. anarchism.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Constitutional law.  What kind of (1) Power, rights, and freedoms.  (2) Duties, obligations, and responsibilities.  (3) Will we give each branch and level of government?	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Crime list.  (1) Assault, battery.  (2) Burglary and robbery: bank, house, hi-jack, mug.  (3) Petty theft: shoplift, pickpocket, looting.  (4) Larceny: petite and grand, grand theft auto.  (5) Plagiarize, forge, fraud, kidnap.  (6) Homicide, manslaughter, suicide.  (7) Illegal commerce, drugs, prostitution, gambling.  (8) Loansharking, extortion, arms, fencing, smuggling.  (9) Bootlegging.  (10)  Child abuse, spouse abuse, slavery, torture.  (11) Sex crimes like rape, molestation, prostitution, porn peddling, illegal consensual acts (homo and hetero), sex discrimination, pediophilia, sodomy.  (12) Destruction of property: arson, vandalism.  (13) Drugs: taking, selling, making/growing.  (14) Alcohol: selling to minor, drinking under age.  (15) Driving: with out license, insurance, recklessly, dwi, leaving scene of accident.  (16) Guns: selling illegally, owning illegally.  (17) Lying, cheating, stealing.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Crime.  Criminal law (see also psychology, sociology, ethics, and politics).	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Crime.  Establish motive, means, and opportunity.  Incriminating evidence and proof (the standards).  Defenses.  Penalties.  Best ways to commit them, and avoid capture.  Best way to prevent or capture them.  Degrees of severity: ethical vs. unethical, legal vs. illegal, misdemeanors and felonies, 1,2,3 degrees.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Crime.  What is the percentage of people convicted for crimes who are actually innocent?  What is the percentage of criminals who are not caught and convicted?	4/8/2001

Law, areas.	Crimes and torts, spectrum of positions.  No public crimes and all private torts vs. all public crimes and no private torts.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Environmental law.  The environment is under-represented in the legal system today.	11/12/2005

Law, areas.	Marriage law.  Extremes views on marriage.  (1) Marriage is mandatory.  (2) Marriage is illegal.	9/2/2005

Law, areas.	Other.  (1) Torts : types and defenses.  Who sue?  Compensatory vs. putative damages.  (2) Business law: in general, in USA, in NY.  Credit and debt, bankruptcy, and taxes.  Forms of money and transactions, forms of business, insurance, real estate, contracts, agency, sale, warranty, guarantee, anti-trust.  (3) Family law and inheritance/succession law.  Marriage, divorce, custody.  Wills, estates, trusts, succession, inheritance.  (4) Transportation law.  Who can go or take what, where, how, when, why.  Air, water, land.  (5) Communication law.  Freedom of speech vs. fcc regulations, obscenity and porn, truth in advertising.  (6) International law.  Government vs. government, government vs. non-citizens.  International areas, possession and border disputes, treaties, war, political asylum seeking, relationships to international politics and trade.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Procedural areas of law.  (1) In civil law vs. criminal law.  (2) Procedure: stages, people, papers.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Procedure.  Evidence.  Admissible vs. inadmissible.  Weight it carries.  Precedence before or after other evidence.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Procedure.  How to try a just case.  Opening arguments, present evidence, summary arguments, sentence.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Property law.  Extremes views on property.  (1) Everything is private property.  If everything is private property then there cannot be taxes.  If everything is private property then no one can tell you what you can do on your land, and thus there is no law.  Extreme private property is anarchy and injustice.  (2) Nothing is private property.  (A) Its all the governments property.  (B) Its all the groups property.  Communal.  No one owns anything.  No one owns the land.  All food is shared.	9/2/2005

Law, areas.	Property law.  Types of property, and types of laws on them.  Types of property rights recognized.  Types of ownership, and types of transfer of ownership.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Property, spectrum of positions.  (1) All public and no private property.  Government can take and do anything with any property.  (2) All private and no public property.  Do anything you want with your property.	12/30/1992

Law, areas.	Questions for any specific area of law.  (1) Problems or issues.  (2) Famous cases.  (3) History vs. state of art disputes vs. future directions.  (4) Process in any system.  Definitions, standards, components, and degrees.  Proof or evidence.  Defenses.  (5) Factors, variables, principles, and techniques.  (6) Levels in USA.  What aspects are uncontrolled and why?  What aspects are federal, state, and locally controlled and why?  What are the past and current decisions that decided above?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	.This section is about philosophy of law.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Law, philosophy of law.	(1) The metaphysical world view of the lawmakers (factual knowledge).  (2) The epistemological development of the lawmakers (reasoning).  (3) The ethical development of the lawmakers (justice).	11/30/1997

Law, philosophy of law.	(1) Universalism.  Natural law: gods law, natures law, universal principles.  (2) Relativism: case by case, society by society.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	A lot of law boils down to (1) Metaphysics: how do they categorize subjects?  (2) Epistemology: what is their proof, arguments and reasons?  (3) Ethics: what's their ethical position?  (4) Cases that set current, important, national precedents for above.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Define law and all associated terms.  What is the purpose, function, and importance of law?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Epistemology and law.  (1) Legal reasoning: logic.  (2) Evidence: types, weights (comparative, hierarchies).  (3) Proof: irrefutable.  (4) Doubt vs. certainty.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Epistemology and law.  Science of law.  Observe actual systems.  Experiment, adjust.  Measure.  Explain.  Theories vs. facts.  Historical vs. comparative methods.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethical analysis of all parts of law, as it is and as it should be.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethical aspects of law.  (1) Law vs. justice, for individual or for society.  (2) Freedoms, rights, obligations, and duties.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethical issues involved in law.  Power.  Order, control, and conformity through regulation vs. rights and freedoms.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethical skeleton, applied to what subjects, what goals, by who, how (strategies and tactics), when, where, and why (reasons).	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  (1) Justice of a legal system.  (2) Justice of a law in general.  (3) Justice of a law applied to a specific situation.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  (1) Stuff: who owns it, who can use it.  (1) Actions: rights vs. responsibilities, obligations.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  (1) What should be: ethics.  (2) What should law be: jurisprudence.  (3) What should decision be: lawyering, practice of law.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  (1) Who will law serve (ends)?  (2) How will the law serve them: procedure (means)?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Can do vs. can't do ( freedoms vs. limits).  Have to do vs. don't (duty and rights).	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Current precedents: cases, statue, and constitutional clause.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Does an individual's knowledge of society's laws affect the individual's development of morality?  Yes.  As we grow up we are socialized, and we learn the laws of society, which in turn shapes our notion of right and wrong, and furthers our ethical development.  But can we, and must we, also transcend, rise above, or move beyond the letter of the law?  Yes.	08/17/1997

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Doing something illegal.  When is breaking the law moral?  When the law is immoral?  See: criminology.  See: human rights.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Freedom of individual vs. protection of society.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Good law (just, healthy) vs. bad law (unjust, unhealthy), for who or what.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Laws (better and worse) vs. acts (better and worse).	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Obligations of lawyer to client and to society.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Order vs. disorder.  Right vs. wrong.  Rights vs. duties.  Freedoms vs. obligations.  Justice vs. injustice.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Precedent: legal reasoning on applied ethics.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Precedent.  (1) Why do decisions stick?  (A) They are just vs. (B) they are unjust but obscure.  There is no current problem in society to challenge it.  (2) Why do decisions get overturned (changed), and to what degree?  (A) They are unjust.  (B) Situation changes.  (C) Overturners are powerful but unjust.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Primary ethical questions.  What type and degree of ethical relation (duty, freedom, etc.) should be made into law and why?  vs.  What should remain merely a moral norm?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Principles of laws.  If a law says: don't do x, or must do x, it really says: we feel this way about this subject.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Which laws are more just or less just, and why?  What do we mean by justice (a purely ethical system)?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Ethics and law.  Wrong?: ethics.  Legal wrong?: jurisprudence.  Reaction?: reward, neutral, sanction.  Why?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	History of philosophy of law by chronological development.  Grotius (international law), Pound, Hart, Ayer.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Philosophy of law, or jurisprudence.  (1) Metaphysics: what is law?  (2) Epistemology: legal reasoning, legal proof.  (3) Ethics: what should the laws be, and not, and why?  (4) Aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Schools of jurisprudence.  (1) Logical analysis: legal reasoning.  (2) Language analysis: determine meanings of words, semantics.  (3) Literary criticism: interpreting constitution, and judges rulings, etc.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Schools of jurisprudence.  (1) Natural law: metaphysical.  (2) Sociological jurisprudence: sociological, political, economic, and psychological relationships.  (3) Analytical jurisprudence: logical analysis, linguistic analysis.  (4) Legal positivism: scientific analysis of existing system.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Science of law.  (1) Comparative, historical.  (2) Methods to observe.  (3) What conclusions can we draw?	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Society's perception of the philosophical status of any thing, begets the legal status of the thing in that society.	12/30/1992

Law, philosophy of law.	Where humans are concerned, everything has an ethical dimension to it.  And everything has a legal dimension to it.  Either it is covered under the law, to either regulate it or guarantee its freedom, or else it has been decided that we will not cover it under law.  Law deals with musts and must nots.  Law does not deal with oughts or ought nots.	03/31/1997

Law.	.See also: Politics.	8/2/2001

Law.	.This section is about law.  Topics include: ( ) Economics and law.  ( ) Legal systems.  ( ) Practice of law.  ( ) Legal education.  ( ) Sociology and law.  ( ) History of law.  ( ) Types of law.  ( ) What is law.	1/24/2006

Law.	(1) How do you create just laws?  How do you make sure the laws continue to be just in a changing world?  (2) How do you get people to obey these laws?  (3) How to apply these laws to concrete situations?  At what level of abstraction do you create laws?  The higher the level of abstraction, the fewer the laws.  The lower the level of abstraction (more concrete) the more laws you need.  How many laws is the right amount?  How much is implied or assumed as background knowledge when you make laws?  If laws can be put into a logical hierarchy, what are the most important, basic, fundamental laws?  The constitution?	8/2/2001

Law.	(1) Interpretation of written law is a big issue.  You can be a strict and literal interpreter (letter of the law), or a broad interpreter (spirit of the law).  (2) Problems in law today.  Too many lawyers and too many cases.  Does it add up to more justice?  (3) A global legal system should be created.  United Nations.  (4) Problems in legal systems.  Systematic problems vs. isolated incident problems.  (5) When a legal system drags a society forward vs. when a society recognizes problems in its legal system and pressures for change.  (6) The legal system has inertia much like any other system.  It takes a lot of time and effort to change it.  Like turning an oil tanker.  (7) Law types.  Laws about money, stuff, people, and ideas.  (8) Law as a way to (A) Wield power.  (B) Right wrongs and do good.  (C) Get things done.  (D) Resolve disputes.  (9)(A) How to change the legal system.  You have to decide at what point an aspect of the legal system become so unjust that you must take action.  Then decide how to battle the system.  And figure out how to avoid being hurt in battle.  (B) How to decide when to take someone to court.  The cost to you is stress, time, and legal fees.  When is it worth it?  (10)  Big problem.  When criminals intimidate or bribe judges, jurors, witnesses, cops, plaintiffs or any other person in legal system.	8/1/1998

Law.	(1) Law as a rule that applies in all cases, with no exceptions.  (2) Law as ruling, exerting power, making a decision.  (3) Law as promoting justice.  (4) Law as preserving rights.  (5) Law as decree by a power holder.  Could be arbitrary.  Could be unjust.	5/24/2006

Law.	(1) Political conception of law.  Law as will of powerholders.  Political pressures on lawmakers, judges, etc.  Game theory and decision theory.  (2) Economic conception of law.  Tradeoffs in values involved in law.  Law as exchange.  Costs and benefits.  Costs of trial and imprisonment.  Posner's economic analysis of law.  (3) Ethical conception of law.  Natural law (Finnis).  Analytical jurisprudence: H.L.A. Hart.  Prescriptivism: R.M. Hare.  (4) Sociological theory of law.  Sociological jurisprudence: Pound.  Critical theory of law.	05/27/1993

Law.	(1) The law system is big, complicated, important and needs to be done right.  Big: thousands of laws, hundreds of thousands of cases.  Complicated: thousands of types of laws, many different concepts covered.  Important: people's lives depend on it.  (2) The best approach to law is a multifaceted eclectic approach, not a single narrow approach.  (3) Law is necessary.  It cannot be done away with.  Law cannot be overly simplified except at the expense of justice.	2/1/2005

Law.	(1) Title, description, arguments pro and contra, ruling, reasons, importance.  (2) Subject, questions/problem/issue, views, arguments, evidence.  (3) Subject area, situations, factors, ethical choices, law, reasons.	12/30/1992

Law.	(1) Which crimes are pursued most by law enforcement?  Who gets busted?  (2) How much time is given for which crimes?  Which crimes get the most time?	5/14/2007

Law.	(1)(A) Must do.  (duty).  (B) Must not do.  (illegal vs. legal).  (2)(A) Freedom or right to do.  (B) Freedom from.  (3)(A) Reward to do.  (B) Penalty to do.  (4)(A) Ought to do.  Encourage.  (no action taken).  (B) Ought not to do.  Discourage.  (no action taken).	1/1/2000

Law.	A legal system should be rational.  A legal system should be based on reason.  An example of an irrational legal system, a system not based on reason, is a legal system based on magic, myth and religion.	5/25/2006

Law.	A legal system where money buys victory, and poverty insurers defeat is unjust.  Public lawyers for both sides should be appointed.  Not hire your own lawyer.	9/4/1998

Law.	A society without law, i.e., anarchy, will favor the strong at the expense of the weak.  A society without law will favor bad people at the expense of good people.	5/1/2005

Law.	Analysis of the law.  (1) What is the specific law or rule involved in a situation?  (2) What is the reason given for the specific law?  I.e., Why do we have the specific law?  (3) Is the specific law ethical?	12/20/1997

Law.	Basic law choices.  (1) Law or no law.  For any activity a society must decide whether to have a law about it.  (2) Law for all, or law for only some.  Its good to have law for all people, not just some people.	10/8/2005

Law.	Cases and decisions that follow precedent are many in number.  Cases and decisions that set a new precedent, thereby changing the law, are few in number.	5/27/2006

Law.	Cases that affect a lot of people and cause big changes, for better or worse.  Cases that challenge precedent based on new reasons.  Judgments that change precedent, by new reasoning.	04/01/1994

Law.	Change in law: area, speed, and degree.  Level: decentralization vs. centralization.  Foundations vs. details.	01/01/1993

Law.	Civil rights laws that promote social justice are super important.  Laws that protect the rights of minorities.  Laws that protect the rights of the disempowered.  Laws that protect the rights of the poor.	5/14/2007

Law.	Comparative law.  (1) It is important to look at all laws around the world throughout history, and the reasons for them.  (2) It is also important to look at all the proposed, yet rejected, laws and the reasons why they were rejected.	2/1/2005

Law.	Comparative law.  Whose law is more refined and subtle?  Whose law is more just?	12/30/1992

Law.	Conflict of law: (1) State vs. state.  (2) State vs. government.  (3) Government vs. government.	12/30/1992

Law.	Crime and law.  (1) What is illegal?  Classification of crimes.  (2) Punishment and severity.  (3) Enforcement, police.  How many criminals per population.  How many police per population.  How many police per criminals.  (4) Size of crime in economic dollars or number of victims.  Power of crime in terms of degree of corruption or intimidation of public officials and press.	6/30/1998

Law.	Crime.  How crime ridden is the society?  Much or little.  How unjust is the society?  Much or little.  How effective is the legal system in battling injustice?	10/25/2004

Law.	Criticisms of legal systems.  The law is biased toward the rich and powerful.  The law is biased against the poor and disempowered.	8/8/2006

Law.	Economics and law.  (1) How many cases are heard per year in a society?  (2) What is the average cost per case?  Cost of paying the judge.  Cost of paying the lawyers.  Cost of the time lost by jurors taking off work.  (3) Who pays for the cases?  The litigants?  The tax payers?  (4) If you make people pay for a lawyer then the poor cannot afford a lawyer and then only the rich will have lawyers.	10/25/2004

Law.	Economics of law.  (1) Trying cases costs money and time.  You cannot try every unethical act because some acts do not warrant the time and money expenditure of a court case.  (2) The cost of the crime and the cost of future acts of the crime by the criminal must exceed the cost of the court case.  (3) It also does not pay to try cases for which there is not adequate evidence.	6/22/2001

Law.	Environmental law is becoming increasingly important.  It should be illegal for individuals and corporations to destroy the environment.	5/14/2007

Law.	For any situation or society: what is the best number of laws, and best types of law?	12/30/1992

Law.	From specific concrete instance (case) to abstract general rule (statute).	12/20/1997

Law.	Good and evil.  Right and wrong.  Are not determined solely by the majority vote of the society in question.  Societies often make mistakes in judging what is right and wrong.  This is a case for objective ethics.  (2) There has to be a reason why something is right and wrong.  A logically persuasive, ethical argument.	6/22/2001

Law.	Good laws versus bad laws.  That is, just laws versus unjust laws.	7/31/2006

Law.	Government can make rules (laws) of any type, in any area, about any thing.  (1) Ethics rules: about what you can do.  (2) Metaphysical rules: about what something is (definition.).  (3) Epistemological rules: rules of evidence.  (4) Technique rules: procedural law.	05/03/1994

Law.	History and law.  Case based law, the common law system, Anglo-American law, is a historically based law.  If a legal system is not case based, for example, statute based, European, civil law system, then that legal system is less historically based.  A historically based law system faces all the problems of the study of history, such as interpretation, bias of the interpreter, etc.  See: History.	11/12/2005

Law.	History current future.  Legal systems.  Chronological approach.  (1) Greeks, Romans, European civil (code) law, Anglo-American common (case) law.  (2) Common (case) law: English, American.  Statutes and cases.  Judges and theorists: Holmes, Pound, Cardozo, Frankfurter, Warren, Hand.	12/30/1992

Law.	History current future.  Legal systems.  History of procedural and substantive practices.  (1) Trial by jury of peers.  (2) Impartial judges and juries.  (3) Public trials.  (4) Trials kept on public record.  (5) Lawyers to represent defendants.	12/30/1992

Law.	History current future.  Legal Theory.  History of jurisprudence theories.  (1) Idea of justice, fairness, and equity.  (2) Justice based on law.  Punishment based on set codes, not ruler's whimsy.  (3) Guilt based on reason, not appeals to gods or dice.  Proof of crime based on evidence.  (4) Punishment as (A) Retribution against evil doer.  (B) Protection of society.  (C) Reformation of evil doer.  (5) Let punishment equal the crime: eye for eye.  (6) Let punishment fit the crime vs. different types of punishment for different types of crimes.  Degrees of punishment for degrees of crimes.  (7) Types of punishments.  Material or monetary fines.  Incarceration.  Physical punishment: beatings, amputation, death.	12/30/1992

Law.	History of a situation.  History of laws on a situation.	12/30/1992

Law.	How many possible courses of action are there?  Of those possible courses of action, how many are good and how many are bad?  Of the possible courses of action, how many should legal and how many should be illegal?	10/25/2004

Law.	Hypothetical.  If we introduce x law into y situation, what will happen?	12/30/1992

Law.	Interpretation.  Does whatever the founding fathers say go?  No.  Strict interpretation is wrong because (1) New situations develop which the founding fathers could not conceive.  (2) The founding fathers were intentionally vague when they wrote the Constitution.  (3) The founding fathers can be plain wrong in some cases.  For example, slavery was allowed.  (4) Because of these three reasons, the law is changeable.  Law is whatever we say it is.  Law aims at justice.  All arguments for or against a law must be self justified, without appealing to the Constitution, or any other precedent in common law, or any previous older law.	9/5/1998

Law.	Interpretation.  Strict interpretation is a joke.  (1) Strict interpretation is a joke because strict interpretation does not allow for improvement or progress.  (2) Strict interpretation is a joke because it is always a question of whose version of strict interpretation to accept.  (3) Strict interpretation is a joke when all about you is change and we are unable to stop the change.  The culture is changing.  Technology is changing.  Language itself is changing.  Word meanings change.  (4) Strict interpretation is a joke because the very fact that you are interpreting or translating shows you don't know what the meaning is for sure.	11/23/2004

Law.	Judges.  (1) Traits of good judges.  Know the law.  can't be bribed.  (2) Traits of bad judges.  Don't know the law.  Can be bribed.  Ideological bias.	5/25/2006

Law.	Law has many sides.  (1) Language and law.  The law is a product of language.  The law is recorded in written language.  The law is argued in spoken language.  (2) Politics and law.  The law is a result of political struggle.  (3) Ethics and law.  Law is a subset of ethics.  Ethics is a subset of philosophy.  (4) Technology and law.  The legal system is a technology.	11/12/2005

Law.	Law introduces or recognizes concepts.  Laws create legal entities.  Laws create categories.  Law gives names to things.  Law gives names to principles.  Law is about language.  Law is about conceptual analysis.	5/24/2006

Law.	Law is about conflict between parties or interests (individuals or groups) over money, stuff, or rights.  Law is about peaceful conflict resolution.	12/20/1997

Law.	Law school.  Most law schools are designed to serve the interest of the rich.  Most law schools focus on property law, business law, etc.  Law schools should be more Progressive.  Law schools should focus on environmental law and social justice law.	5/14/2007

Law.	Laws (1) When needed and not present vs. when not needed and present.  (2) When too restrictive to freedom vs. when too lax.  (3) When punishment too severe vs. punishment too light.	12/30/1992

Law.	Laws can give an end, a means, or an explanation.	12/30/1992

Law.	Lawyer sizes up judge.  Judge sizes up colleagues and public.  To see what they can get away with.	04/01/1994

Law.	Lawyers are concerned not so much with arguing.  Lawyers are really about rules.  Who is obeying the rules, and who is breaking the rules.  Lawyers are rule obsessed.  They are not even interested in the nature of rules in general.  Nor do they care particularly to debate specific cases of ambiguously worded rules.  What they really want to do is apply clear rules for cash.  The entire world of those obsessed with rules is unappealing to me.  I much prefer freedom.  I much prefer no rules, no limits.  I am more id than super ego.  That is why I am an artist.  No rules, no boundaries, no limits, no structure.	11/10/1998

Law.	Lawyers can try to (1) Win the case, or (2) Get justice, or (3) Change the law, or (4) Set a new precedent.	04/01/1994

Law.	Lawyers.  (1) Traits of good lawyers.  Knowlegable.  Fair pricing.  (2) Traits of bad lawyers.  Overcharge for services.  Don't know the law.	5/25/2006

Law.	Legal problems: Common vs. uncommon legal problems.  Simple vs. complex legal problems.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal system.  Three questions.  (1) Is the procedural part of the legal system fair on paper and in practice?  For example, can every person get a fair trial.  (2) Is the substantive part of the legal system fair on paper and in practice?  For example, are the laws just, and is the law making process just?  (3) Is the punishment part of the legal system fair on paper and in practice?  For example, does the punishment fit the crime?	12/21/2006

Law.	Legal systems.  (1) Laws, principles, and theories.  (2) Factors and situations the laws are about.  (3) Law makers, judges, and theorists.  (4) Laws, statutes, and cases.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  (1) Traits of good legal systems.  (2) Traits of bad legal systems.  Juries intimidated.  Juries bribed.  Criminals not apprehended.  Judges intimidated.  Judges bribed.  The rich buy justice, while the poor cannot afford justice.	5/25/2006

Law.	Legal systems.  (1) Ways to make laws: democracy vs. dictator.  (2) Ways to enforce: reward and punishment, types and degrees.  (3) Ways to judge laws: civil vs. common.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Abstract types vs. real ones.  General types: common, civil, and communist.  Specific types: by country and state.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Breadth: subject areas.  Depth: complexity in each subject area.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Change in legal system  (1) In a law, legal system, or society.  (2) Method, rate, and size of change.  (3) Cause and effects.  (4) Direction, speed, and amount of change.  (5) Change for better or worse.  (6) Proposing laws, killing laws, or altering laws.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Functions of legal systems.  (1) Law makers: politicians.  (2) Law deciders: judges.  (3) Law arguers: lawyers.  (4) Law enforcers: cops.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Functions.  (1) Legislating (see politics).  (2) Judging.  What a judge does: common law system.  How you become a judge.  (3) Arbitration methods: tools and techniques.  (4) Arguing, lawyering, law practice (see lawyering).  (5) Associations: the bar.  (6) Information: bar papers, school journals, bar journals.  (7) Training and legal education.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Functions.  (1) Make, change, or stop a law: legislature.  (2) Judge laws: judge and lawyers.  (3) Argue laws: lawyers.  (4) Execute or administrate laws: executive agencies (police, etc.).  (5) Training: law education in law schools.  How best to teach law?	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  How effective, efficient, practical, and just is a legal system?	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Law system's purpose, structure (areas and levels), and mechanism.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Primitive societies can have complex law systems: it depends on their knowledge of  (1) Ethics: choice of alternatives.  (2) Procedure: techniques of proof.  (3) Substance: logical alternatives in any subject area.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Research sources.  Primary: statutes, cases.  Secondary: abstracts, dictionaries, encyclopedias.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Situations, people, actions, and stuff.  Legal issues involved.  Laws made and why.	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  The people in it.  The laws in it.  The proceedings to determine the facts of a crime, guilt or innocence, and punishment.  What passes as a punishable crime?	12/30/1992

Law.	Legal systems.  Types of legal systems.  (1)(A) One judge vs. (B) a tribunal of judges vs. (C) a jury of peers.  (2) No explanation for judgments given vs. explanations given.  (3) Pleading one's own case vs. professional pleaders (lawyers).  (4) No proof required.  Any unsubstantiated accusation can stick.  (5) No reasoning.  (If she floats then she is a witch, etc.)  (6) Kangaroo courts.  Fake law.  (7) Corrupt law.  Bribes or intimidation used to throw cases to buy freedom for criminals.  (8) Enduring law.  Oral or written rules.	11/30/1997

Law.	Logic and the law.  (1) One would think that the legal system is logical.  (2) One would think that the laws could be arranged either in a logical hierarchy or a logical web.  (3) One would think that the laws themselves are logical, and that the laws would be applied logically to situations.  (4) What are the limits of logic and law?  (A) Law is expressed in language, and language is not perfectly logical.  (B) Law is a product of society, and society is not perfectly logical.  (C) Individual people (ex. judges, lawyers, juries, criminals) are not perfectly logical.	10/31/2001

Law.	Political leanings of judges (personality).  Political pressures on judges (public opinion).	05/03/1994

Law.	Practice of law.  (1) Briefing a case.  Facts and your arguments.  Legal issue and your arguments.  Judge ruling: for who, explanation, precedent, and principle.  (2) Presenting a case: what prove, how prove, how present, what law, why that law.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  (1) Facts of case.  (2) Legal issues or dispute (ethics).  (3) Answer of judge.  (4) Rule of law.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  (1) Interview.  (2) Analysis of case (facts, issues, judges answer, rule of law).  (3) Research, writing, presentation.  (4) Trial skills.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  (1) Reasoning skills.  Searching out, sorting, and proving important facts.  Searching out, sorting, and proving applicability of important issues.  (2) Oral skills: prosecution, defense.  (3) Written skills: notes on case, speeches, court documents.  (4) Research skills.  Find all material relevant to topic: complete search.  Find no irrelevant material.  Most current to oldest history.  Most to least important.  (5) Business skills.  Employees, records, clients.  Whose case take, why, and whose case reject, why.  How many cases to take, based on ability vs. desire for profits.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  (1) You can argue the facts.  What evidence is admissible.  Which conclusions are justified.  (2) You can argue the law.  Which law applies and why.  Letter vs. spirit of law.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  Law practice, lawyering.  Role of lawyer in common law system vs. civil law system.	12/30/1992

Law.	Practice of law.  Legal disputes.  Who did what?  Was it ok to do, or not?  What to do about it?	12/30/1992

Law.	Problem with the legal system.  There should be micro-penalties for micro-crimes.  This is what each individual is obliged to do.	1/22/1999

Law.	Problems of legal systems.  (1) Not making unethical acts illegal.  (2) Making ethical acts illegal.	10/25/2004

Law.	Problems.  (1) Too many vs. too few laws.  (2) Too restrictive vs. too lax.  In what subject areas.	12/30/1992

Law.	Religion and law.  Religious law is baloney.  Law can and should be separated from religion.  Ethics can and should be separated from religion.  Religion can and should be separated from government.  Religious government and religious law are unethical.	11/12/2005

Law.	Rule.  A rule is an if-then procedure that limits possible actions.	12/30/1995

Law.	Rules.  Setting sanctions and setting penalties.  If you do x, then you will do y punishment.	11/30/1997

Law.	Situations lead to ethical choices, which lead to arguments pro and contra, which lead to laws.	12/30/1992

Law.	Social norms.  (1) Laws (written).  (2) Mores (taboos/sanctions and rewards).  (3) Customs, folkways, habits (ethically neutral).	12/30/1992

Law.	Sociology and law.  Development of an society vs. development of its legal system (growth stagnation decay).	12/30/1992

Law.	Sociology and law.  Ethics of an society (norms) vs. ethics of its power holders (law).	12/30/1992

Law.	Sociology and law.  Is society better with or without a specific law?	12/30/1992

Law.	Sociology and law.  Two important questions.  (1) What's the best legal system for a society, in both the areas of substance (means and ends) and procedure (tools, techniques, institutions)?  (2) Given a specific legal system in a specific society, what are its good and bad points?	12/30/1992

Law.	Some say that religious law is baloney, because any group can say that god tells them to make any law.	11/30/1997

Law.	Spirit of law vs. letter of law.	12/30/1992

Law.	Tasks of a society when creating a legal system.  (1) The society has to make an accurate, reasoned analysis of everything that is ethical (i.e., a matter of good and bad) and non-ethical (i.e., not a matter of good and bad, such as aesthetic matters).  (2) Then, of the ethical matters, the society has to make an accurate, reasoned analysis of everything that is ethical (meaning "good") and unethical (meaning "bad).  (3) Then, of all the unethical matters, the society has to make an accurate, reasoned analysis of what should be considered illegal (i.e., a crime).	6/22/2001

Law.	The big decisions.  What is ethical and unethical?  What is legal and illegal?	9/25/2000

Law.	The existence of a legal system is no indication of its ethicalness.	11/30/1997

Law.	The test of a legal system is whether it is ethical.  For example:  (1) The innocent are not convicted.  (2) The guilty do not go free.  (3) Crime is low.  (4) Punishments are in proportion to crimes.	6/22/2001

Law.	Two extremes: no laws versus all laws.  Having no law is anarchy.  Having everything subject to law would likely lead to legal gridlock.	7/31/2006

Law.	Two hypotheticals.  (1) Imagine a legal system that was all tort law, with no criminal law.  (2) Imagine a legal system that was all criminal law with no tort law.	9/30/2002

Law.	Two hypotheticals.  (1) Imagine a legal system with only a few wide-sweeping laws.  (2) Imagine a legal system with very many, very narrow laws.	9/30/2002

Law.	Two problems of law making:  (1) Unjust law made.  (2) Just law not made.	5/24/2006

Law.	Two types of legal errors.  (1) No law when there should be a law.  (2) A law when there should not be a law.	7/31/2006

Law.	Types of law.  (1) Law by geography: law in general, in USA, and in NYS.  (2) Law by subject: see types of law.  (3) Law by time: old vs. new laws.	12/30/1992

Law.	Types of law.  Common law vs. code law.  Constitutional law vs. administrative law.  Procedural law vs. substantive law.  Public law (constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal law) vs. private law (torts, and contracts).  Criminal law vs. civil law (ex. tort).	12/30/1992

Law.	Types of law.  Complex vs. simple law systems in complex vs. simple societies.  Complex vs. simple law systems equals many rules vs. few rules.  Which is a separate question from good rules vs. bad rules.	11/30/1997

Law.	Types of law.  Laws on any subject, object, relationship, event or action.	12/30/1992

Law.	Types of laws.  Written vs. unwritten.  Enforced vs. unenforced.  Bigger vs. smaller.  Important vs. unimportant.  Simple vs. complex.  Rational, logical, sensible vs. irrational.  Enduring vs. changing.  Just vs. unjust.  Broad vs. specific.  Big laws vs. little laws.  Broad vs. detailed laws.	12/30/1992

Law.	Universality of law.  A universal legal system is an extension of Kant's notion of ethics based on universal principles, in which an individual person can consider an action to be good if it is true that it would be good if everyone did the action.	11/12/2005

Law.	Universality of law.  If law is just for some humans then it would be just for all humans.  Thus, a just legal system would apply to all humans.  Thus, there could be, and should be, a world legal system.	11/12/2005

Law.	What are the most basic laws that set up the legal system itself?  Constitutional law.	5/25/2006

Law.	What are the most common cases, judgments, and reasons?  What are the most important cases, judgments, and reasons?	04/01/1994

Law.	What is law?  (1) Law as applied ethics.  (2) Law as formalized ethics.  (3) Laws as rules.	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Law as a method of dispute (conflict) resolution.  Other ways include violence, and talk (negotiate, bargain, arbitrate).	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Law as a way to set up the structure and mechanism of a society, in order to get goals and avoid anti-goals.	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Law as one of the ways of utilizing political power.  Other ways include physical force, mental force, threat, beg, propaganda (lies), whim, rational persuasion, name calling (praise, mock).	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Law is a political (power) tool for power holders to get the goals that they value.	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Law is the exercise of power according to principles?	11/30/1997

Law.	What is law?  Laws are written, codified attempts at enforcing ethics.	1/28/2005

Law.	What is law?  No law equals chaos.  No law equals rule by might.  No justice equals an asshole in power or in charge.	11/30/1997

Law.	What is law?  Origins of law: (1) Power.  (2) Ethics.  (3) Organization and coordination.  (4) People want to control their stuff and money, and each other.	12/30/1992

Law.	What is law?  Views of law.  (1) Law as crime prevention.  (2) Law as justice, including not only criminal law but also tort law.  (3) Law as political order and control by the state.  (4) Law as conflict resolution between parties.  (5) Law as guaranteeing equality and freedom for individuals.  (6) Law for the group.	7/25/2002

Law.	What is law.  Definitions of law.  (1) Narrow definition.  Law as litigation, cases, lawyers, judges, etc.  (2) Broader definition.  Law as law making (government), law enforcement (police), law litigation (trials) and law punishment (prisons).	10/25/2004

Law.	What is law.  Definitions of law.  Law as the arbitrary social conventions agreed upon to help organize a society.  For example, the law that people drive on the right side of the road in the United States and the law that people drive on the left side of the road in England.  (1) What percent of the laws on the books are laws stipulating arbitrary social conventions?  (2) Is a convention ever truly arbitrary?  Or are seemingly arbitrary social conventions created by people who have power agendas?	10/25/2004

Law.	What is law.  Definitions of law.  Law as the will of the power holders vs. law to protect the rights of the disempowered.  Law as will of power holders is unjust.  Law to protect the rights of the disempowered is just.	10/25/2004

Law.	What legal knowledge do you need to do x act, in order to get x goal, or to live in a society?	12/30/1992

Law.	What percent of the innocent are convicted?  What percent of the guilty go free?	10/25/2004

Law.	What was law designed to do vs. what did law end up doing and why?	12/30/1992

Law.	Why are our laws all based on meting out sanctions?  Do we have any laws that reward certain actions in certain situations?  Why is law not about reward?	10/28/2001

Law.	Why do we have law?  Why do we/i study law?  How practice law?  How study law?	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	.This section is about climbing.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Climbing as a religious pursuit.  Nature in general, and the mountain in particular, is held in awe and worshipped for its size and power, like a god.  Makes man feel small and insignificant.  (2) Another view of climbing sees Nature, and the mountain, as a foe of man to be battled and beaten.	01/06/1997

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Climbing for the scenic beauty.  (2) Climbing for the joy of physical movement.  Especially strenuous physical movement.	01/03/1994

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Dance analogy.  (2) Chess analogy.  (3) Sculpture analogy.  The rock is minimalist sculpture.  You are meant to look at it, feel it, move around on it. (4/09/93) (4) Flatland analogy: climbing is like being on the ocean, or in the desert, or on the plains.  It is two dimensional. (5/22/93) (5) Geometric analogy: the two climbers are points, the rope is a line, the wall is a plane.  An austere, severe, spare, simple environment, or world.	01/01/1993

Leisure, climbing.	(1) How is climbing similar to traditional sports?  Both accomplish nothing.  Both do the useless.  (2) How is climbing different from traditional sports?  Climbing is not as bad as traditional sports in other respects.	4/17/2005

Leisure, climbing.	(1) If a mountain is looked at as a form of sculpture, then what does the mountain "say"?  (2) If a route up a mountain is a sculpture, then what does the route "say"?  The route is a line resembling a bent piece of coat hanger.  The route exists as a three dimensional skewed line if you take away the mountain.	8/2/2006

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Meditative aspects of climbing.  Belay meditation.  At the belay one is still and quiet and focused on one thing, the safety of the climber.  (2) Yogic aspects of climbing.  Climbing moves are like yoga poses.	5/16/2004

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Psychological approaches to climbing.  (A) Freudian.  Death drive.  Sex drive suppression.  Sex symbolism.  (B) Risk taking personality.  Why not gamble in Vegas instead of climbing?  (2) The bio-evolutionary approach to climbing.  Human ancestors climbed in the trees of Africa.  (3) Sociological approaches to climbing.  (A) Climbers vs. non-climbers.  (B) The climbing community.  (C) Rope mates.	8/3/2004

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Psychology and sociology of climbing.  (2) History of climbing.  (3) Technology of climbing.  Tools and techniques of climbing.  (4) Philosophy of climbing.  Ethics of climbing.	11/12/2005

Leisure, climbing.	(1) Why do kids enjoy climbing trees?  (2) To what degree is adult mountaineering a continuation of the childlike joy of tree climbing?  (3) Why do not most adults enjoy climbing trees as much as children enjoy climbing trees?  (4) Why does the childlike joy of (tree) climbing continue into adulthood in some individuals whom we call mountaineers?	8/26/2001

Leisure, climbing.	Barefoot bouldering is so pure.  The ancients could have done it!	1/1/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Bouldering and soloing is useless and physical.  Me now, with the philosophy, is useless and mental.	11/27/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Bouldering.  Instead of merely brushing off the boulder, why not give the boulder a good sudsy wash, towel it dry, give it a powder, and then apply a pleasant smelling cologne?	5/28/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Chess analogy.  Climbing is like chess.  Chess games are often described, using a notation system, as a series of moves.  Climbs can also be described, using a notation system, as a series of moves.  Types of climbing moves include strength moves, awkward moves, reach moves, thin moves on tiny holds, balance moves, etc.	10/5/2002

Leisure, climbing.	Climb for the beauty, for the mental joy, and for the physical joy (many types of movement, and strenuous exercise).	01/01/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Climb name: Birdman.  After the ancient Easter Island cliff climbing contest.	7/7/1998

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers cling to the rock like a baby baboon to its mother.  Climbing is the cling sport.  The clutch sport.	04/24/1997

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  (1) Climber as amateur.  Amateurs do it for fun.  (2) Climber as pro or wanna-be pro.  Pros do it for money.  There are several types of professional climbers.  Sponsored climbers try to make a living from endorsements from climbing gear companies.  Climbing guides try to make a living by leading amateurs up climbs.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  (1) Climber as hedonist.  Scrambling over sun warmed rock.  Having fun.  (2) Climber as masochist.  Freezing on icy belays.  Suffering high altitude sickness.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  (1) Climber as introvert.  It is easy to argue that climbers are introverts.  (2) Climber as extrovert.  Its not as easy to argue that climbers are extroverts.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  (1) Climber as mindless jock.  Athlete.  (2) Climber as intellectual.  Abstract.  Apart from world.  Thoughtful.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  Climber as aesthete.  Concerned with beauty.  Enjoys the views.  Enjoys the mountain as an art object.  	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  Climber as explorer.  Wants to be the first to climb the mountain.  Wants to be first to climb a line or route on the mountain.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  Climber as someone who wants to hide from the world.  Climber as someone who wants to hide from other people.  Climbing as a retreat to nature.  Climbing as avoidance, repression, denial.	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbers, types of.  Climbing as obsession.  Climber as obsessed hobbyist.  	6/12/2007

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing analysis.  The standard is a ninety degree wall with hand holds that are four fingers wide.  1 inch holds = 5.5.  1/2 inch holds = 5.6.  1/4 inch holds = 5.7.  1/8 inch holds = 5.9.  Then start reducing the length of the holds from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 finger, and the same width for foot holds.  Then tilt the wall backwards or forwards from slab to overhanging.  Then tilt the holds backwards and forwards from incut to slopers.  Then vary the distance between the holds, and also the direction of the holds on the wall.  Then find out how high the person can climb these holds before they burnout (distance and time).	01/06/1997

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing and other adventure sports are about seeing where the limits are.  (1) The limits of the physical world.  (2) The limits of the self.  (A) Physical limits of self.  (B) Psychological limits of the self.  Seeing how you perform under stress.  Exploring and developing character.  Seeing what you are capable of.  Finding out your abilities.  Pushing the envelope.  Testing yourself.	2/24/2001

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing and sex.  Climbing as a suppression of sex urge?  What isn't a suppression of sex urge?  Only sex isn't a suppression of sex urge.	6/24/2004

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing and sex.  Mountains can remind one of  tits (ex. The Tetons).  Pinnacles can look like dicks.  Crack climbing can bring to mind the pussy.  Its like theories of art that see everything in sexual terms (see Arts, visual arts).	6/24/2004

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing and the East.  Consider climbing and its relation to both Zen and Yoga.  (1) Climbing and Zen.  When climbing, in one's effort not to fall and perhaps die, one becomes very focused and attentive to the holds at hand.  A by-product of this prolonged concentration is an altered mental state.  In this way, climbing is similar to Zen which also uses techniques of attention to create altered mental states.  Two very common Zen techniques are to focus on one thing and to focus on nothing.  The Zen technique of focusing on one thing (like a mantra or a mandala) is similar to climbing's focus on the next move.  The Zen technique of focusing on nothing is a step beyond, and it involves emptying the mind.  I would say here that the Notes attempts to add to this repertoire of techniques by asking the practitioner to try to focus on everything :).  (2) Climbing is similar to yoga in that it uses strenuous physical positions and body control to help us achieve a mental control that helps us achieve an altered mental state.	8/3/2001

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing as escape.  (1) Escape from what?  Escape from self.  Escape from other people.  Escape from an environment.  Escape from an idea, emotion, or attitude.  (2) Climbing attracts the anxious.  Climbing is akin to running away.  If you are unconsciously anxious, then your need to flee may manifest itself in the form of climbing.	5/28/2006

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing as exploration is exemplified by the value that climbers put on first assents.  (2) Even if someone else has climbed it before, it is still personal exploration if I have not climbed it before?  (3) Even if I have climbed it before, is it still exploration?	1/1/2002

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing as play.  Climbing as fun.  Its not so much that most adults have forgotten how to climb, its that most adults have forgotten how to play.	5/28/2006

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing as spirit quest.  (1) The following techniques are useful for a person to get an idea (or attitude) to occur to them.  (A) Fasting.  Reducing food intake.  Hunger.  (B) Physical exertion and perhaps even physical pain.  (C) Strange new environments.  (ex. the journey or the wild).  (D) Elements of danger.  (ex. the wild).  (2) Climbing has all four of the above elements.  Climbing is the equivalent of the American Indian notion of the "spirit quest".  These techniques help focus the mind on the important.  These techniques help us see clearly.  The "vision quest".  These four techniques are really about changing your brain chemistry in subtle ways.  Achieving the right mix of hormones and neurotransmitters.	9/18/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing as symbolism.  From 1750 to 1950 climbing was symbolic of human attempts to achieve.  Climbing was symbolic to climbers and to society at large.  The period of climbing symbolism ended with the conquest of Everest.  Climbing changed after Everest was conquered in that climbing ceased to be symbolic to society at large.  I think that symbolic actions are sub-optimal.  Symbolism is too close to ritual.  Ritual is too close to obsessive compulsive disorder.  Constant hand washing and constant mountain climbing, what is the difference?	8/15/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing attracts the depressed.  The unconscious mind symbolically equates the mountain heights with exhilaration.  The unconscious mind symbolically equates the lowlands with depression and despair.  If you are unconsciously depressed then you unconscious desire to improve your mood may manifest itself in the form of climbing.	5/28/2006

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing endgame.  Every hold on every rock in the world will be digitally recorded.  Every possible move from hold to hold will be graded.	4/11/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing gets you thinking bigger, broader, and baser.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing is a mixture of excitement and calm.  The risk of death in climbing triggers specific excitement-inducing neurotransmitters and hormones like adrenaline.  The space and the views in climbing trigger specific calmness and tranquillity-inducing neurotransmitters and hormones like serotonin.  So why do people climb?  Its like people who take uppers and downers at the same time.	8/25/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing is about transcending and overcoming.	2/9/2004

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing just gets you very cold, very hungry, and very tired.	04/01/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing means getting free of people (self reliance), getting free from society (freedom of values), and getting free from things (learning to live simply with little).  You learn what you can be and can't be. Sometimes you learn you can be more or less than you had thought.	03/20/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing phenomena: self competition, dangerous, creative, social outsiders, outside in nature, aesthetic beauty, freedom.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing provides beautiful workout equipment (the rock), in a beautiful outdoor setting (the forest).  The workout becomes varied fun or play, with a thought element too, not boring repetition in a sweaty, stuffy box, which is too much like work.	08/14/1994

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing pure: solo, barefoot, with no prior knowledge of the route.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing was fun because the mountains were awe inspiring, incredible and outrageous.  But after a while it became no big deal.  The height and exposure and size of mountains did not overwhelm anymore.  I stopped climbing because it was not fun anymore.	7/18/1998

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing, like any other hobby, is a way to avoid thinking about your life and the world.	12/5/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Climbing.  (1) Crud environment (cold, wet, rain, snow).  (2) Hard work (physically and psychologically exhausting).  (3) Dangerous, stressful, uncertain of success, and lonely.  (4) Air, food, and water are all deprived.  (5) All to prove to yourself and the world how much you can take, and that you are tough and brave.  (6) To do what no one has done before; to achieve glory.  (7) Intellectual enlightenment and emotional peace.  (8) It is masochistic.  It is ascetic (poor and celibate).	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Critiques of climbing.  (1) Climbing is useless.  Climbing accomplishes nothing productive.  Climbing is a useless, feel good activity, much like drug abuse.  (2) Climbing is dangerous.  Climbing magazines have obituaries of climbers who died climbing.  You don't see that in many other sports.  Besides dying, many climbers are seriously injured in climbing accidents.  Death and injuries have a negative effect on other people.  (3) Do something more useful and less dangerous.	9/7/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Eco-friendly climbing: soloing barefoot with no chalk.	07/04/1997

Leisure, climbing.	Egoism and climbing.  (1) Climbing is self serving.  (2) Climbing is useless, nonproductive, meaningless.  (3) Climbers die, hurt themselves, and hurt loved ones.  (4) Climbing is fun for fun's sake, or leisure for leisure's sake.	5/15/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Egoism and climbing.  Climber as egoist says he just wants to have fun.  And he says he can climb any way he likes.  The egoist climber disregards any ethical concerns about ends and means, and that is a mistake on his part.	4/28/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Egoism and climbing.  Climber as egoist.  What drives people in droves to the summit of Mt. Everest while the second tallest mountain is climbed far less often?  Ego.	4/17/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Environmental climbing gear.  (1) Barefeet.  (2) Natural fiber climbing rope.  Brand slogan will be the adage: "The leader must not fall".  (3) Natural rock chockstones for protection.	4/29/2001

Leisure, climbing.	Evolutionary aspects of climbing.  Climbing the tree is dangerous and scary, due to possibility of falling and getting injured or killed.  Yet, climbing the tree also gives one feelings of safety, due to being out of reach of predators.  Climbing higher in the tree affords more safety from predators yet more danger from falling.  So we see that, even from prehistoric times, climbing balances safety feelings and danger feelings.  Climbing triggers fear-inducing neurotransmitters and calm-inducing neurotransmitters.  Uppers and downers.	5/16/2004

Leisure, climbing.	Excited, yet calm.  (1) People climb because climbing produces simultaneous feelings of excitement and calm.  The height and exposure in climbing produces feelings of excitement.  The far reaching views and the meditative aspects of belaying produce feelings of calm.  Climbers seek simultaneous feelings of positive excitement and positive calm.  (2) Climbing also sometimes produces feelings of negative excitement and negative calm.  Climbing sometimes produces negative excitement which produces fear.  Climbing sometimes produces feelings of negative calm which produces boredom.  (3) Humans pursue many activities that produce simultaneous feelings of positive excitement and positive calm.  (A) Sexual intimacy produces simultaneous feelings of positive excitement and positive calm.  (B) Taking drugs, such as stimulants and tranquilizers (uppers and downers), can produce feelings of excitement and calm at the same time.  (C) When a person is absorbed in a task, in a state of "flow", or in "the zone", they often report feeling positive excitement and positive calm at the same time.  (D) People enjoy simultaneous feelings of excitement and calm.  People will often seek out experiences that produce simultaneous feelings of excitement and calm.	12/1/2005

Leisure, climbing.	Five ways to look at climbing.  (1) Climbing teaches you how to deal with the big stonewall.  Stonewall as in dead silence.  You learn to read the featureless face.  (2) Climbing is about surmounting obstacles.  Slalom skiing is about going around your obstacles.  (3) Climbing as a way to confront the void.  A way to give meaning to chaos.  (4) The climb as graffiti.  Leave your mark.  (5) Accomplish a task.  Peak baggers.  Route baggers.	2/26/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Hint for climbers.  Put a chalk sock in your briefs.  Keeps you cool and fresh all day long.  And it impresses the ladies.	10/2/2004

Leisure, climbing.	In the past, when climbers were few in number, the question was, "Why climb?"  Today, when climbers are many in number, the question becomes, "What are the reasons to not climb?"	4/17/2005

Leisure, climbing.	More ways to be into climbing.  (1) Physical aspect: fitness freaks.  (2) Intellectual challenge: vertical chess, climbing as puzzle.  (3) Beauty of physical movement: climbing as dance.  (4) Nature worship freaks.  (5) Pure aesthetics: rock as sculpture.  (6) Danger lovers and risk takers.  (7) Competition nuts: record breakers.  (8) Philosophical, mystical types.  (9) Psychological, sociological types.  (10) Historical types (me).  (11) Religious freaks.  (12) Mountaineers (peak baggers): rock, snow and altitude.  (13) Rock jocks and sport climbers (plastic walls).	04/28/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Most people take one of two views.  (1) They think climbing is nuts.  (2) Or they are totally obsessed by climbing.  (3) Very view can look at climbing from both sides with sympathy to arguments pro and contra.  Few who understand climbing well can look at it critically.	02/22/1997

Leisure, climbing.	Mountain climbing is like sex in that it provides an obvious accomplishment that cannot be undone.  It builds self confidence.  It can become addictive in and of itself because it gives one an endorphin boost.  So many other accomplishments in life are inobvious or can be undone.	4/10/2003

Leisure, climbing.	Mountains are interesting because flat land is boring.	8/2/2006

Leisure, climbing.	Mountains give the aerial view, the overview, the general view.  Ascending has often been associated with progress, and transcending.  Thus we see how my leisure pursuits mirrored my personality and philosophical pursuits.  It was an unconscious predecessor.  Independence from parents, society, technology, life.  Freedom from life is death.  It is not so crazy.	07/14/1993

Leisure, climbing.	Nine views of climbing.  (1) Climbing as a physical metaphor for "progress" and "achievement".  This is why you see top business executives trying to climb the highest peaks on every continent.  (2) Climbing as being "above" everyone else.  The climber "looks down" on everyone else.  (A) One variation has the climber taking the view that he is of the same kind as everyone else (human) except a better person.  Cop a superior attitude to cope with feelings of inferiority.  (B) The second variation has the climber taking the view that he is not only better but also a different type (non-human).  He feels he has transcended himself.  He feels like a god.  (3) Climbing for safety.  Like you climb a tree to escape a bear.  Like you use a position of height for military advantage.  (4) Climb to be taller than everyone else.  Climbing as analogous to wearing platform shoes.  (5) Climbing as an escape from civilization and self.  (Run away).  As opposed to climbing in order to discover and explore the world and yourself.  (Run toward).  (6) Climbing to be able to see far and wide.  To get the "big picture".  (7) Climbing for the exercise.  (8) Climbing for the risk.  The feeling of "being on the edge of oblivion".  (9) Climbing for the feeling of playing with gravity.  Like surfers do.  Surf the rock.	8/25/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Reasons for climbing.  (1) Adventure, risk, adrenaline junkies.  (2) "This is insane, let's do it!".  The useless, absurd and comic.  Dada.  (3) Exhibitionism.  Look at me!  (4) Commitment.  Multi-day endurance marathon.  Total immersion.  (5) Intensity of experience.	9/5/1998

Leisure, climbing.	Reasons why people climb.  People like to climb because people feel safe occupying the high ground.  Climbing makes people feel safe, not in danger.  (1) Our ape ancestors used to climb trees to escape danger.  Especially the female apes?  (2) Occupying the high ground has strategic value in warfare.	01/23/1997

Leisure, climbing.	Rock climbing as a conversation.  (1) The rock speaks to us and we listen to what the rock says.  (2) What is the rock saying?  We read the rock.  The rock is a text.     PART TWO.  (1) What are you saying when you climb?  Climbing, like dance, is a type of communication.  Climbing is expressive.  We communicate to other people when we climb.  We communicate to those who watch us climb.  (2) Climbing is a type of communication with self.  We speak to ourselves and we listen to what we are saying.  We communicate with self through physical movement, emotional responses, and thoughts.	7/7/2003

Leisure, climbing.	Rock climbing is hedonistic, mountaineering is masochistic.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Rockclimbing is not about danger.  Rockclimbing is about fear.  For if one does not fear, then one gets no thrill out of danger.  When I no longer feared the heights, I no longer was interested in climbing.  It became like work, a job.  Another example, if one does not fear dying, then Russian roulette losses its thrill.  When one solo climbs without fear, what does one call that?  Walking?  (2)(A) What is danger without fear?  Courage?  Fool-hardiness?  Just doing one's job?  (B) What is fear without danger?  Anxiety?	3/11/2000

Leisure, climbing.	Sport climbing is to mountain climbing as masturbation is to sex.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	The mountain exists as a three dimensional solid form.  The route exists as a line on the surface of the mountain.	12/28/2006

Leisure, climbing.	The mountains.  Candles fluttering in the wind.  Reminding me of pain of loneliness vs. desire for independence.  Also, the fragility of life and thus the value of life.  If, like life, something is rare, fragile, and can do much, then it is worth a lot.  Like me.	09/01/1994

Leisure, climbing.	The questions that made me start climbing were (1) How do they do that?  Tools and techniques.  (2) How does it feel, experientially, physically, emotionally?  (3) How does it change you?  How does it change your character (self reliance, risk, bravery, etc.)?  (4) I started from curiosity.  I stopped from boredom, and because I had developed other interests.	05/18/1994

Leisure, climbing.	The unconscious hope of mountaineers is to get away from it all, rise above it all, and see the big picture.	12/30/1992

Leisure, climbing.	Views of climbing.  Climbing as intellectual problem solving, pure and simple.  This view ignores the emotional, character building aspects of fear and bravery.  This view also ignores the physical aspects like jock or gymnast or dancer.	01/07/1997

Leisure, climbing.	What happened with me and climbing?  At some point it did not become necessary to climb the rock.  I would just scramble up the cliff and pick a spot with a view, like some kind of cliff animal, a mountain goat perhaps.  Or I would become a creature made of rock, like some kind of rock gargoyle.  Or I became part of the rock itself, like the spirit in the cliffs.  Or I disappeared, and it was just the rock, sky, river and forest.  And then I learned to take it with me.  Mountain mind.	6/4/2000

Leisure, climbing.	What is climbing like?  (1) When you face the rock wall you turn your back on the world.  Like an ostrich with its head in the sand.  (2) Staring at the wall looking for a hold is like searching the floor for a contact lens.  (3) When you take the hard way instead of the easy way, just for the fun of it.	8/1/1998

Leisure, climbing.	Why do climbers climb?  (1) The famous response by Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man to summit Mt. Everest, to the question, "Why did you climb it?", was "Because its there".  I will use his response as a starting point and make three additional observations.  (2) Another similar response that people often give to why they do a particular activity is "Because I can."  "Because I can" is different from "To see if I can."  For example, a runner often runs "Because I can" and not "To see if I can".  (3) Another reason a person may perform an activity is "To see if I can."  To see if they are up to the challenge.  (4) I suggest there is a fourth logical answer.  In addition to the three answers, "Because I can.", "To see if I can." and "Because its there.", there is also "To see if its there."  In some sense, a mountain does not become phenomenologically real to an individual person or to a society until it has been climbed.  There is a difference between the second-hand knowledge of hearing someone describe the mountain, and then seeing the mountain first-hand, and then actually setting foot at the base of the mountain and climbing to the summit of the mountain.  For humans, the highest form of knowledge seems to be touching an object.  People don't seem satisfied until they have held an object.  The mountains does not seem "most real" until we have climbed it.  Examples of this phenomenon are expressions like, "Coming to grips with x." and "Hands on knowledge of x."	11/2/2001

Leisure, climbing.	Why I liked climbing.  Climbing is a complete workout in mind, body and environment.  (1) Psychological.  (A) Drive: desire and motivation.  (B) Emotion: fear and happiness.  (C) Thinking: about holds and protection.  (2) Physical.  Aerobic and anaerobic.  (3) Environment.  Beautiful yet challenging.  (4) Social.  Trust, communication and teamwork.	2/17/2000

Leisure, drugs.	.This section is about drugs.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, drugs.	(1) One view some people take is to legalize everything.  However, we cannot legalize all drugs, substances, objects and actions or else we would have machine guns, dynamite and plutonium available at the local store.  (2) One view some people take is to say that booze and drugs is okay to use on yourself if it does not hurt anyone else.  (A) Nothing is ever used only on the self.  The parent could give the child booze and drugs.  (B) Nothing ever effects only one person only.  The parents booze and drug taking affects the child.	12/5/1999

Leisure, drugs.	Addiction is a bitch.	12/30/1992

Leisure, drugs.	All in all, drugs (1) Addict people and make them suffer.  (2) Cause loss of money and time.  (3) Make people do dangerous things, hurt and kill both themselves and others.  (4) It is too high a price to pay.  There must be a better way to accomplish what drugs do, like how they give a sense of freedom from society, and an expanded mind.  What could take the place of drugs?  Meditation?  Wilderness solos?	11/30/1996

Leisure, drugs.	Caffeine, nicotine, sugar, alcohol, pot.  As a new experience, to spur to thought and feeling vs. as an old experience, for avoidance of thought and feeling.	12/30/1992

Leisure, drugs.	Death can happen three ways with drugs.  (1) You can kill yourself.  (2) You can kill someone else.  (3) You can antagonize someone to the point where they kill you.  (4) All three of these I narrowly avoided while drinking.  (5) The fourth possibility: antagonizing someone to the point where they kill themselves, which is something that I was able to avoid while drinking.  I hope to avoid all four above cases in my writing.	3/12/1999

Leisure, drugs.	Drugs as mindless pleasure vs. drugs for mindful exploration.	12/30/1992

Leisure, drugs.	Drugs at worst are an escape from reality vs. drugs at best are an entry into reality.	12/30/1992

Leisure, drugs.	Drugs fu*k up the brain, permanently.  Booze, pot, cocaine, etc.  Stay away from them.	10/25/1997

Leisure, drugs.	Drugs.  Drugs are not harmless.  Drugs hurt people.  (1) Car accidents.  DWI. (2) Crimes committed by people on drugs.  (3) Crimes committed by people who sell drugs.  (4) People who overdose and die.  (5) To say, "I can handle drugs.  Drugs don't hurt me.", is to say, "Its okay if someone else dies as long as I don't get hurt.", and that is not an optimal view.  Making all drugs illegal, like during prohibition, may not be the best answer.  Making all drugs legal may not be the best answer.  Convincing people not to do drugs is a good start.	3/11/2005

Leisure, drugs.	Either pot and alcohol should both be legal, or pot and alcohol should both be illegal.  Same for crack, coke, smack and speed?	6/30/1998

Leisure, drugs.	I long for waking up to the smell of stale beer, stale cigarette smoke, and stale perfume.  Where are my party friends.  We are all sober now.  It is we who are stale now.  Dead drunk to dead sober.	09/01/1994

Leisure, drugs.	In an ideal world drugs would be legal, free, safe, and their effects would be predictable.	12/30/1992

Leisure, drugs.	Many lives destroyed.  Is it worth the price of enlightenment or rebellion?  There have to be better ways to rebel or become enlightened.	11/20/1997

Leisure, drugs.	Some people should take drugs, uptight assholes.  Some people should not take drugs, on the edge psychos and addicts, and the excessively mellow.	01/01/1994

Leisure, drugs.	Speed kills.	11/16/2004

Leisure, drugs.	When I was young, drugs had a sacramental, holy nature.  Sunny days in suburban parks (pastoral myth), with pretty horny women and rock music.  We discovered and explored sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and friendship.  It was enlightenment, nirvana, and fun and new.  We had no work, no school.  Experiencing and learning new good things.  Learning to party, to relax, to enjoy.  It was a unique peak.  Summer of love (see songs of same name).	08/24/1994

Leisure, drugs.	When they die in war, we say it is a waste.  When they die climbing, we say that at least they died doing what they love.  When they overdose on drugs, we don't say that at least they died doing what they loved.  But maybe we should, like we do for any other dangerous recreational activity.	11/30/1996

Leisure, drugs.	With drugs, sooner or later, an acute or chronic decay will occur.	02/15/1997

Leisure, drugs.	Youthful hooligans.  (1) What is to be learned from mind altered revelation (mental development)?  (2) What is to be learned from rebellion against authority, and illegally breaking minor arbitrary laws (character development)?  (3) What is to be learned from hanging out with friends while doing the above two (social development)?	08/24/1994

Leisure, exercise.	.This section is about exercise.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, exercise.	(1) Daily office stretches, strength exercises and endurance exercises can add up to do more than being in the gym twice a week.  It can prolong your life, increase your creativity, and make you feel better.	12/20/1998

Leisure, exercise.	(1) Pro.  (A) Physical: health, posture, power, endurance.  (B) Psychological: alert, driven.  Evens out emotions: calming, inspiring.  Reduce stress.  Increase hormone flow, high testosterone.  Increase endorphin flow.  (2) Contra: overuse or acute injuries.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	Costs: time and energy spent, and workout pain.  Gains: in shape, creative, horny.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	Exercise to get it over with.  Your unconscious mind is waiting for you to do it, so it can start thinking about other things like creativity.  Unblock mind for free thought.	04/21/1993

Leisure, exercise.	Exercise.  (1) For better health, longer life, and less illness.  (2) Better performance on job.  More mental and physical energy and endurance.  Less depressed, more alert.  (3) Better sex.  (4) Looks.  Reach ideal physical shape.  (5) You simply feel better mentally when in shape, due to (A) Biochemical endorphins, and (B) Because you know you are in shape, and this knowledge can create a psychological high or kick.  This last reason is my most important reason.	11/27/1993

Leisure, exercise.	Lifting, running, calisthenics, and bicycling.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	Most important things to know about exercise.  (1) It is equivalent to external and internal massage, and thus is excellent stress reliever.  (2) When you do it, think about all your specific stresses (job, school, girls, notes) being burned off with every breath.	02/20/1994

Leisure, exercise.	Reasons to lift.  (1) Lifting for health is the most important reason to lift.  Longer life, and less illness.  (2) Looks: to get more babes.  (3) Sex: better sex.  (4) Ideas: the more I lift the more creative and thus smart (4/10/93).  Exercise unblocks the unconscious (4/21/93).  (5) For head: feel better from biochemicals.  Feel better about being in shape.  Feel better about taking care of yourself.  (6) For job: mental and physical endurance, less depressed, more alert and energized.	01/01/1993

Leisure, exercise.	Reasons to lift.  (1) To not vegatate.  (2) To get built.  (3) To think well.  (4) To reach ideal Paul.	06/10/1994

Leisure, exercise.	Running.  (1) Why I like it: good things I get from it.  Keeps me in touch with natural environment.  Strength, independence.  (2) Why I want to avoid it most times: to keep working.  (3) Both pulls needed for balance.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	The ideal: instant permanent physical perfection with zero effort.  Fat chance.	07/12/1993

Leisure, exercise.	The more I lift and study, the smarter, wiser, and more creative I become.	04/30/1993

Leisure, exercise.	Total exercise complex.  Type, duration, frequency, and intensity.  How, where, why.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	Walk.  Take a walk daily.  Walks are different from runs, more leisurely, more contemplative.  Walking is Nietzchean.  Walking is Zen like, monk like, walking meditation.  Meditation, not medication!.	06/10/1993

Leisure, exercise.	Walks and drives.  Going for a drive is like going for a walk except faster.	12/30/1992

Leisure, exercise.	Yoga: breathing deeply (internal massage, repetitive mantra) and concentrating on one thing.  Working out does the same thing.  Muscle relaxation techniques.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	.This section is about the philosophy of leisure, specifically, ethics.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	(1) Purpose of free time is to identify and work on you own problems in thought (theory) and then action (practice).  Then record it.  (2) Purpose of work time is to identify and work on other people's (society's) problems.	12/30/1996

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	America declined when it went from a work ethic to a leisure ethic created by advertisers.  But just as bad is work for work's sake.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Any specific leisure activity.  What are the values it implicitly holds?  Ex football: cooperation and violence.  Solo rockclimbing: danger and aloneness.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Ends, goals, objectives vs. means, strategies, tactics.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Ethics.  Do it?  Yes or no and why.  Reasons why people do it.  Why do them, pro and contra.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Fun vs. helpful and healthful; to self (whose to say what is and isn't) and to others.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Fun.  (1) We owe it to ourselves to have a certain amount of fun.  Fun is necessary to counteract stress.  Fun is psychologically healthy.  Even if we have no desire to have fun, and even if we think a particular activity will not be fun, we should still go out and force ourselves to have fun, because fun is healthy.  (2) Two problems: (A) Too much fun is an unproductive waste of time.  (B) Too little fun is stressful.  (3) Two more big problems: (A) Thinking that unhealthy things are fun.  (B) Thinking that healthy things are not fun.	6/26/1999

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Have to vs. don't.  Need to vs. don't (must).  Can vs. can't (ability and resources).  Should vs. shouldn't (ethics).  Want to vs. don't (desire).  Will vs. won't (actual or future).	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	How much time do you want for leisure?  How to spend it?	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	In free time people do either what they think is relaxing and fun, or they do what they think they should do.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Leisure is an ethical issue.  How much to get.  What to do with it.	09/01/1994

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Leisure: playing fair, and fighting fair.  Winning gracefully, and losing with dignity.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	One view says, only do something if its fun, and if its not fun then don't do it.  Who is to say what is fun and not?  Is it strictly a personal decision?	5/27/2006

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Personal ethics.  Leisure time: how much resources (time, money, materials, energy) to spend on goofing off (TV, sex, etc.) vs. working (on self, career, society, etc.).	08/15/1994

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Pursuit of leisure for leisure's sake vs. leisure as recuperation and preparation for work.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	The big dilemma of leisure: having fun vs. wasting time.	2/22/2000

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Two big opposing views.  (1) Having fun but getting nothing done.  Relax, enjoy life, low stress, peace of mind.  (2) Play is bullshit.  Pain with gain.  Work till go berserk.  Struggle and effort is painful.	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	Values vs. tastes.  Where is the dividing line between leisure ethics and leisure aesthetics?	12/30/1992

Leisure, philosophy, ethics.	What do you consider most enjoyable or fun?  What makes you happy?  Things that are relaxing or exciting?  Things that are worthwhile and rewarding?  What brings you catharsis and health?	12/30/1992

Leisure, sports.	.This section is about sports.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, sports.	"Kill the Guy with the Ball" is perhaps the original proto-sport, the first sport played by ancient humans.	6/5/2000

Leisure, sports.	(1) I think it is good that in sports, after you make a good play, you are free to express yourself through dance or other physical movements.  (2) You are also free to show off your athletic ability by performing a gymnastic maneuver.  (3) You are also free to communicate with the audience of spectators by using semaphore signals or other gestural languages.  (4) In fact, I think the best things about sports are the above outbursts of personal creativity (for example, sack dances, touchdown celebrations, etc.).  What is seldom noticed by spectators is the great degree that sport rulers (ex. coaches, commissioners, owners) go to set up social norms and legal sanctions to discourage and prevent such free expressions.  And that is a shame.  The same thing happens in school.  The same thing happens in workplace.  It stunts people.  It is unhealthy.	1/9/2002

Leisure, sports.	(1) Individual sports versus team sports.  Individual sports are better than team sports.  (2) Indoor sports versus outdoor sports.  Outdoor sports are better than indoor sports.  (3) Outdoor nature sports versus outdoor field sports.  Nature sports are better than field sports.  (4) Individual, outdoor, nature sports are cool.  For example, climbing and surfing.	9/12/2005

Leisure, sports.	(1) Sports is about physical movement.  Spectators are not involved in sports.  Spectators are involved in sitting on their asses.  (2) Competition is not the distinguishing feature of sports.  Many areas of life are competitive, such as business and school.  The distinguishing feature of sports is physical activity.	7/4/1999

Leisure, sports.	Arguments contra sports.  Criticism of traditional American team sports (football, basketball, baseball).  (1) The macho attitude.  Over aggressiveness.  Testosterone poisoning.  (2) The mindless "do anything for the team" attitude.  (3) The mindless "do anything the coach says" attitude.  (4) The over-emphasis on the physical and under-emphasis on the mental and intellect.  (5) The narrowness of the sports world.  (6) The obsessiveness of fans.  (7) Sports as a model of society which pre-teens benefit from, but which adults never outgrow.  (8) The uselessness.  You win but you do not accomplish anything.  (9) The win-lose aspect.  Zero sum game.  Overly competitive.  I must destroy my opponent, instead of working with him/her to improve the world.  (10) Too many people spend entirely too much time and money on basically entertainment or jollies.  (11) It is an obsession with youth.	4/7/1998

Leisure, sports.	Arguments for sports.  (1) Physical health.  (2) Team work.  (3) Dedication on a goal to be the best.  Focus and work.  (4) A useful model of society to socialize youth.	4/7/1998

Leisure, sports.	Contra sports.  (1) Injuries that are often permanent.  (2) Sports are a waste of time and money for the viewers and players because they accomplish nothing.  (3) Sports draws attention away from education and gaining knowledge to solve real problems.  (4) Sports are mindless and brain dead.	12/26/1997

Leisure, sports.	Critique of sports.  The mindless competition inculcated in sports is used later to help create mindless workers in the workplace and mindless killers in the military.	1/1/2006

Leisure, sports.	Definitions of sports: Sports as playful, non-utilitarian, physical activity.	6/4/2000

Leisure, sports.	Drugs and sports.  Steroids.  Amphetamines.  Blood doping.  In horse racing.  In baseball.  In rock climbing.  In any sport.  Drug abuse reveals the weakness of sports in general as mindless physical performances.	7/30/2005

Leisure, sports.	Extreme sports like surfing and rock climbing are better than traditional team sports like football and baseball, however, sports in general tend to be mindless, frivolous, trivial and a waste of leisure time and energy.	5/12/2005

Leisure, sports.	Extreme sports vs. traditional team sports.  (1) Extreme sports typically have active participants.  Traditional team sports typically have passive spectators.  One could argue that extreme sports produce "doers" and traditional sports produce "watchers".  (2) Extreme sports have independent, individual participants.  Team sports have a "team" following a "coach".  Once could argue that extreme sports produce independent thinkers and team sports produce followers.	11/15/2003

Leisure, sports.	Football should be played under the sky and on grass, not under a dome and on Astroturf.  It should be snowing and muddy, not sunshine and 70 degrees.	1/1/2002

Leisure, sports.	Hand-eye coordination, types of.  (1)(A) Touch, grab or push a stationary object.  (B) Touch, grab or push a moving object.  (2)(A) Throw or hit a stationary object.  (B) Throw or hit a moving object.	12/30/2001

Leisure, sports.	In defense of spectator sports.  Those who can play, play, and those who can't play, watch.  For example, watching dance and watching sports are very similar.  As a spectator, one can, to some extent, feel the physical motion of the dancer or athlete in one's own body, just by watching the dancer or athlete.  And feeling physical motion in the body is to develop kinesthetic knowledge.  Howard Gardener, the Harvard psychologist, posits kinesthetic intelligence as one of the eight types of human intelligence.	6/4/2000

Leisure, sports.	In defense of sports.  Sports helps us "get in touch" with the body.  To be aware of your body, and to know how to use your body, is a step in the right direction.  Sports helps you develop this type of body knowledge.  Athletes have this type of knowledge.  But many people lose awareness of their bodies, just like they lose awareness of their inner self (psychological self), just like they lose awareness of other people, and just like they lose awareness of the natural environment and the world at large.  So in this point of view, sports is an important step in regaining awareness.  After one regains awareness of the body, the next step is to regain awareness of the inner self, other people, the natural environment and the world at large.  One must make the time; one must reach out; one must make an effort; one must actively focus on it.  What does the phrase "to get in touch with" mean?  It is an important mental metaphor.  It means (1) Total awareness.  (2) Total knowledge.  (3) Total responsiveness.	6/4/2000

Leisure, sports.	Kinesthetics.  Two types of kinesthetic experience.  PART ONE.  Kinesthetics related to spatial dimensions.  (1) Feeling your body move while you are standing in one place (ex. table tennis).  (2) Feeling your body move on a plane (ex. field sports).  (3) Feeling your body move in three dimensions (ex. sports like skiing and surfing).     PART TWO. Kinesthetics related to gravity.  (1) Feeling your body move against resistance, such as the resistance of gravity, doing work (ex. when you run down a field in a zig-zag pattern you working against gravity and you are also pulling g's just like a race car driver in a turn, except to a lesser degree).  (2) Feeling the sensation of gravity as your body moves in space, due both to your inner ear's sense of balance and also due to your body's nerves sensing fluid pressure changes when you move in space with respect to gravity (ex. even when your body is lying at rest, you can feel fluid pressure changes if your body tilts to one side).	1/1/2001

Leisure, sports.	Leisure activities are changing with the rise of extreme sports like bungee jumping, paragliding, rockclimbing and mountain biking.  Individual active sports are growing over mass spectator sports.	3/11/2000

Leisure, sports.	Origin of sports is in the hunting activities of our ancestors.  To this degree sports may be instinctual.  The ball was originally a small animal.  We ran in pursuit of it with clubs, rocks, and spears.  Sports like baseball, cricket, hockey and golf involve clubbing the animal.  In sports like football, basketball and soccer the rock or spear is replaced with a ball and the animal replaced with a target or goal zone.  Capture the flag is a raiding game.  Male teens like sports possibly out of instinct.  This may explain the enduring popularity of sports.	7/11/1998

Leisure, sports.	Professional, college, and high school sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey).  How much money is spent on it?  How many watch it?  How does it shape our values (esp. kids)?  How much media coverage does it get?  Same questions for Hollywood and the entertainment industry.	03/20/1993

Leisure, sports.	Shouldn't the javelin-throw measure accuracy as well as distance, much like archery does?  I mean, lets be practical, there is no use missing your victim.	5/10/2000

Leisure, sports.	Spectator sports successfully occupy the time of people who cannot think of anything better to do. Sports pacify people.  Sports control people.  Sports disempower people.	10/31/1999

Leisure, sports.	Sport categorized by environment.  (1) Natural environments: hiking, climbing.  (2) Artificial environments: stadium sports, racquet court sports.	8/30/2001

Leisure, sports.	Sport goes bad when it veers toward myth building, regimentation and anti-intellectualism.  It is easy to see why the Nazi's placed an great emphasis on sport.  Sport is closer to fascism than democracy.	11/12/2005

Leisure, sports.	Sports and violence.  Sports provide emotional catharsis for players and crowds that would otherwise only be let out in warfare.  Does sports encourage violence, or does sports reduce violence by providing an outlet for aggressive instincts?	02/28/1998

Leisure, sports.	Sports as action.     PART ONE.  To discuss sports as action, it helps to review a few ideas.  One common way to divide up life is into work and leisure.  (1) There are at least three ways to define work and leisure: (A) Work as being useful.  Leisure as being useless.  (B) Work as being unenjoyable.  Leisure as being enjoyable.  (C) Work as getting paid.  Leisure as not getting paid.  (2) Both work and leisure can be primarily mental (ex. accounting is a mental work activity and chess is a mental leisure activity) or primarily physical (ex. digging ditches is a physical work activity and sledding is a physical leisure activity.  (3) The point being that (in the metaphysical realm) people often think that physical work and physical leisure is somehow more authentic, more genuine and more real than their mental counterparts.  (4) In addition, (in the epistemological realm) physical experiential knowledge is often viewed as more truthful than mental imaginative knowledge.  (5) In addition, (in the ethical realm) the physical is often viewed as better than the mental.  The physical is viewed as good and right by many people.     PART TWO.  Sports is an example of the bias toward action.  (1) There is an anti-intellectualism that exists in at least two basic forms.  The first is a bias against reason in favor of activity.  The second is a bias against reason in favor of blind faith.  Between the two of these biases it is easy to see how it can occur that people sometimes view thinking for oneself as useless and they sometimes view thinking for oneself as dangerous.  (2) There are several other reasons why some people are opposed to thinking.  (A) Some people dislike thinking because thinking is work.  These people prefer a lazy hedonism.  (B) Some people dislike thinking because they are out of practice.  Their thinking skills are rusty.  For these people, thinking is like using a rusty pair of scissors: slow, unproductive and frustrating.  (C) Some people dislike thinking because they don't know how to think.  These people never developed thinking skills.     PART THREE.  The popularity of sports falls into a larger view which holds that it is better to go out and do something than to just sit around thinking.  This view holds that sitting around imagining or pretending to do something is somehow less than optimal.  There are many terms and phrases that allude to this idea.  (1) Action terms: activity, action, movement, motion, body, doing, practice, experience.  (2) Action phrases: Do it yourself (DIY).  Been there, done that.  Living it but not loving it.  Man of action.  Getting things done.  Taking care of business.  See for yourself.  Just don't sit there, do something.  (3) Passive terms: pretending, imagining, dreaming.  (4) Passive phrases: Armchair quarterback.  Castles made of sand.  Walter Mitty.     PART FOUR.  Many people prefer "action without thought" to "thought without action".  (1) Physical activity is viewed as healthier (both physically healthier and psychologically healthier) than physical inactivity.  (2) Most people don't like sitting around thinking.  It is more fun to be physically active.  (3) Most people feel it is more useful to be physically active than physically inactive.  (4) Doing absolutely nothing is also a big past time.  Couch potatoes.     PART FIVE.  The ideal is body and mind working together at peak performance in creative mode.	6/10/2000

Leisure, sports.	Sports as contest and competition.  Sports as conflict and fighting.	4/15/2002

Leisure, sports.	Sports as religion and myth.  The players are worshipped like Greek gods.  The press builds up the players as mythic super-heroes.  We idolize the players.	7/21/2000

Leisure, sports.	Sports is about physicality.  Physicality is about the body and the physical world.  And that is about sensation.  So the athletes and the poets are not that far apart.	1/1/2001

Leisure, sports.	Sports is an opiate of the masses.  Religion is also an opiate of the masses.  Doubly worse is when they make sports a religion, and they make religion a sport.	4/30/2005

Leisure, sports.	Sports is essentially idiocy.  Sports values fun over truth and justice.  Sports are fun, lucrative, and stupid.  Sports are a waste of time.	6/22/2006

Leisure, sports.	Sports like football and hockey are about enduring pain and inflicting pain while trying to perform a series of complex, intricate mental and physical tasks.  Thus, sports are a mirror of the pathological American workplace.	1/1/2002

Leisure, sports.	Sports.  Participate vs. spectate.  Indoor vs. outdoor.  Ball sports (base, basket, foot, golf, soccer).  Field sports.  Water sports. (swimming, surfing, scuba, skate), fishing (salt, fresh), boating (sail, power).  Air sports (planes, parachute).  Winter sports (skate, ski).  Racing sports: car (road, oval, drag, smashup), animals (horse, dog).  Track and field.  Outdoor.  Hike, camp, backpack = hike + camp.  Climbing.  Hunting (bow, gun, by quarry).	12/30/1992

Leisure, sports.	Sports.  There is an over emphasis on sports in American society today.  Americans today spend too much time and money on sports, at the expense of reason and problem solving.	9/10/2004

Leisure, sports.	Team sports = tribalism.  Pro: camaraderie.  Contra: Us vs. them mentality.  Violent sports = tribal violence = warfare.	4/15/2002

Leisure, sports.	The negative side of sports.  Doing something just because the coach tells you to.  Doing something just because the rest of the team is doing it.  Unthinking, unquestioning, blind belief and obedience.	10/9/2003

Leisure, sports.	The problem with all competitive sports, be they extreme or traditional, is that sports are inconsequential, meaningless, mindless.  It does not matter who wins or loses.  Its merely a money making scheme.  Its merely a way to promote blind obedience and mindless competition in youth.  Its merely an opiate for the masses.  It does not accomplish anything productive or meaningful.  It promotes violence (ex. boxing).  Team sports promote a pathological group think state of mind.	2/1/2005

Leisure, sports.	Two types of sports:  (1) Non-traditional sports (ex. extreme sports).  (A) Creative.  (B) Individual.  Competing with self.  Less team focused.  (C) Cooperative.  Even pure cooperation like, for example, in hackey sack.  (D) Less rules.  Less structured.  More freedom.  (E) Less rigid roles.     (2) Traditional team sports.  (A) Less creative.  (B) Team focused.  Opposing teams like opposing military armies.  (C) Highly competitive.  Almost warlike.  Individual against individual.  Team against team.  Sometimes pure destructive conflict like, for example, in boxing.  (D) Many rules.  More structured.  Less freedom.  (E) Many rigid roles.  (3) I prefer the former to the latter.	6/4/2000

Leisure, sports.	Two types of sports.  (1) Repetitive, non-creative movement in a controlled, non-varying environment.  For example, baseball.  (2) Non-repetitive, creative movement in an uncontrolled, varying environment (ex. rock climbing).  (3) The former is traditional sports, the latter is extreme sports.  I think the latter is better.	6/10/2000

Leisure, sports.	What many people who watch baseball and football may not realize is that a large part of what they enjoy in sports is the simple act of being outside (or watching people be outside, when watching sports indoors on television).  Sun, clouds, wind and grass is where its at.  Astroturf and indoor stadiums is not where its at.	9/14/2003

Leisure, sports.	Why I do not like sports.  Because I do not like watching men.  If they had naked supermodels dunking a ball through a hoop then I would watch that.	10/22/1998

Leisure, surf skate climb.	.This section is about surfing, skateboarding and climbing.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Big 3 sports: (1) Intensity.  (2) Confrontation of essential problems (death etc).  (3) Powerful and elemental vs. everyday life; which is boring, safe, trivial, muddle along slowly.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Climb and hitch.  (1) Involves danger of facing death.  (2) Builds character, clarifies values, improves thinking.  (3) Bigger risk, bigger payoff.  (4) Not as destructive as drugs, crime, warfare.  (5) Testing yourself by doing something dangerous; inherently dangerous and illegal to boot.  (6) Explore and discover.  (7) Trial by fire.  (8) Vision quest, spirit guides (Indians).	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Consciously I did it for fun and adventure (confront the unknown).  Unconsciously I did it to over-compensate for feelings of inadequacy?  To prove myself?  To prove I was strong and brave when I felt weak and cowardly?	12/30/1996

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching = travel + danger.	03/01/1994

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  (1) How safe is hitching?  Not very, especially if alone.  (2) How fun is it?  Not very, especially if its multi-day or in poor weather.  (3) Why do it?  (A) Poverty.  (B) Adventure (risk).  (C) Meet people and hear stories.  Otherwise take a bus or rent a car.	4/28/1998

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  (1) The poor give rides because  (A) They have hitched themselves and so are more likely to pick someone up.  (B) Know that the hitcher knows that they have nothing to steal.  So they give rides.  (C) They may not always be quick enough to realize the danger involved.     (2) The rich do not give rides because  (A) They have never hitched themselves and do not know how it feels to need a ride.  (B) They know that the hitcher knows that the rich have money to be stolen.  (C) They are sometimes quick enough to know not to pick up hitchers.  Thus, you meet mostly the poor when you hitch.	12/30/1996

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  Alone, what season, how far, carrying how much money, and carrying how much stuff.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  City, suburb, rural, and wilderness.  Superhighways vs. backroads.  Northeast, south, west.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  Ride types: opposite sex and same age (romance).  Groups vs. individuals.  Talkative vs. quiet.  Rich vs. poor.  Ethical vs. unethical.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  The road: danger, loneliness, waste, reality, a test, a change, poverty, social exclusion, marginality, freedom.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Hitching.  What they and their cars looked like.  What they said (true and lies), and you said (true and lie).  What you saw out the window.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	PART ONE.  History of surfing, skateboarding and rock climbing in California during the 1960's and 1970's.  (1) Enabled by technological developments.  Urethane wheels for skateboards.  Nylon ropes for rock climbing.  Fiberglass and resin for surfboards.  (2) Developed in an atmosphere of cultural foment.  The sixties and seventies included hippies, civil rights, ecology, rock music, drugs and sex.     PART TWO.  Traits of these sports.  (1) Fun.  Hedonistic. Unproductive.  Enjoyable.  Leisure pursuits.  (2) Lifestyle.  Quit work or school to do it full time.  Work minimum wage jobs to do it.  (3) Counter culture.  Went against society to do it.  Society said to work, make money and buy material things.  (4) Physical experience.  Challenging physical movements in challenging physical environments.  There are many important things to be learned from the physical, the body and the environment.  (5) Its a natural environment, not an artificial environment.   Its  an outdoor environment, not an indoor environment.  (6)  Attitude: healthy, physical, partying, rebellious.  (7) Subculture with its own music, fashion and language.     PART THREE.  Cousin sports.  Hang-gliding.  Para-sailing.  Bungee jumping.  Snow boarding.  Wind surfing.  Inline skating.  Mountain biking.     PART FOUR.  Why did I stop?  It was mindless.  It was boring.  The physical had important things to teach me but it could only teach me so much.  What took its place?  Thinking.  Was it just as good?	5/4/2002

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Skate.  Half the fun was it was illegal.  The other half was three dimensional gravity play.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Sunny warm days, strong brave men, beautiful horny women.  Adventure, romance.  Exploits, excitement, danger, big risks, big payoffs.  Risk everything, win everything.  It was a great ideal.  Took me away from my actual garbage situation.	09/25/1993

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Surf skate climb were all:  Nature oriented solo activities.  Physical and mental challenge.  Aesthetic.  Dangerous.  Silent, simple, and cheap (no motors).	04/21/1993

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Surf, climb, drugs, pathological sex.  I have gotten all I can from them.  I have gotten all they have to offer, which is not much, but important.  I have stepped up to them, and now it is time to step up higher above them.	01/01/1993

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Surf, skate, and climb are the big 3.  They are lifestyle sports, counter-culture sports, danger sports.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Surf, skate, climb.  They are play in 3D.  Play with gravity or weight.  These require more intelligence than 2D sports.	10/25/1993

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Surfing and climbing.  They were ways to test myself physically, and test my character.  They were ways to test myself in face of danger.  They were ways to break free from society.	09/06/1993

Leisure, surf skate climb.	They are counter-culture sports.  Mainstream sports: basketball, football, baseball.  Counter-culture: anything not mainstream.  Anything not a mass, spectator event.  Anything non-competitive, or self-competitive.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Uncertainty and risk: for good vs. bad/danger.  Actual vs. perceived.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surf skate climb.	Why I stopped.  Skating: no good parks around, and pools illegal after 18.  Surfing: east coast waves suck.  Climbing: all non first ascents are boring.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surfing.	.This section is about surfing.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, surfing.	(1) Bathing symbolism.  Cleansed.  Renewed.  Refreshed.  (2) Redemptive symbolism.  Going down.  Coming up.  (3) Wave as risk, danger and action.  Between waves is calm, peace, inaction, safety.  Surfing alternates risk and safety.	5/16/2004

Leisure, surfing.	(1) Surfers are utopian anarchists.  (2) Surfing is a hedonistic nature ritual.	09/20/1994

Leisure, surfing.	Beach: Sky, ocean, sand.  Warm colors, tan and dark blue and light blue.  Horizontals, minimalist.  Flesh, young, healthy.  Warm, relaxed.	12/30/1992

Leisure, surfing.	Beach.  (1) At the beach everyone is half-naked.  This has two effects.  (A) We are all exposed, laid bare, physically and psychologically.  (B) We are all equal, without the markings of social status (clothes, jewelry).  (2) The rhythmic sound of the ocean waves induces a hypnotic trance that relaxes us like a massage.  (3) There is a visual minimalism of sand, ocean and sky that has the effect of a Rothko painting.  (4) Its a primal, primitive state.  Civilization is dropped.  Like "Lord of the Flies" or "Robinson Crusoe".  (5) The beach is a "vacation zone" or "leisure zone" where everyone agrees to relax and have fun.  No work allowed.  Society sets up "zones" where certain behavior is expected.  (6) Salt air contains negative ions which improve mood?  (7)(A) The act of bathing is a symbolic cleansing, renewing ritual.  (B) The act of diving in the ocean and swimming is often used as a metaphor for carnal knowledge.  (8) There is a whiff of physicality, sensuality and sexuality at the beach.  (9) Rest, relax, recuperate.  De-stress, calm, recharge.  Get healthy.  Find center, balance, harmony.  (10) The beach is a childlike place.  Innocent and playful.	8/20/2000

Leisure, surfing.	Good surf is big, long, fast, tubing, glass.	09/08/1993

Leisure, surfing.	How has surfing affected modern american society?  Language: surf slang.  Dress: surf threads.  Attitude: mellow, california lifestyle.  Why has the influence of surfing been greater than climbing?	01/01/1993

Leisure, surfing.	How surfers describe waves and the sea.  (1) Size: large preferred over small.  (2) Shape: closing out is bad, peaky is ok, lined up is good.  (3) Smoothness: glass is good, rough is bad, windblown chop is worst.  (4) Speed: fast is better than slow.  Power means big and fast.  (5) Direction: compass direction coming in from.  (6) Break direction: breaking left, right, or both ways, or closing out.  (7) Break style: tumbling forward vs. tubing.  (8) Steepness: steep and droppy vs. shallow. 9. Color: green, blue, gray, black, brown, etc.  (10) Wind: speed and direction.  (11) Water cleanliness: clean or dirty.  (12) Number of waves in set and time between sets.  (13) Other: crowded vs. uncrowded, sunny vs. cloudy days, warm vs. cold air and water temperature.  A good day is big, fast, glassy, lined up, warm, pumping, fun and rare, usually in Hawaii.	12/30/1995

Leisure, surfing.	Philosophy of surfing.  (1) Outdoors, in nature, in wilderness of ocean, not on a ball field.  (2) Non-competitive for the most part.  (3) Solo, not a team sport.  (4) Non-professional and non-commercial for the most part.  (5) They tried to make surfing a big business.  They try to sell surfing and beach culture to the masses.  That is not surfing; that is marketing.  Surfing is still about paddling out.	1/9/2004

Leisure, surfing.	Somewhere a guy with perfect mind and body rides a perfect wave perfectly on a perfect board with a perfect babe waiting on a perfect beach.  (Or makes a perfect ascent of a perfect climb.).	05/27/1993

Leisure, surfing.	Surf gives you sunrises and sunsets.  Surfing gives you landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes (all very important).  It is simple (need only board and waves).  Summer sport.  Strenuous and skill requiring.  Outdoors.  Alone.  Natural and wilderness.  Active.  Dangerous.  Bad part is you have to wait for waves.  It is not instant gratification.	09/08/1993

Leisure, surfing.	Surfboard design.  (1) The ideal prototypical surfboard.  Perfectly symmetrical ellipse from nose to tail.  Perfectly symmetrical rocker from nose to tail.  (2) In reality a squash tail is preferred.  And the rocker should be moved forward?	6/30/1998

Leisure, surfing.	Surfers are prone to Buddhism.  (1) Each wave is unique.  (2) Waves are short lived, transient and ephemeral.  (3) Cyclical.  Another wave is coming.  Waves repeat.  (4) Thus, a wave is like a human life.  (5) Water.  In between the concrete and the ethereal.  Water is amorphous.  Water flows.  Water is changing.	10/30/1998

Leisure, surfing.	Surfing is a solo, dangerous, non-competitive, nature activity.  (1) Arguments for surfing.  Surfers are in tune with nature.  Surfers care about the environment.  Even though their plastic surfboards and wetsuits are environmental disasters.  Environmentally friendly, pure surfing is body surfing.  (2) Contra surfing.  Surfing is mindless fun.	4/28/1998

Leisure, surfing.	Surfing is about more than riding waves.  The taste of saltwater and seaweed.  The feeling of warm sand between the toes.  The sight of sunrise or sunset over the ocean.  The feeling of the rocking ocean swells.  The sight of girls in bikinis.  The physical exertion of paddling.  Surfing is about all these things.  Surfing is not just about standing on a board that is planing over water.	10/30/2005

Leisure, surfing.	Surfing.  Aesthetics of waves, boards, and babes on beach.  Beautiful.	09/08/1993

Leisure, surfing.	Surfing.  When you get tubed in surfing, you are essentially shutting out the world completely, withdrawing totally into a watery tubular womb, or tomb.	01/07/1997

Leisure, surfing.	The beach as (1) An environment.  (2) The act.  (3) The psychology.  (4) The sociology: locals, pump house gang, surfer girls.  (5) The philosophy.  (6) The fashion.  (7) The music.  (8) The religion: paganism!.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	.This section is about travel.  Topics include: 	1/24/2006

Leisure, travel.	(1) How much or little you take (knowledge and tools).  Sometimes it helps to know vs. going in blank.  (2) How much or little you interact and learn about your environment.  How much or little you interact with and learn about you.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	(1) One variable is how far you travel from your home.  (A) What if you don't have a home?  Then you are always traveling.  (B) What if your home is everywhere?  Then you are not traveling.  (2) Another variable is how far you travel from your familiar culture.  (A) What if your culture has always seemed strange to you?  Then you are always traveling.  (B) What if your culture has spread everywhere?  Then you are not traveling.	11/12/2005

Leisure, travel.	(1) Physical: where your body goes.  (2) Mental: where your head goes.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	(1) Traveling poor is not the same thing as traveling rich.  (2) Traveling in a group is not the same thing as traveling alone.  (3) Traveling without knowledge is not the same thing as traveling with knowledge (be it the knowledge of general life experiences, the knowledge of traveling in general, or the knowledge of the specific route and cultures involved).  (4) Traveling without a destination is not the same as traveling with a destination.	6/1/2001

Leisure, travel.	(1) Uncertainty, risk.  (2) Self reliance, independence, freedom (if alone).  (3) Fear/courage, character development.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	Adventure: risk (actual and perceived).  Exploration and discovery of newness.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	An argument for travel is that everyday, repetitious, routine life lulls us into inattention.  Travel to new places and cultures puts us into a brain state of heightened awareness and excitement that can help us see more.  (2) Also, the ability to look at your own culture from outside your own culture is productive and valuable.	1/15/2004

Leisure, travel.	Argument for travel.  There is an analogy between society and individuals that goes something like this: (1) Individuals tend to be neurotic, and if you grow up and live with just a few individuals then you tend to pick up and replicate their neuroses because that is all you have been exposed to and that is all you know.  However, if you are exposed to a large number and wide variety of individuals, the net effect is that the various neuroses tend to offset each other and cancel each other out, thus increasing the chances of producing a healthy individual.  (2) So it is with cultures.  Cultures tend to be neurotic in one way or another.  If all you know is a single culture then you tend to pickup and replicate the neuroses of that culture.  But if you are exposed to a large number and wide variety of cultures then the cultural neuroses tend to offset and cancel out each other, thus increasing the chances of producing a healthy individual.  This is why traveling through many types of cultures is good.	3/30/2000

Leisure, travel.	Arguments for and against travel.  (1) Arguments against travel.  (A) The westernization of the cultures of the world has led to the homogenization of world culture.  Since every place is the same, why travel?  (B) People are basically the same wherever you go.  Human nature is basically the same wherever you go.  The details like food or clothes may differ from culture to culture, but life is basically the same wherever you go.  So why travel?  (C) Life in the USA, especially Manhattan is about as good as it gets.  We are blessed with freedom in this country.  Freedom to pursue our chosen fields to the fullest.  It does not get much better.  So why travel?     (2) Arguments for travel.  (A) Change of scenery can bring new ideas and thus, life-changing revelations.  (B) See yourself and your life from a more objective outside perspective.	1/27/2000

Leisure, travel.	Arguments for traveling.  (1) At a certain age people have a healthy urge to see the world.  First-hand experience for metaphysical certainty.  (2) It pays to leave the culture you were raised in.  See the world from outside your native culture.  (3) To travel to the other side of the world is a healthy exercise of will, and leaves one feeling empowered.  (4) The sense of freedom.  The sense of independence and self-reliance.  (5) The sense of exploration and curiosity.  We all need, as individuals, to discover.  (6)(A) Meeting people.  So many.  So beautiful.  (B) See the earth.  The big, vast, fragile, beautiful earth.  Teeming with life.  (C) See what man has wrought.  (7) Decide if you can trust the news.  (8) See the other side of the tracks.  See how the other half lives.  You don't need to travel far to do this.  Usually just across the tracks.  (9) Change of scenery.  Get off the sofa.  Get out of the house.  (10)  The social status of "outsider" or "visitor" is one where people will often be friendly to you and open up to you, telling you things they will not tell their friends.  (11) Reinvent yourself.  Start a new life.  (12) Find yourself.	2/17/2000

Leisure, travel.	Epistemology of travel: Are we there yet?	9/25/2004

Leisure, travel.	How far a distance do you travel?  How long a time do you travel?	11/12/2005

Leisure, travel.	I think that there are at least two phenomena involved when we talk about travel.  One is a type of "nomadism" which holds that it does not matter where you go as long as you are going.  Movement for movement's sake.  Travel for travel's sake.  It is not the destination, it is the journey that is important.  The other is a type of expatriatism which holds that there is something better about another place which makes it desirable to go live there.  Be that desirable attribute the geography, the people, or even the water.  (Conventional expatriatism holds that there is something bad about where one currently resides which makes it preferable to live anywhere else.)  I think that both of these phenomena, nomadism and expatriatism, are perfectly valid.  I do not think there is anything intrinsically wrong with either of them.  However, there are two points I would like to make.  Firstly, geographic inclinations are subjective.  There is no objectively best place for everyone to go.  Secondly, geographic inclinations are widely considered to be a matter of taste.  That is to say, a matter of aesthetics.  One should go visit or go live wherever one likes.  People generally visit where they like the scenery.  To make travel and place of residence a matter of ethics is to say that there are places that one should go in order to improve one's physical or psychological health.  There is also the fine pointed ethical questions "Where can I do the most good?", which hinges on questions like, "What do I do best?", and "What needs most to be done?"	2/20/2000

Leisure, travel.	Its more adventurous to travel poor, alone, without experience and without a destination.  Also more dangerous.	6/1/2001

Leisure, travel.	Many young adults are attracted to the idea of travel to far off destinations.  However, arriving at a destination is not as important as the idea of learning to travel and the idea of leaving your current location (i.e., being anywhere but here).	5/29/2001

Leisure, travel.	More arguments against travel.  (1) Ecological arguments.  Pollution of jet airplane fuel production and consumption.  (2) Tropical diseases.  (3) Transportation accidents.  Plane crashes.  Train and bus crashes.  Car crashes.  (4) The trip we need to make is more internal than external.  More psychological than physical.	2/17/2000

Leisure, travel.	People who often travel sometimes have a travel-snob attitude.  It is their defense mechanism.	3/6/2000

Leisure, travel.	The reason for physical travel is to spur mental travel.  You don't need the former to do the latter.  You can sit in one spot and your mind can roam the earth.	4/28/1998

Leisure, travel.	The road: types of people you meet there.  Reasons why they go there: subjective, objective.  What they find there.  What they get out of what they find.  What they want to do and why.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	There are two main travel situations.  (1) You travel from your familiar culture to an unfamiliar culture for a short time and notice how strange the unfamiliar culture seems to you.  (2) You travel from your familiar culture to an unfamiliar culture and stay for a period of time long enough for the unfamiliar to become familiar and for the formerly familiar to become unfamiliar.  Then when you travel back "home" you see it with new eyes.	8/22/2002

Leisure, travel.	Travel = change.  Those who must constantly change and have a constantly changing environment vs. those who need to remain the same in a static environment.	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	Travel often leads to increased interaction, communication, toleration and cosmopolitanism.  Lack of travel often produces isolation.  Modern technology offers increased opportunity for travel.	11/12/2005

Leisure, travel.	Travel.  (1) Tourist, visitor, traveler, dynamic, movement vs. Local, townie, static, tourist trap.  (2) We are all tourists now.  We are all travelers now.  (3) And so nothing is authentic anymore.  Or maybe anything can be authentic and everything is authentic.  (4) We surf the web today.  To surf is to travel.  We travel the web.  The web is a road.  No more stasis.  (5) You can stay at home, but the road starts in your room now.  The web is on your desk.  No more hiding from the world.  (6) Kerouac was right, we are on the road, but its a mental road, a road of ideas.	8/24/2000

Leisure, travel.	Travel.  (1) Travel lets you step back and take a look at your self, your life, and your world.  (2) Two types of travel.  Travel to get somewhere.  Travel to get away from somewhere.	05/18/1997

Leisure, travel.	Traveling light.  The ultimate form of traveling light is to take only a credit card and a change of drawers.	8/1/1998

Leisure, travel.	Two types of travel.  (1) Travel and returning home.  (2) Travel and staying there.  Moving.  Changing one's place of residence.	10/5/2004

Leisure, travel.	Two types of travel.  (1) Traveling with a destination, a route and a schedule.  (2) Traveling without a destination, without a route, and without a schedule.  Travel for travel's sake.  Wandering.	6/7/2004

Leisure, travel.	Ways to travel.  (1) Minimalism, survival, few items, much knowledge.  (2) High tech, money, lightweight, bombproof, multi-functional.  (3) Ecological, natural materials.  (4) Inexpensive gear, a little heavier.  (5) Deluxe, luxury, expensive, big, heavy, bloated, many excess items.	1/20/2004

Leisure, travel.	When a modern human goes on a trip and travels to a new place, his or her awareness is heightened.  He or she absorbs more in a day, and remembers it longer, than all the months spent repetitiously commuting to a job.  (2) Explorers and artists are people who like to pursue the new, who bore easily, and who dislike repetition.  Whereas conservatives are people who like tradition, repetition and ritual, because the new makes them anxious and change makes them uncomfortable.  (3) Much of individual personality and society as a whole can be explained by people's feelings about the new.  Brain states of excitement, boredom and awareness play a big part in feelings about the new.	1/15/2004

Leisure, travel.	When a nomad settles down permanently in one spot then that is a strange journey.	11/12/2005

Leisure, travel.	When every town looks the same it is like traveling in a circle and returning to the same town.	10/25/2004

Leisure, travel.	When every train station looks the same, and the scenery between the train station looks the same, then that is not what I call traveling.  Its like going back and forth between two identical stations.  Like going to and from work and home every day.     PART TWO.  When every town looks the same, and the scenery between the towns looks the same, you may as well be traveling back and forth between two identical towns.  What is the use of driving when each town looks the same and the scenery on the road is unchanging?  I might as well be driving back and forth between two identical towns.  Like driving back and forth between home and work.	2/24/2002

Leisure, travel.	When it comes to travel, it does not matter anymore whether a person from any nation visits any other nation.  The only two things that matter in travel today are: (1) People from the country visit the city, and people from the city visit the country.  That is, people are looking for a change of  environment.  (2) Poor people pretend to be rich, and rich people pretend to be poor.  That is, people are looking for a change in their self-image.  (This is a separate issue from the country-city issue).	10/12/2000

Leisure, travel.	When you become a cosmopolitan.  When the world goes global.  You don't just lose national pride.  You lose regional color.  You lose a sense of place.  It is all blue sky and earthly gravity.  When every place is the same there is no place anymore.	3/29/2001

Leisure, travel.	Where go, how go (psychological, physical), and what do?	12/30/1992

Leisure, travel.	Why do people travel?  People who travel want a change, they want something different.  (Secondarily, people want fun, excitement and relaxation).  (2) But different food, clothes and languages are trivialities and do not constitute a real change.  (3) Its about boredom vs. curiosity.  Its about the new and different.  Its about change vs. no change.  (4) Some people go to the same beach house or winter cabin every year for twenty-five years.  For other people, if they are familiar with a culture they see no need to revisit that culture.	10/12/2000

Leisure, travel.	Why I stopped.  Travel became not fun and not interesting.  It became a pain and a bore.	08/24/1994

Leisure, travel.	You can be running away from something or running toward something.	4/13/2001

Leisure, travel.	Young people (teens) often feel a strong urge to travel.  I think it is a healthy urge.  I felt the urge to travel when I was young, and I traveled widely, enjoyed it and learned a lot.  I don't travel much today.  Don't begrudge me and I won't begrudge you.  I have nothing against other people traveling.  I just ask them to consider the environmental impact of their mode of travel.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	.This section is about leisure.  Topics include: ( ) Adventure.  ( ) Danger.  ( ) Fun and play.  ( ) History, current, future.  ( ) Outdoors.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) Risk.  ( ) Specific leisure activities.  ( ) Terms.  ( ) Types of leisure.  ( ) What is leisure.  ( ) Wilderness.	1/24/2006

Leisure.	(1) "Take it easy.  Relax."  There is a limit to this attitude.  If you spend all your time relaxing then you waste your life.  (2) "Enjoy".  Enjoy the good things in the world while you are working to solve the world's problems.	5/27/2006

Leisure.	(1) Effects of leisure activities on psychology and sociology.  (2) Effects of psychology and sociology on leisure choices.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	(1) Gain, development, growth, evolution, vs. (2) stagnation, vs. (3) loss, devolution.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	(1) Ideal:  Have plenty of free time.  Make the most of your free time.  (2) Problems:  Not enough leisure time.  Wasting leisure time.  (3) Techniques:  Track leisure time and activities.	6/3/2004

Leisure.	Adventure can occur in any environment.  For example, in the city or in nature.	6/4/2000

Leisure.	Adventure has both negative risk and positive risk.  (1) Negative risk:  Danger or obstacles.  Of known probability or unknown probability.  (2) Positive risk.  Rewards or opportunities.  Of known probability or unknown probability.	6/4/2000

Leisure.	Adventure is relative to individual.  Adventure on purpose vs. accidental adventures (epics).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Adventure.  Different levels of adventure.  (1) Visit a town that you have never visited before.  (2) Go apple picking outside in a field.  (3)  Go hiking on a well marked trail.  (4) Hike off trail.  Camp overnight.  (5) Go skiing on marked trails.  (6) Ski off trail.  (7) Explore a region that no human has explored before.  (8) Increase objective dangers, for example, weather, avalanche, etc.  (9) Longer trips.  Multi-day trips.  Multi-week trips.	10/10/2005

Leisure.	Adventure.  The adventure of exploration.  The thrill of going where you have never gone before.  The thrill of walking where no other person has ever walked.  At some point, every square foot of earth shall be trodden.	10/30/2005

Leisure.	Athletic virtues:  Aerobic strength.  Anaerobic endurance.  Balance, coordination.  Flexibility.  Speed.  Accuracy.  Efficiency of movement.  Fluidity.	1/1/2001

Leisure.	Causes and effects of leisure choices by individual and society.  Causes (psychological and physical) vs. effects (psychological and physical).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Choices available vs. restraints and limits.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Danger and excitement (kicks, big smile, big bang).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Danger sports.  Adrenaline, endorphin, serotonin, acetylcholine.  Rush of mind altering, naturally produced chemicals.  Taking you to new places, with mind blowing intensity.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Disneyland as virtual reality, a model of reality, not the real world, and so to are all guided adventures.	4/23/2002

Leisure.	Epistemology of leisure: Are we having fun yet?	5/14/2004

Leisure.	Exploration: searching and discovery of an experience, object, or idea.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Four ways of wilderness travel.  (1) High tech.  The latest and greatest technological advances.  (2) Low tech.  Survivalist.  Few tools, but latest knowledge.  (3) Low tech historical.  Old knowledge and tools.  (4) Ecological.  Latest green technologies.	12/4/2002

Leisure.	Fun = enjoyable.  Play = non-utilitarian or non-productive.	4/15/2002

Leisure.	Fun.  Keeping things fun is important.  Depression makes things less fun.  Fun is an emotion?  Fun is play?  Fun is happy?	11/5/1999

Leisure.	Get as much leisure time as you can, and use your leisure time as productively as you can.	1/27/2007

Leisure.	History current future.  (1) Past: what did, why vs. (2) present: what do, why vs. (3) future: what want to do (now, and future), why.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	History of leisure.  PART ONE.  What has been the history of leisure.  In theory and practice.  How have past cultures answered the questions, "What is leisure?" and "What to do with leisure?"?  How much leisure time did people have?     PART TWO.  At first, in primitive, egalitarian, nomadic, hunter-gatherer tribes, there was much leisure time.  Then, with the rise of slave-labor and feudal agricultural society, there was little leisure time.  Most people engaged in constant mindless back-breaking toil just to survive.  However, there was a small leisure class of aristocrats who exploited the masses.  Then, with industrialized democracies there arose a middle class bourgeoisie who had some leisure time after the standardized work day (8 hrs.), the standardized work week (40 hrs.) and standardized vacations (2 weeks).  Child labor laws meant that children had more leisure time.  Longer life spans resulted in "retirement" as a form of leisure.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	Hobbies are really obsessions that people develop in order to try to avoid the painful problems of life that need to be confronted.	9/4/2005

Leisure.	Hobbies can be healthy or unhealthy.  An unhealthy hobby is one that contributes to avoidance of important issues via obsession with trivialities.	4/1/2005

Leisure.	Hobbies.  A hobby is a leisure time, pathological form of specialization where you focus on one thing in order to block out the rest of the world.  And focus on the moment in order to block out the past and future.  "Be here now" can be a hindrance as well as a help.	8/1/1998

Leisure.	Hobbies.  For many people their hobby is an obsession.  The obsession being a means to avoid thinking about the rest of their lives and the rest of the world.  Avoidance is achieved through distraction by attention to the hobby.  The hobby acts as a pathological form of specialization.	10/20/2004

Leisure.	How much leisure time do you need?	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Ideal state approach.  100% free time used 100% well (productively) vs. only enough leisure to support work time.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	If you had a billion dollars, what would you do with the rest of your life?  Lay on the beach?  Keep working your current job?  Try to help others?  Extreme sports?  Read books?	2/15/2004

Leisure.	If you spend all your leisure time "improving yourself" just to get or keep your work job then that is not really leisure.  That is to say, if your job demands constant off-hours thought or preparation then you have no leisure.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	It is important to ensure that people have leisure time.  It is unethical to force people to work 16 hours a day.  That is why there are laws for a 40 hour work week.  One could argue that it is unethical to do any one thing 16 hours a day.	5/1/2005

Leisure.	Kinesthectics.  Movement and gravity.  (1) Movement in three dimensions: zero gravity of space and floating in water causes weightlessness and atrophy.  (2) Movement in two dimensions with no friction, for example, ice skating.  (3) Gravity causes weight, and weight requires muscle and bones, which do work and cause fatigue.	12/20/1998

Leisure.	Leisure activities are affected by: (1) Changes in an individual's view of what is fun.  (2) Changes in an individual's view of what is important.	11/5/1999

Leisure.	Leisure environments.  (1) Indoors versus outdoors.  Who likes being cooped up indoors?  Apparently some people do.  (2) Outdoors.  Outdoors in a man-made environment versus outdoors in wild nature.  Wouldn't you rather go on a hike than go to an amusement park?	5/14/2007

Leisure.	Leisure theory (philosophy and science) and leisure activities (of society, of individual, and of me).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Leisure time is what made America great.  Leisure time gave inventors a chance to invent.  Without leisure time, inventors would be doing manual labor for fourteen hours a day.  The leisure time was  obtained through the struggles of the labor movement against the companies and corporations.	11/25/2005

Leisure.	Leisure, is it an activity, or a time period, or a geographic place, or a state of mind?  (1) Leisure can be defined as an activity.  (2) Leisure can be defined as a time.  (3) Leisure can be defined as a place.  (4) Leisure can be defined as a state of mind.	7/24/2004

Leisure.	Lifestyle sports: has its own language, fashion dress code, philosophy, and people often give up work to pursue them.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Many people have a wrong attitude that says work job is important and leisure time is unimportant.  However, that attitude is mistaken.  You need to "have a life".  Leisure time pursuits are vitally important for your life (ex. kids, mate, friends, etc.).  Having no meaning in your life is just as bad or wrong as being unemployed.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	Me.  (1) Wanted to do if I had unlimited resources.  (2) Decided to do for situation I was in.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Me.  I waste most of my leisure time.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Me.  My leisure history.  Attitudes towards it (then and now) vs. practice of it.  Why I did them, why I liked them, and why I disliked them.  Why I started, and why I stopped.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Me.  Past: what did, why.  Present: what do, why.  Future: what want to do (now, and future), why.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Most important idea is that our leisure pursuits should be environmentally friendly or green.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	Most important idea.  Workers in unions fought difficult battles to gain leisure.  Capitalists once exploited workers into working seven days a week, twelve hours a day.  Workers formed unions to gain an eight hour work day and a five day work week.  In their newly gained leisure time, workers went to school and improved their lives.  Thus, leisure is primarily a political and economic issue.	11/12/2005

Leisure.	Most important ideas.  (1) Labor union struggle secured our leisure time by gaining a forty hour, five day work week.  (2) Many people waste their leisure time in non-productive activities that commercial advertisers glorify.	11/12/2005

Leisure.	Most important ideas.  Leisure time is very easy to waste.  And it is very important not to waste leisure time.	12/26/1997

Leisure.	Most important ideas.  Sitting on your butt is not the way to spend your leisure time.  Do something productive.  You will feel better about yourself, and you won't waste your life.	10/30/1997

Leisure.	Nature.  Nature defined as that which is not controlled by humans.	5/27/2006

Leisure.	Non-competitive, cooperative, group leisure pursuits.  Frisbee.  Hacky sack.  Kite flying.	12/27/2003

Leisure.	Not all play is fun (ex. play that you don't enjoy).  Not all fun is play (ex. work that you find fun).	4/15/2002

Leisure.	Outdoor survival.  PART ONE.  Survival with no tools.  Get water.  Gather food or hunt to catch food.  Grow food or raise animals.  Preserve food.   Make shelter.  Make fire.  Stay warm and dry and fed, and watered and healthy.  Navigate: by north star, or by sunrise and sunset.  Make clothes and shoes from hides.  Make a pack.  Make rope.  Stone knife, stone spear, bow and arrow.  PART TWO.  Survival with minimal tools.  Metal knife and other hand tools.  Natural fiber rope.  Natural fiber canvas.  The ecological way.  PART THREE.  Survival with advanced tools.  Electronics.  Aluminum.  Plastics and man made fibers.  Matches and compass.  Guns.  Horses.  Writing.  Wheels.    PART FOUR.  Survival in extreme environments.  Cold (arctic or winter).  Heat (desert or summer).  Rain (rain forest or england).  High altitude (mountains).	1/4/2002

Leisure.	Outdoor.  How to distinguish types of outdoor activities.  (1) Environment: degree of wilderness.  (2) Needs and desires: heat, water, food, shelter.  (3) Technology.  Tools: nothing, or just knife, or mountain man gun and traps, or state of art high tech stuff.  Techniques: completely dumb or very excellent survival skills.  (4) Materials: rocks, plants.  (5) Energy: human power, machine power.	03/01/1994

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Backpacking.  Standing alone at night, naked, in the freezing rain, miles from civilization, not knowing where you are, not knowing if you'll die of hunger or thirst first, with wild hungry animals all around...like rush hour on the subway.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Backpacking.  There are three things in a backpackers world. (1) What is in front of his eyes (nature).  (2) What is in his head (thoughts).  (3) What is in his pack (stuff).  A gear-nut focuses on the third, to the exclusion of the first two.  He has created his own little world of stuff which he controls.  Master of his domain, king of his castle.  But the third is the least important of all three.	6/16/1998

Leisure.	Outdoors.  How simple can you live?  How light can you travel?  What are the basics?  What is the least you need?  Carry your home on your back.  Mobile, nomad, freedom, self sufficient, self reliant, independent, and individualistic.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Many people want to get back to nature, but only through a layer of plastic.  What a joke.	2/1/1999

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Sleeping outdoors is (1) Reveling in your freedom to leave (break away, get away) from parents and old family, and thus create a new family.  (2) To know you could leave for good, from any situation, if you wanted to.  (3) Is it getting to nature, or getting away from civilization?	03/16/1997

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Why do people go into nature?  To feel less dependent on society and technology.  To feel less a slave to society and technology.	3/21/2001

Leisure.	Outdoors.  Why do so many people go outdoors?  More specifically, why do so many people go into nature?  More specifically why do so many people go into wilderness?  I say, for inspiration and revelation.  Inspiration defined as an improvement in mood or emotion.  Revelation defined as new ideas, which occurs when immersion in nature helps bring our subconscious mind closer to the surface.	3/21/2001

Leisure.	Play.  Play as pretend, not real, imaginary.  Play as modeling.  Play as creativity.  (2) Psychotherapeutic aspects of play.  Educational aspects of play.  Social aspects of play.  (3) Play as competition, contest.  Play as cooperation, sharing.	5/14/2004

Leisure.	Problem approach.  (1) Not enough vs. too much leisure time.  (2) Leisure time not used well.  (3) Not enough physical exercise vs. too much time spent on it.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Progressivism and Leisure.  Progressives do not waste their leisure time.	5/5/2007

Leisure.	Questions for any specific leisure activity (x in general it).  (1) What is it (metaphysics)?  Why do it (ethics)?  How do it (technology)?  (2) History, culture.  (3) The environment, the act, the lifestyle, the people.  (4) Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  (5) Psychology, physical, and sociology.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Business and leisure.  The advertisers fight each other for your leisure time and leisure dollars.  They try to sell you an argument for a philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics), a lifestyle, and an answer, not just a product and a brand.	8/2/1998

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Economics: what do you put into a leisure activity vs. what do you get out of it?  Inputs or costs vs. outputs or results.  Benefits, help, gains vs. problems, losses, drawbacks.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Environment and leisure: beach, wilderness, urban.  People want to go someplace new.  Variety is the spice of life, they say.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Environment and leisure.  Most climbing ropes and gear, and surfboards, are not environmentally friendly.	09/26/1997

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Environmentally friendly outdoor gear.  Cotton vs. nylon.  Resources each uses.  Pollution each makes in production, and after use.  How long each lasts.  Cotton and wool clothes, blankets, packs, tents, how heavy, warm, waterproof are they?	09/20/1994

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Philosophy and leisure.  (1) Metaphysics: what is leisure?  (Ex. What is essence of climbing.)  (2) Epistemology: how do we know?  Only by experience?  (3) Ethics: what do, how do it, how much, and why?  (4) Aesthetics: the beauty of the activity.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Philosophy and leisure.  Aesthetics: The environment that you like influences what leisure activity you choose.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Philosophy and leisure.  Metaphysics.  What leisure is vs. what people think leisure is.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Philosophy and leisure.  What is leisure (metaphysics)?  How do we use it (ethics)?  How much leisure to get, and what to do with it?	07/22/1993

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Psychology and leisure.  Causes and effects of individual's leisure choices.  Psychological, physical, and economic/financial factors in choices.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Psychology and leisure.  Leisure choice of individual: society influences individual's thought and desires.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Psychology and leisure.  Leisure is an area where we often focus on the effects of environment and physical activity on our mental state.  (1) The effect of environment on mental state.  For example, we often go somewhere that has either a calming or exciting environment, and a beautiful natural environment.  (2) The effect of physical activity on mental state.  For example, we pursue engaging physical activities like hiking, biking, etc.  Or we lie motionless on a beach, which is just a step away from the meditative practices of Eastern ascetics.  (3) The effect of environment and physical activity on mental state is to change our attitude (emotions and thoughts).  The change in attitude can be to gain new ideas and emotions, or it can be to return to healthy ideas and emotions that we have lost touch with during the rat race.  (4) Humans would do well to incorporate these beneficial aspects of leisure into their everyday work world.	2/24/2001

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Psychology and leisure.  Psychology or personality type attracted to, or repelled by, any leisure activity.  Causes of individual's leisure choices, and effects of leisure activities on personality.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Psychology of leisure activities.  Compare the following activities.  (1) Nurturing, constructive activities like gardening, etc.  (2) Risk activities.  Climbing, big wave surfing, etc.  (3) Conflict activities and destructive activities.  Bullfighting.  Hunting.  Bear baiting.  Dog fighting.  Boxing.  Cat torture.  Harassment.     PART TWO.  We can divide leisure activities into the following groups: healthy and productive vs. non-productive vs. unhealthy and destructive.	11/15/2003

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  America.  Time available, typically in America.  1/3 sleep, 1/3 survival work, 1/3 leisure.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  America.  What do most Americans do in their leisure time today?  Married men take care of their lawns and cars, and watch sports on television.  Married women go shopping and talk on the phone.  Singles hangout in bars socializing.  What a big waste.	8/1/1998

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  America.  X number of people in U.S. spend Y hours doing Z activities.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  America's leisure activities: Eating, sleeping, sex, shopping.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  Groups and their philosophies about leisure activity and life.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  Social ethical attitudes toward leisure time and leisure activities.  Ideas on what do, how much do, and why do.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  The amount of leisure time and varieties of leisure activities  a society can get depends on technology, economics, politics, environment, and the society's philosophy.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  The current overemphasis in the U.S. on sports and entertainment.  Americans attempt to legitimize these forms of escape.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  The varieties of leisure activities a society chooses depends on physical, psychological, and economic/financial factors.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology and leisure.  The varieties of leisure activities a society permits, promotes, pursues, endorses, discourages, and prohibits.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Sociology.  The variety of different types of leisure activities that a society has: (1) Depends on the technology available.  (2) Depends on the creativity and inventiveness of individuals.  (3) Depends on the freedom of individual expression in the society.  (4) Depends on society's attitude toward leisure in general.  Does the society value leisure?  Does the society value fun?	7/30/2002

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Technology and leisure.  (1) Low tech (simple) and high tech (complex).  (2) A little tech (little quantity of stuff) and a lot of tech (big quantity of stuff).  (3) The two pairs are not the same.  Example, you can have a small (little), high-tech (complex) device.  (4) I prefer as low tech and as little tech as possible to get the job done.	4/8/2001

Leisure.	Related subjects.  Technology: as technology increases, will leisure increase?  If leisure increases, will people lose their edge and character?  If leisure time increases substantially, what should we do with our leisure time?  The thing is to keep working on systems (individual, natural, world).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Relationship of work and leisure.  (1) We must have leisure time.  We must not have a society that works people 12 hours a day plus 4 hours of commuting.  (2) We must make good use of our leisure time.  We must develop ourselves.  We must not waste our leisure time.  (3) A bad situation is one in which society provides little leisure time for the individual, and the individual wastes the little leisure time that they have.  Unfortunately, that describes the USA today.	1/22/2004

Leisure.	Risk, adventure and danger.	12/30/92

Leisure.	Risk, danger vs. safety, security, responsibility, duty.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Risk.  Floating through the air on a balloon festooned lounge chair, teenage hooligans, climbing, etc.  Young, fearless, men looking for excitement and adventure.  Doing creative yet useless acts to gain public attention.  Stunts.  Avoiding the boring and mundane.  They have energy to burn, and can't think of anything better to do.	07/30/1996

Leisure.	Risk.  Safety, regularity, conformity, predictability vs. danger, chaos, rebellion.  Some seek one, some seek the other, why?	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Sex, food, shopping, rest, friends.  These are things you "need" to do anyway.  Who says you do not "need" to climb, surf, etc.	4/28/1998

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Antiques are about: (1) Love of history.  Love of the past.  (2) Love of money.  Antiques as investments.  (3) Love of physical objects.  Love of the thing.  (4) Love of self.  The desire to "save the antique" is perhaps really the desire to save the self from decaying and dying.  And the desire to save everyone and everything from dying.  (5) A desire to stop time.  (6) Love of physical beauty.	2/24/2000

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Collecting and collectors.  Why do people collect?  (1) For money.  To resell at a profit.  (2) For meaning.  Sentimental meaning.  Historical meaning.  (3) For material acquisition.  To have lots of meaningless stuff.	7/12/2001

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Collecting.  Stamp collecting is the adult version of children collecting stickers, which is the human version of bird's fascination with bright shiny objects.  Baubles, trinkets, mementos, souvenirs, knick knacks, and brick a brack.	12/30/1996

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Hackysack is popular among deadheads because there are no winners or losers, or score.  You work together communally to keep the ball aloft.  It is cooperative, not competitive.	09/01/1994

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Men call phone sex lines for sex.  Women call psychic hotlines for a friend to talk to.  Empathetic listeners to soothe worries.  Soothsayers.	09/01/1994

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Pets.  Dogs are like dumb sidekicks.  Many people want a dumb sidekick.  For example, in the movie Superman, the character Lex Luther had a dumb sidekick named Otis.  However, if dogs were smarter than humans then few humans would keep dogs as pets because humans fear anything superior to themselves, and smart pets would make the humans feel feelings of inferiority.	9/10/2000

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Pets.  What is it that people enjoy about pets?  (1) Is it all about emotion?  (2) Unconditional love?  (3) Unconditional loyalty?  (4) Anything with eyes.  (5) Anything that moves.  (6) Anything unpredictable.  Anything semi-random?  (7) Anything with a pulse.  (7) Anything warm?  (8) Anything that lives and breathes?  (9) Like a stand-in for a child?  (10) Like a stand in for another person?  (11) A generic "other".  (12) So we don't go crazy?  (13) A connection to nature?  A connection to the wild?  A connection to life?  (14) Like a stupid human?  Or like a smart plant?  (15) We tend to anthropromorphize our pets.  (16) We are the ones who want attention from the pets.  It is not just the pets that want attention from us.  And it is not just that we want to give attention to the pets.  (17) We need something to love, anything.  (18) Pets as stand-ins for humans vs. pets as pets.	10/20/1999

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Scrabble variants.  (1) You can play Scrabble with letters on the wood tiles (the original game).  (2) You can play Scrabble with words on the wood tiles.  (3) You can play Scrabble with sentences or ideas on the wood tiles.	8/18/2000

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  Shooting targets.  (1) Stationary shooter and stationary target (archery).  (2) Moving shooter and stationary target (basketball).  (3) Stationary shooter and moving target (skeet).  (4) Moving shooter and moving target (dog fight).  (5) Linear movement vs. planar movement vs. 3-D movement.  (6) Speed and distance increase difficulty too.	08/24/1994

Leisure.	Specific leisure activities.  The billiard green is the poor mans lawn.  Your eyes drift into the expanse.	06/21/1993

Leisure.	Terms.  (1) Risk: Are the risks that we take in board games real risk?  (2) Danger: Danger does not necessarily have to involve a new situation.  (3) Exploration: We explore new situations.  Exploration does not have to occur in nature or the wilderness.  Exploration can even be mental.  (4) Nature: Nature is not always wild.  (5) Wilderness: Wilderness is usually nature, but not necessarily.  (6) Adventure: Adventure usually involves risk.  Adventure usually involves exploration.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	Terms.  Leisure theory includes such terms as travel, risk and adventure.  (1) Risk.  Risk means you know what the possible outcomes are but you do not know which of those possible outcomes will be the exact actual outcome.  For example, when you flip a coin you know it will be either heads or tails but you do not know which.  (2) Travel.  Simple travel means you are going to see and experience something that you have not seen or experienced before, yet you know what it is that you will be seeing or experiencing for the first time.  For example, traveling to visit the Taj Mahal for the first time.  (3) Adventure. Adventure is something beyond simple risk and simple travel.  Adventure is beyond simple risk in that in adventure there are many possible outcomes and you do not know what those outcomes are.  Adventure is beyond simple travel in that you are going to see and experience something for the first time, yet you do not know what it is that you will see and experience.	1/1/2001

Leisure.	Terms.  Leisure theory includes terms such as nature, competition, and adventure.  (1) Can you have adventure without being in nature?  Yes, for example, in urban areas.  (2) Can you have competition in nature?  Yes, for example, the eco-challenge race.  (3) Can you be in nature without having adventure?  Yes, for example, pre-planned tours in which you know where you are going and what you will see.  (4) Can you have adventure without competition?  Yes, for example, if you go and get lost in the wilderness.	1/1/2001

Leisure.	The body.  Dancers, athletes and manual laborers understand the body.  They understand the use of the body.  They understand the body experientially.  They understand the body in a way other than the way medical doctors understand the body.  (2) Its good to have a healthy body.  Its good to have an understanding of the body.  Understanding the body in the way a dancer, athlete or manual laborer understands the body is very close to access to the unconscious.  Thus, understanding the body is a step toward greater creativity.	4/10/2005

Leisure.	The coolest sports: climbing, big wave surfing, full drift auto racing (i.e., 1950's Grand Prix auto racing), and bull fighting.  The uncoolest sports: bowling, golf, tennis.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	The Corpratization of leisure.  The company softball team.  The company picnic.  The company holiday party.  The corporation wants your work time and it also wants your leisure time.	7/24/2004

Leisure.	Three philosophies of what to do with leisure time.  (1) Have fun, even at the expense of one's health.  Decadence, both minor (smoking, drinking) and major (Russian roulette).  (2) Rest, recuperation and relaxation.  Doing nothing.  Stasis.  Loafing, vegetating.  Physically and psychologically.  (3) Getting something done.  Accomplish something.  Getting healthy.  Getting wealthy.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	Three suboptimal pairs of attitudes.  (1)(A) The "leisure" mentality that pursues leisure for leisure's sake.  The non-productive use of leisure time.  (B) The "leisure" mentality that posits the highest joys as stuffing your face with food and then sleeping all day.  (2)(A) The "jock" mentality that sees everything as a competition.  (B) The "jock" mentality that sees the physical body as all-important, and is anti-intellectual.  (3)(A) The "fan" mentality that results in rabid devotion to the team.  The fan mentality that results in violence in the bleachers.  (B) The "fan" mentality that spends so much time and energy obsessing about a useless activity.	9/17/2005

Leisure.	Three ways of spending leisure time.  (1) Spending leisure time "improving yourself".  (A) Going to the gym.  (B) Going to school.  (2) Spending leisure time stagnating or vegetating.  (3) Spending leisure time destroying yourself.  Ex. Drinking yourself slowly to death.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	To have no leisure time is unjust.  To waste your leisure time is unjust.	11/10/2001

Leisure.	Travel and pollution.  Air travel pollutes a great deal.  Car travel pollutes less.  Bus travel pollutes less.  Bicycling does not pollute.  A person can bicycle about 100 miles a day.  Walking does not pollute.  A person can walk about 20 miles a day.  Motor boats pollute, but sail boats do not pollute.	5/22/2007

Leisure.	Travel.  The feeling of being a traveler.  Not settled.  Adrift.  No home.  In a state of flux.  A refugee.  An ex-pat.  A stranger in a strange land.  An alien.  A global citizen.  Thinking and acting globally and locally.	5/22/2007

Leisure.	Two things that I always had doubts about were mediated experiences in artificial environments.  Mediated experiences meaning when another person is controlling how you experience the environment, for example, a tour guide.  Artificial environment meaning an environment constructed by man for you to experience, for example, Disneyland.  So a mediated experience in an artificial environment would be, for example, a guided tour of Disneyland, something that I would not like to take part in.  On the other hand, an unmediated experience in a natural environment, for example, walking into the wilderness without a guide, is something that would interest me.  PART TWO.  What are my objections to mediated experiences in artificial environments?  (1) You do not have to think because you are spoon fed like a baby.  It is too passive.  (2) They take all the obstacles, danger, challenge, risk and uncertainty out of the picture.  (3) It is easier to be lied to.  They can shield you from the truth, despite even them having good intentions.  (4) If you are interested in "reality" then why accept a toy model of reality?     PART THREE.  Some people might counter-argue the following: (1) All art is a mediated experience of an artificial environment, yet people continue to read books, watch movies, etc.  (2) Today, the world (i.e., the living environment) we live in is mostly manmade.  At some point in history we went from a living environment that was greater than 50% natural to a greater than 50% manmade artificial environment.  So the world we live in (a.k.a. "reality itself") is a mediated experience in an artificial environment.  In this respect, the real world, defined as the world we spend most of our time in, is actually an artificial world, defined as a predominantly man-made world.  So why should it bother us if our leisure time is spent the same way?  (3) Another counter-argument is that all artificial environments are a type of mediated experience.  For example, a building is designed by an architect, then built, and then people walk through it.  Even if the architect is not personally present to guide the people through the building, he has still mediated the visitors experience of they building by how he designed the walkways through the building.     PART FIVE.  What can I say to these counter-arguments?  I say that I prefer to decide where I go and when I go and how I go there.  I do not like to conform to someone else's itinerary or travel plan.  In terms of truth, more often than not, tour guides hide the truth rather than reveal a truth that you could not find yourself.  In terms of freedom, more often than not, tour guides limit your freedom rather than increase your freedom.  (3) Tours tend to produce lazy, unthinking people who do not mind being overcharged, who do not mind being lied to, and who do not mind having their freedom limited.  PART SIX.  To sum up, the objection that many will have to "virtual reality" is that it is a mediated experience in an artificial environment.	8/30/2001

Leisure.	Types of leisure activities.  (1) Active vs. inactive or sedentary.  (2) Physical vs. mental.  (3) Useless vs. not useful.  (4) Mindless vs. not mindless.  (5) Work, play, lounge.  (6) Think, talk, do.  (7) Solitary vs. social sports.  (8) Competition with self vs. competition with others.  (9) Competitive vs. cooperative activities.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure pursuits available depends on technology, economic, social, and political factors.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  (1) Dangerous (risky) vs. non-dangerous activities.  There is a big difference between them.  (2) Hurtful vs. neutral vs. helpful activities.  (3) Productive vs. non-productive activities.  (4) Some people argue that any leisure activity can be productive if it helps that specific person be happy.  I will call a productive activity an activity where, even if the person did not enjoy it, something useful would still be produced anyway.	11/30/1996

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  (1) Education: learning and studying information.  Vs.  (2) Art: as performer vs. as audience (live or taped).  Arts as education and entertainment.  Vs.  (3) Entertainment: circus, TV, comedy clubs (art?).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  (1) Fun (enjoyable) vs. not.  (2) Productive vs. not.  (3) Healthy vs. not.  (4) Helpful (worthwhile and rewarding) vs. not.  (5) Frivolous and unimportant vs. not.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  (1) Party and celebrations.  Party hardy vs. laid back.  Solitary vs. social gatherings.  Talk, music, dance, booze/drugs, sex.  (2) Socializing.  With lover, friends, work people, relatives, strangers, mass social events, clubs and bars.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  (1) The Big 3: surfing, skateboarding, climbing (and hitching).  (2) Maintenance activities: lifting, running, calesthenics, bike, swim.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Chosen vs. forced by various forces such as social, political, natural, economics (time, energy, money, materials), and personal capabilities (psychological and physical).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Different versions of competition.  Playing for fun vs. playing seriously.  Playing for nothing vs. playing for bragging rights vs. playing for money.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Exercise: mental or physical.  Games: mental or physical; solo or group; sedentary (chess, checkers, cards) or active.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Leisure as rest and recuperation.  Meditation.  Laying on the beach doing nothing.  Down time.	5/14/2004

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Pastimes and hobbies.  Model building, collecting (stamps, bugs, etc.).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Pets, plants, and kids: their psychological effects on people.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Types of leisure.  Rest, relaxation, veging, sleep.  Not having to think, say or do anything.  Your mind neither running from nor pursuing anything.  Zen like.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Unproductive leisure.  America is completely obsessed with non-productive leisure time and activities.  Its been sold by advertisers and bought by the American public.  At this point most Americans cannot think critically to argue against it.	7/7/2005

Leisure.	Unproductive leisure.  It is important to get leisure time.  It is also important to use leisure time productively.  That second notion is lost on many people.	10/21/2005

Leisure.	Unproductive leisure.  Spending one's leisure time unproductively is a total waste.  90% of Americans use 90% of their leisure time unproductively.  I endeavor to use 100% of my leisure time productively.	7/7/2005

Leisure.	Unproductive leisure.  The nonproductive waste of leisure time.  Pure entertainment.  Pure hedonism.  Debauchery.  Sloth.  America has become a culture that values laying on the beach doing nothing.  Golf.  Drinks on the patio.  The American Dream is Sloth.	8/31/2005

Leisure.	Vacation.  (1) Who gets a vacation?  Not everyone gets a vacation.  Of the people who do get a vacation, some people get a paid vacation, while other people do not get a paid vacation.  (2) How much vacation do people get?  Some people get a week vacation, other people get a month vacation.  (3) What do people do on their vacation?  Some people waste their vacation doing nothing.  Other people do something positive and useful with their vacations.     PART TWO.  Useful vacations.  (1) Environmentally friendly vacations.  Eco-vacations.  Your leisure practices should be earth friendly.  (2) Volunteer vacations.  Work toward social justice on your vacation.	5/14/2007

Leisure.	We have in our society the notions of leisure times and leisure places.  For example, "After work" as a leisure time.  "The bar" as a leisure place.  "Vacation or holiday" is a leisure time.  "Beach or resort" is a leisure place.  Both work and leisure are therefore artificially created times and places.	1/8/2004

Leisure.	What is leisure?  (1) Survival vs. leisure.  (2) Leisure environment vs. leisure activity vs. leisure time.  (3) Leisure work vs. leisure play vs. leisure lounge.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  (1) Leisure survival (have to do).  (A) What, how, how much, why.  (B) Sleep, eat, piss/shit, shower/shampoo, chores.  (C) Procure or shop, maintenance and repair.  (D) Formal education (school).  (2) Leisure free (choices).  (A) Leisure work (accomplishes something).  (B) Leisure play (accomplishes nothing).  Sleep, daydream, thinking, obsessing, relax, goof off, waste time, sports, games, hobbies.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  (1) Survival work: your job.  (2) Leisure time.  (A) Leisure work: productive.  Need to do (ex. Chores).  Free to do or not (ex. Charity work).  (B) Leisure non-work: non-productive, play, loafing.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  (1) The old view of leisure: Rest the body.  Rest the mind.  (2) The new view of leisure: Exercise the body (all parts of it).  Exercise the mind (all parts of it).	9/25/2000

Leisure.	What is leisure.  (1)(A) Fun: enjoyable.  (B) No fun: not enjoyable.  (2)(A) Work: productive.  (B) Leisure: non-productive?	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Components of leisure.  (1) Joy.  Celebration.  (2) Play.  Games.  (3) Idleness.  Doing nothing.  Waiting for inspiration.	11/26/2000

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Definitions of leisure.  PART ONE.  (1) Leisure defined as "not working job".  (2) Leisure defined as "no responsibilities".  Ex. Hiring a baby sitter to watch your kids while you and your mate go to a movie.     PART TWO.  Leisure defined as "no responsibilities" gets into the whole area of ethical responsibility (see also Philosophy, ethics, responsibility).  (1) Things you have to do like breathing, sleeping, eating.  These are usually not considered responsibilities because they are unavoidable.  (2) Things you should do.  (A) Things you should do but can avoid (ex. flossing teeth).  Avoidable responsibilities.  (B) Things you should do and cannot avoid.  Unavoidable responsibilities.  (ex. ?).  (3) Things you contracted yourself to do of your own choice.  By written or verbal promise.  That you didn't have to do, but that you chose to do.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Fun vs. no fun.  Work is productive, play is nonproductive.  Either one can be fun, or no fun.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Leisure conundrums.  (1) If I get more good accomplished during my leisure time than I do during my work job then a profound metaphysical change has occurred.  (2) If two people fall in love during their leisure time, and if that love affair is the greatest thing in their lives, then surely work job has taken a demotion in importance vis a vis leisure.	4/12/2001

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Leisure definitions: (1) Unpaid, and/or  (2) Unproductive, and/or  (3) Fun, and/or  (4) No effort required.	09/10/1994

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Terms.  (1) Fun: anything we enjoy, for whatever reason.  (2) Entertainment: amuses us.  Entertainment vs. information.  Entertainment vs. art.  (3) Leisure: time, non-survival work time.  (4) Sports: physical competition.  (5) Game: a mental or physical contest or competition.  (6) Exercise: an exercise to stay in shape, prevent atrophy and mental and physical decay.  (7) Play: an activity, non-productive.  Child's way of dealing with reality.  Frivolous, not serious.  Practice for real world.  (8) A drag: no fun.  (9) Goofing off: .  (10) Recreation: .  (11) Hobby or pastime: a leisure pursuit, non-competitive.  (12) Rest: .  (13) Relaxation: .	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Terms.  (1) Play: Play is an activity, as opposed to inactive resting and relaxing.  (2) Exercise: Exercise is a maintenance action or a practice activity.  (3) Hobby:   (4) Pastime: noncompetitive.  (5) Lifestyle:   (6) Game: competitive, can be physical or nonphysical.   (7) Sports: physical and competitive.	4/13/2001

Leisure.	What is leisure.  The leisure-lifestyle specialist consciously believes that he or she is simply pursuing fun.  However, unconsciously, the leisure-community that the leisure specialist belongs to, and the leisure-belief-system that the leisure specialist holds, both provide a feeling of safety, comfort and protection from outside ideas and attitudes.  It also provides a sense of identity.	10/4/2000

Leisure.	What is leisure.  There is no distinction between work and leisure.  If you are independently wealthy, all your time is leisure time, but you may use that time doing work.  The only distinction is on the job vs. off the job.  Or actually, forced to work vs. chosen to work, since the same millionaire might take a job they don't really need.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Total leisure complex of individual or society.  Type, duration, frequency, and intensity.  What you do, why.  How, where, why.  How much can you get, and how much do you take.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  Total time and behavior = survival work (job) + leisure time (no job).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	What is leisure.  What can be said about people who focus on trivial leisure pursuits?  They know how to relax.  They know how to have fun.  Do not underestimate the importance and difficulty of relaxing and having fun.  Its a skill.  Many people do not know how to relax and have fun.  They are uptight curmudgeons.	11/26/2000

Leisure.	What things are fun?  (1) What things do most people consider to be fun?  Coffee, women and not thinking.  (2) What things do I consider to be fun?  Coffee, women and thinking.  So you see, I am only one off.	6/11/2002

Leisure.	Why do we have leisure?  Why try and get leisure?  Why study leisure?  How use leisure?  How study leisure?	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Why leisure?  (1) Leisure can be a way to avoid reality and problems, or confront reality and problems.  (2) Leisure as a means to catharsis.  (A) Without knowledge of problem or conflict, or (B) without solving problem or conflict.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Why leisure?  In leisure activities you can confront new situations and learn things that you wouldn't learn in everyday life, and thus grow.  Ex. sky diving.	01/01/1993

Leisure.	Why leisure?  You owe it to yourself to enjoy life.  The pleasures are all we have to counteract the pain.  If you give yourself a nervous breakdown, or perform suboptimally because you wouldn't take it easy, that's bad.  The key is to find the right type and frequency of leisure that produces the best "mind" for your work, and no more.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wild and free are two different things.  Four combinations.  (1) Wild and free (ex. an animal in natural environment).  (2) Not wild and free (ex. a civilized free man).  (3) Wild and not free (ex. an animal in a cage).  (4) Not wild and not free (ex.a civilized slave).	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wild.  Four definitions of wild.  (1) Untamed (unbroken) vs. tame.  (2) Uncivilized (ignorant, or without culture) vs. civilized.  (3) Natural vs. filled with meaningless social norms.  (4) Chaotic (unstable) vs. order.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wilderness travel types.  (1) Tools: low tech vs. high tech.  (2) Knowledge: stupid vs. smart.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wilderness: free, uncivilized, unconditioned, unbribed, unfearful, unfaggot, untamed.  Civilized: tame, bribed, slaves, fearful, faggots.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wilderness.  (1) Wilderness can mean a new unknown environment, or (2) Wilderness can mean an unspoiled natural environment.	12/30/1992

Leisure.	Wilderness.  The illusion of wilderness.  A young suburban kid might consider his local woods to be wilderness but it is not.  Similarly, to the first white explorers the Amazon rainforest seemed like wilderness, but the native Indian tribes that lived there considered the rainforest to be home.  So there is a subjective quality to the phenomenon of "wilderness".  Another example, the English saw the Australian outback as a deathtrap, but the native Aborigines saw the outback as a source of life.  So it seems that wilderness is a personal experience.  What adventure travelers pay for is either a personal wilderness experience or the illusion of wilderness.     PART TWO.  (A) Wilderness as an ecological term has to do with man's impact on the natural environment.  If man's impact was nil then there would be wilderness everywhere and we would live in it and not call it wilderness.   (B) As far as wilderness as an adventure term goes, there is no objective standard of wilderness.  Even if you say "to go where no man has gone before", well then big deal, who cares.  Even if you add "almost died trying", well then big deal, who cares.	5/18/2001

Leisure.	Wilderness.  The reason to go into the wilderness is so you can "see" civilization.  To be able to see civilization you have to see it from the outside as well as from within it.  To experience when civilization is not there lets you see what civilization is.	5/21/2000

Leisure.	Wilderness.  There are several things that drove me (and others) into the wilderness.  (1) Freedom.  I was so sick of school, parents, job and laws.  Wanted to just get away from it all.  Escape.  (2) Simplicity.  Wanted to see how much "stuff" you can live without.  (3) Natural.  Wanted to live as naturally as possible.  Less civilization, and less mechanization.  Beauty of nature.  (4) Undisturbed privacy.  Did not want to be bombarded with advertisements.  Wanted some quiet time to think.  Wanted to be away from people.	12/30/1996

Leisure.	Wilderness.  When an Eskimo was captured and taken to New York City it was wilderness to him.	5/18/2001

Leisure.	Wilderness.  Wilderness can be defined two ways.  (1) Wilderness as the places that are uncharted.  The blank spots on the map.  The places that we, as a society, have no knowledge of.  (2) Secondly, wilderness as the places where nobody lives.  The places that are uninhabited.  This weaker definition of wilderness says that even though we know what's there, its wilderness if no people live there.  (3) My contention is that the wilderness, in both of the above senses, regrettably, has ceased to exist.  With the advent of the study of geography, and especially global positioning satellites (GPS), there are few places that are uncharted.  And with the increase of the human population there are few places where people are not.  People are everywhere.	11/25/2001

Leisure.	You have no leisure time when you are raising kids.	11/14/1998

Math.	.This section is about mathematics.  Topics include: ( ) Applications.  ( ) Branches.  ( ) Philosophy of math.	1/24/2006

Math.	(1) What separates the different branches of math?  Different types of numbers?  Different types of operations?  Different types of problems they solve?  Different areas of application?  (2) What do all the branches of math have in common?  (3) What connections are there between the various branches of math?	8/25/2004

Math.	Applications of math.  In science math is useful for putting physical laws in mathematical format.  Physics.  Engineering.  Statistical inference in the sciences.  Statistics for public opinion polling.  Accounting for money.	10/8/2005

Math.	Applications of mathematics.  (1) Engineering.  (2) Accounting.  (3) Statistics.	9/5/2004

Math.	Applications.  Best application for your problem vs. overkill vs. underkill.  Cost of solution in money, time, energy and materials.	12/30/1992

Math.	Applications.  Most to least important, common, and useful applications.	12/30/1992

Math.	Applications.  Some important applications of math.  (1) Standardization of parts.  (2) Describe natural laws as formulas.  (3) Solve problems.  (4) Computers.	12/30/1992

Math.	Applications.  What areas of math are useful for what areas of life?	12/30/1992

Math.	Arguments against math.  Math is mechanical, algorithmic, rule-based, boring, not creative.	7/14/2006

Math.	Arts and math.  Music is very mathematical.  Visual arts can be mathematical.  Is literature mathematical?  Only if you number your sentences.	6/5/2004

Math.	Branches of mathematics.  Relationships of the branches.  Applications of any branch in subject areas (ex, business).	12/30/1992

Math.	Branches.  Foundations, set theory, arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, calculus, topology, probability, combinatorics, statistics, numerical analysis.	12/30/1992

Math.	Branches.  Questions for each branch.  How wide and deep is the body of theory?  How wide and deep is the body of applications?	12/30/1992

Math.	Computers and math.  (1) How has the development of computers depended on mathematical advances?  (2) How has the recent development of mathematics depended on the computer?  How do computers aid our ability to do math?  The computer can do many large calculations quickly.	6/5/2004

Math.	Computers and math.  Is there any math that cannot be done on a computer?	4/15/2002

Math.	Computers and math.  Mathematica software.  How much has Mathematica changed academic math?  Computer posed problems and computer solved problems.  Can math be automated?	12/30/2003

Math.	Evolution of mathematical abilities.  (1) Mathematical abilities in animals.  (2) First mathematical concepts in humans.  "One, many (more than one)".  "One, two, many".  "One, two, three, many."	6/5/2004

Math.	Evolutionary math.  (1) Math behavior in animals.  (2) Math behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Math.	Given you are in a situation, faced with a problem or challenge, when does it pay to use a quantitative method?  Which method use?  Why?  Time and cost of using, and not using, any method.	12/30/1992

Math.	History and origins.  How did human mathematical ability evolve?  What kind of mathematical ability do animals, such as chimpanzees and dolphins, have?  How does mathematical ability evolve in children?	4/13/2001

Math.	History current future.  Current state of mathematics.  (1) Measure everything, quantify everything, and keep all the data on computer databases.  (2) Data crunching.  The rise of statistical analysis done on computer, used as proof in court.  (3) Mathematical modeling, done on supercomputers, used to predict the weather, nuclear explosions, etc.  (4) Solving proofs using artificial intelligence.  (5) Andrew Weil solves Fermats last theorem.  The last solo pen and paper mathematician.	4/28/1998

Math.	History current future.  Who made what contribution to theory or application?  What was their work called?	12/30/1992

Math.	History of math by subject, geography area, and time period.	12/30/1992

Math.	History of math.  (1) Discovery.  Being unconscious vs. conscious (A) Of thing discovered (realizing you found something).  (B) Of knowledge that it was a new discovery.  (C) Of importance of discovery.  (2) Looked for vs. unlooked for discoveries.  (3) Expansion or refinement of existing theories.	12/30/1992

Math.	How important is math?  What tells us more about the world, numbers or words?  Some would argue that numbers are more important than words because the accumulation of numerical data gives us a more accurate depiction of reality than words.  Others argue that there are some things that cannot be quantified, that words capture better than numbers.  Other people argue that the most important things cannot be described by words or numbers.  Whatever they are.	4/13/2001

Math.	How much has math contributed toward making the world the way it is?  How much has math let us accomplish?  Where would we be without math?  What would the world be like without math in general, or any type of math?	04/15/1993

Math.	How much of the world, the natural world, the human world, can be modeled by math, or can be described and explained by math?  I.e. How powerful and useful is math?  What can't math do yet or ever?	11/30/2003

Math.	If there are six billion people on earth, and 365 days in a year, then you share your birthday with how many people?  Approximately 16 million?	7/11/2001

Math.	Infinity: forever.  Zero: nothingness, void.  Both are very cool mathematical concepts because neither actually exist.  They are imaginary.	1/18/1999

Math.	Logic and math.  Is math a form of logic?  Is logic a form of math?  If math and logic are two different things, how are they similar and different?	6/5/2004

Math.	Logic and math.  Reducing math to logic.  How close did Russell come to reducing math to logic?	4/15/2002

Math.	Math is all about measurement.  Measurement is about small equal gradations being more exact than adjectives like light and heavy, etc.  Once you can measure, it becomes all about gathering and recording a lot of data, and analyzing it for patterns.  Not a single equation need be done.  No math, just numbers.	8/1/1998

Math.	Math of the future.  Mathematicians will think of problems, and reasoning computers will solve them.	01/06/1997

Math.	Math to describe situations vs. math to solve problems.	4/15/2002

Math.	Mathematical knowledge.  Math is an area in which we are supposed to be positively sure of our knowledge.  True by definition.  True by logic.	10/12/2006

Math.	Mathematical theory vs. application (technology).  Discovery of, and organization of each.	12/30/1992

Math.	Number.  (1) The thing.  Number of physical objects.  Units of measurement.  Lumpy.  (2) The written symbol and the spoken word.  (3) The idea: infinity, progression, smooth.	12/30/1992

Math.	Our society has little patience for things that cannot be quantified with numbers, and even less patience for things that cannot be described with words.	4/13/2001

Math.	Philosophy of math.  (1) Metaphysics: metaphysical status of number.  Various theories.  (2) Epistemology: arguments for above metaphysical theories.  Epistemological status of mathematical proof.	12/30/1992

Math.	Philosophy of math.  (1) What is a number?  This question is often viewed as the main question in the philosophy of math, but the following questions are just as important.  (2) What is an operation?  (3) What does "equals" mean?  (4) What is a mathematical proof?	7/12/2002

Math.	Philosophy of math.  Epistemology.  Proof types: absolute mathematical proof or disproof.	12/30/1992

Math.	Philosophy of math.  Thing, idea, number (is just like) thing, idea, word.	12/30/1992

Math.	Philosophy of math.  What is a number?  Answers can vary because there are many types of numbers: whole, natural, integer, real, rational, irrational and transcendental numbers.  One possible view is number as concrete amount or quantity, for example, whole numbers and fractions.  Another view is number as abstract idea or concept, for example, negative numbers and randomly repeating numbers like pi.	7/12/2002

Math.	Putting a problem or data in logical or numerical form, and figuring out how to solve the problem.	12/30/1992

Math.	Related terms.  Math, logic and computers.  Functions, algorithms, laws, rules.	4/15/2002

Math.	Science and math.  Math enables science by allowing experiments to be quantified.	6/5/2004

Math.	Terms to be analyzed: concepts, laws, operations, and elements.	12/30/1992

Math.	The psychological aspects of the concepts of number and quantification are more interesting than the philosophical aspects of those same concepts.  How did mathematical ability evolve in animals and humans?	1/24/2002

Math.	Time and temperature are both arbitrary manmade creations.	1/18/1999

Math.	What are the limits of math?  Will mathematical knowledge grow endlessly or have we figured out almost all of math?	4/13/2001

Math.	What can be quantified?  (1) What can be counted?  Anything there is more than one of.  (2) What can be expressed in an equation or expression?  Anything that has a regular pattern.  (3) What is a regular pattern?  Anything that repeats.  Anything that humans notice repeating.  (4) Are there regular patterns that humans cannot recognize but that other animals or computers can recognize?  Yes.  (5) A statistical pattern is a type of a pattern.  (6) How does recognizing patterns help?  It helps determine cause and effect.  (7) Is math as useful in the social sciences as the hard sciences?  Are there social laws as well as natural laws?	5/24/2005

Math.	What can be quantified?  Anything?  What can't be quantified?	10/5/1999

Math.	What can't be quantified?  All the values that modern society under emphasizes, like emotions.  Our society devalues things that can't be quantified.  That is a big mistake.	6/5/2004

Math.	What is the difference between an operation and a function?  Operations are performed on two numbers.  Functions are performed on a single number.	5/12/2005

Math.	What types of math are used in today's society?  How often are they used?  How important is the use?	04/15/1993

Math.	What.  (1) Math is law-like.  Math is good for developing scientific laws.  (2) Math is rule-like.  Logic is rule-like.  Laws are rule-like.	4/22/1999

Math.	What.  (1) Notation: symbolization of idea of physical quantity.  (2) Quantity: amount.  Space (distance, size, volume), time, weight.	12/30/1992

Math.	What.  Math is the relationships of quantities which are symbolized or modeled by numbers.  Numbers are ideas or concepts symbolized.	12/30/1992

Math.	Where does math end and computing begin?  Where does math end and philosophy begin?	08/24/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	 What is beautiful?  What are our aesthetic values and standards?  (1)(A) Healthy is beautiful.  A person "glowing" after jogging can be beautiful.  (B) Natural is beautiful.  A person who has not had their face lifted ten times can be beautiful.  (2)(A) Rich is not beautiful.  Being covered in rare jewels is not beautiful.  Blood diamonds are not beautiful.  (B) Artificial is not beautiful.  Being caked in makeup is not beautiful.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, aesthetics.	.See also: Arts, general.	6/1/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	.This section is about aesthetics.  Topics include: ( ) Aesthetics of new and used.  ( ) Beauty.  ( ) Biology of beauty.  ( ) Ethics and aesthetics.  ( ) Psychology and aesthetics.  ( ) Related subjects.  Psych and soc.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, aesthetics.	A person's views about aesthetics are shaped by a person's world view.  A person's views world view is shaped by their environment (natural environment, social environment, psychological environment, etc.), and by their own behaviors (thoughts, actions, etc.), and by their needs.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic experience.  Can a person have an aesthetic experience?  No.  People have experiences, of which aesthetics is one dimension, but there is no such thing as experience of aesthetics alone, separate from the rest of the world.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic judgment is a thought process.  Aesthetic judgment is a thought process that also takes into account one's emotional reactions to a work of art.  Thus, aesthetic judgment is an attitude.	7/12/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic knowledge.  (1) Over the course of a life, a person develops a set of ideas about aesthetics.  A person's set of ideas about aesthetics can be simple or complex.  A person's set of ideas about aesthetics can be fuzzy or clear.  A person's set of ideas about aesthetics can be subconscious or conscious.  (2)(A) Some people will argue that aesthetic knowledge should be viewed as a subset of general knowledge.  In this view, aesthetics is not accorded any special position.  People who hold this view, that talking about aesthetics is primarily talking about semiotics and ethics, will tend to argue that there is no special type of aesthetic knowledge.  (B) Other people will argue that aesthetic knowledge is a unique method of knowledge.  People who hold this view, that aesthetics stands on its own, will tend to argue that knowledge of aesthetics is a special type of knowledge.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic knowledge.  A person can communicate a set of ideas about aesthetics to another person, and call it aesthetic education.  One can then argue whether aesthetic education, or art education, should be taught in school.  Many schools have classes in music, visual arts and literature.  There are people trying to devalue art education.  There are people trying to defund art education.  One way people try to defund art education is to launch an attack on aesthetics.  I think art education is important.  (See: Arts, general.)	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic senses of attraction vs. repulsion.  Like vs. dislike.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic systems.  (1) Ideas on all issues in aesthetics of an individual, or of a society.  (2) Change in personal aesthetic system.  (3) Differences in aesthetic systems, explanations of.  (4) Conscious vs. unconscious aesthetic system.  Simple vs. complex aesthetic system.  Healthy vs. unhealthy aesthetic system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetic value.  Some people argue that there is such a thing as aesthetic value, and that aesthetic value is distinct and separable from ethical value and epistemological value.  (2) Other people argue that there is no such thing as aesthetic value.  Aesthetic value is merely other types of value mis-recognized and mis-named.  (3) Still other people argue that there is such a thing as aesthetic value, but aesthetic values are inextricably linked with ethical values and epistemological values.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics by subject area.  (1) Natural (see also environment). Landscapes, skyscapes, waterscapes.  (2) Manmade.  Tech: designing tools as aesthetically pleasing.  Art: when does something become art.  Junk: when is art junk.  (3) People: aesthetics of.  Psychological: mind, personality, character.  Physical: face, body, behavior: style, action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics has to do with the relationship of three things: (1) object viewed, (2) environment or context the viewing takes place in, (3) and the viewer.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics is relative to context and viewer.  (1) The same object is viewed differently in different environments or contexts.  (2) The same object is viewed differently by different viewers.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used is really about the aesthetics of rich and poor.  Rich people generally like old things only if they are expensive, authentic and in mint condition.  Poor people are seen as owning old and worn things.  Poor people are also seen as owning faux items (ex. naugahyde is faux leather).	11/20/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  (1) Dirty and worn are two different concepts.  Some things are old and worn yet clean.  Some new things get filthy quickly.  (2) Dirty.  There is a difference between clean dirt like farm soil and festering filth like a toxic dump.	12/30/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  (1) Some people are obsessed with antiques because antiques are valuable, old and in mint condition.  Obsession with antiques can border on psychopathology.  Do not be obsessed with objects.  Do not be obsessed with antique objects.  Be comfortable with ordinary, plain, worn objects.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  (1) Some people are obsessed with owning things that are brand new.  (2) Some people are obsessed with owning things that are in mint condition.  (3) Some people are obsessed with owning things that are immaculately clean.  (4) Obsession with things that are new, mint and clean is a type of psychopathology.  Do not be obsessed with objects.  Do not be obsessed with new, mint and clean objects.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  Four concepts:  Old vs. New.  Faux Old vs. Faux New.  (1) Old.  Old money and walnut paneling and upholstered chairs.  Worn blue jeans and worn bomber jackets.  (2) New.  New money.  Latest and greatest gadgets.  White sneakers.  (3) Faux old.  New restaurants that try to look like the 1800's.  (4) Faux New.  Face lifts, on people and on buildings.	9/18/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  Four concepts.  (1) Old: antiques and classics.  (2) New: avant-garde and trendy.  (3) Faux-old: prewashed jeans.  (4) Faux-new: aluminum siding.	9/18/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  Related concepts.  (1) Old (tested) vs. New (untested).  (2) Clean (mint) vs. Dirty (worn).  (3) Fake (faux) vs. Authentic (genuine).  People who like clean generally like new.  People who like authentic generally do not mind dirty.	9/18/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Aesthetics of new and used.  Some old things are still in new (mint) condition.  Some old things are in used (worn) condition.  New things are generally in mint condition.	9/18/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Appearances vs. substance.  (1) Aesthetics is about appearances.  Appearances count, they have an impact (For example, first impressions are important).  When appearances differ from reality, we consider it a lie and bad.  (2) If you pretty up the city, do crime rates go down?  Because it appears to people that things are going well, and so they don't feel desperate, and so they don't commit crimes.  When things are ugly it appears things are not going well, and times appear desperate, and so crime goes up.  The broken windows theory, which addresses quality of life issues, is really about aesthetics.  This is one way how aesthetics is linked to ethics.	5/15/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Artist and aesthetics.  (1) The uniqueness of an artists perspective (mind and experience).  The uniqueness of an artists aesthetic system.  (2) The quality of artists aesthetic system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beautiful and pleasing works of art vs. important works of art.  Important works of art challenge our conception of art and the world.  Important works of art advance our conception of art and the world.  Beauty is not that important an aesthetic term.  Aesthetics is not all about beauty.  "Important" is the important term in aesthetics.  It is more important for a work of art to be "important' than to be "beautiful".	5/8/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty as a relative and arbitrary term.  (1) Beauty and ugliness as completely relative terms which vary from person to person, and from culture to culture.  (2) Much of beauty is arbitrary.  Ex. arbitrary cultural color codes.  Why should one color symbolize one thing in one culture and another thing in another culture?	4/29/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty is a term that, by natural association, (1) We think that whatever possesses beauty also is ethically good (ethics), (2) And we love it (psychology, emotion), (3) And we are biologically, genetically, unconsciously driven towards it (psychology, drive).	12/15/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty is not that important a philosophical concept.  What we think is good-looking (or good tasting, or smelling, or feeling, or sounding) is not as big an issue as how much information we get out of it, how true the information is, and how ethical the views of the information are.	8/2/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) Beauty as a drive: (I want x).  (2) Beauty as an emotion: (I like x vs. I dislike x.  X pleasures me or displeases me).  (3) Beauty as an intellectual response (I think x ideals are good, right, and true).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) Beauty of natural things.  For example, flowers, sunsets, etc.  We usually call natural things beautiful when we consider them to be healthy.  (2) Beauty of man-made, non-art objects.  We call these things beautiful when they serve their purpose.  (3) Beauty of man-made art objects.  (A) We look for the artwork to elicit a useful emotional response.  Not necessarily a pleasant emotional response.  For example, Picasso's Guernica causes us to feel revulsion toward war (not revulsion toward the artwork or the artist).  (B) We look for the artwork to communicate.  We want it to enlighten, teach and educate.  We also want it to entertain.  We want it to expand our mind.  (4) Beauty of people's appearance.  We deem other people beautiful (or ugly) when we judge them, by appearance, to be fit (or unfit) to reproduce with.  This is a biologically evolved instinct.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) Is beauty a purely sensual concept?  Example: Visual for paintings, and aural for music?  However, words are not sensual data, and yet a poem can be beautiful.  So beauty must be more than just pure sense.  (2) Is beauty a purely artistic concept?  Can a math proof be beautiful, or only artworks?	06/01/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) Subjective opinions of beauty  vs. objective beauty.  (2) Physical beauty vs. beauty of mind.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) Various definitions of beauty, and my definition.  (2) Some criterion for beauty: balance, symmetry, refinement, power, truth.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  (1) What is beautiful and not, and why?  (2) What is ugly and not, and why?  Ugly as untrue.  Ugly as evil.  Ugly as unrefined.  Ugly as unaccustomed, strange or weird.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Art can be great without being physically beautiful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Beauty is a confusing and over-used term in aesthetic discussion.  The question is not, "Is it beautiful?".  The question is, "How does it make you feel, and what does it make you think of?"	4/29/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Biology of beauty.  (1) Humans have evolved so that they find certain facial characteristics attractive, or so psychologists tell us.  A similar phenomenon may have evolved with bodies.  And these traits may be abstracted by us and applied to non-human objects.  Why would symmetrical and proportional buildings appeal to us, if not for the fact that we like our mates symmetrical and proportional, with two arms, two legs, two eyes, and no missing or misshapen parts.  (2)(A) So we are genetically engineered to fear and avoid mutants.  So what?  This is not philosophically important.  Beauty is not a big deal.  (B) On top of our genetic pre-dispositions we have tastes which we have learned throughout our lives.  So what?  (C) The only significance of beauty is that spending time around ugliness may depress us psychologically.	8/2/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Biology of beauty.  Beauty is a survival instinct that evolved over millions of years.  Beauty is a shortcut for survival.  We say to ourselves unconsciously, "This will help me.  This is good.  I like this."  We come to these conclusions without thinking consciously.  We recognize beauty without thinking.  The only conscious thought that arises is "She is beautiful".	4/24/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Biology of beauty.  In humans the "beauty instinct" evolved over millions of years in relation to determining which members of the opposite sex are most suitable to reproduce with.  Thus, the concept of beauty is inextricably linked with sex.  And even when we generalize to non-human objects and call them beautiful, there still is an element of sexuality involved.  Beautiful = sexy.  Period.  Animals have a sense of beauty too; i.e., in choosing which animals they will mate with.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Definitions of beauty.  (1) Beauty as health.  Our genetic heritage.  Physical appearance of people.  And also beauty of mind as psychological health.  (2) Beauty as truth.  (3) Beauty as good.	1/1/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Ethics and beauty.  "Beautiful yet evil".  Some people are beautiful yet ethically bad.  Some artworks are beautiful yet ethically bad.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Ethics and beauty.  The conflation of the terms "beautiful" and "good" produces a confusion that results in the mistaken view that all beautiful people are good and all ugly people are evil.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Ethics and beauty.  The mistake of conflating the beautiful and the good.  (1) People.  Not all beautiful people are good people; many beautiful people are evil people.  Not all ugly people are bad people; many ugly people are good people.  (2) Art works.  Not all beautiful works of art are good works of art; for example, the evil messages of slickly produced hate art.  Not all ugly works of art are bad works of art; for example addressing the ugly subject matters of war and crime in a problem solving way.	7/14/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Five views of the aesthetic response, from a psychological perspective.  (1) Beauty is primarily a sense response.  (2) Beauty is primarily an instinctual or drive-related response.  (3) Beauty is primarily an emotional response.  (4) Beauty is primarily a thought response.  (5) Beauty is primarily an attitude (thought + emotion) response.	6/8/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, than anything can be beautiful.  When looks are arbitrary, and make absolutely no utilitarian difference, then anything can and does go.	11/01/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  If you want to elucidate the concept of beauty, elucidate the concept of the ugly.  Can anything be ugly?  What do we mean when we say ugly?  (1) Sometimes we say ugly when we mean unethical, and we say beautiful when we mean ethical.  For example, we say murder is an ugly crime.  (2) Sometimes we say ugly when we mean having a negative impact on one's psychological frame of mind.  For example, an ugly subway stairwell.  In this case we say ugly as meaning unhealthy.  (3) What is ugly to one, may not be ugly to another.  As in women.  (4) A work of art that draws attention to the problems of society may appear to have an ugly subject matter.  But that does not make it an ugly work of art.  It does not make it a bad work of art either.  (5) We thus get into the question of a good and bad work of art, as opposed to a beautiful or ugly work of art, the two being not the same.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Modern American society is obsessed with beauty.  Beauty is over-rated in our society.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Modern conceptions of beauty.  (1) Models: Cheryl Tiegs.  Carol Alt.  Cindy Crawford.  Paulina Porizkova.  Tyra Banks.  Kate Moss.  Christy Turlington.  (2) Movies: Audrey Hepburn.  Sophia Loren.  Marilyn Monroe.  Raquel Welch.	4/24/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Physical beauty is appreciated because it is a form of perfection.	08/06/1988

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Senses and beauty.  (1) Vision: We often say that things we see are beautiful.  (2) Sound: We sometimes use the word beauty to describe music and sounds.  (3) Taste and smell: We do not often use the word beauty to describe tastes and smells.  Instead we use the word "delicious, fragrant", etc.  (4) Touch: We do not often use the word beauty to describe the objects we touch.  (5) So beauty seems to refer primarily to things we see and hear, rather than things we smell, taste and touch.  Beauty does not apply to all the senses equally.  Beauty is biased toward certain senses.  (See also Psychology, senses).	1/9/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  The limits of beauty.     (1) Anyone can say that this or that thing is more or less beautiful than the next.  Yet consider a supermodel: can she be any more beautiful?  There seems to be a limit to beauty.  Some things cannot be any more beautiful.  We call these things aesthetically perfect or flawless.     (2) The next question is what does aesthetic perfection accomplish?  Perfect beauty does not accomplish much in and of itself.  The real value of aesthetic perfection is to allude to the concept of perfection in general (See also Psychology, pathological, perfectionism.  See also Philosophy, ethics, ideal).  Perfect beauty is as allusive (hinting at perfection in general) as it is elusive (difficult to find).  Yet in today's world of mass-production, quality assurance and plastic surgery, perfect beauty is a much more frequent occurrence and so perhaps becomes less significant for being less rare.     (3) A deflationary view of beauty:  Perfect physical beauty, and beauty in general, is on the same level as gastronomy.  That is to say, beauty in and of itself is like a plate of food that smells good and tastes good.  There is not much more to it than that.	1/6/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Three definitions of beauty.  (1) Beauty as technical skill.  (2) Beauty as cleverness or originality.  (3) Beauty as approaching our image of an "ideal x."  Example, a beautiful animal or plant.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Three objections to beauty.  (1) To revere human physical beauty is to discriminate against the so called "ugly".  (2) To revere human physical beauty is to be shallow, ignoring the deeper values of the human mind.  (3) Human physical beauty is due mostly to luck and therefore should not be revered as much as values achieved through effort.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Three views.  (1) Nothing has beauty (or ugliness).  (2) Everything is ugly by degree.  Perfect complete beauty does not exist.  (3) All things have beauty by degree.  Perfect complete ugliness does not exist.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Today, plastic surgery and mass production make beauty and physical perfection commonplace.  In the past, beauty and perfection were less common (more rare) which is perhaps why people ascribed more value to them.	9/17/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Types of beauty.  Cute, pretty (female) vs. majestic (male).  Trivial vs. noble.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  What is beautiful?  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder vs. classic beauty spans time and place.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Beauty.  Youth and beauty.  Sex and beauty.  Health and beauty.  All three are tied together.  Young, healthy, sexy people are generally viewed as beautiful.	5/15/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Can aesthetics be separated from psychology and ethics?  No.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Classic: important truths, condensed, high quality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Communication and aesthetics.  The aesthetic term "representation" and the philosophy of language terms "meaning" and "reference" are very similar.	8/30/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Communication and aesthetics.  We are talking about representation and understanding.  You can apply semiotics and literary criticism theory to the visual arts.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Curiosity of the new, and attraction to the new.  The new can cause attraction (curiosity) or fear, awe, wonder, mysteriousness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Development of an individual's (and a society's, and mankind's) ideas about aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Ecological sustainability is beautiful, appealing and attractive.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Epistemology and aesthetics.  Sometimes we say "I think this work of art is true, or honest."  So aesthetics has an epistemological dimension to it.  Good art communicates the truth of life and the human experience.  Bad art is sham and bogus.	01/01/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Ethics and aesthetics.  Aesthetics depends on values which depends on perceived and actual needs.  Pure aesthetic experience (devoid of ethics) does not exist.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Ethics and aesthetics.  Beautiful as good.  Ugly as bad.  This view discriminates against ugly people.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Ethics and aesthetics.  Beautiful as promoting health, survival, catharsis.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Ethics and aesthetics.  Beauty is a function of values, a function of ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Everything aesthetic.  (1) Everything we sense has an aesthetic quality, whether we like it or not, and the aesthetic quality affects us, whether we know it or not.  Each thing says something different aesthetically, and each of us interprets what each thing is saying slightly differently.  Usually there is some consensus of agreement about what something says.  Therefore, giving thought to aesthetics is not a waste of time.  (2) Things like architectural aesthetics are important.  Form is as important as function.  Form is important, and function is important too.  In any situation, one can be more important that the other.	06/18/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Everything aesthetic.  The aesthetic nature of everything.  Everything has an aesthetic dimension, of three levels:  (1) Pure sense/emotion.  (2) Ideas associated with an actual physical thing.  (3) Pure idea itself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Everything we do has artistic aspects, and everything is a work of art.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Fads, crazes, phases, and fashions.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Me.  Paul aesthetic system as exemplified by the works of Conrad, Melville, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Beats.  Surfing: speed power danger.  Climbing: risk.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Me.  Paul aesthetic system: soul power.  Soul: hip/cool; deep in thought, knowledge; feeling, sensitivity, perceptiveness; meaning; profundity.  Power: impact, force, strength.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Me.  Paul aesthetic system.  Emotionally expressive, concise, aphoristic, powerful, truthful, philosophical, psychological, anger, danger, humorous (sarcastic, cynical), skeptical, non-conformist, natural, wild.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Me.  Paul aesthetics system.  (1) Development of my aesthetic system vs. my current aesthetic system, and reasons for both.  (2) For what subjects.  (3) What I think is cool, hip, fine.  In general, and for specific arts.  (4) What I like and not and examples of it in specific works.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Originality vs. quality.  Much that is original is often not of high quality.  Much that is of high quality is often not original.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	PART ONE.  Gender and aesthetics.  (1) Female aesthetics.  (A) Views of women regarding what constitutes a good looking man.  (B) Views of women regarding what constitutes a good looking woman.  (2) Male aesthetics.  (A) Views of men regarding what constitutes a good looking woman.  (B) Views of men regarding what constitutes a good looking man.  PART TWO.  What about heterosexual versus homosexual aesthetics?  PART THREE.  Do the above aesthetic views about humans affect aesthetic views about nonhuman objects?  For example, would a woman appreciate a building that has "broad shoulders"?  Would a man appreciate a building with "round hips"?	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	People have generalized attractions to new/old, similar/different, strange/familiar.  They generally like one and dislike the other.  It depends on if they are bored or scared.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Philosophy of art is a rich area.  But aesthetics is meager.  There is only so much you can say about beauty.  It is a thin book.  So, ironically, it turns out to be true that "beauty is only skin deep".	8/28/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Popular mass acclaim vs. critical acclaim.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Power, impact.  Affect of an environment or artwork on viewer.  Aesthetic power (emotional impact and intellectual impact) of an artwork.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Aesthetics and emotion, personality type, and taste.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Aesthetics and sense involved: to see, hear, smell, taste, feel/touch.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Calming and soothing aesthetics.  vs.  Stimulating and exciting aesthetics.  In music, visual arts, literature, movies.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Emotion and aesthetics.  Aesthetics of negative emotions of anger, sadness and fear.  Aesthetics of positive emotions of joy, happiness.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Psychology, emotion.  All perceived things evoke emotional responses (landscapes, buildings, pictures of same, clothes, everything) of different types and degrees in different individuals and cultures.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  The degree to which you can talk about a work of art is the degree that art becomes less a matter of drive and emotion, and more a matter of thought and attitude.	6/8/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Thought and aesthetics.  How much thought goes into your notion of beauty?  A lot or a little?  Some people say notions of beauty shortcut or bypass thinking.  Other people have many thoughts on what they consider to be beautiful or not.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Thought and aesthetics.  Notions of beauty are emotional and evolved in humans before the ability to think evolved in humans.  However, having evolved the ability to think, humans are unable to consider beauty without a thought component being attached to the emotional component.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  Thought and aesthetics.  Since emotion and thought cannot be separated, aesthetics always has a thought component, even if we focus on the emotional aspects of a work of art.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Psychology and aesthetics.  What is your favorite color, and why?  How is color preference a reflection of personality type?  Aesthetic preferences and personality type.  Aesthetic preferences as fulfilling unconscious psychological needs, not as reflecting conscious moral decisions.	01/01/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Related subjects.  (1) Aesthetics and psychology: (A) the sensory intake, (B) the emotional reaction, (C) the memory triggers.  (2) Aesthetics and communication.  The artist as trying to say something.  Interpretation and translation of work the of art.  (3) Aesthetics and ethics.  Is this a good work of art?  The beautiful as the good and the true.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Relativity (aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder) vs. consensus through time and space (of experts who have seen a lot of art).	6/30/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Representation of ideas or reality, in words, pictures, or sound.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sex, gender and aesthetics.  Male aesthetics: big, strong, awesome, natural.  Female aesthetics: small, pretty, artificial and decorative (makeup, jewelry, perfume, hairdo).	01/01/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sex, gender and aesthetics.  Trying to stereotype a male aesthetics and a female aesthetic is a mistake.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	So you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch something, and then you ask yourself, "What does that make me think of?  What does that make me feel?"  And then you discuss it with friends.  That's art.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sociology and aesthetics.  (1) To some extent, a person's aesthetic likes and dislikes are socially conditioned.  (2) Societies are often bigoted, intolerant and xenophobic in their aesthetic values.  (3) People must identify and improve society's ignorant and false values.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sociology and aesthetics.  Aesthetics and culture.  Western aesthetics.  Eastern aesthetics.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sociology and aesthetics.  To say that aesthetics is about communication is to say aesthetics is a social phenomenon.  This view of aesthetics is challenged by the aesthetics of natural objects.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sociology and aesthetics.  What a society values will determine what it thinks is beautiful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Sometimes people say that a particular house has "character" or "personality".  This is an example of personification.  Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things.  Personification is a kind of metaphorical thinking.  The point is that a lot of aesthetics is the result of personification.  Humans have a tendency to personify inanimate objects, and then make aesthetic judgments based on personification.	4/4/2007

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Standards of beauty are often arbitrary and frivolous.  The beauty industry fleeces people of money by coercing people to conform to arbitrary beauty standards.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Taste.  (A) Taste as when it does not matter which you choose.  (B) Taste as when you have no reason for that which you choose.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	The aesthetic response is more than merely deeming things beautiful or not.	6/8/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	The bourgeoisie aesthetic: neat, clean, pretty, new, orderly, perfect, conforming to the trend, coloring within the lines.	2/10/2001

Philosophy, aesthetics.	The ineffable.  (1) In one way the ineffable is related to psychological theories of the unconscious.  The ineffable is that which resides in the unconscious, and which we do not have access to.  (2) In another way anything that you have not developed the concepts to think about remains ineffable to you until you do.	8/3/1998

Philosophy, aesthetics.	The questions are.  (1) Is this beautiful (pretty, pleasing, pleasurable, powerful)?  (2) What does this say?  What does it mean?  To everyone, to anyone, and to me?  Is it making a metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic statement?  (3) What does this artwork implicitly value?  The connection of aesthetics to ethics.	07/12/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	The terms "beautiful" and "ugly" can be replaced with the terms "like" and "dislike".  A person can simply say that they like one painting and dislike another painting.  The terms "like" and "dislike" serve the same purpose as the terms "beautiful" and "ugly".	10/25/2004

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Things you love right off the bat vs. learned, acquired, developed likes/dislikes and tastes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Three views of aesthetics.  (1) A psychological view of aesthetics would claim that a person's aesthetic likes and dislikes are a result of psychological factors.  (2) A sociological view of aesthetics would claim that our aesthetic likes and dislikes are socially conditioned.  (3) A biological view of aesthetics would claim that aesthetics as universal, hard wired, innate responses.  To what extent are aesthetic responses universal and innate?  Are there no exceptions nor variations?	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Types.  Manmade vs. natural aesthetic experiences.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Uninformed aesthetic reactions vs. informed aesthetic reactions.  (1) Your aesthetic reaction to a painting, before and after someone explains to you why it is a great painting.  (2) Your aesthetic reaction to a painting, before and after you have knowledge of the history of art.	3/11/1999

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  (1) Aesthetics is about more than beauty.  (2) Aesthetics is about more than art.  Art is a man made object.  Aesthetics also considers natural objects like landscapes.  (3) Aesthetics is about more than sensory experience.  (4) Aesthetics is about more than emotion.  (5) Aesthetics would thus appear to be about quite a lot.  It would seem so.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  (1) Aesthetics is not merely about beauty.  There are many aesthetic concepts besides beauty.  (2) Aesthetics is not merely about art.  Art is man made.  Aesthetics is also about natural things.  Everything has an aesthetic dimension.   All humans react to the aesthetic dimension of all things.  (3) Aesthetics cannot be separated from ethics or semiotics.  Aesthetics does not stand alone.  Everything is connected.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  (1) If you are going to say that everything has an aesthetic dimension because everything elicits emotion in the viewer, then why not say that you are a psychologist who studies emotion.  (2) If you are going to say that aesthetics is primarily about the concepts of communication, representation and meaning, then why not say you are interested semiotics, not aesthetics?  (3) To claim that there is a distinct field of inquiry named "aesthetics", that deals with things like "aesthetic experience" and "aesthetic judgment" is too strong a claim to be justified.  (4) Is there anything left to aesthetics after one strips away the semiotics and the ethics?	11/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  (1) Some people use the word "aesthetic" to mean only a positive aesthetic response.  (2) A better use of the word aesthetic includes positive and negative aesthetic responses.  In this way the word "aesthetic" is like the word "value"	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  Aesthetics as simply things that flip our switches, and things which, for whatever reason, turn us on or turn us off, or do neither (don't affect us).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  Aesthetics does not deserve to be with metaphysics (nature), epistemology (mind), and ethics (action).	01/10/1994

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  Definitions of aesthetics.  (1) Psychological, emotional reaction to the senses.  (2) Communication.  Interpretation (social science).  Someone trying to say something.  (3) Ethics (is this good x?).  (4) Manmade as opposed to natural experiences.	09/15/1993

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is aesthetics?  Three views.  (1) Aesthetics is arbitrary and random.  Versus.  (2)(A) Aesthetics is personal, individual, psychological.  Versus.  (B) Aesthetics is cultural, social.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What is beautiful?  (1) Ecological sustainability and social justice are beautiful.  Progressive values are beautiful.  (2) Pollution is ugly, as well as being unjust.  Political oppression is ugly, as well as being unjust.  Economic exploitation is ugly, as well as being unjust.  One could argue that all emotional reactions have an aesthetic component.  One could argue further that all human thought has an emotional component and an aesthetic component.  (3) The human mind consistently associates beauty with truth and goodness, perhaps due to human evolutionary development.  The human mind associates aesthetics with logic, epistemology, and ethics.  Aesthetics does not stand alone.  Aesthetics is connected to the rest of the world.	6/11/2007

Philosophy, aesthetics.	What.  Humans have an aesthetic response to everything they encounter.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, aesthetics.	When we say "I see the beauty in x", don't we often mean, "I see the good in x" (ethics) or "I am in such a good mood that x seems beautiful to me" (emotion)?  Thus aesthetic sense is often based on mood.  Ethics is often based on mood as well.  This is why optimism/pessimism is important.  Emotion, aesthetics, and ethics are all mixed up.  It is tough to tell where one stops and the next begins.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Whether you think something is beautiful depends on  (1) How you perceive it (what you think it is).  (2) What your attitude towards that thing is.  (3) What you unconsciously and consciously think that thing means, symbolizes, or stands for.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, aesthetics.	Your mind-set prior to viewing affects how you see something.  Your mind set affects what you think it is or stands for, and whether you think it is good or bad.  Thus you can see same thing differently on different viewings.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	.Introduction or summary.  Various types of risk situations.  PART ONE.  The basic risk situation can be described as a function where there is an input and then there is an output, possibly either a positive output or a negative output.  In other words, one places a bet and one has the chance of winning or losing.  In other words, one makes a wager on the outcome of an event.  There are various types of risk situations.  Some of the types of risk situations include the following:  PART ONE.  Situations concerning the type of inputs and outputs.  (A) Input is of same type as output.  For example, gambling an input of money, with a possible positive output of gaining more money, but with the possible negative output of losing money. Vs.  (B) Input is of different type as output.  For example, gambling an input of money, with the possible positive output of gaining a raffle prize, but with the possible output of losing both your money and the confidence of your financially risk averse mate.     PART TWO.  Situations concerning the amounts of input versus output.  (A) Situations where the amount of input is the same as the amount as output.  For example, risking 10 dollars, with the opportunity of gaining 10 dollars.  (B) Input is of lesser amount that possible outputs.  (C) Input is of greater amount than output.   PART THREE.  Situations concerning the amount of positive output versus negative output. (A) Positive output same amount as negative output.  Vs.  (B) Positive output is more amount than negative output.  (C) Positive output is less amount than negative output.  PART FOUR.  Situations of single inputs vs. multiple inputs.  Situations of single output vs. multiple outputs.  For example, simple games usually have a single input and a single output.  Complex situations, like life, usually have multiple inputs and multiple outputs.  PART FIVE.  (1) Purely random situations.  (A) No degree of probability.  (B) No knowledge of probability is had by the players.  (2) Situations that are not purely random.  (A) Some degree of probability.  (B) Some degree of the knowledge of the probability is had by the players.     PART SIX.  When one speaks of the "odds", two phenomenon are involved:  (1) The human-determined probabilities that humans make via educated guesses.  (2) The actual probabilities, determined by the laws of physics.  (3) The difference between 1 and 2 is a function of how much knowledge or certainty humans have of the situation.  (4) Any control of the situation by humans, or interference by humans with the situation,, will change the odds.  PART SEVEN.  There is no guarantee, when you put in an input, that there exists the possibility of both a positive output and a negative output.  Situations where the output type can only be positive are called "you cannot lose" situations.  Situations where the output type can only be negative are called "no win" situations.  PART EIGHT.  Situations of uncertainty and certainty.(1) Total uncertainty means (A) no knowledge of output result types or amounts, and (B) no knowledge of the probability of the output occurring (or result resulting).  (2) Total certainty means, (A) Complete knowledge (absolutely sure) of the types and amounts of the output result, and (B) complete knowledge (absolutely sure) of the probability of the output occurring.	11/7/2004

Philosophy, chance.	.This section is about chance.  Topics include: ( ) Chance.  ( ) Danger.  ( ) Luck.  ( ) Opportunity.  ( ) Probability.  ( ) Risk.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, chance.	(1) In the English language the word "chance" means "possibility of good or bad".  The word "risk" means "chance of bad happening".  But there is no word that means "chance of good happening".  "Opportunity" perhaps comes closest but it does not capture the random element.  This is important because it makes people pessimistic to think only about risks all the time.  Viva the upside!  (2) A risk has an element of uncertainty of occurrence.  An opportunity exists whether you take advantage of it or not.  (3) The closest phrase we have is "chance something good will happen".  "Risk" being "chance something bad will happen".  "Opportunity" being "something good waiting to happen".	9/5/1998

Philosophy, chance.	(1) Knowledge of probability.  (2) Degree certainty or uncertainty.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	(1) Metaphysics and risk.  For any action in any situation, what is at risk (stakes) and what is the degree of risk (probability) for each?  What is the upside (gain) and downside (loss)?  (2) Ethics and risk.  Given the above situation, the question is: should you take (accept) the risk?	4/29/2001

Philosophy, chance.	(1) Simplest form of chance is single input and single outcomes of the same type.  (2) When inputs and outcomes are of different types it makes chance more complicated.  For example, bet money to win a prize rather than money.  (3) Multiple inputs and multiple outcomes also make chance more complicated.	5/24/2002

Philosophy, chance.	(1) The odds that the best odds-maker can give.  (2) The actual metaphysical odds.  (3) The variance between the two is called what?	5/24/2002

Philosophy, chance.	Chance, risk and ?.  Some people say that the opposite of risk is luck.  Others tend to think of luck as a neutral term, there being both good luck and bad luck.  If luck is the opposite of risk, that is, if we consider luck to be the chance of something good happening and risk the chance of something bad happening, then I say that if we build actuarial tables to assess risk then we should also, in the interest of balance and fairness, build tables to assess the luck one is likely to meet throughout their life.  For example, we all know the chances of hitting the lottery are usually several million to one, but what are the chances of falling in love?  Or what are the chances of saving someone's life?  Whatever the opposite of risk is, it is just as important to living as risk is.	1/25/2001

Philosophy, chance.	Chance.  (1) Given a,b,c, then what are the chances d will occur?  (2) Chance: uncontrollable vs. controllable.  (3) Chances as breaks, odds, percentages, probabilities.  (4) Chance = uncertainty, for better or worse.  (5) Anything could happen, it is scary and sad, and it is exciting and hopeful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Chance.  You only get one chance.  Once an instance happens it will never repeat the same way.  Chance of it repeating to what degree of similarity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Danger = potential for loss.  Loss = pain.  Loss = decay.  Loss = waste.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Danger = risk (probability, chances, odds) of a bad thing happening.  Perceived danger vs. actual danger.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Danger.  (1) Danger = chance (risk) of damage, injury, destruction or loss.  (2) Irreplaceableness or rareness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Danger.  Caution, safety, security, and certainty vs. risk, danger, insecurity, and uncertainty.  What level of each to go on an action?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Danger.  Disasters: natural vs. manmade.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	General vocabulary:  Chance, risk, probability.  Safety vs. danger.  Fortune, luck, fate, destiny.  Opportunity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	How is real life not like gambling?  (1)(A) In real life the inputs are infinite.  That is, in real life you can do many, many things.  (B) In gambling the inputs are finite.  That is, in gambling one is usually betting only money.   (2)(A) In real life the outputs are infinite.  That is, in real life, the results of your actions can be many and various. (B) In gambling the outputs are finite.  That is, in gambling the results are usually limited to winning or losing money.  (3)(A)(i) In real life the mechanism or process is complex.  (ii) In real life the probabilities of the process are often unknown and unlimited.  (iii) In real life the probabilities of the process are often uncontrolled.  (B)(i) In gambling the mechanism or process is simple.  There are only cards, or dice, or some other simple mechanism.  (ii) In gambling the probabilities of process are limited and known.  In gambling the probabilities are limited by the number of cards in the deck, or by sides of a die, or some other simple output.  And in gambling the probabilities of the process are known because the probabilities of a dice roll are known and the probabilities of a deck of cards are known.  (iii) In gambling the process is controlled.  For example, a casino knows the odds of a slot machine and can control the odds of a slot machine by changing the machine's internal settings.  (4) To sum up.  (A) In gambling, the inputs are money and the outputs are money.  In gambling the odds of the process are known and controlled by odds makers.  (B) In life the inputs and outputs are many and varied.  In life the odds are less known and controlled by us.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, chance.	If the universe is deterministic, based completely on cause and effect, then there is no objective chance (probability), and there is no objective randomness, and there is no objective freewill.  However, there may be subjective (viewer based) probability, and subjective randomness and subjective freewill.	7/8/2002

Philosophy, chance.	Life is an opportunity.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Luck vs. skill.  The more skill and knowledge you apply, the less you rely on luck or chance.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  (1) Anything can happen to anyone at anytime.  Things don't always turn out like you expect.  Best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, as the saying goes.  (2) What % of life is luck?  That depends on how big the good luck and bad luck things that happen to you are.  Example, if you hit the lotto at age 18, that's it, most of your life was luck.  (3) You can't tell how lucky you are.  Maybe you sat next to a serial killer on the subway who killed someone a minute after you got off the train.  Maybe you sat next to a million dollars in a briefcase but never saw it.  You don't know.  You can't tell.  It is tough to say.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  (1) Good luck: beating the odds.  (2) Bad luck: not even reaching the odds.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  (1) Good luck.  (2) Bad luck: unlucky.  (A) Pure accident.  (B) Unavoidable vs. avoidable.  (C) Unpreventable vs. preventable.  (3) No luck: no extremely rare, chance occurrences.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  (1) Luck vs. skill and strategy.  (2) Pure luck vs. human intervention.  (3) Luck vs. effort.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  (1) Pure luck.  (2) % luck, vs. % skill involved in an event or situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  Bad luck as (1) Natural disaster.  (2) Injury, disease, death.  (3) Destruction of property or money.  (4) Crime victim.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  Fortune, fate, destiny.  Unavoidable destiny: determinism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  Superstition is the belief in lucky charms, lucky spells and lucky prayers.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  Two views of luck.  (1) Those who believe in luck as lucky streaks that will continue once started.  (2) Those who believe in luck as controllable by humans.	9/4/1998

Philosophy, chance.	Luck.  You make your own luck.  (1) Things you can do that will increase your chances.  How much effort it takes.  (2) Things you do that decrease your chances.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	One can argue that humans have evolved the ability of odds assessment.  The argument is that humans have an odds assessment module hard wired in their brains.  That is one reason why humans enjoy betting so much, because betting is an exercise in odds assessment.  Yet if we do have an odds assessment module, why are so many humans so bad at odds assessment?	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunities for destruction = danger.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunities multiply.  One opportunity taken advantage of can lead to others.  Combonations of opportunity put together multiply exponentially.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity = freedom to do something your way.  Freedom = opportunity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity = what you could do (see ethics of could).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity theory is very inspirational aint it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity to create more opportunities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity to fu*k up.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity to succeed or fail big time.  It is up to you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity vs. ability.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity, ability and potential.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity: health, free time, high t, abilities, being alive, money, access to tools.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity: making the most of opportunity vs. wasting opportunity completely.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity: prepare for it, recognize it, and make most of it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity: recognize it and use it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  (1) Metaphysics of opportunity.  People say chance when they mean opportunity:  "You have been give a chance".  Chance is really about probability and risk.  (2) Ethics of opportunity.  Choose carefully from among all your opportunities.  Make the most of the opportunities you choose.  Work on gaining more opportunities (freedom).	5/20/1998

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  (1) You can have the ability but not the opportunity.  (2) You can have the opportunity but not the ability.  (3) Opportunity and ability together makes things happen.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Another chance to succeed or failure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Creating your own opportunities.  Take advantage of windfalls.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Don't blow an opportunity by forgetting its importance halfway through it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Getting and staying aware of all of what you have and could get, and not making mistakes evaluating the value of them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Just because you have an opportunity does not mean you should take it.  We have many (infinite) opportunities.  We must choose which opportunities to take.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Metaphysical status of opportunity.  Ethical status of opportunity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Size of an opportunity vs. size of the goal the opportunity will help you reach.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Size of an opportunity.  Duration of an opportunity.  Window of opportunity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Size of opportunity = directions and distances it lets you grow.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Wasted opportunity: doing nothing, doing wrong thing, doing it half assed, destroying what you did, stopping half way through before completion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  Wasting opportunities vs. using opportunities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Opportunity.  You only get one chance, nothing happens twice the same way.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Order, predictable vs. randomness, chaos, unpredictable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Probability.  (1) Probability is based on the fact that in some simple situations it is possible to mathematically determine the probable outcome of an event.  For example, rolling a pair of dice.  (2) Also, in some more complicated situations, it is possible to use induction to determine the percentage of time an event will occur.  For example, insurance actuarial tables.  (3) However, many situations in life are more complicated and there is no sure way of assessing the odds in very complicated situations.  (4) It is a mistake to live live without ever taking a chance.  It is also a mistake to live life recklessly, in the face of probabilities.  It is also a mistake to live life thinking that all the probabilities are known.  Life is often too complicated to accurately asses all the probabilities.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, chance.	Probability.  Predictable vs. unpredictable (unpredictable ever vs. unpredictable with our existing technology).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Probability.  Three views.  (1) Randomness view.  One view holds that there is total randomness to the world.  All acts are completely random.  This view holds that the physical laws of nature are an illusion.  This view holds that even human acts are random.  If the world was completely random then there would be no probability, or, in other words, the probability of everything would be zero.  This view is not credible.  (2) Probabilistic view.  Another view holds that there is semi-randomness.  This is the probabilisitc view.  Events have a probability of occurring.  This view holds that there is a semi-predictable nature to most events in the world.  Only a few processes are random.  Even humans seldom act randomly.   (3) Deterministic view.  A third view holds that there is no randomness in the world, in that everything follows the laws of nature.  The deterministic laws of nature assure there is not randomness.  In a deterministic universe there is no randomness.  There is only perceived randomness, when humans are unable to perceive  many complicated deterministic processes occurring at once, for example, when numbered balls spin in drum at a lottery drawing. Randomness is relative to the perceiver.  For example, when they pick lottery numbers by rotating balls in a drum, the process is only random in that it is too complicated for humans to perceive the exact cause and effect of all the moving balls at once, but the balls obey the laws of physics, and it is conceivable that in the future a powerful computer could be built that could compute the winning lottery numbers based on the starting position of the balls in the rotating drum and the centripetal force applied.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Risk = chances = probability (for better or worse).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk = chances of positive payoff vs. chances of loss.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk = probability of good or bad thing happening (see luck, opportunity, insurance).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk and ethics.  What's at stake, and what's the risk involved.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk and uncertainty.  (1) Uncertainty.  (A) Not knowing what will happen.  Not knowing the range of types and degrees of things that could possibly occur.  (B) Not knowing the probabilities of what could occur.  (2) Risk.  Not having any stake (makes no matter to you) vs. having a big stake.	10/15/1994

Philosophy, chance.	Risk for good (opportunity) or bad (danger).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk taking and ethics (see Philosophy, chance).  When are the risks worth taking?  See insurance business, see ecological health risks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  .See also: Psychology, emotion, bravery.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  (1) A "no risk" situation means the outcome is known with certainty.  (2) A "risk" situation means the outcome is unknown.  The possible outcomes might be known.  The probability of the possible outcomes might be known.  But the exact outcome is not known.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  (1) A "take no chances", "risk nothing", completely risk averse approach to life is not recommended.  A completely risk averse approach to life is, in fact, impossible.  (2) A  "too risky", "too chancy" approach to life is also not recommended.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  (1) Metaphysics of risk.  What is risk?  (2) Ethics of risk.  When is taking any given risk justified?  Danger sports, risk seekers, adrenaline junkies, gamblers.	5/20/1998

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  (1) Set payoff situations.  Example, the odds of success or failure of an event.  (2) Variable payoff situations.  Example, in sports betting, money payoff changes with odds?	5/20/1998

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Ethics and risk.  Should one risk much to gain much, or be safe yet unacheiving?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Living on the edge:  What you do there.  Why you are there.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Objective risk (actual) vs. subjective risk (perceived).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Odds = what the probability is.  Stakes = how much you are betting.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  People play the lottery and expect to win.  People fly in jets and expect not to die in a plane crash.  The odds for both are apparently equal.  To expect that one will happen and that the other will not is ridiculous.	9/10/1999

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Security, protection, defense, and safety vs. offense, striving, and attacking.  How safe will you play it?  Avoiding risk may mean avoiding growth.  Avoiding useless risk is good?  Who can tell what is a useless risk for who?  For young men, risk in itself builds character.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Terminology: Opportunity.  Probabilities, chances.  Risk: to gain, to lose (danger).  Stakes: put in, get out.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  Three different types of risk situations.  (1) Win a dollar or lose the dollar.  (2) Lose a dollar or break even (stand pat).  (3) Win a dollar or stand pat.	9/4/1998

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  What complicates risk analysis in the real world is that there are multiple actions you can take in a situation, and there are also multiple results (payoffs) that can occur.  In the risk analysis of simple games there is often only "single input types" and "single output types".	4/3/2001

Philosophy, chance.	Risk.  What's at stake?  What could be gained?  What could be lost, even before you have ever had it?  What are the odds: of success, and of failure?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risks to anyone, in any situation, doing anything.  Chances of anything happening to them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	Risks you choose to take vs. risks you are forced to take.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, chance.	There are things we can control.  There are things we cannot control.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Three approaches to chance: risk assessment, decision theory and game theory.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, chance.	Uses of the word "chance".  (1) Chance as opportunity.  Example, "Give me a chance".  (2) Chance as risk.  Example, "Do not chance it".  (3) Chance as probability.  Example, "What are the chances?"	4/29/2001

Philosophy, change.	.See also:  (1) Philosophy, time.  (2) History.  (3) Psychology, personality, self.  (4) Politics, left and right.	6/1/2005

Philosophy, change.	.This section is about change.  Topics include: ( ) Causation.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, change.	(1) Change takes time.  (2) Who changes what from what into what?  (3) Change for better or worse.  (4) How much change is possible?  What can and what can not change?  (5) Nothing good lasts.  (6) Change how easily vs. how difficult the change.  (7) Change caused by what: forces of change.  (8) Amount of things or number of people affected by a change.  (9) Change with how much effort or resources used.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	(1) New: does not necessarily mean good or better.  These people ignore history.  (2) Old: does not necessarily mean good or better.  These people fear change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	(1) The world changes.  Our bodies change.  Our minds must change to adapt to the above two.  (2) To learn is to grow.  To grow is to change.  We have the potential to grow, therefore we have an obligation to grow.  Therefore we have an obligation to change.  To learn is to change.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, change.	Being.  Ebb and flow of being.  Rhythms.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Causation.  (1) Related terms: Time and change.  Order and disorder.  Freewill and determinism.  Complexity.  Chaos.  (2) Focus of 18th century philosophers on causation is their attempt to explain the universe.  To ground the sciences and the study of history.  To say that everything has a physical cause.  To argue against the concepts of miracles and magic, divine intervention and spontaneous generation.  (3) There is a time element to causation.  A later event cannot cause an earlier event.  (4) There is a spatial element to causation.  No action at a distance.  Quantum physics is a counterargument to this.  (5) There can be chains and webs of causation.	1/1/2004

Philosophy, change.	Causation.  (1) Scientific view of causation.  (2) Superstitious view of causation.  Magic.  Spells.  Supernatural.  Hokum.  Bunk.  Bosh.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Causation.  Are all changes caused?	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Causation.  Change defined as causation.  All changes are caused.  Understand change by understanding causation.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Cause and effect.  (1) Physical, law-like cause and effect.  For example: B always happens after A.  B never happens without A.  (2) Probabilistic cause and effect.  For example: B may happen after A, or it may not, it depends on the probabilities.  B may happen without A, if it is caused by something else.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Change = time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change and me.  How much can I change myself, and my life, for better or worse?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change and three related concepts.  (1) Change and time.  (2) Change and motion.  (3) Change and causation.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Change can be of three types.  (1) Progress.  (2) Decay.  (3) Different, yet neither better nor worse.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, change.	Change creates the new, and the new creates the old.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, change.	Change defined as motion.  Is there any change that does not involve motion?  Are all cases of motion cases of change?  Air currents move in the atmosphere.  Water currents move in the ocean.  Earth plates move on the earth crust.  The earth is moving around the sun.  The sun is moving in the milky way galaxy.  The milky way galaxy is moving in the universe.  What doesn't move?  Blood moves through my body.  Thoughts move through my brain?  What doesn't move?	7/8/2002

Philosophy, change.	Change in and of itself.  Change relative to another thing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change in environment spurs change in ideas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change is relative: change of x relative to y.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change of the person over a lifetime.  Change in body and mind.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, change.	Change: speed and direction.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Change.  (1) Fast change vs. slow change.  (2) Change for better or change for worse.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, change.	Change.  (1) Metaphysics of change.  (A) Change and cause.  (B) Change and time.  (2) Ethics of change.  (A) People's attitudes toward change.  Liberals are pro-change.  Conservatives are contra-change.  (B) When to change?  In what cases?	6/8/2004

Philosophy, change.	Conservative (no change) vs. liberal (change).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Decay can be slowed, growth can be increased, net growth can occur.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Ethics of change.  Develop and get goals faster.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Everything comes undone, decays.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	False views about change: Some people believe in magic or religion as a cause of change.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, change.	History and change.  Two views.  (1) Change makes history possible.  This view makes more sense.  If there was no change there would be no history.  (2) History makes change possible.  This view makes less sense.  History is a product of change.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	How much can a person change themselves?  How much can a person change their life?  How much can a person change the world?	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	How much will you let them distort (change) your perception (metaphysics) and values (ethics), by narrowing it, twisting it, or replacing it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	How quickly and easily our lives can turn into a complete nightmare.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, change.	Inertia, fear of change, and paucity of change.  What happens is you are raised in a family and culture and nation, and you absorb the attitudes and behaviors that they hold.  And you also live with the decisions that you yourself have made in the past too.  The implicit assumption is that you, the family, and the nation are all good, and therefore the philosophical beliefs you hold are right.  To deviate from tradition, i.e. to change, is to (1) Admit you and they are wrong, and hence, not good.  (2) To be a traitor, an abandoner, and a rejecter.  (3)(A) Change also requires you to be dissatisfied.  To think there must be a better way to do things.  (B) And to believe you can be the one to think of and do things in a better way.  (4) This is why so little change happens.  This is why people don't even think of changing.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, change.	Instantaneous change and eternal statis are two ideas that divorce the often associated concepts of change and time.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, change.	Many conservatives wrongly believe the following:  (1) To quit is to lose.  A quitter is a loser.  (2) To change is to quit.  To change one's goals is to quit one's goals and views.  (3) Thus, to change is to be a loser.	10/20/1999

Philosophy, change.	Metaphysics of change.  When is there change?  When isn't there change?  Constant change is the nature of reality.  The world is constantly changing.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, change.	Motion and change.  Two views.  (1) All cases of motion are cases of change.  (2) All cases of change are cases of motion.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Of course we "change" a little everyday.  However, in order for a person to undergo a major change there has to be a sense of "Before X" and "After X."  For example, a permanent illness or injury; or the death of a loved one; or making a million dollars; or losing one's virginity.  The change has to be big enough for us to notice.  You have to say, "I was never the same after that.  Things were never the same after that."  That is real major change.	2/25/2000

Philosophy, change.	People's attitudes toward change.  Some people fear change, and thus fear progress.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, change.	Progress implies a dynamic world with dynamic people looking forward.  Progress does NOT imply a static world with static people looking backward.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, change.	Psychology and change.  Changing your views.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Some people say that life is change.  Other people say that nothing ever changes.  Lets take two extreme examples.  (1) The case of no change.  If absolutely nothing ever changed the world would be static.  (2) The case of extreme change.  (A) If absolutely everything changed in a random manner then the world would be chaos.  (B) If absolutely everything changed quickly and ceaselessly and then there would be even more change than there is in this world, and the world would be unrecognizable when you woke up each day.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, change.	Terms.  (1) Change.  (2) Birth, growth, stagnation, decay, death.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  (3) Origin, genesis.  Development, improvement.  Maintain, preserve.  Extinction.  (4) Existence vs. non-existence.  Replaceable vs. irreplaceable.  Loss vs. gain.  (5) Time, age.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Those who believe progress is not possible, or that we should not try to progress even if we can, are schmucks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Three different concepts.  (1) Change vs. changelessness.  (2) Time vs. timelessness.  (3) Existence vs. no existence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Time and change.  The amount of change is relative to time, and to a person's perception of time (their time frame).  Lets take two hypothetical examples.  (1) In one hypothetical example humans have the capability to live billions of years, and thus their perception of change varies with that life span.  (2) In another hypothetical example humans live only a billionth of a second and thus their perception of change varies with that life span.  (3) The point is that the scope of change differs if one's time frame is billions of years versus a billionth of a second.  (10/27/2004)     PART TWO.  Can humans easily perceive fast changing events that occur on the scale of a millionth of a second?  No, not without instruments.  Can humans easily perceive slow changing events that occur on the scale of millions of years.  No, not without instruments.  So perception of change is limited by the senses one uses and by the instruments one uses.	12/12/2004

Philosophy, change.	Time and change.  Two views.  (1) Change makes time possible.  (2) Time makes change possible.	12/12/2004

Philosophy, change.	Total change = sum of types and degrees of sub-changes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Two notions.  (1) Unchanging time.  Changeless time.  (2) Instantaneous change.  Timeless change.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, change.	Two views.  (1) Nothing ever changes.  Everything stays the same.  Change is an illusion.  (2) Everything is changing.  Constant change.  Stasis is an illusion.  (3) I am more inclined to believe the latter.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, change.	Two ways to look at change.  (1) Change as related to time.  (2) Change as related to events.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, change.	Types of change.  (1) Predictable vs. unpredictable.  (2) Controllable vs. uncontrollable.  (3) Rational vs. irrational.  (4) Quick vs. slow change.  (5) Forced change vs. chosen change.  (6) Old changes vs. new changes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	Types.  Instantaneous change vs. change that takes time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	We can gain (or lose) things we didn't realize.  We don't' know ahead of time all the things we will gain (or lose).	10/25/2004

Philosophy, change.	We need good, better, new stuff not old, garbage, worse stuff.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, change.	What does not change?  What does change?  Causes and effects of change.  Mechanisms of change.  Change for better or worse.  Degree of change, and speed of change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	.This section is about death.  Topics include: ( ) Suicide.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, death.	(1) Death and metaphysics.  What does it mean to die?  (2) Death and ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	(1) Death is the big issue.  Loss of your life and loss of ones you love.  (2) Against death there is only the creation of life.  Sex and raising kids.  And the glue that holds us together, love and civility.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, death.	(1) Death of bad = good.  (2) Death of good = bad.  (3) Birth of bad = bad.  (4) Birth of good = good.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	(1) Ethics of death:  How should we die?  How should we treat the dying?  (2) Metaphysics of death:  Can we delay death by increasing life span?  Can we become immortal and live forever?  (Ex. by creating an audio/video diary web page of our lives.  Or by writing and other works.)	1/1/2002

Philosophy, death.	(1) Metaphysical questions.  (A) When does something qualify as being alive?  Birth, growth, death.  Reproduction.  Feeling, thinking, communicating.  Killing humans, killing animals, killing plants, killing robots.  Only living things can die.  (B) When does death occur?  Heart stopping, breathing stopping, brain waves stopping.  (C) What happens after death?  Is their an after life?  (2) Ethical questions.  (A) When is killing others justified?  Self-defense.  When third party lives are immediately and directly at risk.  Euthanasia and abortion.  (B) When is killing oneself justified?  Old age.  Extreme pain with no hope of recovery.  Murderous impulses.  Burden on society.  Going crazy.	5/15/1998

Philosophy, death.	(1) Metaphysics of death:  Death as nothingness.  Death as void.  To cease to be.  (2) Psychology of death:  People fear death.  People grieve the deaths of others.  People have a survival instinct.  (3) Death practices:  Funerals.  Burials.  Wakes.  Cremations.  Cemeteries.  (4) Religion and death:  Religions evolved to manage the fear and grief associated with death.  (5) Destruction as the "death" of an inanimate object.  (6) Time passing is like slow death.  Humans are mortal.  People die.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	(1) Slow death: ex. asbestos poisoning.  (2) Slow suicide: ex. drinking.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, death.	Against death and destruction there is the creation of ideas.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	Bad deaths:  (1) Premature death.  (2) Avoidable death.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, death.	Birth: we did not choose to be born.  We did not choose when, where, or to who to be born.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Bull fighting is cruelty to animals and should be outlawed along with cock fighting, dog fighting, cat torture, bear baiting, etc.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, death.	Death = loss.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Death is horrible.  Death is ugly.  Death sucks.  All those who say "Death is beautiful.  Death is a part of life.  Death is peace.  Etc.", they are all just trying to make themselves feel better by denying the actuality of death.	4/4/1999

Philosophy, death.	Death of a situation, environment, or relationship.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Death of an idea.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Death terms:  Genocide.  Extinction.  Murder.  Culture-cide (ex. Communists outlawed Buddhist culture).  Suicide.  Euthanasia.  Infanticide.  Killing girl children.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, death.	Death variables.  Going slowly vs. quickly.  With much pain vs. little pain.  Peacefully vs. struggling and unaccepting (sadness and anger).  Loosing your marbles vs. retaining your senses till the end.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, death.	Death: quick vs. slow.  Painless vs. painful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Death.  (1) Existence vs. non- existence.  (2) Being vs. non-being.  (3) Something vs. nothing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Death's relationship to  (1) Psychology: unconscious fear of death or love of death.  (2) Sociology: social norms concerning death.  (3) Biology: medical definitions of death.  (4) Environment: burial plots a waste of space.  (5) Religion: various religious views on death.  (6) Economics: funeral industry.  (7) Tech: ways to avoid death.  (8) Art: death as a subject of artistic works.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Dying all the time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Effects of death and dying on us: seeing it, doing it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Epistemology of death: Is it dead or alive?	6/8/2004

Philosophy, death.	Ethics and death.  How to die?  When to die?  Where to die?  Who should die?	11/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	Everything dies.  Somethings are not easily replaceable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Face up to death completely (intellectually and emotionally), all the time.  It changes viewpoints and priorities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Facing death changes your viewpoint about life.  Facing it in thought, and facing it in experience.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Facing death.  Certain types of pursuits and experiences cause us to confront death more than we would otherwise.  Thus, these experiences are profound and healthy.  Ex. climbing, racing cars, bull fighting.  (Bullfighting is not healthy for bulls.  10/2004)	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Facing up to death, completely, in all its aspects, with the entire psyche, is the ultimate realization, and something that so few of us do.  Soldiers in war do it.  They have seen it, been in it, and felt it.  Most other people repress thoughts about death till they are old.  There is a difference between a momentary, acute scare of death, and a chronic threat of death.  Acknowledgment of death changes viewpoint.  Things seem to become so much more desperate and important.  The "why" question(s) comes up.	12/24/1988

Philosophy, death.	Funerary industry.  (1) Cemeteries are a waste of land.  Given enough time, there will be more land devoted to cemeteries for the dead than there is land devoted to parks for the living, and that is a bad situation.  (2) Huge tombstones are a waste.  (3) Embalming turns a corpse into a chemical dump.  Do not embalm.  A person has a right to an ecological death.  A person has a right to not look picture perfect if they are dead.  (3) Elaborate, expensive funerals are a waste.  Expensive, non-biodegradable coffins are a waste.  Inexpensive biodegradable coffins are the way to go.  (4) The current American funerary industry is based in part on making money off of grieving people, because grieving people rarely argue about the price of a funeral.  (5) The current American funerary industry is based in part on making money off of people's social and psychological insecurities.  People want to think themselves important so they spend a lot on funerals.  People want to appear important to others so they spend a lot on funerals.	8/31/2005

Philosophy, death.	Funerary practices.  An argument against modern funerals.  Modern burial is baloney.  $1000 for coffin, $5000 for plot, $1000 for embalming, wake, funeral ceremony, and burial ceremony.  It uses up land and other resources for nothing.  There are better (and cheaper) ways to show respect for human life, which is what they are doing, they are not respecting the "dead".  They are saying "We don't treat humans, even dead ones, like garbage".	09/10/1993

Philosophy, death.	Funerary practices.  Cremation, burial at sea, or sky burial is the way to go.  Graves and graveyards are baloney.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, death.	Funerary practices.  Cultures in which people decide to throw a party at the wake of a dead person, strike me as the height of repression.  Talk about denial.  These people are essentially saying, "I am not in grief at all.  I'm happy even.  See, look at me laugh".	8/31/1999

Philosophy, death.	How conscious a person is of death, time, and age.  How often they think, consciously and unconsciously, of these concepts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	I thought death was like a mistake you could un-delete on your computer.  It is not.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, death.	If god likes us why does he kill us all?  Out of mercy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Implications of death on life.  Ethical implications.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Kill vs. being killed.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Killing = causing death of x.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Life after death:  (1) The Will.  (2) The Notes.  (3) Fame.  The history books.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, death.	Life, why.  Why people live.  (1) Fear dying.  (2) Fear being dead.  Fear not existing.  (3) Fear punishment by god in afterlife.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Lost, misplaced, stolen, destroyed; by self, by others, by nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Metaphysics and death.  What is death?  When is someone dead?	11/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	Needless death, avoidable death, preventable death, that is the big issue.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	People want a fair shot at life.  They fear not getting that.  Ex. dying a virgin.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, death.	Poems for the dead are like flowers for the dead.  The dead can't hear the poems or see the flowers.  The dead can't use poems or flowers.  So why do we send them?  The poems and flowers are more for the living.  To appease ourselves.  To please ourselves.  Poems and flowers for the living I say.	3/14/2000

Philosophy, death.	Psychological reactions to death.  (1) Pain: sorrow, despair (sorrow plus loss of hope), and grief.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Related subjects.  (1) The psychology of death.  Fears of dying.  (2) The sociology of death.  Weird societal attitudes and practices regarding death.  (3) The economics of death.  The funerary industry.  (4) The politics of death.  Assisted suicide.  Death penalty.  Euthanasia.  (5) The science of death.  Suspended animation.  Cryogenics.  (6) The philosophy of death.  The ethics of death.  (7) Death in the arts.  (8) The history of attitudes and practices regarding death.	8/8/2006

Philosophy, death.	See also: Philosophy, life.	4/16/2006

Philosophy, death.	Should we try to live as long as we can?  At any expense?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Some people, upon realizing their own mortality, are gripped by fear.  Other people, upon realizing their mortality, increase their resolve to do some good.  You decide.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, death.	Suicide (1) Hurts the ones who love you.  (2) Sets a bad example (others will copy you).  (3) Waste of life.  (4) What if everyone did it?  (5) The ethics of life is thus, never give up.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, death.	Suicide can be committed by someone angry at self and world, not sad.  Suicide can be viewed as an act of violence and self destruction based in anger, not sadness.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide drives, three types.  (1) Some people kill themselves because they feel indignity, shame, humiliation, or an affront to self, which can be caused by either themselves, others or nature.  (2) Freedom mongers kill themselves because they view life as slavery.  (3) Some people kill themselves because they feel revulsion.  (A) Ethical revulsion is when the ethical injustice of life revolts you.  (B) Aesthetic revulsion is when the aesthetic ugliness of life revolts you.  (C) Ethical revulsion and aesthetic revulsion often coincide.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, death.	Suicide is a comfort.  Knowing you can kill self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide is a consoling option (thus said Nietzsche), but the constant threat of it takes a toll on you.	09/30/1995

Philosophy, death.	Suicide is not wrong sometimes, like killing is not wrong sometimes (in war, in self defense).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide is ok for me because I'm a fu*k up.  More life means more fu*k ups for me and others.  It is a far far better thing I do...	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide prevention methods.  (1) Rational arguments.  Discussion of neurotransmitters.  (2) Emotional appeals.  Tell them they are loved by others.  (3) Emotional bonds.  Connect with them.  Get them to love you.  Make them feel loved by you.  (4) Get them to develop some meaning in their life.  (5) Get them to delay or postpone the suicide.  (6) Allay their fears.  Tell them life is not that bad.  (7) For a start, get them to admit they are feeling bad, get them to admit they are thinking about suicide.  (8) Assuage their regrets.  Tell them they are not to blame.  (9) Why they want to kill themselves.  (A) Physical pain as their reason.  (B) Ethics as their reason.  They feel they are bad and evil and/or the world is evil.  (C) They feel worthless.	8/9/1998

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  (1) Arguments for suicide: better to kill self than someone else.  (2) Arguments contra suicide: your suicide hurts others deeply?  Tough.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  (1) How many people, at some point in their lives, have said to themselves, "I wish I was dead."  It is probably a very high percentage, perhaps ninety five percent.  (2) Of the people who have at some point in their lives thought to themselves, "I wish I was dead.", what percentage have later thought, "If I had killed myself at that point it would have been a bad move."?  Probably a very high percentage, perhaps ninety percent.  (3) So, we see, at some point you will very probably feel like killing yourself, and if you do not kill yourself then you will very probably feel better later having not killed yourself.  And this has a very high percentage of probability, a very high degree of confidence.	1/12/2004

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  (1) Reasons to kill self.  World is shit hole.  You can't make it better.  You actually make it worse.  (2) Reasons to live.  You can make world better.  Life is fun.  World is cool.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  (1) Suicide is not so much cowardice as it is, (A) Stupidity and ignorance of thinking there is no hope, and (B) Depression of feeling there is no hope.  Seldom is it cowardice.  (2) A few times it is the correct, rational thing to do.	08/30/1993

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  A person has not reached mature thought till they have considered suicide.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  At what point will any specific individual cash in their chips?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Criteria for living or killing self.  (1) Can you make a living?  (2) Do you want to live?  (3) Can you do more good than harm?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Don't be afraid to die, or live.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Forcing yourself to live can be cowardice or bravery, it depends on the situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  I used to think that suicide was a personal choice, if you didn't have a wife or kids to support.  If you feel bad about living, commit suicide.  If you feel you will hurt someone by living, commit suicide.  Now I feel that suicide is a waste of life and human potential, and every method must be exhausted to get mental health back to peak condition.  Because we all have to solve the worlds problems and our own problems.  It is our ethical obligation or duty, a duty that starts at birth for all of us, and that can't be avoided or ignored.  Life is problem solving, and good making, and perfection pursuing.	02/09/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  If everyone who is less intelligent than me, or physically or psychologically less healthy than me, killed themselves, the world population would go down at least 50%.	09/30/1995

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  If suicide was as easy as flicking a light switch, a lot more of us would be dead.  If I had a painless pill, I would have been dead many times by now.	01/07/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Is suicide murder?  Nope?	05/20/1994

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Me.  Never put yourself in position where you can not kill your self.  Don't get mixed up in things that will prevent you from killing yourself.  Ex. girlfriend, kids, family, friends.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  One reason people kill themselves is they think no one cares.  The feel they have no one close to them, so what difference does it make.  People are less likely to kill themselves when they have close relations, especially if they have people who they feel are counting on them.	01/11/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Reason not to commit suicide.  You can cause anyone who ever hurt you to feel tons of guilt.  Not just sadness.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Reason why we shouldn't commit suicide.  Can't commit suicide because there is an ethical imperative to keep working to make the world a better place, and do good.	09/30/1996

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Saying "I would never kill myself" is tantamount to saying "I'd do anything to stay alive" (pun on id), which is pretty low.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Serial killers should kill themselves.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Societal and religious norms against suicide are b.s..  They are illogical rules.  Also there are exceptions to every logical rule anyway too.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Some days I can't wait to die.  Some days I never want to die.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Some people hold the following less than optimal views that suicide aint wrong, and that it is justified in some cases.  (1) It weeds out the weak and crazy.  (2) Some should do it (serial killers).  (3) Prevents harm by nuts.  (4) Prevents reproduction of duds.  (5) Prevents drain by unproductive.  (6) Laying down your life for others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Suicide is the ultimate form of masochism.  There are at least two types of suicide.  (1) One is wanting to die.  Thinking life and the world are too much pain for you.  (2) The other form is feeling you deserve to die, or feeling you should die.  Thinking you cause people distress, and that you do bad things, and that you are evil.	01/19/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  The most important ethical question: "To be or not to be? (Shakespere)"	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  The suicide of someone you know messes you up.  It does not just make you feel sad.  It does not just make you feel guilty.  It messes you up.  You do not get over it.	4/18/2001

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  The two poles of the spectrum.  Nothing is worth dying for vs. nothing is worth living for.  Everything else is in-between.	01/06/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Three views on suicide.  (1) Never do it; never even think of doing it.  This view is held by some religious types and some medical people.  (2) Sometimes it is ok to do; sometimes it is ok to think about it.  This view seems to be held by Kervorkian.  (3) Do it anytime you want; think about it anytime you want.  This view is held by me up till about fall '95.	09/30/1995

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  When people kill themselves, they are as often feeling disgust as much as they are feeling sadness.  Depression can show itself in the form, not of sadness, but of a pessimism and negativism, which shows itself as disgust and hatred of people and the world.	01/23/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Whether you kill yourself depends on  (1) Will to live.  Have something you want to live for.  (2) Pain of living you feel.  (A) Objective opposition: what you are actually up against.  (B) Subjective opposition: how bad it seems to you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Why kill self?  Views.  (1) Can't support self economically.  (2) Don't want to give in to enemy's shit.  (3) Too much pain, too little joy and fun.  (4) Too hard, no fun.  (5) Don't want to give into their evil.  (6) Don't want to give into own evil.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Why live, various views.  (1) Have fun and enjoy.  Take it easy.  (2) Make world a better place.  (3) Make yourself a better person.  Be all you can be.  (4) Have kids.  Obey god.  (5) Too lazy or cowardly to kill self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  Wrong attitudes that people take about others who commit suicide.  (1) It was gods will.  (2) They deserved it if they did it.  (3) What is past is past.  (4) Only the mentally ill commit suicide, and it is better off for them and us if the mentally ill die.	01/23/1997

Philosophy, death.	Suicide.  You are a good person, not a bad person.  You are useful, not useless.  You are needed, not unneeded.  Life is mostly good, not mostly bad.  You will feel good again.  Don't do anything rash.  Wait.  Wait days.  Wait months.  Wait years.  Work at making things better.	11/18/2004

Philosophy, death.	Terms.  Destruction, decay, disappearance, ending, cessation, ceases to be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	The big fear is not death and dying.  The big fear is wasting life by not living.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, death.	The fascination with death displayed by teens and risk-sport enthusiasts is really a fascination with life, although they do not recognize it as such.  Understanding death is easy, it is the concept of nothingness.  Understanding life is not easy.  When they say "Cool, he's dead", they really mean "Cool, I'm alive".  They are both psyched up and mystified at once.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, death.	To die naturally, peacefully and suddenly is nice.  Naturally meaning not due to self, and not due to others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Two conceptions of death.  (1) Death vs. birth.  (2) Death vs. life.	6/3/2004

Philosophy, death.	Types of death.  (1) Death of someone you care about.  Death of someone you are close to can trigger a lot of strong emotions and thoughts.  Especially depending on the circumstances of the death.  Feelings of sadness, anger and loss.  Thoughts of your own mortality.  (2) The death of a friend produces in some people an alarming lack of emotion and thought.  Death exposes the shallow.	7/24/2006

Philosophy, death.	Types of death.  (1) Your own eventual and impending death.  (2) Death of someone you know.  (3) Seeing a stranger die.  (4) Slaughter of sentient animals.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, death.	Types of death.  Ways to die.  (1) Accident, injury.  Car, train, plane crash.  Unavoidable, unpreventable.  (2) Illness, disease.  (3) Murder.  (4) Negligence on part of someone else.  (5) Peacefully, in sleep, of old age.  (6) Before your time is due.  (7) Avoidable, preventable.  Self induced drugs, alcohol.  Your own negligence.  (8) Painful versus painless.  (9) Slowly versus quickly.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, death.	Unexpected loss vs. loss you saw coming (example, old age and death).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Various attitudes toward death.  (1) Some people fear death.  (2) Some people are fascinated with death.  (3) Some people yearn for death.  (4) Some psychotic people yearn to kill.  Healthy people do not really want to kill.  (5) Some people have an icy, emotionless attitude about death.  Some people do not care about their own death nor any one else's death.  These people often display a reckless disregard for life.  Sociopaths have no empathy.  (6) Some people like death, enjoy death, and want to see more death.  Ghouls.  Some people get a perverse thrill from killing.  Some people get sexual kicks from death.  (7) Some ignorant individuals think you cannot be a man unless you kill.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, death.	Ways people buy the farm.  (1) Incurable, unpreventable illness or accident.  Tragic.  (2) Curable or preventable illness or accident that was never addressed till it was too late.  Tragic.  (3) Murder.  Tragic.  (4) Suicide.  Tragic.  (5) Of very old age.  Peacefully.  Happy ending.  Comedy.	5/31/2006

Philosophy, death.	When something totally useful and good is totally lost, and totally irreplaceable (totally unique), it is bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	When.  (1) You could die soon, and if you lived for the future then your hard work will be wasted and you will have never enjoyed life.  (2) You could live to 100, and if you didn't know you would live that long you will have no money saved.  (3) The big problem is not knowing when you will die, and thus over-estimating or under-estimating how long you will live, and thus making planning mistakes.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, death.	When.  The problem is not knowing when you'll die.  You could die any day: thus the mistake of waiting too long to do things.  You could live a long time: thus the mistake of being shortsighted.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, death.	Why our bodies decay before we die.  If we lived in perfect health up till the very end then no one would want to die, and death would come as a major shock to our loved ones.  Slowly falling apart, on the other hand, gets us in the mood to die.  "Death would be a delight after this misery", we say.  And slowly falling apart helps prepare our loved ones for our eventual absence.	6/25/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	.This section contains notes about specific environments one encounters.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, environment, specific.	.This section is about specific environments.  Topics include: ( ) City.  ( ) East vs. West USA.  ( ) NYC  ( ) Suburbs.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City and country.  (1) The country is big, green and blue.  (2) The city is small and gray.	02/05/1998

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City and country.  Ever since the Beverly Hillbillies and Urban Cowboy.  Ever since communication and transportation technologies leveled the landscape.  Country-people living in the city and city-people living in the country.  There is no longer a big difference between city-folk and country-folk.  The dichotomy has been lost.  So what.  Instead of "either/or" people today are "both".  An individual may have a city-side and a country-side.  People contain multitudes.  Multiple selves.  Diversity of personality.  Not homogenous, but rather well rounded.	7/28/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City and suburbs.  (1) NYC and the suburbs.  They are not worth hating.  They are not worth loving.  You might as well live anywhere, because  (A) Every place is the same (homogenized), and  (B) The action is where my head is anyway.  Home is where the head is.  (2) The opposite view says this:  If you live in manhattan, specifically the east village, you have put yourself in an environment that can't help but make you cool, and that will spur your artistic creativity.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City vs. country.  Country: quiet, inactivity, simple, wild.  City: loud, activity, cluttered, civilized.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City vs. suburbia.  (1) What is great about NYC is not the material stuff (tall buildings, stores) or the culture (theaters, museums).  What is great about NYC is the people.  Many people.  Diverse people.  A liberal, tolerant people.  People constantly in contact on the sidewalk, bus, and subway.  At close quarters.  Not shut away in their homes or cars.  Social interaction.  You can talk to them.  (2) Suburbia is boring because everyone is the same (homogenized, white, middle class america), and everyone is shut away in houses and cars, in isolation.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City vs. suburbs.  City: competition.  Suburbs: complacency.  Rural: cooperation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City: roaches, no trees, noise, crowds, no space, pavement everywhere.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  (1) Pros.  The city is convenient, everything is close, you don't need a car.  Pretty young single sophisticated girls are everywhere.  (2) Contra.  The city is also more dangerous.  Roaches abound.	05/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  (1) Small town sociology.  You are under the microscope.  Everyone knows everyone else's business, and puts in their two cents worth, and interferes.  Pecking orders are constantly and ruthlessly pecked out.  (2) Big city sociology.  Anonymity and freedom.  People are not really unfriendly.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  (1) Stores go out of business and new stores open up seemingly overnight.  The city is new each time you see it.  The city develops.  The city morphs.  Dynamic, not static.  Why is this important?  Because the city, more than any other built environment, reflects ourselves and what we can become.  The city reflects the concept of reality as change.  (2) The pace of the city is increasing.  At first the city moved at the speed of nature, then the city moved at the speed of civilization, then the city moved at the speed of the human body, then the city moved at the speed of the human mind.	11/25/1999

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  Does the city create or just attract liberals?  Does it create or just attract tough people?  Does it create or just attract neurotics?  Does the city create or just attract homosexuals?  Or is it just that there are more intelligent people in the city, who are more prone to neurosis and homosexuality?  Or are the rates of incidence the same as suburbs and rural areas, it is just that there are more people in general in the city?  Or is it just that people see and interact more in the city, so homosexuality and neurosis are more obvious in the city than in the quiet, hidden suburbs?	12/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  Does the city really change?  Or is it all surface?  A front?  A sham?	11/30/1999

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  Four metaphors for the city.  (1) The city as nature.  Big, changing.  (2) The city as machine.  Rational, mechanized.  (3) The city as organism.  (4) City as person or being.	11/30/1999

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  In the city, smiling is frowned on (pun intended) because (1) It is seen as showing off, bragging.  I.e., "I am happy and you are not.  In your face!"  (2) This bragging is also taken as mocking of the other person.  Not just "I am happy and you are not." but also "I think this fact is funny too".	12/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  People in the city are like a massage.  Walking the street, they are like tiny bubbles.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  People in the city.  (1) Weekend visitor (within 500 miles, 2 days).  (2) Vacation visitor (over 500 miles, 2 weeks).  (3) Commuters (blue collar and white collar).  (4) College students and academics.  (5) Year in NY Eurotrash.  (6) First job in NY (out of state ivy league graduate).  (7) The shark businessman.  (8) Professionals (doctors and lawyers).  (9)(A) Struggling artist (painter, poet, writer, musician), (B) Successful artist, (C) Washout artist.  (10) Ultra rich.  (11) Ultra poor.  (12) Criminals, insane, homeless.  (13) Normal folks?	12/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  The city has more people.  More opportunities to do good.  More opportunities to do bad by ignoring the opportunities to do good.	05/10/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  The city is more human than it is steel, glass and rock.	11/30/1999

Philosophy, environment, specific.	City.  The city physically draws people together (which is good).  Does the city really alienate and cause hopelessness (crime, drugs, poverty)?  Is the city just the town writ large, with more good and more bad, or is the city really different from the town?	9/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Country.  (1) Pro:  Clean water.  Fresh air.  Peace and quiet.  Far produce.  Healthy.  Calm.  Bucolic.  Pastoral.  Rustic.  Rural.  (2) Contra:  Isolated.  Provincial.  Cut off.  Disconnected.  Out of it.  Ignorant.  Backwards.	4/20/2006

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  (1) East coast in summer after a thunderstorm, lush pthalo green.  (2) West coast beaches, minimalist tan, dark blue, and light blue.  (3) Boulder, forest green, brown, and dark blue.	02/07/1994

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  (1) The East is about the city and the town.  (1) Comfort rather than the discomforts of cold, wet, bugs, etc.  (2) Ease, not labor.  (3) The East tolerates a certain degree of stupidity and recklessness.  Surrounded by people and products, you can afford to make mistakes.  The wilds, the West, requires care and smarts.  (4) The East is about people, society, and social skills.  Finding and keeping friends.  Dealing with various assholes, violent and sly.  Power relationships.  Sexual relationships.  Communication skills.  Cooperation and competition.  Developing a fine sense of social justice.  (5) The East is about civilization with its knowledge, skills, tools and products.	6/9/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  (1) The East:  Rich, leisure and excess.  Slick and sophisticated.  (2) The West:  Poor.  Hard-working.  Honest and open.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  (1) The west: space, size, view, nature, loneliness.  Low humidity, clear and comfortable.  (2) The east: people.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The east: neurotic intellectuals.  The west: healthy physicality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The East: prissy, decorative, repressed, cowardly.  The West: honest, open, utilitarian, unrepressed, brave.	08/17/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West (any west, any wild place) is about the following: (1) Land.  (2) Space.  (3) Distance.  (4) Wild Nature.  (5) Lack of people.  (6) Lack of buildings.  (7) Boredom.  (8) Loneliness.  (9) Close to man's existential position of being alone.  (10) Shell of civilization missing.  Raw and exposed.     PART TWO.  (1) Land:  You see so much land in the west.  Then you realize that all the land you see has been accounted for.  Either the land is privately owned or else the government owns it.  There is no unowned land.  Unowned land being perhaps the definition of wilderness.     (2) Space:  (A) Volumes of space.  The space says volumes.  Above the land is space.  The space yields views.  The west is about 360 degree views.  The west is about seeing for miles and miles (and for this reason Pete Townsend of the Who might enjoy the west).  (B) Question: does one actually see space or does one perceive space by seeing an object at the other side of a space?  What happens when one tries to focus on a point in space between here and there?     (3) Distance:  (A) Distance is about lines.  In the geometry of the west, space is about volumes, views are about planes, distance is about lines, and the individual is the point.  (B) Great distances let one ponder the curve of the earth.  One cannot see the curve of the earth.  If one could actually see the curve of the earth then the idea of a flat earth would never have taken hold years ago.  (C) Distance is about time.  Hours, days, months describe the distance between people.  If time is not an issue then distance loses its power.  For example, modern transportation and communication technologies such as the phone and airplane make distance less of an obstacle.  The problem in the old days was not that people far distances apart; the problem was that they were a long time apart.  (D) In the west, the great physical distances can make people feel closer.  A neighbor who lives a mile away can be a close neighbor.  In the city, the close physical distances require more emotional distance.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West: new, physical, solitary.  The East: old (history), cerebral/intellectual/mental, social.	03/01/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West: There is nothing out there but the inhuman distances of beautiful yet pitiless nature, the void.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West.  (1) The West is about Nature (flora and fauna).  Wilderness refers to just one potential characteristic of Nature.  For example, a botanical garden and a city zoo are nature but they are not wilderness.  (2) Wild can also refer to the quality of one's experiences in an environment.  Epics searing into one's brain, branded into one's brain.  Experiences that leave a person burnt or fried.  To physically and psychologically "bonk", or expend all one's resources.  Experiences that temper your steel.  Coming to terms with the cold cruel world.  Coming to terms with yourself.  Its true that knowledgeable, skillful, well-prepared individuals can have pleasant experiences in the wilds.  However, sometimes things go wrong and epics ensue.	6/9/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West.  (1) The west is direct.  Remove the buffers and release the hounds.  Unaided.  Unimpeded.  Like a raw nerve.  No skin.  Walking in the storm.  Walking into the waves.  (2) The west is minimalist.  Almost an abstract geometry.  Austere in good times, grim in bad times.  Simple.  Almost poor.  No excess.  (3) The west is thus very Zen.  Almost like an animal.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West.  Being alone in the West one has three alternatives.  (1) Turn off the brain.  Don't think.  For example, those nameless specters and those of Zen no-mind.  (2) Use a loop.  Think about one thing.  Obsession.  For example, the gold and silver miners.  (3) Go deep.  Really start thinking.  For example, the poets and philosophers of the west.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  The West.  What is wild nature but a minimum of people and a minimum of civilization (buildings, etc.)?  For if the wilderness is full of people then is it wilderness anymore?  Not really.  It is just Nature.  And if the wilderness is full of empty buildings then is it wilderness anymore?  Not really.  It is just a ghost town.  (2) The lack of people in the wilderness has the effect of making one realize one's basic existential position in this world, i.e., that of being alone.  (3) The lack of buildings in the wilderness has the effect of making one realize that civilization is just a protective shell, and that without civilization one faces directly the rawness of life and one feels quite exposed.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	East and West USA.  What the east is lacking is the pioneer spirit (psychology).  What you have in the East is the people who stayed behind.  Playing it safe.  No bravery.	09/10/1994

Philosophy, environment, specific.	In the city, in the cafe's, people read books, write letters, and talk about things.  In the suburbs, people sit on their asses and feed their fat faces.	7/24/2006

Philosophy, environment, specific.	In the South they know how to enjoy life.  They know about happiness and celebration.  In the North they know how to endure life.  They know about sorrow and stoicism.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, environment, specific.	LI is flatland.  When I saw the mountains life suddenly went from 2-D to 3-D.	09/20/1994

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Los Angeles lacks atmospheric adversity.	4/23/2002

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Mountains: Zenish.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Nature: to think and to recover.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Night.  Up all night.  (1) Staying up all night first time, just to see if you can.  (2) Staying up all night to party.  (3) Staying up all night to study for school.  (4) Staying up all night with insomnia.  (5) Staying up all night to work the night shift.  (6) Staying up all night to take care of sick kids.  (7) Staying up all night making love.	10/26/2003

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Night.  With the invention of street lights, 24 hour television and 24 hour convenience stores, the night effectively no longer existed.	11/15/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC has more people.  This means more cool people, and more assholes.  But I only meet the assholes.	05/18/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  (1) Good points.  Many creative, smart people in one place creates a very good social scene.  Women all over, for sex and friendship.  Jobs galore.  Culture everywhere.  Many varied people, places, and experiences.  You can learn and grow a lot as a person.  Central park for walking and meditating.  Poetry readings.  Good colleges close by.  The city has history too.  (2) Bad points.  Crime of all types from druggies, crazies, homeless.  Noise, pollution.  No nature.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  (1) Midtown: the land of weenies, wimps, and weebs.  They are smart, fearful, brown-nosers who play by the rules, and conform.  Play it safe, never take a risk, repressed, timid, not brave.  (2) Downtown: the people are not afraid to express their emotions and views.  Not afraid to rebel.  There is more life downtown than in midtown.	02/22/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  (1) NY is about diversity and tolerance, not homogeneity and bigotry.  (2) The history, architecture, and people, are all meant to keep your spare moments perky.  (3) People move to suburbs to raise kids.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  After a while, NYC starts to seem like a small place, that you know well, reassuring and homey.  At this point you become a New Yorker.	10/26/1999

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  Downtown.  The attitude vs. the physical place.  (1) The attitude or culture.  Good and bad sides.  Artists, decadents, and societal rejects.  As taboo ideas and taboo acts become accepted into society (and other ones become taboo?), the cutting edge moves further out or otherwise changes.  The question is whether it is a matter of taste or ethics.  (2) The place.  As the rich move into the neighborhood and raise rents, the artists, decadents, and societal rejects move out to new areas.  The question is, can they stay together as a group and keep their attitude and culture when they move out, or will they be dispersed and thus lose their attitude and culture, as well as their energy and power as a group.  A partial solution is the Internet, which can bring people together.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  East Village is a premier neighborhood.  There is a lot of youth, energy, and excitement.  Liberal, arty types.  About as hip as it gets anywhere.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  East Village.  Types of east village residents.  (1) Artists: make a living as art producers.  (2) Artist wannabe's: have artistic aspirations, work at art production but aren't able to make a living at selling it.  (3) Arty types.  They are art consumers.  Usually young and rebellious, or at least left wing.  (4) Hip or Cool: Think it is hip or cool to live in the east village.  (5) People just living here.  Here by circumstance and chance.  Could be living anywhere.  (6) Dregs: homeless, addicts, criminals, crazies.  (7) Yuppie invaders.  (8) Tourists.	01/12/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  New York City provides the promise of a mirage.  Other places don't provide the mirage.  Still other places don't even provide the promise.  It is with the promise of a mirage that people create themselves and their lives.  This IOU for an illusion keeps us smiling.  Credit for a dream keeps us going.	4/15/2002

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  New York holds a mythical, even magical, place in the minds of the entire worlds population.  It is the archetypal city, the superlative city.  The biggest, tallest, busiest, fastest, richest, smartest, noisiest, most crowded, wildest, raunchiest, meanest, city.  Just by living here you become, by association, part of it and thus holder of the same attributes.  You become mythical.  (2) The draw of New York today is not culture, because in today's world of hi-tech communication culture is instantly distributed, transported, exported.  You can get culture anywhere today.  You do not come to NY for the "culture" any more (theater, music, visual art, etc.).  You come to New York today to mingle with the culture creators.  The people in New York are intelligent, communicative, and creative.	03/20/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  New York.  When you are away from it too long, you crave it.  When you have too much of it, it makes you sick.  Isn't everything like this?  Or only heavy drugs?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  People in NYC do not buy dogs for protection.  People in NYC buy dogs to pick up other people.  Which is pathetic.  A city full of people requiring dog chaperones.	10/20/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  Some people think that all the hub-bub, all the busy-ness, is a sign that something is actually happening and something is actually being accomplished.  Such is not always the case.  As much meaningless activity occurs in the city as occurs elsewhere.  And everywhere there is much more meaningless activity occurring than meaningful activity.  Find the meaningful.  Create the meaningful.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  The key to NYC is the grid.  The grid makes possible the avenues.  The avenues make possible the views, the distance and height, which are important.	05/10/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  The New York Public Library.  A great collection, in a great building, in a great city, in a great country.  The best library in the world.  When I walk up the steps of the New York Public Library it is like a dream, it is like heaven.  For both me personally, and for mankind.  It is the apex of human existence, and of my existence.  All the people suffering and starving today, and all the centuries of struggling, had been building up to this point, of a person (me) walking up the New York Public Library steps.  Giving it one more try, to push it a little further, to make things better.  They boosted me up and I am climbing.  They pin their hopes on me.  I feel lucky and obligated.  Serious joy.	10/05/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  The question, "What is the meaning of New York City?", is like the question, "What is the meaning of life?"  New York has no meaning.  New York means whatever you think it means.  You give a meaning to New York.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  There is a cultural glut in NYC.  There can be such as thing as too much culture.  Too much information, education, art, etc.	3/21/2001

Philosophy, environment, specific.	NYC.  This city is full of women who will blow your mind.  Hot, ideal, lovable.  Thank god.  The hope can keep one alive and productive.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Ocean vs. lake vs. pool swimming.  The ocean is where we all come from.  The ocean is enormous and monumental.	02/04/1994

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Roads.  When the road is flat and straight, neither bumpy nor curvy, the traveling is easy.  Long Island is flat land.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Sky.  It is always there.  It is always changing.  It has high entertainment value.	2/21/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbia and the bourgeoisie.  (1) Contra.  Weaknesses.  Comfort, safety, contentment leads to mediocre, normal, average, plain, regular, uniform.  There is no tension in their life, no need for them to think, no oppositions for them to gain strength by fighting, no need for them to excel.  They think everything will be taken care of for them.  (2) Pros, strengths.  More people, more happy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs are like a garden, and the houses and cars are like sculpture.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs ascendant.  Rural areas have become suburbanized, with cars, telephones and Internet.  Urban areas have become suburbanized, with air conditioners and national corporate chain stores.  Every place has been suburbanized.  We have all become suburbanites.  Homogenized.  What to do?  Create your own environment.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs seem sterile, empty of meaning, and having nothing with which to make meaning.	12/2/2001

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  (1) No one says the suburbs have to be: (A) Unecological: with polluting cars and chemical laden lawns.  (B) Mindless: not thinking, emotionally numb, hedonistic.  (C) No conscience: concerned only with self.  Trapped in the immediate here and now.  Isolated.  Unconcerned with social justice.  (D) Materialistic: always hungry for more money and more stuff.  (2) Is not the city and the country just as bad as the suburbs?  Its the entire society, the entire world that can be duped by the shallow attitudes that we attribute to the suburbs.  (3) It does not necessarily have to be this way.  It is not a physical law.  It is not a social law.  (A) Science and technology can be used to monitor the environment and develop ecological technology.  (B) The information age makes it easier than ever to work with ideas and emotions.  For example, digital visual arts and movies.  (C) The Internet is a powerful communication tool that allows us to gain news from around the world.  The Internet promotes cooperation.  The Internet promotes a global view.  The Internet promotes a long-term view.  The Internet promotes an open society which can monitor governments, corporations, etc.  (D) Voluntary simplicity.  As people's mental lives and experiences become richer, stronger and more varied then the accumulation of excess physical stuff becomes less important.	6/30/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  Not much going on.  Not much interesting.  Not much exciting.  People locked away in cars and houses.  A self-perpetuating "car house baby" cycle.  Suburbia starves the mind and heart.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  Sometimes suburbs function as city: center for work.  Sometimes suburbs function as rural: retreat.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  Suburbs pro: secure, peaceful, consistent.  Suburbs contra: boring, confining, deadening.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  The suburbs is not a place; the suburbs is a state of mind and a way of life. When you look at it this way, the suburbs have essentially taken over both the city and the rural areas.  We see the same national franchise chain-stores everywhere nowadays.  People everywhere are engaged in the same activities today, watching the same television channels everywhere.  In the competition of lifestyles, the suburbs has won over the city and the countryside.  We are all suburbanites now.  It's happening all over the world, not just in the United States.  The suburbs are everywhere.  The suburbs are a lifestyle and a state of mind.  The suburbs means being cut off from nature and from one's fellow human.  Isolated, average, bland, comfortable.  PART TWO.  If the suburbs are a state of mind and the suburbs are everywhere then how does one escape the suburbs?  Escape from the suburbs requires a concentrated, prolonged mental effort.  To get out of the suburbs you have to free your mind.	3/16/2002

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Suburbs.  Two problems of the suburbs.  (1) No history, no past.  Suburbs like Levittown pop up overnight out of potato fields.  No way to tell who you are based on the past because there is no past.  (2) Each house looks like the next.  No way to differentiate yourself.  No way to tell who you are based on those who surround you because every thing around you is the same.  (3) Diversity helps you figure out who you are.	7/11/2002

Philosophy, environment, specific.	The Mall.  (1) Suburbia is typified by the shopping mall.  In suburbia the mall is the only place to go.  The mall is the only thing to do.  The mall is the only thing they know.  (2) The mall is a symbol of materialism and overconsumption.  The mall has only shopping stores and food stores.  The mall posits shopping as being everything.  At the mall, shopping is the only thing to do.  Consumption is the new disease (and its not tuberculosis we are referring to).  Shopping was once regarded as a necessity (men), nowadays at the mall shopping is regarded as a recreation (women).  Nowadays shopping is considered by some people to be a raison d'etre.  Live to shop.  (3) In the mall you are literally surrounded by stores everywhere you look.  Surrounded by material possessions.  In the suburbs children come of age and live their lives in the shopping mall, an environment in which they are surrounded by chain stores, plastic, chrome, mirrors and junk food.  (4) The mall is an indoor environment.  A perfect little insulated fake world.  The mall ignores the rest of the world.  The mall posits nothing outside itself.  (5) The chain stores go for mass appeal.  They are middle of the road.  They cater to the average.  There is no individuality.  There are no exceptions.  We all wear the same clothes now, whether it be from the Gap or from Mao.  (7) The mall parking lot.  The mall is surrounded by asphalt.  The asphalt is dotted with cars.  The cars appear to be gathered around the mall as if they are worshiping the mall.  Suburbia is perhaps as much about cars as it is about the mall.  (8) The mall does not bother me so much anymore because I don't go there.  I don't live in the suburbs and I try to keep my material possessions to a minimum for the sake of the earth's ecology and for the sake of an uncluttered life.  Yet sometimes I remember back and I feel for those still trapped in the mall.	5/20/2000

Philosophy, environment, specific.	The Southwest:  wood, clay/earth, stone, cloth, real, honest, elemental, natural.  The Northeast:  Mirrors, metal, black and red paint.  Paint is an illusion, a deception, a lie, false, contrived, decoration, artificial.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Tonight it was cool and moist, sultry and balmy.  Low thin clouds wisped quickly by like smoke from unseen campfires.  The spring has been very good, with many golden Yosemite days.  The trees are in pollen.  I feel calm.  The night is my blanket.  Tomorrow I will think again.	06/12/1994

Philosophy, environment, specific.	Urban vs. rural.  Urban environment: ugly, loud, fast, competitive, manmade, crowded, people dependent and nasty.  (2) Rural: pretty, quiet, slow, friendly, natural, lonely, people independent and friendly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	.See also, Philosophy, systems theory.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	.This section contains notes about analyzing environments in general.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, environment.	.This section is about the concept of environment.  Topics include: ( ) Systems theory.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, environment.	(1) Environment plays a huge role in the psychological health and development of an individual.  (2) Environment plays a huge part in the development of a culture, civilization or species.  The history of humans was shaped by the environment.  (See Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel".)  (3) Environment is really about ecology.  See also: Science, ecology.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	(1) Internal environment.  (A) Body.  (B) Mind.  (2) External environment.  (A) Natural environment.  (B) Man made environment.  (C) Social environment.	5/15/2004

Philosophy, environment.	(1) Situation is synonym for environment.  (2) Environment can be looked at as a system.  See: Philosophy, systems theory.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	A good environment can lower stress, prevent stress induced disease, and prolong life.  People put up posters of nature on their walls.  Some people even put on nature sound effect tapes.  But better still will be virtual reality goggles and headphones that will give you a strong impression that you are in nature.  If you put a small word processing screen in the virtual reality screen, then every worker in an office could do their work "at the beach", thus yielding happier, healthier workers.	1/18/1999

Philosophy, environment.	Affects of presence of (1) Technology: lose touch with nature.  (2) Nature.  (3) People.  (A) High population.  Rats in cage.  Civilized, repressed, caged.  Development of social side.  (B) Low population.  Cooperate to survive.  Free wild individuals.  Development of independence and self-reliance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Affects.  (1) Direct effect of environment on psychology.  How environment affects character vs.  (2) Indirect effect of environment on psychology.  Things environment forces you to do.  And effects these things have on your psychology.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Affects.  (1) Environment affecting us: psychology and sociology.  (2) Us affecting our environment.  How much, degrees and ways.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Affects.  Environment affects on your thought and character development.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Affects.  How an environment affects your mind and body.  How you affect your mind and body.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis:  Is an environment healthy?  Is an environment aesthetically pleasing?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  (1) What is the environment, and not, and why, and how?  (2) What should I do, and not, and why and how?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  Can you do analyze the situation better than others?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  How bad is the situation?  How much pain is it causing you?  How well do you deal with it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  How well and fast you can analyze, plan, and act in a situation?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  Situation analysis: What do?  Why do?  How do?  When do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  What am I?  What am I doing?  What is the situation?  What is the situation's relationship to me?  What am I doing to the situation, what is situation doing to me?  Same above two for all other factors.  What can I do vs. what do I want to do, and where do I want to get?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  What exists?  What is important and why?  Problems, challenges, and solutions.  List types of situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Analysis.  You and who you are with.  The manmade environment vs. the natural environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	At night, in summer, the warm, humid, salty sea air, reminding me of either the womb, or sex with my girlfriend.  That is the secret of the warm ocean breezes on summer nights.	11/06/1988

Philosophy, environment.	Beach.  The beach is a utopia.  The beach is idyllic.  The beach is idealistic.  Waves.  Bikinis.  Sun.  Fun.  Frolics.  Clambakes.	7/10/2006

Philosophy, environment.	Being dependent on your environment vs. being independent of environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Change.  Forecasting situational change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Change.  Origin and development of a situation.  Changes possible.  (1) Changes you can effect on it.  (2) Changes it can effect on you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Change.  Speed, degree, and number of changes.  Moving from situation to situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	City mind in the suburbs vs. suburb mind in the city.	7/31/2001

Philosophy, environment.	Creation of environment.  Turn on the humidifier and fill it with salt water.  Turn on the "Sounds of the Ocean" cd-rom.  Put on your pirate hat.	4/22/1999

Philosophy, environment.	Distance is very important to me.  The green plains of Sheep Meadow in Central Park.  The main reading room of the New York public library.  Mountain tops.  The beach.  Distance calms me down psychologically and physically.	08/17/1997

Philosophy, environment.	Ecology.  (1) Ecology is very important.  Our environment is an ecosystem.  (See: Science, ecology)  (2) Many people are ignorant of the natural environment.  (3) Humans are destroying the natural environment on which life depends.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	Economics of a situation.  Gains (things and amounts) minus losses equals profit.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Environment (natural, manmade, and people) leads to experiences done to you, and activities you have to or are led to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Environment and its relation to money, power, and class.  (1) Environments created for the rich and powerful.  Nice.  Quiet, soft music.  Bright, well lit, not dark.  Cool, not hot, not cold.  Clean.  (2) Environments created for the poor and disempowered.  Loud.  Dark.  Too hot or too cold.  Polluted.	2/12/2006

Philosophy, environment.	Environment.  Mans attitude towards nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Environment.  Urban, suburban, rural, and wild.  What typifies the experience of life in above environments?  What typifies the society in above environments?  What typifies the individual in above society and environment?  What are the normal products?  What are the above and below average types like?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Environments which appeal to your personality, aesthetics (and therefore ethics).  What personality types like what environments and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Environments, Situations, Systems.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Event: a change in a factor.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Every place has its own feel and ghosts that are ineffable, but that sink into you.  History and geography yield values and attitudes that linger on in the air (This is the essence of travel writing).  Some feels are better than others, more alive, more productive.  These are the places to live.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, environment.	Factors in the urban, suburb, rural, and wild environments, and how they affect the individual and society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Goal: (1) Visit urban, suburb, rural, and wild.  (2) During spring, summer, fall, and winter.  (3) During day and night.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	How long you need to stay in an environment before you figure it out.  How long it takes you to know an environment how well.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	How many warm sunny days off in your prime are there?  20 years, minus 25 weekends out of the year, minus half due to rain = 250 warm sunny days off in your prime.  Not many.  Enjoy them.	05/30/1994

Philosophy, environment.	How much control we have over our situation.  Our influence on environment: ability to create, control, and destroy our environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Ideal: creation of the ultimate environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	It is natural for humans to constantly strive to improve their environment.  It is neurotic not to.	03/19/1989

Philosophy, environment.	Me.  I like watching the sky.  Why?  Is it due to hundreds of thousands of generations having only the sunset as evening entertainment?  I am, I think, much more tuned into my primal heritage than most others.  This may explain why I have so much trouble in the "modern" world, with job, etc.  It may also explain why I retreat to nature.  The rocky crags are my castle and fortress.	06/20/1994

Philosophy, environment.	New York is either too hot, too cold, or its raining.  Southern California has perfect weather.  How do you deal with perfection?	6/23/2000

Philosophy, environment.	NYC.  You try to convince yourself that New York is the best city on earth.  And you try to convince yourself that you are the best that New York has to offer.  Actually, there are many large, vibrant cities on this Earth, each filled with many talented people.  So your attempt at boosting your self image at the expense of others is wrong.  Think of a better narrative.	7/1/2006

Philosophy, environment.	Oh joy, to get out of a bad environment.	10/8/2003

Philosophy, environment.	Psychology and environment.  (1) Your physical environment has an affect on your psychological state.  (1) You also have a psychological environment, a psychological ecosystem.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	Related subjects.  Effects of and on.  Science: earth science, geography, biology.  Art: painting: landscapes, backgrounds.  Architecture: landscaping.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Related subjects.  Psychology.  Healthiest environment for you and why.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Saturday afternoon is the best time of the week.  In my mind it is away Saturday afternoon on a sunny spring day.  Physically relaxed, calm, free, happy, ready to create.	02/05/1998

Philosophy, environment.	Settlement of land.  (1) Settlements along a route.  A line of towns each one day's journey by foot apart (10 - 20 miles).  (2) Settlement of an area.  A web of towns each one day's journey by foot apart (10 - 20 miles).	2/24/2002

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  (1)(A) Situations that you don't want to get out of, and why.  (B) Situations that you do want to get out of, and why.  (2)(A) Situations that you want to get into, and why.  (B) Situations that you don't want to get into, and why.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  All factors and events are problems that must be reacted to in thought and action in the best way.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Analysis.  We analyze our situations, consciously or unconsciously, poorly or well, all time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Factors in a situation.  Type and degree of opposition to situation.  Type and degree of opposition to you in situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Goals.  Given situation, and my goals, what moves to make and not and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Goals.  Strategies and tactics by you and your opponents.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Goals.  What do you want?  How are you going to get it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Good points and bad points compared with others.  Take advantage of good points, and minimize affects of bad points.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  How and how much your behavior can affect a situation, for good and bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  How to improve a situation?  What to do, and how to do it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Ideal, problem and tech approach.  In general, for types of situations, or for specific situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  If you do x, what will probably happen?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Metaphysical analysis.  Epistemological proof.  Ethical actions to take.  Aesthetic tastes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Problems: natural, manmade, and humans.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Problems.  (1) Never figuring out your situation.  (2) Figuring it out too late.  (3) Figuring it out but not acting.  (4) Mistakes in importance rating.  (5) Omission errors in analysis of major issues in a situation.  (6) Analyzing any x in general factor wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Problems.  Mistakes in perception of what it is.  Not realizing factors present and their importance.  Not realizing how and how much it affects you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Situation ethics.  What to do about the situation?  What are you doing?  Whose fault is it?  What to do about the faults?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Time and accuracy of analysis.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Total situation = politics, sociology, economics, technological, psychology, etc., situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  Types.  Closed and open situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  What.  Situation = system at a point in time?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  What.  Situation = time and place.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  What.  Situation can be a psychological position.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  What.  Situation theory, definition.  A way to perceive, experience, and approach reality.  A complete and ordered way of thinking.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Situation.  You changing a situation vs. changing your relationship to a situation.  Others, and nature can do same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Some are very sensitive to environment, some are oblivious to it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Sometimes when you are in a toxic environment like a job or a place of residence it just pays to leave.	10/5/2003

Philosophy, environment.	Sometimes, getting to a certain physical environment, or getting out of one, can make all the difference (to get your head in or out of a place).  And yet be so subtle, almost imperceptible.  Like New York vs. Colorado vs. Paris.  The stores, people, and weather are almost all the same.  The only change is you say to yourself, "I am in Colorado".  It makes all the difference.  It makes you happy.  Who knows why?  The power of place.	01/22/1994

Philosophy, environment.	Space.  (1) People do not go for drives in the country just for the fresh air or the scenery.  They go for the space.  (2) It is not just the phone, radio or television that distracts you in your tiny apartment.  Nor is it just the other people you seek to get away from.  It is the lack of space.  (3) There is something about the human mind that requires space.  Space helps us think clearly.  Space helps us feel calm.  This is one reason why people climb mountains and go to the beach.  Space.	4/6/1999

Philosophy, environment.	Spaces.  Bright (light and color), loud, busy, active (movement), crowded, tight, small spaces.  Vs. quiet, large, open, uncrowded, not busy, subdued (color).	10/25/1993

Philosophy, environment.	The city is life condensed.  Art is life condensed.  Thus, the city is a form of art.	5/27/2006

Philosophy, environment.	The effect of place on mood and thought is very important.  Different places trigger different emotions and thoughts.  A poor environment can hobble you.	2/23/2001

Philosophy, environment.	To consider one's environment is to take a holistic view.  To look at a thing in terms of its relation to other things.  To not look at things in isolation.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	Types of environment.  (1) Internal: individual's mind and body.  (2) External.  (A) Interiors: inside a room.  (B) Exteriors: outside.  (C) Natural.  Alive: humans, animal, vegetable.  Inanimate: land, sea, air.  (D) Manmade.  (E) People.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Types of environment.  Biological environment.  Social environment.  Political environment.  Economic environment.  Technological environment.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, environment.	Types of environments, listed and expanded.  (1) General vs. specific.  Abstract vs. actual.  (2) Super, co, sub situations.  (3) Direct vs. indirect situation.  (4) Primary vs. secondary situation.  (5) Momentary vs. long term situation.  (6) Imaginable situation.  (7) Ideal situations (good or bad).  (A) Imaginable.  (B) Possible in this world.  (C) Possible for me.  (8) Possible situations vs. probable situations.  (9) Your situation.  (10)  Best, better, good, bad, worse, worst situations.  (11) Intra-personal.  Inter-personal.  Natural.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Types.  (1) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (2) Abstract environments vs. actual environments.  (3) Manmade vs. man-altered vs. untouched by man.  (4) New vs. old.  (5) Change vs. stasis.  (6) Danger vs. safety.  (7) Excitement vs. boredom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Types.  Best vs. worst.  Most vs. least powerful.  Most vs. least often live in.  Closest vs. farthest.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Types.  Hot vs. cold.  Dry vs. moist.  High vs. low altitude.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Types.  Mountains, plains, forests, coasts, deserts.  Earth, water, air.  Urban, suburb, rural, wild.  Day and night.  Seasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Ways to change your relationship to the environment.  (1) You move yourself.  (2) You change yourself.  (3) You change the environment.  (4) You get the environment to move.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Weather.  Heat, humidity, and haze.  It is not so much the heat that bothers one.  Nor is it the humidity.  It is the haze that is the worst.  All too often, when people say, "It is not the heat, it is the humidity.", actually it is the haze that is the culprit.  So often the haze gets off scot free.  Damn haze.  The haze makes one's mind fuzzy, foggy and unfocused.  In the places where there is no haze, one's mind is clear and sharp.	7/10/1999

Philosophy, environment.	Weather.  Perfect weather is when you can not tell the difference between indoors and outdoors.	10/05/1997

Philosophy, environment.	What is environment?  (1) Environment = a physical place.  (2) Environment = place and time.  (3) Our environment = what goes into our minds.  (A) What you actively put in.  (B) What passively goes in.  (C) What's forced in by others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	What the city, suburbs, country (farm), and wilds (mountains) have to offer, both good and bad.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, environment.	What.  Environment = things + people.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	What.  Environment is where you live.  Lifestyle is what you do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, environment.	Why did I care so much about my environment when I was young, and not at all now?  Because my psychological point of focus changed from external focus to internal focus.  (1) External focus.  The person cares a great deal about their physical environment.  It matters to them, it is important.  Especially its aesthetic quality.  And if they are explorers, they enjoy exploring the world, they travel.  (2) Internal focus.  The person cares little about their physical environment.  If they are explorers they will explore the world of ideas and feelings, and become artists or philosophers etc.	04/15/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Epistemology and psychology.  (A) Drives.  Instinctual knowledge.  (B) Senses.  Can we trust our senses?  Illusions are a case where we can not trust our senses.  (C) Memory.  False memories.  (D) Emotion.  Emotional knowledge.  (E)  Thinking.  Methods of thought.  Structures of concepts.  (2) Epistemology and sociology.  Sociology of knowledge.  (A) Politics.  Censorship vs. free speech.  Government control of media.  Public opinion polling.  (B) Economics.  Monopoly control of media by corporations.  (3) Epistemology and history.  Revisionist history.  (4) Epistemology and art.  Literary theory.  Truth of fiction.  Non-science.  (5) Epistemology and journalism.  How certain you should be before you run a story.  (6) Epistemology in religion.  Faith as blind belief.  (7) Epistemology and math.  Probability theory as degree of certainty.  Statistics and epistemology.  (8) Epistemology and logic.  Rationalism.  Syllogism.  Inference.  (9) Epistemology and science.  Empiricism.  Induction.  (10)  Epistemology and language.  Language is needed to think and reason.  (11) Math and logic are examples of deductive proof.	9/11/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	.See also: Psychology, logic.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	.See also: Psychology, thinking.  See also: Science.  See also: Philosophy, what.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	.This section is about epistemology or the theory of knowledge and related concepts.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, epistemology.	.This section is about epistemology.  Topics include: ( ) Art and epistemology.  ( ) Belief.  ( ) Certainty.  ( ) Doubt and skepticism.  ( ) Individual and epistemology.  ( ) Knowledge.  ( ) Language and epistemology.  ( ) Lies.  ( ) Method.  ( ) Probability and epistemology.  ( ) Proof.  ( ) Sociology of knowledge.  ( ) Standards.  ( ) Truth.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Awareness of existence of a thing.  (2) Knowledge of a thing (x in general), structure, mechanism, purpose, history, cause, effects.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Criteria (standards) for truth.  (2) Methods of inquiry.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Epistemic drive: If your epistemic drive is too low you will not seek knowledge or create knowledge.  (2) Epistemic standards: If your epistemic standards are too low you will accept anything as true (ex. astrology, psychics).  (3) The price you pay for low epistemic drive and low epistemic standards is pain (emotional, physical) and loss (of time, money, etc.)	3/4/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Epistemology as we ideally imagine it in philosophy texts, vs. (2) Epistemology (truth seeking) as it actually occurs in the individual and in society.	1/18/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Practical, pragmatist vs. idealist; this is an ethical issue.  (2) Practical, actual vs. theoretical; this is an epistemological issue.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Subject areas of knowledge.  (2) Ways of knowing.  (3) Degrees of knowing.	8/29/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) The questions you ask.  (2) The methods you use.  (3) The answers you find.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Three realms.  (A) Patently false.  100% untrue.  (B) Not exactly accurate.  Some degree less than 100% true.  (C) Dead on accurate.  100% true.  (2) Most of our knowledge of the world is in the second category of "not exactly accurate".  However, most people walk around with an attitude of "true or false" instead of "not exactly accurate".	5/15/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	(1) Types or kinds of knowledge, belief, etc. vs. (2) Levels or degrees of knowledge, belief, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	A few simple truths work better than using many complex lies.	06/15/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Against delusion use confrontation, honesty, and unrepression.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Against naive realism or common sense theories of epistemology.  (1) Humans cannot see micro-organisms without instruments.  Micro-organisms existed before the invention of the microscope but humans had no common sense concept of micro-organisms.  (2) Humans can only infer quantum theory.  Most scientists think quantum theory is correct, but naive realism does not work to support quantum theory.  (3) There is no evidence for string theory.  Yet string theory is held as a promising scientific theory.	4/17/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	An individual, and a society, should have some logic, reason, rigorous thinking, otherwise mistakes and problems ensue.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Arguments.  Logically valid arguments.  Arguments, in which conclusions are inferred from premises, are a way of generating new knowledge.  Thus, logic and epistemology are inextricably linked.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Art and epistemology.  "We learned more from a three minute song than we ever learned in school.", to quote/paraphrase Bruce Springsteen.  Epistemological arguments that are pro-art (poetry, music, visual art), and pro-emotion.	11/29/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Art and epistemology.  Epistemology of the arts.  Art has a knowledge component, or else it would just be entertainment.  Good art is chock full of knowledge, such as: (1) Emotional knowledge.  Some would argue that, aside from real life, art is the only place that we get emotional knowledge.  (2) Factual knowledge.  Example, when the author describes the layout of a city in a novel.  (3) Art tends to have concrete knowledge rather than abstract knowledge.  (4) Art tends to use analogical reasoning.  This is because, art tends to use figurative language (esp. analogy and metaphor), rather than exact language.	6/9/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Assumptions and implications.  When you hold any view.  (1) What does it assume?  Assumptions.  (2) What does it imply?  Implications.	06/15/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Basic epistemological attitudes that are good to have.  (1) Curious.  Inquisitive.  Ask questions.  (2) Critique answers.  Doubt.  Skepticism.  (3) Observe the world.  Empiricism.  (4) Logical.  Rational.  Value reason and thinking.  (5) Creative.  Problem solver.  Hypothesis tester.	10/8/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  (1) Belief as opinion: Truer vs. falser.  Unconscious vs. conscious.  Provable vs. unproveable.  (2) Percent or amount that a belief can be proved scientifically or argued rationally.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  (1) Every thought is a belief.  (2) Certainty simply means believing 100%.  Thus, certainty is a subset of belief.	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  (1) Percent and degree deliberated vs. percent and degree accepted.  (2) Belief based on evidence and reasoning vs. blind belief.  (3) Percent you thought about your beliefs vs. percent you blindly accepted your beliefs.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  A person's beliefs should be based on reason, scientific evidence, and logical argument.  A person's beliefs should not be based on magic, superstition, myth, faith, etc.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Blind belief is unethical.  Blind belief can be described as believing something just because you read it somewhere.  Believing everything you hear.  Believing without critical thinking.  Believing without doubt.  Faith, for its lack of critical thinking, is unethical.  Blind belief and blind obedience are wrong.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Non-religious belief.  For all cases of probability.  For anything less than 100% certainty, you proceed based on what you "believe" will happen.  Since very little of our life is 100% certainty, non-religious belief plays a major role in our epistemological abilities.	6/4/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  People have beliefs about ethics.  What they believe is right and wrong, or good and bad.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Philosophical view of belief.  (1) Every thought is a belief.  Beliefs take the form of statements.  Every thought can be expressed as a statement.  (2) Some beliefs are true and some beliefs are false.  For example, if you believe that the moon is made of cheese, that belief is false.  (3) Some beliefs are justified by reason.  Other beliefs are not justified by reason.  For example, if you believe that planet Earth is round based on your belief that ducks nibbled off its edges, then your belief that the earth is round is not justified.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  There is only one kind of belief.  (1) Religious belief and non-religious belief differ only by subject matter.  Religious belief is belief regarding religious topics.  Non-religious belief is belief regarding non-religious topics.  (2) Belief can be warranted or unwarranted.  Religious belief in the face of contrary evidence is wrong.	9/17/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Time and belief.  (1) People have beliefs about the future.  What they believe will happen.  (2) People have beliefs about the past.  What they believe happened.  (3) People have beliefs about the present.  What they believe is happening now.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Two types of believing.  (1) Believing your eyes, your senses and yourself.  (2) Believing other people, what they say, what they write and how they act.  (3) People often put a greater degree of belief in the former than the latter.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Belief.  Various uses of the word "belief".  The word "belief" can be used with several different meanings.  (1) Belief as a synonym for thought or idea.  People give various amounts, degree or weights of credence to various ideas.  The philosophical sense of the word belief.  (2) Belief as synonymous with faith or blind belief.  The religious sense of the word belief.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Body and epistemology.  In our knowing about the world, our bodies interacting with physical things is just as important as our minds interacting with ideas.  Embodied physicality is as important as abstract concepts.	7/12/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Can you fit all we know, or even all an individual needs to know, in a dictionary, an almanac, a quote book, an encyclopedia, or a four year college curriculum?	08/24/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Certainty and uncertainty.  Degrees of certitude.  (1) Positive.  (2) Stake my life on it.  (3) Stake my reputation on it.  (4) Will bet my hat.  (5) Pretty damn sure.  (6) Got a hunch.  (7) No clue, no idea, who knows, anybody's guess.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Certainty.  (1) Certainty defined as 100% confidence.  We do not talk about degrees of certainty; either you are certain or you are not.  (2) There are two basic views: the view that we can be certain and the view that we cannot be certain.  (3) To be certain is to have a closed mind, which is not a good thing.  Better to have an open mind.  For example, science is about constant re-evaluation.  (4) Can we be certain about anything?  Science is not about certainty.  Math and logic are about certainty, but only within a system whose rules we have created.  When we try to apply math and logic to the physical world we get situations were one type of math or logic does not hold but another type does (ex. Newtonian physics vs. Einsteinian physics).  (5) In everyday life, absolute certainty is a rarity.  We live most of our lives in states of uncertainty.  Certainty is a rarely achieved ideal.  Better to learn how to evaluate situations that are less than certain.	12/2/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Debate.  (1) Develop arguments and counter-arguments.  (2) Debate the pros and cons of each argument.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Deduction: reasoning, logic.  Induction: evidence, science.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Does the truth always come to light?  Does justice always prevail?  Maybe in the long run, but not necessarily in the short run.  Sometimes it never does.  We will never know of all the horrors prehistoric criminals committed.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, epistemology.	Doubt and skepticism.  (1) One view holds that doubt and skepticism evolved when humans developed the ability to lie and detect lies.  Doubt and skepticism evolved when people developed the ability to say, "It is possible that what you say is false.  Its possible that what you say is a lie (intentionally false, knowingly false).  You could be wrong."  (2) Another view holds that doubt and skepticism evolved when humans developed the ability to think hypothetically.  Doubt and skepticism is based on hypotheticals.  Doubt and skepticism evolved when humans began to say things like, "It is possible that what I believe to be true is actually false (not true).  Its possible that what I see is false (an illusion).  I could be wrong."	6/7/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Doubt and Skepticism.  Skepticism is to doubt that knowledge is possible.  (1) However, to "doubt the possibility of x" is simply another way of of saying "to believe that x is not possible".  So therefore skepticism is to believe that knowledge is not possible.  (2) If a skeptic says that he believes that knowledge is not possible then he at least apparently believes that belief is possible.  (3) If a skeptic says he "is sure" or "is certain" that knowledge is not possible, or if he says he "knows" that knowledge is not possible, then he apparently does belief in certainty and knowledge.	1/1/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Emotion and epistemology.  (1) Some people would argue that emotion has a part to play in human epistemology.  For example, in the subject area of love, if you ask a person how she knew she was in love, she may say that she knew because she felt it.  If you ask her about the degree to which she was sure she was in love, she may say it was a result of how strongly she felt it.  (2) Are we ready to completely rule out emotion from epistemology?  No.  Emotions must be considered in some way in epistemology.	8/29/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Empiricism and Rationalism.  (1) Empiricism.  (A) Strong empiricism.  All knowledge is from the senses.  (B) Weak empiricism.  Some knowledge is from the senses.  (2) Rationalism.  (A) Strong rationalism.  All knowledge is derived from principles.  (B) Weak rationalism.  Some knowledge is derived from principles.  (3) Humans do both, empiricism and rationalism.  Humans do both, induction and deduction.	3/15/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Empiricism and rationalism.  (1) Everything we know is via the senses and perception.  There is only deduction, no induction.  (2) Opposite view.  Everything we know via rationalism.  (3) Humans are a mix of the above two.	1/16/2003

Philosophy, epistemology.	Empiricism.  Empirical reasoning: from perception to concrete idea, to abstract idea.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Empiricism.  Is non-empirical knowledge possible?  Do you define non-empirical knowledge as making new conceptual connections?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Empiricism.  Sense perception: can we trust our perceptions?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological holism or coherentism.  (1) Ideas are contextual.  A person has a web of ideas.  The ideas are held together by a variety of logical relations, evidentary weights, and other types of connectors.  The connectors themselves are ideas.  It is an over simplification to say that ideas exist in a simple hierarchy.  (2) A society also has a web of ideas that are contextual in a way similar to the way that ideas a contextual in an individual person's mind.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological ideals, problems and techniques.  Search, test, and review your ideas constantly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological phenomena.  (1) Assertions: true vs. false.  (2) Doubt: skepticism.  (3) Evidence: conclusive, incontestable, incontrovertible vs. not.  (4) Facts: discovered and proved as fact vs. undiscovered and unproved.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological positions.  (1) Any knowledge or truth is impossible.  (2) Some knowledge is possible.  (3) Absolute knowledge or truth is possible.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological questions.  (1) How do we know about something, anything, or everything?  (2) How do we know what we know is true or false?  (3) How can we be sure?  (4) What is there to know, in general, and about subject x ?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological questions.  (1) What is truth?  What is knowledge?  What is certainty?  When can we be certain?  What is belief?  When to believe?  What is doubt?  What is being skeptical or critical?  (2) When someone says "believe me" they are saying "trust me".  When someone says "trust me", they are often about to screw you.  (3) Epistemology and the impossible, possible and probable.  (4) Can we trust our senses?  Mostly, not always.  Quantum physics and relativity physics are two examples of truths that seem to contradict our senses.  (5) Can we trust our reason?  What is intuition?  (6) Is doubt good?  Yes, because it leads to questions.  (7) Is inquisitiveness good?  Yes, keep asking questions.  (8) Is belief bad?  Yes, because it leads to stop asking questions.  (9) Is belief ever good?  To believe you can accomplish the possible.  Belief in self.  You gotta believe.  Some trust is necessary in social relations.  (10) At what type and degree of empirical evidence and logical reasoning should we reject, tentatively accept, or completely accept a truth claim?	9/8/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemological sophistication of an individual or society in areas like (1) Theory building (arguments), and (2) Fact gathering (empirical science), and how it affects their lives.	09/10/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemology and logic concern ideas about correct and pure thinking vs. our actual messy heads.  (1)(A) Science as described by philosophy of science is an ideal.  And it is one small area of how individuals and society come to know things.  (B) Logic is an ideal, and it is one small area of how individuals and society know things.  (See: Sociology of knowledge.  See: Psychology, thinking.)  (2) In practice we think much less purely.  (A) Ideas come to us out of the haze of the arts (visual arts, poetry, music, etc.).  (B) We use heuristics.  (C) We use associations (simile and metaphor).  (D) Our emotions affect our thinking.  (E) Language (vocabulary) limits and affects how we think.  (F) We just think of things.  Ideas pop into our heads.  (G) Or we use our gut, intuition, hunches.  (H) Or we start asking questions (see question theory) and think of any and all possible answers.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemology is about facts and reasoning.  We use science to discover and verify facts.  We use logic to determine valid conclusions.  Both are important.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Epistemology, broadly defined, includes the philosophy of science.  Epistemology, broadly defined is about methods of inquiry and standards of acceptance.	10/8/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Ethics and epistemology.  In everyday life epistemology works hand in hand with ethics.  In the world of theory we separate them, but they are inseparable in our functioning minds.  We constantly ask ourselves questions like (1) What is the situation we are in (epistemology)?  (2) What do I want to do about it (ethics)?  What are our available options and which to choose?	02/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Ethics and epistemology.  Some people construe epistemology as a matter of ethics.  It is a matter of ethics whether an individual or society pursues inquiry, science and truth.  It is a matter of ethics what type of epistemological standards an individual or society holds.  At the very least, ethics and epistemology are inextricably linked.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Fact and opinion.  So much of living a good life is attitudes and opinions.  Facts only gets you so far.  Facts are helpful in forming opinions.  Facts and opinions are both necessary.  Opinions should be based on reason.  A person might get the facts wrong.  A person might also hold suboptimal opinions.	3/25/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Facts: as provable.  Beliefs: as value judgments, unproveable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Faith as blind belief vs. doubt and skepticism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	False.  (1) Illusions, delusions.  (2) Mistaken, by subject.  (3) False promises, and false expectations.  (4) Errors and omissions.  (5) Propaganda.  (6) Withholding (secrets).  (7) Everything's a lie by degree.  (8) Implicit vs. explicit.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Figuring out and finding out.  A big part of epistemology is finding out (as opposed to figuring out).  Consider things like the bias of author (What are they selling you?  Whose side are they on?  etc.).  A correlation of objective (disinterested), independent (no knowledge of each other) responses is best.  It is like asking for directions in a car.	10/30/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	For any statement: what is its degree of truth/falsity, accuracy, and completeness?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Given any level of proof, when to act on partial information or partial proof.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Half-truths or partial-truths are an important topic in epistemology.  (1) Half-truths, definition one:  Often a person will err by stating a truth, without stating (to use the language of the court) "the whole truth".  People often defend themselves by saying "I told the truth" without having told the whole truth.  What is the whole truth?  In one sense, the whole truth is global.  The whole truth is everything that ever happened since time and the universe began.  The whole truth is the history and future of the universe.  In a second sense, the whole truth is all the facts (and only the facts) relevant and pertinent to the situation at hand.  In a third sense, the whole truth is both the facts and the ethical arguments relevant to a situation.  To be as truthful as possible, one must take into account all the facts and ethical issues in the entire situation.  The whole truth is contextual and pluralistic.     (2) Half-truths, definition two:  the world is not black and white.  It is possible to make a statement that is true only to a certain degree.  It is possible to make a statement that is 25%, or 50%, or 75% true.  For example, to say "People like soda", when only 50% of people like soda.  The problem is that many people think that any given statement is either 100% true or 100% false, when actually the real world is analog (shades of gray) and not digital (black & white).	12/12/2000

Philosophy, epistemology.	Historically and today, in any society, in any situation.  (1) What counts as persuasive proof.  Example, statistical correlation of cigarette deaths.  (2) What counts as persuasive argument or reasoning.  Example, syllogism.  (3) What does not.  Example, pseudoscience.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	History of epistemology.  The philosophers.  The development of the subjects: empiricism (evidence), rationalism(logic).  Great proofs in history: philosophic, and scientific.  Great lies, and great mistakes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	How much do we know what's really going on, especially what other people are thinking or doing when we are not there?  Paranoia!	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Hypothetical.  A universe containing 100 facts.  Person A picks 50 facts that support their views.  Person B picks 50 facts that support their views.  Both are "true".  Actually, half true.	10/13/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	I don't believe in (1) Myth, magic, religion, mysticism.  (2) Poetry.  Hiding or repressing your communication.  (3) They are all neurotic, repression, denial of mind, especially denial of reason.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Ideas: idea as something thought?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	If everything is subject to debate then there is no certainty.  People crave certainty.  (2) Epistemological relativism means saying that truth, or knowledge, is relative.  Saying truth, or knowledge, is not objective.  Saying truth, or knowledge, is relative to an individual person, a society, a situation, etc.  Nihilism means saying that there is no truth.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	In real life, people usually do two things.  One, people use empiricism, science, to determine the facts of a situation.  Two, people use rationalism, logic, to argue for a particular ethics of what to do in a situation.  Very seldom do people do one without the other.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  (1) Figuring out.  (2) Finding out.  What to believe?  (A) Gather as many views, arguments and facts as you can.  (B) Reliance on the media.  Today we are dependent on the media to get much of the information we need.  Read from as many sources of various viewpoints as you can.  Accuracy of facts vs. bias, slant, and one sided coverage.  Pressures on media to alter content, by advertisers who can choose to stop advertising, and by subscribers who can choose to stop reading.  (C) Government censorship and government fabrications.  Read media from many countries to get a variety of views.	1/30/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  (1) There is the epistemology of the group (society).  And there is the epistemology of the individual person.  (2) Modern society tends to rely on the storehouse of science for its epistemological foundation.  The modern individual tends to rely more on a form of rough, rudimentary philosophy and on fuzzy art for his or her epistemological foundation.  (3) The epistemology of society and the individual tend to inform each other.  They swap information.	1/18/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Epistemology of the individual.  Truth seeking methods that we all use as individuals.  Ways of figuring stuff out.  Everyday everyone of us use the following methods.  (1) Scientific method in everyday life.  (A) Experience.  (B) Data gathering.  (C) Probability and statistical analysis.  (2) Logic in everyday life.  (3) Detective work.  (4) Lawyering.  (5) Journalism.  (6) Historian.  (7) Artist.  (8) Sociology.  Finding out stuff from other people, and about other people, as opposed to finding out stuff about objects.  (9) Psychology.  Figuring out stuff about yourself.  (9) Technology.  Inventing the truth.  Trial and error methods of truth gathering.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Lay epistemics.  When a person gains knowledge it is a result of generating hypotheses and then testing hypotheses.  (1) Hypothesis generation is a function of creativity.  (2) Hypothesis testing is a function of logical rigor.	7/16/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Magic, art, philosophy and science are all a melange in our unconscious minds.  They are only separate when we consciously separate them.	7/4/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Most of what I "know" is ideas I did not generate by using the scientific method (experiments).  Most of what I "know" is ideas that "just came to me".  I did try to examine and think critically about these ideas.  And I did try to develop and examine alternative views.  Thus it is as much logic (deduction) as it is science (induction).  And it is as much emotion as it is thinking.  People adopt and stick with ideas that "feel right" to them.  Pragmatism: "stick with what works".  The individual does more philosophy and art than they do science.	1/18/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Science is a group, public pursuit.  But on the individual, personal level, how much proof vs. how much theory should we have?  What is the right mix?	10/10/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  The main question is, since we can't test and prove everything ourselves, who to believe, who to trust?  (1) The news, peers, parents, bible?  Nah.  (2) Should we go with what feels right (emotions and instinct)?  If you have a messed up mind, your instincts are not always right.  (3) Should we go with what makes sense (reasoning)?  (4) The main thing is to, (A) Think on a wide variety of topics.  (B) Sort out your beliefs and write them down.  (C) Gather information (read, talk) from a wide variety of sources.  (D) Write that down too and sort it out.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  Trusting, believing and taking for granted vs. rigorously testing for yourself, searching for alternative explanations and searching for alternative epistemic methods.	1/20/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual and epistemology.  When individuals reason they use philosophy more often than science.	9/2/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Individual epistemology vs. group epistemology.  (1) Science is a group endeavor.  The individual can not use pure scientific method.  (2) Group science has journals.  Individuals must write and organize their notes as well as read.  (3) If an individual takes the view that exploring and thinking and knowledge are not important for their own survival, health, and growth, then they are screwed.	10/25/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Information and epistemology.  Epistemology today is about information.  Sources of information.  Access to information.  Accuracy and reliability of information.  Picking and sorting information.  Critical review of information.  (1) The majority of what is happening today is not complicated.  There's just a lot to keep track of.  (2) Because of the size of the world, the majority of what we know today is second hand knowledge obtained from the media.  We find out from the media more than we figure out for ourselves.  (See Technology, information theory).	7/14/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	It does not have to be true, it just has to be informative.  (1) In science, failed experiments can help point us toward solutions and truth.  (2) In sociology, when we ask "Why would this person lie?", we can expose their hidden motives.  (3) The point is, we hunger for truth, but we get truth by sorting through the false.	7/20/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	It is not always simply a matter of whether an idea is true or false.  A more important question is where an idea fits into one's epistemological hierarchy.  That is, we consider an idea more true than some ideas and less true than others.	12/12/2000

Philosophy, epistemology.	Journalism and epistemology.  (1) Journalism is, much more than science, the main epistemological pursuit of today's society.  Analysis and commentary is important in journalism because hard facts do not suffice.  Facts need to be interpreted.  (2) The main epistemological pursuit of the individual today is news gathering from television, magazine, newspapers, books and gossip.  Today we tend to find out from other sources just as much as we figure out for ourselves.  (3) Epistemology is really psychology and the sociology of knowledge.  (4) Instead of philosophy of science, we should be studying the philosophy of journalism.	8/26/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Justification or warrant can be based on either evidence or arguments.  Evidence is based on the senses.  Arguments are based on logic.	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowing.  Five ways of knowing about a thing.  For example, a cat.  (1) The word "cat".  (2) The image of a cat.  (3) The sound of a cat.  (4) The short (dictionary) definition of cat vs. (5) The entire body of knowledge about cats.	1/1/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowledge and pseudo-knowledge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowledge types.  (1) Received knowledge.  Belief in what you are told, read, heard.  Tradition.  Believe what others believe (conformity, imitation).  (2) Intuitive knowledge.  Hunch, gut feeling.  Knowing answer without knowing reasons.  May work for an individual, but can society run off it?  (3) Esoteric knowledge.  Foreign, obscure, secret, lost, or hidden knowledge.  Mystic knowledge.  Divine inspiration.  (4) Experiential knowledge.  Only believing what you saw/heard with own two eyes/ears.  Not trusting anything you read, or deciding not to read.  Anti-scholasticism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowledge: knowledge as truth?  Knowledge as justified true belief?  Knowledge as a product of thought?  If you know (what, how, and why) you are halfway there.  Truth: empirical and logical truths.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowledge.  Two definitions of "knowing".  (1) To know an idea conceptually.  To understand the meaning of a sentence that expresses the idea.  (2) To know a fact, as in "to make an idea your own.", is to accept it, agree with it, integrate it and embody it in one's mind and life.  (3) The distinction between the above two types of knowing is at the core of psychological health.  The unhealthy person realizes the first.  The healthy person does the second.	11/14/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Knowledge.  Types of knowledge.  (1) First hand bodily experience.  (2) First hand witness.  (3) Second hand knowledge.	9/11/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Language and epistemology.  "Are you sure?  Are you positive?"  What do these phrases mean?	04/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Language and epistemology.  If you believe that language cannot completely capture nor portray reality then no statement can ever be one hundred percent true.  Example, when talking about emotions, how can we accurately convey how we feel?  We cannot completely.	8/26/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Language and epistemology.  Thought defined as "language spoken to self".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Language.  Are you arguing about what is, or are you arguing about statements about what is?  How much of epistemology is an issue of language?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Law and epistemology.  Law is an example of high epistemological standards in regard to fact and argument.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies are intentional falsity.  To be mistaken is an unintentional falsity.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies due to error, omission, or commission.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies: fantasy worlds built on delusions, and b.s. built on falsities, they both collapse.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  (1) How big (major or minor variance from truth).  How many.  (2) False purported truths (lies).  (3) Half truths vs. total untruths.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  (1) Intentional vs. unintentional.  (2) Harmful vs. harmless.  (3) Conscious vs. unconscious.  (4) Lies to hurt vs. lies to protect.  (5) Lies to x, by y, about z, in a medium, in b way.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  (1) Lies my parents told me.  (2) Lies that society told me.  (3) Lies that I told myself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  (1) The little lie: little harm done to few.  The big lie: much damage to many.  (2) The minor lie: small deviation from reality.  The major lie: large deviation from reality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  All lies harm.  They fu*k people's heads up with wrong information and also the psychological abuse of being lied to.  Lies destroy trust.  Lies destroy self confidence.  Lies are mental abuse.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  Anyone who says they have never lied, or that they don't lie, is a liar.  All one can do is endeavor to reduce the number and magnitude of one's lies.	11/1/2003

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  Learn how to recognize lies and bullshit.  Cross check sources.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  Reveal truth, and expose lies.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  Two views.  Ignorance is bliss vs. ignorance punishes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Lies.  Why do people lie: to protect self, and to hurt others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Logic.  Logic in words, in numbers, and in rule following.  Valid vs. invalid.  Logical arguments vs. factual evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Maintaining multi-perspectives.  There are two (or more) sides to every story, or views to every issue.  Always hear both sides.  To do this you must play devils advocate against your views and for opposing views.  Always root for the underdog.  The only unity is a harmony of parts, or an equalized tension of parts with each part pulling their way to keep things in balance.  Monism is fascist totalitarianism.  Pluralism rules.	08/24/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Method.  (1) Methods of inquiry: asking questions, observing, and experimenting.  (2) Methods of judgment of arguments: analysis and comparison.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Method.  See also methodologies of theory and science in all subject areas.  Methodologies.  Rate them best to worst.  What is the cutoff point where they pass muster and are accepted as good science (vs. bad science).  What is the history of the methodologies?	09/24/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methodologies, history of.  Methodologies by subject area.  Methodologies from best to worst.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods and epistemological standards.  If your methods are bad and your standards are low you will believe anything.  If your standards are too high you will believe nothing.  How much does, and should, the secular man take on belief or trust?  Everything in the newspaper?  Everything in the textbooks?	08/21/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods in epistemology are distinct only on paper, not in real life.  In real life one method blurs into another.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods.  Every area of inquiry has epistemological methods.  Some examples of epistemological methods are the following: (1) Heuristic methods.  (2) Don't believe everything you read.  (3) Troubleshooting.  Diagnostics.  The technological approach.  Swap parts.  Test it.  (4) Debate it.  Rational argument.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods.  History of development of epistemological methods.  Logic, science (hard physical sciences and soft social sciences), literary criticism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods.  PART ONE.  Good epistemological attitudes and practices.  (1) Questioning and curiosity is good.  (2) Doubting and skepticism are good.  (3) Discussion and debate are good.  (4) Examining one's beliefs is good.  (5) Free thinking is good.  (6) Philosophy and science are good.  (7) Inquiry is good.  (8) Knowledge based on reason is good.  (9) Reason is good.  Philosophy and science are based on reason.     PART TWO.  Bad epistemological attitudes and practices.  (1) Repression of natural curiosity is bad.  (2) Blind belief is bad.  Blind faith is bad.  (3) Silence, with no debate, is bad  (4) Fear of reason is bad.  Fear of thinking is bad.  (5) Faulty logic and faulty reasoning is bad.  (6) Unexamined beliefs are bad.  (7) Ignoring the world is bad.  (8) Ignorance is bad.  (9) Magic and superstition are bad.     PART THREE.  One has to start with the basics, in part because there are some people out there whose thought processes have atrophied through lack of use.  People whose thought processes have decayed through years of blind belief and blind obedience.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods.  Quantitative methods and epistemology.  Statistics: descriptive and predictive probability.  Impossibility vs. possibility.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Methods.  Some basic epistemological principles.  (1) Combine empiricism and rationalism.  Look for evidence.  Develop logical arguments.  (2) Gather information from many sources.  Be a critical thinker.  (3) Continually question.  Continually discuss.	8/14/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Most of the time people go by their best guesses.  Educated guesses.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	My epistemological problem while growing up.  (1) I did not know everything (A) Soon enough, (B) And did not know that I did not know it.  (2) I was not SURE ENOUGH of what I did know (sure enough to act instantly).  So thus my actions sucked, and time (to develop and grow) was wasted.  I could have worked it all out if I had spent more effort and put it down on paper.  I have the same problem now to a lesser extent.	11/20/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Naturalized epistemology.  Can the entire subject of epistemology be moved into the psychology departments?  I think so.  Quine thought so.  What are the arguments against such a move?	9/12/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Naturalized epistemology.  Epistemology should be naturalized.  Epistemology can be considered the science of psychology.  Epistemology should be approached as a form of thinking (i.e. psychology) that yields truth.	01/20/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Naturalized epistemology.  When one studies epistemology one is really studying the psychology of thought.  Psychology of thought replaces or continues epistemology.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Not everything is understood, and sometimes we know the answer without knowing the reasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Notions of evidence and argument in the epistemological process.	10/10/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Often we believe a metaphysical or ethical proposition despite having no evidence or argument to believe it, however this phenomenon is not accurately described as faith.  Sometimes we even believe a proposition in the face of contrary evidence or arguments, yet this phenomenon is still not accurately described as faith.  We say "I don't know why, I just believe it.", or, "That's just the way I feel, and I don't care what you say to the contrary."  People often go on hunches and intuitions.  Every moment of every day cannot be analyzed and debated beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt.  There just is not enough time to do so.  Yet that does not mean we are resorting to "faith", whatever that term means.	12/2/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Philosophy and theory.  Philosophy is pure theory.  Pure Theory is anything you can figure out without doing experiments.  Deduction.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Pragmatism.  What is the best epistemology system for an individual or society?  A few simple truths can work better than many complex lies.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Probability and epistemology.  The truth of the odds.  Probability vs. certainty.  Three cases of meta-probability.  (1) We are 100% certain that earthquakes will strike 30% of the time.  Vs.  (2) We are only somewhat sure (50%?) That earthquakes will hit 30% of the time.  Vs.  (3) We do not know at all what percentage of time earthquakes hit.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Probability and knowledge.  Percent degree of belief from 0% to 100%.  How sure do you have to be in any situation?  For example, in law some civil cases require only "a preponderance of evidence", while criminal cases require "evidence beyond a reasonable doubt".	4/28/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Probability.  (1) Reality is a crapshoot.  Everything is based on probability.  Probability is about uncertainty and risk.  (2) Risk is about high stakes, or outcomes of great gain or great loss.  Risk can also be about the odds; low odds for positive outcomes means high risk.  (3) High stakes is based on inputs and outputs.  Inputs can be high or low.  Outputs can be great gain or great loss.  (4) It all depends on your tolerance for uncertainty and risk.  (5) You can be certain of the odds but still be uncertain of the actual outcome.  Even that is an improvement over not even knowing the odds.  For example: The weather-person predicts a 30% chance of rain tomorrow.  Weather reports are now 80% accurate.  Fifty years ago the weather reports were 50% accurate.  The 24 hour forecast is 80% accurate but the five day forecast is 50% accurate.	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Probability.  Does anyone know anything with 100% confidence?  If not, then probability plays a major role in epistemology.	2/24/2003

Philosophy, epistemology.	Problems.  (1) Lacking data.  (2) Refusing to consider data.  (3) Refusing to search for data.  (4) Mistakes in reasoning.  (5) Omissions in reasoning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Problems.  Two similar bad attitudes.  (1) "If I have not thought of an idea then that idea cannot be important".  This is a bad attitude held by many individuals.  All advances in individuals are made by thinking of ideas they have never thought.  (2) "If it is not scientifically proven then it does not exist".  This is a bad attitude held concerning public science.  All advances in science are made by those who work on things that are not currently scientifically proven.  (3) Conversely, another bad attitude held by both individuals and societies is believing that scientific proof means nothing, and thinking that all angels are real.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Proof.  (1) Historical proof: it did happen.  (2) Present proof: it is happening.  (3) Predictive proof: it will happen.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Proof.  Inconclusive evidence.  Preponderance of evidence.  Overwhelming evidence.  Evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.  Incontestable, incontrovertible evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Proof.  Logical proof.  Mathematical proof.  Scientific proof.  Philosophical proof.  Legal proof.  Journalistic proof.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Proof.  Proof = evidence + arguments.  Proof as airtight argument.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Psychology (science) is kicking epistemology's (philosophy) ass.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Questions about epistemology vs. epistemological questions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Questions.  (1) Asking questions is natural and healthy.  (2) Types of questions: (A) Questions with no answer.  (B) Questions where any answer is wrong.  (C) Questions with only one answer.  (D) Questions with more than one answer.  (E) Questions where any answer is right.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Reality vs. illusion, dreams, fantasy, imagination, vision.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Reason and thinking vs. belief and non-thinking (habit, tradition, veging).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Reason is not a thing, it is a process or method used to arrive at knowledge, information, or truth.	06/15/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Reasoning (deductive) vs. evidence (inductive).	10/27/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Related subjects.  Epistemology in science, law (evidence), journalism (sources), and detective work.  Ways to investigate, and ways to draw conclusions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Relation of truth to knowledge.  Can truth exist without knowledge?  Can knowledge exist without truth?  Knowledge as justified true belief.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, epistemology.	Science and epistemology.  Science is a subset of epistemology.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Simplification and epistemology.  In our knowing about the world, how much do we simplify in order to understand?  Simplification occurs on the perceptual level.  Simplification occurs on the thought level.  Simplification occurs at every level.	7/12/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Skepticism is dual-sided.  You can doubt god, faith, belief, and mysticism or you can doubt reason, atheism, and science.  Or you can doubt both.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  (1) "Official channels" of knowledge.  Publishers.  Retail booksellers.  Education.  Media.  Science, philosophy, art.  (2) "Unofficial channels" of knowledge.  Word of mouth.  Internet.	6/25/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  (1) Broadcasting.  What gets on the air in the commercial media?  Shows that make money get on the air in the commercial media.  Who decides which stories get on the news in commercial media?  Editors, who report to corporate boards, decide which stories get on the news in commercial media.  (2) Journalism.  What gets printed in the commerical media?  Which writers and editors get hired by commercial media?  What stories get assigned and accepted in commercial media?  In commercial media, writers and editors who appeal to the audience and advertisers of the paper get hired because they make money for the newspaper.  (3) Commercial media has major flaws.  Commercial media has systemic problems.  Commercial media is not the best nor only system of media.    A person cannot find out what they need to know from commercial media.  Independent media is vitally important to provide much needed information to the public.  Support independent media with your money and time.  Get your news from independent media.  (4) Academia.  Who gets the job positions in academia?  Job positions bring money.  Job positions bring power.  Jobs mean money and power.  Jobs are often given to cohorts, chums, allies, cronies, friends.  (4) Bookstores.  Which books are put on the shelves?  Books that sell are put on the shelves.  Who makes buying decisions for the bookstore?  Managers make buying decisions and their interests and motivation are often primarily profits.  (5) The general trend is that people who are out to protect their own self interests form a bourgeois bulwark that affects what information is available to the public.  Unfortunately, it is common that truth and justice get subverted by money and power.	1/1/2007

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  (1) The term "sociology of knowledge" at best should be called "sociology of information" or even "sociology of propaganda" because false ideas, lies and sub-optimal ideas spread as much as true ideas, healthy ideas, optimal ideas.  (2) Sociology of knowledge includes the economics of ideas.  Ideas are pitched (marketed and advertised).  Ideas are sold.  (3) Sociology of knowledge includes the politics of ideas.  Attempts are made by power holders to enforce ideas.  Attempts are made by power holders to censor and prohibit ideas.  Ideas in and of themselves have a type of power.  Ideas are a vector for political power struggles.	6/24/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  Epistemology today is more about social phenomena like journalism, the media, the Internet and search engines.  (2) Even science is a social phenomenon.  (3) Even the individual uses social tactics for truth-seeking, including "reality checks" with friends by asking questions like, "Did you just see what I saw?" and "Don't you think so?"	9/19/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  How do you spread ideas?  How do you get people to change their minds?  How do you get people to feel differently about things.  (1) First step, get the idea to the people.  Expose the idea to the people.  Use the media.  Use the press.  (2) It should be a good idea.  It should be epistemologically true. It should be ethically good.  It should be better than existing competing ideas that are already out there.  (3) Persuasive arguments help.  Self evident ideas are helpful.  (4) The time is right.  The idea is ripe.  Right time and place.  Step by step.  (5) This is useful in political discussions.  (A) Grass roots change view of masses.  (B) Change view of law makers.  (6) Make it official.  (7) This is also about the sociology of knowledge.  Memes.  (8) To sum up: Get a good idea.  Make it free.  Make it fun.  Make it obvious.  Make it a no-brainer.  Make it quick and easy.	6/26/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  How you communicate knowledge makes a difference.  (1) Myths.  Fables (stories with morals).  Oral histories (oral tradition).  Folklore.  Medicine men.  Anecdotes.  (2) Abstract ideas, written out.  (3) Computers.  Instant, searchable, natural language interface, mentors who respond to questions.	4/28/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  Knowledge and politics are related.  People push their versions of truth in order to gain power in order to fulfill their interests.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  People hog knowledge as a power ploy in two ways.  (1) Secret knowledge: they keep to themselves.  (2) Pay knowledge: they will let you have the knowledge if you pay them first.  (3) I am for an open society with access to information.	5/8/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  Political influences on information.  Truth is a political issue.  Political groups broadcast their voices and quash their opponents voices.	1/1/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  That an idea is new, useful and important does not guarantee that the idea becomes popular and widespread.  Many false ideas become popular.  The question becomes how to ensure the popularity of good ideas.	12/12/2000

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  Three problems.  (1) Today the media is corporate owned and thus reflects corporate interests.  (2) Religion has the effect of reducing the quantity and quality of critical thinking and inquiry by the public.  (3) The public relations industry is a propaganda machine, trying to spin the truth, and trying to counteract the work of the press.	1/4/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Sociology of knowledge.  Which channels or media have the most viewers or readers?  Which channels or media have the most speakers and writers?	6/25/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Standards in epistemology.  At what point is something considered (1) Good science or bad science, (2) Good reason or bad reason (argument, logic).	01/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Standards.  Go/no go decisions.  Epistemological standards of an individual or society.  What do we consider sufficient evidence?  What do we consider sound argument, reason, and proof?  At what degree of evidence or argument do we make "go or no go" or "accept or reject" decisions?  This is where epistemology meets ethics.  Mistakes can be made when standards are too high or too low for any situation.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Standards.  Go/no go decisions.  The big question is not just what do we consider x degree of evidence or rational argument or proof.  The question is also what do we consider sufficient evidence for "go/no go" action decisions.  This is an areas where ethics and epistemology meet.  Sometimes you don't have full knowledge and must act anyway.  Decision theory and game theory.	08/21/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Standards.  How many ideas a person accepts as true or not, and why (i.e. gullibility).  Types of standards: direct observation only, vs. from informed sources, vs. hearsay or rumors.  Smallest children accepts parents word as true without thinking about it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Statements (an assertion is a type of a speech act).  Propositions and conclusions.  Questions, and answers.  Commands.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Statements.  (1) Logical statements (math and logic).  (2) Empirical statements (science).  (3) Belief statements (religion).  (4) Everything else (philosophy).  Different ways of saying same thing (art).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Strong belief and strong doubt vs. wonder belief and wonder doubt.  (1)(A) Strong doubt: To think false.  To strongly believe not x.  To think not x.  Doubt based on evidence vs. doubt based on no evidence.  (B) Strong belief: To think true.  To strongly think x.  (2)(A) Wonder doubt:  To think perhaps false.  To wonder if not x.  To have one's doubts about something.  To sense something is wrong somewhere.  (B) Wonder belief: To think perhaps true.  To wonder if x.  To wonder if it is possible.  Possibility.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Subjective (personal) views vs. objective (consensus of masses or critics) views.  You can be wrong, or they can be wrong.  But the epistemological search for truth parallels the ethical search for goodness and the aesthetic search for beauty and high artistic value.  The individual judges what is best for them.  The group makes a group decision.	1/3/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	Technology and epistemology.  Diagnostic thinking.  Medical diagnosis.  Technical troubleshooting, for example, by car mechanics or computer repair persons.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	Testing.  Test the results to ensure the accuracy of the results.  Check your results.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, epistemology.	The "Watergate" view of epistemology:  Who is the knower?  What did he know?  When did he know it?	6/12/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	The big question is, what ideas should be grouped in the following categories.  (1) Thinking: manipulating images and words.  Can be logical or not.  (2) Logic: following proper form or rules like "If, then" and "Because, therefore".  Can be true or not.  (3) Epistemology: specific arguments.  Must be logical and true.  (4) Rhetorical argument.  (5) Philosophy of mind.  Can deal with other areas beside thought and truth.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	The concept of "scientific trust": the ability to say, "In twenty years science will prove this view to be true, even though we can't prove it now.  But I still prefer to believe it now, as opposed to believing in a crappy view that has some evidential support".	6/10/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	The epistemology of an individual or society is a combination of (1) Logic standards, (2) Empirical standards, and (3) Investigative methods.	5/6/1999

Philosophy, epistemology.	The Internet search engine is the new epistemological issue for us to deal with.  The Internet is all about finding stuff out.	11/15/2000

Philosophy, epistemology.	Theory vs. practice.  (1) Practical issues of life: work leisure, health welfare, survival.  (2) Theoretical issues of life:.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	There are no uncontroversial, undisputed truths.  Epistemological relativism.  Epistemological nihilism.  Epistemological subjectivity.	2/12/2004

Philosophy, epistemology.	Things we can know about x (see x in general).  Proofs for these things, and ways to obtain proof.  Ways of thinking.  Forms of proof or argument.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Thinking: reason = rational = logical?  Is all thinking rational?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Thought (and speech) should be succinct, exact, and complete (i.e. economical).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	To change for better you must know both the theoretical (ideals, goals, what's still wrong), and the practical (situation, problems, what's right).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth = sum of truths.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth and its relation to logic, science, common-sense, ethics and aesthetics.  (1) Logically true.  A statement can be logical without being true.  For example, "If pigs can fly then we will have to build pig airports".  However, when we say an idea is "true by dint of logic" we mean that, as in math, it is true because of the rules of the game we have created.  However, mistakes are made when we think that one kind of logic applies to a situation when in fact another type of logic applies to a situation.  (2) Scientific truth.  Truth derived from observation or experiment.  (3) "Common-sense" truth or "obvious" truth.  Once it was obvious that the world was flat.  Today we know better.  (4) Truth and ethics.  People often say "X is true" when they mean "X is good".  They may counter by saying "It is true that X is good", but that is really the same as saying "X is good".  (5) Truth and aesthetics.  Truth and art.  Is there such a thing as aesthetic or artistic truth?  Is it the truth of fiction?  Or are all aesthetic matters merely opinion and taste?	1/14/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth and knowledge.  (1) in logic and math.  Proof.  (2) In science: evidence.  (3) In philosophy: argument.  (4) In art: understanding, interpretation, discourse, conversation, emotion, sensation, imagination. (5) In everyday life: speculation, guesses.  (6) In neurosis: myth, magic and religion.	2/15/2003

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth and meaning.  (1) Is truth required for knowledge?  Yes.  (2) Is truth required for meaning?  No.  False sentences have meaning but not truth.  (3) Is meaning required for truth?  If you are talking about words then yes, a sentence must have meaning to be true.  If you are talking about the facts of reality then no, because things can be true (exist) without having meaning.	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth and meaning.  (1) Meaning in the visual arts.  Can a picture have meaning?  How?  What kind of meaning can a picture have?  (2) Meaning in music.  What kind of meaning can music have?  (3) Truth in the visual arts.  Can we say a picture is true?  How so?  Is it true if it accurately depicts a past event?  (4) Truth in music.  Can we say a piece of music is true?  How so?	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth is a function of logic and language.	06/01/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth is a logical relation.  100% truth is a mirror image, a virtual duplicate, i.e., the thing itself.  Words cannot equal the thing.  Words cannot give 100% truth.	6/3/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth is comprised of (1) The facts (physical reality), and (2) The principles (abstract reality of ideas).	11/10/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth makes things easier in the long run.	12/14/1988

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth of ideas vs. epistemological importance of ideas.  Epistemological importance is not an ethical concept.  Epistemological importance is the logical place of a statement in an argument structure, and the power of a statement in an argument structure.  Some statements clinch an argument, other statements are just frills.	10/30/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth of object vs. of truth of subject.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth of the way things are (metaphysical), the way things should be (ethical).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth of what was and wasn't.  Truth of what is and isn't.  Truth of what will be and won't be.  Truth of what could be and can't be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth results from right reason and correct perception.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth, types of.  (1) Truth in math.  (2) True by definition.  (3) Necessary truths.  (4) Logical truth.	5/18/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth, types of.  (1) Truth of a sentence.  (2) Truth of a work of art, even if its a work fiction.	5/18/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  (1) The expression "X is true" as meaning "X exists" or "X is real" is a metaphysical claim.  (2) The expression "X is true" about a math expression or a natural language expression or a formal logic expression or a computer language expression, is an epistemological claim.	5/18/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  (1) Truth as verification using logic and science.  (2) Wisdom as ethical knowledge and judgment.  (3) Smarts as having good problem solving skills, puzzle solving skills, heuristics, and being good at attaining goals.  Also being good at problem posing.  (4) Taste as aesthetics.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  (1) Truth of a statement, of a perception, or of a thought.  (2) Complete truth vs. partial or half truths.  (3) Importance of a truth: important truths vs. trivial truths.  (4) Truths by perspective.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  (1) Types of truth: metaphysical truths, epistemological truths, ethical truths, aesthetic truths.  (2) Levels or degrees of truth: truest to least true.  (3) Ways to find a truth..  (4) Truths on subject x.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Coherence: fits in with other ideas.  Pragmatic: works well in practice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Enduring vs. momentary truths.  Classic enduring truths (or beauty) vs. arbitrary fashion, taste, fads, and norms.  The former is important, the latter is not.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Face the truth.  The truth will set you free.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Hierarchy of truth.  (1) Logical truth (ex. math proofs).  (2) Scientific truth.  (3) Artistic truth.  (A) Emotionally true.  (B) Metaphorically true.	6/3/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  It is a big world with many facts to know.  It is tough to know them all.	11/10/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  It is logical.  It makes sense in and of itself.  It fits in with other ideas.  It works in practice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Levels: more true; less true; less false; more false.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Many truths.  Many true statements.  Almost an infinite number of true statements about the world.	3/22/2007

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  The expression "The whole truth and nothing but the truth" is meant to guard against half-truths (secrets) and additional fabrications (lies).	5/18/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  The objective truth vs. the subjective truths (and beauty).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  The painful, awful, horrible, terrible, cold, hard, difficult, mind warping truth.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  True for me.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Two types of truth.  (1) Truth of an idea (in your head).  The variance between an idea (in your head) and reality.  (2) Truth of a sentence (on paper).  The variance between what the sentence describes and reality.  (3) "Meaning" has to do with the relationship between an idea in your head and a sentence on a piece of paper.  (4) There are degrees, from 0% to 100%, of correspondence or accuracy for all three of the above relationships.  (Idea-reality.  Sentence-reality.  Idea-sentence.)  (5) "Meaning" between people (i.e., mind idea <-> sentence <-> mind idea) is another matter entirely.	5/22/2002

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Two views on truth.  (1) The truth will naturally come out and conquer. vs. (2) you have to push to get the truth out.  The more you push, the quicker truth gets out, and the quicker change occurs.	08/24/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Types of truth.  (1) Obvious vs. inobvious.  (2) Powerful vs. trivial.  (3) Simple vs. complex.  (4) Pleasant vs. painful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Types of truth.  (1) True but unrecognized (un-thought) and un-said.  (2) True but un-argued.  No persuasive theory.  (3)(A) The true but scientifically unproven as of yet.  (B) The true but scientifically un-proveable.  (4) Undiscovered really means unproven.  Or it can mean unperceived.	8/8/1998

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Types of truth.  (1) What is commonly accepted as true by the masses, mainstream academia, and debated issues in academia.  (2) Truth an individual needs to live.  (3) All the truth in the world.  Simple vs. complex.  Obvious vs. inobvious.	08/24/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truth.  Various (abnormal) uses of the word truth.  (1) Metaphysical truth is the facts.  (2) Ethical truth is what is good.  (3) Aesthetic truth is what is beautiful?  (4) Epistemological truth is ?	11/10/1997

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truths for current situation (momentary truths).  Truths for all time and places (universal, classic).  Sometimes the former is more vitally important than the latter.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truths no one will say.  (1) Truths no one will tell you, because they don't know them, and perhaps couldn't figure out even if they tried.  (2) Truths they could tell you but don't, because it is not in their interests to.  (3) Truths they did not say because they don't know you needed to hear them (you didn't ask).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truths of universe, earth, human life, and modern human life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Truths you can't face, and truths you refuse to look for.  (see repression and curiosity/creativity).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	Two branches of epistemology.  (1) Theory, argument, logic.  (2) Evidence, facts.	5/30/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Two types of epistemology.  (1) Subject oriented epistemology thinks in terms of different subject areas.  Medicine, law, journalism, etc., all use field specific epistemological techniques to get at the truth.  (2) Task oriented epistemology thinks in terms of different tasks and the epistemological techniques we use to get at truth to achieve a goal.  Examples, hunting, finding one's way home, finding a mate, etc.	5/17/2000

Philosophy, epistemology.	Type 1 error: rejecting truth.  Type 2 error: accepting falsity.	9/10/1994

Philosophy, epistemology.	Types of knowledge.  When we talk about how humans gain knowledge about the world we are talking about math, science, philosophy and art.  These subjects are different ways of knowing about the world.  These subjects produce different types of knowledge.  If you are going to define epistemology as the philosophical study of knowledge, then one of the first steps is to recognize that different modes of thinking produce different types of knowledge.  See also: Math.  See also: Science.  See also: Philosophy.  See also: Arts.	5/14/2007

Philosophy, epistemology.	Types or methods of inquiry: science, philosophy and art.  All relying on reason.  Argument and evidence.	5/16/2005

Philosophy, epistemology.	Types.  (1) Types of inquiry: philosophy, science, art.  (2) Types of knowledge: philosophy, science, art.  (3) Types of transmission of knowledge: words, images, music, numbers.  (4) Types of lies: pseudo-science, pseudo-philosophy, and pseudo-art.	11/10/2001

Philosophy, epistemology.	Vocabulary of epistemology.  (1) Words we use in epistemology, and their relationship to each other: proof, knowledge, truth, explanation, describe, predict, probability, necessity, possible impossible, contingent, etc. (plus all terms from psychology, thinking, and science).  (2) Questions about these terms.  Views and arguments about these terms.  Logical arrangement of these views in a spectrum between poles.	06/28/1993

Philosophy, epistemology.	Vocabulary of epistemology.  Delusions, illusions.  Inquiry, exploration, discovery.  Problems, mistakes.  Logic, proof, arguments, rhetoric.  Truths, falseness, lies.  Ideas, knowledge, thinking, reasoning, learning.  Science.  Belief, certainty, evidence.  Positive, being positive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, epistemology.	What is epistemology?  Epistemology is simply the study of thinking well, which today is considered a branch of psychology.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	.This section is about altruism and egoism.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	(1) Egoism: go for self.  (A) Without hurting others vs. (B) At any cost (murder).  (2) Altruism: go for others.  (A) Without hurting self vs. (B) Giving up your life (murder).	05/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	(1) Living for others.  If you can love one other person you are ok.  If she died you could find another.  And that other person is out there right now.  If you found them now you could love them too.  And there are others besides her that you could love.  Therefore, everyone is your baby.  You owe it to them, and to the world to keep trying.  (2) Living for some but not others.  Selective altruism.  You have to live for the world.  If you live for yourself or a few others you die.  If everyone tried to save the world, instead of themselves, we could save the world.  (3) Living for self.  Best way to help others is to take care of yourself.  But maybe altruism makes me feel good and I thrive on being altruistic.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	(1) People argue over whether to help themselves or help others.  Most people do not help themselves or others, and they also ignore the environment.  (2) Most people waste most of their free time watching TV, having fun, working inefficiently, instead of thinking of new and useful ideas and pursuing them.  (3) They should be helping themselves get healthy (psychologically and physically) and smart, and helping others get healthy and get smart, and helping the environment.	1/25/1998

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	(1) Some people think "I can hurt people.  (A) People who cross my path, if a good opportunity arises.  (B) Going out and looking for opportunities to hurt people".  (2) Some people think "As long as I don't hurt anyone, I can do whatever I want.  Including (A) Sitting on my lazy ass doing nothing.  (B) Helping only myself through work".  (3) Some people think "If I see someone in trouble (small trouble, or big life threatening trouble), and if I can help them with a word or a buck, I should help them.  I am obliged to help them".  (4) For example.  When I told the motorcyclist his lock was still on his back wheel when he was about to ride away.  A person can fall, break an leg, lose a job, lose a girlfriend, lose their mind.  Or when I told that girl her dress was falling apart.  She could have lost a job interview.  (5) Some people think that in life we have the opportunity available to help people.  Life is an opportunity to help.  If we ignore or waste that opportunity, we do wrong.  In fact, we should go out and look for opportunities to help people, instead of just helping those who need help who run across our path.  (6) So this is why we should help others: because we have the opportunity to.  And if you waste the opportunity, you feel bad.  If a safe was falling on someone's head, you would yell "watch out", and if you didn't you would feel bad, and you would be responsible for their death.  You would have killed them.  (7) Often, helping someone is no skin off our back.  That is, we can help them easily.  (8) Often we can do the most help just by talking.  Sharing what we know about life.  But surprisingly, few do this well.  (9) Four variables.  1a. Opportunity crossed my path vs. 1b. seeking opportunity.  2a. No skin of my back vs. 2b. give substantial amount of resources (time, money).  Four combinations possible: 1a 2a.  1a 2b.  1b 2a.  1b 2b.  (10) We have a duty to help others because we have an opportunity to help others.  And if you have the opportunity to help others and you don't, not only are you a bastard, but you are doing something bad to someone as well.  If you don't grab the hand of a drowning man, or warn someone of a falling safe, you are doing bad.  (11) We have the duty to do good because we have the ability to do good, and there exists an opportunity to do good (improve an imperfect world).	08/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	(1) The argument for egoism is that it is better to help yourself than others.  (2) The argument against egoism is that you can be reading a book on a river bank when a drowning person floats by and all you have to do is stick out your hand to save a life.  That is, you can do much good for others with little effort.  (3) Another argument against egoism is that no man is an island (separate).  We interact unavoidably.  We help or hurt each other.  We are together in peace or war.  The man on the other side of the world is as much your kin as yourself, your family (nuclear), clan (relatives), or country men (nation).	06/05/1997

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Altruism vs. egoism.  How much should I help another if I am busy helping myself?  Sometimes one only needs to say a word.  Sometimes that word said will increase the competition and make it harder for one to live.  Sometimes that word said will not increase the competition because they are so far behind.  Sometimes that word said will make the world an easier place to live in, for example, if it ends up deterring your future murderer.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	An argument against egoism (conservatism).  I believe we should concentrate on solving problems in life.  If you are an egoist, and have few problems (feeling no pain), then there is little impetus to think.  This leads to stupidity.  The altruist is drawn to work on solving the problems of mankind.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Conservatives who favor an unbridled free market and unrestrained competition often say that the beauty of this view is that some people win, some people lose, but everyone tries their best.  They equate life to a game, and say the key is to play the game well.  However, life is not a game.  We are not talking about people winning and losing in a game.  We are talking about people living and dying.  When people say that they want others to lose, the real result is that others die.  When people say that they want to win by beating others, the real result is that they kill others.	12/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Egoism is sometimes motivated by the mistaken belief that if everyone looks out for themselves first, or only, then things will automatically take care of themselves and things will all work out for the best.  Egoism is wrong.	9/18/2005

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Egoism, that is, living with the goal of saving one person (myself), is not enough to put up with all life's bullshit.  I need to believe that I will help millions of people.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Egoism: "Just take care of yourself" is a view that is a conservative philosophy.  Egoism holds that there is "No need to worry about anything else other than myself because they (others) are taking care of it", whether "they" be the government, big business, journalists, scientist, academics, etc.  This is a children's point of view, "Let daddy handle it".	9/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	If your survival drive is very strong, you will be an egoist (conservative), and spend all your time making money and having kids.  If your survival drive is not so strong, you will be an altruist (democrat), and will dabble in philosophy and art.	07/18/1997

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	It is not just good to help others, it is vital.  Helping others helps yourself.  It makes you feel good, it makes you feel noble and dignified, and it gives your life meaning and purpose.  Without worthy goals we lose hope easily, and descend into seductive yet self destructive activities.	10/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	People should help each other, not just themselves or their family or fellow countrymen.  The rich should help the poor.  The smart should help the stupid.  The strong should help the weak.  The sane should help the crazy.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	Some people argue that no one does anything 100% altruistically because there is always some degree of egoism in any altruistic act.  Helping others feels good.  I say there is a case that provides a counter-argument.  Consider a person with the all the following attributes: (1) A person who is not employed in a field where their job is to save other lives.  (2) A person who is not religious, and does not believe they will be rewarded in an afterlife for doing good.  (3) A person who loves life and is not looking to die.  (4) If a person with all three of the above attributes gives up their life for another person then that is true altruism because the person who does so is getting nothing in return.	5/2/2002

Philosophy, ethics, altruism and egoism.	The altruism vs. egoism debate is often framed so as to make you think that you have to pick one or the other.  Such is not the case.  Actually it is a spectrum that runs between the polar extremes of egoism and altruism.  Both extremes are bad, and the good is to find a balance in the middle.  That the extremes are bad can be shown by the following examples.  Extreme egoism: The extreme egoist looks at the problems of the world and says, "Tough luck.  I don't care".  Extreme egoists are viewed as selfish and uncaring.  Extreme altruism: The extreme altruist is viewed as a martyr.  They try to solve al the worlds problems themselves and end up killing themselves.  What is the happy medium?  In general I say it is better to be productive (work, and solve problems) than to waste time.  (1) Once you solve your own problems and your family's problems, then you should help solve others problems.  (2) The outcome of work is often money.  How much money do you need?  How much money can you spend?  Give your money to help others.	9/7/1999

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) This section is about balance defined as how to achieve a positive medium between negative extremes.  (2) This section is also about balance defined as doing a certain amount of many different yet important things, rather than spending all your time and energy doing one thing.  (See also: Philosophy, specialization and generalization) (See also: Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction and obsession)	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	.This section is about the concept of balance in ethics.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	(1) Bad problems: Too much vs. too little.  Excess vs. lack.  (2) Good traits: moderation and variety.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	(1) Excess: addiction, for escape.  (2) Lack: ignoring.  (3) Moderation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance and perspective.  Balance:  Keep a sense of proportion.  Keep a sense of perspective.  Priorities change with viewpoint.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance issues.  The following must be balanced against each other.  (1) Reason vs. emotion.  (2) Thought (mental) vs. action (physical).  (3) Oneself vs. other people (friends, etc.).  (4) Individual vs. society.  (5) Humans vs. nature.  (6) Work vs. leisure.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance of activities.  Balance of learning subject areas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance problems.  (1) Inclusion vs. exclusion: what things to do and not.  (2) Proportions: amounts and ratios.  (3) Gaps.  Not doing something at all.  Not doing something enough.  (4) Overkill.  Doing something too much.  Addiction as a form of avoidance and escape.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance.  (1) Mix.  Which resources to apply to which goals.  (2) Balance of effort.  (3) Balance of time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance.  Great intellectual effort must be balanced with great emotional passion.	03/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Balance.  Reading and writing was important, but I did it too much, at the expense of my career, social life, and love life development.  You have to do them all, much and well.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Finding the right mix (things, amounts and why).  Too little is bad.  Too much is bad.  Mistakes: wrong things, and wrong amounts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Is there a time and a place for everything?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Three problems.  (1) Priority: what is more important than what?  (2) Precedence: what comes before what in time?  (3) Timing: when do what?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Two problems.  (1) Getting the balance or mix wrong.  (2) Getting the order or priorities wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Two senses of the term "balance".  (1) Balance in the sense of moderation between extremes of any single trait.  (2) Balance in the sense of being knowledgeable and ethical in all areas of life.  If you are knowledgeable and good in some areas but not others, eventually you will make a mistake and foul up.  This is why the specialization/generalization debate is important.	12/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	Types of balance.  (1) Balance in terms of having knowledge of everything, the entire world.  (2) Balance in terms of having all areas of your live (ex. job, mate, physical, psychological, etc.) working well.  (3) Balance in terms of developing all of your mind, and making use of all of your mental abilities (memory, emotion, thinking, etc.).	12/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	What to include in the mix?  What proportion or balance of each ingredient?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	What you got and how you spend it.  Resource allotment: time, materials, energy, money.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, balance.	You do not want to under-emphasize nor over-emphasize a thing.  You do not want to give something too much nor too little time, energy, attention, etc.  You want to give everything its due.  You want to keep things in perspective.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	.This section is about various basis of ethics, systems of ethics, and types of ethics.  Topics include: ( ) Bases of ethics.  ( ) Systems of ethics.  ( ) Types of ethics.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics, sum up.  (1) Rights.  (ex. human rights).  (2) Promise or contract.  (3) Resources, ability and opportunity.  (4) Duty, obligation, and responsibility.  (5) Effort.  (6) Waste.  (7) Economics and money.  (8) Psychology.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Combo argument.  Ethical pluralism.  There are many things we should do.  There are many goals we should get, some only once or twice, some over and over.  There are many things we shouldn't do.  (2) Ethical monism.  All ethical ideas can be boiled down to one.  I.e. the golden rule proponents.  (3) I am a pluralist.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Doing something because society says to, and you believe society knows best.  This is childlike.  (2) Doing something because you think it is best (imaginable ideal, or practical ideal). This is mature.  (3) Going along with society, even if you think it is not best, because it's politically expedient.  Picking your battles.  This is mature.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Doing things because you reason them as right (even if it goes against your instincts, society's norms, or religion).  (2) Doing things to get a promised reward, real or imagined.  (ex. medals, heaven).  (3) Doing things out of fear, to avoid punishment (ex. hell).	09/25/1993

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Ethics as health (healthy and unhealthy).  (2) Ethics as emotion (pain and pleasure).  (3) Ethics as economics (costs and benefits).  (4) Ethics as justice (just and unjust).  (5) Ethics as chance (probability of action having intended effect).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Ethics based only on emotion?  Emotivism is the view that ethics is a matter of feeling, and that ethics is 100% emotion.  Emotivism is not a convincing view.  One counter-argument to emotivism is that the legal system is based on reason.  Another counter-argument to emotivism is that emotions are not always an accurate guide.  For example, crimes of passion are committed when emotions run amok.  (2) The opposite view is that ethics is a matter of reason only, and that ethics is 100% reason.  The view of ethics as only reason is not a convincing view.  One counter-argument is that only a sociopath lacks empathy for other people.  Sociopaths are unethical.  Empathy is a type of emotion.  Thus, emotion is a necessary component of ethics.  (3) The basis of ethics must thus be a combination of reason and emotion.	6/20/2006

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Ethics by faith.  Blind obedience to law, religion, social norms, and instinctual urges (internal and external forces) is how most people operate. Vs. (2) Self deduced ethics.  Which requires (A) Emotional intelligence (sensitivity, empathy).  (B) Rational intelligence (weighing alternative arguments).  (C) Self deduced ethical behavior.  Which requires self control, which takes freedom or independence from internal and external pressures and forces.  Most people do not posses all three.	05/06/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Exchange theory of ethics.  (2) Conflict theory of ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Have to or not: this is an issue of freedom and slavery.  (2) Want to or not: this is an issue of drives and likes.  (3) Should or not: this is an issue of duty?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Pain and suffering vs. pleasure.  (2) Sympathy, empathy.  (3) Building vs. destroying.  (4) Health vs. unhealth.  (5) Justice vs. injustice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  (1) Reason based ethics vs. (2) instinct based ethics vs. (3) emotion based ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Anyone is a dupe who does anything because someone told them to do it, or because someone told them it is right, or someone made them do it, and not because they thought about it long and hard, and they think it is healthy, just, right, and best.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Choice and ethics.  Ethics as choices.  In order for a situation to be ethical there has to be more than one possibility (choice), and you have to be able to make an effect.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Choice and ethics.  Ethics starts with choice.  Choice is freedom.  Freedom requires will and intentionality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Do we reason our way to ethics using thought?  Do we feel our way to ethics using emotion?  What kind of ethics system would be created by a people who can think but not feel?  What kind of ethics system would be created by people who can feel but not think?	9/5/2002

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Do what you want or like, even if it is unproductive, unethical, unlawful, impractical, and unpaying?	05/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Do you base your actions on (1) Needs (have to).  (2) Desires (want to).  Where do desires come from?  Are they socially conditioned?  (3) Responsibilities (shoulds).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Economics is not the sole basis of ethics, despite what many people think.  Money is not the only way to value things.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Ethics is about change.  Do we want to change a thing.  See conservative vs. liberal, see metaphysics of change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Ethics is about time.  If we had forever we could take our time, and not rush.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Ethics is based on the fact that we can effect things, and we can make choices.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  If all injustice causes pain then pain would seem to precede injustice as a determinant of ethics.  The problem is that not all injustice causes pain in the recipient of the injustice.  For example, happy slaves are still slaves, which is an injustice.  Another example, some depressed people feel pain even when in a just situation.  Therefore, pain does not precede injustice in determining ethics.  That is not to say that pain is irrelevant, it is simply not the sole or primary determinant.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  If we could not act, ethics would not exist.  If we could not think, ethics would not exist.  But we can do both, and thus ethics exists.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Information, communication and action.  (1) Ethics of information management.  It is our duty to learn and know.  It is our duty to manage information (find, record, organize, disseminate).  It is our duty to use our heads (drives, memories, emotions, thoughts).  (2) Ethics of communication.  It is our duty to communicate (talk, write, publish web pages).  It is our duty to publish our Notes.  (3) Ethics of action.  Thinking and writing are forms of action.  (4) If you do not address the above, then it is not evil, sin or wrong, it is just a big waste.  (6) The most important idea here is that most traditional theories of ethics focus on physical actions.  I say that the ethics of information management and the ethics of communication are more important than the traditional ethics of physical action.	6/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Intuition, emotion and reason.  (1) Ethics is not purely intuition based.  The best ethical responses do not automatically come to us through intuition.  A coherent, rational argument can change your mind.  (2) Ethics is not purely emotion based.  Some people report feelings of happiness when doing the wrong thing (ex. psychopaths committing cold blooded murder).  Some people report negative feelings when doing the right thing (ex. children eating their vegetables).  (3) Ethics is not purely reason based.  It is impossible to reason without feeling emotion and being influenced by emotion.  (4) Conclusion: ethics is based on some mixture or combination of intuition, emotion and reason.	4/29/2000

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Leisure and work.  (1) The ethics of rest and relaxation, leisure, pleasure, entertainment (sports, hollywood, vegas), and hedonism are bull shit.  (2) Ethics of work (mental creative work) is great.  Some ideas come only after years of intense struggle and effort.  Building a better self and world.	12/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Leisure and work.  Enjoying life in a hedonistic way (ex. going to beach everyday) vs. getting something done.  Arguments for both viewpoints.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Leisure and work.  Thinking the goal of life is to enjoy yourself (fun) vs. thinking the goal of life is to achieve something.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Leisure and work.  Two philosophies of life.  (1) Enjoy life, feel good, peaceful, stressless, feel alive and free.  (2) Accomplish something (in the work world, or on your own), which takes effort and is painful.  Do some good.  (3) If you can't feel good unless you are doing "1" twenty four hours a day, then something is wrong with you and your ethical system.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Money is a way of valuing things.  Money is a value measure.  Money is a type of ethical value.  Money is not the only type of ethical value, although some narrow-minded people think it is.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Philosophical ethicists mistakenly use ancient, outdated concepts.  Ethics is based on psychology; drives, memories, emotions, and reasons, all of which can be conscious or unconscious.  Consequences are considered.  Also considered is society, or other individuals (sociology).  It is a big picture.	06/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Purely rational ethics would be decision theory and game theory.  Purely emotional ethics would be what?	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Social basis of ethics: cooperation, competition, conflict.  (See Sociology, cooperation and struggling).	4/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Temptations and other ethical pressures.	4/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  The environment is an important basis of ethics, especially when humans are capable of having a negative or positive effect on the environment.  Humans are currently destroying the environment.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  We have an ethics of pain.  We need an ethics of waste.  Not just waste of inhuman resources like raw materials (ecological ethics), but also waste of human life (human ethics?).	10/25/1997

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of ethics.  Why bother trying to argue for an ethics based on reason vs. an ethics based on emotion when it is obvious that the human mind uses both reason and emotion together.	6/9/2000

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Basis of one's ethics system.  Ethics based on belief and obeying vs. ethics based on reason.  Belief based ethics (ex. Some religions) is worse than reason based ethics.  Doing something because your are told to is worse than doing it because you understand why to do it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Emotion and ethics.  People do what makes them happy.  See also: Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.  People usually avoid what makes them unhappy.  Sometimes people will put up with unhappiness if it is for a good cause.  Thus, emotion is an aid in ethical decision making, but not an infallible guide.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	People with mental problems suffer (pain) and waste (life).  There is an ethics based on pain and suffering.  And there is an ethics based on waste of opportunity.	03/16/1997

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics based on reasoned principles and rules vs. systems of ethics based on constantly changing whims.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  An important system of ethics in a society is the legal system.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics system factors: (1) Conscious vs. unconscious.  (2) Written vs. unwritten.  (3) Developed vs. undeveloped.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics system of individual or society.  How good or bad it is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics system parts.  (1) Value system: ideal system.  (2) Meaning system.  (3) Goals, strategy, tactics, reasons system.  (4) Reaction system (reward, punish).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems of various cultures and individuals.  How coherent is it?  Is it reason based or belief and magic based?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems: individual, society, and natural.  Total and parts.  Analysis of.  Development of.  By who, for who.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  (1) Development: speed and direction.  (2) Forces that shape ethical systems.  (3) Unconscious and conscious ethical systems.  (4) Unwritten and written ethical systems.  (5) Similarities and differences between ethical systems.  (6) How good/bad an ethical system it is.  (7) By subject areas.  (8) Perceived and actual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  A person's total ethical system consists of their (1) Personal action ethics (you and you), (2) Social action ethics (you and others), (3) Natural action ethics (you and nature), (4) for all subject areas (work, leisure, etc.).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Analyzing an individual's ethical system.  What are the principles of their ethical system.  What they will do in any particular case.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Changing ethics systems.  What did you consider to be cool, kicks, fun, worthwhile, and good when you were 12, 16, 21, 31?  It keeps changing.  Does it ever make any progress?  Does it ever stabilize?  Does it reach a peak and then start heading down hill?  Can the peak be reached sooner in life?  How?	07/03/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Ethical environment: situations, choices (alternatives, options), and acts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Examples of common ethical systems.  (1) Help self only.  (2) Do not help others, but do not hurt them either.  (3) Help others by donating money, time, political action, or teach or preach (can have the biggest affect).  (4) Just do my job well.  That helps others.  (5) Just obey the bible.  Do not think beyond it, about many hypothetical cases.  (6) Just obey the law.  Do not go beyond it.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Figuring out what you think to be right or wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Having an ethical system, and then giving into either temptation, threat or force.  Breakdowns of moral fiber.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Most try to think how to succeed within a system.  Some try to think what the system is, how to change the system, and what to change the system to, and how the system can be improved.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  People who try to breakdown or change other people's ethical system.  Trying intentionally to improve or destroy vs. improving or destroying an ethical system unknowingly and unintentionally.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Selling or spreading an ethical system.  Imposing what you think is right or wrong on others, (1) By force, (2) By emotional appeal like seduction, beg, or threaten, (3) By reasoned communication.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Some people have totally different ethical systems.  They look at things differently.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Sources of norms.  (1) Doing what others tell you.  (2) Doing your gut feeling.  (3) Figuring out with thought what is best for you and others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Specific ethical systems.  Actual or theoretical, of an individual or society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Systems of ethics.  Ethics systems.  Strict adherence to a shit ethical system is worthless.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethical dogmatism.  Only one right way, one creed, one answer, or one simple rule.  (2) Ethical nihilism.  We can not tell what is right, and we can not do what is right even if we could tell.  (3) Ethical relativism.  Take things on a case by case basis.	06/01/1994

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethics and thought.  Should we control our thoughts?  Should we let others control our thoughts?  (2) Ethics and words (ex. first amendment issues).  (3) Ethics and action.  (4) Ethics and people.  (5) Ethics and stuff: (A) Technology and ethics.  (B) Nature and ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethics by self (individual ethics).  Ethics for self (egoism?) (personal ethics).  (2) Ethics by a society.  Ethics for a society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethics of an idea.  (2) Ethics of a thing, stuff, or material.  How use x thing?.  (3) Ethics of a situation (bunch of things).  How act in x situation?  (4) Ethics of a subject.  What should we do about sex for example?  (5) Ethics of a person.  What should x person do?  (6) Ethics of character (people).  (7) Ethics of environment (esp. natural environment).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethics of thought.  Should we conduct our minds in any particular way?  Can you think?  Shall I think or not?  About what?  What I want to?  What they tell me to (family, school, work, friends)?  Shall I inquire (a form of thinking)?  (2) Ethics of speech.  Should we say anything or not?  Shall I speak or not?  (3) Ethics of action.  Should we do anything or not?  Can you do it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Ethics of time.  How much time should one devote to a thing?  (2) Ethics of energy.  How much energy should one devote to a thing?	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Individual ethics: when alone vs. when with others.  (2) Social ethics: views of an individual or society concerning what a society should be like in terms of politics and economics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Meta-ethics vs. real ethics vs. normative ethics.  (2) Subjective ethics vs. objective ethics.  (3) Universalism vs. relatavism.  (4) Egoism vs. altruism.  (5) General vs. abstract.  (6) Specific vs. concrete.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Mind and thought.  (2) Actions and behavior.  (3) Stuff, materials, and resources.  Problems = good stuff that you don't have, and bad stuff that you do have.  Opportunities = good stuff to have, and bad stuff not to have.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Natural ethics: fortune, misfortune, luck, destiny, and fate.  (2) Social ethics: ethics for the group.  (3) Individual ethics: ethics for the individual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Personal ethics.  (A) Interpersonal ethics: who interact with, how and why?  How treat x person, and why?  (B) Work: job choice, and working toward a better job.  (C) Leisure: unhealthy vs. productive and healthy.  Learning therapy. (2) Social ethics.  Political force.  Education.  Health.  Welfare.  Government.  (See politics).  Choices available and arguments for and against them.	08/04/1993

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Personal ethics.  How much time should I spend alone, doing what?  (2) Interpersonal ethics.  How much time should I spend with others, and doing what?  How should I treat others?  How should I demand they treat me?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Personal ethics.  Psychological and physical health vs. decay.  (2) Social ethics.  (A) Micro level dyads and triads.  (B) Macro level politics and economics.  (3) Ethics of things.  (A) Money.  Charity vs. greed.  (B) Stuff.  Materialism vs. simplicity.  (C) Ideas.  Ethics of information and communication.  Access to information.  Thinking and learning.  Digital sharing of information.	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Personal ethics.  Self understanding and development.  Growth and health.  (2) Interpersonal ethics.  Relationships.  Friends, strangers, and enemies.  Love, respect, honesty, caring, etc.  (3) Group ethics.  Politics, organizations, and associations.  (4) Person to non-person ethics.  Natural objects like animals, plants, and the natural environment.  Manmade objects like tools and technologies.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) Personal vs. social ethics.  Micro-sociology ethics: dyads, triads, families?  Macro-sociology ethics: nations, world.  (2) Ethics of action or behavior.  Ethics of material stuff.	10/27/1993

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  (1) What should individual do in a specific situation?  Personal ethics, and situational ethics.  (2) What should the group do in any case?  Group ethics, and universal ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  Ethics of group (e.g. nation) vs. ethics of individual.  (1) Ethics of group.  (A) Ethics of group to other groups.  (B) Ethic of group to individuals.  (C) Ethics of group to nature.  (2) Ethics of individual.  (A) Ethics of individual to self.  (B) Ethics of individual to others.  Conflict, competition, or cooperation.  (C) Ethics of individual to nature.  Ignore vs. pay attention.  Protect or destroy.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  Individual vs. social.  Political (people) vs. economic (stuff).  This gives four combinations.  Money can be power or stuff.	5/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  Individual.  Ethics of individual: the choices one can make.  (1) Work ethic vs. leisure ethic.  (2) Health and self-maintenance vs. self-neglect, self-abuse, and self-destruction.  (3) Thinking for self vs. believing what you are told or believing what you read.  (4) Being a follower, and obeying others vs. being a leader (if only of self), and being a rebel.  (5) Learn, explore, grow, and self-induced change vs. stasis.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  Personal ethical system =  (1) Personal ethics: you vs. you.  (2) Social ethics: you vs. others.  (3) Natural ethics: you vs. nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Types of ethics.  Two types of ethics.  (1) Goal oriented ethics.  Proactive.  (A) Forming goals.  We must form and pursue goals.  (B) Pursuing goals.  Duration and intensity of effort.  (2) Situation oriented ethics.  Reactive.  We are thrust into situations beyond our control and we are forced to react to them.  Situations consist of the environment and the events that occur in the environment, including people and their actions.	6/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics, basis systems types.	Why do people argue for basing ethics on either reason or emotion when both reason and emotion are required for optimal ethical decision making?	1/28/2005

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	.This section is about basic ethical choices we all face.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	.This section is about various ethical choices.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Accepting the injustice in the world so long as it doesn't affect you directly vs. (2) Working toward global social injustice and environmental sustainability.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Being civil vs. uncivil.  (2) Being friendly vs. unfriendly.  (3) Being helpful vs. unhelpful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Do whatever you want (total freedom).  (2) Do whatever you want within legal law.  (3) Do whatever you want within an individual or societal norm system (Simple vs. complex.  Strict vs. lax).  (4) Do whatever anyone tells you to (total duty).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Intervention, embroilment, immersion vs. (2) isolation vs. (3) retreat, withdrawal.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Unquestioning acceptance of the worst values of today's society vs. (2) Reasoning what is wrong with society and working to improve society.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1) Where: apropos, appropriateness.  (2) When: timing.  (3) How much: balance, mix, tradeoff, proportions, compromises, excess, lack.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	(1)(A) I will go out of my way to help/hurt you.  (B) I will not go out of my way to help/hurt you.  (2)(A) Will help/hurt you if I get the chance.  (B) I will not help/hurt you if I get the chance.  (3)(A) I will not help/hurt you.  (B) I will help/hurt you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	All your alternatives: at the moment, and in the future.  The paths you must take to get them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Attack vs. defense.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Big ethical decisions in life.  (1) Obey law or not.  (2) Educate self or not.  (3) Have kids or not.  (4) Try to accomplish something vs. waste time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Doing (or thinking) the radical vs. doing (or thinking) the commonplace and boring.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Ethical attitudes that determine ethical behavior.  (1) Toward self.  (A) I want to destroy myself.  (B) I don't care if I decay.  (C) I just want to survive, break even.  (D) I want to grow, improve.  (2) Toward others.  (A) I want to destroy you.  (B) I don't care if you decay.  (C) I just want you to survive, break even.  (D) I want you to grow, improve.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Ethics choices and attitudes.  (1) What to do for a job.  What to do in leisure time.  (2) Who to associate with.  Who to pick as friends.  Who to pick as mate.  (3) Whether to think or not.  What attitudes to hold.  (4) Whether to wallow in blissful ignorance or whether to think.  Whether to believe and obey blindly or whether to think and act based on reason.  (5) Whether to read books.  Whether to read one book or many books.  (6) What to talk about.  Talking about meaningful topics vs. meaningless trivialities.  (7)  Let one's mind run free vs. Direct one's mind.  Control the direction of one's own mind to some degree.  (8) Whether to live or die.  Kill self vs. die for a cause?  Live for self vs. live for a cause.  Live for a cause.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Ethics decision tree.  (1) Not to be vs. to be.  (2) Not to think vs. to think.  (3) Not to act vs. to act.  (4) Speak or physical action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	How do I want to live?  Is it a question of style (aesthetics) as well as ethics?  Lifestyle choices.  Environment you choose to live in.  Psychological effects of same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	How much of your creative soul will you sacrifice for money, sex, rest and relaxation, or anything else (generally or specifically)?  And how much won't you, and why.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Lifestyle choices.  (1) Where live, how live?  (2) What do, what own, who see?  (3) What learn, what absorb into head?  (4) What do I want to do with my life?   (5) How, when, where, with who?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Major ethical choices for an individual.  What to learn, read, watch.  What to do for an occupation.  What to do with free time.  Who to spend time with.  How to treat other people.  (2) Major ethical choices for a group, community, nation, society.  How to treat the individual.  How to treat other groups.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Mediocrity vs. greatness.  Practical vs. ideal.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Most important thing in life is survival?  At any cost?  Socrates said no.  Living well?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Most precious resources: time, health, knowledge, and energy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Neutrality vs. side taking.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Optimum ethics, peak performance, perfection vs. pragmatism, satisficing, it'll do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Purposes of life that some people hold.  Make, save, invest, spend, be rich, make babies, fame, do good, absence of pain, worship god, do only your duty or your job, follow vs. lead.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Questions: why live (for what goal), how live, what do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	Risk, payoff, danger.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	What I stand for, what I stand against, and what I don't care.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	What to think about?  What to do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, choices.	When faced with a situation, you have three choices.  (1) Taking part, working for it.  (2) Not getting involved.  (3) Working against it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	.This section is about dessert.  Topics include: ( ) Reward.  ( ) Punishment.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	(1) A society of vigilantes degrades into gang warfare and tribal warlords.  (2) A society based on vendetta degrades into an vicious cycle of retaliatory feuds.  That is death.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Dessert.  Who deserves what and why?  Justice means getting what you deserve?	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Do people get what they deserve?  Yes?  No?  Maybe?  Sometimes?  (1) From birth.  No one deserves this shit.  (2) From nature, etc.  Some good deeds go unrecognized and unrewarded.  Some bad deeds go unrecognized and unpunished.  (3) From man, law.  Some good deeds go unrecognized and unrewarded.  Some bad deeds go unrecognized and unpunished.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Do we deserve to be rewarded (paid) based on how hard we work, or do we deserve to be rewarded (paid) based on how much we accomplish?	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Do we punish to set an example to others?  If so, all punishments should be public.  Do we punish to persuade the recipient not to repeat their action in the future?  What about compensatory damages and punitive damages?  (2) Do we reward to set an example?  If so, all rewards should be public.  Do we reward to encourage the individual to act that way in the future?	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Intergenerational blood feuds are an unethical feature of a few societies.  Intergenerational blood feuds are unjust.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Payback is a bitch, they say.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Payback, revenge, vengeance, vendetta, recompense, retribution.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Payback.  Forms of payback.  (1) Vengeance.  (2) Gift giving, favor swapping.  Positive and negative forms.	05/06/1994

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Payback.  Revenge.  This "get even for everything, at all costs" idea is brave, but crazy.  It is the idea that we should avenge every slight no matter how small.  It is as crazy as the opposite idea that we should let anyone do anything to us. The "turn the other cheek" view.  Both of these extremes are destructive.  Where to draw the line?  Get even, but stay within the law?	04/22/1989

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Payback.  Reward, punishment, revenge.  (see psychology: operant and classical conditioning, learning). Reward and punishment should be of same type and degree as crime.  Does self-reward and self-punishment work?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Prizes, awards, medals.  (1) Hollywood is an example of excessive, non-stop award dinners.  People patting themselves on their backs.  Mutual admiration societies.  (2) People parading around with medals on their chests.  It is "show-off-y".  People become more concerned with getting medals by any means than with the actions that gain the medals.  (3) Examples of people who said "no thanks" to the prizes of the system.  Jean Paul Sartre turned down a Nobel Prize.  Marlon Brando turned down an academy award.  Woody Allen turned down an academy award	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Punishment, payback to teach a lesson, and to protect society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Revenge (retribution, recompense) vs. justice.  You've been done wrong, what to do?  Hurt them back?  Turn other cheek?  Hurt someone else?  How to live with the pain?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Reward and punishment.  (1) Does a person deserve to be punished based on how much work or effort they did to harm, or does a person deserve to be punished based on the actual harm they caused?  (2) There is a similar question of whether to reward based on effort or accomplishment.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Reward and punishment.  Two theories of reward that are analogous to theories of punishment.  (1) Should one reward to set a public example, similar to theories that say to punish in order to set a public example?  (2) Should one reward to encourage the person being rewarded, similar to theories that say to punish in order to deter the person from repeating the crime?	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Reward systems.  There are various systems of rewards in society.  (1) The pay structure of work is a type of reward system.  (2) Social status is a type of reward system.  (3) Sex and love are a type of reward system.  (4) Prizes, like the Nobel Prize, and like the Oscars, are a type of reward system.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Reward, desert, punishment.  People don't always get what they deserve (reward, punishment) from themselves, others, and nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Reward.  People who did good work, yet turned down society's rewards and prizes.  John Paul Sartre turned down a Nobel Prize.  Marlon Brando turned down an Oscar.  Woody Allen turned down an Oscar.  There are many more people.  This is an interesting group of people.  These people are intrinsically motivated to do good work.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Rewards are bribes, and rewards are for kids.  Doing good is its own reward.  The reward is the good thing done.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	The general idea of desert is "you get what you deserve".  Good actions are rewarded, and bad actions are punished.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	Two views of an unjust society.  (1) In a unjust society, a person is rewarded for doing evil and punished for doing good.  (2) In an unjust society, evil goes unpunished and good goes unrewarded.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	What do we do to those who do wrong to us?  Invite them to do it some more?  No.     Ignore it?  No.     Turn away?  No.     Let them do it to us?  No.     Run away?  No.     Take action?  Yes.     Punish them?  Yes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	When we say things like, "Nobody deserves to be treated that way", or "I do not deserve this bad treatment.", or "I do not deserve this acclaim.", we are talking about what a specific individual or humans in general deserve.  It gets into the areas of reward and punishment, and also human rights.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, desert.	You only deserve what you have earned.  However it is easier for some to earn things than others, due to the unfair natural advantages they have.  So do they really deserve what they have gotten?  If you have been gifted by others, or by luck or fate, you don't really deserve it do you?	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, development.	.This section is about the development of ethics.  Topics include: ( ) Individual.  ( ) Society.  ( ) Humankind.  ( ) Evolutionary ethics.  Animal social behavior.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) As you grow up your needs change, and thus your values change.  (2) As you grow up your ethical reasoning ability develops.  (3) As you grow up your emotions develop, which aids your ethical abilities (ex. empathy etc.).	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) Creation of an ethical system.  (2) Change in ethical systems: causes of and effects of.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) Developing a metatheory of ethics is very important.  A procedural personal code.  (2) Development of a code of ethics is also very important.  A substantive personal code.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) Development of an individuals ethical system.  (2) Development of my ethical system.  (3) Development of society's ethical system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) Development of ethics in societies.  Simple societies versus complex societies.  Complexity in terms of greater number of people.  Complexity in terms of greater diversity of cultures.  Complexity in terms of greater number of actions possible to do, due to advanced technology.  (2) Development of ethics in individual persons.  Simple persons versus complex persons.  Complexity in terms of number of thoughts.  Complexity in terms of number of memories.  Complexity in terms of number of emotions.  Complexity in terms of number of attitudes.  (3) Greater complexity of a society or an individual requires a more complex, refined ethical system.  A society that contains complex people becomes a complex society.  Education helps create complex people.  Critical thinking helps create complex people.  The anti-intellectuals are unethical who want everything to be simple and easy, and who engage in gross oversimplification and dumbing down.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) Ethics a person is indoctrinated with.  Due to preaching without reason.  (2) Ethics a person is taught, and by who.  Teaching with reason.  (3) Ethics a person picks up by osmosis.  (4) Ethics a person figures out for themselves.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	(1) The development of ethical reasoning abilities in animals.  (2) The development of ethical reasoning abilities in humans.  Before language developed, and after language developed.  Before the writing of laws, and after the writing of laws.  Notions like sharing, reciprocity, cooperation and conflict resolution.  PART TWO.  Animals.  Most animals can resolve conflicts over resources, like food, mates, territory and social status, without killing the other animal.  Some animals can even resolve conflicts without physical violence (for example, with warning behaviors).  PART THREE.  Humans.  Development of taboos.  Development of norms: unwritten; many exceptions made.  Development of laws: rules applied to all people; for every act x, y results.  PART FOUR.  Individual humans.  Development of ethical reasoning in individuals from birth to death.  Kohlbergs stages of ethical development is a simplistic model that leaves out much.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Babies have minds, yet babies are amoral.  Ethics ability comes in degree; it is not an on/off all or nothing phenomena.  Ethical development is as important in adults as it is in children.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethical development depends on development of one's (1) Reasoning, emotion, memory, and other psychological factors.  (2) Social development, and people skills.  (3) Philosophical development.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethical development involves  (1) Refinement of cases.  Differentiation skills.  (2) Expansion of scope.  (3) Development of general principles.  (4) Development of ethical epistemology or ethical reasoning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethical development involves the areas of reason, emotion and memory.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethical development, in thought and action.  Evolution, stagnation, and devolution (especially momentary breakdowns).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethical development.  (1) Of individual, or of society.  (2) Depth (of situations considered).  Breadth or scope (of situations considered).  (3) How simple or complex is it?  (4) How just are they?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethics is something you figure out over time.  By experiencing first or second hand a variety of situations, and mulling them over in your head.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Ethics of (1) Past: what was, and what should have been.  (2) Present: what is.  (3) Future: what should be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	History current future.  Ethical refinement over the centuries.  Little things matter more and more.  Where does this end?  Reductio absurdum?	4/20/1999

Philosophy, ethics, development.	History current future.  History of ethics.  Many people say ethics come from religion.  I disagree.  Man's ethical nature preceded man's religious nature.  The ideas of pain and pleasure, happiness and sadness, goodness and badness, health and unhealth, are simpler than the more complex, abstract religious ideas such as "god".  In human history, the development of simple ethical notions preceded the development of more complex religious notions.  (All this in addition to the evidence of animal ethics, sociobiology, etc.) The reason most people think ethics comes from religion is that most (not all) surviving written records of an ethical nature are religious records.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, development.	History current future.  Sociobiology and ethics.  Animals feel, think, and communicate (especially social animals like chimps and baboons).  They experience fear, avoid bad things, and have survival drive.  These are the rudimentary components of ethics.  These animals have hard-wired altruistic, cooperative behavior.  Much human behavior has evolved from animals over billions of years and is hard-wired into us.  Most people, most of the time do not deliberate but rather work on instinct.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, development.	History current future.  The future of ethics.  (1) Human evolution.  (A) Evolution by natural selection (slow).  (B) Evolution speeded up by conscious human selection.  (C) Evolution speeded up by genetic engineering.  (2) One culture: the Americanization of the world.  (3) One government: the United Nations.  (4) Quicker education.  The Internet puts everybody in the loop.  Everyone can hear and speak.  (5) The environment becomes a player.  We care about the environment like we care about ourselves.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, development.	History current future.  The past of ethics.  (1)  Animals.  Chimpanzees are egalitarian forest dwellers, while baboons are authoritarian plains dwellers.  However chimpanzees do hunt and eat monkeys as Jane Goodall observed.  (2)  Early humans.  (3)  Religion.  Began 25,000 years ago?  (4)  Early civilizations.  Egyptian, Greek, Roman.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, development.	How do people develop shit ethical systems?  (1) Unintelligent, or lack data.  (2) Not considering all sides and ideas.  (3) No thinking, or wrong reasoning.  (4) No emotion, no empathy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Humankind is slowly becoming more ethical.  We outlawed slavery.  We are well on our way to recognizing minority rights.  We are beginning to recognize animal rights.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Primitive ethics systems.  An eye for an eye.  Double pay back.  Vendetta, revenge.  Mob rule, lynching, no due process.	11/18/2003

Philosophy, ethics, development.	Some people do not have well developed ethical systems.  For example, simple yet good people.  And smart yet evil people.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, development.	What are the forces that determine which set of morals an individual or society adopts?  Which forces are strongest?  How do the forces operate?  How does moral change take place?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	.See also: Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	12/31/2000

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	.This section is about effort from an ethical standpoint.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	(1) In "all or none" situations, if you try but do not achieve then your efforts are wasted.  (2) In "incremental" situations you achieve every time you try.  (Unless you accomplish the useless, in which case your efforts are wasted).	3/29/2002

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Accomplishment and achievement.  Was it just luck you were able to do what you wanted?  See psychology, general, accomplishment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Accomplishment.  Gain is relative to starting point and difficulty of progression.  Superiority is based on gains made.  The poor dumb schmuck can be superior to the rich smart bastard.	09/06/1988

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Amount of time and degree of intensity you worked.  Resources spent: time, energy, money, materials.  Psychological, physical, and economic resources.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	As long as you tried your hardest.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Effort is more important than achievement.  It is not what you accomplish, it is how you live.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Effort types = how much resources expended, mental, physical, time, intensity, technique, and self discipline.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Effort vs. accomplishment.  Effort: How hard did you try?  Optimal effort = total 100% effort, full time, for a long time, while in best condition or shape.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	How hard do we have to work to make things go how well?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	How much should you keep pushing, and why?  Even when you don't need to.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Nothing accomplished.  Why?  Wasted time, or attempted little, or failed much.  Much effort and little results = little talent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	The only shred of hope you have for peace and happiness is to give your best effort.  Because life is a crappy situation, and if you rely on life circumstances for your happiness you will be disappointed.  Physical pain and injustice abound.  Other people disappoint as well.  And you are bound to disappoint yourself no matter how hard you try.  But if you can say "I really tried and gave my best effort in thought and action", then that's as good as it gets.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	The process is what's important, not the end result.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Total effort = trying every which way you can to succeed.  Totally driven.  Some people never give up, they always try again.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	What if you lose by the smallest margin in an "all or nothing" situation.  And what occurs as a result of losing, and what will I have lost, and how will it affect me.  Therefore, give 100% effort, 100% of the time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, effort.	Why try to do anything as best you can (quick, complete, accurate)?  (1) Practical reasons: you will feel better about yourself.  (2) Idealistic reasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	.See also: Politics, justice equality liberty.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	.This section is about equality.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	(1) Equality before the law.  People treated equally by the law.  (2) Human rights.  (3) Slavery and segregation were gross injustices.  (4) Equality of opportunity.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	(1) Equality of money.  Ex., minimum wage.  Economic equality.  (2) Equality of stuff.  Ex., food, clothing and shelter.  (3) Equality of time.  Ex., a forty hour work week limit gives everyone a minimum of leisure time.  (4) Equality of power.  Ex., giving everyone the vote.  Political equality.  (5) Equality of knowledge or education.  Ex., everyone has right to attend public school.  (6) If it is impossible to have everyone be absolutely equal we can at least establish a minimum base level of equality for everyone.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	(1) Metaphysical equality = things are actually the same.  (2) Ethical equality = we treat them the same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Can and should we provide a basic level of the following: free education, free health care, money, housing, work (jobs for all), leisure time, human rights, civil respect, Internet access, etc.?	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Conceptions of equality.  Capitalism vs. communism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Equality in distribution of both power and stuff.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Equality is important.  (1) The USA has a history of racial discrimination.  The USA has a history of denying equality to some of its citizens.  Slavery is wrong.  Segregation is wrong.  Racial discrimination is wrong.  Minorities deserve equality.  (2) The USA has a history of sexual discrimination against women.  Sexual discrimination is wrong.  Women are not the property of men.  Women deserve equal pay for equal work.  Women should be allowed to vote.  Women deserve equality.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Equality.  If everyone wanted the same things it would be easier to reach equality.  But people value things differently.  If everyone had the same experiences and environments in life it would be easier to reach equality.  But we all experience different environments.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Equality.  Notions of equality are based on notions that there are basic human rights.  Things everyone should have.  Things no one should have to put up with.  Things we won't tolerate or stand for.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Freedom and equality are not inversely proportional.  A just society balances freedom in the middle between 0% freedom and 100% freedom.  A just society balances equality in the middle between 0% equality and 100% equality.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	How equal is most fair?  How equal should we try to make things?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	In mathematics:  Equal = same location.  Congruent = same size, different location.  Similar = same shape, different size.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Luck, nature, and equality.  We are not really equal.  To the ethical minded, having an unfair advantage in life is as bad as having an unfair disadvantage, and yet everyone has both.  Someone is always better and worse than you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Only if every one was the same, identical, would we all be equal.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Two definitions of equity.  (1) Equal distribution of goods, or (2) Just freedom from basic wants.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	Types of equality.  (1) Equality of abilities, either raw ability or developed abilities.  (2) Equality of opportunities, i.e., access.  (3) Equality of physical stuff.  Everyone having the same amount of stuff.  (4) Equality of money.  Everyone having the same amount of money.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, equality.	What to do about natural inequality (ex. born more talented)?  What to do about inequality earned or worked for (ex. working your way up the ladder)?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	.See also: Politics, justice equality liberty.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	.This section is about freedom or liberty.  Topics include: ( ) Determinism.  ( ) Freedom.  ( ) Freewill.  ( ) Limits.  ( ) Power.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Degree a person is cognizant or ignorant that their actions are good or bad and why.  (2) Degree a person is free to act, or forced to act, by internal (psychological) or external (physical) forces.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Determinism.  Too many people think, when event A happens instead of event B, that "everything happens for a reason", meaning a divine reason, not an earthly cause.  These people are on the wrong track.  They are trying to comfort themselves, at the expense of truth.  Did the Holocaust happen for a reason?  Did their god want the Holocaust to occur?  Should we keep having murders?  This line of reasoning is also an attempt to avoid responsibility.  If things happened for a reason, then these people feel less responsible for fighting injustice.  This line of reasoning is also a way to avoid the big question marks in life.  Instead of saying "I do not know, and I will never know, if event A would have been better than event B.", they say, "There must have been a reason".  This is religious thinking.  "All things happen for a reason.  All things happen for the best.  Whatever will be will be.  It is all gods will."  These are all psychologically pathological attitudes.  It is sub-optimal.  They are not talking about natural causes, or individual decisions.  They are talking about some sort of end that everything is heading towards, and a supernatural guide who is leading us there.  Do they really believe the Holocaust had to happen?  Do they really believe the Holocaust should have happened?  People who believe that the Holocaust should have happened are ill.	01/03/1994

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Freedom as a metaphysical condition: your metaphysical limits.  (2) Freedom as an ethical condition.  Fighting for freedom.  Creating techniques to expand your limits.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Freedom in nature (metaphysics).  (2) Freedom in society (ethics).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Freedom is an easy sell.  Freedom is easy to understand.  Freedom is easy to desire.  To give freedom to others one just has to say, "Yes, go right ahead".  (2) Equality is as important as freedom.  The importance of equality is more difficult to see if you are not a minority.  The importance of equality if more difficult for the privileged to see.  To give equality one has to say, "Now, wait a second."  Equality involves saying, "No."  Some people don't like to hear the word "No."	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) Self: being repressed means you are not free.  Repression involves unconscious or conscious reins on your freedom.  (2) Others: societal limits on freedom.  (3) Nature: natural limits on your freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	(1) The nomad.  Few material things, but many experiences, much thought, and much freedom?  (2) The materialistic.  Many material things, but few experiences, little thought, and little freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Dependency as slavery.  (1) Becoming dependent on, or slave to, technology is bad?  (2) Becoming dependent on a person is bad?  (3) Becoming dependent on a drug is bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Ethics in easy times vs. tough times.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Force vs. free choice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Forces (totally, partially) beyond our control.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom =  number of decisions, types of decisions, and importance of the decisions you can make.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom = creation of options or alternatives.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom = power to choose.  Sovereignty.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom and rebellion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom from self, from society, and from natural world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom in a situation: types, and amounts or degrees.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom of mind.  Degree inclined to think about something (obsession).  Degree inhibited to think about something (repression).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom of thought, word, and action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom to grow.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom to think.  Amount of time you have available to think.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom vs. control.  Internal control: physical, psychology.  (2) External control: natural, social.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom vs. needs and wants like security, conformity, and like/lust.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom yields choice among alternatives, and thus freedom yields responsibility.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom: now vs. future.  Actual vs. potential.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom.  What types and degrees of freedom do I have, or can I get?  (1) Freedom of thought: having an open mind.  (2) Freedom of speech: having a big mouth.  (3) Freedom of action: having a healthy body.  (4) Political freedom.  (5) Economic freedom.  (6) Spatial and temporal freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freedom.  You are not really free unless you are aware that you are free and that you have choices.  You have to know what all your choices are.  And you have to know the outcomes for actions chosen.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freewill and freedom.  (1) Metaphysics of freewill.  (A) Arguments based on causation.  (B) Arguments based on psychology.  Drives.  Addiction.  Compulsion.  (2) Ethics of freedom.  Person toward person.  Rights.  Slavery.	8/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freewill.  (1) If you believe in cause and effect, then how can you believe in human choice and freewill?  (2)(A) Obsessive compulsives and addicts are not 100% free.  (B) Human drives make us not 100% percent free.  (3) No one is 100% free, but in courts of law we act as if people are.  No one is 100% un-free either.	8/5/1998

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Freewill.  To those who say humans do not have freewill, and that they inevitably choose what they think is best.  I say, if a person can say "I will flip a coin to make this decision, and act which ever way the coin lands.", then in my book we have freewill.	9/23/1998

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Gaining freedom is the first big step.  Using freedom is the second big step.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	How free are we?  How free can we be?  How free should we be?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	How free we are depends on limits imposed by environment and society (others).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	How free you are depends on (1) Number of choices you have, and your knowledge of choices and their outcomes.  You should be informed.  (2) Detachedness of desire.  Not biased to any choice.  You should be disinterested.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	How much should we curb our freedom (of thought, word, and action)?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Imagination and mental freedom.  Freedom from self: imagination.  Freedom from time and space: imagination.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	In addition to limits that prevent us from acting, there are also forces or pressures that make us act.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Internal (bio-chemical) freedom, and external freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Is anyone totally in control?  Is anyone totally out of control?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limit questions.  What are the limits?  Are there any limits?  Pushing the envelope.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits depend on your natural talents, your potential, your abilities, and how you develop it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits exist.  (1) Limits of self: mind and body.  (2) Limits of what you will take from who, in what situation, and why.  (3) Limits of the natural world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits of the possible.  (1) Possible ever.  (2) Possible now.  (3) Possible in future, after x course of action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits of what is.  Limits of what can change, and the limits of what can't change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits, controls: natural, social, and self imposed.  How much, and in what areas?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits.  Are their limits?  Know your limits.  Push your limits: grow.  Don't push them too far because injury, damage, pain, and permanent loss of ability can result.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits.  Types of limits: (1) Self abilities (current and potential).  Physical: ability, energy.  Psychological: ability, energy, age.  (2) Self imposed ethical limits.  What you will and will not allow self to do.  (3) Societal limits: laws, norms.  (4) Natural limits: time, space.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits.  Types of limits.  Changeable and permanent limits.  Personal limits, current world limits, all time limits.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Limits.  What is possible vs. what is impossible.  Now vs. in the future.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Loss of control = loss of power = loss of freedom.  Types of control: control over self, control over others, and control over your environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Loss of privacy = loss of freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Loss of rights = loss of freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Metaphysical freedom (natural limits) vs. ethical freedom (right and wrong).  Psychological freedom (drives, habits) vs. sociological freedom (social norms and taboos).	9/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Most free = most happy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Power = control in general.  Freedom = the control you have over self, your person and your actions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Power = freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Power vs. impotence.  Freedom vs. slavery.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Privacy.  (See: Technology, privacy -> Ethics and privacy).	12/30/2003

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Real freedom is when it does not matter which choice you pick.  For example, choosing a blue jawbreaker vs. a green one.  That is, matters of taste only.  In any ethical situation we have no freedom, because we "ought" or "should" do the good thing.  "Do the right thing", they say.  In an ethical situation it does matter which choice we pick.  So we are not free.  If the world was not an ethical situation, then we would be free.  But on this earth there is precious little freedom.  There is freedom only in matters of taste.	04/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Safe slavery vs. dangerous freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Servitude to others is bullshit.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Some say if we are only 1% free then we are free.  Some say if we are not 100% free then we are not free.	8/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Survivalist.  I wanted to be fully independent, at the lowest technological level.  Freedom addict.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	The goal of mankind is to develop as much freedom as possible, for individuals and society.  To do this through technology, knowledge, etc.  With freedom comes responsibility (to self, others, and nature).  The more freedom, the more responsibility.  Thus the purpose of life is to become as responsible as possible, but not to take on more responsibility than we can handle.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	The truth will set you free?  Knowledge is power.  Power is freedom?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	There is no freedom, only slavery by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Three types of freedom.  (1) Economic freedom: freedom from want.  (2) Political freedom: freedom to act.  (3) Technological freedom: know how.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Three views of freedom.  (1) Wildness as freedom: unslaved, uncivilized, wilderness.  (2) Decadence as freedom: the beats.  (3) Rebellion as freedom: punks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	To be "not free" is to be a slave or prisoner.  All men are both.  To "become free" is to be emancipated or liberated.	11/27/1993

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	To what degree are we are slaves to the environment we spent ages 1 to 3 in (Freudianism)?  To what degree are we slaves to the environment we were in until we were able to think and act for ourselves (teenage)?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Two types of denial of freedom.  (1) Legally free but mentally in chains.  I.e., learned helplessness.  (2) Legally free but denied social opportunities.  I.e., discrimination.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Two types of freedom: mental freedom and physical freedom.  (1) Sitting in a jail cell, your physical freedom is near zero, but your mental freedom is near 100 because you can think about anything you like.  (2) Working a busy job that involves travel, your physical freedom is near 100 because you can drive anywhere, but your mental freedom is near zero if you have to think only about the job all day long.	7/31/2006

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Two types of freedom.  (1) Peace and happiness is based on cooperation and inter-dependence vs. (2) being totally self-sufficient and independent is best.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	Types of freedom.  (1) Legal freedom: no laws against performing an action.  (2) Ethical freedom: no ethical restraints on performing an action.	1/14/1999

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	We are slaves to: (1) History, the past, what we have done, and what we have experienced.  (2) Our beliefs, by degree.  (3) Truth.  (4) Addictions.  (4) Ethics.  (5) Environment.  (6) Age.  (7) Our perceptions.  (8) Our values, and goals.  (9) Our actions.  Can't do two things at once.  (10) Space and time.  Can't be in two places at same time.  (11) Ignorance.  (12) Biology, our bodies, our minds.  (13) Our abilities.  (14) Our desires, drives, emotions, and perceptions.  (15) Society.  The law.  (16) Reality.  Nature.  (17) The right thing, good, truth.  (18) Economics, work, money, food, clothing, shelter.  (19) Life and death.  (20) (see limits)	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	We have the powers and abilities to think, say, and do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	What things are enslaving me?  Why?  How much?  How can I get out of them?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	What to do with freedom?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, freedom.	When society becomes more complex, people become more specialized and more dependent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	.This section is about good and bad.  Topics include: ( ) Good.  ( ) Bad.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	(1) Doing an unjust act (A) When it does not seem unjust to you.  It actually seems just.  (B) And when you have a number of reasons in mind for doing the act.  (2) Doing an unjust act when (A) You know full well how wrong it is.  (B) And you have reasons why you do it still.  (3) Doing and unjust act when (A) You had no thought in your conscious mind either way as to the justice of the act.  (B) You have no reasons in mind for doing the act.	8/8/1998

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	(1) Doing the right thing, by accident.  (2) Doing the right thing on purpose, and (A) knowing the reason why vs. (B) not knowing the reason why.	10/30/1994

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	(1) Good and bad refer to natural events.  Right and wrong refer to human actions.  (2) Events have causes.  Actions have reasons.  (3) The reasons the actor says.  vs.  The reasons the actor thinks.  vs.  The real causes.  These can be three different things.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	(1) Is there such a thing as a totally good action, with no bad effects?  Yes.  For example, helping someone.  (2) Is there such as thing as a totally bad action, with no good effects.  Yes.  For example, the murder of children.  (3) Are all actions mixed, with both good and bad effects?  No.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  "Right" and "wrong" are terms that apply to actions by sentient beings like conscious humans.  (2) "Good" and "bad" are terms that apply to things and situations.  (3) "Evil" is just another way of saying "bad".  "Evil" is a term that tends to have religious connotations, overtones, baggage.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) Brushes with good.  The experience of good as benefactor, recipient, and eye witness.  (2) Brushes with evil.  The experience of evil as perpetrator, victim, and eye witness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) Reasons people give for doing good.  (A) Taught that way by someone. (B) To help society.  (C) To help self.  (D) God says to.  (2) Reasons people give for doing bad.  (A) It is ok to do it against certain groups (discrimination).  (B) It is ok for themselves to do it.  (C) Others won't be hurt bad, it is a victimless crime.  (D) Someone did it to them.  (E) Someone else did it so why can't they.  (F) Everyone's doing it.  (G) It doesn't matter: it is not really bad, it is insignificant.  (H) People always give a reason why to be unethical.     (3) Reasons people actually do bad.  (A) Anger transferred to an innocent: doing to an innocent individual what an unjust person or group or nature did to you.  Anger transfer: get back at an innocent person for a previous wrong done to self by either self, another individual, a society, or nature.  (B) Survival, poverty, can't make a living.  (C) Revenge.  (D) Joy: sadism.  (E) Excitement: power trip.  (F) Excitement: breaking law.  (G) To late to turn back.  (H) Reward: sex, money.  (4) Reasons people actually do good.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) Tendency toward good or evil in an individual, how strong is it?  (2) Causes of evil.  Abused as child.  Really dumb.  Mental problems.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) The worst in life.  The worst life has to offer.  Murder, genocide, sadistic molestation, torture, monumental natural disasters, war, bad luck.  (2) The best life has to offer.  True love, true friendship, cooperation, sacrifice and effort for the greater good, change for the better, great luck, beauty of mild nature, justice.	02/04/1994

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) What is the ethical status of someone who does much bad and much good?  Does it even out?  (2) Do ethical acts differ in quality, as well as quantity, of good or bad they produce?  Is it a case of not being able to compare apples and oranges?	04/15/1997

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  (1) Why do people do good?  Reasons.  (2) Why do people do bad?  Reasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Capacity for good or evil.  Knowingly, vs. incorrectly thinking they know, vs. unknowingly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Capacity or capability for good or evil.  How much good or bad can you do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Ethics doesn't always mean don't hurt anyone.  Harm is always done by degree.  "Hurt" being used here to mean "deprive".  Ethics sometimes means how much to deprive one group in order to help another group.  Sometimes it is not a matter of right and wrong; sometimes it is a matter of balancing interests of groups.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  People often cannot see if, how, or why, what they are doing is harmful or good.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Reasons given vs. actual reasons (causes).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Things that seem good or bad, before, during, and after doing them.  Most important cases.  (1) Before.  (A) Before the act I thought doing the act would be good (g  g  g).  vs.  (B) Before the event I thought doing the act would be bad (b  b  b).  (2) During.  (A) I thought it would be good, but while I was doing the act it felt bad (g  b  b).  vs.  (B) I thought it would be bad, but while I was doing the act it felt good (b  g  g).  (3) After.  (A) What I thought would be good, and what felt good while I was doing it, now seems bad after the fact (g  g  b).  vs.  (B) What I thought would be bad, and what felt bad at the time, now seems good after the fact (b  b  g).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  Total good or bad = total helps vs. hurts.  (1) Degree help or hurt: how good or bad.  (2) Amount help or hurt: a lot or a little.  Number of people.  (3) Frequency help or hurt.  (4) Type help or hurt.  (5) Good or damage done per person, times total number of people.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Both.  X is good or bad only relative to y.  An action is good or bad only relative to a person in a situation and the other action choices they have available.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Can a person be too good (ethical), in mind and action?  What can we say about goody two shoes?  (1) Mind.  (A) They repress their anger.  (B) The world is full of conflict and injustice.  Those who are too ethical do not develop their ability to stand up for themselves, fight and survive.  (C) They are unwilling to do wrong if it is practical.  (2) Action.  (A) They don't fight.	5/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Causes of evil.  (1) Person can't figure out why not to do an act.  Person can't figure out what else to do instead.  (2) Person does not care.  Selfish.  Lacks empathy.  Extreme egoist.  Hyper-competitiveness.  (3) Person never developed socially.  (4) Person is addicted to money or power.  Greed.  Power abuser, bully.  (5) Person lost their temper.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil can be very seductive (pleasurable evils).  Being good is not always easy (painful goods).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil has a pseudo-philosophy which consists of the set of lame excuses it uses to try to justify its actions.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  (1) All the times and ways we get screwed in life, by self, others, and nature, and the damage it does.  (2) Types of damage.  Repairable vs. irreparable.  Temporary vs. permanent.  Replaceable vs. irreplaceable.  Psychological, physical, monetary, and material harm.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Causes of evil and crime (see psychology and law).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Causes of evil.  (1) They have no sense of ethics; totally unwitting.  (2) They hate you for some reason, and want to hurt you.  (3) They want to get something, and you are in the way.  (4) They have lost control of themselves.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Death and suffering (physical and psychological) are not ennobling, or enlightening, or worthwhile.  They just suck.  Some people think that death and suffering are worthwhile and good.  Wrong.  Those people need to move onward.	08/17/1997

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Every unethical action you commit degrades you, and you have to live with it for the rest of your life.  This is very important.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Nature of evil (ethical metaphysics).  Malice aforethought.  Crimes of passion.  Insanity defense.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  The philosophers of the past asked questions such as if anyone knowingly does evil, or if most evil acts are done by people who think they are doing good.  Today, most people ask if evil doers are crazy.  One way to define crazy is whether the person is mentally ill, such as hallucinating or psychotic, and most people who do evil are not crazy in this sense.  Another way to define crazy is mentally deficient, such as lacking in empathy or lacking in ethical reasoning skills, and most people who do evil are crazy in this respect.	9/19/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  Three types of bad.  (1) Unintentional, yet avoidable accident, done out of ignorance.  (2) Unintentional and unavoidable accident, with no ignorance involved.  (3) Intentional evil.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  To know evil, we must experience evil as doer and doee.  Don't worry, sooner or later both happen to us.  We should not seek to do evil, or seek to have evil done to us.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  We should not sympathize or condone evil.  We should know how evil works, and what makes it work.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Evil.  What justifies committing a bad action?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good = perfect.  There is no good, only bad by degree.  An ethical action makes things less bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good and bad defined as justice and injustice.  Good and bad defined as pleasure and pain.  The latter is a subset of the former.	9/28/2002

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good and bad situations.  Good and bad people.  Good and bad acts.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good as skillful, bad as unskillful.  Good as ethical, bad as unethical.	8/18/2002

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good.  (1) Can we be too ethical?  Overly ethical, repressed, victorian, too polite, too many manners?  (2) Can you be too nice?  Too lenient, if you let others take advantage of you?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Good.  What is best?  (1) Is it what will do you most good?  Cod liver oil does good but tastes bad.  (2) Is it what you will enjoy the most?  (3) What mix of activities will give you either of above?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Happiness.  Two perspectives on what makes a person happy.  (1) What makes a person happy in the short term, locally.  For example, in the next hour, in the immediate vicinity.  (2) What makes a person happy in the long term, globally.  For example, in the context of a person's entire life, past, present and future; and in the context of the entire world, including all the problems that the world faces.	10/17/2005

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	If we graphed the total population according to how good and evil they are, would it produce a bell curve?  That is, are there proportionally only a few very bad people, a few very good people and most of the people in the middle?     PART TWO.  How do we judge good and evil?  If a person never did anything bad but also never did anything good are they a good person?	9/20/2002

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	It is easier to do evil than good.  Physically easier.  And more tempting.  Easier to destroy than create.  An adult takes 18 years to make.  It takes one second to kill them.  Some go out and destroy things instantly, but it takes time to create.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Lame excuses, rationalizations and justifications that people use for unethical acts.  (1). Only this once.  Only one time.  (2) I have no alternative.  I have no options.  I have to do it.  You are making me do it.  (3) I'm doing it for someone else.  I'm doing it as a favor for a friend.  I owe someone else.  (4) If you don't get caught then its not wrong.  (5) Everyone is doing it.  (6) The only way to succeed is to scam.  (7) It doesn't hurt anyone.  (8) I didn't know it was wrong.  (9) I disagree that it is wrong.  (10) I don't care if its wrong.  (11) I was gypped at birth or sometime after.  (12) Make up some reasons to do it.  Its payback, revenge, vendetta.  (13) Trump up some charges.  I thought it was justice.  Vigilantes.  (14) The entire system is corrupt, so why not.	10/28/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Lame justifications they use.  (1) Everyone is doing it.  (2) The end justifies any means.  (3) There are no rules.  There are no ethics.	10/5/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Lame reasons given for unethical behaviors.  (1) "I didn't know I did X"  (2) "I didn't know x was unethical."  (3) "I didn't know x was illegal."  (4) "It was accidental."  (5) "I feel justified in doing x.  I'm not sorry."  (6) "That person offends me.  That person did something to someone else (vigilante)."  (7) "Another person did it to me so its okay for me to do it to someone else."  (8) "The act I did is not unethical according to me, it is only unethical according to society."	2/15/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Lame things people say to try to justify evil: "Sometimes you have to do evil in order to do good".  "Sometimes what looks evil is actually good".	10/14/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Neutral.  Is there such a thing as an ethically neutral act?  To self, or to another?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Nothing is all good or all bad.  Everything is a mix of good and bad.  Something is always lost, something is always gained.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	PART ONE.  Reasons people give for doing wrong, bad, evil.  Its not illegal to do it.     PART TWO.  Reasons people give for breaking the law.  The law is unjust.  I am above the law.  I didn't know it was illegal.	10/28/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Reasons why people do wrong.  As excitement to relieve the boredom of existence.  A test here is to ask if the person would do it if it was not either ethically wrong, socially taboo or illegal.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Some people do good or bad acts totally ignorant, unknowing and clueless about whether the act is good or bad.  They act amorally.  (2) Some people commit good or bad acts under the misapprehension or delusion that it is the opposite.  For example, they think they are doing good when they are actually doing bad.  (3) Some people have an accurate perception of the ethical nature of their actions.  They are cognizant of the actual ramifications.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	The Bad: crime, disease, poverty, neglect and abuse, addiction, mental illness, pollution, torture, prison.  The Good: health, total love, eternal love, caring, sex.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	The notions of "better and worse" are used more often than the notions of "good and evil".  To some extent acts are judged good and evil in relation to each other, thus producing notions of better and worse.  Ethical holism: acts are good and evil within a world of acts.  Ethical relativity: acts are good or evil in relation to other acts.	6/27/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	There are a zillion good things to do.  There are a zillion bad things to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	There are many good things and good states that we need to get.  There are many bad things and bad states we need to prevent or cure.  If there was only one good thing and one bad thing that would simplify the situation.  Many goods and bads complicate the situation.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Three types of good.  (1) Feels good and is good for you.  (2) Feels good  but is not good for you.  (3) Feels bad but is good for you (ex. working out).  PART TWO.   Three types of bad.  (1) Feels good but is bad for you.  (2) Feels bad and is bad for you.  (3) Feels bad but is actually good for you (this is actually good).	2/24/2002

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Uses of the word "good".  (1) "Good" used as an aesthetic term.  "This is a good work of art", meaning aesthetically successful.  (2) "Good" used as an ethical term.  (3) "Good used as a real-politik, Machiavellian term.  "That was a good (tactical) move.", meaning to achieve a goal.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Ways of doing good.  (1) Doing good for a reward.  For example, money, fame, sex.  Almost anyone would do good for a reward.  (2) Doing good for no reward, but also in the face of no opposition.  Many people would do good for no reward, if faced with no opposition.  (3) Doing good for no reward, in the face of opposition.  Only a few people do good for no reward, in the face of opposition.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	What are the bad things in this world?  Hate, violence, war, crime, illness, famine, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of education, intolerance, injustice, inequality, oppression, exploitation, abuse and neglect.  (2) What are the good things in this world?  Fairness, justice, equality, liberty, truth and health.	12/26/2003

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	What good can one accomplish?  What evil can one prevent?	10/10/2004

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	What is a good person (mind, body, actions), place, thing, object, event, or idea?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	When discussing the ethical terms "right" and "wrong", it does not help that the word "right" can mean (1) Ethically good.  (2) Correct.  Example, getting the right answer on a test.  (3) Political rights, such as the right to vote.  (4) Political right wing, as opposed to left wing.  (5) Direction, as in right-handed or left-handed, or right turn or left turn.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, good and bad.	Why is it tough to do good?  (1) Because it is hard work, boring, lonely, and it is tempting to fu*k off.  (2) You don't know for sure how good the good is in its effects, or how bad the bad is.  (3) Often no reward, or delayed reward.  (4) Tough to figure out and remember what is good.  (5) Evil is easy and tempting.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	.This section is about ideals.  Topics include: ( ) Heroes.  ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Perfection.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	(1) Ideal = perfect.  (2) Ideals embody values.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	(1) Ideal best, ideal good.  Ideal worst, ideal evil.  (2) Ideal imaginable.  Ideal possible in real world.  (3) Ideal for your life.  (4) Ideal for any situation.  (5) Ideal for me.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	(1) It is only necessary to endeavor to improve things.  It is not required to achieve perfection.  Actually, perfectionism can be a debilitating psychological condition.  (2) It is not necessary to be the best.  Demanding everyone to be the best is a symptom of a hyper-competitive society.  When you hold the view that only first place matters, and only one person or group can hold first place, while all other persons or groups don't matter and become second class citizens, those are symptoms of an unethical, unjust, hyper-competitive society.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	(1) Thinking about ideals can be an exercise in imagination and abstract thought.  (2) Thinking about ideals can be an exercise in goal setting.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Any individuals or society's description of anything ideally.  Ex. ideal wife, ideal job, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Create an ideal.  Never lose site of it.  Ideal girl, ideal relationship, ideal you, ideal world.  Never stop pursuing it.	7/4/1999

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Develop your ideals and reasons in all areas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Goal.  Vision.  The Vision.  (1) The perfect psychological state, physical body, society, economic conditions, and natural environment.  (2) Perfect day: sunny spring or fall day, 70's, low humidity.  You feel in perfect health: young, strong, full of energy.  Perfect mental health: focused, balanced, strong, good mood.  No pathological mind or behavior.  Perfect economic situation: good career.  No major problems in your life.  You are walking with a good girlfriend, and some good friends, with great talk going on, and great ideas are popping in your head.  You are doing good creative work.  You are proud of a productive past.  And you and the world are at peace.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hang out in an ideal world.  Eleysian fields.  In the west.  On a beautiful day.  Populated with the living and dead greats.  The rest is b.s.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero as (1) Role model.  (2) Embodiment of ideals.  (3) Proof that it can be done.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero as an ideal individual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero as brave.  Hero as industrious and persistent.  Hero as what?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero says what he thinks is right, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says.	01/16/1989

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero, a biased view.  Having kids makes men cowards.  The practicality of old age often makes men cowards too.  The hero will usually be single and young.	02/06/1989

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero.  (1) We can be heroes just for one day.  David Bowie.  (2) I want to fly like Superman.  Ray Davies.  (3) Hero as living up to ideals.  Either your own ideals or society's ideals.	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Hero.  Being a hero to yourself is very important.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Heroes (human ideals), anti-heroes, villains, stooges.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Heroes: single, young, males.  They are rowdy and have nothing to live for.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Heroes.  (1) People want heroes because heroes give hope.  (2) What is a hero?  Definitions: (A) Never did anything wrong (saint).  (B) Saved someone's life.  (C) Gave their life for a cause (martyr).  (D) Other supreme efforts or supreme accomplishments.  (3) Who are the real heroes?	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideal human: male or female.  Body and mind.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideal is no age, no sexes, no races, no bodies.  Just minds and mental products (ideas, emotions, etc.).	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideal state: orgasm all the time.  Ideal state: young, beautiful, healthy, happy, and rich.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals concern the "best", not the "good".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals for all subject areas, in all situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals.  (1) Immortality.  (2) Complete knowledge.  (3) Total freedom, ultimate power.  (4) Perfect physical and psychological health.  (5) Total peace and happiness.  (6) Total instant gratification.  (7) Everyone a genius.  (8) Everyone super ethical.  (9) No evil.  Heaven, nirvana, and gods.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals.  (1) Sometimes the word "idealism" is used in a narrow sense to refer to the world of ideas.  For example, the technical philosophical use of the word "idealism".  (2) Other times the word "idealism" is used to describe the trait of sticking to principles, rather than giving in to practicality.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals.  Sometimes people use the term "idealistic" to mean "not abandoning values."  Not selling out.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Ideals.  Three problems.  (1) Obsession with being the best often leads people to strive to be the best at useless activities, for example, sports.  (2) Obsession with being the best can also lead to a psychopathology of domination.  (3) Obsession with being the best, defined as "better than others", rather than "personal best", is anti-egalitarian.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Live for your ideals.  Keep your ideals in mind always.  The rest is bullshit.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Objective ideals vs. subjective ideals.  Mine, any individual's, and society's.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfect mind in perfect body, behaving perfectly, in perfect environment.	02/24/1994

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfect world.  (1) One world, one language, one government, one race.  (2) Physical and psychological health, moral people.  (3) Healthy earth, sustainable lifestyle, zero population growth.  (4) Productive people making most of themselves.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection can never exist (except in math?).  Things can always be better.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection depends on what you value.  Perfection = the best.  The world is not perfect.  Some are trying to make it so.  Some are making it so.  Some are pushing hard.  Some are lazy.  Some are trying to fu*k it up.  Some are fu*king it up.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection exists only as an idea.  Effort is never perfect.  Result is never perfect.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection is related to ideals (see ethics).  Perfection is a mental model of "the best x".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection: perfect striving vs. perfect being.  Imperfection.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  (1) In attempt, process, or effort vs. (2) In outcome or result.  Neither is ever reached.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  At different times, different types of people will be the greatest.  Each age has its needs.  Therefore, excellence is variable and relative.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Describe perfection, i.e. the best (most good).  (1) The best ever so far.  (2) The best possible.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Different visions of the perfect world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Ethical perfection.  Think and do, best values, best goals, best strategies, best reasons.  Highest standards for self, others, natural.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Every ethical act, since imperfect, is wrong by degree.  There is no right and wrong.  There is only wrong by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  I live in a world of high ideals, perfection, abstract logical purity, and complex ideas.  Reality, people, the normal concrete world, and everyday life are a big come down and a drag.  So that is one thing that was and is bugging me.	11/29/1993

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  If things were perfect (1) Would the world be unchanging?  (2) Would cause and effect not exist?  (3) Would we have no freedom?  (4) Would the world be boring?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Nothing is perfect, therefore I loathe and reject everything.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Nothing is perfect.  Everything sucks by degree.  Imperfect things bother me.  Let this feeling spur you.  Don't let it destroy you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  Title: Too Perfect Park.  I went to a park that was too perfect.  What is lost when a park is too perfect?  Chance is lost.  Mystery is lost.  The wild is lost.  The ineffable is lost.  The sublime is lost.  The random is lost.  Chaos is lost.  Freedom is lost.  Apparently perfection has its drawbacks.  That is why I like imperfect beauty.  Some people think Europe is the perfect vacation spot.  Perfect for you.	8/7/2000

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  What if there was nothing to strive for?  I.e., A world of peace and plenty, with no problems.  In which we know everything, and there is instant total gratification.  How would it be?  Like being rich in suburbia?  Boring?  Nothing to do?  No purpose?  Meaninglessness?  How would we live?  Pure hedonism?  God is bored.	08/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  What is "as good as it gets"?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfection.  When most people say "perfect" they mean "perfectly good". "Perfectly good" can also mean adequate.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Perfectly good vs. perfectly bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Society's ideals are reflected in powers we give to our cartoon superheroes (strength, wisdom, etc.).	05/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Standards.  Are your standards too high or too low?  How much does it bother you when you don't reach them?  Does it bother you too much, or not enough?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	The good life.  Beautiful (inside and outside) girl.  Great job (interesting, good pay, own boss).  Discovering great ideas.  They are out there.  Go get them.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	The ideal is that one day, in fifty years, I wake up and the entire world is living sustainably.  With no pollution of the environment or depletion of resources.  No one is starving or dying of illness.  There is social justice everywhere.  No oppression or exploitation.  Everyone is educated.  Everyone is connected to the Internet.  Freedom for all.  A level playing field of basic rights and equalities.	3/31/2000

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	The key is to be noble and good, without being ignorant or deluded.	10/05/1997

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Think about your ideals (job, girl, pad, day, action), and plan how to get them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Thinking about ideals is healthy and necessary for optimal mental health.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	Totally perfect world (heaven).  Totally imperfect world (hell).  Is it impossible for something to be totally perfect?  Would some contradiction or another be bound to exist?  Would not something be bound to bug you in heaven?  And would it not also be impossible for something totally imperfect to exist?  Would there not be some small pleasures in hell?	01/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	What I want.  Time, energy, and mental health.	10/05/1997

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	What is the good life?  (1) Good wife (love and sex).  (2) Having a good job, and doing a good job at it.  Good pay, good task.  (3) Good hobby and time to do it.  (4) No assholes or jerks bothering you.  (5) No accidents or disasters befalling you.  (6) Making progress, growing quickly and painlessly.  (7) This is as good as it gets.  Don't ask for more.  Don't be a greedy pig.	01/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	What is worth staying alive for, and what is worth dying for?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, ideals.	What you think is best for you, vs. what actually is best for you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	.This section is about the concept of importance.  Topics include: ( ) Importance.  ( ) Urgency.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) For any individual in any situation, (2) there are things that are important to, important not to, and unimportant either way, (3) to think, say, do, and experience.  There are also important and unimportant non-human factors in the situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) How important is x, and why?  (2) How important is x relative to y, and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) Important things demand attention(?).  (2) Make a list of what's important for me and why.  (3) Mistakes in determining importance.  (4) Objective importance vs. subjective importance.  (5) Perception of importance shifts with perspective.  (6) Potential effects of x determines its importance?  (7) Priorities = chronological importance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) Many things are perfectly good in and of themselves.  Yet other things may be more important.  Thus importance is a key concept in ethics.  (2) Priority and urgency has to do with temporal importance.  Priority means "important to do first".  Urgency means "important to do soon".	5/2/1999

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) Theoretical importance: how important is the idea to the structure of knowledge?  (2) Practical importance: how important is the idea in your situation?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) What is important, and why; (2) for me, and for everyone; (3) to know, do, own, experience?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) What makes x important?  The stakes: like health and other needs.  (2) Mistakes in perception of what is important: overestimation and underestimation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1) What things are commonly under estimated, and viewed as being unimportant when they are actually important?  (2) What things are commonly over estimated, and viewed as being important when they are actually unimportant?	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	(1)(A) My view of what is most important for me.  (B) My view of what is most important for the world.  (2)(A) Society's view of what is most important for me.  (B) Society's view of what is most important for the world.	11/13/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Business is as important as medicine.  But being a doctor is tougher, and fewer people can do it.  It takes more work to gain the knowledge.  So being a doctor is more valuable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Changes in what is important due to change in you, or change in your life situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	For more ideas related to the concept of urgency, see Psychology, drive, motivation.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	How does one's view of what is important change throughout life?	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	How important is x?  Important for who, and for what?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance (priorities, urgency).  To say something is important is to say it is valuable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance and urgency matrix.  Important and urgent.  Important but not urgent.  Urgent but not important.  Not important and not urgent.	5/15/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance depends on situation and perspective.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance due to needs to survive and grow (psychological, physical, and  financial needs).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance of a "thing" depends on one's needs.  Needs depend on the situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance of x thing, in a situation, in order for you to get a goal.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance of x, vs. value of x.  If x is important is it valuable?  If x is valuable is it important?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance theory is an important yet under recognized area in ethics.  (1) Important does not mean the same as good or evil.  (2) If everything is important, which it is, is everything equally important?  (3) One must know why a thing is important.  (4) One must know what things are more important that other things.  (5) Significance is another word for importance.	11/13/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance theory.  Most important things to know and do given (1) Who you are.  (2) What your goals are (general and specific).  (3) What your situation is.	08/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Importance.  In ethics, just as important as determining whether events and actions are good or bad is determining the meaning and importance (significance) of events.  Was x event important or unimportant?  How important was x event?	8/20/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Important means we should devote resources to it: time and energy, thought and action.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Most important.  (1) What is most important in the world?  How to achieve these goals?  (2) What is most important in my life?  (Psychological and physical health.  Financial stability.  Love/sex.  Creativity).  How to achieve these goals?  (3) Importance lists are one of the major ways of organizing information (besides chronological, alphabetical and logical) but which is often under-utilized.	2/17/2000

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Saying something is "important" means we "value" it.  So notes on "importance" (Philosophy, ethics, importance) can be moved to the "value" section (Philosophy, ethics, value).  (6/27/2004).  However, some things are important in that they are big problems that have a big negative impact on life.  These are examples of important things that we do not necessarily attribute positive value to.  So importance remains distinct from value.	12/14/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Seemingly insignificant, seemingly inconsequential, seemingly unimportant, yet important nonetheless.  For example, items that are "linchpins".  For example, items that are "maintenance".	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	So much is unimportant.  So many unimportant things.  There are those people who would hurl their unimportant wares at us.  There are those people who would sell the unimportant as important.  We are aflood with the unimportant.  The unimportant surrounds us.  Pity those people who are overwhelmed by the unimportant and drown in the unimportant.  They could not tell the important from the unimportant, and thus they fell into the unimportant and were lost.	8/11/1999

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Things that are important to think, feel, and do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Three more views of importance.  (1) To say something is important is to say it is valuable?  Importance is just an ascription of value?  (2) To say a person is important is to say they are powerful.  Importance is an ascription of power.  (3) To say a procedure is important is to say it is crucial or critical.  Importance is an ascription of criticality.	8/26/2000

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Three views of importance.  (1) To say that nothing is important.  Nothing matters.  Everything is a joke.  It does not matter what you do.  (2) To say that everything is equally important.  One thing is as important as another.  It does not matter what you do.  Two variants: (A) Its all good.  (B) Its all bad.  (3) To say that you are not important.  You are incapable of having an affect on anything.  So it does not matter what you do.	8/26/2000

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	To say one idea is more important than another idea is to say that one idea trumps another idea, or to say that one idea takes precedence over another idea.  People's minds are a melange or stew of ideas, arranged by importance.  Another issue is what ideas appear into your consciousness, which is due to memory or attention?	1/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	To say something is important is to say it has value.  See also notes on value.	10/4/2002

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	To some degree you should rank things in terms of their importance.  Its an existential triage.  Yet every person has some type of importance, or rights, that are not to be compromised.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Urgency.  (1) Deadlines, time limits.  (2) Prioritization.  (3) What you want to get done.  (4) How long it will take vs. how much time you got.  (5) Urgency = chronological priorities, temporal importance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	What is important to remember, think about, and do?  (1) Stay healthy physically and psychologically.  (2) Your career.  (3) The worlds problems (actual and potential) and suffering.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	What is important?  It depends on your situation.  Next thing you need to learn or do in order to keep healthy (psychological health, physical health, and economic health).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	What is important?  What is important to me?  Mind, thinking, and learning.  Behavior and action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	What is most important in life?  Money, possessions, power?  No.  Sex, drugs and rock n' roll?  No.  Truth and justice?  Yes.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	What is most important?  (1) What is most important for the environment?  To save the earth.  (2) What is most important for society (macro-level)?  Communication.  (3) What is most important for the individual person (micro-level)?  Personal information technology in order to find out things and figure out things.  (A) Find out things: each individual having an all-digital "e-library" consisting of books, magazines, newspapers, visual arts, music, and movies.  Get everyone a computer with web access to educational learning modules.  (B) Finding out things: everyone doing their own notes in order to develop the ability to analyze arguments, and to develop the ability to generate alternative viewpoints.  (4) Thus, the most important things are environmental technology, communication technology, and information technology.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	When we say important we often mean either valuable, useful or meaningful.  (See sections on value, utility and meaning).	10/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Why are things important?  Things are related.  Things affect each other.  Things affect us.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Why is importance important?  Because there are many good things to do, and an individual cannot do them all, for lack of time, so an individual must decide which good things are more important to pursue.  There are many bad things (problem situations), and an individual cannot work on solving them all, for lack of time, so an individual must decide which bad things are more important to solve.	11/13/2004

Philosophy, ethics, importance.	Why is it so easy to loose track of the important?  (1) It is easy to forget the important.  (2) We are surrounded by the unimportant.  (3) Things that we think are important often turn out to be unimportant.	8/11/1999

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	.This section is about intention and consequence.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	(1) Being bad with good intentions vs. (2) being good with bad intentions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	(1) Doing right thing for right reason.  (2) Doing right thing for wrong reason.  (3) Doing wrong thing, but for right reasons.  (4) Doing wrong thing, and for wrong reasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	(1) Ethics based on intentions.  (A) There is an argument that a person's intentions can and should be taken into account when assessing the ethical nature of an action.  A person's mental state must be taken into account when evaluating the person's actions.  For example, sometimes people do things "by accident" and other times people do things in a "premeditated" way.  Another example, a crime of passion takes into account that a person's emotions interfered with their thinking when they committed a crime.  There are also insanity defenses that claim a person was insane when committing a crime.  There is also a certain part of law that distinguishes premeditated murder from manslaughter.  Manslaughter is still a crime, especially when negligence was involved.  For example, if a person hits a pedestrian when driving above the speed limit.  (B) However, one problem with the notion of intention is that it is not possible to exactly determine what was going on in another persons mind.  A problem with the notion of intention in the area of ethics is that an ethics based on intention lets people try to use invalid excuses, such as, "It was an accident.  It was a mistake.  I didn't know it was illegal.  I meant well."  (C) Intention alone is not a crime in the United States.  If intention alone was a crime then there would be such a thing as "thought crimes".  (D) There is a certain part of law that says if you intended to kill, and planned to kill, and attempted to kill, but failed in your attempt to kill, then that is still a criminal act.     PART TWO.  Ethics of consequences.  That the consequences of an action are important seems an obvious principle of ethics.  Ethics, in large part, is about actions.  Actions have consequences, in a cause and effect relationship.  The question is often whether a particular action by a person caused a particular consequence to another person.  Issues are raised of direct cause, indirect cause, contributing cause, etc.	11/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	(1) Ethics of intention: what did you want to do.  (2) Ethics of result, consequence: what happened.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	(1) Inconsequential decisions.  Doesn't really matter one way or another. (2) Consequential decisions: matters which you pick.  (3) Mistaking the above two.  (A) Thinking that something has no effect on situation when it does (Ex. ignoring psychological dimensions).  Thinking something is irrelevant when it is not.  (B) Think that something matters when it does not.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	All actions have consequences (cause and effect).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	Does anyone do anything bad on purpose?  Some say no.  Doesn't everyone always feel justified in doing wrong?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	Good intentions with no knowledge yields mistakes.  Both good intentions and knowledge are required.  Good intentions with much knowledge yields good results.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	If you do a instead of b, sometimes it is tough to tell all the consequences of each.  So it is tough to tell which is better.  Who can say what will happen?  At what point does the choice become inconsequential?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	Intention: what you wanted to happen.  Consequences: what actually happened.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	Intentional vs. unintentional, accident, or mistake.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, intention and consequence.	What is vs. what could be (better, worse).  What effort, or lack of, to get from one to other.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	.See also: Politics, justice equality liberty.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	.This section is about justice.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	(1) Becoming aware and sensitive to ethics and justice issues is a big step.  (2) Becoming aware of the current fights that need to fought.  (3) Becoming aware of ways to fight.	1/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	(1) Contra justice (3 reasons).  Payback is a bitch.  Justice is a bitch.  Justice takes effort (work), it requires conflict (fighting), and it can be risky (danger).  You have to speak out over every little slight.  (2) Pro justice (3 reasons).  Justice feels good once attained.  And pursuing justice keeps you healthy when the alternative, which is ignoring injustice out of apathy or fear, leads to repression and mental illness.  And justice is the right thing to do; it is an ethical obligation.	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	(1) Internal justice.  Battling injustice in yourself, both your psychology and behavior.  If you would not wish it on others you should not do it to yourself.  (2) External justice.  Battling injustice in others (individuals and society) and nature (natural injustices of life).	1/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	(1) Justice is an ideal.  (2) There is no justice, only decreasing injustice.  (3) Get your own justice.  (4) Be just to yourself.  (5) Justice is closely related to mental health.  (6) People want justice, not happiness.  (7)(A) Natural injustice: disease, born unequal, luck, hardships, pain, accidents.  (B) Others injustice to you.  (C) Injustice to self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	Injustice.  How much injustice (by nature, by others, or to selves) has been done since ethical-thinking, pain-feeling humans arose?  And how much emotional pain has this injustice caused?  And how much waste has this injustice caused?  And how much has it slowed the progress of the human species?  Could you imagine it if you tried?  We try to avoid the pain.  We try to avoid thinking about it.  We think that if we are ok, then everything is ok.  This is wrong.	10/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	The biggest injustice being committed today is against the environment.  It is the biggest injustice because it affects the most people.  It affects everyone currently in the world and also all future generations.	1/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	True justice.  Confront, proclaim, and punish them in equal amount (no more, no less) for every insult.  Confront, proclaim, and praise them in equal amount (no more, no less) for every good they do you.  This is karma.	03/19/1989

Philosophy, ethics, justice.	Various views of justice.  (1) Justice as a level playing field.  (2) Justice as the same start for everyone.  For example, mandatory public schooling.  (3) Justice as no crime.  (4) Justice defined as equality.  (5) Justice defined as freedom.  (6) Justice as "From each according to their ability to each according to their need".  Marxism.  (7) Justice as "You've earned it, baby."  Capitalism.  (8) Justice as "Whatever you can buy you can own".  (9) Justice as "Might makes right".  Power says what justice is.  (this is a bad view).  (10) Justice as just another word for "good", "right" and "fair".	5/18/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	.This section is about meaning from an ethical standpoint.  Topics include: ( ) Meaning and value.  ( ) Meaning system.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	"What x means to you.", equals all the other ideas you associate with x.  And one's ideas are all linked together and spread outwards in a web.  The meaning of one thing leads to the meaning of many things.  The meaning of one thing leads to the meaning of all things.  Meaning holism.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	(1) Today's work world provides less meaning for individuals due to simplification and specialization.  (2) Our growing existential knowledge creates a need for more meaning.  (3) The resulting meaning gap between the meaning we need and the meaning we get causes depression, a disease that is increasingly rampant in our times.	7/22/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Against the destructive pleasures of lust, sloth, greed, and needless risk taking.  Against the pain of physical decay, psychological problems, work, growing old, and the many other injustices in life.  Against the above there is only the joy of clean living, of living right, of doing the right thing, straight, pure, and noble.  This will have to do against all of the above.  Repeat it over and over to yourself.  To work, pay your taxes, love someone special, look for the noble in man and in yourself, to help someone, to use all your abilities to their best and utmost for as long as you can.  Don't goof off.  Take care of your body, mind, career and life.  To be able to feel good about yourself.  To be able to look self in the mirror.  To be able to stand and walk tall, with chin up and chest out.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Do not lock up meanings to physical persons, places and things.  Keep it on the idea level.	7/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Existential psychology.  Existential questions that are constantly burning in our unconscious: (1)(A) Who am I now?  (B) What can I become, based purely on my ability and not based on society or family etc.  (C) What do I like?  This is a question of desires and interests.  (D) What should I become?  This is an ethical question.     (2) What gives my life meaning?  One's unconscious self worth hangs on the preceding question.  One's will to live hangs on this question.  One's hope hangs on this question.  The alternative to a life of meaning is meaninglessness, despair, giving up, corruption, apathy and suicide (physical or psychological).     (3) The above are questions that we often ask when we perform a job search, but they are questions that are more basic and primary than occupation.  We should not ask these questions infrequently, in a context limited to job searches.  These are questions that need to be asked frequently, daily even, in the context of our entire lives in the entire world for all time.     (4) These are questions to which our answers will change as we grow and develop psychologically.  If your answers are not changing, then you are not developing.  These are also answers that will decay as we decay psychologically.  So it pays to save your best answers.  Write down your best answers to these questions, and then work from these answers.  It pays to buttress your answers with your arguments, so that they stand up.  It pays to test your answers with counter-arguments, to see if your answers are sturdy.  Now you are doing philosophy!     (5) Most people do not realize it, but the existential search for meaning is often a life or death struggle.  To fail to find something that is truly worth living for often leads to death.     (6)(A) To let society or family make this decision for you, to accept the defaults, is to die psychologically (and often physically).  (B) If your standards are too low, you self destruct.  When you set your goals too low, you essentially waste your life.  (C) To fail to develop psychologically often leads to self destruction.  (D) So make an effort!  Do not despair.  It can take years to come up with a simple answer.  It can take years to come up with a satisfying answer.  Give yourself time.     (7) To fail to find something worth living for leads to giving in to the stresses of life.  It leads to saying "This (my goal or meaning) is not worth it (the stress and pain of life)."	8/2/1999

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	How do you add meaning to your life?  If your meaning requirements are low then you do not need much meaning.  Add meaning as needed and stir.  You can acquire meaning or you can create your own meaning.  Spread meaning liberally.  Slather with meaning.  When is meaning required?  Only when you notice the lack of meaning in your life.  The meaning vacuum, the meaning void.	7/25/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	How does personal meaning develop?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Humans seem to be hardwired to both search for meaning in things and also to attribute meaning to things.  People forever ask "Why?", which is a question asking about both the first causes of things and the final ends of things.  It is a phenomenon similar to the way humans seem to be hardwired to look for problems and then to look for solutions to those problems.  If no problems are to be found then humans create problems and create solutions (ex. crossword puzzles).	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	It is our ethical obligation to find some reason (purpose) to live that is greater or stronger than the pain(s) of life.	01/12/1997

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Love and meaning.  Meaning does not have to come from an idea.  It can be an emotion that gives your life meaning.  It can be another person that gives your life meaning.	7/31/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning and value.  (1) Is the act of attributing meaning to something similar to the act of attributing value to something?  Is it the same thing?  (2) If so, are there as many types of meaning as there are types of value?	3/5/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning and value.  Can something have meaning without having value?  Can something have value without having meaning?  Does something have value by virtue of having meaning?  Does something have meaning by virtue of having value?	12/20/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning and value.  Reducing meaning to value.  If something has meaning then it is valuable because it is packed with useful information.  Thus, meaning is a type of value.  PART TWO. Reducing value to meaning.  If something has value then that must have some meaning to you?	10/4/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning and value.  We say we value things because they mean something to us.  How are meaning, value and ethics related?	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning and value.  You can argue that some things have intrinsic value or you can argue that other things have arbitrary value assigned by humans.  (2) You can argue that some things have intrinsic meaning or you can argue that other things have arbitrarily assigned meaning by humans.     PART TWO.  Four examples.  (1) A dollar bill is a piece of ink-covered paper that has arbitrarily assigned value.  (2) The letters "CAT" have arbitrarily assigned meaning to denote an animal that "meows".  (3) A hammer has intrinsic value yet only for those in need of a hammer now or later.  (4) Is there any object or event with intrinsic meaning?	9/24/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system crisis can drive people crazy, or to suicide, or at least cause them emotional pain and misery.	7/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system means what x means to you.  What x means to you depends on what definition you have of x.  It depends on what you associate with x, connotation/denotation.  It depends on how much you value x, and for what reasons.  The meaning x has for you is a psychological and language issue.  The value you ascribe to x is an ethics issue.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  (1) When a meaning system goes bankrupt.  This can occur slowly or quickly.  The causes of meaning system death can be things like changing circumstance, or simply growing up.  Teens is a time of birth and death of many meaning systems one after another.  The feeling one gets when an old meaning system dies is that "All that was bullshit.  That was empty.  That no longer satisfies".  (2) If one is not able to create a new meaning system, one that satisfies, soon after an old meaning system dies, one can perish for lack of meaning.  One should not become despondent, give up and cease looking for meaning when a meaning system dies.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  A person's meaning system, although wrong and/or unfounded, may give them the hope, the will, and the psychological stability needed to live.  Be careful of destroying it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  A person's view of why they adhere to their meaning system, vs. the forces that led to the development of a persons meaning system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  As life becomes more complex, as man becomes more knowledgeable, as man becomes more free, with more options open, the search for meaning becomes tougher.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  Change in meaning system as situation/environment and self changes.  The things that we feel give our life meaning change through time, therefore, the search for meaning is continuous.  Goals always change.  The question "Why live?" is always asked anew, with new answers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  Change of meaning system (evolution, stagnation, or devolution).  You can try to destroy and rebuild someone's meaning system.  You can do this slowly and gently, or quickly and violently.  This can be done with varying degrees of success.  But be careful when doing this, because it can be very damaging if you are not careful.  People are fragile and a meaning system is a major thing that keeps them standing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  It takes a long time of integration for a person to develop or build a meaning system.  Meaning systems usually evolve slowly over long periods of time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  Life is meaningless in and of itself.  Life has no meaning unless we give it one.  Meaning is created by man.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  My life has no meaning, no sense (reason, order), nonsense, no sense of direction.  Exactly!  We must struggle against nothingness to give life meaning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  People have meaning systems.  Meaning systems have major psychological importance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning system.  Some people get meaning from (1) Money.  (2) Material stuff.  (3) Competition against others.  (4) Other people's approval.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning systems can be: (1) Weak and fragile vs. robust and hardy.  (2) Simple vs. complex and sophisticated.  (3) Accurate vs. inaccurate.  (Epistemologically true or false.  Ethically good or bad.)	7/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning systems.  PART ONE.  One of the interesting things is how many people try to foist meaning onto objects that are essentially meaningless.  People have a tendency to pile meaning onto objects even when it is not demanded by the object.  For example, recently a great deal of attention is being paid by pseudo-intellectual adults to superhero comic books and paint-by-number paintings.  This phenomena is going way beyond the usual nostalgic reveries (see History, nostalgia) because of the incredible amounts of meaning and importance that these so called intellectuals are attributing to comic books and paint-by-number paintings.     PART TWO.  I think there are positive and negative sides to the phenomenon of "uncalled for meaning foisting".  (1) On the positive side, the act of attributing meaning to things that do not deserve it at least helps us build our meaning systems.  And our meaning systems help keep us alive.  Humans seem to need something, anything, to hang our meanings on.  If something has no current meaning, or is inherently meaningless, no matter, we will just give it some meaning.  (2) On the negative side, attributing meaning to things that do not deserve meaning is essentially an act that is logically inconsistent, epistemologically untrue and ethically unjust.  That is no way to live.  The sudden recognition of such a sham is often quite traumatic.  (3) So what is one to do?  For one thing, try to attribute meanings to things that deserve it.	6/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning techniques.  (1) Recognize all the meanings that we attribute to an object.  This is a challenge because we often unconsciously attribute meaning to objects.  (2) Recognize when you are attributing more meaning to an object than it deserves.  (3) Learn how to separate the meaning from the objects you attribute the meaning to.  Learn how to de-couple meaning from object, and then learn how to transfer meaning to a new thing when the old thing losses its meaning.  (4) Learn to recognize when a person, place or thing is gaining, losing or changing meaning for you.  Recognize sudden and complete loss of meaning and learn how to handle it.  (5) Be able to separate meaning from the people, places and things you attribute it to.  Because when you lock all meaning inseparably to people, places and things and then that thing is destroyed, you have built planned obsolescence into your meaning system.  (6) Keep building your meaning system, because your meaning system helps keep you psychologically healthy.	7/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning.  Life is pain, as the Buddha said.  Happiness is fleeting and transitory.  Instead of looking for happiness, people should be looking for meaning.  Meaning will let your endure the emotional pain of life.  Meaning, by letting you withstand pain, will produce a type of happiness.  (2) The reason why many people are depressed.  Subconsciously, many people realize life is absurd and meaningless.  They have not fully consciously sorted it out.  They have not taken the crucial next step to create their own meaning.  The struggle to create personal meaning is perhaps the most important struggle in life.  It can be a life or death struggle.  The search for personal meaning is under-recognized.  The search for meaning can take years.  The search for meaning produces an intellectually and emotionally satisfying answer.  The search for meaning produces peace and health.  Without meaning the result is isolation, alienation, apathy and disconnectedness.  With meaning there is connectedness, engagement, enthusiasm.  (3) The search for meaning is continual, as you change and as your situation changes.  Be careful during meaning transitions, when you switch from one meaningful activity to another.  Be careful of meaning gaps, when you have no meaning.  The state of meaninglessness, and even the state of less than satisfactory meaning, is a painful state, a possibly dangerous state, more so than people realize.  (4) French existentialists, like Sartre and Camus, confronted the meaninglessness of life and the necessity to search for meaning.  Existentialist psychologists like Victor Frankl and Rollo May also confronted man's search for meaning.  (5) Meaning, and the search for meaning, are important, yet under emphasized, concepts in psychology.	8/9/2005

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Meaning.  What has meaning for you?  What do you find meaningful?  (1) Intellectual meaning.  Logical.  Empirical.  Grammatical.  (2) Emotional meaning.  Comforting.  Warm and fuzzy.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	PART ONE.  Nonsentient life, as exemplified by plants, is about fecundity of physical living matter.  Sentient life, as exemplified by humans, is about fecundity of meaning.   Against the couch potato we have only a multitude of diverse meanings that we create and gather from our memories, feelings, thoughts, experiences and actions.     PART TWO.  Four views of how much meaning to load onto life.  (1) A meaning impoverished action or idea is one that has only a few weak thoughts and emotions attached to it.  (2) Why be meaning rich?  Can we not live a simple, happy life as far as meaning is concerned?  (3) An alternative view is to be only as meaning complex as far as life is complex.  Meaning complexity only in so far as it is required by reality.  (4) Then there is the view of meaning richness for its own sake.  I tend to this view.  The richness of our lives is based on the richness of the meanings that we attach to our experiences.	6/24/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Personal culture collapse.  There may come a point in your life when you realize that, for example, "The clothes I wore were just a meaningless stylistic variation.  Likewise the music I listened to, the books I read, the movies I saw, were all just meaningless stylistic variations."  Unless you can quickly salvage some meaning from your sinking pursuits you face what I term a "personal culture collapse".  You will walk around with a dazed expression and a feeling of having been robbed.  To prevent it, try to find meaningful stuff.	4/17/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Question: What does "x" mean to me?  Answer: Not much vs. a whole lot.  Mistakes: (1) You can attribute too much or too little meaning to a thing.  (2) You can attribute an epistemologically false or an ethically unjust meaning to something.	7/2/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	The key is to find something worth living for.  Then devote your whole life to staying in shape to pursue this thing.  And don't let unhealthy things seduce you, or evil things discourage you from staying healthy and safe.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	The meaning of an action or event.  Take, for example, the act of sex.  We can imagine that for animals the act of sex does not mean much.  Not to insult animals, but for humans the act of sex has the potential to mean much more.  Yet not always, for cheating spouses often tell their mates that their acts of infidelity "meant nothing".  (2) This leads toward a theory that the more thoughts and emotions you attach to an act the more it means to you.  And, furthermore, the act of loading things with meanings is perhaps what the meaning of life is all about.  For example, truly meaningful sex means a lot and has many strong meanings attached to it.  (3) An alternate theory is that the meaning of an act consists of its predicted effects and implied causes.	6/23/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	The meaning of life is that something is alive.  This is the meaning of life of, or for, a grub.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	The question is whether things have inherent meaning or whether we attribute meaning to things.  If we attribute meaning to things then we should develop healthy, useful, life-affirming meanings and stick them on everything so that our meanings are all around us like sticky notes for the soul.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	There is a connection between the meaning of life (see Philosophy, ethics, meaning) and the meaning of a sentence (see Sociology, communication, language, meaning).	8/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	To say, "Nothing has any meaning to me" is to have two problems: (1) It is to fail to recognize the meaning of things.  To fail to see the inherent meaning of things.  (2) It is to fail to attribute meaning to things.  To fail to assign meaning to things.  (3) Both of these are major problems.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	To see how people make sense of their lives and make meaning of their lives look at their refrigerator doors, fireplace mantels and desktops covered with pictures, trinkets and souvenirs.	7/4/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Two views of meaning.  (1) Things have pre-set, simple meanings.  (2) We create a rich set of meanings.	6/8/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Types of meaning.  (1) Meaning of a sentence.  Linguistic meaning.  (2) Meaning of any symbol or sign.  Semantic meaning.  (3) Meaning of "any thing" also includes emotional meanings, ethical meanings, and existential meanings.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	We are forced to either gather meaning (find out) or create meaning (figure out).	6/8/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	Weddings, funerals and birthdays are how many people try to give meaning to their life.  It is futile to try to have a day give your life meaning.	8/3/1999

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	What do "meaning" in the sense that I use it in the Ethics section and "meaning" in the sense that I use it in the Language section have in common?  The ethics sense of "meaning" has to do with purpose.  Can we say that the language sense of "meaning" is also about purpose?  The purpose of a word?	7/10/2002

Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	When you find a song, or book, or movie that means something to you, you should cling to it like a raft floating in the sea of meaningless garbage that surrounds us.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	."Methods of ethical thinking" is a more accurate title for this section.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	.This section is about analysis of ethics problems, or methods of ethics.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	.This section is about methods of analyzing ethical situations, actors, actions, attitudes, etc.  Ethics having to do with how we reason things good or bad.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Analyze the situation.  (2) Decide what to do.  (3) Act on it.  (4) Mistakes can be made at any of the above three steps.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Ask the right questions.  Find the right answers.  Enact the right answers.  (2) Never forget the big problems and the big decisions we make on them.	08/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Creation of an ethical view.  (2) Creation of standards for it.  (3) Achievement in action of it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Did do good = good.  (2) Did not do good = bad.  (3) Did do bad = bad.  (4) Did not do bad = good.	04/29/1994

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Ethical analysis of ethical situations.  (2) Ethical decisions about ethical situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Ethical situations.  (2) Ethical problems or dilemmas.  (3) Ethical decisions: ethical solutions vs. ethical mistakes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Ethics by goals.  What to do?  (2) Ethics by values.  What is important?	1/27/2007

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Evaluating a person.  Evaluating a person as the sum of their acts.  (2) Evaluating an act.  Evaluating an act by a person.  Was the act by the person right or wrong?  (3) Evaluating a situation.  Is the situation good or bad?  (4) The usual criteria of evaluation include: health, truth, justice.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Every situation has an ethical aspect to it.  The ethical aspect of every situation needs to be analyzed.  (2) Every action has an ethical aspect to it.  The ethical aspect of every action needs to be analyzed.  The reasons for actions as well as actions themselves must be considered.   PART TWO.  Methods of ethical analysis.  Some people use game theory to analyze ethical situations.  Some people use decision theory to analyze ethical situations.  Some people use economic theory to analyze ethical situations (but it is a mistake to analyze solely based on money).	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Every situation inhabited by a sentient being requires an ethical analysis of the situation by the sentient being.  Every action by every sentient being requires an ethical analysis of the action by the sentient being.  Ethics is an unavoidable aspect of the lives of sentient beings.  (2) The first step in an ethical analysis of a situation is to find out what are the facts of the situation.  Finding out the facts of the situation requires observation, inquiry, reasoning, critical thinking.  Therefore, epistemology has close connections with ethics.  One can argue that epistemology is inseparable from ethics.	2/10/2007

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Short-term consequences vs. long-term consequences.  (2) Costs in terms of resources used.  (3) Benefits of a course of action.  (4) Negative effects of a course of action (not the same as costs)  (5) Side effects and unintended or unimagined consequences.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Simple events: single good or bad effect results.  (2) Complex mixed events and situations.  Good and bad effects of same types result.  Good and bad effects of many different types of results.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) SITUATION (world).  (2) ETHICAL ACTORS, their ABILITIES (psychological and physical), and RESOURCES (time, money, energy, materials).  The PROBLEMS (injustices) in the situation.  The ALTERNATIVES courses of actions available to ethical actors.  The OPPORTUNITIES, and WASTE of opportunities.	7/14/1998

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Situation yields (2) wants (needs or luxuries) or goals, which yields. (3) utility of objects or actions, which yields (4) importance of same, which yields (5) priorities of getting them, which yields (6) values, ideals, and heroes.  (7) Keeping in sight other factors like trade-offs, balance, abilities, effort, obstacles, and results.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) Two aspect of ethics: (A) Deciding what to do.  (B) Judging or evaluating others actions.  (2) Two aspects of ethical reasoning.  (A) Reasons to do x action vs. not do x action.  (B) Reasons to judge an action good vs. judge an action bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	(1) What I want to do.  (2) What I am driven or drawn to do.  (3) What I am forced to do by society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	A great part of our ethical actions have effects on other people's minds and thus are tough to notice or evaluate.  Ex. To discourage someone vs. to encourage someone.  To bring someone down vs. to give someone hope.  These are important, big, yet subtle actions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	A methodology for decision making in the area of ethics.  (1) Use thinking, logic, reason.  Also, make use of emotion.  People who act without thinking and feeling are more likely to produce suboptimal actions.  (2) When thinking, first gather all the facts.  Then debate the pros and cons of all possible courses of actions.  (3) Consider the rights of all parties involved.  (4) Formulate some ethical principles.	7/19/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	An action, in an interaction, in a situation (context).  What can you say about the action objectively?  What was in their heads (subjectively)?  What caused their behavior?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	An individual, and a society, assigns values to each thing in the situation, and then prioritizes or orders the values of the things.  Things are weighed, balanced and compared to each other.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Analysis of real or hypothetical situations in all subject areas.  (1) What is going on?  (2) What are our choices?  (3) Which should we choose, and why?	11/27/1993

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Another way investigate the realm of ethics is to analyze the reasoning given by judges in court cases.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Any action is the sum of its sub-actions.  Total effect (total consequences) is the sum of its sub-effects.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Any ethical act.  Good points: number and types.  Bad points: number and types.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Case analysis.  Present a bunch of cases and analyze and evaluate each case.  Argue the pros and cons of various courses of action in each case.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Causes vs. effects (benefits and costs).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Choice.  All the choices you got.  Arguments pro and contra each choice.  Then rank the choices.  What are the trade-offs?  Choosing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Choices, alternatives, options.  Choices yield a decision.  Ethical decisions vs. aesthetic decisions.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical analysis must be done  (1) For what is.  (2) For what could be.  What the possibilities are.  What the probabilities are.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical analysis.  One element is determining degree good and bad.  Another element is determining how important.  Both elements are equally important, but the second element is often overlooked.  People tend to know what is good, but they don't know what is important.  Traditional ethics focuses on what is good and bad, but it does not focus on what is important.	12/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical analysis.  Person 1: Alternative 1: gains, loses.  Alternative 2: gains, loses.  Person 2: same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical analysis.  Total thinking and emotion considered.  Total action taken, and sub-actions.  (3) Total causes, and sub-causes.  (4) Total effects, and sub-effects.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical criticism: analysis and judgment of an ethical situation, per someone's ethical system.  Someone's ethical system itself as a whole vs. a single ethical statement from an ethical system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethical status of anything that exists (see metaphysics).  (1) Inanimate object (ex. atomic bomb).  (2) Plant or animal (ex. poisonous plant or animal).  (3) Individual, or society.  (4) For a specific incident, or over time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethics decision making steps.  (1) Record the "choice set", which is the set of all the alternatives you can do.  Make a list of all available choices.  (2) Figure out the results of each choice.  (3) Compare choices one by one in a sorting algorithm.  (4) Mistakes are possible at each step in the process.  Mistakes of not recognizing a possible choice.  Mistake of not recognizing outcomes of choice.  Mistakes in comparing choices.	3/18/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethics depends on (1) Situation you are in.  (2) Choices available.  (3) Individuals affected by choices.  (4) How you prioritize choices (reasons).  (5) Who gets what, and not, and why.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethics is not just about people.  For any event that occurs and any action you take, how will it affect all people, animals, robots and the environment?  In terms of values such as emotion, money, freedom, health, etc.	6/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethics of an individual or society: values, standards, and priorities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Ethics reasoning process.  (1) Analyze the situation.  (2) Apply ethical rules.  Personal ethical rules.  Societal ethical rules.  (3) Emotion testing: see if the solution feels right.  Reason testing: see if the solution makes sense.  (4) Repeat the above steps as necessary.	5/14/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Evaluate actions and reasons.  Evaluate the actions done by people.  Evaluate the reasons the person gave for doing the actions.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Factors in ethical situations.  (1) Actors: rational and free acting.  (2) Internal freedom: knowledge, intelligence, no hang-ups or bad habits.  (3) External freedom: money, strength, power.  (4) Environment: natural, manmade.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Factors.  Environment yields values, which yields goals, which yields actions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Figure out and act against all injustices immediately and completely.  Injustices committed by self, others, and nature.  Injustices committed toward self, others, and nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	For any action, what are the gains and losses for all parties involved?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	For any ethical act.  (1) Good points: number, types, and weights.  (2) Bad points: number, types, and weights.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	For anyone, anywhere.  (1) The ethical evaluation of the situation ((A) The world, and (B) My world).  (2) The ethical evaluation of me.  (3) The ethical evaluation of me in the situation ((A) Me in the world, (B) Me in my world).	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Four possibilities of an ethical action.  (1) Easy yet garbage.  (2) Easy yet excellent.  (3) Tough yet garbage.  (4) Tough yet excellent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Four stages.  (1) What can we do?  (2) What will it cost in resources to do x?  (3) If we do x, what will happen? (tough to predict exactly).  (4) Should we do x rather than y?	09/14/1993

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	How good a person is depends on how well they develop themselves in all areas (creating tools).  How free they were, not forced.  How well they applied what they developed (using tools to get goals).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	How important x factor is in a situation vs. how much you know about x, and how important you realize x is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	How should we act towards x?  How much resources should we devote to x?  What's our attitude on x to be?  Why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	How unethical is an act, individual, or group?  How unethical have they been?  How unethical would they be given any situation, need, or opportunity?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Judging a person based on (1) Where they started, and where they ended.  (2) What they had to work with.  Resources (ex. brains).  (3) How much effort they put in (thought and action).  (4) How much help or hindrance they had on the way.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Major questions.  (1) What should I do?  (2) What can I do?  What are my abilities and what are the possibilities?  (3) What needs to be done?  (4) What do I enjoy doing?  (5) What should I do in life as a whole?  What should I do in any specific subject area?  What should I do in any specific situation?	4/1/2005

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods of ethical thinking.  (1) Consider the extremes.  (Ex. X to the Nth degree.).  (2) Consider future generations and consider the endgame scenario.  (Ex. "Where will this lead us ultimately?").  (3) Consider its absence.  (Ex. "What if there was no X?").  (4) Ask questions like "Who benefits from this course of action?", "Who suffers from this?" and "Who pays for this?"  (5) Ask, "What is the environmental impact?", because its not just about humans.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  (1) Analysis.  (2) Hypothetical cases.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  (1) Existence implies ethics.  (2) Ethics requires epistemological rigor.  (3) Epistemological rigor requires making decisions based on having all the facts.  (4) Having all the facts means knowing everything in the world.  Which is a lot to know.	11/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  Comparative method.  Instead of asking "Should I do x?", It is more helpful to ask "Should I do x or y?  X or z?  Etc."	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  Hypothetical cases is the best way to deal with ethics.  Start with the simple cases: few actors, few choices, few unknowns, few effects of each action.  Then work to the complex.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  Naturalized ethics.  Can ethics be placed under the human sciences?	10/15/1993

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  Two ways to do ethical analysis.  (1) Extremes of space: What if everyone did this action everywhere?  What if the whole world did this action?  (2) Extremes of time: Where will this action get me in 50 years?  Where will this action get society in 500 years?	7/18/2000

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Methods.  Two ways to investigate ethics is to look at ethical reasoning and the emotions of both children and criminals.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	One way to research methods of ethical analysis is to interview a lot of people.  Ask each person for examples of ethical situations that required that they make a decision regarding ethics.  Ask them to put into words their decision making process, step by step.  Then begin to group similar types of ethical problems and similar types of decision strategies.	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Problems.  (1) People don't realize something is bad, or they don't realize how bad it is, i.e. they don't see full the effects of x.  (2) People don't care that it is bad.  They don't think it affects them.  They are too lazy to change it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Problems.  Ignoring, not searching.  If something is wrong and you don't search for it, think it out, and act on it, you are doing wrong.  Thus we have a responsibility to search out and know all that's going on.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Problems.  Thinking something is better than it is.  Thinking something is worse than it is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Problems.  When you can't see, but others can see, what you are fu*king up, and what good you could be doing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Step one: Get all the facts of the situation, which is the world.  Step two: Formulate the highest ethical ideals.  Step three: Apply ethical ideals to the facts of the world.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	The "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" method of ethical analysis.  What did the person do?  What could the person have done?  What should the person have done?  Also, what would the person have done if things were different?	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	There are many different issues.  For each issue, there are many different views.  For each view, there are many different arguments or reasons.  If you talk to people about issues you will hear many views and even more reasons.  Sort it all out.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	To help yourself evaluate your own ethical behavior, which can be difficult, (1) Imagine what you would think if you saw someone else doing what you are doing.  (2) Imagine if you were doing the action in public, or if everyone knew what you were doing.  (3) These are not fool proof evaluative methods.  The public doesn't always know what is right, for example.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Total damage = degree damage x frequency x no# people damaged.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	Two methods.  (1) How would you live if you only had one year left to live?  (2) How would you want other people to treat you?	11/20/2001

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	We judge people by their (1) Abilities and potential, both mental and physical.  (2) Situational opportunities.  (3) Values, ideals and standards.  (4) Effort.  (5) Achievements (which equals effort minus bad luck?).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	What can you do with a life (ex. Edison vs. Hitler)?  How good can one be?  How bad can one be?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	What do: goals.  How do: means.  How much do: effort.  Why do: reasons.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	What is total effect of an individual having lived?  (1) Helped: made new contribution.  Kept society going.  (2) No effect:  Did nothing.  Or goods balanced bad.  (3) Harmed things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, methods.	What to do, and reasons why, given your level of development, and the limits of your current abilities.  Current situation: natural state, and social aspects.  Limits placed by situation on you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	.This section is about ethics from a psychological standpoint.  Topics include: ( ) Emotion and ethics.  ( ) Thinking and ethics.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	(1) Ability, actual and potential.  (2) Potential: abilities and resources.  (3) Wasted potential: lost, destroyed, stolen, misplaced.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	(1) Needs and drives yield (2) Likes and dislikes (emotion), which yield (3) Interests, tastes, motivation, which yield  (4) Priorities, timing: what to do first?, which yields  (5) Focus and direction, plus abilities and knowledge, yield behavior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	(1) Speed: can you figure out quickly and accurately and completely what to go for in a situation, and not and why?  (2) Focus: can you keep your goals, tactics and reasons in mind in the face of opposition and seduction or temptation?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Affects of psychology on personal ethics development.  (1) Low intelligence.  (2) Pathological psychological states.  (3) Poor memory.  (4) Affects of same on a society's ethical development.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Behavior.  (1) Behavior is not just a psychological issue.  Behavior is also an ethical issue.  (2) Causes of actions, and effect of actions (consequences).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Beware things that break down ethical reasoning.  Cultivate things that develop ethical reasoning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Both of these are very bad: losing head, and never developing head in the first place.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Creating a mental landscape, a mental world.  Some create it, some take what's given.  Create yours or have yours created.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Desire.  How much unethical action is caused by excessive desire?  Can we block out our desires, like the Buddha said?  Should we?  Are not desires and drives good?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Drive, motivation, urge, impetus and persistence are very important concepts in ethics.  They keep you active.  The alternative is to not think and not act, vegetating and wasting time.	6/9/2000

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion and the epistemology of ethics.  How do you know if something is wrong or bad?  You say to yourself, "I do not feel good about having done this act (or having this act done to me)."  Regret, anger, sadness.  Emotions play a key role in helping us determine what is good and bad.	5/19/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  (1) Feeling good (ex. Mania.  Ignorance is bliss) vs. having something to feel good about (ex. saving a life).  Feeling bad (ex. depression) vs. having something to feel bad about (ex. committing a murder).  (2) What was the best and worst anyone ever felt?  Vs.  What was the thing someone had to feel best and worst about?  (3) Feeling good or bad.  (A) Can be a delusion due to insanity.  (ex. I feel good because I believe I am god).  (B) Can be a mistaken metaphysical perception.  (ex. I feel good about the mirage that I see as a lake).  (C) Can be due to having the wrong information.  (ex. I feel good because someone told me the Cubs won the series, even though they did not).  (D) Can be due to a mood that has resulted from brain chemistry.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  (1) Situation variables.  (A) Minor bad thing is really bugging someone a lot (causing emotional pain).  (B) A major bad thing is not bugging someone at all (causing little emotional pain).  (2) The point is that emotional pain is an additional bad thing on top of the original injustice.  Duress and distress must be considered.  Even in cases of unjustified and uncalled for emotional pain?  (3) Is lack of emotional pain when it is called for a good or bad?  Example, oppressed people who are not upset.	2/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  (1) When people lose their tempers and kill, or beat wives or kids.  Do we say these people are crazy?  Do we even say they are evil?  Do we just say they have bad tempers?  Do we say they are emotionally immature, unable to handle their own emotions?  What is the status of emotions, esp. anger, in ethics?  (2) When people are blue and kill themselves, we have a tendency to say they were mentally ill.  Are they really crazy?  No.  Are they emotionally immature, like the above case?  Perhaps.  (3) Do children give in to anger, and teens give in to depression?	01/23/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  All pain is not bad, and all pain is not good.  All pleasure is not good, and all pleasure is not bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Are there more good things or bad things in life?  Vs.  Is there more happiness or unhappiness in life?  The two pairs are not the same thing.  In bad conditions you can feel happy, or at least determined to act and not get down.  In good situations you can feel unhappy.	07/11/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Empathy.  To feel what others feel.  Is it based on imagination?  Is it aided by reason?  How important is empathy in ethics?  Is all altruistic behavior rooted in empathy?	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Excessive emotion: can't think straight.  Inadequate emotion: no empathy or sympathy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  It is our ethical duty to keep ourselves happy and in good spirits.  Because without happiness there is only pain and despair, and that is how people end up killing themselves.  It is our duty to cheer ourselves up, and to have things in our lives that make us truly happy.  If you see yourself becoming unhappy, you are ethically obliged to sort out the problem immediately.	01/12/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Pain and suffering.  Emotion based ethics: primary concern with putting an end to pain, rather than primary concern with puttting an end to injustice.  Arguments for and against emotion based ethics.  (1) Sometimes pain, be it physical pain or psychological pain, is not an accurate guide.  Example, feeling too much or too little pain given an injustice.  (2) Sometimes pain is useful and necessary.  Physical pain is a useful sign that something needs to be fixed.  Psychological pain is a useful sign that something needs to be fixed.  Anger is an energy.	1/11/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Pain: real, possible, probable; now and later.  Delaying gratification vs. planning for disasters.  How much resources to spend to avoid what probability disaster?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Pain.  (1) Types of pain, and judgments on which types are worse.  (2) Life is pain.  How to handle, or deal with, the pain?  (3) Against pain we have only our minds and action.  (4) Pain: momentary pain, average pain, and total final pain.  (5) Which pain feels worse, natural injustice, injustice by others, or injustice to self?  Which pleasure feels best, good done by nature, others, or ourselves?  Which of first set of acts (pain) above are more unethical?  Which of second set of acts (pleasure) above are more ethical?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  Sympathy is an important concept in ethics.  Putting yourself in the place of the other, walk a mile in my moccasins, see how I feel.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  The bullshit you have to put up with.  Only thing we have contra pain is pleasure?  No, contra pain we have justice gained through effort.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  What is the most "emotion based decision" a supposedly rational decision maker (ex. judge) will make?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotion.  You can be deprived without being in pain, if you don't know any better.  It does not make it less unjust if you are not sweating it.  And pain does not make it more unjust?	2/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Emotions and ethics.  Ethics are as much influenced by emotional pain as it is by physical pain.  However, emotions are not easily quantified or predicted.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Ethics as reflected in personality traits.  Cheap, selfish, considerate.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Ethics involves moving from mental states to action.  Actions are by-products of mental attitudes (emotions + thoughts).  The root of ethics is mental.  Ethics is not primarily about actions.  Ethics is primarily about mental states.  The focus of ethics should be on psychology.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Ethics of "head" is composed of the following: (1) Ethics of drive.  (2) Ethics of memory.  It is our duty to remember our personal pasts, and also to study world history.  (3) Ethics of future thinking.  It is our duty to forecast and plan.  (4) Ethics of emotion.  (5) Ethics of abstract thinking.	6/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Experience and ethics.  Things you did experience vs. things you didn't experience.  Things you chose to experience, vs. things you experienced without asking for.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Experience.  What new experiences can I get?  What haven't I seen?  What am I missing and sorely lacking?  What don't I know? (first hand, emotionally, book knowledge).  World weary travelers, seen and done everything, end of the youthful hope of an endless bounty of kicks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	For any situation, what are the mental states you want to get into, and what are the mental states you want to avoid?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Goals.  General goal statements vs. specific goal statements.  See psychology, drive, goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	It takes imagination to think of what could be.  It takes hope to believe it is possible.  It takes persistence to make it happen.  It takes acceptance because nothing ever turns out as planned.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Learning.  (1) Do we have an ethical obligation to think, know, and learn?  What is the argument for it?  If environment affects us, and we can affect the environment, we need to know about the environment.  (2) How much should a person of x abilities in y situation know about z subject (theory of z, history of z, and current world situation of z)?  How much time and money does it take to learn it and keep it in memory (knowledge maintenance)?  In terms of type of knowledge, how much passing acquaintance (familiarity) vs. how much committed to memory?	09/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Motivation.  The desire to change the world.  Is it just power and ego drive?  Not do-goody ethics.	09/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Personality.  Doing unethical things breaks down your character?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Psychological damage is the most harmful type of harm, worse than any physical or financial harm?  Fragility of a person = their susceptibility to damage or harm.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Psychological traits as ethical ideals.  Rationality, drive, honesty, self discipline, empathy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Self discipline.  (1) Regularity, rigidity, dogmatism, and ritual vs. spontaneity.  Pros and cons of each, and problems of excess either way.  (2) Self censorship = repression.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Self-destructive behavior (see Psychology, pathological).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Think before you act, unless you have no time to consider hypothetical situations ahead of time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  (1) Ignorance is a crime, and not thinking is a crime.  (2) To think is ethical, to not think is unethical.  (3) Not giving a subject enough thought is a big unethical act.  (4) Informed vs. uninformed decision making.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  (1) Knowledge vs. ignorance of committing an action, and of knowing its probable results.  (2) Knowledge vs. ignorance of committing an action, and of knowing its ethicalness.  (3) Before, during, after the event.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  (1) Most people do not spend enough time thinking about life and about the true self.  And most people do not spend enough time recording their thoughts.  (2) "Finding out" is usually general knowledge about the world.  "Figuring out" usually focuses on one's own life.  (3) When you cease to obey you must start to think.  If people want to be free then they must think.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  (1) What if I decide not to think.  What will the end result be?  (2) What if I did nothing, or bare minimum.  What would the end result be?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Calling an action smart or stupid vs. calling an action good or evil.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Critical thinking and ethics.  Analysis, judgment, deciding.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Decision theory.  All ethical matters take the form of a decision.  Collect all information.  See all options, all alternatives.  Assess your criteria weights.  Assess probability and size of payoff and risks.  Give self plenty of time to think about it.  Think about it.  Make a list of good and bad points.  Ask around, friends, experts.  Perform some thought experiments.  For each choice, what is the amount of payoff, and probability of payoff?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Ethical inertia vs. re-evaluating and changing one's ethical system.  One uses new information to change one's attitudes and one's ethics.  Ethics is dependent on learning.  The more you learn the better your ethics develops.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Ethics based on knowledge and reason.  More knowledge = better decisions.  Proper reason (logic) = better decisions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Ignorance and knowledge.  When a person is (1) Aware or unaware that an act or situation is good or bad, or (2) Aware or unaware of the alternatives they could do.  (3) People don't always realize the full situation, or the full implications of their actions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Logic and ethics: moral argument.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Most people walking around most of the time are not asking themselves important questions like (1) What is going on in the world?  (2) What can I do to help?  Instead, most people are walking around asking themselves small questions about the trivial details of their lives like (1) How can I get sex?  (2) Who is out to get me, and who should I be out to get?	02/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  Opinions or positions and ethics.  (1) To have an opinion, optimal to sub-optimal, on an issue.  To take another's opinion blindly vs. to reason out an opinion.  (2) To not have an opinion on an important issue is bad.  It is impossible not to have an opinion?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  What you know or believe about x determines how you will act on it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Thinking.  What's the most complex rational decision we face in everyday life?  (choosing to have kids?).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Which of the following will win out to influence behavior: thought, emotion, drive, desire, physical fatigue, or ethical system?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, psychology.	Your unconscious ethical system vs. conscious ethical system.  The ethcial principles contained in them, and the reasons you hold these principles.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	.This section is about  basic questions of ethics that occur to one.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	.This section is about some questions regarding ethics.  Topics include:	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	"Why live?", is the first question.  "How live?", is the second.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	(1) What can I do?  What am I capable of doing?  (2) What should I do?  Arguments for and against all the alternatives. (3) What needs to be done?  What are the problems in the world?	11/13/2005

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	A big ethical question.  Should "x" use "y" means to do "z" ends (or action) to "a" recipient or subject of the action?	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Ethical questions.  (1) What am I going to do today?  (2) What am I going to with the rest of my life?  (3) What would I like to see happen to me, to my world, and to the entire world?	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	How to act toward self and others?  How to react to others?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Lifestyle questions.  Where live, what own, what do, who see, what learn, and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Like/dislike questions: what do I like (enjoy) and dislike?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Should questions: what should I do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	The big question in ethics is not "Should I do x?", but rather "Should I do x or y?".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	The big question:  (1) What to accept?  What to put up with?  What to take?  Vs.  (2) What not to take, and why?  (3) What to do about it?  How to work for what you believe in, and against what you don't?	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	The big question.  What to do?  What to go for?	06/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	The question is, how to live knowing that many bad things could happen any minute?  That is, as a healthy, young, smart, athletic, handsome, visionary person in USA in the 1990's, how can I make the most of my life and all that I have?  How not to waste any of it (See ethics of waste.  See ethics of opportunity).  How rare am i?  How good am i?  Bad things that could happen include diseases, accidents, injury, death, mutilation, paralysis, retardation, brain damage, etc.	01/02/1994

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Two big ethical questions.  How to improve my life?  How to improve the world in general (everyone's lives)?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	What do I need, and what should I have?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	What is the purpose of life?  Are certain things better than others?  Why?  How tell actions, results?  What are the most important things in life, by perspective?  What are the most important questions in life?  Why are we here?  Why am I alive?  What do I live for?  What is the meaning of life?  What is the object of life?  Is life good or bad?  Why live?  Why die?  What to do?  What should we (all, or anyone or thing) do?  What to think about?  How act or behave?  How deal with x, and why?  How not deal with x, and why?  How deal best with x, and why?  How to think?  Why do I live?  What do I enjoy?  What do I not enjoy?  What are my goals?  What should my goals be?  What do people live for?  What are the most important things in life, by perspective?  What should I do, get, be, become, and experience?  How to live?  How to live best?  What do, when, where, how, how often, how long, why, and not?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	What to do, in each moment, and in each situation?  Transitions from behavior to behavior?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Who dis, when, and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, questions.	Who is doing what to who, and why?  Who owes who what, and why?  Payback: reward or pay vs. punishment or revenge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	.This section is about responsibility.  Topics include: ( ) Responsibility.  ( ) Obligation.  ( ) Duty.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	"It was extenuating circumstances.  Circumstances beyond our control.  I'm a victim of circumstance.  I'm a product of my environment."  These phrases are sometimes used by people to try to excuse themselves or avoid personal responsibility.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Anything we could have prevented, we are responsible for.  We could have prevented a child from starving to death (for example, by buying a less expensive car and giving the savings to the poor).  Therefore, we are responsible for saving that child's life.  (2) The contrary position says, "I could not save them all".  But the person could have saved at least one child.  (3) The issue is the phrase "easily prevented" vs. "not easily prevented".  How easily prevented, is the key question.  (A) Reaching a hand out to a drowning person floating by is easy.  (B) Going out of one's way is more difficult.  (C) Jeopardizing one's own life is even more difficult to argue for.  Working a job, living frugally, and giving money to charity is not that difficult.	9/5/1999

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Do we have a duty to help others?  (1) Not if they do not want to be helped.  (2) Not if they call me crazy.  (3) Not if they do me wrong, either purposefully or accidentally, either physically or psychologically.	9/17/1998

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Do we have any responsibilities?  Do we have an ethical obligation or responsibility as individuals to improve our psychological, physical, and economic health?  Do we have an ethical obligation as a society to build the ideal society?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Duty.  (1) Duty only if they are keeping up their half of the bargain (contract).  (2) Duty only if they are not trying to hurt you (self preservation).  (3) Duty only if they are doing a right action.  There is no duty to support wrong actions.  (4) Duty only if we freely choose to get ourselves into a situation or contract, without deceit or coercion.	7/6/2002

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Duty.  100% duty means 0% freewill.  Example is the traditional conception of the soldier who only obeys orders.  100% freewill = 0% duty.  We have neither 100% freewill nor 100% duty.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Duty.  To what extent do we have:  (1) Duty to country.  (2) Duty to family.  (3) Duty to friends.  (4) Duty to our children.  (5) Duty to strangers or any human.	7/6/2002

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Duty.  We have duty.  We have duty in many areas.  We have many duties.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Ethical responsibility increases with the degree with which your potential actions affect how many people, how much (including yourself).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	If everything was on our shoulders all at once, all the problems of mankind, the entire weight of to the world, then we would collapse.  We are not meant to carry that burden.  Do not take it up on yourself.  Depressed people take upon themselves the weight of the world.  Why?  Out of guilt?  Out of responsibility?  They end up killing themselves because the weight is too heavy, and it wears them down.  (2) Inexperienced, enthusiastic youths carry too heavy a load.  Lazy slobs carry too light a load.  I loathe people who carry no (psychological) load.	5/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	If we say that children and old people have diminished responsibility, then we must say that the gifted have increased responsibility.  (1) Legal responsibility is quite clear, because it is set, fixed, written.  Ethical responsibility is more elusive, because it is not set or fixed.  (2) Should the smart be held more ethically responsible than the dim?  Should the sane be held more ethically responsible than the insane?  Should the knowledgeable be held more ethically responsible than the ignorant?  Should the mature be held more ethically responsible than the immature?  (3) What if you are immature and ignorant, but have the potential to be more mature and knowledgeable?  Do you then have a responsibility to develop?  What if you can't recognize your potential, are you still responsible?  (4) Do the gifted have a greater responsibility than the non-gifted?  Some would say yes, the more gifted a person is the more responsibility they have.  Some would say no, all are equally responsible.  But what if the gifted person did not realize their responsibility, are they still to be held responsible?  (5) If a person is not mature enough to figure out that they have a responsibility, then maybe they don't have a responsibility.  But what if they are remaining willfully ignorant and immature?  They may figure out at the end of their life that they had a responsibility all along.  That is a tragedy.	6/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Is there no weedling out of responsibility?  Is responsibility objective?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	It is an ethical imperative to constantly figure out what you want to do, and not, and why.  And then to do it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Obligation.  Ethical obligation to past generations.  Ethical obligation to future generations.  The present as the past and future meeting.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Obligation.  Metaphysical obligation vs. contractual obligation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Obligation.  Sure you could work a $5/hr job.  But we (everyone) have an ethical obligation to our current selves as individuals, and to our current society, to make the most of ourselves.  Also there is an ethical obligation to your past and future self, and to past and future society.  A lot of people in the past worked hard, and you live off their work.  You owe it not to let them down.  A lot of people in the future will live in the world we create.  You owe it not to let them down.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Obligations  (1) Proactive.  (A) Do not do bad.  (B) Do not let others do bad (fight crime?).  (2) Reactive.  (A) Protect yourself from bad.  (B) Protect others from bad.  (3) Most people accept 2a, 2b, 1a, but hesitate on 1b.  1b says to fight injustice at its source.  To go after and root out injustice at its source.  Most people leave 1b to the police.	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Responsibility and obligation.  (1) Responsibility (how much, to who).  (2) Irresponsible: careless or negligent.  (3) Not responsible for: uninvolved in situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Responsibility, obligation, and duty to self, to others, and to nature?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	Responsibility.  The feeling of responsibility.  (1) Is it an emotion or a thought?  Since all thoughts have an emotion associated with them perhaps all thoughts of responsibility have a type of emotion associated with them.  (2) Problems.  Feeling too much vs. too little responsibility.  You can carry all the weight of the world on your shoulders, or you can carry none of it.  Both extremes are a problem.	3/28/2000

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	We have an ethical obligation to learn everything.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	We have an ethical obligation to see everything, especially the worst, and still be optimistic, have a positive attitude.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	We, as individuals, and as society, have an ethical obligation to know and understand everything that's going on.  We have an ethical obligation or responsibility to think, learn, search, and explore.  We have an obligation to work hard at something useful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, responsibility.	What is the difference between duty, obligation and responsibility?  If I have a responsibility to do x, do I synonymously have a duty and obligation to do x?	7/6/2002

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	.See also: Psychology, drive, goals.  See also: Sociology, struggling.  See also: Philosophy, opportunity and luck, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	.This section is about successs and failure.  Topics include: ( ) Success.  ( ) Failure.  ( ) Winning.  ( ) Losing.  ( ) What things constitute success.  ( ) What things constitute failure.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Every success is a win, but not every win is an success.  (Ex. unearned wins).  (2) Every failure is a loss, but not every loss is a failure.  (Ex. unavoidable losses).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Failure is about your lack of effort (not giving 100%), and your breakdowns of moral principle.  (2) Losing is about the outcome of your effort.  Outcomes of competition.  (3) Loss is about losing something dear to you or something needed by you.  (See psychology, grief).	12/29/1997

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Metaphysics: gain/loss of x vs. (2) Ethics: how you view it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Number or frequency of successes and failures.  (2) Magnitude or degree of sucesses and failures.  (3) Areas or types of successes and failures.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) One could argue that we all fail, because no one lives up to their full potential, because one can always do more.  (2) One could also argue that we all succeed because no one asked to be born into this situation, and despite that you must have done something well at some point in your life.	9/17/2005

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Real success: Makes you feel good?  Helps you grow?  (2) Real failure: Makes you feel bad?  Destroys you?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Short term vs. long term success/failure.  (2) Permanent vs. nonpermanant success/failure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Society, other people, will judge you a success or failure.  (2) You will have your own view of which of your actions were successful or failures.  You will have your own view of your overall status of success or failure.  (3) Society, other people, may have an inaccurate view of you.  You might have an inaccurate view of you.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Success spiral.  You get the good thing done, and the positive reinforcement.  (2) Failure spiral.  You get the bad done and the negative reinforcement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Success.  (A) Picking goals: picking right ones.  (B) Pursuing goals: how hard, how long.  (C) Achieving goals: how close, how fast.  (D) Success is pleasurable to have.  (E) It is tough to succeed.  (2) Failures: mistakes, pain, unhealth, getting screwed, anything hurting you.  It is easy to fail.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) Typical fatuous criteria of success:  Money.  Power.  Material goods.  Big home.  Big car.  Many toys.  Possessions.  (2) Better criteria of success:  Helping the world.  Living life on your own terms.  Sustainability.  Social justice.  (3) Typical fatuous criteria of failure:  Not rich.  (4) Better criteria of failure:  Doing what everyone else does.  Thinking what everyone else thinks.	6/26/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	(1) You are a personal success if you tried your best, even if you are somewhere below average compared to the group, that is, assuming society's values are worthwhile.  (2) You are a personal success if you tried your best, even if society considers you a failure, especially if society's values are not worthwhile.	9/17/2005

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	A history of living right and success, gives you self-esteem.  A history of living wrong and failure, gives you anxiety.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	A success is any good thing you do, especially to self.  A failure is any bad thing you do, especially to self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Achieving goals: how fast you can reach them, and how close you reach them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Attempting vs. not attempting.  Giving it your all vs. doing it half assed.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Avoid failures and losses.  When they do occur try not to let them be psychologically damaging (anxiety, depression, anger).  A draw is better than a failure.  A retreat is better than a failure.	6/20/2003

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Bad attitudes.  (1) I don't care whether I win or lose.  (2) I lost once, so I am always a loser.  (3) Winning is guaranteed.  (4) Winning is my right.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Becoming comfortable failing vs. not accepting failure.  It always should feel bad to fail, but you shouldn't let it drive you crazy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Combos.  (1) Winning and succeeding: great.  (2) Winning and failing: didn't try your best.  (3) Losing and succeeding: moral victory.  (4) Losing and failing: sucks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Complacency breeds mediocrity.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Defining success and failure.  (1) Objective success/failure vs. subjective success/failure.  (2) Your definitions vs. society's view.  Whose is truer?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Defining your own successes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Definition.  There is no success, only failure by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Did you win or lose by (1) Luck vs. skill, (2) Fairly vs. cheating.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Do you think more of (1) Past failure: guilt, psyches you out, (2) Past success: confidence, psyches you up, (3) Future failure: fear, or (4) Future success: hope.  (5) Which is most productive?  (See optimism/pessimism).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Do you think more of past successes and failures or future successes and failures?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Effects on psychology: positive and negative.  Effects on behavior: positive and negative.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Factors involved in success and failure.  (1) Mental factors: knowledge, drive, best attitudes, health.  (2) Physical factors.  (3) Financial, economic factors.  (4) Social factors.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Failure can be easy and comfortable.  Success can be difficult and painful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Failure causes pain and depression.  Success causes confidence, satisfaction, and happiness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Failures hurt.  Successes help.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Fear of success and fear of failure (fear of change) can make you blow opportunities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Figure out what you want and don't (success/failure).  Get what you want and don't (success/failure).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up on stupid means or ends is smart.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up.  (1) Always get back on the horse vs. (2) know when to cut your loses.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up.  (1) Discouragement vs. (2) getting back on the horse vs. (3) knowing when to quit, and why.  Knowing when to cut your loses.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up.  Always get back on the horse, but only after you've cursed yourself, the horse, and god.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up.  Picking yourself back up and turning yourself around.  The rebound.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Giving up.  Quitting vs. changing your goals (evolution, stagnation, devolution).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	If a success or failure seems big at the moment, but small after time, how do you judge its degree?  A truly important success or failure may be forgotten over time.  Or you may only begin to appreciate an important success or failure after years of thought.  What to do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Importance or size of a success or failure.  You often misjudge how a success or failure will make you feel.  Success can feel either not as good or better than you thought.  Failure can either hurt more or be not as bad as you thought.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Important vs. unimportant goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Is a win what makes you feel good vs. is a win what improves your position most?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Learn from your successes and failures: what did I do wrong, what did I do right?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Losing vs. being robbed.  (1) The feeling (emotional feeling and physical feeling) of winning and losing.  (A) Winning and losing to fate.  (B) Winning and losing a fight with another person.  (C) Winning and losing with self.  (2) The feeling (emotional feeling and physical feeling) of having been wronged.  The feeling of injustice and justice.  (A) Injustice and justice of fate.  (B) Injustice and justice by others.  (C) Injustice and justice toward self.  (3) The above two situations produce two different sets of feelings.  (A) In the first case, winning and losing implies that some kind of contest was in effect.  The contest may have been a game, play, or for fun.  The contest may have been serious.  Contest implies that all contestants were aware that they were involved in competition.  Contest implies rules.  Contest implies contestants having some degree of control.  (B) Being wronged (by nature, others or self) often occurs out of the sheer blue.  Often you feel you weren't playing, or you feel some kind of rule was broken.	6/23/2000

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Losing vs. giving up vs. not trying.	06/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Losing: competition with others.  Failure: competition with self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Many small successes or failures vs. one big success or failure.  The big win, and the big win feeling, transforms the individual and lasts a long time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Maximum effort vs. minimum effort.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Me.  Why I fail.  Repressed drive and fears lead to neurosis and self destruction.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Members of a hyper-competitive society view everything as winning and losing.  Members of a healthy society just try their best.  It is not a contest.  There is no such thing as success and failure.  Success and failures are meaningless words.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Most people judge success and failure in terms of material physical object possessions and social status in a public world.  They do not think of psychological gains in your personal world.  Success and failure is as much relative to you as it is relative to others.  Giving something your best shot.  Developing your head.  Getting what you need most.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	My view of success and failure.  (1) What do I consider success?  Helping the world.  (2) What do I consider a failure?  Helping only myself.	10/31/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Nothing is perfect, therefore nothing is a complete success.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Objective event: your actions and the outcome.  Subjective response: your emotion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Objective success and failure, or real success and failure.  Subjective success and failure: individually perceived success and failure, or societally perceived success and failure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Objective success and failure: metaphysics, vs. subjective success and failure: ethics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	One conventional view says that a quitter never wins and a winner never quits.  I say that quitting a losing game is being a winner.  To quit being a loser is to be a winner.	9/24/1999

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	One success leads to another.  One failure leads to another.  Death and growth spirals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Optimism and pessimism: whether you tend to remember good or bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Percent success vs. percent failure, for any action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Perception of success or failure, and perception of winning or losing, in any event that you participate in.  (See optimism/pessimism).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Problems.  (1) Self destruction.  (2) Repression attitudes, "I do not need it.  It is not important.  It does not matter".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Psychological affects of winning and losing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Setting yourself up for success or failure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Society's conventional views of success and failure.  (1) What does conventional society consider a success?  Money and power.  (2) What does conventional society consider a failure?  Lack of money and power.  I do not agree.	10/31/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Some people throw their failures into the garbage.  Some people trash their failed attempts.  People sometimes feel angry, depressed, embarrassed or humiliated regarding their failures.  Other people, for example, scientists, save their failures in order to guide their research.  Do not throw out your failures.  Do not throw out your past.  Do not throw out your early work.  Take a scientist's attitude toward your past failures.	12/6/2005

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  Sometimes you win when you should have lost.  Sometimes you lose when you should have won.  Sometimes you win when you are wrong.  Sometimes you lose when you are right.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success and failure caused by you, by others, and by nature.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success and failure in setting goals, and success and failure in getting goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success and failure offset each other.  A big success can make up for many small failures, and visa versa.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success and failure with dignity, catharsis and justice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success depends on your view of what's good.  Success equals doing the most good you can.	5/5/2006

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success is about getting healthy (psychologically and physically), getting smart, saving the world, and fighting injustice.  Success is about picking the right goals and pursuing them with all your energy.  Picking the wrong goals and being lazy is failure.	11/20/1997

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success walks hand in hand with failure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success, win, victory vs. failure, loss, defeat.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success: warm feeling.  Failure: fu*ked feeling.  Keep in touch with these feelings, they help you judge things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success.  If you are trying your best to think and do, that is excellence.  Excellence is not about being the best in some group.  Success is being your best.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Success.  What determines success in life?  Some people say money and power is success.  Others say that as long as you are happy that is success.  But some people are made happy by unhealthy, unethical things.  A worthy cause, helping others, that is success.	8/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  (1) How to get successes and wins: peak performance and sports psychology.  (2) How to avoid failure and loss?  (3) How to deal with failure and loss when it does occur?  (4) How to deal with successes and wins when they occur?  So they don't destroy you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  A man has got to know his limitations, they say.  If you ignore your limits (physical, psychological, and social), or if you show hubris, you will pay a heavy price.  Don't be stupid, don't push things to breaking point.  Don't live in a dream world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  Constantly mull over whether you are making the right ethical choices in your life.  Think about it a lot.  Think of the alternatives, and the reasons pro and contra any move.  Not just for big decisions, but for small ones too.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  Develop and maintain optimum mind in order to deal optimally with situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  If you can say "I tried my hardest, in thought and action, to develop and get best goals best", you won't feel sad or angry at yourself, and what ever happens it won't be because you didn't try.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  Learn long before you must make the decision.  Watch others, experiment, practice, and do a test run.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  The most radical thing you can do.  (1) Think of a new, better, important, powerful, useful idea.  (2) Say a new, better, important, powerful, useful statement.  (3) Do a new, better, important, powerful, useful action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  There are no mentors.  You've got to figure things out yourself.  Find your own way.  No one gives nothing to no one.  Find it yourself, and take it yourself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Techs.  When it comes to your body, play it safe, because you only get one.  Always review, always learn about risks.  Don't ignore warning signs.  Don't ignore any important area of life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	The role played by (1) Luck: good luck and bad luck, fortune and misfortune.  (2) Behavior: practice and preparation, and effort at time of need.  (3) Opportunities seized vs. missed.  (4) Psychological: ability, talent, skill, intelligence, natural and developed.  (5) Ethics: goals, means and ends, standards, values.  (6) Opposition: struggling.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	There is no such thing as failure.  We all try our best.	3/21/2004

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Three definitions of the big win.  (1) Maximum payoff in minimum time?  (2) Maximum payoff with minimum risk?  (3) Maximum payoff with minimum effort?  (4) Sometimes high risk, high effort, long term wins are sweet.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Training for peak performance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Two cool situations regarding success and failure.  (1) Society says you are a winner, yet you feel like a loser.  (2) Society says you are a loser, yet you feel like a winner.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Types of success and failure.  (1) By chance (natural) vs. (2) through effort or neglect (individual) vs. (3) by opposition vs. by help (social).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Types of wins.  (1) Easy wins vs. tough wins.  (2) Quick wins vs. long drawn out struggles and wins.  (3) Important wins vs. unimportant wins.  (4) Fair wins vs. unfair wins.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	What do you consider success and failure?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	What if something makes you grow in one area and destroys you in another?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Why I fail, and why I don't succeed.  (1) If it is not perfect, it is trash and I hate it.  (2) I don't want it.  (3) I don't need it.  (4) I don't care if I don't get it.  (5) If I'm not perfect, I'm trash.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Winning and losing occur in the context of a contest.  However, the goal of the contest may be worthless, the means of the contest may be stupid, and the rules of the contest may be unfair.  So think twice about who you call a winner and loser.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Wins and successes pump you up, get you psyched, make you happy, give you hope, keep you going, and reinforce pursuing behavior.  Failures do the opposite.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	Your success/failure ratio: in total, or in any area.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	.This section is about values.  Topics include: ( ) Types of value.  ( ) Utility.  ( ) Values.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) A value hierarchy is the order, from most valuable to least valuable, in which you place things.  It is the result of saying "I think X is more valuable than Y".  (2) Value hierarchies change with the situation.  (3) Value hierarchies exist within things of the same value type, and also between things of different value types.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) Conflict of values (intrapersonal vs. interpersonal).  (2) Value choice, or decision.  (3) Value priorities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) How much to do (mix): too much vs. too little.  (2) How well to do it (standards): too well, overkill vs. not well enough.  Aiming to high or low.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) Something can have economic value without having utilitarian value (ex. A diamond ring).  (2) Something can have aesthetic value without having utilitarian value (ex. A work of art).  (3) Something can have utilitarian value without having economic value (ex. Air is free).	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) Utilitarian value: what can you accomplish with a thing.  (2) Monetary value: What a thing costs to make.  What price you can sell a thing for.	3/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, values.	(1) Worth or value of a person is what they could become, give, or contribute (and/or enjoy?) if given the best supportive environmental conditions, plus 100% effort on their part.  Many people do not see the worth of an individual, even themselves, and thus their actions reduce their potential value or worth.  (2) Value of a person.  Monetary value (A) Of their chemicals, (B) Of their manual labor, (C) Of all their talents to fill needs and solve problems.	05/18/1994

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Change of values, two types.  (1) The value of x thing can change, especially as the surrounding situation changes.  (2) A person's values can change (i.e., what they think is valuable can change.  Their value hierarchy can shift).	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Comparative value: x amount of a is worth y amount of b, c, or d other thing, to e person, in f situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Comparative values.  Comparing among like things vs. comparing among unlike things.  Comparing apples and oranges.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Definition.  In economics, price reflects supply and demand.  In ethics, value reflects much more.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Definitions.  (1) Value as worth: X amount of A is worth Y amount of Z to person B in C situation.  (2) Value as utility: what x can do for you?  (3) Value as philosophical view: what do you value in life?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Estimating the true value of everything in a situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Everything has a value?  To who, how measured, in terms of what?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Good and evil are questions of value.  We call good that which jibes with our values.  We call bad that which goes against our values.	6/27/2004

Philosophy, ethics, values.	How are value and importance related?	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Implicit value vs. explicit value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Intrinsic value judgments in everything we think and do.  They can be: explicit or implicit.  They can be conscious or unconscious.  These value judgments are noticed by others unconsciously and consciously.  The young imitate them unconsciously.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Momentary value system.  How much your momentary value system changes (in a day, or in a life).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Monetary value of a purely utilitarian, single use thing.  Nothing has a single use.  Nothing is purely utilitarian.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Money and fame are widely regarded as measures of success.  Money and fame are even sometimes viewed as the criteria for goodness.  Those without money and fame are viewed as failures and less than good.  To loose one's fame, that is, to be forgotten, is viewed as a bad thing.  Yet only a few are remembered by future generations.  A few people in the history books.  And every year that goes by fewer people are remembered by fewer people.  How about making an enduring contribution, doing some good, and enjoying life?  Make a difference.  Do something useful.  Change the world, even if poor and forgotten.  Pick some worthy goals.  Pursue them with vigor.  Don't waste time.  Hope for the best.	12/10/2002

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Most people are obsessed with economic value (i.e., monetary worth).  Why?  I think it is because economic value is the easiest form of value to understand and measure.  It is easy to stick a price tag on something.  Other forms of value are less easy concepts to understand and measure, so many people tend to ignore them (at their peril).  Most people are struck by the obvious, they go by first impressions, and they never give things a second thought.  That is not good.	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Objective value of a thing to do what action, in what situation.  Subjective value: what we think it is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Objective: what is valuable.  Subjective: what people think is valuable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	PART ONE.  Three mysterious value paradoxes: (1) Aesthetic value without utilitarian value (ex. Art).  (2) Utilitarian value without economic value (ex. Free air).  (3) Economic value without utilitarian value (ex. A diamond ring).     PART TWO.  Three less mystifying value relationships: (1) Aesthetic value without economic value (ex. Gradeschool paintings).  (2) Utilitarian value without aesthetic value (ex. Ugly tools).  (3) Economic value without aesthetic value (ex. Crude oil).	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priceless things.  One of a kind, and irreplaceable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priorities in chronological order, importance order, and logical order.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priorities.  A person can think of all the possible things that one could do during a day, or during a life, and then rule out what one does not want to do, then choose what one will do.	10/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priorities.  Importance vs. urgency (time priority).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priorities.  Priorities are the order of your values.  To prioritize is to say one thing is more important than another.  If you say that many different things are equally important then that is a type of pluralism of values.	10/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Priorities.  Prioritize can mean choose what to do first.  Prioritize can mean choose what to spend most time on.  Prioritize can mean to choose what is most important to you.	10/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Problem.  Two types of mistakes.  (1) Figuring out wrong values and standards.  (2) Not acting on good values and standards.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Problem.  When personal values are out of line with objective importance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Problem.  When values are out of line with goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Problems.  (1) Wrong values.  Inclusion of bad, and exclusion of good.  (2) Wrong priorities.  X placed too high over y, or x placed too low under y.  (3) Wrong standards.  Too high: wastes life.  Too low: demotivates.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Rarity and irreplaceableness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Reasons we value an idea, attitude, action or experience.  (1) Saves time.  (2) Saves money.  (3) Does work.  (4) Provides leisure (rest, recuperation, recreation, enjoyment, fun).  (5) Looks good.  (6) Power.	7/4/2002

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Recognizing value: you can overvalue or undervalue things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Relationship of value system to ethical system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Same thing can have different values for different people depending on their needs, or depending on what the thing means to them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Standards: for self, and for others.  Standards are derived from values.  Standards set the limits of tolerance, or of acceptance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Standards: limits of acceptance.  Tastes: purely aesthetic (no such thing).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Subjective values vs. objective values.	6/27/2004

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Tastes are purely aesthetic?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Terms: ideal, perfection; limits; priorities, urgency, importance; utility.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Terms: value, valuable, worth, useful, important, costly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	The value of human life is another story.	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Things one can value:  Money.  Physical stuff.  Information.  Power.	7/25/2002

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Three different types of values.  (1) Valuing physical stuff.  (2) Valuing people.  (3) Valuing ideas.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  (1) Aesthetic value: is art.  (2) Political value: useful in politics.  (3) Economic value: worth money.  (4) Technological value: a good tool.	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  (1) Monetary value (economic value).  (2) Practical value (utility).  (3) Aesthetic value (beauty).  (4) Sentimental value (emotion, psychology).  (5) Philosophical value (abstract truth).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  (1) Positive value: helps.  (2) Negative value: hurts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  (1) Value of an object.  (2) Value of a person.  (3) Value of an attitude (thought and emotion).  (4) Value of an opportunity.  (5) Value of an art object.  (6) Value of an action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  Actual value now vs. potential value in future.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  Conscious vs. unconscious value.  Expressed vs. unexpressed value.  Value imposed on others (ex. by brain washing).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  Monetary value vs. sentimental value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of value.  Perceived vs. actual value.  Objective vs. subjective value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of values.  (1) Psychological value: promotes psychological health.  (2) Social value: promotes the well-being of the group.  (3) Physical value: promotes physical health.  (4) Ecological value: promotes the health of the environment.	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Types of vaule.  (1) Sentimental, emotional, or personal value.  (2) Social value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Unconscious values are more dangerous than conscious, thought out, values.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility of ideas, actions, and objects.  Usefulness of means and ends.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility.  Is x object useful for anything?  Is x object useful in a given situation?  Is it needed?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility.  Relative or comparative usefulness.  Between means, between goals, and in different situations.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility.  Relative usefulness is what is important.  Is a more useful than b?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility.  Some things and acts in a situation are useful and helpful.  Other things are destructive and hurtful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Utility.  Usefulness of any thing.  As a means to get a goal vs. as a goal or end in itself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value and meaning system.  Something has value to you because it means something to you.  Either intellectual, emotional, nostalgic, or sentimental meaning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value in terms of use (utility) vs. value in terms of money (price).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value of x in and of itself, or in any situation.  What is x worth?  Is x useful?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value should mean both "positive value" and "negative value".  People often use the term "value" to mean only "positive value".  Positive value answers the question "What good is this thing?"  The concept of "negative value" is given a different name.	1/1/2001

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value system is part of total ethical system.  You have a number of values, prioritized.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value system.  (1) How healthy a value system is.  (2) How much a value system corresponds to reality.  (3) How a value system develops.  (A) Taught: indoctrinated belief vs. reasoned out.  (B) Figured out by self.  (4) Best value system for a situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Value system.  Development of a value system in an individual or society.  Found out vs. figured out.  Correspondence with reality and justice.  Healthy vs. unhealthy value systems.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Values affect resources you put into x thing or activity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Values and standards are not just about ethics.  We have ethical values and standards, aesthetic values and standards, and epistemological values and standards.  A standard is a level at which we make a "go vs. no go" decision.	10/5/2000

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Values and standards.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Values can change over time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	Values come from (1) Everything you think.  (2) Everything you choose to experience.  (3) Everything you experience without choice.  (4) The things that you don't experience, or don't think of, can cause missing values or inaccurate values.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, values.	What is the highest goal?  Is "goodness" the highest goal?  Is truth and justice the highest goal?	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics, values.	What value do we give x?  Have we thought what value to give x?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	.See also: Technology, resources and waste.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	.This section is about the concept of waste from an ethical standpoint.  Topics include: ( ) Garbage.  ( ) Resources.  ( ) Waste.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) Ethics of waste.  Waste of time, waste of ability.  Doing nothing.  (2) Ethics of destruction of physical objects, and hurting of people.  (3) Ethics of building of objects (work), creation of ideas, caring and nurturing, loving and helping people.  (4) Even if there was such thing as neutrality (which there is not), doing nothing is not an ethically neutral act.  It is a waste.	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) How to survive in a world of junk and poison?  How can I build an "idea-life" in the wasteland of tourist-trap kitsch?  Make like an Arab in the desert.  (2) How to reuse "garbage-ideas"?  I.e., how to live sustainably?  (A) How to make something useful out of junk (idea junk) like many sculptors do?  (B) How to turn lemons into lemonade?  (3) Reduce, reuse, and recycle.  We do it with physical garbage, should we also do it with garbage-experiences (experiences of little value) and garbage-ideas (ideas of little value).	8/20/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) If you waste 20 years of leisure time, is that as bad as killing yourself 20 years before you would actually die?  Or is it worse, because you are offing (wasting) 20 years of quality time (15-35).  (2) An extreme view: If you are just doing your job and watching TV in your free time, you have no right to live.  Life is something you have to earn.  It is an obligation, not a right?  (3) Good life = having done something good (in thought or action), and not having done nothing (waste or throw away talents, abilities, and opportunities), and not having done something bad.  What counts is intention and effort, not results, payoff, or luck (good or bad), or money made.	05/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) Most people piss their lives away.  They waste most of their free time.  They think only of 1% of the things that exist.  They think only of unimportant things, not important things.  (2) What if one worked 100% of one's free time (or better yet, used any brain down time) at important stuff?	04/24/1997

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) Most people waste most of their lives.  (2)  Most people have most of their lives wasted by the situation they are in.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) The reason people dislike thinking about garbage is because they fear death.  A piece of garbage is something that is used up and dead.  Garbage reminds us that someday we will be used up and dead.  The reason why many people love things that are new and shiny, like cars and clothes, and the reason why they dislike worn out things is because they fear death.  The reason why people pursue youthful good looks is because they fear death.  (2) An alternative explanation to the above is that people find youthful looks and new shiny objects to be sexy.  Garbage and worn out old things are not sexy.	9/1/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) To waste something.  This is an ethical judgment, is it not?  To waste something you have, or something you could get.  To not use it, or to destroy it.  To waste an object, an ability, or an opportunity.  (2) Things earned vs. things gotten for free.  Things used vs. things wasted.	01/30/1994

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) Wasting.  Wasting you life.  Not using your resources, including your abilities.  Not reaching your potential.  (2) Garbage, junk.  Creating something not useful.  There is a certain amount of unavoidable garbage produced by the system.  90% of everything is garbage.  Everything is garbage by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	(1) When someone dies, or is psychologically or physically injured into un-productivity, all the resources spent creating them are wasted.  The resources used to create a 20 year old human.  Oxygen breathed.  Food ate.  Water drank.  Garbage made.  Waste products made (urine, excrement, C02).  Schooling in dollars for grades 1-12, plus college.  (2) The thesis is that we have x amount of resources to spend raising y amount of people.  Can we advance ourselves fast enough (through learning and doing) to save ourselves before the resources run out?  This is the global endgame, the race to survive.  When we waste physical resources, or our lives, we lessen the chance of future generations surviving.  (3) To not think hard is to waste your life.  To not work hard is to waste your life.	10/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Ethics of waste.  To waste something is to have it and not use it.  Use all you got, all the time.  Develop your entire self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Four conceptions of waste.  (1) Waste as wanton, mindless destruction.  (2) Waste as the by-products of thoughtful use.  Pollution and garbage.  (3) Waste as using up, even if thoughtfully.  (4) Waste meaning to not use or to let go unused.	11/20/2001

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Garbage.  Poison: hurts.  Junk: wastes resources, and doesn't help.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Junk (worthless, useless) vs. Poison (unhealthy, deadly).  As applied to physical stuff, experiences, and ideas or attitudes.	8/20/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	PART ONE.  Junk.  (1) A useful thing (or idea) is useless if its not what you need at the moment.  (ex. snow cones in the arctic).  (2) One man's junk is another man's useful thing.  Useless junk is useful to someone else.  (A) You can't use it but someone else can.  (B) It may have another type of value: symbolic value, aesthetic value, or sentimental value.     PART TWO.  Poison.  (1) Too much of anything can be harmful.  (2) Some things are useful in one context but poisonous in another.  Ex. hydrochloric acid is useful for some things but poisonous if you drink it.	8/18/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Resources.  Ethics of spending resources, especially money.  Should you spend it on stuff or experiences?  Old repeat experiences or new experiences?	11/20/1993

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Resources.  How to spend my resources?  How to get more resources?	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Resources.  When you have no time and energy, how do your values change?	05/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Salvage.  What can we salvage from memory?  There is something about the word "salvage" that is different from the word "recycle".  To salvage means to save from oblivion.  A salvage business is commonly referred to as a junkyard.  Saving junk from oblivion.  There was always something dirty yet noble about junkyards.  The noble salvage.  When I look about I see mostly junk.  When I look to the past I see mostly junk.  Is there any junk I can salvage from my life to build a new life out of second hand parts?	9/1/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Some things we waste by using them up.  Some things we waste by not using them (ex. the brain).	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Three types of garbage: (1) The physical stuff we throw out.  (2) Garbage experiences.  (3) Garbage ideas.	8/20/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	To recycle means to recast or to change the form of a thing.  But some objects, like memories, are not so easily changed, and they lay rusting in the tall grass of our minds.	9/1/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Two types of idea-pollution.  (1) Pollution by excess (too much of a good thing).  (2) Pollution by poison.  This can occur at two levels: in an individual's mind or in a society.	8/20/2000

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Uses of the term "waste".  (1) Waste meaning "to not use".  (2) Waste meaning "to use inefficiently".  (3) Waste meaning "what is left over after 100% efficient use.  (4) These terms can be used for any resource, such as time, money, energy, physical material, etc.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Waste is the opposite of effort (?).	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Wasting one hour a day adds up to 365 wasted hours a year, which is almost ten forty-hour work weeks.  Over ten years this adds up to wasting 400 forty-hour work weeks, which is the equivalent of ten years of 9 - 5 work.	6/30/1999

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Wasting time is one of the biggest ethical problems we face (it terms of quantity).  The causes of wasting time can include (1) People fear growth because growth involves change.  And they fear change because they fear the possibility of changing for the worse.  (2) People feel growth is not necessary.	3/20/1999

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Wasting time is the biggest ethical issue in terms of amount done.  Wasting time for me means not thinking and not writing.	2/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Wasting time is the most important ethical issue.	4/22/1999

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	Wasting your life vs. using your life.  Doing what you want vs. doing what society wants.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics, waste.	What is the biggest problem?  Wasted lives and wasted potential.  Couch potatoes, vegetation, blobs, those who give up on life.  Misfits, misanthropes, loners.  Anguish, alienation, hopelessness.  Most people being a little messed up most of the time is a greater waste than a few people who are very messed up.	1/25/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	.This section is about various other thoughts on ethics.  Topics include: ( ) Abuse and negligence.  ( ) Actions.  ( ) Animal rights.  ( ) Asceticism.  Voluntary simplicity.  ( ) Ecology and ethics.  ( ) Economics and ethics.  ( ) Evolutionary ethics.  ( ) Forgiveness.  ( ) Goals.  ( ) Information and ethics.  ( ) Judging.  ( ) People.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) Relativism and ethics.  ( ) Rights.  Human rights.  Animal rights.  ( ) Rules.  ( ) Stand.  ( ) Superogatory.  ( ) Temptation.  ( ) Time and ethics.  Future generations.  ( ) What is ethics.  ( ) Why think about ethics.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	"I do not ask any questions.  I did not see anything.  I looked the other way.", so says the moll, as well as the average citizen.  This is an unethical attitude.  It is our duty to know (everything).  This is the journalists creed.  Therefore it is our duty to think (about everything) and record.  Therefore, the Notes are something we are obligated as humans to do.	2/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	"I don't know, and I don't care.", is a paean to ignorance and lack of empathy.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	"Its not all about me."  People often come to this realization after they have kids.  Sometimes they realize it when they hear the "Hill o' beans" speech in the movie "Casablanca".	4/4/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	"Lets Make a Deal" ethics.  Life as a game of (1) Pure skill, (2) Mix of skill and chance, or (3) Pure chance.  With outcomes of any type if you win, such as money, stuff, and experiences.  And outcomes of any type if you lose, such as loss of money, physical suffering, etc.  How much of life is like this?  How much of life is a game?  How much of ethics is a game?  In most cases in life you don't know the outcome for sure.	5/5/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	"You owe me".  This phrase can be about reciprocity.  This phrase can also be about duty, obligation, responsibility.  In what cases is reciprocity required and not required?  In what cases is responsibility taken on by choice, and in what cases is responsibility cast upon us by circumstances (if ever)?  Reciprocity is based on promise or contract, verbal or implied.  The opposite of "take an eye for an eye" is "give a favor for a favor".	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) All is forgiven vs. getting justice.  Latter is better.  (2) No free will vs. free will.  Latter is better.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Big debates over what are the worst problems, their causes, and best solutions.  (2) Big debates over what are best ends and best means.	06/01/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Broad definition.  The word "ethical" can be used to mean "pertaining to ethics".  (2) Narrower definition.  The word "ethical" can also be used to mean "ethically good".	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Does knowledge of the latest and greatest meta-ethical theories make one a better person?  Do the ethicists lead better lives and do more good than the rest of the population?  (2) Being smarter does not necessarily make you a better person.  Being smart may help, but its no guarantee.  (3) I would rather be good than true, if forced to choose between them.  That is to say, better to be stupid and good than smart and evil.  This is how Truth stacks up against Goodness.  In real life, however, truth is often a means to goodness.	3/8/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Ethics as choice analysis.  Explore alternatives.  (2) Ethics as the assessment of the effects of actions.  (3) There is ethics to be done before and after any action	3/25/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Ethics of an individual alone.  The individual alone is faced with a complex ethical situation.  Many choices.  Many unknowns.  (2) Ethics of an individual in a social situation.  Alliances.  Opposition.  Social situations are even more complex, in terms of ethics, than are situations of the individual alone.	10/1/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Ethics of every possible action.  (2) Ethics of every possible state of mind (ex. Repress the mind, direct the mind, or leave the mind free to wander).	09/15/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Genetically engineering better bodies and better minds.  (2) Better child raising methods and teaching methods.  Faster, more logical, more loving, more complete, more healthy, and more ethical.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) How much shit to take, and from who?  Some take none from anyone.  Some take a lot from everyone.  (2) How much shit to give?  Some give none to anyone.  Some give a lot to everyone.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) If one person tries harder than another person.  Ethics based on how hard you try, not how much you accomplish.  Ethics based on effort.  How many hours you work.  (2) Ethics based on results and accomplishments.  If one person has more of a head start in terms of intelligence or money then they accomplish more than another person.  (3) You need both types of ethics to be fair.	4/20/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Many people in the world today, and even more people throughout history, would kill to have the advantages, opportunities, freedom and powers that I have today.  (2) The opportunity to learn for free through the Internet.  The opportunity to utilize peace time, and to not have to fight in a war and get killed.  The opportunity to utilize good health.  The opportunity to have an effect and make a difference is much greater today.  The Internet allows each individual to reach many other individuals.  The opportunity to manage information with computers.  The opportunity to communicate with others via the Internet, phone, etc.  (3) Most people would use these opportunities to make a change in the world.  Most people would not use these opportunities to simply laze around.  With opportunity comes responsibility.  (4) That some did not have these opportunities is a natural injustice.  But that I have these opportunities and don't use them fully is an injustice committed by me.  (5) How do I compare to three realms in terms of the opportunities available?  (A) All the people alive now.  (B) All the people who have ever lived.  (C) All the people who will ever live.  All the people who could ever live, assuming we don't blow up the world.	11/8/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Objective ethics: good and bad exist outside our minds.  (2) Subjective ethics: (A) Good and evil are human creations.  Good and evil exist only in the minds of individual humans and the societies they create.  We can extend this definition to higher animals and conscious robots.  (B) What is good and bad depends on how you look at it.  Rational-Emotive psychotherapy is an example of how the way we look at and think about things can shape our emotions and actions.  What we think is good and bad depends on how we are viewing the situation.  (3) Relative ethics and situational ethics.  Depends on the person in the situation.  Depends on the situational environment.  Depends on your needs, values and goals.  People from one situation (context, environment or world) often view and judge other people in other situations by using values and standards that only apply to their own world.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) One can have everything and still be miserable.  (ex. Some people with biochemical depression).  (2) One can have nothing and still be happy (ex. Some poor people).	1/8/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) One of the first rules of ethics, or life, is do not let anyone, or anything (ex. morons, nuts, jerks, snobs, bigots, chick rejection, etc.), beat on you with words or actions, or get you down or depressed with their attitudes.  This means not letting nature, others, or yourself do harm to you.  The principle is protecting yourself from harm.  (2) Do not let nature or life get you down either.  Accidents, twists of fate, bad luck, the cruel world.  Do not let them harm your attitude or mind.  (3) Many types of harm exist.  Psychological harm is easily inflicted and can do much harm.  It can result in long term bum-outs, and mental chains or mental slavery, especially if you are vulnerable to it or have no defenses or protection.  (4) It is okay to feel sad, but not for forever.  Get angry and start fighting.  Stand up for what you believe in.  Make a difference.	03/20/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Root for the underdog.  (2) Stick up for the defenseless (nature, children).	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) The person you have the potential (or ability) to help (or affect) the most is yourself.  This is due to (A) The amount of time spent with self is so much.  (B) The power to change self.  (2) Helping someone means persuading them to add to, delete from, or change, their views or attitudes.  Mental help is the most effective.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Those who are, and are not, playing by the rules.  (2) Those who know it, and those who do not know it.  (3) Those who do it by their own will or against their own will.  (4) Talking about the system vs. true ethics.	11/10/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Those who live for themselves (egoism) vs. those who live for others (altruism).  Those who live for themselves exhibit not so much selfishness as small-mindedness.  On the other hand, those who live for others see themselves (the individual) as not enough to live for.  They feel a need to live for something greater than themselves.  (2) Those who live for things vs. those who live for ideas.  Those who live for things exhibit not so much greed as they do the inability to think abstractly.  The reason that they live for material things is because material things is all that they have.  And if you take away their fancy clothes, big cars, and mansions, they have very little.	6/30/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) What can you really do in life?  What is there really to do?  (2) What can you really learn in life?  What is there really to learn?  (3) For anyone, me, or society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) What I respect.  I don't care what you do as long as you are great at it.  (2) The scale: (A) Destroyed.  (B) Hindered growth.  (C) Caused no harm.  (D) Did some practical good.  (E) Made an original contribution.  Moved things forward theoretically, practically, or politically.	06/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) What will endure?  What will fade?  What will continue to be useful.  What is very important, but only for a moment, as a step.  (2) What is quality?  What is excellence?  What is garbage, junk, and useless?  What is poison, harmful, and hurtful?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Where we are?  (2) Where we are headed given our current course of action?  (3) Where we should be going?	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	(1) Why are we here?  (A) Life is not meant primarily to be enjoyed, as a vacation, like in hedonism.  (B) Nor is it meant to be gotten on with, endured, or merely survived.  (C) It is meant to be used well.  Survival and recreation are secondary to, or a means to, effort.  (2) What not to do.  (A) Get sucked into a system, like a drone.  (B) Wake up and find you have not lived, experienced, and thought, rather you obeyed and slaved.  (C) To be an unthinking drone, or doing what others say (clone), or only doing what you have to do to survive.  (3) What to do.  (A) Keep up on the learn and do.  Keep up on state of the art knowledge, techniques, and values.  (B) Add or contribute to new improved knowledge, action, and values.	05/25/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	(1)(A) Obligation: must do (law).  (B) Prohibition: must not do (law).  (2)(A) Duty: should do (non-law).  (B) Discourage: should not do (non-law).	1/8/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	(1)(A) Who is sincere, bonafide, original, authentic, honest, open, giving, sharing.  (B) Who is silent, lying, hiding.  (2)(A) Who is taking a stand, and has an opinion.  (B) Who is along for the ride, blowing with the wind, going with the flow.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	A big part of ethics is knowing how to spot (recognize) assholes and protect yourself and others against assholes, nuts, and morons.  Also, the bully, con-man, liar, thief, swindler, and cheat.  At work: sleazy boss and co-workers.  In love: the bad relationship with messed up partner.  In business: getting screwed in transactions.  On the street: everyday jerks.  Standing up for yourself and others.  Fighting for yourself and others.	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	A common tactic of unethical people is to argue for nihilism in order to justify doing whatever they want.  For example:  (1) The attack on ethics.  Can't tell right from wrong.  There is no right or wrong.  (2) The attack on meaning.  Can't tell the meaning of communication.  There is no meaning in communication.  (3) The attack on epistemology.  Cannot tell what is true or false.  There is no true or false.  (4) Nihilism is not a tenable position.  Nihilism does not justify injustice.	12/11/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	A set of assumptions one can work with.  (1) We have the capability to save or destroy ourselves as individuals and other people.  (2) Ourselves and others are teetering on the edge of destruction.  (3) It is not obvious how to save ourselves and others.  It takes years of study, practice and effort to learn how to save ourselves and others.  It is easy to destroy ourself and others, it takes no special knowledge.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	A spectrum of activities from good to bad.  When trying to figure out what to do, try to do the best things first (things on this list).  (1) Growth.  (A) Creativity as "figuring out" or active thinking.  Creativity in philosophy, or to lesser extent, the arts.  (B) Searching and learning as "finding out" stuff.  (C) Study of things previously figured and found out.  Rereading.  (2) Maintenance (still productive).  (A) Organizing and editing notes.  (B) Typing up notes.  (3) Non-productive.  Wasting time.  Watching TV.  Doing nothing (inactive "minding"), veging.  (4) Decay.  Counter-productive.  Ruining your life.	07/02/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	A true nobleman, or great man, understands and feels completely and constantly the real reason why he should work full blast and full time toward his goals (ex. study and write).  The reason is because he has the ability and talent, and few others do.  And his work (1) Produces good results, and (2) Develops his skill further.  Anything that reduces or delays this work is unethical.	04/23/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Abuse types: psychological, physical, verbal, monetary, and property abuse.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Abuse.  (1) Abuse: doing a bad thing.  Bad things are done to us by nature, by others, and by ourselves.  If we don't fight to protect ourselves, this is bad.  (2) Neglect: not doing a good thing.  Things are withheld from us by nature, by others, and by ourselves.  If we don't fight to get these things, this is bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Abuse.  Damage.  Ways to damage, as done by self, by others, and by nature.  Types of damage done.  (1) Reversible vs. permanent.  (2) Replaceable vs. irreplaceable.  (3) Psychological, physical, economic/financial, and social.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Abuse.  Neglect.  (1) Emotional neglect: not giving someone love.  Ex. absent parents.  (2) Material neglect: not giving someone good books.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Abuses of power.  Clandestine abuses vs. public abuses.  Blatant public abuses can be caused by (1) Wanting the attention of the public to get a message out.  (2) Wanting recognition as a great and famous criminal.  (3) Wanting attention and love?	12/20/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  .This section is about the various types of actions we can take.	6/9/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  (1) By me: for me, for others, and for everyone.  (2) By others: for me, for themselves, for others, and for everyone.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  (1) Historical structure: oldest to newest.  (2) Logical structure: class and subclass.  (3) Ethical structure: best to worst.  (4) Importance structure: most to least important.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  (1) Promises, contracts.  (2) Betrayal, lies, secrets.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  (1) Requirements of an action.  Resources gained and lost.  (2) Effects of an action.  Resources gained and lost (time, energy, money, materials).  Costs and benefits.  Psychological effects.  Social effects.  Economic effects.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  (1) Saving a life vs. not.  (2) Reducing pain vs. increasing pleasure (same thing)?  (3) Nurturing, caring.  (4) Mind fu*ks.  (5) Stealing, cheating, injuring (temporarily or permanently), killing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Betrayal of confidence or trust.  Ratting, spying, interfering, lying, cheating, conning, stealing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Can you go through life without hurting anyone (including yourself), and without being hurt?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Doing nothing.  Doing nothing is not an ethically neutral act.  Doing nothing can be good or bad depending on the situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Ethics of any action or behavior.  When and where to do it, and not, and why.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Four types of behavior possible.  (1) Pursue, search, inquire, explore.  (2) Face, confront, hold ground.  (3) Ignore, repress, don't face, avoidance, turn look away.  (4) Run away, withdraw, hide, retreat, quit.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Four types: (1) To run away.  (2) To not look.  (3) To look.  (4) To search.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Fu*king vs. getting fu*ked.  Kicking ass vs. getting ass kicked.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Helping: how does the situation change (1) If someone asks for help.  (2) If someone asks not to be helped.  (3) If someone offers to help.  (4) If someone says they don't want to help.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Hurting vs. helping.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Laziness as conservation of resources vs. lack of striving.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Obedience and conformity vs. rebellion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Opposition: actively opposing vs. passively blocking.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Passivity vs. activity.  Assertive vs. aggressive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Reactions.  Too severe, over-reacting.  Not severe enough, under-reacting.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Silence equals consent and/or agreement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Actions.  Struggle: violent vs. non-violent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Aesthetic decisions vs. ethical decisions.  No difference?  Does aesthetics boil down to ethics?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Age.  When you are very old, when you've wasted your whole life working, then you can not enjoy life anymore like you could have when you were young.  You are too full for dessert.  Your mind and body are shot.  It is all over.  Have dessert first, I say.  The four years from 24 - 27 for me were the only real years I lived.  After the tyranny of childhood, the big mistake of going to a lame college (repressed non-life, non-reality) (truly a step backward), and before the totalitarian world of work.  For four years I really lived, thought, read and wrote the way I wanted to.  Life, dessert, was sweet.	06/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Age.  When you are young you want (and should get) adventure, exploration, romance, love and sex.  When you age, your values and priorities change (and should?).  Ethics change with age.	08/22/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	All ethical issues connected with a thing.  All ethical views associated with these issues.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ammunition, shields, and Achilles tendons.	5/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	An adult human is responsible for his or her own ethical development.  You have to do the philosophy.  Philosophy is not only a college course.  Everyone is a philosopher.  Do the philosophy.  Start writing.  It is not obvious, automatic, or easy.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Animal ethics.  (1) We do not torture humans.  We say humans have rights.  (2) We do not torture animals.  Can we say animals have rights?	4/7/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Animal rights: we don't torture animals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Animal rights.  Animals, especially higher animals like chordates (fish, birds, mammals), have brains, have minds, feel physical pain, feel emotions, can think, and thus deserve to live without imprisonment, torture and murder, and thus deserve animal rights.	6/9/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Animal rights.  Humans, as a species, don't exist in an ethical vacuum.  Other species exist.  Other species have rights.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Anyone will do anything to anyone.	5/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Anything done wrong, or less than 100%, causes regret, regret, regret, which is the worst feeling of them all.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Anything that does not help the self (type, degree, amount), hurts the self?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Arbitrary laws like the age of sexual consent, drinking age, voting age and driving age.  These arbitrary laws are different in every state.  Not like murder which is illegal in all states.  Really these arbitrary laws should be decided on case-by-case basis, taking into account each individual person's level of maturity to decide when the individual can be allowed to take part in "adult" activities.  But decided by who?  The individual in question?  Parents?  A jury?	5/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Are all difficult things "not fun"?  No, climbing is difficult but fun.  Are all easy things fun?  No, they can be no challenge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Asceticism (of materials, of experiences, etc.).  Systematically denying your desires can impede your development.  The key is to choose wisely.  Unhealthy asceticism is repression and poverty.  Healthy asceticism is focus.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Asceticism.  How much stuff is too little?  How much is too much?  Excess vs. lack.  Simplicity vs. complexity.  Pack rats vs. throwing out something you wish you had not thrown out because it was useful and irreplaceable.	01/03/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Asceticism.  Voluntary simplicity (of stuff).  Not being materialistic.  Thoreau: simplify.	6/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	At what point do we say, "This person should have never lived"?  How much good vs. how much evil?  Three views.  (1) Anything better than 50/50?  No, because you use resources (air, food, money, etc.) that are a cost (bad), and need to be figured into the equation.  (2) Do you consider how much good and evil the individual has done relative to all other humans living at the same time.  Anyone better than average should have lived.  (3) Committing a major bad act, like murder, definitively decides one should not live, for those people who believe in the death penalty.	4/15/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Base pleasures like eating, f*cking and sleeping.  Versus.  Higher pleasures.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Bravery.  See: Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Can one live without hurting self or others?  Can one help self or others?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Care.  See: Psychology, personality, traits, care.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Change of views.  Faced with the same situation, your view of it can change.  Example, you can see life as trite, banal, and hum drum, or as a precious chance and great opportunity.  Thus changes in ethical views cause changes in metaphysical views just as much as changes in metaphysical views cause changes in ethical views.	05/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Changing what is vs. changing your views on what is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Choosing.  (1) Some people choose by doing whatever seems most fun.  That depends on what one considers to be fun.  (2) Some people do what they consider to be good.  (3) Those who cannot decide, do nothing.  (4) Those who think that doing nothing is fun or good, do nothing.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Choosing.  Bad strategies for choosing.  (1) Some people do what everyone else is doing.  (2) Some people do what others tell them to do.  (3) Some people rely on random chance.  (4) Some people do not give it much thought.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Choosing.  Ethics is about choice.  Ethics is about choosing.  Choosing is a form of decision making.  One part of choosing involves becoming aware of all the possible alternatives one can choose from.  Another part of choosing is having some type of decision making procedure.  One type of decision making procedure is to flip a coin.  Flipping a coin is an arbitrary decision making procedure.  Another type of decision making procedure is to weigh the pros and cons of each choice.	10/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Choosing.  In a hypothetical world where there are only two actions possible, decision making is simplified.  As the number of possible actions increases, decision making becomes more complex.	10/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Choosing.  Some choices:  The decision to smoke or not.  The decision to exercise or not.  The decision to be politically active or not.  The decision to educate oneself or not.  The decision of how to make a living.  The decision of what to do in free time.  The decision of who to sleep with.  The decision of whether to think, write and publish.  The decision of how much television to watch.  The decision of whether to have kids or not.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Common real-politik ethical principles:  (1) Be nice to people on the way up because you will see them on the way down.  (2) What goes around comes around.  (3) You get what you give.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Concept of being "most fair" to self.  What do you give up by living an ethical life?  Power, sensual pleasure, etc.?  What do you get by living an ethical life?  More pain?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Contractual ethics.  "We had a deal.  You promised.  You gave your word."  These are phrases often used in a subject known as the ethics of contract.  A contract is a conditional that says, "If you do x then I will do y."  However, there are many implicit assumptions to any contract that can nullify the contract.	7/20/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Contractual ethics.  Promising.  Is promising only an action between people?  Does it make sense to talk about making a promise to yourself?	8/29/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Criteria for action.  (1) My criteria for action used to be: Is it fun?  Does it feel good?  Is it a rush, thrill, or kick?  Is it new?  (2) My criteria for action now is: What will it accomplish?  Is it a waste of time?	6/19/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Dessert.  I believe in the "dessert first" philosophy of life.	06/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Diet analogy of ethics.  Can we make up for a bad with a good?  Like when we are on a diet and skip lunch to make up for a big breakfast?  There are various views on this question.  (1) No, we can not make up for the bad.  The bad always remains.  (2) Yes, we can make up for bad.  The bad is not rubbed out, but we can balance the scale by counteracting a bad with a good.  (3) Yes, we can make up for bad.  We can wipe the bad out completely, like it never happened.	4/14/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Difference between picking out most important ideas in a passage, and picking out most important ideas in a situation.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Doesn't even pay to look at the shit around you.  Live in a world of ideas and ideals.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Doing what I like, enjoy, desire, want, versus, doing what I think I ought to.  These days I spend my time doing what I think I ought to.  Which basically amounts to giving up the pursuit of money in order to pursue progressive activism.  Which basically amounts to giving up ease to pursue difficulty.  Which seems counter-intuitive on the surface, but is worth doing when you mull it over.	12/21/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Ecology and ethics.  Any attempt at ethics must take into account the entire system, i.e., the ecosystem.  Many people think ethics is a matter of actions between people, but just as important is the ethics of actions by humans on the environment.	8/29/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Ecology and ethics.  For too long people have thought that ethics is mainly about means and ends.  People have focused on goals and tactics.  However, it is just as important to consider resources and by-products.  This is a more holistic, more ecological, approach to ethics.  It involves giving attention to raw materials, waste-products, and side-effects.	7/14/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  Cost and benefit analysis.  Monetary results of actions.  Opportunity costs.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  Ethics of capitalism.  Competition.  Beat the other guy.  Make him lose.  This applies in the world of limited physical stuff.  But in the world of intangibles, the world of information (and emotion), the world of unlimited ideas, where there is enough for all, there is no reason to keep others down.  We can all grow, improve and win.  A society like ours wrongly sees the competitive way as the only way, or as the best way for all situations.  I am tired of always trying to crush others when I could just as well be giving them a hand.  Greed is not always good.	1/23/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  If nothing was scarce, then the existence of unethical acts, and the desire to commit them, would be reduced greatly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  My rate of effort (expending resources) vs. my rate of production (quantity and quality produced).  How do they compare?  What's my efficiency (talent) level?  Is it worth it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  Price, cost, and benefits.  (1) The price you pay for doing x action.  Economic price, psychological price, and physical price.  The opportunity price for what you chose not to do.  (2) Price you pay for mistakes.  Mistakes in ends (goals), and in means (tactics).  The price is loss and pain.  (3) Three definitions of price.  Price as economic cost only, quantitative.  Price as cost of any type, qualitative.  Price as consequences.  (4) Sometimes ethics is not a matter of good and bad but costs or price vs. benefits.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  Resources.  Every action has an initial cost, a return, and a profit or loss.  Every action consumes resources.  Resources include: time, money, materials, effort/energy/labor (both psychological and physical).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics and ethics.  Terms: Efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, quality, costs and benefits, equality, fairness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Economics should not be the primary basis for morality.  We should not do anything and everything just to save a buck.	12/5/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Effective vs. fair.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Effort.  How much effort to give?  How hard should we try?  We should give 100 percent effort.  Every spare minute.  Should we ever relax and enjoy?  Relax and enjoy while you are efforting.  Should we ever stop trying?  We should never stop trying.	1/1/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Effort.  Maximum ethical effort is required.  Many people will try to convince you to relax, take it easy, slow down.  Continue applying maximum ethical effort.  Advertisers will try to convince you that other things are more important.  The opposition will try to convince you that your cause is lost.  Maximum ethical effort, in thought and action, toward the best goals you can formulate, is required.	1/7/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Enjoy vs. appreciate.  (1) Enjoy.  Enjoy everything.  Enjoy the good in life.  See the good in everything.  (2) Appreciate.  Appreciate things fully.  Recognize and appreciate what you have.  Appreciate what others have.  Appreciate the good in life.	1/8/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	Environmental ethics or ecological ethics is very important.  Including, but not limited to, animal rights.  Plant species should also be included.  All biodiversity.  Non-living things too because living things depend on non-living things.  And also for the aesthetics of non-living things.  For example, there is only one Yosemite and we can't rebuild it if we destroy it.	7/8/2002

Philosophy, ethics.	Epistemology of ethics.  Ethical truth is what is objectively best or worst.  Ethical reasoning, proof, and argument.  Ethical belief or certitude.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethical plan: (1) What you believe.  (2) What you decide to do.  (3) What you actually do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethical relativism.  Most people consider ethics to be relative in regard to the individual, society or situation.  However, there is also the ethics of one act relative to any other act.  Actions are ethical relative to other actions.  When a person has a choice of doing one of several actions, then the person judges each action relative to the other possible actions.	8/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethical window of an individual.  How good you strive to be vs. how bad you let yourself be.  It creates an ethical window in which you act.  Having a wide or narrow ethical window.  Having an ethical window set high or low.	05/30/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics and creativity.  Is there an ethical difference between (1) a creator who is unavoidably compelled to create, perhaps even a obsessed with creating, and (2) a creator who enjoys creating, but not obsessed, and (3) a creator who dislikes creating but who creates because it is needed.  Can they all create an equally good product? Assuming they do create an equally good product, is any one of these creators ethically better than the others?	1/9/2002

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics by areas or behavior types.  Sex, death, work, leisure, medicine, business, law, struggling, communication, science, etc.  Ethics by subject matter (see all 26 subject areas, and ethical issues in each).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics by subject area.  (1) Social ethics.  (2) Political ethics: be politically aware and active.  (3) Sexual relationship ethics: picking a mate.  Deciding not to have kids.  Avoiding disease.  (4) Work ethics: Picking a job.  What you do matters.  (5) Leisure ethics: Don't waste leisure time.  (6) Information ethics: Thinking.  Learning.  Reason.  Ignorance is bad.  Curiosity is good.  Figure out and find out.  Superstition and fanaticism is bad.  (7) Psychological ethics:  (A) Attitudes.  How you look at things.  Search for better attitudes.  (B) Behaviors.  (C) Emotions.  Develop emotional intelligence.	11/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics is a bad, non-descriptive word.  A better word is choice theory.  Arguments for the choices we make.	09/20/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics is about resources, means (technology) and ends (goals).	08/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of any "thing" in any situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of deciding what to do.  Ethics of decision making procedures.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of fun combined with the ethics of utility.  Some people put more value on things that are fun and useless over things that are useful but not fun.  Other people think it better to pursue the useful even if its not always fun.  However, perceptions of what is useful and what is fun vary widely.  In addition, people sometimes miscalculate what is useful and what is fun.	6/22/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of information.  Become informed.  Gain knowledge.  Get smart.  Learn.  Become educated.  It is an ethical duty of every individual to reason, to inquire, to think critically.  You have a brain, use it.  Thus, the Notes is an ethical good because it represents reason in the quest for knowledge.	10/17/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of mental life.  (1) Constant thinking, learning, questioning is good.  (2) An inactive mental life is bad.	4/18/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of mind vs. ethics of action.  Ethics is not so much about what you do.  Ethics is more about what you think about.  The ethics of thought precedes the ethics of action.  You cannot "do the right thing" till you figure out what the right thing is.	10/22/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of mind.  To decide to think is an action.  Some misguided people deride the mental life as "doing nothing" but they are mistaken.  Mental actions can be just as powerful and effective as physical actions.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of resources, abilities, and opportunities.  (1) We should use all the resources that we have.  Not to do so is a waste.  We should get more resources in a sustainable manner (Resources: time, energy, money, materials, people, information).  (2) Make the most of your abilities.  (3) Seize opportunities.  Create opportunities.  (4) Resources, abilities, and opportunities.  These are three important words.  They are all that you have with which to work.	12/31/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of society.  What kind of society do you want to live in?  People want to live in a just society.  What are some of the big issues in the ethics of society?  Health care.  Education.  Some people refer to the ethics of society by using the name "political philosophy".	3/25/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics of taking care of your body and mind.  (1) How you do it (efficiency of method).  What you do and don't do (pathological, veging).  (2) How much time you need to spend doing it.	09/26/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Ethics views.  (1) Hedonism.  (A) Fun hog.  Party all the time.  Play.  Food, drink, sex, socializing, smokes.  Active version: dance, sports.  Sedate version: sleep, lazy, apathy.  (B) Finer things in life.  Connesieur.  Expensive cars, clothes, wines.  Collectors.  Enjoy life.  (2) Work all the time.  Work ethic.  (A) Make money.  To be rich.  To raise kids.  (B) Climb the corporate ladder.  Gain power and position.  (C) Work for a cause.  To change the world.  (3) Some mix of 1 and (2)  50/50 or otherwise.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Even a perfectly ethical act will not please everyone.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Everyday dispute resolution.  (1) When you take corrective action toward someone you can do it based on: (A) You do not want them to do an act toward me again.  (B) You do not want them to do an act toward someone else.  (C) Want to enlighten them or inform them, and thus do them a favor.  (2) The procedure is to: (A) State your objection.  (B) State your reason for the objection.  (C) State the course of action you will pursue if they fail to change their action.	10/4/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Evolutionary ethics.  Any attempt at ethics must take into account human evolution, and the development of human behavior in animal social behaviors such as reciprocity and altruism.	8/29/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Evolutionary ethics.  One of the best way to think about ethics is from an evolutionary perspective.  How did ethics evolve?  What evidence of the precursors of ethical thinking is there in non-human animals?  Animals have feelings of empathy.  Animals cooperate with each other.	3/22/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Expansion of the notion of good.  (1) Good meaning good for an individual person.  (2) Good meaning good for all humans.  (3) Good meaning good for the ecosystem.	1/16/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Expectations.  On what are expectations based?  How do they help us judge good from bad?  If you have no expectations for self, you don't get far.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Fashion analysis as a springboard to ethics.  We don't have to dress and live in poor, ugly, dirty surroundings.  Nor do we have to be slaves to mindless, idealess fashion changes.  Nor do we have to put up with strict, utilitarian, minimalist shit.  Nor do we have to have ostentatious, monetary excess of quantity or quality (top designers).     What is beautiful?  Is it modest, economical functionalism, or is it individualism (punk), or is it classicism (black tie), or is it intelligence?	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness (and forgetting) is an pathological psychology phenomenon.  How soon and how much do you forgive a person for doing how much and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness strikes me as a patriarchal attitude.  To pardon someone is to pretend to act like a king or a president.  We should not raise ourselves to such lofty heights in our relationships with each other.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness vs. retribution.  How do you ethically evaluate someone who has been unethical but says they have changed?  What is the change that actually has to take place in their head for them to be considered good?  Do they have to commit an act of equal type and magnitude that is good rather than bad?  Do they have to be punished first?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  (1) The psychology of forgiveness vs. the sociology of forgiveness.  (2) Asking forgiveness vs. giving forgiveness.  (3) Apologizing (saying you are sorry) vs. accepting an apology.  Today there is a prevalent attitude that says "Never apologize", which may be a healthy or unhealthy attitude.  (4) There is a phenomena of public apologies in which an apology is no good unless it is done publicly.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Do we forgive other people (1) Only if they say they are sorry and apologize?  (2) Only if they act like they mean it?  If they express remorse?  (3) Or do we forgive others even if they do neither of the above?	6/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Expressing your forgiveness to the other person.  The other person perceiving your forgiveness.  Ways how both are done.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Never forgive and never forget.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Nothing can be undone.  What makes up for what?  Can anything makeup for anything?  Do we forgive only when someone asks for forgiveness?  What do people mean when they talk about forgiving?  What goes on in the mind of the forgive-er and forgive-ee ?	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  People always want a second chance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Redemption.  It is impossible to "make up" for something fully.  Anything done is done, and it can't be undone.  Something is always lost, even if it is just time.  However some acts are more able to be "set aright" than others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Talking yourself into forgiving vs. actually feeling forgiveness for the person naturally.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  There is a common notion today that says, "Never apologize and never say you are sorry."  Maybe there should be a similar notion that says, "Never forgive and never forget."  This is because there is a common psychopathology of excessive apology and there is also a similar common psychopathology of excessive forgiveness.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  Various religious and philosophical views about forgiveness.  List them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Forgiveness.  What is forgiveness?  Does forgiveness mean any of the following?  (1) What you did was not wrong?  It was.  (2) You are not responsible?  You are.  (3) It does not bother me that you did it?  It does.  (4) I do not think you will do it again?  I do.  (5) We are still friends?  We are not.  (6) There will be no punishment?  There will.  (7) It does not matter?  It does.  (8) I will forget about it?  I won't.	6/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Fortifying yourself.  Security, love, and purpose.  Without a decent job, a decent lover, and without a decent purpose to pursue, life will be too tough (with no money, no love, and no purpose), and you will not feel life is worth the struggle.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Four cases.  (1) Boring and important.  (2) Boring and unimportant.  (3) Exciting and important.  (4) Exciting and unimportant.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Four levels.  (1) Loafers.  (2) Cultural entertainment (art, movies, etc.).  (3) Job and school oriented intellectuals (get the degree and get the money).  (4) Pure intellectualism (not for money and not for fame).  1 is the worst, 4 is the best.  I am 4.	09/27/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Get your head together.  Think of best attitudes toward subjects, objects, and situations, etc.  How to run head?  What to believe?  Ethics of thought.  Ethics of action.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Given your situation, what's the best/good/bad/worst things to do, and how, and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal: Intellectual development.  When the incomprehensible becomes obvious.  When the mindblowing becomes the routine.  When the new idea becomes the paltry cliche'.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  (1) Have every area of your life running calmly and smoothly.  (2) Avoid situations that tempt you.  Take care to avoid all avoidable trouble.  (3) Deal well with unavoidable troubles as they occur.	12/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Avoiding (1) Unhealthy distractions (internal and external).  Wanting to think or do something else.  (2) Laziness.  Wanting to do nothing.  (3) Momentary ethical ignorance.  Not knowing to do something.  (4) Avoiding all three in order to think hard (100%), all of the time, is an ethical duty that I owe myself and the world.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Best joy is to feel good about self and the life you are living.  Crisp fall days, and warm spring days.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Can we get everyone fed, dry, warm, healthy, optimally sane, educated, with free time, that is, happy?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Don't let life beat you down, bring you down, or destroy you.  Trivial, mediocre, practical vs. excellent, ideal, important, theoretical.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Ethical imperatives.  Help yourself.  Learn, think, and figure it all out for yourself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Ethical obligations.  (1) Get and stay healthy (physically and psychologically and financially).  Don't put that health at risk needlessly.  (2) Be productive.  Do something.  Also, say something, think something, feel something, and experience something.  Do not waste time.  Do not waste life.  Do work.	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  How good does it get?  Reading and creating great ideas, in a positive frame of mind, in a great environment, with women and money aplenty.  Great environment = warm, sunny, low humidity, green, safe, quiet, uncrowded.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  How to live, what to do, depends on the situation your in.  How unique is your situation vs. how much is your situation like life on earth always is, depends on how abstract/concrete you want to be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Is it right to help people?  Yes.  How?  Get them to think about their lives, and think clearly.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  Living a long and fully productive life is an ethical imperative.  Combat diseases by watching diet, exercise, sleep, stress.  Combat injury by watching your step (in traffic, on ice, on rough ground) and driving safely.  Watch the wear and tear.  Watch back, knees, hip, ankles.  Don't exercise too much, overuse, or overtrain.  Don't abuse self.  Have a purpose.  Develop all your abilities to fullest potential.  Be joyful.  Have a support network.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  The big challenge in life.  (1) Not to get caught up in normal life and b.s., and yet, (2) Not to go off the deep end, or out of control, while on your own.	11/27/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  The big goal is to save the world.  Heaven on earth.  Utopia, Nirvana.  We become divine, god-like.  End injustice, crime, poverty, disease, waste, and pollution.	11/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  The big noble goal of humankind and each individual is ceaseless effort to discover and apply the knowledge that will make this world better.  The big mistake is to forget this, to ignore, avoid, or turn away from it, or to be distracted by something else like daily survival or trivial unproductive pleasures.  It is also a big mistake to say "I can not do it", or "It does not matter if I or anyone else does or does not do it".	06/01/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Goal.  The way is not more and better stuff, or more money to get stuff.  The way is more and better ideas, and more thinking to get ideas.  The way is not anti-stuff, or physical poverty.  The way is not anti-thinking, or mental poverty.  Develop a philosophy and an attitude.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Goals.  (1) Me.  Long, healthy, and productive life, with no bad things.  (2) The world.  Save the environment.  End disease, hunger, poverty, and human rights abuses.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Goals.  An important part of ethics is the formation of ultimate goals.  What are your ultimate goals for yourself and for the world?  To do some action or achieve some final state.	6/9/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Goals.  My future studies in philosophy.  Dilemma: (1) do you pick an area ripe for development, with easy pickings.  (2) Or do you pick an area that is trendy, even if it does not interest you.  (3) Or do you pick an area that interests you, even though the area seems mined out, hoping that your interest will yield a breakthrough?	10/25/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Golden mean: no excess or lack.  The right mix or balance.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Good life.  Find someone you love, and someone who loves you.  Find work you love (on the job, and in leisure time), that is useful, and that pays.  Get a nice home, neighborhood, country, and world.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Growth and decay.  (1) Growth point: any more above it causes growth.  (2) Stagnation point: neither growth nor decay.  (3) Decay points: any more below it causes decay.  (4) Breaking points: any more beyond it causes destruction.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Growth and decay.  If we don't do anything: things fall apart.  If we do wrong thing: things fall apart.  If we do right thing: things fall apart slower.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Guilt and innocence.  Everyone is guilty by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Guilt and innocence.  Fault, guilt, or blame is compounded by the degree of control you had over the act.  Whether you could have prevented it.  How intentional the act was.  How bad the act was.  And how often you did the act.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Guilt vs. innocence (amounts, degrees).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Harrassment.  Are there other types of harassment any less worse than sexual harassment?  Should not all forms of harassment be outlawed?	2/29/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Hate groups.  Reasons why preaching hate is unjust:  (1) Verbal assault argument.  (2) Inciting to riot argument.  (3) Disturbing the peace argument.	4/4/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Holy.  This holy day.  This holy life.  This holy man (me).  This holy room (my room).  This holy goal (my goal).  This holy effort, try, work.  What do I mean when I say holy?  Special?  Rare?  Unique?  Valuable?  Mystical?  Not to be wasted?  Tremendous potential or opportunity?  Gift?  Noble?  Grace?	06/01/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.  Thinking about best/worst/average, be it historical or possible/probable/imaginable is a form of optimism/pessimism thinking.  Thinking how easy it would be to happen (the chances of happening).  It helps you appreciate (i.e., value) better what you have, and what is really important in life.  This is a difficult and important thing to do.	02/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	How to live.  (1) Figure out the best answers, arguments, and counter-arguments.  (2) Make the dopes see the light.  Sell the answer.  Public relations, advertise, negotiate, diplomacy.  (3) Make the actual changes together with the people you have persuaded.	07/03/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Hypothetical ethical case.  Let's say there was a type of being that had some of the abilities of humans, but did not have other human abilities.  (Example 1: To think, but not feel: ala Spock the Vulcan.  Example 2: To feel, but not think: ala animals.  Example 3: To think and feel, but at a lesser level: ala children.)  What kind of rights would we give them?  We should not value children simply because they will one day be adults.  If all children died at puberty, and all adults were born as adults, then we would, or should, still value children.	3/13/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	I've tried a lot of things.  Because you liked them?  No.  Because you were interested or curious in finding out about them?  No.  Then why?  Because it is my ethical obligation to investigate all phenomena, both good and bad, regardless of whether I condone it or not, or even find it interesting or not.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	If we thought everything out before hand, or if we decided never to hurt anyone, including self, nothing would ever get done.  So we take our chances.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	If you are doing nothing, then you are essentially dead already.  Mindless couch potatoes are the living dead.	6/20/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	If you do an act and (1)(A) If no one knows but you: then you look at yourself differently and act differently from then on.  (B) But if you forget it: then there is little effect.  (2)(A) If everyone knows: then they look at you differently and treat you differently.  (B) If everyone forgets it: then there is little effect.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	If you throw a young child's doll off a cliff.  And if the child thinks that the doll is real, and considers the doll a dear friend.  Is it as traumatic and real to the child as a real murder?  And therefore did you not in fact commit a real murder?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Inertia.  Can we really predict the outcome of doing nothing vs. doing something?  If we can't predict the exact outcome, does that mean we should do nothing?	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Information and ethics.  Ostrich with head in sand.  Just as ignorance of the law is not an excuse, likewise ignorance of the world is not an excuse.  We all have a responsibility to Figure out and Find out.	6/30/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Information and ethics.  See also: Economics, of information.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Information and ethics.  Which is worse, the illegal crime of stealing a loaf of bread, or the legal but unethical act of not telling someone something that will change their life for the better?  The second by far is worse.  This is the ethics of information.	12/20/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Information and ethics.  Withholding information (secrecy), both by governments and individuals, is a crime, or at least unethical.  Therefore not withholding information is a good, and something we should do.  Therefore communication of information (all you have learned in life) is a must.  And communicating well is a must (short and clear, not long winded and obtuse).  The Notes is a must.  Therefore thinking is a must.  Therefore publishing is a must.  (2) Misinformation (lying) is also unethical.  (3) The open society (ala Karl Popper), and the open individual too (me).	4/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Intrapersonal ethics.  Many people are familiar with the ethical principle known as the golden rule.  The golden rule is found repeatedly in many world cultures.   The golden rule is an ethical principle that applies to interpersonal situations.  Interpersonal situations are situations that occur between people.  However, not all situations are interpersonal situations.  We need ethical principles for situations other than interpersonal situations.  For example, since much of people's time is time spent alone, we need ethical principles for time spent alone in non-interpersonal situations.  We need an intrapersonal ethics.	8/14/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Intrapersonal ethics.  Some basic intrapersonal ethical principles.  (1) Develop all of one's abilities.  Make use of all of one's abilities.  (2) Think of some worthy goals.  Pursue some worthy goals.  (3) Make an effort.  Take a stand.  (4) Don't give in to hopeless negativity.  Don't obey blindly.  Think.	8/14/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Is happiness the only goal?  No.  Is happiness the highest goal?  No.  Happiness being an emotional state.  We put up with a lot of unhappiness to accomplish other, more important goals.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Is there an objective wrong, even one, in all cases, in all places and times?  What is it?  Abusing kids?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	It is easy to act when others are with you.  Going against the flow or opposition is another matter.  Picking your battles and struggling and fighting is an important ethical issue.  Fighting, (1) Overtly or covertly, (2) Fair or dirty, (3) Using words, money, actions, etc.  How hard to push, and when to let up.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	It is easy to do nothing (the inertia issue).  How unethical is it?  To self, and to world?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	It only takes a split second of inattention or riskiness, or lack of knowledge (stupidity, ignorance) to destroy (1) Years of effort in the past, and (2) Years of opportunity and promise in the future.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Judging defined as making value judgments.  Value judgments can be made in the area of ethics, aesthetics and epistemology.  (1) Judging defined as making ethics value judgments.  (2) Judging defined as making aesthetic value judgments.  (3) Judging defined as making epistemological value judgments.	6/9/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Judging.  (1) When do we draw the line and say "If you do not meet x standard, then I will do y to you, or I will not do z for you"?  (2) If you hold x view, or engage in x action, how important is it to me that you do so, as far as how I view you, for good or bad, even if what you do does not directly affect me?  (3) How do we avoid the dual mistakes of judging too harshly (and not helping the ones who really need it) or judging too lightly (and having or standards too low)?  (4) Why put up with assholes, nuts, and morons?  How can one help them, at a safe distance, without getting hurt, and depart from them unscathed?  (5) How would I now judge the Paul who I was at age 17 or 21?  (6) If you meet someone, and know nothing about them, how friendly can you really be with them, and how much can you really interact, and for how long, with someone who you know nothing about?	03/01/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Judging.  Holding people responsible.  Holding people accountable.  One view holds that we should "judge not, lest ye be judged".  An opposite view holds not only that we judge naturally, but also our entire legal system is based on judging.  (1)(A) The "judge not" view.  This is a popular "pop psych" view.  First they say you cannot know what someone is going through that drove them to commit a crime.  Then they say the victim should "get over it", and get over their anger.  This is also a popular religious view.  They believe you should forgive and forget.  (B) I think all of the above views are baloney.  Only a few criminals have extenuating circumstances that drive them to commit their crimes, and most are just plain evil.  Also, if it is a heinous crime, the passage of time does not make it any less heinous, and the victims relatives and the public have will have a natural impulse, a right, and an obligation to stay incensed at it.  We should not forgive or forget injustice.  (2) The "judge" view.  We have the ability to judge.  We have the obligation to judge.  And it is completely impossible not to judge.  Judging is a natural part of how we live.  We should stay angry at injustice (like Hitler's injustice).  The passage of time does not make what Hitler did any less heinous, and our reaction to what he did should not lessen over time.  We should not "get over" what Hitler did, nor forgive him or forget him.  (3) Our anger should not be so great as to incapacitate us.  Our anger should be enough to spur us on in thought and action.	03/31/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Judging.  How do you judge a person (others and self)?  (1) How well they think.  How much they use their brain.  How much they think, and talk, and act.  (2) How much they feel.  (3) How much they transcend themselves, and widen their view (see 4-7).  (4) Memory.  Past and future thinking (time).  Thinking of other places too (space) (thinking of rest of world).  (5) Imagination, vision.  (6) How much they think about others.  (7) How much they think about problems and solutions vs. having fun.  (8) Effort vs. accomplishment issues (see 9-12).  (9) What they have accomplished.  (10) How hard they have tried.  (11) How much potential they have in themselves.  What they could be.  (12) What percentage of their potential they have made use of.  (13)  How healthy, balanced, and wise are they.	03/01/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Judging.  Some people say, "Who are we to judge?  We cannot judge them."  Bullshit.  Human beings judge.  People make judgments.  If we define "judging" as thinking about ethics, then it is actually good to judge.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Law and ethics.  Law is a system of ethics.  Can one base their personal ethical system so as to mirror the social legal system?  Are we not all required to do this to some extent when we obey the law?	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Levels of excellence.  (1) To be the best ever.  (2) To be the best alive.  (3) To get one's name and works in the record books, or publish a book or paper.  (4) To make a contribution, even if not acknowledged.  (5) To be able to understand what the best in the world said.	05/01/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Lifestyle choice is the big ethical combo choice people make based on realization of own abilities, likes and dislikes, goals, and values.  Either that, or they are swept along for the ride, unconscious of their situation, unthinking and ignorant.     Your freedom equals your choices available in your situation or environment.     You have to pick a meaning in life, or else one will be assigned to you.	03/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Lifestyles.  Various things that some people live for:  Some people live for pleasure.  Some people live for leisure.  Some people live for happy hour.  Some people live for the weekend.  Some people live for vacation.  Some people waste their lives in the pursuit of mere pleasure, instead of solving the problems and injustices of the world.	4/18/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Lottery Test is a good way to figure out what you value, and also what you should value.  The Lottery test: If you won the lottery, and did not have to work for the rest of your life, what would you do with your time?  How would you live?  Your answer to this question reflects what you consider to be the "good life".  It also causes you to think about the purpose of life.  Too many people let earning a living become the center of their universe, let it narrow their view, and let it justify their actions.  The lottery test tries to go beyond occupation oriented ethics.	6/26/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Lying to yourself is essentially repression.  This is in part why lying is wrong.  Because you start to be dishonest with yourself, and this is repression, which causes mental problems.	1/6/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Make a list of all the good and bad things in life, and in my life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Making the most of yourself.  (1) All personal abilities.  All areas of knowledge.  Generalization rather than specialization.  (2) Not to be lazy.  Not to waste self, waste life, waste abilities.  (3) To balance one's efforts.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Manners, etiquette, and politeness as bullshit diplomacy vs. manners, etiquette, and politeness as ethics, and as true caring.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Many ethical statements take the form "If I can't (fu*k you), then I am going to (kill you).  And "If I have to (fu*k you), then I am going to (kill myself).	08/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Materialistic overconsumption sucks.  As opposed to voluntary simplicity, which is good.	10/17/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  Current Paul ethical system.  (1) What I should do to self, others, and nature, for all subject areas (work, leisure, sex, house, etc).  (2) How others and nature should treat me, all subject areas.  (3) Most important do's and don'ts, by subject areas.  (4) Actions and reasons behind them (goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons).  Also, past Paul ethical systems.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  Ethical analysis of my situation.  Possible alternative for action.  Chosen alternatives, reasons why chosen.  General ethical principles, and situation specific principles.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  Given constraints of no job, no girl, no stuff, what to do?  I am an ascetic and a rebel.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  My ethics: don't goof off, or waste time.  Exercise, sleep, diet.  Think long, and hard, and systematically on all subjects.  Stay focused, stay positive, stay motivated.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  Past: my history from an ethical perspective.  Present: what do I live for now, and what do I enjoy now?  Future: what are my goals?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Me.  The search for kicks: sex, drugs, climbing.  Kicks keep getting harder to find.  Vs.  The search for meaning, purpose.  It is becoming clearer to me what I want to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Metaphysics and ethics.  (1) Things that are hard but fun.  (2) Hard and no fun.  (3) Easy and fun.  (4) Easy and no fun.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Metaphysics and ethics.  (1) Three variable pairs.  Hard vs. easy.  Fun vs. no fun.  Good vs. bad.  (2) Twelve dyad combinations.  Hard and fun.  Easy and fun.  Hard and no fun.  Easy and no fun.  Fun and good.  Fun and bad.  No fun and good.  No fun and bad.  Hard and good.  Easy and good.  Hard and bad.  Easy and bad.  (3) Eight triplet combinations.  Hard and fun and good.  Hard and fun and bad.  Easy and fun and good.  Easy and fun and bad.  Hard and no fun and good.  Hard and no fun and bad.  Easy and no fun and good.  Easy and no fun and bad.	9/13/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Micro-penalties.  Wrongs that are not specifically illegal, such as insults, degradation, invalidation and intimidation.  These acts cause psychological harm.  It causes people's spirits to be beaten down.  It causes loss of self esteem.  It causes loss of hope.  It contributes to the oppression, exploitation and discrimination of minorities of sex, race, age, etc.	4/22/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Modern american mass ethic, which consists of doing job, obeying laws, and having fun doing nothing on the weekends, is not good enough.  Any one could do 90% of the jobs out there.  And people are going jobless and hungry because they do not have a chance to do your job.  No, we must also help people, think things out, and speak the truth to others (preach).  We can not just escape and withdraw.	02/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Modern american society's weekend ethic is "Eat, sleep, fu*k".	11/02/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Money and religion and ethics.  It is good to work hard, and to get rich.  A god would want good people to make money, in order to gain political power, so one can make better laws and better society.  Also to help the poor more directly.  Some religions see poverty as a virtue, and prayer rather than work a virtue.  This is wrong.  You can do more good if you have some resources to effect change on a wide level.  Other religions say hard work and economic success are good.  This is true, but one should not pursue money only, or at the expense of wisdom.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Most important idea.  The biggest ethical issue today is the environment.  This is because the environment will affect countless future generations.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Most people, most of the time, behave ethically.  Why is that?  Because they want a reward?  No.  Because they fear punishment?  No.  Because they have developed ethical reasoning?  Yes.	2/28/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural ethical injustice of natural situations, and environments, natural objects, and natural events.  It sucks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural ethics of luck and fate.  (1) Who gets more good or bad done to them unjustly by nature, and who gets more pleasure or pain from it vs. (2) who does more and better things, with how much effort.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural ethics: natural rights, and natural duties.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural injustice.  Life is inherently unjust and unfair.  Examples: presence of evil, uneven distribution of good.  It is up to us to make life just and fair.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural injustice.  The injustice of the natural world.  We were born.  We grow old and die.  We suffer a lot in between.  In an imperfect world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural injustices: bad luck, misfortune, and accidents.  Examples.  (1) One person born smarter than another.  (2) One person born better looking than another.  (3) One person born to psycho parents.  (4) One person born in a shit environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Natural justice: when what should happen happens.  Natural injustice: when better or worse than above happens.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Neutrality.  There is no such thing as neutrality.  Even not taking a position is taking a position.  Even not acting is acting.	06/05/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Objective and subjective ethics.  (1) Metaphysics.  Objective: what truly is real.  Subjective: what a person thinks is real.  (2) Ethics.  Objective: universal.  Subjective: relative to individual or situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Objective and subjective ethics.  (1) Objective ethics: to what degree are we all alike?  Universal situations, goals, and values.  (2) Subjective ethics: to what degree are we different?  Varying situations, goals, and values.  (3) It is a mix of both.  We all have similarities and differences.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Objective and subjective ethics.  (1) Objective ethics: what actually is good.  Subjective ethics: what you think is good.  (2) Objectivism: there is a universal good.  Subjectivism: good depends on person involved.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Of all the days of your life, how many were good days and how many were bad days?  And so on for everyone who is alive, and for everyone who has ever lived, and for everyone who will ever live.  So we see that life on earth is mostly benign.	10/31/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	One can analyze a person's ethic system in part by examining the person's goals.  (See: Psychology, drive, goals).	9/2/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	One view is that ethics exists only to the extent that the sentient beings in a situation are able to think and act.  Thus, there is no ethics to be done by people in vegetative states, or by helpless newborns, or by simple animals.  So, in a world where no sentient beings exist, ethics does not exist.  At the other extreme, if humans in the future develop far greater powers of thought and action, and develop far greater ethical awareness, that would be a new ethical situation.  For example, if everyday humans could move planets telekinetically, and had the ethical reasoning of a hundred supreme court justices, that would be a new ethical situation.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	One view.  Those obsessed with ethical problems may have an undeveloped, unsophisticated ego.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Only good acts, with none bad, will save you.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Opportunity.  An ethics of opportunity.  You see this in court a lot.  A person is held responsible because they had the opportunity to act, but decided not to.	03/20/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Opportunity.  Any opportunity is an ethical situation.  Opportunity to do good, or to do bad.  To fu*k up an opportunity vs. to use it and make the most of it.  Choice.	06/06/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Opportunity.  Ethics of opportunity and waste.  (1) Do not waste opportunities.  (2) Create more opportunities.  More opportunities means more freedom.	04/15/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Opportunity.  The important thing in ethics is not what you did or did not do, but what you could have done (potential and opportunity).	06/06/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	PART ONE.  Applied ethics, principles of.  (1) Eye for an eye.  (2) Golden rule.  PART TWO.  Applied ethics topics.  Death penalty.  Abortion.  Infanticide.  Euthanasia.  Medical ethics.  Bio ethics.  Sterilization.  Eugenics.  Geriatricide.  Genomics.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	PART ONE.  On one's destructive potential to other humans (in person, and in writing).  The hurt you put on someone will be measured by the person who receives it.  Not by how bad you think it is.  Not by how bad societal norms think it is.  Rather, by how bad the recipient thinks it is.  The recipient could think it less or worse than you or society thinks it is.     PART TWO.  In the realm of everyday social relations (the realm of micro-penalties), you want to reach justice.  You want to reward the good, and you want to punish the bad.  All within the bounds of the law of society.  But it is very difficult to tell how the recipient of your reactions will perceive your actions.  Some people will cry even when it does not pain them, so as to avoid further punishment.  Other people will say "It doesn't hurt" even when it does hurt them, because they don't want you to know you are hurting them.  Some people will think a smile is a big reward.  Other people will think the shirt of your back is not enough for them.     PART THREE.  On top of that, it is sometimes a matter of type and not just degree.  You may think one type of reward or punishment is called for and the recipient may feel that another type of reward or punishment is called for.  Furthermore, you need to be just (fair) to yourself when rewarding and punishing others, because you are one of the parties involved in an incident and your rights need to be represented.  So it really does matter, after all, how you perceive the reward or punishment.  You don't want to do injustice to the other person, but you don't want to do injustice to yourself either.  If you do injustice to yourself then you have failed to stand up for yourself, which can have very negative mental effects in the long run.  (evidence the movie "Me, Myself and Irene").     PART FOUR.  It is easy to be excessively harsh with children.  It is easy to be excessively harsh with neurotics (i.e., adults still in a childlike mental state).  It is easy to be excessively harsh with the mentally fragile (You can hurt them badly without realizing it).	7/5/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Paternalism.  (1) Paternalists are those who argue, "You are incapable so I will do it for you."  Or those who argue, "I am more capable so I will do it for you."  (2) Objections to paternalism: people will often try to convince you that you are incapable in order to coopt your power.  A lot of people will try to convince you that they are more capable in order to coopt your power.  This is a common power tactic, play or gambit.  A bully ploy.  Usurpers of your personal empowerment and then abusers of your personal empowerment.	1/4/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Peace.  Three views of peace.  (1) Peace as compliance, and giving in.  (2) Peace as ignoring, repressing, or turning your back on justice.  (3) Peace as peaceful opposition vs. violent opposition.  The non-violent resistance espoused by Ghandi and Martin Luther King.  (4) The first two are bad.  The third is good.	03/20/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	People mourn the death of innocent civilians, but were not our soldiers innocent civilians too, until they were drafted and ordered to fight?  Were not the enemy soldiers innocent civilians until they were ordered to attack?  Very few are not innocent.  Yet how we hate the enemy.	9/19/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	People sometimes say things like, "I did what I was supposed to do.", or, "I did not know I was supposed to do that."  "Supposed to do" is an interesting phrase.  (1) People often use the phrase "supposed to do" as a way to limit their ethical responsibility, as much as they use the phrase "supposed to do" as a way to acknowledge their ethical responsibility.  (2) "Suppossed to" according to a societies written law?  "Suppossed to" according to some suppossed religious text?  "Suppossed to" based on universal principles.  (3)  Supposed to as blind rule following rather than thinking for oneself.	9/11/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	People who decide that either they have done all that they want to do; or that they have done all that society expects them to do; or that they have done all that they should do; or that they have done all that they could do; how wrong they are.  They will realize that it is not enough.  They could have done more.  Egoism is essentially lazy as much as it is greedy.	8/30/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  .See also: Philosophy, people.	11/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  (1) Problem solvers.  (2) Do nothings.  (3) Problem causers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  (1) The question of whether their is such a thing as an intrinsic "human nature" or not.  That is, if we are not blank slates, and if our development is not 100% nurture.  (2) If so, the question is whether human nature is basically good, bad, or neither (free to choose good or evil).  Human nature is basically good because it has bio-evolved to ensure the survival and continuation of the species.  If human nature was basically bad then more people would be murdered than are born, and the human race would die out.  Also, there would be no progress.  But we see that there is progress: greater human rights, better living conditions.  And there are less murders than births.  The human race is growing and improving.  Therefore human nature is good.  If we were bio-engineered to be evil then we wouldn't survive.  We would destroy ourselves.  We may yet screw up the earth.  One psycho with a bomb could end it all.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Are people good or evil?  Most people are survivalists and crowd followers.  Many will act good just to survive better.  Many are amoral.  Many cultures are amoral on many topics.  Many people are crazy by degree.  Many have never thought about these things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Does being macho require being evil?  Do you have to be a mean, power mad, fighter all the time to be a man?  Can you be a man without fighting?  When to fight, when to cooperate?  see sociology.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Ethics and people types.  Some people are part of the problem.  Some people are part of the solution.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Everyone is trying to manipulate and control everyone.  Everyone is doing everyone wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Individuals who (1) Helped: advanced the system, kept the system going.  (2) Did nothing.  (3) Hurt people and destroy things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  More harm is done by those who think they are right when they do an act than by those who are unsure when they do an act or by those who know they are wrong when they do an act.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Perpetrator vs. recipient of a good or bad action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Some enjoy jerking others around any way they can, for sport.  Protect yourself (prevent), defend yourself (cure).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Some people are in total opposition to you.  For them you have to play it close to the chest.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  The opposition.  The gadfly.  The underdog.  The rebellion, the resistance.  Until everything is perfect, it is the only position to take.  "What ever it is, I'm against it.", to quote Groucho Marx.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  The poor, stupid, crazy, and ugly.  They need abuse least and get it most.  They need love, nurturing, and care most and get it least.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Types.  (1) Ruthless response to little provocation vs. kindness as a response.  (2) Backstabbing b.s. artists vs. up front and honest people.  (3) Brownnosing vs. not.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Types.  (1) Sharks, hawks, doves.  (2) Recipients, perpetrators, and bystanders. (3) Hero, villain, and stooge.  (4) Fallen heroes, and redeemed criminals.  (5) Do gooders, pragmatic survivalists, and evil doers.  (3) Assholes: stupid, crazy, and unethical.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  Why do people keep pushing (effort), even when they don't have to (beyond survival and security)?  Why do millionaires still work?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	People.  You don't have to be unethical to be a man.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Perfect day in this world (considering my situation), and thus perfect contentment or happiness, is perfect 100% effort.  Thus you can be happy in life, regardless of what life hands you, as long as you try your best, and have low expectations, and have no sense of justice.	10/05/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Personal ethics can exceed societal ethics.  I am not counter-cultural, I am supercultural.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Philanthropy makes you feel useful.  Feeling useless leads to suicide.  Feeling useful vs. not useful is a different feeling from feeling evil vs. good; or happy vs. sad/angry; or hopeful vs. hopeless.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Philanthropy raises the interesting question: do we help others primarily because it makes us feel better?	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Philanthropy.  You should do charity work to help yourself primarily, not others.  It makes you less guilty and anxious knowing you are helping others.  Thus it makes you feel better knowing you are doing all you can to care for yourself.  You feel better about yourself, and have better self esteem.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Preparation.  Ethics of preparation and practice.  Foresight and future thinking.  Prepare for opportunities and misfortunes.  Be prepared.  Ever vigilant, eternal vigilance.  Minuteman.  Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.  Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  (1) Where are the biggest problems and injustices in the world?  Overseas, not in the United States.  These problems are political and environmental.  (2) The biggest mistake you can make is to forget these problems.  It is easy to say things like, "It is not my problem.  It does not matter to me.  There is nothing I can do about it."	06/05/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  Local egoists vs. global altruists.	7/30/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  Most people are too concerned with their own lives, their own problems and desires, to even think about anything else, period.  Let alone think about anyone else they do not know.  Let alone think about the environment.  Let alone think about everything else in the world (their Notes).  This is a poor situation to be in.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  People lose sight of what is important (health, love, ethics, activism) and get seduced by greed, pleasure, empty-headedness, and laziness.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  The big problem today is waste of lives.  Girlfriend, family, school, work, society, advertisers, they all tell us not to think.  They tell us to consume, conform, and repress.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Problem.  The big problem.  How to get people to think, and write, and not waste their lives.  That is what Notes is all about.  They'll feel better and society will benefit.	11/10/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Promise or contract in a non-legal sense.  PART ONE.  (1) Saying you will do something.  Some people consider it a promise.  Some do not consider it a promise unless prefaced by the phrase "I promise" or "I swear".  (2) Writing that you will do something.  Some people consider it a promise.  Some do not consider it a promise unless prefaced by a written "I promise" or "I swear".  Some do not consider written statements a promise unless signed and dated.     PART TWO.  What types of promises are breakable under what conditions?     PART THREE.  A promise is like getting an extension of credit.  A promise is a type of trust.  PART FOUR.  Sometimes a promise is implied by a situation or relationship and need not be explicitly expressed in speech or writing.	4/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Promise.  Ethics of promising.  (1) Promise.  Verbal contract.  Keeping one's word.  Good as your handshake.  Vs.  (2) Betrayal of trust.  Liar.  (3) When should we break our promises?	06/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Questions of ethics.  (1) What does the word "fun" mean?  What things are fun?  (2) What does the word "interesting" mean?  What things are interesting?  (3 What does the word "important" mean?  What things are important?  (4) What does the word "like" mean.  What things do I like?	8/2/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Rebellion.  See: Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  (1) Psychologically healthier people are more ethical.  They are more calm, not anxious about their future.  They are more confident of their ability to survive.  Sub-optimal psychological states lead to anxiety, fear, desperation and crime.  (2) Voluntary simplicity adherents are more ethical, because they do not commit crimes to gain more stuff.  (3) Well socialized people are more ethical.  Poorly socialized people are more prone to crime.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Health and ethics: Ethics is all about improving health.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Language and ethics.  (1) Analysis of ethical terms.  (2) Primitive development of ethical terms.  More + good = better.  More + bad = worse.  (3) Types of ethical statements.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Math and ethics.  The probability of x happening as a result of y.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Metaphysics and ethics.  A metaphysical entity becomes an ethical entity when it (1) Affects another thing, and (2) When we can control it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Metaphysics and ethics.  There is no peace, life is always struggle, of different types, different degrees, and different rules of engagement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Philosophy and ethics.  Relationship of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.  (1) One view is that in this world, understanding reality does not tell us what to do.  (2) Another view is that epistemology yields metaphysics, which yields ethics.  After you have reasoned out your epistemology, and thus deduced your metaphysics, then it is time to confront your ethics.  Doing these three things is what life is all about.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Politics and ethics.  Ethics of all political issues.  What are the possible positions, and arguments for and against them.	09/15/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  See: Health, philosophy.  See: Law, philosophy of law.  See: Leisure, philosophy, ethics.  See: Politics, philosophy  and  Politics, justice equality liberty.  See: Science, ethics.  See: Sociology.  See: Technology, philosophy of.  See: Work, philosophy, ethics.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Related subjects.  Work and leisure.  Survival, work, money vs. pleasure, play, fun.  Budgets and schedules.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism and ethics.  Ethical relativism and culture.  Ethics is not relative to culture.  (1) Because the notion of culture is flawed.  There are no separate, distinct cultures.  Just as there are no separate, distinct races.  There are just people living on earth.  Neighboring cultures (and races) have always seeped into each other in the past.  And today, with communication and transportation technology improving, cultural boundaries are eroding even further.  We will eventually attain one race and one culture.  (2) Also, culture can be reduced down to tribe, family, dyad, and individual culture.  So there is really just psychology.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism and ethics.  Main positions.  (1) There is no right and wrong.  (2) There is relative right and wrong.  (3) There is absolute right and wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism and ethics.  People make the mistake of saying all ethics is relative.  (1) The same act in one situation can be good, and in another situation can be bad.  For example, killing in war vs. murder.  (2) The same act can be good for one individual or society and bad for another individual or society.  Because each individual and society has different goals to accomplish.  For example, a brain surgeon cutting lawns vs. a thirteen year old cutting lawns.  (3) But that does not mean one individual or society can not say what is good or bad about another individual or society, which is what relativists wrongly believe.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism and ethics.  We could bring Aristotle to our age and he could understand it.  We could go to ancient Greece and understand it.  Ethics is not relative to culture.  There have been cases where primitives are brought to the city and adapt to it.	5/30/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism and subjectivism in ethics.  (1) Relatavism.  All ethics depend on the specific situation or case.  There are no general rules.  (2) Subjectivism.  There is no objective truth.  Truth is in the mind of the beholder.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Relativism.  Pure relativism would only apply if every person was completely different from the next and if every situation was completely different form the next, and if it was not possible to understand anything about anyone or anything other than oneself and one's situation.  Such is not the case.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Rights approach to ethics.  Two types of rights.  (1) "Its my right as a human", has to do with human rights.  (2) "Its my right as a US citizen.", has to do with national rights, which is a type of promise or contract.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Rights.  Human rights.  The major ethical issue is human rights.  The major human rights issues are torture, imprisonment without due process (trial by jury, etc.), terrorism, clitorectomy, slavery, etc.  These things still go on and always will if we are not vigilant.  The system does not run it self.  Find the biggest worldwide human rights organizations.  Get involved.	10/30/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Rights.  If something is a right then when a person is deprived of the thing then the person has a legal case.  Usually rights are abilities, like the right to vote.  If you make a right out of a material thing, like food, and if food is scarce, what legal recourse does the person have?  What if the right is a service, like education?  When you make a right out of anything that is scarce or costs money then that is an issue.	4/3/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Risk.  See: Philosophy, chance.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Rule as "do this or else you'll pay".  Rule as "do this before that", priorities.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  (1) Rules are "if...then..." statements.  Do humans perform most of their ethical decision making by using rules?  (2) To what degree do we follow our own personal rule systems?  Example, "If I see it, I will kill it".  (3) Do the rules have reasons backing them up?  Example, "If I see it, I will kill it, because if I don't it will kill me first and I would prefer that it die before I do".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  Ethics and rules (see also law).  (1) Physical laws (metaphysics).  (2) Society's rules.  (3) Personal rules: hard and fast vs. flexible and breakable.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  Ethics as a system of rules.  Ethics as rules of engagement.  Laws are a subset of ethics.  Manners are a subset of ethics.	7/31/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  For any rule that a society makes, what is the reason behind the rule?  Some people describe ethics as a system of rules.  Instead of describing ethics as a system of rules, we should describe ethics as a system of reasons for rules.	6/15/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  Positive and negative rules.  Requirements (must do), and sanctions (can not do).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  Some people describe ethics as a system of rules.  (1) Sometimes a society will allow an exception to a rule.  Sometimes a society will allow several exceptions to a rule.  What happens when the number of exceptions to a rule equals or exceeds the number of times the rule is applied?  (2) Sometimes a rule is changed.  That is, sometimes a law is changed.  For example, the law permitting slavery was abolished.  In any system of ethics there has to be a procedure for change, for improvement, for progress.  Ethics is dynamic, not static.  However, if the rules are changing all the time with no rhyme or reason then that is chaos.	6/15/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  There should be reasons for the rules.  There should be reasons given as to why a rule was made.  There should be reasons given as to why a general rule applies to a specific situation.	12/28/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules.  Types of ethics rules.  (1) Universal rules.  Always do this.  Never do that.  (2) Conditional rules.  If x is the case, then do y action.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Rules. Types of rules.  (1) Natural laws: hold as far as we can tell.  Describe cause and effect relationships.  (2) Rules of logic: necessary truths.  (3) Moral rules.  What we think is justice, as far as we can tell.  Moral rules are not arbitrary in that any rule can not apply to a situation.  However, moral rules may be relative to a situation.  (4) Conventions.  (A) Cooperative conventions: people agree to do it the same way.  Standards.  (B) Social norms: are often purely arbitrary.  People may mistakenly think social norms are moral rules.  Social norms of repression and conformity.  (5) Aesthetic norms: pure taste, fad and fashion.	1/10/2002

Philosophy, ethics.	Science and ethics.  Ethics was once the last refuge of the philosopher.  No more.  Sciences like evolutionary psychology have shed more light on ethics in the last thirty years than philosophers have.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	Science and ethics.  Knowing the facts of what is can help you determine which ethical opinions and attitudes to hold.  Science does not automatically tell you what to do, but it helps you figure out what to do.	3/25/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Searching out new ideas and experiences vs. sticking to a tried and true routine.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Secrets.  Hidden thoughts, words, and actions.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Self-neglect and self-abuse occurs 90% more than neglect of others or abuse of others, in frequency and duration, but not in intensity.	09/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Short term pleasures versus long term pleasures.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Should one believe in a lie if it makes one happy?  Should one ignore the truth to avoid pain (sadness, anxiety, anger)?  No, that is called denial, a psychological defense mechanism that is not healthy in the long run.	2/3/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Silence hides the guilty.  Talking exposes the guilty.  Silence favors the guilty.	03/07/1989

Philosophy, ethics.	Silence.  Saying nothing is saying something.  Silence yields consent.  Silence can also say "This subject or issue is not important enough to talk about, and any idea or action on it is as good as another".  There are no neutral positions.  You can't avoid making ethical statements.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Situational ethics.  (1) Common situations.  (2) Common ethical problems in each situation.  For example, relationships, work, school.  (3) Logical structure of problems and solutions.  (4) Ethics principles derived from situations, problems and solutions.	12/4/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Situational ethics.  The biggest situation is life.  How much freedom and power do you have, and can you get?  Power from resources (psychological, physical, monetary, social, etc.).  The biggest/worst problems in the world are...  The biggest/worst problems for me are...  What to do about them, and why.	02/04/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Situational ethics.  What should I do?  Ethics changes with the situation you are in, and with who you are.  For example, in the 1600's the best thing you could do was discover gravity.  In the 1800's discover electricity.  In the 1900's discover relativity.  Each situation has its most important goals, and its most important things to do next (next steps).  Is there a universal principle?  Save the world?	11/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Social dimensions of ethics.  (1) Altruism vs. egoism.  Cooperation, competition and conflict.  Ethics of power.  Ethics of communication.  Ethics of sex.  Ethics of relationships.  Ethics of group activities.  (2) We, as individuals, don't exist in an ethical vacuum.  Other people exist.  Ethics has a social dimension.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Social equality.  (1) A true view.  Natural injustice exists.  It is wrong.  We can and should try to set it right.  (2) A false view.  Natural injustice does not exist.  It is all god's will.  (3) Another false view.  Natural injustice exists, but it is better to let the weak die in the interest of Darwinian survival of the fittest.  (4) Another false view.  Natural injustice exists, but that's life.  That's the breaks.  It is a crap shoot, you play your hand how it is dealt to you, and we should not change it.	3/10/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Some kids have this trouble: their parents are like Stalin, and no one can stop it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Some people declare a constant state of war against the world in order to try to justify the use of any means, including unethical actions.	10/2/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	Some people have a personal ethics system that says "If its not illegal then I can do it."  It that really ethics?  No.	9/12/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	Some people say, "If they are happy living that way then its okay."  Bullshit.  Some actions are wrong even if the recipients of the wrong action are not upset by the wrong action.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	Some things are worth living for.  Some things are worth dying for.  Some things are not worth living for.  Some things are not worth dying for.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Someone does something to someone.  In response you can do something pro, or do something contra in equal force, or do nothing, or do something worse (to self or them).	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Soul task.  Some people say to find a soulmate.  I say that one should also find a soul task.  Your soul task is some activity you love to do.  It should be healthy, productive, socially useful, worthwhile, and ethically good.  A purpose, a meaning, something worth living for.  It doesn't have to be your job.  One should also have a soul dream.  An ideal that keeps you going.  The soul task should eventually lead to the soul dream.  But it is the process, not the end that is important.	1/12/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Specific issues.  Cannibalism.  Should we consume human flesh?  Regularly vs. only in certain situations?  Only if you will starve, and other food is not available?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Specific issues.  Ethics of returning store bought items.  (A) When you have only used them a little (ex. wearing a shirt outside once).  (B) When you have used them completely (ex. reading a book or watching a video).	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Specific issues.  If you could choose whether to have a baby from the sperm and egg of you and your wife vs. a baby from the egg and sperm of Nobel prize winners, which would you choose?	12/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Stand.  Do I have a reputation to uphold?  Do I have an example to set?  That all depends if I feel I stand for (or against) anything, and what it is.  You stand for (or against) what you are (and are not), what you believe/think and behave.  It is unavoidable.  Having no opinion on a subject is having your head in the sand.	10/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Stand.  Ethical development.  Take a stand.  Taking a stand is important for ethical development.  (1) The alternative is a child state of mind; a state of mind that continues to exist in the neurotic adult or under-developed adult only through the use of ignoring, avoidance, and repression.  This mental state is typified by thoughts and statements such as "I don't know.  I don't care.  Nothing is important.  It does not matter.  Nothing matters.  Whatever.  Not my job.  I can not be bothered.  Others will do it."  How long can one exist in such a state?  Some spend their whole lives in such a state.  (2)(A) In order to take a stand one must LEARN all the facts of the case.  And the case is the world and reality.  One learns by finding out and figuring out.  One must learn all the ethical choices (alternatives) that the facts permit.  One must learn all the arguments pro and contra each ethical choice.  And one must prioritize, or rate in importance and urgency.  (B) Then one must SAY what one believes.  And one must WRITE what one believes.  And one must ACT (behavior) on what one believes.  Thus one takes an ethical stand, instead of repressing and avoiding which leads to mental illness.	03/08/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Stand.  Ethics is about taking a stand.  One of the worst things you can be is vacillating or apathetic.  Wavering back and forth between views, unable to make up your mind, is simply not good.  Wasting your time, not caring, or ignoring world problems is not good either.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Strength vs. weakness.  War vs. pacifism.  Shows of strength are sometimes necessary to protect self, or to do justice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis is useful not just in business but also in ethics.  Ethical analysis can be done by analyzing the opportunities and threats your situation or environment presents, and the strengths and weaknesses of yourself.	11/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Stuff.  Unneeded stuff yields slavery.  Lack of needed stuff is slavery.  No lack of needed stuff, and no unneeded stuff = freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Subject, issue/problem/question, views, arguments, evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Suboptimal ethical view: "Do as you are told.  Believe and obey instead of thinking."  Blind belief and blind obedience is not an optimal ethical view.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Supererogatory ethics  (1) Is there such a thing as supererogatory ethics?  Going beyond the call of duty.  It depends on what you consider to be your duty.  Going beyond the average person.  Going beyond "the best so far", i.e., record breaking.  Going beyond what the job requires of the worker.  Going beyond what the law requires of a citizen.  To do more than you had to do.  (2) Some say we should always be giving 100 percent.  And the utmost you can give is 100 percent.  Giving anything less is unethical.  Thus, supererogatory ethics do not exist.  (3) Is supererogatory ethics used in an altruistic sense or an egoistic sense?  Altruism: to do for others.  Egoism: to do for yourself.  (4) Should we exhaust ourselves to the point of physical or psychological self-destruction?  No.  (5) Supererogatory ethics has to do with effort expended.  But who sets the goals we work toward?	10/31/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Superogatory ethics.  Money.  Say you are born rich.  Why not live a hedonistic life of ease?  What, if anything, should you make an effort (and put up with pain) to do?	08/22/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Supervenience.  When does one ethical argument out-weigh or take precedence over another ethical argument?	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Talent vs. effort.  (1) Talent is luck.  Effort is to your credit.  (2) You get no credit for talent.  You only get credit for effort.  (3) Effort is measured in hours time, since intensity of effort is always maximal.	7/29/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Technology expands the realm of ethics.  Technology changes the environment, problems and solutions.	12/4/2005.

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation is an opportunity.  Types and degrees of temptation.  Forces that drive us to give in to a temptation opportunity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation present in a situation, and susceptibility of individual to it (fragility).  Temptation to hurt, or to be hurt.  One mans temptation is another mans non-temptation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  (1) Forces driving us to garbage and mediocrity: advertising, mass pressure.  (2) Forces driving us to excellence:?.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  (1) How much money would you take to keep your mouth shut?  (2) How much money would it take for you to (A) Look the other way, turn away, or (B) Stop exploring, stop searching.	06/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  (1) Obstacles: passive and active.  (2) Temptations or seductions: passive and active.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  (1) Price.  What opposition or seduction would it take to convince you to do wrong.  Bribe, intimidation and threat.  (2) What would it take to convince you to do right.	9/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  Forces, pressures, temptations and obstacles.  These are forces to act unethically, and represent a decrease in freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  Forces, temptation, seduction.  Some people have a tougher time being ethical than others.  Some people are more tempted or urged to unethicalness than others.  Ex. Being poor, mentally ill, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  Pressures to do good and right vs. pressures to do wrong and evil.  (1) Internal pressures.  Conflicting thoughts, emotions, and attitudes.  (2) External pressures (society, peers, loved ones).     PART TWO.  Somehow we group our choices into right and wrong.     Two types of pressures for good and evil.  (1) Temptations seduce you and draw you in.  You react out of desire.  (2) Forces bully you and threaten you.  You react out of fear.  (3) Either one can be used to produce good or evil.  Calm deliberation is both their opposites.	9/10/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  The forces on you when you decide to do an act.  (1) Internal forces: psychological and physical.  (2) External: natural and social.  (3) Are the forces mitigating?  Are the circumstances extenuating?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Temptation.  Whatever is not a means is an obstacle?  Is there such a thing as ethical neutrality?  Whoever is not for me is against me?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Terminology.  Appreciate: to recognize how, how much, why, and why not, something is important and valuable.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	The American life of leisure (hedonism) is pure avoidance.  Life is problem solving (in theory and in practice).  Pleasure is bullshit.  Grab only enough of the best pleasures to keep you self-motivated and productive.	10/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	The best thing parents can do is inculcate, through example, and reasoned discussion, and notes, an ethic of valuing ideas, love of thinking and questioning, and hard work.  Independent, exploring, researching, and learning, through reading, writing, and discussing.  "Independent" meaning "outside of school" or "self directed".	01/07/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	The big question: How to help the world?	5/21/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	The ethics of emergency situations.  Let's say someone asks you for a ride in your car.  You say no.  But in an emergency situation, if someone is dying and you are the only one who has a car, you feel more inclined to give them a ride.  I say that everyone is dying all the time.  It may be a slow dying as opposed to a fast dying, but it is dying nonetheless.  Also I say that my brain is like the car in the emergency situation.  My brain is a tool that is one of a kind.  My point is that life is an emergency situation, and each of us can save the day.	8/21/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	The ethics of epistemology.  (1) Ignorance is bad, especially if the ignorance is avoidable.  (2) Curiosity and inquiry are good.	7/31/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	The ethics of the storekeeper: "I just want to run my store.  I don't want to alienate my customers.  I don't want to express my views.  I don't want to make any enemies."  Some people think America is about business.  And they think business is about not alienating one's customer base.  And they think the way to not alienate customers is to not hold any opinions, or to hold only "middle of the road" opinions, or to always keep your opinions to yourself.  This view is bad and wrong.  This view sacrifices ethics and justice for money.	6/30/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	The ignorance of evil do-ers.  Ignorance is evil.  Willful ignorance is even worse.	11/10/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	The nature of ethics.  (1) No one is going to make you figure out your highest ethical standards.  No one is going to make you adhere to your highest ethical standards.  No one is going to recognize, acknowledge or reward you when you reach your highest ethical standards.  (2) Everyone has their highest ethical standards.  Can you do better?  Can you do more good?  Will you raise your own ethical standards?  (3) For any action and reason, you can find people who support it, people who are against it, and people who don't care one way or the other.	7/22/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	The only authentic existence is to start living and working on your own as soon as possible (while staying in school).	08/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	The perfectionist's view.  There is no pleasure, only decreasing pain.  No freedom, only slavery by degree.  No peace, only conflict by degree.  No success, only failure by degree.  No justice, only injustice by degree.  No love, only dislike by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	The search for higher values.  (1) Doing what we have the urge to do (drive).  (2) Doing what feels good (emotion).  (3) Doing what we think is good (thinking).  Thinking, about the world and its problems, is a key component to ethical development.  Thinking lets us develop ethical statements and positions.  (4) Thought, emotion and drive are all key components for ethics.  Integrated ethics: A good act should make sense rationally; it should feel right emotionally; and it should satisfy a drive or urge.	5/8/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	The straight and narrow (vs. the edge) is boring, but also stresslessly happy, worry free, with the confidence to pick, fight, and win battles.	10/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	The Toll: between accidents, disease, natural disasters, and drive by shootings, it is a wonder anyone is alive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	The world moves forward, advances, improves, slowly but surely, with or without you.  Do not let it pass you by.  Dig in, hop on, get messy.  Pedal, steer, or clear the road.  Three tiers: workers, managers, and inventors.  Do not get left back, or left behind.  Do not give up hope, and do not give up trying.  Do not just take a free ride with your eyes closed, asleep.	06/10/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	There are a million ways to drown, and a million ways to save someone from drowning.  Each of us is both drowning and capable of saving someone from drowning.	11/9/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	There are many rights, and many wrongs.  Is there an optimal combo?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	There are two variables in ethics.  (1) Situation alternatives.  Things that could happen.  (2) Action alternatives.  Things that we could do.  (3) (A) The effects of our actions are anyone's guess.  Its tough to fine tune.  (B) The probability of occurrence of situations is anyone's guess.  Often things happen that you would not expect or could not imagine.  (4) So where does that leave us?	4/16/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	There is a limited number of ethical situations and actions.  They deal with (1) Action: power, freedom  (2) Stuff and property,  (3) Words: promises, lying and secrets vs. open and honest.  All this is the stuff of politics and law.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	There will always be someone richer, smarter and better looking.  That is no excuse to commit crimes.  There will always be someone poorer, dimmer and uglier too.	7/1/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Things that are (1) Easy or hard.  (2) Quickly accomplished or long time taking.  (3) Fun or no fun.  (4) Strengthen or weaken me.  (5) Many combos possible.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Thought and action.  Development of ethical ideas in theory vs. adherence to ideas in practice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Thought, word, action.  (1) The ethics you say you believe in vs. (2) The ethics you actually believe in vs. (3) The ethics you adhere to in action.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Three types of behavior.  (1) Fight, oppose.  (2) Cooperate, deal maker, contract.  (3) Aid, freebies, giveaways.  Information, emotion.  How much do I and should I give away without expecting in return?  Commonly accepted freebies: "What time is it?  How do I get to "x" location?"	02/05/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  (1) We, the current generation, must actively help repair past social injustices simply because we have the capacity to do so, and it is the right thing to do.  (2) The situation is not simply one of crimes by past individuals which we as present individuals are not responsible for.  (3) The question becomes: how far back in history should we search and how minor the injustice should we repair.	3/13/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  (1) You vs. future generations.  (2) You vs. the future you.	10/25/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  A court case was recently decided to give reparations for taking Jewish money in World War II.  Can the living sue on behalf of the dead?  Apparently yes.  Can the living get reparations on behalf of the dead?  Apparently yes.  These are important ethical and legal questions in regard to righting past wrongs.  I think these issues are important because I don't agree with the view that some people hold which says "Once the victim and the perpetrator are both dead we forget all about the crime".  I think african-americans deserve reparations for being held captive as slaves.  And they deserve more than an apology.  And we should also consider tobacco reparations against victims of lung cancer.	8/8/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  Ethics has a temporal dimension.  Ourselves and others exist in the past, present and future.  Past, current and future self.  Past, current and future others.  Past, current and future generations.  Don't burn out the earth.  Achieve ecological sustainability.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  Future generations.  (1) A large part of ethics is about giving a shit about other people.  (2) The largest group of people is those yet to be born.  (3) The best we can do for those yet to be born is to create a sustainable society.  (4) This is the best argument for environmentalism.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Time and ethics.  Future generations.  Are future generations more important than past generations, being that the past generations are dead and the future generations are yet to be born?  Yes.  Are future generations more important than present generations in that the future generations have their whole lives ahead of them and the present generation is half dead (that is, the present generation is the statistical average between those just born and those who are just about to die).	9/17/2001

Philosophy, ethics.	To be all you can be.  To fulfill your potential.  To do all you can do.  You have to have your shit together in all areas of your life.  Head, love life, work, social skills.  To choose your battles, and develop the weapons to fight them takes a refined ethical sense, smarts, wisdom, and strength.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	To the great, mediocrity is evil.	05/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	To want to improve the world.  To want to make a difference.  To want to not live in vain.  Is it just ego?  Is it self-serving?  Or is it dedication to justice, truth and goodness.  What are your reasons for doing good?	4/24/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	To witness injustice and not act, is as bad to yourself as putting up with injustice yourself.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Tolerance vs. intolerance.  (1) Not having any ideas vs. having many strongly held ideas.  (2) And given that, being intolerant vs. still being tolerant.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Trade offs: what bad thing will you put up with in order to get a good thing?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Two alternatives.  (1) Do nothing.  A life of leisure.  Enjoy it.  Hedonism.  (2) Work hard.  Accomplish much.  Even if it is difficult and not always enjoyable.	1/8/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	Two basic views.  (1) There is right and wrong.  (This view is correct).  (2) There is no right and wrong.  Do whatever you want to do.  (This view is wrong).	7/31/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Two categories: the unethical yet legal vs. the unethical and illegal.  Into the former category fall the frowns, the glares, the harsh words, the cold shoulders.  Teasing, bullying, bigotry, intimidation, abuse of power.  In this world, all of the these things add up to be perhaps greater than the unethical and illegal acts.  In an individual, a lifetime accumulation of "unethical yet legal" acts perhaps outweighs a single "unethical and illegal" act.	8/21/2000

Philosophy, ethics.	Two closely related arguments.  (1) Someone did wrong to me, so therefore I will do wrong to someone else (knowing it is wrong).  (2) If someone did it to me it must be ok, and if it is ok I will do it to someone else.  (3) Both cases can be wrong.  Examples: child abuse vs. hitting kids to discipline them.	09/15/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Two factors.  In your life, the types, degrees, frequencies of (1) Opposition (examples: abuse, neglect, bad situation).  (2) Temptation (examples: money, sex, power).  (3) Actual vs. potential (threatened or promised).  (4) Real (objective) vs. imagined (subjective).	08/20/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Two important areas of ethics are work and leisure.  (1) What job to do?  (2) What to do with leisure time?	5/8/2002

Philosophy, ethics.	Two metaphysical systems.  (1) Things that are hard but good.  Hard and not good.  Easy and good.  Easy and not good.  (2) Things that are not fun but good.  Not fun and not good.  Fun and good.  Fun and not good.  (3) Are these two systems the same?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Two realms of ethics.  (1) Realm of the legal vs. the illegal.  (2) The realm of the non-legal (ex. Taste).	1/8/2003

Philosophy, ethics.	Type 1 ethical error: punishing the innocent.  Type 2 ethical error: letting the guilty go free.	5/6/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Types or areas of ethics.  (1) Ethics of business.  (2) Ethics regarding animals.  (3) Ethics regarding the natural environment.  (4) Ethics of technology.  (5) Ethics of information.  (6) Ethics of computers and the Internet.  (7) Ethics of science.	3/25/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Types or areas of ethics.  (1) Ethics of eating.  (2) Ethics of sex.  (3) Ethics of sleeping.  (4) Ethics of drugs.  (5) Ethics of rock and roll.  (6) Ethics of leisure.  (7) Ethics of work.  (8) Ethics of social relations.  Micro-politics.  Macro-politics.  (7) Ethics of being alone.  (8) Ethics of money, finance, business and economics.  (9) Ethics of time.  (10) Ethics of health.  (11) Ethics of knowledge, information.	3/25/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Urgency.  Where does one find the urgency to pursue good things?  In two ideas.  People are suffering and dying now, this very minute, due to the injustice of the bad things in this world.  Good things will bring justice, joy and happiness to people.	10/23/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	Various ethical points of view one can adhere to.  (1) What can this person do for me?  (2) Will this person harm me?  Either intentionally or unintentionally?  (3) What can I do to help this person?  (4) I say, help people, but defend self first.  (5) Can I set up an even exchange of values with this person?  Values like attention, kindness, information, etc.  (6) Everyone needs help, not just the poor.  Help does not have to be money, it can be a kind word, attention, etc.  (7) Merely respect all people equally, and make sure they respect you equally.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, ethics.	Various views about ethics that people hold.  (1) Honesty is the best policy. (a true view).  (2) What they don't know won't hurt them. (a false view).  (3) The rule is, there are no rules. (a false view).  (4) If you don't get caught, it ain't illegal. (a false view).	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	Violence.  (1) Is all force violence?  (2) Physical vs. psychological violence.  (3) When is violence and force justified?  In cases of self-defense.  In cases of protecting others from unjust use of force.  (4) Is non-violence and pacifism good if you get whipped?  (5) Escalation.  Not good.  (6) Violence does damage, both reversible and irreversible.  (7) When we use force we may not be aware of the irreversible psychological damage that it causes.	8/11/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	Vocabulary opposites, poles, dichotomies, and scales.  Act list.  Balance.  Ethical systems.  Ideals, perfection, heroes.  Meaning systems.  Question list.  Success and failure.  Utility.  Urgency.  Choices.  Edge.  Endgame.  Lifestyle.  Means, ends.  Values.  Virtue.  Healthy, unhealthy.  Smart, stupid.  Sane, crazy.  Good, evil.  Pain, pleasure.  Enjoy, don't enjoy.  Effective, not effective.  Efficient, not efficient.  Productive, not productive.  Practical, not practical.  Legal, illegal.  Sin, virtue.  Happy, sad, angry.  Better, worse, and best, worst.  Problems, solutions.  Easy, tough.  Shit, excellent.  Guilt, innocence.  Help, hurt.  Use, waste, and use, abuse.  Care, abuse, neglect.  Fair, unfair.  Just, unjust.  Ethical, unethical.  Right, wrong.  Good vs. bad, evil, sin.  Do, experience, get, become, be.  Have to, don't.  Want to, don't want to.  Need to, don't need to.  Can, can't.  Should, shouldn't.  Could, could not (past, future). Would, would not.  Might, might not.  Will, will not.  Does, doesn't.  Effort, results.  Intention, unintended.  Perpetrator, recipient.  Importance, priorities.  Obedience, disobedience.  Conformity, nonconformity, rebellion.  Revenge, recompense, retribution, punishment vs. reward.  Risk, care/carelessness, negligence.  Responsibility vs. irresponsibility vs. no responsibility.  Do's vs. don'ts.  Thought, word, action.  Stasis, change.  Attack, defense.  Action, reaction, inaction.  Dominant/passive.  Strengths, weaknesses.  Create, build vs. destroy.  Allies, neutrals, enemies.  Fault/no fault.  Deserve, don't.  Sympathy, empathy.  Omission vs. commission.  Obligations, imperatives, duties, responsibilities vs. freedoms, rights.  Lies, secrets.  Work, leisure, play, fun, no fun.  Equality; justice; freedom and liberty vs. slavery.  Abuse, neglect.  Acts and behaviors; areas and subjects; choices.  Effort vs. accomplishment.  Forgiveness, vengeance.  Importance.  Intention vs. consequence.  Preparation.  Rebellion.  Responsibility and obligation vs. neglect, carelessness.  Reward, punishment, payback.  Rules.  Success and failure (winning and losing).  Utility.  Waste.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Ways that people go wrong.  (1) People forget what is most important.  People don't think about figuring out what is most important.  (2) People slack off.  People give in to ease, comfort, pleasure.  People play it safe.  (3) People crumble, cave in, to opposition.  People compromise.  (4) People lack vision.  People lose sight.  People can't see the problems and solutions.  (5) People fail to challenge themselves.	7/22/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	Ways to measure things.  (1) Uniqueness.  Are you 1 out of 10?  100?  1000?  10,000?  100,000?  1,000,000?  1,000,000,000?  5,000,000,000 (all on earth)?  10,000,000,000 (all who ever lived)?  1,000,000,000,000 (all who will ever live?)?  (2) Are you the best of (A) Your town.  (B) One year (High school champ).  (C) Your country.  (D) Your generation.  (E) All time and space.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	What and how much should we put up with in order to live?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What do I want to do with my life?	12/28/2006

Philosophy, ethics.	What does it take to be happy like I used to be?  When?  When I had security, and freedom, and hope.  Go for goals.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	What if person B drags down person A more than person A helps person B?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  (1) Ethics as a list of do's and don'ts.  (2) Ethics as a list of do's and don'ts, with the associated reasoning or explanations.  (3) Ethics as a list of do's and don'ts, with the associated reasoning or explanations, and with the associated debate of views pro and contra.	11/15/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  (1) Ethics is about the selection of alternatives or choices.  You can (A) Give a new explanation of why an existing alternative should be chosen, or (B) You can create a new alternative itself.  Technology creates new alternatives, and so does power, and resources.  (2)(A) You can find new solutions to existing problems, (B) or you can redefine existing problems and then find new solutions, or (C) you can find new problems.	10/30/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  An ethical-less world (i.e, not an evil world, but a world without ethical issues and ethical responsibility), what would it be like?  Would it be like being an infant?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is how not to act like an asshole.  And how not to be a victim of assholes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is prescriptive statements (saying what to do) made by x person for y person to follow.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  (1) Everything has an ethical dimension to it.  (2) All human relationships are an ethical dilemma.  (3) Ethics is the basis for all struggling for all goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  If you ignore ethics, ethics does not go away.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  It is impossible not to act.  Even taking no action is an action.  It is impossible not to have a point of view.  No matter how impoverished that view is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  Once you are born you are cast into an ethical dilemma.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  The unavoidable ethical nature of human life.  Every action has an ethical aspect to it.  Every situation does to.  Every person does to.  To be human is to be ethics bound.  Even if you ignore it, ethics is still there.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is ethics?  Ethics is unavoidable.  There will always come an ethical crisis: "If I had only did a little more, or tried a little harder or longer".	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is more important than trying to solve the problems of the world?  Nothing.  Saving the world is a worthy goal.	4/24/2007

Philosophy, ethics.	What is worst?  Death?  Pain?  Injustice by far.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What is wrong with going nowhere or being a fu*k up?  Nothing, if that is what you want, or if you don't hurt anyone (including yourself), or if that is all you can do.	09/06/1988

Philosophy, ethics.	What pisses me off most.  (1) Most people (including myself) waste a lot of time, waste their lives.  They read crap novels, and watch crap TV.  Fluff instead of good stuff.  They think fluffily and sporadically about unimportant subjects instead of rigorously and consistently about important subjects.  They don't record their thoughts.  They ignore and avoid 90% of the phenomena in life and the important problems in life.  They pursue only their narrow job field, or a narrow hobby.  They give into leisure and ease.  I was once like this, wanting only "fun". I used to hate hard thinking and writing, and now I love it.  (2) People are screwed up, have screwed up thoughts, and do screwed up things because they haven't taken the time and effort to think hard enough to get themselves straightened out and set up right.  Things are not "ok now" as they believe.  Their views would change and improve with effort and time, as they disbelieve, and it is really important to improve.  Same for physical condition.  I loathe those who don't take care of their body, mind and life.  It is so easy to abuse or disregard (neglect) body, mind and life.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	What should we accept and reject, and why?  Where to draw the line?  What should we put up with and not?  What should we go for, and how much resources should we risk to get it, at what odds or probability of getting it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	What to do?  (1) Do what makes you happiest?  No, not necessarily.  (2) Do what makes you most money?  No, not necessarily.  (3) Do what is most important.  Do what is most just.  Do the right thing.  There are many good things to do.  Identify problems and find solutions.  PART TWO.  (1) What is just-ness, right-ness, good-ness?  What things are just, right, good?  (2) What is happiness?  Happiness is an emotion.  What things produce happiness?  What things make you happy?	12/4/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	When many people think about ethics they often think about the physical actions one person does to another.  However, I think that the mental actions of the individual alone is equally important.  By this view, some of the big ethical wrongs include: wasting time, not gaining knowledge, and not thinking critically.  One could argue that the mental actions of the individual are as important an ethical concern as the physical actions of groups.	5/22/2005

Philosophy, ethics.	When someone can not see, tell, or understand how much something will help them (e.g. Buying a computer) or hurt them (e.g. Booze or drugs).	02/28/1998

Philosophy, ethics.	When to compromise?  To compromise one's ideals is to sell out.  When is it selling out vs. when is it being realistic?  Compromise on little things.  Compromise on inconsequential details.  In important situations, when must we reach a compromise?  Example, in politics.	2/27/1999

Philosophy, ethics.	Whenever anything bad happens, some people actually say that it is all god's will, that it is all in god's plan, and that everything happens for a reason.  What about the Holocaust?  The people who say such things (A) Acknowledge no responsibility for their actions, and (B) Acknowledge no responsibility for achieving justice, and (C) Don't acknowledge free will, and (D) Don't acknowledge the fact they can influence things if they try, and (E) Don't acknowledge that others do wrong either.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Why ethics?  If you never think about ethics, your ethics are apt to develop more slowly, and that could be costly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Why is it important to do the means and get the ends?  (1) To avoid wasting your life, so you don't have to say "I could have been more".  (2) You never know what you can come up with if you work at it.  You can surprise yourself (this applies especially to me).	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	Why must we help others and ourselves?  Because we can.  We must help them or face (now or later) emotional pain, existential pain, and the knowledge that we did injustice.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, ethics.	Why study ethics?  Not to become a blindly obedient clone drone but to help yourself become an ubermensch total person.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Why think about ethics?  (1) Two problem views.  (A) All we need is science.  (B) All we need is religion.  (2) Actually we need the philosophical study of ethics desperately.  And ethics philosophy is being ignored.	10/25/1994

Philosophy, ethics.	Why think about ethics?  The view that ethics study produces lifeless, rule following zombies, nerds, faggots, and drones vs. the view that ethics study produces free thinkers.  I believe the latter.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Why think about ethics?  The whole point of ethics study is to avoid pain, avoid mistakes, and avoid wasting your life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	Words and actions.  (1) Some people say actions speak louder than words.  They are mistaken because speaking is an action.  (2) Some people criticize others as "all thought, no action".  They are mistaken because thinking is an action.  (3) Those who want to speak with their fists, by resorting to physical violence, first try to devalue words by using the above phrases.  Those who want a society of blind belief first try to devalue thinking by using the above phrases.	6/8/2004

Philosophy, ethics.	X person is "depending on", "counting on", "trusting" Y person to do Z action.  Does Y know it?  Does Y have a responsibility to X either way?  Was X expecting too much (no right to "expect" that")?	07/30/1993

Philosophy, ethics.	You can make a difference just by living.  Lets say you accidentally meet someone who is on the verge of suicide.  Lets say if they go on living they will find a cure for cancer.  If you are nice they will live.  If you are not nice they will kill themselves.  It is up to you.  You can't tell what condition they are in.  So it pays to be nice to everyone.  And they affect other people too.  They may crash their car into someone you know.  Or they may help another suicidal genius stay alive.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, ethics.	You can't teach, only show.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, ethics.	You must be rowdy up to the point that (1) You don't die.  (2) You don't destroy your career chances by compromising your social status.  (3) Anything less is wimpiness.	02/10/1994

Philosophy, game theory.	.This section is about musings on the theory of games.	12/30/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) A game is a model of reality.  The question is whether the game is an accurate model of reality.  (2) Games transmit values.  The question is whether the game transmits positive values.	5/7/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) Games with a time limit.  Games with a limit of number of moves.  (2) Games with no time limit.  Games with an unlimited number of moves.	9/12/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) How does the game start.  Starting positions.  (2) How does the game end.  Ending positions.  What determines who wins the game.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) Number of players.  (2) The playing field shape and size.  (3) The rules of the game.  Moves allowed.  Moves not allowed.  (4) Scoring.  Points.  How are points scored?  How to determine who is winning.	6/9/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) Rules of the game.  Moves you can make versus moves you cannot make.  (2) Strategy.  Principles of play.  How to win.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) Sometimes the pieces have ranks.  One piece will outrank another piece in a simple arithmetical way.  (2) Sometimes the pieces have powers that relate to each other in more complex ways.  For example, Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, or Rock Paper Scissors.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) Too hard versus too easy.  The game itself, or only the opponent.  (2) Not interesting versus engrossing.  (3) Interest and difficulty are related.  Games that are too difficult or too easy are not interesting.  There is a window of difficulty that provides interest.	4/24/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	(1) What psychological skills do games develop?  Do games develop memory skills, emotional skills, thinking skills?  Or do games erode skills?  (2) What values do games develop?  Does the game develop values of cooperation, competition or conflict?	5/16/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Changing sides in games.  Changing your mind in games.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Chess.  PART ONE.  Description of the game of chess.  Chess is a game that pits two players against each other.  Each player controls sixteen pieces, of six different types, which move on a square grid of sixty four squares.  PART TWO.  Evaluation of the game of chess.  (1) Chess is a martial game.  Chess is a war game.  The primary move is to "take out", "capture" or "destroy" another piece.  The secondary move is to position oneself in order to to destroy another piece.  Chess is not a cooperative game.  In chess, one does not work together with the other player to achieve a goal.  In chess, one does not communicate with the other player.  In chess, one does not bargain with the other player.  (2) If you grow up playing only chess, you may have a tendency to view everyone as an opponent.  If you grow up playing only chess, you may have a tendency to solve problems by "taking out" your opponent.  If you grow up playing chess, you may have a tendency to brood in silence while plotting the utter destruction of your enemies.  Also, if you grow up playing only chess, you may expect people to behave like chess pieces.  (4) Chess is not the only game a person can play.  Chess is not the best game a person can play.  Chess is not an accurate model of life.  Chess is not adequate preparation for life.  (5) Chess has been excessively lauded through the ages for its cerebral, strategic and competitive nature.  Chess is all skill.  There is no random chance or luck in chess.  There is no emotion in the chess pieces.  However, life is not all skill.  There is random chance in life.  There is emotion in humans.  PART THREE.  (1) Some people have a tendency to obsess about chess.  Some people think about little else except chess, and do little else except play chess.  Some people develop useless chess skills to the neglect of much needed life skills.  Some people obsess about chess in the same way that other people obsess about computer games.  We can talk about chess addiction the same way we talk about computer game addiction.  PART FOUR.  The games we play affect how we view life life.  The games we play affect how we live life.  Chess is not that much different from first person shooter computer games.  Get a real game.	11/20/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Components of a game: Pieces, Moves, Spaces.  Pieces make moves in spaces.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Components of games.  Players.  Teams.  Positions or roles (types of players).  Rules.  Moves.  Field or board to play on.	4/24/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games have the potential to be as informative and entertaining as the best movies and novels.  Computer games have the potential to be fine art.  However, most current computer games have not yet lived up to that potential.	9/2/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games, why so popular.  Computer games are engrossing and addictive because they are an intellectual challenge and an emotional flood.  Computer games stimulate the entire mind.  Computer games can provide a sense of social interaction.  Computer games also provide a sense of power.  Computer games can provide a sense of transgressing taboos, doing evil, killing.  Computer games can provide a sense of sexual interaction.	5/2/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games, why so popular.  There are several reasons why computer games are addictive.  (1) Games provide a challenge.  The challenge can be psychological, phsycial or both.  Psychological challenges can be of memory, emotion or thinking.  One type of thinking challenge is problem solving.  (2) Games provide an escape.  One escapes into the world of the computer game like one escapes into a novel.  Computer games provide escape like any other hobby provides escape.  Escape in this sense is another term for avoidance, repression and denial.  (3) Computer games are fun.  Fun can be addictive.  (4) Computer games played against an AI opponent provide a false sense of social interaction.  Part of this false sense of social interaction is a false sense of social power.	11/8/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games, why so popular.  Three reasons why computer games are so compelling.  (1) Computer games are interactive.  Computer games provide feedback.  The computer responds to your actions.  (2) In the computer game, a player can have an effect far greater than they do in real life.  The player has more powers in computer games than they do in real life.  (3) Playing the computer.  Computer as opponent.  Its like another person is there.  Thus, computer games can provide the illusion of social interaction.  (4) In multi-player games, there actually is social interaction.	4/17/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games, why so popular.  Why are computer games so compelling?  Because when the computer seems to react intelligently to your actions, it seems like attention is being paid to you, and attention can be addictive.	4/1/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  (1) Computer games are like crack.  Computer games can be addictive.  (2) Computer games, which began as a promise of exercising the imagination, became a series of cheat codes and routines.	4/15/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Criticism of Freeciv.  Freeciv ignores the arts.  Freeciv version 1.4 has no categories for literature, music, visual arts, etc.  Freeciv think the arts unimportant.  Freeciv thinks you can have a civilization without the arts.  Freeciv is wrong.  People who play Freeciv, and who learn from Freeciv, are learning wrong.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Criticism of Freeciv.  Freeciv tries to be realistic but it is still a game.  Freeciv does not exactly mirror how civilizations evolve.  And Freeciv does not exactly mirror how civilizations should evolve.	3/13/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Criticism of Freeciv.  If the best strategy to win a computer game is to build Churches and Military Barracks then that computer game is promoting conservative, right wing values.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Criticism of Freeciv.  PART ONE.  Arguments against computer games.  (1) Problem: Freeciv, and many other computers games like Freeciv, is addictive.  (2) Problem: Freeciv, and many other computer games like Freeciv, is violent.  Freeciv teaches people to wage war.  It teaches violence and killing.  Freeciv is really about militarism, warmaking and killing.  Bad Karma.  Freeciv should include a sound effect of the screaming of children as they are killed as innocent bystanders when cities and villages are destroyed.  (3) Problem: Freeciv, and computer games like Feeciv, teaches people to be imperialists.  The goal of Freeciv is to expand.  Destroying the huts of indigenous peoples.       PART TWO.  Arguments for computer games.  (1) Some computer games are an exercise in creative problem solving.  Think of every strategy you can.  Try every strategy you can.  See what works and why.  (2) Some computer games attempt to model the interplay, on a large scale, of Science/Technology, and Politics/Law, and Economics/Business.  Freeciv is a big picture game that deals with large spaces and long periods of time.  (3) Some computer games are useful to investigate the theory of games.  Studying Freeciv is useful to investigate why computer games are so compelling.  Studying Freeciv is useful to investigate how subopitmal cultural mores are promoted through computer games and video games.  (4) The analysis skills, strategy skills, problem solving skills, and emotional determination skills that a person develops doing computer games like Freeciv can be applied to other areas like job, relationships, etc.	11/7/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Critique of Freeciv.  Freeciv is an open source computer game, similar to the computer game Civilization.  Freeciv involves each player starting with small civilization a few thousand years ago.  As time passes in the game, each player tries to build their civilization by acquiring technology, building cities, and engaging in politics with other civilizations.  As with most computer games these days, the entire affair quickly degenerates into a blood bath of killing and war.  Freeciv is really a game to teach military tactics, and I would not be surprised if it was used by the military to train soldiers.  Freeciv promotes the mistaken view that war is good in and of itself.  Freeciv promotes the mistaken view that war is a good way to solve problems.  Freeciv promotes the mistaken view that war is a necessary evil.  Freeciv promotes the mistaken view that war is inevitable.	11/11/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Freeciv compared to The Sims.  (1) Freeciv is free of charge.  The Sims costs money to buy.  (2) Freeciv is a game about civilizations and their relationships.  The Sims is a game about interpersonal relationships.	3/13/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  How would three kids grow up if they only had computer games to play and limited contact with people and the world?  One kid playing Sims.  One kid playing Freeciv.  One kid playing a first person shooter.	3/13/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Playing against the computer.  Computers that automatically adjust to suit the skill level of the player.  A modified "Turing test" for computer intelligence in the area of games is the following: If you are playing a game against a computer and you cannot tell whether you are playing a computer or another person, then the computer has intelligence.	4/24/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Sims.  (1) I've decided its time we had a discussion about The Sims.  I know you say you already know about the Sims.  Let's just have the discussion and then you can decide how you will apply it to your own life.  (2) The Sims is a computer game that lets one create a virtual world containing virtual people.  The virtual people in the Sims have distinct personalities, roles and behaviors.  (3) To what extent does the Sims meet the criteria of Artificial Intelligence?  Is the Sims simply a machine that lets the player set a number of settings and then runs in a deterministic fashion?  Do the Sims characters reproduce, and if so do the offspring contain heritable attributes that exhibit combinations of both parents?  Do the offspring ever have mutations?  Do the characters posses any freewill?  Is there some degree of randomness in the Sims system?  (3) Do the characters in the Sims display any traits of Artificial Life?  (4) How do Sims characters portray the human mental abilities of sensation, drive, memory, emotion and thinking?  (5) Does playing the Sims help young humans learn about life, the world, other people and themselves?  (6) There should be a Sims character called the Philosopher.  The Philosopher would have very little drive for money.  the Philosopher's behavior would be primarily staring into thin air for hours and hours, occasionally writing on paper.  (7) There should be a version of the Sims that family therapists can use to model their patients and their patients families.  Then the therapist can give the family the game and the family can role play by playing multiple games where each person taking the role of every other person.  (8) If you grow up playing the Sims will it create unrealistic expectations on your part of being able to control other people?  If you grow up playing the Sims will it create the expectation that you can control your own behavior in the same way that you can control the characters?  (9) How does the Sims model the psychological states of the characters?  How does the Sims model social interactions of the characters?  How does the Sims model interaction between characters and their nonsocial environment, either the man made environment or the natural environment?  (10) Does the Sims mirror the typical American negative values of overconsumption, rampant consumerism, and hyper-religiosity?  (11) Is social interaction in the Sims based on an exchange model where each character possesses both values that they have but don't need, and values that they need but don't have?  Or is social interaction in the Sims based on a conflict model?   (12) Does the Sims discriminate between needs and wants?  (13) How does the Sims resolve inter personal conflict?  How does the Sims resolve intra personal conflict?  (14) What explains the popularity of the Sims?  Is it people's desire to watch other people?  Is it peoples desire to control other people?  Is it people's desire to feel they are interacting with other people?  (15) Friend, pet or doll, how should we look at the Sims?  (16) Does playing the Sims provide training for real life?  What do people learn from playing the Sims?  Can playing the Sims develop social knowledge and skills?  Can playing the Sims develop psychological knowledge and skills?  Up to what point will playing the Sims help you develop?  Past what point will playing the Sims stunt your development?  (17) Sims attributes.  Personality traits: Needs, wants, motives.  Emotional moods.  Memories.  Interests.  Skills.  Social Factors: Communication interaction.  Physical interaction.  Friends, mates, kids.  Mass media advertising.  Neighborhood and community.  School and career.  Freewill.	3/4/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Some people would argue that computer games that contain various playing pieces of various powers are just as complex and important as the game of chess, and thus should receive the same acclaim as chess.  However, I think just the opposite is true.  It is not the case that computer games are under recognized, but rather that chess is over recognized.  Chess is just a game.  Too much emphasis is put on chess by society.  Chess receives too much recognition and acclaim.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Computer games.  Unconscious metaphors that develop when playing computer games.  Some people subconsciously think, "Life is like a computer game."  Computer games shape a person's metaphysics, epistemology and ethics.  (1) Computer games shape a person's metaphysics when people think that life is like a computer game.  (2) Computer games can shape epistemological views.  Computer games can be designed to reward curiosity and skepticism.  Or the mistake can be made of designing computer games that promote blind belief and blind obedience.  (3) Computer games shape a person's values.  Computer games can be designed to reward cooperation and altruism and penalize conflict and egoism; or computer games can be designed to do the reverse.	9/18/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Cooperative games versus competitive games.  Defining a game as only a competitive activity is a very big mistake to make very early on in the analysis of the concept of a game.  There are many fun cooperative games.  Cooperative games should be taught in school just as much, or even more so, than competitive games, because our society is based on cooperation much more so than it is based on cooperation.  Every day you are engaged in cooperation much more than you are engaged in competition.  People who over-emphasize competitive games are not in touch with reality.	2/18/2007

Philosophy, game theory.	Create your own game.  For example, the game Double Bind, which I describe in the section, Arts, literature, comedy, joke.	11/20/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Critique of games.  What if you spend all your time playing games?  Surely, that is not a good thing.  Games can be criticized on the same basis as sports, that is, both games and sports are a frivolous waste of time.	1/1/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	Definition of games.  A game is a type of a model.  A model is a simplified reality, an abstracted reality.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Fairness in games.  People are expected to play fair.  Changing rules in the middle of the game is usually considered a no-no.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Five ways to think about games.  (1) Games as fun.  Games as an enjoyable leisure pursuit.  (2) Games as practice.  Games as training tools, or a educational tools.  (3) Strategy.  Principles of play.  How to win.  (4) Game theory as the logical and mathematical study of games.  (5) Philosophical questions about games.  Metaphysics of games: games as models of real world.  Epistemology of games: games as a way to gain knowledge about the world.  Ethics of games: ethics values implicit in games.  Aesthetics of games: there can be a kind of beauty in games and play.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, game theory.	Games and models.  (1) A game is a model.  (2) A model is a small scale abstraction of another thing.  (3) If a model was full scale, with no abstraction, then it would be an exact copy of the original.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Games at various levels of scale.  (1) Games on the galactic or planetary level.  For example, Konquest.  (2) Games on the nation or civilization level.  For example, Civilization, or Freeciv.  (3) Games on the city level.  For example Simcity, or Lincity.  (4) Games on the inter-personal level.  For example, The Sims.  (5) There should be also be games on the intra personal level.  Games that explore psychological and philosophical development.  (6) There should be a game set at the organism level.  A game where you have to balance sleep, diet and excercise in order to keep the various bodily functions working.	3/9/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	Games have rules.  Fair play involves following the rules of the game.  One assumes the rules of the game are fair.	4/4/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	If there are war games, there should also be peace games.  Games of pure diplomacy.  Games of mediation and arbitration.	3/9/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	Instead of teaching kids to play "Monopoly", teach kids to play "Commune".  "Jenny, you landed on my orchard, so please accept this basket of organic fruit"  "Thank you, John.  In adherence to the principle of reciprocal altruism, please accept this raw, vegan, soy pie."  "Thank you."	5/27/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  (1) In what ways is life a game?  In what ways is life not a game?  (2) In what ways is life similar to a game?  In what ways is life not similar to a game?	10/31/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  (1) In what ways is life like a game?  There are players.  There are rules.  There is a scoring system.  (2) In what ways is life not like a game?  Different value systems yield different rule systems and different scoring systems.	6/9/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  (1) Life:  There is only one life, one world.  We are forced to play.  (2) Games:  There are many games to choose from.  You can choose to play a game or not.	11/15/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  Many social situations and social interactions are like games.  There are players who make moves.  The rules of the game are the societal norms, laws and ethical principles.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  The view of life as a game assumes that life is a competition and that there are winners and losers.  That is not a valid assumption.	9/12/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	Life and games.  What is the difference between life and games?  If we use the definition of game as a wager or bet (see: Philosophy, chance).  If we use the definition of a wager or bet as a function having an input and output.  (1)(A)(i) A game is a discrete, short-term event.  (ii) A game is something that we can choose to take part in or not.  (B)(i) Life is a constant series of bets over a long period of time.  (ii) Life is something that we must play.  That is, having not decided to be born, yet having decided to live, a person provides a constant stream of inputs, for example, that person's time and energy, and the person gets a constant stream of outputs as a result of their inputs.  (2)(A) In a bet it is clear whether one has one or lost.  (B) In life, it is unclear whether one has one or lost, (i) in part, because each individual supplies their own definition of success and failure, and (ii) in part, because outcomes in life are combinations of positive outputs and negative outputs.  That is to say, each result, for each person's point of view, has good sides and bad sides to it.	12/14/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	Lincity.  Lincity is a computer game that involves balancing money and technology in order to grow a city.  Lincity is set a city level scale, rather than the macro-social, civilization scale of Freeciv, and rather than the micro-social scale of households that is found in the Sims.  Its interesting to note that Lincity makes the mistake of ignoring the arts, much like Freeciv ignores the arts.  There seems to be a pattern of technology devotees who build games with a criteria of success that centers around the acquisition of technology.  They give themselves a pat on the back.  The games of technophiles are often about fantasies of technology on a grand scale, involving bigger tools, more power and bigger playgrounds.  On the positive side, at least Lincity does not involve warfare and killing.  Lincity is a game for budding city planners.  Lincity lets the player choose between a sustainability strategy versus a pollution strategy.	2/15/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	Literature and games.  Arbitrary nature of games and literature.  In games you can set the rules to whatever you want the rules to be.  In literature you can set the world to whatever you want it to be.	11/15/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Other games.  Blocks.  Lego.  Imagination games and non-competitive games.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Other games.  Tag.  Capture the flag.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Strategies are the various ways to play the game, given the rules of the game.  There are winning strategies and losing strategies.  In common use, strategy refers to the principles of how to play the game in order to win the game.	2/18/2007

Philosophy, game theory.	Strategies in games.  (1) Stealth.  Keep your strategy a secret.  (2) Power.  Amass forces.  (3) Speed.  (4) Persistence.  (5) Intelligence.  Find out your enemy's plans.  (6) Play your strengths.  Shore up your weaknesses.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	The "move set".  All the possible moves allowed by the rules of the game, considered at any moment in the game, or through the entire play of the game. Variables include the following:  Games with the fewest rules and the most rules.  Games with the fewest moves and the most moves.  Simple moves and complex moves.	12/22/2002

Philosophy, game theory.	The board.  The pieces move into spaces.  For example, chess, checkers, backgammon, battleship, monopoly.  The spaces can be in a line.  The line can be closed to form a square, circle or triangle, like Monopoly uses a square.  The square can be filled in to form a matrix (like in chess and checkers.  Or the triangle can be filled in to form a triangular matrix like in Chinese checkers.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	The formal analysis of game logic and strategy.  Vs.  The psychological and sociological analyses of games and play.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Three views.  (1) Whoever has the most at the end is the winner.  (2) Whoever gets it all wins.  (3) Whoever loses all their is out, and the winner is the lone survivor.	9/12/2004

Philosophy, game theory.	Trust and betrayal.  Deception and honesty.  Open vs. secret.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of board games.  (1) One piece.  One type of move.  For example, what?  (2) One piece.  Multiple moves based on a roll of the dice. For example, Monopoly, Sorry, etc.  (3) Multiple pieces of the same type.  One type of move.  For example, checkers, or tick-tack-toe.  (4) Multiple pieces of different types. Each type of piece making a different type of move.  For example, chess.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  (1) Games for pleasure.  Games as pretend.  Games as not-for-real.  (2) Games as practice.  (3) Games as for-real.  Games with stakes.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  (1) Games that use only mental skill.  No physical skill involved.  (2) Games that use only physical skill.  No mental skill involved.  (3) Games that mix mental and physical skill.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  (1) Pure strategy games, such as chess.  No chance involved.  (2) Pure chance risk or luck games, such as rolling the dice.  No strategy involved.  (3) Mixed strategy and chance games.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  (1) Single player games.  For example, solitaire.  (2) Multi-player games where each player is pitted against the other(s).  (3) Multi-player games.  Forming alliances and breaking alliances.  Sharing information and other resources and values.  (4) Team games.  Opposing teams.	12/22/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Computer games.  Board games.  Card games.  Educational games (Math, Vocabulary, etc.).  Role playing games (Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering).  Physical activity games (sports).	4/24/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Games played by children vs. games played by adults.  How children play vs. how adults play.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Games with a single goal, or single solution games.  Games with multiple goals, or multi-solution games.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Games with a single winner.  Games with multiple winners.  Games where everyone is a winner.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Games with no clear start.  Games with no clear ending or winner.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Games with only one solution path, or a single way to reach the goal.  Games with multiple solution paths, or multiple ways to reach the goal.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	Types of games.  Simple games involve few pieces, few rules.  Example, tic tac toe has one kind of piece.  Checkers has one kind of piece.  Complex games involve many pieces, many kinds of pieces, and many rules.	4/4/2005

Philosophy, game theory.	Uncertainty in games.  Unclear who the players are.  Unclear which players are on which sides.  Unclear what the rules are.  Unclear what moves are allowed.  Unclear what the goal is, and who wins and loses.  Unclear what the stakes are.	12/23/2003

Philosophy, game theory.	What is a game?  (1) A game is a simulation.  A game is a virtual reality.  A game is pretend, not real.  (2) A game is practice, an exercise.  (3) A game can be a contest or competition.	7/14/2006

Philosophy, game theory.	What is a game?  (1) Game as fun.  (2) Game as a puzzle or test.  (3) Game as model or practice.  (4) Game as competition or contest.	4/24/2005

Philosophy, history of.	.This section is about the history of philosophy.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, history of.	(1) Cannons: academic, Paul's, other.  (2) Criticism: academic, Paul's, other.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	(1) Idea: how good, powerful, original, and important?  (2) Communication of ideas: how said, and how well said?  Clear, concise, economical, complete, effective, powerful, truthful, important.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	(1) Ideas that were top in their day, but now outmoded, vs. ideas that were top in their day, and still hold up well.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	(1) Methods of doing philosophy of a philosopher.  (2) Structure of a philosopher's universe.  Category system he/she used.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	(1) The contributors: how new, and how good.  (2) The repeaters: the popularizers, and the academics, surveying, summing up, and conglomerizing.  (3) The criticizers of others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	A philosophical school or system.  A stand in one branch or subject often leads logically to a stand in other branches or subjects (ex. metaphysics yields epistemology yields ethics yields aesthetics).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Approaching philosophy of history by (1) Branch of philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  (2) Subject matter.  (3) Chronological period.  (4) Geographic area.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Change in emphasis in 20th century philosophy: from logic, to language, to literary criticism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Chronological and geographical approach.  (1) Prehistoric/primitive, ancient, medieval, modern.  (2) West and east.  East: Arab, India, Hindu, China: Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Criticism (see also art criticism, lit criticism).  Analysis (description) and judgment (evaluation).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Doers of philosophy, vs. studiers of philosophy done.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Eastern philosophy is essentially eastern religion.  Tao, Confucianism, Zen, Hindu and their metaphysics, epistemology, ethical and aesthetic views.  At what point in history were they ahead of the west (less wrong in their views)?  Are they still ahead of us today in any area?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, history of.	Eastern philosophy.  (1) Has the East thought of anything good that the west hasn't?  (2) Did they think of anything first, before we did?  (3) Did the West borrow it, or did the West think of it independently later?  (4) Does the West give the East credit?  (5) Is there enough good stuff to justify studying Eastern philosophy on its own?	10/15/1993

Philosophy, history of.	Eastern philosophy.  Zen, Tao, Buddhism.  (1) What ideas of value did they contribute?  (A) Harmony with nature.  (B) Mental awareness and calm.  (C) Ethics?  (2) What ideas from the east are untrue and harmful?	03/01/1993

Philosophy, history of.	For any philosophy school (ex. phenomenology and existentialism).  (1) Do they have any use for the common man?  In what forms do their views seep down into mainstream culture?  (2) Do they have any historical value?  How powerful were their ideas in their own time?  How powerful are their ideas today?	08/10/1993

Philosophy, history of.	History of philosophical schools.  (1) English.  Micro, analytic, small details.  (2) French.  Synthetic, big picture.  (3) Russian.  Marxist, historical.  (4) Eastern.  Japanese, Indian.  Mystical, non-dualistic.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	History of study of history of philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	How good is it compared to (1) his time and place, (2) his time worldwide, (3) all time, (4) now?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	How many ideas on how many subjects did the philosopher have?  How new and original were the philosopher's ideas?  How true were the philosopher's ideas?  How important the subject and view on it?  How healthy, how powerful?  Implications of view.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	I do not believe in trying to figure out philosophy's logical structure from its historical structure.  I believe in tacking philosophy's historical structure onto its logical structure.  Why?  Because ultimately, what someone says (the logical idea) is more important than who said it (the historical details).  Philosophy is about surveying all areas, not so much all time.  The historical approach to philosophy is a hindrance and mistake.	3/3/2001

Philosophy, history of.	Interpretation of a philosophical text depends heavily on, and is influenced greatly by, (1) the reader's existing mental concept structure, (2) the readers knowledge, (3) readers IQ, and (4) readers biases and prejudices and values.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Interpretation of physical evidence.  Interpretation of a said thing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Interpretations of work: what a work explicitly says vs. what a work implicitly says.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Mainstream current views vs. frontiers and cutting edge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Mentality of a philosopher: abstract vs. practical.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	My two favorites.  Nietzche and Wittgenstein.  Why?  They are the two most alive (emotional?), human (fallible?  frail?), and wide ranging.  Neurotic, and tormented, but rising above it.  Heroes?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Philosophers: major and minor.  Works: major and minor.  How important/good are they, and why?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Philosophers.  List philosophers in chronological order or alphabetical order.  List their works in chronological order (books and articles).  What were their most important works?  (1) What was the main contributions of the individual?  What the philosopher says and means.  What do they not say and mean?  Why the philosopher was an advance in their day?  How their work holds up today.  Has it been superseded?  Alternately, is it still viable?  What is right and wrong with the philosophers views?   Who are the defenders of the views.  Who gives criticisms of the views?  (2) My views of what the philosopher means, and why its important.  Questions that I have about what the philosopher means.	7/14/2004

Philosophy, history of.	Prehistoric philosophy.  (1) Evidence and interpretation of it.  (2) How well did they think before writing?  (3) What geniuses lived but were never able to write their ideas down because writing had not been invented yet?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Pros vs. cons, strengths vs. weaknesses, of a philosopher, philosophical position, or philosophical statement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	School's most important philosopher, philosopher's most important work, and work's most important chapter, paragraph, and sentence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Schools and authors.  (1) Ideas on subject x.  (2) Subject of concentration, and subject of contribution.  (3) Quantity and quality of questions asked and answers given.  (4) Communication style (see communication and writing) and media.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Schools, authors, and works.  When written.  Subjects, issue and question, view, evidence, and interpretation of evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Scope of a philosophers work: limited vs. vast.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	The epistemology of the history of philosophy.  (1) Historical empirical evidence and proof vs. (2) Interpretive arguments (see also lit theory).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	The height of popularity of a philosopher or a philosophical idea.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	The man who easily produces great work, is he superior to the man who labors intensely to produce mediocrity?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	The philosophical problems the ancients thought of and debated were not always the most important problems, concepts, and arguments.  A lot of energy was wasted on creating and retracing theoretical bullshit, by the dogmatism of traditional philosophical schools.  The best thing you can do is see things fresh and new and more important.	08/04/1993

Philosophy, history of.	The Structural approach.  (1) Branch, subject, school, and ideas (general to specific).  (2) People who hold these views, their works, arguments and conclusions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	The work produced vs. the effort that went into it: (1) Time worked, (2) Psychological effort: intellectual, and emotional turmoil, (3) How tough a life; things sacrificed like money/stuff, like/lust, and everything else he could have done instead.  Was it worth it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Two views of the ancients.  (1) They figured everything out.  (2) They were idiots really, considering all the stuff they missed.  (3) I adhere to the second view.	11/10/1993

Philosophy, history of.	Use or applications of a philosopher's views.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	View.  Who held it (chronological)?  How did they say it (key passages)?  Who said it first vs. who said it best?	09/15/1993

Philosophy, history of.	Ways to do history of philosophy (see also history, methods of doing history).  (1) Marxism, social, political, economic, history.  (2) Psychological/biographical (Freud etc.).  (3) Literary criticism, textual hermeneutics, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	What a philosopher did vs. what a philosopher wanted to do, or thought he was doing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	What did he implicitly and explicitly believe, not believe, and not have a position on?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, history of.	What is history of philosophy?  Three definitions: (1) What actually happened vs. (2) The study of what happened vs. (3) The study of the study of what happened (metaphysics).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	What they said (proving its authentic, not forged) vs. what they meant.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Who said what, when, where, why, and how do we know?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, history of.	Why do history philosophy?  Why study history of philosophy?  How to do history of philosophy: (proof, evidence, lit criticism, etc.).  How study history of philosophy?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	.See also: Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	.This section is about interdisciplinary philosophy.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	(1) Cross training.  (A) Skills in one areas can be transferred to other areas.  Use all your types of intelligence.  Use your entire head.  (B) Knowledge in one area can be used in another.  (2) Holism.  Everything hangs together.  (A) Physical holism.  In the real world, things effect each other and depend on each other.  (B) Semantic or idea holism.  In the world of writing, words have meaning contextually.  In the mental world of ideas, ideas have relations to each other.	7/24/1999

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	(1) Inter-disciplinary philosophy deals with foundational subjects that are often under-rated or ignored, yet of primary importance: philosophy, psychology, and sociology.  (2) Other areas: politics/law, economics/business, science/technology, art/entertainment, history/geography, work/leisure, health/welfare.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	(1) Interdisciplinary philosophy as balanced learning (i.e., amount of time spent learning about all subject areas).  (2) Interdisciplinary philosophy as balanced thinking (i.e., amount of time spent thinking about all subject areas).	10/23/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	(1) Interdisciplinary philosophy is akin to a non-compartmentalized mind.  (2) The opposite of interdisciplinary philosophy is a compartmentalized mind.  A compartmentalized mind is pathological, as we see in those people who can murder and then go out to eat.  A compartmentalized mind is also inefficient, because it requires each compartment to reinvent the wheel.  (3) The non-compartmentalized mind is healthy and efficient.  Just as cultures tied together by lines of transportation and communication allow skills and attitudes to migrate from culture to culture, so to does a non-compartmentalized mind allow a free flow of skills and attitudes from one area to another; from one subject to another; from one role to another.	8/4/2000

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Arguments against inter-disciplinary philosophy.  (1) Advancements require intensive specialized effort.  (2) Interdisciplinary philospher as dilettante, amateur, jack of all trades and master of none.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Arguments for inter-disciplinary philosophy.  (1) How wide and how deep to dig our pool of knowledge?  (2) Renaissance man.  (3) A technology for thinking and learning.  (4) People specialize too much, and generalize not enough.  (5) Multiple perspectives, interdisciplinary relationships.  (6) Nothing exists alone.  (7) Knowing more about less (specialization) vs. knowing less about more (generalization).  (8) The combo view.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	At what peril do I ignore thoughts and action about problems, on the personal, national, and world levels, in all subject areas?  At the peril of wasting my life.	02/07/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Consider all things from all 26 subject perspectives, for all four perspectives (total, natural, social, individual), using all conceptual categories and methods.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Find the stuff that fell into the gaps between the traditional subject areas.  Find the ignored but the important.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Five areas of interdisciplinary philosophy.  (1) Notes methods.  (2) Notes maps.  (3) Situation and system theory.  (4) Problem theory and mistake theory.  (5) "X in general" method (see psychology, thinking).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	I am a bridge between (1) The humanities (philosophy, art, music, literature) vs. business and politics vs. science.  (2) Also between philosophy and literature.  (3) I am in no mans land.	03/20/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	I am an interdisciplinary philosopher, an intellectual mutt, an intellectual bumblebee.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Inter-disciplinary philosophy is the view of the intellectual amateur.  Be free, and do what you love.	09/15/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Inter-disciplinary philosophy takes the strengths of each subject area and leaves the weaknesses.  It takes truth where you find it, and applies truth where needed.  IP is pluralist, eclectic, and multicategoried.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosophers are generalists, not specialists.	5/6/2002

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosophy (IP) is really mental cross-training.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosophy is a managers approach, a situation approach, and a problem approach.  A manager walks into a complex situation, and identifies what types of problems (economic, political, tech, etc.) we have, and figures out how to improve it.	11/02/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosophy means you can work on any subject using any methodology (philosophy, science, art).	2/28/2004

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosophy studies all things from all perspectives.  Take any object, like a paper clip for example.  One can study the history of paper clips, the technology of paper clips, the economics of paper clips, the social impact of paper clips, etc.	1/15/2005

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosphy = the big picture = world view.	02/20/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Interdisciplinary philosphy is a way of thinking.  (1) What to think about: 26 category framework.  (2) How to think about it: x in general method.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	IP in academia.  (1) The structure of academia changes over time.  The subjects that are taught in academia today are different from the subjects taught in academia 300 years ago.  In additon, today the rate of change of society is increasing compared to the rate of change hundreds of years ago.  Therefore, identify and take part in newly emerging subject areas (NESA's).  Be forward, not backward, in your approach to academia.  That is, be future-oriented, not past-oriented, in your approach to academic subject areas.  (2) New phenomena emerge in the world and need to be studied.  New technologies emerge.  New problems for civilization emerge.  New ideas emerge.  The world is changing, not static.  Society is changing, not static.  Thus, academia is changing, not static.  (3) Many of the newly emerging academic subject areas make their initial appearance as "interdisciplinary" subjects, for example, environmental science, international development, and cognitive science.	3/15/2007

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	IP in academia.  One argument for interdisciplinary studies is that everything in the world is connected and interdependent.  That view is a type of metaphysical holism.  Therefore, our knowledge of the world is interconnected.  That view is a type of epistemological holism.  Therefore, academia should be interconnected.	3/22/2007

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	IP in academia.  PART ONE.  The 21st century is a time of great change.  One example of change in the 21st is the increasing rate of development of promising technologies such as computers and bioengineering.  Another example of change in the 21st century is the negative impact of humans on the natural environment.     PART TWO.  Changes in worldwide opportunities and challenges leads to changes in what society recognizes and values.  Today, society recognizes that the problems of the world often have multiple inter-related causes and multiple inter-related effects.  Society today values a multi-disciplinary approach to problem solving.     PART THREE.  Changes in what society recognizes and values leads to changes in what academia recognizes and values.  Academia is changing, slowly but surely.  Academia is changing in the structure of the subjects that it pursues.  Academia is also changing in the mechanism it uses to pursue knowledge.  For example, the structure and mechanism of academia is changing due to recent developments in technology, globalization, and the environment.     PART FOUR.  As academia changes, new areas of study emerge, and some older areas of study fade.  One way to describe the field of interdisciplinary studies is as a transition to newly emerging areas of study.  One reason I am interested in interdisciplinary studies is because I am interested in newly emerging areas of study.	5/14/2007

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	IP means (1) Use all your abilities.  (2) Think with your whole brain.  (3) Know about everything.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	People, in order to get their goals, often focus in tightly, to the point where all they see is the goal and nothing else exists.  They do this serially throughout their lives and thus never take the time to (1) Develop the big picture, and (2) Explore, or even just drift aimlessly.  (That is, unless their specific goal is to do 1 or 2).  Thus, the key is to have balance between the special and general.  Many people have excess or lack either way.	10/25/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Reasons for interdisciplinary philosophy.  (1) At any moment your mind may be perfectly set up to solve any problem or get any idea.  (2) Any individual, through any combination of heredity and environment, may be perfectly set up to solve any problem or get any idea, or perform any act.	11/20/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	The interdisciplinary philosophy personality fits in everywhere and nowhere.  Inter-group hovering.	04/12/1994

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	The purpose of interdisciplinary philosophy is to develop a cross-disciplinary vocabulary and cross disciplinary conversations, so that we do not have to re-invent each others wheels.  IP is about breaking down barriers.  IP is about sharing.	2/2/1999

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	We need more interdisciplinary philosophy (IP).  There is not enough inter-subject understanding.  (1) Important results that could be found if "Two heads were put together" are not being found because they are separate.  (2) Methods that could be fruitfully transferred across disciplines are not.  (3) Ideas that could be transferred are not.  (4) Similar findings are not being reported and read by different groups.  (5) Similar conclusions are being reached, but not communicated because of different subject language vocabularies.  They do not understand each other.  There is not enough inter-school (and inter-nation, and inter-language) understanding for the same reasons.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	What is inter-disciplinary philosophy?  Three definitions.  (1) A philosophy of education.  (2) A technique for thinking.  (3) Systematic broadscale thinking.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Who is going to put together the economic, political, philosophical, etc., information in order to make decisions and solve problems?  Inter-disciplinary philosophy is a leaders philosophy.  Inter-disciplinary philosophy is a managers philosophy.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	Why people do not want to look at everything, including themselves.  (1) Anticipatory fear.  (2) Actual pain.  (3) Feeling overwhelmed.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, life.	.See also: Philosophy, world.	7/14/2006

Philosophy, life.	.See also: Problem theory.  What are the problems in the world?  Political problems.  Economic problems.  Health problems.  Environmental problems.  Education, literacy, information, media problems.  Psychological, sociological problems.	7/14/2006

Philosophy, life.	.Statements about life in this section may be metaphysical, epistemological, or ethical.	12/30/2006

Philosophy, life.	.This section is about life.  Topics include: ( ) Complexity and simplicity.  ( ) Negative views.  ( ) Postitive views.  ( ) The system.  ( ) What is life worth?	1/24/2006

Philosophy, life.	"Live simply so that others may simply live", is a very good, commonly expressed notion.  Overconsumption is bad.   Americans overconsume.   Americans are overconsuming the most, and that is bad.  Big houses.  Multiple houses.  Big cars.  Multiple cars.	11/28/2006

Philosophy, life.	(1) At any moment a bomb could go off, or a stroke could hit.  You have to consider this when you try to determine what is important.  (2) Distractions, temptations, seductions, digressions, tangents, side tracks, waylaid, preoccupied.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	(1) Bitching.  Those bitching vs. those not bitching.  (2) Rebelling.  Those rebelling vs. those not rebelling.  I.e., the non-content vs. the content.  (3) Fixers.  Those fixing things vs. those not fixing things.  I.e., the active vs. the ass-sitters.  (4) All combinations are possible.  For example, you can be a bitcher, afraid to rebel, and afraid to do anything about it.  You can be a bitcher, rebelling against the system in thought and word, who still does not do anything.  You can be one who does not bitch, who does not rebel against the system, who works at fixing things anyway.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, life.	(1) How could my life be better?  How can I get my life to be better?  (2) How could my life be worse?  How can I avoid my life getting worse?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	(1) I am interested in the primordial.  Not the soup but the primeval.  The forests in the mists.  The beginnings.  The sex.  The base instincts.  Man is an animal.  A fu*king animal that thinks, with divine aspirations.	7/23/1988

Philosophy, life.	(1) Isolating, withdrawing and abdicating from your life vs. (2) Engaging, energizing, adding meaning and adding purpose to your life.  (3) The former is bad the latter is good.	10/25/2004

Philosophy, life.	(1) It is very easy to get lulled into apathy and complacency by money, pleasure, etc.  Keep learning and keep working to improve the world.  (2) It is very easy to get discouraged and depressed by adversity and setbacks.  Keep learning and keep working to improve the world.  (3) We see from the above two points that life is an emotional issue.	7/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life as a game of skill and chance (luck).  (2) Life as a journey.  (3) Life as tragic.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life as a work of art that each person must create.  This view implies that there are many different ways in which one can compose ones life.  (2) Life as a puzzle or riddle.  This view implies that there is one right answer that the person must discover.	1/26/2003

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life as competition.  (A) Sports analogies to life (boxing, racing, etc.).  (B) Business analogy to life  (2) Life as conflict.  War analogies to life.  (3) Life as chance, opportunity, gift, ability.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life as energy, ability, power, will, pep, vitality, vim, vigor.  The more things you do, and the more you do them, the more you are living.  Doing includes thinking.  It is a view.  Activity, action, speed rush.	04/26/1994

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life is a test.  Mental (intellectual and emotional) and physical.  (2) Life is a puzzle: but puzzles are supposed to have solutions.  Life is a riddle.  (3) Life is a chess game.  (4) Life is good for some, but life sucks for others.  (5) Life is absurd but it is not funny, it is grim.  (6) Life as a work of art.  (7) Life is a game, where the stakes are high, and the rules are not set.  Play your game, not someone else's.  (8) Life is absurd.  Life is for naught?  Life is important still?  (9) What is life?  What are we?  What does life do to us?  (10) In life there are lots of things to juggle, lots of roles to play.  (11) Life is a game of skill, of strategy, and of chance.  (12) Life is a dream, an illusion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life is absurd but not funny.  (2) Life has no meaning, we give it meaning.  (3) Life is rare.  Life has value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life is short.  (2) Life for humans is an ethical issue.  (3) Life is full of good things and bad things.  (4) Improve the world.  You can have an effect on the world.  Increase the number of good things, and decrease the number of bad things.	4/25/2006

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life is short.  Don't waste time.  (2) Life can be difficult.  Persevere.  Give it your all.  (3) Think about everything (figure out).  Learn about everything (find out).  Work on all fronts.  Solve a lot of problems.	7/2/2006

Philosophy, life.	(1) Life, what is it?  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.   People living on earth.  The earth is an ecosystem.  People have some degree of intelligence and freewill.  (2) Life, what to do?  Think about what goals to set.  Set some goals.  Solve some problems.	4/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	(1) Purpose of society.  (A) Find all the issues, views, and arguments.  (B) Find most and best truths.  (C) Create a system to support above inquiry.  (D) Communicate above truths to masses.  (E) Create a society where individuals have resources to do same.  (2) Purpose of the individual.  (A) Find the answers found above.  (B) Think the answers through.  Improve the answers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	(1) What is good in this life?  Love.  Friends, family.  Clean environment.  Thinking, learning, truth.  Justice, equality, liberty.  Beauty.  Goodness, fairness.  Health.  Wealth.  Making a contribution, doing some good.  (2) What is bad in this life?  Injury, illness, torture.  Chronic physical pain.  Chronic mental pain.  Mental illness. Injustice.  Crime.  Oppression, exploitation, slavery.  Poverty.  Ignorance.  Toil.	4/8/2001

Philosophy, life.	(1) What is important in life?  Improving the world.  Knowledge, reason, information, education, communication.  (2) What is important to think about?  (3) What is important to do?  (4) What do I care most about?  Defending reason against the abuses of raw power and the abuses of unthinking religion.	12/1/2006

Philosophy, life.	(1) What is the purpose of life?  What can we do vs. what should we do?  (2) What is the meaning of me?  What is the purpose of me?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	(1) What's good in life?  Fresh air, water, food.  Women.  Being in love.  Sex.  Nature.  Friends.  Music.  Meaningful purposes.  (2) What's bad in life?  Injustice.  Physical pain, disease, injury.  Ignorance.  Mental pain and illness.  Economic poverty.  Political oppression.	2/24/2002

Philosophy, life.	(1)(A) Ends, goals: things to get.  (B) Anti-ends, anti-goal: things to not get, things to avoid.  (2)(A) Means: what you do to get what you want.  (B) Anti-means: what you won't do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	100 years.  36,500 days.  36,500 nights sleep.  36,500 defecations.  36,500 toothbrushings.  36,500 exercise sessions.  100,000 meals.	3/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	A coherent philosophy of life has three parts.  (1) Metaphysics.  What is life?  The whole ball of wax.  The world.  Reality.  Life is short, precious and valuable.  (2) Epistemology.  How do we know?  We know by reasoning.  (3) Ethics.  What to do?  Stay healthy.  Pursue truth and justice.  Pursue knowledge.  Help others.  Be politically active.	5/23/2005

Philosophy, life.	A life spent in books.  What are the drawbacks?  There are at least three issues here.  (1) Experiential knowledge versus book knowledge.  (2) Thought without action versus thought with action.  (3) Reading without writing versus reading with writing.  That is, finding out without figuring out versus finding out and figuring out.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, life.	A maxim: Be happy while confronting and working to solve problems.	9/12/2005

Philosophy, life.	A maxim: Enjoy and appreciate while being productive.	5/17/2005

Philosophy, life.	A maxim: Enjoy the simple pleasures while working to solve complex problems.	9/12/2005

Philosophy, life.	A philosophy of life is composed of three parts.  (1) A metaphysics of life.  (B) An epistemology of life.  (C) An ethics of life.	12/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	A philosophy of life should answer at least three questions.  (1) What is going on?  (Metaphysics).  (2) How do we know?  (Epistemology).  (3) What should we do about it?  (Ethics).	7/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	A philosophy of life.  (1) Find out what is going on.  (2) Take some action.  Pursue some goals.  Solve some problems.  Do some good.  Don't waste time.	1/9/2004

Philosophy, life.	All human life is an exercise in problem solving.  Even if the problem is a question (like "How do I live my life?"), or a predicament (like "How will I get my dinner?")	05/04/1989

Philosophy, life.	All I have is time and ideas.  Money and things come and go.  There will be more or less money.  Things appear and disappear.  Ideas endure.  Time is my resource.  I need to make better use of my time to produce more ideas.  Get more focused and more motivated.  Waste less time.	5/25/2006

Philosophy, life.	All it takes is one man with brains and determination to change the world.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	All our advances can be undone.  They are not locked in.	3/30/1998

Philosophy, life.	All we can do is "mind" and act.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	All you have got is your thoughts and actions.  Stuff (material things) can disappear.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Answers to the questions.  (1) Why live?  (2) What is the purpose of life?  (3) What is important in life?  What matters most in life?  (4) What to live for?  What is worth living for?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Attack (approach) everything from every angle.	02/20/1989

Philosophy, life.	Basics of practical living: Job, doing something useful, and getting the things you need.  Housing.  Transportation.  Health.  Social.	5/5/2006

Philosophy, life.	Beautiful day, no problems, life is good, anything is possible.  Foul weather, many problems, life is pain, nothing works.	07/18/1997

Philosophy, life.	Booze, drugs, mental illness, brainwashing, physical illness and injury, and crime all claimed a lot more lives than I thought they would.  Even in times of peace it seems like carnage.	11/20/1997

Philosophy, life.	Boredom.  I really thought life would be more exciting, with more exciting experiences and actions, and I thought the people would be more exciting.  Boredom kills.  Boredom causes mental illness and pathological behavior.  Boredom is a serious condition.	09/10/1994

Philosophy, life.	Can we enjoy life without ignoring the problems of life?  Yes, we can.  Can we enjoy life while striving to solve the problems of life?  Yes, we can.	11/12/2004

Philosophy, life.	Can you think of anything that outweighs the b.s. and pain?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Challenges and abilities.  (1) Everyone faces challenges, problems, difficulties in this life.  And everyone faces a different set of challenges, because we are all different people.  My set of challenges is unique to me.  My burden.  My puzzle.  (2) Everyone has skills, tools and abilities in this life.  Everyone has a different skill set, tool kit, abilities.  (3) You get to work on a unique set of problems with a unique set of tools.	1/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Climbing is not it.  Music is not it.  Writing is not it.  Love, sex and friendship is it.  Love comes first.  All things from love.  Love helps us deal with adversity and trauma.  Without love we self destruct, and fall apart.  Without love there is just repression and obsession.	02/07/1989

Philosophy, life.	Common philosophies of life.  (1) Work and make money to raise family, put kids through college and retire.  (2) Have fun. Don't work.  Lazy.  Party.  (3) Activists, philanthropists.  Help strangers.	1/9/2003

Philosophy, life.	Complex versus simple.  (1) The truth is not always obvious.  (2) The truth is not always simple.	8/2/2006

Philosophy, life.	Complex versus simple.  (1) The world is often complex, not obvious and simple.  The problems and solutions in life are not always obvious and simple.  The questions and answers in life are not always obvious and simple.  The truth is not always obvious and simple.  Sometimes the obvious and simple answer is wrong.  For example, it is an obvious and simple answer that the earth is flat, however, the earth is not flat.  (2) The answer may seem obvious and simple after you have figured out the problem.  Then again, sometimes the answer can be almost as complex as the problem.  (3) Ockhams razor says to look for as simple an answer as possible.  But don't sacrifice truth for simplicity.  Don't dumb it down.  The notion, "Keep it simple, stupid", has its limitations.	8/2/2006

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  (1) Purity: moral goodness, innocence, isolation from b.s..  Simplicity: we don't need all the mental crap and clutter.  (2) Amorphous vs. differentiated.  (3) Simplicity.  KISS (keep it simple stupid).  Ockhams razor: simple as possible.  Complexity: more realistic?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  Don't make things more complicated than they are (Ockham's razor).  Don't make things more simple than they are (Reductionism).	09/20/1993

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  Folk and Pop expressions of Ockhams razor.  "Cut the bullshit".  "Life is too fu*king short".	09/15/1993

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  Ockhams Razor: avoid needless complexity. vs. reductionism: avoid over simplification.	03/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  Some people's views of things are simple, easy, and pleasant.  Without being reductionist.  Why do I make things complicated, difficult, and painful?  See Ockhams razor.  Do I do it unnecessarily?  How often and to what degree, and with what bad effects?	04/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Complexity and simplicity.  The simple(ton) life.  Long naps, good food, hot babes, clear conscience.  The last one contradicts the first three.	10/25/1997

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  (1) In order to say the complex, you must first say the simple.  (2) Complexity is worthless if it is not right.	07/27/1988

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  (1) There are a lot of things going on in the world and that makes the world complicated and interesting.  (2) What to do?  What to think about?  Think about improving the world.  Think about the problems of the world.  Solve problems.  	6/1/2007

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Life is complex due to number of things.  Number of sub and super groups (classification).  Number of variations.  Natural and manmade things.  Abstract and concrete things.  Number of relationships.  Number of interactions.  Number of choices of action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Life is complex today and tough to understand, let alone deal with.  When it was simple, and we knew less, was there as much injustice and insanity then too?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Life is complex, especially here today.  Tougher to organize mentally.  More confusion, more stress, and thus, more mental illness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Life is complicated, but not that complicated.  Only 26 major concepts, 1000 minor ones.  Plus a lot of trivial bullshit, and lies.  Not much more concepts than you find in a quote book.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Life today in USA is complex.  You have to be organized enough to handle it, survive and thrive.  Or else it handles you.  Life today is so complex that most people don't know what is going on.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Lots of things happening.  Lots of objects and events.  Lots of people and actions.	6/1/2007

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Number of things.  Number of relationships (one on one combos).  Number of situations (group combinations).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  So many things exist.  So many things affect us directly and indirectly.  Much potential control over these things creates many choices.  Complex: inter-relationships, inter-dependencies.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  So many things.  So many different things.  Imagine if the world was only a few hundred miles round, and a few million in population.  Even as I lie calmly, people are being born and dying.  And great scholars write the new great works.  And hacks type.	02/24/1994

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  There is a lot of things going on in life, the world, the system.  There is a lot of people doing a lot of different activities, and there are a lot of different ideas being thought of and discussed.  To some degree, figuring out the complexity of the system is a matter of combinatorics.  To some degree, figuring out the complexity of the system is a matter of how finely we classify things.  There are a lot of questions to answer, a lot of things to know about.  There are a lot of problems, a lot of things to improve.  There are a lot of injustices, a lot of wrongs to be righted.	3/27/2007

Philosophy, life.	Complexity.  Why is the world so complicated?  (1) The world is big in population.  The world contains many people and each person is unique.  (2) The world is big in size relative to humans.  The world has a large geographic area.  (3) The world has been around a long time, relative to a human life span.  The world has a history.  (4) There are many objects in the world.  (5) There are many possible thoughts about these objects.     PART TWO.  Imagine a world that contained two people.  Imagine a world that you could walk around in under ten minutes.  Imagine a world that was only a few days old.  Imagine a world in which only a few objects existed.  Imagine a world in which only a few actions were possible.  Imagine a world in which only a few thoughts were possible.  Imagine a world whose language had only a few words.	4/19/2005

Philosophy, life.	Current attitude.  Life is too short to waste time on jobs and relationships that are not in line with my highest ideals, values, and principles.  Life is short.  Don't waste time.  Don't sell out, don't settle, don't compromise.	12/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	Death of a loved one (mortality), and birth of a loved one (responsibility), will both make you think hard about life and ethics, and help develop a air of solemnity, and dignified nobility.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Describe the big picture.  (1) Problem one.  Humans are having a critical negative impact on the ecosystem.  (2) Problem two.  A billion humans live in poverty.  (3) What to do?  Pursue social justice and ecological sustainability to solve problems 1 and 2.	8/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Describe the big picture.  Earth is a life supporting ecosystem.  A species on Earth called humans exhibits a certain degree of intelligence and thus freewill.  Intelligence plus freewill produces the subject of ethics, including the ability to judge actions right and wrong.  Intelligence in this case involves reasoning, language and science.  That's about it.  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to pursue truth and justice in order to save the Earth.  Good luck.	8/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Describe the big picture.  Life is imperfect.  Life is unfair.  Humans can improve the situation.  Humans can make the situation better.  Solve problems.	8/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Eleven views of life.  (1) Life here and now versus life in other times and places.  (2) Life for the masses vs. life for the outliers.  (3) Life here today.  Work: difficult to find a meaningful job.  Relationships: difficult to find meaningful relationships.  Leisure: easy to get sidetracked by the mindless fluff that surrounds us.  Easy to waste leisure time in meaningless hedonistic pursuits.  (4) Life is an interplay of what you choose to do and what happens to you.  (5) Life = your life, what happens to you in your little world, plus everything else going on in the wide world at the same time.  (6) Life = your mental life plus your physical life.  Your mental life can be very active.  Your mental outlook can be very happy and positive.  (7) Life.  You can choose whether to engage or disengage from life.  Confront or escape.  Withdrawal, isolation and ignore versus engage.  (8) Life is what you make of it, people say.  (9) Its easy to waste your life.  Its easy to do less than you are capable of.  (10) Humans live on an earth in a universe.  Life has psychological, sociologically, political, economic, technological and ecological dimensions to it.  (11) Purpose of life.  Do some good.  Solve some problems.  Make a contribution.  Do no harm.	9/14/2004

Philosophy, life.	Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Have fun, enjoy: hedonism.  (2) Work: puritanism.  (3) Screw: playdude.  (4) Little of everything: combo, variety.  (5) Health: physical and psychological.  (6) Be happy: bliss out.  (7) Be free.  (8) Get the good, and get rid of the bad.  (9) Do what you want to do.  (10) To learn.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Living well.  Justice.  Health.  Freedom.  (2) Life work vs. job or occupation vs. hobby.  (3) Fun, pleasure, happiness, enjoyment.  (4) Sociology: sex, love, family, kids, friends, social feeling of belonging to group, (example, patriotism).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends for anyone.  Ends some people live for.  (1) Money.  (2) Ideals.  (3) Fear.  Fear of death.  Fear of god.  Fear of police.  Fear of social ostracism.  (4) Laws.  (5) Religion.  (6) Entertainment vs.  (7) Knowledge (me?).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends for anyone.  Some things people live for.  Live for emotional happiness.  Live for physical pleasure (hedonism).  Live for freedom.  Live for equality (human rights).  Live for justice.  Live for truth.  Live for love.  Live for peace.  Live to learn.  Live to do most good for others (altruism).  Live to do most good for self (egoism).  Live for money.  Live for power.	1/22/2002

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Do what you want.  (2) Get out of the house, and get new experiences.  (3) Conquer.  (4) Picking lesser evil, picking greater good.  (5) Kicking ass is best.  (6) Talking down to people, acting dumb: I don't take it, and I don't do it.  (7) Play your game, not theirs.  Do things your way, not theirs.  (8) Keep the big picture, get out of house, away from job, away from friends.  (9) Keep healthy, psychologically and physically.  (10) Do what you like to do.  (11) Be brave, fight hard.  (12) Strong starts with strong finishes win races.  (13) Fu*k it, kill it and eat it, or knock it down and take its money (joke).  (14) Search and explore.  (15) Use what you got while you have it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Experience the good first hand.  Experience the bad second hand.  (2) Enjoy, and do good.  (3) Survive, stay healthy, grow.  (4) Pursue truth and justice.  (5) Not go crazy.  (6) Not hurt other innocents.  (7) Develop character and personality.  (8) Set and get goals.  (9) Money in order to get sex, in order to stay healthy mentally, in order to do good philosophy, in order to kick ass in all areas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Get goals (yours, everyone's).  Solve problems (yours, everyone's).  Avoid mistakes.  (2) Protect, provide, maintain, and grow yourself (psychology, physical, economic).  (3) Stay free, stay separate, stay strong, fight.  (4) Cover and develop all fronts.  (5) Figure out all the philosophies, good and bad and why.  (6) Take good points and avoid bad.  (6) Reduce final total pain.  (7) Reduce pain.  (8) Get health and justice.  (9) Forming and reaching best goals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Get stronger.  (2) Collect experiences, collect thoughts and feelings, and collect truth.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) I hate: domestic, civilized, traditional, normal, bourgeoisie. (2) I love: passion, guts, wild, strange, new, perverse.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) I live to learn.  (2) I live to figure out why to live.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Kick ass on the assholes.  Don't let anyone destroy you any bit.  (2) Brave rationalists achieve.  (3) Attack your goals.  Defend yourself from assholes and enemies.  Enemies including yours (you are enemy to them) and them (they are enemies to you), known and unknown enemies.  (4) Study and practice.  (5) Push your mind hard in all directions.  (6) Bravery, struggling.  (7) My goals: career, education, notes, girl.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Live nobly.  (2) Learn truth.  (3) See and do everything (in experience or in mind).  (4) Kick ass, conquer, get successes.  (5) Be your own person, never let your spirit be broken.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Most important thing in life is doing philosophy, and acting on philosophy.  (2) I like going to little traveled areas and finding jewels.  (3) Do what you can to get what you can.  (4) Gain and use knowledge/truth.  (5) When in doubt, say it, do it.  (6) Do what you want, do it well.  Don't waste time, energy, money, materials.  (7) Kick ass, satisfy drives, don't get hurt.  (8) Attack and defend.  (9) Fu*k everyone and everything.  (10) Things to do, and things to not do.  Avoid jail/prison, court/law, and hospitals.  (11) Don't let anyone do you wrong at all.  (12) Live by the highest ethical standards you can formulate.  (13) Have others leave me alone.  (14) Attack everything from every angle.  (15) Fight.  Question, inquire, search, explore.  Feel.  Think.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Never be happy, content, satisfied, or relax.  (2) Get time and head to think.  (3) Development of mind, wisdom, and bravery.  (4) To do the best you can, to be all you can be.  (5) Stay just a step ahead of competition?  (6) Work to get money to get sex.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  (1) Think well and write well.  (2) Learn and do, know and do.  (3) Travel the ideological wilderness.  (4) Kick ass, conquer, pile up successes.  Don't get your ass kicked.  (5) No jail, no kids.  (6) Work hard and play hard.  (7) Survival, catharsis, justice, fight smart.  (8) Rationalist and technician.  (9) Scholar and warrior.  (10) Brave and wise.  (11) Smarter, faster, quicker, cooler.  Stronger: power to act.  Tougher: adverse conditions can withstand.  (12) Live nobly, collect experiences, not go crazy, not hurt others?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Be a rebel, be an anti-hero.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Develop self.  (1) Get head, body, and life set up well.  (2) Get healthy.  (3) Develop head.  (4) Develop, maintain, and repair mind.  (5) Avoid loss of good mind.  (6) Avoid development of shit head.  (7) Develop ideal character.  (8) Maintain soul, spirit, mind, and individuality.  (9) Think big thoughts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Do what want, within law.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Gain sovereignty, freedom, autonomy, independence, in financial, physical, emotional, and intellectual areas.  Depend on no one.  It can occur at any age.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Health, power, autonomy, peace, wisdom, free time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Important things.  (1) Thinking, about philosophy, psychology, and sociology.  (2) Character development.  (3) Action.  (4) Notes.  (5) Not hurting others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Keep the big picture.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Life is pain.  How to live with pain?  Never accept it, and always fight hard against it.  Never get discouraged.  Cure it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Maintain spirit, mind, individuality, sovereignty, soul, and freedom (mental and behavioral).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  To live means to have imagined, thought of, and known everything.  To have been everywhere and done everything.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Why live?  To develop ideal character, mind, and behavior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Work smart and hard at what you like.  Work long, intensely.  Work efficient, effective, productive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ends of mine.  Worst thing is to get complacent, stop striving, and take it easy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Ethical issues.  How should I live my life?  What should I do today?  What kind of society should there be?  PART ONE.  Mindless pursuit of money?  No.  Mindless pursuit of pleasures like food, sex, drugs?  No.  Doing nothing, wasting time?  No.  Complacency, thinking things are fine the way they are?  No.  Give up, resignation, nihilism?  No.  Distraction, escapism,  avoidance?  No.  Conformity, conventionality, normalcy?  No.  Mindless work, work for work's sake?  No.  Mindless popularity contests?  No.     PART TWO.  Then what?  Ceaseless effort and struggle in thought and action.  Help people.  Save the world.  Social problem solving.  How to change the world?  How to make progress over recurrent, chronic problems and constant opposition?  Constant work.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, life.	Ethics of life.  Values.  Industriousness, hard working.  Creativity, creative (Inventor, Scientist, Philosopher, Artist).  Knowledgeable, curious.  Sociable, diplomatic, tactful.  Brave, integrity.	4/25/2006

Philosophy, life.	Ethics.  (1) What is the most important thing in life?  Keeping people from dying.  (2) What is the most important thing you can do in life?  Keep someone from dying.	5/23/2005

Philosophy, life.	Ethics.  (1) Who can you help?  You can help the people that you meet.  (2) How can you help the people that you meet?  (A) You can help the people that you meet by talking with them like a philosopher and psychologist.  Be authentic.  Live authentically.  (B) You can help the people who visit your website by putting useful information on your web site.  (C) You can help people by giving money.  (D) You can help people by donating your time and energy.	1/2/2007

Philosophy, life.	Ethics.  Examine a person's goals in all areas (work, leisure, education, social, etc.) to get a sense of their ethics.  (See: Psychology, drive, goals).	9/2/2005

Philosophy, life.	Ethics.  PART ONE.  Do not get caught up in the useless and mediocre.  Pursue your highest ideals.  (1) Do not be distracted by things that interest you, or that you like, if it is useless, non-productive or counter-productive.  (2) Do not be distracted by things for which society rewards you with money, if it is useless, non-productive or counter-productive.  (3) For example, some people get caught up in a vapid hobby which becomes an obsession.  Some people get caught up in a personal relationship that becomes an obsession.  Some people get caught up in money making which becomes an obsession.     PART TWO.  Do be a progressive activist.  Progressivism.  Activism.  Don't spend all of your time in books; balance thinking, speaking, action.  Organize.	4/25/2007

Philosophy, life.	Everything.  Consider everything.	7/14/2006

Philosophy, life.	Fame, power, and intelligence are not the same thing.  Nor does one imply the other.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Four main activities of most people: make money, raise kids, eat and sleep.	9/28/2002

Philosophy, life.	Four mistakes in life.  (1) If you are focusing only on yourself, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (2) If you are focusing only on your lover, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (3) If you are focusing only on your family, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (4) If you are focusing only on your friends, ignoring the whole rest of the world, that is a mistake.  (5) The world awaits you.	11/25/2004

Philosophy, life.	Gather information about the situation.  The situation is you in the world.  Form best goals.  Pursue goals doggedly.	6/25/2001

Philosophy, life.	Get grades.  Get friends.  Get popular.  Get job.  Get money.  Get stuff.  Get house.  Get food.  Get sex.  Get mate.  Get kids.  Get happy.  Get healthy.  Get buried.  This is how many of us think and live.  Mechanistic survival.	3/14/2000

Philosophy, life.	Get your words together.  Get your logic together.  Get your knowledge together.  Get your creativity in gear.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	Give everything 100% and get it done quickly, or else you will look back and say "I only gave it 50%, and took to long, and wasted much.	03/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Good and bad.  How good does it get?  (1) Health, psychologically and physically.  No hospitals.  (2) No major enemies.  No lawsuits.  No jail.  (3) Intimacy.  Lover, friends, conversation, trust.  (4) Good job.  No poverty.  (5) Time to think, write and create.  Solve problems.  Make a contribution.  (6) Good you in a good world.  Social justice.  Clean environment.  (7) This is how good it gets.  How bad does it get?  Infinitely bad.	12/25/1998

Philosophy, life.	Good and bad.  Is life good or bad?  "Life is pain.", said the Buddha.  (1) How much time do people spend in emotional pain, versus emotionally neutral states, versus emotional happiness?  (2) How many good things and bad things happen to an individual, and in the world total?	9/8/2005

Philosophy, life.	Good and bad.  Life is good, more often than not.  Life is good, most of the time.  Life is good, for most people.  Life is good, even though some people do bad things.  Life is good.	1/9/2004

Philosophy, life.	Good and bad.  List of (1) All the wrong views, and why.  (2) All the bad things, and why.  (3) All the ugly things, and why.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, life.	Good and bad.  What is the worst?  A lifetime of chronic physical pain?  A lifetime of chronic psychological pain?  A lifetime of chronic abuse, oppression, exploitation and injustice at the hands of others?  Prison is bad.  Mental illness is very bad.  Physical pain is bad.  Mental hospitals are bad.	8/26/1999

Philosophy, life.	Greek idea of happiness was to make full use of all one's abilities.  This view vs. the peace and quiet (quietude), rest and relaxation and recreation and recuperation philosophy.  Take it easy, take it slow, layback, mellow out.  Serene machine.	04/26/1994

Philosophy, life.	How to avoid wasting your life?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	How to motivate people to spend hours working hard, often for no pay, in order to educate themselves about the problems of the world, in order to pursue progressive activism, especially in the face of tempting time-wasting leisure alternatives, and in the face of opposition?  How to get people to think critically?  How to get people to be active?  How to change attitudes in order to elicit effort?	12/22/2006

Philosophy, life.	I am in business for myself in a world full of garbage and assholes.  I am a garbologist and proctologist.  I examine garbage and finger assholes.	02/05/1989

Philosophy, life.	I am trying to learn a lot, quickly.  Avoid stress, wasting time, and assholes.  Understand and deal with my neurosis.  Achieve catharsis.  Sacrificing short term money for long term knowledge.	03/19/1989

Philosophy, life.	I seek to see and understand all from all perspectives.	03/09/1989

Philosophy, life.	I shouldn't get so depressed.  If one person is happy, is it worth it?  I used to think if one person was unhappy, it is not worth it.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	I used to expect good things to happen automatically.  Then I began to pray for good things to happen.  Then I began to pray at least for bad things not to happen to me.  Then I began to expect bad things to happen.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	I want to make a difference.  I want to help improve the world.  I don't want to live in vain.  I don't want to die.	4/27/2005

Philosophy, life.	Idealism as holding on to your ideals.  At what point exactly did you give up?  When was it exactly that you were reduced to mere survival?  When did you betray your ideals?  When did you forget your ideals?  When did the practicality that surrounds you overwhelm you?  When did you start grumbling things like, "Its all a fix.  Its rigged.  You can't win".  When did your dreams die?  When did you start to cover, grovel and stoop?  When did you recant?  When did you capitulate?  When did you give up and give in?  When did you compromise?  When did you slay hope?  When did you become practical and realistic?	7/22/2002

Philosophy, life.	If you are merely sitting at home, you have nothing to bitch, gripe, complain about.  The minor pains of living are bullshit.  Massive shit is going down around the world, injustice and pain, and people still obsess and bitch about the little things, trivialities.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	If you believe in progress you believe that your kids will be smarter than you, that they will be born into a better world than yours, and that they will have better lives than yours.	07/18/1997

Philosophy, life.	Importance.  What is most important in life?	7/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	In a wired world there will be (1) More knowledge, to solve more problems.  (2) More choices, to choose from (what to read, buy, etc.).  More freedom.  (3) More efficient, faster, less wasted resources.  (4) More communication.	08/01/1997

Philosophy, life.	In their twenties people futilely try to gain meaning from cigars, wine, coffee, beer, darts and billiards.	1/20/1999

Philosophy, life.	Is love (to love someone and to be loved by someone) enough to live for?  No.  Love is necessary but not sufficient.  You need a project.	07/18/1997

Philosophy, life.	Is the thirst for knowledge all sublimated sex drive?  Experiment: get a girlfriend and get laid and see if your thirst for knowledge abates.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	It is all the same games/situations.  The stakes vary.  The players understand the situation less or more (knowledge).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	It is easy to do nothing.  It is difficult to do something.	4/26/2005

Philosophy, life.	It is not always easy to face the truth, but it is the best thing in the long run.	11/24/1988

Philosophy, life.	It seems like everything good we do or achieve eventually becomes undone, and everything bad we do lasts forever and can never be undone.  Why does it seem like this?	11/02/1988

Philosophy, life.	Its not "Life is good".  Its "Life can be good".  We can fix this place up.	7/13/2000

Philosophy, life.	Know what's going on worldwide.  Find out what is going on in the world.	7/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	Knowledge increases ethical responsibility.  Technology increases ethical responsibility.  Technology and knowledge increase ability and thus power and thus freedom.  Technology and knowledge increase freedom and responsibility.  Technology is merely knowledge applied.  Thus the maxim is, "Acquire and apply knowledge."  Thus the big mistake is to not acquire and apply knowledge.  Life is about acquiring and applying information.  Anti-intellectualism is unethical.  Humans are information machines.	5/10/2005

Philosophy, life.	Letting your life go to waste vs. life wasted by external forces.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life as a totality versus life analyzed into all its various parts.  When people wonder about life they often wonder about life in total.  Is the whole greater than the sum of its parts?	8/23/2005

Philosophy, life.	Life can be discussed philosophically with three main questions.  (1) What is going on?  This is a question of metaphysics.  (2) How do we know?  This is a question of epistemology.  (3) What should we do about it?  This is a question of ethics	11/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	Life can be heaven.  Life can be hell.  Life can be somewhere in between.  Part of it is due to luck.  Part of it is due to you.  Part of it is due to others.  It can change in a minute.  There are no guarantees.  There often is no reason to it.  There often is no justice to it.	8/23/1999

Philosophy, life.	Life can be viewed as a three dimensional web, much like the brain can be viewed.  It is similar to a three dimensional road system, where the object is not to travel every road, but to know how to get where you want to go.	04/12/1989

Philosophy, life.	Life courses can change when an idea dawns on you (or not), when you do something (or not), or when you pick a instead of b.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life in these modern times is essentially a battle of the individual against nature, other people, and oneself.  It is the fight of the ubermensch for autonomy.	09/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	Life is a bully.  You are going to get whooped.  Your only hope is to throw a few punches before you get mauled.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Life is a conga line.  Two steps forward, one step back.	8/20/1999

Philosophy, life.	Life is a constant struggle in ideas, words and actions against oneself, other people and the world.	3/11/2000

Philosophy, life.	Life is a dichotomy.  It does not make any sense.  It is insane, and few people will acknowledge this.  It is an insane predicament.  An insane world.  They have hopes and faith, but the fact is that it is an insane world.  Admit it.	07/23/1988

Philosophy, life.	Life is a job; a quest; a responsibility; a pain; difficult.  Life is not a party; a game; a joke; easy; a fun trip.  Life is serious.  Life does matter.  Life is not inconsequential or trivial.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Life is a journey of pain and pleasure (objective and subjective), with more pain than pleasure.  Life could be better or worse, it depends on the individual.  We can change things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life is a mix of good and bad events, and pleasure and pain feelings.  Objective and subjective perception of both.  Most people get more bad than good.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life is a struggle against (1) Naturally caused injustice and opposition, (2) Injustice and opposition caused by other people, and (3) The pain they both cause.  If you do not know how to fight (techniques), and if you do not have a fighting attitude (psychology), then you will perish.  This is something that most peace philosophies and religions fail to teach.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, life.	Life is about "work".  (1) Work meaning a way to make money to provide for yourself.  (2) Work meaning a way to help society and improve the world.  (3) Work meaning "to accomplish something", as opposed to wasting your life, or destroying things, or fu*king things up, which is really bad.	08/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Life is an experiment.	11/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	Life is different things to different people in different situations.  Some things we all have in common (abstract things).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life is full of good and bad.  A lot of life is waiting.  Instead of waiting for the bad, I am now waiting for the good.  This change in attitude leads to reduced apprehension, less tension, better health (psychological and physical), increased productivity, and greater happiness.	07/01/1997

Philosophy, life.	Life is full of pain (physical and emotional) from problems.  Live as smartly as you can.  Avoid problems as much as you can.  Give a lot of thought and action to this or you will regret it greatly when anything bad happens.  Try to live with remaining pain that comes your way as best you can.  Be prepared.  Avoid future pain.	09/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Life is important because it is rare.  Life's rareness gives it value and importance.  Life has no meaning but it has value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life is like a yard sale; ninety five percent of the time people are trying to sell overpriced junk, and occasionally you will find something useful for a bargain.	10/30/2004

Philosophy, life.	Life is like linear programming.  Maximize a variable (productive work), given constraints of time, money, energy, materials, etc.	05/18/1997

Philosophy, life.	Life is not a game.  Games are inconsequential and fun.  Life is neither.	10/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Life is problem solving.  (1) Find as many problems as you can.  (2) Make as much progress as you can towards solving as many problems as you can.  Pitch in and help out.  (3) Write down the solutions to problems.  Post them on the web.  (4) Determine the cause, symptoms and prognosis of every problem.  Determine the prevention and cure for every problem.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, life.	Life is problem solving.  If you had to pick one, would you rather solve problems, have fun or make money?  I would rather solve problems.  If you had to pick two which would you pick?  Solve problems and have fun.  What if someone wanted all three?  Are you mad?	11/5/2004

Philosophy, life.	Life is problem solving.  Secret of life: we are going to have a lot of fun solving some vicious, nasty, bad problems.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, life.	Life is problems causing pain and suffering.  Purpose of life is (1) Don't cause more problems, (2) Don't make mistakes in trying to solve problems, (3) Learn to and do solve problems (actual and theoretical problems, of self and others, self caused and accidental).  So take care of yourself (physical, psychological, social, financial), and help others (mate, kids, family, friends, strangers).  Life is a problem.  Purpose of life is to avoid mistakes.	10/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Life is serious.  Life is absurd (irrational, illogical).  Life is not funny.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life is the constant struggle to keep the system from lulling you into a zombie like stupor, unthinking, unfeeling, unremembering.  It is the constant struggle to keep your lesser self from lulling you into such a state as well.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Life is the threat of death.  Sex is the momentary absence of no-sex.	03/13/1989

Philosophy, life.	Life is too fu*king short (to put up with any b.s.).	05/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Life is tough, but it can be less tough if you think and use your brains.	03/07/1989

Philosophy, life.	Life now has become a nightmare of pain and injustice.  Was it always this way, and I was just shielded from it?	5/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Life philosophy.  (1) What is the situation?  Earth, 2005.  Humans trying to save the planet from themselves.  (2) What to do?  Solve problems.	10/16/2005

Philosophy, life.	Life strategies.  (1) Living to please one's mate.  People can disappoint you.  I do not advocate this strategy.  (2) Living for money.  Taking the highest paying job.  Spending all your time thinking about money.  Working to make money.  I do not advocate this strategy.  (3) Living for principles.  Finding something meaningful and purposeful to do.  Helping the world.  This is something I advocate.	12/27/2006

Philosophy, life.	Life, job, school, women, can get to a point where you say "fu*k it, I don't care, it just does not matter."  Do not let them break your will, spirit, soul.  Do not let them mold or shape you.  Say the above, not to justify doing evil, but to justify not doing evil (so you don't freak out).  Or say it just to avoid or reduce stress.	06/20/1994

Philosophy, life.	Life, sex, work, school, they are ridiculous.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life: the anal version.  (1) Kick ass.  (2) Don't get shit on.  (3) Stay away from assholes.  (4) Don't get screwed up the ass.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Life: what you think it is vs. what it is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life.  (1) Ignorance is bliss.  People want to be happy.  Therefore, many people choose ignorance.  We are faced with waging an ongoing struggle against ignorance.  A life of non-ignorance will not be blissful.  It will not be easy, but it will be worthwhile.  (2) People strive for illegitimate power, and then people abuse power.  It happens over and over.  There is a ongoing, perennial struggle against abuses of power.  (3) Ignorance and power-abuse are two examples of problems that reoccur over and over, everywhere and all times.  These types of problems need to be constantly addressed.  This is the "same old shit" school of history.  There is no guarantee of a win.  A win is not inevitable.	8/27/2004

Philosophy, life.	Life.  Kicking ass vs. getting your ass kicked.  Fu*king vs. getting fu*ked.  Justly and unjustly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Life.  Life is not a war.  Life is not a fight.  Life is a reasoned conversation, with the other side throwing a tantrum.	10/2/2003

Philosophy, life.	Life.  What is the speed of life?  The speed of a ticking clock?  The speed of sound?  The speed of light?  The speed of events?  The speed of thought?  What is the speed of thought?	3/20/2004

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle = (1) Work: environment, activities, and amount time spent on it.  (2) Leisure: environment, activities, and amount time spent on it.  Possessions, friends.  (3) Psychological aspects: philosophies, attitudes.  (4) Behaviors.  (5) Physical aspects: your body.  (6) Environment: possessions, technology, resources.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle you desire vs. end up with.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle.  (1) Percent you could have chosen your lifestyle vs. couldn't (forced into).  (2) Percent you did choose your lifestyle vs. let others choose it for you.  (3) Percent you consciously did choose your lifestyle vs. drifted into it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle.  (1) Where to live?  Some people put a great emphasis on where they live.  Location is not that important to me.  (2) Who to live with?  Some people put a great emphasis on finding a sexy partner.  A sexy partner is not that important to me.  (3) What to do?  I put a great deal of emphasis on what I do for a living and what I do in my free time.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle.  Amount your are free to choose your lifestyle.  Amount you are not free to choose your lifestyle.  Amount you let others choose your life style.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle.  My lifestyle.  Not married.  No kids.  Low paying job.  Very industrious in free time.  Spend free time thinking, writing, reading, and doing progressive activism.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, life.	Lifestyle.  What causes changes in lifestyle you desire?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	List of metaphors for life.  Life is a: Game.  Journey.  Puzzle.  Riddle.  Artwork.  Dream.  Illusion.  Absurd.  Short.  Rare.  Opportunity.  Pain.  Unjust.	7/10/2006

Philosophy, life.	Looking for a better way of life; one that's not empty, boring, stupid, imperfect.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Lunch analogy.  There is no free lunch (every action has a cost).  Paul's addendum: There is no escape from the lunch counter (action is unavoidable).	11/16/1997

Philosophy, life.	Lunch analogy.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.  And you can not skip lunch either.  You have to buy lunch.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, life.	Meaning of life.  (1) A meaning of life that applies to all people.  vs.  (2) A unique meaning of life for each individual person.	1/26/2003

Philosophy, life.	Meaning of life.  (1) Meaning of life as something the individual must choose or create.  vs.  (2) A pre-set meaning of life that humans either know instinctively or must discover.	1/26/2003

Philosophy, life.	Mental activity.  Many people equate physical activity with life.  I equate mental activity with life.  If you are not thinking, feeling, remembering and desiring, then you are essentially dead.  When you get home at the end of the day, and your mind is frazzled, and you can only stare blankly into space, it is essentially the night of the living dead.	8/31/1999

Philosophy, life.	Mental activity.  Of course, this view would hold that a hyperactive maniac on speed would be the model of the good life.  And such is not the case.  So perhaps this theory has a few kinks to be worked out.  Also, all thought and no action makes Paul a dull man.	8/31/1999

Philosophy, life.	Mistaken ideas of an adolescent nihilist.  (1) There is no one cool.  (2) Even if there was someone cool, you could not communicate with them.  (3) No one knows me or understands me.  And no one can.  (4) I am alone.  Friendship is impossible.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, life.	Most important ideas about life today.  (1) Leisure.  There is less leisure time than you think.  Most people waste it.  They vegetate and do not think or learn.  (2) Work.  Do not take too long to figure out what you love most.  Go for it hard.  Society may try to limit you, do not let it.  (3) Time.  Time flies.  There is less time than we think.  (4) Love/sex.  People do not look hard enough for their true love.  People throw away true love when they have it.  They have kids when not ready.  They spread diseases unethically.  (5) Family.  There is too much emphasis on it.  (6) Psychology.  Get your head together.  Most people, most of the time, are in a semi-healthy mental state, not an optimal mental state, and do not realize that they are.	01/02/1994

Philosophy, life.	Most important ideas about life.  My life.  Anyone's life.  The world.  All living things.  Non-human animal life.	7/2/2006

Philosophy, life.	Most important ideas about life.  There is a lot to know about life.  There is a lot to do about life.	1/1/2006

Philosophy, life.	Most important ideas.  (1) Metaphysics.  Life is short.  Life is a struggle.  It takes all types of people.  (2) Ethics.  Fight for justice.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, life.	Most important ideas.  Stay out of court.  Stay out of the hospital.	10/05/1997

Philosophy, life.	Most people can't see what's really important at all.  Some get occasional glances and then forget.  A few see some of it.  A very few see it all, constantly.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Most people live (1) Unaware of what is going on, or why, and (2) Not really doing anything.	12/12/1993

Philosophy, life.	Much of life is boring and repetitive.  There is no guarantee of reaching your dreams.  And I keep raising the bar on myself, which makes things seem more difficult.	11/28/2006

Philosophy, life.	My life is a fragile thing.  Many parts to go wrong. (head, body, work, home, girl, leisure, etc.).  Many things can go wrong with each part.  Many bad results can happen from each thing that can go wrong.  Same for world in general.  Much work of many different types is needed to prevent these bad things from happening.	06/06/1994

Philosophy, life.	My new, improved attitude toward life and work.  We are all lucky to be alive.  Lets be happy and work hard together to solve the world's problems.	4/17/2006

Philosophy, life.	Negative view.  Life is a series of uninteresting jobs and failed relationships, leaving you disenchanted and unimpressed.	6/23/2006

Philosophy, life.	Negative views of life.  Life is...  (1) Life is unfair.  (2) Life is not perfect.  (3) Life is unjust: natural injustice (by fate), social injustice (by others), and personal injustice (by self).  (3) Life is more stressful and dangerous than climbing.  (4) Shit world, life sucks, people are trash, god jerk.  My job is to make it all better and right.  (5) Life sucks, work sucks, people suck, death sucks too.  (6) Most of your life you are too busy and too tired to think, to do, to care, to enjoy, to understand, and to appreciate (value).  (7) Life is decay, disorder, chaos, disease, and death.  (8) Life is difficult to understand, and difficult to make decisions.  (9) Life is hard work/labor.  (10)  Life will drive you crazy if you let it.  (11) Life is problems, stress, grim, and hard.  (12) Life is disasters, a gyp and a rip-off.  (13) Life is a long, hard, fu*k.  (14) Life is a forced fu*k, a rape, and without grease it hurts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  (1) Everything is not fine.  The world is imperfect.  Make it better.  (2) Life is a struggle against problems and against adversity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  (1) Life is so lifeless, boring, and unexciting.  (2) Life.  If if you are doing it right, life is less fun than if you are doing it wrong.  It is a rip.  It sucks.  (3) Life.  If you are doing it right life is arduous and boring.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  (1) Life is unfair, and life is luck dependent.  (2) Life is imperfect, stressful, dangerous, unfullfilling, unsatisfying.  (3) Life is pain, love, survival.  (4) Life is a series of crises.  (5) Life: there is no magic.  (6) My life is so boring, and so hard.  (7) Life is bad, death is worse.  (8) Life: when it is good it is bad, and when it is bad it is worse.  (9) Life: nobody wins.  Finish high as possible in rat race.  (10)  Life is adversity and opposition, struggle and battle, pain and difficult.  (11) Everything and everyone is against me.  (12) Life is hard work.  The better you do life, the tougher it is.  (13) Life sucks.  Life is pain, complex, and difficult.  (14) All relationships are opposition, stress, pain, and problems.  (15) Most of life you are too busy, and then too tired.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Depressed view: My life is a series of mistakes.	01/31/1989

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life and others fu*k us over.  Best: make it better.  Bad: make it worse.  Worst: sit there and take it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is a battle against others in order to maintain individuality and mind.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is a battle with many fronts, against many enemies, with no cease fires.  Fight hard and long and smart.  Fight your fight.  Enjoy the fight.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is a crappy situation.  Limited resources.  Conflict of interests.  It is not just what we do (as some say), that makes life bad.  The whole setup sucks, logically.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is decay and ends in defeat.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is moving from one disaster to another.  The goal is to avoid disasters, postpone disasters, and don't include others in disasters.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is much dull boring hard work, and little fun and excitement.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is one long painful transition.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is pain with various causes and various effects.  Purpose of life: hurt as least as possible.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is pain, scary, lonely, boring, unsatisfied, sad, degrading, no fun.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is pain.  Living life is living pain.  Recalling life is recalling pain.	03/30/1989

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life is problems.  Problems cause decisions, which cause injustices and mistakes and pain.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  Life.  Imperfect world, absent god, cruel nature, evil greedy people.  I've written this before.	02/04/1994

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  There is no peace.  Life is struggle, opposition, and conflict.  A fight and a race against nature, others, and self.  Everything is against me, in ways and degrees.  Fight well.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Negative views.  What is guaranteed: nothing.  What can you expect: nothing good, a zillion bad things.  If you are ok, use it (ethical imperative), don't abuse it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Never stop questioning everything from every angle.  It is a natural thing to do.  Only from questioning do we gain knowledge of any sort.	02/02/1989

Philosophy, life.	No one thing is worth living for.  A combo of good things might be.  All the future sunsets for example.  Or working towards ideals.  Or righting wrongs in theory and action.  It depends also what you have to put up with.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Nothing feels better than kicking ass.  The purpose of life is to kick ass.	01/16/1989

Philosophy, life.	Objects, people, ideas.  (1) Physical objects suck because physical objects constantly break down.  Cars, computers, any physical object, they all break down.  They all let you down.  Resulting in aggravating repair fees.  Things fall apart.  (2) People break down too, being physical objects.  People break down physically and mentally.  (3) Ideas are cool.  An idea can live forever.	1/27/2007

Philosophy, life.	One view.  What's it all about?  Information management.  The creation and accumulation of ideas, by figuring out and finding out.  How does one do good?  By becoming knowledgeable.  How does one become knowledgeable?  Through thinking.  What is thinking?  Information management.	12/1/2004

Philosophy, life.	Pain and pleasure.  Life is pleasure and pain.  How to deal with the pain of life ethically?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	People are not reliable.  Friends drift apart.  Lovers break up.  You can't count on people.  What then can you count on?  Ideas, principles, values, goals.	10/13/2004

Philosophy, life.	Philosophy of life is composed of philosophy of work, philosophy of leisure, philosophy of social life, philosophy of health, etc.	12/28/2006

Philosophy, life.	Philosophy of life.  (1) Philosphy of life is a collection of ideas, with a logical structure, and a importance structure (hierarchy, order).  (2) Everyone has their own philosophy of life, and it changes as you develop.  (3) Philosophy is any non-science, non-art, non-religion, statement or idea.  (4) Philosophy of life is any statement that answers questions "life is..., life should be...".  (5) Any statement about a part of life.  (6) There are an infinite number of ideas about life, some true(r) and some false(r), some important and some unimportant, they can all be ordered logically.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Pick a purpose in life or one will be assigned to you.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Playful work, serious joy.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, life.	Pluralism.  (1) To understand life, understand all the parts of life.  (2) To understand life, understand all the views of life.  (3) Combine 1 and 2.  To understand life, understand all the views about all the parts of life.  (4) Life is not one thing, life is many things.	4/19/2005

Philosophy, life.	Politics of life.  Sometimes life makes us feel:  (1) Impotent.  Not in control.  Powerless.  Weak.  Ineffectual.  Scared.  Small.  Insignificant.  (2) Worthless.  Useless.  Hopeless.  No good.  (3) Robotic.  Automatic.  Zombified.  Routine.  Exhausted.  Beat.  Numb.  Dull.  Dead.  Spent.  Tired.  (4) Overwhelmed.  Inconsequential.  (5) Alone.  Amuck.  Detached.  Stuck.  Adrift.  Broke.	2/17/2000

Philosophy, life.	Positive views of life.  Life might be unjust.  People might be unjust.  But people have the opportunity to do good.  You and I have the opportunity to do good.  There might be many negative things in life.  There might be many negative views of life.  Nevertheless, we have the opportunity to improve the world.  That is perhaps better than a hypothetical situation of living in a lovely world with no opportunity to improve it.	11/22/2005

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  (1) Life is a miracle (biology).  (2) Life is holy (religion).  (3) Life has value.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  Human life is rare.  3 million years of human life out of 3 billion years of earth.  8 billion people have lived ever.  Only x people have lived since renaissance.  Only x people have lived in last 40 years.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  Life is an opportunity to live, to suffer, and to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  Optimistic view of life.  America is still a big, free country full of opportunity.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  PART ONE.  "At least one" views about life.  (1) One can argue that the life is worth living if there is at least one happy person in the world.  (2) One can argue that life is worth living if there is at least one good thing in the world.  (3) One can argue that life is worth living if there is at least one good thing we are capable of doing.  That is a compelling, empowering thought.  PART TWO.  "Mostly" views about life.  A second set of views looks for some type of majority.  For example: Life is worth living if there are more happy people than sad people.  Life is worth living if there are more good things than bad things.  One could even attempt to argue for a notion of "at least half good in the long term", but what is the long term?  This second set of views is less compelling that the first set because it is not reasonable to automatically assume that life will be at least half good.  PART THREE.  Scope.  When tallying up the good and bad in life, some people look at their own life, while other people look at the lives of the people around them, while still others look at the entire world situation.  I think one should look at the entire world situation.  Some people look at the present, while others look at the present and past, while still others look at the present, past and future.  I think one should look at the past, present and future.  PART FOUR.  There is a point of view that says do not give up hope, even if things are bad.  Keep working to improve the situation.  That is a good thought.  PART FIVE.  Hypotheticals.  (1) If you were paralyzed, and lost the use of your body, how would you cope?  How do people who are paralyzed come to terms with their situation?  (2) If you developed Alzheimer's, and lost the use of your mind, how would you cope? (3) How did people survive the Holocaust?  (3) One can argue that if you can think, you can do something.  For example, if you can think then you can potentially solve problems.  So, in addition to Descartes statement, "I think, therefore I am.", there is also an idea that "I think, therefore life is worth living".  PART SIX.  Sometimes people ask the question, "Since I am not enjoying this situation, why should I continue?"  One possible answer is that the situation will probably change for the better in the future.  PART SEVEN.  Also, consider the following:  (1) In your desire that life should be enjoyable, ask yourself how enjoyable?  Completely enjoyable, with nothing bothering you at all?  That is not realistic.  How happy do you demand to be?  Ecstatically happy twenty four hours a day?  That is not realistic.  (2) Also, consider that your "happy, sad" sensor may be out of whack.  Little bad things may be bothering you completely out of proportion on one hand, while major bad things may not be bothering you enough on the other hand.  Good things may be failing to make you happy, or they may be making you too happy.  The entire issue of emotional responses of happy and sad might not be accurate indicators.   Emotions cannot be used to justify completely whether life is worth living.  PART EIGHT.  These are all valid philosophical issues.  Philosophy continues to have a valid role to play in human life.  One could argue that people in psychotherapy are doing as much philosophy as anything else.  PART NINE.  All the negative views of life seem to be offset by the above arguments.  It might be true that life is often unfair, and people often act unjustly.  Life is not perfect.  The first step is to recognize the problems in life.  The second step is to not let the problems of life completely depress you.  The third step is to work at solving the problems of life.	11/22/2005

Philosophy, life.	Positive views.  The living flesh, and the thinking mind.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Positive, negative and neutral views of life.  (1) Positive.  Life is good.  Enjoy life.  (2) Negative.  Life is a struggle.  Life is unfair.  There is more bad than good.  Life is a bitch and then you die, as people commonly say.  (3) Neutral.  Life is neutral.  The good and bad balance out (baloney).  Life is what you make it.  Life can be good or bad, it depends on your luck.	1/9/2003

Philosophy, life.	Practicality and the system.  How things can go wrong.  One does not necessarily give in to practicality.  One is not necessarily beaten down by the system.  One might simply loose the fire of ideals, visions, and principles.  One might loose sight of, or forget, what is important.  The muses may take a vacation.  You might relax, take it easy.  You might lose the drive and motivation.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	Practicality bribes and threatens you.  Practicality leaves you burnt and exhausted.  Practicality leaves you cynical and jaded.  Whores do it for money.  Practicality is the loss of ideals.	7/1/2006

Philosophy, life.	Principles.  (1) Think, write, publish.  (2) Work hard on a worthy goal.  Something useful.  Something that helps everyone.  Ecological sustainability and social justice.  (3) Don't waste time.  Don't do nothing.  Don't watch television, it is mindless entertainment.  (4) Help other people.  Help everyone.  (5) Stay healthy, physically and psychologically.	4/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	Psychology, History, Philosophy, Literature; these are what keep people going.  At a basic level they are in many ways indistinguishable from one another.  (1) Literature.  How is writing any different from talk therapy?  (2) History.  How is me writing up my history any different from psychotherapy?  (3) Philosophy.  Reasoning is key to mental health.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Pureland.  Lead a good life.  No regrets, no worries.  Goody goody.  Kids running in wheatfields.  Innocent, having committed no sins and no crimes.  Unscathed, by self, others, and fate.  Not bitter, not crabby.  No decadence.  Feeling good and positive about life.  No bad habits or addictions.  All good eggs, no bad apples.  Healthy natural living.  Sunrises and sunsets.  Walks.  Hard work.  Honest fair dealings.  Colorful cereal boxes.  Is this a complete lie, or not fully realistic?  I will not forget the bad if you will not forget the good.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	Purpose in life.  When you choose your own vs. when it is chosen for you.  If you don't choose your own, one will be assigned to you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Purpose of life.  The pursuit of truth and justice.  Truth by getting educated and figuring new stuff out.  Justice by solving social problems.	10/10/1998

Philosophy, life.	Questions.  How do I feel today?  What do I think today?  What will I do today?	12/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	Questions.  What to do right now, this minute?  What to do today?  What to do this week, month, year.  What to do with my life?	7/31/2006

Philosophy, life.	Real life is about making new, serious, monumental decisions in new, serious, monumental situations.  Not trivial decisions in trivial, repetitive situations.	08/15/1994

Philosophy, life.	Reality yields problems, which yield struggle, which yield decisions, which yield action, which yields mistakes or right moves, which yields outcome of a new reality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Rebellion is natural and good.	03/10/1989

Philosophy, life.	Relax.  Enjoy (the moment, life).  Create.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, life.	Right now, in this world:  Someone is polluting the earth.  Someone is going nuts.  Someone is starving to death.  Someone is dying of illness or injury.  Someone is committing a crime.  Someone is having a crime committed upon them.  Someone is being abused  and neglected.  Someone is in pain and suffering.  It does not have to be so.  It can change.  I can help.  That is what is most real.  That is what is going on.  That is what matters most.	2/10/2001	*

Philosophy, life.	See also: Philosophy, death.	4/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	Seems like everything that feels good is bad for you, like booze, drugs, sugar, fat, smoking, lounging around, etc.  Seems like everything that feels bad is good for you, like health food, exercise, etc.	02/10/1989

Philosophy, life.	Self-censorship is a dangerous thing.  It leads to lack of knowledge.  Dogmatism and ignorance go hand in hand.	02/20/1989

Philosophy, life.	Selling out; don't do it.  People sell out for money.  People sell out for the leisure money brings.  People sell out for the comfort money brings.  People sell out for the security money brings.  People sell out for the status money brings.  People sell out for the survival that money brings.  People try to make excuses for selling out.  People sacrifice their ideals for money.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	Similarities and differences.  (1) Everyone is different.  Everyone's trip is different.  ("Trip" defined as life experience).  (2) We all have something in common.  All our trips have something in common.	8/5/2003

Philosophy, life.	Simple joys, yes.  Simple life, yes.  Simple thoughts, no.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Some people feel the prison analogy for life best describes school, job, family, etc.  They are focusing on the freedoms they don't have, not the freedoms they have.  They want total freedom.  They are idealistic.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Stay physically strong and mentally healthy.	03/17/1989

Philosophy, life.	Thank god life is short.  And thank god the years speed up as you get older.  Because life is a big pain.  And the pain increases with age.  There is little joy.  The sooner you get out the better.  Give life 100% effort, and then get out.  To bad we can't commit suicide ethically.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	The big ethical principle is "Don't waste your life".  Figure out what activities qualify as "wasting your life" and what activities do not.  Figure out what activities waste your life least.	4/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	The big picture = everything, life.  Everything is of vast importance if looked at in the right way.	12/06/1988

Philosophy, life.	The days are going to disappear.  The question is, are you going to have anything good to show for them?  Are you going to accomplish anything useful?  Money, material possessions and social status all mean so little.	5/8/2004

Philosophy, life.	The dream, the goal.  Better job, more money, happier me, save the world (earth and people on it) through philanthropy.	7/14/1998

Philosophy, life.	The gaps are what is important.  Most people see what there is.  The key is to see what is not there.  Inventors and artist see what does not exist.  Filling in the gaps, fleshing out the picture, is the key to creativity.	10/30/1997

Philosophy, life.	The ideal life.  The ideal life is smooth; humming like a well tuned engine.  In the ideal life great work is produced effortlessly.  The years fly by without disaster.  Things come together.  The parts fit.	2/1/1999

Philosophy, life.	The modern life is essentially a struggle of the individual for self identity and justice.  One must struggle against everyone else, and do everything (within the legal law) to get self identity and justice.	01/28/1989

Philosophy, life.	The most important thing in life is to change the world for good, hopefully a big new change, but if not then a small usual change for good.  The second best thing is to at least be able to make an effort to make a change for good (even if this means changing yourself for good).  The next best thing is health, and then the love of a good partner.  Fame and riches are not important, they can even be a pain.  Wild sex is not important.  There are so many bad things in life.  So many bad things that can happen to you.  If you are not suffering these bad things then you are fine and dandy and shouldn't complain.	05/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	The nature of reality can be summed up by adding up all knowledge in all subject areas.  Example:  In a world of scarcity and value (economics), thinking feeling beings (psychology) struggle or cooperate to avoid pain and gain power (sociology).	03/17/1993

Philosophy, life.	The nose philosophy.  Keep your nose (1) Out of other people's business, (2) Clean, and (3) To the grindstone.	06/20/1994

Philosophy, life.	The paradox.  (1) Enjoy every moment.  Appreciate every moment.  No matter where you are.  Even in less than perfect situations.  Treasure every precious moment.  (2) At the same time one should be aware of the problems in the world.  These problems should bother you to some degree.  You should be motivated to solve these problems.  One should be dissatisfied to some degree with the current situation.  (3) So this is the paradox, enjoyment and appreciation vs. dissatisfaction and discontent.  Happiness vs. unhappiness.  Where is the balance?  What is reality?	8/3/2002	*

Philosophy, life.	The purpose in life is finding your voice.  Finding what you are good at and what you enjoy.  Find how your mind works best.  Find what modes of thinking and learning you do best.  Find what subject areas you are inclined toward.	3/13/1999

Philosophy, life.	The purpose of life is to do some good by improving the world.  Improving the world means changing the world for the better.  Changing the world for the better means not doing things the same old way.  Changing the world for the better means thinking, writing, speaking out.  Changing the world for the better means not being normal,not fitting into the norm, not adhering to the status quo.  Changing the world for the better means effort, struggle, risk.  It means giving up a life of ease, comfort, safety and entertainment.  Changing the world for the better means running the risk of appearing lonely, poor, and defeated.  Changing the world for the better does not mean going along with the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing, that is, when one is living in a money-obsessed, overly-consumerist, egoistic society.	12/17/2006

Philosophy, life.	The purpose of life is to improve the world by solving problems.  The meaning of life is you have an opportunity to make a contribution, make a difference, improve the world.	1/28/2005

Philosophy, life.	The question, "What am I going to do with my life?" is similar to the question of "What type of job should I get?", yet it is a question that is much wider in scope and much more fundamentally important.  There are different ways to look at it:  (1)  What do you like doing?  (2)  What are you good at?  (3)  What needs most to be done?  PART TWO.  (1) To some extent our situation determines what we can do, for example, by determining the technology available to us.  (2) To some extent the situation determines what we should do by presenting us with a specific set of problems.  (3) However, sometimes we are free to move to another situation that affords us more opportunities or more challenges.  PART THREE.  "What am I good at?"  meaning "What of all the things do I do best?" or "What do I do competently?", not necessarily "What am I best at doing out of all the people in my neighborhood or in the world?".	1/17/2002	*

Philosophy, life.	The ride you have in life can be bumpy or smooth.  The ride you have in life is composed of two parts, one part being the actual events you experience, and the other part being the thoughts and emotions (i.e., attitudes) that pop into your head and how you deal with these.  We can call these two components the "physical" ride and the "psychological" ride.  The two rides are not always in sync.  You can have an easy physical ride (no major actual obstacles) and a bumpy psychological ride (many mental obstacles).  Or you can have a bumpy physical ride and a smooth psychological ride.	9/4/2000

Philosophy, life.	The secret of happiness in life is not to get bogged down in one thing.  Variety is the spice of life, they say.	04/25/1989

Philosophy, life.	The smartest thing a person can do is buy 300 sheets of paper and a pen, and just start writing about life.  Then organize it into sections, index it, and pick out the good stuff, save it, and share it.	03/13/1989

Philosophy, life.	The system crushes people because the system is not flexible and diverse enough.  The system rewards pragmatists, realists and centrists.  The system penalizes idealists, dreamers, and fanatics.	6/8/2001

Philosophy, life.	The system is a mad scramble for stuff, money and power.  The work system (technology).  The political system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system is a routine made for predictability and efficiency.  The routine reduces the need to think and makes new thoughts difficult.  It is dulling monotony.  Designed to avoid pain.  A numbing anesthetic.  It is safe.  The hours and years slip by.  Comfortably numb.  Mental pain is doped and drugged but not cured.  Happy, trivial, games.  Bourgeoisie.  The key is to keep confronting problems, even when you don't have to.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	The system is comprised of subsystems.  The system is flawed.  The system can be improved.  The system is comprised of people, ideas and tools.	4/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system is flawed (school, work, government, etc.).  If you play along you get rewarded with money, fame, women.  If you try to change the system you get penalized with no money, no fame, no women.	7/30/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system produces callous, dastardly, unfeeling, unthinking, narrow minded, farts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system uses people up, and gives little in return.  You can lose a lot trying to please the system.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system, definitions of.  (1) The system defined as life in the United States in the years 1990 to 2010.  (2) The system defined as life in the first world countries in the year 1990 to 2010.  (3) The system defined as life on earth 1990 to 2010.  (4) The system defined as humans living on earth anytime anyplace.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system, how did it evolve?  Who thrives in it, benefits from it, perpetuates it?  Who is destroyed by it?  Is there any alternative?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system, views of.  (1) The system is fine the way it is.  (2) The system is flawed.  (A) There is nothing anyone can do to fix it.  (B) There is something people can do to fix it.  (3) I agree with view 2B.	2/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  (1) "The System" is things like school, work, family, relatives, culture, nation, authority, group pressures.  The system has the effect of making one an automaton, non-thinking, obeying, sheep, slave.  (2) The healthy individual is about thinking, optimizing, disobeying, and bucking the system.  (3) However, there is something to be said for working with others, cooperating, helping others, and teamwork.	2/21/2000

Philosophy, life.	The system.  (1) Bucking the system, rebelling against the system, may lead to living poor, horny, and lonely.  To make progress, sometimes it is necessary to buck the system, to protest.  (2) On the other hand, for the sake of food and a place to live, people often cave in to the system, and are warped by the system, and sacrifice their ideals to the system.  "Being practical" often means "selling out" and "caving in".	12/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	The system.  (1) Dare to think about the system.  Dare to criticize the system.  Dare to describe the system.  List the pros and cons of the system.  List the problems and solutions of the system.  (2) Its difficult for people inside the system to see the system.  Its difficult for people inside the system to to think critically about the system.  Its difficult for people inside the system to speak critically about the system.  (3) Those who benefit from the system are less inclined to criticize and change the system than are those who do not benefit from the system.  But those who do not benefit from the system are less likely to have the tools and resources needed to criticize and change the system.  (4) The system is not perfect.  The system has problems.  The problems of the system can be solved.  The system can be improved.  Progress is possible.	7/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  (1) Some people put a lot of trust in the system, implicitly, when they refuse to question the system, and when they refuse to think critically about the system.  (2) The system is not perfect.  The system is flawed.  To improve the system you must understand the flaws of the system.  (3) The system is composed of subsystems.  Understand the flaws in the work subsystem.  Understand the flaws in the leisure subsystem.  Understand the flaws in the education subsystem.  Etc.	12/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  (See also: Philosophy, systems networks models).  (1) The American system.  (A) Is the American system just?  Is there any justice in America, even 1 percent?  Is there a majority of justice, say 51 percent justice?  Is there complete justice, 100 percent?  No.  (B) Is the American system the best system in the world?  No.  There are other countries doing a better job.  (C) Does the average American have a clear understanding of the way the American system really works as opposed to the ideals of the myth of America?  (D) Do the schools transmit the truth of the actual American system?  Does the mass media transmit the truth of the actual American system?  (E) In the USA, and globally, how is money distributed?  How is power distributed?  How is information and education distributed?  How is health distributed?  More generally, how are resources distributed?  How are burdens distributed?  How are opportunities distributed?  Are they distributed fairly?	5/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Adventure, bravery, romance, and passion.  These things are sorely lacking and much needed in modern civilization.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system.  At what point will you say, the system is imperfect, or further, the system is unfair, or further, the system is unjust?  And how will you respond?  With another wrong?  Or with a way to improve the system?	5/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Definitions of the system.  (1) The U.S. system.  (2) The capitalist system.  (3) The system is not perfect.  The system is not the best system.  Versus those who think it is.  (4) The system can be helped.  Versus those who think it can't.	6/23/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  If we had a healthy system then there would be fewer midlife crises because people would not realize halfway through their lives that they had been working meaningless jobs.	1/1/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Learning to live in society is learning (1) How to get fu*ked up the ass.  (2) How to lie.  (3) How to be a coward.	02/06/1989

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Many people have the prissy isolationist attitude: "The system is corrupt and dirty.  I don't want to be corrupted.  I don't want dirt on me.  Don't bring me down."	5/15/1998

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Modern life is a struggle for catharsis, justice, knowledge, self identity, self autonomy, and mental health.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Modern life, society, "the system".  Modern life is so civilized.  Contra: enslavement and dogmatism vs. pros: refinement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Out of intellectual laziness, by not thinking critically about the system, many people put a lot of blind trust in the system.  The system is not perfect.  The system can be improved.  Recognize the flaws in the system.	1/1/2006

Philosophy, life.	The System.  Some counter-arguments to negative views of the system.  (1) Most of the people in the system are decent law-abiding people.  (2) The system put clothes on my back and food on my plate.  The system gave me a good life.  (3)  I am part of the system.  If the system is bad then it is partially my fault.  (4)  The sensitive artist and the delicate genius are perhaps too sensitive and too delicate, and not enough of an artist or a genius.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, life.	The system.  The system is unfair because the system is set up by the rich and powerful for the rich and powerful.  However, opposing an unjust system by using unjust means is not progress.  The goal is to create a just system using just means.	4/15/2007

Philosophy, life.	The system.  The system.  People go along with system out of desire (greed), unthinking (repression), and fear.  The system teaches cowardice, lying, fu*king others and getting fu*ked.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Those satisfied and content with the system, versus, those dissatisfied and discontent with the system.  Those who are ignorant of the system, versus, those who are knowledgeable about the system.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Those who think the system is fine.  Those who think the system is flawed.	3/12/2005

Philosophy, life.	The system.  To some degree, by requiring and valuing conformity, society tries to destroy individuality and tries to destroy the individual.  We should embrace the different and new because it is a sign of individuality.  And valuing individuality leads to mental health, creativity and freedom.  Repressive conformity is efficient and productive, but also mentally unhealthy, non-creative and enslaving.  It devalues, disrespects and disempowers people.	10/21/1998

Philosophy, life.	The system.  Two important questions.  How to change the system?  To what should we change the system?	4/15/2007

Philosophy, life.	The system.  You can lose a lot and give up a lot running after the American Dream.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	The thing is to make something while you have it, because it will go, everything does.	03/01/1988

Philosophy, life.	The world is full of shit.  (1) Do not let it drive you crazy.  (2) Do not let it make you miserable.  (3) Do not let it stop you.  Do not let it demotivate you.	12/5/2000

Philosophy, life.	The world is imperfect.  I.e. It is illogical, unjust, and ugly.	10/30/1994

Philosophy, life.	There is a lot to do.  There is not a minute to waste.  Do not waste a minute.	7/15/2006

Philosophy, life.	There is no best when everyone is different.	6/7/2006

Philosophy, life.	Things could be worse.  This idea is used as an excuse for passive acceptance of the way things are (the status quo).  This idea blocks progress.  Things could be better.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Thinking ("minding") and acting.  Life is full of problems.  Think and act.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Thinking, writing, and publishing my notes; its not a lot but its all I have.  Not many people read the notes.  I don't get paid for the notes.  I live in a hut.  Its all I have.  Its not much.  Its next to nothing.  That's my life.  Oh, well.  Its better than nothing.  Next to nothing is better than nothing.  Its something.  Its not much, but its something.  Its all I have.  Its enough.  Whoa, Beckett.  What did I give up?  Friends, a woman, relatives, a family, a career, a house, money, and more.  That is okay.  Everyone has to decide what they are going to do with their life.	4/16/2006	*

Philosophy, life.	Those who are at the top of their fields, or on the cutting edge, or are true originals, have no models.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Three questions.  (1) Is anything fun anymore?  Yes, maybe thinking.  (2) Is anything new anymore?  Um, I'm not sure.  (3) Is anything worth fighting for?  Yes, plenty.	2/24/2002

Philosophy, life.	Three topics in philosophy of life.  Ethics of life.  Epistemology of life.  Metaphysics of life.  Make these sections in the philosophy of life section.	4/25/2006

Philosophy, life.	Three views.  (1) My view of my life.  For example, I spent 20 years working on the Notes.  (2) My view of the world in 2006.  For example, I give the human species 50/50 odds for survival.  Humans can have an effect on their own survival.  (3) My view of life in general for anyone.	12/16/2006

Philosophy, life.	To escape boredom, we had to escape conformity, so we rebelled, and then we searched.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	Two different economic strategies, leading to two different lifestyle strategies.  (1) Make little money, and spend little money.  Take a job that pays little, and live a frugal lifestyle.  (2) Make much money, and spend much money.  Get a job that pays a lot, and then spend a lot.	12/28/2006

Philosophy, life.	Two different groups.  (1) Individuals and societies that write and talk but do not read and listen.  (2) Individuals and societies that read and listen but do not write and talk.	6/15/1998

Philosophy, life.	Two important ways to look at life.  (1) Space and time view.  World view, global view.  Throughout time; past, present and future.  The global view helps one avoid leaving anything out of the picture.  (2) Challenges and problems view.  Focusing on solving problems helps one avoid getting distracted and complacent.  (3) The two views combine to form a view of solving the world's problems.	5/15/2004	*

Philosophy, life.	Two philosophies of life.  (1) Health, work, saving money, growth, joy, hope.  (2) Decay, despair, loafing, waste, spending, negative emotions.	4/11/2001

Philosophy, life.	Two points of view.  (1) That's the way life is.  That's the way things are.  That's the situation we are faced with.  Be practical.  Be pragmatic.  Be realistic.  Be a realist.  (2) Try to change things.  Try to improve things.  Think critically.  Speak out.  Be idealistic.  Be an idealist.  (3) The second way is better.  Its better to be idealistic that practical.	10/9/2005

Philosophy, life.	Two questions.  (1) What is going on?  (To paraphrase Marvin Gaye).  What is going on in my life.  What is going on in the world.  (2) What to do?  (Marvin Gaye's sequel album?)  What can I do?  What should I do?	4/24/2005

Philosophy, life.	Two questions.  (1) What will you work toward?  What are your goals?  Do you have worthy goals?  (2) How will you work toward it?  What are your tactics?  Do you have worthy tactics?  Avoid unethical tactics.  For example, for any goal, murder and terror are unethical tactics.	10/10/2004

Philosophy, life.	Two views.  (1) Be here now, pay attention to what you are doing.  Pro: it is practical.  Contra: you don't get to think of anything.  (2) Absent minded, theoretical, imagination, drift, mental freedom.  Pro: think of cool shit.  Contra: Fu*k up what you are doing at the moment.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, life.	Two views.  (1) Friends come and go.  Family members betray each other.  All you have are your principles.  (2) Other people believe that all you have is your friends and family.  (3) I tend toward the first view.	12/10/2004

Philosophy, life.	Various crowds.  Various things people are into.  (1) The picture crowd.  The book crowd.  The music crowd.  The movie crowd.  (2) The food crowd.  The architecture crowd.  The fashion crowd.  (3) The money crowd.  The politics crowd.  (4) The leisure crowd.  The sports crowd.  (5) The work crowd.  The entrepreneurial crowd.  The corporate crowd.	4/12/2006

Philosophy, life.	Very few people talk seriously about the truly important issues and problems of life.  Most people, most of the time, talk about marshmallow fluff.	7/22/2006

Philosophy, life.	Views of life.  (1)(A) Life is good.  Most people, most of the time, act ethically.  Most people, most of the time, feel neutral or happy.  Yes.  (B) Life is bad.  Most people are in pain.  Life is unfair.  No.  (2)(A) Try to improve things.  You can improve things.  You should improve things.  Yes.  (B) Do not try to improve things.  You can't improve things.  You shouldn't improve things.  Do nothing.  Only enjoy self.  No.  (3)(A) Try to understand.  Yes.  (B) Don't try to understand.  You can't understand.  No.  (4) I think life is good, we can improve things and we can understand things.	1/20/2005

Philosophy, life.	We are only a few days away from death without food water and heat.  How quickly and completely we forget this fact.  Yet is this the "reality" that should guide our actions and lives?  Or should the reality of what surely could be?  Or should the reality of what was?  The reality of present is not the only reality.  There is also the reality of the past, and the reality of the possible.	05/28/1994

Philosophy, life.	We get so concerned with staying alive, climbing the career and social ladders, getting stuff and doing chores.  It monopolizes us.  Then when problems arise we have no time to sort out our head and deal with them.  We have no time to meditate on what a good life entails.  Our lives go unexamined.  We have no time to learn and develop.  This is bad.	05/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Web of life.  Nothing is separate.  The artificial divisions of academic departments do not hold in real life.  Everything is inter-related.  Everything is connected to everything else.  For example, politics, economics and technology interact.  Each affects the other.  Nothing exists in isolation.  No person is alone.  No idea is alone.  No thing is alone.  Its not a circle of life; its a web of life.  Its an ecosystem.	10/19/2005

Philosophy, life.	What am I for and against?  In my life, and in the world, what's my platform?  (1) Things I am for.  For Philosophy, psychology and sociology.  For Linux.  For Environment and Ecology.  For Equality and Rights.  For Chomsky's views. For labor.  (2) Things I am against.  Against corporate power abuses.  Against crime and corruption.	12/1/2006

Philosophy, life.	What are you doing?  What did you do today?  What do you do everyday?  What could you do?  What should you do?  What do you want to do?  People get mesmerized by routine.  People fall into screen saver mode, into auto-pilot mode.  Unblinking, unthinking.  Lulled, pacified, placated, appeased, complacent, compromised.	2/7/2007

Philosophy, life.	What do I really want and need?  (1) Time.  (2) Health.  (3) Energy.  (4) Knowledge, information, attitudes.	6/24/2002

Philosophy, life.	What do you need to lead a happy life?  It depends on what makes you happy?  What makes a normal healthy person happy?  In order to lead a ethically great life you need ethical scruples.  What are the factors involved in either of the above lifestyles?  What are the variations of these factors?  How best to get them?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What does it take to live a happy life?  A lot of things working well together.  List them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What good is life without conscious beings, and without the potential for conscious beings to exist?  A million years of flowers blooming.  Are not they still beautiful?  Who is to say the value of things depends on the presence of humans?	10/31/1999

Philosophy, life.	What happens.  People get sucked into the system.  People are drawn into a maze to which they see no escape.  People lose the ability to envision an alternative.  People get comfortable and complacent, seduced by comfort, distracted by fluff.  As a result, people lose sight of what is important, and people waste their lives.  It is a constant struggle to live authentically.  One must constantly challenge oneself to live a more ethical life.  One must risk facing discomfort and stress in order to do good.  One must sometimes give up money and love in order to live a better life.  You may feel poor and alone at times.	1/1/2007

Philosophy, life.	What if no one did nothing?  What if we all took a "do nothing" philosophy?  What if we all took a "do bare minimum" philosophy?  What would happen to society?  What would life be like?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What is life about?  Life is about pursuing what is most important.  What does "most important" mean?  Importance is a value judgment that we ascribe to things.  Most important for a specific individual vs. most important for humanity.  The things we consider most important change as we change as individuals.  The things we consider most important change as society changes.  The things we consider most important change as the situation changes.  The things we consider most important change as we become better at perceiving or judging what is important.	6/30/2004

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  How much is a human life worth?  (1) Cost to maintain a human.  How much does it cost to maintain a human?  How many dollars are spent on food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, etc?  (2) Price of work done by a human.  The economic worth of the work that a human produces over a lifetime.  For example, if you make $40,000 a year for 40 years.  (3) The twisted logic of the unjust system of slavery in the United States let people put a price on humans.	9/8/2005

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  How much is a human life worth?  The monetary reward for catching a criminal.	9/8/2005

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  How much is a life worth?  $1 of chemicals.  $10,000 for a hit man.  $1,000,000 average lifetime total job earnings.  Can you put a dollar value on the good, or the bad, that one can do in a lifetime, or on the second it takes to kill or save another person?	05/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  How much work (mental and physical) (creative and non-creative) can you do in a life?  How much is that work worth in dollars?  Is that how much life is worth?  (If we say a working life of fifty years: 10 hrs/day times 6 days/week equals 60 hrs/week.  Which equals 3000 hrs/year.  Or 150,00 hours in fifty years.  At a payrate of $10/hr this equals 1.5 million dollars.  At a payrate of $20/hr this equals 3 million dollars).	4/28/1999

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  How to convert between dollars and human lives.  Of course, human lives are priceless.  But consider, if a human can live today on ten thousand dollars a year, then one billion dollars equals one hundred thousand person-years.  That is to say, at a cost of living rate of ten thousand dollars a year, one hundred thousand people could live for a year on a billion dollars.	8/21/2004

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  If life is priceless, then surely it is worth more than a million dollars.  How much money is that per each second of your life?  If you live 100 years, that is 36500 days, or 876,000 hours, which works out to $1.15 per hour.	4/28/1999

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth?  Life is worth a lot, but death is cheap.  As cheap as $10,000 for a hit man.  As cheap as the price of a bullet.	4/28/1999

Philosophy, life.	What is life worth.  If you valued life at its actual worth, how much would that worth be, and how would you live?	7/21/2000

Philosophy, life.	What is life?  What is living?  How to do it well?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What is most important in life?  How to act?  What to do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What is most important?  Life is about ideas first, then actions, and finally stuff.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	What is the meaning of life?  (1) Semantic meaning.  Life means itself.  It signifies nothing.  (2) Biological definitions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What is the situation?  What to do?  (1) World.  There are too many humans on earth.  Humans are destroying the environment.  (2) USA.  Bush lied the US into a war for oil profits.  (3) My life.  Trying to stay healthy.  Trying to make a living doing something meaningful and useful.  Trying to write something meaningful and useful in my spare time.	7/14/2006

Philosophy, life.	What is worth living for?  What is worth putting up with b.s.?  (1) For me, what I feel is worth living for and not?  (A) Family: no.  Old blood: no.  New blood: no.  (B) Money: no.  (C) Community service: no.  (D) Society: no.  (2) For others, what they feel is worth living for and not.  (3) Is anything worth living for?  Is anything not worth living for?  When should we kill ourselves?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, life.	What matters?  Information, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, science, philosophy, reason.  Idiotic jobs run by shallow, narrow people are of less consequence.	9/5/2005

Philosophy, life.	What should I do today?  What should I do with my life?	12/22/2006

Philosophy, life.	What should I do?  How should I live?  There are many parts or components to life.  There are many things going on.  There are many choices or possible courses of action to be evaluated.	12/22/2006

Philosophy, life.	What things are most important in life?  All else is avoidance, denial, repression.	4/27/2005

Philosophy, life.	What to do?  Teach ethics.  Effecting change, effecting progress, is about teaching.  The communication of ideas.  And its about teaching ethics.  Teaching all you've learned, especially when new, true and different.	12/17/2006

Philosophy, life.	What to say at end of life.  "I didn't accomplish all I wanted, but I tried hard and got some of it done".	12/30/1995

Philosophy, life.	What's on the line in life?  What's at stake in life?  (1) What's at stake in life for humans.  All the good things: truth, justice, love.  All the bad things: war, crime, murder, sickness, accidents, emotional pain, hate, violence.  Everyone gets a chance in life to pursue the good and struggle against the bad.  That's why human life is important.  That's why life matters for humans.  Humans can think, feel, and do.  Try it some time.  Everyone will experience good and bad things of various types and degrees as a result of circumstance.  Humans are ethical beings, capable of recognizing and doing right and wrong.  Thus life is an ethical situation.  (2) What's at stake in life for animals.  Many animals besides humans have rich mental lives, capable of memory, emotion, and thought.  Life is important for non-human animals because non-human animals are sentient beings.  (3) What's at stake in life for plants.  Life for a plant is less complicated.  Life for plants is important because plants support sentient beings like human and non-human animals.	7/8/2006

Philosophy, life.	What's the meaning of life?  (1) Solve problems.  Save the world.  (2) Formulate some worthy goals and pursue those goals.	8/13/2006

Philosophy, life.	When I was young I hoped for a simple, stressless, uncluttered, peaceful life.  Hippie, Zen, rural, happy, stagnant, boring.  But the real world is not, and cannot ever be, that way.  Conflict is inevitable.  Now I would not even want the world, or my life, to be that way, if effort (no matter how stressful) could make things better overall.  Let the world be complex, cluttered, turbulent, stormy, stressful, and effort filled.  Life is better than it was two million years ago, and I am fighting for an even better world.	05/20/1994

Philosophy, life.	When you are on top, avoid making mistakes.	06/08/1989

Philosophy, life.	When you dislike yourself, or are apathetic to yourself, you don't take care of yourself.  When you like yourself, you take care of yourself, and realize the great value and importance of (your) life, and also the great fragility of life.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	When you get right down to it, life is like this: Massive pain and injustice exist (self inflicted, other inflicted, and naturally inflicted).  Yet there exists the opportunity to do something about it.  We can lessen the pain and injustice.  Right?	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Work vs. play.  Fun vs. not fun.  Easy vs. hard.  You can have six combinations and six types of activity to which these combinations would apply.	04/26/1994

Philosophy, life.	Wrong views on life, and commentary on them.  (1) You can't fight city hall.  (2) Whatever will be, will be.  (3) It is all part of God's plan.  (4) Everything has been thought of.  (5) You can't do anything about it.  (6) It is not my job.  (7) Mind your own business.  (8) Live and let live.  (9) Head in sand.  (10) Not my problem.  (11) Does not affect me.	06/10/1997

Philosophy, life.	You can do things your way or their way.  Do it your way.	02/05/1989

Philosophy, life.	You can't let your job or physical or psychological problems or pains define who you are, what you can and can't do, and what you can and can't become.  They will only hold you back if you let them.  Just because you can't land a job, it doesn't mean you should say "I am not capable of doing that task".  Don't give up on yourself.  Keep striving.  Keep working, keep producing.	7/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	You can't polish shit.	01/16/1989

Philosophy, life.	You wake up one day.  That's it, that's life, you are alive.  You can't expect much more than that.  Wanting more is ok.  Expecting more is being a whiner.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, life.	Your life = you + your environment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	.This section is about metaphysics.  Topics include: ( ) Category systems.  ( ) Language and metaphysics.  ( ) Logic and metaphysics.  ( ) Science and metaphysics.  ( ) Things.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, metaphysics.	(1) Physical things either exist or do not exist.  Science proves the facts.  (2) Ideas are an interesting and important area of metaphysics.  The idea world.  The birth of ideas and attitudes in an individual mind, and in a culture.  The creation of words to name ideas.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, metaphysics.	(1) To think of an idea makes that idea a reality.  (2) We think using language.  Therefore language creates a reality to some degree.  (3) To name something makes it a concept or category.  (4) The meanings of words are always changing.  Therefore our concepts are always changing.  Therefore (perceived) reality is always changing.  (5) To some degree, reality is what we perceive it to be.  (6) These are all arguments grounded in Continental philosophy.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Categories.  (1) The unimaginable.  The unthinkable.  The incomprehensible.  The illogical.  The ineffable (vs. anything we can imagine, or comprehend or sense).  (2) The as yet unthought of (whether true or false) (ex. future inventions and theories).  The unknown.  (3) The thought of (whether true or false).  The thought of and forgotten.  (4) The unsayable (whether directly or indirectly).  (5) What was and will never be again.  (6) The impossible to be.	08/07/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Categories.  Logic and math, philosophy and science (methods), technology, arts (communication), religion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  (1) All category systems and classification systems are metaphysical systems  (2) Category systems and arguments pro and contra mine or anyone's  (3) Categories and maps: mine vs. others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  (1) Matter: physical sciences.  (2) Life: biological sciences.  (3) Mind: biology and psychology.  (4) Society: social sciences.  (5) Religion: lack of evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  (1) Philosophy and science: ways of being (psychology).  (2) Art and technology: types of things.  (3) Behavior, action, and practice.  (4) Sociology, communication.	01/08/1994

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  A knowledge map is (1) An assertion of the metaphysical nature of reality.  (2) An ethical assertion about what's important in life. (3) An way of organizing the mind.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Everything.  (1) Everything that exists.  (2) Everything that exists, existed, and will exist.  (3) The universe.  (4) Reality.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Knowledge Maps are category systems, done here in outline form, done originally as maps or pictures.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Old and out of date maps vs. current maps.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Other people's categories or classification system maps.  (1) Artistotle's categories.  (2) Dewey decimal system.  (3) Library of congress classification.  (4) Roget's Thesaurus.  (5) Encylopaedia Britannica Propaedia.  (6) College course catalogs.  (7) Quote books.  (8) Textbooks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Paul current maps: total reality, natural world, world of man (social groups), world of individual, world of Paul.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Perspectives: total, natural, social, individual.  Sociology: humans in general, or any specific society.  Individual: anyone in general, me, or any other specific individual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Relationships of the subjects.  Effects of and on each other.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Thinking: what are the most important subjects to think about, by perspectives, (see contents by importance)?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Category systems.  Thinking.  I want to know: (1) Everything about everything.  (2) Everything about most important things.  (3) Most important things about everything.  (4) Most important things about most important things.  (5) Most important things to live.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Concepts: mind, matter, cause/history/change, time and space, self/person/identity, reason/thinking, emotions.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Epistemology of Metaphysics.  Types of tests, proofs, arguments, methods, inquiry for existence of x, and nature of x.  (1) Logical proofs (words).  (2) Mathematical proofs.  (3) Scientific proofs (empirical evidence).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Everyday metaphysics.  (1) Creating, deleting, and renaming categories.  Names, words, and their definitions  (2) Changing category relationships.  (3) Creation of ausblikt (point of view) or weltanshaung (world view).	02/15/1997

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Existence and probability: chances it will come to be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Existence and time: did exist, does exist, will exist.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	History of metaphysics.  (1) History of existence of things.  (2) History of philosophy of same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Language and metaphysics.  (1) Language (your vocabulary) limits what and how you can think about?  (2) Language (your vocabulary) limits what you can talk about?  (3) Language (your vocabulary) limits your world?  (4) "The limits of my language is the limit of my world.", to quote Ludwig Wittgenstein.  (5) Defining x (see also language).  (6) What is it, and what is it not.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Language and Metaphysics.  (1) Naming is the process of creating logical and useful categories?  We see things, we name them.  Where is the complication in metaphysics?  (2) Everything with a name doesn't always exist.  (3) New words for new things or ideas.  (4) Every time we create a new word, the metaphysical status of the world changes (6/28/93).	06/12/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Logic and metaphysics.  Metaphysics is an exercise in set theory.	08/07/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Magic, myth, religion and their relation to metaphysics.  It does not pay to believe in things that do not exist, no matter how much people would like them to exist.  See: Religion section.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics as traditionally formulated and defined and construed is really only of historical importance and value.  The existing areas of interest in metaphysics are really better attacked by physicists and psychologists.	8/8/1998

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics consists of the sciences plus everything else; physical things, mental things, supernatural things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics is a joke today.  Metaphysics is an outmoded subject worthy only of study for its historical importance.  Science killed metaphysics.  Each subject area should handle its own metaphysics.  We should disband metaphysics as a subject in philosophy due to it being so meager.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics is about objective (real) and subjective (psychological) categories, classifications, relations, and associations of ideas or concepts (simple to complex), expressed as words and language, which depend on semantics or meaning.	05/03/1994

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics is becoming an outdated term.  In the past, a hundred years ago, if one was discussing everything, all reality, not just science alone, nor philosophy alone, nor art alone, one might say that one was discussing metaphysics.  However, today, one is much less likely to use that term.  The way academic philosophy departments use the term "metaphysics" is hopelessly outdated.       Another related vocabulary problem is that the term "metaphysics" is increasingly being coopted by huckster new-agers to refer to just about any figment of the imagination.  The way new-agers use the term "metaphysics" is hopelessly vague and ambiguous.  Thus I do not like to use the term "metaphysics" because I find it not very useful, being that it confuses more than it clarifies.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Metaphysics problems.  (1) Denial of existence of things that are.  (2) Imagining things exist that do not.  I.e., believing in the non-existent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Mind and metaphysics.  An attitude (thought + emotion) is a thing.  A new attitude is a new thing.  A new attitude can change the way we think about everything else.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Modern metaphysics.  (1) Physics.  Space and time.  Matter and energy.  Void, vacuum, space.  Atoms and molecules.  (2) Biology.  Life.  DNA.  Self-replicating.  (3) Consciousness.  Self-aware.	6/7/2004

Philosophy, metaphysics.	New words for new stuff and new ideas.  All information we add about x changes our metaphysical view of x.  It can grow.  Every book is a change in world metaphysics.  Or every book creates its own metaphysical world.  The way things are vs. the way we think they are.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Questions about metaphysics (in general) vs. metaphysical questions (about things).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Questions.  List of metaphysical questions.  (1) What exists and what doesn't exist?  (2) What is real and what isn't real?  (3) Does x exist?  Is x real?  (5) Purpose of x.  (6) Origin, development, decay, death, of x.  (7) Past, present, future (destiny) of x.  (8) Causes and effects of x.  (9) What is (ultimate nature of) x?  (10) What is true?  (11) Why am I here (ethics)?  (12) What does it mean to exist (to be)?  (13) What does it mean to be alive?  (14) What does it mean to be human?  (15) What does it mean to be me?  (16) What's life all about?  (17) What the hell is going on?  (18) "What's It All About, Alfie?"  as sung by Johnny Matthis.  (19) "What's Going On?", as sung by Marvin Gaye.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Realism vs. anti-realism.  PART ONE.  Realism vs. anti-realism in all areas. (1) Real.  Physical stuff is real.  Utterances about unicorns are real.  Thoughts, emotions and mental images of unicorns are real.  (2) Not real.  Imaginary.  Unicorns themselves are not real.     PART TWO.  Realism and antirealism in mathematics.  (1) Real.  Groups of physical objects are real.  Written symbols of numbers are real.  Utterances about numbers are real.  Thoughts, emotions and mental images regarding numbers are real.  (2) Not real.  Imaginary numbers (ex. square root of negative two), are they real or not?     PART THREE.  Realism and antirealism in science.  Theoretical constructs that we do not have evidence for are not real?  Things that we have evidence for but have never seen (ex. electrons), are they real?     PART FOUR.  Realism and antirealism regarding the symbols used in logic, math and language.  They are real symbols.  They are written down on paper.  They refer to real things?  Not always.  Example: fictional characters are imaginary.     PART FIVE.  Realism and antirealism regarding particulars and universals, or concrete and abstract.  (1) The particular and concrete are real physical objects, made of matter and energy.  Time and space, are they real?  They are relative on a large scale.  They break down on a small scale.  (2) The universals are ideas only.  Things that are ideas only are imaginary.	1/1/2004

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Relationships of metaphysics to other subjects or other branches of philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Science and Metaphysics.  (1) Things may exist which we have not discovered or invented or thought of.  (2) Everything thought to exist does not necessarily exist.  Example, ghosts or other wrong theories.  (3) All information we gain about "x" changes our metaphysical view of "x" and the world.  Every time we discover a new fact or even a new hypothesis, the metaphysical status of the world changes.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Science and metaphysics.  The most accurate picture of reality (what exists, and what does not) has been achieved by science.  Empirical data, describe, explain, predict.  Ethics (esp. social policy) should be based on science, and scientific data.  Philosophy is just clean up.	11/29/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Science and metaphysics.  What can science do that metaphysics can not?  What can metaphysics do that science can not?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Science and metaphysics.  Where (which subject areas and views) has metaphysics philosophy been definitively replaced by scientific discovery?  Where does metaphysics definitively still reign?  Where is there still big debate between both?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Situations and metaphysics.  (1) What exists in your situation?  (2) What is happening in your situation?  (3) What is about to or going to happen in your situation, as it progresses now, or given any change?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Some arguments in metaphysics.  (1) Things are not the way they seem.  (2) The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.	10/30/1994

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Some metaphysical views.  (1) Nothing exists; the world don't exist; we don't exist vs. something does exist; the world exists; we exist.  (2) Things that exist or don't.  Things that we know about or don't.  Things that affects us (directly/indirectly) or not.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	The basic test for existence is does it affect our lives?  But belief in ghosts can affect our lives, so belief in ghosts is real, but not ghosts.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	The most important metaphysical topics are not those of physics (matter and universe).  The most important metaphysical topics are the nature of man (mind, evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, rights); society (micro-sociology and macro-sociology); and the biological environment.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, metaphysics.	The old topics of academic philosophy metaphysics are fading.  New topics are taking their place as important.  The new metaphysics: (1) The virtual, digital world.  (2) The online worldwide network.  (3) Biology-machine combinations.  (4) Digital immortality.  (5) Intelligent machines.  (6) Human as information.  (Doxastic information (belief) and emotional information).  (7) Cloning.  (8) Life extension.  Longevity.  Physical immortality.  (9) The Environment.  Changing views of nature.  End game scenarios.  (10) Collapse of time and space due to communication and transportation advances.  (11) One world language.  (12) Other planets.  Other life.  (13)  Epistemology.  Putting heads together: (A) Face to face.  (B) Online in real time.  (C) Reading.  (D) Discussion, debate and argument among people is the best way to make progress.  It is the fastest, and it generates the most views.	11/27/1999

Philosophy, metaphysics.	There are many things that have traits of all of the following: (1) A business: when someone tries to do it for profit or make a living at it.  (2) A technology.  Practical approaches.  (3) An art.  When it can't yet be scientifically formalized.  (4) A science.  When it can be partially scientifically formalized.  (5) A philosophy.  A general view of the subject.  (6) A history.  A chronological side.  (7) A question mark.  For the unknown side.  (8) If this is so, then things are pluralistic, made of parts that are related to each other, like a web.	7/14/2002

Philosophy, metaphysics.	There is the real world and the imaginary world.  The imaginary world includes things like mistaken beliefs, false statements, works of fiction, lies, dreams, hallucinations, etc.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things exist because we can all see and feel them.  We give them names which mean the things.  Where is the complication?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  "X" any thing (see also psychology: x in general).  Definitions of x.  (1) Origin, nature, purpose, qualities, structure, mechanism.  (2) Name it, describe it, explain it (causes, effects).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  (1) Mental phenomena: emotions, thoughts, memories, new ideas, questions, etc.  (2) Physical things: brain states, neuronal states.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  (1) Reality (physical and mental?).  (2) Universe, cosmos (physical), world/earth, life, humans, me.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  (1) The thought and the unthought.  (2) The named and the unnamed.  (3) The spoken and the unspoken.  (4) The acted and the unacted.  (5) The experienced and the unexperienced.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  (1) Things that were and will never be again.  Unobserved by humans.  Lost forever.  Beauty faded.  (2) If a tree falls and no one observes it, did it fall?  Solipsism?	9/15/1998

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  (1) What was and will never be again.  (2) What is.  (3) What is yet to come.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Change, time, age.  Birth, origin; develop, growth; stagnation; decay; death.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  General vs. specific.  Abstract vs. concrete.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Ideas, words, and actions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Is the earth real?  Well, it sure feels cold and hard.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Metaphysical classifications.  Parts of life, today or always.  Eat, sleep, fu*k, wash, shit.  Psychology/sociology.  Work/leisure.  Health/welfare.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Metaphysics (or sociology) as business.  Everything is business?  Deals, exchanges, contracts, and promises.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Metaphysics of physical sciences (see physics).  Space and time, matter and energy, and forces.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Mind, body, soul (?).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Natural vs. manmade.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Organic (capable of life) vs. inorganic (incapable of life).  Animate vs. inanimate (same as above).  (2) Alive vs. dead (previously alive).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Reality vs. illusion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Situation theory.  States, situations, environments, relationships, events, qualities or characteristics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Spatial order (structure).  Temporal order (cause and effect).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Subjective (perceived) vs. objective (actual).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Supernatural, other worldly, spirit, god.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  The possible and the impossible.  The undiscovered and the undiscoverable.  The uncategorized and the uncategorizable.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  The self (see: Psychology, personality, self identity).  Who am i?  Who speaks?  Problem of change of self through time.  I think therefore I am (Descartes).  I feel pain, therefore I exist.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  The unborn, do they exist?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  The uncategorized, the uncategorizable, and new categories.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  The unperceived.  If a tree falls and no one hears does it exist?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Things that exist (1) Only as ideas.  (2) As ideas and physical objects (the unnamed).  (3) As ideas, physical objects, and words (the named).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Things.  Total (reality) is sum of nature, socio-cultural systems, individuals, me.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Three things: There is everything that exists outside our heads.  Secondly, there is the way we think or "mentalize".  Thirdly, there is the way we talk (communicate) about everything, including our thoughts, by using language (and other media).     PART TWO.  Three problems: New ideas do not necessarily generate new words.  Secondly, new words do not necessarily generate new ideas.  Thirdly, new things existing outside our heads do not necessarily generate new ideas or new words.  (Imagine if the above three problems were not so.  What kind of world would that be?)     PART THREE.  Any combination of change among the above three things is possible: If the actual thing, the mental perception of the thing, and the word for the thing all change in sync then no problem.  If none of them change then no problem.  If any one of them change but the other two do not change then that is a problem.  If any two of them change but the other one does not change then that is also a problem.	11/15/2001

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Two metaphysical mistakes.  (1) It is a mistake to think something exists that does not exist.  (2) It is a mistake to think something does not exist that does exist.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, metaphysics.	Why is metaphysics important?  In the middle ages people believed in ghosts and wasted a lot of time in fear.  The concepts we use to explain and think about the world are important.  They can be wrong or incomplete (half right).	08/30/1993

Philosophy, people.	.See also: Philosophy, ethics. > People.	11/30/2004

Philosophy, people.	.This section is about people.  Topics include: ( ) Bad traits.  ( ) Good traits.  ( ) Ideal.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, people.	(1) Everyone is different.  (2) Everyone has things in common.  (3) How is that possible?  People are similar in some ways but different in other ways.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, people.	(1) Faces of the twenty-somethings: confidence based on energy and goals.  (2) Faces of the fifty-somethings.  (A) Blank sheet: nothing occurs to them.  (B) Brave front.  (C) Not sure what hit them.  (D) Still got a few tricks up their sleeves.  Not dead yet.	8/4/2001

Philosophy, people.	(1) Metaphysics: what are they: stupid, assholes.  (2) Epistemology: how can you tell: the way they act.  (3) Ethics: what should you do about it.  (4) Aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	(1) Positive view.  Most people are good most of the time.  (2) Neutral views.  Most people want to be good but fail miserably.  The good and bad that people do balances out to zero (baloney).  (3) Negative views of people.  Most people are unethical as far as they can get away with it, or even if they have to pay a minor punishment.	1/9/2003

Philosophy, people.	(1)(A) If you find that most people amaze and inspire you then what does that say about you relative to them?  Does it say that they are better than you?  Does it say that you have a sense of wonder and curiosity?  Does it say you are easily amused?  (B) If you find that most people disappoint and bore you then what does that say about you relative to them?  Does it say you are too critical?  Does it say that you are better than them?  Does it say you are depressed?  (2)(A) If you find that you have much in common with most people then what does that say?  Does is say you are a clone, a sheep, one of the masses?  (B) If you find that you have little in common with people then what does that say?  Does it say you are exceptional?  Does it say that everyone is different?  Does it say that you are different and they are all the same?	5/25/2002

Philosophy, people.	A few people are good.  Most people are part good and part bad. A few people are bad.	5/14/2003

Philosophy, people.	At the NYPL, the young hopefuls and the old desperates.	11/20/1993

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  (1) People are assholes and screw each other.  (2) People dislike yet need each other.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  It is a dangerous phenomenon that the stupider people are, the more certain and unyielding and sure of themselves they seem to be.	08/04/1993

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  Most people are afraid to act, to speak, and to think.  They are afraid to take a stand for fear it will offend someone, and ruin their careers, etc.	02/22/1997

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  Most people are idiots with shit ethic systems.  Most of their minds are for the most part unthinking.  And when they do think it is only about their own survival.  They have small practical goals.  I was right to leave them far behind.	09/08/1993

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  No matter what you believe, there will always be some nut who believes the opposite, and who thinks god told him to wipe you out.	07/18/1997

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  No one is perfect.  That is the nice way of putting it.  Everyone is a fu*k up (to varying degrees).  That is what I say.  A world full of fu*k ups.  It is a wonder we survive.	05/08/1989

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  People are scum.  Myself included.  I have to live with myself, but I don't have to live with others.  If only people had some good traits to counteract the bad.  Like being entertaining or informative.  But usually they do not possess such traits.	9/30/1996

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  People only know what you show or tell them.  Most can't or don't think for themselves.	05/08/1989

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  People.  (1) No personality or character.  (2) Have had no life experiences nor have they ever done anything.  (3) Have no real knowledge of the world, from reading (found out) or thinking (figured out).  (4) Have no views on anything.  Under-opinionated rather than over-opinionated.	02/24/1994

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  Some people are a waste of natural and manmade resources.	01/08/1994

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  Stupid, dogmatic, neurotic, up tight, anal, inflexible, uncooperative, lazy, unmotivated, sick, weak, inconsistent, unstable, unfocused, back stabbing, betraying, using, bloodsucking, tight, cheap, play dumb, false friends.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  Survival drive leads to asshole behavior (survive at any cost).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  They look intelligent, and are well mannered and dressed, but their thoughts and souls are dead.  They have no independence, bravery, or vision.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, people.	Bad traits.  They take themselves seriously, and life not at all.	09/26/1997

Philosophy, people.	Being with people.  (1)(A) Good experiences vs. (B) Bad experiences.  (2)(A) Learning something vs. learning nothing.  The best is 1A with 2A.  The worst is 2A with 2B.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, people.	Blanket statements.  Sweeping statements.  It does not pay to stereotype the human race, just like it does not pay to stereotype portions of the human race.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, people.	Computer.  The personal computer and the Internet changes the philosophical concept of the person.  (1) The computer and Internet allows shifting identities.  In online chatrooms you can create aliases or persona.  You can choose your age, sex and ethnicity.  Identity is not fixed online.  (2) The computer and Internet act as an extension of the mind.  It aids memory (storage and retrieval), organization and manipulation of ideas.  It is another step toward a bio-mechanical-electronic man.  (3) Already there are people who choose to live and interact only online in the digital world.  These are people who only exist digitally.  There may come a time when "people" are disembodied digital entities.  (4) Computers are not yet equipped to handle emotion.  We are moving toward emotion with text, image and sound.	3/9/2000

Philosophy, people.	Do I like people?  I like the concept of people.	2/20/2002

Philosophy, people.	Five types of people.  (1) The unthinking: they just learn how to survive.  (2) The believers: believe what ever they read, only find out.  (3) The believers and writers: take notes on readings.  (4) The thinkers: actually think for themselves.  (5) The thinkers and writers: write what they think.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  (1) Recognizes and learns from mistakes.  (2) Makes right decisions by avoiding wrong ones.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  (1) Speed and power (Paul aesthetic).  (2) Optimally mentally and physically healthy.  (3) Flexible yet strong.  (4) Noble, brave, smart, ethical.  (5) Don't leave anything out and don't get anything wrong.  (6) Gets it all, gets it fast, doesn't get hurt.  (7) We look for same traits, just in the opposite sex.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Alert, focused, stamina.  Smart practically and theoretically.  Motivated.  Efficient and economical.  Broad, deep knowledge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Anger, assertiveness, and rebellion are healthy and good.  Sadness, passivity, and conformity are unhealthy and bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Brave, wise, and well educated.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Constantly growing (in right directions).  Figures out best goals and best ways to get them.  Knowledge, stamina, and focus.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Great man operates from power, doesn't abuse it.  Remains autonomous.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Mind always working at peak.  Intellectual orientation.  Able to think well: analyze, judge.  Able to prioritize well: importance in historical, theoretical, and practical.  Able to classify (hierarchy) well.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Never poor, consistently good, and sometimes great.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Smart, driven, healthy (physical, psychological, financial), stamina, consistent, focused, brave, free thinking, tough, confrontational, assertive, aggressive, fighter, fair, strong, ethical, driven, forward, charming.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Strength to follow own course, avoids meager masses, despite opposition of others.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Tough, strong, endurance yet sensitive, discerning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Good traits.  Without being a two faced user, if done wrong to, capable of justice, retribution, and force.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	How nice someone is if you give them what they want vs. how mean they are if you don't give what they want.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Human life has many sides.  Human life has a psychological side (see: Psychology).  Human life has a social side (see: Sociology).  Human life has a philosophical side (see: Philosophy).  Human life has a political side (see: Politics).  Human life has an economic side (see: Economics).  Human life has a technological side (see: Technology).  Human life has an ecological side (see: Ecology).  Human life has an artistic side (see: Art).  Etc.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, people.	Human nature, negative view.  People are basically assholes.  Not far removed from animals and the law of the jungle.  Thin veneer of civilization.	6/15/1998

Philosophy, people.	Humans are fragile creature when young and healthy, but even more so when old and injured or sickly.  Balanced high up in the air on two legs.  Their bodies thin, fragile, soft, and prone to breaking.  Take care buddy.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, people.	Humans morphing.  (1) Now that people have accepted trans-gender individuals, isn't it time we start to think about trans-species individuals?  (A) Especially now that we are decoding the DNA of humans and other animals.  (B) Especially now that we are searching the galaxy for other forms of intelligent life.  (C) Especially now that we are developing artificial intelligence on computers.  (D) Especially now that we are inventing physical connections between silicon computer chips and human brain neurons.  (2) Even on a purely psychological level.  (A) The person who gives another person a horsy ride.  (B) The person who thinks they are a dog.  (C) The person who takes on an animals name.  (3) These are all examples of some way how humans relate to other forms of life.  These are examples of how humans sometimes wish to complement their human abilities with animal powers.  (4) The point is that the time has come where we are beginning to recognize (realize, understand) the malleability of life.  The malleability of intelligent life.  The malleability of human life.  Malleability leads to greater diversity.  Greater diversity requires more tolerance.	7/11/2000

Philosophy, people.	Humans waste 90% of their brains.  Humans waste 90% of their time.  That is a lot of waste.	12/6/2005

Philosophy, people.	Humans, traits of.  Opposable thumbs.  Bipedal, with hands free.  Language.  Technology.  Social.  Culture.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, people.	Humans.  For hundreds of thousands of years, what kept them alive?  What kept them sane?  What kept them happy?	10/15/1999

Philosophy, people.	I gave up trying to figure out what they were thinking.  I gave up trying to figure out why they were acting the way they were acting.	7/31/2001

Philosophy, people.	I hate the mindless conformists and mindless rebels both.  But I hate the conformists more.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	I have met many intelligent, well educated people who will become fodder for the system simply because they will not put in the time and effort to create themselves and create for others.  They are healthy, ethical, beautiful people.  They are toast.	5/29/2002

Philosophy, people.	I look at the paintings from the 1700's and the people in them look like they were made of stone.  I look at the photographs from the 1800's and the people look like they are made out of metal.  I look at people from the 1900's and they look like they are made of plastic.  I look at people in 2000 and they look like they are made of pure energy: dynamic, virtual, morphing, invisible.  Human's image of themselves changes with the age they live in, and with the technology and materials they use.	8/24/2000

Philosophy, people.	I saw the perfect couple today.  He was a sensitive english major.  She was a rational psychiatrist.  They were both model pretty and dressed to the hilt in country gentlepeople clothes.  They both carried leather backpacks/briefcases.  Yet they were a tad dull in the expression in their eyes.  And they were a tad too refined, too well trained, too civilized.  And a tad too self conscious of both of these facts.  Yet they were so perfect.  So perfectly normal.  Today I saw Ken and Barbie.  Will they be happy or miserable together?  Do I hate or love them?	11/20/1993

Philosophy, people.	I used to think that the common man, blue collar workers, and average guys, had more intrinsic value than the rich suits.  After all, it is not their fault that they were less successful.  And I used to think the simple life (living in the woods, asceticism, and blue collar sundays) had more intrinsic value than the rich life.  These activities seemed very democratic and egalitarian.  How do I feel now?  I dislike them.  And I dislike the rich equally as much.	11/20/1993

Philosophy, people.	Ideal good and bad, man and woman, mind and body and behavior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal people: rich, beautiful, healthy, and smart.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal.  Best in one area vs. best overall.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal.  Examples of people at their best, average, worst.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal.  Society's ideals and reasons are usually b.s. or suboptimal.  My ideals must be of highest standards and best arguments.  It is a struggle to determine best ideals.  Build on all that came before, and improve it.  Often those who got one area right, knew/said nothing or screwed up another area.  Take best and avoid worst from all over.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal.  The best, average or mediocre, and worst.  The strange and different.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Ideal.  Universal objective ideal, my ideal, anyone else's ideal, any society's ideal.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	If everyone was exactly the same, the positive side is that we would all understand each other perfectly.  The negative side is that humanity would have the brain power of one person instead of billions of people.  It would be much less productive.  Another negative effect would be the lack of adaptability of the species for survival.	5/24/2002

Philosophy, people.	It is a limited number of people that you will see, meet, and spend time with.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Man is naturally a problem solving animal.  If he is faced with no problems, then he will create them.	4/7/1998

Philosophy, people.	Most people are good in that if they are in a situation where they have nothing to gain or lose they will generally help someone else.  But if they have something to gain by not helping, or if they have something to lose by helping, they generally will not help someone else.	02/02/1989

Philosophy, people.	Most people have a primary orientation towards either work, family, or hobby.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Most people want you to live for them, not yourself.  You should live for yourself, no one else.	03/10/1989

Philosophy, people.	Most people, or at least 50 percent, are fearful, suspicious, mistrustful, angry, depressed, looking for scapegoats, looking for a witch to burn, looking to mess with other people.	6/6/2003

Philosophy, people.	Most working class Americans are just trying to hold their jobs, raise their kids, and not do anything stupid, crazy or illegal.  That occupies all their time and all their mind.	6/26/1999

Philosophy, people.	Never forget that there are sleazoids who enjoy terrorizing innocent bystanders.	9/28/2003

Philosophy, people.	Nobility.  Education and experience increase nobility.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Normal.  Three definitions of "normal".  (1) Normal as average vs. different.  (2) Normal as average vs. either below average or above average.  (3) Normal as healthy vs. unhealthy (abnormal).	8/25/2000

Philosophy, people.	Normal.  Three views of the non-normal.  (1) Conservative view.  Abnormal is bad.  The abnormal disrupts predictable, safe lives.  Different people are scary and evil.  Insanity seen as a curse by god.  (2) Neutral view.  The non-normal is neither good nor bad, just different.  (3) Liberal view.  The non-normal is good.  The non-normal is new, exciting, a change that relieves boredom.  The exotic (different) is good.  Romantic view of insanity.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, people.	Normal.  Two types of people.  (1) Those who fear being not normal.  (2) Those who fear being normal.	8/25/2000

Philosophy, people.	People and other animals.  Every day scientists find that the difference between humans and other animals becomes less distinct.	11/17/2005

Philosophy, people.	People are basically good, but act evil most of time.  They lie, cheat and steal; they are vindictive and spiteful; they are nosy, cheap, moneygrubbing, greedy.  All this way by survival drive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People are fallible.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People are frequently (1) Mistrustful and suspicious.  (2) Lying, secretive and unethical.  (3) Vengeful.  Vendettas.	5/11/2003

Philosophy, people.	People are good or bad: as an ethical statement.  People are good or bad: as a metaphysical statement about quality levels.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People are good, but act bad most of time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People are nutty, unintelligent, stupid, unethical, assholes, and bastards.  People are potentially good but actually bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People at their best.  (1) Problem solving.  Free thinking.  Rational.  (2) Hard working.  (3) Optimistic.  (4) Empathetic.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, people.	People at their worst:  (1) Mindless.  (2) Negative.  Pessimistic.  Hopeless.  (3) Petty.  (4) Not free thinking.  Blind belief and obedience.  (5) Not hardworking.  Lazy.  (6) Not empathetic.  Selfish.	11/5/2004

Philosophy, people.	People can be classified as  (1) Cool people: they are rare.  (2) Assholes: they are many.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	People can be vicious, cruel, petty, deceptive.	9/7/2003

Philosophy, people.	People like conflict.  They like to fight.  They like blood.  This is why sports is popular.  This is why politics is popular.  This is why gossip is popular (gossip is a bloodsport).  It lets them vent their anger.  It comes from ancient instincts for fighting other tribes.  The warriors survived and reproduced by natural selection.  It may have been bred into us, but it can also be bred out of us.	7/21/1998

Philosophy, people.	People should be seen and not heard.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, people.	People.  They all look stupid and weak.  The ones with character are morons.  The ones who are smart are soft.  It makes me sick.	11/04/1993

Philosophy, people.	Reptile is to human as human is to what?   What are we evolving into?	3/1/2000

Philosophy, people.	So few hip people, so few complete and balanced, so few right on, and so hard to find them.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Analyze and judge your mind, body, and behavior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Analyze persons greatest strengths and worst flaws.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Avoid the unthinking types.  The work drone conformists.  The mindless rebels.  The leisure for leisure's sake hedonists.  The hobby escapists.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Get catharsis and justice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Get your relationships straight.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Principles.  (1) Don't let crazy people drive you crazy, for any reason.  (2) Don't take any shit.  (3) Give everyone the same respect, with no variations by sex, age, position, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Techs.  Protect yourself, defend yourself.  Realize what's bad, and armor your psyche and your stuff.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	Thankfully, the number of consistently malicious and immature people is relatively low.	1/1/2004

Philosophy, people.	The average philosopher will be surprised to find out that most people spend most of their time thinking and talking about other people.	7/1/2003

Philosophy, people.	The shallow hide in plain sight.  That is to say, shallow people silently walk among us, undetected until asked a question.  This is the counter-argument to the adage, "Still waters run deep."	7/24/2006

Philosophy, people.	There is always at least one in a crowd.  Wherever you go (live, work, etc.).  A real bastard who tries to make your life miserable.  How to deal with them?	6/4/2003

Philosophy, people.	Three ideas.  (1) Anthropology of philosophy.  Study of history of cultures philosophies (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  (2) Philosophical basis of anthropology science.  (3) Metaphysical study of man.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	To explore, to be different, to be an individual, is to be disappointed to some degree by people.  Surrounded by people you don't understand.  Surrounded by people who don't understand you.  Yet it is to feel for people in general.  To care about humankind.	2/20/2002

Philosophy, people.	Tolerant vs. domineering.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	View of people as fragile vs. tough.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What is a person?  A bag of bones, a lost soul.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What people are (actual) vs. what they can be (potential) with time, environment, growth and development.  There is a big difference.  We need to focus on the latter.	2/21/2000

Philosophy, people.	What people are: good things and bad things.  Why they are these things.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What.  Everyone is full of pain (anger and sadness).  How much of each?  How conscious or unconscious are you of it?  The pain of living.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What.  Man is (1) Self reflective.  (2) Rational (or potential for it).  (3) Curious.  (4) Social, political, and technological.  (5) Free.  (6) Ethical: can be hurt, can hurt others.  (7) Imperfect.  (8) Have needs (physical, psychological (intellectual, emotional), material).  (9) Every one is neurotic by degree.  (10) Greedy.  (11) Fearful.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What.  People as basically or intrinsically good vs. bad vs. neutral, or unformed.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, people.	What.  Stages of human development.  (1) Hunter and fighter (physical).  (2) Farmer (physical).  (3) Factory worker (physical).  (4) Office worker (mental drone).  (5) Idea worker (mental creativity).  (6) Machines do physical work.  Computers do the mental drone work.  The purpose of humans is to do creative mental work in the quest for knowledge.  Today in 1997, we are moving from stage 4 to stage 5.  Most people are doing mental drone work, but that is changing to mental creative work.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, people.	Your attitude (i.e., thoughts and emotions) about people (all humans, including yourself) is an important basic attitude.  What is left besides people?  Only nature and technology.  Thus, your attitude toward people is about one third your entire attitude toward life and the world in general.	4/28/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	.See also: Philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy.	12/30/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	.This section is about specialization and generalization.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Amateur, generalists, dabblers vs. experts, specialists.  (2) Humans evolved and survived as adaptive generalists.  (3) Relying on "experts" for everything can be dangerous.  (4)  The amateur tradition is a noble tradition.	11/20/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Definition of terms.  Specialization defined as a narrowing of focus and interest.   Narrowing in terms of space, time and subject matter.  Generalization defined as a widening of focus and interest.  Widening in terms of space, time and subject matter.  (2) The problem.  There are forces, psychological and sociological, that coerce people to specialize.  Specialization can have significant, often overlooked, negative effects on the individual and thus society.  (3) The solution.  Develop awareness of the negative effects of specialization.  Encourage people to generalize.	4/26/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Generalizing: acknowledge your many abilities and make the most of them.  Multi-talented and multi-faceted.  Well balanced.  (2) Specializing: Does not acknowledge our many abilities.  It is unhealthy.  It is unbalanced.  It is wasteful.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) In the past, people were too deferential to "experts". People mythologized the doctor, lawyer and professor too much.  Today we are less deferential, and that is helping us achieve a healthier balance in our lives.  The Internet is helping us achieve this balance.  For example, in the recent past, before the age of the Internet, those who held the occupations of stockbroker, travel agent, real-estate agent and car salesman at first tried to tell us they were helping us.  Then they tried to tell us that we couldn't make a move without them.  We gave these specialist experts too much power and they started to use it against us to their advantage by charging exorbitant commission rates.  The Internet helps take back some of the power from the stockbrokers, travel agents, real-estate agents and car salesmen.  The Internet helps put some of the power back into the hands of the consumer where it belongs.  My point is that the Internet helps restore a balance of power not only for the above "middleman" occupations, but for all occupations.  The Internet helps balance power between the consumer and the "professional" occupations such as doctor, lawyer and professor.  The Internet helps reduce the need to pathologically deify the above professionals.  There is no need to "do whatever they say".  We are less at their mercy and whim.  We do not have to blindly obey them.     (2) The problem arose when we gave up thinking for ourselves and we let the specialist "experts" have all the power.  At that point the so called experts tried to solidify their power-base, in order to retain their jobs and income, by trying to convince us that only they knew what to do.  The Internet helps combat knowledge-hogs, money-hogs and power-hogs.  But to do so the Internet requires that we give up a certain amount of passive, mindless ease.  It requires that we think for ourselves. It requires that we actively learn.	9/22/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) It is to the economic and political advantage of the system to create specialists, even though it is to the overall disadvantage of individual people to become specialists.  (2) There are many ways the systems endeavors to create specialists.  (A) One way the system tries to create specialists is through hyper-competition.  The system tries to create specialists by saying that only first place matters, and by saying that winning is the only thing, and by trying to convince people to devote all their time and energy to one pursuit in order to "be the best".  Setting up mindless competitions is one way how the system tries to create specialists.  (B) Another way the system tries to create specialists is by trying to get people to be "experts", and by trying to get other people to defer completely to so the called experts.  A system of so called experts and unthinking followers is not a healthy system.	10/18/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) People specialize out of fear.  Specializing lets people hide in their little world.  Specializing is how some people avoid taking a stand on controversial issues.  Specializing is how some people avoid confrontation.  Specializing is how some people avoid thinking.  (2) People specialize out of greed and laziness.  People realize that if they specialize they can make more money and do less work.  However, money isn't everything, and the pursuit of money isn't everything.  Also, there are some things that require work, the avoidance of which is an ethical wrong.	9/7/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Political basis of specialization.  People specialize to gain power.  People specialize to feel like powerful experts.  People also specialize to avoid confrontation in areas in which they do not feel powerful.  People specialize to avoid feelings of powerlessness, to avoid feelings of ignorance, and to avoid feelings of lack of control.  (2) Economic basis of specialization.  People specialize because people want money and they realize society will reward a person with money if the person specializes.  (3) Specialization, whether for political or economic reasons, has drawbacks that are often unrecognized.  Specialization, in the long run, can disempower people and devalue people.	12/20/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Political ulterior motive to get people to specialize.  If you get someone to specialize then you limit that person's knowledge.  When you limit someone's knowledge you limit their options.  When you limit someone's options you limit their power.  (2) Economic ulterior motive to specialize.  If you get someone to specialize then you can sell them all the goods that they need but that they cannot make themselves due to the fact that they are specialized.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Politics.  Encouraging people to specialize can be a political ploy to seize power.  (2) Economics.  Encouraging people to specialize can be an economic ploy to make more money.  (3) Psychological.  The individual specializing can be a psychological ploy of repression, avoidance and denial.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Specialist as fearful, repressed, head in sand, avoidant, obsessed.  Generalist as brave, exploring, curious, and inquisitive.  (2) Specialist as parochial and fearful of wide world.  Generalist as cosmopolitan.  (3) (A) Physical generalist.  Self reliant homesteaders and survivalists.  Do everything themselves.  (B) Mental generalist.  Know about everything and think about everything.  (4) Argument for specialization: concentrate on your strengths.  Argument against specialization: neglects your weaknesses.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Specialization is about "willful, ignorance" (ignoring everything outside your area of specialty), which is ethically inexcusable.  (2) Specialization is about using only one small segment of your abilities, which is ethically inexcusable.  (3) Specialization is about over-developing one area of your brain and under-developing other areas of the brain, which is psychologically unhealthy.	6/1/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) Specialization is like a political dictatorship or an economic monopoly of one area of your mind over all other areas of your mind.  Specialization is unjust.  Specialization is unhealthy.  (2) Generalization is like a political democracy or an open economy where each area of your mind can have its say.  Generalization is just.  Generalization is healthy.	7/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) The concept of specialization and generalization is related to the psychological concept of multiple selves.  Generalization is akin to having multiple selves, which is a good thing.  Specialization is akin to having only one, uni-dimensional self, which is a bad thing.  (2) An example of the negative effects of specialization is the following: often people use the phrase "I am a lover, not a fighter".  These people feel that they must specialize.  They feel they must choose to be either a lover or a fighter.  The unfortunate result is that this creates lovers who cannot fight and fighters who cannot love.	8/4/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) The effect of specializing is to make individuals stupid and powerless.  (2) There are certain segments of society that would like to see other segments remain stupid and powerless.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) The French Encyclopedists were generalists.  (2) Polymaths are generalists.  (3) All humans evolved as adaptable generalists.	1/15/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) The specialist is someone who wakes up in the morning and says "I just need to focus on one thing".  The generalist is someone who wakes up in the morning and says "I need to consider everything".  (2) Today's society rewards specialists with money.  Today's society penalizes generalists.  What happens to generalists in today's society?  They often fall by the way side.	12/9/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	(1) When people are raised as specialists, they are taught that it is best to focus on one area (at the expense of other areas), do their job, and let other people worry about other areas.  It produces bizarre results: unhealthy, unbalanced people.  (2) People are taught to be specialists in school when young, and that pressure continues as adults.  Just get the A+ grade, just get the degree, just do the job, just excel at one thing, at all costs, in order to get money, fame, status.  I would rather be mediocre and balanced than excel through obsession with one area to the exclusion of all other areas.  (3) There is a hidden assumption in society that says to get the A+ grade, do the job, and then relax and party on the weekend.  The pressure is to not think outside the guidelines.  Actually, on the weekends, we should be thinking and working like hell.  The ancient Greeks knew that we worked in order to gain leisure time, in order to pursue the development of our complete selves.  (4) Specialization produces people who think in dichotomies: either/or, black/white, us/them.  They think their special area is good and worthwhile and everything else is shit.  When a person is a generalist they have a more tolerant view, and they can look at things from more than one perspective, and their views are not so narrow.  (5) Examples of specialists:  Business without art.  Art without business.  Science without business.  Business without science.  Art without science.  Science without art.	02/22/1997

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Academic specialization, common wrong attitudes of.  (1) My subject X is important.  Your subject Y is unimportant.  (2) Your subject is less important than my subject.  (3) Your subject does not make any significant, useful contribution to my subject.  (4) My subject is the most important subject.  (5) By ignoring everything except my subject I am helping myself and the world.	10/25/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Adages for each.  (1) Generalization: "Cover all your bases".  (2) Specialization: "Don't spread yourself too thin".	5/27/2002

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	An analogy: similar to the way that egoism and extreme individualism are conservative notions that run counter to the social-mindedness of progressives, so to is specialization a phenomenon that narrows and isolates the mind of a person in a negative and conservative way rather than widening and expanding the mind in a socially progressive way.	5/13/2007

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Analytic thinkers specialize.  Synthetic thinkers generalize.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Anti-intellectuals say to not think.  Specialists say to not think outside of your area of specialty.  So specialization is not very far from anti-intellectualism.	11/22/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Anyone who concentrates or specializes on one thing to the exclusion of all other things, in order to avoid things, is engaging in cult thinking, which is a form escapism, which is neurotic thinking.	04/12/1989

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Argument for generalism.  When people specialize in thought and action, on their job, or by having only one or no friends, and then they lose faith in that one thing they specialize in, then they have nothing to live for and end up committing suicide.  Generalizing spreads you out.  It is safer.  You have a safety net.  It is healthy.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Argument for generalization.   A healthy individual is an integrated individual.  Integrated means all parts present and working in harmony.  (1) A human person has many sides.  Humans are social animals.  Humans are political animals.  Humans are technological.  Humans are artistic.  The many sides of person need to be integrated.  (2) Humans live in the world.  The world has many aspects to it.  The world has a biological side.  The world has a physics.  A person needs to know about the many different parts of the world.	3/25/2006

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Arguments for generalism.  (1) General knowledge for personal satisfaction.  (2) General knowledge of current state of big picture is important because advances in one area lead to advances in another.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Arguments pro generalizing vs. contra generalizing.  Arguments pro specializing vs. contra specializing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	At its base, specialization is about barriers.  Barriers against outside thoughts.  Barriers to separate the in-group from the out-group.	10/4/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Becoming a specialist, or calling people specialists, is a way of making people feel special.  And everyone wants to feel special.	10/27/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Causes and effects, both good and bad, of specialization and generalization, in individual and in society.     (1) Causes.  (1)(A) Causes of specialization.  (1)(A)(i) Individual causes of specialization.  One way experts are created is when they become obsessed with their field to the exclusion of all else.  Examples, Bobby Fisher, Paul Erdos.  It is a type of psychological repression.  (1)(A)(ii) Societal causes of specialization.  (1)(A)(ii)(a) Society wants people to specialize as experts in order to make technological advances and discoveries.  (1)(A)(ii)(b) Society wants individuals to specialize in order to achieve economic efficiency (standardization of parts and specialization of labor).  (1)(A)(ii)(c) Society reveres and idolizes specialists and experts.  Society instills this attitude in its young when it says to them "Be the best at something.  Winning is the only thing.  Second place does not count.  Second place is for losers."  These attitudes produce specialists.  (1)(B) Causes of generalization.  (1)(B)(i) Individual causes of generalization.  (1)(B)(i)(a) The healthy individual wants to know it all.  (1)(B)(i)(b) There are also cases of intellectual megalomania.  (1)(B)(ii) Societal causes of generalization.  Are there any?     (2) Effects.  (2)(A) Effects of specialization.  (2)(A)(i) Bad effects of specialization.  The individual can become isolated and weird.  They can develop ignorance in other areas of life.  Hot house flower, dependent on others, no self-reliance.  Narrow minded.  All eggs in one basket.  (2)(A)(ii) Good effects of specializing.  Get paid well.  Make a new discovery or invention.  (2)(B) Effects of generalizing.  (2)(B)(i)  Good effects of generalizing.  Well traveled.  Tolerance.  Wisdom (broad knowledge).  Independent.  Self-reliance.  Well balanced.  Adaptable.  Healthier.  (2)(B)(ii) Bad effects of generalizing.  Information overload susceptibility.  No focus.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Contra specialization.  (1) No unity, scattered, shattered, fractured, distracted.  (2) Loss of ground or foundation.  (3) No vistas.  Can't see the forest for trees.  Lost in the big thicket.  (4) Knowing more and more about less and less.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Generalist views the big picture.  (1) Global.  (2) History, current and future.  (3) Develop the entire person.	1/25/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Generalist: Amateur, does it for love, can drift and wander.  Specialist: Professional, does it for money, must stay focused.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Generalists are adaptable.  Specialists are not adaptable.  Today's society needs specialists.  The message being sent to young people is to become specialists.  We are creating a bunch of non-adaptable people.  The result of not being able to adapt is not being able to cope.  Higher levels of stress, more depression and anxiety.  When you ask people what they are and they say "I am a doctor.", "I am a lawyer.", "I am a mechanic.", you know they have specialized to the point where they see themselves as a narrow, static being.  Monopods are liable to tip over.  When you create a specialist and the person psychologically internalizes the view that they are specialists, and accepts that they are specialists, and identifies with the role of the specialists, and then suddenly the situation changes and their specialty is not needed, the person is cut adrift psychologically.  They have no options.  They have no psychological safety net.  They have no psychological support.  They suffer a psychological crisis.	7/25/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Generalists tend to be well rounded.  Specialists risk becoming lopsided.	11/2/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Generalists: synthetic, tangential, interdisciplinary, foundational.  Specialists: narrow minded, analytic, branches not roots.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Getting people to specialize in knowledge and behavior makes that person dependent, dis empowered and servile.	11/12/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	If Howard Gardener's theory of eight types of intelligence is true (and it has a lot of support) then that is an argument for generalizing, and it is an argument against specializing.	6/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Inter-disciplinary philosophy is based on the specialization/generalization issue.  Interdisciplinary philosphy takes the generalist argument.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Life is pluralistic, therefore specialization is unethical?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Monotheism is an example of modern humans tendency to specialize.  Ancient man was predominantly a generalist who, in the area of religion, was often polytheistic and worshipped many gods.  Modern humans are predominantly specialists who, in the area of religion, are often monotheists who focus on one god.  Possible causes of specialization in modern humans: (1) It may have been a change in the human physical brain that caused modern humans to start specializing.  (2) Another possibility is that specialization is a cultural meme that spreads like any other meme.  (3) Another possibility is that the specialization in the area of work that came with civilization (10,000 BC) led to specialization in other areas such as religion.	10/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Most people think as generalists very poorly and rarely.  Most people think as specialists too much.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	PART ONE.  People often become specialists in order to simplify their view of the world, because simplification of the complex world makes some people feel less anxious and uncertain.  Complexity and uncertainty is something that some people cannot handle.  People specialize in an attempt to manage their negative emotions.  People put blinders on themselves when they specialize.  PART TWO.  The attitude of, "KISS: Keep it simple, stupid", has its drawbacks.  People can handle more complexity than they think they can.  But some intellectually lazy people want their knowledge dumbed down, simplified and narrowed to a minimum.  Specialization has much in common with anti-intellectualism.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	People are first taught to specialize in school when they are forced to pick a major, which is an area of specialization, and that is bad thing. Interdisciplinary studies is a major that is becoming more available in more colleges.	7/25/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	People sometimes specialize because they are overwhelmed by information.  Information management technology, both computers and mental methods, will help people deal with information (ex. Notes).	6/1/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	People specialize and become experts for the following reasons:  (1) Respect from other people.  (2) Money.  In our society experts make money.  (3) Obsession.  (A) Biochemically caused obsession.  (B) Psychologically caused obsession in order to block out (repress) all else.  (4) There is a demand for experts.  The people who become experts are just filling a social demand for experts.  The reason there is a demand for experts is because people want to be led.  However, when we listen to experts only, we abdicate our responsibility for creating our own selves.	9/28/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Problem is that people, forced to be specialists at work, act as generalists rarely and poorly in their free time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Society tells the individual "It is best for society if you specialize, and we will reward you economically."  But it is not best for the individual to specialize, in fact it is bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialist attitude limits and disempowers the specialist by not allowing for growth.  Generalist attitude empowers by allowing for growth.	2/10/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialist takes a serial approach.  First do A then B then C.  Generalist takes a "shotgun" approach, also known as a "multi-tasking" approach.  First do A and B and C.	2/10/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialist/generalist spectrum (subject matter, and degree of abstraction).  Your psychological tendency vs. where you push yourself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialists push forward; generalists clean up.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialists tend to be single issue people, Johnny one notes.	11/1/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization creates uni-dimensional people, which is pathological.	8/15/1999

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization has to do with mental focus.  Focus can be a form of psychological repression, the pathological extreme of which is obsession.  Generalization some may criticize as a state where one cannot mentally focus and cannot commit to a course of action, the pathological extreme of which is tangential rambling.  I must say here that the pathological extreme of specialization seems much worse than the pathological extreme of generalization.	2/10/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization in the world of work is one type of specialization we have discussed.  Another type of specialization is specialization in leisure time.  An example of leisure specialization is the all-consuming hobby.  Rather than having many hobbies, some people have just one hobby to which they devote most of their leisure time.  The single hobby can quickly develop into a leisure lifestyle.  All the person thinks about is the hobby.  All the person talks about is the hobby.  The person uses hobby-specific jargon for all communication.  The person wears hobby-specific fashions in all situations.  The person cops a hobby-specific attitude toward all things.  The person hangs-out with other hobbyists.  However, underlying the language, attitude, fashion, etc. is the particular lifestyle philosophy which consists of the inobvious, often unconscious, set of assumptions held by the hobby-lifestyle devotee.  These assumptions often include: (1) I can base my life on this hobby activity.  (2) This hobby-lifestyle will provide all the answers that I seek.  It will fill all the needs I have.  (3) We who pursue this hobby are better than others who do not pursue this hobby.  (4) Three examples of lifestyles are those based on the tripartite highschool typology: the brains, the jocks and the rebels.  (5) The lifestyle often takes the place of religion.  The lifestyle often fills the role that religion once played.  The lifestyle provides a belief system and a community of believers.  The lifestyle is an attempt to create meaning in one's life.  The lifestyle is often a tribe or a community.  The lifestyle is often a single-minded quest.	10/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is a necessary evil.  We specialize for money, glory and societal advancement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is a turning away from most of the world; a form of denial.  Generalization is a willingness to confront everything that exists.  Generalization can take a lot of work.  Generalization can be a little overwhelming at times.  Generalization can sometimes result in information overload.  What's needed are tools to gather and organize information.	3/20/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is easy.  Specialization takes less work, less brains and makes more money than generalization.  That is the appeal.  Specialization appeals to the lazy and greedy.  The problem is that specialization leads to narrow-minded, blindered people.  To be well-rounded is to be a generalist.	9/6/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is narrow and parochial.  Generalization is cosmopolitan and universal.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is often an attempt by power-holders to isolate and control individuals.  It is an attempt to limit your thought, words and actions.  Encouraging specialization is a political ploy.	3/10/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is often used by individual's as a means to limit and manage their world.  That is to say, people often decide that they will think only about a small, narrow, simple, pleasant, happy part of the world because thinking about the entire world is too strenuous or confusing or painful.  Specialization in this sense is a form of withdrawal from the world.  It is an attempt to deal with the world by isolating oneself from the world.  That is not the optimal way.  Better for the individual and the world if the individual engages the world.	8/14/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization is sometimes a defense mechanism by individuals overwhelmed by life's complexity and confusion.  Specialization is an attempt to oversimplify one's life.  Its a slogan.	3/10/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization often functions, intentionally or accidentally, as a means to isolate and control individuals.  Specialization can be used as a means to "divide and conquer" peoples.  When they convince you that its in your own self interest to specialize they have taken a step toward disabling your ability to see the big picture, disabling your ability to think, disabling your ability to dissent, which enables them to seize power.	10/5/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization produces ignorant, narrow-minded, under-utilized, pompous, unhealthy, dangerous people.  HomoSapiens is an adaptable generalist.	10/25/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization produces thinkers who do not act, and actors who do not think.  Specialization produces thinkers who do not feel, and feelers who do not think.	6/23/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization, to a degree, involves putting all your eggs in one basket, which is not recommended.	10/2/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization: society rewards it, but it hurts you.  Generalization: society sanctions it, but it helps you.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization.  (1) People specialize for effectiveness.  Expertise.  (2) People specialize for money, i.e., economic reward.  (3) But people also specialize out of fear.  They think if they stay in their corner then no one will bother them.  They are wrong.  (4) People also specialize to make their world smaller and more manageable.  People specialize because its a big, complex, confusing, conflict-ridden world with many bad elements in it.	2/6/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specialization.  People often become specialists at the expense of forgetting everything else they ever knew.  That is an unhealthy situation.	2/12/2004

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specializing helps you succeed at your job.  Generalizing helps you pick a job you like, and helps you get along and succeed in life.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specializing is a way of hiding from the world.  You are painting yourself into a corner, specialists.	5/13/2007

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specializing is not so much about focus as it is about ignoring the rest of the world.  Specialization is a suboptimal attempt to simplify and control one's life by ignoring and repressing the rest of the world.	4/4/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Specializing: too much vs. not enough.  Generalizing: too much vs. not enough.  In today's society, people are specializing enough but aren't generalizing enough.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The Intellectual Bruce Lee.  He is from the school of "no school".  He studies every style and subject.  He takes the good points of each style and leaves the bad.  Be eclectic.  Be versatile.  Be formless.  Like water.  Why is it that one person points at the moon, and the second person only sees the booger on the fingertip?	5/28/2006

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The key strategy of a specialist expert is to try to convince you that "its too complicated for you to understand".  Bullshit.  Its not too complicated.  They try to make it complicated in order to keep their jobs.	9/22/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The primary attraction of being a specialist is blissful ignorance.  The specialist does not want to know what is going on.  The specialist does not want to see the big picture.  The specialist does not want the entire truth.  The specialist seeks to avoid emotional pain and any sense of responsibility.  The specialist pleads ignorance to avoid feeling guilt and shame.  The specialist wants to squeak by.	4/29/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The professional expert specialists in academia, business and government have had their own expensive private communication networks in place for a long time.  The Internet is for the amateur.  The Internet gives the amateurs a voice against the experts.  And amateurs are frequently generalists.  For a long time (the last several hundred years) the system stacked the deck in favor of professional expert specialists and against amateur generalists.  There was an imbalance of power (political power, money and knowledge) in favor of specialists.  With the help of the Internet that power imbalance between professional specialists and amateur generalists is beginning to equalize.	10/5/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The public generalist should be prepared for opposition from all sides.  Be prepared for dissenting views from all sides.	11/1/2003

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	The special interest magazines, the hobby magazines, try to define a small limited world, a consistent world, an understandable or comprehensible world, a manageable world, a world that makes sense, a structured world, a comforting world, a safe world, a friendly world, a peaceful world.  They ignore the rest of life, they ignore the pain, they ignore the overwhelming complexity.  The special interest magazines want to focus on the topic of you having fun in your little world at your leisure.  Ignore, deny, avoid, repress.  Ignorance, Denial, Avoidance, Repression.  Specialization is a form of psychopathology.	4/26/2005

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	To call yourself a specialist, to be an expert, boosts self confidence, but lowers actual overall usefulness.	6/10/1997

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Viva la amateurs.  If the only people who wrote were people who could make a living as professional authors then the world would be a veritable idea desert.  (2) On some level, to write is to think, so there would be fewer people thinking and that is bad.  (3) There would be fewer people doing anything useful.  There would be only couch potatoes.  (4) So viva la amateurs.	7/25/2002

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	We work and study as specialists.  We live as generalists.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	When you specialize it is easier to end up being a genius in one area and a moron in another.  Specialists screw up worse than generalists.	8/8/1998

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Why be a generalist rather than a specialist?  (1) Balance.  (2) Comprehensiveness.  (3) It is tough to tell where you are weak and where you need help, so address all areas in order to develop all areas including your weak areas.	5/22/2000

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	Why be a generalist?  Why should an average citizen bother to think about all subject areas and everything when there are specialists who devote their entire lives to narrow areas of expertise and who supposedly know it all?  The answer is because the number of instances is extraordinarily high where a person with no knowledge of a specialized domain walks in and immediately perceives the solution to a problem that has baffled the experts.  It happens with alarming frequency.	4/6/2001

Philosophy, specialization and generalization.	You say it is neurotic not to settle down with something.  I say it is neurotic to specialize.	03/13/1989

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	.This section is about the concepts of beat, cool and hip.  Topics include: ( ) Beats.  ( ) Cool.  ( ) Hip.  ( ) Hippies.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	(1) Cool as knowledgeable.  Uncool as ignorance.  (2) Cool as experienced.  Uncool as naive.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beat dichotomies: (1) City vs. wilds.  (2) Asceticism vs. hedonism.  (3) Poor vs. rich.  (4) Love vs. hate.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beat philosophy.  Is it a happy thing you go out and do, or is it a sad thing that just sort of happens to you, or is it a big group of things that fit together, that you either see clearly or you don't?  Kerouac saw it most and clearest, and wrote it best.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats had a point but took it to a degree too extreme for the practical individual.  Their point was that modern work and culture destroy conscious and unconscious freedom of thought and action.  Modern culture is too repressive, and it destroys minds.  Get free and go wild.  A more moderate position is to say to try to stay free in thought and action and still hold a job.  Is it possible?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats went beyond social norms, exploring.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats were about youth, freedom, and neurotic aimlessness.  Kerouac captured youth (esp. burnouts) like no one has before or since.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats.  Alternating bouts of (1) Asceticism: intellectual, artistic, Zen buddhism vs. (2) Decadence: sex, drugs, rock, danger (crime, climb).  (3) Insanity and genius.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats.  The beats are about fun and freedom.  You will never taste fun and freedom as purely as in the beat writings.  Everyone should read them and go out and experience it for themselves between the age of 15 and 25.  Otherwise you will miss the idea and experience of freedom and fun.  They are among the best life has to offer.	07/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats.  The beats confronted (1) Rebellion vs. conformity (ex. leisure vs. work?).  (2) Reason vs. emotion (ex. science vs. art).  (3) Problems with imbalances either way.  (4) Arguments pro and contra each.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats.  The philosophy of the primacy of experiential knowledge (Kerouac).  One must experience drugs, poverty, etc.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Beats.  To experience, experiment, and to get wired up, vs. to get burnt out and destroyed.  The beats knew both.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool and hip.  The urge to be cool and hip is something genetically hardwired into humans, that expresses itself most strongly during the teens and twenties.  It probably has some sort of adaptive evolutionary purpose.  It is a mistake to think that cool and hip began with the hippies, beatniks, decadents or romantics.  Cool and hip go way, way back to when we used to roam the savannah.	9/28/2000

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool means drugs, nature, intelligent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool: (1) unemotional vs. (2) inexpressive of emotion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool: emotionally insensitive and/or inexpressive.  Hot: emotionally sensitive and/or expressive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool: unconscious or conscious emotional reserve.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Cool.  Three uses of cool.  (1) The purpose of cool, the usefulness of cool, is to not look too nervous, to not look overly excited.  (2) Another use of cool is as a defense, to gain a sense of control.  A boundary.  (3) Another purpose of cool is to look less like a child and more like an adult.	3/11/2000

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  (1) Rebel, nonconformist, wild, anarchic.  (2) Artist:  (3) Decadence: abuse sex, drugs, rock and roll, booze.  (4) Hedonism: enjoy, party.  (5) Bohemian:  (6) Traveler: motion, allegiance to no culture.  Cultural relativism, cosmopolitan.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  (1) We don't have any duties vs. we have duty in a few areas, and we have few duties in each area.  (2) We should not be controlled.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  Hedonism.  Fun hogs specialize in having fun.  Leisure pursuits rule their lives.  They work to gain leisure time and money.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  Radical.  Four definitions: (1) Dangerous.  (2) Unconventional.  (3) New.  (4) Extreme left or right.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  Rebellion.  (1) Youth.  (2) Wild life as flaunting conventions vs. pure evil.  (3) Vulgarians: sex, drugs, rock and roll, freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  Rock and roll as (1) fun vs. (2) rebellion (freedom) vs. (3) decadence (self-destruction).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-culture.  Various counter culture philosophies.  (1) Working hard is not important.  Material things are not important.  (2) Relax, have a good time.  (3) Noncompetitive, nonmaterialistic.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Counter-cultures like beats, hippies, etc.  (1) Fu*k work, money and stuff.  (2) Relax, have a good time, noncompetitive, nonacquisitve.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip philosophy.  Hip as (1) Environment: American Indian.  Nature as friend, not impartial or foe.  Technology as foe, not impartial or friend.  (2) Eastern philosophy: Zen, vegetarianism.  (3) Social.  Peace and harmony.  Cooperation.  War protest.  (4) Freedom.  Beats.  Existentialists.  Civil rights for blacks and women.  Panthers.  Yippies.  (5)  Fun.  Sex, drugs, and rock, vs. money, sex, and power.  Importance of play and joy.  The musical revolution of rock.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip, Fresh, Trendy, With it, Up to date, and In the loop.  (1) Hip can refer to the worlds of music and fashion.  (2) Hip can apply to the world of the news and current events.  (3) Hip can manifest itself in the world of technology, where geeks try to keep up with the latest and greatest computers.  (4)  These are all expression of people unconsciously trying to express that they are prime mating material.  The only alternative is to be Old, Passe', and Out of touch, which are all terms that are another way of saying that they are not courting material.	12/7/2000

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip: intellectual, emotional, and/or experiential understanding of poverty, crime, drugs, bohemia, arts, etc.  Unhip: no understanding of same.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip: means intellectual, emotional, and experiential knowledge of (1) Minority experiences.  (2) Economic poverty, blue collar blues.  (3) Arts: blues music and jazz.  (4) Foreign cultures.  (5) Beatness, failure, losers.  (6) Rootless wandering, metaphysical homelessness, nomad.  (7) Drugs, booze, smoking (as enjoyment and torture).  (8) Death and danger, crime, sleazy sex.  (9) Gambling (metaphysical knowledge of chance and risk).  (10) Rebellion, nonconformity, social outcast.  (11) Waste, decadence.  (12) Slackers, aimlessness, laziness, apathy.  (13) Fun hogs, hedonism.  (14) Bohemianism.  (15) Why is this knowledge important?  Too many smart people know only half the story, the optimistic view of life sold to them by a society that wants to use them.  To be fully smart and balanced you have to be hip.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip.  Beats: intellectual (esp. literary).  Hippies: dopes, non-intellectual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip.  Definitions of unhip: (1) Unhip as nerd (brain).  (2) Unhip as square (traditional).  (3) Unhip as weeb (wimp).  (4) Unhip as spaz (klutz).  (5) Unhip as fashion victim.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip.  The beats: intellectual, existential?  The hippies: leisure philosophy, nature philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hip.  Why are some individuals attracted to hipness only intellectually vs. why are some individuals driven to hipness and destruction.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippie philosophy strengths and weaknesses.  Opponents call it childlike, passive, druggies, mindless.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippie philosophy.  (1) Anti-technology.  (2) Pro leisure.  Nature.  Likes American Indian.  (3) Better to mellow out physically and mentally in a nice natural environment (especially mountains) than to undergo physical and psychological stress (work) in a shit environment (city).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippie types.  (1) Short term (trustafarians) vs. long term.  (2) Authentic (givers) vs. fakes (voyeurs and opportunists).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippie, definitional disputes.  Different people feel the essence of hippness is (1) Militant left wing radicalism (anarchism or commie).  (2) Stupidity, mindlessness (Zen, drugs).  (3) Peacefulness, pacifism.  (4) I disagree with all of these views of hipness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  (1) (New) dull head philosophy.  Better to totally turn off than to get involved in anything society puts out.  Is such a position possible?  (2) Opposite view is to totally do it society's way, which is the believers philosophy.  Just do what others are doing.  Do what the president says to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  (1) Arguments pro and contra hippie philosophy.  (2) Type of persons attracted and repelled to hippie philosophy depends how much action you like, and how much tension you like.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  (1) Extreme of asceticism vs. (2) extreme of debauchery vs. (3) the normal (middle) way.  All three have strengths and weaknesses.  To expose/enlighten and miss/hide.  The beats used both extremes.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Dead heads: relaxes and opens the mind.  Simple, organic, cooperative vs. complex, manmade, conflict.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Dead heads.  (1) Pro: Tolerant of diversity and eccentricity.  Open and honest.  Relaxed and non-competitive.  (2) Contra: Cult thinking.  Cult behavior.  Get nothing done.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Deadheads.  (1) Strong deadhead-ism.  (A) No one has to think.  (B) No one has to work.  (C) We can all live in huts and eat nuts and berries.  (2) Weak deadhead-ism replaces "no one" with "I".	06/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  History of the trans-generational left: Romantics.  Decedents.  Dada.  Beats.  Hippies.  Generation x.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Surfing = Grateful Dead.  Healthy, stupid, non-violent, hedonistic (all pleasure, no pain), nature, rebellious, exciting, fun, identifiable.  Aesthetics: surfboards, and waves, and women in bikinis are beautiful things.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Woodstock spirit.  (1) Grooving with your new neighbors.  Dance and be happy.  (2) Going with the flow.	09/10/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Woodstock.  (1) Money making.  (2) Socializing.  One big cocktail party.  (3) A philosophy of various metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and aesthetic views.  (4) Belief in power and rightness of Sex, (5) Drugs, and (6) Rock and roll.  (7) Peace.  (8) Harmony.  (9) Toleration.  (10) Back to nature.  Health food.  Environment and ecology.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Woodstock.  (1)(A) The original Woodstock was free music, no rules, but with mud, no water or food or facilities and with traffic jams.  (B) The new Woodstock had rappers and thrashers.  It was more about money, corporate sponsorship, big advertising.  A reunion was good.  Bringing in a new generation is good.  It could never be done today like they did it then, for safety and health reasons.  (2) The name Woodstock (the village, the farm, the old concert, the new concert) stands for something.  It stands for the radical left.  It is not just another concert like Live Aid, Farm Aid, Cal Jam, Monsters of Rock, Altamont, Monterey Pop, etc.  It is a gathering of tribes.	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies, beats cool hip.	Hippies.  Woodstock.  Back then people believed strongly that sex, drugs, rock, and youth had great power to change the world and enlighten you as an individual.  Today no one believes it, or gives a shit, and rightly so?	09/01/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	.This section is about various specific philosophies.  Topics include: ( ) American mainstream.  ( ) General.  ( ) High school taxonomy.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Age destroys youthful idealism.  (2) What the world could and should be vs. what it is, and how to get along in it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Conflict vs. peaceful.  (2) Competitive vs. noncompetitive.  (3) Winners vs. losers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Ethical vs. unethical.  (2) Logical vs. illogical.  (3) Truer vs. falser.  (4) Important vs. unimportant.  (5) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (6) Appollonian, rational vs. dionysian, emotional, romantic.  (7) Nature, wilderness vs. civilization, urban.  (8) Generalists vs. specialists.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Freedom.  We should not be controlled, in any area (anarchists).  (2) Control and power.  We should be controlled: by x.  We should control others: who, over what.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Hippies: open, honest, warm, nice, merciful, spacey.  (2) Business: secretive, closed, lies, cold, hard, ruthless, calculating.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Idealism.  Dreamers, romantics, big minded, creative.  Danger, risk, excitement, stress, excel.  Freedom, independent, rebellion, wild, hard, tough.  (2) Pragmatic.  Practical, narrow minded, small minded, petty.  Security, slavery.  Clones and drones.  Survival and comfort.  Weak, stupid, conformist cowards.  Civilized, numb.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Peace philosophies (good):  Democratic power sharing.  Non-violence.  Openness.  Communication, dialogue.  Passive resistance.  (2) War philosophies (bogus):  Power hogging.  Interpersonal control freaks.  Everything is a war.  War justifies any action, any means to achieve the goal.  The goal of war is to destroy your enemies.  Closed society.	6/4/2004

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Politics: anarchy, totalitarianism, authoritarianism.  (2) Economics: capitalism, socialism, communism.  (3) Sex: Horny vs. prude.  Kinky vs. straight.  (4) Work: company man vs. union man.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	(1) Wild, wiry, wolves vs. steroid steer slaves.  (2) Traditionalists vs. futurists.  (3) Conformists vs. eccentrics.  (4) Sheeps vs. wolves.  (5) Children vs. adults.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	A person's philosophy of life is a combination of their philosophy of politics, economics, technology, etc.  (1) Politics.  Some people are politically aware and active.  Some are not.  (2) Economics.  Some people value money above all else.  Other people do not make that mistake.  (3) Technology.  Some people are technophilic.  Some people are technophobic.	5/29/2007

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	America.  All american theory.  Big, healthy, well adjusted, happy, peaceful, people at picnic tables in wheatfields.  No problems.  Pastoral health vs. neurotic civilization.  Is it real?  Is it possible?  Can it be?  Is it being done, or are they deluding or ignoring themselves (lies and secrets from selves) (fusion of the ethics of secrecy and psychological repression)?	01/08/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Conservatives.  Types of conservatives.  (1) Right wing anarchists, fascists, rich, politicians.  (2) Politically active, survivalists.  (3) Traditionalists and fundamentalists.  (4) Business men: entrepreneur, organization man.  (5) Country: parochial, patriotism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Corporate crowd.  They live for work.  Their work is the major part of their life.  I never want to get that way, because the work they do is mostly droning bullshit.  They are like ants, they are like bees, they just work, nothing touches them.  It is amazing.  The work continues, nothing stops them.  They are unthinking, unfeeling.  That is what is wrong with them.  The corporation is their creed.  Entrepreneurs make the same mistake in a different way.  The entrepreneur puts all his time and energy into something like selling product x.  Both corporate types and entrepreneurs adhere to a specific philosophy known as work, and more exactly, business.	02/15/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Corporate jerks.  (1) Money, sex, power vs. (2) family and security vs. (3) risk, gambling, excitement.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Modern american dream philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  Make the most of yourself, and improve society.  Get a wife, kids, new car, stuff, and a house with picket fence.  Beat the other guy, competition, accomplish (get, do).  Equal opportunity, work hard and get ahead.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Protestant work ethic.  Work hard, long, and smart.  Work is good in and of itself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  There are two American philosophies.  (1) Work as hard as you can at making money, and then (2) Do absolutely nothing in free time.  Actually the best thing you can do is work in your free time on non-money making, personal growth activities.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American mainstream.  Things people believe in.  Power, money, sex.  Cigars, coffee, wine.  God, country, family.	08/01/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	American philosophy.  High school.  Cheerleaders and football players.  Small town values.  Blue collar values.  Not too bright.  Religious.  Rural and suburbs, white, narrow and parochial.  Opposite of cosmopolitan, urban, intelligent.	05/10/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Change.  Dogmatic, traditional, static, vs. change, liberals, dynamic.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Class: (1) Proletariat vs. (2) bourgeoisie vs. (3) aristocrats.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Creativity vs. drones.  (1) Individualists, rebels, outsiders vs. clones, conformists, mass herd mentality.  (2) Cloneism: be like everyone else.  Droneism: work constantly, think of nothing else.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Dude-ism.  PART ONE. Dude-ism as exemplified in famous dude movies: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".  "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure".  "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "The Big Lebowski".     PART TWO. Elements of dude-ism.  (A) Anti-intellectualism.  Dude's know that you don't have to be smart to survive and thrive.  (B) Booze and pot.  Dudes do.  (C) Dudes are social.  Hail fellows well met.  Seeing other dudes as equals.  Seeing other dudes as friends.  (D) Dudes have an inherent nobleness and sense of self-worth.  (E) Dudes are inherently ethical.  A dude does not knowingly do you wrong.     PART THREE.  California dude-ism is distinct from cowboy dude-ism (dude ranches, etc.).     PART FOUR.  Problems with dude-ism.  (A) Dude-ism can be sexist when it excludes female dude-ettes.  (B) Dudes believe booze and other drugs cannot hurt you.  Booze and other drugs can hurt you.  (C) Dudes believe they don't need their brains.  Dudes do need their brains, if not now then later.  (D) Dudes believe its all for fun (hedonism).  Its not exactly all for fun.     PART FIVE.  Why do teenagers call each other dude?  Because a "dude" is neither "man" nor "boy", it is something in between.	3/9/2001

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Dude.  (1) I have nothing to declare except my dude-ness.  (2) Dude tunes: "All the Young Dudes", by Mott the Hoople.  "Any Major Dude Will Tell You", by Steely Dan.	6/3/2002

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Economic class.  (1) Proletariat: simple life philosophy.  Don't think, except about your immediate future.  Follow orders.  Be a happy slob.  (2) Bourgeoisie: practical life philosophy, manager.  Think but only of your long term consequences in order to get ahead.  (3) Aristocrat: theoretical life philosophy, noble, entrepreneur.  Think of things in abstract, think for everyone, world view.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Environment.  (1) City vs. country.  (2) Indoor vs. outdoor.  (3) Physically inactive vs. active.  (4) Mentally inactive vs. active.	10/09/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Environment.  (1) Pastoral myth.  Peaceful and unstressful.  Posits an inactive, passive, unaccomplishing individual in a quiet, unchanging, passive, friendly environment.  They are happy dropouts.  (2) City myth.  Stressful.  Posits a striving, accomplishing, active individual in an actively opposing environment full of problems.	06/15/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Environment.  (1) Urban: anonymity, privacy, excitement.  (2) Suburban: peaceful.  (3) Rural or small town: boredom.  (4) Wilderness: freedom.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Environment.  City.  World of man, against nature.  Technology is important.  Politics is important.  Status is important.  Looks not substance is important (fashion).  Money.  Females.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Eras.  (1) 1960's and 1970's. Cooperative, help, share, harmony, love.  Mellow out, laid back.  Spiritual, not worldly.  Peace, not war.  Asceticism, not greed.  Country, pastoral, wild, wilderness.  Street, not penthouses.  Prole, not aristocrat.  Reflected in fashion (ripped jeans, hippie look) and music (country and folk).  (2) 1980's.  Competitive, aggressive, greed.  City, industry, high class, conservative.  Defense.  Reflected in fashion (black tie, business suits) and music (the Sinatra revival).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Eras.  Is the following true?  (1) 1960's youth were more: Idealistic, philosophical, knowledgeable.  Politically thinking and active.  Rowdy, risk taking, free.  (2) 1990's youth are more: Conformist, practical.  Less knowledgeable, less free.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Explorers, confronters, searchers, seekers vs. run away, hiders, ignorers, repressors, duty.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Four types of culture.  (1) Haute culture.  (2) Mass culture.  (3) Counter culture.  (4) Ubermensch true nobleman super culture.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  (1) What he thinks is real.  (2) What he thinks is right.  (3) What does he think he stands for?  (4) What he thinks the other guy (opposition) stands for?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  (1) What: comparative philosophy, general to specific.  (2) Why: to know self better.  To know others better.  To fight better, and to win more.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  A philosophical view in one subject area may affect views in other areas.  Similarities in a view from subject to subject, and overall philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  A philosophy can cross many subject areas.  Example, when you say liberal or conservative, you are not making a statement on just political views.  They also have a views on every aspect of life.  So in this section we try to sort these details out, for all major positions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Common examples of the philosophy, from past and present.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Criticism of specific philosophies.  (1) Analysis: description.  Judgment: evaluation.  (2) Pros and cons of any specific philosophy.  Who is it good for, and who is it bad for, according to its holders, me, media, and masses.  (3) How is it similar and different from other philosophies?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Development.  Causes for development of a specific philosophy.  Biology, psychology, physical, social (economic, political), environment, experience, history.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Development.  Formation and development of a specific philosophy.  Effects or expressions of specific philosophy in action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Development.  Specific philosophy of an individual or society is a result of biology, psychological, social, historical and environmental forces.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  How far a philosophy is from the norm, main line philosophy.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Major and minor aspects of a specific philosophy.  The essence of a specific philosophy vs. peripheral points.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Occurrences of specific philosophy through time.  Different groups of people hold similar philosophies.  They are related in families of philosophies.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Personality types who get caught up in a specific philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Philosophy affects job choice and leisure choices.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Similar philosophies pop up into vogue throughout history.  We can group them together.  History of ideas (Lovejoy).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Specific philosophies can be summed up in short statements.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Specific philosophies organized by: (1) groups who hold them, (2) ideas of the philosophy, (3) subject of the philosophy, (4) historical development (time, place).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Specific philosophy.  Understand it vs. don't.  Agree with it vs. disagree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	General.  Statements reflect belief systems which affect lifestyles and behaviors.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	High school taxonomy.     (1) Three major groups.  Brains: the smart kids.  Heads: the party kids.  Jocks: the athlete kids.     (2) Three hybrid groups.  The brain-heads: the smart kids who party.  The brain-jocks: the smart kids who are also athletes.  The jock-heads: the athletes who party.     (3) The super-kid is the one who has the best traits of the brain, jock and head, and who does not have any of the negative traits of the brain, jock or head.	11/20/2001

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	High school taxonomy.  (1) Jock.  Description: Spartan health nut.  Pros: Physically healthy.  Cons: Dumb.  Army like obedience.  (2) Head.  Description: hedonists.  Pros: Freedom of will.  Cons: Physically degenerated, addicted, sex drugs and rock and roll, dumb.  (3) Brain.  Description: world of ideas.  Pros: Smart.  Cons:  Physically degenerated, timid with no will, geek, nerd, poindexter.  (4) How can one take the positive traits and leave the negative traits of the above three groups?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	High school taxonomy.  Brain, jock, and head.  Pros and cons of each.  The ultimate person would have all of the strengths and none of the weaknesses of all three.  (1) Jock pros: knowledge of importance of body.  Example, the many contributions made by Asian martial artists and rock climbers who solo and boulder.  Tend to be team players.  Jock cons: Tend to be mindless followers.  (2) Head pros: rebel against totalitarian and authoritarian.  Head contra: Mindless rebellion.  Withdrawal into drugs.  (3) Brain pro: Move society forward.  Brain contra: Clones and drones.	11/04/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Intellectuals and anti-intellectuals.  Types of each.  Reasons they hold their views.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Jock philosophy.  Physical health and physical activity are necessary to build character and gain enlightenment.  This is true to a certain extent.	05/10/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Legal, justice, law and order vs. criminal.  (1) Relativistic ethics.  (2) Believe in no standards - amoral.  (3) Line drawerers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Material vs. non-material (ideas, spiritual).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Materialism.  (1) Materialism: to focus on, find joy in, and identify with physical objects.  (A) Things help define who I am.  (B) Things have value.  (C) Things are trophies.  (2) Anti-materialism: to loathe physical things.  (3) Idea-ism: to love ideas.  (4) Anti-idea-ism: to hate ideas, anti-intellectual.  (5) No-ism: to pursue an empty mind, Buddhist/Hinduism, repressed.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Materialism.  (1) Materialists.  Money first, get rich quick, make your first million, get stuff, indulgent hedonism.  (2) Anti-materialists.  Poverty is ok if you are doing what you want vs. poverty is good in and of itself.  Asceticism, simplification, spartanism.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Other specific philosophies: (1) work vs. leisure.  (2) People vs. isolation.  (3) Exploring, (travel).  Discovering (science).  Inventing (technology).  Creating (art, ideas).	01/22/1994

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Pairs or dualities, and spectrums.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	PART ONE.  Many people hold the following mistaken beliefs, "(1) Whatever I do is "instinctual" and "natural" and therefore correct.  (2) I do whatever I feel.  My emotions always provide an infallible, unerring guide.  (3) If I think of something then I think of it.  If I forget something then I was meant to forget it.  Why bother writing?  (4) Everything happens for a reason.  (5) Everything works out for the best in the end."     PART TWO.  What is wrong with the above naive views?  (1) "Instincts" (whatever they are) do not always provide a reliable guide.  (2) Emotions do not always provide a reliable guide.  (3) We sometimes forget useful and important ideas.  Writing is helpful to develop and transmit thoughts.  (4) The reason some things happen is because of human stupidity.  (5) Everything does not always work out for the best, and you can ask the friends of murder victims about that.  Justice is not automatic.  Life is not always simple.  Situations can be complex and require thought.  Its not always a good idea to only take care of yourself and ignore the rest of the world.	1/25/2004

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Philosophy can be defined as an exploration of basic attitudes held by people.  Two factors impede an investigation of the basic attitudes held by people.  (1) People often do not know what are their basic attitudes on various topics.  People often have never thought about what are their basic attitudes on various topics.  (2) People often do not feel comfortable talking about what are their basic attitudes.  People are often reluctant or hesitant to explore their basic attitudes.  People often fear thinking, discussing, and writing about their basic attitudes.	5/27/2007

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Philosophy of individual, and philosophy of society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Popular vs. unpopular.  Insiders vs. outsiders.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Power, sex, money vs. sex, drugs, rock n roll.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Psychology.  (1) Doers (just do it).  (2) Thinkers.  (3) Non-doers.  (4) Non-thinkers (Why ask why?  Don't think, drink).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Psychology.  Believers: unconsciously or consciously believe in religion, myth, magic vs. thinkers: rational (philosophy, science).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Psychology.  Intellectuals vs. anti-intellectuals.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Psychology.  Silly vs. serious.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Psychology.  Thinkers, questioners, answerers, scholars vs. non thinkers, ignoramuses, obeyers, blind rule followers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Rebellion.  Two forms of rebellion.  (1) Hippies: everything is okay.  (2) Punks: nothing is okay.	12/29/1997

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Safe, sober, secure life vs. intense, mind blowing, gut wrenching life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Slobs vs. snobs.  Losers vs. winners.  Insensitive winners have an unfair natural advantage.  Poor, ugly, dumb losers trying to maintain self-esteem.  (see Animal House and Caddyshack).	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Sociology: (1) Peace, pacifists vs. war, warrior, soldier, aggressor, competitor.  (2) Struggling: aggressors vs. passivers.  (3)(A) Cooperator, share, socialist, communist.  (B) Competitor, free market.  (C) Conflictors, warrior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Specific philosophies classified by (1) Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethical, aesthetics.  (2) Psychology: personality type.  (3) Social: ages, races, classes, ethnicities.  (4) Economic, political, work, leisure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Specific philosophies reflected in subcultures in music, fashion, and commercial products.  (1) Punks.  Nihilistic, angry, misfit, losers.  (2) Hippies.  Love, peace, harmony, bliss out, don't think.  (3) Beats.  Jazz, spontaneous, intellectuals.  (4) Reggae.  Mellow out, ganja.  (5) Goths.  (6) The Rich.  Country clubbers.  Preppies.  Rich, good looking, smart and popular.  (7) Rat Pack.  Booze, broads, gambling, swank.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Them vs. me.  (1) Them: mass culture and business culture and work culture.  They like a lot of material things, and they don't like to think.  Their philosophy (business/corporate and mass US culture) is driven by power status from money.  They think in short term, not long term.  Cutthroat, anything goes.  Leisure for leisure sake.  Conformists, and specialists.  (2) Me: I don't like having lots of material things.  I like to think.  How to keep my philosophy alive and growing in their world?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Very often, what people have going on in their minds is a stew of semi-conscious ideas.  These ideas do not necessarily fit together.  Some ideas may contradict other ideas.  Some ideas may be conscious, and other ideas subconscious.  If you ask a person what their specific philosophy is, you may get a vague, fuzzy answer.  Humans are not computers.  Human brains are not fool proof.  There are a lot of ideas.  Sort it out.  That is our task.	11/18/2005

Philosophy, specific philosophies.	Youth vs. old age.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	.See also: Psychology, thinking, ways of thinking and x in general.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	.This section is about systems theory and network theory.  Topics include: ( ) Systems  ( ) Games	1/24/2006

Philosophy, systems and networks.	(1) System complexity: how many types of parts in the system.  (2) System size: how many individual parts in the system.	3/27/2007

Philosophy, systems and networks.	A system is a set of interrelated part.  The parts can be of various types.  The relations between the parts can be of various types.  Thus, systems can be of various types.	11/19/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Automata.  What is an automata?  An automata is a machine that can perform a series of tasks.  An automata is a machine that can be programmed.  A machine is a tool that has moving parts and a power source.  A computer is an example of an automata.  Is an animal, even a human, an example of an automata?	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Chaos and complexity.  Examples of chaos and complexity.  Chaos and complexity are features of non-simple systems that have some degree of randomness.  (1) Chaos and complexity in mathematical systems.  Fractals.  (2) Chaos and complexity in non sentient systems.  For example, in computer systems.  (3) Chaos and complexity in sentient systems.  For example, the human mind.  It is possible that creative thinking is due to the result of chaos and complexity occurring in the system of the brain.  (4) Chaos and complexity in social systems.  For example, crowds, politics, economics.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Chaos and complexity.  How useful is chaos and complexity theory in describing and predicting real world situations and systems?	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Chaos theory.  How can a small change in one part of a system produce a large change elsewhere in the system?  For example, in the weather.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Chaos theory.  Is a random number generator an example of a chaotic system?  Are chaotic systems 100% random?  Not necessarily.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Complexity theory.  Complexity is a relative term.  At what point do we call a system complex?	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Complexity theory.  In what ways can complex phenomena evolve or derive from simple phenomena?  One way is in biological systems, for example, biological evolution.  Another way is in physical systems, for example the weather.  Yet another way is in mathematical systems, for example, fractals.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Cybernetics, a field pioneered by Norbert Wiener in the 1920's and 1930's, is concerned with self-regulating systems.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Definition of system.  (1) Natural systems.  (2) Man-made systems.  Man-made procedures, institutions, technologies, etc.  Sub-systems include the legal system, political system, medical system, educational system, etc.	3/27/2007

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Definition of system.  (1) System can refer to any type of general system.  (2) System can refer to civilization.  (3) System can refer to the American system.	3/27/2007

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Everything is connected (linked, chained, tied) to everything else.  Reality is a network.	8/9/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	How does one's metaphysics change when one begins to describe one's world in terms of systems, networks, games, cybernetics and automata?	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Model theory.  (1) What is a model?  (A) A model is a simplification of another thing.  (B) A model is an abstraction of another thing.  (C) A model is a function that accepts an input and produces an output.  (2) Types of models.  (A) Static models.  A static model represents one scenario at one point in time.  (B) Dynamic models.  A dynamic model can represent either many different scenarios or the progression of a scenario through time.  A dynamic model can take many inputs and produce many outputs.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Model theory.  Measuring the predictive accuracy of a model.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Model theory.  Types of models.  Physical models.  Mathematical models.  Computer models (virtual reality).  Mechanical models.  Mental models (how we think).  Logical models.  Musical models.  Visual models.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  (1) Shortest path.  Shortest path in terms of physical distance.  Shortest path in terms of time required.  Shortest path in terms of fewest hops.  (2) Longest path.  Longest path in terms of physical distance.  Longest path in terms of time required.  Longest path in terms of number of hops.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  For a network of any given number of nodes, how many direct links between nodes will connect every node to every other node.  For example:  Four nodes are connected by six links.  Five nodes are connected by nine links.  Six nodes are completely connected by 16 links.  What is the formula for this pattern?	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  For any given set of nodes, for example, four nodes named A, B, C, D, how many combinations of nodes are possible?  This is a simple matter of combinatorics.  Answer: A.  B.  C.  D.  AB.  AC.  AD.  BC.  BD.  CD.  ABC.  BCD.  ABD.  ACD.  What is the formula for this pattern?  Example of an application: If you have four people, how many combinations of conversation are possible?	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  How far will something travel in a network?  How fast will something travel in a network?  Nodes with one link.  Nodes with two links.  Nodes with three links.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  If you have x number of nodes, how many links are required to connect every node to every other node?  4 nodes require 6 links.  5 nodes require 9 links.  6 nodes require 15 links.  What is the mathematical pattern?	6/23/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  Network of people.  Spread of an idea or meme.  For example, people visiting a website.  Website popularity.  Word of mouth.  Links pages.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  Principles of the growth and decay of networks.  (1) If much traffic is traveling indirectly between two nodes then a direct link should be made between those two nodes.  (2) If little traffic is traveling directly between two nodes then any pre-existing direct link should be closed down and an indirect path should be taken.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  Simple networks and complex networks.  (1) In a simple network, each node has the same number of links.  In a complex network, some nodes have many links and other nodes have few links.  (2) In a simple network, each link is the same length, width.  In a complex network, links have different lengths and widths.	11/8/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  Simple networks and complex networks.  (1) Simple network is a network where all the nodes are the same, all the links are the same, and all the traffic is the same.  For example, all the nodes are the same size, all the links are the same length, and all the traffic follows a regular pattern.  (2) Complex networks are networks that have nodes of different types, links of different types, and traffic of different types.  For example, the nodes could vary by function, the links could vary by bandwidth, and the traffic is of different vehicles following irregular patterns.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Network theory.  Simple networks and complex networks.  (1) Simple network.  Each node is equidistant from next.  Speed of message is same between all nodes.  (2) Complex networks.  Distance between nodes is not equidistant.  Speed of messages varies between nodes.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Networks of ideas.  Beyond ecological networks of plants and animals, and beyond social networks of people, and beyond physical networks of computer hardware, and beyond symbol networks of computer software, there also exists networks of ideas and information.  Ideas exist in sets.  Ideas exist in logical relation to each other.  For example, a syllogism is a set of three ideas in the logical relation of premise, premise and conclusion.  Another example is information in a relational database, in which information exists in a grid-like network.  Humans think using networks of ideas.  Humans rarely ever think of just one idea alone.  Ideas exist in sets.	10/30/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Networks.  Types of networks.  (1) Descriptions of networks through time, i.e., a diachronic view of networks.  (2) Description of networks at any point in time, i.e., a synchronic view of networks.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Networks.  Types of networks.  PART ONE.  Networks in an individual person.  ( ) Network of nerve cells in a living body, especially the brain.  ( ) Psychological networks.  Idea networks.  Ideas stand in various logical relations to each other, and thus form an idea network.     PART TWO.  Social networks.  Networks of people or other sentient beings.  ( ) Networks of social power.  Who influences whom.  ( ) Economic or money networks.  Trade networks.  ( ) Sexual partner networks.   ( ) Heredity and kinship networks.     PART THREE.  Technological networks.  ( ) Transportation networks, such as planes, trains and automobiles.  ( ) Networks of machines such as computer networks.  (2) Physical power networks.  For example, electrical power networks.    PART FOUR.  ( ) Information or communication networks.  For example, a telephone network is a network of hardware components connected by wire; and there is also the network of people exchanging information by speaking on the telephone; yet there is also the network of informatioin being exchanged on the telephone.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Networks.  Ways to measure network traffic.  (1) Number of messages arriving at any and all node destinations.  (2) Number of messages being sent by any and all nodes.  (3) Number of messages being relayed by any node.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Subsystems.  (1) Information systems.  Educational system.  Media system.  Library system.  Internet system.  (2) Political, legal system.  (3) Economic, business systems.  (4) Health care system.  (5) Science and technology systems.  (6) Military systems.	1/1/2006

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Are all systems networks?  No, a network is one type of a system.  What is an example of a system that is not a network?  The planetary system around our sun is not a network because the planets are not nodes connected by links.  Are all networks systems?  Yes.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Global systems theory to describe the entire earth.  Universal systems theory to describe the entire universe.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  In what way is the brain-mind a system, and more specifically, a network?  The brain is a network of nerve cells, axons, dendrites, synapses, neurotransmitters.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Is it productive and useful to describe works of art, like novels or movies, in terms of system theory?  For example: The plot system of a novel.  The character network of a novel.  The sound system of a movie.  The lighting system of a movie.  Or the various systems in a work of music or visual art.	12/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Systems can be described using mathematical set theory concepts such as identity, union, intersection, etc.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Types of systems.   One can distinguish between sentient and non sentient systems.  One can distinguish between natural systems and man made systems.  (1) Non sentient, non-man-made systems.  Natural systems.  Physical systems.  The solar system.  Systems of the human body.  (2) Non sentient, man made systems.  Mechanical systems.  Technological systems.  For example, building systems like electrical system, plumbing system, hvac system, etc.  (3) Sentient systems, psychological systems.  Animals, including humans.  The emotion system.  The memory system.  The thinking system.  The psychological systems of the human mind are based on the physical systems of the human body.  (4) Social systems.  Non-human animal social systems.  Human animal social systems.  (5) Combinations of sentient and non sentient, natural and man made systems.  For example, the ecosystem.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  Types of systems.  Systems of the human body (circulatory, endocrine, etc.)  Communication systems.  Transportation systems.  Social systems.  Political systems.  Economic systems.  The legal system.  Technological systems.  The medical system.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  What is a system?  A system is a collection of interrelated parts.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	System theory.  What is not a system?  (1) A single item alone is not a system.  (2) A group of unrelated, non-interacting items is not a system.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory, chaos and complexity.  Simple systems vs. complex systems.  Random systems vs. non-random systems.  (1) What is most random in nature?  Weather?  Gene Mutations?  What causes randomness in nature?  Can we model randomness in computer systems?  How do we introduce randomness in computer systems?   Low level or high level?  Randomness in humans: dreams, insanity.  (2) What is most complex in nature?  DNA?  The mind?  What creates complexity?  Many parts.  Many variables.  Continuous, not discrete.	11/5/1999

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory: a technique for thinking about things.  How things are related by cause and effect.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  How much stress can a system take?  How far will it break down, till it becomes inoperative?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  Human species as a system.  Human species needs to communicate, protect itself (from within and without), and support itself.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  The system on paper, the theoretical system, the ideal system, versus, the actual system.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  Three examples of closed systems.  A terrarium.  The biosphere project in New Mexico.  The earth.	5/12/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  What is a system?  A system is a set of interrelated parts.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems theory.  What.  System: doesn't depend on place?  Purely theoretical?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems.  (1) Parts of a system.  Elements of a system.  (2) Mechanism of a system.  The interaction of the parts of a system.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems.  (1) Types of systems.  Natural systems.  Man made systems.  (2) Examples of systems.  (A) Solar system.  Eco-system.  (B) Political systems.  Economic systems.  Social systems.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Systems.  (1) Universe.  (2) Earth.  (3) Society.  (4) Individual.	10/27/2004

Philosophy, systems and networks.	Views that are not systems theory views.  (1) All is one.  Everything is the same.  Monism.  (2) Everything is separate and isolated.  No thing has any relation to any other thing.  (3) There is no mechanism, no cause and effect.  Things just happen.	11/19/2005

Philosophy, time.	.This section is about time.  Topics include: ( ) Amount of time.  ( ) Ethics and time.  Not wasting time.  ( ) Metaphysics of time.  ( ) Paradoxes of time.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, time.	(1) Budgets and schedules.  (2) Amount of time you put into x.  (3) Speed of action.  (4) Quality time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	(1) Giving everything you decide to do your all vs. (2) thinking about more important things when doing unimportant things.  Arguments for each.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	(1) How does time affect us?  Example, perception of time: time flies when having fun.  (2) How do we affect time?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	(1) If we lived forever how would we experience time?  (2) If we never changed, if nothing ever changed,  how would we experience time?  (3) How do animals experience time?  (4) How did the ancient humans experience time before clocks and schedules?  (5) Einstein's relative time and space vs. Newton's absolute time.  (6) Psychological time (subjective) vs. social time (objective or at least inter-subjective).	6/14/2002

Philosophy, time.	(1) If you live a lot, if you pack a lot of ideas, emotions and experiences into a short span, then that seems a better use of time.  More time value.  (2) But if you forget all that you have experienced and learned, then that seems to negate time.  (3) Likewise, if you do not save experiences, ideas and emotions in writing, or if you do save them in writing but the writing is destroyed or lost, then that seems to negate time.	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	(1) Metaphysical nature of time: finite, changing beings.  (2) Epistemology and time.  (3) Ethics and time.  What to do?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	(1) Time a person has to live.  Time, Energy and Ability is a kind of original position because its what you start with.  (2) What to do with time?  See Philosophy, ethics.	10/9/2005

Philosophy, time.	(1) Time and ethics.  Spend time on what, and not, and why?  How much time spend?  (2) Time and age.  (3) Time and economics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	(1) What if we knew the future?  Would it still be the future?  (2) What if we could change the past.  Would it still be the past?	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	(A) Time vs. (B) timelessness.  (C) Change vs. (D) changelessness.  Does A=C?  Does B=D?	08/15/1994

Philosophy, time.	1/3 time spent sleeping.  1/3 time spent working.  Your free time is your life.  Waste your free time and you waste your life.  Don't waste your free time.	5/5/2006

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  (1) 30% to work or school.  30% to sleep.  30% free, spent commuting, grooming, eating/cooking, shopping, goofing with girl and friends.  (2) 15 years growing up.  30 years decaying to death.  30 years productive time.  5 years to really live and create.  Not much.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  (1) If you work no longer than 9 to 5, and commute 1 hour each way, and have no kids to hog your time, and sleep 8 hours a day, then you have 4 hours each weeknight and 10 hours each weekend day.  This equals 30 free hours of free time a week.  1500 free hours of free time a year.  I read 10 to 20 pages an hour, which equals 15000 pages a year, which equals 75 books of 200 pages each.  (2) But I lose 2 nights a week to working out.  I also read and write my Notes.  Plus girlfriend takes up time.  Seeing the shrink takes an hour.  Seeing friends takes 2 hours a week.  Volunteering one's time takes and hour a week.  Studying for job certification takes hours.  (3) How much work can an intellectual get done in a lifetime?  How much can a person learn in a life?  Use audio tape books while commuting.  Watch educational television.  Get a learning job so you can learn at work.  (4) Once you know your limits you can better decide what to spend time on.  (3) Example, how much money do I have?  How much time do I have?  Given those parameters, what if any will be the contents of my mind.  And thus, what will be my philosophy of life.	11/20/1997

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  100 years.  36,500 days.  876,000 hours.  52,560,000 minutes.  3,153,600,000 seconds.	4/30/2005

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  Age 0 - 20 is spent in useless growing.  Age 60 - 80 is spent in useless dying.  Age 20 - 60 is spent with useful potential.  1/3 of that is wasted sleeping.  1/3 of that is wasted at job.  This leaves 1/3 of 40 years free, that is 15 or so years.  1/3 of that is wasted on chores.  That leaves 10 years in which to live.  Not 80 like you thought.  That is why life seems so short.  It is short.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  Most important ideas about time.  (1) How little time we have.  Prime time is age 15 to 35.  Divide by three to account for work and sleep.  7 years of free time left.  (2) How easy it is to waste.  (3) How much we can achieve if we use it well.	03/23/1994

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  Most of our time is spent sleeping, working, commuting, doing chores, frazzled beyond use, too tired to think or act, lazy and unmotivated.  After that, not much is left.  How to change this situation?  What to do with the little time you have left?	01/02/1994

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  My free time.  Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, 4 hours a day.  Sunday 8 hours.  Total of 24 hours of free time a week (1 day).  Thus, life turns out to be 1/7 the length I thought it was.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  School and work, when you are in high school and college.  Work and kids, when you are an adult.  Plus the gym, shrink, commuting, and chores.  These things can easily occupy 95% of your total time, leaving no time to think and write for the purposes of psychological health, psychological growth, and contribution to society.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.  Your free time equals your life.  Your life does not equal sum of work time and sleep time and free time, which is what most people think.  Half your free time is wasted through mistakes and failures and aimlessness.  Waste the remaining half of your free time (with girl, television, and hanging out) and you waste half your life.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, time.	Amount of time.of time.  Give me 10 minutes more.  (1) I think at 200 words per minute.  I speak at 200 words per minute.  I type at 50 words per minute.  I read 100 words per minute (15 pages as hour, 50 pages a day).  (2) In 10 minutes you can think of, write, say, or read something that will change your life or someone else's life.  (3) How much physical work can you do in 10 minutes?  Examples: number of boxes lift, field plow, or money earn in order to give away.  (4) How much time can you waste?  3 hours a day watching television, veging out, gabbing with friends.  Turns out to be 100 hours a year.  4,000 hours in 40 years.  Which is 100 40 hour work weeks.  Which is 20 years of work.	02/22/1997

Philosophy, time.	As far as development goes, time is as important as speed and direction.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Be more efficient.  More efficient = more life, more accomplished, more experienced, more enjoyed.	12/26/1997

Philosophy, time.	Death and time.  Recognition and understanding (intellectual and emotional) of the fact that we can die and we will die eventually, can lead to notions of time being limited, urgency, ethics, work, efficiency.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Due to learning curve, devote 2 times as much time and get 4 times as far (exponential), until what limit of memory or iq?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and the future.  Do you have an ethical obligation to the future you?  If time didn't exist we could do anything and it wouldn't matter.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time:  (1) Ethics of what was.  (2) Ethics of what is.  (3) Ethics of what could be.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  "Could have been.", is a terrible phrase.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  (1) Long term and short term thinking.  Pros and cons of each.  Long run vs. short run.  (2) Timing: too soon vs. too late.  (3) Doing nothing: sometimes it is good to wait.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  (1) What is the ethical thing to do? (future) vs. (2) Was that an ethical thing I did? (past).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Drinking, and even wasting time, is slow murder, suicide, and death.  When you kill someone you waste them, you waste all of their time all at once.  When you waste your own time you are slowly killing yourself.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Ethics is about the future.  Potential and Consequences.  The creation of a future being and a future world.  Do you think about the future when you act?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Every hour spent goofing off or watching television is an hour I could have spent thinking, creating new and useful things, saving the world, making my life better (job, women, etc.), being happier.  Seduced by the enjoyable yet worthless.	10/30/1996

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  How do you want to spend your time?  How do you actually end up spending it?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  How much time to devote to each activity: scooping, goofing, leisure, work?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  How what we do affects the future of us, others, nature, and total situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  If I don't do something now that will help me later I am actually hurting my future self.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  My free time is my life.  Record the amount of free time you have.  Free time is time after work and school.  Figure out amount of free time you waste, and percentage of free time you waste.  The pain of time wasted is greater than the pain of time spent working on notes and books.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  People usually revise their priorities and urgency feeling when time is reduced.  If you think you will probably live 60 years you will have a different ethic system than if you realize two thirds of that time will be lost sleeping and working.	08/22/1993

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Waiting.  A large part of life is waiting.  The key is to reduce time spent waiting.  Know what to do during unavoidable delays.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Amount of wasted time = duration and frequency of an activity.  How important the activity.  How efficient you are.  Effort given vs. accomplishment made.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Ethics of destroying things you could have done, and things you could have developed into in the future.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  How much time and being have I wasted intellectually, socially, sexually, and job wise?  A lot.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  I currently waste 50% of my free time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Losing awareness of time's preciousness leads to wasting of time.  Wasting of time is killing or destroying the potential greater you.  Wasting time is murder.  Your prime is age 17 to 37, minus 1/3 sleep, 1/3 work, leaves a 6 year prime.  Not much.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Much time is lost being lazy, stupid, and neurotic.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Prolonging life by getting more done in less time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Time is not spent, time is wasted by degree.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Time lost or wasted vs. time spent.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Time wasted = time lost doing nothing, doing wrong thing, or going too slow.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  Time wasted vs. time utilized fully.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  What qualifies as wasting time, objectively and subjectively, to me, years ago and current views?  How bad an offense do I consider wasting time?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  Wasting time.  You lose the time, and you lose the state (youth).  You lose what you could have done then, and you lose what you could have become in the future.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Ethics and time.  What can you do in a minute or an hour?  If you think hard you can get "the big new idea".  Don't waste even an hour.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, time.	Ethics of time.  (1) Wasting time is murder.  It is murdering the future potential you.  It is also murdering future potential others.  If you forget this, you are forgetting the most important thing in life.  (2) Stupid, or insane, or evil moves can destroy it all as surely as wasting time can, and much more quickly.  Bad luck can always interfere also.	02/22/1997

Philosophy, time.	Everything (even sitting around) takes time and energy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Free time.  Hours of free time a day.  Use 1 hour free a day = 365 a year.  Use 2 hours free time a day, 700 a year.  Waste 1 hour free time a day, 365 a year.  Waste 2 hours free time a day, 700 a year.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, time.	Future.  I used to be oriented towards the past.  But the past is unchangeable, and thus has no hope, which leads to depression.  Now I am oriented toward the future.  The future is all potential, and thus there is hope, which leads to less depression.	08/17/1997

Philosophy, time.	Future.  The future is the only land left to be discovered.	01/12/1989

Philosophy, time.	Future.  There will always be new important thoughts to be thought.  There will always be new important thoughts for me to think.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, time.	Gains multiply, and losses multiply too.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Going full blast, what could I get done, how soon, and maintain, for how long?  (1) If I slept 7 hrs night.  (2) If I kept my head in great condition.  (3) If I kept my body in great condition.  (4) If I worked (read and thought) all the time.  (5) If I never goofed off.  (6) What could I learn, what could I create?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Good times vs. bad times.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	How much time can I get/create?  How much time do I need?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	How much time in past, present, and future do you have, need, and want.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	How much you accomplish also depends on techniques you use.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	If there was no cause and effect how would we experience time?	6/15/2002

Philosophy, time.	If there was no time.  If there was no before and after.  If there was no past, present and future.  If there was no cause and effect.  If there was no change (no birth, growth, decay and death.)	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	If there were no seasons.  If there were no day and night.  If there were no natural cycles.  How would we experience time?	7/10/2006

Philosophy, time.	If time was not constant.  If humans never aged and died?  Then how would we regard time?  There would be overpopulation, pollution and no resources.  If resources were limitless, and there was no scarcity, how would we regard time?	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	It is easy to waste your life away.  All it take is just a couple of hours a day.	11/20/1993

Philosophy, time.	It is not how long you live.  It is in what directions and how far you develop your head.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	It is not just the time, it is the effort, and focus.  I.e. quality time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Keeping track of time and history.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Life is too short to kill an hour of my free time every day watching television.	8/11/1998

Philosophy, time.	Limits: time you got.  Number and types of experiences and behaviors in your life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Loss of time = loss of experience.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Either there is no present or we are always in the present.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  There is no time, only being.  The ebb of being.	01/01/1989

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Time (seconds, minutes and hours) is a manmade artificial construct for coordination and cooperation.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Time is a man made thing.  Time is an arbitrary social convention.  Clocks and calendars vs. sunrise, sunset and the changing of the seasons.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Two metaphysical views about time: (A) There is no present.  There is only the past and the future.  (B) There is only the present.  There is no past or future.	10/26/1999

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Two views.  (1) There is only now.  There is no past and future.  (2) There is only the past and future.  There is no now.	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	Metaphysics of time.  Types of time.  (1) Total time you have.  (2) Time you and x spend together vs. apart.  (3) Time in what state: health vs. illness; pain vs. pleasure.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Natural rhythms and cycles.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Only 52 Saturday nights a year.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Our being on earth is limited.  Our being in any state (ex. youth) is even more limited.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Paradox.  More proof of Einstein's theory of relativity.  When waiting outside the bathroom, time slows down, and the person inside seems to take forever, because a minute seems like an hour.  Once inside the bathroom, time speeds up, and the person outside doesn't realize that you just got in there, because a minute seems like a second.	10/31/2004

Philosophy, time.	Paradox.  Time speeding up as we grow older.  The problem is, why does it seem like the years go by more quickly as we get older?  If this phenomenon proceeded in a uniform manner then the first days of our life would seem endless and the last days of our lives would seem infinitely short.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  New experiences tend to go slow.  Routine experiences tend to go quick?	12/06/1993

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Subjective.  Time slows with variety and newness.  Time speeds up with monotony and same old same old.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Summary of time paradoxes.  (1) New and fun experiences.  (A) Time flies when you are having fun.  (B) Yet time slows down when doing new things.  (2) Boring and routine things.  (A) Time slows down when doing boring things.  (B) Yet time speeds up when doing routine, old experiences.  (3) These above phenomena can be used as time management techniques.  (A) To make your life seem slower and longer: (i) Try many new things.  (ii) Do things that are not fun (not recommended).  (B) To make your life seem faster and shorter: (i) Do many fun things.  (ii)  Do familiar things all the time (not recommended).	4/29/2001

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Time flies when you have fun.  Time slows when you are in pain.  The worst thing will seem interminable and mind breaking.  The best thing (orgasm) will seem so fast that it never happened.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Time speeds up.  The reason the years speed up as you get older is because as you get older there is less going on mentally.  (1) With age comes greater experience and knowledge, which means fewer new experiences and fewer new ideas to assimilate and figure out.  (2) With age comes less physical energy, which means less mental activity as a result.  (3) Less mental activity, due to the above two phenomena, means life flies by.	6/15/1998

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Time speeds up.  The time speeding phenomenon of age.  Two years of time at age four is half your life.  Two years of time at age 100 is 1/50 your life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  Why do the days seem to drag on and on, and yet why does life seem to have gone by so quickly when you are old?  Basically, it is because we have poor memories.  If you can not remember most of your life then life seems shorter.	11/30/1997

Philosophy, time.	Paradoxes of time.  You wish time goes by faster.  You can't wait till you graduate high school, or college, or retire.  You "can't wait till this is over".  Then time does go by fast and you are bummed out.	10/05/1994

Philosophy, time.	Psychology of time.  (1) Memory and time.  (A) If you have a good memory, and can remember much, then time, and specifically the past, seems very real.  (B) If you have a poor memory, and can remember very little, then time, and specifically the past, seems less real.  (2) Foresight.  (A) If you have good foresight, and can plan much, then time, specifically the future, seems very real.  (B) If you have little foresight, and can plan little, then time, specifically the future, seems less real. 	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	Psychology of time.  Emotion and time.  See: Psychology, emotions, specific > Emotion and time.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	Related concepts.  (1) Not enough time.  (2) Speed and acceleration.  (3) Timing.  (4) Wasting time.	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	See also: History and future studies.	6/15/2002

Philosophy, time.	Speed is rate of change.  Acceleration is rate of rate of change.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	The concept of infinity.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	The matter of time is different from the matter of human age.	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	The mind thinks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  The body grows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There is no off time.  There is no time to goof off.  You are always on.	10/05/1994

Philosophy, time.	The past, the future, and their relation to time.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	There is a limit to the total number and type of experiences we have in our life.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	There is simply not enough time to do all you want to do.  Get goals more efficiently.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	There is so little time.  Time goes by so quickly.  Those two facts are daunting.	5/4/2007

Philosophy, time.	Three aspects of time.  (1) Our subjective, psychological perception of time.  (2) Our technological attempts to measure time.  (3) Natural time.  Change.  The changes of the seasons.  The changes of life from birth, growth, decay and death.	11/6/2004

Philosophy, time.	Time as a means to track change.  If there was no change there would be no time.	6/12/2005

Philosophy, time.	Time by proportion or ratio vs. time by units.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time in regard to anything vs. time in regard to human beings.	10/31/1999

Philosophy, time.	Time is a resource.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time is one of the most basic concepts to human beings.  If you organize time around the concepts of "BC" and "AD" you are engaging in a form of "creedism" that is just as bad as the other forms of prejudice such as racism, sexism, etc.  As a solution, we should organize modern time around a non-human natural event that occurred 5000 or 10000 years ago.	10/25/2000

Philosophy, time.	Time it takes to do x.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time lost, and time left.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time nibbles away at you like a rat.  We are slowly being eaten alive.  The time for both decisive action and long term planning is now.  It is never too early and it is never too late.  Start really living.	1/15/2000

Philosophy, time.	Time rant.  Another day gone.  The days slip by effortlessly.  Eventually all the days will be gone.  Eventually time will run out, with nothing remaining.	5/4/2007

Philosophy, time.	Time rant.  Can you not see that you are wasting my time?  Do you not see that I only have so much time, and that you are using up my time?	5/4/2007

Philosophy, time.	Time rant.  The days are flying by.  What do I have to show for my time?  What should I do?  Should I do nothing?  No, nothing is no good.  I've got to think.  Time is running out.  Must save the world.	5/5/2007

Philosophy, time.	Time spent as what, doing what, in what situation.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time spent doing x vs. time it takes to do x.  Time you want to give to x vs. time you have to give to x.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time stopped.  If there was no time or change then the world would be static and frozen.  Sometimes people express the desire to stop time.  That is not desirable.	11/19/2005

Philosophy, time.	Time travel.  Modern physicists seriously discuss the physical possibility and logical implications of time travel.  Speeding up time.  Slowing down time.  Stopping time.  Reversing time.	11/19/2005

Philosophy, time.	Time want to spend vs. do spend.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Time.  How much can I get done in one hour (read, memorize, create, or write)?  How many free hours can I squeeze out of day?  How many hours will school require for A's?  How many free hours wasted as frazzled, unmotivated, pathological psychology?	02/04/1994

Philosophy, time.	Time.  Why does time exist?  Why is time important?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Timing: (1) Waiting vs. striking.  (2) Rushing vs. taking time.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Timing: sometimes we should wait, and sometimes we shouldn't.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Waiting.  ("The Waiting is the Hardest Part" by Tom Petty).  Sometimes we have to wait, sometimes we don't.  Sometimes there are things we can do when waiting.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, time.	Wasted time is very painful in retrospect.  However, it is very easy and tempting to waste time.  These two facts combine to produce much psychological misery.  When a thoughtful and sensitive person looks back on their life, the person is often struck by how much time was wasted.	12/13/2005

Philosophy, time.	Wasting time.  Wasting time is wasting life.  When you waste your time, that is, when you waste your life, you are slowly killing yourself.  Wasting all your time, is like wasting your entire life, is like drinking yourself to death.  Wasting all your time, is like wasting your entire life, is like an auto collision, or a shotgun blast; it is just as violent, except it happens more slowly, over a longer period of time.  Wasting your time is a violent act, not a lazy, peaceful, serene act, despite its outward appearances.  And not wasting time is, in effect, saving a life, that is, saving your own life	5/31/2006

Philosophy, time.	What are the naturally occurring brain chemicals and states that speed up and slow down our subjective experience of time?  What artificial chemicals also do it?  Speed and caffeine.  Downers.	10/10/2003

Philosophy, time.	Would there be time if we were immortal and unchanging?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	.See also: Psychology, thinking, ways of.  Organizing.  Deductive vs. inductive.  Analytic vs. synthetic.  Categorization and classification.  Organization.  Prioritization.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	.This section is about methodology in philosophy.  Topics include: .	1/24/2006

Philosophy, what, method.	"If you play the guitar, you play it all, not just lead or chords" to paraphrase Keith Richards.  "Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics all hang together" to paraphrase Arthur Danto.	11/27/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) Bottom up philosophy.  Take a new phenomenon in our world and do a philosophical analysis of it (determine cause, effects, nature, etc.).  Example, a new technology, a new piece of knowledge, or a change in culture, etc.  (2) Top down philosophy.  State a proposition and show how it affects all subjects.  (3) 1 is better than 2.	11/15/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) How you do philosophy: what methods use?  (2) How much you philosophize: how often, how long, on what subjects, and what branches?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) Methods in head, of thinking.  Intuitive vs. methodical (see thinking in general and specific ways).  (2)  Methods of communicating.  Talking: dialogue; debate.  Writing: epigrams; essays; magnum opus.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) Methods of doing philosophy.  (2) Methods of studying philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) Phenomenological methods.  How does "x" appear?  (2) Linguistic methods.  How is the word "x" used?  (3) Logical methods.  Are our arguments about "x" valid and sound?	6/12/2004

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) Quick, intentional, active writing.  "i will create a work on x".  (2) Gradual, unintentional, passive, drifting writing.  "I will think and see what I come up with" and then write.  (3) Which method produces better results for who?	01/10/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	(1) What we need is a software program that will "explode" a text into its individual ideas.  And then display the ideas in logical argument form.  (2) The software should also be able to translate these ideas into "in other words" form.  Which is not translation into another language, but rather the same language in a synonymous way.  (3) The software should also be able to draw from a huge database of texts, including quotes by famous authors who held similar ideas.	8/27/1999

Philosophy, what, method.	A problem.  (1) Many people talking about the same thing in different academic subject languages.  Academic barriers.  (2) Or are unaware they are saying the same thing, due to not understanding each others national language, and not understanding each others history of works.  (Ex. Anglo-amer. Vs. continental philosophy).  (3) An interdisciplinary philosophy would cut across this.	10/09/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Analytical existentialism.  One paragraph short stories ala Montainge and Pascal.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Analyze, evaluate, organize, explain, clarify, store.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Analyzing a philosophical statement or system (of statements) for its subject branch, issue/question/problem, view, argument, and evidence.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Analyzing the logic of an argument.  Analyzing the language of an argument (meaning).	11/25/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Continental philosophy has important but obscure ideas that analytic philosophy must clarify and formalize.	01/28/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	Creating a philosophy vs. analyzing a philosophy already created.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Every philosopher should introduce his works (1) on the high school, college, and graduate levels, (2) in one page, ten page, and one hundred pages.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Four traits of analytic philosophy (1) Subject matter: logical analysis, and linguistic analysis.  (2) Method of communication: scientific report style.  Short and sweet and clear as opposed to long and obscure.  (3) Micro rather than macro level.  Analytic rather than synthetic.  (4) A critical method, where you tear up opponents ideas.	01/07/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	From poetry to philosophy.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Get the logical outlines down, rate them in their power (importance) of argument.  Refer to them by number or name.	09/13/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Getting away (from usual environment), alone (away from people), and quiet, lets you see the vision.	05/30/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	How to prepare an idea.  Lay it bare, sum it up, boil it down to bare bones, and put it in a nutshell.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	I want to formally analyze the ideas of continental philosophy.  New Pragmatism, ala Richard Rorty.	11/27/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	If I did or could produce anything new and good, I wouldn't want it to be science, philosophy, or journalism (too concrete, and too padded), or fiction (too padded), but rather, something new.  Therefore, I wouldn't fit into the academic or work world.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	If you consider philosophy to be a process of conceptual clarification then the notion of "definition" becomes very important.  And so perhaps the greatest work of philosophy is the dictionary, and perhaps the greatest philosophers were Ben Johnson and Noah Webster.	11/20/2001

Philosophy, what, method.	Importance of questions without answers, and answers without questions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	In the world of ideas there should be a system of checks and balances in order to show the strengths and weaknesses (pros and cons) of each idea position.  This so that one ideology does not gain too much power in the world of thought.	09/20/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	It is a two step process.  When arguing about issues that concern selecting a balance point on a spectrum between two poles (ex. altruism vs. egoism).  One question is where the ideal balance point is on the spectrum.  A second question involves determining where today's society is on the spectrum, and which way society needs to move to reach the ideal.	9/26/1999

Philosophy, what, method.	Logic is useful only as a theoretical base for future applications.	09/14/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Logical and linguistic analysis are only a start (albeit an important one) to philosophy, not an end to philosophy.  They are worthy of investigation in and of themselves, and in their relationship and importance in philosophy.	09/08/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Me.  My philosophy is synthetic and general. Some philosophers think that only the ideas in the philosophy textbooks or the philosophy journals exist, or are worth doing philosophy on.  I am interested in doing philosophical analysis of the outskirts.  There is a lot of important stuff unrecognized and undone.  Instead of whipping dead horses in the center ring.	11/27/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Method of any individual philosopher or school.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Method vs. results.  Great ideas gotten intuitively are better than shit ideas gotten methodically.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Methodologies.  Math, logic, science, art, etc.     PART ONE.  Mathematical models.  Can the phenomenon be modeled mathematically?  Can the phenomenon be represented exactly, so that the model works 100% of the time?  If not, with what percentage of accuracy can it be modeled?     PART TWO.  Logical models.  If you cannot represent a phenomenon mathematically or quantitatively by using a numerical model, then at least try to represent the phenomenon logically using formal logical symbolism.     PART THREE.  Scientific models.  Can the phenomenon be modeled scientifically? Can one discern the cause and effect relationships of the phenomenon? Does it exhibit any other discernible patterns and order, or is it completely random? Can you experiment on it or is it merely observable only?     PART FOUR.  If you cannot do any science on it, can you at least capture your experience of the phenomenon by using art?  Can you express your experience of the phenomenon by using poetry, painting, music, etc.  PART FIVE.  This is not to say one method is better than another.  We need all methods.  All the methods work together, helping each other.  In the future there may be even newer methods, for example, perhaps new types of computer models.	1/6/2002

Philosophy, what, method.	Methods.  (1) Question out of blue.  (2) Answer out of blue.  (3) Mull it over.  (4) Test answer: in theory, and in practice.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	My method.  Broad.  Phenomenology.  Ordinary language analysis.  Work from experiences, events or words.  Scientific (inductive).  Deductive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	New and old questions.  New and old answers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Non-traditional philosophical sources.  What new philosophical idea was originated or developed by what author or artist, in what work of art?  And then what traditional academic philosopher formalized or expanded the ideas?	08/10/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	On being taught by great philosophers.  If I want to know what they think I will read their book.  I am not interested in having them guiding my research or criticizing my work.	1/30/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	On paper, writing notes, recording, organizing, and prioritizing thoughts/ideas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	One could do a work called "the history of ideas about X".  You could call this work philosophy, but you could also call it history, archaeology, anthropology, etc.  In favor of the historical approach some people argue that there are psycho-social reasons why ideas take hold and become popular.  In favor of the historical approach some people argue that there are reasons why and ways how an idea can influence or shape the next idea that follows it.  However, against the historical approach I say that the so called historical flow of ideas is in some way arbitrary, often involving backsliding and random or whimsical changes.  And I say the historical approach is secondary to the logical approach.  We use historical approaches to see what ideas littered the past.  We use logical approaches to shape up existing ideas and create new and better ideas for the future.	11/20/2001

Philosophy, what, method.	One way to approach it: the most important words there are, and why.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	One way to formalize writing is to label sentences.  Example. A1 for argument one.  A2 for argument two.  A1 p1 for premise one in argument one.  A1 p2 for premise two in argument one.  A1 c1 for conclusion one in argument one.	5/12/1999

Philosophy, what, method.	Philosophers hypothesize extreme examples.	09/14/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Philosophy is interdisciplinary and foundational.  It is therefore encyclopedic, and therefore your reading should be encyclopedias (short, sweet, and complete), in all subject areas.  Learning philosophy by reading a series of monographs is impossibly slow and incomplete.  Textbooks are spotty, and over laden with examples.	01/30/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	Semiotics, hermeneutics, and literary criticism deal with understanding and interpretation.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	So much time is spent by philosophers rehashing old ideas that are already thought out.  We need to push into new areas.  We need conceptual block busting.  We need progress.	08/15/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	The "eclectic, combo, contingency" method: use whatever works best.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	The big problem in philosophy is too many philosophers spending too much time on the few ideas of a few old farts.  Widen the subjects and views considered.	09/13/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	The hermeneutic circle.  You can not understand the work (part) without understanding the context (whole) (cultural, historical, biographical, etc.), and visa versa.  You can not understand or interpret the work without understanding yourself (psychology), and your time (culture), and how you project yourself and your culture onto the work, and visa versa how the work affects you.  You can not understand yourself without understanding all the works, texts, experiences, that went into making you up.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	The question is not just how do we use a word or phrase or idea.  The question is how should we use it.	07/27/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	The reason for philosophy of language and philosophy of logic is to make sure we are not making language mistakes and logic mistakes in our philosophical statements.	01/22/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	The way to do philosophy.  (1) Work from latest scientific empirical findings, and build on them, or build to the side of them.  (2) Concentrate on problems (present, future, and past), and on the world situation.	09/06/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	There is a list of methods we use to find things out.  We can include on the list the critical analysis of media information.  Things like verifying sources, identifying bias, and identifying conflict of interest.	8/24/1999

Philosophy, what, method.	Things (life) and ideas can be put in equation form to make thinking about them easier.  Symbolization.	02/14/1989

Philosophy, what, method.	Two ways to do philosophy.  (1) Pick a subject or person.  (A) "This area interests me, and I think it is important and ripe."  (B) "I think this dude is on the right track, so I will follow and riff (rip) off him."  (2) "I just got this great idea", and then mine it, develop it, and make it yours.	01/28/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	Types of proof: mathematical, logical, and scientific.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, method.	Using formal logic to diagram ordinary language arguments.	1/14/1999

Philosophy, what, method.	We must be eclectic.  Philosophical schools arise for good reasons; to explore unexplored subjects or arguments, and to raise important questions about existing views.  However, these schools wrongly see themselves as the only way to do things, or the culmination or final word in an area.  Each point must have its counterpoint or counterargument, both logically and in the voice of academics.  A completely worked out logical system of checks and balances is required.	11/28/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	What is the big problem in philosophy with concepts like "meaning", etc., I often ask myself?  Can not we just go by common sense?  Yet common sense often leads us astray.  Like when we thought it was common sense that the earth is flat.  Yet common sense can be said to hold true till a discrepancy, paradox, or problem with it arises.  Yet even then, can we figure out a method better (or perfect) than common sense, or do we just work heuristically?	02/01/1994

Philosophy, what, method.	When we push for one concept scheme over another (ex. use of a new word), that is hard philosophy dripping down to the practical level.	09/24/1993

Philosophy, what, method.	Worst thing in philosophy is getting caught up in an insignificant dispute, in an outmoded view, in a unimportant area of philosophy.  Stay on the cutting edge.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	.This section is about related subjects on philosophy.  Topics include: ( ) Art and philosophy.  ( ) Religion and philosophy.  ( ) Science and philosophy.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	(1) Art, philosophy, math, have been thought out.  (2) Big advances still to be made in science and technology.  Apply both groups still to a changing world.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Art vs. philosophy.  Philosophy as distinct from art.  Art is more allusive than philosophy.  Art is less exact than philosophy.	7/30/2004

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Artist vs. philosopher.  Artist is inexact (vague and ambiguous), unrigorous, emotional, unconscious, and uses figurative, metaphorical, and imagistic language in order to hint at the ineffable or the poorly understood or the barely felt subtleties.  Philosophers use exact terms, rigorous logical thinking, and little emotion.  I need both philosophy and art.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Artist/philosopher is neither all artist, nor all philosopher.  The artist/philosopher balances reason and emotion.  Vision and passion.  Examples: Nietzsche and Wittgenstein.  Two problems: Enough emotion but not enough thought.  Enough thought but not enough emotion.	07/27/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Artist/philosopher.  It is a very strange balance that the artist/philosopher is trying to achieve.  Call it "controlled chaos".  He wants the freedom and chaos of the artist.  And he wants the control and logic of the philosopher.  So many people are either or.  The artist/philosopher is both.	4/26/1999

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Artist/philosopher.  Philosophical artists: Melville, Conrad, Dostoyevsky.  Vs.  Artistic philosophers (emotional): Nietzsche, Wittgenstein.	01/24/1994

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Artists and philosophers with their old shabby clothes and old shabby cars, they insist on creating new works of art and new ideas.  The bourgeoisie with their brand new clothes and brand new cars, they insist on cleaving to their old traditions.  What is going on here?	7/11/2000

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	By the end of the 20th century we had figured out everything except science and technology, and any new ethical situations that science and technology presented us with.  All art, philosophy, politics, economic, etc., positions and ideas had been worked out.  Breakthroughs and new ideas were rarer and rarer.  The endgame was drawing near.  The post renaissance learning explosion had transpired.  We settled down to a steady state.  One world, one government, one blended language, one blended race, etc.  We sent the learning down to the masses.  That took years.  We waited for the inventors.	01/01/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Economic analysis of philosophy.  Cost/benefit analysis of ideas: bang for the buck.  How difficult and long is the idea.  Resources required to learn the idea (time, energy, etc.).  How much does knowing the idea help one in life?  How much does knowing the idea help one in the world of ideas (academia).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	In between "moral-less" science and "mind-less" religion lies philosophy.  So few people see that land.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Literary criticism.  How does modern literary criticism theory apply to philosophy?  How does it help when you start treating philosophy papers, belief systems, cultures, and everything you perceive, as texts?	09/10/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	More important than "philosophy vs. science" is "thinking vs. believing vs. sitting around doing nothing".  Thinking: philosophy and science.  Believing: magic, myth, and religion.  Doing nothing: veging.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Most people are either too dim, too lazy, or too socially conditioned against "active minding" to think and search in thought.  In fact, most people eat what is set before them.  Philosophy must push its ideas, because its ideas are intellectually difficult.  Otherwise progress will be painfully slow.  In comparison, religion is easy entertainment.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Philosophy and technology really change the rest of the subjects the most?  Or do other subjects enact change through politics and technology?	10/27/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Philosophy follows and cleans up after the chain of: science affects technology, which affects economics, which affects politics, which affects sociology, which affects psychology.	12/15/1994

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Psychology: the influence of your psychology (state of mind) on your philosophy, and the influence of your philosophy on your psychology (state of mind).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Psychology.  People think by old rules and new theories, and in fact do philosophy and science without even knowing it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Religion.  Philosophy is the only answer to religion.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Religion.  Religion is easy, and anyone can believe it.  Philosophy is tough, and few can do it well.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Religion.  Ways people try to gain truth without reason: lucky guesses, chance or fate, and appeals to divine inspiration.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science and philosophy.  (1) Philosophy as deduction.  Science as induction.  (2) Philosophy as general.  Science as specialized.  (3) Purpose of philosophy is to compare specialized areas of science at a meta level.	3/3/2001

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science, technology and philosophy.  (1) Philosophy is getting its ass kicked by science.  And science moves forward due to technology.  Today computers are driving the sciences.  Technology is where its at.  Technology kicks ass.  (2) Today computers drive technology.  Technology changes the world.  The changed world is reacted to by philosophy after the fact.	03/03/1998

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  (1) Anyone who observes (perceives) and remembers is doing science.  That is, everyone is a scientist.  (2) Anyone who deduces is a philosopher.  That is, everyone is a philosopher.	1/22/1994

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  (1) Philosophy vs. science.  (2) Natural science (hard) vs. human sciences (soft).  Natural science: astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology.  Human sciences: psychology, sociology, political, economic, critical theory (of all manmade stuff like art, culture, non-art, tech, government, etc.).  Human sciences deal with geistwissenshaften, understanding, meaning (language), intention.	10/23/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  (1) Science grows at its own pace, and since there are zillions of scientific facts to be discovered, science (and technology) grows quickly.  The number of philosophical ideas is comparatively much less than scientific facts.  (2) Discovery of philosophical ideas are not immediately applicable like scientific facts, and thus less noticeable in society.  A thing is easier to introduce into society than an idea.  A thing may be more useful to a society than an idea (not always).  (3) Scientific facts are persuasive, and tough to argue against, and more quickly accepted than pure ideas.  (4) Foundational views are entrenched and slow to change.	06/30/1997

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  Philosophy and science feed off each other, and use each other to advance.	08/02/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  Philosophy and science meld into each other and influence each other.  So does academic philosophy and popular philosophy.  It is an interacting web of all subjects.	09/06/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  The difference between philosophy and science is not distinct.  Philosophers do thought experiments like scienctists.  Scientists unconsciously do philosophy when they build theories.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Science.  The difference between philosophy and science is not distinct.  The difference between the subject areas of philosophy and science is not distinct.  The difference between the methods of philosophy and science is not distinct.  They overlap.  They rely on each other, and they borrow from each other.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Sociology: the influence of sociology on philosophy, and the influence of philosophy on sociology.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	The business people, and the art people (lit, music, visual, philosophy), and the science people.  (1) They hate each other.  (2) They feel superior to each other.  (3) They do not understand each other.  (4) They do not realize how close they are.  (5) They do not see the good points of each side.  (6) They do not see how much they need each other.	03/26/1994

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	There is much pop and folk wisdom that will remain so, and not be accepted as truth, till a defining scientific experiment or philosophical argument is thought of to prove it.  Go get 'em tiger.	10/23/1993

Philosophy, what, related subjects.	Where does art criticism, linguistic semantics, or any subject end and philosophy begin?  Who can weed out science from philosophy (or visa versa)?  Who can weed out philosophy from any other subject?  If philosophy and science are methods, not subject matters, then aren't they just on a spectrum of thought methods, or mental behaviors that runs from belief in magic to reason?  What individual does not do science and philosophy (even if they don't realize it) for themselves everyday?  What philosophy is not based on observation, or manipulation of variables and constants?  Has philosophy come up with anything that science has not (besides ethics)?	01/01/1993

Philosophy, what.	.This section is about what is philosophy.  Topics include: ( ) Academic philosophy.  ( ) Definitions of philosophy.  ( ) End of philosophy.  ( ) Psychology of philosophers.  ( ) Types of philosophy.  ( ) Why do philosophy.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophers are aliens?  Philosophers understand human life like an alien would.  (2) Philosophers are teenagers.  Philosophers never lose their sense of wonder.	5/20/1999

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophy as method or procedure: analysis of details, or synthesis of grand views.  (2) Philosophy as views or answers: example, existentialism, etc.	12/01/1993

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophy as method: epistemology (inquiry, explanation, science, logic, reason).  (2) Philosophy as results: ethics (our choices), metaphysics (the situation), aesthetics.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophy can broadly be defined as "thinking".  (2) Another way to define philosophy is as theoretical science.  (3) The great thing about philosophy is that you do not need a lab to do it.  You do not need a research team.  You do not need tenure.  You just need a pen and paper and your brain.  You can do it anywhere.  Anyone can do it.	4/7/1998

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophy defined as thinking.  The process.  (2) Philosophy defined as the results of thinking.  The product.	7/1/2006

Philosophy, what.	(1) Philosophy gets to the bottom, root, core, foundation of things.  (2) It studies everything, the big picture, the whole ball of wax.	09/20/1993

Philosophy, what.	(1) Science and philosophy are both based on reason.  Versus.  (2) Superstition, magic, myth and religion, which are not based on reason.	6/20/2004

Philosophy, what.	(1) To define philosophy as "thinking" is too narrow, because we think with our entire mind: drives, memory, emotions, attitudes, etc.  So, instead of defining philosophy as "thinking", we should really define philosophy as "using your head".  (2) But that does not go far enough, because our minds are not separate from our bodies.  Every day psychologists find more evidence for the mind-body link.  (Evidence like the fact that exercise and diet help improve cognitive functioning.  Evidence like the fact that depression can cause heart attacks).  So when we are "using our heads", we are also using our bodies.  (3) Taking this fact into account, perhaps we should broaden the definition of philosophy, and define it as "humans being".  To be is to philosophize.  Some do it better than others.  (4)(A) If we accept the definition of philosophy as "using your head", which we cannot help but do, then you admit that drives, memories and emotions all play a part in the creation of philosophical ideas.  For example, the end result of your philosophy may be a new type of logic, but your whole mind went into creating it.  (B) And when we accept the "using your head" definition of philosophy, you become more tolerant of drives, memories and emotions in the creative process.  When someone says that they provisionally accept an idea "because it feels right" (emotion), or "because I remember something good like this" (memory), or "because I want it to work" (drive), these statements are all signs of a work in progress.  (5) How far this is from philosophy defined as ideas that are logical, truthful, meaningful and foundational.	6/21/1999

Philosophy, what.	(1) Why it takes thousands of years for philosophical development or progress.  You need to find good minds, intelligent and creative, who are willing to work long and hard on philosophy, a subject that does not pay.  (2) Is it true that you only get a great philosophical mind twice per century, or is that all that the "intro to philosophy" books can hold?	01/09/1994

Philosophy, what.	(1)(A) Philosophy and science prove ideas.  (B) Technology and art apply ideas.  (C) Ethics determines worth and utility of ideas.  (2) My "religion": Metaphysics goes to truth, proof, and knowledge, which goes to behavior, action, means/ends, ethics.	10/23/1993

Philosophy, what.	A good philosopher is a hard-working dreamer.	04/24/1997

Philosophy, what.	A good philosopher knows Anglo-American philosophy (logic, language, and science), European continental philosophy (Marx, literary theory, deconstruction, existentialism, phenomenology), and Eastern philosophy (Asian thought, Buddhism, Taoism).  Knows all three well.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  (1) In academic philosophy, progress takes place very slowly (over centuries), and in very small steps.  And usually the progress is just a confirmation of what the common man already knows.  (2) A career in academic philosophy gives one little freedom.  (A) There is little freedom of scope or field.  You have to work within your sub-specialty, and within philosophy generally.  (B) There is little freedom of means of expression.  You must write carefully argued, dry journal articles.  You can not hold a conclusion without having an argument for it.  (3) In academic philosophy, because progress is so slow, there is a lot of intervening heming and hawing, in order to keep the philosophy departments open and the resources occupied.  There is a lot of publishing of bullshit, while we all wait in hope for the next big mind to come along.	10/10/1997

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  A philosophical "school" is the result of sociological influences.  Students desire to gain a PhD, and do so by not crossing their PhD adviser.  More than "not crossing" the adviser, the PhD student kisses up and decides to emulate the adviser.  "What he said", the PhD candidate is a ditto-head.  A philosophical school is a clique.  A philosophical school is to some degree a result of the social emotion of loyalty.  At its worst, a philosophical school is to some degree the result of people attempting to secure for themselves an economic means of survival via a political struggle in a social arena.	2/4/2006

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  Leave history of philosophy to the historians.  Philosophers should be concerned mainly with state of the art problems and arguments for logically ordered issues, not historically ordered information.  Knowledge of the evolution of philosophy is not the main point of philosophy.  Knowing where we stand today, and where we are going, is the main point of philosophy.	01/03/1994

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  Look at the philosophy curriculum.  A course on Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, ridiculous!  The philosophy departments are playing it for all it is worth.  In biology, we do not study all the old, semi-useful semi-false theories.  We studied state of the art theories.  The historical way of teaching philosophy courses, and of organizing the philosophy curriculum, is bull shit.  It should be state of the art arguments, arranged in logical organization (by subject).	01/03/1994

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  Mythologizing the cannon.  Conceptual narrowness and rigidity keep academics down as much as their education helps them.	08/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  Paid professional philosophy (1) Speeds up the development of ideas, due to competition.  (2) But slows down the development of ideas, due to a power structure that is resistant to change, which is inherent in organized academia.	01/09/1994

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  Philosophy, as an academic institution, has a tendency to create problems that do not exist, and then refuse to solve them, but rather, prattle on endlessly about them.  It is a self-perpetuating waste of time.	8/2/1998

Philosophy, what.	Academic philosophy.  What are we to make of the fact that Charles Sanders Pierce, perhaps America's finest philosopher, was repeatedly denied a job in academia.  Ludwig Wittgenstein had a low regard for academic philosophy departments.  Friedrich Nietzsche also left academia to pursue his own writing.	11/19/2005

Philosophy, what.	An argument against academic philosophy: the real problems lie elsewhere.  (1) The epistemology of the cutting-edge (academia and professional science) is fairly well advanced.  Therefore metaphysics has become a moot subject because we know fairly well what is "reality".  However, the epistemology of the masses needs help.  They cannot figure stuff out for themselves well enough.  They uncritically accept garbage ideas.  They are easily swayed by bad arguments.  (2) So to in ethics.  The cutting-edge intelligentsia knows what is right, what the major problems are, and how to achieve the goals.  It is already figured out fairly accurately and completely.  But the ethics of the masses still suck.  (3) Therefore, the imperative is not so much to search for new and better arguments (i.e. do philosophy).  Rather, the imperative is to change society towards these views.  And that takes political action, money, education, and all sorts of practical, grimy, hands-on activity.  Endless sharpening of arguments and endless debate is worthless.  That is why academic philosophy is not as important as politics.	6/18/1998

Philosophy, what.	Arguments for or against the importance of philosophy today (for each of philosophy's definitions).	08/04/1993

Philosophy, what.	Contra philosophy.  (1) Philosophy is a waste of time, and not practical.  (2) Mindlessness is good (Zen).  (3) You could go crazy if you try to sort out basic questions and answers.  (4) Philosophy too often is neurotic avoidance of basic important subjects and ideas by hiding in complicated and obscure subjects and ideas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Current state of philosophy.     PART ONE.  Academic philosophy is on the decline, according to some people, because...  (1) Science is increasingly encroaching into the turf of philosophy.  (2) Economic cutbacks in the humanities at universities is hurting philosophy.  (3) The "death of philosophy" theory holds that philosophy has been worked out.   (4) Failure of academic philosophy departments to produce enough new and useful ideas to justify the cost of funding.  (5) The tendency of academic philosophy departments to isolate themselves by writing in arcane jargon about esoteric subjects.     PART TWO.  However, paradoxically, philosophy is more popular than ever.  More people are reading and doing philosophy than ever.  (1) More people are getting an education worldwide.  (2) People are getting smarter because society is getting smarter.  IQ's are on the rise.  Higher IQ's means more philosophy.  (3) Democracy is spreading.  More freedom means more people facing the existential questions of what to do with their freedom.  This means more philosophy is done by people, even if its done unconsciously.  (4) The "death of god" phenomenon.  Religion is no longer the sole perspective.  The church is no longer the primary social and political institution.  People are more free to do philosophy.  (5) Higher population levels mean more people are around to do philosophy.  (6) Economic development means a growing middle class worldwide with the leisure time to do philosophy.  (7) Increase in the popularity of non-academic philosophy as evidenced by philosophy cafes, philosophy websites, talk radio, etc.  (8) Greater variety in both the methodology and subject matter of non-academic philosophy discussions.	11/6/2001

Philosophy, what.	Death of philosophy?  (1) Some people predict the death of philosophy due to the rise of the sciences.  (2) Some people predict the death of philosophy due to increasing academic specialization making philosophy less accessible to the public.  (3) Some people predict the death of philosophy due to a decrease in the funding of humanities departments in colleges.  (4) Some people predict the death of philosophy due to the fact that philosophy is so slow to develop relative to science.  (5) Some people predict the death of philosophy at the hands of religious fanatics and at the hands of mystical new agers.  (6) Yet people continue to think and philosophy trudges forward.	8/29/2005

Philosophy, what.	Defense of philosophy.  PART ONE.  Philosophy is often ignored.  Philosophy is often deemed unimportant by many because philosophy does not make much money.  However, in every person's life there will be moments of philosophical reflection.  And at a some point, every person may have a philosophical crisis.  The knowledge and skills of philosophy help people get through their philosophical crisis more easily.  The knowledge and skills of philosophy help people live healthier, happier, more ethical lives.     PART TWO.  How to define philosophy?  (1) Philosophy defined as a body of knowledge.  (2)Philosophy defined as a set of reasoning skills.  (3) Philosophy defined as critical thinking about enduring questions.  (4) Philosophy defined as critical thinking about foundational issues.  (5) Philosophy defined in contrast to science.  (A) Philosophy defined as critical thinking about questions for which science does not have the answer.  Philosophy defined as thinking about things that science has not yet discovered.  (B) Philosophy defined as thinking about questions that science tends not address.  For example, philosophy as thinking about questions of ethics.    (6) Philosophy defined in contrast to religion.  Philosophy defined as reasoning in contrast to religious faith.  Philosophy does many good things that religion does not do.  Philosophy does many things well that religion does not do well.  (7) Why philosophy?  Philosophy for when religion is not doing it for you.  Philosophy for when even science is not doing it for you.	12/10/2005

Philosophy, what.	Defense of philosophy.  Philosophy is often ignored by people.  Philosophy seems unimportant till a person is faced with a philosphical question or a philosophical crisis.	12/5/2005

Philosophy, what.	Defense of philosophy.  The problem of putting philosophy with the subjects of art, science and technology is that the artists, scientists and technicians want to do only art, science and technology, not philosophy.  Artists, scientists and technicians often abdicate doing any philosophy.	1/7/2003

Philosophy, what.	Definition of philosophy as study of wisdom.  Definition of philosophy as study of life or reality.	01/02/1994

Philosophy, what.	Definitions of philosophy.  (1) Broad definitions.  (A) Thinking.  (B) Thinking refined.  (C) Organizing thoughts.  (2) Narrow definitions.  Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Definitions of philosophy.  (1) Foundational ideas on x.  (2) Preliminary ideas on x.  (3) Applied deductive reasoning.  (4) Theory.	09/08/1993

Philosophy, what.	Definitions of philosophy.  Broad definition.  Philosophy is non-religion, non-art, non-science thinking.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Definitions of philosophy.  Four definitions.  (1) Philosophy as reasoning to understand reality.  (2) Philosophy as logical arguments vs. science as factual arguments.  (3) Philosophy as foundational, basic issues.  Cutting to the core.  Central issues.  No b.s.  (4) Philosophy as theorizing vs. science as experimenting.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Definitions of philosophy.  Mine, anyone's, any philosophers, any philosophy school.  Definitions of any type.  Definition of any length (see semantics).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Different definitions of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  Historical development of these views.  What was the popular view, the view of mainstream academia, and the view of the intellectual avante garde?	07/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Doing philosophy is a creative act of thinking.  However, studying the ideas of previous philosophers is only preparatory to the actual doing of philosophy.  The two are not the same thing.	1/9/2003

Philosophy, what.	End of philosophy.  I don't think philosophy is burned out.  We will always need philosophers to deal with what science, and theologians, and practical people shy away from.  And we will need philosophers to deal with new situations as they arise.	07/27/1993

Philosophy, what.	End of philosophy.  If philosophy is being over-taken (taken over) by subject areas like psychology, sociology, linguistics, politics, economic, etc., then what is left of philosophy?	07/25/1993

Philosophy, what.	End of philosophy.  Scientists, by being scientists (strictly empirical), will keep philosophy alive.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	End of philosophy.  We will always need philosophers.  (1) To deal with changing world situations.  (2) To figure out better all the shit the old philosophers only figured out halfway or wrong.	08/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Ethics based on metaphysics.  Metaphysics based on epistemology.  Epistemology based on ethics.  The branches of philosophy are intertwined and interdependent.	4/25/2006

Philosophy, what.	Everyman is a philosopher.  Everyman should be everything: everyman an artist, everyman a scientist, etc.  Everyman should be a renaissance man.  Everyman should be a inter-disciplinary philosopher.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Folk philosophy is like folk psychology.  Slang expressions, proverbs, cliche's, etc., that express metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic views.	08/10/1993

Philosophy, what.	I am a thinker.  This title avoids the negative and limiting connotations of philosopher, poet, writer, artist, theorist, intellectual, etc.	05/30/1996

Philosophy, what.	If one looks at the situation between philosophy of math and working mathematicians, or the situation between philosophy of science and working scientists, or the situation between philosophy of history and working historians, one sees that the working mathematician, scientists and historians do not want to be bothered by philosophers, and yet constantly encounter philosophical problems.	2/1/2005

Philosophy, what.	If you can capture the essence of something in a work of art, an essence which cannot be captured in analytical prose, you have just done philosophy.  Is not metaphysics the finding of the essences of things?  For example:  Summer beach culture: sunsets, waves, boards, bikinis, sand, warm oiled flesh, tight jeans.  Mountain culture: sky, trees, rocks, space, height, sweat, wind.  City culture: crowds, traffic, noise, interiors.  Fall: fireplaces, shaggy dogs, wine, autumn leaves.  Spring: flowers, scents, rain, buds, warm, light.  Is this philosophy or poetry?	12/30/1995

Philosophy, what.	Is philosophy dead?  Is science dead?  Is art dead?  No, none of these subjects are dead.  New materials and new methods yield new subjects and new statements.	5/14/2004

Philosophy, what.	Is philosophy worked out perfectly?  No.  Will it continue to progress?  Yes.  Can I add to it?  Yes.  Has recent progress been made?  By who?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Just as in science, the gathering of negative results is helpful, so to in philosophy, the cataloging of false arguments and weak arguments is also helpful.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, what.	Just as libraries can be disbanded, due to computers wired into the home, so can and should philosophy be disbanded.  Philosophy of mind, and epistemology can go to psychology.  Aesthetics to art.  All sciences should include philosophical ideas.  There is no need for philosophy departments.  Philosophy as it is taught today is a composite subject.  Split it up.	11/29/1993

Philosophy, what.	Many people turn to philosophy for the following: (1) Answers.  A plan.  (2) Truth.  Certainty.  (3) Peace of mind.  (4) Happiness.  (5) Health.  (6) Can philosophy offer any of these?  The above cannot be found in philosophy books.  But thinking well can bring us the above.  Philosophy is close to cognitive therapy.  It takes a long time.  It takes much practice.	1/9/2003

Philosophy, what.	Meta-philosophy.  What is philosophy?  Philosophy vs. science, art and religion.  Theory vs. practice.  Reason vs. emotion.	1/7/2003

Philosophy, what.	Metaphysics is not important anymore.  Aesthetics never was.  Epistemology and ethics are key.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Most important ideas.  (1) Philosophy today is getting its ass kicked by science.  Philosophy is taking a reactive rather than proactive role.  (2) Metaphysics is bullshit, because science tells us what exists.  Aesthetics is unimportant.  Epistemology is basically psychology (how to best think or mind).  Ethics is just not that complicated.  And so philosophy has not much to do these days.  (3) Philosophy has basically done its work.  It was important work.  It is important for each individual to understand philosophy.  But now philosophy is essentially stagnant.  Talk to me in another couple of hundred years.	02/28/1998

Philosophy, what.	Naturalized philosophy consists of: (1) Naturalized epistemology (psychology).  (2) Naturalized ethics (politics, law, economics, sociology, game theory, decision theory, ecology).  (3) Naturalized philosophy of mind.  (4) Naturalized philosophy of language.	3/3/2001

Philosophy, what.	Once you have thrown out everything anyone has ever told you, you have to start figuring it all out for yourself from ground zero.  This is philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Philosopher as generalist with wide knowledge vs. philosopher as specialist or academic.	4/15/1998

Philosophy, what.	Philosopher: is interested in theory, abstract, general, broad, basic.  Scientist: is interested in empirical, concrete, specific, narrow.  Technologist: is interested in practical, and ethics.  So a philosopher is a theorist.  And the search for an answer to a question or problem deserves attack from both the theoretical and practical sides.  Meet in the middle.  Ethics + politics = part of human (psychology/sociology) science and philosophy.	09/15/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophers are people who take the time to sit around and bull shit.  Philosophers are people who risk being useless in a world of practical workers.	9/14/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophical advantage and philosophical disadvantage.  The advantage you gain by holding a philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy and science progress hand in hand.  Philosophy and other areas need each other.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy and science.  There is no clear boundary line between philosophy and science.  Scientists very often philosophize late at night, and philosophy often guides the experiments of scientists.  Philosophers often read about the latest scientific advancements late at night, and science guides the work of philosophers.	3/15/2007

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy as a standard.  It is only a degree of quality that separates philosophy from cant, folderall, etc.  Philosophy is as much a standard as it is a subject or method.	6/26/2002

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy as truth and justice (the american way).	9/20/2006

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy cannot be distinguished by its subject matter.  Philosophy also cannot be distinguished by its method.  Scientists and artists do philosophy in order to guide themselves.  Philosophers use empirical science, and empirical evidence, to back up their arguments.  Thus, we could disband philosophy departments entirely.  Aesthetics could go to art departments.  Epistemology and metaphysics to science departments.  History of philosophy to history departments.  Ethics to social policy departments.  (but each of the former is larger than the latter it would be handed over to).  The philosophy curriculum is a type of interdisciplinary studies (see philosophy, interdisciplinary philosophy).	9/20/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy consists of arguments.  An argument is a reason for holding a view.  Philosophy consists of arguments about specific issues.  What makes philosophy complicated is that there are many issues, and each issue can have multiple arguments for it and multiple arguments against it.  What makes philosophy even more complicated is that there can be multiple arguments for and against each argument.  And so on, ad infinitum.	2/26/2007

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy defined as critical thinking skills.	3/8/2001

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy defined as logical argument.	8/14/2001

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy defined as: Abstractions.  General principles.	4/15/2005

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy exists today as a result of specialization.  (1) Scientists stay out of ethical disputes.  (2) Most other specialists are to busy doing their own thing to devote time to philosophy.  (3) Many people are unable (due to inadequate mental facilities) or unwilling (thinking it is a waste of time, or useless) to do difficult, time consuming philosophy.	09/14/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy has several parts.  Metaphysics, which asks the question, "What is going on?"  Epistemology, which asks the question, "How do we know?".  Ethics, which asks the question, "What should we do about it?"	8/1/2006

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is a club you try to join by getting your name in the books.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is an interdisciplinary, foundational area of study.  Whether you think its methods should be those of logic (analysis), language (analysis), or science (naturalized).	01/30/1994

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is like rock climbing.  (1) What areas have been worked out?  (2) What areas are hot and being opened up?	09/14/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is like rockclimbing, only slightly less dangerous and slightly more worthwhile.	6/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is primarily about epistemology and ethics.  Metaphysics is secondary.  Aesthetics is tertiary.	1/25/1999

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is slow.  Philosophy is glacier-speed, on the individual level and on the societal level.  There are few fast philosophers.  Philosophy progresses slowly through the centuries.	12/16/2006

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy is what we should all do in our spare time.  Think and write.	10/05/1994

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy teachers are in danger of ending up like Latin teachers.	3/4/2001

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy today should be done in light of the latest advances in science.  Thus, philosophers should be reading the science journals as well as the philosophy journals.	7/25/2006

Philosophy, what.	Philosophy, history and psychotherapy, when done correctly, have many similarities.	8/3/2004

Philosophy, what.	Pro philosophy.  (1) Sharpens the intellect to deal better with everyday problems.  (2) Mindlessness is shit.  (3) Could go crazy if you don't sort out basic questions and answers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  People have varying degrees of tolerance for states of uncertainty.  "Uncertainty anxiety" philosophers have very little tolerance for states of uncertainty.	6/3/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Philosopher as control freak.  Most people are content to be the product of accident.  What I mean is that for most people, the way they act, what they think and how they think is largely a product of how they were raised, rather than being something they consciously choose.  The philosopher, on the other hand, deliberates everything.  Every thought, emotion and action is scrutinized.  Why?  Because the philosopher wants what in Hollywood is called "creative control".  The philosopher seeks power.  The power that the philosopher seeks is not social power between people, but rather a type of personal psychological power to control the content and mechanism of his own mind.  The philosopher is motivated as much by the unconscious pursuit of power as by the conscious pursuit of truth.  (And anyway, beyond this, at a base level, Truth = Power).	1/8/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Philosopher as freedom monger.  Why does the philosopher reject everything that he has been told?  Why does he reject everything anyone has ever said?  Why does he start anew?  Because he wants to be free.	1/15/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Philosophers do philosophy to "keep their heads together".  To not do philosophy is to feel a nervous tension and anxiety that things are spinning apart into chaos.  Philosophers are motivated by fear and a need for control.  To understand things is to lower your fear level.  To not understand is to increase your fear level.  The philosopher wants to understand everything because he is an intellectual megalomaniac.  Philosopher as total control freak.	3/4/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Some people say that philosophers, unlike other people, retain a sense of wonder beyond childhood.  I say that philosophers, unlike other people, retain a sense of confusion beyond childhood.	3/25/2002

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  The question is how much certainty you require in the realm of truth.  If you require 100 percent certainty then become a mathematician or logician.  If you only require a reasoned argument then become a philosopher.  If you want corroborating data then become a scientist.  If you want subjective perceptions then become an artist.	1/1/2002

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  The question is how much vagueness and ambiguity can you tolerate?  If you cannot tolerate any vagueness and ambiguity then you become a mathematician or a computer programmer and use formal symbol systems.  If you can tolerate some vagueness and ambiguity then you become a philosopher and use natural languages as your medium of thought and communication.  If you tolerate a lot of vagueness and ambiguity you become an artist and use poetry, images or music as your medium.	11/20/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Two types of philosopher.  (1) Crisis-mode philosopher says "Its critical that I figure out this problem."  Some people are constantly in crisis mode. They can make good philosophers.  (2) Philosopher as creative artist.  The creative impulse is the primary impulse in some philosophers.	1/15/2001

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophers.  Two types of philosophers.  (1) One type of philosopher is motivated by the quest for certainty, because, unconsciously, states of uncertainty produce a great deal of anxiety in these individuals, so they do philosophy to reduce their anxiety levels.  (2) Another type of philosopher is motivated by a quest for truth, because they see truth as closely connected to justice, and if they can get the former (truth) then they will be a step closer to achieving the latter (justice).  (3) Most philosophers are motivated by a combination of both certainty and truth.	6/3/2004

Philosophy, what.	Psychology of philosophy.  Philosophical type.  (1) The people who do philosophy: the philosophical type.  People who are troubled by real practical problems, theoretical problems, or imagined problems, or have vague feeling of being troubled and are searching for answers or at least peace.  (2) People who don't do philosophy: non philosophers.  People who are not troubled.  Calm, satisfied, blind people who do not search for answers or ask questions, or think.  People who see no problems, repressed people.  People who believe it has all been figured out.  People who believe they can not figure out anything.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Relationship of epistemology, ethics and metaphysics.  (1) Epistemology is an ethical value.  Making a commitment to search for truth is an ethical good.  (2) Epistemological standards widen or narrow the metaphysical universe.  Low epistemological standards let in more metaphysical concepts.  High standards let in fewer metaphysical concepts.	5/15/2005

Philosophy, what.	Science, business, art and philosophy make various attempts to criticize each other.  And they make attempts to defend themselves from each others criticisms.  Criticisms of philosophy include the following: (1) Via science.  Philosophy is not as good as science.  Science is empirical and fact-based.  Science deals with the real.  Philosophy does not offer a high enough standard of proof.  (2) Via business.  Practical techniques like business is better than philosophy.  Philosophy is too theoretical.  Money is more important that ideas.  (3) Via the arts.  Experience, sensation and emotion are just as important as book learning.  The virtual experiences of the art is as important as the logic and reason of philosophy.  (4) Defense of philosophy:  The above are all philosophical arguments.  Science, business and art use philosophy to try to justify themselves.	2/15/2003

Philosophy, what.	Some people do crossword puzzles and some people do philosophy.  When you divorce philosophy from academia you get the "coffee-break philosopher" who is playfully creating philosophical puzzles and solving philosophical puzzles in their spare time just for fun.	2/10/2001

Philosophy, what.	The philosopher is curious in an impractical way.  Non-philosophers are non-curious, practical people.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, what.	The philosophers life is long, physically inactive, thinking and writing, boring, horny, lonely, angry, depressed.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	There are many ideas that are true and good.  And for each good and true idea there are many more false and bad alternatives.  We need to organize and compare all these ideas.	8/22/2002

Philosophy, what.	There are two languages, or conceptual schema, called traditional philosophy and science.  New philosophy's job is to translate the former into the latter, and to show where the former went wrong and why.  Also, to show what questions are still up for grabs, that is, still unknown scientifically.  New philosophy's job is to tell what philosophical ideas have been ruled out by science, thus getting all the wrong theories out of the way.  Traditional philosophical disputes and problems (ex. Philosophy of mind) are no longer the important or key or decisive ones.	02/01/1994

Philosophy, what.	To me, a philosopher means a generalist (wide scope) and a foundationalist.  Most academic philosophers are specialists, thinking in narrow fields, and thus are not real philosophers.	11/30/1996

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) Academic.  (2) Mass.  (3) Popular.  (4) Folk and primitive.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) Current philosophy vs. outdated philosophy.  (2) Momentary philosophy vs. long term philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) European philosophy: literary criticism based philosophies of deconstruction, hermeneutics, etc.  Weak.  (2) Anglo philosophy: logic and language.  Not bad.  (3) American philosophy: Science.  And by extension technology.  And by extension business.  Ethics and pragmatism.  The best.	11/16/1997

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) Figured out (thought of) vs. found out (learned).  (2) Generated out of the blue (intuitive), vs. generated through work (methodical).  (3) Unconscious vs. conscious.  (4) Philosophy of an individual.  Philosophy of a society.  (5) Systematic philosophy vs. unsystematic philosophy.  (6) Problem philosophy, and situation philosophy.  (7) Philosophy by method.  (8) Subject philosophy: philosophy of the 26 notes subjects.  (9) Philosophy by views.  (10)  Branches of philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) Philosophy accepted without thought, unconditionally vs. (2) philosophy accepted with thought vs. (3) philosophy accepted with reservations or qualifications (adding, subtracting, or changing ideas).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  (1) Short vs. long in length.  (2) Quickly developed vs. thought out over a long period of time.  (3) Simple vs. complex in nature.  (4) Truer vs. falser ideas.  (5) Important vs. unimportant subjects or ideas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Alleged avante garde vs. correct avante garde.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Average joe philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Branches.  The three big questions of philosophy.  What is going on (metaphysics)?  How do I know (epistemology)?  What should I do (ethics)?	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Critiquing old views (conservative philosophy), vs. finding and testing new views (liberal philosophy).	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Eclectic philosophy.  (1) Philosophy of any "thing" from perspectives of deconstruction, literary criticism, Marxist criticism, pragmatism, phenomenology, existentialism, language analysis, logical analysis, ordinary language philosophy, etc.  (2) Relationship (effects of and on) of x to every other thing.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Four branches (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) X 26 subject areas.	07/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Good philosophy: important subjects, important ideas, true.  Shit philosophy: unimportant subjects, unimportant ideas, false.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Meta-philosophy.  How philosophers define philosophy (its goals, methods, and importance).  How the masses see philosophy is important too.  Especially if there is a big difference between the two.	08/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Philosophy found in the arts.  The arts are chock full of philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Types of philosophy.  Two pairs of philosopher types.  (1) Big picture vs. narrow area of specialization.  Bigger is better.  (2) Theoretical (world of ideas) vs. practical (real world).  Philosophers are by nature theoretical, but their theoretical work should be guided by, and develop out of concerns with practical, real world conditions.  Philosophers should never lose knowledge of current, real world situation and problems.  If a philosopher is totally theoretical (with no practical knowledge), in a very narrow area of specialization (with no wide, big picture knowledge), he's in big trouble.	07/30/1996

Philosophy, what.	What you think, say, and do (and don't), both unconsciously and consciously sends and receives to your audience a message about your philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  Your audience is anyone you interact with.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Why authoritarians would prefer if you did not start doing philosophy.  Philosophy defined as reasoning about the big picture.  Authoritarians realize that if people start doing philosophy then they will start thinking and asking questions, which makes the lives of authoritarians difficult.  It is easier for authoritarians to rule if people do not think, and do not question, but rather obey blindly and silently comply with unquestioning faith.	9/17/2005

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophers do philosophy?  To make themselves feel better?  The psychology of philosophers.	9/15/1998

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  (1) Survival better and health.  (2) Truth and knowledge.  (3) Solve problems, avoid mistakes.  (4) Reduce pain, get goals.  (5) Answer questions.  (6) Find reasons for action.  (7) Satisfy curiosity.  (8) Can't help but do it, well or poorly.  (9) To help (practical, applied philosophy).  (10) To discover (academic philosophy).  (11) To do good.  (12) The thinker's or philosopher's job is to think.  (13) Brave rationalists achieve.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  Admitting that your beliefs may be wrong is tough to do.  Revealing and changing your basic assumptions is tough to do.  Thus many people repress the basic, foundational questions that philosophy deals with, and that are so important.  Philosophy lies close to the unconscious.  Thinking is hard.  Distractions are many.	01/08/1997

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  If we cut the humanities, we lose a big base of professional philosophers.  Then, when a moral crisis arises in the country, professional philosophers are not there to contribute a leadership position, or a dispassioned opinion, or a balancing check against government or big business.  Demagogues can then take over.  Professional philosophers are smart; they are working hard, and they do make useful progress, albeit not as quickly as science and technology.  When we cut the humanities we also cut the base of those who think about literature, art, etc.  When we de-fund and dismantle the university, we are essentially sending the message that intellectual pursuit is not important, or is futile.  And we also send the message that the opposite of intellectual pursuit, i.e. intellectual sloth, is good, and to be condoned or even encouraged.	12/30/1996

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  Is philosophy important, and how important, and why?  At what point is philosophy overkill and beating a dead horse?  When do mistakes in any area of philosophy have drastic results?	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  Philosophy can improve conceptual organization, improve reasoning methods and ability and clarity, improve prioritization of values, and lower survival ability.	06/30/1993

Philosophy, what.	Why do philosophy?  Why study philosophy?  Purpose of philosophy.  Importance of philosophy (in general, and for me).  Function of philosophy.  Value of philosophy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Why philosophize?  If you philosophize, defined as reasoning about the big picture, you may be unhappy in the short run, relative to the blissfully ignorant and the blissfully faithful, yet if you keep at it you will be happy in the long run, happy that you made good use of your brain.	9/17/2005

Philosophy, what.	Why philosophy is not popular.  Most people get threatened, frightened, defensive, and angry when you ask them to examine and question their life meaning system, let alone if you tell them you think they are wrong.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, what.	Why philosophy?  People become discombobulated without philosophy.  Philosophy combobulates.  Philosopher combobulator.	7/16/2006

Philosophy, what.	Your philosophy is your foundation, whether you know what your philosophy is or not, or whether you know that it is your foundation or not.  In times of crisis it either holds up and supports you or crumbles and lets you down.  Adulthood puts heavy stresses on your "house".  Doing philosophy is a matter of filling in the growing cracks in your foundation before your house falls.  Some try to repair the cracks too late, some never see the cracks at all, and some lack the mental tools to repair the cracks.	12/30/1992

Philosophy, world.	.This section is about the world in general.	1/24/2006

Philosophy, world.	(1) The WORLD is everything that is the case, said Ludwig Wittgenstein.   (2) Think GLOBALLY, act locally, says the bumper sticker.  (3) Its not about you, nor your family, nor your country.  Its about the world, globe, earth.	6/15/2005

Philosophy, world.	Ways how to change the world.  (1) Discover a new scientific truth.  (2) Invent a new technological invention.  (3) Develop a new attitude (idea and emotion), which is the realm of philosophy and the arts.  (4) Change society by (A) Changing people's attitudes.  Persuaders, popularizers, shrinks, teachers.  (B) Create new laws.  Politicians, judges, lawyers.	7/16/2000

Philosophy, world.	What is going on in the world today?  Global trends.     PART ONE.  Politics.  (1) Hopefully there is a global movement toward democracy as more people move out of poverty, get educated, and get access to the Internet.  Promote social justice.  (2) Money is a form of power, and because multinational corporations have too much money they have too much power.  Multinational corporations have too much influence in politics.  Power to the people, not the corporations.     PART TWO.  Social.  There is increased communication and transportation of people around the globe.  Hopefully this is having a positive effect.  More people are speaking the same language, which is good.  Some languages are going extinct, which is bad.  One problem is that multinational corporations create a cultural hegemony through advertising that leads to the destruction of indigenous cultures, which is bad.  Religious fundamentalism leads to war mongering religious fanatics.     PART THREE.  Technology.  (1) There is an increasing spread of technology, especially the Internet.  Information is moving around the world more quickly, thanks to Internet and cell phones.  (2) More people from formerly third world countries are getting online.  (3) More information.  The Internet.  (4) More communication.  (5) More transportation.     PART FOUR.  Environment.  (1) There is an human population explosion that is having a negative effect on the environment.  Humans are destroying the earth.     PART FIVE.  Economics.  (1) There is more consumption or spending by more people around the world, now that there is a growing worldwide middle class.  There are more products being sold worldwide.  There are more products being manufactured worldwide.  There are more factories being built around the world.  Increased global consumption depletes natural resources and creates pollution.  (2) Mobile labor force.  People, i.e. labor, moving around the world.  Global labor force.  (3) Global financial network.  More countries developing stock markets and other financial systems.  These new systems are linked to each other to enable easier global trade.  (4) Money moving around the world.  (5) Corporations are going multinational.     PART SIX.  Future trends.  Trends that can already be seen in action.  (1) World population is growing, and will probably eventually leveling off around 12 billion people.  (2) The Third World is developing.  Third World is catching up to the first world.  The playing field is becoming more level.  Unfortunately, priveledged elements in the First World are trying to hang to money and power.  Priveledged elements in the First World are trying to prevent the Third World from developing.  (3) Increased use of Internet.  (4) Increased pollution.  Global warming.  Less resources available.  Less oil available.  Less fresh water available.	1/4/2007

Philosophy, world.	World.  (1) More than money, stuff and jobs, people need love, justice and psychological health.  We also need communication, education and psychologically healthy role models.  (2) The psychological well being of the world's citizens is more important than the GDP.  We can get by with less stuff.  We can not get by with less sanity.  (3) How would it be possible to sell love (not sex)?  Someone to talk to?  How would it be possible to sell psychological health?  Because someone can love you and still have an crazy, unhealthy psychology.  (4) Just because somethings are difficult to measure (ex. psychological health), and somethings are easy to measure (ex. GDP), does not mean that the former are not real or not important and the latter are real and important.	8/26/1999

Philosophy, world.	World.  (1) My current areas of interest are the environment, underdeveloped nations, and justice.  I would like to see a global federation, united by a common language and a better communication system (the Web).  A stronger United Nations.  (2) At first I thought there are two types of problems.  Economic problems like poverty, which leads to disease and illiteracy.  Political problems are when governments fail to make laws for human rights or the environment, or when they are involved in war or civil war, or when they cannot protect their citizens from crime and corruption.  Human rights abuses like no democracy, no freedom of speech, press, or religion.  Perhaps all these problems are complexly inter-related.  (3) In the almanac one can find important statistics which one can use to build a sortable database of the 200 countries and their performance on the above issues, in order to spot which countries are doing best and worst on the above issues.  (4) Statistics to measure and what issues they shed light on.  (A) Population.  Population number per country.  Birth rates and death rates.  (B) Health.  Leading causes of death worldwide.  Rates of mental illness (psychosis) and suicide.  Life expectancy per country.  (C) Economic poverty.  GNP per capita.  Personal disposable income.  (D) Education.  Literacy rates.  Percentage of population finishing grade school, high school, college, and graduate school.  (5) Data in 1997.  (A) 133 million births per year worldwide, 54 million deaths.  (B) Human sexual intercourse occurs 100 million times per day.  (C) AIDS.  40 million cases by year 2000.  90% in developing countries.  90% of those cases through heterosexual intercourse.	06/30/1997

Philosophy, world.	World.  Current and future situation.  What is happening in the world.  (1) Economic/business.  Global multi-nationals, global trade, global finance.  80's mergers followed by an early 90's recession.  Computerization.  Downsizing.  Small companies on the rise (decentralization).  (2) Technology.  Computers and media.  Automation of business.  (3) Science.  Astronomy: hubble, and computer linked dishes.  Physics: death of physics, no $ for high energy physics, fusion.  Chemistry: new materials, superconductors.  Biology: environment, genetic engineering.  (4) Religion.  Rise of religious fundamentalism.  Causes and problems.  (5) Sociology.  Minority rights (60's), decline of family (divorce), instant worldwide communication of anything for everyone.  (6) Psychology.  Smart drugs, alternative medicine.  (7) Medicine.  Nutrition, smoking, cancer, aids.	02/07/1994

Philosophy, world.	World.  Globalization.  Understand what is going on in the entire world.  Understand global forces and pressures.  Understand global problems and solutions.  PART TWO. Global politics.  The United Nations.  (1) Arguments for the UN.  (A) Examples of successful UN intervention.  (2) Arguments against the UN.  (A) Claims that the UN is biased toward the rich.  First world countries.  Corporations.  (B) Claims that the UN is biased toward the poor.  Third world countries.  (C) Claims that the UN is powerless and ineffective.  No significant cooperation.  (D) Claims that the UN is all powerful and dominating.     PART TWO.  Global economy.  (1) The movement of work to other countries.  Losing jobs to other countries.  Wages being driven down by foreign competition.  (2) The movement of foreign workers to a country.  Immigration issues.  B1 visa workers.  (3) Imports of foreign products.  Dumping.  (4) Foreign investment.  Foreigners buying US real estate, corporations, etc.  (5) International corporations - beholden to no country.     PART THREE.  Global culture.  (1) Communication allowing spread of ideas.  (2) The Internet allowing spread of ideas.  Cultural diversity.  Examples: world music.     PART FOUR.  Globalization can trend toward justice or injustice.  (1) Trends toward justice.  Human rights.  Empowerment of the disempowered.  (2) Trend toward injustice.  (A) Dictatorial trends.  Imperialism.  Corporatism.  (B) Majority abusing rights of minorities.  (C) Exploitation and oppression of weak.	7/23/2004

Philosophy, world.	World.  Goals for the world.  (1) Longer human lives.  (2) Better physical and mental health.  (3) Bigger, better brains.  Growing brains is where it is at.  (4) Quicker learning.	12/30/1995

Philosophy, world.	World.  My new outline.  A global problems approach.  (1) Environment.  Biggest polluters.  Worst forms of pollution.  Best solutions.  (2) Disease.  (3) Hunger.  (4) Political injustice.  No freedom, rights, equality, or justice.  (5) Education.  Free self education at library or on Internet is possible, the key is how to encourage it.  But a degree is needed to get a job.  Home schooling with final exams in public places to get a degree.  (6) Crime.  (7) Poverty.  Being poor is not so bad if you are healthy (physically and psychologically), and have a place to live, and are not hungry, and have health insurance, and have free time (not working more than 40 hr week).  If you have no money at all that is bad.	1/30/1998

Philosophy, world.	World.  One mongrel world, one mongrel language, one mongrel government, one mongrel race, one mongrel culture.  One culture will allow political and economic cooperation best.  All present and past regional cultures should be documented and recorded for study.  Then all areas should be modernized and homogenized.  It must be the best culture (political, economic, social, complete, ethical, knowledgeable).	09/06/1993

Philosophy, world.	World.  One world.  The future: (1) Homogenization of races, and cultures.  (2) One language.  (3) Increase in world government.  Reduction of national power.	04/30/1993

Philosophy, world.	World.  One world.  Unified world theory.  (1) Increasing international business, trade, and finance.  (2) Increasing international government and law (United Nations).  (3) Increasing international communication, due to computers.  (4) Less differences among people caused by having different languages, religion, race/ethnicity, and nationalism, due to the declining importance of those factors.  (5) Mass media leads to cultural homogenization and mass worldwide communication.	02/20/1994

Philosophy, world.	World.  One world.  When we are all homogenized to the truth, blended to one race, equal in rights, and all is peaceful and unchanging, then things will be boring and time will become less important.	10/10/1994

Philosophy, world.	World.  PART ONE.  Good points about globalization.  (1) Increased communication and transportation increases globalization and increases ties between peoples, which can lead to cooperation and peace.  (2) Increased interdependency and cooperation is good.  (3) Increased competition due to the development of Third World countries is good for the world overall.  (4) Increased sharing of power with the rest of the world is good for the world overall.  (5) One language (English) is good.  Dying languages is bad.  (6) One government (UN) is good.  (7) Raising of living standards, health, education and life expectancy is good.     PART TWO.  Bad points of globalization.  (1) Trading the problems of the Third World for the problems of the First World.  (2) Global dominance and monopoly by a few huge rich corporations is bad.  For example, publishing and news media has been consolidated into a few big rich powerful corporations.  Example, McBurger everywhere.  (3) A loss in cultural diversity results and that is bad.  Cultural homogenization is good only if it improves the situation?	12/31/2003

Philosophy, world.	World.  Six billion humans.  What percent starving?  What percent ill (physical or psychological)?  What percent poor?  What percent oppressed politically.  What percent uneducated?	2/16/2000

Philosophy, world.	World.  Statistical data.  US stats and World stats.  Out of 1000 people, how many are:  Retarded.  Autistic.  Schizophrenic.  Major depression or anxiety.  Car accident.  Cancer.  Heart attack.  Alzheimers.  Lose a limb, hand, foot.  Suicide.  Murdered.  Violent crime victim.  Brain damage.  Paralyzed.  Stroke.  (2) What percentage of people have any of above happen to them?  And, assuming each person knows other people, what percentage of people know someone else who had any of above happen to them?	9/2/2004

Philosophy, world.	World.  What are the problems and solutions worth concentrating on and pushing hard for in the near future?  (1) One world government and language, etc.  International co-operation.  (2) Play down religion, boost philosophy and rational ethics.  (3) Environmentalism.  Better measures of what is happening ecologically.  (4) End of war and terrorism.  Start of peaceful protests.  (5) Better and quicker knowledge for all.  Raise the ceiling, and raise the floor (dregs).  (6) Cure crime, poverty, drugs, and psychological problems.  (7) Change values from leisure to work (self development), from unthinking to thinking and learning and writing.  (8) Preach the solutions.  (9) Spread democracy and human rights.  (10)  Stop religious fanaticism and dictatorships.	12/15/1994

Philosophy, world.	World.  What is reality?  What is life?  One way to answer that question is to find out what is the situation in the world today.  Answer a bunch of wide ranging questions such as the following.  (1) What percentage of the population is falling ill to injury or disease?  What is the average life span?  How is their psychological health as well as physical health?  (2) What percentage of the population is falling prey to crime, or more importantly, injustice of any type, such as discrimination, abuse, neglect, etc?  (3) How much garbage and pollution is made per capita, including corporate and public trash?  What percentage is recycled?  (4) What percentage of the world can read and write to the point they can start to teach themselves?  What percentage has access to the materials needed to further their education, like books, schools, libraries, the mass media?  What percentage takes the opportunity to use these materials if they are available?  Do they have an ethic that values thinking, learning, and working?  (5) What percentage of people are how free?  Politically free, economically free, psychologically free.  With technological opportunities.  Freedom means having many choices and opportunities, having plenty to do for work and play, richness of experience (like the arts), having places to go.  (6) What percentage of people hold what attitudes and philosophical views (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics)?  What is their value system?  Technological level is not as important as knowledge level and ethical development.  (7) How well do we raise kids?  (8) How peaceful is the world?  What are the chances you or someone you love will die in war?  How much conflict is there, and of what types.  (9) The big question is how hard are we working to improve things?  How lazy and apathetic vs. industrious are we?  (10)  Is there more to life than this?  Is there more to life than your situation and the world situation?  Can you and the world become more?  We sure could.  (11) How many and big are the problems (bad things)?  How bad are things?  Are people reaching their potential?  How good could it get?  It is tough to say.  To those who lived in the middle ages, we live like kings.  To those who will live a few thousand years from now, we are backward.  (12) How different could things get?  Androgyny in attitudes.  Virtual lives, brain in a vat at work and play.  Genetic engineering, mutant life forms.  (13) The question is not so much are people happy.  The question is more, are people healthy and are people living engaged in ethical behavior?  To live ethically but unhappily is not being free.  To live happily but unethically is unjust.	03/20/1997

Philosophy, world.	World.  What is the situation?  (1) The nation state is crumbling under international government, international law, international trade, and international finance, which are made possible by improved transportation and communication.  (2) Religion is played out.  (3) Art has been worked out.  (4) Philosophy is worked out?	12/15/1994

Philosophy.	.This section is about various other thoughts on philosophy.  Topics include: ( ) Anti-intellectualism.  ( ) Development of individual philosophy.  ( ) Endgames.  ( ) Hypotheticals.  ( ) Objective and subjective.  ( ) Order and chaos.  ( ) Postmodernism.  ( ) Survey.  ( ) Theory and practice.	1/24/2006

Philosophy.	"I used to see x" vs. "now I see y".  (1) I used to see life as lots of problems.  Now I see life as lots of problems waiting to be solved.  Health is the goal, and it is not automatic.  (2) I used to see myself as not being able to make a difference.  Now I seem myself as being able to make a difference.  (3) I used to see my life as hopeless.  Now I see my life as hopeful.  (4) I used to see people as ones who suck, and I can't change or help them.  Now I see people as ones who suck, but I can help them through my writing.  (5) I used to see leisure as time to be enjoyed hedonistically.  Now I see leisure time as time to explore, think, write, and thus survive, get healthy, and grow.  Save your self and save the world.  (6) I used to see work as an endless drudge.  Now I see work as tolerable, and it can leave you time to write.  (7) I used to think my mind is something to just let run.  Now I think my mind is something to take care of.  Work it out by thinking and writing.  (8) I used to think my body is something to just let run.  Now I see my body as something to take care of.  (9) I used to think love is impossible to achieve.  Now I think it is possible.  (10)  Sex.  (11) Family.  Now I think you are with them by accident.  You don't owe your parents anything, especially if it is a bad situation (unhealthy).  (12) Jerks.  Now I think don't take any shit from anyone, because it is unhealthy to do so.	10/25/1997

Philosophy.	"Patience" is a word we use to describe waiting for something to happen.  However, what if something is never going to happen?  What word do we use to describe it then?  For example, the feeling one sometimes get working at menial jobs in small towns.  "Perseverance" means to continue doing something.  However, what if you are not doing anything?  Perhaps the phrase is "stubborn living".	5/2/2000

Philosophy.	(1) A knowledge system is composed of philosophy, science and art.  (2) A  philosophical system is composed of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics.  (3) An ethics system is composed of a meaning system, a value system, etc.	11/15/2001

Philosophy.	(1) Changing yourself and your life is tough.  Improving yourself and your life is tougher.  (2) Changing the world is tough.  Improving the world is tougher.  (3) Areas ripe for change: (A) New technologies, (B) Politically unstable areas.  (4) Tactics. (A) Discover and create the ideas or technologies that the powerholders use or that the masses adopt.  Be a popularizer or preacher.  (B) Get power by using money to gain assets and position.  I.e. Take over totally, then get your way.	10/25/1994

Philosophy.	(1) Curiosity is a form of bravery.  Scientists, journalists, philosophers and inventors are all curious.  These are some of the few who confront trouble and confront problems.  (2) The many others suffer from a chronic unconscious fear that leads them to apathy.  The many others suffer from a chronic, unconscious greed that leads them to drone away.	11/10/2004

Philosophy.	(1) I do not know who I am.  I do not have a name.  I do not have a home.  (2) Nobody knows who I am.  Nobody knows how I feel.  Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.  (3) Nobody knows who they really are.  Nobody knows anyone else.  Lots of uncertainty in life.  Lots of guesswork in life.	9/1/2000

Philosophy.	(1) Individualism (do your own thing) vs. conformity.  (2) Let it all hang out vs. repressed tight ass.	08/30/1996

Philosophy.	(1) Logical vs. illogical.  (2) True vs. false.  (3) Important vs. unimportant.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	(1) Philosophy and science: know.  (2) Art and communication: say.  (3) Technology: do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	(1) Practicals vs. idealists.  (2) Zombies vs. free thinkers.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	(1) Some give up a life of freedom and creativity because (A) They have nothing to create, (B) They gave up their talents to slave for security or ease/leisure.  (2) Some take a life of freedom, but waste it and do not create (me?).	11/27/1993

Philosophy.	(1) The fundamental questions and answers (views and arguments) so far.  In order of oldest to newest (historical), best to worst (importance), and logical organization (logically).  Regarding what a thing is (inclusive definition.), and what is it not (exclusive definition.).  Descriptive definitions (what), and explanatory definitions (why).  Are the concepts that you use the best concepts to describe what is going on?  If so, are they the most important concepts?     (2) Questions.  (A) What is the nature of reality?  Natural world, and man made world (technology).  (B) What is the nature of humans?  Individuals, society, government.     (3) Answers.  (A) Human as separate from animals vs. evolved from animals.  Mind: intention, self-reflexivity, semiotic ability (language and symbols), emotion, reason, memory.  Body: walks upright, opposable thumb.  (B) Society.  Social nature of man.  At least as far as a child's needs go.  Families, clans, kings, nations, beaureacratic organizations.  Wild boy of averon vs. hermits.  Structure and dynamic.  (C) Government.  Dictatorship vs. democracy.  Equality, freedom, justice.  What type and degree of government interference or control in what areas.  Regulations, agencies.	11/25/1993

Philosophy.	(1) Work, school, and sex.  They have power and control over your experience and mind.  Reduced freedom and humanity.  (2) What, when, and how long you "mind", do, and experience, shapes your head for better or worse.  Reduced freedom and humanity.  Depending on where you are, it can lift you up or drag you down, down, down.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	90% of everything is garbage.  90% of the jobs out there are retard jobs.  90% of the people you meet are morons, jerks, or nuts.  90% of works of art created, and books written, are trash.  90% of your time is spent on either sleep or mediocre trivial bullshit.  90% of your life is spent in horrible states of being a minor (under 18) or old age.  5% of everything is ok.  4% is good.  1% is great.	01/22/1994

Philosophy.	95% of everything is garbage.  The other 5% is hidden, tough to find, or worse, evading being found.	10/27/1993

Philosophy.	A thing is considered good if it makes money.  If not, then not.  Mediocrity makes money because it appeals to the masses.  Nothing succeeds like mediocrity.	12/2/2002

Philosophy.	Action, two definitions of.  (1) Action defined as physical movement.   (2) Action defined as anything an agent can decide to do, including mental phenomena.  Humans can think.  You can decide to think.  Therefore, thinking is an action.  (3) Much conceptual confusion results from the conflation of the above two definitions of the word action.  Some people make the mistake of thinking all action is physical movement.	2/22/2007

Philosophy.	Active: behaving (doing), and teaching.  Passive: experiencing (being done to), and learning.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Adversity.  Setbacks are bound to occur, whether they are caused by yourself, others, or nature.  Don't let them stop you.  Keep thinking.  Constantly evaluate your situation.  Keep acting.  Sustained effort toward latest goals is best.	12/30/1995

Philosophy.	After awhile (1) We will start repeating ourselves.  (2) Something great will be forgotten.  (3) Something great will go unrecorded.  (4) Some bullshit idea and the argument against it will go unrecorded.  (5) People will make the same mistake twice.  (6) Bullshit will pile up.  (7) My goal is to meld folk, popular, and academic philosophy.  Record it, sort it out (historical, logical, and importance), condense it.	09/15/1993

Philosophy.	Another sunset, another cigarette, one more chance to see clearly.  So much is going on that I can't see.  Get new experiences.	08/02/1993

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism, types of.  Attitudes of anti-intellectuals.  (1) "We don't have to listen to a bunch of eggheaded intellectual experts.  We don't like anyone telling us what to do.  They are not always right, so why bother listening to them."  (2) "The eggheads have too much power.  We want the power.  We want to rule the eggheads."  (3) "We don't like thinking because its too much like hard work.  And we're not that good at it."	11/12/2003

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism.  Associating intellectuals with homosexuality is bad because people begin to believe heterosexuality and stupidity go together.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism.  Attitudes of anti-intellectuals.  (1) The results of theory is only to produce more ideas, which leads to confusion.  (2) The results of science and technology have been inventions that produce as much harm as good.	11/20/2003

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism.  Slogans used to attempt to devalue words, ideas and thinking.  (1) "Money talks and bullshit walks", the person who utters this often thinks that things without monetary value are worthless.  (2) "Actions speak louder than words."  The person who utters this often thinks that thinking and words are worthless.	11/18/2003

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism.  When people express the anti-intellectual view, "Get rid of the smart people.", it is not because they don't like smart people.  It is because they want to be the smartest people.	5/21/2000

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectualism.  Why are many Americans anti-intellectual?  Many Americans are anti-intellectual because they do not want to think about the ethical implications of the actions in American history such as the American Indian genocide and Afro-American slavery.  As a result, Americans engage in mindless hyper-religiosity in order to cope with both the unconscious guilt caused by these actions and the unconscious guilt caused by refusing to look at these actions.  The mass repression and avoidance of thinking about the unethical events in American history can cause almost as much negative emotions, like guilt, as the events themselves cause negative emotions.	11/12/2004

Philosophy.	Anti-intellectuals.  Some anti-intellectuals are put off by ideas.  It bothers some people that words on a page should interfere with their life.  It bothers some people that ideas should interfere with their life.  It bothers some people that thinking should interfere with their life.  It bothers some people that principles should interfere with their life.  Anti-intellectuals are affronted by ideas.	7/16/2006

Philosophy.	Appearance vs. substance.  Surface vs. content.  Form vs. function.  Up till now I viewed function as more important than form.  On the other hand, it does not matter if what they see in me is, in fact, an illusion, just so long as the vision I build in their minds is new and useful.  I allude to something greater than myself.  I can see it even if I cannot be it.  I am not lying, I am hinting.	10/25/2001

Philosophy.	Aristotle: The unexamined life is not worth living.  Paul: The unlived life is not worth examining.	04/24/1997

Philosophy.	At what price do we neglect philosophy?	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Attacks on philosophy.  (1) Attacks on reason.  (2) Attacks on ethics.  Ethical relativism.  (3) Attacks on knowledge.	7/1/2006

Philosophy.	Backwater.  The further you are from the cutting-edge, the more the resistance to new truthful ideas increases, and the greater are the number and degree of wrong contrary views held, and the harder and longer you have to argue and fight to persuade them.	12/26/1997

Philosophy.	Bringing up the rear (masses) vs. forcing the intelligentsia ahead (point guard).	07/30/1993

Philosophy.	Combo approach to life.  There is no one question, rather a plurality of questions, thus there is no one answer, rather a plurality of answers.  Many things we need to do.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Confronting directly and totally the silence, the stillness, the aloneness, myself, my life, the being ebb, the deprivation.	06/30/1993

Philosophy.	Contrary.  A contrary is in conflict with everything.  "Whatever it is, I'm against it", as Groucho Marx said.  A contrary lives by rebellion, opposition, and struggle.  They can be argumentative and litigious.  They may be idealists who are pissed off that the world is not perfect.  Contraries are the opposite of people who are more accepting of others.  (Those who work with others to change others and the world).  Which way is better in general, and which way is better for me?	12/03/1997

Philosophy.	Criticism of camp.  Let me first say, in the defense of the camp camp, that those who enjoy camp (ex. Susan Sontag) do tend to  have a good sense of humor.  This is a trait that should not be made light of.  Now let me say, in criticism of camp, that camp appears to me to be ineffectual, light weight, self obsessed, vapid, sheltered, faux world weary, vain, smug, selfish and willfully ignorant.	6/15/1999

Philosophy.	Cycles of enchantment and disenchantment with people, jobs, society, life, etc.	3/2/2002

Philosophy.	Development of an individual philosophy of life.  Two frames of reference.  (1) Me, here and now.  My needs, urges, desires, etc.  As narrow as it gets.  (2) Beyond the here and now.  Often this view does not occur to many people until they have kids (and they think of the future), or until someone they know dies (and they develop a sense of history), or until they travel (and they see other places).	2/21/2000

Philosophy.	Development of individual philosophy.  (1) Evolution, stagnation, and devolution.  (2) Speed of development, and directions of development.  (3) Momentary vs. permanent change.  (4) Birth, rise, fall and death of ideas in individual and society.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Development of individual philosophy.  Change in philosophy.  Causes: environment, experience, psychology, effort in thought, economic class.  Effects: behavior.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Development of individual philosophy.  Everyone creates their philosophy.  Simple vs. complex.  True vs. false (better or worse ones).  Figure out vs. find out.  Struggled or not for it (time, emotion, effort).  Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  For all 26 subject areas.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Development of individual philosophy.  What leads an individual to philosophize?  Types and levels of philosophical development: (1) Unconscious vs. conscious.  (2) Questions, and/or answers, and/or reasons.  (3) Thinkers, talkers, and writers.  (4) Depends on what you read and remember.  How you think, and how well you think.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Development of philosophy.  (1) Of human race.  (2) Of an society: of the powerholders, and of the masses.  Whose ideas are accepted and rejected and why?  (3) Of an individual.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Dogmatic traditionalism blocks change and progress.  Attitudes of dogmatic traditionalism include: "That's the way we've always done it."  "If it was good enough for Australopithecus then its good enough for us."  "Everything is fine the way it is." (status quo) (often said by power holders).	10/26/2003

Philosophy.	East meets West.  Everything is connected.  If everything is connected then all is one.  If all is one then there is no separate you.  (Examples, the Gaia hypothesis; the Web of life; Ecology).	8/29/2000

Philosophy.	East meets West.  Subjective perceptions are illusions.  Yet all we have is subjective perceptions.  Thus we live in a world of illusion.	8/29/2000

Philosophy.	East meets West.  Two ways to be.  (1) Using the mind as a tool to observe phenomena.  Sensory.  Phenomenology.  100% body.  John Locke.  Perceptions.  Forgetting all ideas.  No thought.  (2)  Using the mind as a tool of ideas.  Forgetting all immediate sensations.  Living in your head.  Living in the idea world.  100% mind, no body.  Sensory deprivation.  (3) Develop the ability to enter each state at will.  Use both states often.  (4) Advanced exercises:  (A) Try doing both at the same time.  (B) Try doing neither at once.	8/29/2000

Philosophy.	Endgames.  (1)  What good is it for the human race to survive billions of years if those years are spent in misery, oppression, pain, injustice, etc.?  (2)  Would it not be better for the human race to survive a shorter time, perhaps a million years, if those years are spent happy, productive, etc.?  (3) Another option is a long and happy existence.  (4) Another option is a short, miserable existence.	2/24/2002

Philosophy.	Endgames.  (1) Is my life more pain than joy?  (2) In the entire world now, is there more pain or joy?  And is there more good or bad?  (A) When will we hit a 50/50 average?  When the human race (or an individual) reaches 49% pain and 51% joy, is that when life becomes worth living presently?  (B) In the future can we get it to 100% joy?  Will 100% joy, or some other amount of joy, cancel out all the pain of the past?  If so, then the history of earth was worth it (!).  (C) Can we look at it the same way using injustice rather than pain?     (2) Maybe we need to breed more resilient people, less sensitive to pain (and injustice), more happy.     (3)(A) So if we escape the sun's death, but not the end of the universe, then what was it all for?  Nothing?  What good can we accomplish in the future?  (B) Was it all worth it?  Yes, if total goodness exceeds total badness?     (4) What is the alternative?  (A) Kill everyone?  All people?  (B) What if the animals and plants need us?  (C) Should we endeavor to save other worlds or universes?	3/30/1998

Philosophy.	Endgames.  A few geniuses surviving in a recyclable system till the sun burns out.  That is one possibility.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Entropy: things fall apart, things wear out.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Epistemology.  Justification for ideas.  Reasons for making statements.	8/16/2006

Philosophy.	Every day a certain amount of decay and loss occurs, simply by you getting one day older.  So, therefore, everyday some progress must be made in order to just break even.	8/6/2001

Philosophy.	Everyday start from the beginning.  Go over it again.  Build from the ground up.	4/15/2005

Philosophy.	Existence = conflict causing frustration, loneliness, anger, boredom, and sadness.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Four types of lifestyles.  (1) Live for an object.  (2) Live for the pursuit of an object.  (3) Live for an idea.  (4) Live for the pursuit of an idea.  These first two categories are a type of materialistic consumerism.  The second two categories are a type of idea consumption or attitudinal consumption.     PART ONE.  Some people live for an object.  The object has a significant meaning for the person.  The object gives their life purpose.  Often the object is symbolic to the person in a way the person is not fully conscious of.  The object can be an art object or a non-art object.  The point is that even some mass produced objects are beautiful and have deep symbolic meaning for their owners.  For example, anything from a Hello Kitty bag to a Lamborghini race car.  Another point is that once the object is obtained the person is happy and content.     PART TWO. Some people live for the pursuit of a physical object.  However, having obtained the object, the person is not happy and content because it was the pursuit that the person was actually living for.     PART THREE. Some people live for an idea, or a set of ideas (an "ism"), or an attitude (idea + emotion), or some other psychological state.  To live for a fixed idea or a fixed set of ideas is often to be a fanatic or a dogmatist.     PART FOUR. Some people live for the pursuit of an idea, or set of ideas, or attitudes, or some other psychological state.  These are your scientists and philosophers.     PART FIVE. Other things that people live for:  (A) Other people live for a physical state (for example, health, sex, drugs).  (B) Other people live for events, actions and experiences.  (C) Other people live for other people (for example, group-oriented people).     PART SIX.  (A) The psychology.  Another point is that some people attempt to build their lives around a collection of beautiful, meaningful objects.  They don't get off on (enjoy) ideas.  They can't get off on (enjoy) ideas.  Just like some people who enjoy ideas don't enjoy and perhaps can't enjoy objects.  The question is whether these four types of lifestyles are learned (nurture) or genetic (nature).  (B) The sociology.  A society that teaches object fetishization to its members is doomed in a world of scarce resources.  A species that has object fetishization wired into it is perhaps doomed in a world of scarce resources (?).  (C) Examples of non-materialist individuals and societies: Diogenes, Thoureau, John Muir, Ascetics, Amish.	5/29/2000

Philosophy.	Good weather, philosophy, love, health, youth.  I am happy.	05/30/1993

Philosophy.	Graceful degradation in computer systems, the aged, and those who oppose an unjust system.	3/31/2006

Philosophy.	Home repair, car repair and sports for men.  Interior decorating, cooking and crafts for women.  All comforting as a short-term quick-fix, yet ultimately unsatisfying as a long-term solution to the problem of existence.	4/4/2001

Philosophy.	How many physical possessions does one need?  Not that many.  How much money does one need?  Not that much.  How much information and knowledge does one need?  The more the better.	8/24/2004

Philosophy.	How much does it cost to live?  Food, clothing and shelter are cheap at about $10,000 a year.  Much more important for psychological health are love and knowledge.  Raising kids involves love and information.  Education should involve love and information.  Adults also need love and information.	3/10/1999

Philosophy.	How much time have I got?  How much more (quantity and quality) can I think, and feel, and see?  How far and wide and deep can my mind/head go?  Not how much time have I wasted, and will I waste.  Not how much have I not thought of, and will I not think of.	11/20/1993

Philosophy.	How to get free of shit prisons of school, work, and social system, that are run by and filled with many assholes, without ending up accepting it like an idiot.  I was depressed not to be able to figure out an answer.  I gave up to a degree.	11/08/1993

Philosophy.	Hypothetical.  (1) A world in which only good things happen.  Win the lottery.  Win the Nobel prize.  Geniuses.  World peace.  (2) A world in which only bad things happen.  War.  Poverty.  Illness.  Misfortune.  Death.	5/29/2002

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  I look forward to the existence of a talking animal that becomes famous for arguing for animal rights.	8/9/1999

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  If we only lived five years, spending one year developing, and one year in old age decay, and three years in our prime, how would we choose to live?	6/27/1998

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Imagine a world and your life (1) Without sex.  Sex makes life so much more complex and interesting.  (2) Without ability to make moral decisions (i.e. always doing the right thing).  (3) Without scarcity (money grows on trees).  (4) Without power.  (5) Without freewill.	06/30/1993

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Imagine if everyday you woke up it was a totally new world.	01/01/1993

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Leaving day.  Once a year there is a day when anyone who wants to die is taken out and shot.	11/10/1998

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Physical size hypotheticals.  (1) If humans were ten times smaller, then we would use ten times less resources, which is good.  But if humans were ten times smaller, then our brains would be ten times smaller, which is bad because we would become pea-brained.  Although, they might be very smart, tiny brains.  (2) If we grew ten times as big, our brains would be ten times as big, but that would not necessarily make us ten times as smart, because the human brain evolved its complicated circuitry over millions of years.  A quick increase in size would not guarantee an increase in functionality.  We are not like plants.  Also, if we were ten times bigger then we would use ten times the natural resources which is bad.	1/1/2000

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Possible worlds (science fiction).  (1) One in which good is bad and bad is good.  (2) One in which thinking makes it happen.  (3) One in which actions have no effects.  (4) One in which you can think but not communicate or act (paralyzed and deaf, dumb, blind).  (5) One in which you can think and communicate but not act (paralyzed but talking).	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Possible worlds.  (1) What if apples came in different flavors (orange, grape, melon).  (2) What if the sun circled just above the horizon, in a 24 hr continual sunset.	05/12/1994

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Possible worlds.  (1) What if time existed, but space did not exist?  (2) What if space existed, but time did not exist?  (3) What if something other than time and space existed?	5/27/1999

Philosophy.	Hypotheticals.  Retirees running out of money?  Send them back in time.  They will all be millionaires, and they will all being living in a time that they can relate to.  The two main questions in such a project are: (1) How rich do you want to be?  Because the further in time you go back, the more your gold will be worth.  (2) How much technology would you like to have?  Because the further back in time you go, the less technology you will have access to.  In this hypothetical, one is forced to balance money and technology.	4/17/1999

Philosophy.	I am a firm believer in rationalism.  (1) The great climbers who achieved were not lunatics, they were rationalists.  (2) The great race car drivers who achieved were not lunatics, they were rationalists.  (3) The great boxers who achieved were not lunatics, they were rationalists.  (4) Brave rationalists achieve.  They are the ones who back up thought with action.	11/10/1988

Philosophy.	I could die tomorrow.  Or I may live to age 200.  The world may end tomorrow.  Or the world may last 100,000 more years.	11/17/1999

Philosophy.	I want a lifestyle that is not so stressful that it lowers my productivity.  But I do not want to live so easy that I get soft.	10/11/1998

Philosophy.	Idealism, romanticism, and dionysianism vs. pragmatism, realism, and apollonianism.	09/27/1993

Philosophy.	Idealism.  As an idealist, I need to live in an ideal (mental) world.  The actual real physical world will bring me down and depress me.  How to do this?	5/30/1998

Philosophy.	Idealists (philosophers and artists) vs. realists (businessmen and politicians).	02/04/1994

Philosophy.	Ideas versus material things.  (1) Ideas. Ideas are good.  Ideas are useful.  Ideas are important.  Anti-intellectualism is bad.  (2) Material things.  Over consumption is bad.  Over production is bad.  Americans currently over consume and over produce.  The earth is an ecosystem that humans are destroying.	1/1/2006

Philosophy.	Ideas.  Words.  Sentences.  Thoughts.  The tools of the trade.	4/15/2005

Philosophy.	In a sense, we are all existential prisoners.  In a sense, we are all doing time.  The only freedom that exists is mental.  It does not matter where you live, it only matters what ideas go (on) in your head.  So much of life involves sitting around.  You might as well think and talk.  Think and talk well.  No b.s.	4/10/2000

Philosophy.	Individual.  How much philosophical knowledge should various areas and levels of the population have?  How much should an individual think, write, and read philosophy?  So many people say "not me", or "not me now".	09/15/1993

Philosophy.	Intellectuals.  (1) What can an intellectual life accomplish?  An intellectual life is a life of thinking, writing, reading, talking.  It is the life I am currently living.  What are its strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons?  Is it the best thing for me to do?  (2) Am I good at it?  Yes.  (3) Do I enjoy it?  Yes.  (4) Can I make a living at it?  Or will it just be a leisure activity?  (5) What else could I do that is better or preferable?  (6) How can I be most productive, useful, helpful?  How can I avoid wasting my life?	8/1/2006

Philosophy.	Isms.  Many people have either/or views when it comes to ism's.  They either think the theory (ideology) is 100% right in all its views, and that all the world can be explained by these views as well.  Or else they believe the all the views of the theory are 100% wrong, and that nothing in the world can be explained by them.  The truth is usually that various isms raise various good points, applicable in a few areas, and that they are neither all gold nor all garbage.	11/30/1996

Philosophy.	It is possible to find truth and understanding, peace and nirvana, bliss and happiness anywhere, even in the worst jobs.  But it is also possible to find their opposites anywhere.  And you are more likely to find the former in a good job, good relationship and good environment, and the latter in a bad job, bad relationship, and bad environment.	06/12/1994

Philosophy.	Its difficult to tell the worth of an idea at first glance.  Come back later.	8/21/2000

Philosophy.	Levels of being.  A creature that can think, "I am alive.", is greater than one that can't.  A creature that can ask, "Where did I come from?", "Where am I going?", "Why am I here?", "What is this place?", and "What should I do?", is greater than one that can't.  Every time you consciously and earnestly confront for the first time (and every time thereafter) one of these basic, important questions, you become a higher form of life.  Truly.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Lying and honesty are ethical matters.  Truth and falsity are epistemological matters.	5/6/1999

Philosophy.	Major illness and extended unemployment are two events that can cause you to re-evaluate your life.	3/29/2001

Philosophy.	Make up a history, a story, a myth.  Sometimes bull shit fiction can turn into reality.  And sometimes reality can turn into bullshit fiction.  (1) A personal history, or myth.  (2) A social myth.  Example, the "myth" or story of America that kids learn in grade school.  (A) Picking out selected bits to tell them.  Not telling them the whole truth.  (B) Also, telling them what we want to be, rather than what we are.  (3) A story about yourself that you tell others.  People are forever telling themselves and others stories, or concocting their version of events.  For public relations reasons.  Or to create yourself like an artist.	04/12/1994

Philosophy.	Many people claim to be "realists".  Being a realist eventually leads to being "practial".  "Practical" being another word for "selling out".  Thus, "realism" is not the way to go.	9/5/2005

Philosophy.	Moving from (1) logic, to (2) decision theory and game theory, to (3) ethics.	07/27/1993

Philosophy.	MPU.  Mobile Philosophy Unit.  Name emblazoned on side of my car.	1/22/2005

Philosophy.	Murphy's Law corollaries.  Say it will happen and it won't.  Say it won't happen and it will.	11/27/1999

Philosophy.	New subjects.  New questions.  New views.	8/9/2005

Philosophy.	Nobody deserves this.  Everyone deserves better.  (Especially if we all started, individually and as a race, in ignorance).	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Not a good feeling: to wonder if or realize that all your efforts have been futile.	2/6/2004

Philosophy.	Now I see how easily and how fast things can fall apart, for anyone, at anytime, and how many ways it can.  It is a miracle we have this much.  Many people do not see this.	04/24/1997

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  (1) Objective is actual.  Subjective is perceived by individual.  (2) Object as concrete thing.  Subject as abstract domain.	07/30/1993

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  (1) Objective: independent of minds.  (2) Subjective: dependent on minds.  (A) Individual subjective: subjective view of individual.  (B) Social subjective: subjective view of group.	11/7/2004

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  (1) The way things are.  Objective reality.  (2) The way we think things are.  Subjective reality.	01/01/1993

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Appearance vs. reality.  (1) Some are more concerned with looks than reality.  Never sacrifice content for looks?  (2) Most people use appearances to try to determine reality.  Some can see the content beneath the appearance.  (3) Judging books by their covers, etc.  (4) Delusions, illusions.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Objective reality: what really is.  Subjective reality: what you think is.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Objects: physical things.  Subjects: categories.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Subject: a general group, or a class of related ideas.  Object: a specific thing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Subjective reality: The metaphysics of the way people think things are.  Objective reality: The metaphysics of the way of things actually are.	01/01/1993

Philosophy.	Objective and subjective.  Three problems of subjectivity.  (1) Other minds problem.  How do we know what others are thinking.  (2) Private language problem.  How do humans communicate if we all have our own private language of meanings.  (3) Qualia problem.  How does one person know that what they percieve as red is the same as what another person perceives as red.	9/8/2005

Philosophy.	Optimism and pessimism.  See: Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	12/30/2000

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  (1) Conservatives suffer from this view.  Order as stasis in space (structure) and time (flow).  Disorder as change.  (2) Liberals have this view.  Order as logic?  Disorder as randomness, entropy.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  Chaos is not the same as nothing.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  Chaos, entropy, randomness, disorder, inconsistency, random variables vs. known variables, constants, order.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  Consistency, order, same, unchanging, constants in universe makes it comprehensible.  If it was new and different everyday it would be tougher to understand?	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  Sameness as boring, and change as interesting vs. sameness as reassuring, and change as scary.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Order and chaos.  Some people conflate the three concept pairs: order and disorder; stasis and change; and justice and injustice.  These concept pairs do not mean the same thing.  (1) Order and disorder is different from stasis and change.  Disorder is not the same as change.  For example, some people mistakenly conflate change as disorder and then they mistakenly fear change because they think it represents disorder or chaos.  (2) Order and disorder is different from justice and injustice.  For example, the random movement (disorder) of molecules in a gas is not an injustice.  (3) Stasis and change is different from justice and injustice.  This is the easiest of the three distinctions for most people to see.  However some people conflate the two pairs and mistake stasis for justice.	11/7/2004

Philosophy.	Outside, among the people, is where you will find the questions and the answers.  Do not hide.	7/15/1999

Philosophy.	Philosophers Without Borders.	3/3/2007

Philosophy.	Philosophical advantage is the advantage you gain over another person by adhering to a philosophy that is different from theirs.	9/15/1998

Philosophy.	Philosophical counselor.  (1) Is he just like a traditional philosophy teacher?  You pay him just like you pay tuition.  Why not then just take a philosophy course?  In order to have a one on one dialogue?  (2) Is he just someone to talk to, like you would talk to a smarter neighbor, wise man, adviser, mentor?  (3) Is he just someone to talk to like a shrink?  (4) Is he just like the philosophy group meetings we have.  Are our meetings philosophical counseling?  (5) Is he a moral arbiter like religious people?  Is he an arbiter of rationality?  Is not everyone an arbiter of rationality and a moral arbiter, both shrink and priest included?  (6) He's gone commercial.  Seeking media attention.  Gaining large corporate accounts for money.  (7) What kind of problems will he handle?  What kind of subjects will he talk on?  (8) What can he discuss with people off the street?  Not high-level philosophical concepts, but rather simple concepts.  (9) Is he just a friend to listen to your problems?  Is that all anyone can do, just listen?	3/30/1998

Philosophy.	Philosophical practice.  Purpose.  (1) Teach the uneducated by lecture.  (2) Teach the uneducated by Socratic dialogue method.  (3) (A) Reveal user's assumptions and underlying philosophy.  (B) Show counter arguments to the philosophy held by user.  (C) Show alternate philosophies to the user in order to broaden the users mind.  (4) Allay the confused.  (5) Heal the mentally ill?  No.  Only inasmuch as number four.	8/21/1998

Philosophy.	Philosophy of life.  Can a person form a coherent philosophy of life through a collection of bumper stickers?	2/27/2007

Philosophy.	Polar positions in philosophy.  (1) Metaphysics: things exist or don't.  This is the way it is.  (2) Epistemology: we can know them or not.  This is how I know (types and no#s of reasons and proofs).  (3) Ethics: we can act and effect things or we can't.  There is good and bad or there is not.  This is the way it should be, and this is how we should get it.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Post-modernism.  The change in attitude that became prevalent after the sixties revolution?	09/20/1993

Philosophy.	Postmodernism provides interesting and useful counterarguments to check and balance modernism.  Life is complex, with many issues that have many sides and no "one right answer" (Ex. technology can be used for good or evil).  This simple idea is tough for scientists and monists to accept.  They want the one right simple answer.	12/30/1995

Philosophy.	Postmodernism.  (1) Different views of the traits of modern and post-modern societies (political, economic, social areas).  (2) Different views of the traits of modern and post-modern thought (what they believed, and what we believe about them).	07/30/1993

Philosophy.	Postmodernism.  (1) Modernism: belief in rationalism (epistemology), progress (history), industrialization (technology), nationalism (politics).  (2) Postmodernism (in thought and practice (behavior, society, culture)): Limits of rationalism and empiricism (epistemology).  Post-industrial emphasis on environment and computers (tech).  Global village through hi-tech communication.  Political globalism, post-nationalism.  Nietzsche and Freud are post-modernist?  (3) Structuralism focused on binary opposite pairs.  (4) Post-structuralism challenges binary opposites.	01/01/1993

Philosophy.	Postmodernism.  (1) Relativist schools and figures: Deconstruction, Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, Lyotard, French feminists (Cicioux, Irigaray), New Historicism, Postmodernism, Literary criticism theory, Social theorists from Frankfurt School (Critical theory).  What some of them believe (extreme to center): They are relativists and nihilists.  (A) Science: objectivity and certainty are impossible.  Truth depends on context.  Science cannot be value free.  Power holders create truth.  (B) History: all written histories are fictions from biased viewpoint of authors who make value judgments as to what is important and not, and what to leave in and leave out.  Contributions by non-pale males have not been recognized sufficiently.  (C) Literary theory: Everything is text, and text must be interpreted.  Literary theory has ideas and methods that should be used to study other disciplines.  (2) Non-relativist schools and figures: Hard science, Objective History.  What some of them believe (extreme to center): We can find truth (empiricism, logic).  (A) Science: Physical and social sciences do help us progress.  (B) History is not just a fiction.  Pale males have made the biggest contributions and so should get the most attention.  Non-pale males have done little and so deserve little attention.  (C) Literary theory: the study of literature and literary theory is not that important.  (3) My view:  Both sides have valid points, the correct position is to recognize the good points of both, and discredit the extreme views of both.  The extreme views are "we can know everything" vs. "we can not know anything".  (A) The non-relativists feel threatened.  They feel the relativists are getting too much attention, and too much power.  (B) The relativists feel the non-relativists are hoarding power, and get more than enough attention.  They feel the points they have to make have not been given enough attention.	03/01/1997

Philosophy.	Postmodernism.  Premodern, modern, and postmodern views of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.     (1) Central tenets of modernism.  (A) Knowledge as truth.  Absolute, universal truth.  (B) Western civilization and cannon of classics.  Fixed meaning in language.     (2) Central tenets of post modernism.  (A) Knowledge as power (Foucault).  Sociology of knowledge.  Relative truth.  (B) Multiculturalism and political correctness.  (C) No subject (viewer, self) object (viewed, other) distinction (Lacan).  (D) Meaning in language changes (Derrida).  Post modern literary theory of author, text, and reader.	12/30/1995

Philosophy.	Pro and contra.  (1) Belief vs. reason.  (A) Belief.  "I need something to believe in.", can be a statement that says, "I need a goal to work toward and to hope for.", or it can be as statement that says, "I need a list of orders to obey".  (B) Reason.  Growth development, maturity, enlightenment.  No matter what you call it, it requires an active mind that is actively exploring and pursuing.  If you wall yourself off from the world, if you keep your head in the sand, you will not grow.  I advocate active enlightenment, not passive enlightenment.  The answers come to you faster if you actively look for them.  Awareness (insight) is not automatic or irreversible.  (2) Obedience vs. freedom.  Obedience to national laws, ethical laws, etc. vs. freedom to act, freedom to think, etc.  Some argue that it is unjust to let people do whatever they want.  But the opposite extreme is just as bad.  If we regiment people's actions, if we raise them to believe and obey rather than to think for themselves, then they will be less psychologically healthy and their development will be stunted.	9/12/1999

Philosophy.	Progress.  It is easy to go off track.  It is easy to stand still.  It is easy to go backwards.	12/30/1996

Philosophy.	Progressivism and philosophy.  Progressivism has philosophical underpinnings.  Develop the philosophical foundation of Progressivism.  When a Progressive person understands the basic philosophical underpinnings of their thoughts and actions, then they become better Progressives.	5/5/2007

Philosophy.	Questions I ask myself.  (1) How do I justify my existence?  (2) How do I make sense of my life?  (3) How do I explain my actions?	2/10/2002

Philosophy.	Roads to destruction many, roads to survival few, roads to growth fewer still.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Sartre was wrong, the big issue is not alienation (loneliness and anxiety) the big problem is boredom.	02/04/1994

Philosophy.	Self-identity.  See: Psychology, personality, self.	12/30/2000

Philosophy.	So easy to be lulled asleep by same old shit environment and actions, and by the ad-mans songs.  When you become dead, numb, zombified, you stop living.  Till your emotions and thoughts and senses become jolted awake and alive by new environments and actions (ex. the outdoors) or by danger (ex. near death experiences).	12/06/1993

Philosophy.	Solitude is one thing.  Silence is another thing.  Stillness is another thing.  When you are alone.  When everything around you is silent.  When everything around you is still.  You are facing the triple threat.	7/26/2000

Philosophy.	Some big questions.  How did the universe begin?  How did life begin?  How does consciousness work?  What does it mean to be human?	5/2/2002

Philosophy.	Some people have the consciously or unconsciously held assumption that if they just do what their teachers, parents, bosses, president, god or bible tells them to do, then they will be (1) Doing the right thing.  (2) Doing the easy thing.  (3) Doing what they need to do to survive and prosper.  (4) This view is held by, and works for, 95% of the population.  But if you are a thinking person, and if you think for yourself, it won't work.  And it don't work for me.	11/20/1993

Philosophy.	Some people think they are so good and healthy (and they are not) it makes me sick.  Some people actually are so good and healthy, that makes me sick too.	11/10/1993

Philosophy.	Sports, Religion, and the Military are baloney because they promote the formation of mindless followers.	4/12/2006

Philosophy.	Stay motivated.  Stay positive.  Keep working.	7/2/2001

Philosophy.	Surrounded by lunatics, morons, losers, and maniacs.  Get into the sunlight and out of the wind.	11/08/1993

Philosophy.	Survey: (1) What do you like to do in you leisure time?  (2) What are the ten most important words?  (3) What are the ten most important questions?  (4) What is the meaning of life?  (5) What are the most important problems?	04/30/1993

Philosophy.	Survey.  (1) What are the ten most important issues in the world, and in your life?  (A metaphysical and ethical question).  (2) How do you know? (An epistemological question).	3/9/2001

Philosophy.	Survey.  Ask 100 people to take the survey.  Ask each person to take the survey every year from age 15 to 55.  Print up a survey questionnaire.  Post the survey online.	12/21/2006

Philosophy.	Survey.  How should we live?  How should a person, any person, live their life?  What to do?  What should we do?	1/1/2007

Philosophy.	Survey.  Philosophy survey.  The philosophy survey should be taken by an individual every year to see if and how answers change over the course of a life.  Questions on the philosophy survey:  (1) What is the meaning of life?  (2) Who are you?  (3) What does it mean to be human?  (4) What is a good life?  (5) How do you know?  (6) What is reality?	9/2/2004

Philosophy.	Survey.  Questions about the survey itself.  Can you trust the experts?  Can you trust the masses?  If not, then why bother with a survey?	12/21/2006

Philosophy.	Survey.  Questions for people.  (1) Do you think at all?  About what?  (2) Do you care or feel strongly about anything?  About what?	11/30/1996

Philosophy.	Survey.  Questions for philosophical survey.  What are your goals?	4/24/1997

Philosophy.	Survey.  Questions for philosophy survey.  (1) Do you ever wonder about x?  (2) How often?  (3) What do you think about most often?  (4) What do you do most often?  (5) What is the purpose of life?	04/30/1993

Philosophy.	Survey.  Related to the Philosophy Survey is Philosophy Q & A.  Make a list of questions that everyone can answer.  Put all the answers on the Internet.  Let the answers be viewable by question, by individual respondent, etc.	8/10/1999

Philosophy.	Survey.  Ten most important words: survival, health, truth, justice, communication, love.	04/30/1993

Philosophy.	Survey.  Think of philosophical questions to ask friends and strangers when you really want to communicate about important things, and not waste time or life.  Make a questionnaire people can pick up, fill out, and mail in anonymously.  (1) What is life?  (2) What is the meaning of life?  (3) What does it mean to be human?  (4) What is the purpose of life?  (5) What are the most important things in life, and why?     More questions to ask people instead of small talk.  (1) What is the wisest thing you ever heard?  (2) What do you care about?  (3) What do you do with your free time?	12/30/1995

Philosophy.	Survey.  Undertake an extensive philosophical survey of individuals and society to determine their views and arguments.  Use a tape recorder and question list.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Survey.  What are the 10 biggest problems in the world?	9/15/1998

Philosophy.	Survey.  What are the most important questions for any human?  What are the most important answers to these questions?  (1) What is justice?  How to get justice?  How to stay sane or psychologically healthy?  How to stay physically healthy?  How to keep the environment healthy?  How to stay alive?	10/28/1999

Philosophy.	Survey.  What percent of world population hold what philosophical views?	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Survey.  What should a person do for work?  What should a person do in leisure time?  What is your view of life and the world?  How should a person live?	12/21/2006

Philosophy.	Survival.  In any situation, what is the survival point?  Psychological abilities needed.  Actions one must perform.  Technology needed.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Technophobia is about fear of changing one's environment, tools and techniques, and behavior and habits.  Ideaphobia is fear of changing one's ideas, or comfortable thought habits.  Both are about fear of learning.  Both are based in inertia, conservatism, and fear of the new and unfamiliar.  This is why self-learning individuals are rare, because self learning means pursuing the new and unfamiliar.	3/30/1998

Philosophy.	That there should be this world.  That there should be humans.  That there should be me here now, at the dawn of the 21st century.  That there should be the Internet.  It never ceases to amaze me.	3/29/2001

Philosophy.	The Body.     PART ONE.  "The body" does not seem to merit much philosophical discussion, certainly not as much as "the mind".  However, if we say "the naked body", things get more interesting.  What is the deal with nudity?  Why are we so obsessed about how much clothes people wear and how much skin they show?  From the topic of nudity, it is a short jump to the topics of gender (males, females), love and sex.     PART TWO.  Another way to look at the body is as a layer in the environment around you.  You are always in your body, or with your body.  Your body surrounds you, or you are your body.  And the body is always in a place or a setting.  We are situated in time and space.  You gotta be somewhere.     PART THREE.  Two weird types of people.  (A) Those who see only a bunch of minds.  They deny the body.  For example, some intellectuals.  (B) Those who see only a bunch of bodies.  They deny the mind.  They see people as mindless things.  For example, some fitness freaks.  You have to hand it to the fitness freaks and athletes though.  They grok the body.	6/5/2000

Philosophy.	The good things in life: no on gets them all, at once, forever.  Too bad.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	The most important idea, the most true idea, the most complicated idea, and the most ethical idea are four different things.	10/19/2000

Philosophy.	The next step, the next move, like a lilypad in the fog, where is it?  Consult your homemade map.  Find it and jump to it quick and don't miss.  Avoid pitfalls, sidetracks, and regressive jumps backwards.	09/15/1993

Philosophy.	The problem bugging me was not seeing the enormous variety and amount of shit, and getting caught up in it and taking part in it.  The problems was I wasn't thinking (and writing) hard enough as to why it was that way, and trying to figure out a way out of it.	06/30/1993

Philosophy.	Theories on the death of science, death of economics, death of sociology, death of art, death of the novel, etc.  Nothing is dead.  Nothing ever dies.	12/24/2003

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  (1) Ideally theory should guide practice, and practice should make theory a reality.  (2) Theory without practice is impotent.  Practice without theory is blind.	9/15/1998

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  (1) Theoretical developments often occur as a response to practical problems.  Theory develops as practical solutions are needed.  (2) Practice is often an application of theory.  Practical solutions are often derived from an accumulation of theoretical knowledge.	1/20/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  (1) Theory is about ideas organized by logical relations.  (2) Practice is about problem solving.  Practice is about ideas organized by importance and priority (next steps).	1/28/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Definitions.  (1) Theory is about the world of ideas.  The world of subjects and concepts.  (2) Practice is about the world of objects and events.  Actions by people.  Events by non humans.  Practices of people.  Practical matters.  Combinations of human actions and nonhuman events.	1/28/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  If you spend all your time being practical, you get no theoretical work done.  If you spend all your time being theoretical, you quickly die, or slowly suffer.  There must be a balance of theoretical and practical thinking in my life.  50/50?  Being practical means thinking, learning, and doing things to stay mentally, physically, and financially healthy.  Thinking about work, diet, and exercise.  Living right.	12/30/1995

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  It seems like a brick wall separates (1) The world of ideas, theory, and academia, and  (2) The world of practice and practicality.  Politics, law, business, technology, medicine.  (3) The second is where the big issues are: environment, health, computers, communication, transportation.  The 20th century's biggest theorists rarely have had an effect on the world of practice.	02/05/1998

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Life requires theory and practice.  Life requires thought and action.	5/15/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  One problem of trying to separate theory from practice, and one criticism of the mistake of trying to live in a world of theory alone, occurs when a situation exists where everyone knows something is wrong, everyone knows why something is wrong, everyone knows how to fix what is wrong, but no one does anything to stop what is wrong.	5/29/2007

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Some would argue there is no distinction between theory and practice because to think is to take an action.	1/28/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  The opposite of practical is not always theoretical.  If practical means concerned with survival and succeeding in your situation (useful), then doing something that does not relate to your situation, like imagining or dreaming, or thinking how others live in other places, is impractical (useless).  Yet so very important.  Art helps us live.  Poets know it.  Where to balance the two (practical vs. impractical)?  It is like real vs. normative politics.	05/30/1993

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Theory as distinct from fact.  Theory as distinct from action.  Practice as action.  Practice as practical.	11/19/2005

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Thought and action.  How to live?  (1) Spend all day reading?  Or teaching?  Or writing?   Or talking?  Spend all day with my head in the books?  (2) Or have some real experiences?  Like what?  (3) Or do some physical work?  Like what?	5/9/2007

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  Two problems: (1) The problem of when theory is lacking, or when practice is lacking, or when both are lacking.  (2) The problem of when theory is disconnected from practice.	6/24/2007

Philosophy.	Theory and practice.  X concept or phrase.  How useful is it in the academic realm?  How useful is it in the practical realm?	10/09/1993

Philosophy.	There is an explorer in each of us.  It helps us survive.  We are attracted to the unknown.  The unknown produces emotions in us.  Unfamiliar things often produce a weird, eerie feeling.  We are attracted to the weird and eerie feeling.  Its a thrill.  You see it today in scary movies  and amusement parks.	4/6/2001

Philosophy.	There is no magic.	07/29/1988

Philosophy.	Things are never as bad as they appear.  Don't lose hope.  Don't give up.  Keep at it.  Don't stop.	8/1/2005

Philosophy.	Things interconnect.  The thing is to see how things interconnect.	07/28/1988

Philosophy.	Thought, word, and action.	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Three big dichotomies.  Theory vs. empiricism.  Nature vs. human.  Metaphysics vs. ethics.	10/15/1993

Philosophy.	Took me a while to realize (1) Things were real.  (2) Things done could not be undone, only done over.  (3) You only get one chance.  (4) You have limited time and resources.  (5) Nothing would be given to you on a silver platter.	09/15/1993

Philosophy.	Trivia and novelty.  The novelty store.  I just don't get it.  (1) It is about nostalgia, and the safe feeling of being a child.  (2) It is about pure entertainment, trivia, fluff, the inconsequential, the unimportant, and the ease of not having to use one's mind.  No thought.  (3) The "cute" philosophy.  Just look pretty.  (4) Material possessions.  Stuff.  Trinkets and baubles.	05/18/1997

Philosophy.	Trivia.  Why people love trivia (and nostalgia).  Trivia about Hollywood, sports, pop music, and mindless hobbies.  (1) Trivia is friendly, safe, innocent, comforting, non-threatening, comfortable, fun, enjoyable, and pleasurable.  The real world is often hostile, dangerous, and hard work.  (2) Trivia is like a drug.  (3) Trivia is pop.  Stop pop.  (4) People argue that they need a break from survival work.  (5) Trivia it is deadly, not innocent.  Trivia does not satisfy.  Trivia does not provide a meaningful life, and people die looking for meaning.  Trivia kills.	1/6/1998

Philosophy.	Two questions.  (1) What can one do with ideas?  What is the power of an idea?  (2) What can one do with language, words, text, etc.?  Other people explore the possibilities of images, music, software code, etc.  I am interested in the possibilities of text.	8/31/2005

Philosophy.	Two strange views.  (1) A person is a society.  (A) A person has many distinct selves.  (B) A person has many distinct parts of their mind.  (2) Society is a person.  (A) people put their heads together.  (B) People put their work together.  (C) People cooperate to act like a giant organism.	12/16/2004

Philosophy.	Two things I hate to see.  (1) Dolts crawling on the right path.  (2) Geniuses speeding down the wrong path.	03/26/1994

Philosophy.	Two types of people.  (1) People to whom things are more important than ideas.  They are attuned to clothes, cars and their senses.  (2)  People to whom ideas are more important than things.  They are oblivious to clothes, cars, senses.	6/10/2000

Philosophy.	Two views: Local, short term vs. Global, long term.  The phrase, "Be here, now.", is a version of the former.	10/19/1999

Philosophy.	Ways of understanding life.  Understanding life in terms of art, or love, or power and politics, or time and history.  Some people develop a primary approach to understanding life.  For example, philosophy, literature and history are three subjects that let people discuss just about anything in life.	12/1/2006

Philosophy.	We cannot always tell the exact effects of our actions.  Do your best.  Go full bore.  Go all out.  Give 100%.	7/31/2005

Philosophy.	We discover truths. (Epistemology).  We invent goodness? (Ethics).	12/20/1998

Philosophy.	Weird stuff, fascinating, intriguing, mysterious, and curious.  Stuff I can not figure out.  Stuff I know nothing about.  Stuff that bugs me.	08/17/1997

Philosophy.	What makes me wonder, intrigues me, and bugs me?  What don't I understand?  How to investigate it (experience vs. research).  Killer method.	04/30/1993

Philosophy.	When are you going to stop wasting your life?  Gravitas.  Part of nobility is solemnity?	8/20/1999

Philosophy.	Why am I alive, and what do I live for?	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	Why are we here?  (1) Causal answer: big bang, evolution.  (2) Functional answer: to do what?  What is our purpose?  (3) My question: what was god thinking when he created the world?	12/30/1992

Philosophy.	World of ideas.  (1) There is a world of ideas.  (2) The world of ideas is infinitely large, because there are an infinite number of ideas.  (3) Ideas matter.  Ideas are important.  Ideas have an effect on our lives.    (4) Those people who ignore the above three points are anti-intellectuals at their peril.	9/7/2005

Philosophy.	You are not wrong, and you are not alone.	08/17/1997

Philosophy.	You can show the way by showing all the paths that are not the way.	4/4/2001

Philosophy.	You sleep everyday and you think nothing of it till one day you cannot sleep.  You breathe everyday and you think nothing of it till one day you cannot breathe.  You walk everyday and you think nothing of it till one day you cannot walk.  You eat everyday and you think nothing of it till one day you cannot eat.  You excrete everyday and you think nothing of it till one day you cannot excrete.  There are a lot of amazing things we take for granted.  Not to mention running water and electric lights.	4/17/2005

Politics, activism.	.This section is about being politically active and politically aware.	12/30/2006

Politics, activism.	(1) Find out what is going on in the world.  Learn, read, think, write.  (2) Talk about it.  All we have is words and our brains.  All we have is communication, debate, and voting.  It is not justice when people resort to violence and force.  (3) You may end up poor, despised, embattled, forgotten, having accomplished little or nothing.  That is okay, as long as you give your best effort.	12/21/2006

Politics, activism.	(1) Its all about changing people's attitudes.  Re-politicize people who have become apolitical.  Get people active, not passive.  Get people thinking and feeling.  Get people talking and writing.  (2) People have been trying to change attitudes and raise consciousness for at least a hundred years.  And at the same time, other people are trying to move us backwards, disempower people, dumb things down, and lower consciousness.  You are battling both passive inertia and active opposition.	12/17/2006

Politics, activism.	(1) Political participation is a form of communitarianism.  When you participate in the political process you imply that humans should not and cannot live in isolation.  (2) Political participation is a form of altruism.  You are working for the good of society.  (3) If you do not want to be a communitarian and an altruist, then you should not be living in a democracy.  Democracies are comprised of people who are political participants, and who are thus communitarians and altruists.	4/4/2007

Politics, activism.	(1) Political participation is the sign of a healthy person and a healthy society.  It is healthy for a person and for a society when a person realizes that political participation is an important activity.  (2) De-politization is a sign of an unhealthy person and an unhealthy society.  When large portions of the population become de-politicized then that is a big problem.	6/24/2007  

Politics, activism.	Activism has a mental component and an action component.  Theory and practice.  Thought and action.  Activism is not all action with no thought.  Activism is not all thought with no action.  The mental component is an attitude composed of thoughts, emotion and memory.	5/21/2005

Politics, activism.	Activism.  (1) Know what you want.  Know what your political goals are.  (2) Know what you do not want.  Know the people who are trying to make happen the things that you do not want to happen.  Figure out how best to oppose them.	8/11/1999

Politics, activism.	Activism.  (1) Personal effort, for you and those in your life.  (2) Organized effort, for the good of all.	01/01/1993

Politics, activism.	Activism.  40% of people are politically apathetic.  They don't follow the news.  They don't care.  40% of people are fearful to act, speak or think.  Afraid of losing job and money.  10% are active Democrats.  10% are active Republicans.	6/15/2005

Politics, activism.	Activist tactics.  (1) Gain knowledge.  Get informed.  (2) Spread knowledge.  Talk with others.  Discuss it.	8/27/2004

Politics, activism.	Advice for activists.  (1) As an activist you will have to work very hard to make any change in the system.  Expect passive resistance and active opposition.  (2) As an activist the changes that you do manage to make will probably be very small.  (3) As an activist the changes you make in the system can be rolled back at any time.  The changes you make are not necessarily permanent.  (4) As an activist you most likely won't earn as much money, nor have as much stuff, than if you decided to mindlessly pursue wealth and property.  (5) As an activist you face a constant, a never ending struggle.  There will always be people who don't want social justice and who don't care about the environment.  (5) If you can handle the above then good, be an activist.	10/10/2004

Politics, activism.	Advice for activists.  Its a ceaseless struggle with no guarantee of success.  All your gains can be rolled back.  The opposition often does not fight fair.  And the people you are trying to help will sometimes resist you out of ignorance.  And yet its the only job worth doing.	10/13/2004

Politics, activism.	Another word for political activism is political involvement.  A person should be involved politically.  Democracy depends on a politically informed public and a politically involved public.  The opposite, political ignorance and political uninvolvement, is a recipe for a myriad of political problems including dictatorship, torture and crime.	5/17/2007

Politics, activism.	Arguments for political activism.  Political thought and action is part of the big picture, everything.  It is every person's obligation and responsibility to be concerned with everything, the big picture.	1/14/2006

Politics, activism.	Control of media, or exposure in media, is crucial.  Name recognition, get the message out, soundbites, face work.	12/15/1994

Politics, activism.	Critique of bourgeoisie hipsters.  Sitting in the cafe with your cup of coffee and your Sunday newspaper.  So comfortable.   You are right where you want to be, in your comfort zone.  The sweet spot.  No worries.  You are not a square, you note on your a hipster PDA.  Maybe you will go to an art gallery this afternoon.  Or a play.  Then go out for dinner, not too expensive, but really delicious.  Then make love.  So easy.  So good.  So beautiful.  Who can say anything against you?  You have built your cocoon.  You have become a creature of habit.  From the tempest you hid in your teacup.	5/13/2007

Politics, activism.	Encourage more political participation by citizens.  Make political participation a valued social norm.  Ignorance and lack of political participation things should be viewed negatively.	4/4/2007

Politics, activism.	Ethics and politics.  Its not merely about politics.  Its about living a good life.  Its about living an authentic life.  Politics shouldn't be something you spend only thirty minutes thinking about each week.  In life, you make decisions regarding the ethics of everything you do, and these decisions have a political dimension to them.  You think about everything that is going on in the world, and how you can help the world, and there is a political dimension to that.     PART TWO.  There is a narrow sense of the word politics which refers to the processes of government.  There is a wider sense of the word politics, which refers to the power of people.  Self empowerment and helping others.  The power to think and the power to act.     PART THREE.  Everything is political.  There are several reasons why everything is political.  (1) There are very many ways to take political action.  (2) Politics is global.  Today, it is easier than ever for people from one nation to talk with and to help people from other countries.  (3) Everything is connected to everything else.  (4) Anything can be made an issue of law.     PART FOUR.  Live a good life.  Living a good life means living an ethical life, by making ethical decisions and then taking ethical actions.  Living a good life means, in part, being politically active.  It is ethical to be politically active.	1/1/2007

Politics, activism.	Everyone should be politically active.  Part of political activism is becoming politically aware of the issues.  Consciousness raising.  Education, information.  And caring and feeling.	4/23/2006

Politics, activism.	Everywhere you go, and with everyone you meet, talk about the most important problems and solutions.	5/29/2007

Politics, activism.	Get involved in local, state, national and world politics.  Show up at local town meetings.  Vote in every election for which you are eligible to vote.  Research, speak and write on political issues.  Run for office.	12/5/2005

Politics, activism.	Got to do it yourself.  Grass roots movements.  (1) T-shirts, bumper stickers, graffiti.  (2) Write your politicians.  (3) Pick a progressive job.  (4) Live a progressive lifestyle.  (5) Educate yourself on the politics of everything.  (6) Educate yourself on the issues.  (7) Don't break the law.  (8) Don't do unethical actions.  (9) Prepare for sleazy blow back.	4/17/2006

Politics, activism.	Holistic approach.  How do activists help people?  By addressing the entire person, and their entire lives in the entire world.  There should be a holistic approach for activists helping people.  And there should be a holistic approach for developing activists.	5/21/2005

Politics, activism.	How are Paul Nervy Notes helpful to activists?  (1) Political activists may at some point have questions unrelated to political activism.  The Notes can help there.  (2) Activism is not merely political.  Activism can be done in many subject areas.  (3) How do you build a political activist?  You address the entire person.  You address the entire world and everything in it.	5/16/2005

Politics, activism.	How much time and energy should a person devote to political thought, word and action?  When does too little time and energy devoted to politics amount to depolitization?  When does too much time and energy devoted to politics amount to obsession?  An hour a week spent on political issues is not too much.	12/12/2005

Politics, activism.	How to create activists.  (1) Get people to help themselves.  (2) Motivate people.  (3) Change attitudes.  (4) Raise consciousness.  (5) Provide information.  (6) Develop ideas.  (6) Create altruists.	8/20/2004

Politics, activism.	It can be called political activism, or it can be called political participation.	4/27/2006

Politics, activism.	It is a political world.  How and how much can and should we get involved in or avoid politics in thought and action?  Why?  If things are cool in the country or world, should one become a hermit?  If things are not cool, if injustice exists anywhere, (ex. fascism, racism, etc.) then how to get involved?  Personal efforts vs. organized group efforts?	04/30/1993

Politics, activism.	Levels of political activism.  Thinking.  Speaking.  Acting.	5/13/2004

Politics, activism.	Levels of political involvement.  (1) No knowledge of politics.  Votes for person with best looks and personality.  (2) Knowledgeable about issues that affect them personally.  (3) Knowledgeable about a wide variety of issues.	12/30/1996

Politics, activism.	List of activist techniques.  (1) Ethical techniques.  Nonviolent protest.  Write letters and emails.  Newsletters and blogs.  (2) Unethical techniques.  Violence.  Threats of violence.  Terror.	1/21/2004

Politics, activism.	Many people fear becoming politically involved.  Many people fear repercussions if they speak out about politics, or write about politics, or take political action.  The fear of political involvement can be conscious or subconscious.  The fear of political involvement may stem from a general fear of power issues, or even a general fear of conflict.  People who exist in a childlike mental state may fear political involvement. 	5/14/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  (1) Make a law.  Become a lawyer.  Hire a lawyer.  (2) Start an organization.  Start a non-profit organization.  (3) Start a business that is involved in environmental sustainability andsocial justice.  Make a living by working on solving a problem.  (4) Change people's attitudes.  Write something.  Book.  Web site.  Academia.  Speechifying.	4/10/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  (1) Political activism.  (2) Economic activism: voting with wallet.  (3) Technological activism: hacktivism.  (4) Cultural activism: write a web page, or book.	4/10/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  (1) Political.  Make a law.  (2) Economic.  Boycotts.  (3) Media.  Get the story out to the public.	5/16/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  Get informed and organize.  Find like-minded people.	4/10/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  Listen to Air America Radio.  Read the Nation magazine.  Read Z Magazine.	6/24/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods of activism.  Think, speak, and act on the issues.  (1) Think.  Think critically.  Gain knowledge about the issues.  (2) Talk about the issues to friends and strangers.  Speak out on the issues.  (3) Act.  Have a peaceful protest.	4/10/2007

Politics, activism.	Methods.  Think of ways for progressive activism.  (1) Thinking, talking, and writing seems the best way for me to do progressive activism.  (2) Organize people.  Start an organization.  (3) Convince people one by one.  Change attitudes.	5/1/2007

Politics, activism.	Political action is healthy: (1) To feel empowered rather than feeling powerless.  (2) To feel connected and engaged rather than feeling isolated and alienated.	8/26/2000

Politics, activism.	Political activism, ways of.  Pick an issue.  Take a stand.  (1) Journalism.  Write a newspaper article.  (2) Create a video documentary.  (3) Art.  Create a work of art: a poem, a play, a novel, a painting.  (4) Philosophy.  Write a philosophical paper, an argument, using logic.  (5) Science.  Do some science to support your view.  (6) Law.  Write a legal brief.	2/21/2004

Politics, activism.	Political involvement, participation, activism.  (1) Thinking about politics.  Two ways to learn about politics are the practical way and the theoretical way.  The practical way involves finding out what are the current issues being debated.  The theoretical way involves reading political philosophy.  Both ways are necessary.  (2) It is also necessary to be involved on the three levels of thinking, speaking and doing.	4/4/2007

Politics, activism.	Political thought and action in positive and negative political environments.  (1) To what degree is political awareness and activism a matter of thinking about a bunch of issues and arguments?  That is to say, to what degree is politics academic?  Some people are politically aware and active, despite there being little personal impetus for political activism.  For example, some people live in a positive political environment yet struggle for people on the other side of the world who live under political subjugation.  (2) To what degree is political awareness and activism a matter of being cast into a suboptimal political situation and experiencing first hand the effects of political blow-back to political participation?  Some people are not politically involved despite living in a situation that calls for political activism.  For example, many people live under political subjugation yet do not act.  (3) Both thought and action are needed in both optimal and suboptimal political environments.	7/26/2006

Politics, activism.	Progress.  It requires more than only intelligence.  It requires wisdom.  It requires motivation.  It requires bravery.  There are many smart people whose talents are wasted because they could not see past their own comfort.  Then there are the people with vision who are willing to struggle against injustice to improve the world.	5/29/2007

Politics, activism.	Progressive activism.  Be a progressive activist.  Speak up for progressivism.  Create other progressive activist leaders.  Help people get a progressive education.  Tell the people you meet about Air America radio, and tell the people you meet to watch Democracy Now with Amy Goodman on television.  Recommend progressive books, magazines, and web sites to the people you meet.	4/4/2007

Politics, activism.	Purpose of political action: To gain freedom.  To gain power.  To stay free.  To get justice.	12/30/1992

Politics, activism.	Reading is not enough to save the world.  Writing is not enough to save the world.  Reading and writing are necessary but not sufficient.  It takes more than buttons, emails, blogs, newspapers.  It takes more than speaking and listening.  It takes work.  It takes nonviolent resistance.  It takes protest.	5/15/2005

Politics, activism.	Stay aware, stay involved, it is the american way, grass roots activism.	04/01/1994

Politics, activism.	The key is don't withdraw, and don't move to the radical extreme either, rather do gain power (money, status, etc.) and act as moderate to effect change for the better.	04/01/1994

Politics, activism.	The opposition (conservatives) wants you to be apolitical, apathetic and inactive.  The opposition does not want you to think, feel, speak or act.  The opposition will say and do things to try and demoralize or distract you.  Do not let the opposition get to you.	5/27/2005

Politics, activism.	Two parts of activism: point out problems and propose solutions.	5/21/2005

Politics, activism.	Types of activism.  Political activism.  Economic activism.  Cultural activism.  Technological activism.	5/21/2005

Politics, activism.	Types of political action (strategies and tactics).  (1) Thought, word (say or write), and action.  (2) Degree support or oppose any given means and ends.  (3) Degree violent or peaceful.  (4) Size of action.  (5) How just is the action's means and ends.  (5) How effective is the action.  Causes and effects of the action.	12/30/1992

Politics, activism.	Types of political action: donate time, donate money, preach/testify.  Ways of preaching: graffiti, guerrilla stickers, guerrilla stamps, bumper stickers, flyers, Internet talking or posting, face to face talking.	01/03/1997

Politics, activism.	Types of political action.  (1) Find better answers to important problems.  Be able to prove it, and sell it.  Be able to prove your foes wrong.  (2) Locate and expose hidden interests and hidden agendas.  (3) Organize and network.  (4) Use truth, reason and plain speaking to fight lies, illogic and rhetoric.	4/16/1994

Politics, activism.	Types of political action.  (1) Individual: Think about it.  Write politicians.  Preach.  (2) Group: talk about it amongst selves.  Use the media to spread your message.  Pump money into organizations.  Donate free time and energy to organizations.  Non-violent protests like sit-ins and marches (violent protest is not recommended).	09/25/1993

Politics, activism.	Types of political action.  (1) Write: president, senator, congressmen.  (2) Fund: special interest groups.  (3) Preach: educate, spread the word, remind people, motivate and inspire people.	06/05/1997

Politics, activism.	Types of political action.  In every problem area, on every level (world, national, local), you should apply every technique.  Techniques.  (1) Write.  To government big shots.  (2) Money.  Pump it into your lobby organizations.  (3) Work one on one with people.  Or work with your hands.  (4) Talk.  Preach it to everyone.  Pitch it.  (5) All these after thinking out, and researching problems, alternative solutions, and arguments for and against them.	02/24/1994

Politics, activism.	Types of political actions.  (1) Free vs. enslave.  (2) Use vs. abuse.  (3) Manipulate.  (4) Empower: give power (with or without loss to self).	12/30/1992

Politics, activism.	What is the best way to promote democracy (free speech, etc.)?  What is the best way to fight communism, authoritarianism, fascism, fundamentalism, and totalitarianism?  Radios, faxes, photocopies, the Internet?	04/28/1993

Politics, activism.	What to do.  (1) Write to corporate CEO's, especially if you are a stock holder.  (2) Write to the leaders of other nations.  Say you are a global citizen.  (3)(A) Write to the most powerful players.  (B) Write to the best players.  (C) Write to the worst players.	4/16/2000

Politics, activism.	When we are young we stay out of the political fray.  We are apolitical because we want to be above it all.  And perhaps we should be to avoid deciding too early, before we've seen it all and figured it all out.  But there comes a time when you gotta join the real world, take a stand, and get your boots dirty.	09/20/1993

Politics, government.	.This section is about various forms of government.  Topics include: ( ) Anarchy.  ( ) Communism.  ( ) Socialism.  ( ) Democracy.  ( ) Dictatorship.  ( ) Types of government.	1/24/2006

Politics, government.	(1) Abstract types of government.  (2) Functional areas of government: executive, legislative, judicial.  (3) Size of government.  (4) Type of succession.  (5) Forms of government.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	(1) Purposes.  (2) Structures and mechanisms.  (3) Forms of government: abstract and actual.  (4) Factors and variations: number of people, education, economic and technology levels.  (5) Pros and cons of each type of government.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	(1) Responsibilities (must).  (2) Rights, powers, freedoms (may).  (3) Limitations (must not).	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	(1) Why capitalist democracies fell.  (A) Weimar Germany in the 1920's was industrialized, and had newspapers (free press), and had educated citizens.  It fell and went fascist because of economic troubles, namely hyper-inflation.  (B) USA in the 1930's was industrialized, with free press, and educated citizens.  It almost went communist because of economic troubles.  (C) This is the argument why the study of economics is so vitally important.  It is because economics can topple governments.  Controlling economic problems like inflation and unemployment is key.  (2) Why totalitarian, centrally planned, communism fails.  Russia, East Germany, Baltic, what caused communism's fall there?  (3) Other cases.  (A) Why did China turn communist?  Was it a violent coup-de-tat that installed an oppressive military rule on peasant masses?  (B) Why did Vietnam turn communist?  Was it pressure from China?  (C) Why did Cuba go communist?  (4) South America.  What caused sweeping democracy in the 1980s in South America and eastern Europe?  Economic prosperity?  Influence of United States?  Information technology?	4/15/1998

Politics, government.	Anarchism defined as no laws.  The polar opposite of anarchism defined as a law for every action.  Both extremes are bad.	9/5/2004

Politics, government.	Anarchism.  In one sense, pure anarchism is not practical or possible, just like pure capitalism and pure communism are not practical or possible.  If all governments were to be abolished then war lords and crime lords would quickly arise to fill the resulting power vacuum.  Government appears to be necessary.  What type of government is preferable?  Democracy.  How much government is preferable?  Enough to protect the disempowered.	2/21/2004

Politics, government.	Anarchy, definitions of.  (1) Chaos.  (2) Lawlessness.  Lack of laws can easily lead to injustice.  (3) No government.  (A) Are there any practical (efficient, effective) non-governmental methods of dispute resolution?  (B) Are there any practical non-governmental methods of law making?	4/17/2001

Politics, government.	Anarchy.  If legitimate government fails, the result will be strife among factions led by crime lords and war lords.	6/11/2004

Politics, government.	Anarchy.  The question is not whether we want government or not.  The question is whether we can live without laws or not.  We can not be lawless.  Society without laws does not function. All areas of society, such business and tort, require a certain amount of laws to protect basic rights.  Government = laws.  No government = no laws.	4/13/2000

Politics, government.	Argument for more government vs. less government.  Those who argue for less government define less government in at least four ways.  (1) Less government departments.  (2) Less government employees.  (3) Less laws.  (4) Less taxes.	4/13/2000

Politics, government.	Bad forms of government.  (1) Oligopoly: rule by and for a powerful few.  (2) Plutocracy: rule by and for the rich.  (3) Corporatism: rule by and for the corporations.  (4) Crime state: rule by and for criminals.  (5) Corrupt state: rule by and for corrupt politicians.  (6) Dictatorship: rule by and for a single individual.  (7) Totalitarianism: rule by and for the state.  (8) Military state: rule by and for the military.  (9) Theocracy: rule by and for religion.  A religious state and religious law.  (10) Anarchy and Libertarianism: 100% freedom.  No laws.  No government.	11/20/2005

Politics, government.	Communism is really a theory about power.  Communism critiques how economic power is used to keep one group powerless and another group in power.	9/2/1998

Politics, government.	Communism.  PART ONE.  Definitions of Communism.  (1) Communism defined as totalitarian dictatorship (bad).  (2)  Communism defined as government ownership (eh).  (3) Communism defined as group ownership (okay).  (4) Communism defined as sharing (good).  (5) Communism defined as welfare systems (example, unemployment, social security, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, homeless shelters, work programs, etc.).     PART TWO.  Just as there is nothing inherently wrong with competition in certain situations, there is also nothing inherently wrong with sharing in certain situations.  We are taught to share from an early age.     PART THREE.  Some people think that there should be no public services (schools, hospitals, roads, post offices, police department, fire department, sewers, libraries, parks, etc.) and there should be no taxes and that anything more is communism which they view as bad.  These people think all sharing should be voluntary and that they think all philanthropy should be to private organizations not public.  I disagree.     PART FOUR.  Some people go so far as to believe there should be no public standards for the above private functions.  These people do not believe in public standards.  They believe the above functions should not be subject to government regulation.  (2) Some people go even further and say there should be no laws at all because laws are a type of public standard.  I say public standards are good because they help protect a base level of equality that we call human rights.  For example, public education is a right not a privilege.  The effect of many right wing conservative philosophies is to deny all people their basic human rights.	1/1/2002

Politics, government.	Communist Cuba is hurting.  Capitalist Russia is hurting.  The most important thing about a political system is not what abstract type it is.  The most important thing about a political system is lack of corruption in both the system itself and in the people who live under the system.  Also important is the involvement of the people, the knowledge and attitudes of the people, and the cooperation of the people.	9/2/1998

Politics, government.	Confederation: copartners.  Unitary: one big piece.  Federal - bigger and smaller units.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Constitutional: has a constitution vs. actually follows it.  Democracy: direct vs. representational.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Corrupt government.  (1) When government is infiltrated by organized crime.  For example, when Columbian drug lords ran for office.  (2) When government is coerced by organized crime through either threat or bribe.  For example, J. Edgar Hoover denying that organized crime exists.	12/14/2004

Politics, government.	Corrupt government.  For example, when elected officials act to line their own pockets and the pockets of their cronies with money, at the expense of the people.	12/14/2004

Politics, government.	Democracy = group decision making.	08/14/1994

Politics, government.	Democracy is not representational when big business and special interest groups and political action committees (pacs) rule government.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Democracy is spreading worldwide, and consequently justice is spreading worldwide.  Why?  (1) A growing middle-class is better educated and smarter.  (2) Mass communication makes people smarter.  (3) Global trade influences governments to play fair.	7/18/1998

Politics, government.	Democracy requires:  (1) Educated and informed masses.  (2) Cooperation of the masses.  (3) Participation of masses.	1/10/2002

Politics, government.	Democracy, critique of.  A democracy does not exhibit justice when money buys votes and when you have to be rich to run a political campaign.	3/30/2007

Politics, government.	Democracy, definitions of.  (1) Government by the people, for the people.  (2) Elected officials with limited terms in office.  (3) No kings.  (4) No communism/totalitarianism.  Private property and personal savings.  Capitalism.  (5) Is the goal justice?  Is the goal equality (ex. no aristocracy, and equal rights for all)?  Is the goal liberty?	4/17/2001

Politics, government.	Democracy.  Conundrums of democracy.  (1) Direct participation yields majority rule.  Majority rule often tramples minority rights.  And democratic government has sworn to protect the rights of all its constituents, including minorities.  (2) If the majority decides to do wrong (example, legalize murder), is government sworn to do right and uphold justice for all against the majority's wishes?  Justice comes before freedom?	07/18/1998

Politics, government.	Democracy.  Definitions.  (1) Democracy as one adult, one vote.  (2) Democracy as a working dual party system.  (3) Democracy as a set of principles like those in the bill of rights.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of religion.  Separation of church and state.  Capitalism.	11/30/1997

Politics, government.	Democracy.  Free press, free voting, free market, and all the other elements of democracy.  What are their limits each way (too much, too little)?	12/30/1996

Politics, government.	Democracy.  How to promote democracy, faster?  (1) Education.  How to educate?  (A) Motivation.  (B) Free access to information.  Free press. (C) Leisure time to learn.  No child labor.  Free public education.  (2) Economic prosperity.  Industrialization and cities (to provide free time and spare cash) vs. subsistence level manual farming.	4/15/1998

Politics, government.	Democracy.  Representative democracy vs. direct democracy.  (1) Even though the Internet makes direct democracy more possible, a problem is that average working people do not have the time to hear all the arguments on all the issues.  Thus, direct democracy may not be completely possible (?).  (2) Secondly, in a direct democracy, if the majority votes to pursue an evil course of action, that does not make the evil action a just action.  Thus, another problem of direct democracy is that is does not necessarily insure justice.	8/15/1999

Politics, government.	Democracy.  What does it take to get a toehold for democracy?  What is the difference between a sheriff in the American Old West and a sheriff in a third-world country?  How was the American sheriff able to enforce justice and why is the Third World sheriff not able to enforce justice?  Does it take the will of the government to spread democracy?  Does it take the will of the people to spread democracy?  Does democracy even "spread" or is democracy imposed and protected or enforced?	2/12/2002

Politics, government.	Dictatorship is an example of paternalism.	6/11/2004

Politics, government.	Dictatorship is rule by gangs and thugs.	6/11/2004

Politics, government.	Dictatorship, definitions of.  (1) Dictatorship defined as lawmaking by one ruler.  (2) Dictatorship defined as excessive use of force.  (3) Dictatorship defined as excessive limits on the rights of individuals.     PART TWO.  Can dictatorship ever be justified?  What if it is a benign dictatorship?  What if the adult citizens are like uneducated, helpless children?  What if the dictatorship is an improvement over the existing situation?  No.	7/18/2002

Politics, government.	Dictatorship.  Dictators rule by force and terror.  Dictators rule by propaganda and censorship.	2/24/2003

Politics, government.	Dictatorship.  How does a dictator like Saddam Hussein control his population?  By keeping them unthinking and silent.  How does he do that?  Through fear achieved by harassment, threat and violence.	4/10/2003

Politics, government.	Dictatorship.  People under dictatorships are like children.  They know that the important decisions will be made for them.  So they don't need to think.  They don't develop thinking skills or a knowledge base.	09/01/1994

Politics, government.	Dictatorship.  Stalin stole power by terror.  Hitler stole power by propaganda and lies.	2/24/2003

Politics, government.	Dictatorship.  Tactics of dictators.  Raise an idol image of yourself.  Use secret police.  Encourage and force ratting.  Kill dissenters.  Use torture.  This is how Mao, Stalin, and Hitler did it.	10/15/1994

Politics, government.	Few freedoms vs. much freedom (amounts and areas).	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Four factors.  (1) Powers (can, may) vs. limits (can not, may not).  (2) Duties (has to) vs. freedoms (does not have to).	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Good government is a tightrope walk between extremists.  Good government is a tip-toe walk through a minefield of extremists.  Good government is avoiding the mistakes while solving the problems.	5/24/2006

Politics, government.	Government = laws.  No government = no laws.  No laws = no justice.  No justice = no peace.	11/20/2005

Politics, government.	Government functions.  What they could do.  What they should do.  What ours does.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Government is important (1) To set minimum standards. (2) To set a standard (often arbitrary) that gets us to all cooperating together, instead of having 50 states with 50 different arbitrary ways of doing things.  In this case, things progress quicker if there is cooperation.	10/30/1996

Politics, government.	Government stability vs. change.  Justice vs. injustice.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Government type and the size of the population.  Which government is best for which size populations?	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Government's function is to protect the weak from those who believe that anyone weaker than themselves should die.	6/11/2004

Politics, government.	How many are in power?  How do they wield power?	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	How many government employees per population?	11/20/2005

Politics, government.	In economics, pure capitalism has a tendency to create business monopolies by creating rules that ensure total economic freedom with no rules to ensure any degree of equality.  So to, in politics, pure capitalism has a tendency to form power monopolies by creating rules to ensure total political freedom with no rules to ensure any degree of equality.  Both economic monopolies and political monopolies (monarchies, dictatorships, etc.) are bad things.	6/30/2000

Politics, government.	International government.  United Nations: history, structure, mechanisms, and purpose.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	International politics.  (1) Nation vs. nation.  (2) Nation vs. group.  (3) Nation vs. individual.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	International trade.  International finance.  International business.  International law.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	International world government will be achieved by breaking down barriers.  (1) National political barriers.  (2) Economic barriers: get a standardized currency (ex ecu).  (3) Religious barriers.  (4) Linguistic barriers.  (5) Cultural barriers.	08/24/1994

Politics, government.	Is government a necessary evil?  Is no government (anarchy) possible?  For how many people?  For how different people, with different needs, and different metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views?	01/01/1993

Politics, government.	Is government necessary?  No, yes, how much?	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Is not communism the same as dictatorship in that when the state owns all there is no freedom in practical terms?	9/15/1998

Politics, government.	Mob-ocracy defined as rule by the frequently angry and vicious mobs or masses.  Democracy is not mob-ocracy.	2/21/2004

Politics, government.	Monarchy is b.s.  Monarchy is for childlike adults who need to have a parent.	12/29/1997

Politics, government.	More common than dictatorship (rule of all by one) is a state of affairs where you have feuding tribes or clans.  Dictatorship is not the most pressing political problem, even though many people act like it is.  The most common political problem is the feud, mobs, oligarchy, juntas, etc.	6/22/2001

Politics, government.	PART ONE.  I argue that technological development is necessary for political development.  Some other people argue that economic development is necessary for technological development which is necessary for political development.  (1) Are (or were) there any examples of technologically undeveloped peoples that are (or were) politically developed?  Maybe, historically speaking, the small Greek states, but, currently speaking, no large societies.  (2) Are there any examples of economically underdeveloped societies that are either technologically or politically developed?  (3) Are there any examples of politically undeveloped societies that are technologically or economically developed?     PART TWO.  I call democracy a state of being politically developed as opposed to politically under-developed states like monarchy, dictatorships, etc.  Is democracy the most developed political form?     PART THREE.  What is the relationship between economic systems like capitalism, socialism and communism as compared to political systems like democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, etc.?  Is there any necessary relationship? Is it a cause and effect relationship?     PART FOUR.  Democracy requires an educated, informed public.  Education requires technology like books, printing, newspapers, journalism, etc.	1/6/2002

Politics, government.	People don't understand the issues, alternatives, and arguments pro and contra.  People are apathetic, stupid and ignorant.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Powers, limits, duties; how much, over what or who; by level and branch of government; for subject area and geographic area.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Principle of government.  (1) Rule by reason.  Rational reasons for actions.  No rule by whim or irrational feelings.  (2) Rule by law.  Systematic, predictable, law with no favoritism.  (3) Public law, anyone can read it, nothing hidden, open society.	09/20/1993

Politics, government.	Questions for all governments, and for all functional areas of government.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Republican vs. democrat.  Liberal vs. conservative.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Separation of church and state is vital.  Government sponsored religion causes conflict.	7/30/2002

Politics, government.	Size of government.  (1) Federal only vs. federal, state and local.  (2) Amount of money departments spend and/or collect.  (3) Number of people employed.  (4) All the services they provide.  (5) All their assets.	9/19/1998

Politics, government.	Socialism defined as a mid-point between pure capitalism and pure communism.  Since pure capitalism and pure communism are unobtainable ideals that don't exist in the real world, every government is socialist to some degree.	6/3/2004

Politics, government.	Socialism.  Low cost socialism.  Possible ways of.  Everyone gets a minimum of food each week.  Everyone gets a minimum of housing, even if its just public land to camp in tents on, with public facilities like bathroom and laundry.  Everyone gets a minimum of clothes.  Everyone gets a minimum wage.  Everyone gets minimum health care.  Everyone gets minimum education.	8/27/2004

Politics, government.	Specific governments.  Analysis of any government.  Questions for 169 present governments and all other past nations.  (1) History.  Type of government.  (2) Structure: branches, levels.  (3) Mechanism.  Policy or goal, and public administration or strategies and tactics.  What do: policy and purpose.  How do: public administration.  (4) Static and dynamic analysis.  (5) Criticism: analyze and judge.  (6) Purpose.  Mechanism, and structure (size, levels, branches).	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	State: the area a government rules over?  The geographic area, the people, the philosophy and law.  Nation: one of 169 recognized states today?	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Three types of rule.  (1) Mass rule vs. (2) Power-holders rule vs. (3) Expert rule (technocracy).	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Too little government results in anarchism.  Too much government results in dictatorship.	2/28/2004

Politics, government.	Types of government.  (1) Abstract types: oligarchy, aristocracy, constitutional government.  (2) Actual combonation forms.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Types of government.  (1) Anarchy: total freedom, rule of jungle.  (2) Cooperation: deals, agreements, negotiation of sovereigns.  (3) Rule by force: military dictatorship.  (4) Totalitarianism: total control.	12/30/1992

Politics, government.	Types of government.  (1) Democracy.  (A) What is the essence of democracy?  Freedom of speech, press, and assembly?  Right to vote?  Equality, equal empowerment of all?  (B) What is the best way to promote democracy?  Educate the masses?  (2) What is the best way to fight communism, authoritarianism, military rule, fascism, fundamentalism?  Radios, faxes, photocopies?	01/01/1993

Politics, government.	Types of government.  (1) Government in small groups vs. large groups.  (2) Government in simple societies vs. complex societies.  (3) Government in homogeneous groups vs. heterogeneous groups.  (For example, Japan is homogeneous yet complex society).	5/1/2000

Politics, government.	Types of government.  (1) Let the people rule.  Common sense.  Vs. (2) The masses are asses.  Let experts rule.  Technocracy.	12/15/1998

Politics, government.	Types of government.  Definitions, traits.  What brings them about?  What destroys them?	01/01/1993

Politics, government.	Unjust forms of government: Fascism.  Authoritarianism.  Religious fundamentalism.  Military dictatorship.  Theocracy.  Kleptocracy.	4/27/2007

Politics, government.	Why both pure anarchism and pure communism are messed up.  The rights (to power, freedom and equality) of the individual must be balanced against the rights of the group (including minorities and the rest of the world).  If the individual has no rights and the group has all power then that is bad.  If the group has no rights and the individual has all power then that is bad.	6/30/2000

Politics, government.	Why we need the federal government.  (1) Do we need government control of the free market economy?  Yes, Keynesianism.  (2) Do we let the less fortunate perish?  Is that justice?  No.  (3) Do we let the environment slide?  No.  (4) Do we let corporations rip off customers?  No.  (5) These are just some of the reasons the federal government is important.	9/5/1998

Politics, issues.	.This section is about various political issues.  Topics include: ( ) Abortion.  ( ) Affirmative action.  ( ) Crime.  ( ) Death penalty.  ( ) Foreign policy.  ( ) Immigration.  ( ) List.  ( ) Military.  ( ) Taxes.  ( ) Welfare.	1/24/2006

Politics, issues.	(1) Privatization vs. nationalization.  (2) Deregulation vs. regulation.	1/14/2006

Politics, issues.	9-11.  (1) The Bush administration was looking for an excuse to invade Iraq.  (2) The 9-11 attack could have been prevented.  Bush could have heeded CIA reports regarding Osama Bin Laden.  Bush could have scrambled fighter planes if he had responded quicker.	1/9/2006

Politics, issues.	9/11 is not an excuse for conservatives to keep the United States in a constant state of war in order to occupy other countries, control the world oil supply, build the military industrial complex, make more money for corporations, and deny US and world citizens their human rights.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	9/11 terrorist attack.  On 9/11/2001 terrorists flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, killing several thousand people.  (1) Every country faces terrorist attacks, not only the United States.  The way to deal with terrorism is not to invade and occupy other countries.  It was wrong for George Bush to use the 9/11 terrorist attack as an excuse to invade Iraq.  (2) 9/11 is not the only political issue.  Many bad things are happening in the world.  The 9/11 attack was attention grabbing because it was instantaneous and visual.  But what about the many other bad things that kill thousands of people, events that are not as instantaneous and attention grabbing?  There are many other bad things that are just as bad or worse than 9/11.  The 9/11 terrorist attack was a bad thing, but it was not the worst thing that ever happened in the world.  We should not let the 9/11 attack be the only event that determines how we think about the world, but unfortunately that is what some people have done.	4/10/2007

Politics, issues.	9/11.  The 9/11 attack did not "change everything".  The 9/11 attack was a wrong, but two wrongs do not make a right, and so therefore the 9/11 attack does not justify injustices perpetrated by America in response.  Abandoning the Geneva convention is wrong.  Torture is wrong.  Killing innocent civilians is wrong.  Pre-emptive war is wrong.  Using propaganda and censorship to lie to the American public is wrong.  Spying and wiretapping on the American public without warrants is wrong.  Using rendition to send people to other countries to be tortured in wrong.  Using signing statements to ignore the rule of law is wrong.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Abortion.  Lets say abortion is made illegal.  How many people will give birth who would ordinarily have had abortions?  One million?  Who will raise those kids?  How many will be raised by mothers who never wanted them (grim)?  How many will be adopted, and how soon?  How many will be raised in orphanages?  Who will support the orphanages?  How many accidental pregnancies are there a year?  What if the mother doesn't want to be pregnant for nine months?  What if being pregnant would make her lose her job?	10/30/1996

Politics, issues.	Abortion.  Men could easily get women pregnant by rape, date rape, husbands getting wives drunk, or husbands seducing wives in their sleep, all to get the woman pregnant and keep them down.  Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen.  (2) Working women and single women must have the right to income and employment uninterrupted by pregnancy.  Women must have the right to control their own lives and their own bodies.	12/26/1997

Politics, issues.	Abortion.  The right to abortion should be upheld.  Its a woman's right to choose.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Affirmative action.  (1) Conservatives say, "Hire the best person for the job".  However, often there are many equally qualified people (or at least many people who are qualified enough to do the job) who apply for a job.  And people who discriminate will consistently not pick a certain group.  (2) And aside from being qualified, employers often hire who they think they will get along with.  This criteria of amicability is often as strong as the criteria of qualifications.  And people who discriminate have a preconceived notion who they will and will not get along with.  (3) Even when white people become the minority instead of majority, an argument can still be made for affirmative action for non-whites.  This is because it is possible for a minority to unjustly hold power over a majority.  For example, the British in India, or even whites over slaves in the old south.  If a minority holds the majority of power positions over a majority underclass, then injustice still exists.	07/30/1996

Politics, issues.	Affirmative action.  Do you want a just society?  Blacks and women have been kept down.  Are they as good as white men?  Yes.  To make society more just, you should put them in proportional to population, to make up for the discrimination, exploitation, oppression, and persecution.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Birth control.  The right to birth control should be upheld.	1/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Budget.  Federal budget: size, sources, composition (expenditures).	06/01/1994

Politics, issues.	Campaign finance reform.  Some available options.  (1) Caps on election spending.  (2) Caps on advertising spending by corporations and lobbies.  (3) Equal time in advertising.  (4) Equal funding of candidates.	8/15/1999

Politics, issues.	Campaign finance reform.  The problem: the rich corporations rule the country by contributing big money to political campaigns.  How to level the plain field so that all are represented fairly?	9/15/1998

Politics, issues.	Censorship is wrong.  Lack of free press.  Denial of freedom of speech.  Denial of freedom of assembly.  Denial of freedom of association.  Denial of freedom of movement; being prevented from leaving the country.  Denial of free press.  Denial of a free media (newspapers, radio, television, Internet).  Government owned and controlled media.  Corporate owned and controlled media.	5/1/2007

Politics, issues.	Central America.  In El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the United States government supported right wing death squads over populist leaders, and that is an injustice.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Children's rights abuses.  Child labor.  Child soldiers.  Denial of education for children.  Lack of public education.  Child abuse.  Violence against children.  Spanking and other forms of physical abuse against children.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Chile.  Augusto Pinochet was a murderous dictator in Chile who was supported by the US, until he disobeyed the US and went against US interests at which point the US decided to punish him.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	China.  China suffered under totalitarianism, which produced famine and a massacre of intellectuals.  China is undergoing rapid industrialization.  China has a poor human rights record.  China is becoming the world's manufacturer.  China is also becoming the world's polluter.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Cindy Sheehan.  Cindy Sheehan's son died fighting in Iraq.  Cindy Sheehan decided to camp out in Crawford, Texas to see if she could to talk to Bush.  Cindy Sheehan was soon joined by many others.  Cindy Sheehan helped bring attention to the American peace movement.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Corporatism.  (1) Corporations have too much power.  For example  (2) Corporations are corrupt.  For example, Enron, Worldcomm, Tyco.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Corporatism.  Corporate power, stated in increasingly negative terms.  Corporations lobby politics.  Corporations influence politicians.  Corporations pressure politicians.  Corporations coerce politicians.  Corporations bribe politicians.  Corporations threaten politicians.	9/13/2005

Politics, issues.	Corporatism.  Corporations are driving small business out of business.  For example, corporate farms are forcing family owned farms to go out of business.  Corporate retailers are forcing small retailers out of business.  Economic power is being taken away from many small business owners and given to a few big business corporations.  Power in the hands of the few is a bad idea.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Corporatism.  Corporations have too much influence on politics.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Corporatism.  The United States should not be a corporatist state.  Protect workers, consumers and the public against abuses by corporations.  Stop corporate welfare.  Stop letting corporations avoid legal and social responsibility.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Corruption.  Fraud.  Misappropriation.  Lack of democracy.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Crime.  (1) Crimes never reported (out of fear).  Crimes never detected.  Crimes never solved.  (2) Transgressions, both immoral and not immoral.  Examples, hacking into networks, going into off limits places.  The thrill of transgressions, both undetected and detected (leaving a message).  (3) Game playing (not immoral) vs. crime (immoral).  Acting or lying.  Manipulation.  Prank calls, obscene calls.  What people do for fun.  Fun as satisfaction vs. fun as excitement, thrills, risk takers, adrenaline rush addicts and junkies.  Being bad or naughty is fun for some people, why?	11/20/1997

Politics, issues.	Crime.  (1) Types, causes.  (2) Psychological dimensions: of criminal and victim.  (3) Social dimensions: economic costs, fear, mistrust.  (4) Ways to catch, ways to prevent, ways to detect.  (5) Most effective, least costly ways.  (6) Rates of incidence.  How many, what types, where.  In what time period.  Number of perpetrators.  Number of crimes committed, caught, convicted.  (7) Causes and effects.  (8) Costs: in dollars, to individual, to society.  (9) Crimes: see Law.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Crime.  (1) Unethical and illegal vs. (2) unethical and legal vs. (3) ethical and illegal vs. (4) ethical and legal.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Do not turn the United States into a prison state.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Legal status vs. ethical status.  Variance between the two.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Organized crime.  "Loyalty" to a "family" that demands "favors" with no questions asked and then calls it "honor" is bullshit.	5/15/2007

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Organized crime.  (1) Organized crime should not be viewed as a form of entertainment.  Some people make the mistake of trying to mollify their fears of crime by watching television shows and movies that turn crime into entertainment.   (2) Organized crime should not be admired.  Some people make the mistake of trying to mollify their fears of crime by trying to kiss up to criminals.  (3) Organized crime should not be ignored.  Some people make the mistake of thinking that organized crime will go away if it is ignored.  Do not be apathetic about crime.  (3) Organized crime should be confronted and stopped.  The public should take an active interest in stopping organized crime.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Organized crime.  (1) What ways, degrees, duration, and frequency.  Is an individual under control of organized crime (forced vs. collusion)?  (3) X number individuals = power of organized crime.  (4) How many criminals vs. how many victims.  (5) How they gather information and use it for crime.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Crime.  Organized crime.  Like some gangs call themselves "clubs", some crime organizations call themselves "families", but their attempts to re-brand themselves is semantic baloney.	5/18/2007.

Politics, issues.	Crime.  See also, Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	5/18/2007

Politics, issues.	Criminals.  (1) Smart vs. stupid.  (2) Sane vs. crazy.  (3) Ethical vs. unethical vs. amoral.  (4) Aware of affects on others.  (5) Aware of how bad.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Cuba.  The US has used unjust repressive economic sanctions against the Cuban people for forty years.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Darfur.  Put UN peace keepers into Darfur to stop the genocide.  Put Darfur killers on trial for war crimes.	5/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Death penalty, arguments against it.  (1) Death penalty will not relieve an overcrowded prison system, because only a handful are sentenced to die in the states that do have it.  (2) Death penalty will not deter crazed or passion filled killers, who are indifferent to, or actually desire, death.	02/10/1994

Politics, issues.	Death penalty.  (1) If a society thinks suicide is wrong, then one would think that society would believe the death penalty is wrong, because people could be using the death penalty to commit suicide.  (2) If a society is for the death penalty then one would think that society would be unfazed by crimes of murder-suicide where one person kills another person and then kills themself.  After all, they paid for the life of another with their own life.  On the other hand, if you think murder-suicide is wrong then you should think the death penalty is wrong.	1/1/2001

Politics, issues.	Death penalty.  Why I am against the death penalty.  Because it is so easy for unethical people to frame an innocent person for murder.  Then a jury convicts an innocent person.	12/20/1998

Politics, issues.	Do not put blind faith in the corporations to do the right thing because corporations act in their own interest and sometimes do the wrong thing, for example, Enron, Tyco, HealthSouth, cigarette companies, etc.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Do not put blind faith in the government because even the United States government often acts out of its own selfish interests and sometimes does the wrong thing, for example, invading other countries in order to exploit natural resources for use by US corporations.  The US government sometimes does not act in the best interests of the people.  The US government sometimes acts in the interests of big business.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Do not put blind faith in the mainstream media because the mainstream media is a corporate owned and controlled media that bows to the pressures of governments and corporations.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Does industrial policy ruin free market economics?  Is the free market unjust?	12/30/1996

Politics, issues.	Domestic policy.  (1) Social: education, medicare, unemployment compensation, welfare, workman's compensation, social security.  (2) Science and technology: should we have industrial policy?  Should we privatize science research?  No.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Downing Street Memo is evidence that the Bush administration was waiting for a chance to invade Iraq, looking for an opportunity to invade Iraq, looking for an excuse to invade Iraq.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Drugs.  (1) Legalize hemp.  Hemp is good for the environment.  Its good for making paper.  Its good for making clothes.  Its a food source.  Hemp grows quickly and easily almost everywhere because it is a weed.  Cotton requires lots of pesticides and water.  Trees for paper is a waste.  (2) Legalize pot.  Pot is no more a gateway drug than alcohol.  (3) Legalize all drugs?  What are the arguments pro and con.  What happened when its been tried before?	9/20/2005

Politics, issues.	Drugs.  Legalize marijuana, because hemp should be used to make clothes and paper.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Economics.  (1) Problems:  Corporations have too much power.  Monopoly is bad.  Corporate executives get too high pay.  (2) Solutions:  Cooperatives.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Economics.  Free trade agreements benefit corporations (NAFTA, GAT, WTO).  Promote fair trade to help workers.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Economics.  It is unjust when corporations renege on pensions for workers, while corporations post increasing profits, and while CEO's get higher and higher pay.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Economy.  The US economy is not doing as well as the Bush administration says.  (1) Real wages are stagnant (i.e., wages adjusted for inflation).  (2) The federal deficit is too high.  Bush is bankrupting the government.	1/14/2006

Politics, issues.	Education: Free college should be available to all.	2/23/2007

Politics, issues.	Education.  Save public education.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Election 2005.  (1) Where was the youth vote?  Who knows.  The youth probably didn't vote, as usual.  (2) Where was the minority vote?  African-Americans are approximately 10% of the population.  Many Hispanics voted for Bush.  (3) Where was the women's vote?  Unfortunately, many women voted religion and war instead of choice and education.  (4) Where was the labor vote?  Labor needs to be rebuilt in this country.  (5) People didn't vote their pocket books.  People voted religion.  What a mistake.  (6) The election of Bush in 2005 was a bad thing.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	Environment.  (1) Oceans are being fished out.  (2) Atmosphere has acid rain.  Atmosphere has global warming due to high CO2 levels.  Atmosphere has ozone depletion.  (3) Land.  Soil is being depleted by bad farming methods.  Toxic chemicals seeping into land, and getting into tap water.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  America should aim for ecological sustainability.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Global warming.  Acid rain.  Rain forest depletion.  Extinction of species due to humans.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Natural resources.  Fresh water is running out.  Fresh water shortages are a problem.  Clean water shortages are a problem too.  Corporations are trying to gain rights to water at the expense of the people.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Natural resources.  Oil is running out.  Develop alternative sources of energy.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Population levels are too high.  The poor are having many kids.  The uneducated are having many kids.  Educate women and give women access to birth control.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Society needs to be sustainable.  Living like the Amish?  People need access to information.  People need means of communication.  People need computers and access to Internet.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Environment.  Terminator seeds are unjust.  Use seeds that can make more seeds.  Do not let corporations own the food supply.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Farming.  Organic farming is the way to go.  Buy local products to avoid transportation-related pollution.  Agribusiness, aka farming monopolies, is bad.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Finances.  How much need (budget) vs. how much have.  Raising money (taxes) vs. spending money.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Flag burning.  Burn all the flags.  Nationalism is passe.  Countries are acting less and less like nations, and more and more like states in a global federation, and that is a good thing.  For example, do most people know or even care what their state flag looks like?  No.  And so it should be with national flags.	5/21/1999

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy choices.  (1) Isolationism vs. getting involved.  (2) If you get involved you should not be involved as a bully and act exploitive, destructive, and unjust.  You should be a helpful, constructive, force of justice.  (3) Have a multi-level, multi-type system of rewards and punishments.  Words, actions, economic, military, etc.  (4) Your relation to other nations is not determined merely by their actions toward your nation, but also by their actions toward other nations, and also toward people within their own nation.  (5) Foreign policy does not have to be only at the national level.  You can have a policy for any group or individual.	4/17/2001

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy communications.  Inquiries, answers, declarations.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy principles.  (1) Know what is going on in the other country.  Views of the other country's powerholders.  Views of the other country's masses.  Strengths and problems.  Injustices.  Political, economic and social situation.  Environmental situation.  (2) Decide what views and actions of the other country you are going to reward, praise, condone, admonish, or sanction.  (3) Foreign policy goals, strategy, tactics and reasons.	1/16/2000

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy should be practical, effective, and ethical.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy: international relations, foreign affairs.  Political: diplomacy, cia.  Economic: trade, finance.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  (1) Figure out what your values are.  (2) Determine who is friend and foe, based on their values.  (3) Communications.  Try to persuade through rational and emotional appeals to power holders and masses.  (4) Actions.  Economic and military rewards and sanctions toward governments.	5/1/2002

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  (1) History vs. current situation.  (2) Who has the power?  What is the source of power?  (3) What are they doing with it?  (4) Behavior: Ethical vs. unethical.  Active vs. inactive.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  (1) How strong or weak are they vs. are we?  (2) What's their agenda (goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons) vs. what's ours?  (3) If we do x, what will they do?  (4) How good is the communication between us?  (5) How and how much do we affect each other?	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  (1) Type of action (violent, aggressive, cooperative, etc.).  (2) Area of action (economic, military, etc.).  (3) With who, how, why.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  (1) Type of relationship: friend, neutral, enemy, stranger.  (2) Type of action: cooperation vs. opposition.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  % foreign policy determined by law vs. % formed by executives.  Formation procedures.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Communications and actions.  (1) By others, and by you.  (2) Helpful to you vs. hurtful to you.  (3) Intentional vs. accidental.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Factors affecting foreign policy: arms race, business trade, borders and possessions.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Information gathering systems: spies, monitor media, etc.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Information is key.  Find out what they are thinking, saying and doing, aware that these three may not correspond with each other.  This task is made difficult by the lack of free press in many countries.	5/1/2002

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Isolationism vs. interventionism.  (1) Isolationism of nations, like solitude in individuals, hurts those who adopt it as a policy.  (2) Isolationism amounts to looking the other way.  Isolationism ignores other nations who we could help.  (3) Isolationism is increasingly untenable in today's global world.	5/1/2002

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Objectives.  (1) What is the situation?  (2) What do you want?  (3) How to get it?  (4) How to act towards others?  (5) How to react to x action by y group?	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  U.S.A. history with any foreign individual, group, company, nation, regional bloc.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  What's happening over there, and how does it affect us?	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Foreign policy.  Who sets foreign policy?  How is it determined?  Who to recognize?	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Gasoline.  (1) Price of gas is rising, while big oil companies report the highest profits ever.  (2) Meanwhile, the Bush administration, an administration by and for the oil companies,  fails to do enough to promote alternative energy sources like solar power, wind power, etc.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Gay weddings.  If the gays want to marry then let them marry.  I'm against marriage as a religious and civil institution in general for anyone.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	Genocide.  State sponsored murder is wrong.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Why does the US military have a base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?  The US does not even have economic relations with Cuba.  I'm sure the Cuban government does not want the US in Guantanamo Bay.  The US military should get out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The US should either get out of Cuba or resume political and economic relations with Cuba.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Guns.  Have a ban on assault weapons.  Require a license and a waiting period for the purchase of guns.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Haiti.  "Baby Doc" Duvalier was a brutal dictator in Haiti supported by the US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Hazing and bullying are unjust.  Make hazing and bullying illegal.  Prosecute those who haze and bully.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Health care.  Gain universal health care.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Human rights abuses: Persecution of human rights defenders.  Attacks on humanitarian aid workers.  Attacks on journalists.  Attacks on anyone who criticizes the government.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.  Bush wants to reduce government.  Bush wants to reduce taxes.  Bush wants to privatize disaster relief.  Bush wants the National Guard to fight foreign wars instead of responding to national disasters.  Bush wants to spend money on the military instead of the national infrastructure.  If a disaster occurs in America then Bush's view seems to be that the government should do nothing.  Bush's actions say, "Let the public take care of themselves."  That is an abysmal view on Bush's part.  Bush is on vacation.  Bush is out to lunch.  Bush says you are on your own.  The Bush administration, and conservatives in general, think its not the governments job to provide disaster relief.  Bush thinks its not the governments job to protect its citizens.  The conservative view is to let people die because dying thins out the herd.  Conservatives are social Darwinists.  That is a fascist view.  That is a reprehensible view.	9/1/2005

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina.  (1) Everyone knew that if a category 4 or 5 hurricane hit New Orleans then the levees either would overflow with water or would actually give way.  What could be done to avoid this?  (2) How many people killed?  How many people injured?  How many people made homeless?  What will be done to help the people made homeless by Katrina?  How many homes destroyed?  What will be done with the real estate?	1/1/2006

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina.  (1) The corporations are bulldozing the houses of the poor and minorities to make way for hotels for the rich.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina.  Eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded.  Bush made his campaigners the head of FEMA, even though they had no emergency management experience.  Hundreds of people died needlessly as a result of the poor response of the Bush administration to Hurricane Katrina and its subsequent floods.  Why were rescue workers kept away?  Why were aid and supply trucks denied access?  Why was not food and water brought to the Superdome where thousands of people were suffering?  Why where people kept in the Superdome for days with little to no food and water?  Why weren't people evacuated sooner?  Why were the evacuation buses days late?  The National Guard was sent to fight in Iraq instead of staying to help in a national emergency.  Bush spent money on the war in Iraq instead of on US infrastructure.  Bush had plenty of warning that a category five hurricane was headed toward a major US city and he did nothing.  Many people in major cities like New Orleans do not own cars and so could not evacuate by car.  Also, the sick, elderly and poor could not evacuate.  New Orleans had many poor and they were abandoned by Bush.  The Hurricane Katrina exposes issues of race and class in America.  If it was rich white people in peril the Bush administration would have had a much quicker response.  Bush's response to Katrina was too little, too late.  FEMA's response was feeble.  Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were hit hard by Katrina.  Hundreds of people were killed and injured.  Hundreds of thousands were made homeless or jobless.	9/8/2005

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina.  The Bush administration's ineptness in handling Katrina makes one pause and wonder if 9-11 was avoidable.  Had a more adept administration been in office the outcome of 9-11 could have been much less tragic.	9/12/2005

Politics, issues.	Hurricane Katrina.  The New Orleans flood is evidence of the ineptness and callousness of the Bush administration.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Immigration.  (1) Legal: what number of immigrants from what countries.  Illegal: what number of immigrants from what countries.  (2) Political refugees.  (3) In good economic times we need foreign workers.  In bad economic times we get angry at foreigners for taking our jobs.	12/20/1998

Politics, issues.	Immigration.  (1) The Republicans want to make being an illegal immigrant a felony.  (2) The Republicans want razor-wire walls surrounding the country.  Who's in prison now?  (3) America is a country of immigrants.  (4) National borders are geographic abstractions.  Nations are abstractions.  People who live on the borders understand the absurdity that  their next door neighbor is living in another country.  (5) Nations are abstractions.  There should be a world government.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Immigration.  (1) Types of immigration.  Legal immigration.  Illegal immigration.  (2) Types of immigration policies.  Extreme open borders does not work.  Extreme closed borders does not work.  Both extremes are bad.  (3)  Types of reasons for various immigration policies.  Practical reasons like money.  Principled reasons like justice.	5/29/2007

Politics, issues.	Immigration.  Views, arguments, and policies.  Totally closed border vs. totally open border.  Accept political refugees, quotas.	04/10/1993

Politics, issues.	India.  India, which is mostly Hindu, has a long running border dispute with Pakistan which is mostly Muslim.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Indonesia.  Suharto was a brutal dictator in Indonesia supported by the US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Information.  Keep the Internet free from corporate ownership.  Provide access to information, for example, through public libraries.  Internet access should be a right.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	International law.  (1) War.  When is war justified?  In self defense of a nation?  (2) Treaties.  Is a treaty a form of contract?  If so, when is a treaty binding and when is it breakable?  (3) Revolution.  When is revolution justified?	7/18/2002

Politics, issues.	Iraq II war.  (1) The US is ignoring the Geneva convention.  The US is using torture.  The US is ignoring international law.  (2) Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD's).  (3) 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, not Iraq.  (4) Osama Bin Laden is still on the lam.  (5) The US government is spying on US citizens.  (6) The US government is censoring the media and planting propaganda stories in the press.  (7) The US is holding citizens and foreigners without a trial.  (8) The US military prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed.  The US should get out of Cuba.  (9) Abu Gharib prison is yet another example of human rights abuses by the United States.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq II war.  (1) US invaded Iraq for oil, and that was unjust.  (2) US is building permanent military bases in Iraq, and that is unjust.  (3) US invaded Iraq so that US military contractors like Haliburton and Bechtel could make a lot of money on no-bid contracts, and that is unjust.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq II war.  The "war on terror" is an lame excuse used by the Bush administration to try to mollify the public into accepting the injustices of torture, greed, militarism, and abuse of power.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq II war.  The US has lost the moral high ground by occupying Iraq to gain control of oil, and by torturing people.  The US has lost the support of the international community.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq II war.  You can't have a war on "terrorism".  You don't invade countries to find criminals.  Terrorists should be caught by police and prosecuted in courts.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq war.  The US is in Iraq for the oil.  The US is building long term military bases in Iraq.  The US has military bases all over the world.  Why?	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Iraq.  (1) Its wrong to create permanent US military bases in Iraq.  (2) The pictures of the faces of dead Iraqi civilians should be on the front pages of our newspapers.  (3) The injured US soldiers.  PTSD.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Iraq.  Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator in Iraq supported by the US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq.  The United States should get out of Iraq.  The United States should abandon all its permanent and non-permanent military bases in Iraq.  The United States should desist in its imperialist policies.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Iraq.  US out of Iraq now.	5/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Israel.  (1) Does thousands of years of persecution entitle a people to a country or a homeland?  (2) Does genocide of millions of people entitle a people to a country or a homeland?  Six million deaths during the holocaust is a unimaginable horror.  Twenty million Russians died under Stalin.  (3) Is there such a thing as a "people" based on either religion or race?  (4) Before the state of Israel was created, how many Jews, Christians and Arabs were on the land that was to become Israel?  Which people lived on the land that was to become Israel?  Today, how many Jews, Christians and Arabs are on the land that is Israel?  Before the state of Israel was created, what nation owned the land that was to become the state of Israel?  Was there any modern state there?  (5) What about the argument that Israel was created to provide a beach head for US and British interests in the Middle East?  (6) Do victors in wars, for example, the Americans and British in WWII, have the right to create countries?  (7) Do the Palestinians deserve their own country?  (8) Is a state based on religion wise?  Not recommended.  (9) Is a state based on "race" wise?  Not recommended.	1/1/2005

Politics, issues.	Issues major/minor that affect you directly/indirectly.  Positions on the issues.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	It is a mistake for the US to act unilaterally against perceived threats instead of using multilateral systems of justice like the World Court.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	It is unjust that the developed countries exploit third world countries by keeping third world countries in debt.	4/5/2007

Politics, issues.	Labor problems.  Sweatshops.  Slavery.  Human trafficking.  Forced labor.  Lack of minimum wage.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Labor.  Make the labor unions strong in order to battle corporatism.  Root out corruption of labor unions by organized crime.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Left now.  Now is the time for the Left to speak up.  Protest.  Get active  Make those t-shirts and bumper stickers.  Vote in every election.  Speak out.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	LGBT rights abuses: homosexuals arrested for their sexual orientation.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	List of issues.  Campaign finance reform.  Daycare for children and the aged.  Limiting hate groups and hate crimes.  Gay rights.  Affirmative action.  PBS.  Funding the arts.  Social Security.  Minimum wage.  Universal health care.  Gun ownership, gun locks, gun registration, gun waiting periods.  Mass transit.  Shorter work week.  Environment.  Abortion.  Military spending.  Nukes.  Immigration.  Drugs.  Crime.  Death penalty.  Juvenile offenders.  Euthanasia.  Retirement age.  Income tax, sales tax, estate tax.  College required.  National standards for school testing.  Internet schooling, home schooling.  Bogus creationism.	7/26/2000

Politics, issues.	List of political issues.  (1) Environment: pure freedom vs. total control.  (2) Economic: fiscal vs. monetary controls.  Taxes: raise/lower; more for poor vs. more for rich; more income tax, vat, or other types of taxes.  Spending: deficit.  (3) Business: regulate vs. deregulate; subsidize or not.  (4) Education:  federal control vs. state or local control.  Mandatory attendance.  Public schools: school prayer, uniforms.  (5) Foreign policy: trade, war.  (6) Civil rights: minority rights, women's rights.  (7) Abortion: ethical side, medical side, legal side.  (8) Drugs: legalization vs. reduce penalties.  Go after suppliers or users.  Preventive education vs. penalties.  (9) Military: cut vs. grow.  (10) Crime: death penalty.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	List.  (1) Minimum wage.  Conservative say free market would keep wages up.  Liberals say free market exploits many unskilled workers and pays them too little.  (2) Public television.  Liberals say it is good and deserves our money.  Conservatives say not any more.  Cable offers everything PBS does.  (3) Public Libraries.  Liberals say they are important.  Conservatives say bookstores now offer the same thing and more.	12/30/1996

Politics, issues.	List.  Things the federal government does or could do.  (1) Environment needs to be monitored.  (2) Welfare.  Should we have workfare?  Does the current system reward unwed mothers for having more kids?  (3) Unemployment.  We operate at 5% unemployment.  The rich can handle being unemployed for a while, but the poor can't handle it.  (4) National health care.  Can it be done efficiently?  Should we have it even if we could do it efficiently?  Medicare.  (5) Social security: was it a flawed idea?  Is it possible to run a social security system without it growing broke when the demographics shift to more old than young people?  (6) Highways.  Should it be privatized?  (7) Post office.  Should it be privatized?  (8) Education.  Public school systems.  Efforts to privatize them have not be very successful.  (9) FCC, SEC, and all other agencies to monitor and make sure laws are obeyed.  (10) Taxes:  flat tax?  No.  (11) Gun control.  (12) Drug war.  Should we go after foreign sources, or the sellers in the U.S., or the users in the U.S., or should we educate potential users?  (13) Military: size and power.  Does a strong military prevent other countries from trying stupid moves?  Should we maintain the ability to fight two wars at once?  Is nuclear weapons freeze possible.  Is the B2 bomber, and star wars a waste of money?   Should the army be privatized?	12/30/1996

Politics, issues.	Major media malfunction.  Big media, the corporate media, is rolling over for Bush.  And the government is planting stories in the press.  Propaganda is ongoing.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Mexico.  The Zapatistas are struggling for the poor indigenous peoples in Mexico.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Military industrial complex.  (1) Corporations that produce and sell arms for profit realize they will make more profit if the sell more arms.  They will sell more arms if there is more war.  They will sell more arms if there is even the fear of a war.  Keeping people scared sells more arms.  (2) Corporations that sell arms for profit make no money in times of peace.  Corporations that sell arms for profit are very large, rich, powerful, and have much political influence in Washington.  (3) The military is an institution that has a tendency to seek to increase its own budget and power.  War is good for the military leaders and for the arms suppliers and for the right wing politicians.  War hurts front line soldiers, civilians and the environment.	11/20/2005

Politics, issues.	Military industrial complex.  (1) The arms merchants.  Merchants of war.  Merchants of death.  The arms merchants are interested in selling war.  The arms merchants are interested in selling death.  The arms merchants are interested in selling arms.  (2) The arms merchants claim that making and selling arms is saving lives.  The arms merchants claim that making and selling arms is contributing to peace.  The arms merchants claim that making and selling arms is good for the economy.  The arms merchants claim war means jobs.  The arms merchants claim that death means more money for everyone.  The arms merchants claim to want only a strong defense.  The arms merchant's promotion of arms leads to a global arms race.  The arms merchants sell to whoever can buy.  No one can keep track of all those weapons.  Eventually their nuclear arms get into the hands of terrorists who use weapons against us.  (3) The corporations that make money from making and selling weapons try to sell the idea of arms production to the politicians.  Then the politicians try to sell the idea of arms production to the people.  The people buy into the idea of arms production only when the people are half aware.  (4) Blood money.  Giving arms to right wing South American dictators who cater to US business interests but who also brutally oppress and exploit their own people is wrong.  Fighting communism is not an excuse for supporting fascists.  (5) How does the military industrial complex function?  The politicians, military leaders and business leaders decide to try to find an excuse why they need a large, well armed military.  The excuse they try to use is US expansionism and imperialism.  It adds up to more money for US corporations.  How do politicians try to justify the expense of a huge military?  How do politicians respond to complaints and accusations of overspending on the military?  (A) Politicians, military leaders and business leaders decide to create a threat.  They create a scare.  For example, they exaggerate the desire of the Russians to attack us.  (B) Politicians, military leaders and business leaders decide to get involved in minor wars and "actions" that act as military exercises.  For example, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, etc.  (3) Imperialism and expansionism.  Politicians, military leaders and business leaders claim that the US should have a large military base in almost every country, including our supposed enemies, like Cuba.	11/21/2005

Politics, issues.	Military problems.  Privatization of military is bad.  Corporate military is bad.  Military unaccountable to any law is bad.  War crimes are bad.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Military-industrial complex.  Corporate CEO's.  Military Generals.  Politicians.  These privileged types are out of touch with the masses.  They are out for themselves.  They are not interested in helping the public.	11/22/2005

Politics, issues.	Military.  (1) How big is the military budget?  What percent of government spending (federal only, or federal state and local budget) should we spend on the military?  How big should the military budget be?  (2) How many people in the military?  How big should the military be?  What percentage of the population?	9/15/1998

Politics, issues.	Military.  (1) Less military spending.  (2) No war.  Anti-war.  No draft.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Military.  Criticisms of the military.  (1) The military turns humans into blind automatons.  (2) The military turns humans into killing machines.  (3) The military is a self perpetuating bureaucracy.  (4) The military does not care much if front line grunts are killed.  (5) The military is run by and for the generals.  (6) War is hell.  The conservative leaning, military industrial complex profits when there is war.  (7) The military teaches soldiers to following wrong attitudes, "Hate the enemy.", "Kill or be killed.", and "Killing is good, war is good."  (8) People who join the military for money, or to make a living, or because they think there is no alternative, are selling themselves short.	1/10/2006

Politics, issues.	Military.  Permanent US military bases in other countries are bullshit.	3/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Military.  Private armies are bad.  The privatization of the military and police is a bad idea because it decreases the level of accountability of both the military and the police.	3/8/2007

Politics, issues.	Military.  Private armies are bad.  Use of Blackwater corporation as a private army is bullshit.	3/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Military.  Quantity and quality, power and endurance.  Structure and mechanism.  Powers: granted, limited.  Set by who?  Who declares war?	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Military.  The argument that war produces useful technology is bullshit because useful technology can be produced without war.	11/20/2005

Politics, issues.	Military.  There is too much war waging by America.  The American military is too big.  There is too much spending in America on war.  The United States should not have permanent military bases all over the world.  The United States is imperialist and that is a bad thing.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Military.  Three alternative forms of military.  (1) Is is possible for a nation to have no military?  Yes, Costa Rica.  (2) Is it possible to have a completely robotic military?  (3) Is it possible to have a military that uses only non-lethal weapons?	9/1/2004

Politics, issues.	Military.  War.  The temptations facing warriors.  In times of peace, the warrior has less glory and sometimes suffers from low self esteem and low self worth.  The warriors need wars to stay employed and to achieve glory.  Some warriors want war.  A psychologically disconnected high-level warrior could even start a war, much like a wacky fireman who may start a fire in order to have the glory of extinguishing it.  Only worse.	2/19/2000

Politics, issues.	Nicaragua.  US backed Somoza dictatorship was overthrown.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	North Korea is run by a brutal dictator, Kim Jong Ill.  The US does not attack North Korea because North Korea has nukes.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Nuclear power.  No nuclear power.  Nuclear power produces poisonous wastes.	1/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Nuclear weapons.  No nuclear weapons.  Or, if the US has nuclear weapons, then other countries can have nuclear weapons.	1/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Nukes.  (1) Only the United States can have nuclear weapons?  No.  (2) Only the United States can say who can have nuclear weapons?  No.  (3) Then why does the United States try to say which countries can and cannot have nuclear weapons?  (4)(A) The United States is the best nation in the world?  No.  (B) The United States is the most ethically good nation in the world?  No.  (C) The United States is the richest, most powerful nation in the world?  Yes.  (D) Do we want a world run by the rich and powerful?  No.	9/13/2005

Politics, issues.	Pale male domination.  Ways how it has been built into system.  Ways how it is being recognized and undone.  The feminist attack, and the minority attack.	04/01/1993

Politics, issues.	Panama.  Manuel Noriega was a brutal dictator in Panama supported by US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Philippines.  Ferdinand Marcos was a brutal dictator in the Philippines supported by the US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Police and law enforcement.  Structure and mechanism.  Power granted and limited.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Police brutality.  Death squads.  Illegal detention.  Arbitrary detention.  Torture.  Psychological torture.  Torture for interrogation.  Torture of those in police custody.  Disappearances.  Secret jails.  Secret police.  Extra-judicial "renderings".  Being held without being charged with a crime.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Prison problems.  Prison overcrowding.  Lack of due process.  Prison gangs.  Prison rape.  Death penalty.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Prisons.  Prisons as a business.  Economically depressed communities  want prisons because prisons mean jobs.  So prisons are built.  Prisoners are needed to fill the prisons.  So more prisoners are gathered by criminalizing increasingly lesser acts.  The United States has more prisoners per capita than almost any other country.	9/13/2005

Politics, issues.	Progressive activism.  PART ONE.  Get informed.  (1) Read Progressive information sources.  The Nation magazine and web site.  Z Magazine and web site.  Air America Radio and web site.  Democracy Now television.  Alternet.org web site.  Moveon.org web site.  Read Progressive books.  PART TWO.  Speak out.  (1) Talk to friends and family about Progressive issues.  Talk to everyone you meet about Progressive issues.  (2) Write a journal or diary.  Write a blog or web site.  Email politicians.  PART THREE.  Change your lifestyle to live your Progressive values.  Be more Progressive.  Live in an environmentally sustainable way.  Buy Fair Trade products.  Get a Progressive job.  Pursue social justice.	5/22/2007

Politics, issues.	Public works and public enterprises.  Approve and manage projects and polices.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Refugees.  Migrant domestic workers.  Immigrants.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Religion.  Lack of freedom of religion.  Creation of official state religions.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Religion.  Maintain the separation of church and state.  Religious fundamentalists, especially Christian fundamentalists, who want to make government a theocracy, are unjust.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Rights.  Uphold rights.  (1) Women's rights.  Women should make as much as men.  (2) Minority rights.  Uphold minority rights.  (3) Gay rights.  Uphold gay rights.	4/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Romania.  Nicholas Ceausescu was a brutal dictator in Romania supported by the US until he disobeyed the US.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Rwanda.  The international community did not act quickly enough to stop the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990's.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Saudi Arabia has a very repressive government, but the US wants their oil.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Schools.  Teach evolution.  Do not teach creationism.	1/4/2007

Politics, issues.	Secret police.  CIA should not function as America's version of the secret police.	3/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Secret police.  The CIA is willing to admit wrongs it committed thirty years ago, but it is unwilling to admit wrongs it committed in the last several years.  The US government enables the CIA to continue to commit injustices.	6/24/2007

Politics, issues.	Security.  (1) External: military.  (2) Internal: police, fbi.	12/30/1992

Politics, issues.	Signing statements.  Bush's use of signing statements is bushshit.  Bush uses signing statements to ignore congress, ignore the constitution, ignore law, and impose a dictatorship, on the pretense of a war that he started to try to justify dictatorship.	3/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Solutions: Need for rule of law to protect rights, including children's rights, women's rights, worker's rights, right to education, right to information, LGBT rights, ethnic minority rights, and other minority rights.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	South Africa.  South Africa had a racist apartheid policy.  Racism and apartheid are unjust.  The United States failed to take a stance against South African apartheid from the 1950's to the 1980's.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	South America.  In many central and south american countries there are a few, rich, well armed, land owners who brutally repress and exploit many poor people.  The US government over the last 50 years has supported right-wing death squads, military dictators, big business, and wealthy landowners.  The US government is on the wrong side in South America.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Surveillance.  Physical surveillance using digital video cameras and parabolic mics.  Internet surveillance of web surfing habits.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Taxes: Proportional tax rates.  Not flat tax rate.	2/23/2007

Politics, issues.	Taxes.  How much does the individual get back for every $100 in taxes?  Does the individual get back in services less or more than the taxes paid?	11/20/2005

Politics, issues.	Taxes.  Its easy, too easy, for people to say they don't want to pay any taxes.  And yet they want to enjoy living in a society.	9/1/2005

Politics, issues.	Taxes.  Percent individual pays vs. percent corporations pay.  As compared to $ earned by individuals vs. $ earned by corporations.	9/18/1998

Politics, issues.	Taxes.  There should really be a world tax.  You would pay local, state, national and world taxes.  The world tax would help pay for world projects and world disaster relief.  A world tax would force us all to communicate and it would help to unite the inhabitants of the world.	8/26/1999

Politics, issues.	Taxes.  We must pay some taxes.  You cannot expect a live in a society for free.  What percent of income should we pay tax on?  We should not tax people into poverty.  How much of government functions can we successfully privatize?	11/20/1998

Politics, issues.	Terrorism.  Terrorism is not the same thing as war.  War is between countries.  Terrorism is by individuals.	2/23/2007

Politics, issues.	Terry Shiavo.  Terry Shiavo was brain dead, a vegetable.  Terry Shiavo's husband wanted to pull her feeding tubes.  Terry Shiavo's parents did not want the feeding tubes pulled.  The Terry Shiavo case was politicized by the Republicans.  Pandering to the religious right.  People have a right to determine how they will die.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Tibet.  Free Tibet from Chinese occupation.	5/5/2007

Politics, issues.	To give everyone in the country minimal food, clothing, shelter and information for a year.  Could it be done for 10K per person?  If there are approximately 300 million people in the USA then that would cost 3 trillion dollars.  Do we have that money?	4/1/2005

Politics, issues.	Torturers.  Abu Gharib, Iraq.  Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  The Bush administration condones torture.  The Bush administration is using unjust tactics in the war on terror.  The unjust Bush administration abandoned the Geneva convention.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Unionize.  Unionize Walmart.  Unionize Starbucks.  Unionize Microsoft.	5/21/2006

Politics, issues.	United Nations.  (1) The United Nations. World government. World law. World cooperation. World peace. World justice. (2) The United Nations is a good idea.  Why is the United States opposed to the United Nations?  Because the United States is like a bully that does not want to be reigned in.  Because the United States is like a rich kid who does not want to be told what to do.	9/1/2005

Politics, issues.	United Nations.  The United Nations is a good idea.  The United Nations is a challenge to the United State's global hegemony.  Therefore, some people in the United States oppose the United Nations.  The United States should not try to be the dictator of the world.  The United States is part of global community.	9/13/2005

Politics, issues.	United States.  American foreign policy.  (1) America's power is waning.  China and India are gaining power.  (2) It was largely luck that made America a superpower amongst other democracies.  (3) Most Americans are willfully ignorant of the rest of the world, and have an over-inflated sense of self.	3/30/2007

Politics, issues.	United States.  The United States is not the benevolent dictator of the world.  Not everything the United States does is good.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	United States.  The United States seems to think it can do whatever it wants to do.  The United States claims to act justly in the name of "freedom" but the United States often acts unjustly in the interests of its own power and riches.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	US foreign policy.  The US tries to act like everything the US does is good, and that is not so.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	US foreign policy.  There are several attitudes about US foreign policy that are commonly held by the American public.  (1) One attitude is that of complete ignorance.  Many Americans neither know nor care what the US government is doing around the world.  Complete ignorance about foreign policy is a bad attitude to hold.  (2) A second attitude is that of uncritical acceptance.  Some people think that whatever the US government does abroad is fine.  Uncritical acceptance is a bad attitude to hold.  (3) A third attitude that some people hold is when they don't care how many people the US kills as long as the US remains rich and powerful.  Using realpolitik as a lame excuse is a bad attitude to hold about foreign policy.  (4) A fourth attitude that some people hold is a commitment to truth and justice, even when it means identifying and acknowledging when the United States is falling short of those goals.  A commitment to truth and justice is a good attitude.  A commitment to truth and justice is an attitude that more people are holding now that the peoples of the world are becoming more literate, educated, and informed.  Doubtless, access to the Internet in order to read the ideas of Noam Chomsky is having a positive effect.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	US Imperialism.  US Imperialism is primarily to extend US power and make US money.  US is not primarily about spreading freedom and democracy.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Vietnam.  The Vietnam war killed millions of innocent civilians.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Voting problems.  (1) Rigged elections.  Destruction of ballots.   Failure to count the vote accurately.  (2) Suppression of the vote.  Trying to scare people out of voting.  Denying the vote to people.	6/24/2007

Politics, issues.	VP draws a bead.  Cheney shoots his buddy in the face.  When he gets drunk he shoots the country in the face.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	War dictator.  War imperialist.  George Bush uses the excuse of war to do whatever he wants.  George Bush uses signing statements to ignore the Congress.  Dictator and Empire.  Hey, he's at war, so  he can do whatever he wants.  Bush says, screw the law.  Bush says, screw the constitution.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  (1) Pre-emptive war is a bad idea.  (2) Perpetual war is a bad idea.  (3) War on "isms" is a bad idea.	6/15/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  (1) There were no WMD.  The Bush administration lied when they said there were WMD's.  (2) Why didn't the US let the UN inspectors do their job?  Why didn't the US listen when the UN inspectors said there were no WMD's found in Iraq?  (3) The US went in unilaterally, without getting world support.  (4) The cost in dollars.  (5) The cost in lives of innocent Iraqi civilians killed.  (6) The cost in lives of US soldiers killed.  (7) Saddam Hussein was a dictator, but there are other dictators who the US does not attack.  The war in Iraq was motivated primarily by oil and money.  (8) Censorship of the media.  The media does not show the dead.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  (1) Why couldn't the US get a substantial UN coalition together?  Many nations voting for invasion.  Many nations supplying money, troops and equipment.  (2) Why invade Iraq when there are dozens of other dictators in the world?  (3) Why invade Iraq when the UN inspectors found no WMD?  (4) Why invade Iraq when the US has WMD.  The US has nuclear weapons.  The US has biological weapons.  The US has chemical weapons.  (5) Why engage in pre-emptive war?  Pre-emptive war is a bad idea.  (6) Why engage in perpetual war?  Perpetual war is a bad idea.  (7) Why torture?  Torture is a bad idea.  (5) The war in Iraq is a bad idea.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  Abu Gharab.  Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US personnel at Abu Gharab prison.  And at Guantanamo Bay.  Torture goes against the Geneva convention.  Sexual torture is even more disgusting.  Many of the detainees tortured were innocent civilians.  The torture was not an isolated incident.  The torture was done by both military and non-military personnel.  Torture is wrong.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  Four related questions and four related answers.  (Question 1) There was never adequate proof provided of a link between Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Husein.  So why did the US invade Iraq?  (Question 2) The world is full of dictators doing evil things.  For example, North Korea posses more of a nuclear threat than Iraq.  So why did the US invade Iraq?  (Question 3) Weapons of mass destruction were never found.  The UN investigators found no credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction and said as much.  So why did the US invade Iraq?  (Question 4) The US was never able to convince the UN to vote to invade Iraq.  The US was never able to get an sizable international coalition together to invade Iraq.  So why did the US invade Iraq?  (Answer 1) The US invaded Iraq for oil.  Some Republicans feel a war gives a president an excuse to seize control of oil reserves in the middle east.  (Answer 2) The US invaded Iraq for money.  Some Republicans feel that a war in the Middle East is a good way to funnel money to Haliburton and other US oil companies.  (Answer 3) The US invaded Iraq because republican presidents like to have a war.  Some Republicans feel that a war is good for the US economy.  Some Republicans feel a war gives the president more free reign to pursue his right-wing agenda.  (Answer 4) The US invaded Iraq, needlessly killing US soldiers, isolating the US from the world community, and inciting more terrorists against the US, because of a hapless and greedy administration.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  Guantanamo Bay.  (1) People being held without being charged.  (2) People being denied a speedy trial.  Held for three years and then released without explanation.  (3) People being tortured.  US breaks Geneva Convention.  (4) People being sent to other countries to be tortured.  Rendition.	8/30/2005

Politics, issues.	War in Iraq.  Media censorship of the war.  (1) Why does the government censor media coverage of war?  Because Vietnam shows that when people see the reality of war they fail to support it.  (2) What lame excuses do they make for censorship?  Reporters expose military information.  Reporters are a danger to themselves.  (3) Why won't they show the US dead?  (4) Why won't they report the estimates of Iraq casualties?  (5) How is censorship of war and other military actions related to censorship in general (government censorship, corporate censorship; social censorship, etc.)  (6) Types of censorship.  Passive censorship: economic coercion.  Active censorship: threatening people, beating up people, killing people.	9/1/2005

Politics, issues.	War is a waste of human life.  War is a waste of money.  War is destruction of culture.  War is not necessary, nor inevitable, nor good.  Stop making war.  Pre-emptive wars are especially bad.  Wars of choice are especially bad.  Wars of aggression are especially bad.	4/10/2007

Politics, issues.	War liar.  The Bush administration lied the US public into war.  There were not any weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) in Iraq.  The Bush administration would not let the UN weapons inspectors do their job.  The Bush administration would not listen to the UN weapons inspectors.  The Bush administration rushed to war.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	War on Terror.  (1) Terrorists are all over the world.  Before the US invasion of Iraq, Iraq was not a center of terrorism.  (2) How exactly does the US determine who is a terrorist?  How exactly does the US determine how to treat suspected terrorists?  Does the US shoot on sight anyone who looks like a terrorist?  That is unethical.  (3) Does the US intend to invade every country that contains terrorists, that is, every country in the world?  (4) There are many, many terrorist organizations containing many, many terrorists.  How does the US choose who to attack and kill?  (5) Why was Timothy McVeigh treated using criminal procedure, while other people are treated as enemy combatants in war?  (6) War is usually declared by one nation against another nation.  How does one declare war on an "ism"?  It does not make sense to declare war on an idea.	1/9/2006

Politics, issues.	War.  It is unjust to use war as an excuse to try to justify any action.	3/27/2007

Politics, issues.	Welfare issues.  (1) Free health care for all.  Who pays?  How much money spent on each person.  (2) Free education for all.  Kindergarten through college.  (3) Free housing for all.  Not just shelters.  Who pays?  (4) Free food for all.  Food stamps.  End hunger.  Head start.  (5) Employment for all.  Guaranteed jobs.  (6) Wipeout poverty and crime.  (7) Conservatives oppose all of the above.	9/18/1998

Politics, issues.	Welfare.  (1) How many people are on it?  (2) How long is the average stay on it?  (3) How much money does the average stay get?	12/15/1994

Politics, issues.	Welfare.  Does a society (nation, state, community, etc.) have a moral responsibility to aid and help, to some degree, the weaker and less fortunate members of the society.  Is this moral responsibility altruistic in nature, and based on human rights?  Or is this moral responsibility egoistic in nature?  For example, should we get the poor on their feet so that they will be less of a burden on us in the long run.  Some conservatives say we have a moral responsibility to let the weak  and infirm die ala social Darwinism.  I think that is wrong and a waste.  How much should we help others?  Only enough to let them help themselves?	11/28/1998

Politics, issues.	Welfare.  The problem with dismantling government social programs and relying on private donations to private charity organizations is that nothing guarantees that they will be there when needed.  The way to guarantee that no one starves in this country is to make it a law, backed up by government agencies.  And that is also the only way to guarantee that every child gets a grade school education.  Plus, it is our nation's self interest to educate its youth and feed the starving.	9/10/1999

Politics, issues.	Wiretapping.  The NSA has the phone records of ordinary Americans.  The NSA is listening to the phone calls of ordinary Americans.  The NSA is wiretapping without court approval.	5/24/2006

Politics, issues.	Women's rights abuses:  Women denied vote.  Women denied jobs and equal pay.  Women forced to wear veils.  Women forced into prostitution.  Rape.  Violence against women.  Domestic violence.  Denial of access to birth control.  Denial of access to abortion.  Denial of education to women.	4/27/2007

Politics, issues.	World.  The security of first world countries depends on the development of third world countries.  The first world countries should be spending more money on helping third world countries develop.  How to deter violence.  How to reduce poverty.  How to get people educated.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	World.  The world seemingly swings wildly between right-wing extremism of fascism and left-wing extremism of totalitarianism.  Really its a struggle between the haves and have-nots, a struggle between the rich and the poor, a struggle between the powerful and the powerless.  I am working to help the poor and the powerless.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	World.  The world seemingly will end in religious world war between Islamic fundamentalist extremists and Christian fundamentalist extremists.  Religion produces fanatics.  I am against religion.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	World.  United Nations needs to be strengthened.  International law needs to be strengthened.	5/17/2007

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  (1) Holding prisoners without trial.  (2) Torturing prisoners.  (3) Monitoring phone calls.  (4) Searching your house without your knowledge or consent.  (5) Reading records of bookstore purchases.  (6) No-bid business contracts go straight to Haliburton.  (6) Using a "war on terror" as an excuse to consolidate power and make money.	9/16/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Bush administration imperialism and expansionism is a bad idea.  The US should not hasten to build permanent military bases in other countries.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Depleted uranium is a bad idea.  Use of depleted uranium tank shells is a bad thing.  If the US cannot wage war without causing radioactive contamination of the natural environment then the US should not be waging war.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Killing innocent Iraqi's is a bad idea.  Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi's have been killed by the Americans.  This is a major injustice.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Perpetual war is a bad idea.  Not having an exit strategy is a bad idea.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Pre-emptive war is a bad idea.  A country should not wage war based on a suspicion that another country is thinking of doing something wrong.  It is wrong for the US to invade other countries on the suspicion that the US thinks that the other country is thinking of building labs that could possibly be used to make weapons.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Support the US troops by getting the troops out of Iraq now.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  The Bush administration has made a series of wrong policy decisions, for ulterior motives, and misrepresented their actions to the American people.  The Bush administration is not trustworthy.  The Bush administration does not represent the best interests of the American people.  Bush administration policies are unjust.  Bush administration policies are making the world insecure, unequal and unfree.  Vote the Bush administration out of office.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  The Iraq war is not the same as WWII.  Sadamm Hussein is not the same as Hitler.  Arguments by some right wingers that the Iraq war is the same as WWII are false.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  The US is currently acting like a rogue state.  US out of Iraq now.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  The WMD argument is false.  Declaring war when there were no weapons of mass destruction found is a bad idea.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  Unilateral war, without the support of the international community, is a bad idea.  The US did not have sufficient support from the international community to invade Iraq.  Incidentally, the current strain of anti-French sentiment on the part of some Americans is wrong.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  War against an ideology, with no definite opponent, is a bad idea.  One cannot wage a war against an "ism".  A war on "terrorism" is a bad idea because a war on terrorism can be used as an excuse to arbitrarily invade whatever country the US sees fit, for example, for business interests.  One should not invade countries because of terrorists, because terrorists exist in every country.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  War for oil is a bad idea.  The Iraqi war is about oil.  The United States should be reducing its dependence on oil instead of invading countries for oil.  The US should not be hastening to build oil pipelines across the Middle East.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  War to support the economy is a bad idea.  War to support arms builders is a bad idea.  Corporatism is a bad idea.  War as a means to make Haliburton money is a bad idea.  War to get rich is a bad idea.	11/14/2005

Politics, issues.	Wrong Bush administration policies.  War with a censored media is a bad idea.  The Bush administration is wrongly censoring the media.  War with a media that is unable to show American dead is a bad idea.  Militarists argue that showing the American dead was what caused protests that ended the Vietnam war.  The Vietnam war should have been ended.  The anti-war protesters were right.  The militarists are wrong.	11/14/2005

Politics, justice equality liberty.	.See also: Philosophy, ethics, justice and equality and freedom.	12/30/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	.This section is about justice, equality and liberty.  Topics include: ( ) Justice.  ( ) Equality.  ( ) Liberty.	1/24/2006

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) 100% liberty = anarchy.  100% equality = communism (ideally).  (2) Is 100% equality or 100% liberty possible?  No.  Is 100% equality or 100% liberty equal to justice?  No.  (3) Six combinations.  Do we curtail liberty for the sake of justice?  Sometimes.  Do we curtail liberty for the sake of equality?  Do we curtail justice for the sake of liberty?  Do we curtail justice for the sake of equality?  Do we curtail equality for the sake of liberty?  Do we curtail equality for the sake of justice?	9/4/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) Are freedom and equality related variables, where a change in one necessitates a change in the other?  If so, are freedom and equality directly proportional so that as one increases the other increases?  Or are freedom and equality inversely proportional so that an increase in one results in a decrease in the other?  (2) If freedom and equality are not directly related then the following four situations can exist: (A) High levels of equality and high levels of freedom.  (B) High levels of equality and low levels of freedom.  (C) Low levels of equality and high levels of freedom.  (D) Low levels of equality and low levels of freedom.  (3) What other basic social values are there beside equality and freedom?	12/30/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) Arguing between more freedom vs. less freedom.  (2) Arguing between more equality and less equality.	4/13/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) Describing lack of freedom as a lack of equality.  (2) Describing lack of equality as a lack of freedom.	3/5/2002

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) Liberty and equality are about the good (ethics).  (2) Human rights include both basic freedoms and basic equalities.  (3) 100% freedom and 100% equality are both bad.  There has to be a balance between freedom and equality.  (4) The jungle gives us 100 percent freedom.  In civilization we don't live by the law of the jungle.  Civilization reduces freedoms in the name of the good (ethics).	4/20/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) One hundred percent freedom equals anarchy, equals no government and no laws, equals law of the jungle, and the result is injustice, murder, assault.  One hundred percent freedom, defined as anarchy, is not good.  Also, one hundred percent freedom is non-existent in that all societies have some form of law and government.  (2) One hundred percent equality equals everyone getting the same amount of money, stuff, rights, opportunities.  A planned economy.  Same law for all people.  One hundred percent determinism by law.  One hundred percent equality, defined as totalitarianism, is not good.	2/15/2005

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1) Should we curtail justice to get more liberty?  No.  (2) Should we curtail justice to get more equality?  No.  (3) Should we curtail liberty to get justice?  Yes, sometimes.  For example, you are not free to murder.  (4) Should we curtail equality to get justice?  Yes, sometimes.  For example, you are not equal to the point of communism.  (5) Should we curtail liberty for the sake of equality?  Sometimes.  (6) Should we curtail equality for the sake of liberty?  Sometimes.	7/25/2006

Politics, justice equality liberty.	(1)(A) A society in which everyone is 100% free to do whatever they like is not a just society because some people would take advantage of others by murder, rape, etc.  (B) A society in which everyone is 0% free (I.e., no one is free.  I.e., no freedom.) is unjust because every action, word and though would be controlled by the government or corporations or some other person or group.  Everyone would be predetermined, even though everyone would not necessarily be the same.  (2)(A) In a society in which everyone is 100% equal everyone would be exactly the same.  Identical.  Same physical and mental abilities.  Same bodies.  Same minds.  Same thoughts.  Same experiences.  Same people.  Same jobs.  Same everything.  A society in which everyone is 100% equal is not possible because people are different.  A society in which everyone is 100% equal is not a just society because there are some areas in which people have a right to differ.  For example, people have a right to hold different views from other people.   (B) A society in which everyone is 0% equal (I.e., there is no equality) is not a just society because there are areas in which all humans have a right to be the same.  For example, there are basic human rights which everyone deserves to have.	9/5/2004

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Are freedom and equality two different and distinct values?  Or is one an expression of the other?  For example, is equality simply a term used to describe the amount of freedom in a society?  Or is freedom simply a term used to measure the amount of equality in a society?  When some people discuss equality they try to reduce it to matters of freedom.  When some people discuss freedom they try to reduce it to matters of equality.	7/16/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Equality.  (1) Equality of money.  (2) Equality of free time (maximum work time).  (3) Equality of stuff (food and shelter).  (4) Equality of access to information.     PART TWO.  How easy would it be to give everyone a minimum level of money, time, stuff and information?	8/21/2004

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Equality.  (1) Equality of opportunity: all get same start.  (2) Equality of distribution: everyone gets same amount all the way through.  (3) Equality of dessert: you get what you worked for.  This might work in a non-money self-subsistence system, but in a money system, especially a wage system, how can you really tell what you earned?  You could be under or over paid.  (4) Equality of need: you get only what you need.  Ex. Growing family gets more.  Who can tell?	08/24/1994

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Equality.  Forms of equality: (1) Equal taxes taken by government from all.  (2) Equal benefits given by government to all.  (3) Equal chances or opportunity in life.	12/30/1996

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Equality.  If you say, "Everyone should be free.", then you are asking for equality of freedom.  Or, if you say, "Everyone should be equally free.", then you are asking for equality of freedom.	9/7/2005

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Equality.  We are all equal in that we (should) all have equal rights under the law.	5/30/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Formulas for justice.  (1) Justice = equality + freedom.  The democrats tend to believe in more equality and less freedom.  The conservatives tend to believe in more freedom and less equality.	4/13/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Freedom (liberty) and equality are about power (i.e. politics, i.e. social ethics).  Total freedom means no one and nothing has power over you, i.e. you have total power.  Total equality means everyone has the same types and degrees of power.	12/30/1995

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Freedom is an easy sell because it is saying, "Yes, go ahead, you are free to do it."  Limiting someone's freedom in the name of equality and justice is more difficult for some people to understand because it involves saying, "No, you are not free to do that because it is unjust."	11/18/2005

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Guaranteeing human rights to all is an exercise in equality more than freedom.  As the list of human rights grows the realm of equality grows.	12/30/2003

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Having liberty curtailed unnecessarily in the name of justice is no fun.	9/5/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	However, some freedoms are ruled out.  There is no freedom to lynch because lynching is unethical.  The history of civilization shows a pattern of humans coming to realize that some actions are unethical and should be outlawed.  First murder, then slavery, then segregation, each was recognized as unethical and outlawed.  If the pattern continues, in the future we may decide that more things are unethical and should be outlawed.  The point being that law is good and has a purpose.  Those who say we should have no laws are incorrect.  The second point is that we limit certain freedoms because they are unethical.  Those who say we should have 100% freedom are incorrect.	4/16/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	If you believe in human rights (equality for all), then that takes precedence over total liberty.	9/30/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Justice does not equal freedom alone.  Justice does not equal equality alone.  Justice is more important than both freedom alone and equality alone.  Justice is a mix of freedom and equality.	4/26/2002

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Justice is an ideal.  We can only call its opposite injustice.  Justice is a term as ineffable as good or right.  At least we can describe liberty and equality.	9/5/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Justice, types of.  (1) Interpersonal justice.  Justice between people.  (2) Intrapersonal justice.  Did I do myself justice today?	6/8/2004

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Justice.  (1) Justice defined as law enforcement.  vs.  (2) Justice defined as an ethical society.  (3) Justice is not only about balancing liberty and equality, there is more to it.  What are the components of justice?	4/26/2002

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Justice.  Three definitions of justice.  (1) Freedom balanced against equality yields justice.  (2) Preventing and prosecuting crime yields justice.  What is crime but excess freedom trampling equality?  So this second view of justice is just a specification of the first.  (3) In economic terms, freedom as capitalism is balanced against equality as communitarianism to achieve justice.	3/11/2000

Politics, justice equality liberty.	Some see justice as 100% liberty.  Some see justice as 100% equality.  Some see justice as 50/50.  I see justice as 100% ecological sustainability.	9/5/1998

Politics, justice equality liberty.	To ensure that any given freedom is available to all citizens is an exercise in equality.	8/20/2003

Politics, justice equality liberty.	When you say you want to be as free as the next person, you are talking about equality of freedom.	10/14/2003

Politics, left and right.	.This section is about the left and right wings of the political spectrum.  Topics include: ( ) Left  ( ) Right.	1/24/2006

Politics, left and right.	(1) Conservatives believe that the left is about big government control and reduction of personal freedom.  But governments of total control exist at BOTH ends of the political spectrum: Dictatorship-fascism and Totalitarian-communism.  So the standard left-right political spectrum is flawed.  The real political spectrum has Anarchy (total freedom) on one side and Dictatorship-fascism (no freedom) on the other side.  Or it has Ideal-communitarianism (total equality) on one side and its opposite (no equality) on the other side.  That is, if any of the above four ideal types are remotely possible in the actual world we live in.  Yet many people associate the left with anarchism.  Why?  (2) Is the most accurate model of political views a spectrum or is it a full circle?  Or is it a three dimensional sphere?  Is it rays emanating from a central point, in that you are free to move in any direction from where you are?	12/30/2000

Politics, left and right.	(1) Conservatives think that too much government is a reduction of their freedom and a form of big brother.  (2) But there is a limit to personal freedom.  Public knowledge is paramount for an open society.	1/14/1999

Politics, left and right.	(1) Democrats are looked at as tax and spend, big government, liberals.  (2) Republicans are looked at as rich, warmongers, who do not care about anyone but themselves and their own money.  (3) Democrats need to get better at playing hardball.  Republicans are backward, traditional, uptight, conservatives.  (4) Democrats are change oriented, future oriented.  (5) New deal democrats are minority and working class oriented.  (6) Radical right = religious fundamentalists and white supremacists.  Radical left = bomb throwing communists.	04/16/1994

Politics, left and right.	(1) Democrats.  Maternal ethics.  Care.  (2) Republicans.  Paternal ethics.  Sink or swim attitude in order to teach self-reliance.  (3) We need both?  We need a balance.	5/1/2000

Politics, left and right.	(1) Left: History of left.  Personality types attracted to left.  (2) Right: History of right.  Personality types attracted to right.	01/01/1993

Politics, left and right.	(1) The right is power obsessed, is political and votes.  The left is not power obsessed, is apolitical and does not vote.  (2) The right is organized, hierarchical, obeys orders.  The left is egalitarian.  (3) The right in unthinking, believes what it is told and obeys orders.  The left is thinking.  (4) The right likes to fight, and a race is a fight.  The left does not like to fight, and is more cooperative.	1/1/2005

Politics, left and right.	(1) Types of liberals: City slicker.  Intellectual or academic.  Minority.  Poor person.  (2) Types of conservatives: Southern redneck.  Rural person.  Rich person.	5/30/1998

Politics, left and right.	(1) Why old people are conservative.  Their unconscious thought processes are as follows: "I am old.  I am still good.  Therefore, old things (me) are still good".  (2) Why young people are liberals.  Their unconscious thought processes are as follows: "I am new.  I am good.  Therefore, new things (me) are good".  (3) It is themselves they see.  It is all about ego and pride.  The young liberal vs. old conservative dichotomy is not about an aversion to risk taking gained through experience, like most people think it is.	06/10/1997

Politics, left and right.	(1)(A) Fiscal conservatives: free market.  Laizze faire.  Pro business.  Deregulation.  Local government.  (B) Fiscal liberals: regulation, pro federal government.  Anti corporate.  (2)(A) Social conservatives: against welfare, the environment and education spending.  (B) Social liberals: pro education, welfare, environment.	10/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	A mistaken view of both the left and right is that because the left promotes peace they are wimps and will not struggle or face conflict.  That is a wrong view.  It is best to be a fighting struggling green.  Too many greens withdraw from fighting injustice and fighting for their views.  They are wrong.	1/30/1998

Politics, left and right.	Critique of the right wing.  (1) The libertarian right wing.  See: Politics, justice equality and liberty for a critique of freedom.  See: Politics, government > Anarchy for a critique of anarchy.  (2) The religious right wing.  See: Religion for a critique of religion.  (3) The economic right wing.  See: Business for a critique of business. See: Economics for a critique of free market capitalism.  (4) The criminal right wing.  See: Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying and crime for a critique of bullying and crime.  (5) The military right wing.  See: Politics, issues, military for a critique of the military industrial complex.	11/20/2005

Politics, left and right.	Democrats are altruists.  Conservatives are egoists.	06/05/1997

Politics, left and right.	For all subject areas, get the left argument and the right counter-argument, and visa versa.  Organize arguments from far right to far left, and from most general to most specific.  Example, family life, should homosexual marriage be allowed, and homosexual adoption?	12/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Is our existing society to the right or left of an ideal society?  Our existing society is too far right of an ideal society, which is why I am a Democrat.	11/20/1998

Politics, left and right.	Is the tendency to become a democrat or republican a tendency that is innate, or is it learned, or is it a combination of heredity and environment?  That depends on how we define the traits of democrats and republicans.  Take it on a trait by trait basis.	12/1/2004

Politics, left and right.	Left.  (1) How they view themselves (pros).  (A) Goals: Equality for all.  Change oriented, future oriented.  Party of working class and poor.  Radical left: communists.  (B) Means: they need to get better at playing hardball.  (2) How the right views them (contra).  (A) Goals of left.  (B) Means of left: tax and spend, big government.	04/01/1994

Politics, left and right.	Left.  History.  The liberals supported and sped up the freeing of slaves, women's vote, and desegregation.	12/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Left.  If all the liberals were apolitical, fascism would rule.  Liberals have forgotten their arguments, thus the right is moving in.	12/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Left.  If you say left is better than right, you should prove it.  You should take a leadership role.  Become a moderate liberal instead of a radical decadent artist.  Killing yourself or self destructing legally or in any other way will only give the other side ammunition for their argument and a psychological morale boost.  It is a war, hunker down.	09/20/1994

Politics, left and right.	Left.  Liberals fight for the underdog: the environment, minorities, women, workers, and the poor.	06/10/1997

Politics, left and right.	Left.  The liberal, progressive, Democratic agenda.  The liberals have the following good ideas.  (1) Health care.  (2) Education.  (3) Environment.  (4) Labor.  (5) Women's rights.  (6) Protect minority rights.  (7) Civil rights, human rights, equal rights.  (8) Protect worker, consumer, general public from exploitation by corporations.	1/14/2006

Politics, left and right.	Left.  Universal suffrage.  Desegregation.  Equal rights and pay for women and minorities.  Environmental concerns.  Universal health care.  Free public education.  Child care.  Worker safety.  Unions.  Government control of economy to avoid economic recessions.  Peace movement, anti-nukes, anti-arms race.  The left had to fight to get all of the above.  All the right does is bitch and moan.  If they had it their way, we would be back in the stone age with no change.	11/01/1994

Politics, left and right.	Left.  What liberals object to is the random injustice of dumb luck.  That one person is born smart and another dull is just dumb luck.  The left claims that the rich get rich not on hard work but on dumb luck.  The conservatives argues that the rich get rich based on hard work, but the liberals say it is due the natural injustice of uneven distribution of human abilities.  The left seeks to address natural injustices.  Of natural injustices the right merely says "Tough luck" or "That's life" or "Its gods will".	1/31/2000

Politics, left and right.	Let's hypothesize two political parties.  Party B thinks they are "tougher" than party A.  Party B thinks those in party A are wimps, spineless, weak willed.  Power tactics that party B is likely to resort to, in order to dominate, is to make the situation so nasty and miserable that party A folds before party B folds.  Party B will use every dirty trick in the book to beat up party A.  Party B bullies party A.  Sound familiar?	12/31/2003

Politics, left and right.	Liberal vs. conservative.  (1) Conservative: defense, protection, security of x from self, others, nature.  (2) Liberal: offense, attack, advance, gain.	12/30/1992

Politics, left and right.	Liberal vs. conservative.  (1) Conservatives: stasis.  (2) Liberals: change.	12/30/1992

Politics, left and right.	Liberals take the high road.  Conservatives take the low road.  Conservatives resort to dirty tricks more than liberals.	9/25/2003

Politics, left and right.	Libertarianism, or radical conservatism, is an appeal to "easy answers".  It appeals to people who have the following misguided point of view: "I do whatever I want.  No one tells me what to do.  No government tells me what to do.  I pay no taxes.  I take the law into my own hands.  I'm going to do whatever I want, to whoever I want, whenever I want, and if anyone does not like it then they can try to stop me."  It is a philosophy of bullies.  Its no way to run a society.	11/15/2003

Politics, left and right.	List of things obtained over the objections of conservatives.  End of slavery.  End of racial segregation.  The vote for men.  The vote for women.  Public education, libraries, museums, parks, etc.  Anti-trust laws.  Social security.  40 hour work week.  Child labor laws.  And there are conservatives still who would like to undo all of the above.	11/23/2003

Politics, left and right.	Political teams.  Offense: the democrats quick and agile.  Defense: the republicans, stalwarts, hunkered down.	8/18/2000

Politics, left and right.	Rich and poor.  The rich say you should have to work for your money.  But often the poor work harder and longer than the rich.  And often the rich gain cushy, no-show, or easy jobs that pay a lot, just by nepotism, or schmoozing, or else they inherit their money.  That's just luck they say.  But do we want a system based on dumb luck, or on fairness and justice?  Justice is not saying "I was born rich, so tough luck".  Life is unjust and we must strive to make it just.  The rich are few in number, and the majority of (poor) people dislike the rich because they think the rich are lazy, snobbish, and live ostentatiously.	05/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Rich.  The rich hold power.  They make the laws.  The make the laws in their own favor, to protect their self interests.	06/10/1997

Politics, left and right.	Right wing, components of.  (1) The religious right.  Against homosexuality.  Against separation of church and state.  (2) The rich right.  Against paying taxes.  Against welfare.  Against public education.  (3) The social darwinist right.  Do not want to help the weak, the disempowered or the poor.  Want the weak, disempowered and poor to die.  Against "big" government.  (4) The fascist right.  Against dark skinned people.  Against immigration.  (5) The anarcho-libertarian right.  Doesn't want any laws.  Prefers the "law of the jungle".  Predators and opportunists.  Wants to beat up people wherever and whenever they feel like it.  (6) The criminal right.  Wants to be free to pursue their unethical bashings and business ventures.  Finds government and law to be a nuisance.	6/11/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing, components of.  The business right, the corporate right.  Believes in unimpeded pursuit of money.  Desires freedom from any interference.  Believes in law of jungle.	6/14/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing, components of.  The criminal right.  Nazis.  KKK.  Mob.  Believe might is right.  Believe in authoritarianism and paternalism.  Often also religious fanatics.  Traditionalists for an imagined mythic past.  Believes in cracking heads, beating up people and bullying.	6/14/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing, conservatives, republicans.  (1) The right wing is more obsessed with power and thus more obsessed with politics than left wing.  (2) The right wingers go in for blind obedience and hierarchical organization.  (3) The right wing is more obsessed with money.  Have more money to spend on campaigns.  (4) The right wing is better at marketing.  Better at propaganda.  Better at lying.  (5) The right wing appeals to simplistic buzzwords and soundbites more.  Appeals to base emotions more.  (6) The right wing fights dirty more.  Uses unfair tactics more.  Uses bullying behavior more.  (7) The right wing abuses the system more.  Cheats more.  Abuses power more.  (8) The right wing is for the interests of the few, not the many.	10/15/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  Neo-conservatives want to start a war.  (1) Neo-cons want to start a war because neo-cons will use war as an excuse to do whatever they want.  (2) Neo-cons want to start a war in order to make more money supplying arms that are used to destroy things.  Then the neo-cons want to make money from contracts to rebuild what they have destroyed.  (3) Neo-cons want to start a war because they do not care if people die, as long as it is not themselves who die.  (4) Neo-cons want to start a war in order to control the populace.  Neo-cons want to terrorize the populace through the fear of war.	3/8/2007

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  PART ONE.  False assumptions of the opposition (the right wing).  What the opposition is banking on.  The opposition is working based on the following false assumptions:  (1) People are entirely self interested.  People will think only of their own well being, and not the well being of others.  People are always egoists, never altruists.  (2) People always seek pleasure and avoid pain.  People will avoid confronting displeasing subjects.  The problems of the world are displeasing.  Confronting the problems of the world is hard work, which people will avoid.  (3) The opposition is appealing to people's baser (cruder) instincts.  The opposition is operating based on their own baser (cruder) instincts.  The opposition is base (crude).  The opposition has abased (crude-ified) themselves.     PART TWO.  Sleazy tactics used by the opposition.  The opposition often uses some or all of the following unethical tactics.  (1) Try to convince you everything is fine.  Down play any problems.  Distract your attention from any problems.  Try to cover up their actions.  Try to convince you the important is unimportant, and the unimportant is important.  Try to make you feel helpless.  Try to scare you away from confronting them.  Try to convince you that the issue, your cause, is not important.  Try to convince you that the issue, your cause, is not urgent.  Try to convince you that the issue, your cause, is hopeless.  Try to block your access to information.  They will attempt to vilify the opposition.  They will attempt to humiliate the opposition.  They will attempt to dissuade you from thinking.  They will attempt to dumb-down society and public discourse.  They will appeal to your desire for personal comfort.  They will try to tell the public that there are no real problems present because all the problems have been solved.  They will try to tell the public that if there were any problems then there is nothing you can do about it anyway.  They will tell the public that they should aspire to a life of leisure, comfort and entertainment.	8/21/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  Strategy and tactics of the sleazy right wing.  PART ONE.  The the sleazy right wing's general strategy is to prevent you from thinking, talking, and acting on your progressive activism.  Do not let the sleazy right wing de-politicize you.  Think, talk, and act on your progressive principles every day.     PART TWO.  There are several tactics used by the sleazy right wing.  (1) The opposition will try to distract you with other goals, for example, with mindless work.  Do not let the opposition distract you.  (2) The opposition will try to de-motivate you by trying to make you think your cause is hopeless.  Do not let the opposition de-motivate you.  (3) The opposition will try to frighten you out of your activism.  Do not let the opposition frighten you out of activism.  (4) The opposition will try to tempt or lure you away from activism with promises or actual money or sex or some other thing you enjoy.  Do not let the opposition tempt or lure you away from activism.	5/22/2007

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  Stupidity, selfishness and magical thinking run rampant in current American republicanism.	11/18/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  Tactics of the opposition, the right wing:  (1) Delaying tactics include saying that, "Its too soon to know for sure.  Its too soon to act on the matter.  Go more slowly.  Be more cautious."  Another tactic is to say that its too late to do anything.  (2) Distracting tactics include saying that, "The issue is not as important as other issues.  We have more important things to worry about."	10/10/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  The opposition, the right wing, wants you to take the following attitudes.  (1) To say you can only think about your family and nothing else.  (2) To say you can only think about your job and nothing else.  (3) To say you can only think about your hedonistic vacation obsession and nothing else.  (4) That is, the opposition, the right wing, wants you to divert your attention from the problems of the world.  The opposition wants you to think its someone else's problem.	9/12/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  The right wing propaganda machine does not have to make statements that are factually true or logically sound because the right wing base doesn't think critically.  The right wingers believe and obey.  The right wingers are faith based, not reason based.	11/8/2004

Politics, left and right.	Right wing.  The sleazy conservatives rely on a "divide and conquer" strategy.  The apotheosis of the divide and conquer strategy is an extreme individualism where every person is isolated.  That is egotism.  The right wing wants you to think only about yourself and not about society.  (2) The antidote to conservatism is to think about society.  Think less about making money and think more about saving the world.  You do not need to be a millionaire.  All that money will not help you nor make you happy.  You do need to live a good life.  A good life means helping others and solving the problems of the world.	6/1/2007

Politics, left and right.	Right.  (1) How they view themselves (pros).  (A) Goals: get the commies.  No government.  Laizze faire, status quo, no change.  Traditional.  Uptight.  Radical right: nazis, religious fundamentalists.  (B) Means: dig up dirt on you, throw untrue dirt on you, get others on their side with false promises.  (2) How the left views them (contra).  (A) Goals of right: rich, warmongers, self centered.  (B) Means of right:.	04/01/1994

Politics, left and right.	Right.  (1) Types on american right.  (A) Totalitarian fascists who outlaw behavior that they believe is immoral, or communist.  (B) Anarchists.  No government.  Freedom for all.  (C) Status quo, laizze faire, government hands off, want to stay rich.  (D) Religious fundamentalists.  (2) Techniques of the american right.  (A) Dig up dirt on you (truth).  (B) Call you names (lies).  (3) Get others on their side by promising lies to them.	09/20/1993

Politics, left and right.	Right.  Conservative rhetoric used to pacify and oppress the masses.  (1) "I worked hard so I deserve to be on top" - in reality they are on top because of hereditary money/power base).  (2) "If you work hard you can do it too", - in reality the system exploits low classes.  No matter how hard they work they won't get the money they need to get out of poverty.  They are perpetually working poor.  (3) "If you are poor it is your own fault.  You are lazy.  You are stupid.  You are genetically inferior."  (4) "If you are poor you are being punished as sinner".  "If you are poor you deserve to die".	08/24/1994

Politics, left and right.	Right.  Conservatives have survival neurosis, they want to live at any cost.	08/24/1994

Politics, left and right.	Right.  Conservatives.  Some care only about themselves.  Some just do not care about other people or the natural environment.  It is a selfish, dim point of view.  We live in a society, not as loners.  Man is a social animal.  It is immoral to ignore other people and to ignore the natural environment.  (1) The (wrong) arguments that conservatives use to justify doing nothing for others and keeping the status quo include: (A) Greed is good.  (B) Philosophical egoism.  (C) Social Darwinism.  (D) Genetic inferiority of other "races" of people.  (E) Tough luck.  (F) Tough love.  (G) Do not want to pay any taxes.  (H) Survival justifies any behavior.  (2) It is isolationist, provincial and narrow minded to think only of yourself.  It is also a short term view to think only of yourself, because you will be dead soon.  What we need is a holistic view, global in scale and long term.  Egoism taken to its extreme is like a reptile that eats its young.  You do not even care about your children.	5/22/1999

Politics, left and right.	Right.  The conservative, republican, right wing agenda.  Conservatives have the following bad ideas.  (1) The conservatives want to combine church and state, as long the state religion is Christianity.  (2) The conservatives want to dismantle the public school system.  (3) The conservatives want to eliminate regulatory agencies, for example, the FDA and SEC.  (4) The conservatives want to eliminate welfare.  (5) The conservatives want to privatize social security.  (6) The conservatives want to increase military spending and have more wars to make more money.  (7) The conservatives want to give tax breaks to corporations.	1/14/2006

Politics, left and right.	Right.  View of life as struggle leads to view of life as war, which leads to view of self as soldier.  This is how hierarchical conservatives see it.  "You are in the army now.", blind obedience, survival neurosis.	01/01/1993

Politics, left and right.	Right.  Why conservatism (the right) maintains its popularity.  Conservatism is a movement that values freedom over equality.  Freedom is a political value that is easier to comprehend than equality.  However, equality is no less important than freedom.  When people ponder political values it is easier for them to see why people need freedom than it is for them to see why equality is needed.  This is why freedom gets more air play than equality.	6/23/2000

Politics, left and right.	Right.  Why I am not a republican.  Republicans strike me as dim more than they do mean and greedy, although they do strike me as mean and greedy too.  How can they get rich if they are so dim?  It doesn't take a lot of brains to make money, you just have to go into a lucrative line of business, and pursue it single mindedly.  In fact, it is probably easier to make a lot of money if you are of just slightly above average intelligence.  This applies whether you are an entrepreneur, a professional, or working your way safely up the corporate ladder.  The truly smart, i.e. inventors, high level academics, high level artists, etc. usually are not very rich as a rule.	10/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Spectrum, left and right.  (1) Left extremists: NVA, maoists, commies.  (2) Right extremeists: nazis, fundamentalists.  Guerrilla.  (3) Tactics of both: terror, torture, indoctrination, propaganda, hijack, hostages, bombings.	04/01/1993

Politics, left and right.	Stereotypical categories of left and right.  Liberal vs. conservative.  Big government vs. small government.  Change is good vs. change is not good.  More equality vs. more freedom.  Urban vs. rural.  Poor vs. rich.  Young vs. old.  Altruists vs. egotists.  Future vs. past.  Relaxed vs. uptight.  Arts, education, media vs. business, military.  Man is basically good vs. man is basically evil.  Doves vs. hawks.	6/9/2000

Politics, left and right.	The conservative attitude, the republican attitude is one of egoism, and one that exhorts people to think primarily of their own self interests, and thus it has a "divide and conquer" mentality intrinsically built into it.  It is an example of extreme individualism in a bad sense.  (2) The progressive attitude, the Democratic attitude is an altruistic attitude, a uniting attitude, a social attitude.	12/17/2006

Politics, left and right.	The most important issues are not between the democrats and the republicans.  The democrats and republicans should be joining together to help fight the greater injustices in other countries.	5/8/1999

Politics, left and right.	The primary strategy of the old reactionaries is to demotivate the young, to make the young feel hopeless, helpless, apathetic, disenfranchised, and disempowered.  This is also the primary strategy of the rich against the poor.  When the rich old reactionaries can make the poor young feel like, "The world is going to hell in a handbasket, so why bother.", then the rich old reactionaries have won a battle.  Get involved.	2/23/2001

Politics, left and right.	The right views the left as weak, soft and hypersensitive.  So the tactics that the right uses include bullying, harassment, abuse, etc.	10/12/2003

Politics, left and right.	There has been a general trend in distribution of power from kings, to rich white males, to poor white males, to women and minorities.  This tradition has been of increasing equality for more people.  (1) Conservatives, various views:  Edmund Burke.  Stasis, status quo.  Aristocracy.  Return back to tradition (monarchy).  Religious right.  Robber barons.  Radical right militant fascists.  (2) Liberals, various views.  John Locke.  Pro working man and unions.  Radical left groups like green peace.  Freedom for working man (shorter hours, no child labor, safety rules on job). Progressives like TR and FDR.  Their enemies attack them as tax and spenders, with low morals.	10/30/1996

Politics, left and right.	Today we live in a fast changing world which requires adaptability, vision, and critical reasoning, which belief based religious conservatives essentially lack.  The two party system is useful though to provide a dialectic.	06/30/1997

Politics, power.	.This section is about power.  Topics include: ( ) Abuses of power.  ( ) Critiques of power.  ( ) Influence.  ( ) Leadership.  ( ) Power.  ( ) Problems with power.  ( ) Ruling.  ( ) Tactics of powerholders and disempowered.  ( ) Types of power.  ( ) What is power.	1/24/2006

Politics, power.	(1) Ethical and unethical uses of power.  (2) Officially approved vs. officially outlawed uses of power.  (3) The two are not the same.	2/1/2002

Politics, power.	(1) How much to let others control you vs. how much and how you are controlled.  (2) Let them vs. forced,  conscious or unconscious.  (3) You consciously or unconsciously let them consciously or unconsciously control you.  (4) Conscious and unconscious affects on you and them.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	(1) Is greed for power and money ubiquitous?  No.  Is everyone always motivated by the drive for power and money?  No.  (2) Does everyone always act in their own self interest?  No.  Can people act altruistically?  Yes.	12/1/2004

Politics, power.	(1) Power hierarchies, pecking orders.  (2) Status hierarchies.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	(1) Power over someone vs. (2) independent vs. (3) under someone's power.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	(1) The view that power is fairly distributed among all segments of society.  vs.  (2) The view that money is the main form of power in today's society.  Corporations have the most money, and thus the most power.  Corporations influence government.	12/1/2004

Politics, power.	(1) Unhealthy, unjust, feudal, dictatorial conceptions of power.  (A) Hoard power.  (B) Dispense power to others sparingly.  (C) Disempower competitors and opponents.  Vs.  (2) Healthy, just, Democratic, egalitarian conceptions of power.  (A) Empower people.  (B) Share power.  (C) Open society as much as possible (ex. Open judicial process vs. secret kangaroo courts.).	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	(1) Using power for better or worse.  (2) Commissions and omissions.  (3) Crazy, stupid, unethical.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Abuse of power.  Most problems in the realm of politics (ex. Fascism, totalitarianism, etc.) have to do with the abuse of power.  What are the mechanics of power abuse?  (See also sections on bullying and pathological groups.)	10/12/2003

Politics, power.	Abuse of power.  Unethical, power abusing tactics.  Keep people quiet.  Keep people scared.  Keep people distracted.  Keep people from thinking.  Keep people from questioning.     However, the historical trend is toward communication, free speech, empowering the weak, educating the masses.  So unethical power abusing tactics are at odds with the general historical trend.	11/21/2003

Politics, power.	Abuses of power.  (1) How unethical power operates: Hoard, hog and consolidate power.  Oppress and exploit through force and threat.  (2) How ethical power operates:  Share power.  Each persons personal power respected by others.  For example, George Washington deciding not to accept his peers request to be king of America.	11/23/2003

Politics, power.	Abuses of power.  Power run amuck.  Abusing other people.  Abusing the environment.  Wasting or not using power.  Illegal acts.  Unethical yet not explicitly illegal acts.  (2) Ethical uses of power.  Helping other people.  Helping the environment.	11/18/2003

Politics, power.	Abuses of power.  Unethical uses of power.  Unchecked abuses of power often occur in secret and outside the law.	11/21/2003

Politics, power.	Ambition, drive, will, motivation vs. influence, control, force.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Arenas of power.  Businesses competing for customers.  Nations fighting wars.  Students competing for grades.  Workers looking for promotions.  Criminal organizations.  Family members (ex. Frank Sulloway's theories of birth order).	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	Authority as position or title.  Desire to hold it, and refusal to accept it.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Authority: use and abuse.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Control over self.  Can you control yourself?  Do you control yourself: not enough vs. too much?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Critique of power. "Power corrupts", said Lord Acton.  There is a tendency for the more powerful to oppress, exploit, coerce and terrorize the less powerful.  Those in power tilt the playing field in their favor by making the rules (laws) in their favor.  Those in power create an unfair advantage for themselves.  Those in power take advantage of others.  (2) In America today, money brings power.  Who or what entities have the most money and thus power?  Not individuals, rather organizations, corporations and industries.  Not the government, because the government is a group of partisan individuals in conflict.  (3) Beware any organization with a lot of money and an agenda.  Beware any group with unchecked power operating outside the bounds.	11/29/2003

Politics, power.	Critiques of power.  (1) Cooperation is just as important as competition or conflict, in fact more so.  (2) Power is not the only, or even the most important, value in life.  (3) History is full of power hungry people who did no good (ex. Hitler, Stalin, etc.)  There is a common psychological pathology of power-madness.  (4) History is full of individuals who accomplished much good despite rejecting traditional conceptions of power.  For example, Gandhi.	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	Desire for power.  Power over self.  Power over other people.	11/16/2003

Politics, power.	Four factors.  (1) Power over the masses vs. power over the elite.  (2) Power to make others act (force) vs. power to get others to listen to you (influence).  (3) The above four factors can be combined in four combinations.  (A) Power to make the elite's act.  This is a power that terrorists try to gain.  (B) Power to make the elite's listen.  This is a power that academics often hold, especially if they work for a government think tank.  (C) Power to make the masses act.  This is a power that grassroots political organizations try to develop.  (D) Power to make the masses listen.  This is a power many celebrities have, which is why they are often used in television commercials.	5/24/1999

Politics, power.	Four pairs.  (1) Dominant vs. submissive.  (2) Passive vs. aggressive.  (3) Strength vs. weakness.  (4) Power holder vs. powerless.  These are four different factors.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Four pairs.  (1) Oppressor vs. oppressed.  (2) Active vs. inactive.  (3) Aggressive vs. passive.  (4) Dominant vs. submissive.  They are four different pairs.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	How easy is it to take and use power in a political situation?  What are the easiest ways?  What are the ways you can't and why?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	In any political situation, especially government, who has how much power and why?  Power and limits of power: how much, over what, and what branch, area, and level.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Influence.  To have the ear of the king.  To be in a position to suggest ideas, but to not be able to force action.	5/30/1998

Politics, power.	Information and power.  Information gathering as power.  Information storage as power (ex. Large, searchable databases).  Information processing as power (brain power).  Information dissemination as power.	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	Information as a basis of power.  Technology as a basis of power.	11/27/2003

Politics, power.	Is all power abused?  Once power is obtained, is it always misused?  Is there always a temptation to misuse power?  Can power ever be evenly distributed and used fairly?	9/1/2004

Politics, power.	Leader 1 says to go this way, "I say we do this and here is why".  Leader 2 says to go that way, "I say we do this and here is why".  They try to persuade the followers with reason or emotion.  They try to intimidate or seduce the followers.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leader is anyone in any situation with any power.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leader traits and styles.  Qualities of leaders.  (1) Devotion to cause.  (2) Intelligence: theoretical and practical.  (3) Take action.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leaders say "we can do it".  Leaders are optimists.  It is easy to be pessimistic with self and others.	12/30/1995

Politics, power.	Leadership is called for whenever anyone meets anyone.  (1) Bond with people.  Create rapport.  (2) Motivate.  Pep talk.  Spread optimism.  (3) State the problems and obstacles.  We have some problems but we are working on our problems and the problems of the world.  (4) Show the means and ends.  In areas of psychology, physical, sociology, and environment.  The main goal is health.	04/24/1997

Politics, power.	Leadership style pros and cons.  (1) Friend style.  Pro: get along.  Contra: no authority.  (2) Disciplinarian style.  Pro: authority.  Contra: no friendship or respect yields rebellion.  (3) Real leader style.  Pro: get along.  Contra: respected and obeyed.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  (1) A leader is anyone in any social situation with any social power.  (2) We all have some degree of social power in all social situations (even if it is only to bitch and moan).  (3) Therefore we are all (potential) leaders.	6/1/1999

Politics, power.	Leadership.  (1) Leaders inspire and motivate.  (2) Leaders influence, persuade and convince.  (3) Leaders demand and order.  (4) We admire and look up to our leaders as examples to emulate.	9/15/1998

Politics, power.	Leadership.  (1) Problems with leaders.  Wimp, lazy, crazy.  Dishonest.  Ineffective.  No answers to problems.  Doesn't meet challenges and opportunities.  Unethical.  Unaware of situation: stupid, out of touch, passe.  Poor values.  See personality traits.  (2) Ideals: opposites.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  (1) Recognizing someone is blind and floundering, and showing them the way, without insulting them, and without them even figuring out that you are trying to lead them.  (2) You are showing them an entire metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic philosophy, and you can communicate it with a look, a gesture, a posture, a word, an emotional tone.  You communicate your philosophy all the time anyway.	09/01/1994

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Confidence in leaders vs. confidence in the cause.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Definitions.  (1) Leaders change things by degree, amount, and speed.  (2) Leaders communicate a vision of an idea, and motivate and inspire through emotion.  (3) Leaders say: "this is what we should do, and why and how".	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Democracy says we are all leaders.  Democracy says there are no leaders.  Democracy says we live by laws, not leaders.	7/25/2006

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Do great leaders use mass hypnosis?	3/30/1998

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Everyone follows someone, and everyone leads someone to a certain degree and duration.  It is unavoidable.	10/15/1994

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Explainers and communicators vs. blind obedience expecters.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Leader can be anyone.  Style should be flexible.  Know what tactics are fair and will work.  Have knowledge of many styles to choose from.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Nice to have: respect, love, and fear.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Principles of leadership.  (1) Know all the factors in a situation.  (2) Know importance of each.  (3) Know all potential action alternatives.  (4) Know the people involved.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Revolt and rebellion.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  See decision theory.  See persuasion and rhetoric.  See management.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Suspicion of incompetence.  Mild to grave suspicion of mild to severe incompetence.  Suspicion that leader is crazy, stupid, or unethical.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  The purpose of a leader, or actually any friend, or any person, is to (1) Make people see what they have in common, instead of their differences.  (2) Make people see their good points instead of their bad points?  (3) Or, if they must see their bad points, to make them look at their bad points with hope rather than despair.  So we do not melt down.	04/24/1997

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Thinking, saying, doing.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  Types of leaders.  (1) Intentional (sought or unsought) vs. unintentional.  (2) Good leaders: have influence, make right choices.  Bad leaders: don't.  (3) Democratic vs. despotic.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Leadership.  We all lead by example, acting as models for each other.	12/29/1997

Politics, power.	Leadership.  What stars (and leaders) have: Confidence, even if they are wrong.  Strength to carry the masses.  Not wavering or waffling.  Its what the public wants to see.	5/15/1998

Politics, power.	Not as a rule, but as an unethical trend.  The powerful oppress and exploit the disempowered.  The rich oppress and exploit the poor.  Men oppress and exploit women.  Adults oppress and exploit children and the aged.  The majority oppresses and exploits minorities.	11/16/2003

Politics, power.	Objective power: actually have.  Subjective power: think you have.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	One strategy that abusers of power use is to depoliticize the masses.  Depolitization of the masses is achieved through a variety of tactics including fear, distraction, bribe, etc.  (1) Abusers of power try to harass anyone who becomes political against them.  (2) Abusers of power will try to make life comfortable enough to quell dissent.  (3) Abusers of power will attempt to get the public to think about anything other than politics.  (4) Abusers of power attempt to depoliticize the public.  (5) Abusers of power will attempt to disempower the public.  (5) Abusers of power will attempt to use secrecy to hide their abuses of power.  (6) A counter-strategy to use against abusers of freedom is to repoliticize the public and empower the public.	12/13/2005

Politics, power.	PART ONE.  Personal power.  Physical strength and endurance.  Psychological abilities of memory, emotion, reason, attitude, personality, etc.     PART TWO.  Social power.  Power between people.  (1) Political power.  Power to make laws.  Power of political office.  Power to put people in or out of office by voting.  (2) Communicative power.  (3) Sexual power.	6/11/2004

Politics, power.	Perception.  (1) Person A's perception of A's own power, vs. A's perception of person B's power.  (2) Person B's perception of B's own power, vs. B's perception of person A's power.  Variances in all cases.  Over-estimation and under-estimation.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Personal power: over self (psychological and physical).  Social power: over others.	01/01/1993

Politics, power.	Political power used unjustly in discrimination like sexism, ageism, racism.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Political power.  Who wants it, how much, and why?  What they are willing to do to get it.  Who they try to get it from, and how they try to get it.  Degree of success, loses and gains.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Politics as control (power used).  How much control is healthy vs. unhealthy.  Ways to resist control.  The Resistance: smart, hard, long, nonviolent and violent.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power and ethics: you can use, abuse, or not use power.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power and personality.  (1) Insistence and rigidity vs. (2) compromising vs. (3) totally complying vs. (4) totally unassertive.  In thought, word, and action.  And how healthy or unhealthy it is.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power and politics, economics, technology and information.  (1) Power and politics.  Many people mistakenly equate political power with power generally.  Political power is only one form of power.  Examples of political power include the power of political parties and the power of individuals who hold political office.  (2) Power and economics.  Money is a type of power because it lets you get things done.  Money as power is a Marxian view of power.  Be richer than your opponent (ex. Campaign spending).  Acquire the means of production in order to make money.  (3) Technology and power.  Technological advantages can give one a power advantage.  Example, arms races.  (4) Information and power.  Typical info-power tactics.  (A) Know what your opponent is doing and prevent your opponent from knowing what you are doing.  Know their history and know their plans.  (B) Flows of information in an organization via communication.  Make sure members of your party have information when they need it.  For example, a business corporation, or a country fighting a war.  Secrecy.  Disinformation (lies).  Public relations.	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	Power can't get vs. can.  Power don't get vs. do get.  Power couldn't use vs. could use.  Power don't use vs. do use.  Goal not got vs. goal got.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power complex: ways to get power, ways to use power, and ways to lose power.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power corrupts, but it also distorts.  Those in power loose touch with reality.	3/30/1998

Politics, power.	Power corrupts.  Corporations are the most powerful and therefore corporations are the most corrupt.	9/1/2004

Politics, power.	Power for power's sake.  There is never enough power for power hogs.	10/19/2005

Politics, power.	Power has to be taken or stolen, but it must be done so with craft and subtlety and wits.  First you must make them think you are ready to receive the power.  Then you must craftily take it.  It is all psychological.  Once power is gained it must be maintained.	03/07/1989

Politics, power.	Power is how much can you change things.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power is not good in and of itself.  Money is not good in and of itself.  For example, bloody money and bloody power.	11/23/2005

Politics, power.	Power or control.  (1) Gaining power over self, and situation.  (2) Losing power over self (to others), and situation.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power sharing is a key component to democracy.  Power sharing is a type of sharing.  Sharing is a type of cooperation.  Cooperation and sharing are key components to democracy.  That is an idea that free market capitalists do not seem to get.	2/27/2007

Politics, power.	Power structure (hierarchy) and mechanisms of a group.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power to control behavior vs. power to shape attitudes.  The latter is more powerful than the former.	12/5/1999

Politics, power.	Power to the people, as the saying goes.  Government of, by, and for the people.  Grassroots activism.	5/14/2007

Politics, power.	Power vacuums.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power won vs. lost.  Power given vs. taken.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power.  (1) Percent you have power to decide means and ends.  (2) Percent you act on your chosen means and ends.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power.  (1) Who makes the decisions?  (2) Who carries them out?  (3) Who is in the know (information flow)?  (4) Who makes and spreads the values (and how)?  (5) Who are the blind followers?  (6) Who are the thinking followers?  (7) Who are the rebels and counterspies and destroyers?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power.  Concerning territory (space) and possessions (property).  Reflected in struggle for rights for self, and duties for others.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Power.  How much power do I want to exert over other?  How much power do I want to exert over me?  What's the healthiest and most ethical amount of both?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Problems with power.  (1) Inequitable distribution of power.  (2) Power hogs.  Power hoarders.  Power abusers.  Ruthless exercise of power.  Injustice as power abused.  Its a problem when people have their power taken away from them, and are rendered disempowered or powerless.  (3) People who give up their power when they should not.  People who don't use their power when they should.  For example, people who do not vote.	11/7/2004

Politics, power.	Problems with power.  (1) Taking too much power.  Bullying.  Abusing power.  Unethical exercise of power.  (2) Giving up power.  Apolitical, apathetic.  Refusing to deal with power.  Abdicating your personal power.  Non-use of power.	6/24/2004

Politics, power.	Problems with power.  (1) To pursue power unethically.  (2) To fail to acquire power ethically.  To abdicate all power.  ( 3) To take more than your fair share of power.  (5) To misuse power.  To wield power unethically.  (4) To fail to use power.  (5) To fail to empower others.	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	Related subjects, sociology.  (1) Power tactics of power holders (ex. employers, teachers, parents).  Force.  Threat.    (2) Power tactics of disempowered (ex. workers, students, children).  Ignore.  Resist.	6/11/2004

Politics, power.	Related subjects.  (1) Sociology and power.  All social relationships have a power component.  (2) Psychology and power.  People often strive to increase their power.  (3) Philosophy and power.  Sometimes people use ethical means to increase their power.  Sometimes people use unethical means to increase their power.  (4) Technology and power.  Technology is a means of increasing our power.  Technology is a means of gaining various new abilities, or increasing the strength of existing abilities.	6/4/2004

Politics, power.	Relationship of power, ruling, and leadership.  You can have power and choose not to rule (use, exert, or exercise power).  You can rule and not be a leader (motivate and inspire a vision in people).	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Relationship of power, ruling, leadership, etc.  (1) You can have power and not exercise it (rule).  (2) You can rule (exercise power) and not be a government.  One individual can rule over another.  (3) You can rule and not be a leader.  Leaders lead by communicating a vision to people.  Despotic rulers rule but don't lead.  Also, A person can be a figurehead leader and have a behind the scenes shot caller.  (4) Government is a term that applies to nations.  Nations are recognized by the U.N.	12/29/1997

Politics, power.	Rule of a family, business, club, mob, gang, crowd.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  (1) Degree of control desired vs. degree of control achieved.  (2) In control vs. out of control.  (3) Things running as planned vs. not running as planned.  (4) Meeting goals vs. not.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  (1) Opposed rule: in thought, word, action.  Freedom of speech and assembly.  (2) Unopposed rule: in thought, word, action.  Cohesion, consensus.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  (1) Rule by caprice or whim vs. rule by well established laws.  (2) Rule by vote of people vs. rule by decree of king.  (3) Rule by violent means vs. rule by peaceful means.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  (1) Rule by reason (good).  (2)(A) Rule by tradition.  (B) Rule by myth, magic or religion.  (C) Rule by chance.  Dice rolling.  (D) Arbitrary rule.  Rule by whim.  (all bogus).	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  Secret rule (secrecy and lies) vs. known rule (public information and knowledge).	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  To rule is to gain and use power.  Government is just one form of ruling.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  To rule with consent of majority, or of unanimity, vs. to rule without consent of either.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  Unjust rule vs. just rule, in means or ends.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Ruling.  Ways of ruling are limited?  Means: structure, mechanism.  Ends.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Some people feel it is good to be strong.  And they think strength means accumulating social power and exercising social power (control over others).  But strength can be letting people be free to grow and govern themselves.	03/20/1997

Politics, power.	Struggle types (see Sociology, struggling).	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Tactics of power.  (1) Tactics to gain power. vs. Tactics to exercise power.  (2) Ethical tactics. vs. Unethical tactics.	6/11/2004

Politics, power.	Tactics used by some authority figures (like politicians, bosses, teachers, parents, etc.) to get people to lead lives that cause these people to have attitudes that are inauthentic, ignorant, close minded, retarded in development, unquestioning, disempowered, helpless, clueless, vegetating, discouraged, despondent, conformist, mentally inactive, obedient, brain turned off, and focused on other people's goals.  Rather than to empower, encourage, enlighten, authentic, mentally active, and their own lives.	12/5/1999

Politics, power.	Tactics.  Keys to keeping power.  Keep them stupid.  Monetarily and materially poor.  Powerless, dependent.  Terrified and frightened of disobeying.  Yet keep them happy if they obey.  Abuse and neglect them.  Treat them like children, patronize, condescend.	10/15/1994

Politics, power.	Tactics.  Power plays in social situations.  Gaining and using power.  Lies, secrets, half truths.  Bluffs, threats, blackmail.  Spying, information gathering.  Two-faced-ness.  Gain allies, brown nose.  Do favors, collect favors.  Acute vs. chronic attacks.	03/20/1993

Politics, power.	Tactics.  Power seeking strategies.  Person A tells person B that B is down because B is lazy, stupid, genetically inferior etc.  It may actually be the case that person A is consciously or unconsciously keeping person B down.	08/15/1994

Politics, power.	Tactics.  The powerholders don't want us to think, so that it is easier for them to run things and to make decisions for us.  Pacification and appeasement are the tactics they use.	01/03/1997

Politics, power.	Tactics.  There are ethical tactics of power and there are unethical tactics of power.  Learn to recognize unethical power tactics.	11/23/2005

Politics, power.	Tactics.  Ways to gain political power.  (1) Force.  (2) Seduce, persuade, beg, plead.  (3) Fear vs. love.  (4) Trick, lie, secret.  (5) Bribe, blackmail, con, promise.  (6) Rhetoric.  (7) Threat, extort.  (8) Destroy vs. build.  (9) Popular demand vs. elite demand.  (10) Show competence.  (11) Seduce vs. force by violence or terror.  (12) Combos of above.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Tactics.  Ways to try to exert power.  (1) Convince someone its the ethical thing to do.  (2) Convince someone its in their self-interest to do it, even if is not exactly ethical.  Appeal to their greed, lust, etc..  (3) Say to someone, "Do this or else I will kill you, or make your life a living hell".  (4) Other ways: Seduce.  Cajole.  Threaten.  Kvetch.  Plead.  Advise.  Persuade.  Negotiate.  Bargain.  (5) Logically argue.  Emotional appeals.  (6) Using words.  Using Actions.	2/1/2002

Politics, power.	Techniques you use vs. power you gain.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Terms: power, authority, leadership, conformity vs. nonconformity, obedience vs. rebellion.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	The great, noble man.  (1) Operates from a position of power.  (2) Does not abuse power, or let it go to his head, or let it corrupt him.  (3) Does not let great problems or great antagonists get him down.  He sees things from their point of view, and then out-maneuvers them.  He neutralizes them and achieves justice.  (4) Seeks to attain and maintain power.	03/09/1989

Politics, power.	The lame reasons to unjustly give up power.  Give up: tired of fighting and struggling.  Give in: don't want to think, take a mental vacation, revert to childish condition.  The desire to unjustly give up power can be as strong as the desire to unjustly seize power.	10/30/1993

Politics, power.	Those obsessed with gaining power often feel powerless and impotent.	10/12/2003

Politics, power.	To whom are you (1) In their power, (2) In power over them, (3) In sovereign relationship to.  (A) Independent: no one with power over you, (B) Neutral: you are not taking sides.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Types of power.  (1) Money as power.  The rich are powerful.  (2) Power to shape the attitudes of the masses.  The media is powerful.  (3) Power of numbers of people.  The masses are powerful.	9/1/2004

Politics, power.	Types of power.  (1) Personal.  Physical and psychological.  (2) Social.  Over other people.	09/25/1993

Politics, power.	Types of power.  (1) Technological, economic, military, legal, political.  (2) Intellectual, emotional.  (3) Decision ability forced on someone vs. accepted by someone.  (4) Decision results forced on someone vs. accepted by someone.  (5) Formal power vs. informal power.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Types of power.  Money as power.  Information as power.  Intelligence (brain power) as power.  Beauty as power.  Fame or status as power.  Numbers or multitudes as power.  Physical strength as power.  Technology as power.  Political office as power.  Pressure, influence or coercion as power.  Health (physical and psychological) as power.  Energy (physical and psychological) as power.	11/16/2003

Politics, power.	Types of power.  Money equals power.  Knowledge equals power.  However, knowledge does not equal money, case in point, this book.	5/1/2002

Politics, power.	Types of power.  Political, economic and technological bases of power.	11/18/2003

Politics, power.	Types of power.  Various types of power reinforce each other: political power, economic power, intellectual power, physical power, technological power, social power (ex. fame, popularity, charisma).	4/17/2001

Politics, power.	Types of power. (1)  Personal power or power defined as intra-personal power.  Examples, physical strength, intelligence, knowledge.  Most people call this type of power "ability".  (2)  Inter-personal power or power defined as the ability to get other people to do stuff.  Or the ability to do stuff to other people.  (3) When most people talk about political power they mean inter-personal power and not intra-personal power.  They can refer to a nation, group or individual.	2/1/2002

Politics, power.	What people fear is loss of power and devaluation of their meaning systems.  So they try to eliminate the competition and opposition.  They try to disempower the competition.  At the same time they try to maintain an illusion of competition and democracy.	9/14/2003

Politics, power.	What.  Definitions of power from broad to narrow.  (1) Natural power.  Example, gravity and tornadoes.  (2) Human power.  Physical power.  Psychological power.  Social power.  (3) Social power.  Individual to individual.  Individual to group.  Group to individual.  Group to group.  (4) Political power.  National power.	10/4/2002

Politics, power.	What.  Definitions of power.  (1) Power defined as control.  (2) Power defined as freedom.  (3) Power defined as ability.	11/16/2003

Politics, power.	What.  Definitions of power.  Broad definitions of power: see the list of definitions of power.  Narrow definition of power: political power.	11/18/2003

Politics, power.	What.  Definitions of power.  Power in the broad sense.  (1) Anything that has value can be used to gain power.  For example, physical beauty is valued in society and thus, to some degree, beauty is power.  (2) Is there any case of a value that cannot be used to gain power?	10/1/2002

Politics, power.	What.  Definitions of power.  Some people mistakenly associate the word "power" only with the government.  So they think all their issues with power are concerned with the government.  However, power is a factor in every social interaction.  Not only government.  Abuses of power can occur in any social interaction, not just government interactions.	9/12/2003

Politics, power.	What.  Social relationships yields power relationships, which yields conflict (over means, ends, rights, duties), which yields struggle, which yields new power relationship.	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Who can/can't do what (political power)?  Who can/can't have/get/own what stuff (economic power).	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Who has how much power, from what source, and how do they wield it?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	Who has how much power?  Are they rising or declining in power, and how fast?  What's their agenda (subjects and views)?  What are their and my demands and requests of each other?  How should I react to them?	12/30/1992

Politics, power.	X action performed (consciously or unconsciously).  Power gained or lost by it.  Participant (doers and recievers) perception of loss or gain.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	.This section is about subjects related to politics.  Topics include: ( ) Economics.  ( ) Law.  ( ) Philosophy.  ( ) Psychology.  ( ) Sociology.  ( ) Technology.	1/24/2006

Politics, related subjects.	Arts and politics.  (1) Art censorship: the use of political power to quash dissenting art.  (2) Political propaganda art: the use of political power to allow only establishment art.	11/7/2004

Politics, related subjects.	Economics and politics.  (1) Money is a form of power.  The rich make laws to favor their own interests.  The rich are empowered.  The poor are disempowered.  (2) The rich and powerful are few in number.  The poor and exploited are many in number.  That is injustice.	7/25/2006

Politics, related subjects.	Economics and politics.  Marx: economic power = political power.  Political power = ability to shape society and individual.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Economics and politics.  Who has what resources, what means of production, what finished goods, and what money?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Economics: political system determines economic system.  Economic system determines political system.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Economics.  The big question in a political situation is: who has more power, the rich or the poor?  And are the rights of the rich or the poor being abused and trampled worse, and how and why?  You root for the side that is being trampled worse.  In USA in 1997 it is still the poor who are being trampled more.	01/03/1997

Politics, related subjects.	Education and politics.  Voters in a democracy need to be educated.	5/18/1999

Politics, related subjects.	Law and politics (effects of and on).  Law is a political tool?  Government laws can prohibit, promote, condone, ignore.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Law and politics.  We do not decide court cases merely on majority vote.  We decide court cases based on reason.  So why should we make laws by majority vote?	10/20/1999

Politics, related subjects.	Law.  Argument for federal law vs. local law.  Ethics (and thus law) does not vary by locality or situations, so law should be on a federal level.  Actually, relativists think ethics does vary by locality and situation, so law should be on a local level.  However, basic human rights must be assured for all people, so some laws should be on a federal level.	4/13/2000

Politics, related subjects.	Law.  Role of laws in politics.  Without laws the majority tramples the minorities.  Without laws the monopoly tramples the little guys.  We need laws to protect the underdog, monitor the environment and safeguard rights.	4/16/2000

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  (1) Metaphysics: nature of man, society, power, and government.  (2) Epistemology: political reasoning.  (3) Ethics: social philosophy.  What form of government is best?  (4) Aesthetics: political art?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  (1) Nation.  Nations were a phase.  Nation is not so important anymore.  World is more important.  Non-national groups are more important.  (2) Human rights.  What is the list of human rights?  Human rights are about both liberty and equality.  What is guaranteed?  What is recommended but not guaranteed?  (3) Individual vs. group.  There has to be a balance.  (4) War.  When is killing justified?  When is use of physical force justified?  When is use of psychological operations and psychological threat justified?	4/26/2002

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Criticism of ideas.  How original?  How powerful?  How well argued?  How well proved in practice?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Epistemology.  How do we know what is true?  How sure must we be?  Who to believe before developing an ethical stance and taking political action on it?	09/25/1993

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethical vs. effective, efficient, practical.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics and politics.  Conservative, security, defense vs. Liberal, change, improve.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  (1) Goals vs. means.  (2) Government duties vs. government rights.  Individual duties vs. individual rights.  (3) Sovereignty.  (4) Relationships of executive, legislative, and judicial branches.  (5) Liberty, justice, and equality.  (6) Human rights.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  (1) Good government traits.  Justice, freedom, equality.  Efficient, effective.  Timely.  (2) Bad government does opposites.  (3) Ways to ensure above good traits.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  Five political attitudes toward an action: Prohibit, discourage, neutral, encourage, require.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  Political judgments (ethics).  How good or bad?  How healthy or unhealthy?  How just, fair, equal, free, why?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  What areas will we get involved in, why, and how?  What will our policy (ends and means) be?  Set freedoms, and set limitations?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Ethics.  Who should hold power, and not, and why?  How much, and not and why?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Factors in the rise, stagnation, and decay of a political philosophy in any individual or group: reason, socialization, situation.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  History of political philosophy.  Rise of ideas, stagnation, and decay: in thought and in practice.  Struggle: in thought and in practice.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Life is too short and there is so much evil in the world not to take action.  The key to protecting people and ways of life and ideas is power.  Key to power is money, position, information, and many people on your side.  Know who you are against, and those who are against you.  Know what they stand for and what you stand for.  Everything is not fine and dandy.  The world does not run itself.  Progress is not automatic.  Passively sitting on you duff, doing nothing, keeping head in sand, is wrong.	09/20/1994

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Nation's political philosophy: goals, means, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Normative vs. realist.  (1) The key political question is not how should people be governed.  (2) The key political questions are: Who are the groups of people involved?  What do they want?  What are they doing to get it?  What are they willing to do to get it (future potential)?  How powerful are they?	04/01/1994

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Political philosophy of individual or society.  Of ruler vs. of ruled.  Of intelligentsia avante garde vs. of the masses.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Philosophy and politics.  Subjects, question/problem/issue, views, arguments, evidences.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  (1) Apolitical personality thinks  (A) Everyone is their friend, and  (B) We should let everyone do their own thing.  The hippie philosophy.  (2) The politicized personality thinks  (A) Know who your enemies are, root them out, and destroy them.  (B) Everyone must do things our way.  All must conform to our view or else you are our enemy and must be destroyed.  Intolerant.  Commie hunters.  Witch hunters.	12/30/1995

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  (1) Asocial loners: content vs. malcontent.  (2) The social types: egalitarian and cooperative vs. non-egalitarian (dominants and submissives).	08/14/1994

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  (1) Effects of individuals on politics vs. effects of politics on individuals.  (2) Personality traits of leaders and followers.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  (1) Overly-politicized individuals: (A) View every social relationship as strictly political.  (B) Only think about politics.  (C) These types of people can be really annoying.  (2) Under-politicized people: (A) Refuse to see the political aspects of any situation.  (B) Refuse to take political action, refuse to vote, etc.	4/17/2001

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Attitudes about politics.  (1) Positive attitudes about politics: I do enjoy politics.  I think I can make a difference.  I think the political system works, or can work.  (2) Negative attitudes about politics: I do not like politics.  I do not think I can make a difference.  I do not think the current political system works.  I do not think any political system can work.  I dislike politicians.  I think politicians lie.  I think politicians are corrupt.	11/15/2001

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Decisions facing individual and their options.  (1) What group join?  What do they stand for?  Join the winners vs. join the just?  (2) What fights to fight?  How hard to fight?  Who please vs. who antagonize?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Development of political thought in the individual.  (1) Child as apolitical.  (2) Teen as non-political (except with parents).  They choose not to get involved, apathy.  (3) Adult as political.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Development of political views in individuals.  How much is political preference absorbed early in life from parents, and unconsciously kept or rebelled against, or thought out later in life as a result of ideas or life experiences.  Rich become conservative, and poor become liberals.  Is political preference a function of conditioning or choice (free, deliberate, rational choice)?	01/01/1993

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Does the drive for autonomy (freedom and power) start from birth?  Does it start in earnest in the teen years?	4/28/2001

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  Effect of government policy on individual.  Psychology of power seeker, submitter, and independents.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Psychology and politics.  What personality types develop what political views?	01/01/1993

Politics, related subjects.	Religion and politics.  (1) Separation of church and state.  (2) Religious extremists, fundamentalists, fanatics and their political agenda.	11/7/2004

Politics, related subjects.	Religion and politics.  Freedom of religion.  Separation of church and state.	5/18/1999

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  (1) Ways of struggling.  (2) Ways of forming groups.  (3) Ways of ruling.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Allies vs. enemies vs. neutrals.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Cohesion vs. dispersion.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Development of group.  Development of political aspects of group.  People form groups.  Groups beget leaders and followers.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Politics in interpersonal and group social situations like like/lust, work, family (blood and extended), nation, and other social relationships.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Politics in social situations.  Politics is a sub-area of sociology?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Politics of any social relationship.  How many in the group?  Who has how much of what power?  How got and how using?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Social factors.  (1) Leadership, authority, control.  (2) Force and oppression vs. just law.  (3) Conformity vs. rebellion.  Types, causes, degree, in what areas, against what, and for what.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Three basic social relationships:  (1) Independent.  (2) Power over.  (3) Ruled by.	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Who is going to have how much power and why?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Sociology and politics.  Who sets goals for group vs. who actually solves problems for group?  Who decides vs. who does?	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Technology and politics.  Mass media (news) is needed in large democracies.  Technology can be used to promote either democracy or totalitarianism.  Technology gives us more power to increase the magnitude of our political actions.	5/18/1999

Politics, related subjects.	Technology and politics.  Politics and technological sophistication.  Low-tech politics.  High-tech politics.	2/12/2002

Politics, related subjects.	Technology and politics.  Should we have a national technology policy?  What types and degrees of control exist over what technologies?	08/14/1994

Politics, related subjects.	Technology and politics.  Technology determines the communications system that is possible.  The communications system to a large degree determines the political system that is possible.  Therefore, technology helps determine politics.  (example, newspapers, telephones, television, Internet, etc.)	1/10/2002

Politics, related subjects.	Technology determines economic system possible.  Technology determines political system possible (communication and transportation).	12/30/1992

Politics, related subjects.	Work and politics.  Politics of my personal social situation.  At job people are (and should be?) using looks, sex, dress, talk, gossip, behavior, ass kissing, and past accomplishments (ex. degrees) to try to gain power, or credibility, or the good graces and protection of powerholders.  To use this power how?  Office politics.	02/20/1994

Politics.	.See also: Law.	8/2/2001

Politics.	.This section is about politics.  Topics include: ( ) Activism.  Political action.  ( ) Apolitical.  ( ) Change and politics.  ( ) Functional areas.  Foreign and domestic policy.  ( ) Human rights.  ( ) Information and politics.  ( ) Moderate / extreme.  ( ) Neutrality.  ( ) Political agents.  ( ) Size and politics.  ( ) United States of America.  ( ) What is politics.  ( ) World vs. nation.	1/24/2006

Politics.	"Earning just enough money to pay the bills", is an economic situation that keeps many people so busy they have no time and energy to pursue political activism.  One way the masses are oppressed is by being worked ragged.	5/12/2005

Politics.	(1) How do other areas (esp. sociology, economic, technology, natural environment) affect politics?  (2) What is currently happening on personal (me), natural, and world levels?  What is causing what is happening, and what can be done?  (3) What events above are most important and why?	2/24/1994

Politics.	(1) Political economy. Money and power. Rich nations have more power. Poor nations have less power. Development empowers poor nations. Money yields power. (2) Geo-politics. Geography and power. Oil. Water. Transportation routes. Good geographic position yields power. Amount of land. Quality of land. Farming land. Coast and ports. (3) Techno-politics. Technology and power. The rich nations have more technology. More technology yields more power. (4) Socio-techno-politico-economico systems.	9/1/2005

Politics.	(1) Political philosophy: theorizing.  (2) Political science: empirical observation.  (3) Political technology: applications.  In any political situation, what to do, why do it, and how do it?  See ethics, ends and especially means.	12/30/1992

Politics.	A bigger problem than rich vs. poor is wasted lives, regardless of class, due to crime, drugs, sloth, and lack of ethical thought and action.	01/04/1997

Politics.	Alternative living.  Have people be self sufficient but not isolated.  People should have access to news about the world.  People should have a wide body of knowledge, well beyond knowing merely how to live self sufficiently.	11/12/2005

Politics.	American Indians, Buddhism and Communitarianism may have some views in common.  Let's explore some possible views in this general area.  Some of these ideas are exaggerated for arguments sake.  (1) If everything is interconnected and all is one (a Buddhist views) then to some degree there is no private property, not even your body or mind.  (2) When we say one person has responsibility to care for another (ex. parent for child)  we are saying that people are not totally independent.  (3) Nobody owns the land, as the American Indians say.  People can temporarily lease the land (from everyone else).  We all own the land.  All things come from the land, including humans, so no one owns anything.  (4) No one person can own another person.  Slavery is illegal.  (5) No one owns themselves, either in body or mind.  Thus, no one owns the products of their body and mind.  (6) The above ideas are in opposition to total private property, pure capitalism and total freedom (anarchy).  (7) Total freedom equals anarchy, which is a state of no laws.  In this world we choose not to live in anarchy because anarchy sacrifices justice.  Thus, total freedom is not the best state of being for this world.  (8) Total independence is a myth and therefore total freedom is a myth.  No one can be totally independent of everyone else and everything else, and therefore total freedom is impossible.  It is not merely that total freedom (i.e., anarchy) is not recommended.  Total freedom is impossible.  (9) The total private property argument yields such misguided statements as: (A) I can own anything, including other humans.  (B) I can do whatever I like to anything I own, even torture or destroy it.  (C) I can do anything I like to the land, including poison it.  (D) I can torture any animal that I own.	11/1/2000

Politics.	Analysis.  In the political realm what is happening?  What is causing it?  How to change it?  What to change it to?	01/01/1993

Politics.	Analyze: who has power, how used, how react.  Classify: how many in power, source of power, how wielded.  Judge: which is best.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Apolitical and anti-political views.  Suboptimal things people say about politics.  (1) Some people say and feel they are politically powerless and helpless, even when they are not.  Some people feel there is nothing they can do, even when there is.  (2) Some people feel the candidates are all the same.  (3) Some people feel the candidates are all corrupt liars.  (4) People who adhere to such views are using negative thinking to try to justify their own inaction, and to assuage the guilt and regret they feel about their own inaction.	10/5/2004

Politics.	Apolitical.  Bourgeoisie decadents buying cheap plastic crap, the depoliticized leisure left, alienated and apathetic.  As opposed to the engaged and active left.	8/23/2005

Politics.	Apolitical.  If you hold progressive views but do not take progressive action then you are not a progressive, you are merely someone who agrees with progressives.	6/15/2005

Politics.	Apolitical.  One could argue that apolitical individuals are worse than the political individuals, because the apolitical refuse to get involved and refuse to take a stand.	6/8/2004

Politics.	Apolitical.  One suboptimal attitude toward politics that some people hold is saying that since the person does not enjoy politics, the person will leave politics to people who enjoy it.  Abdication of personal political thought, word and action is not a good attitude.	12/13/2005

Politics.	Apolitical.  There is no valid reason for being apolitical.  Here is a list of some possible causes why people are apolitical, refusing to think or act politically.  (1) Political thought and action is hard work.  Some people are averse to hard work.  (2) Political thought and action is difficult.  Besides requiring effort, political thought and action are difficult in that it is not always obvious what to think and do.  There often are no easy answers.  (3) Political thought and action can be painful.  Many people are pain avoidant.  In politics one is often actively opposed by opponents who resort to dirty tactics.  (4) Political thought and action can be risky.  People who make public their political views are sometimes blacklisted or face other negative reactions.  (5) Today, people are often encouraged by society to become "specialists".  Some people buy the line that it is in their best interest to narrow the range of their thoughts and actions.  They give up their power when they decide to leave politics to the politicians.  They have forgotten the arguments for participating in democracy.  (6) Some people feel they are too busy to participate in politics.  These people say that they are too busy working in order to make money to survive.  These people don't realize that overwork is a technique used by power holders to exhaust workers into complacency.  (7) Some people are apolitical because politics is too abstract for them to appreciate.  It can be difficult for some to think about abstract political concepts like equality.  It can be difficult for them to keep in mind abstract political arguments.  If they don't see a direct, immediate impact of a political problem in their own lives, and if they don't see a direct immediate effect of their political actions, then they don't maintain interest.	5/21/2005

Politics.	Apolitical.  Why are people apolitical?  (1) Apolitical people often think that politics is a dirty business full of liars.  (2) Apolitical people often think they can't have any effect on the political system.  Disillusioned.  Hopeless.  (3) Apolitical people are often unconsciously afraid to think about issues, afraid to take a stand on issues, afraid to speak out on issues.  (4) Apolitical people are often quite comfortable where they are and can't be bothered with politics.	6/7/2004

Politics.	Apolitical.  Why are so many people against politics?  Many people are against politics because they had a bad experience observing student government elections in high school.	10/8/2004

Politics.	Basic political questions.  (1) What does the world look like?  What do we want the world to look like?  (2) What is the US doing?  What do we want the US to be doing?  (3) What are the other nations doing?  What do we want the other nations to be doing?	5/16/2007

Politics.	Beware reactionaries who start wars in order to bomb us back to the stone age.  They want to live in the stone age.  The stone age being the reactionary 1950's.	10/28/2003

Politics.	Big questions.  How can we get power?  How can we get justice?	12/30/1992

Politics.	Blind nationalism, blind patriotism, is bad.	12/24/2003

Politics.	Business functional areas applied to government.  Management, marketing, finance, and operations management.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and develop.  Change vs. stability.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Evolution vs. revolution.  Peaceful vs. violent.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Evolution, stagnation, and devolution.  Degree and speed.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Policy.  How much leeway to change policy is there within law?  How easy is it to change the law to how different a policy?  What stops total upheaval when party majorities shift?  (1) Checks and balances in branches and parties.  (2) The change process takes time.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Political development in a group of x number of people, of y personality types, in z environment.  First as an aggregate mob, then factions and alliances form, idea conflicts, and power struggles ensue.  Who ends up rulers and ruled?	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Political struggles: types, causes, effects, how to.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  Succession of leadership in political situations.  With or without authority.  Degree of conflict.  Degree of violence.  Degree of opposition.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Change and politics.  To enact change it helps to have power of (A) money, (B) position, (C) smarts, or (D) have the ear or favor of someone in power.	04/01/1994

Politics.	Change and politics.  What is to stop America from turning fascist or communist?  If economic hard times or some other catastrophe occur, what is to stop the rise of fringe thinking and mass atrocities?  Nothing absolutely prevents it.  It could happen, easily, especially if liberals give up their struggle in thought or action.	12/30/1996

Politics.	Change and politics.  What stops a coalition from changing all the laws?  Counter-balancing forces, and slowness of the policy for changing laws.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Checks and balances, we need them everywhere, in all areas of society, not just in government.  Checks and balances are like cybernetic feedback mechanisms.	5/1/2000

Politics.	China.  20% of the worlds population lives under Communism.	10/2/1998

Politics.	Chomsky-ian type of argument.  Big corporations have the big money to influence politicians and the media.	03/03/1998

Politics.	Clinton, Bush and Regan were all elected on better looks than opposing candidate.	09/01/1994

Politics.	Complexity of a political system.  (1)(A) Size allows greater complexity.  You cannot have much complexity in a small society.  (B) Size does not guarantee complexity.  A large society mis-governed can be homogeneous and stagnant.  (C) Complexity is a good thing because it makes possible diversity.  Complexity is not a bad thing.  (2)(A) Technology can make possible greater complexity.  (B) Technology does not guarantee greater complexity.  Technology can be misused or mismanaged.  (3) If you promote diversity then you allow complexity to develop.	4/26/2002

Politics.	Complexity.  As society becomes bigger and more complex, we need more laws and government.  But do we need as much as we have?  And can we make it more efficient?	12/15/1994

Politics.	Computer voting dilemma.  Every person voting on every issue is no guarantee of justice.  The purpose of government is justice.  Justice defined as fairness.  Not justice defined as law enforcement.	9/5/1998

Politics.	Concentrated power (example, dictatorship or monarchy) is not good.  Power should be distributed, with checks and balances in place.	9/5/1998

Politics.	Conflict.  (1)(A) Disagreement: intellectual conflict.  (B) Fighting: physical conflict.  (2) Psychological harm vs. physical harm.  (3) Just wars: necessity to fight bullies for self defense.  (4) Diplomacy: communication for peace.	08/24/1994

Politics.	Corruption in various forms of government.  All the ways of cheating: bribes, extortion, kick backs, intimidation, violence, murder.  You must have representatives from all interest groups, able to monitor all other interest groups.	3/30/1998

Politics.	Current situation.  Best and worst political regimes.  How to measure this?  Human rights?  Mortality?  Crime?  Economic prosperity?  Freedom of speech?  Contributions to science and the arts (Nobel Prize winners?).  How to fight the worst political regimes?	11/30/1996

Politics.	Development of politics in humans.  Politics in "primitive" societies.  The "counsel of elders" is really an "old boys" network.  They are not the smartest, nor the bravest, nor the most just.  They are those most skilled at accumulating power by acquiring wealth and property.  They accumulated power by developing political skills such as favor trading, bribes, threats, bluffs, bragging.  They consolidate their power by working as a group to keep women and young disempowered, impoverished, uneducated, isolated, etc.	5/1/2002

Politics.	Economics and politics.     PART ONE.  Liberal economic policies.  (1) Government regulations to prevent Enron-like frauds.  (2) Government regulation to prevent monopolies.  (3) Progressive tax system.  (4) Hold corporations accountable for their actions.  (5) Make corporations pay taxes.  (6) Friendly to labor.  (7) Friendly to education, health care and welfare.     PART TWO.  Conservative economic policies.  (1) Deregulation.  (2) Privatization.  (3) Run up a huge deficit.  Let the next administration fix it.  (4) Increase government spending on military to try to stimulate the economy.  (5) Tax decreases for rich achieved through a flat tax.  (6) Let corporations pay no taxes.  Friendly to corporations.  (7) Unfriendly to labor.  (8) Cut education, health care and welfare.	7/20/2004

Politics.	Everything is a political issue.  A thing can be made mandatory by law.  A thing can be prohibited by law.  A thing can be encouraged with rewards by law.  A thing can be discouraged with penalties by law.  Nothing is beyond the political realm.  A thing can be allowed by law.  A thing can be disallowed by law.	7/26/2006

Politics.	Evolutionary politics.  (1) Political behavior in animals.  (2) Political behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Politics.	Extremism.  The problem is extremism.  (1) Political extremism.  (A) Right wing political extremists.  (B) Left wing political extremists.  (2) Religious extremism.  (A) Fundamentalist religious extremists, who don't want separation of church and state, and who want a religious state run under religious law.  (B) Anti-religious extremists who want to outlaw religion entirely (ex. old style Soviet Union and China).  (3) Extremists say, "Everyone has to do everything my way, and I will use any means (especially violence and killing) to accomplish my goals.  (4) Against extremism is tolerance, diversity and peace.  Toleration and diversity help protect against power abuses by extremists.  Yet we should not tolerate all acts.  We should not tolerate terror, violence and murder.	8/27/2004

Politics.	Freedom, health, and education are more important than material possessions.  GNP is not as good a measure of a country's quality of life as mortality, literacy, and freedom, and convincing citizens that this is true.	10/30/1997

Politics.	Functional areas.  (1) Domestic: finance, police.  (2) Foreign: diplomacy, military.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  (1) Form policy: who forms it and how?  (2) Make it law.  (3) Manage it: structure, mechanism.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  (1) Judicial branch: law judging.  Function, purpose, importance, structure, mechanism.  (2) Legislative branch: law making.  (3) Executive branch: policy making.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  (1) Make law: legislature.  (2) Enforce law: executive.  (3) Judge law: judicial.  (4) Argue law - lawyers.  (5) Public administration: executive agencies.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  (1) What area.  (2) How much control vs. free.  (3) How much finance or support.  (4) What do, how much, for who, how do it.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  Area, policy (means, ends), laws, reasons and arguments, evidence.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  Competing groups: their views, their power, and their tactics.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Functional areas.  Government functions.  (1) Self preservation and regeneration.  (2) Protect rights of individuals and groups.  (3) Resolve conflicts. (4) Regulate economy.  (5) Provide services: how much, to who, how.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Government efficiency.  How much good you get out of social programs vs. how much money you put in.  Ex. Which country's government has the most efficient welfare program?  Efficiency is separate from the decision of what and how much to give people.	12/30/1995

Politics.	Government politics.  When special interests control the government through money.  When big business controls government through money.  That is bad.	12/31/2003

Politics.	History current future.  History by abstract types and actual governments.  By chronological, subject, geographic area.	12/30/1992

Politics.	History current future.  History of forms of government: characteristics, variations, pros and cons.  (1) Primitive nomads: egalitarian.  (2) Agricultural tribe/clans: divisions by age and sex.  (3) Civilization: towns and cities.  (4) Ancient: kings, priests/scribes, military.  (5) Medieval: feudalism.  (6) Modern: nation states, democracy, socialism, communism.	12/30/1992

Politics.	History.  Theory: analyze every political thought or idea concerning political philosophy, political science, and political technology.  Practice: analysis of every political situation and action ever.	12/30/1992

Politics.	How can we get justice?  How can we get our goals?  How can we get power?	12/30/1992

Politics.	How did the Democrats sweep the 2006 elections?  Various views.  (1) The Democrats won the election by being better organized than the Republicans.  More people are Democrats than Republicans.  (2) The Republicans lost the election for several reasons.  Katrina held back the Republicans.  Republican scandals like Foley, Delay, Abramov, Hastert, etc.  The war in Iraq is long, expensive, deadly, with poor results, and Bush lied about WMD's.	12/1/2006

Politics.	How gain power?  How gain office?  How study politics: by using philosophy or science.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Human Rights.  Can we agree on a list of human rights?  See the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (i.e., The Helsinki Accord).	4/20/2000

Politics.	Human rights.  Goal.  Use almanac to find countries with worst human rights abuses and work to pressure their governments.	06/10/1997

Politics.	Human rights.  Government to insure your human rights are met.  Does that include the following:  Food?  Clothing?  Shelter?  Healthcare?  Education?  Safety?	4/16/2000

Politics.	Human rights.  Should we guarantee food, clothing, education to children?  How to provide them?	01/01/1993

Politics.	Idea: Boycott restaurants with pictures of gangsters, real or fictional, on the walls.	1/28/2004

Politics.	If there is micro-economics and macro-economics then there is also micro-politics and macro-politics.	3/25/2006

Politics.	In every subject/issue/problem area, on every level (world, natural, local), you should think it out, gather information, examine alternatives and arguments for them, then you should apply every political action technique.	01/01/1993

Politics.	Information and politics.  (1) Free access to public information is a right.  Public libraries.  Public education.  Public Internet.  (2) There are people who want to keep information secret and private for a variety of reasons.  Hyper-competitiveness.  Social Darwinists.  There are people who mistakenly want to deny the public's right to information.	1/22/2004

Politics.	Information and politics.  (1) Its a struggle of ideas.  The struggle to develop ideas.  (2) Its a struggle of communications.  The struggle to communicate ideas.  (3) Its a struggle of emotions.  Ideas and emotions go together.  Ideas produce emotions.  Emotions have ideas attached to them.  (4) People attempt to sway emotions with their communications.  (5) The struggle on a psychological level is the struggle for "hearts and minds".  The struggle for "hearts and minds" is the struggle of emotions and ideas.	10/23/2004

Politics.	Information and politics.  Knowledge hoarders.  They hoard knowledge.  (1) They hoard knowledge for competitive advantage.  (2) They hoard knowledge to sell knowledge to you if you pay money.  (3) They hoard knowledge because they don't have much of it.	1/28/2004

Politics.	Information and politics.  Someday there will be a human right to information.  You will get a computer hooked up to a world wide wireless network at birth.  From this you will get access to unlimited information for your entire education.  Only totalitarian dictators will not provide this.	09/01/1994

Politics.	Information and power.  (1) Big business corporations want to make money off information via copyright and patent control.  Corporations want a monopoly on information.  (2) Government wants to control the information about citizens.  Invasion of privacy.	4/28/2005

Politics.	Key to social justice is to document injustice.  Document injustice for use as proof in court.  Document injustice for exposure in the media.	1/14/1999

Politics.	Laws force people to do things.  Education shows them why they should do it.	08/17/1997

Politics.	Levels of politics: international, national, local, and personal.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Levels of politics.  (1) Politics on the idea level or the psychological level.  Changing people's views and attitudes.  (2) Politics on the action level.  Making speeches.  Distributing pamphlets.  Protesting.	11/8/2004

Politics.	Local politics can sometimes be a bore.  Why be active in local politics?  Be active in local politics to prevent schmucks from gaining office and power.	12/14/2005

Politics.	Many different combinations are possible.  (1)  Small group politics vs. large group politics.  (2)  Homogeneous cultures vs. diverse cultures (many different subcultures).  (3)  Simple cultures (in terms of technology, economics or social structure) vs. complex cultures.	1/10/2002

Politics.	Many people view government as a necessary evil.  Actually, political participation often seems like a necessary evil, a pain in the neck.	7/25/2006

Politics.	Me.  (1) Why did I lose all interest in politics?  Because most of it was petty b.s.  Pessimistic apathy.  Dogmatic "all politicians are crooks".  Why did I forget about it, and never think deep on it?  Didn't cover my bases systematically and constantly.  Didn't write my ideas.  (2) Why have I renewed interest in politics?  I feel I can make a difference.  I have goals, I want to change things.  I spent enough time away, and did what I needed to.	09/20/1993

Politics.	Me.  My platform.  (1) Free college level education via the Internet.  (2) Four day work week, with Friday off for lifelong learning classes and free psychotherapy from a computer via the Internet.  (3) Free lifelong learning via the Internet.  (4) Free Internet access.	12/26/1997

Politics.	Me.  Paul's political situation.  Paul's political philosophy (thinking).  Paul's political action.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Media and politics.  Power holders influencing media content.  The corporations influencing the media.  The government influencing the media.  The rich influencing the media.	8/24/2004

Politics.	Moderate vs. extreme.  On the political spectrum, moderates face opposition from both sides.  Fanatics, on either end of the political spectrum, face opposition from only one side.  Fanaticism is an attempt to cut one's opposition in half.  (pun).	9/22/2003

Politics.	Moderate/extreme.  How to dress like a moderate liberal, without becoming a fence sitting, middle of the roader, or a conservative; and still push like a radical, without being labeled a radical.  Not too moderate to be ineffective, not too radical to be ineffective.	01/01/1993

Politics.	Moderate/extreme.  Middle of the road vs. radical liberals.  More change can be made if you cajole or beg someone to take a little step than if you shout and order them to take a big step?	08/24/1994

Politics.	Moderate/extreme.  Moderates play good cop, radical extremists play bad cop.  You need both, radicals to push, and moderates to appear conciliatory.	12/15/1994

Politics.	More important than asking whether a person is a democrat or republican is asking whether they are interested in politics or not, and whether they are interested in politics on the global, national or local level.  That is, before we sort the left from the right we must sort the political from the apolitical, and the cosmopolitan from the provincial.	6/1/2003

Politics.	Most important idea about politics.  The focus of politics should be justice.  Justice has an ethical dimension.  Politics has an ethical dimension.  There is no politics apart from ethical considerations.  The focus of politics should not be merely power.	5/29/2007

Politics.	Most important ideas.  (1) The biggest issues (big picture) are international issues like international government, international law, international economics, international finance, international trade, international development, etc.  (2) The two big issues in international politics are the environment and social justice.  Creating sustainable democracy is the goal.  The main question is who are the biggest polluters, who have the biggest birth rate problems, and who are the biggest human rights abusers, and who are the most aggressive or war-like.  (3) You can talk about (A) Those with the most power.  The players.  (B) Those countries with the most human lives at stake: India, Africa, China.  (C) The best and worst countries, as far as polluters, human rights abusers, war makers.	4/15/1998

Politics.	Most people choose a president based on an emotional reaction.  Therefore, no amount of reason and argument will persuade them.  These people are looking for someone they find physically appealing, with a pleasant voice, someone who seems affable.  In this way the presidential election is not much more than a high school popularity contest	11/18/2004

Politics.	National boundaries are arbitrary.  The nations of tomorrow will be groups of people, physically spread out, who hold similar views.	8/9/1999

Politics.	Nationalism, patriotism, xenophobia, bigotry, "My country, right or wrong". Nationalism, like religion and politics, brings out the worst tribal instincts.	11/30/2003

Politics.	Nationalism.  Love my country?  I am a world citizen, so why should I love one country more than another?  I want to see all countries do well.  I want to see all people do well.  I do not play favorites with people.  I do not play favorites with countries.	11/22/2005

Politics.	Nationalism.  Nationalism defined as culture pride can lead to feelings of national superiority and cultural imperialism, which can lead to intolerance, oppression and exploitation.	1/4/2004

Politics.	Nationalism.  Rabid nationalism is wrong.  Blind patriotism is wrong.  People who think "My country, right or wrong", are wrong.	2/28/2004

Politics.	Nature of politics.  (1) We have needs to stay alive, regardless of others.  (2) Wants, to stay ahead of others.  (3) Concessions to get needs and wants: bargains and deals.  Who gets the better end of it?	12/30/1992

Politics.	Neutrality is impossible.  Even if it was possible, it is an ethically wimpy and indefensible position.	07/11/1997

Politics.	Neutrality.  There is no such thing as being neutral.	06/10/1997

Politics.	Neutrality.  There is no such thing as neutrality.	06/05/1997

Politics.	Organized crime is waiting to move in.  If civilization fails, if law crumbles, organized crime is waiting to take advantage of the situation.  Organized crime wants to seize as much money and power as they can, by any means possible.	6/14/2004

Politics.	Peace yields development of civilization.  War causes destruction of civilization.	08/24/1994

Politics.	Peace.  Less than optimal views of peace.  Peace defined as the short period between wars.  Peace defined as a time to prepare for war.  Peace defined as a temporary cease fire.	5/17/2005

Politics.	People complain that politicians don't believe in anything.  Who cares what politicians believe in?  What politicians believe in is not important.  Politicians are elected to represent their constituents.  Politicians are paid to do what their constituents want.  If there comes a time when what a politician believes differs from what his constituents believe then the politician should still do what his constituents believe.  What is important is how hard a politician works for his constituents.  So, to sum up:  We the people hire (elect) politicians.  What is important is how well the politician follows the peoples orders.  Following the will of the people is what makes a good politician.  Politicians should be treated like baseball players.  It does not matter whose team they play for, as long as they help that team win.	4/16/2000

Politics.	Philosophy of a government (ideas).  Practical policies of a government (actions).	12/30/1992

Politics.	Platform.  (1) My political platform.  My political views and reasons.  My position on the issues.  This is where I stand on the issues.  See the "Politics, issues" section.  (2) Everyone should create their own political platform.  Building a political platform is one of the first steps in political participation for every citizen.  Political platforms are not only for politicians.	1/4/2007

Politics.	Political agents: major and minor political players, source of their power, and their political agendas.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political Agents.  (1) Corporations.  (2) Special-interest groups.  (Example, industry groups, labor unions).  (3) Political action committees (pacs).  (4) Do they run America?  How much influence do they have?	9/15/1998

Politics.	Political agents.  (1) Strength: intellectual, emotional passion, actions able.  (2) Struggles: allies, enemies, and why.  (3) Conflict: number, size, form.  (4) Power: how much, what source, how well use, for what.  (5) Form of entry into group.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  (1) The elite's (political, intellectual, economic, etc.).  (2) The masses.  (3) Popular opinion: ways to manipulate popular opinion.  Advertising, rhetoric, propaganda.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Groups and parties.  (1) Number of members.  (2) Philosophical beliefs.  (3) Cohesiveness: degree, and source.  (4) Behavior: peaceful vs. violent.  Tolerant vs. intolerant.  Cooperation vs. competition.  (5) Struggles: allies, enemies, forms of conflict.  (6) Strength of group.  (7) Form of entry into group.  (8) History of group.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Masses: public opinion and public action.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Masses.  How big, how strong.  What mood (happy, unhappy, and why).  How much they know about what's going on.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Masses.  Statistical analysis of public opinion on x.  Ask them what position do they hold.  Where did they get this view from.  How much they think about x.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Masses.  Voter as thinking "change vs. no change" vs. understanding issues and positions.  How best to reach voters.  Attack opponent vs. promote self.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Number of members.  Philosophy/beliefs.  Intra-group and inter-group cohesions: similarities and differences.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Parties: cadre, mass.  Party systems: single, dual, multi.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political agents.  Parties.  Party politics is tribal politics.  Love and respect of one's own party, and fear, distrust and hatred of the opposing party, run as deep and strong in man as the tribal instinct.  It is all pure instinct and emotion.  People want to join into groups of "Us against them.  Friends and enemies."  The emotions you see at a political convention are tribal emotions.	08/24/1994

Politics.	Political analysis: How many in power?  How is power wielded?  Static analysis vs. dynamic analysis.  Analysis of political situation before event, during event, and after event.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political conversions.  Benjamin Spock changed from conservative to liberal.  Ezra Pound changed from decadent to nazi fascist.	12/30/1996

Politics.	Political factors (elements, variables, structure, mechanism, relationships).  (1) Political situation or environment: natural environment, social environment.  (2) Political process (mechanism).  (3) Political forces on  (4) Political entities: political individuals, political groups and parties.  (5) Political needs of entities.  (6) Political issues about needs.  (7) Political views on issues: political theory, political opinions.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political factors.  (1) Political thought.  (2) Political communication.  (3) Political behavior and action.  (4) Political events.  (5) Political struggles: fight vs. seduce; negotiate, persuade.  (6) Political policy.  (7) Political change.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political process.  Political environment or situation includes political actors or entities or agents who hold political ideas, and engage in political actions, i.e. struggle for political power to obtain values to get goals which they wield ethically or not, and create.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political science.  What: study of political situations and relationships that exist.  How: facts, theories.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political situation or environment.  Environment, problems, number of people, number of philosophies on solutions.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political spectrum: socio-economico-political doctrines.  For each point on political spectrum figure out (1) History of theory (political philosophy), and history of action (political science).  (2) Philosophical beliefs: politics, economic, sociology.  Subject, issue, view, argument, evidence.  (3) Factors: for development, for decay.  (4) Varieties of each.  (5) Do this for fascism, conservatism, middle of the road, liberalism, radicalism.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political struggle yields a power holder, which yields political actions.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political superpower, like economic monopoly, is a bad thing.  Hegemony is a bad thing.	5/16/2007

Politics.	Political support or opposition.  Supporters vs. detractors.  In thought, word, and action.  Open vs. private.  Degree support/oppose ends or means.  Degree peaceful vs. violent.  Size of movement.  How just are the movements means and ends?  How effective?	12/30/1992

Politics.	Political system.  (1) Running as planned vs. not running as planned.  (2) Meeting goals vs. not meeting goals.  (3) Degree of control desired vs. whether they are achieving that control, or are out of control.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Politician talk, "Let's put our differences behind us and work together in the future.  Let's move forward in a positive manner."	12/30/1996

Politics.	Politicians: we used to call them liars, now we call them actors.	10/27/2003

Politics.	Politics among the ethical and unethical.	2/12/2002

Politics.	Politics and knowledge of participants.  Politics among the dim and ignorant.  Politics among the savvy and knowledgeable.	2/12/2002

Politics.	Politics as rules or norms.  Formal rules vs. informal rules.  % rules followed.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Politics as social conflict.  Some people dislike and avoid social conflict.  Other people enjoy and seek out social conflict.  It is a problem when in a two party system one party is conflict avoidant and the other party is conflict attractant.	11/10/2004

Politics.	Politics for any individual.  Personal political situation faced with.  Personal political philosophy hold.  Personal political action done.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Politics for any specific group.  What is the best political system and not and why?  Balancing goal getting vs. justice, freedom, and equality.  Group vs. individual rights.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Politics is based on (1) Sociology.  There is no politics for isolated individuals.  (2) Communication.  Dialogue, diplomacy, words before actions.  (3) Knowledge.  Participants must know what is going on.  Open society.  (4) Interests, needs, and desires.  Resources: power and stuff.  (5) Ethics: good and bad.  (7) Computers can help the knowledge and communication aspects.  Computers can help societies change faster.  Computers can also help societies (laws) react faster to the changes that take place in society.	11/30/1997

Politics.	Politics is not just about national governments and laws.  Politics is at work in every area of society and at every level of society.  The big problem in politics is abuse of power and trampling the rights of others.     PART TWO.  Politics broadly defined as power relations.  Politics narrowly defined as government and law.  Broadly defined politics takes place outside the arena of government.  Examples, family politics, workplace politics, etc.     PART THREE.  Abuses of power.  Unethical tactics.  Oppression, exploitation, corruption, crime, harassment, threats.	11/21/2003

Politics.	Politics, Economics, and Technology.  (1) Politics: who are the rising and falling powers?  (2) Economics: who has money and who does not have money?  (3) Technology: who has technology and who does not have technology?	5/16/2007

Politics.	Politics, innate or learned?  (1) Is the desire or propensity to engage in politics innate or learned?  Are extroverts politico-philic, and introverts politico-phobic?  (2) Is the tendency to become a left-winger or right-winger innate or learned?  Do altruists become left wingers?  Do egotists become right wingers?  Do those who like change become left-wingers?  Do those who dislike change become right-wingers?  (3) Is it true that political affiliation changes with age?  Are the young more liberal?  Are old people more conservative?  Do as many people switch political affiliation as not?  Do as many people switch political affiliation in one direction as another?  If so, is that change innate or learned?	7/26/2006

Politics.	Problems.  Dictatorship.  Corruption.  Anarchy.  Injustice.	1/1/2005

Politics.	Problems.  Historical situations to avoid.  (1) African military coup de' tat.  How to keep the military under control?  (2) Communist secret police.  How to keep the police under control?  (3) Russian, Italian, and Asian organized crime.  How to keep them under control?  (4) Rich kings.  How to avoid exploitation of resources by rulers.  (5) South America drug lords implicated in murdering judges and newspaper reporters.	7/18/1998

Politics.	Problems.  Many countries still have little freedom, little justice, little equality.  (1) Child labor.  Depriving children the right to education as an even starting line.  (2) Women under the veil.  Women deprived the vote.  Women the property of husband.  Women excluded from the workplace.  (3) Blocked and banned information.  (4) Imprisonment and death without trial.  (5) Hit squads.  (6) Government fraud.  (7) No democracy.  Dictatorship.  (8) Uneducated population.	9/15/1998

Politics.	Progressive politicians.  (1) Admirable people.  Bernie Sanders.  Barney Frank.  Sheldon Silver.  Elliot Spitzer.  Howard Dean.  Paul Wellstone.  Dennis Kucinnich.  Harvey Milk.  Shirley Chisolm.  Bela Abzug.  Al Franken.  (2) How can you be pessimistic about politics?  How can you say politicians lacks idealism?  How can you say that you do not want to get involved?  Democracy, politics by and for the people, requires you to be involved.  If you are not involved then you abdicate to the sleazy opposition.	4/26/2007

Politics.	Progressivism and politics.  Understand the political dimension of the Progressive movement.	5/5/2007

Politics.	Public opinion.  Ways of measuring public opinion.  (1) Public opinion polling.  Create an unbiased statistical sample of the public's opinion on an issue.  (2) Public opinion does not have to be measured by a statistical sample.  Public opinion can be measured by direct response of the public.  The public can vote informally.  This does not have to have the finality of legal voting.  You can give every person a voice or "vote" and let them respond anonymously to the issues.  But you can't force people to participate if they don't want to.  And you need to figure out a way to prevent people from voting twice.	2/28/2004

Politics.	Real politics (what is the situation.  what is practical) vs. normative politics (what should be).	12/30/1992

Politics.	Resources (money, people, stuff) and distribution of resources.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Size and politics.  Politics and size of group.  (1) Small group politics.  Example, New England town meeting.  Example, Robert's Rules of Order.  (2) Large group politics.  Example, representative democracy.	2/12/2002

Politics.	Size and politics.  Politics in small and large societies.  (1) Small, simple societies.  Face to face interaction.  Everyone knows everyone.  There is time for everyone to discuss everything.  (2) Large, complex societies.  No face to face.  Anonymity, strangers.  No one knows everything.  Representative democracy.	11/30/1997

Politics.	Size and politics.  Politics of the small group (under fifty persons) vs. politics of the large group (more than fifty persons).  Today the large group is much more like the small group than it was in the past, due to communication technology.	1/20/1999

Politics.	Stopping a charge.  (1) To stop a charge, they can cut you off at the legs as you run.  (2) To stop a charge, they can cut you off at the throat as you yell "Charge!".  (3) To stop a charge they can cut you off at the mind as you think "Its time to charge."  (4) The second is easier than the first, and the third is easier than the second.  Corporations, religions, parents and other power structures try to do number three first.  They know the mind leads the mouth and the mouth leads the legs.  They aim at the mind.  They try to get you to stop thinking and then they tell you what to believe and obey.  (5) Ways how they do this.  (A) Outlaw education.  (B) Devalue education.  Disparage education.  (C) Devalue communication.  Devalue conversation.  (D) Devalue books.  Devalue reading and writing.  Or say that there is one book that will solve everything.  (E) Propaganda.  (F) Seduction or temptation.  (G) Threat, coercion or force.  (H) Devalue introspection.  Keep you too busy to think.  (I) Limit your experience.  Keep you on a narrow path.  Keep you in a small world.  (J) Reward obedience with praise.  Punish dissent.	7/6/2000

Politics.	Subject, issues, aspects (sides), perspectives (viewpoints).	12/30/1992

Politics.	Terror.  Reasons not to use terror tactics.  No suicide attacks.  Don't stoop so low.  No kill non-combatants.  Even if enemy does.  Maintain an ethics of war, like the French resistance did under Nazi occupation.	9/2/2004

Politics.	The basis of politics today should be the recognition by the individual that, "I am a global citizen first, not a national citizen, not an ethnic citizen, not a tribal citizen."	1/31/2004

Politics.	The big political problem is (1) Disempowered people, uneducated, poor, ill, exploited, intimidated, oppressed.  (2) Power abusers, who rob people, who bully people, who deny people rights, who intimidate people, who murder people.	10/12/2006

Politics.	The big question is: What kind of country do we want?  What is government's job to do?  Some say governments job is to blindly follow the constitution.  (A) They say this because they feel the constitution worked for 200 years (with many amendments).  (B) They say this because they think the writers of the constitution were all geniuses (and they think there have been no geniuses since then?).  (C) They are a bunch of authoritarian, founding-father worshipers.	4/16/2000

Politics.	The most important thing about politics is to get involved in politics.  Think about politics.  Get involved in political discussion and debate.  Vote.  Protest.	5/27/2007

Politics.	The power that power-holders hold vs. the power that power-holders say they hold.  Purported political philosophy espoused vs. actual political philosophy used.	12/30/1992

Politics.	The real battle is against injustice, crime, force, terror, violence, war and feuds.	2/12/2002

Politics.	The real test of a political system is if it can handle the maximum amount of diversity that is still ethical.	6/22/2001

Politics.	The realm of politics is not just the realm of social power.  The realm of politics is the realm of everything.	2/28/2002

Politics.	The state (the nation) defined as the largest area of law.  Move to another area and you are in another state (nation).  Counter-argument one: there have been people charged by an international council with war crimes against humanity.  Thus, the largest area of law is the world.  Counter-argument two: Universal law would apply to all sentient beings in the universe.  So the state (nation) is not so fundamental after all.	2/18/2004

Politics.	The world political system must have the ability to respond, in a just manner, to any person or group, of any size, that has committed any act based on any philosophical viewpoint.	1/27/2007

Politics.	To paraphrase Michael Parente, "Educate, organize, agitate."	7/1/2005

Politics.	Trends.  (1) Computers will increase communication, which will cause a decrease in the power of nation states.  Due to globalization, an increase in world government will occur.  (2) Computers will cause downsizing of government.  (3) Computers will cause change in democracy, making it more participative, with voting from home.	12/29/1997

Politics.	Two big questions in politics are:  (1) How do you educate and motivate hypo-political individuals?  The apolitical.  The politically inactive.  The politically apathetic.  The loners.  The passives.  The non-voters.  (2) How do you educate, guide and reign in the hyper-political individual?  The power hogs.  The war mongers.  The megalomaniacs.  The unjust.	2/21/2004

Politics.	Two views of politics.   (1) Politics as about justice.  (2) Politics as about power.  (3) I hold the former.	11/8/2004

Politics.	Two views.  (1) Take shit, and then give shit.  (2) Take no shit, give no shit to others.  The latter view is best.	03/20/1993

Politics.	Types of rights, and spectrums of individuals rights.  Totally free vs. totally unfree.	12/30/1992

Politics.	Uniform wearing societies are pathological.  No freedom of speech, expression, and thus thought.  Freedom of speech is synonymous with freedom of expression (visual arts, dance, fashion, music), which is related to freedom of emotional expression.  Freedom of speech also helps ensure freedom of thought.  Freedom of thought and emotional expression help ensure up a psychologically healthy population.  This is politic's relation to psychology and art.  More people go crazy under repressive regimes.  A society that makes its members wear uniforms is a repressive regime.	9/15/1998

Politics.	United States foreign policy is created by the rich and powerful, and serves the interests of the rich and powerful, which is, namely, to conserve their riches and power and to get more riches and power.  The rich and powerful in the US today are corporations.  For example, during the latter half of the twentieth century, the US propped up a series of right wing South American dictators, largely to the benefit of US corporations.	8/25/2004

Politics.	United States foreign policy is one of self preservation through the accumulation of resources.  The aim of US foreign policy is to maintain and extend US power abroad.  The US wants to exercise control and influence through the use of political, economic and military power.  (1) Military power: control of land, sea and air.  (A) Military sea power: control ocean bottlenecks like the Dardanelles, Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Cape Horn, Cape Hope, North Sea and Jakarta Straight.  (B) Military air power: have US planes circling the globe 24x7 and without impediments.  (C) Military land power: control the land corridors between land obstacles of mountains, jungles and desserts.  Control the roads.  Have military bases in many foreign countries.  (2) Economic power.  Get US corporations into other countries.  Get a steady supply of raw materials at ridiculously low prices.  Exploit foreign natural resources.  Exploit foreign labor.  Make other countries economically dependent on the US.  Make other countries markets for American goods.  (3) Political power.  Gain allies.  Isolate enemies.  Use a political public relations campaign.  Control the media.  (4) Technological power.  Maintain a technological edge over other countries through R&D for the military-industrial complex.	9/2/2004

Politics.	United States foreign policy.  (1) The US tries to corner all the natural resources.  The US tries to corner all the money.  The US tries to corner all the power.  (2) Is America's foreign policy one of "Truth and justice first" or is it one of "Money and power first"?  (3) US foreign policy serves US corporations.  (4) US foreign policy is self serving, not altruistic.	9/1/2004

Politics.	United States of America.  (1) Rights and duties of being a legal adult in the USA.  Vote.  Drink.  Drive a car.  Work.  Be your own guardian.  Join armed forces.  Get drafted.  Pay taxes.  Be guardian of your kids.  Adopt a kid.  Get a passport and visa.  Legal culpability for crimes.  Buy a house and car.  Legal marriage.  Bank loans.  Open a business.  Have sex with another adult.  (2) Because they lack the above rights, teens feel disenfranchised, alienated and angry.  All teens can do is get a library card.	4/16/2000

Politics.	United States of America.  Current U.S. politics.  (1) Situations: good and bad points.  (2) Issues and alternative courses of action available.  (3) Answers, solutions, views, plans.  Who and how many hold them.  (4) Analyze all aspects of political situation now, past, and future.  Swot, problems.	12/30/1992

Politics.	United States of America.  Views of the american people on the major issues (race, sex, gender, environment, religion etc.)  (1) Do we hold shit views?  (2) How does holding shit views affect us?  (3) Are we in trouble?  (4) Do the people think or know we are in trouble?	09/25/1993

Politics.	United States of America.  What does America mean?  Practicality and pragmatism?  Independence?  Revolutionary spirit?  Pioneer spirit?	12/30/1996

Politics.	United States.  Differences between what the American government administration does, motivated by power and money, influenced by big business, versus what the typical American citizen thinks, surrounded in their cocoon of willful ignorance, and enshrouded in a mental haze due to overwork.	6/26/2004

Politics.	Views for and against politics and political participation.  (1) Positive views of politics:  Government is good and necessary.  Democracy is good.  Politics is about law making and justice.  Everything has a political side.  Political participation is good and necessary.  Political participation is effective.  (2) Negative views of politics:  Politicians lie.  Politics is dirty.  Politics is corrupt.  Government is not necessary.  Political participation is futile.  (3) I think the pros outweigh the cons in politics.	12/2/2006

Politics.	Voting.  If a town does not have enough money to hire enough poll workers and buy enough voting machines so that everyone in that town can vote during the hours that polls are open, then the people need more time to vote.  America should vote on weekends, when people have time off from work, allowing two days instead of one day for voting.	11/5/2004

Politics.	Voting.  Some people mistakenly try to argue the following: (1) Both candidates are  the same.  (2) The President has no power and doesn't do anything anyway.  (3) Grassroots effects change, not elected officials.  (4) Another Bush term will build problems to the point where grassroots action will be mobilized.  (5) They even said that Zinn backs them up, even though Zinn said to vote for Kerry.  They say that Chomsky backs them up even when Chomsky says its worth voting for Kerry.  (6) Ironically, after Bush won the election, these people were crying out about how bad it was.	11/1/2004

Politics.	Voting.  Two objections sometimes heard are that that voting is hopeless and that both candidates are the same.  Counterarguments: (1) To not vote is, in effect, to cast a vote for the opposing party.  (2) If you say that both sides are the same then you might as well vote for the other side.	10/10/2004

Politics.	Voting.  Why are the elections so close?  The voting public can be described by a bell curve, with the majority of voters grouped around the middle.  The Democrats and Republicans look to see where the middle is, where the majority hold their views, and then pitch messages near the center.  The Democrats aim slightly left of center.  The Republicans aim slightly right of center.	10/10/2004

Politics.	Wants (needs and luxuries) yield values.  Values yield goals (ends).  Goals yield strategies and tactics (means, policies).	12/30/1992

Politics.	What is my platform?  Everyone should have a political platform, not only politicians.  Everyone should have a public political platform.	12/28/2006

Politics.	What is politics?  Everything is potentially political if put into play by you or others.	12/14/2005

Politics.	What is politics?  Humans are political animals.  All human affairs have a political dimension to them.  All subjects that humans are involved in have a political side to them.  Politics is unavoidable, much like ethics.	10/5/2005

Politics.	What is politics?  Politics is difficult.  Politics, at its worst, is a dirty, sleazy, treacherous business.  Politics at its best is life affirming.  Politics is important and not to be ignored.  Politics takes time and energy.	5/12/2005

Politics.	What is politics?  Politics should be defined as societal ethics.   Politics is an endeavor of ethics.  Politics should not be limited to discussions about power.  Politics is about ethics, not power.  Politics is about justice.  Justice is a concept of ethics.  Politics is essentially a normative endeavor.  Political science, in its attempt to be non-normative, is a half-assed pursuit.	2/27/2007

Politics.	What is the situation we are faced with (causes and effects)?  What are our alternatives?  Rule out what alternatives, why?  Of the remaining choices, who holds which positions and why?	12/30/1992

Politics.	What.  Just as all relationships are sexual, all relationships are political.  Every act (and every thought) has political repercussions, even if only in the mind(s) of the people involved.	01/02/1997

Politics.	What.  What is politics?  Social struggle for power = politics.  Social struggle for stuff = economics.  Both are interrelated.	12/30/1992

Politics.	When can you justify the following behaviors?  (1) Not breaking the law, yet engaging in non-violent protest.  (2) Breaking the law.  (A) Non-violent protest vs. violent protest.  (B) Ethical actions vs. unethical actions.  (3) Revolution.  Rebellion.  Subversion.  Resistance.	7/30/2002

Politics.	Why do people seek power?  Why do people run for office?  Why do people study politics?	12/30/1992

Politics.	World politics.  (1) Nineteenth century was England's.  Twentieth century was the United States.  Twenty first century will be China's.  (2) America's lead is dwindling.  The rest of the world is catching up.	9/1/2004

Politics.	World vs. nation.  In a global federation, one nation attacking another will seem as silly to us as the thought of New York declaring war on New Jersey.	8/8/1999

Politics.	World vs. nation.  Just as we are free to choose what Internet Service Provider we use, so should people be free to vote for what country they want to belong to.  In today's age of the Internet, when time and space are being conquered by communication and transportation technologies, the concept of "nation" as we currently know it is less important.  Individuals have greater power and freedom to choose their government.	11/20/1999

Politics.	World vs. nation.  Politics today is not about the nation state for three reasons.  (1) Inter-national cooperation has evolved to the point were national isolation is inadvisable.  (2) Cultural homogenization is proceeding to the point where cultural differences are less pronounced.  Also, tolerance of multi-cultural diversity is progressing to the point where cultural differences are less of an obstacle.  (3) Technology is getting smaller yet more powerful, so that we have to deal with the technologically destructive power of individuals and small groups as well as nations.	6/22/2001

Politics.	World vs. nation.  The world is now the big nation state.  In the history of the world there is a trend toward increasingly larger areas of cooperation.  The tribe was perhaps 100 people in 10 square miles.  The feudal principality was perhaps 10,000 people in 1000 square miles.  The nation state is perhaps 10 million people in 1000000 square miles.  Next is the world federation.  And then comes a galactic federation.	6/30/2000

Psychology, attitude, development.	.This section is about the development of attitudes.  Topics include: ( ) Causes.  ( ) Change.	1/24/2006

Psychology, attitude, development.	After every experience (especially new experiences) the brain unconsciously says to itself "What did we learn from this experience?"  Thus, we are constantly creating new attitudes.  Sometimes we make a mistake when the wrong conclusion is drawn.	11/20/2001

Psychology, attitude, development.	Attitude adjustment, change in attitude.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Attitude change, three hypotheses.  (1) The more unconscious an attitude is the tougher it is to change.  (2) The more basic and foundational an attitude is the tougher it is to change.  (3) Attitudes that have a strong emotional component are tougher to change than attitudes within mild emotional component.	2/13/2002

Psychology, attitude, development.	Attitude change.  (1) You can have the same view but think more or less of it.  (2) You can have a different view, but hold it just as strongly, and in same degree of positive or negative.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Attitude development depends on emotional development, thinking development, social development, and ethical development.  (Ethics is a type of attitude?).	5/30/1998

Psychology, attitude, development.	Causes.  (1) First hand (figured out): positive, negative.  Thinking for self.  (2) Second hand (found out): positive, negative.  Learning from others: family, peers, society.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Causes.  (1) Genetics.  (2) Experiences (1st hand).  Environment: natural vs. manmade.  People.  Your behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Causes.  Adverse variables.  Ignorance.  Emotion problems: excess emotion, lack of emotion, or wrong emotion.  Stress.  Neurosis or psychosis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Causes.  At what age the experience occurs.  Type of experience, duration, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Causes.  Formation and development.  Unconscious and conscious (directed conscious and undirected conscious).	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  (1) Past, present, future attitudes (change, learning).  (2) How easily changed, in what direction, by who.  (3) How quickly, how permanently, by what method.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Attitude going into, during, and after an experience or event.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Change in attitude due to change in knowledge base, or change in reasoning types.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Everything we experience (mentally and physically), changes our attitude, to a greater or lesser degree, as we live.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Going in, preconceived attitudes, prejudice.  Not too pro and not too contra.  Optimism vs. pessimism.  Expectations: high vs. low.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Historical development of world, society, and individual attitudes.  (1) Past attitudes: best and worst.  (2) Current attitudes: best and worst.  (3) Future attitudes: best and worst.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  How an event or experience changes your attitude about a subject.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  How can I get you (or me) to change your mind?  (1) Sometimes it happens instantly or quickly.  Sometimes slowly, over a long period of time.  (2) Sometimes it takes no work (natural, effortless).  Sometimes it takes much work.  (3) Sometimes it happens from within (figure out).  Sometimes it happens from without (find out).  (4) Sometimes it is for worse (decay).  Sometimes it is for better (growth).	06/15/1994

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Momentary attitudes vs. permanent attitudes (reoccurring, enduring).	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  To change your attitude: (1) Expose or reveal your attitudes.  (2) Document your attitudes.  (3) Critique your attitudes.	11/15/2000

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Variability in attitude: degree, speed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  We are constantly forming and changing attitudes, all the time, on everything we experience physically and mentally.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Change.  Your attitude about past, present, and future themselves is very important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Conscious attitudes vs. unconscious attitudes.  Your conscious attitudes are sometimes the result of a set of unconscious supporting or related attitudes.  The unconscious attitudes might not be true, logical or optimal.  To improve your conscious attitudes it often requires that you reveal and examine your unconscious attitudes.  Here philosophy and psychotherapy have much in common.	6/12/2004

Psychology, attitude, development.	Effects of holding any attitude.  Things you do and do not do.  Things that happen to you as a result of your actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	Effects of taking a different attitude.  How much will taking a different attitude change my life?  Changing attitudes with (1) Logic and reasoned argument.  (2) Empirical evidence.  (3) Emotional appeal.	6/1/1999

Psychology, attitude, development.	How long it takes you to develop an optimal attitude for a situation (metaphysics), and for action (ethics).	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, development.	How to change attitude.  (1) Change experiences.  (A) Environment.  (B) Actions.  (2) Change thoughts.  (A) New facts.  (B) New reasoning.  New logic.  (3) Change emotions.  (A) Develop new emotions.  (B) Increase emotional knowledge.	3/24/2000

Psychology, attitude, development.	To grow as a person is to create new and better attitudes toward everything.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	.This section is about ideal attitudes, problems with attitudes, and techniques for attitudes.	1/24/2006

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Best attitude is most optimal: works well.  Best attitude is not necessarily most positive: not sunshine and daisies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Eager to fight.  Up for the struggle.  Certain that progress (for me and society) is ready to be won if we meet the challenge.  This caffeine-high attitude (optimism) is what you must recreate naturally, all the time, to an extreme degree, in order to create well.	08/15/1994

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Optimal attitude yields optimal behavior.  And optimal behavior is what we want to acheive.  Optimal attitude gets goals: needs, and wants.  Sub-optimal doesn't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  The right emotion.  The right thought: metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical knowledge.  Towards any thing: specific physical things, and abstract ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Ideally our attitudes should be toward truth and justice.  Ideally our attitudes should be about social justice and environmental sustainability.  Ideally our attitudes should be about psychological and physical health.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Attitudinal confusion: counter arguments, multiple emotions.  Conflicting attitudes: in same person, at same time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Determining optimal attitude.  Solution: much analysis of metaphysical and ethical situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Old and new sub-optimal attitudes creep in.  Solution: optimal attitude development, study, practice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Attitude problems.  Unhealthy attitude.  Poor attitude.  Bad attitude.  Negative attitude.  In view towards self, others, world.	5/15/2004

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Examine your attitudes.  Document your attitudes.  Talk about your attitudes.  (2) Examine the thought component of the attitude.  What are the arguments for and against the attitude.  (3) Examine the emotional component of the attitude.  What emotions are you feeling about the thought component of the attitude.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (see also sports psychology, optimal performance).	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Develop current best attitudes for all things.  General to specific things, and important to unimportant things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Expose the hidden assumptions and confront the ignored implications of your attitudes.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  It pays to be friendly and confident.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Observe your attitudes.  Criticize (analyze and judge) your attitudes.  Change and improve your attitudes.  Monitor your attitudes as you live in daily life.  Change to new ones decided on.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Spotting suboptimal attitudes and determining why.  Monitor, analyze and judge your attitudes at all times.  Develop, study, and practice optimal attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Techniques for handling or changing your attitudes.  (1) Self help: Behavioral conditioning.  Thought conditioning (cognitive psychology).  Altering your environment (environment psychology).  (2) Help from others.  (3) Help for others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Ways how to change them, what to change them to.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	.This section is about types of attitudes.  Topics include: ( ) Basic attitudes.  ( ) Good attitudes.  ( ) Bad attitudes.  ( ) Types of attitudes.	1/24/2006

Psychology, attitude, types.	(1) Attitude internal (unconscious, conscious).  (2) Attitude projected (unconscious, conscious).	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Bad attitudes that most people have.  They are dejected, beaten down, given up, (self) learned helplessness. (1) I cannot do anything.  I am helpless.  One person cannot do anything.  You cannot change the system.  You cannot beat the system.  (2) I cannot think of anything worthwhile to do.  (3) I cannot bring myself to do it.  (4) There's no purpose to life.  Nothing matters.  (5) I do not know what's going on.  Cannot even find out.  They keep it hidden.  I am too dumb.	3/30/1998

Psychology, attitude, types.	Bad attitudes.  (1) Snob attitudes:  I am great.  I am better than you.  You are shit.  I deserve the best.  I can do it.  (2) Loser attitudes:  I suck.  You are better than me.  You are god.  I deserve shit.  I can't do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Bad attitudes.  Pathological attitudes.  Not necessarily crazy, just ignorant.     PART ONE.  The following attitudes lead you to never figure-out anything.  (1) "Don't think and don't talk".  This is one of the worst pathological attitudes because it leads to many other bad attitudes.  (2) "Thinking and talking are worthless or bad".  (3) Too busy to think or talk.  (4)  Just obey orders, don't think or talk.     PART TWO.  The following attitudes lead you to never find-out anything.  (1) "I know it all already."  (2)  Stay in your own Private Idaho.  (3) Never explore.  (4) Be afraid.  (5) Stay obsessed and preoccupied with trivialities or a narrow area of interest.	1/22/2002

Psychology, attitude, types.	Bad attitudes.  Two bad attitudes.  (1) I will never be able to do anything (job, school, girlfriend).  Nothing is coming to me, automatically or through effort.  (2) Everything is coming to me automatically.	08/15/1994

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  (1) Work.  Industriousness.  Solve problems.  Versus.  (2) Relax.  Take it easy.  Mellow out.  Enjoy.  Pleasure.  Do nothing.	4/16/2006

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  Another major underlying attitude is the question, "What is the purpose of life?  Why are we here?"  (1) Enjoy yourself.  (2) Do something useful.  (3) Both 1 and 2.	6/11/2002

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  Attitudes toward life, people and self.  (1) Positive attitude.  "Life, people and self is good."  (2) Negative attitude.  "Life, people and self are not good".  (3) Neutral attitude.  Either, "Life, people and self are neither good nor bad".  Or, "Life, people and self are half good and half bad".  (4) Practical attitude.  "Good or bad, its the only game in town".	6/11/2002

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  Everyone, at all times, carries around these basic attitudes, which can change from moment to moment, day to day, year to year. (1) I'm ok vs. i'm not ok.  (2) World is ok vs. world is not ok.  (3) It is going to change (for better or worse) vs. it won't.  (4) I can change it vs. I can't.  (5) Everything's going to be all right vs. it's not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  Major attitudes are toward (1) Toward nature and the environment.  (2) Toward other people, animals, robots.  (3) Toward your own mind and body.  (4) Toward work and leisure.	6/3/2001

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  The most basic attitudes: your attitudes toward life, self, others and nature.	9/28/1998

Psychology, attitude, types.	Basic attitudes.  There exists basic human attitudes.  These basic attitudes are held toward (1) Self: body and mind.  (2) Your life.  (3) The world, and life in general.  (4) A person can look at the above three basic attitudes in a positive way or a negative way.	3/25/1999

Psychology, attitude, types.	DIY.  The Do-It-Yourself mentality.  Sometimes we tend to think that the Do-It-Yourself mentality applies only to home repairs.  But isn't DIY the attitude that artists have as well?  Isn't DIY the attitude that inventors have as well?  Isn't DIY the attitude that philosophers have as well?  It turns out that DIY is a rather prevalent attitude.  And DIY is a healthy attitude.	7/11/2000

Psychology, attitude, types.	Good and bad attitudes.  (1) Good attitude:  Positive.  Thankful.  Feel lucky to have what you have.  Look forward to betterment of self and others.  (2) Bad attitude:  Negative.  Smug.  Content.	12/30/1996

Psychology, attitude, types.	Good and bad attitudes.  (1) Poor attitudes.  Attitudes that lower your productivity, reduce your self-esteem, reduce your hope, reduce your creativity and exploration.  There are a lot of people who are not crazy, they just have poor attitudes.  (2) Good attitudes.  Active, inquisitive, not lazy, not arrogant, not fearful, not dismissive.  (3) How to get from the first to the second?  How to change your attitude?	7/30/1998

Psychology, attitude, types.	Good and bad attitudes.  (1)(A) Best attitudes about oneself, people, world, life, goals, and why.  (B) Aggressive (caged lion), assertive, confrontational.  Kick ass, get goals, defend self.  (C) Some actors with attitudes: Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton.  (D) Serious, intelligent.  (E) Use wise humor to get goals.  (F) Beaten, not broken; fighting against doom and destruction.  (G) Cocky, nonchalant.  (H) Go for it, urgent, important.  (I) Clear, calm, undeluded.  (J) Hip, rebellious and free thinking.  (K) Hyper, freakin, drive, righteous anger, combative, barely contained.     (2) Worst attitude about oneself and why (opposites of above).  (A) Deluded, unproductive, unhealthy, discouraging.  (B) Addicted, out of control, crazed.  (C) Passive, withdrawing, repressed.  (D) Lazy, undriven, unmotivated.  (E) Defenseless, diseased.  (F) Will never get a job, will never get a girl.  (G) Criminal, sex criminal.  (H) Apprehensive, chicken, wimp.  (I) Satisfied, smug.  (J) Ashamed, guilty, regretful.  (K) Sheep, drone, destroying self to fit in.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	I don't fear it vs. I do.  I can do it vs. I can't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	More attitudes and situations when they are useful.  (1) What the fu*k.  (2) Fu*k off, fu*k you.  (3) Who gives a fu*k, I don't give a fu*k.  (4) Above are very important and helpful attitudes.  Reduces anxiety, and hardens you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Set attitudes vs. flexible attitudes.  Narrow vs. open.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	The ethically right attitude vs. the socially accepted attitude.  Variance between two.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Three attitudes.  (1) The objective best attitude for us, in general, and in a situation.  (2) The attitude we want to hold.  Our conscious subjective thoughts on best and worst attitudes for us.  (3) The attitude we end up holding.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Three attitudes.  (1) Unmotivated.  (2) Motivated to do or get garbage.  (3) Motivated to do or get good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Types of attitudes.  Conscious/unconscious of it.  Wanted/didn't want it.  Better/worse.  Socially caused: conscious of picking it up, unconscious.  Self caused: consciously developed it, or unconscious.  Healthy/unhealthy.  Optimal/suboptimal.  Optimism/pessimism.  Positive/negative.  Effective/ineffective.  Practical/impractical.  Realistic/unrealistic.  Simple/complex.  True/false.  Internal/expressed.  Ethical/unethical.  Momentary/over any period of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude, types.	Types of attitudes.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Productive vs. unproductive.  True vs. false.  Good vs. evil.	6/4/2002

Psychology, attitude, types.	Types of attitudes.  Positive attitudes and negative attitudes. About the past, present and future.  About self, others, world and life.  Examples of positive attitudes: confident, hopeful, purposeful, meaningful.  Examples of negative attitudes: anger, anxiety, depression.	12/28/2003

Psychology, attitude.	.This section is about various other thoughts on attitudes.  Topics include: ( ) Specific attitudes.  ( ) What is an attitude.	1/24/2006

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Attitudes and their relation to ethics and epistemology, i.e., truth and justice.  You want to hold views that are true and good.  (2) A person has metaphysical attitudes regarding what the person thinks exists.  A person has epistemological attitudes regarding how the person knows.  A person has ethics attitudes regarding what the person thinks is good and bad.	5/15/2005

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Attitudinal strength (degree of belief) is not same as (2) how positive or negative you view subject, which is not same as (3) how healthy or unhealthy the attitude is.  Example, Voltaire's Candide had a strong, positive, unhealthy attitude.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Attitudnal advantage.  Definition: the gains a better attitude will make over a worse one, in a person or between people, all other things being equal.  More realistic, accurate, practical, effective, healthy, productive.  (2) Attitudinal disadvantage: the losses.  Less of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Good attitudes are attitudes that are healthy, true, ethical and just.  (2) Bad attitudes are attitudes that are unhealthy, untrue, unethical and unjust.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude.	(1) How well an attitude you develop.  (2) How quickly you develop it.  (A) Soon enough: partial success, total success.  (B) Too late: partial failure, total failure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Simple attitude: your attitude is the product of a few, easy thoughts, and a few, clear, strong emotions.  (2) Complex attitude: your attitude is the product of many thoughts, and many emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Taking the first attitude that comes to you.  Versus.  (2) Thinking of all the possible attitudes that one could take.  Considering the pros and cons of each attitude.  Then picking the best attitude.  This is the better way.	7/26/2006

Psychology, attitude.	(1) There is a best attitude for each person in each situation.  (2) The best attitude changes as the situation changes.  (3) Figure out what is this best attitude.  (4) Figure out how to change your existing attitude to the best attitude.	6/11/2002

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Thought component of attitude.  Conclusions.  Reasons for holding a conclusion.  How much information and thought went into your attitude formation?  How much debate?  (2) Cause of your attitudes.  Structure of your attitudes.  Attitudes often exist in a web.  Clusters of attitudes form around a topic.  Attitudes interact.	11/25/2005

Psychology, attitude.	(1) What is the best attitude for you in your situation?  (2) Changing attitudes requires changing thoughts.  The emotions will follow when you change the thoughts.  However, it is very difficult to think of alternative thoughts if you are stuck in an attitude.  It requires an act of creativity.  (3) Most of us are stuck in our attitudes most of the time.  (4) Attitudinal relativity is summarized by the phrase "It all depends how you look at it".	4/3/2001

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Why.  Why study them?  Why do we have them?  (2) How.  How study them?  How do they form?  How do they function?	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Will you control yourself in the direction you want to go, or someone else wants you to go, or (2) Will you not control yourself in any direction, letting yourself be totally free, every second.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	(1) Your best attitudes.  (2) Your average attitude.  Your most often attitude.  (3) Your worst attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	All attitudes on any subject can be summed up in a sentence each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Analyze x's attitudes toward y: sources, and effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Any specific attitude: its good and bad points.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Attitude is really memory and emotion.  Your attitude about x is the sum of your memories about x and the emotions those memories raise.  What is thinking?  Thinking is a process that produces new attitudes, and it occurs rarely.	6/27/2001

Psychology, attitude.	Attitude mistakes.  (1) Wrong fact (erroneous).  Unimportant idea.  Wrong metaphysics, epistemology, ethics.  (2) Wrong emotion.  Wrong degree of emotion.	6/3/2001

Psychology, attitude.	Attitude synonyms:  World view.  Outlook.  Viewpoint.	5/15/2004

Psychology, attitude.	Attitude type, duration, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Attitude.  (1) In general: personality.  (2) For specific type thing: real definition of attitude.  (3) For a specific thing: perception?	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Attitudes about the future: (1) Positive, optimism, utopianism.  (2) Negative, pessimism, dystopianism.	5/16/2004

Psychology, attitude.	Attitudes influences behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Bad attitude.  What is a bad attitude?  A bad attitude is an attitude that is neither truthful nor good.  What is the result of holding bad attitudes?  The result of holding bad attitudes is psychopathology, craziness, stupidity, ignorance, and unethical actions.	5/15/2005

Psychology, attitude.	Bad attitudes, attitude problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Bad attitudes.  A suboptimal, wrong, bad, mistaken, unjust attitude says, "Play it safe.  Take it easy.  Don't think or write."	12/20/2006

Psychology, attitude.	Bad attitudes.  The worst side of the situation is those who say, "Don't think.  Don't talk.  Just do your work and shut up.  Get your money.  Narrow your scope."	12/16/2006

Psychology, attitude.	Components of an attitude: each specific thought, and each specific emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Criticism of attitudes: Analysis and judgment of attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Criticism of attitudes.  Analysis of attitudes (your own, or others).  Describe type of attitude it is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Criticism of attitudes.  Analysis of attitudes.  (1) Thought component.  Conscious or unconscious.  Mode of thought used.  (2) Emotional component.  Conscious or unconscious.  Types, intensity, duration, frequency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Criticism of attitudes.  Judgment of attitudes.  (1) Objective standards vs. subjective standards (what the holder believes, or what someone else believes).  (2) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (3) Optimal vs. sub-optimal.  (4) Good vs. bad.  (5) Ethical vs. unethical.  (6) Reasons given.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Criticism of attitudes.  Judgment of attitudes.  Best and worst attitudes (depends on ethical system?).  (1) Best and worst attitude for people in general, specific personality types, specific life situations.  (2) Best and worst attitude for you.  In general, in specific situation, and why.  Subjective: you think, vs. objective: actual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Determining what are the attitudes that you have.  Evaluating yours.  Improving yours.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Development of attitudes.  A person has an attitude toward some thing x.  The thing can be another person, an object, an event, or an idea.  How did the attitude form?  What explains the development of the ideas and emotions that lead to the attitude?	8/29/2005

Psychology, attitude.	Entrenched attitudes.  People who never change their minds.  People who are unable to change their minds.  That is a bad thing.	7/26/2006

Psychology, attitude.	Entrenchment (rigid, dogmatic, static) is opposed to growth.	11/15/2000

Psychology, attitude.	History of an attitude in an individual.  History of an attitude in a society.	5/15/2005

Psychology, attitude.	Hypotheses. (1) Personality traits are expressed through attitudes.  (2) All attitudes have a thought component which can be expressed verbally.  (3) Counterarguments:  (A) What about people who rarely think verbally?  They may think with images instead.  (B) What about people who rarely think?  Do they have no attitudes and thus no personality?  (C) What about pre-verbal and pre-rational thought?  How does that contribute to attitude and personality?	1/22/2002

Psychology, attitude.	It is easy to call an attitude what is actually drive, feeling, or personality trait.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Make a list of the sentences we say to ourselves over and over that ultimately help or hurt us.  True and false.  Important vs. unimportant.  Sentences that we actually say vs. that we should say.  What sentences do we focus on and repeat over and over?	8/25/2002

Psychology, attitude.	Most thoughts have an emotional component.  Attitudes are the result of thought combined with emotion.  Attitudes are how the mind works.  New improved attitudes are how humans develop.  New improved attitudes are attitudes that are more healthy, true and just.	6/19/2006

Psychology, attitude.	My best attitude: Very lucky.  Luckiest guy in the world (ala Lou Gherig).  To have health, a lover, a place to live, a job, etc.	3/20/2001

Psychology, attitude.	Position in mental cycle, relationships to other mental elements.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Self control of attitude.  Can we control or direct our thoughts?  Can we control our emotions?  Can we control our memories?  (Is remembering something basically just thinking about it?).  Can we control our drives?	9/28/1998

Psychology, attitude.	Sometimes we think our attitude about one thing is at issue, but actually our attitude about another thing is at issue.	3/22/2000

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  (1) Nobility and dignity of self is not worth much.  (2) Nobility and dignity of purpose is very important.  (3) Nobility and dignity of purpose is more an attitude then an emotion.  You don't feel it as much as you figure it out.	11/20/1998

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  An attitude:  Been everywhere, done everything.  World weary.	04/30/1993

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  Brave, rebel attitude: fu*k it, fu*k you vs. anxious, fearful, conformist attitudes.  First is better than second.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  Don't be smug, be thankful.	12/30/1995

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  I feel lucky, not smug.  (1) Lucky.  To be aware of what I have, i.e, resources.  To be aware of opportunities, challenges, problems, purpose, meaning.  (2) Smug.  To not be aware of the above.  To feel it will all come automatically.	04/30/1994

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  In school the cool kids are not afraid to fight.  They are not afraid to disobey adults.  They are not afraid to rebel.  They are their own persons.  They dress themselves.	10/05/1997

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  Pioneer spirit.  (1) What year you arrived.  (2) Where the frontier was when you arrived.  (3) (A) How far you extended the frontier (pioneer), or (B) How far you stayed behind the frontier (wussy).  The people out west have more pioneer spirit than those back east.	09/10/1994

Psychology, attitude.	Specific attitudes.  Positive attitudes.  It's a beautiful day.  Future is bright.  People are wonderful.  People are basically good.  What a wonderful world.  Lucky to be alive.  Lucky to have a job.  Sunshine.  I can do it.  Life is basically good.  I want to work my job.	1/30/2002

Psychology, attitude.	Subjects of attitudes.  Any idea or philosophy about life, people, self, work, leisure, opposite sex, like/lust, family, persons, places, events, objects, subject, ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Sum of attitudes = personality?	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	The strength of an attitude equals the strength of the emotion plus the strength of the thought.  The strength of the emotion equals the frequency, intensity and duration of the emotion.  The strength of the thought is the degree of epistemological belief or certainty with which you hold that thought, and any supporting arguments you have for that thought.	5/10/1999

Psychology, attitude.	Thought trains effect on attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	Two attitudes.  (1) Imagine the worst and prepare for the worst.  This helps you lower stress and deal with bad events betters.  It also helps you protect yourself.  However, imagining the worst can be stressful in itself, and can needlessly freak out oneself.  (2) Hope for the best.  Expect the best.  This attitude helps you perform your best.  However, it can be overly optimistic.	5/29/2003

Psychology, attitude.	Two excellent attitudes.  (1) One is "I am going to die tomorrow".  This is the attitude that helped Galois write some of the world's greatest mathematics on the night before he was executed.  (2) The second is the attitude of "Reprieve, pardon, miracle cure, second chance".  This is the attitude people have when they say "If I ever get out of this jam I will never waste another minute of my life".  (3) Cultivate these attitudes every day.  The second one in the morning.  The first one in the afternoon.	1/10/2002

Psychology, attitude.	Two unconscious attitudes.  (1) "If I can do this then I can do anything."  This is a healthy attitude.  Mountain climbers often have this attitude.  (2) "If I cannot do this then I cannot do anything."  This is an unhealthy attitude.	5/29/2003

Psychology, attitude.	Types of attitudes.  Truthful attitudes vs. lying to self.  Ethical attitudes vs. unethical attitudes.  Clear, definite, well thought out, strongly held attitudes vs. unclear, vague, unconsidered, lacking conviction attitudes.	6/12/2004

Psychology, attitude.	Unconscious attitudes have an unconscious thought component and an unconscious emotional component.	5/15/2005

Psychology, attitude.	What are the unexamined, subconscious assumptions on which your attitudes are based?  Spill it out.  Spell it out.	7/26/2006

Psychology, attitude.	What attitude works best for you in your situation?  Should you lie to yourself about who you are, and what your situation is?	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	What is attitude?  (1) Emotions.  Pain/pleasure.  Negative/positive, like/dislike.  (2) Knowledge.  Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  Subject, question/problem/issue, view, argument, evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	What is attitude?  (1) Thoughts + feelings on x.  (2) Way you look at x: in general, specific types, and specific x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	What is the best attitude?  (2) What is the worst attitude?  Resigned.  Defeatist.	8/20/1999

Psychology, attitude.	What is the effect of a piece of information (an idea) on changing your basic attitudes?	11/15/2000

Psychology, attitude.	What is your most common attitude?  What do you think about most of the time, and what are your feelings on that subject?	11/28/2005

Psychology, attitude.	What.  (1) Our attitudes are all connected together in a web.  Change one attitude and it changes your other attitudes.  (2) Our attitudes are always changing.  As we change, as our environment changes, and as our experiences change, so our attitudes change.  (3) The result is a constantly changing web of attitudes.	6/12/2004

Psychology, attitude.	What.  A sub attitude = one idea and one emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, attitude.	What.  A super-attitude is a cluster of attitudes.	3/24/2000

Psychology, attitude.	What.  Attitude can be defined as your state of mind regarding any thing or subject.  It includes drive, memories, emotions and thoughts.	3/24/2000

Psychology, attitude.	What.  Attitude is the fundamental building block of psychology since memory, emotion and thinking are inseparable in our minds.	4/15/2002

Psychology, attitude.	What.  Definition.  Attitude is more than an emotion or thought, and less than a personality trait.	7/30/1998

Psychology, attitude.	What.  One view is that there is no such thing as emotion devoid of thought, nor thought separate from emotion.  Thus, all we have is attitudes, which are combinations of thoughts and emotions.	3/24/2000

Psychology, attitude.	What.  The basic unit of psychology is not memory, emotion or thought, but rather all three combined together as attitude.	8/6/2001

Psychology, attitude.	What.  Your attitude toward x consists of all the thoughts and feelings you have about x.	11/8/2004

Psychology, attitude.	When people say "This guy has an attitude", they often mean "an unjustified negative attitude".  The situation is much like the word "values", which people often use to mean "admirable values", as in the phrase "You need to develop some values".  The point is that everyone has an attitude and everyone has values, for better or worse.	3/24/2000

Psychology, attitude.	Your attitude toward x (in general or specific).  Thoughts (metaphyics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) and emotions it triggers.  Will be positive or negative by degree, and changes along those lines.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	.This section is about causes of behavior.	1/24/2006

Psychology, behavior, causes.	(1) Causes: factors and variations, situation and you.  (2) Reasons: objective and subjective.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	(1) Effects of behavior on mind.  Behave well, feel well.  Behave poorly, feel poorly.  (2) Effects of mind on behavior.  Feel like shit, behave like shit.  Feel great, act great.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	(1) Personality.  (2) Attitude.  (3) Learning: found out vs. figured out.  Accepted vs. rejected.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	All behavior is a reaction to internal environment and external environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Awareness of causes as well as pressures, forces and temptations.  How conscious or unconscious are you of internal and external forces on your behavior?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Behavior affects personality.  Personality affects behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Causers vs. controllers.  At any moment what is controlling your behavior, and how much?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Causes: factors and variations.  (1) Genetic.  (2) Environment.  (A) Natural.  (B) Social: economic, political.  (3) Manmade: science, technology, art, entertainment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Change and development in behavior.  (1) Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Past, present, future.  (2) Speed, degree.  (3) Development of human behavior through history vs. development of behavior of an individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Drives.  Emotions.  Cathartic mechanisms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	How am I going to act if x starts or stops doing something, or is doing something or not, and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	How other peoples behavior can affect your behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Mechanisms.  Effects: on self, on natural environment, and on others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Nature vs. nurture.  Biology, physical vs. psychological, historical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	People do things because (1) They're good at it: naturally vs. developed talent.  (2) Interested in it.  Reasons they think they are.  Reasons they actually are.  (3) It is a problem for them that they need to solve.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Reasons vs. causes.  Cause: the real reason.  Reason: why you think you did something.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Someone told them, asked them, or threatened them to do it,.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	What is causing a specific person to act a specific way?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, causes.	Why do people do what they think is right?  Want to do it vs. told to do it by someone else.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	.This section is about criticism of behavior.	1/24/2006

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	(1) Behavior and mind: effects on each other.  (2) Behavior and society: effects on each other.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	(1) Evaluate it.  (2) Compare it: to what you could, and want to do.  (3) Improve it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Analysis of a single behavior (an act).  Analysis of behaviors in a time period.  How much time and energy do you spend doing what and why?  Reasons you think vs. actual reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Analysis.  How ethical was is it?  How smart (ethical acts can be stupid in wrong situation)?  How effective, efficient, productive?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Are you getting anything done?  Accomplishing anything?  What you wanted to?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Criticism: analysis and judgment.  Determine what you're doing, how, how well, why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Observation, analysis, classification, judging.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Situation analysis.  (1) In a situation things happen to you by nature, and by others.  (A) Things you want them to start and stop doing.  (B) Things they want you to start and stop doing.  (2) Things you do to change (start doing, stop doing) as a result of "A" and "B".	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	What did you do?  How did you do it?  Why did you do it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	What do I (1) mentalize, (2) communicate, and (3) do mostly about.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	What doing, how, how well, and why?  (1) Compared to your previous best.  (2) Compared to your potential.  (3) Compared to any one else.  (4) Compared to anyone else in your class.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Why is or isn't person x doing y act?  (1) Emotions: fear, lack of desire.  (2) Drives: or lack of.  (3) Thoughts.  (4) Memory: repressing it.  (5) Attitude: mix of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, criticism.	Why is x doing: hurtful, or non-helpful?  Why isn't x doing: helpful?  Most often it is due to a screwed up or absent thought or attitude.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	.This section is about behavior ideals, problems and techniques.	1/24/2006

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Optimal behavior for specific person in specific situation.  Their actual variance from optimal behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  To optimize behavior optimize mind: (1) Work on reducing fu*k ups.  (2) Work on expanding abilities.  (3) Figure it all out ahead of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Problem approach.  (1) Wrong behavior.  (2) Right behavior: not enough vs. too much.  (3) Wrong time: too soon vs. too late.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  (1) Can't do something that should be able to.  (2) Doing wrong things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Causes, symptoms, course, therapies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  If your goals are not your problems (solving your problems), you got a goal problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques for changing behavior: self help, therapies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Fu*k polite, fu*k taboos.  (2) Avoid panic, shock, psych-outs. (3) Always smart, occasionally brilliant, never stupid.  (4) Check everything twice.  (5) Think, understand, and know, then act.  (6) Treat people how good or bad, how much, how, why?  (7) Most important things to think about and do.  (8) Short and sweet, complete, lasting, quick and easy.  (9) Fight back for catharsis and justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Take no shit from no one never.  (2) Don't get used.  (3) Protect self and get goals at same time.  (4) Don't destroy self.  (5) Confront, don't avoid.  (6) Don't repress anything.  (7) Do what your are doing.  (8) Don't speed.  (9) Don't let other people fu*k you up or drive you crazy, intentionally or unintentionally.  (10) Solve problems.  (11) Get goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Think then act.  (2) Determine what you're doing, how, how well, why.  Evaluate it, improve it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Always, in every situation, act aggressively, perfectly, and non-stop, to get goals (prioritized), and to get catharsis and justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Be more aggressive, angry, expressive.  Don't be a laughing simp who takes shit.  Behave like the man you want to be: noble, brave, strong, smart, tough, rebel leader.  Don't let fear, anxiety, cowardice, control you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Monitor your behavior.  (1) What am I doing?  (2) Why am I doing it?  What's causing it?  What's my goal?  (3) How am I doing it?  How's my technique?  By what means am I doing it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	.See also: Psychology, emotions lists and personality traits lists.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	.This section is about types of behavior.	1/24/2006

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Healthy: anger, aggression, confrontation, rebellion.  (2) Unhealthy: opposites.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Individual behavior (of an individual).  (2) Personal (alone) vs. interpersonal (with people).  (3) Social behavior (of a group).  (see sociology).	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Jerk.  Can't help but be.  Wants to rebel.  (2) Cool.  (A) Naturally cool.  Knows why to be cool, figured out the philosophy vs.  (B) Acting cool.  Because others tell him to be, without knowing why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Nurturing, productive, building, growth.  (2) Stagnant, stasis.  (3) Devolution, destructive, unproductive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Problem solving behavior: which problems, how solve, how well solve.  (2) Non-problem solving behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Social behavior: the relationship determines behavior.  (2) Non-social behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	(1) Unconscious vs. conscious.  (2) Old (memory) vs. new (creative).  (3) Conscious yet with little thought vs. conscious and well thought out.	4/8/2001

Psychology, behavior, types.	% alone vs. % with others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	% thinking vs. % unthinking (feeling, driven, habit).  What's the optimal combo of all?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Automatic behavior types.  (1) Behavior without thinking. Example, breathing, which you do without thinking.  You can't not do it for long even if you try.  (2) Instinctual urges.  Example, sex, which you have an urge to do, but you can decide not to do it.  (3) Habit.  A learned behavior.  (4) Nervous tic.  An unconscious behavior that you cannot avoid doing.	4/8/2001

Psychology, behavior, types.	Communication behaviors.  Requests, ultimatums, inquiries, statements.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Directed or non-directed mind and behavior.  New vs. old behavior.  Change of behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	For survival, sex, power, money/stuff.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Habit vs. free or changing behavior.  Both can be good or bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Learning, working, loving, fighting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Mental, verbal, physical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	More types behavior.  (1) Eat, fu*k, fight, cooperate, love, communicate.  (2) Educate: learn, teach.  (3) Parent.  (4) Go out and get.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Natural: instinctual, unrepressed.  Unnatural: social norms, uptight, faker, poser, b.s. er.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Normal - which means average of a population.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Not alive vs. alive (plant, animal, man).	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Nurturing behavior: to self, others, things.  Destructive behavior: to self, others, things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Optimal vs. sub-optimal.  Healthy vs. pathological or unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Problem: solving, stagnating, causing.  Goal: achieving, stagnating, distancing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Self assertion.  Selfishness.  Assertiveness.  Decisiveness is healthiest, psychologically and economically.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Thinking, speaking, acting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Types classified by (1) Cause, effects.  (2) Means, ends.  (3) Subject areas.  (4) Participants.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Types classified by: mental element.  Purpose of activity.  Ethical evaluation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Types of behavior.  (1) Unconscious behavior vs. conscious behavior.  (2) Habitual (old) behavior vs. new behaviors.  (3) Question: can new behaviors be unconscious?	5/25/2004

Psychology, behavior, types.	Types of behavior.  Purposeful vs. not.  Controlled vs. not.  Rational vs. not.  Ethical vs. not.  Honest vs. acting, lying or faking.	8/15/1998

Psychology, behavior, types.	Types.  Thought, word, action.  Mind, communication, behavior.  Methodical vs. intuitive and spontaneous vs. dogmatic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	Voluntary vs. involuntary (internal and external forces.  Conscious/unconscious.  Intentional/unintentional (accidental).  Passive/ aggressive.  Dominant/submissive.  Proactive/reactive.  War/peace.  Work/leisure.  Mature (for age)/immature.  Rebellious/conforming.  In control/out of control.  Instinctive/not instinctive.  Ethical/unethical.  Chosen/forced.  Active/inactive.  Confront/avoid.  Secure/insecure.  Noble/ignoble.  Accepting, tolerant/unaccepting, intolerant.  Practical/impractical.  Efficient/inefficient.  Effective/ineffective.  Smart/stupid.  Weak/strong.  Cowardly/brave.  Wimp/not.  Bitch/not.  Succeeding/winning.  Failing/losing.  Controlled (by self, others, natural)/uncontrolled (wild).  Directed/undirected.  Important/unimportant.  Rough/diplomatic.  Striving/complacent.  Greed/share.  Industrious/lazy.  Illogical/illogical.  Thoughtful/compulsive or impulsive.  Static/dynamic.  Rigid/flexible.  Quiet/boisterous.  Economical/wasteful.  Stable/un.  Growth/stagnation/decay.  Resolved/unresolved.  Flight/fight.  Helping/hurting.  Rational/irrational, illogical.  Gut, instinct, drive, unconscious or emotion based behavior.  Public/private.  Commission/omission.  Spending/saving/wasting resources.  Redemptive, rejuvenate, recuperative.  Called for/uncalled for.  Justified/unjustified.  Naughty/nice.  Lazy/unmotivated.  Tired/energetic.  Give/receive.  Build, make, create/destroy.  Work/loaf, laze, recreation.  Clean, order, organize.  Feuds, wars/alliances.  Avoidance/confrontation.  Patterned, repetitive, predictable vs. random, unpredictable.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior, types.	What is, and how to avoid becoming a nerd, faggot, or wimp?  What is, and how to become cool, tough, forceful, decisive?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	.This section is about various other thoughts on behavior.  Topics include: ( ) Habit.  ( ) Self control.  ( ) What is behavior.	1/24/2006

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Behavior is relative to the situation.  Behavior is contextual.  The same behavior in different contexts or situations is judged differently.  (2) Behavior is relative to psychological state of mind.  The same behaviors produced by different psychological states is judged differently.	9/7/1999

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Behavior may or may not reflect mental state.  (2) The same behavior in two people, or the same person at different times, can be underlied by completely different mental states.	1/25/1998

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Forced.  (A) Internal forces: mental element.  (B) External forces: social, natural or manmade environment.  (C) Capabilities: mental and physical.  (2) Chosen.  Why chosen.  Values, knowledge, beliefs (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	(1) How psychology affects behavior.  (2) How physical body affects behavior (Sick vs. healthy.  Young vs. old).  (3) How sociology affects behavior.  (4) How environment affects behavior (natural vs. manmade).	3/30/1998

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Instincts (less freedom) vs. (2) Habits vs. (3) Fully conscious thinking and emotion (more freedom).	9/26/1998

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Sudden surprise, shock, unprepared change, especially negative events vs. (2) habit, routine, settled, expected.	3/20/2004

Psychology, behavior.	(1) Timing: too soon, too late.  (2) Speed you do something.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	(1)(A) Individuals perception of what kind of behavior he or she is engaged in.  (B) The conscious reasons they give for engaging in it.  (C) The unconscious causes of the behavior.  (2)(A) Other persons perception of what kind of behavior the first person is engaged in, and what behavior means.  (B) Other persons guess at the first persons conscious reasons for engaging in the behavior.  (C) The second persons guess at the unconscious causes of the first persons behavior.	11/16/1997

Psychology, behavior.	All action is reaction.  Truly free action doesn't exist, only reaction by degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	All relationships are oppositional.  All behavior is fighting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	An event is an individual acting, or being acted upon, in a situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Basis of behavior: deciding vs. feeling.  Can't always rely on reason.  It may feel right, or you may have an hunch or urge, or may know clearly what want to do but not know reasons why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Battle of thought vs. habit.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior complex: when and where do what, and how and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior complex.  (1) Doing what, when, where, how, how much, how well, why.  (2) Type, duration, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior is all about freewill vs. determinism.  And that is basically a mental problem, not a physical problem.  See philosophy, ethics, freedom.	9/28/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior of (1) Plants, animals, humans.  (2) Groups vs. individuals.  (3) Individuals in general, specific types individuals, specific individuals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior reveals (1) Emotions, mood.  (2) Intelligence, knowledge, thoughts.  (3) Attitude and personality.  (4) Ability, talent.  (5) Interests.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behavior.  (1) Right behavior for right reasons (best).  (2) Wrong behavior but right reasons.  (3) Right behavior but wrong reasons.  (4) Wrong behavior and wrong reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Behaviorism.  What is it?  What are the arguments for and against behaviorism?  PART ONE.  Behaviorism defined as: (1) Observable actions.  (2) Including reports by subjects about their internal states.  (3) With the invention of MRI the brain itself becomes observable.  (4) Behaviorism as a methodology developed out of logical empiricism.  PART TWO.  Arguments against behaviorism.  (1) You can't have a science of evidence alone.  Theory and argument are always present.  (2) Behaviorism as a methodology in experimental psychology does not translate well into behaviorism as a methodology in clinical psychology or psychotherapy.  PART THREE.  Arguments for behaviorism.  Behaviorism arose in part as an attempt to ground psychology as an empirical science, and to distinguish the science of psychology from magic, myth and pseudoscience.	5/12/2005

Psychology, behavior.	Choices vs. desires.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Contra Behaviorism.  (1) I say behavior is not as important as what is going on in the mind.  (2) Behaviorism held that behavior is what is important.  That we can not know what is going on in the mind, so behavior is all we have to base our knowledge on.  (3) I say that two same behaviors can have completely different meanings and mental states behind them.  So behavior alone cannot be the judge.	9/28/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Contra Behaviorism.  Take a behavior, for example, like a gesture.  A gesture can mean different things to different persons.  A gesture can mean different things in different cultures.  A gesture can mean different things in different situations.  My point is that all behaviors have meaning content, and it is their meaning that we should study.  What were the Behaviorists thinking when they said we should only study behavior?	12/30/2000

Psychology, behavior.	Critique behaviors in terms of ethics.	7/26/2006

Psychology, behavior.	Decay in mental and physical abilities under stress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Degree x thing affects your behavior.  Degree your behavior affects x thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Difference between what someone thinks they are vs. what someone says they are vs. what someone is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Ethical codes.  We say ourselves or everyone should behave a certain way, for these reasons.  Goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Every action or omission is very important for health.  Some more so than others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Factors in behavior.  (1) Unconscious actions.  (2) Focus.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Freewill?  Free Willy!	3/20/2000

Psychology, behavior.	Given x individual in y situation and z event occurs.  What will their behavior be vs. what should they actually do?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Good behaviors: Growthful.  Constructive.  Useful.  Healthy.  Thoughtful.  Emotionful.  Mindful.  (2) Bad behaviors:  Wasting time.  Stagnant.  Useless.  Destructive.  Unhealthy.  Thoughtless.  Emotionless.  Mindless.	11/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Habit as (1) Addiction.  (2) Obsession or compulsion.  (3) Learned behavior.  (4) Stagnant, frozen, stuck behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habit as a personality issue.  Personality as the sum of habits.	5/10/1999

Psychology, behavior.	Habit raises the free will question.  Can we control our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors?  Can we control them completely, and all the time?	5/30/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Habit types.  (1) Mental habits (thoughts, emotions).  (2) Behavioral habits.	3/24/2000

Psychology, behavior.	Habit vs. addiction.  Where does habit end and addiction begin?  How can we teach ourselves to behave a certain way, in times of stress, and also in unstressful times?  In times of stress (and in times of no stress) I want to work hard and seek healthy friendships.	5/6/1999

Psychology, behavior.	Habit vs. rut.  According to one view, some people view good habits as being due to self control.  They they view bad habits as being due to lack of self control.  Some people view good work habits as a sign of self discipline and self control.  They view poor work habits some view as a sign of poor self discipline and self control.  But it ain't necessarily so by any means.  A contrary view says that highly spontaneous and improvisational individuals (i.e., opposite of habit) are not always looked at as low self discipline and self control (for example, jazz musicians).  Low spontaneity and low improvisational ability is not so wonderful.	6/11/2002

Psychology, behavior.	Habit vs. spontaneity.  (1) Habit can increase productivity but it can also limit and cage you.  (2) Spontaneity can bring new ideas but it can also lead you nowhere or in circles.	6/11/2002

Psychology, behavior.	Habit: a learned (practiced?) behavior.  Learning behaviors.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  (1) Habits are related to learning.  Bad habits are the result of learning harmful or suboptimal behaviors.  Getting stuck in a bad habit results in repetitive, negative behaviors, and is like a skipping record.  (2) Human learning is a balance between repeating behaviors and acquiring new, better behaviors.  Habits are the result of the human ability to learn.  If humans could not learn then we could not form habits.  If humans could not learn then we could not change habits by forming new habits.	8/29/2005

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  (1) Some people find habit, routine and ritual to be comforting.  As a result, these people often fear change.  They become right wingers in politics.  (2) Other people find habit, routine and ritual to be boring.  As a result, these people often embrace change.  They become left wingers in politics.	11/25/2005

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  Good habits can be difficult to start.  Bad habits can be difficult to break.	1/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  Habit change.  Changing from one habit or routine to another can be difficult and uncomfortable at first, both in terms of emotional feelings and physical feelings.	1/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  How much of our behavior, how much of our lives, is habit and routine?  How much of our behavior, how much of our lives, is new and creative?	1/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  Routines: types you do to gain health, to get work done, and to improve creativity, rather than reduce it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  Set, unchanging, habit vs. free, changing.  Pros and cons of each.  Conservative vs. liberal ideas applied to personality theory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  Three views of habit.  (1) Habit as learning.  Habits are behaviors we have learned.  (2) Habit as addiction.  Physical feelings of pleasure when indulging the habit.  Physical feelings of pain when denying or breaking the habit.  Emotional feelings of pleasure when indulging the habit.  Emotional feelings of pain when denying or breaking the habit.  Emotional feelings of pain or pleasure can cause physical feelings of pain or pleasure.  (3) Habit as routine.  Its good to have a routine (if its a routine of good habits), but routine can also hold you back, limit you, and stifle you.	1/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Habit.  We can not give everything our full attention.  Zen has a "be here now" absorption in the moment.  It is good we do somethings by habit, automatically.	9/28/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Habits and pathological psychology.  (1) What prevents us from thinking of good/better habits?  Lack of thought.  Lack of ethical development.  Lack of goals, strategies and reasons.  (2) What causes us to slip from good habits back into bad?  Hopelessness.  Loss of self control?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habits can be good or bad.  The line is fuzzy and often moves.  One can turn into the other.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habits can prevent thinking and impede growth, unless you get into the thinking habit and other growthful habits.	3/24/2000

Psychology, behavior.	Habits, definition.  Habit vs. structured behavior vs. unstructured behavior (free time).	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habits: good or bad, how strong, making and breaking them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Habits.  Are habits learned or are habits genetic?  Typically we define habits as learned behaviors.  However, one can argue that habitual behaviors are the result of genetic predispositions.  So too are mental habits or mental predispostions to think or feel certain ways.  Mental habits we can refer to as attitudinal habits.  Regardless of whether habits are learned or genetic predispositions, can habits be changed, and if so, how do we change habits?	5/17/2000

Psychology, behavior.	Habits.  How to get into (good) habits?  How to get out of (bad) habits?	5/30/1998

Psychology, behavior.	How bad a fu*k up someone is: crazy, stupid, evil.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	How do it: technical aspects.  How a person does something depends on (1) Knowledge of best techniques.  (2) Motivation: importance, urgency.  (3) Conscious awareness that he wants, needs, or is trying to do something.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	How you do behave and why vs. how you want to behave and why vs. how should behave and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Importance of behavior.  Importance of on the ball, healthy behavior.  One stupid, unthinking, inattentive action, blinded by drive or emotion, can ruin everything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Just sitting around (1) Wasting time vs. (2) Thinking and making progress.  Just sitting around can be a sign of pathological psychology or not.  It depends on what's in your head at the time.	05/30/1993

Psychology, behavior.	Lack of strong ego, lack of self control, can mean caving to internal pressures (drives, emotions, i.e., id pressures) or caving to external pressures (society, peers, i.e., super-ego pressures).	6/11/2002

Psychology, behavior.	Learning and behavior.  Much behavior is based on learning.  Conditioning and conceptual learning.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Learning.  Behavioral learning.  Teaching self vs. taught by others.  For better or worse.  Consciously or unconsciously learned it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Lifestyle.  Environment live in, things have, stuff do.  How good or bad.  How free chosen or forced into.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Limits and ethics.  Want to do vs. don't.  Can do vs. can't.  Should do vs. shouldn't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Manners, definitions.  (1) Dispositions, mannerisms.  (2) Socially agreed upon behavior.  (3) Considerate behavior, polite.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Me.  Behavior principles for me.  Derived from my problems and solutions, and strengths and weaknesses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Opposition and behavior.  How opposition affects your behavior for better or worse.  Stress, fear, inhibition, repression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Pre-planned, rehearsed behavior vs. spontaneous, improvised behavior.  Pros and cons of each.	5/30/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Pure luck and chance.  Risk and probability.  Uncertainty.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Purpose of behavior: survival, health, growth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Related subjects.  (1) Philosophy.  People: ideal person traits.  Ethics: equality, freedom, justice, values.  (2) Politics: power, control.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Related subjects.  Emotion component of behavior.  Desire vs. no desire to do x,y,z.  Like vs. dislike.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Related subjects.  Psychology.  Health and behavior.  Mind, not behavior, is sign of health.  Doing same thing for different reasons.  Reasons given vs. actual reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Related subjects.  Thinking and behavior.  We can't think of every move we make.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control, or self discipline, should be a result of convincing yourself based on reason.  Self control, or self discipline, should not be based on blindly obeying yourself.  Just like in society, order should be based on reason and not blind obedience.	6/12/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  (1) Areas, degree want to control self (mind, behavior), why.  (2) Areas and degree achieved.  (3) How much of 1 and 2 is healthy for any subject area, or mental element?  (4) How to achieve optimal self control and why.  (5) How free to allow your self to be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  (1) Free vs. repressed.  (2) Free vs. controlled by others.  (3) Free vs. self control and self discipline.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  (1) No self control viewed negatively as no free will.  (2) No self control viewed negatively as insanity.  (3) Total self control viewed negatively as rigidity.  (4) Total self control viewed negatively as no creativity.  PART TWO. (1) Total self control is not possible.  (2) Total lack of self control is not possible, unless you are a vegetable.	11/25/2005

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  (1) Self control involves the philosophical problem of freewill vs. determinism.  (2) Self control involves the Freudian concepts of id, ego and superego.	11/20/2001

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  (1) Two types of self control.  Control of mind, emotions and thoughts.  Control of body and behavior.  (2) When or when not to exercise self control.  Pro: when you need focus and concentration.  Contra: it can cause repression, lying to self, and stifles creativity.	5/15/2001

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Control is power.  To be out of control of events is to be stripped of power.  Sometimes in such cases it helps to go with the flow.	02/09/1997

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Control of behavior.  (1) Self control.  (2) Controlled by drives, emotions.  (3) Controlled by society.  (4) Controlled by natural environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Control vs. freedom.  How in control are you of your behavior in a situation?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Degree self control vs. forced by other things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Discipline.  (1) Discipline to others vs. to self (self disciplined).  (2) How much discipline is necessary, and what types of discipline.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Discipline.  Two definitions of suboptimal discipline.  (1) Doing something because someone tells you to, regardless of whether it is right or wrong, without thinking on it fully (blind obedience), to gain pleasure or avoid pain.  (2) Consistency, even if it is consistently sub-optimal, regardless if it is right or wrong vs. lack of consistency, or stop and go effort, or results, or views.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Do you have no self control?  Are you a slave to drives, others, nature?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Freedom, values, ideals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  How much self control should a person have?  PART ONE.  Total lack of self control.  Sometimes total lack of self control expresses itself as debauchery, addiction, etc.  PART TWO.  Total self control.  (1) The quest for total self control is misguided because it is a form of pathological power seeking, or pathological perfectionism.  (2) The subconscious and conscious parts of the mind can be at odds with itself.  The conscious mind itself can be conflicted between various thoughts, and between various emotions for each thought.  Thus, total self control is not even possible.  And thus, total self control is an over-rated concept.	7/28/2006

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  How much that (1) You, others, or nature, (2) Want to or don't; can or can't; do or don't. (3) Control yourself.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Keeping your self in line can mean.  (1) Never expanding and excelling.  Vs.  (2) Never faltering or fu*king up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Loss of self control.  Loss of (1) Mental composure and (2) Behavioral self control due to (1) Desires (addiction) and (2) Fear.  X wants to do y (or not) in state of calm.  To what degree, duration, and frequency they change or lose control in any other state.	07/30/1993

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  No self control means no freewill which means determinism.	4/6/2001

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Power.  Self control vs. control by others, or nature.  Internal drives vs. external environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Self control of your behavior, meaning self control of your actions.  Self control of your mind, meaning self control of your thoughts and emotions.	11/20/2001

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Self discipline.  Definition: FORCING yourself to do something.  (1)(A) Something you were told is right.  (B) Something you have thought out for yourself to be right.  (2)(A) Even when you don't feel like it (laziness, or temptation).  (B) Even when you have doubts, and feel it may be wrong.  Should we self discipline ourselves?	11/30/1996

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Self discipline.  How to discipline yourself, if at all?  Don't hit yourself or yell at yourself.	05/30/1994

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Self discipline.  Too much self imposed structure, order, or discipline can stifle creativity.  Too much other imposed structure, order, or discipline can stifle self-reliance and independence.  An exception is if one is self disciplined to be creative, and sets aside a certain amount of time each day to brainstorm.  Types of discipline: structured time, structured mind (emotions or thoughts).  Self discipline or self control can come very close to being repression, and thus can be unhealthy.  Buttoned down and uptight vs. hanging loose, free, wild.	06/10/1997

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Should we do whatever, whenever, wherever, however?  How much force should we use on ourselves, when, where, why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Should we force ourselves to do anything?  Controlling self vs. letting self run free.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Some people are into serious self control (do what when how), naturally or learned.  Some people are not, they rebel against it, naturally or learned.  How much is healthy or unhealthy in either direction?	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Three types of discipline.  (1) Self discipline as rigidity and stasis.  Lack of flexibility, adaptability, growth, and exploring.  (2) Discipline for others.  Need to control others.  A power play.  (3) Discipline from others.  Cannot think for self.  Childlike.	10/30/1998

Psychology, behavior.	Self control.  Uncontrollable urges, addiction, lack of will power, weakness.  (1) The urge to do something you should do, is no problem.  (2) The urge to do something you should not do, is a problem.  It could be unhealthy or illegal.  (3) The urge not to do something you should do, is a problem.  It could be a sign of laziness, fear of success or failure, or lack of priorities.  (4) The urge not to do something you should not do, is no problem.	10/30/1994

Psychology, behavior.	Social norms vs. personal norms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Two types of behavior.  (1) Structured and pre-planned behavior.  (2) Improvisational and spontaneous behavior.	6/11/2002

Psychology, behavior.	Types of behavior.  (1) Considered behavior.  Thoughtful behavior.  Reasons for your behavior.  (2) Habitual, instinctual, unconsidered behaviors.  Behaviors done with little or no thought.	7/26/2006

Psychology, behavior.	Urge and behavior.  (1) Behavior often starts with urges.  Urges without reasoning.  Urges without reflection or critical thought.  (2) What is an urge?  Is an urge an unconscious thought?  Is an urge an emotional reaction?  Is an urge a "drive" or "instinct" or "hunch"?  (3) Should we follow our urges?  When should we follow our urges?  When they are healthy.  When should we not follow our urges?  When they are not healthy.  How do we determine what is healthy?  By conscious critical thinking.	8/14/2004

Psychology, behavior.	What is behavior?  How to define behavior?  (1) Behavior defined as observable physical action.  For example, if you write the math problem, "2 + 2 = 4", on a chalkboard that is a behavior.  Another example, if you speak the words, "two plus two equals four", that is a behavior.   (2) Behavior defined as any mental or physical action.  For example, if you do the math problem, "2 + 2 = 4" in your head that is a behavior, despite what the behaviorists say.  The mind and body are not separate, thus all behaviors have a mental and physical component.	11/8/2004

Psychology, behavior.	What is the emotional component of the behavior?  Are you doing the behavior out of emotional pain (anger, sadness, anxiety)?	7/26/2006

Psychology, behavior.	What percentage of time does a person "mentalize" and behave like (1) A bug.  Pure instinct.  (2) A lab rat.  Conditioned to act for a reward.  Habit.  (3) A thinking person.	9/20/1998

Psychology, behavior.	What.  Behavior defined as a physical action by a living organism.  In this view, can we talk about "mental behaviors"?  Not sensibly.  Yet we can talk about mental habits.  We can talk about mental attitudes.  We can talk about mental states at any point in time.  We can talk about mental trains or flows.	6/12/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Which is worse?  (1) Getting hurt while gaining a goal.  (2) Not getting goal and not getting hurt.  (3) Not getting goal and getting hurt in attempt.  (4) Getting goal and not getting hurt in attempt.	12/30/1992

Psychology, behavior.	Who can say why people do things?  Behavior is a result of sum of memory, emotion, thought, drive, social norms, etc.  Sometimes they work in unison, sometimes they conflict.	05/30/1993

Psychology, behavior.	Why does anyone do anything?  (1) They think its fun and enjoyable.  (2) They think its important, worthwhile, useful, meaningful and good, even if its not fun and enjoyable.	10/13/2004

Psychology, behavior.	Will and ability, two important ideas.  What things make people act against their will?  What makes person not able to do something when they want to and should be capable of?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	.This section is about adulthood.	1/24/2006

Psychology, development, adults.	(1) Learning adult knowledge and thinking skills concerning work, bills, kid raising, legal situations vs. (2) Coming to grips emotionally with adulthood.  Not having it depress you so much.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	(1) People who want to act like an adult, and be seen as an adult (smart, independent, powerful, sophisticated, as portrayed in their clothes, speech and attitudes) yet who are childish.  Vs.  (2) People who are not so concerned with how others view them.  People who are loathe to put on airs.  People who are not afraid to be playful and childlike.	6/21/2000

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult confronts issues, confronts problems, solves problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult does not mean having kids, or even having sex.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult in a pejorative sense.  (1) Loss of imagination.  (2) Loss of curiosity.  (3) Has formed set answers.  Closed mind.	10/10/1998

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult knows how to mother self and father self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult means dealing with the situation, thinking and thinking well.  It can occur at any age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adult.  (1) Realizing that civilization does not run itself automatically.  (2) Recognizing and solving problems.  (3) Intellectual development.  (Getting informed and smart about big picture and foundational ideas).  (4) Emotional development.  (5) Ethical development.  (6) Social development.	9/20/1998

Psychology, development, adults.	Adulthood defined five ways.  (1) Of legal age (drinking, voting, screwing).  (2) Loss of virginity.  (3) Making own money, and living on own.  Supporting self monetarily.  (4) Supporting self emotionally.  (5) Knowledge.  Knowing what is going on.	01/02/1994

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults appear simultaneously smarter and dumber than teens.  Smarter because they are more cagey.  Dumber because they have lost their sense of wonder.	6/23/2000

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults are sexual.  Support self economically.  Support self psychologically.  Support and raise kids.  Think for self.  Ethically developed.  Goal directed.  Work hard.  Can defend self and fight for beliefs.  Much knowledge and good thinking skills.  Confronts problems of the real world in thought and action.  No more playing games (practicing) like children.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults display a wide variety of types and degrees of abilities.  Adults also display a wide variety of attitudes and views.  So why posit the notion of the "adult" as some destination of development?  If adults vary widely in their views and abilities then there has to be some other criteria besides the concept of an "adult" to speak about development.	7/28/2006

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults face truth, and make own decisions.  Adulthood can occur at any age.  Adulthood means maturity: knowledge, emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults have learned to "get a grip on their emotions".  In other words it is a "refusal to feel".  Numb, dumb, old, cold.  Emotions are felt less often and to a lesser degree.  Closer to dead, beaten senseless.  Less moments of lesser degree of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults solve their own problems, and help others (like their kids) solve the problems that others (like their kids) have.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development, adults.	Adults think for themselves.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	An adult can teach themself.  Self-learning.	5/30/1998

Psychology, development, adults.	Being an adult means changing your own diapers.	11/23/2003

Psychology, development, adults.	Being an adult means fighting your own battles.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Calm: to mentalize best, and to conform best.  Responsible, careful, unlively, dead, bores, bored.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	How soon after college does a person become a clone, lose their youth spirit, lose their idealism, and lose their hopes for a hip life?  How soon do they become part of the system or machine?  How fast does the change take place of socialization into job, society, and life?  The question is, how far did the person develop, what was their peak in all areas, and how far and fast will they decay in all areas?	08/21/1993

Psychology, development, adults.	More freedom, more fun, more work, more responsibility.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	Most adults conform in thought, word, and action, due to work, like/lust, kids.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, adults.	My asceticism and debauchery are evening out.  Extremes mellowing.  Golden mean.  Risk taking and hiding hermit balancing out.  The cool and nerd combine.  But I will never be an academic.  Always an explorer.	06/30/1993

Psychology, development, adults.	There is a time between age 20 and 25 when they drip estrogen and testosterone, and look great effortlessly.	06/30/1996

Psychology, development, adults.	Twenty-something fantasies.  How long can one live on hopes, dreams and illusions?	4/28/2001

Psychology, development, adults.	Work, wife, kids use up your time and energy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	.This section is about old age.	1/24/2006

Psychology, development, old age.	(1) Often, growing old means becoming cold, callous, mean, grumpy and curmurdgeonly.  (2) Also, losing the sparkle in the eye and the spring in the step.	10/7/1999

Psychology, development, old age.	(1) Smart due to experience yet dumb due to being slow and dogmatic.  (2) Weak body but strong psychology.  (3) Yoda.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Decreasing physical and psychological energy and abilities.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Disease, physical deterioration, no sex drive or performance, not in demand socially for like/lust or job.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Enjoying golden years, ha!  Health goes, teeth go, knees go, energy goes, hips go, backs go, eyes go, strength goes, wind goes, sex goes, brain goes.  Once on top of the pack, and creative, you are left with nothing.  It is humiliating and degrading.  Pain and illness come.  Use it all while you got it, all the time.  Soon it will be gone, soon you will be gone.	06/30/1996

Psychology, development, old age.	Growing old is about nerve death.  Nerve death in the brain, so that you can not think, feel or remember.  Nerve death in the body, so that you cannot sense things or move quickly.  You dissolve.  You become nothing.  Its a slow loss of energy and a loss of hope.  Slow living death.  Clock running out.	7/18/1998

Psychology, development, old age.	Growing old unfulfilled, unsatisfied, having accomplished little or nothing, and knowing it, is painful.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Old age at its worst: physically impaired, psychologically impaired, disconnected, withdrawn, give up.  Old age at its best: little loss of physical abilities, little loss of psychological abilities, engaged, connected, continue to work at solving the problems of the world.	7/28/2006

Psychology, development, old age.	Old age does not imply smart and wise.  They forget a lot too.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Old age leads to less catharsis, and therefore more neurosis.  There is less catharsis because  (1) More time for things to boil and burble and gnaw mentally.  (2) Less open minded, more set in ways and ideas, so less able to figure out new, healthier ways to look at things.  Less flexible to deal with changing situations.  (3) Less hormones, less sex, less exercise, less energy.  Less able to blow off stress through exercise and sex.  Less mental energy means less able to generate healthy answers.	03/09/1989

Psychology, development, old age.	People are living longer.  People are healthier and active for more years.  Thus, the definition of "old age" is changing.	7/31/2006

Psychology, development, old age.	People once had a goal of living to age 50.  Then people had a goal of living to age 75.  Then people had a goal of living to age 100.  Now people have a goal of living to age 125.  Do I hear 150?	7/31/2006

Psychology, development, old age.	The wipeout of old age is coming, even though you think it is not, or may not know it is.  The wipeout is coming soon, even though you may think it is a long way off.  A physical and psychological wipeout.  Time is running out.  Now is the time to get stuff done.  No more excuses.	05/18/1997

Psychology, development, old age.	They forget a lot.  Caught up in survival, they neglect ideas and ideals, they neglect important truths.  Dogmatism and narrow minded, if they don't write down stuff.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, old age.	Used up, beaten down, kicked around, it is all over, sad, angry, bitter, weak, afraid, dried up (sex), no energy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	.In this "youth" section are notes on (1) Kids or childhood.  (2) Teens or adolescence.  (3) Young adults.  (4) Youth in general (all three).	5/16/2001

Psychology, development, youth.	.This section is about youth.  Topics include: ( ) Kids.  ( ) Teens.  ( ) Young adults.  ( ) Youth (all three above).	1/24/2006

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Freedom, rebellion.  (2) Time, and energy to think (use it fully and wisely).  (3) Curiosity, questioning.  (4) Learn fast, think quick, insightful.  (5) Creative due to drives.  (6) Haven't made important mistakes yet.  (7) False hopes, deluded about what is.  (8) Idealistic, happy in hopes.  (9) Depressed about what is, excited about unknown.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Healthy, horny, energetic, great feeling.  (2) Use it, enjoy it, get most out of it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Lively, alive.  (2) Everything is new, adventure, interesting.  (3) Unselfconfident.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Many young people are quite capable when given the chance.  (2) Some "adults" behave like children.  Some adults are incompetent.  Some adults are unethical.  (3) So age is no guarantee of anything.	7/31/2006

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Physical adolescence.  When your body goes through puberty.  (2) Psychological adolescence.  The age at which you go through the various crises of becoming an adult.  (3) (A) Stalled or hung up.  When you fail to resolve or complete a crisis or transition phase.  (B) Immature or retarded.  When you fail to enter a crisis.  When a thought or emotion or problem never occurs to you.  (4) The crises are:  (A) Need for, and how to find a lover.  (B) Need for, and how to find a job or occupation.  (C) How to deal with others ethically without abusing or being abused.  Ethical development.  (D) Emotional development.  How to live with yourself.  Mind and body.	8/8/1998

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) Physical feeling: boundless energy, hormones.  (2) Psychological state: happiness, ignorance is bliss, no work, no expenses, no worries, full of hope (no missed or destroyed dreams yet).	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	(1) When you are a young man, you want to do something to keep your strong, young, physical body fit and build it up.  (2) You also want to do something that is dangerous, risky, to develop and prove your guts and bravery and independence.  (3) You also want to do something worthwhile, and something that pays off quick, because you realize you could die at any moment.	11/20/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Braggadocio, confidence, good humor.  Bop like a teen, energy and attitude up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Don't have emotional strength and confidence to take a stand.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Every time they smoked a butt, or took a drink, they said to themselves "I am an adult", albeit a confused, aimless, ignorant, sightless adult.	10/20/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Fire and energy, stupid, fun.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Gum is a very important topic when one is a kid.  Deciding which gum is best.  Figuring out how to get more gum.	4/1/2005

Psychology, development, youth.	How I felt when I was young.  Both when I felt good and when I felt bad.  (1) Plenty of time.  (2) Enjoy life, have fun.  (3) I am healthy and strong.  (4) My prime is ahead of me, and things are getting better.  (5) I can do anything, unlimited potential, anything can happen.  (6) No worries.  (7) No bounds, plenty of free time and freedom.  No woman or job tying me down.  (8) Burning hard-on lust, and strong romantic love.  (10)  Rocking out to tunes.	08/17/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	Idealistic.  Make mistakes: over estimate or under estimate self and world.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Inexperienced, unorganized, free, wild, unsocialized.  Energy, open mind, idealistic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Innocent, naive, hopeful, deluded, expectations, happy, stupid, nubile, energetic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Inspired by hormones, driven by hormones.  Sharper, quicker, more intuitive, only less in experience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  (1) Kids are all emotion and no reason.  (2) Kids are all drive and no reason.  (3) Kids have few memories due to not having lived long.  As a result, each memory that they do have holds greater importance.  The first memories are the strongest.  Its kind of like first impressions between adults.	4/5/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  (1) Kids feel emotions but they do not understand their emotions in a rational way.  Example, they do not understand what is causing the emotion.  They do not understand the best ways to handle the emotion.  (2) Somehow kids are pure in an uncivilized way.	10/10/1998

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  (1) Psychological: emotions and thinking.  (2) Physical: small in a big world; physically uncoordinated.  (3) Social: social role of kids.  Free and wild vs. obey and respect.	5/16/2001

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Childhood is a form of bondage, slavery or imprisonment.  Even worse, grade school was a form of imprisonment within the imprisonment of childhood.  Grade school was a form of double imprisonment, kind of like the isolation cell.  Grade school was adding insult to injury.	6/12/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Children can't think or speak or act to defend self.  They are prone to psychological injury, so they cry.  They are prone to pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Dinosaurs remind kids of their parents.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Dolls.  (1) A doll as a model of a human.  Very often in America, girls are given dolls to play with and boys are not given dolls to play with.  Boys are given model trains and model planes but boys are not given model humans (dolls).  To what extent does playing with dolls (model humans) help develop social skills?  If playing with dolls helps develop social skills, then in America we would expect women to have better social skills than men.     (2) There are basically two types of dolls.  One is the baby doll which is an infant that the child cares for.  The child cares for the infant doll, gives the doll its little bottle, and puts the infant doll in its little crib, etc.  The other type of doll is the miniature adult doll, for example, GI Joe or Barbie.  How does playing with these two different types of doll (baby and adult) affect the child?     (A) When the child plays with an infant doll the child is taking the role of the parent.  This helps develop caring skills and parenting skills.     (i) It may help them deal with children when they become adults later in life.  (ii) It also may help them develop child-child social skills that they can use while young.     (B)(i) When the child plays with the miniature adult doll the child is basically shrinking adults down to manageable size.  The child plays as a child with the adult.  It empowers the child and helps the child handle adults better in the child-adult relationship.  (ii) It lets them play (pretend) (and practice) at being an adult among adults.  This may help them deal better with adults later in life in adult-adult situations.  (iii) Also, when a child plays with a miniature adult doll they are, in a way, taking the role of god.  This helps them be god-like.  This point of view can help give a child a birds-eye view of life.  The child can look down on adults and the adult world.  The child sees that the adults are not gods.  Keeps things in perspective.	7/6/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Dolls.  If you give a child a baby doll, does the child learn that as soon as able he or she will make a real baby?  Or is the reverse true, that a realistic baby doll will teach a child what a pain babies are?	8/15/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  For children, play is their work and toys are their tools.	6/25/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  In childhood we are (relative to adults) moronic, spastic, helpless and defenseless.  No wonder childhood leaves most of us mentally scarred.	3/13/1999

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  Jobs kids like:  Cartoonist, comic, ventriloquist, mime, musician, acrobat, clown, juggler.	10/05/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	Kids.  When you are a kid (1) You do not always understand what is going on.  It can be both frightening and frustrating, and you get taken advantage of a lot, which causes anger.  (2) You are often relatively powerless to act when you do know what is going on.  (3) It is a bad situation to be in, and no way to be for 18 years, and even worse when you realize it.  Not a good way to start life.	04/12/1994

Psychology, development, youth.	Strong body vs. weak, undeveloped psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Strong, brave, lacking in experience.  Smart: sharp, quick, mental energy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Teen discontent is caused by not getting love, not getting laid, no freedom (from parents), and low paying jobs (minimum wage).	09/26/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	Teen traits.  (1) Naive, unsure, hesitant, tentative.  (2) Inefficient, slow, lazy, hedonism, "plenty of time".	5/31/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Teen years are a time of great illumination, but little relative experience.  The illumination is due to (1) Everything being new, and (2) Great amounts of energy (physical, sexual, mental).  Surfeit of energy.  Excess needs to be blown off.	05/07/1989

Psychology, development, youth.	Teenagers tend to mythologize.  They tend to hold people in awe.  They tend toward hero-worship.  They say, "We are not worthy".  They do this because of the following factors:  (1) Their critical thinking skills have not developed fully.  (2) Their self directed drives have not developed fully to the point where they pursue their own goals.  (3) They are just coming out of childhood, and adults still appear powerful to them.  (4) The world to them appears new, big and somewhat scary.  They have not developed a knowledge base and an experience base yet.  (5) They have not fully developed bravery and persistence.  (6) They are not able yet to say "This is simple and easy.  No big deal.  I can do that."	6/1/1999

Psychology, development, youth.	Teenagers: angry all the time, depressed all the time.  Both signal a problem.	10/15/1994

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens develop the ability to think abstractly.  Teens develop the ability to leave their own private Idaho and confront the world and everything in it.	7/28/2006

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens: painful transition learning period.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  (1) Teen Individualism.  (A) Become your own person.  Rebel against parents, society and anything else.  (B) Make yourself appear unique in order to attract a mate.  (2) Teen cliques.  (A) Friends replace family.  Then a mate will replace their friends.  (B) Fit in and be popular.  Being "with it" unconsciously shows their biological fitness somehow.	7/31/2000

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  (1) Teens, 20's, and 30's is about exploring and discovering, trying new things, enjoy, have fun, hedonism.  World is new and exciting, body is robust, strong, horny and energetic. (2) 30's, 40's and 50's is about working hard and staying healthy.  Dwindling time, energy, and health makes you re-evaluate your situation and goals.  Bored with sex.  Fun is no fun anymore.	12/30/1996

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  (1) Waking up, becoming conscious (intellectually and emotionally).  (2) Becoming sexual (blessing and curse).	11/08/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  Adolescence: (1) Painful waking up to problems of self and world.  (2) Play practicing for problem solution.  Adulthood: actually grappling with and solving problems.	11/04/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  Adolescence.  (1) Gradually waking up and becoming aware of problems (theoretical and practical) of life and adulthood.  This is a painful process.  Realizing the fantasy has to end (not having to work, not having to deal with the problems of individual and world, ignoring problems).  Becoming aware (A) That there are problem(s), (B) And what the problem(s) are.  (2) Finding someone you can grow with (in intimacy and knowledge).  A true friend.  A true lover.  A true mental cohort.	11/04/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  After the play stage (pre-teens), comes the model building stage (teens).  The model stage is for when you can't handle reality yet, but you can handle and work with a model of reality.	01/07/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  Hobbies.  Total immersion in a narrow minded discipline lets them avoid thinking about the world as a whole.  A world that is painful to think about, let alone take part in.  At first it helps them learn and cope, but if it continues beyond usefulness, it becomes pain avoidance, cowardly, ignorant, neurosis.	03/19/1989

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  In order to create their own identity, the teens rebel against siblings, then parents, then society in a generalized way.  They are saying unconsciously "I am not you, and to prove it I reject you".  They also have differences by dint of different viewpoints.	04/24/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	Teens.  To teens, hanging out is a new, fun and adventurous thing.  This gets old fast.  Kicks get harder to find.  You have to find something to live for beyond kicks.	01/06/1997

Psychology, development, youth.	The problem is that we feed our kids foods that make them hyperactive and then we give our kids Ritalin to counteract the hyperactivity that we induced.  The problem is that we create a depressing system for our kids to live in and then we give our kids anti-depressants to counteract the depression that we induced.  The problem is that we create a tightrope for our kids to walk without a net.	5/2/2002

Psychology, development, youth.	The teenage years.  There exists a desire not to enter a visibly shitty adult world.  Confusion and depression and fear over what they see ahead in the adult world.	12/14/1988

Psychology, development, youth.	The whole idea to foolish youth is: Everything you have been given is going to be taken away.  So use it, wisely, while you can.	11/29/1988

Psychology, development, youth.	The world is a tough place.  It takes some getting used to when you're young, inexperienced, weak, and confused.  There is a period of self pity in the teen age years which can last quite a long time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	They know about what should be (idealism).  They don't know about what is.  Therefore they don't know what to do (practical).	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Things that you can only do when young.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Those rare moments in my youth of calmness, stillness, vision, imagination and creativity, excitation in life, sexual longing, sweet smellerific nostalgia, strong emotion, were they more frequent and intense than they are now?  I no longer play guitar and write poetry.  Has survival made me a practical bastard?  Is this why teens dislike adults?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Thought methods not fully developed, optimized, sophisticated.  Takes time to sort out situations and problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Two extreme and wrong views that youths sometimes hold.  (1) I will live forever.  (2) I will die soon.	01/24/1994

Psychology, development, youth.	Urge to experience, with little urge for reflection.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Various wrong views of children.  (1) Children as little adults.  (2) Children as property to sell.  (3) Children as labor.	7/18/2002

Psychology, development, youth.	What people find most appealing about youth is "the promise of youth".  Once people see that their great expectations are not met by youth they discard people.  As long as one is young "the promise" holds.  If you are not young there is no promise.  The lure of potentiality is incredibly strong.	3/12/2001

Psychology, development, youth.	What's out there?  Is there anything else to shit life?  Wanderlust, experimental, searching (philosophies, religions).	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Why youth kicks butt.  (1) Energy to burn.  (2) Lack of cares and responsibility.  (3) Primitive, not fully developed, ethical system.  (4) Two and three combine to yield a sense of freedom of thought and action that is truly excellent.  (5) Physical and emotional hardiness yields few needs, which yields greater freedom.	05/30/1996

Psychology, development, youth.	Young males usually cannot admit to themselves that emotions can be as important as reason or drive.  The have not developed much emotional knowledge yet, and are usually emotionally repressed for any emotional knowledge they do have.	08/30/1996

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth = the promise of sex and love, freedom, drugs and rock and roll.  All new and powerful.  Enjoy the good without the problems of making a living.	02/07/1994

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth attitudes.  I don't have to do anything.  I can do anything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth defined as naivete' and energy has its strong points, because if no one tells you something can't be done, and if you pursue it wholeheartedly, then you may achieve what you set out to do.	7/28/2006

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth is a time of extremism and "black and white" thinking.  PART ONE.  Two extreme and wrong views that youths sometimes hold: (1) Everything is fine and dandy.  vs.  (2) The world is going down the shitter.     PART TWO.  Two extreme and wrong views that youths sometimes hold: (1) I can do anything.  vs.  (2) I can not do anything.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth is about potentiality.  Potentiality is a form of freedom.  Old age is about a lack of potentiality.  Old age is thus about a decrease in existential freedom.	7/11/2001

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth is something magical due to ignorance, delusions, hopes/dreams/expectations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth is when the cliche's are new.	06/01/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth: ideals, energy, free time, a potent combination.	5/27/2005

Psychology, development, youth.	Youth.  More moments of greater confusion, weakness, dependence, emotional need.  Not knowing closely who you are and what you want to be and experience, and not, and why.  Unrefined sense of justice, and not knowing when you don't have to put up with something.  Not aware of your freedom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development, youth.	Youthful rebellion.  (1) Forms: punks, heads, criminals.  (2) Pro: freedom of thought and action, ability to create yourself.  Contra: waste of time if done too long.  (3) Escape vs. facing life and its theoretical and practical problems.	04/30/1993

Psychology, development, youth.	Youthful wonder and delight.  After a while you will first realize, and then get over, the fact that you and the world exist.	06/30/1993

Psychology, development.	.See also: Psychology, personality, self identity.  See also: Change of environments, experiences, attitudes, and philosophies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	.This section is about development.  Topics include: ( ) Age.  ( ) Development.  ( ) Maturity.  ( ) Phases.  ( ) Young and old.	1/24/2006

Psychology, development.	"Respect your elders" is just a power play used by older people to maintain power.  Respect everyone the same.  Everyone deserves equal respect.  No one deserves abuse.	04/24/1989

Psychology, development.	(1) Development of logic.  (2) Development of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  (3) Development of knowledge.  (4) Development of emotions.  (5) Development of knowledge of problems: confront vs. run away vs. run for help.  (6) Development of behavior: take care of self, take care of another.  (7) Development of independence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	(1) Every age is unique.  Every age is important.  (2) You do not develop year by year, rather you develop moment by moment.	11/25/2001

Psychology, development.	(1) For any individual, where do they peak?  The typical life span usually has, in all areas, a period of growth, followed by a peak, and then a period of decay.  (2) Another question is, for any area of your life, how high is your peak?  Some people peak quite high.  Other people peak quite low.  (3) Some people peak early in life, some people peak late in life.  Some people have a sharp peak, other people have a longer plateau-like peak.  Some people have several peaks.  Who says there are no second acts in life?	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	(1) Heart without wisdom vs. wisdom without heart.  Young conservative has no heart.  Old liberal has no wisdom.  (2) Ideal: strong in both.  Anti: weak in both.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	(1) History of attitudes about age.  (2) Change in average human life span.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	(1) Mind and body.  The body ages, and the mind being part of the body also ages.  (2) Individual and society.  The individual ages in the culture.  	1/24/2007

Psychology, development.	(1) Old vs. young.  (2) Experienced vs. inexperienced.  (3) Understanding vs. no understanding.  (4) The above three are not the same.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Ability change: actual vs. potential.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Adult.  Legal aspects of adulthood.  Legal age to do the following:  (1) Have sex.  For example, in many countries you must be at least between 16 and 18 years old to have sex.  (2) Work.  For example, in many countries a person must be around 16 to work.  (3) Pay taxes.  For example, in many countries a person must be around 18 to start paying taxes.  (4) Get drafted.  For example, in many countries a person must be around 18 years old to get drafted.  (5) Get arrested.  For example, in many countries a person must be around 18 to be legally prosecuted as an adult.  (6) Vote.  For example, in many countries a person must be around 18 years old to vote.  (7) Drink.  In many countries a person must be around 18 to 21 years old in order to buy alcoholic beverages.	12/4/2005

Psychology, development.	Age 13, start growing.  17, done growing, start living.  30, height of living years.	05/12/1994

Psychology, development.	Age 15 - 25: intellectual formative years.  Age 25 - 45: years of position and power to make a big effect.  Age 45 onward: burning out with age.	06/15/1994

Psychology, development.	Age 16 - 35.  This is your opportunity to say something, to do something, important new and different.	04/01/1993

Psychology, development.	Age and size of world you inhabit.  Age 5, house and yard (unsupervised play).  Age 7, your street.  Age 10, your neighborhood.  Age 12, your town (bikes).  Age 16, world (cars, planes, trains, you are an adult).	05/10/1997

Psychology, development.	Age as a (1) Physical (biochemical) phenomenon, (2) Psychological phenomenon, and (3) Sociological phenomenon.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Age don't mean shit.  Young smart vs. old stupid, crazy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Age is no guarantee of maturity.  It is quite common to meet immature older people.  It is quite common to meet mature younger people.  That is, some older people are ignorant, ethically challenged, lack social skills, have no empathy and are not ecologically minded.  Some younger people are knowledgeable, ethical, socially adept, empathetic and ecologically minded.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	Age is not just a physical issue.  Your mental maturity is not directly correlated to your physical age.  The age notes should not be in the "physical" section.	10/25/2000

Psychology, development.	Age.  (1) Chronological age vs. (2) fitness age vs. (3) psychological age.  Closely corresponding development of above three vs. all three way out of whack.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Age.  (1) Chronological age: actual age.  (2) Physical age: what shape body is in.  (3) Psychological age: what age are you mentally.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Age.  Is your face (and body and voice) older, equal to, or younger than your real physical age, and also the age of your personality.  How do all three affect each other?	07/03/1994

Psychology, development.	Age.  Physical aging occurs over the course of a lifespan.  What causes physical aging?  Can lifespans be extended?  If so, by what means, and to what limit?	5/20/2004

Psychology, development.	Age.  Psychology of age.  (1) The age you feel.  Some old people feel young.  Some young people feel old.  Sometimes you do not feel like the age you are.  It can vary daily.  You can feel younger one day and older the next day.  (2) And, in addition, you can feel one age in your mind and another age in your body.  (3) As a result, you can say, for example, that when you were 40 your body felt like 30 and your mind felt like 20; but when you where 25 your mind felt like 35 and your body felt like 45.  Now, you tell me, what is age?	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	Age.  Sociology of age.  (1) Society won't let you do certain things until you are a certain age.  For example, vote, drink and drive.  (By the way, don't drink and drive on your way to voting.  And don't let the voting drive you to drink).  (2) Society won't let you do certain things after a certain age.  For example, laws requiring forced retirement.  (3) Society won't let you do certain things when you are between two ages.  For example, at a restaurant, adults cannot order the kiddy meal for themselves, and adults cannot order the senior citizen meal for themselves.  (4) Thus, we see that society has issues about age.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	Aging: causes and effects, good and bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Analyze changes in all mental elements through life.  In retards, in precocious kids, in geniuses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Attitudes at different ages.  There are attitudes that people have in their 20's.  There are attitudes that people have in their 30's.  There are attitudes that people have in there 40's.  There are attitudes that people have in each decade of life.  Not as a rule, but as a trend.  Attitudes about life, work, people, self, goals.  There are thoughts and feelings more likely to occur at certain ages.  There are experiences that people have in each decade of their life as well.  	1/24/2007

Psychology, development.	Be able to look back in true wisdom, with few regrets.  Should have done, shouldn't have done.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Change in mental.  Number, speed, degree, permanence of changes.  Causes: internal and external.  Effects: for better and for worse.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Change: potential vs. actual.  Forced vs. chosen.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	College students go on Spring Break.  Why is Spring Break interesting?  It's interesting to see young people go wild and party with the following attitudes, "I am allowed to do this." and "I am supposed to do this".  That is, its interesting to observe officially permitted rule breaking.  Culturally approved rebellion.  Socially conforming bohemianism.  Its a case of irony, juxtaposition, paradox and oxymoron.     PART TWO.  (1)  Four factors: Mindless conformity is bad.  Mindful conformity is bad.  Mindless rebellion is bad.  Mindful rebellion is good.  (2)  Spring break was mindless conformists obeying an order to play the role of mindless rebels for a week. (3)  Who is more sadly wrong: those who walk the beaches of spring break and think "This is it.  This is all I have.  I have to make my memories today.  This is the only time I am allowed to rebel." or those who walk the beaches of spring break and think "You are all sheep being led to slaughter."?	2/16/2002

Psychology, development.	Common and rare (1) Problems.  (2) Mistakes: omission, commission.  (3) Experiences.  (4) Behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Delayed or arrested development vs. premature development or precocious-ness.  What causes both?  What are the signs of both?	05/30/1994

Psychology, development.	Development at any age.  (1) Level: are you ahead or behind the norm.  (2) Rate: are you speeding up or slowing down.	10/30/1994

Psychology, development.	Development is not an "all or none" phenomenon.  It is common for a person to be developed in one area but underdeveloped in another.	11/13/2004

Psychology, development.	Development of ethics.  (1) Should/not, could/not, will/won't happen at each age vs. what actually does.  (2) Should have, would have, could have.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Development of human mind, behavior and physical body.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Development of individuals and society.  Thank god that as society and culture progresses it creates more intelligent people, essentially "new" people, with new experiences, in new situations, who are more apt to get new (different, better) ideas and views than their predecessors.  Kids today can think of cooler, better stuff than wise old men of years ago.  As society develops, individuals develop.	12/30/1996

Psychology, development.	Development of mind depends on a continuity, a history of experience, thinking, and feeling.  The poems, music, images, words you pick and create are important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Development of strong self identity and development of strong social skills.  Neglect the first and you blow with the wind.  Neglect the second and you end up a hermit.  Both are important.  You should not be apart from the group, yet not be dependent on the group.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development.	Development: ahead of norm vs. norm vs. behind the norm.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Development: psychological, physical, and social.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Development.  Growth.  Speed is key.  Self development is key.  Spotting weak areas is key.	12/29/1997

Psychology, development.	Development.  The key to development (artistic development) was  (1) To get as much experience as soon as possible (especially experience of the current adult world).  Even drugs.  Even 2nd hand experience through reading.  Even imaginary experience through imagining.  (2) And to think long and hard.  (3) Try anything once.  Even if it meant giving up safety for risky, dangerous experiences.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development.	Developmental psychology.  Development of body (physical), mind (psychology), behaviors, your life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Effect of a thing: in general, specific type of thing, or specific thing.  On an individual: in general, specific type of individual, or specific individual.  Momentary vs. over time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Ethical development: what do you think is cool and uncool.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	For any age: issues, concerns, problems, questions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Forces: psychological, social, economic, political, change us.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Growing up vs. growing old.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Growing up: coming to grips with the metaphysical nature of reality.  Acknowledge, learn, resolve.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Growth without effort vs. growth with effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Growth, stagnation, decay.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  See time, change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Having kids makes you more conservative.  Then youths look like risky people, wasters of their own time, powers, abilities, and resources, self abusers and neglecters.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development.	Hooray for hormones, holy hormones.  If only the mix and quantity would last.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	How long you live vs. how rich you live.  Number of experiences, variety of experiences, positive and negative.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	How soon can you reach your peak.  How long can you delay your decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	How well you deal with problems.  How well you make decisions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	I don't feel young, I feel tired (not energized), emotionally hurt, financially worried, not horny, beat not fresh, emotionally insensitive and callused, no imagination, mentally inactive, trapped cornered caged, been through a fight, no dreams left, hopes shot.	05/30/1993

Psychology, development.	Identity through time: are you same person or different person?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	If life was infinite with infinite change vs. if life was infinite with no change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	If you hold that the degree to which we shape ourselves is more important than the degree to which we are shaped by others, then the teen years become more important than the early childhood years, as far as shaping the individual, contrary to what Freud said.  Because during childhood we lack the experience, the thought skills and the emotional knowledge that it takes to shape the self.  Only during the teenage years do most people begin to develop the ability to make crucial life decisions for oneself and then act on them.  Some people will argue that by the teen years, "Its too late, the damage is done".  But that strikes me as being somewhat fatalistic, defeatist and pessimistic.	9/28/2000

Psychology, development.	Impossible, possible, probable.  Common vs. rare.  Affects on individual in general, specific types, specific actual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	In humans there is a natural tendency toward development.  However, sometimes there are problems that cause a stagnation or reversal of development.  What phenomena can cause stagnation or reversal of development?  (1) One thing that causes stagnation or reversal of development is if the person consciously or unconsciously decides not to develop any further.  You will sometimes meet people who say that they are done developing, and it is usually premature.  They have closed their minds off from the world.  Refusal to think, feel and talk.  (2) Another thing that can cause stagnation or reversal of development is if the person lacks the time and energy to focus on personal development.  If you are working a job for twelve hours a day you can stagnate or reverse in other areas of your life.  (3) Another thing that can cause stagnation or reversal of development is a lack of tools to record, store, manipulate and retrieve ideas.  Tools like reading, writing and computers.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	It is not how old you are, it is what your abilities are.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Its not always useful to use chronological age as a measure of development because people of the same age can vary widely in development, and people at the same level of development can vary widely in age.	11/13/2004

Psychology, development.	Life means dealing with increasing, unavoidable bullshit.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Many people say that it is our parents, siblings, peers, media, or schools that shape us as individuals.  I say let's not forget the degree to which we can shape ourselves, build ourselves, and create ourselves by figuring out and finding out about the world, through active searching and exploring, and by not passively accepting what others tell us.	9/20/2000

Psychology, development.	Mature young people vs. immature old people.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Mature.  Different individuals and societies have different definitions of what it means to be immature or mature at any age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity = knowledge and ability.  Immaturity = ignorance.  Physical age vs. psychological age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity = working knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity means getting the right thought at the right time.  And feeling the right emotion at the right time.  The emotions come from the thoughts.  Maturity is primarily about thoughts (or attitudes).  Maturity is about not being a jerk and not being a dope.  Not being a dope is about learning and information management.	10/22/2000

Psychology, development.	Maturity takes years to gain, seconds to lose.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity, three definitions.  (1) Mature defined as acting your age.  (2) Mature defined as wisdom regardless of age.  (3) Mature defined as the the average old person.	6/23/2002

Psychology, development.	Maturity: losing your pessimism, and losing your optimism.	06/30/1993

Psychology, development.	Maturity.  Development of all elements (knowledge, emotion, memory), on all subjects, in best directions.  Compared to all others vs. compared to peers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity.  Does maturity mean being an old bore?  Yes?  No?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity.  Immature: the wish to be the best (president).  Mature: do not give up even if you are not the best.	10/15/1994

Psychology, development.	Maturity.  Problems: lack of maturity, pseudo maturity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Maturity.  The problem is: (1) Sometimes people use the word "mature" to mean "old".  (2) Sometimes people use the word "mature" to mean "not immature" or "having achieved a level of psychological development commensurate with their physical age".  (3) Sometimes people use the phrase "mature for their age" to mean "experienced beyond their years."  For example, a fourteen year old who lives like a twenty-four year old.	10/25/2000

Psychology, development.	Me, stages.  (1) Loved hookey, hated school.  (2) Loved school, hated work.  (3) Loved work, hated decrepitude.  (4) Loved decrepitude, hated death.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Most go from amorphous blobs (kids) to character (old age).  Some have better character when young.  Some stay amorphous blobs their entire lives.	03/01/1993

Psychology, development.	Much reflection with little experience vs. little reflection with much experience.  Both are bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	My changing situation.  Using up, and running out of choices.  Getting physically older to.	05/30/1993

Psychology, development.	Old age without reflection = worthless.  Youth without experience = worthless.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Opportunities and limitations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	People stop growing due to (1) Lack of organization and saving of ideas.  (2) Lack of freedom and change (too rigid, save too much).  Two opposite poles, they either lose good things or stop finding more good things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Phases vs. stages.  (1) Stages can be defined as sequential or serial, perhaps causally related, and perhaps with a clear line of progress.  (2) Phases can be defined as non-sequential, perhaps not causally related, and perhaps with no clear line of progress.	4/7/2001

Psychology, development.	Phases.  (1) Micro-phases.  A few weeks or months.  Influenced in part by the seasons effect on our hormones.  (2) Macro-phases.  A few years.  Usually the time it takes for us to master and mine a challenging area of study.  (3) We are talking here about phases of interest.  That is, what interests us.  Phases of interest are related to phases of the physical body due to age.  And also related to phases of social roles.  And also related to phases of psychological development.  (4) Life is a series of phases of interest.  There is not necessarily any "progress".  We stay in an interest phase until we get bored, and then move on to another, thus exploring all areas of life.  (5) We do not have complete control over what phases of interest we will get into.  All we can do is make the most of the phase we are in.  Do not waste time.  Explore well.  Record your conclusions.  And try to pick the best next phase to get into.	10/28/1998

Psychology, development.	Phases.  (Example, rebel, travel, artist).  Why are phases necessary?  What do phases accomplish?  Problems: (1) Never getting into a phase (delayed entrance).  (2) Never getting out of phase (delayed exit).	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Phases.  A phase can be defined as:  (1) A course of study.  (2) A need fulfilled.  (When interests correspond to needs, that is good).  (3) A temporary meaning system.  (4) How to most quickly get the most out of a phase?  How to find and move on to the next phase?  That is the big question	4/8/2000

Psychology, development.	Phases.  Get everything done in every stage.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Phases.  The general idea is you want to get certain things at certain times, for certain period of time, in certain order.  We go through phases.  They change as we change.  You never stabilize for long.  You change physically, your environment and experiences change, and your mind changes both in and of itself (development and decay of abilities) and in response to environment and experience.  Needs (emotional and intellectual) change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Phases.  Which phases you hit, and which order you hit them.  What age you hit a phase, and how much time you spend in each phase.  How deep you get into a phase, and how much you get out of a phase.  Some or all the right answers vs. wrong answers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetic) typical of each age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Potential vs. waste and loss at each age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Psychological development of the individual can be seen as working thought a series of sets of ideas or attitudes.  However, the goal is not for twentysomethings to have the same set of attitudes as eighty-year-olds.  To some degree each age has its own unique, optimal set of attitudes that is influenced by, among other things, the condition of your physical body and the roles one's age group plays in society.  So when we talk about psychological development and mental maturity we can distinguish between "mental maturity" meaning having a close to optimal set of attitudes for one's age, and "mental maturity" meaning having a set of attitudes of a senior citizen.  This is apart from definitions of "mature" as meaning knowledgeable, wise, fair, etc.	10/25/2000

Psychology, development.	Psychological growth is not automatic.  Stagnation or devolution can occur in anyone, to any degree, for any duration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Recognize and confront reality and problems of reality, in thought and in action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Respect the old as much as you respect the young, and everyone.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Social norms about what reaching a chronological age means and entitles one to (if anything).  See sociology, age relations.  See sociology, children's rights.  See sociology, perceptions of elderly, forced retirement.  See sociology, ageism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Society and age.  Importance age plays in a society: much vs. little importance.  Attitudes about age in a society.  Treating the old like crap, and the young like gold.  Versus, treating the old like gold, and the young like crap.	01/01/1997

Psychology, development.	Some pathological "black and white" thinkers believe that adults are all knowing and all powerful, and kids know nothing and deserve no power.  These pathological types are wrong on both counts.  The result is they have an over-inflated sense of self and they treat children very poorly.	5/16/2001

Psychology, development.	Stability vs. change in any mental or behavior element, in a situation vs. long term.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Stasis vs. change.  Flexibility vs. inflexibility or rigidity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Steady growth is the goal.  Not a boom and bust brain.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Strengths vs. weaknesses of each age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Teens and twenties are an age of decadence, hedonism, self abuse, experience, learning, sex drugs and rock and roll, partying.  Thirties and forties are an age to slow down a little, ease off the abuse, take better care of self, get some work done, do some good, work ethic (learn, practice, do).  Fifties and sixties are an age to get ready to die, stoicism, suffer the dramatic decline and die.	12/30/1995

Psychology, development.	The ages as a physical, psychological, behavioral, and social phenomenon.  Social phenomenon: society sees and treats us differently.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	The cycle.  Age 0: You are born.  Your great grandparents die.  Age 25: Your kids are born.  Your grandparents die.  Age 50: Your grandkids are born.  Your parents die.  Age 75: Your great grandkids are born.  You die.	08/30/1996

Psychology, development.	The hounds are chasing me.  The ice hounds.  Day by day.  Time goes by.  Entropy.  Lessening me.	3/11/2000

Psychology, development.	The legal status of adulthood is different from the psychological status of adulthood and the physical status of adulthood.  The psychological status of adulthood depends on whether the individual has acquired a set of thoughts and emotions, that is, attitudes, on a series of topics.  The physical status of adulthood is a matter of having gone through puberty.	12/4/2005

Psychology, development.	Things you should do at each age.  Things that should happen to you at each age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Three cases: Living in honor of what we were as individuals.  Living in honor of what we are as individuals.  Living in honor of what we will be as individuals.  (2) Early in life we live in honor of what we will become.  In the middle of life we live in honor of what we are.  Late in life we live in honor of what we were.  What's up with that?	2/10/2002

Psychology, development.	Three influences on development, none of which has complete control over development.  (1) Society.  Effects of society on the development of the individual.  Effects of family, peers, work, media, advertisers, legal system.  (2) Self.  Effects of self on development of individual.  A person can shape their own development.  (3) Genetics and heredity.  Effects of genetics and heredity on the development of the individual.	7/31/2006

Psychology, development.	To know what is going on (in life, in the world, in one's own life) can occur at any age.	3/29/2002

Psychology, development.	To some degree, a person can consciously and actively pick the direction and speed of their own development.  There are ways a person can develop further, faster, and better.  Development is not a completely passive thing.  Development is also not a foregone conclusion.  Take part in your own development.	7/28/2006

Psychology, development.	Traits of infants, kids, teens, young adults, middle age, old age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Transition from (1) Artist: gut feeling, drive, hormones, to (2) Philosopher: thinking and reason.  When does it take place?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Transitional states.  (1) Transitional states are needed to grow and develop.  They are more painful than usual.  They are more risky than usual.  Especially for people who fear change.  Especially for people who have a rigid self-identity.  Especially for people who have a fragile self-identity.  (2) Types of transitions.  (A) Change in meaning system.  (B) Change in either physical (body) or psychological (mental).  (C) Change in life circumstances.  Examples: teens, age 30, age 40.	3/20/2000

Psychology, development.	Two paradoxes.  (1) Who is fully developed?  No one.  (2) When does decay start?  Immediately.	3/29/2002

Psychology, development.	Type of change, how much you change, for better worse.  Change: direction, speed, distance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Use what you got while you got it.  Cause when you don't you can't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Value and goal changes at each age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Ways how to live longer, ways how to live better.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	We mutate unavoidably into dust.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	What are our standards or criterion for development?  (1) Do we measure people against other people?  For example, peer groups of same age, or the entire population, or paradigmatic examples.  (2) Do we measure people by abilities or skills?	11/13/2004

Psychology, development.	What are the criteria for excellence at any age?  For example, one could be a great child but a mediocre adult.	5/29/2002

Psychology, development.	What happens between teens and middle age that changes us for worse?  Boring, hung up, jerks.  How can these negative changes be stopped or reversed?	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	What is development?  (1) Living longer.  Living healthier.  Better quality of life.  Happier.  Feeling well.  More productive.  (2) Physical well being and psychological well being.  Physical health requires exercise, nutrition and rest.  Psychological health requires psychological exercise (thinking), psychological nutrition (new experiences) and psychological rest (give your brain a rest occasionally).	5/27/2005

Psychology, development.	What is the relationship between psychological development and psychological health?  Psychological problems can slow psychological development.  Psychological development is a sign of psychological health.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	What psychological abilities or traits can humans develop in the areas of memory, emotion, thinking, etc.?	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	What shall we judge by?  What can you accomplish at each age?  Is what you accomplish good?  Can what you accomplish last?  What about those who cannot accomplish anything?  (For example, the very young and the very old).	5/29/2002

Psychology, development.	What you learn, when.  Truth vs. false.  Enough vs. not enough.  Too early vs. on-time vs. too late.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	When young, one's mind and life is more automatic, instinctual, unconscious.  One simply does things naturally.  When older, one's mind and life becomes more deliberate, conscious, considered.  The mental change is a result of the aging process.  The mental change requires an adjustment in tactics.  Be reflective, thoughtful, philosophical.  Sort it out.  Hash it out.  Mull it over.  Sift through it.  Talk it through.  Write on it.	7/1/2006

Psychology, development.	Wisdom is acquired by capacity, not age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) Childhood obsessions: (A) Baseball cards (flip, scale, match and dematch).  (B) Candy (gum, hard candy, chocolate).  (C) Clubhouses, tin-can and string phones, walkie talkies.  (2) Teen obsessions: music, movies, cars, sex, sports.  (3) Adult obsessions: women, money, booze, mate, kids, work, save the world.	5/31/2000

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) Childhood.  Time moved slowly.  No freedom at home.  No freedom at school.  (2) Adulthood.  Time moves very fast.  Freedom at home.  Freedom to pick job.	7/25/2000

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) What can you remember from looking at the faces of the young?  (2) What can you predict from looking at the faces of the old?	5/27/2002

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) When you are young  (A) You have plenty of time, and  (B) You are all potential, having not tested your limits yet.  (C) Thus, you feel good, because there is no telling how good things could get.  (2) When you are old  (A) You have no time left, and (B) You have reached your potential, found your limits.  (C) Thus, you feel bad, because you know what you can and can't do, and even if you could, there is no time.  This aside from drops in ability (endurance, strength, sharpness, etc.)	12/30/1996

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) Youth is externally centered.  Youth finds meaning in objects (ex. Teddy bear).  The world (environment) is what you see and experience.  (2) Age is internally centered.  Environment is less important to them.  Ideas are more important.  Your world is what you think (mental world).  In old age they live off their memories.	10/01/1994

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) Youth:  You are a new body.  The experiences of the world seem new to you.  (2) Old age:  You are an old body.  The experiences of the world seem old two you.	11/12/2004

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  (1) Youths face tremendous internal psychological pressure to rebel in order to  (A) Search for and assert your own individuality and independence.  (B) Also to have sex, drugs, and rock and roll when everyone says you shouldn't (after they already have).     (2) Adults face tremendous external pressure to conform.  (A) For financial survival we conform to work.  (B) For sex we conform to society's values.     (3) This is why the young are beautiful (full of ideals and new ideas), but quickly turn ugly (survival machines), not just in looks but in character.	03/30/1993

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  As a kid I had dreams and hopes, and had made no big mistakes yet.  As an adult I have few hopes and dreams, and have made a lot of big mistakes.	05/30/1993

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  Youngsters among their peers do not see themselves as young.  Oldsters among their peers do not see themselves as old.  Only outsiders recognize them as young and old.	8/8/2001

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  Youth = total idealism.  Old age = total practicality.  Keep a balance of the two.	09/17/1994

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  Youth: almost all future, and very little past.  Old age: almost all past and very little future.  These are two very different frames of mind.  Two different beings.	4/8/2000

Psychology, development.	Young and old.  Youth: impatient, emotional, active.  Adults: patient, rational, still.	5/29/2002

Psychology, development.	Young at heart vs. immature.  Unchanging vs. changing.	04/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta goals.  (1) Make a list of goals.  (2) Prioritize your goals.  (3) Spend more time on pursuing goals.  (4) Keep track of your progress on goals.  (5) Review goals daily.	7/2/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  (1) Goals for all subject areas.  (2) Thought goals and action goals for each subject area.  (3) Personal goals and world goals for each subject area.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  Develop more and better goals.	7/10/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-Goals.  Dream big.  Aim high.  Be creative, be innovative.  Expand each goal.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  Goals on various levels: (1) personal, (2) local, (3) national, (4) world.	5/15/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  Information, knowledge, learning: ( ) Learn to read and write.  ( ) Get a computer and access to the Internet.  ( ) Spend a few hours every day pursuing knowledge.  ( ) Read several sources of news every day.  ( ) Be a critical thinker.  ( ) Practice developing goals.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  Personal goals:  ( ) Health.  ( ) Education.  School.  ( ) Career.  Job.  Work.  ( ) Home.  Pad.  ( ) Transportation.  ( ) Main squeeze.  ( ) Friends.  ( ) Family.  ( ) Altruism.  Philanthropy.  Activism.  ( ) Information.  Reading.  Internet.  Books, Music, Visual Arts, Movies.  ( ) Writing.  Notes.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  The main meta-goal is to think of new and better goals.	5/12/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.Meta-goals.  World goals:  Cure the various problems and ills that afflict the world.  ( ) Stop starvation and hunger.  ( ) Stop war.  ( ) Stop poverty.  ( ) Stop illness.  ( ) Stop injustice.  ( ) Save the environment.  ( ) Get people educated.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	.This section is about specific goals.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	(1) Once or twice a week, mentally go over and improve current goals, tactics, and reasons.  (2) Mentally study own notes and book notes.	07/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	(1) Waste less time.  No television.  (2) Spend more time pursuing goals.  (3) Study mentally (A) Notes in general.  (B) Goals.  (4) Get head and body and life in good spot to create.  (5) Read notes periodically (once a year?).	12/02/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	A long, healthy (psychological and physical), happy, productive life.  Sounds good.	12/06/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, literature.  (1) Read the great works of literature.  (2) Learn some literary theory, literary criticism and philosophy of literature.  (3) Write.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, movies.  (1) See the great movies.  (2) Do some film criticism.  (3) Make a movie.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, music.  (1) Listen to the great works of music.  (2) Listen to music from around the world.  (3) Make music.  Learn a musical instrument(s).  Compose music.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, music.  Learn an instrument.  Start a band.  Write some songs.  Make a record	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, other.  (1) Fashion.  Wear hemp.  (2) Gastronomy.  Eat healthy.  Eat vegetarian.  Make some good food.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts, visual arts.  (1) See the great works of art.  (2) Make some visual art.  (3) Work in all the visual arts: drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and computer graphics.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Arts.  Create Progressive arts.  Make Progressive songs.  Write Progressive poems, jokes, movies.  Make Progressive visual arts.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Be outside for more sunrises and sunsets.  That's living.	10/25/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Business.  Critique business.  Buy blue.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Create the great work.  Pick your best ideas and develop them.	01/26/1994

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Current goals.  PART ONE.  Personal goals.  (1) Save the world.  (2) Do not waste your time.  Do not waste your life.  (3) Be a Progressive activist.     PART TWO.  Social goals.  (1) Save the world.  (2) Get the neo-cons out of office in the USA and other countries.  (3) Stop the genocide in Darfur.  (4) Promote Progressivism world wide.  Promote ecological sustainability.  Promote human rights.  Including women's rights, children's rights, worker's rights, etc.	5/5/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Don't feel you need to have kids.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Eat locally grown, organic, vegetarian foods.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Economics and business.  Be a social justice entrepreneur.  Be an environmental entrepreneur.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Economics and Business.  Start a business.  Get a job doing what you love	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Economics.  Learn the criticisms of capitalism.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Education.  Build an informed, educated society.  (1) Get people educated.  Get people empowered.  Get people on the Internet.  Educate all sides of a person.  Educated young and old.  (2) Use different methods.  Psychological therapy.  Philosophical therapy.  Writing therapy.  (3) Develop people's knowledge.  Develop people's critical thinking skills.	3/3/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Energy.  Reduce oil consumption.  Use wind and solar power.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Every year, month, or week.  Write a song, a poem, a story.  Make a visual art work.  Invent something.  Take political action.  Do some history.  Plan for the future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Geography.  (1) Learn natural geography of mountains, rivers, deserts, jungles, etc.  (2) Learn social , political and economic geography of nations, cities, etc.  (3) Memorize the world map, much like you memorize the constellations in the sky.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Give money to philanthropic organizations.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Goals by importance.  Goals, generally, in life, in the world.  (1) Know what is going on.  Identify the worlds problems.  (Epistemology.  Reason.  Thinking.  Information.  Ideas.  All these are good.)  (2) Solve the worlds problems.  Improve the situation.  (3) Do good.  Do right.  Do justice.  (4) Don't settle.  Don't sell out.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Goals by importance.  My goals for me.  (1) Primary goals in my life: Stay healthy.  Get knowledge.  Help the Progressive Cause.  (2) Lesser goals in my life: money, social life, etc.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Goals by importance.  My goals for the world.  Most important goals.  (1) Save the world.  (2) Improve the world.  (3) Save a life.  (4) Improve a life.  (5) Environmental sustainability.  (6) Social justice.  (7) End global poverty.  (8) Millennium Development goals.  (9) International Declaration of Human Rights.  (10) Pursue truth and justice.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Goals by importance.  My goals for the world.  Most important goals.  Biggest, most pressing, problems in the world today.  (1) Social justice.  Human rights.  Minority rights.  Children's rights.  Women's rights.  (2) Environment.  (3) Health.  (4) Information, education, media, attitudes.  (5) Political.  (6) Economic.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Health in order to get education, to get job and career, to get money, to save and invest, to keep going and write notes.  Physical health (diet, sleep, exercise, doctors checkup) and psychological health (reduce stress of job, reduce pathological behavior, get love from girlfriend, get friends).	07/05/1997

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Health.  (1) Learn about health.  (2) Get healthy.  Sleep.  Exercise.  Eat healthy.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	History, current, future.  (1) Learn about history.  (2) Think about the future.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	History.  Do a Progressive history.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Home.  Safe place to live.  Not too expensive.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	I produce best outdoors.  How to bring the outdoors in?  Windows.  Porch.  Pictures of outdoors.  Tape of outdoor sounds, rock, water.	07/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	I want to be more effective and productive.  Not only doing my writing.  Not only talking to people I meet in person.  Not only reaching people who visit my web site.  I want to do more to change, improve, save the world.	2/27/2007	*

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	I want to be the perfect mix of jock, brain, and head.	07/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Information goals or knowledge goals.  (1) Gather knowledge.  Gather knowledge in all subject areas.  Gather knowledge in all media.  (2) Start recording my own ideas.  Write my own ideas.  Write my own history.  Write my own goals.  Write my own outline of concepts.  Write my own list of resources.  First goal is to make a goal list.  (3) Have a variety of experiences in all areas; work, relationships, leisure.  Do many different things.	1/23/2004

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Information, Communication.  Get knowledgeable.  Learn a foreign language.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Information, education, media.  Books, music, visual arts, movies, web.  Read Noam Chomsky.  Read Jeff Sachs.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Job.  Get a job that promotes social justice and ecological sustainability.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Job.  Get a job.  Get a job that is part of the solution, not part of the problem.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Job.  Money.  Make a living.  Get a Progressive job.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Languages.  Learn to speak a foreign language(s).	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Law.  Improve the legal system.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Leisure.  (1) Get some leisure time.  (2) Don't waste your leisure time.  Use your leisure time productively.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Leisure.  Spend leisure time productively.  Don't waste time.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Life goals.  (1) Philosophical therapist.  (2) Speaker.  Presentation on Notes.  (3) Progressive activist.	5/15/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Live simply.  Do not overconsume.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Major life goals.  (1) Stay healthy.  (2) Get educated, informed.  (3) Decide what work to do; decide how to make a living.  (4) Decide how to spend leisure time.  (5) Decide whether to have a relationship with a significant other or not.  (6) Decide whether to have kids or not.  (7) Decide whether to take control of your life or not.  (8) Decide whether to decide or not.	2/28/2004

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Mate.  Girlfriend.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Math.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Money: I suppose, if money was one of my primary values and primary goals, then I would give more attention to debits and credits, and I would find it fun and interesting to keep a spreadsheet of debits and credits, expenses and revenues, and bank account balances.  But money is not one of my primary values nor one of my primary goals, thankfully.  I made a set of personal financial spreadsheets but found them essentially boring.	3/8/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Most important knowledge, on all subjects.  That you got (notes and books).  That you can get.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Move someplace where you can sit on a bench and read and think everyday of the year.	06/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goal.  Find and read more and better books.  Less pathological behavior.  Less work stress and anxiety.  More mental health, and more money.  I need more time, energy, brains (intelligence, creativity, memory), drive and focus.	08/02/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goals for me.  Ongoing personal goals.  (1) Exercise, aerobic, anaerobic and stretching.  (2) Eat more veggies.  Drink less coffee.  Don't overeat.  (3) No carpel.	5/29/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goals for me.  Ongoing personal goals.  Activism.  Be more politically active.  Get knowledgeable about the issues.  Take more action.	5/29/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goals for me.  Ongoing personal goals.  Chick.  Find a chick.  Keep a chick.	5/29/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goals for me.  Ongoing personal goals.  Notes:  Think.  Write.  Read.  Type.  Publish.  Promote.	5/29/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My goals for world.  My political platform.  Justice.  Health, physical and psychological.  Ecological sustainability.  Information, media, education, literacy.	5/29/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	My latest very important goals.  (1) Cultivate a mental state of serene peace and optimism (undeluded), even in a godless, imperfect, horror filled world.  (2) Develop mind, body, environment, stuff, experiences.  (3) Develop knowledge of all areas, not just philosophy.  (4) Go after goals.  (5) Don't lose touch with reality.	02/10/1994

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	One of my goals is to earn money over the next 30 years in order to support my causes of worldwide social justice and environmental justice.  This in order to both help the world, and to feel better about myself, in order to be more productive in my writing.  A win, win situation.	12/29/1997

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Philosophy.  (1) Learn about philosophy.  (2) Do philosophy.  (3) Study epistemology and ethics.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Plain tips for practical living.  How to live justly.  How to live well.  ( ) Transportation.  Get off oil.  Do not own a car.  Have a good bike with a strong rack, panniers, and a bike trailer.  Get a car that does not use gas.  Or get a car that uses little gas, like a Prius.  ( ) Housing.  Live in a tent.  Know how to camp.  Or live in a small rented room.  Do not heat your room, put on extra clothes, develop better personal heaters.  ( ) Things.  Do not own a lot of stuff, so that you don't need  so much room, and so you can carry it all with you.  Possibly, get rid of the books you own, and do so by reading all the books I need to in the library or at the bookstore, and do a good outline of each book, and keep outlines on the computer.  Keep all your music on the computer.  Keep all your video and movies on the computer.  ( ) Move away from oil based products.  Wear organic cloth clothes.  Do not own a lot of clothes.  Do not wear leather clothes belt shoes to support animal rights.  ( ) Money.  Do not go into debt.  Do not have a big mortgage.  Have few expenses, so that you do not have to spend all your time working to make money.  ( ) Don't get married.  Don't have kids until the world population is down around one billion.  ( ) Everyone should have access to information.  Everyone should be committed to life-long, self-directed learning.  Everyone should find out and figure out, and do their own Notes.  Everyone should have a computer with Internet access.  Make computers more green.  ( ) Stay healthy.  Exercise.  Eat healthy.  Get enough sleep.  Do not smoke.  Do not drink.	5/9/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Politics and law.  Get a law passed.  Protest.  Write elected officials.	4/15/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Politics.  (1) Learn about politics.  (2) Be politically active.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Politics.  Do some Progressive activism.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Problems: Political.  Economic.  Tech.  Health.  Info, educ, media.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Psychology.  (1) Learn about psychology.  (2) Be psychologically healthy.  (3) Be psychologically developed.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Psychology.  Develop a better brain.  Faster.  More accurate.  More creative.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Religion.  Learn the arguments against religion.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Save the world.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, astronomy.  (1) Learn the constellations.  Learn all about astronomy.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, biology.  (1) Learn the system of biological classification.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, chemistry.  (1) Learn the periodic table.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, earth science.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, ecology.  (1) Save the earth.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Science, physics.  (1) Learn Newtonian physics, Relativity physics and Quantum physics.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Shelter in ecologically sustainable homes.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Social.  Gather together a group of Progressives, so that they can network and be productive.  How?  By sending out an email?  How to get people to interact?  Hold parties in restaurant?	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Society.  What kind of society do I want to live in?  What kind of society should there be?  The goal of achieving a Progressive society.  The goal of environmentally sustainability and social justice.  Universal health care.  Free college education.  Uphold women's rights.  Uphold children's rights.  Spend less on bombs.  More equitable income distribution.	5/12/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Sociology.  (1) Learn about sociology.  (2) Be social.  (3) Fall in love.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Spend at least 15 minutes every day thinking about "everything else".  That is everything else besides your job and your other survival matters.  Use the Notes outline, zero in on something, mentally review your own notes and book notes, think of new issues.  This is very effective.  And this is very important.  Why?  To get the most out of your brain, and out of life.  I can produce new ideas.  I just need to take time to every day.  In morning, evening, or at lunch, etc.	9/30/1996

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Stop consuming so much.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Technology.  (1) Develop technology that is ecologically sustainable and that promotes social justice.	3/5/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Technology.  Use technology, like computers and Internet, to design a web site that draws people and their input.  A popular Progressive website that makes a contribution, that makes a difference.	6/7/2007

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Ten years working on Notes.  Conclusions.  (1) Work harder on it.  Devote more time to it.  Put in more time thinking, reading it, typing it.  (2) Stay urgent, stay motivated, stay optimistic, about your Notes, yourself, and the world.  (3) Goof off less.	05/10/1997

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	The quantity and quality of ideas I want will only be reached if I exercise, eat right, put in effort (study and think), maintain mental health, and not do things that fu*k me up.	06/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Think, Write, Publish.  Speak up.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Walk and talk.  Read and write.	6/10/2004

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Wear organic clothes.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	What I really want.  (1) Safe place to live and work.  (2) Reasonable amount of money and possessions.  (3) Health.  (4) Good relationships.  (5) Good sex.  (6) Good job.  (7) Not experience permanent pain, mistakes, misfortune, problems.	12/30/1996

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	Work on solving the biggest problems in the world.	4/23/2006

Psychology, drive, goals, specific.	World goals.  Reduce child labor rates worldwide.  Reduce slavery worldwide.  Increase free education worldwide.  Increase women's right to vote worldwide.	12/20/2003

Psychology, drive, goals.	.See also's.  (1) See also: Philosophy, ethics, values and importance.     (2) See also: Philosophy, chance and opportunities.  (3) See also: Sociology, cooperation, competition and conflict for techniques for struggling with self, others, nature.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	.This section is about goals.  Topics include: ( ) Goal processes.  Form, pursue, change.  ( ) Ideals.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Specific goals.  ( ) Techs.  ( ) Types of goals.  ( ) What are goals.	1/24/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) "Priority" means order to start.  (2) "Do by" means order to finish.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Budgets.  Amounts resources: Time, energy, money, materials.  Loose and tight.  Pros and cons.  Planned vs. actual results.  (2) Schedules: time.  Short term, mid, long term.  Loose and tight.  Pros and cons.  Total vs. sub areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) If I do x amount of work, it will take y amount of time for me to reach my goals, given z method of pursuit.  (2) Intelligence times effort (degree and duration) equals results.	01/01/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Make a list of goals.  (2) Keep your list of goals and track their development over time.  (3) Refer daily to your list of goals.  (4) Pursue you goals a little each day.  Persistence is key.  (5) Also make a list of all possible goals to choose from.  (6) Determine which goals are short term and long term.  Determine which goals are major goals and minor goals.  Determine the importance and urgency of each goal.  (7) Break goals into subgoals.  (8) Consider the worthiness of your goals.	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Old plans vs. latest plans (old/new).  Vs.  (2) Currently held plans vs. outdated plans (best/worst).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Resources.  Time, energy, money, materials.  (2) Ability.  Mental and physical.  Current and potential.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Thought goals.  Work out a solution.  Figure out or find out.  (2) Action goals.  Enact a solution.	12/15/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Three factors:  (A) To have a big opponent or obstacle.  (B) To have a well defined opponent (ex. blatantly evil).  (C) To have an obvious opponent (ex. one that is on your turf and in your face).  These are all factors that can give one a strong sense of purpose.  (2) This may be why some people prefer war to peace.  During war at least they know what to do.  They have a clear objective.  During peace they don't know what to do.  They drift aimlessly.  (3) Thus, a major challenge for some people is to develop the ability to set useful goals during peacetime, when there are no obvious foes, and when attack and defense requires a different type of judgment, finesse and subtlety.	3/28/2000

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Time you got to form goal.  (2) Time it takes you to form goal.  In time vs. too late.  How soon you should form goal optimally, especially in rapidly changing situations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) What are your goals?  Some goals are good.  Some goals are bad.  Some goals are better than other goals.  (2) How much do you want your goals?  Wanting something too much can be as bad as wanting something too little.  If you want something too much then you will do anything to get it, including doing bad things.  If you want a goal too little then you simply will not pursue the goal.	7/28/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	(1) Will, determination, spunk, moxy, chutzpah, grit, resolve, sticking to a goal, motivation, drive.  Vs.  Destruction of will by depression, oppressive authority, religion, mind games, or brain washing.  (2) Sticking to wrong goals, views and behaviors is bad.  Not sticking to correct goals, views and behaviors is bad.	12/26/1997

Psychology, drive, goals.	Achieving goals = success.  See: Philosophy, ethics, success and failure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Affects of reaching x goal in y time.  Positive affects vs. negative affects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	All I've worked long and hard for (job, girlfriend, notes, books) I just recently achieved, or are about to take off big time.  Don't blow it.	11/29/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Areas of goals.  (1) Work, leisure.  (2) Education: informal education, formal education.  (3) Social life, people.  Sex, like/lust.  Friends, acquaintances, enemies.  (4) Health: physical and psychology.  (5) Welfare: money and stuff.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Areas of thought or action to concentrate on.  (1) Areas ripe for development.  Example, new technology opens a field.  (2) Areas the world has a need for development.  Current problems.  (3) Areas I have an interest in developing.	11/15/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	Areas of thought or action.  Make a list of three types of things worth working on in thought and action.  (1) Things ripe for development, due to it being the right time.  (2) Things I really need, or world really needs.  Solutions to practical problems.  (3) Things I am interested in.	12/30/1995

Psychology, drive, goals.	Attack everything from all sides.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Both sub-optimal plans (goals and tactics) and sub-optimal effort can ruin a life.  How to improve both?	06/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Categories.  (1) Life knowledge: health and welfare.  (2) Job knowledge: Business, computers, and libraries.  (3) Personal knowledge: interest studies (philosophy, etc.).	12/30/1995

Psychology, drive, goals.	Categories.  Five words should run through my head.  Job, girlfriend, school, type, read.  Never think of anything else, and never think of nothing.	05/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Categories.  Job, pad, car, savings, women, books, tuition.	01/01/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	Compromising or selling out.  How much you sell out, for what or because of what, why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Contingency plans: goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons for any situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Criticism of goals.  Analyze and judge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Deciding to be goalless is a goal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Definition 1: A goal is any possible future course of action.  Definition 2: A goal is any object or state to obtain or attain.	8/8/2002

Psychology, drive, goals.	Determination, dedication, focus.  Even in the face of x types of y amounts of opposition, obstacles, distractions, or temptations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Develop and get best goals best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Direction, speed, distance.  We are all headed somewhere, whether under our own power, vs. adrift.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Direction: to form direction review old notes, and brainstorm new goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Do your means fit your goals?  Do your actions fit your thought goals?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Effort * skill * time = productivity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Focus and concentrate on goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Form and pick goals.  Pursue and fight for goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal development.  Dreaming, imagination and vision are important for goal development.  Where is the world heading?  List all alternatives and the probabilities.  What could I be?  What do I want to be?	5/26/2001

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal prioritization changes, causes of.  Opportunities, interests, needs.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Achievement, attainment: moving on to new goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  (1) Causes: self, others, natural environment.  (2) Effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  Both achievement and inability to achieve causes shifts in goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  Do it quick, do it well.  Ways: gain knowledge, think, listen to your drives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  Goal reformulation due to (1) You change: evolution, stagnation, devolution, different.  (2) Situation changes: evolution, stagnation, devolution, different.  (3) Achieved a goal: raise or switch.  (4) Couldn't achieve a goal: lower or switch.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  Raising standards vs. lowering standards.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Change.  Refining, narrowing.  Improving.  Changing order, hierarchy or priorities.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Changes in goals.  Changed from what to what?  Speed of change, degree of change.  Forced vs. chosen.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Changing goals.  What I wanted then is not what I want now, but it is what I got and thus I feel like crap.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Formation, development of goals.  Goal formation depends on intelligence and knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Giving up goals.  Giving up on a bad goal is good.  Giving up on a good goal is bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Other.  (1) Prioritization shifts: same goals, different priorities.  (2) Urgency shifts: same goals, different temporal order.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Other.  How much resources will I have to spend to get goal?  How much will goal be worth once I get it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Other.  Speed, direction, distance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Pursual: amount of time.  Pursual: many at same time is better than serial.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Pursual.  (1) Pursual in thought: figuring out how to get it.  (2) Pursual in action: getting it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Pursuit of goals: intensity, duration, frequency.  (1) How, how hard.  Time, money, materials, and energy spent.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  Pursuit.  How actively you pursue.  How long you pursue.  How you pursue.  How much you advance or achieve.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal processes.  The process: formation, pursuit, achievement of goal.  Also, change in goals.  Failure to achieve, and giving up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal setting is a matter of ethics.  You create goals based on what you think is good and bad.  You pursue goals with an intensity commensurate with how important you think the goal is.	7/28/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal statements organized from general to specific.	1/20/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal statements.  General to specific.  Abstract to concrete.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal statements.  What get, how get, why get.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goal trade offs.  One area vs. another.  Short vs. long term.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals = to do's.  Goals come from values.  See ethics.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals development depends on what you think is good and bad, important and unimportant, urgent and not urgent.  That is, goals depends on ethics.  Goal development depends on ethical development.  To put it even stronger, goal development equals ethical development.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals of typical person: Buy a house, pay mortgage.  Keep the car on the road.  Raise kids.  Put kids through college.  Work with accountant, stock broker, real estate agent, insurance agent, lawyer, etc.	4/11/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals organized in ways other than alphabetical or chronological:  Long term and short term.  Global and local.  Broad and detailed.  Most important to least important.  Broad scope to narrow scope.  Abstract to concrete.	1/1/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals stated from abstract to concrete, major to minor, general to specific, broad to narrow.  (2) For example, some high level goals.  Truth and Justice.  Don't waste time.  Support the Progressive cause.  (3) Logical structure of goals.  A change in goals at top affects entire chain of goals.	1/1/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons - relationship to ethics.  Depends on your metaphysics, epistemology, ethics (purpose of life, values), aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons - the big question.  What next?  And why and how and not.  Speed and accuracy of choosing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals: mine vs. societies.  What they are vs. what they should be.  Implicit goals vs. explicit goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals: things to get.  Antigoals: things to avoid.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals.  Ultimate goal, super-goals, goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons, sub-goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Goals.  Working towards goals vs. wasting time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Gstr (goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons).  Best and worst and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Gstr has to do with present situation and future situations.  Probable or expected, and possible.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Gstr influences or affects: psychology (drives, philosophy), society, nature.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	History of development of goals of humans and specific individuals, in thought and in action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	History of your goals: goals at any age.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How close what you get is to what you wanted or envisioned.  Fully achieved goals vs. partially achieve goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How good or bad your reasons are.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How hard you pursue or try (effort) vs. how much you achieve (productivity).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How much you want something and why.  How much you think of something and why.  How much you do something and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How soon achieved vs. how easily achieved.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	How well you develop goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  How well you pursue goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  Great idea, perfectly executed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Ideal goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons = solutions to problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	If only I had more time, energy, intelligence, memory, and testosterone.  You can make more, or use it better.	07/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Imagine and prepare for the worst.  Imagine and prepare for the best (to be ready for opportunity).  That is, imagine and prepare for everything.	07/27/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	In America, on January 1st, we make "New Years resolutions", which are our goals for the new year.  One day a year (New Years Day) is not enough to think about your goals.  Think about your goals every day.	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive, goals.	In general for everyone.  For you in your situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Keep the dream alive, so that the dream keeps you alive.	9/26/1999

Psychology, drive, goals.	Keep track of old goals, tactics, and reasons, to see what don't work (best) for you in what situations.	07/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Keeping track of goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  (1) Planning, developing, brainstorming.  (2) Controlling: budgets, schedules.  (3) Evaluating.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Key point.  Keep drive and optimism high.  I.e. desire to do it, and believe it can and will happen.	12/02/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Know what is at stake.  Know what getting a goal will allow you to accomplish.  Know what not getting a goal will prevent you from accomplishing.  Know how getting a goal will improve the situation.  Know how not getting a goal will diminish (unimprove?) the situation.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Knowledge of choices.  Choices you know about.  Choices you don't know about yet.  You have to search for them and think about them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Leap frogging.  Direction becomes clearer as you take steps forward.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Main Terms: Drive.  Motivation.  Goal.  Strategies and tactics.  Reasons (for choosing the goal, strategies and tactics).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Many achieve nothing because they can't see where to go, how to get there, and how good and important it is to get there.  You have to figure it out early, and keep it in mind constantly.	05/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Me.  (1) My Goals and Strategies, Tactics, and Reasons.  And alternatives generated and rejected and why.  (2) How I develop them.  How I keep track of them: memorizing, writing.  How I pursue them: how I do now vs. how I could and should.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Me.  By subject area.  Health: psychological and physical.  Welfare: earn, save and invest, spend.  Work, Leisure.  Sex, like/lust.  Education.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Me.  My goals.  Health.  Wisdom.  Kick ass (accomplishment).  Don't waste time doing nothing or doing unimportant things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Means, motive, opportunity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Meta-goals:  Work on goals.  Develop more and better goals.  Work more and better on pursuing goals.	1/1/2005

Psychology, drive, goals.	Momentary vs. long run.  Best vs. worst ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Number of goals.  Number of areas.  Heights of goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Order of doing things and amounts of time to spend.  Spend first to last energies on situation analysis and gstr, writing, books, women.  Spend most to least time on studies, then work, then women.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Organized, prioritized.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Partial effort vs. total effort.  Mental and physical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Plan, control, evaluate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Prioritization.  (1) Totally = importance?  (2) By time = urgency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problem attitudes.  (1) Plenty of time.  (2) It doesn't matter.  (3) I can't do it.  (4) It is no use.  (5) I can't affect it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problem.  (1) Aiming too high or low:  goals that are too easy or too difficult, leading to being unsatisfied or discouraged.  (2) Aiming to the sides: goals that are not suitable to your personality or interests, now or in future.	04/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problem.  My problem was I didn't go for my goals, in thought or action, with enough time, energy, and effort.  Especially choosing my career, finding a girlfriend, and doing philosophy.	08/15/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems that you are aware of.  Problems that you are not aware of.  Problems that are bothering you.  Problems that are not bothering you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  (1) Inability to reach goal due to  (A) Self: lack of ability or lack of effort.  (B) Others.  (C) Nature.  (2) Causes of "1": depression, frustration, anger, anxiety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  (1) Lack of attempt.  (2) Thinking a goal is unreachable.  (3) Inability to develop a goal (direction).  Goalessness, aimlessness causes depression, and wastes time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Balance problems.  Misappropriation of resources.  Too much (overkill) vs. not enough.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Direction problems.  No direction.  Wrong direction.  Right direction but low desire, low urgency, low importance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Goals not related to problems (impractical).  Priority problems.  Inefficient.  Don't have knowledge or technology (tools, techniques).  Don't have resources: time money materials energy, psychological ability, physical ability.  Pursue too much or too little.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  If your goals are not in line with your needs then you got a problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Lack of development of goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons vs. lack of pursual of goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Mistakes in goals:  (1) Thinking something is not a problem.  (2) Thinking its not your problem.  (3) Thinking its not an important problem.  (4) Thinking you cannot do anything about it.	11/13/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Mistakes in means vs. ends.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Omission, commission.  Leaving out a good goal.  Including a bad goal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Poor goals - direction.  Absent goals.  Too low vs. too high goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Psychological: fear, laziness.  Physical: health.  External: no money.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Repression of drives, motivation, goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons (dmgstr).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Strong motives for shit actions vs. weak motives for excellent actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Timing.  Too late (lagging behind).  Too soon (too far ahead).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Two goal problems.  (1) Trying too much for unrealistic, unobtainable goals.  I.e., thinking unobtainable goals are obtainable.  (2) Not trying enough for easy goals.  I.e., thinking obtainable goals are unobtainable.	6/10/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Undefined goals or ineffective strategies in short or long view, broad or narrow view, general or specific view.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Problems.  Wrong goal.  Wrong means, wrong pursual (s and t).  Wrong priorities.  Missing goals.  Missing means.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Rate your goals.  Big vs. small.  Complex vs. simple.  Long vs. short.  Important vs. unimportant.  Now vs. later.  Thought, action, stuff, experience goals.	02/07/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	Related topics: focus, concentration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Societal goals.  (1) How do they form?  (2) How are they communicated?  (3) How are they acheived?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Someone who does not generate goals, or pursue goals.  (1) Are they lazy?  Or just not driven?  Or just mellow?  (2) Is it learned from family or culture?  Is it a personality trait?  (3) What is the result?  Nothing is accomplished, nothing is improved.  Status quo (conservatives).	3/30/1998

Psychology, drive, goals.	Speed you develop and get goals is as important as ones you pick.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Standards and expectations.  Too high or too low.  Raising or lowering.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Standards.  Performance review.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Strategies and tactics = methods, processes, procedures, skills.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Strategies and tactics are ways how to get a goal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Strategies and tactics, means, technology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Subjective (perceived) vs. objective (actual).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Technology is tools and techniques.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  (1) Mental techniques vs. physical techniques.  (2) Self techniques vs. other techniques (for others by you, for you by others).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Always look for better goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  An important technique is to pick an ideal or hero.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Analyze situation.  Analyze alternatives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Continually think about what you want and don't want, and why.  Continually think how to get or avoid and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Develop knowledge of more goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  Develop more goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Goal prioritization.  Goal resolution.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Know goals exist.  Know what are your goals.  Examine and critique your goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Memorize goals and repeat twice daily.  For me to succeed like I want to succeed in areas of career, philosophy/notes, women, etc., I will have to (1) Work hard and smart every minute, and (2) No pathological states, no wasting time.	11/27/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Self statements: I can do this.  This is worth it, and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Self techniques for how to get increased (1) Goal memory.  (2) Goal awareness and attention.  (3) Goal motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Three hints for pursuing goals.  (1) Series of small steps.  Break big goals into smaller sub-goals.  (2) Daily pursuit of goals.  Pursue the small steps everyday.  (3) Shotgun approach.  Many tactics to get many goals in many subject areas, rather than one tactic for one goal in one subject area.	3/24/2000

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  Ways to keep track of goals.  Lists by urgency and importance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Techs.  You have goals, strategies, and tactics, which you have thought of at leisure.  Do not give them up.  Do not crack under opposition.  Act as well as think.  Act under opposition and pressure, as well as at peace.  Pressure means when something is important, decisive, when it really counts.  When chips are down, and danger abounds.  When stakes are big, and there is big risk.  Dig deep, don't crumble and don't fold.  Don't panic, stay calm, think clearly.  Remember why it is important to succeed and not fail.  Handle nerves and tensions.  Stay motivated, perform well, be brave.  Do not go addictive or fetal.  Do not be a coward or fag out.  It is war, do not surrender, give up, or give in.  Do not run and hide, do not go awol.	12/15/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	Terms.  Mission.  Goals, objectives.  Strategies, tactics.  Reasons goals chosen vs. reasons alternatives rejected (anti-gstr).  Plans: all gstrs.  Struggling.  Do's and don'ts.  Means (strategies and tactics) vs. ends (goals).  Anti-goals, anti strategies and tactics.  Techniques, methods, ways.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	The evolution, stagnation, devolution line.  The help/hurt line.  The stagnation point.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	The feeling of having done what you wanted to do (great).  The feeling of not having done what you wanted to do (shit).  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.	06/17/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	The most general goal statements in three words or less.  Be happy.  Play fair.  Help others.  Work hard.  Meet people.  Make friends.  Get real.  Stay cool.  Rock on.  Stay strong.  Fight evil.  Get laid.  Do exercise.  Eat right.  Plenty sleep.  Stay healthy.  Live long.  Stay alive.  Injury free.  Illness free.  Fall in love.  Read, write, publish.  Explore.  Search.  Think.  Feel.	1/21/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Time frames.  How soon get goals?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Topics,  (1) Ripe for development (easy pickings).  (2) Urgent need for development (current problems).  (3) Personal interest.	12/15/1994

Psychology, drive, goals.	Total dmgstr complex (drive, motivation, goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons).  Optimal dmgstr complex.  For an individual in general, or for a specific situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Total Effort Now (time, energy, money) to find great new ideas.	06/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two extremes: (1) Reasonable goals with well thought out plans vs. (2) Unreasonable goals with no good plans to achieve them.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two important ideas about goals.  (1) Perseverance is good.  Keep trying to solve the problem.  Don't let many failed attempts discourage your search for a solution.  (2) Creativity in finding new attempted solutions is good.  Try new ways to solve the problem and get the goal.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two main questions.  (1) What kind of world do I want to live in?  (2) What do I want to do?	1/20/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two parts of goals.  (1) Development of goals in mind, using thought and emotion.  (2) Progress toward achieving goals through physical action.	1/25/2005

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two types of goal sets.  (1) Having few, ill defined, easily obtainable, unethical goals.  vs.  (2) Having many, well defined, challenging, ethical goals.	11/13/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Two ways of organizing goals.  PART ONE.  Goals in "top down" order.  For example: (1) Save the world.  (A) Achieve ecological sustainability.  (B) Achieve social justice.     PART TWO.  Goals in "next step" order.	3/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  "Think" goals.  "Say" goals.  "Do" goals.	1/25/2005

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Conscious/unconscious goals.  (2) Healthy/unhealthy.  (3) Well defined/vague.  (4) Process goals are better than end or achievement goals.  (5) Get/have, be/become, do, experience.  (6) What, when, where, how, why, with who, to who, by who.  (7) Thought goals (learn) vs. action goals (do).  (8) Thinking goals: learn (find, figure), know, remember.  (9) Complementing goals vs. conflicting goals.  (10) Ideal goals.  (A) Imaginable.  (B) in this world, for anyone.  (C) For me, in my situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Goals for your current situation.  (2) Goals for projected future situation.  (3) Things you would do if your situation was different.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Goals where you make a little progress each day vs. all or nothing, final payoff goals.  I prefer the former and a  series of small, incremental steps.  (2) Guaranteed successful results (ex. Depositing in savings bank) vs. unknown result of final payoff (ex. Trying to find a cure for cancer).  (3) Pure strategy goals.  Pure luck goals.  Mixed strategy-luck goals.	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Goals you have thought of.  (2) Goals you have never thought of.  (3) Goals you would hold if you thought of them.  (4) Goals you wouldn't hold if you thought of them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Have to vs. don't: forced to.  (2) Need to vs. don't: for health or to get any goal.  (3) Want to vs. don't: desire.  (4) May vs. may not.  (5) Can vs. can't: able to.  (6) Should vs. not: ethics.  (7) Could vs. not: possible to.  (8) Would vs. not.  (9) Will vs. won't.  (10) Did vs. didn't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Healthy goals vs. unhealthy goals.  (2) Practical vs. impractical.  (3) Effective vs. ineffective.  (4) Legal vs. illegal.  (5) Ethical vs. unethical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Learning goals.  Figure out.  Find out.  (2) Doing goals.  Take action.	7/2/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Levels of goals.  Super-goals.  Goals.  Sub-goals.  Sub-goals are steps to achieve a goal.  (2) Related goals.  Webs of goals.  Hierarchies of goals.	1/25/2005

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Momentary vs. long run drive, motivation, goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  (2) Best vs. worst drive, motivation, goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  (3) Difficult vs. easy.  (4) Complex vs. simple.  (5) Quick vs. long dragged out.  (6) General vs. special.  (7) Good vs. bad.  (8) Past vs. present vs. future.  (9) Major vs. minor.  (10) Short term vs. long term.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) One time only goals: get and got for good.  (2) Repeating goals: get and get again.  (3) Endurance goals.  (4) Consistency goals.  (5) Single performance efforts.  (6) Constant goals: 24 hours a day.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Practical goals: thoughts, actions.  (2) Theoretical goals: ?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1) Single performance goals: done once and finished.  (2) Endurance goals: keep doing it.  (3) Consistency goals: keep doing it well.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  (1)(A) Individual's goals: for individual, for society.  (B) Society's goals: for society, for individual  (2) Societal goals vs. individuals goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Goals for all vs. goals specific to individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Momentary goals vs. over any period of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  New and old goals vs. currently held and not held goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  PART ONE.  Goals of individuals.  (1) Personal goals: your goals for yourself.  (2) Societal goals: your goals for society and the world.     PART TWO.  Goals of society.  (1) Society's goals for you.  (2) Society's goals for society and the world.	3/23/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Plans.  For current situations.  For expected situations probable.  For possible situations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Problems vs. challenges.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Should do vs. want to do vs. have to do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Types of goals.  Time and goals: short term, mid, long, and  ultimate goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Urgency.  (1) Time limits (real or perceived) can increase urgency.  (2) Danger (real or perceived) can increase urgency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	What and how much you want vs. need.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	What determines goals: interests, needs, likes/dislikes, values (what you think is good and important).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	What do I want and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	What do you desire?  Why do you desire it?  How are you going to get it?	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	What goals did you think up?  What actions did you take to achieve those goals?  How did things pan out?	10/25/2004

Psychology, drive, goals.	What things do people live for?  See also: Philosophy, life, ethics, ends.	6/11/2002

Psychology, drive, goals.	What want and why, and not and why.  How to find or get it and why, and not and why.  Resources (time, money, energy, etc.) to spend on it and why, and not and why.	05/30/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Why do x?  Why do x rather than y?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	You can go far in job and philosophy (1) If you put in effort (mind and action).  (2) If you do not put in the effort, you will not succeed.  (3) It will not be effortless.  (4) But it will not be impossible.	12/02/1993

Psychology, drive, goals.	Your goals as your political platform.  Your goals as your ethics system.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, goals.	Your goals depend on your (1) Metaphysical views: how you see world, and self.  (2) Ethical views: what think should do vs. want to do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Your goals should be problems and challenges.  Your goals should not be escape and avoidance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, goals.	Your gstr mix: what to do, time for each, order to do them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	.This section is about motivation.  Topics include: ( ) Motivators.  ( ) Demotivators.  ( ) What is motivation.	1/24/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) Caring increases motivation.  (2) Apathy, the psychological state of not caring, decreases motivation.  Apathy is the nihilists cop out.  The nihilist says, "I don't care.  It does not matter.  Nothing matters."	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) Distractions vs. focus.  (2) Opposition and discouragement vs. motivation.  (3) Laziness and wasted time and half effort vs. urgency and total effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) How do people keep going?  Repression.  Ideals.  Hope.  Etc.  (2) How do I keep going?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) Motivation is not something that can be turned on and off like a faucet.  (2) Motivation is closely tied to emotion and thought.  They all effect each other.	3/25/2000

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) Motivators: increase motivation.  (2) Non-motivators: neither motivate nor anti-motivate.  (3) Anti-motivators: reduce motivation.  (4) Combo complex: something can have all 3 effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) Types of motivators, degrees of each, for any activity.  Self motivated vs. motivated by others: family, peers, town, country, business, club.  (2) Types of non-motivators.  (3) Types of anti-motivators, destruction of motivation.  What does it, how soon?  Uncertainty.  Risk.  Opposition.  (4) Effects of motivation or anti-motivation on psychology, behavior, and situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) What motivates?  Visible progress.  Vision, direction, purpose.  (2) What demotivates?  Mistakes, no progress, no direction, adversity, fear.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) When a person is highly motivated they will spend a great deal of time and energy pursuing something.  They will think about it all the time, almost to the point of obsession.  (2) When a person has a low level of motivation they will spend their time in unproductive activities like watching television.  (3) Different people have different motivations for different things.  (4) Motivation starts with thoughts.  (5)  Ethics and motivation.  (A) Motivation is, in part, an ethical issue.  Ethics is unavoidable in life.  The things that motivate you are, in part, an ethical choice on your part.  (B) Ethics is, in part, a motivational issue.  The degree to which a person pursues the things that they think are ethically good is based on how motivated is the person.	10/28/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) When we talk about the gas or fuel that keeps people going we are talking about motivation.  (2) Motivations can be conscious and unconscious.  Conscious motivations are motivations that we can speak about.  Unconscious motivations are motivations that we are unable to articulate.  Unconscious motivations are very important in that they can affect our moods and well being.  (3) Different things motivate different people for different reasons.  Different things demotivate different people for different reasons.  (4) The amount of motivators must be greater than the amount of demotivators.  (5) Some people argue that both motivation and emotional mood are simply matters of levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.  However, against that view, ideas can affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels.  Behavior and environment can also affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels.  The view that thoughts, behavior and environment affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels is the basis of cognitive therapy or rational behavior therapy.	2/25/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	(1) You can tell yourself, "It does not matter if I do it now, because I can do it later.  It does not matter if I do it, because someone else will do it soon anyway.  It does not matter if I do it, because it will not make any difference in the world".  (2) Or you can tell yourself, "If I do not do it real well, right now, the fate of the survival of the entire world, which rests on my shoulder, is doomed.  But if I do it right the entire world will be perfect forever".  (3) Both of these strategies of imagining can be useful.  "1" in order to de-stress when overwhelmed.  "2" to get yourself motivated.	01/28/1994

Psychology, drive, motivation.	90% of people are motivated by fear 90% of the time.	11/24/1988

Psychology, drive, motivation.	A person can be motivated by ideas.  A person can be motivated by emotions.  A person is usually motivated by an attitude, which is a combination of ideas and emotions.	10/23/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	A person is usually motivated by what the person cares about.  Thoughts and emotions, which combine to form attitudes, provide the motivation.  Memory keeps the motivation in mind.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Amount and type of motivation required to do something.  Some things take little motivation.  Some things take much motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	An ever present (conscious and unconscious), burning, agonizing, painful want and desire causes an extreme sense of urgency, and an enduring effort for new goals.  Constant development and evolution of desire, urgency and effort, produces results.	06/30/1993

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Commitment to x is related to drive, desire, focus, bravery, ethics, stability.  It is an important phenomenon.  Taking a stand.  How long will you stick to x?  In face of what opposition?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Common motivators.  Survival.  Greed.  Envy.  Jealousy.  Fear vs. Hope.  Truth and Justice.	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Degree, speed, frequency, duration of motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Demotivation: fear kills motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Demotivators.  (1) Why do people give up?  (A) As young children, beaten down by parents.  (B) As school kids, beaten down by the school system.  (C) As adults, beaten down by job, marriage, kids.     (2) Reasons people give for giving up on thinking and learning.  (A) Others will do the thinking for us (academics, bosses, etc.).  Being lazy and contented.  The argument against this view: no one can do your thinking for you.  (B) I am too dumb to think.  The world is too complex and too difficult.  There is too much information (information overload).  (C) Just conform.  The reason they hold this view: There are very few role models who learn.  They end up following everyone else who doesn't conform.  (4) Confusion.  They don't know what or who to believe.	01/07/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Demotivators.  Psych out.  Two types of psych outs: To be psyched out by someone else, with or without them intending it.  To psych yourself out.  Becoming psyched out can involve (1) Distraction.  Destroys your concentration and focus.  (2) Self doubt.  Questioning if you can accomplish goal.  Destroys your self confidence.  (3) Demotivate.  Makes you not want it.  You think it is not worth the trouble.  Question if goal is worth getting and having.  (4) Intimidation.	05/18/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Depression demotivates.  Pessimism demotivates.  Beware.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Different people have different motivations, for better or worse.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Direction, desire, urgency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Emotion and drive.  One view is that motivation is simply a matter of emotion based on thoughts.  A second view is that basic drives (hunger and thirst) are a physical response and that higher drives are an emotional response.	5/15/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Emotion and motivation.  What are some of the emotional components of motivation?  (1) What are the emotions of ambition?  What are the emotions of those seeking fame and fortune?  (2) What are the emotions of those seeking justice?  What are the emotions of those seeking to improve the world.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Encouragement (from self and others).  People need and thrive on encouragement.  One achieves better results from praising people's accomplishments and encouraging people to do better than by negatively criticizing their efforts and discouraging them from doing things the only way they know how.  Show them your way.  If your way is better, they will adopt it.	12/29/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Encouragement.  (1) Discourageable: how easily, how often.  Encouragement: how much needed, how often.  (2) How often an individual falls prey to it vs. how often individual does either to others.  (3) See optimism and pessimism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Focusing and dwelling: (1) On your ideals is motivating.  (2) On inability of reaching ideals is demotivating.  (3) On fact that world is not ideal is demotivating.  (4) The key is to find and solve problems, in a positive state of mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Getting motivated and staying motivated (to live).  The importance of ideals, hopes and dreams in getting and staying motivated.	1/1/2000

Psychology, drive, motivation.	How does and should one get motivated to do x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	How motivated are you to do x, or not do x, and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	How much resolve vs. how easily discouraged in any situation, with any type and degree opposition.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	How to create a state of boundless energy and drive?  How to create a sense of urgency?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	How to get motivated to do x?  How motivated, and non-motivated, and anti-motivated, am I to do x, and why, and how to change it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	I am motivated by principles.	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	If you were totally motivated to do X you would quit your job to do X.  If you were slightly less motivated to do X you would spend every free minute doing X.	6/11/2002

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Interests, attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Keeping the dream alive and in mind.  (1) When I want to do x most, I will do anything, conquer anything, put up with anything to get it.  (2) When you lose motivation the attitude turns into "I don't want x.  I don't want x most.  I won't do or deal with y to get x".	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  (1) What destroys motivation?  Low energy states due to lack of food, sleep.  Emotional states like depression.  (2) What improves motivation: urgency, reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  (1) What motivates me?  Accomplishment.  (2) What non-motivates me?  Lack of knowledge of importance.  Lack of knowledge of urgency.  (3) What de-motivates me?  Lack of direction.  Adversity.  Fear of failure.  Fear of success (fear of change due to getting goal).  (3) Why?  Is it healthy?  If not, what should it be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  Motivators.  Morning affirmations.  Things do exist.  Right and wrong exist.  Knowledge is possible.  I can get (some of) the things I want (job, girlfriend, ideas) if I work hard.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  Motivators.  My motivators: greed and money, sex, power.  12/30/1992.  Not really.	11/30/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  What inspires and helps me most now is my own past writing.  This is a good situation to be in.  Cycle of growth.	02/24/1994

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Me.  What motivates me it is (1) Survival, and (2) Doing the ethical thing.  Luxuries do not motivate me.  Every extra dollar I save is more time and money to spend doing philosophy.	11/15/1994

Psychology, drive, motivation.	More than anything, people need motivation and inspiration.	04/24/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Most human motivation is due to emotion and thought (attitudes) rather than instinct.	5/14/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation complex: % thought, % drive, % emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation for any individual or type of individual.  In general, or for any subject.  People in general, specific types, and specific individuals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation has a drive component, a memory component, an emotional component, a thought component, and an attitude component.  Many combinations are possible.  You can have the same goal but different means, reasons, emotions, etc.  You can have the same means or reasons or emotions but different goals.	10/19/1999

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation is an attitude about a goal.  The most important idea about motivation is what goal we pick and how strongly we are motivated toward pursing it.  There are many possible goals.  We order goals in a priority of importance listing.	8/8/2002

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation is key to fighting depression.  To get motivated, if you have nothing that motivates you, you must change the things that motivate you, and to do that you must change your ethical values.	11/30/1996

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation is learned?  Reinforcement (see behaviorism).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation or obsession and compulsion?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivation vs. inspiration.  (1) Motivation is something that provides impetus to do something.  Motivation fires up the will.  Motivation has to do with the will.  (2) Inspiration is something that increases creativity.  Creativity can not be willed.  Inspiration has nothing to do with will.	06/05/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators: can do and want to do (id) vs. limits: can't do (super ego), actual and perceived.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators: sex, money, fame, power.  Unconscious vs. conscious motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators.  (1) Urgency can inspire and motivate (time limits).  (2) Mind blowing experiences can too (danger, adrenaline).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators.  Competition: with self vs. with others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators.  What keeps people going?  (1) Pleasure.  (2) Ethical principles of living with present.  (3) Ideals for the future.  (4) Lies or truths.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators.  What motivates people?  (1) Emotions (anger, lust, fear).  (2) Conformity.  (3) Truth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Motivators.  What motivates people?  Lies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Need both motivation and direction.  Motivation without direction = all reved up and no place to go.  Direction without motivation = bump on a log.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	People get comfortable and it holds them back.  People get complacent and stop trying.  How can one motivate oneself?	12/1/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Problem approach.  (1) Unmotivated for important things vs. motivated for unimportant things.  (2) Too motivated vs. not enough.  (3) Wrong object, wrong reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Reasons and motivation.  (1) What is your reason to live?  (2) What is your reason to pursue any particular goal?	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Reinforcement: reward and punishment, learning.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Related subjects.  Emotions: directed at object, or caused by anything.  And commonly associated thoughts.  (1) Like: I like this.  (2) Dislike: I don't like this.  (3) Pain: this hurts.  (4) Discouragement: this is getting me nowhere, this aint working.  (5) Pleasure: this feels good.  (6) Hope: if I do this, this may happen.  There's no hope, no use, no chance, impossible.  (7) Inspiration: I have seen a vision.  (8) Anger.  (9) Frustration: this sucks.  (10) Happiness: this is great.  (11) Sadness.  (12) Fear of punishment, mistakes, success, or failure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Related subjects.  Environment and motivation.  Environment requires, forces it, recommends it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Related subjects.  Learning of motivations.  I should (should not) do this.  I think vs. they told me.  I don't know why vs. I agree vs. I disagree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Related subjects.  Society and motivation.  Force.  Persuasion.  Society endorses it or not.  Society sanctions vs. rewards it.  Society makes no comment on it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Related subjects.  Thoughts: views and reasons why.  Ethics: self deduced, vs. societally imposed.  Values, ideals, priorities.  (1) This aint right.  (2) This aint perfect.  (3) This is right, best, healthy, practical.  (4) This is perfect.  (5) This aint logical - doesn't make sense.  (6) This is logical - makes sense.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Reward.  (1) Promise of reward.  (2) Giving reward on achievement.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Reward.  Personal rewards vs. societal rewards.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Reward.  What type, how much, how often, keeps a person doing x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Self motivated (better than) vs. externally motivated.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Some do it for money, sex, power, material things, competition with others, competition with self, fame.  To gain the adulation of peers, or the masses.  To go down in the history.  Because they like it.  Because they are good at it.  Because they are the only ones who can do it.  Because they think it is important.  Cooperation, to help others.	01/03/1994

Psychology, drive, motivation.	To be motivated to pursue something, one must think it is important or urgent.  Other people are motivated by things they think are fun, even if unproductive.	10/23/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Two pairs of factors.  (1)(A) Self-motivated.  You decide your goals.  (B) Motivated by society.  Society decides your goals.  (2)(A) Motivated to help self.  Egoism.  (B) Motivated to help others.  Altruism.  (3) The problems is that most people are motivated by society (1A) to be egotists (2A), when actually it would be better if people were self motivated (1B) to help others (2B).	3/25/2000

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Two types of motivation.  (1) Feeling motivated without any conscious thought why.  Pure drive.  (2) Feeling motivated by a conscious thought.  Inspiration.	11/9/1999

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Types of motivation.  To be motivated by principle.  Principles are abstract thoughts.	11/28/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Typical attitudes (thoughts and emotions) involved.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Unmotivated or undisciplined.  Motivation or discipline.  Motivation is better than discipline.  It is better to want to do something then to force yourself to do something.	3/30/1998

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Urgency and Importance are key concepts to the psychology of motivation.  See: Philosophy, ethics, importance and urgency.	10/23/2005

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Ways (better and worse) how to get motivated.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	We are motivated by our attitudes (i.e., by our thoughts and emotions).  (1) Motivation by thought.  Motivated by what we think is right and wrong, good and bad.  (2) Motivation by emotion.  Motivated by what we feel is pleasurable and painful.	8/8/2002

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What accounts for people becoming philosophers, scientists, or anything else?   Perhaps the dreams of young teens accounts for it.  Young teenagers desire to be cool.  They desire to be like the older teens.  They desire to be less childlike.  They desire to know what is going on.  They desire to be smarter (future scientists and philosophers).  They desire to be stronger, more coordinated and athletic (future jocks).  They desire to be more beautiful, sophisticated and richer (future urbanites).  They desire to have more power and authority (future politicians, judges and cops).  The inequalities in these traits between adult peers or between child peers is not as great as between younger children and older children.  The early teenager experiences an unconscious or conscious humiliation and envy in regard to older teens, which drives young teens to achieve.  The point is that the early teen years may be as psychologically important as early childhood.  What drives the individual is the relationship between younger kids and older kids.  What drives the individual is not the relationship between kids and their peers, and is not the relationship between kids and parents.  The crucial relationship is not between kids and adults.  Kids don't want to be like adults.  Kids look at adults as almost another species.  The crucial relationship is not between kids and their peers.  Kids don't want to be like their peers, who they often view as equally inept.  They key is that the little kids want to be like the big kids.  So the crucial relationship is between the little kids and the big kids.  The little kids can scarcely articulate this feeling.  The big kids rarely acknowledge and barely even recognize this feeling.  But it hovers there like an almost invisible bond.	5/22/2000

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What attitudes keep people alive after the fun has gone and living becomes an unenjoyable, painful slog?  (1) Don't let the jerks and assholes win.  (2) Help those innocent little kids.  When you begin to think you are part of the problem, it is all over for you.	01/07/1997

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What does motivate vs. what should motivate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What keeps a person going?  Love and happiness.  Love of humanity.  Love of the good.  Love of ideals.  Love of ideas.  Happy to be alive.  Happy to be.  What keeps a person going even when the going is tough, and life seems miserable, when things go badly?  Hope.  Hope that things will change for the better.  Having a purpose and meaning.  Having a cause.  Resolve, perseverance, determination.	3/21/2004

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What motivates, non-motivates, and anti-motivates: individuals in general, specific types individuals, and specific individuals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What motivation complex is best or worst in what situation, for who.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What will you do for x, and not, and why?  X motivates you to do what?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	What.  A motivation can be an emotion, thought, or attitude.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive, motivation.	Who is motivated to do what, how, when, where, to who, why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	.This section is about drive.  Topics include: ( ) Drive.  ( ) Types of drive.  ( ) Needs.  ( ) Wants.  Desires.  ( ) Obsession.  Addiction.  ( ) Will.  ( ) Instincts.  Urges.  ( ) Eastern vs. Western perspectives.  ( ) What is drive.	1/24/2006

Psychology, drive.	(1) Drive defined as instinct.  Have to do.  Hard wired.  Examples, breath, drink, eat.  (2) Drive defined as urge.  Want to do, but don't have to.  For example, sex?	5/16/2005

Psychology, drive.	(1) Drive is an approach/avoidance issue.  One weighs the costs of pursuing a goal vs. the benefits of gaining a goal.	4/6/2001

Psychology, drive.	(1) Drives are what keep people going?  Not necessarily.  (2) Having something to live for.  Is it about drive (urge), reason (duty), or emotion (love or care)?  (3) All drives are primal urges or instinct that get filtered through the high-level mind?  (4) Pathological drive conditions, are there any?  Not being able to control drives?  Can drives be destroyed at a base level, or just repressed at a high level?  (5) We want sex, but we don't need sex like we need food and water.  We need love more than sex.	8/23/1998

Psychology, drive.	(1) Drives defined as basic physiological needs.  (2) Desires defined as higher, consciously considered wants, including their corresponding emotions.	8/6/1999

Psychology, drive.	(1) Goal formation is one issues.  (2) Goal pursuit is another issue.  (3) Motivation is the attitude (thought and emotion) you have toward your goals.  How important and urgent you think your goals are.  The impetus to get goals.	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive.	(1) Repressed (no goals) vs. unrepressed (goals).  (2) Controlled (boundaries) vs. uncontrolled (no boundaries).	8/15/1998

Psychology, drive.	(1) Some drive terms: desire, wants, acquisitive, greedy, curious.  (2) We all want everything.  We want it all.  They try to tell us that we can have it all.  This is why we are fat.  This is why the environment is stressed.  (3) Two types of drive.  (A) See it, want it.  No thoughts involved.  (B) Juggling wants.  Involves a form of thinking known as deciding and prioritizing.  Juggling issues like "like (approach)" and "dislike (avoid)" also involves decision making.	7/18/2000

Psychology, drive.	(1) To "really want" something, is that an emotion, a thought, an attitude (emotion + thought), a craving or urge, or what?  What is the explanation for the psychological mechanism of goal creation and goal pursuit?  (2) What are "wants"?  They are goals.  What is "wanting"?  It is a desire for goals.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	(1) To want only.  Children, addicts, and compulsives do this.  (2) Wants mediated by emotions, thoughts and attitudes.  Healthy adults do this.	12/15/1998

Psychology, drive.	(1) Total focus: all I can see is this.  (2) Total drive: all I want is this.  (3) Total confidence: I can get anything.  (4) Total self esteem: I deserve everything.  (5) Drive is will, determination, self discipline, dedication, desire.	12/30/1995

Psychology, drive.	(1) We all have basic low-level drives for food, sex, sleep, etc.  (2) These low-level drives develop into a generalized mid-level drive to "survive" and "get more at any cost", which then leads to our desires for money, power, fame, etc.  (3) Above these mid-level urges we have higher-level thought processes that weigh one drive against another, and that think about the implications of possible courses of action.	2/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	(1) We all have remnants of an infantile urge to touch, taste, feel and see everything.  (2) We all have remnants of a childish urge to own, control, dominate and manipulate everything.  (3) Thus, part of our drives reflect a time when we were tiny, sensual, megalomaniacs.	7/18/2000

Psychology, drive.	(1) We can endeavor to do something, to gain some accomplishment or achievement.  (2)(A) Then there is the vigorous pursuit of simplicity, emptiness and nothingness, as found in Zen, Thoreau, and the Amish.  (B) Also, there is unvigorously doing nothing.  Ala couch potato.	8/23/1998

Psychology, drive.	(1) Why would one persevere in a course of action without any extrinsic reward?  They like it.  They are good at it.  They are doing something useful.     (2) What would motivate one to devote every spare minute to this project?  A sense of urgency.  Urgency caused by realizing that life is not as long as it appears to be.	3/25/2000

Psychology, drive.	A drive hypothesis.  (1) Drives, if they exist, have a thought component and an emotion component.  (2) Drives have a innate component (nature) and a learned component (nurture).  (3) Some drives have a single, narrow, specific expression in behavior, and other drives can have multiple expressions in behavior.  The latter are more influenced by environment, the former are closer to hardwired instincts.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	An inflationary view of drives gives drives a large and important role to play in our lives.  The implication of such a view is to play up concepts such as determinism and genetics, and play down concepts like freewill, environment, emotion and thinking.  I disagree with an inflationary view of drives.  I prefer a deflationary view of drives.  In this view, anything beyond the few lowest-level biological urges becomes a complex interplay of thoughts and emotions involved in goal forming.  The reason I prefer the deflationary view of drives is because there is very little we have to do, very little we must do beyond eating and sleeping.  However, the diversity of human behavior shows that there is an extraordinary number of things we can do.  This fact argues for a deflationary view of drives and an increased emphasis on thought and emotion.  I say we are 90% freewill and only 10% pre-programmed.  Ethics, based on reason and emotion, limits out behavior much more than drive does.	2/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	Beyond the most basic, strongest drives for survival and reproduction, it is all up for grabs when it comes to drives.  Anyone can desire just about anything.  Even the basic drives of survival and reproduction can be over-ridden.  For example, people give up their lives for various political issues and causes.  Another example, people decide not to have kids for various reasons.  So if the most basic and strong drives of survival and reproduction can be over-ridden then maybe drive is less important than other psychological issues like emotion and thought.	4/6/2001

Psychology, drive.	Desire is also an inability to accept the world as it is.  Desire is about making the world like you want it to be.  Change the world.	8/29/2000

Psychology, drive.	Desire.  If you desire something bad enough, you will put in time and effort, face obstacles, have focus and drive, and will avoid diversions distractions and seductions away from your goal.  Desire is the key.  Remember your strongest desires and your reasons for them.	06/01/1994

Psychology, drive.	Desires.  (1) Some people put too much emphasis on their desires.  Some people can't get away from their desires.  Too much emphasis on desire can make a person self-centered and selfish.  (2) Too little desire results in no sense of self.  It also results in repression of natural desires which leads to neurosis.  (3) We seek a balanced state of desire (degree of wanting).  And we seek noble objectives (goal wanted).  (4) What do you call altruistic desires, like the desire to save the world?	8/29/2000

Psychology, drive.	Drive and emotions.  We experience our drives as emotional likes and dislikes.	5/9/2000

Psychology, drive.	Drive and ethics are closely related.  Many of us are chasing after the wrong things.	8/6/1999

Psychology, drive.	Drive for emotional bonding leads to need for love.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drive vs. obsession vs. addiction.  What is the difference?	6/4/2002

Psychology, drive.	Drive vs. obstacles, opposition and distraction.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drive, desire, and will.  (1) The Eastern (Buddhist) view is that we desire a lot of things which we do not need, and that desire in general is basically a bad thing.  (2) The Western view is that desires are an unavoidable, natural and healthy part of life.  To have no drives, desire and goals is to be apathetic, lazy, wasteful, repressed and depressed.  To have no will is to be a zombie or a brain-washed cult member.	8/6/1999

Psychology, drive.	Drive, motivation, will, desire, determination is really a matter of (1) Thinking of goals, strategies, and reasons.  (2) Remembering the goals, strategies, and reasons that you of thought of.  (3) Feeling strongly that the goal should be pursued despite any given opposition, or temptation of any other course of action.  (4) Number three starts to edge into ethics.  (5) So drive is really closely connected to memory, emotion, thinking, and ethics.	02/28/1998

Psychology, drive.	Drives are a question of goals, which are a question of values.  Values are not so much taught as they are either figured out for self, or else imposed by society.  It turns out that drives (psychology) is really about ethics (philosophy).  All along scientists have been saying that philosophy is about psychology.	7/1/1999

Psychology, drive.	Drives are always mediated by thought, especially ethical thoughts.  Thoughts like "What do I want to do?  Do I really want to do this?  What will turn me on and get me off?  What are my goals and reasons for them?  What are my strategies and reasons for them?"	8/23/1998

Psychology, drive.	Drives.   Drives, clashing drives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drives.  (1) Healthy: when drives overtake fears (i.e., bravery).  (2) Unhealthy: when fears overtake drives (i.e., cowardice).	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drives.  (1) Ideal drive states.  (2) Problems with drives.  (A) Repressed.  (B) Don't know how to deal with it.  (3) Techniques to deal with problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drives.  (1) Type, degree, frequency, duration.  (2) Causes and effects.  (3) Evolution of drives in animals, human species, and individuals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Drives.  Social implications: struggling, cooperation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Fanaticism.  At what point does your drive to achieve a goal, or your obsession with a thought, turn you into a fanatic?  You are a fanatic when you are willing to engage in unethical behavior in pursuit of a goal.	5/27/2005

Psychology, drive.	Feeling urges vs. forming goals.  The amount that thought and emotion intermediate in the above.	1/1/2000

Psychology, drive.	Giving up (1) When drive is repressed.  (2) When taught not to fight.  (3) Both are bad.  Models of resignation.	9/2/1998

Psychology, drive.	How are interests and curiosity related to drive, motivation and goals?	6/12/2002

Psychology, drive.	Instinct.  Psychologists say that animals operate on instinct.  But who can explain exactly what is animal instinct?  And who can explain exactly how the residue of animal instinct expresses itself in humans.  It is not just "hunch".  It is not just "urge".  Perhaps humans are unaware when instinct is at work in them, and that is why we have trouble explaining instinct.	6/3/2002

Psychology, drive.	Intention, self-direction, will, requires the ability to think about the future, and requires the ability to think about the past, because self direction requires the ability to say, "Next time this happens, I will do differently from last time."  Prehistoric, proto-humans without the ability to think of past and future had little conscious self direction.	4/17/2006

Psychology, drive.	Is desiring nothing as bad as desiring everything?  Are they both undesirable extremes?	7/31/2006

Psychology, drive.	Meaning and purpose are close cousins to desire, drive and will.  The former generates the latter.	8/6/1999

Psychology, drive.	Memory and drive.  Drive is a function of how much a thing is on your mind.  Thus, drive is a function of memory.	7/28/2006

Psychology, drive.	Needs.  Given two choices, the need to do the one you want.  How will it hurt your will psychologically if you don't choose what you want?  When does a psychological want become a psychological need, and visa versa?	01/01/1993

Psychology, drive.	Needs.  One mans crumb is another mans food.  Different people have different needs at different times due to their physical, psychological, economic, and social development.	12/30/1995

Psychology, drive.	Obstacles to drive satisfaction.  (1) Interior: psychological.  (2) Exterior: natural, manmade, social.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Problems.  (1) Too much survival drive.  (A) Taking the first thing, or whatever comes along.  (B) Living for money and safety.  (2) Not enough survival drive.  (A) Self destruction.  (B) Too much risk.	10/30/1993

Psychology, drive.	Problems.  Drive problems: (1) Thwarted drives.  (2) Warped drives.  (3) Sublimated drives.  (4) Repressed drives.  (5) Denied drives.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	Settling.  When to settle?  Never settle.  Settling is selling out.  If we define settling as compromising principles.  If we define settling as being practical or realistic.	5/27/2005

Psychology, drive.	Social esteem: having others feel good about you.  Vs. self-esteem: feeling good about yourself.  Go for the latter.	8/23/1998

Psychology, drive.	Survival drive leads to survival neurosis.  Do anything to survive.  Obsessions with money, or power.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	The more driven you are, the more pain you can endure.  Therefore, to counteract the pain of this life, one should get drive.  Get purpose.  Get the will to live.  So the pain of life does not drive you nuts.	5/25/1999

Psychology, drive.	To what extent do our aesthetic tastes, which are supposedly arbitrary, like for example our favorite foods, affect our ethical likes and dislikes, which are supposed to be closely reasoned, and how does this affect our drives and goals?	4/6/2001

Psychology, drive.	Two extremes.  (1) Strong motivation for well defined goals.  (2) Weak motivation for hazy goals.	4/10/2001

Psychology, drive.	Two thoughts must burn in our subconscious at all times.  (1) We are going to die.  (2) We want to reproduce; get laid.  How do these two constant subconscious thoughts affect us?	09/13/1988

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  (1) Needs, necessities?  (2) Luxuries: that help and that hurt.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  (1) Physical.  The drive for psychological and physical health.  Survival.  Eat, drink, sleep, breath, shit, piss, sex.  (2) Psychological.  Succeed.  Social?  Goals/purpose?  Freedom?	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  (1) Unconscious, instinctively, uncontrollably.  (2) Conscious, chosen.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  A desire (something you want) can be a need or a luxury.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  Needs.  (1) Perceived vs. actual.  (2) Psychological and physical needs.  (3) To stay alive, and to become something.  (4) Things you need vs. don't need.  (5) Things you need more or less of.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Types of drives.  Wants. (1) Needs.  (A) To survive.  (B) For devolution, stagnation, evolution.  (C) Psychological, physical, economic-finance needs.  (2) Luxuries.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Ultimate drive makes it perfect.  Everything matters, monumentally.	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	Wants vs. needs.  Are your wants way above or way below what you actually need to develop?  Is what you actually need always some "next step"?  Can you be given something too far ahead of you to use it?  Is there some orderly progression?	12/30/1995

Psychology, drive.	What are drives?  Drive as a "hunger" or "thirst".	12/30/1992

Psychology, drive.	What are the conscious and unconscious drives that motivate me, and people in general?  Why do I and people in general do things? (1) Money and stuff (survival neurosis).  (2) Status and fame.  (3) Discover and reach your personal best (self actualization).  (4) To be the best in a field (competition).  (5) Intellectual pride.  (6) To make the world a better place through gaining knowledge, or making actual changes (ethics).  (7) For your group (nationalism, patriotism).  (8) To do something new (creative).	04/30/1993

Psychology, drive.	When people have the quantity (amount) and quality (standards required or desired) of their needs and wants met, then they are satisfied and happy.	09/20/1994

Psychology, drive.	When we were young we saw the older kids as much more smart, cool, and mature than us, and sometimes they were, but more often it was illusion due to age worship (a pathological condition).  The image we had of them may no longer have applied to them, but the vision can still be an ideal to us.  A self created vision to guide us when we can't see a real life model.  "The New" and "The Best" have no real life models anyway.	10/23/1993

Psychology, drive.	Where does all the energy come from?  It comes from an IDEA.  Thoughts can influence drives.	8/6/1999

Psychology, drive.	Will, desire, drive, urge, hankering, and yearning are important to counteract apathy and laziness.	9/2/1998

Psychology, drive.	Will.  Intention.  Will to power.  Very often people do things "Because they can" or "To see if they can".  That is, people do things just to exercise their will.  Many thinkers have been concerned with will.  William James recovered from a nervous breakdown by a famous decision to will.  Nietzsche was concerned with the will to power.  Sartre's existentialism is concerned with humans ability to make a choice.  Victor Frankl is concerned with humans choice to create meaning.	1/1/2002

Psychology, drive.	You need to push yourself in a good direction.  No self push means no forward movement.  No direction means aimless wandering.  No self push means no accomplishment.  No self push means someone else may push you in a wrong direction.  To achieve good things you really need to push yourself in a good direction.	2/11/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	.This section is about anger.  Topics include: ( ) Anger.  ( ) Disgust.  ( ) Frustration.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	(1) Anger is healthier than depression.  (2) Angry all the time.  (3) Anger is an energy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	(1) Types of anger.  Frustrated.  Perturbed.  Aggravated.  Miffed.  Peeved.  Pissed off.  Rage.  (2) Uncontrolled anger vs. controlled anger.  (3) Misplaced anger at innocents vs. well placed anger at the source of injustice.  (4) Anger is an energy, to quote Johnny Rotten.	6/20/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Anger is good and healthy; sadness and depression is unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Disgust is a basic emotion.  Disgust has a corresponding facial expressions that anthropologists recognize as universal to all cultures.  Disgust is distinct from sadness and anger.  What happens when everything disgusts you?  Are you depressed?  Is this why Sartre wrote "Nausea"?  Many depressed people are sad, angry and disgusted all at once, a triple threat.	5/10/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Disgust.  Sometimes I disgust myself.  This is progress, to be disgusted with oneself.  If you are never disgusted with yourself, you will never do anything.	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Disgust.  When I cease to be totally disgusted, nauseated, angry, and disturbed by all the bull shit in the world.  When I say "maybe it is ok", or ignore it, then I know I am in trouble, and have given up and lost the battle like all the other assholes.	09/26/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	First step, realize you are angry (emotionally, intellectually).  Acknowledge it, figure out why.  Figure out how bad and unjust the cause is.  Sort out your emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Frustration as a form of anger regarding drives denied.	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	I have much anger.  Get it out at sources.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	It is good to be bugged (to a certain extent) by the stupidity, evil, insanity, absurdity.  Pissed off, irked, bothered, confused.  It is not good to be completely complacent.	11/20/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Problems with anger.  (1) People who don't feel enough anger.  People who don't acknowledge their anger and deal productively with their anger end up repressing their anger and turning it into depression and anxiety.  They need to say to themselves and to others, "I feel (very, moderately, or a little) angry at x person about y event because of z reason".  (2) People who feel too much anger.  People who lose their temper.  People who lose control when angry.  Who have fits of uncontrolled anger.  Who have anger management problems.  People whose anger turns into abuse (verbal abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse).	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Self righteous wrath (for justice) is the key emotion.  It leads to action.  It is greater than love.  This is because we love the perfect but we get angry over the imperfect, and the world is highly imperfect.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Two principles of anger.  (1) Better to get angry than to go nuts.  (2) Only ethical expressions of justified anger can be countenanced.  An ethical expression of anger is at the right target in the right amount.	6/20/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Vent your anger, disapproval, and objections, no matter what the situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	What am I angry about, and why?  Momentarily vs. persistently.  In general vs. specific.  Myself, god, everyone, everything.  Past, present, future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	What makes one angry?  Injustice makes us angry.  Done to us by others.  Done to us by nature.  Done to us by self.  Or even to witness injustice can make one angry.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, anger.	Work it out in thought and action.  Get catharsis and justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	.See also: worry fear.	12/30/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	.This section is about bravery and cowardice.  Topics include: ( ) Bravery.  ( ) Cowardice.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	(1) Bravery definition.  Bravery means not repressing your drives, memories, emotions, thoughts, actions, attitudes, personality.  (2) Cowardice definition.  Repressing same.  Giving up ideals for survival or easy life, in thought, in word, in action, by degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	(1) Bravery to fight opposition from self (fear or anxiety), others or nature.  (2) Bravery to remain an independent rebel, in mind and action, all the time, everywhere.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	(1) Personal bravery and personal cowardice, when only you know what you did.  (2) Social bravery and social cowardice, when everyone else knows what you did.	11/13/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery = battling against doom.  The heroic ideal.  Against the fears and anxieties of life, all we have is bravery, not hope, not delusions or prayers, not repression, only full, complete recognition, and bravery, and laughter.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery attitudes:  Fu*k it.  Who gives a fu*k.  I don't give a fu*k.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery for what you believe in.  What you believe is true, important, right, healthy, justice, freedom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery is action, bravery is healthy.  Cowardice is unhealthy.  Stupidity is unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery is based on subjective perception of fear, not objective measures of danger.  Consider two arguments: (1) Phobics who work to overcome their baseless subjective fears are actually quite brave.  (2) Someone who faces a high degree of an objective danger, knowingly or unknowingly, with no feelings of fear at all, is not necessarily brave.  Perhaps they don't care if they die.  Perhaps they have no emotions.	5/25/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery is closely related to mental health.  Whether we want it to be or not.  Whether we acknowledge it or not.  Whether we are conscious or unconscious of it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery is courage during crisis situations.  But there is another type of courage which is required in day to day life.  The courage to put up with the mundane.  And this form of courage is merely a lack of anxiety.	3/21/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery is the basis of confrontational action, assertive action, and anger based action, which are all healthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery, courage, and smart action is the only defense against depression and anxiety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery, definition.  Searching for and committing to most truthful ideas, and taking action on them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  (1) Apparent bravery.  Could be stupidity or recklessness or blind obedience.  (2) Actual bravery.  Knowledge of danger.  Free choice to proceed.  (3) Brave and smart vs. brave and stupid.  Unwitting actors are not brave nor heroes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  Doing something without extrinsic reward, in the face of punishment, without certainty of results, in the face of opposition and struggle, is it a sign of stupidity or self confidence?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  One of the great acts of bravery was the civil rights marchers in the South in the early 1960's.  Why?  (1) Facing obvious opposition from local government, cops, and public.  (2) Real danger of being killed.  (3) They risked all this to help someone else, not themselves.  (4) No one was forcing them to do it.  (5) They were very sensitive and intelligent people, thus fully aware of the risks.  (6) They picked a risk that was work, not fun (as opposed to danger sport devotees), and that could make a big positive difference in the world.  Practical reason alone would say "don't go".  High ethical principles would say to "go".  Those workers are truly a model for high ethical behavior.	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  Really brave people.  (1) Those who fought against mccarthyism, and its government intimidation and guilt by suspicion.  (2) Turn of century labor movement vs. the unethical violence of the union busters.  (3) Civil rights movement non-violent resistance marchers, bus riders, and restaurant sitters.	1/10/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  The really brave people are those who battle big foes that are many in number and violent in opposition.  Examples.  (1) Those who battle unjust governments that deny human rights.  (2) Those who battled racism in the South in the 1950s.  Entrenched cultural injustice.  (3) Those newspaper reporters, judges, and lawyers who fought against the Colombian and Mafia drug cartels in the 1980s.	1/6/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  Traits of true bravery.  (1) Volunteer, rather than being selected.  (2) Face opposition and danger.  (3) To help someone else (i.e., altruism) rather than doing it for your own benefit (i.e., egoism).  (4) Expend a lot of personal time and effort.  Struggling for years.	11/20/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  What constitutes bravery?  Action without knowledge of probability of opposition or success is not bravery.  Action with knowledge of same is bravery.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Bravery.  What if they draft you into military service, giving you no choice in the matter, and sending the draft dodgers to prison?  That is, if they force you to fight in a war, giving you no choice in the matter and executing those who desert, then I suppose you could call that bravery, but I don't think that it is the only form of bravery, or even the highest form of bravery.	5/25/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Courage of convictions to mentalize, to say, and to do: "I think this is true and right, and no matter what you do or say about it or me, I'm going to do this for all I'm worth".	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Cowardice is giving up all your ideals, hopes, visions and dreams in order to be utterly practical and realistic.  Cowardice is to compromise and settle.  Cowardice is to give up on one's highest values.	11/13/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Cowardice is giving up your ideals for the sake of personal survival.	01/02/1989

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Cowardice is selling out for comfort or selling out for money.	11/13/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Cowardice.  Conformity due to cowardice leads to slavery.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Cowardice.  Selling out for safety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Is bravery and cowardice a purely emotional topic?  Can not one think (reason) brave thoughts and then perform brave actions?  Is not bravery also an ethical issue?  It is.  I put all bravery notes here in one spot for convenience, however, bravery is an emotion, thought, attitude, action and ethical issue, all of them.	4/29/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	Repression and neurosis is a form of cowardice.  Cowardice is fear and anxiety.  Bravery is health.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, bravery cowardice.	The brave feel fear, but do not let fear rule them.  The brave do not give in to fear.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	.This section is about confidence.  Topics include:.  ( ) Confidence.  ( ) Self confidence.  ( ) Confidence in the world.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	(1) Confidence is related to optimism.  If you have confidence in the future, either confident that the future will be good, or confident that you can handle the bad times, then you are essentially optimistic.  The emotion of confidence is a stronger version of hope.  (2) Confidence is also used to mean degree of belief.  In this sense of the word, you can be confident that you will fail and that the future will be terrible.  Confidence as degree of belief is different from confidence as optimism.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	(1) Confidence: "I can handle whatever the situation throws at me."  (2) Confidence as a lack of fear and anxiety.  Confidence as bravery.  They are related.  (3) Appearing confident vs. actually being confident.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	(1) High self confidence.  "Fu*k it" attitude.  "What the fu*k" attitude.  "I deserve this" attitude.  "I deserve this more than you" attitude.  (2) Low self confidence.  "I can't do this".  "I don't deserve this" (see also self esteem).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	(1) People can sense lack of confidence and react negatively to it.  (2) Decisiveness vs. incompetence vs. thinking aloud to others about all sides of the question.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Accurate assessment of self and situation.  Degree of certainty of probabilities.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Act only when confidence is up and you are sure.  That's when you act best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Bravado, braggadocio vs. wimp.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence and daring (ego and id) vs. modesty and humility (superego).  You need both, at the same time, all the time.  You need to feel them inwardly, and you need to project them outwardly, socially.	06/17/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence to succeed (i.e., to give your best shot) vs. confidence to win (i.e., to beat your opponent).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence vs. lack of confidence.  Lack of confidence: confusion, uncertainty, hesitation, unsure of situation, unsure of what best to do in situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence.  (1) Confidence is knowing what the situation is about.  If you can gain knowledge of a situation ahead of time, you will have more confidence going into it, and will do better in it.  (2) Self-confidence is knowing what you are about.  Knowledge of self.	02/14/1989

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence.  (1) Secure, safe, confident (a feeling).  (A) Know what you are.  (B) Know what opposition is.  (C) Know what situation or terrain is.  (D) Can handle and act on all three.  (2) Insecure: not knowing.  (3) (A) False sense of security: thinking you know, but don't.  (B) False sense of insecurity: thinking you don't know, or can't handle, but actually do and can.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence.  (1) Self confidence.  If and degree you believe you can do, get, or be something.  The chances you give yourself.  (2) Situation confidence (knowledge and ease with situation).  Same for what you think the situation will do for you.  (Ex: I believe I can do a, b and c).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Confidence.  Your self confidence (odds you perceive in situation, that you give yourself) changes from moment to moment with mood, thoughts etc.  Especially if you are unstable.  Self confidence is very important.  It affects behavior greatly.  You can be under confident or over confident.  See also under estimating or over estimating self and situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Know what is reality: what you have to do and take, and not and why.  Know what is justice: what you should do and take and not and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Main components of self confidence.  (1) Knowledge: of self, situation, and self in situation.  (2) Bravery.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Optimists are more confident in self and situation.  More self confidence makes you more optimistic.  It is a growth spiral.  (See optimism and pessimism)	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Over-confidence vs. under-confidence.  Over-estimation vs. under-estimation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self confidence based on knowledge of self and of situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self confidence even when self and situation are unknown.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self confidence is confidence in one's abilities.  Confidence is knowledge of situation.  Self confidence is really a form of bravery.  Self confidence is very important.  High self confidence is healthy.  Low self confidence is unhealthy.  Too high is deluded.  Self confidence is a prerequisite to action, a spur to action.  Self confidence is a main defense against anxiety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self confidence.  (1) Helpful.  (A) Legitimate: you are up to snuff.  (B) Illegitimate: you are not.  (2) Unhelpful.  (A) Illegitimate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self confidence.  (1) I can get what I need, and no one will push me around.  (2) Self confidence, disregard, distance, "fu*k it" attitude.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Self-confidence is closely related to self-esteem.  If your self-confidence is low your self-esteem will be low.  If your self-esteem is low then your self-confidence will be low.	11/20/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	Techniques to raise self confidence to optimal levels.  Recite optimal thought trains.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	When is self confidence too much or too little?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, confidence.	You need desire, and you need belief.  Belief that it can be done, and belief that you can do it.	01/26/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	.This section is about esteem and dignity.  Topics include: ( ) Dignity.  ( ) Self esteem.  ( ) Respect.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) Feeling justifiably proud of yourself and feeling good about yourself.  Vs. (2) Feeling justifiably bad about yourself.  Feeling like shit.  Feeling you didn't follow your soul.  Feeling like you caved in, and wimped out.  (3) What makes me feel like 1 and 2?  How to get from 2 to 1?	08/02/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) Feeling of self worth.  I have worth.  I have value.  I am valuable.  Self worth is knowing your potential, and your growth ability.  (2) This is different from self confidence, "I can do it, I can make it."  (3) Self esteem is "I like me, I am o.k., I care about me."  (4) Self respect "I respect me".	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) Over inflated sense of self esteem.  Thinking you (and your group) are better than you are.  Thinking you are better than others when you are not.  (2) Under inflated sense of self esteem.  Thinking you (and your group) (and your accomplishments) are worse than you (and they) are.  Thinking you are worse than others when you are not.	09/15/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) Self Respect.  (2) Social respect (from and towards others).  See also self esteem, self confidence, dignity, and duty to self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) Some people's self-worth (i.e., how valuable they feel they are) is based on their social worth (i.e., how valuable society thinks that person is).  (2) Other people's sense of self-worth comes from how the person feels about their own self, regardless of what society thinks of them.	6/23/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	(1) The opposite of good self-esteem is feeling worthless or bad/evil.  (2) We should we respect ourselves as much as we respect all others.  Respect everyone the same.  And how much should that be?  (A) Enough not to hurt feelings.  (B) Enough to recognize the potential ability (not actual ability) to do good in all of us.  (C) Respect all humans deserve just by being human.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Dignity: is toward self.  Respect: is toward others.	4/28/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Dignity: value of human life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Dignity.  (1) Recognition of actual and potential value of a thing (especially, yourself or other person).  (2) Corresponding respect in action for a thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Dignity.  Sense of worth of human life.  Your worth, and others worth.  What it's worth is, and what it could become.  Ideal good and ideal bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Duty to self: (1) Keep growing.  (2) Get and stay healthy (psychological, physical, financial).  (3) Experience everything.  (4) Learn everything (intellectual knowledge, and emotional knowledge).  (5) Record everything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	How much respect we feel we deserve.  Some expect too much.  Some expect too little.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	How to keep your self respect and hope in the face of being a loser?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Know who you are and know what you could be.  No more and no less.  It is impossible to know for sure?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Low self esteem thoughts: unhealthy.  High self esteem: healthy.  Too high self esteem: deluded?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Making the most of your potential, psychological and physical.  What it takes to do so.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	People need to make themselves feel special and needed, even when they are not, in order to maintain their self esteem, which is necessary for survival.	10/20/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Relationship between self-respect and social-respect.  If someone has a weak sense of self-respect they may demand much social-respect.  If someone has a strong sense of self-respect they may not require that other people show excessive social-respect to them.  (See also: Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem.  See also: Sociology, discrimination, bullying.).	9/17/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect is not just an emotion.  Respect is a thought calculation about how much respect you think others owe you and how much you owe others.  Then a feeling when you get it or not, or when you give it or not.	4/20/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect yourself as someone who is not perfect but trying.  Not trying perfectly, nor trying to be perfect, but trying nevertheless for truth and justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect: shown vs. respect said vs. respect thought and felt.  Based on (1) Philosophy and religion belief about rights and duty for all men.  (2) Your image projected.  (3) Your reputation, true or false, good or bad.  (4) Your words or actions.  (5) What they think you have or could do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect: you for them, and them for you vs. mere liking and disliking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect.  How much needed, why needed.  How get: mystery, lay low.  Getting it for free vs. earning it.  What do most people respect and admire?  Power, age, knowledge, beauty.  I respect only ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect.  Is respect social psychology or power?  Respect from others (as opposed to self respect).  Respect you feel you are getting vs. respect they feel they are giving you.  Respect gained from others who feel for you admiration, fear, or awareness as an equal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect.  Is there anything that makes you lose respect more than someone who says, "More than the others you must respect me."	9/22/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect.  That is to say, is there anything that makes you lose respect more than someone who says, "You must respect me more than you respect the others."	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Respect.  Those who want more respect want more power.	6/5/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Self emotions and social emotions.  (1)(A) Loss of self respect.  (B) Loss of social respect in the eyes of others.  (2)(A) Loss of self worth.  (B) Loss of social worth in the eyes of others.  (3) Definitions.  Self worth is to feel yourself useful and valuable.  Social worth is for other people to see you as useful and valued.	5/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Self esteem and social esteem, to what degree are they tied together?  How does gain or loss of one affect gain or loss of the other?  If I'm trying to build self esteem, how do I do so in the face of hard knocks and failures?	6/12/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Self esteem.  One technique for boosting someone's self-esteem, in order to make them feel better, in order to make them more productive, and so they do not kill themselves, is to make people feel needed.  Say, "I need you.  You are important.".	12/29/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Self esteem.  What is the right amount of self esteem to have?  I say, more than is objectively justified.  In this way self esteem is much like optimism in that human mental health does not thrive on realism but rather hope.	5/6/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Social respect.  What is social respect?  What behaviors signify giving respect to other people?  What behaviors signify a desire for respect from others?  What behaviors actually deserve respect from others?  How is social respect related to admiration and fear?  (2) Desire to be valued for what you are vs. desire to be better than the next person.  (3) Desire not to be messed with vs. desire to mess with others.  (4) Is social respect really simply a social power issue related to pecking orders?  (5) Some people need to feel superior.  Other people are more egalitarian.  (6) Some people need everyone to be like them.  Other people tolerate diversity.	9/19/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	The Groucho Marx joke "I would not want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.", is a quote used by people with low self worth.	8/15/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Thinking you are more or less than you are.  More: conceit, egotism.  Less: modesty, humility.  Neutral: self confidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Why are some people obsessed with receiving inordinate amounts of respect from other people?  For example, why are bullies obsessed with receiving inordinate amounts of respect?  (1) Because they want to maintain an appearance of respectability.  They want a front of respectability to cover up their disreputable actions.  The sleaziest people often demand to be respected above and beyond others.  (2) People who are obsessed with receiving extra signs of respect are often also obsessed with power.	10/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	Worth.  (1) Respecting (acknowledging) the worth of others.  (2) Respecting self worth.  (3) Everyone has the same worth.  That worth never varies.  That worth is very high.	6/23/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, esteem dignity.	You don't deserve bad things.  Self esteem has two components (1) Objective, social esteem: I measure up to others (ex. I was at top of my medical school class so I deserve to be a doctor).  (2) Subjective, personal esteem: I gave 100%, my best effort (ex. I spent long hours studying to be a doctor, I really earned it).	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	.Introduction or sum up.  (1)(A) Excitement:  Positive excitement (ex. a new car).  Negative excitement (ex. a car accident).  (B) Calm:  Positive calm (ex. calm on vacation).  Negative calm (ex. calm zombie).  (2) Interest and curiosity vs. boredom.  (3) Physical energy.  (A) Energetic: a type of positive excitement.  (B) Lethargic: a type of negative excitement.  (4) Emotion.  (A) Mania: a type of positive excitement.  (B) Depression: a type of negative calm.  (C) Strong anger or sadness: a type of negative excitation.  (5) (A) Nervous and tense: a type of negative excitation.  (B) Relaxed and peaceful: a type of positive calm.	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	.This section is about excitement, calm and boredom.  Topics include: ( ) Boredom.  ( ) Calm.  ( ) Excitement.  ( ) Relax.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Excited: pleasure, pain vs.  (2) Unexcited (total eveness): calm, tranquil vs.  (3) Unexcited: boredom, disinterest, unconcerned.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Interest, curiosity. Vs.  (2) Disinterest, boredom.	09/17/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Mania, hyperactive, or excited.  Adrenaline rush.  (2) Calm.  A neutral state.  (3) Lethargic, lazy, passive, depressed.  Passive means not self assertive enough.  Learned helplessness.  Tired physically due to malnourishment, sleep deprivation, or overwork.  Mentally tired (no energy to think or feel).  Unmotivated, or bored, or disinterested.	09/17/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Peace, calm, serene, tranquil, relaxed.  Vs.  Tense, stressed, excited, wired.  Naturally or learned, in mind or body, in a positive or negative way, from internal sources (goals, fears, etc.) or external sources (women, jobs, noise, etc.).	07/10/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Physical tension and mental tension are both causes and effects of each other.  The opposite of physical tension is to physically relax.  (2) Physical relaxation and mental relaxation (i.e., calmness) are both causes and effects of each other.  Excessive mental tension can cause harm.	11/20/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Positive excitement (ex. happy): can't sleep, can't eat.  (2) Negative excitement (ex. anger, fear, depression): can't sleep, can't eat.  (3) The symptoms of positive excitement and negative excitement are similar.	5/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) Unexcited: bored vs. calm, peace, relaxed.  (2) Tension, excitement: positive and negative.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	(1) You can feel calm yet excited.  This is a cool and healthy feeling.  (2)  Related terms:  Peaceful.  Full of peace.  Content.  Satisfied.	7/16/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Bored people just don't get so excited.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom and me.  Why do I get so bored, so fast, so easily?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom can be as stressful as excitement.	6/12/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom is deadly.  Some people kill themselves out of boredom.  Some jobs are extremely boring.  Therefore, some jobs are deadly.  Battle boredom.	6/8/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom is the new frontier.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom vs. interest and curiosity.  The allure of mystery: curiosity and wonder in the unknown.  Somethings are interesting only till you've found out about them and mastered them, at which point they become a bore.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom vs. interest.  Ways to avoid boredom.  Always keep many goals going.  Always remember your goals, strategies, tactics, and reasons.  In boring situations, take a mental trip, or take a physical trip (i.e. get out of situation, momentarily or permanently).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom: even if you are rich, there's only so many things to do on earth, only so much pleasure to be had.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom.  A thing is new and interesting only by degree.  Ways and degrees a thing is new.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom.  Two types of boredom: doing boring work vs. having no direction, purpose or goal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Boredom.  What is the brain physiology of boredom?	10/10/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm is not to be achieved from without (outside).  Calm is to be achieved from within.  How?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm of ignoring problems is not the same as the calm of solving problems.	05/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  Definition: Calmness is not so much an emotion, nor a level of energy, as it is a level of stress.	7/16/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  How peaceful and calm can you get?  To fear nothing, and to not worry.  To desire nothing.  To not care what happens.  This is a stupid way to be.  Yet necessary to clear mind for work.  Where is the optimal point?	06/06/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  The key to maintaining calm, peace, and serenity is to take enough time to do things at a thoughtful, deliberate, meditative pace.  Very Zen like.  Aware of what doing.	09/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  To achieve calm by ignoring the world is not the optimal state.  Yet, when we are feeling completely overwhelmed, it is sometimes necessary.  Always eventually come back to the world.	3/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  Types and levels of calmness.  (1) After a massage calm.  (2) Laying on the beach calm.  (3) Park bench calm.  (4) Summer evening cool breeze on the porch calm.  (5) On vacation calm.  (6) Weekend calm.	7/16/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  Types of calmness.  (1) Money in the bank calm.  (2) Got a steady love/sex partner calm.	2/17/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calm.  What are the boundaries of calm?  How to achieve calm?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calming myself down.  Is it ok to say to myself "Everything is all right" or "Everything will be all right", when it is not now, or when it will not be in the future, or when it depends on how I act?  When are things good enough to say that everything is all right?  When does it become self delusion?  When does it calm me to confront my problems and situation?  When does it make me lax (instead of relax) to ignore my problems and situation?	04/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calmness of thought, not racing thoughts.  Calmness of emotion, not deep negative emotions.  Calmness is very important.	12/21/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Calmness.  Effects of two views.  (1) Short term, day to day, narrow view, here and now.  (2) Long term, world-wide and time-wide view.  Past, present, future.  View outside self to the world.	10/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Cause.  Over what mental or experiential phenomenon?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Definition.  Intensity of emotional response.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Emotions of excitement vs. unexcitement.  (1) Excited: pain, pleasure.  Tense.  Hot and bothered, feathers rustled, riled up, perturbed, miffed.  Wired, blown out, exhausted, stressed.  Vs.  (2) Unexcited.  Calm, tranquil, equanimity, balance, serene.  Peaceful, unbothered.  Carefree, free.  Contented vs. discontented.  Satisfied vs. dissatisfied.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Excitement due to energy levels.  Tired people just don't get so excited.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Excitement, calmness, boredom continuum.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Excitement.  Sexually excited.  (1) Thinking about it tons.  (2) Aroused.  (A) Mentally.  (B) Physically.  Heart rate.  Blood flow.  Breathing rate and volume.  Shaking.  Hard on.  What are the chemicals causing reaction?  Adrenaline, endorphins, testosterone.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Excitement.  Too excited vs. not excited enough: bored, depressed, unmotivated.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	How is excitement related to "speeding" on caffeine, methamphetamines, etc.?  When you speed are you excited?  When you are excited are you speeding?  What is the biochemistry of excitement?  Types of excitement such as:  Excitement due to danger produces adrenaline.  Sexual excitement produces another mix of chemicals.  Excitement related to happiness such as that produced by winning the lottery produces another mix of chemicals.	6/20/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	In life, whether one is talking about work, people or just living, it is very important to stay interested, curious, and keep sense of wonder, amazement and delight.  When one loses interest then one becomes depressed and sometimes even suicidal.  Interest is just as important as happiness, perhaps even more important.  When one becomes bored, apathetic, non-curious, mentally and physically inactive, then one is decaying.  In this sense, keeping it fun is imperative.	1/4/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Lazy vs. bored.  Laziness is lack of motivation.  Boredom is lack of curiosity.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	More than money, fame, and sex, men are driven by boredom and curiosity.  (1) Boredom is a negative term.  Boredom is a painful condition.  (2) Curiosity is a positive term.  You could be interested in one thing, but curiosity drives you to another.	06/05/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Nervous = excited.  Definition: excess of any emotion, especially fear or anxiety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Nervous.  When people are nervous to any degree, due to being unconsciously or consciously unsure or un-self-confident, with or without good cause, especially in social situations, they often start acting like idiots.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Not worried about future.  Not upset about past.  Not excited about present.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Optimum level and types of calm and excitation.  Optimal calm = anymore excited and it impedes your performance.	03/23/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Relax.  Best ways how to relax physically and psychologically during any experience (internal or external), or after any experience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Relax.  How to stay relaxed in high and low pressure situations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	Relaxation.  What it is, how to do it, and how much to be relaxed.  (1) Two types: emotionally relaxed vs. intellectually relaxed (not thinking).  (2) Some think relaxation is (A) Not thinking.  (B) Thinking about nature.  (C) Thinking about positive things in life.  (D) No pressure to achieve.  Freedom, with no opposition, and no needs.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	To say, "Is that all there is?  There has to be something more."  These are two sentences that motivate explorers, scientists and inventors as much as they motivate people who are into seances, fortune telling, magic and religion.  A person can see most of life by the time they are eighteen.  What then?	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	We want to feel calm as opposed to nervous.  We want to feel excited as opposed to bored.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	What causes me to feel relaxed, excited, with strong emotions, and strong drives?  At what mental and emotional state do I produce most and best and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, excitement calm boredom.	When mental excitation overcomes physical tiredness vs. when mental boredom overcomes physical energy.	05/03/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	.This section is about fear.  Topics include: ( ) Apprehension.  ( ) Anxiety.  ( ) Fear.  ( ) Guilt.  ( ) Paranoia.  ( ) Regret.  ( ) Worry.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Against nervousness, fear, anxiety and panic is thoughtful, brave action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety can be reduced by physical and mental effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety is just as important a negative emotion as depression and anger.  Where does all the anxiety come from?  How to recognize anxiety?  How to deal with anxiety?  Anxiety can rip you apart if you let it.	1/4/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  (1) Conscious.  Unsubstantiated on subject or situation.  Unsubstantiated amount.  (2) Unconscious.  Unsubstantiated stress reaction.  Unsubstantiated due to a chain of transference.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  (1) Fear and cowardice of what is.  (2) Fear and cowardice of what will be, either (A) Necessarily, definite, or (B) possible: what could be, or (C) Fear of what couldn't be: the impossible (irrational fears).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  Apprehension, anxiety, and worry about the future is really just fear of the future.  So I seem to have a lot of fear.  Am I a scaredy cat?  Or is fear sometimes natural and even justified?  Does fear help one from making stupid, rash mistakes?	05/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  Causes: unconscious and conscious unresolved dilemmas, or resolved dilemmas solved wrong.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  General anxiety vs. specific anxiety.  Founded anxiety vs. unfounded anxiety.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  Physical bracing (muscle tension) and psychological bracing (nervous tension) in the face of fear and apprehension.	08/17/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  The best and only way to counter anxiety is with a slow, deep, burning anger.  Samurai calm.  Rage contained, fury controlled, just barely.	11/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Anxiety.  The way to deal with anxiety and its bad effects is to get tough with yourself and with life.  My anxiety level is normally way too high.	04/04/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Confidence vs. disregard.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Ethics and emotions.  When we do bad things, they automatically cause guilt and paranoia in all of us.  It can really bother you, and even drive you psychotic.  This is one reason why murderers confess.  Humans are strange creatures.	02/15/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear causes avoidance, repression, neurosis and anxiety.  (1) Is fear learned?  Or is fear the result when one does not learn bravery?  (2) Is there a gene for fearfulness?  Is there a gene for fearlessness?	7/27/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear incapacitates by destroying ability to use mind well, thus avoiding problems that need to be confronted.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear inhibits and represses action, and thus leads to unhealth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear is repressive when it keeps us from doing good and healthy, or when it keeps us doing bad and unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear is sometimes used as a political, psychological weapon to keep people from thinking and acting.  To keep people docile and in line.  To make people conform.  Fear tactics are sometimes used by power holders to control the disempowered.  Be like a rock climber, I say, and use the personal experience of fear to achieve goals.	1/10/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear is the major factor that prevents us from learning and doing to our full capabilities.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear keeps people from growing as much as it keeps them surviving.  Hinders as much as helps.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear leads to avoidance (especially fear of unknown).  Fear of unknown and how to approach it vs. fear of known.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear of doing x, due to fear of change for better or worse, due to achieving it or not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear of present threat vs. fear of a (possible or certain) future threat (a.k.a. apprehension).	9/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear of what is vs. fear of what could be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Anxiety is fear.  Fear is being a pussy.  Be a man, be strong.  Gain full information, then reason things out, then do the right thing, and then don't worry about it.  Fight calmly, and don't cry about it.  Do not fag out, runaway, or escape, or avoid.  Anxiety is crying for help, or for self pity.  (2) In a world of freak accidents, how can one rationally live without fear, without ignoring reality?  Like a soldier.  Pay your buck, take your chances.  (3) When uncertainty or fear or comfort makes you pull back from 100% drive toward goals, that is wussing out.	07/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Fear is an emotion.  Cowardice is a behavior.  Cowardice does not mean having no fear.  Cowardice means caving in to fear.  (2) Fearlessness is an emotion (or lack of emotion).  Bravery is a behavior.  Bravery does not mean being fearless.  Bravery means not caving into fear.  (Can you be brave without being fearful?  A good question.)	2/25/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Fear of being acted upon.  (2) Fear of acting.  Fear of making wrong move in a situation.  Leads to no move, which is a failure in and of itself.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Fear of being punished for all the wrong things I have done leads to psychological stress and physical tension which I try to blow off by hurting or punishing myself.  (2) Fear of injury and old age lead me to injure myself, because you just want to get it over with.  (3) Strong belief in argument that the combined chances of all the possible ways to get hurt means no one can avoid getting hurt or even survive can lead one to end up hurting themselves to try to prove themselves right.	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Genetic predisposition to fear.  (2) Learned predisposition to fear and meekness.  Unassertive.  Unconfrontational.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) Healthy fears(?) and concerns.  (2) Unhealthy fears and concerns.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  (1) What increases fears?  Low t, tired, no energy, ignorance, inexperience, stress.  (2) What decreases fear?  high t, knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Absence of fear = calm?  Especially in the face of danger and death.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Because fear is a learned response, one has to relearn how not to be afraid.	5/5/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Believing you know or can do, faith in self, reduces fear even when that belief is a lie or an illusion.  Therefore, do we have a duty to lie to ourselves?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Big fear: to think you could work your whole life and get nowhere, accomplish nothing.	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Causes of fear: in general and in me.  Not knowing what's going on now.  Not knowing what's going to happen in future.  Partially or totally.  Not believing you know: when you do vs. even when you don't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Contra fear: brave, rational, action to satisfy drives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  How scared you are unconsciously and consciously.  How much you express it, consciously and unconsciously.  Degree you are able to control your emotional expression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  I unconsciously, greatly fear transitions, change, and the unknown.  Unconscious anticipatory fear causes my accidents and illnesses.	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  If fear is an emotion, then is bravery an emotion?  Or is bravery just a lack of fear.  Is bravery a lack of emotion?  No, that's not it.  If bravery was a lack of fear, then happiness would be a lack of sadness, which it is not.	11/5/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  If you feel fear, the best you can do is: Know you feel fear.  Know about what.  Know why.  Know what can do about it.  Know what's best to do about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Life is truly horrifying when you think of all the things that have, do, can, will, could go wrong.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Not afraid, just concerned.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Opposite of fear is confidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  What are my top fears and anxieties?  Disease.  Loss of pad, job, car.  Destruction, decay, loss, stolen of property.  Growing old, growing limp dick.  Being a wimp.  Sexually inadequate: size, performance.  Lack of sex and love, women.  Fear of being controlled by others.  Fear of the future.  Jail, busted for crimes uncommitted.  Going insane.  Fear of perceived enemies.  Fear of crime victimization.  Fear of being abused, verbally or physically.  Fear of confrontation, verbal or physical.  Fear of marriage, of kids.  Money, poverty.  Injury.  Unemployment, homelessness.  Burglary, fire.  Death, disease.  Loneliness.  Natural disaster.  Social attack, social reprisal.  Failure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Why are some neurotics fearful?  Because they are insecure.  Why are they insecure?  A remnant from a childhood spent with neurotic parents.  Neurosis is both learned and inherited.	3/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Fear.  Wimpiness is a combination of fearfulness and excessive subordination to authority.  Both fear and subordination cause repression and neurosis, so wimps are doubly prone to neurosis.  (1) Excessive subordination (i.e., too much super-ego) is essentially rule-following and it causes neurosis by replacing the independent mind and independent action with blind belief and blind obedience.  (2) Excessive fear causes neurosis by inhibiting mind and action.  Excessive fear also causes neurosis by adding stress to the mind.	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt is a form of anxiety, often unconsciously transferred to another object.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt: depression and fear over past acts done by you.  Two types:  (1) Acts that went against social norms (fear).  (2) Acts that went against personal norms (depression).  (3) Amount you feel vs. amount it is justified.  Amount it incapacitates you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt: religious vs. non religious.  Could have, would have, should have thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt.  "I didn't do the best or all that I could have".  Lack of clear conscience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt.  I feel (1) Selfish and then evil and then guilty, or else just (2) Not worthy (due to my flaws, etc.) and then not meant to succeed, whenever I try to be competitive and succeed.  Then I punish myself for these feelings, or else sabotage myself so I don't succeed.  This often happens unconsciously.  To get around this, tell yourself you are trying to make the world a better place more than others are, and thus you deserve to succeed more than they do.	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt.  What percentage of guilt is fear of punishment by god, society, or self?  What percentage of guilt is desire for punishment by same?	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Guilt=fear+apprehension.  For example, "You did wrong"+"Its going to come back and bite you (karma)."	9/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Have self confidence to handle self and situation, at present and in future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	In one sense, to worry is to second guess oneself, to be skeptical of one's thought, to doubt one's actions.  Skepticism and doubt are healthy, and thus worry is healthy.  After all, who doesn't worry?  People who never second-guess themselves do not worry, and these people are called psychopaths.  Heedless sociopaths gleefully jeopardize the lives of others.  So a little worry is good.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Know about the situation.  Know what you want from it and not.  Know how to get it and not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Nervousness is an energy.  Physical energy levels.  Mental energy levels.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Nervousness. (1) Excitability (any emotion).  (2) Anxiety.  (3) Fear.  (4) What is the deal with nervousness?	01/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Panic.  Don't panic.  Don't go into shock (can't or won't think, say, or do).  Say anything, do anything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Paranoia = fear of humiliation, ridicule, or reprisal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Paranoia defined as unreasonable fears.  What fears are unreasonable?  (1) The world has many malicious, sadistic people who harm others for kicks.  (2) People can mistake you for someone else who they hate and then harm you by mistake.  (3) People who are prejudiced will harm you just for belonging to a group they are bigoted against.  (4) So what is an unreasonable fear?	6/20/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Paranoia.  (1) Causes.  (2) Effects: makes you act wacky.  (3) Solutions to avoid it.  (A) About sex: be perfectly normal?  (B) About x: See a shrink?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Paranoia.  (1) Paranoia defined as unreasonable fears.  What fears are unreasonable?  Impossibilities?  (2) How does paranoia differ from anxiety?  How short a step is it from anxiety to paranoia?	6/20/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	PTSD.  To recover from PTSD.  (1) Learning not to get scared.  (2) Learning to control your fear once you get scared.  (3) Relearning not to be afraid as an after effect in similar situations.	1/8/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Regret.  To avoid regret do your best.  Total effort, in optimal state, all the time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	The opposite of fear does not have to be bravery.  The opposite of fear can be happiness and tranquility.	1/4/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	What is the difference between fear, anxiety, panic and paranoia?  What is the difference between a panic attack and a paranoia attack?	3/22/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry = fear + guilt.  Both are worthless.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry is essentially fear.  Who me worry?	11/30/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry, anxiety, fear, trepidation, paranoia, guilt, regret.  To avoid them, do your best at everything.  Think things through.  If it is truly beyond your control, don't worry about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry.  At what point does reasonable concern become needless worry?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry.  Not worrying or refusing to worry is an act of bravery, a good thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry.  To avoid worrying, mentalize and act best you can on your goals.  Rest is up to fate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, fear.	Worry.  When things don't worry you enough vs. when things worry you too much.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	.See also: Leisure, fun.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	.This section is about happiness.  Topics include: ( ) Celebration.  ( ) Fun.  (See also: Leisure.)  ( ) Happiness  ( ) Humor.  (See: Arts, literature, comedy.)  ( ) Physical pleasure and emotional happiness.  ( ) Types of happiness.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	"Glad just to be here" attitude.  Brushes with death have a tendency to put it all in perspective.  This is the purpose of danger sports and risk taking.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) Delight is a positive emotion that has an element of surprise to it.  (2) Awe, wonder is a positive emotion with a sense of surprise and amazement to it.  (3) Surprise seems to be an important component of happiness.  Why?	12/2/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) Happiness and biology.  We are evolutionarily hard-wired so that certain things will make us happy.  For example, sex, love, etc.  (2) Happiness and ethics.  Two problems.  (A) What makes us happy is not always ethically good. (B) What is ethically good does not always make us happy.  (3) Happiness and psychological health.  Happiness is important for our mental well-being.  Even if no negative emotions are present, an emotional flatness caused by lack of happiness is psychologically unhealthy.	5/18/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) Peace, serenity, tranquility.  Bliss, joy, rapture.  (2) "Content" as "couldn't be better".  "Content" as "it will do".  (3) Song examples: "What a Wonderful World", by Louis Armstrong.  "Its a Beautiful Day", by U2.	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) The most fun I ever imagined.  (2) The most fun I ever actually had:  Sitting in high t, after working out on a sunny, clear, daylight savings time day.  Hot, intelligent, beautiful babe lined up.  Good job.  Creating great ideas, having done much good (in effort and results) creative work.  With much free time ahead of me that I know I will use well.  Calm, driven, making progress on all theoretical and practical fronts.  Winning and making it.  Remembering everything I ever learned (theoretical and practical).  Why don't it satisfy me?  Why can't I do it?  What is the problem?	05/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) To evolve means to undergo a change in what you think makes you happiest.  How to do this?  Why do people not want to let go of what they think makes them happiest?  (2) You undergo a change in what you think makes you happiest.  And you also undergo a change in what actually makes you happiest.  So the effect is like shooting at a moving target from a moving platform.  Its a dogfight.	10/20/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	(1) What should make me happy?  Adherence to the highest principles?  (2) What actually does make me happy?  Does anything?  Food, sex, leisure.  (3) What to think about (i.e., remember) to get happy?  (A) Thinking about some things will make you feel content, peaceful, satisfied or relieved, like thinking how lucky you are to be where you are.  (B) Thinking about some things will make you laugh, such as jokes and comedy.  There is a close tie between humor and happiness.  Funny and happy are cousins.  Stupid inanities often make us happy.  (C) Ethics and happiness.  What is good should make you happy.  Often it does not.  Often the inane and trivial makes us happy.  Some things that are not in the realm of ethics make us happy.  For example, natural beauty and works of art.	5/17/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	A solution or revelation makes me happy and laugh out loud.  A problem makes me sad or angry.  Why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	A view that some people take:  Happy that the world is imperfect.  Happy to have an opportunity to take action to make things better.  I am useful.  I have a purpose.  I matter.  This is weird.	3/28/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Celebration, definitions of.  (1) Celebration as reward.  (A) It is helpful to reward yourself when you put in the effort and do well.  Even if you put in a good effort and don't do well.  Even if you did well by luck, without a good effort.  (B) It is helpful to penalize, discipline or punish oneself when one does not put in a good effort.  But the punishment must not be self-destructive.  And that is a conundrum.  Also, don't penalize yourself if you put in a good effort but don't succeed.  Also, don't penalize yourself for bad luck.  (2) Celebration as joy in the everyday.  (3) Healthy celebrations (good) vs. unhealthy celebrations (bad).  (4) Celebrations as "cheating".  For example, going off one's diet, etc.  Indulgence.	6/9/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Celebration.  When you accomplish something worthwhile, you should feel happy, and express that happiness through celebration.	5/30/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Combonations of three variables: twelve situations.  (1) Hard x good x pleasurable.  (2&3) Hard x good x non-pleaureable or unpleasurable.  (4) Hard x bad x pleasurable.  (5&6) Hard x bad x non-pleasureable or unpleasurable.  (7) Easy x good x pleasurable.  (8&9) Easy x good x non-pleasureable or unpleasurable.  (10) Easy x bad x pleasurable.  (11&12) Easy x bad x non-pleasureable or unpleasurable.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Confidence is actually a component of happiness.  Thinking and feeling that "I can handle whatever is coming my way".  It is the opposite of dread, fear and anxiety.  (2) Optimism is another component of happiness.  Thinking and feeling that, "Everything will be allright", or, "Everything is coming my way".  (3) Peace and contentment is another component of happiness.  "Feeling no pain", "No worries".  Relaxed and not uptight.  (4) Love is a component of happiness.  (See: Sociology, sexuality, love).  (5) Another component of happiness is feeling satisfied.  Feeling that our wants and needs have been met.  Not feeling prey to our desires and other internal pressures.  (6) Another component of happiness is feeling safe and secure from external threats.  (7) What other components of happiness are there?  What else makes people happy?  Feeling useful.  Feeling like you are not wasting your life.  Feeling like your life is meaningful.  (8) Why feel happy (all of the above) when we know we will die?  When we know life is so harsh.  Why be happy?  It seems illogical to be happy.  It seems happiness is uncalled for.  It seems that its not our right to be happy.  And yet we are happy and we should be happy.	12/2/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Confusing happiness with tension release.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Do I feel good when school ends?  When someone is hitting your head with a hammer and then stops, it does not feel good, they have just stopped hitting your head.	07/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Each positive emotion can cause other positive emotions.	12/10/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Each positive emotion can reinforce or magnify itself.  Positive emotions can snowball.  You can be happy that you are happy.	12/10/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Emotional happiness and its relationship to laughter, humor and comedy.  See: Arts, literature, comedy.	5/18/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Enjoyment.  It is important to recognize and enjoy (to the fullest) all that can be enjoyed.  It is a tough life at times and if you cannot enjoy the enjoyable you are in a bad spot.  Tragedy strikes every life.  Monumental mistakes are made.  If something occurs that prevents you from enjoying, or if something occurs that takes all the joy out of life forever, you are in a bad spot.	8/26/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Feel good about (1) Myself: what I have done, and am doing, and will do.  (2) My life: what's been done to me.  (3) My world.  (4) The world.	10/20/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Feeling good about self and life is good.  The Grateful Dead.  Forests, mountains, sunshine.  VW Vans.	04/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Feeling good emotionally and feeling good physically are related.  (1) Being happy can cause you to feel good physically.  For example, warm fuzzies.  (2) Feeling good physically can cause you to feel happy.  For example:  Feeling good after exercise (runner's high).  Feeling good after sex.  Feeling good after a good night's sleep.  Feeling good after a good meal.  These are all good things, but can be done to excess and abused as a surrogate for true happiness.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Feeling really good.  Is it an illusion?  People who report feeling ecstasy, grace, transcendence, etc.  Are these people nuts?  I tend to think maybe so.  Are there limits to how good we should feel?  Are there limits to how bad we should feel?  I tend to think yes in both cases.	2/25/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Fun is an important type of pleasure or happiness.  Fun is needed to stay alive.  Life is fun, or at least it should be, if you are doing it correctly.  Being sensitive to pleasure is necessary to survive and prosper.	10/19/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiest when (1) Free.  (2) Healthy.  (3) Kicking ass.  (4) Form and pursue and get best goals best.  (5) Successes and wins.  (6) Knowing truth.  (7) Doing right.  (8) Being a hero: to self first, and to others second.  (9) Surviving.  (10) Not being fu*ked with.  (11) Fighting well.  (12) When my opposition is low.  (13) Filling drives and needs (safety, food, cloth, shelter, self actualization etc.).  (13) Reaching ideals.  (14) What makes me unhappy: opposite of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness and excitement vs. happiness and calmness.  When does one become preferable to the other?  How to get either.	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness is a state of minimal chafing.  With Audrey, in NY, I experience minimal chafing.	04/15/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness is an attitude, not a set of environmental conditions.  Happiness is a choice.	07/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness is freedom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness is not the goal in life.  For example, serial killers are happy killing.  Justice is the goal.  Happiness is the by-product.	3/13/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happiness.  (1) Short term vs. long term.  (2) Delusional vs. real: happy about what exists vs. what you think exists, but doesn't.  (3) Justified vs. unjustified ethically: happy about what is good vs. happy about what is not good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happy that I stood up for my principles.	11/28/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Happy vs. content.  Selling out (settling for second best or practical).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	How happy can you be (realistically)?  (1) Without having deluded thinking.  (2) Without being on natural or unnatural drugs.  (3) With little things in life.  (4) With a perfect life.  (5) With little opposition.  (6) Having kicked butt.  (7) Making quick progress.  (8) At start of day, or at end of day.  (9) How miserable can you be?  Same.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	How to be happy with what you have?  How to enjoy the little things in life?  After a while we can see the good in, or enjoy, or even desire and long for, even the shit situations.  At times we love even the assholes at work.  This is dangerously close to masochism.  Being happy with our lot is also a way to achieve nothing in life.  And yet, sometimes, to achieve mental equanimity it is necessary to cultivate this feeling.  A quiet night of accounting.  Goody.  O peace, o joy.  The question is when to cultivate acceptance, and when to cultivate dissatisfaction.  Near death experiences and unemployment help you appreciate simple things, and instills a serene, calm, happiness.  How long and often during the day to spend where on the spectrum, and concerning what subjects?  Will peace increase or decrease your productivity (quantity and quality)?  Will it keep you from going crazy?  Will it contribute to mental health?	02/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	How to stay happy, optimistic, positive, given things like job issues, love life issues, social life issues, etcetera?  What to say to self?   How to beat the blues?  Live for Progressive activism and the struggle for justice.  Living for my values and principles.  Enjoy thinking, writing, reading, and transferring ideas into action.  Enjoying simply living, enjoying being alive.  Enjoy the weather.  Enjoy good health.  Enjoy nature.  Enjoy friends and people.  Enjoy a nights sleep.  Enjoy good food.  Have low expectations and low desires, and put little pressure on self.  Small joys are actually big and important.  Go with the flow, take it easy.	6/24/2007	*

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I am a peace with my fate.  Truly.  How to get motivated?  Say to yourself, "If I was dying of hunger or thirst or freezing to death, or if I had no place to live, or no job or no girlfriend, I would be quite content to do nothing but my school work or my notes and nothing else."  That is what it is all about.  There is nothing else.	11/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I am responsible for making myself feel good.  No one else is responsible for making me feel good.  I am not responsible for making anyone else feel good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I don't feel great anymore.  The last time I felt great was at age 18.  Now the best that I feel is just "ok".	10/05/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I don't feel happiness anymore in most cases, just relief.  Example: it is a relief I got a good job.  Tension gone.  Relax.  Peace.  It is like, why should I be happy when I only got what I felt I deserved.  No one deserved this bullshit.  I feel vindicated, not happy, when the bullshit ends, like winning a criminal case.  Justice has been served, but the pain lingers in my mind.  What implications in the ethical realm does this present?	08/21/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I feel great because.  (1) No one is after me.  (2) I am not in debt.  (3) I am saving money.  (4) Found a good job.  (5) Studying hard and creating well.  (6) Looking for women.  (7) No major physical or psychological problems.  (8) In shape, well fed, well rested.  (9) I am not fu*king up (much).  (10) I am not being fu*ked with (much).	09/14/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	I put joy back in my life when I remember how lucky I am to be with Audrey.  I lose joy when I forget the same.	6/27/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	If I am not depressed then I am happy.	02/28/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Is there true happiness?  We swing manic and depressive.  How can you tell when to relax, and how much?  Some people think that if one thing is "wrong", or one person is suffering, then no one should feel happy.  I.e. like the game Sorry, where you must get all your pieces home to win.  Is this not overly perfectionistic thinking?	11/10/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	It is good to go through life a little manic.  You enjoy the trip more, and cash in on the power of positive thinking.	06/10/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Just happy to be alive, and not in jail, and employed, and laid and loved, and writing, and feeling little pain, and free.	06/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Laughter, joy and delight as components of happiness.  (1) Laughter.  There is a difference between (A) Laughing for joy.  (B) Laughing with delight.  (C) Laughing because something is funny.  (D) They can all coincide.  Each type of laugh is important.  (2) Joy is a powerful emotion that has an all encompassing scope.  Joy is a life affirming yes.  (3) Delight.  For example, delight with seeing a magic trick, and then delight seeing how the trick is done.  Delight with hearing a joke setup, and then delight hearing the punchline.  Delight in truth and justice.	5/18/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Love and happiness (See Al Green song on same subject).  Love is a major positive emotion.  Love is a major component of happiness.  See: Sociology, sexuality, love.	12/2/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Moments of highest happiness.  (1) I am going for what I want most.  (2) I am not going for what I don't want.  (3) I am doing everything right.  (4) I am doing nothing wrong.  (5) I am going full blast on job, girlfriend, notes, and book searches.  (6) High t and in shape.  Head in good shape too.  No financial problems.  No social problems.  Nice weather.  This is the most I or anyone else can expect out of life?	08/04/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Not happiness but rather peace and calm without boredom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Not repressing happiness as well as sorrows.  Enjoy any happiness you got.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Now I feel good about myself, and proud of myself, because... (1) I chased a lot of women well.  (2) I taught myself a lot, and figured out a lot, and wrote it down.  (3) I mastered the wilderness, country, suburbia, and city, both in thought and experience.  (4) Got a job and a babe.  (5) Stayed in shape.  (6) Developed a high ethical system.  (7) Strove and didn't fu*k off.  (8) Broke free of, and didn't get caught up in, all the types of system bull shit (ideas and actions).  I transcended it.  I invented my own thing, and it was superior.  Keep going further, stronger.	09/20/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Once driving around LI and camping in the Gunks brought me joy.  Now I can't bear it.  Kicks keep getting harder to find.  I was on or ahead of schedule in getting goals in a certain value system.  Now my value system has changed, and I am way behind schedule.	08/16/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Optimal emotion condition is not peace, total relaxation, and happiness but some level of discontent, drive, tension, and optimism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	PART ONE.  What are the types of happy feelings?  (1) Relaxed, yet excited.  (2) Calm.  Serene.  Peaceful.  Still.  Quiet.  Meditative.  (3) Positive.  Optimistic.  Motivated.  (4) Carefree.  Clear conscience.  (5) Exuberant.  Energized.  Pumped up.  Psyched up.  (6) Content, satisfied, satiated.  Cozy and comfortable.  Placated, mollified.  (7) Vindication.  Being proved right.  Seeing evil punished.  (8) Silly.  Giddy.  Laughter.  Playful.  PART TWO.  What things make people happy?  (1) Happy after a hard day of useful work for a good cause.  Happy after having a day off from work.  (2) Happy after a good meal.  Happy after good sex.  (3) Happy spending time with friends, lovers, etc., social happiness, party time.  Happy to be in love, that is, to love and be loved.  Happy to have some time alone, peace and quiet, privacy.  (4) Happy about the past.  Happy after successfully completing a goal.  Happy after the fact.  Happy having accomplished something.    Happy that all your hard work paid off.  (5) Happy in anticipation.  Happy to have something worth living for.  Happy about the future and its possibilities.  (6) Happy here and now.  (7) Happy to have good health.  (8) Happy in getting justice.  (9) Happiness at feeling oneness with the universe.  (10) Feeling happy for someone else, like, if something good happens to someone else, or even if someone else is happy, then that can make you happy too.  (11) Happy for no reason.  Who says you need a reason to be happy?  You can even be happy despite bad times.  (12) Happy with simple pleasures.  (13) Happy to be alive.  Alive and kicking.     PART THREE.  What are the types of unhappy feelings?  Despair.  Longing.  Rage.  Fear.  Grief.     PART FOUR.  What things make people feel unhappy?  (1) Being wronged by other people.  (2) Bad luck, unavoidable accidents and illnesses.  (3) Unhappy with self, self appearance, self behavior, self accomplishments.  (4) Unhappy about one's personal life.  (5) Unhappy about a love affair gone wrong.  Unrequited love.  (6) Unhappy about events in the world at large.  Feeling unhappy for someone else.     PART FIVE.  What are the most general comments one can make about happiness and unhappiness?  (1) Happy and unhappy feelings do not always correspond to the situation, because sometimes a person misperceives the situation, and other times people are unhappy when they have good reason to be happy, or happy when they have good reason to be unhappy.  Emotions are not infallible.  (2) Happiness is a choice.  You are responsible for your own happiness.  You have control over your own happiness.  One should try to be happy.  Yet, one does not want to be blissfully ignorant.  (3) As one gets older one hopefully becomes more aware of what makes one happy and unhappy.  That is, as one gets older one acquires emotional knowledge.  As one gets older, one gets more of a grip on their emotions, and hopefully has less unhappiness, yet also hopefully does not lose their happiness.  That is, as one gets older, hopefully one gains more emotional control.  Also, as one gets older, hopefully one becomes more fine tuned as to what should and does make you happy and what makes you unhappy.  That is, as one gets older one acquires emotional refinement.  (4) The emotions one feels when watching a movie or reading a novel, are those real emotions?  That is to say, when we feel for fictional entities, are those real emotions?  The emotions one feels when listening to a piece of music, or looking at a piece of abstract visual art, are those real emotions?  If real emotions can be so easily produced by fictional characters or by music or visual arts, then what kind of confidence can one have in one's emotional reactions?  (5) Be happy, yet keep on striving.  Strive happily.  That's right.  Doo bop dee bop dee boop.	4/15/2007

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Passive, blissful happiness is not always the appropriate emotion or the desirable state.  If your neighbors house is on fire and his family is burning to death, then passive happiness is not appropriate.	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Physical pleasure and emotional pleasure seem overly-linked in some pathological conditions such as addiction.	4/28/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Physical pleasure and emotional pleasure.  Is there a physical pleasure that does not cause emotional pleasure?  Is there an emotional pleasure that does not cause physical pleasure?	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Physical pleasure and emotional pleasure.  What is the link between physical pleasure and emotional pleasure?  The two seem closely linked.  For example, sex feels good physically and love feels good emotionally.  (1) In most people, physical pain can cause emotional depression.  Physical pleasure can cause an emotional high.  It also seems to be true that emotional pain can cause physical pains (ex. a pain in the neck), and emotional pleasure can cause physical pleasures (ex. feeling warm and fuzzy).  (2) On the other hand, there are some people who can feel physical pain with little or no emotional effect, and some people feel physical pleasure with little or no emotional effect.  These people also may have the ability to feel emotional pain without feeling physical pain, and the ability to feel emotional pleasure without feeling physical pleasure.  Is this disconnect between the physical and psychological a good thing?	4/28/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Pleasure feelings are as important as pain feelings.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Pleasure in time.  (1) Anticipatory: requires forethought and denial.  (2) Present, during: requires least character of three.  (3) After: requires memory, not repression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Positive emotions like happiness, calmness and contentment are not a problem unless (1) You don't have them very often.  (2) The wrong things cause you to have positive emotions (which is a question of value).	7/1/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Problems.  (1) Blissing out, being too happy, causes one to forget or ignore the problems in the world and the pain they cause, like human mistakes and natural accidents.  (2) Being uptight, never happy, not enjoying anything, is bad too.  You can become depressed and give up.  You can make the mistake of not valuing things as much as you should.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Related subjects.  (1) Humor and happiness.  Apprehending a joke, seeing the humor, and laughing can produce happiness.  (2) Beauty and happiness.  Apprehending beauty can produce happiness.  (3) Physical pleasure and happiness.  Healthy food, sleep and exercise can produce happiness.  Healthy sex can produce happiness.  Feeling warm and comfortable can produce happiness.	12/2/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Same situation.  One minute I feel good, and next minute I feel bad.  What is wrong with feeling good as long as I am not ignoring the problems of the world?  It is good to feel good.  It keeps you thinking and working to solve problems.  Many people yearn to feel this good.	2/23/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Satisfaction.  (1) Satisfaction you get out of something depends on: If you like it.  If you are good at it.  If you are making progress, getting better.  If it is a useful thing.  (2) Is satisfaction the same as happiness?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Some say happiness is the process, not the goal.	3/13/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Sum up of mental states related to happiness.  (1) I made a difference.  I helped.  (2) I tried.  I gave my best effort.  (3) There are many good things.  Its not all bad.  (4) Feeling happy for others (the opposite of feeling sorry for self).  (5) Hope.  (6) Optimistic about future.  (7) Humor.  (8) Safe.  (9) Content.  (10) Challenged.  Engaged.  Not bored.  (11) Meaningful, purposeful work.  (12) Calm.  Peace.  Serenity.  (13) Love.  (14) Comfort.  (15) Friendship.  (16) Enjoyment.  Appreciation.  (17) Joy.  Delight.  (18) Celebration.  (19) Happiness.	6/14/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Sum up.  Components of happiness.  Hope.  Purpose (worthy goals, direction).  Meaning.  Joy.  Contentment.  Challenge.  Fun.  Love.  Explore.	6/4/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Summary of happiness terms and topics.  Glad.  Amazed.  Calm happy vs. exited happy.  Happy and its relation to time: looking back happy, vs. happy about here and now, vs. anticipatory happiness.  Feeling good physically.  Pleasure.  Fun.  Humor.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	The big pleasure and pain problem.  Often what you think will make you happy don't.  Often what you don't think will make you happy will.  Often what you think will make you feel neutral don't.  Often what you think will make you unhappy don't.  Often what you don't think will make you unhappy will.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	The greatest pleasure is not pleasure anticipated, or pleasure present, but rather pleasure past (knowing you have kicked ass), because pleasure past lasts longest and is forever in your mind.  It is also permanent, and it can't be undone.  Same for pain?	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	The positive emotions rise together.  Hope, confidence, optimism and happiness all occur together and reinforce each other.  One happy emotion can cause another happy emotion.	12/10/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	There is a component of happiness that consists of emotions and thoughts of calmness, peace, serenity, relaxation, safe and content.  That is, feeling not anxious, not fearful, not worried, and not stressed.	2/1/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	There is a danger in being too easily amused, satisfied, contented, placated.	3/8/2007

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	These days, most days, for most of the day, I feel good.	12/15/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	This reaching out for things that hurt you, in times of pain (of any combonation of types, degrees, or causes) is caused by your refusal to simply be happy where you are.  (1) Sometimes it is best to simply be happy where you are.  If you had just survived a near death experience you would be happy just to be alive.  Pleasure in simple things like running water.  (2) At other times it is best not to be happy or satisfied where you are.  (3) Mistakes can be made in either case.  (4) Do not refuse to be happy.  Drop the pain.  Take a new view or attitude.  (5) How to be happy, with simple stuff, among the bullshit of life, and yet stay motivated and driven?	09/10/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Three big questions.  (1) What are the types of happy emotions?  (2) What things actually make us happy?  (3) What things should we be happy about?	1/28/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Two of the many types of happiness.  (1) Happy because one's needs have been met:  Feel satisfied, content and safe.  (2) Happy because one feels needed.  Having a sense of purpose and meaning.  Feeling one has a contribution to make.	6/5/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of happiness or pleasure.  (1) Physical vs. mental.  (2) Short vs. long duration.  (3) Now vs. later.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of happiness:  Just got a job.  Just got a raise.  Just got a lover.  Just got laid.  Weekend.  Vacation.  Lottery ticket.  Lottery jackpot.	1/1/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of pleasure and pain.  (1) Short duration vs. long duration.  (2) While in progress vs. long after it is done.  (3) Transient (just once) vs. enduring or consistent (over and over).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of pleasure.  (1) Excited pleasure: psyched, pumped, wired, rush, blast.  (2) Calm pleasure: satisfied.	09/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of pleasures list.  (1) Physical vs. psychological: intellectual.  (2) Social vs. solitary.  (3) Momentary vs. enduring.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Types of positive emotions. (1)  Adoration, devotion. (2)  Mirth, joy, delight. (3)  Content, secure, safe.	1/28/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	What could I do?  What should I do?  What do I want to do?  What do I enjoy?  What causes me pleasure?  Most to least.  In abstract and concrete terms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	What gives me real calm, content, happy.  (1) Not goofing off.  (2) Working hard on goals.  (3) Kicking ass on active opposition and passive opposition of people and things.  (4) Fleeing sub-optimal environments and people.  (5) Big successes and wins.  (6) Small failures and losses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	What's going to make me happy.  When (before, during, after).  For how long (momentary vs. long lasting).  How much (little vs. lot of pleasure).  What type of pleasure.  It depends on the situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	When I feel really good, I feel physically energetic, rowdy, playful, and mischievous.  Like a kid.  And graceful and athletic, like a dancer or acrobat.	02/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	When I was a child I remember feeling sometimes happy.  Probably because life (my life, and my view of the world in general) was (1) Simple (not complex), (2) Easy (intellectually, and in action and effort), and (3) Easily do-able.  (4) I had no problems.  (5) I had my needs filled (until the new need of sex came up).  Life was a breeze and a blast (fun).  Just needed more freedom.  I can still feel that way.     But it was a false happiness based on blind faith and ignorance.  Now I can achieve a truer, nobler happiness, based on knowledge and ethical action.  But will it feel as good?	11/10/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	Why didn't I leave that stinking college?  Why didn't I move out west then or now?  Do I deny myself happiness?  Why do I do so?  Do I fear happiness and joy?  Do I feel happiness is an evil pleasure that can only be followed by punishment and pain?  Do I feel undeserving of happiness?  Unworthy?  Do I feel guilty of happiness?  Most importantly, do I repress happiness and thus fail to recognize it when it hits me?  Do I even repress the thoughts of what would make me happy, and thus not pursue those things, and not act on them?	7/11/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	You should base your pleasures on how you feel before, during, and after the event.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness.	You shouldn't be happy with world, but you can be happy with your reaction to it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	.This section is about hope.  Topics include: ( ) Wishes and dreams.  ( ) Expectations.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	(1) Best hopes: subjectively believed, objectively actual.  (2) Worst hopes: subjective vs. objective.  (3) Accurate vs. inaccurate.  Suboptimal vs. unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	(1) Hopes.  What you want to happen, and that actually could happen.  (2) Expectations.  What you think will happen.  (3) It is tough to tell what could or will actually happen.  So you come to the difference between hopes as best imaginable ideals vs. hopes as going with the odds of actual occurrence.	09/23/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	(1) We live in hope.  Hope for the future.  The alternative to hope is despair.  There is always hope.  Hope is a must have.  (2) A hope words poem:  Reprieve.  Last minute pardon.  Rescue.  Airlift me out of here.  Beam me up.  Winning lottery ticket.  Miracle cure.  Free pass.  One millionth customer.  Lucky break.  Against all odds.  Liberation.	3/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	(1) What is hope?  What is a definition of hope?  (2) What are the types of hope.  (3) What is relation of hope to other psychological phenomena?	5/28/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	(1)(A) Hope and optimism go together.  If you are hopeful you are optimistic.  (B) Hopelessness and pessimism go together.  If you lack hope you are pessimistic.  (2) Hope is not an "all or none" proposition.  Hope is had by degree.  Hope is a spectrum.  (3) What are the things we hope for?  We hope circumstances will change, and that bad times will give way to good times.  We hope the odds will go in our favor; we hope the chips will fall our way.  (4) To be able to make hope statements.  To be able to say, "I hope that", or "I hope to" is an important ability.  Don't let the defeats of life crush your hopes.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Gather your shreds of hope.  Weave your shreds of hope.  Cling to your shreds of hope.  Its all you have.	7/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hope is like a lottery ticket.  Something good could be coming your way.  Even though bad stuff is too, and life is mostly decay.	12/06/1988

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hope is related to optimism.  Optimists have feelings of hope.	5/6/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hope is someone with potential and desire waiting for the right opportunity.	08/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hope, two types.  (1) Hope I can accomplish x task.  (2) Hope life throws y situation my way.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hope.  (1) Expectations: future thoughts and their emotions.  (2) Expectations: reasonable vs. too high vs. too low.  (3) Hope for improvement, or just to avoid decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Hoping for no bad luck vs. hoping for good luck.  Hope is related to chance, possibility, and probability.  When you don't know the probabilities you hope anyway.	03/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Most important ideas.  (1) Optimists have hope.  (2) Hope keeps you alive.  (3) Hope is a must have.	5/30/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Short term vs. long term hopes.  Momentary vs. persisting hopes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	The things you hope for self, others, and world is a sum reflection of the accuracy of your perception of reality, and your attitudes.  It is an emotion, derived from thoughts, that affects your motivation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Types of hope.  (1) Hoping to get what you deserve.  Hoping to get what you worked for.  (2) Hoping to get the average or the usual.  Hoping to get what everyone else has.  (3) Hoping to get a lucky break.  Hoping to beat high odds.	11/20/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	What area.  (1) What you think is possible, and why.  (2) What you think probabilities are.  (A) What you think could happen to you if things don't change that much vs. if things change greatly.  (B) What you think you could affect or change.  (C) What you think could happen if a combonation of above.  (3) What you think is not possible and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	What you think could happen.  What you think you could be, become, do, get.  What you believe the probabilities are.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Wishes, wants, dreams, desires (see psychology, drive).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, hope.	Your attitudes about fate, destiny, fortune, luck vs. the power and rules of the system (i.e. lack of freedom) vs. freedom of the individual.  Self effort and achievement affect your actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	.This section is about optimism and pessimism.  Topics include: ( ) Optimism.  ( ) Pessimism.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) American innocence.  Bubble gum, cheerleaders, wheatfields, fairplay, fair fighting, warm sunny spring days, true love, hard work, corny jokes, nature, health.  (2) America betrayed.  Corruption, lying, cheating, stealing, vices, perversions.  (3) How far can an optimistic philosophy take us?  And how much will a pessimistic philosophy add on top of that?  The key is to see and confront the bad without becoming bad, or bitter, or losing hope and giving up.	04/26/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Automatic optimism is the view that things will go well automatically.  Automatic optimism is unhealthy.  (2) Another type of optimism holds the view that things will go well with hard work.  Good will conquer evil if we make an effort.  Truth and justice will prevail if we give our utmost.  This is a healthy view.	6/3/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Optimism: can do, solutions, possibilities.  (2) Realism.  (3) Pessimism: can't do, problems, limits.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Optimism.  (A) Pro: with positive outlook you think feel and act better.  "I am a cloud", "The world is a positive place".  (B) Contra: Polyanna.  (2) Realism.  (A) Pro: see things as they are.  (B) Contra: no alternate views.  (3) Pessimism.  (A) Pro: wary for problems.  (B) Contra: tendency to blow problems up.  Tendency to be discouraged.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Optimism.  Thinking of the things I have had, have, or will have.  (2) Pessimism.  Thinking of the things I won't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Pessimists.  Nay-sayers like Edgar Allan Poe.  (2) Optimists.  Yeah-sayers like Jack Kerouac.  (3) Realists.  Middle of the roaders like Bukowski.  (4) If you read pessimists like Poe, then you should balance it out with optimists like Kerouac, and also see the middle way by reading realists like Bukowski.	11/30/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Positive statements:  Life is a challenge.  I can make it.  (2) Negative statements:  Life is impossible.  I can't make it.	1/1/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) The depression and pessimism of past reality. Vs. (2) The mania and optimism of my goals, hopes, dreams.  Don't let 1 overcome 2 or you will never get nothing done.  Things can change for the better.  It is possible.	11/02/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Types of pessimism.  (A) Destructive: Nothing is perfect, so destroy it all.  (B) Nihilistic: It is all shit forever, can't improve or perfect.  (C) Everything is shit, but we can improve it.  (2) Types of optimist.  (A) Everything is perfect or will be.  (B) Anything is possible by anyone.  (C) We can improve things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) When people begin to feel worthless, and see the future as hopeless (pessimism).  (2) When people begin to feel delusions of grandeur, and see the future as Candide or Polyanna (optimism).	04/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Why be optimistic?  Because we can make a difference.  We are not completely subject to events.  We may not be able to permanently cure 100% of all our problems, but we can make a difference.  We can affect and change things.  There is hope, all is not lost.  Working together we can make big changes.  (2) Why be pessimistic?  (A) Perfection is not possible.  (B) We are doomed.  We all die as individuals, and the sun is cooling so it will all end eventually anyway.  (C) One man can not make a difference.  We are powerless.	09/20/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	(1) Your natural emotional state is primary in determining your philosophy of life.  Whether you are a yeah-sayer or a nay-sayer.  (2) "Realism" is really too pessimistic a view to take.  The real world stinks.  (3) Optimistic realism is the healthiest view to take.  The world stinks but we can improve it.	08/17/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	A cynic is a burnt (or steamed) idealist.	09/17/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Argument against pessimism.  Optimist have big eyes.  Their reach exceeds their grasp.  They aim high.  Pessimists do not go for big goals because their pessimistic view makes them think they can not even get small goals.  They attempt little and accomplish little.	10/05/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	At any moment or for any period, how optimistic or pessimistic are you and why?.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Being right in the middle, between happy and sad, optimism and pessimism, is actually being a little depressed.  This is because the natural, average human mental state is a little on the happy side (reason to live, hopeful to make a change, which is quite possible actually).  If you are right in the middle, you are actually a little depressed.	06/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Develop not just a realist attitude but optimism, pessimism, and realist attitudes for all situations and events.  You need the optimism to keep hope, the pessimism to be wary, and the realist to act.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Everything is wonderful, everything is going to be all right vs. everything is bad, everything is falling apart.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	For anytime you are (1) Feeling your oats (energy and optimism), or (2) Feeling ahead of the game, or (3) Having few troubles, there will also be times the opposite occurs.  Keep working, keep being nice and/or kissing ass.	11/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Force yourself to see the other side in order to get the big picture.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Growing up with illogical, erratic parents leads you to have neither trust nor confidence in yourself, others, or world.  You will be a pessimist.  Fear, Insecurity, Anxiety.	07/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	How to stay positive?  Staying positive keeps you alive.  Staying positive requires hope.  Hope requires keeping an eye on all the good things in life and all the better things to come.  Keeping them pictured in your mind.  Remain in this state of mind.  Live your life in this state of mind.  (2) So what's good in life?  And what good is coming?  All the rest, everything else, all the bad, is just projects for when you feel strong.	1/15/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Idealism keeps me optimistic and functioning well.  Let the drones be realistic.  Pessimism is an idealist trying to be realistic.	09/26/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	It is a spectrum.  (1) Unhealthy optimism: pie eyed, Candide.  (2) Healthy optimism: motivated.  (3) Healthy pessimism: wary, skeptical.  (4) Unhealthy pessimism: defeatist.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	It is okay, even right, just and good that good things happen to me.  Because I will be a leader of the new generation (ha!).  Hey, if it keeps you optimistic, believe it.  The world needs me.  Someone in the future will be helped immeasurably by meeting me or reading my work.  Hey, if it keeps you going, believe it.  If it keeps you clean and living right, believe it.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Manic depression traits: love/hate.  Energy/no energy.  Happy/sad.  Optimism/pessimism.  Thinking well/poorly.  Chemicals involved: testosterone, adrenaline, endorphins, serotonins.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Manic depressives strong points.  Strong emotions and thoughts.  Strong affirmations of self and life, and strong criticisms of self and life, much more than the mild minds.  If only you could get mania and depression at same time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Nay sayers vs. yeah sayers.  Manics and depressives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Negative emotions.  There is an emotion that is not captured by words like depression or horror.  The emotion I refer to is when you look around and things are tinged or shaded with an air of sinister malevolence.  Its easy to perceive this emotion when, for example, you see an old abandoned house on a cloudy, cold, windy day.  But sometimes you feel this way all the time and everything looks this way to you.  Its not strong terror.  Its more like a low-grade chronic fear.  Or its a pessimism.  I believe that pessimism is of at least two types.  One type of pessimism is the result of low-level chronic depression.  Another type of pessimism is the result of mild chronic fear, anxiety and apprehensiveness.  Plus, there is another type of pessimism (or cynicism) caused by mild, chronic anger.  Any mild, chronic negative emotion can cause pessimism.  Against these types of pessimism we have emotions like caring.  The feeling of caring can keep you alive.  The feeling of caring can keep others alive.  Allow yourself to care.  Dare to care.	9/7/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	No one is a true realist all the time.  The question is degree, frequency and subjects you are optimism and pessimistic about.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism about world, people and me.  People are basically good.  Its basically a benign, human friendly universe.  I'm basically a good person.	2/28/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism are due to brain chemistry and learning/experience.	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism are irrelevant.  Just keep on trying, in good times and in bad times.  Just keep on trying, whether you feel happy or sad.  Just keep on trying to improve the world.  The situation may get better or worse.  Your mood may get better or worse.  There is often no correlation between the two, so just keep on trying.	8/10/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism arises from whether you tend to remember and imagine good things or bad things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism depends on (1) your perception of environment and events.  (2) Your internal brain chemistry and physical state.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism depends on your knowledge and biochemical moods.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism in past-thinkers and future-thinkers.  (1) Looking back at past.  Optimist looks at past successes.  Pessimist looks at past failures.  (2) Looking toward future.  Optimist sees what can be gained, or done.  Pessimist sees what can be lost, or can't do.  (3) (A) Optimism and pessimism: concerns the future, things getting better or worse.  (B) Positive and negative: concerns the present, do you focus on good or bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism.  (1) Positive thinking.  Definitions.  Thinking about good things.  Thinking everything will be ok.  Thinking problems are solvable with effort.  (2) Realistic thinking.  Definitions.  (3) Negative thinking.  Definitions.  Thinking about problems.  Thinking you can't solve them.  (4) Arguments pro and contra each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism and pessimism.  Why should people take a false view if it helps them perform, or only look at good if it helps them perform?  I say don't lie to yourself.  There's got to be a better way.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism: concentrate on what you can do now and in future.  Pessimism: concentrate on what you can't do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism: life is a blessing, an opportunity.  Pessimism: life is a curse, a burden.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism: looking at the good.  Realism: looking at the good and bad.  Pessimism: looking at the bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism.  Things people say to buck up, "Its not all bad.  Some have it worse."	3/21/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimism/pessimism is not just about emotion.  It also includes thought.  It is actually a type of attitude (i.e., emotion plus thought) about life.	12/30/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimist sees the good in people, and therefore tends to have plenty of friends.  Pessimist sees the worst in people, and therefore tends to have no friends.	02/10/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimists make great visionaries.  Pessimists make great critics.  We need both.	2/19/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimists remember the good in the past and see good in the future.  Pessimists remember the bad in the past and see bad in the future.	12/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Optimists see the best in people.  Pessimists see the worst in people.  Optimists end up having many friends.  Pessimists end up having no friends.	10/20/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Overall you produce more and better ideas when you are optimistic.	09/14/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	People with chronic mild depression.  I.e., cynics and pessimists.  (1) These people take things that others say in the worst possible way instead of the best possible way.  (2) They also see no hope in the future, so they don't plan long term, and they live for the moment.	3/7/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Pessimistic thoughts are a result of depression and involve all the negative emotions.  Optimistic thoughts are the result of happiness and involve all the positive emotions.	4/29/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Pessimists are fearful bastards.  (probably hit as children).	05/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Positive attitude is necessary to kick butt.  Immense, constant (every minute), enduring (over years) desire, drive and effort is necessary to make advancements in a world full of setbacks and where two steps forward yield one step slid backward.	07/25/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Positive attitudes.  (1) Thinking everything is or will be all right vs. (2) Doing the best you can (confronting problems with positive attitude so your mind and body work best).  1 is bad, 2 is good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Put hope and optimism together.  Because if you are hopeful then you are optimistic.  If you are optimistic then you are hopeful	6/3/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Repeat it over and over.  (1) The world is not doomed.  (2) People can make a difference through their writing.  (3) I am one of those people.	06/05/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	See also: Psychology, pathological, specific, manic depression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	The Idealist is likely to be a pessimist, because he thinks things could be better, and he sees the glass as half empty.  The Practical person is likely to be an optimist, because he thinks things could be worse, and he sees the world as half full.	11/20/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	The key is to see both the good and bad "in perspective", i.e. in relation to each other, i.e. to see it all.  The cup is not half full or half empty, the cup is half full and half empty.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	There is more bad and pain out there than good and pleasure.  Need to look at both because the bad presents the problems, and the good provides inspiration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Three types of optimism: (1) Things are improving.  (2) Things are going well, even if they are not actually improving.  (3) I will survive, even if not actually doing well or improving.	3/21/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	To be an odds-making realist can be self defeating.  Sometimes you have to put on an attitude, dream, take a chance, and pray you don't get burned.  But do this only in situations where you have nothing to lose.  Not even your self respect.  And also make sure you never fall for your own false attitude.	05/30/1996

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Two problems.  (1) Feeling better than the situation.  (2) Feeling worse than the situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Types of optimism and pessimism.  (1) Local optimism with global pessimism: Things are going well for me, but the world is going down the toilet.  (2) Local pessimism with global optimism: Things may not be going well for me, but the world is getting better.	6/3/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Types of optimism.  (1) Individual optimism: To believe you are improving, either physically, psychologically, etc.  (2) Social optimism: To believe society is improving, even if you as an individual are not.  (3) Economic optimism: To believe the economy is improving.  (4) Technological optimism: To believe technology is making things better.	3/21/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Ultimate optimist is an idealist.  Ultimate pessimist is an idealist living in the real world.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Unify optimism and pessimism.  Ideals and problems.  Both are needed for best actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Unjustified optimism, aka, "false positive".  (1)  When you hope things are or will be good.  That is, you cling to the possibility that things are, or will be, good because you are not 100% sure that things are 100% bad.  (2)  When you know things are bad but you refuse to acknowledge it.  You insist things are good.  (3)  Is either of the above positions metaphysically defensible, epistemologically defensible, or ethically defensible?  (A) Metaphysical defense.  (B) Epistemological defense: how can we really "know" with certainty what anything is or will be?  Thus how can we be positive about it?  (C) Ethical defense: of either above position.  If it keeps you alive or if it helps you function better than it is allowable or even recommended.	2/10/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Ways how to keep a positive attitude: affirmations, keep life sorted out, rest and diet.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	Ways to keep optimism, idealism and inspiration up every day.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, optimism and pessimism.	What are the implications of looking only at the good and ignoring the bad?  (1) Freudian repression can produce neurosis.  (2)  Solvable problems continue to exist, never getting solved because no one acknowledges them.  Injustice continues.	2/10/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	.This section is about pleasure and pain.  Topics include: ( ) Emotional pleasure.  ( ) Physical pleasure.  ( ) Emotional pain.  ( ) Physical pain.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	(1) Is it necessary to divide all emotions into two groups named pain and pleasure?  Can some other classification of emotions be more accurate and useful?  (2) Where is the dividing line between pain and pleasure?  If you are mildly uncomfortable one moment and marginally happy the next moment, what has really happened?  (3) Pleasure can dysfunction as often as pain dysfunctions.  (4) Painful emotions have an evolutionary function.  Sometimes painful emotions function properly and serve a useful, healthy purpose by alerting us to improve the situation.  (5) Sometimes the mind magnifies small pains until they seem large.  Sometimes the mind takes large pains and deadens them somehow.  Sometimes is is helpful.  Sometimes it is unhealthy.  (6) One does not want to live at the whim of emotions, nor the thoughts that cause the emotions, nor the events that cause the thoughts.  One does not want to be controlled by one's emotions.  Yet one should not completely disregard emotions, thoughts and events.	12/1/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	(1) Pain and pleasure are the two basic emotions.  (2) There are two kinds of pain and pleasure: emotional pain and pleasure, and physical pain and pleasure.  (3) Emotional pain and pleasure is linked to physical pain and pleasure.  Physical pain and pleasure can cause emotional pain and pleasure.  Emotional pain and pleasure can cause physical pain and pleasure.	11/28/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	(1) Pleasure emotions viewed as a sort of naturally produced drug addiction.  When you do something that makes you happy, you feel good because of neuro-chemicals called endorphins.  And, as a result, you are more inclined to do that behavior again in the future.  We are all addicts now.  (2) Pain emotions are supposed to make us not want to repeat an action.  And we are supposed to want the painful emotions to leave as quickly as possible.  So why do people get into extended periods of negative emotions?	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	A new view.  There are as many types of pleasure emotions as there are types of pain emotions.  Pain emotions like fear, sadness and anger might be obviously noticeable.  Pleasure emotions might be less noticeable, and thus might not have names.  However, the pleasure emotions are there every day, every moment.	11/28/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain and pleasure.  (1) Free floating negative emotions.  Free floating pain emotions like free floating fear, sadness or anger.  Cut loose from their cause or source.  Looking for a new target to latch onto.  Looking to be expressed, vented.  Free floating pain emotions can be a big problem.  (2) We can posit the existence of free floating positive emotions.  Free floating pleasure emotions are not a problem.  Or are they?  What if you do not know why you are happy?  That can be a problem.  What if you do not know what makes you happy?  That can be a problem.  The problem of free floating positive emotions is less obvious and perhaps smaller than the problem of free floating negative emotions, however, it is an important problem nonetheless.	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain caused by injustices done to you by you, others, and nature.  See: Philosophy, ethics, justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain emotions are a call for action.  Pain emotions are a sign of a problem.  Pain is a signal something is wrong and needs to be fixed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain helps an organism recognize and avoid unhealthy situations.  Pleasure helps an organism recognize and pursue healthy situations.  Both pleasure and pain recognizing abilities are needed for health, but that does not mean that painful, unhealthy situations are needed for health.  If there is only pain recognizing ability then the organism will only avoid.	1/1/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain is natural and basic.  Responses to pain can be healthy or unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain is the number one cause of mental illness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain of neglect and abuse.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain, anger and sadness are natural.  The only course against them is work.  Well thought out, concentrated, methodical, productive work.	03/19/1989

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  "What's buggin me"?  Figure it out.  Stop cause.  (problem identification and solution).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  (1) Depressed state of mind.  Constantly think of depressing thoughts, with no positive thoughts to counteract the negative thoughts.  (2) Anxious state of mind.  Constantly thinking of fearful thoughts.  (3) Angry state of mind.  Constantly thinking of angry thoughts.	4/8/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  (1) Is there anything I should get (A) Sad, depressed, (B) Angry, (C) Worried, fearful, scared, afraid, anxious, nervous about?  And then engage in pathological behavior?  For, example, bad luck or a wasted life?  (2) Should I limit the degree and duration I feel any emotion for any subject?  Is there a point after which a certain degree of emotion is pathological?  Enough is enough.  What is that point?  (3) If you have not, or can not, reason out the situation fully, should you let emotion be your guide?  (4) At what point is emotion adding to your mental abilities, vs. taking away your mental abilities?  Emotional break even point.	10/30/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  (1) Pain from the outside: things in reality.  (2) From the inside: putting yourself through emotional hell, for no good reason.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Ability to withstand x painful experience and the pain emotions that go along with it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Against pain what?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Anger and depression are useful spurs to solve problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Attitude toward pain.  You can say you (1) Hate pain and reject it.  (2) Hate pain but accept it.  (3) Are not bothered by pain.  Neither love nor hate it.  (4) Love pain, embrace it, it is ok and worth it if it gets you your goal.  Some pain is just pain and not destructive (lactic acid build up).  Most of the time it is destructive though.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Callousness.  It helps to become callous to a certain extent to pain.  How to do so?  By understanding the subject involved.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Causes of pain.  (1) Wasting time.  (2) Doing wrong, stupid, unimportant things.  (3) Doing nothing (passively hurtful).  (4) Doing trivia.  (5) Doing actively hurtful.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Constant low level pain is normal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Defenses against pain.  (1) Numb self through sex and drugs and food.  (2) Catharsis through music (blow off steam).  (3) Solve problem.  (4) Be brave: "fu*k it" attitude.  (5) Get a success or win in another area.  (6) Think of old successes and wins.  (7) Think of good things in your life or world.  (8) Think of things to live for.  Think of what you may or could do in other areas.  (9) Think of revenge.  (10) Think of your principles.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Deprivation vs. pain it causes in a specific individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Emotionally (1) Hurt: felt it.  (2) Wounded: felt it, long time to heal.  (3) Injured: adverse effects, impaired.  (4) Destroyed: injured beyond repair, beyond full recovery.  Knocked completely out of commission of doing what you need to do for any length of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Emotions caused by you being hurt by yourself, others, or nature.  Confrontation stops cause.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Everyone is full of pain and hurt, from past and from present.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Everyone wants to get rid of pain.  Everyone wants to get pleasures.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Fear and anger go together.  Especially in terms of emotions related to social situations.  (1) If you have anger then you want to take action, but you fear repercussions and reprisal.  (2) If you have fear then you feel angry toward the cause of your fear.	6/23/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Feeling angry, depressed or anxious about a specific incident?  It may be due to purely biochemical causes.  It may be due to generalized anger, depression or anxiety.  Even though it may seem to be about a specific incident.  Or it may be a result of the specific incident.  Or it may be a combination of any of the three.  Or it may be due to some other incident.	1/3/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  General, constant, slight unhappiness is normal (Freud), because life is pain (Buddha).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  How much pain can a person take, of what types, and still stay mentally healthy?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  How to function well under uncontrollable pain, without flipping out or breaking down.  See stress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  I don't enjoy slavery, deprivation, opposition, work, disease, old age, idiots, kids, victimization, crime, life, hurting innocents, mistakes, assholes, uncertainty, ignorance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  I'd rather feel bad and confront situation and problems than feel good and be ignoring them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Last night I was so lonely, both acutely and chronically, and thought that both I and fate have wasted so much of my life, I felt like getting on my hands and knees and throwing up in public, as a protest, but also because I just felt sick and in pain.	06/06/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Life = pain.  More life = more pain.  The pain is cumulative, it keeps growing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Life is more pain than pleasure.  The pleasures don't make up for the pain.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Life is pain.  Everything we do (even nothing) causes pain.  Some more than others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Life is pain.  Pain is expressed as anger or sadness.  Anger is better than sadness.  Anger is an energy.	12/29/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Life pain is expressed as either anger and hatred or sadness and depression, directed at oneself or others.  They must be acknowledged, not repressed.  They must be understood and dealt with to achieve catharsis.	03/16/1989

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Negative emotions cause each other.  Depression causes anxiety.  Anxiety causes depression.  Anger causes anxiety and depression.	4/25/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Negative emotions cause other negative emotions.  (1) Anger causes sadness.  (2) Anger causes anxiety.  (3) Sadness causes anger.  (4) Sadness causes anxiety.  (5) Anxiety causes sadness.  (6) Anxiety causes anger.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Negative emotions cause themselves, compound themselves, snowball or spiral, by causing second-order negative emotions of the same type.  (1) Anger causes anger.  For example, you can be angry that someone made you angry.  (2) Sadness causes sadness.  For example, you can be sad that you are sad.  (3) Anxiety causes anxiety.  For example, you can be fearful that your anxiety will not stop.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Physical pain vs. physical pleasure.  Mental pain vs. mental pleasure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Scarcity of necessities causes pain, which yields struggle, which causes pain, and which yields survival of fittest.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Sometimes painful emotions are appropriate.  Suppose someone close to you died and you said, "I'm fine with that."  That would be an odd response.	5/12/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Suffering definitions.  (1) Knowing how bad your condition is, and how good life could be (intellectual suffering).  (2) How you feel about your condition (emotional suffering).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Suffering is not always directly related to how bad off you are.  You can be deprived and not know how bad off you are, and not feel pain about it.  You can be leading a bad life and feeling no pain, fat cats.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  The book of pain.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  The pain of looking back: coulda, woulda, shoulda.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  The sinister air of reality after bad things happen.  Everything looks different.  Temporarily.	9/28/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  There will always be something to be depressed, or worried about.  From past or future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Total final pain is the judge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Total pain of a society.  Distribution of pain in a society.  Average pain (types and levels) of individual in a society.  See economics, quality of life (psychological quality as well as material quality of life).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Two Problems.  (1) No pain when something is wrong is bad.  A sign of repression.  (2) Pain when something is not wrong is bad.  Ex. pure biochemical depression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Types of pain emotions.  (1) Sadness.  (2) Anger, frustration.  (3) Worry, anxiety, fear, paranoia.	5/30/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Types of pain.  (1) Physical.  (2) Psychological.  (A) Illogic.  (B) Not knowing (not being sure = unconscious safety issue).  (C) Unethical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Types.  (1) Pain of things lost.  (2) Pain of things ungotten.  (3) Pain of things wasted, partially or completely.  (4) Pain of absence of things.  (5) Pain of things unsatisfied.  (6) Pain of being a loser.  (7) Pain of knowing things aren't perfect.  (8) Pain of meaninglessness and directionlessness.  (9) Pain of hardship: labor, oppression, etc.  (10) Pain of problems.  (11) Pain of what could have been, what is, and what could be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Types.  (1) Pain we can do something about.  (A) Alleviate symptoms.  (B) Cure or solve cause.  (2) Pain we can do nothing about.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Unconscious pain: pain you feel but you are not aware of the causes and solutions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Unhappiness is a natural state which we naturally strive to reduce.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Ways to stop the pain.  (1) Momentary: drugs alleviate symptoms.  (2) Long term solutions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  What causes people the most pain?  (1) Average person: Lack of material things.  Lack of social relationships.  Increase in boredom.  Decrease in freedom.  (2) Me: Decrease in freedom.  Increase in boredom.  Lack of social relationships.  Lack of material things.  (Exact opposite order of "1").  (3) The relationship of emotions to values and ethics.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  What causes people the most pain?  (1) Average person's pain priorities:  Lack of stuff, lack of status, lack of friends, boredom, slavery.  (2) My pain priorities: exact opposite order.  Slavery, boredom, lack of friends, lack of status, lack of stuff.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  What do I not enjoy (neutral)?  What causes me pain?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pain.  Where does all my anger come from?  Existential pain.  A continual wellspring of pain, it manifests itself as sadness or anger.  The sadness can cause depression or suicide.  Better to express it as anger.  Anger is an energy.  But its bad side is that you can take anger out on innocent people.  The anger can also bust up relationships.  (2) The smart and honest feel the existential pain more because they see the natural injustice in the world more clearly.  The dull and self deceiving see the injustice less.	11/14/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Physical pleasure and physical pain help guide a simple animal through its simple environment, thus helping to ensure its survival.  Emotional pleasure and emotional pain help guide a complex animal through a complex environment, thus helping to ensure its survival.  Emotional pleasure and emotional pain are an evolutionary extension of physical pleasure and physical pain.	8/10/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Pleasure.  Happiness is sometimes used as a synonym for psychological pleasure.  There are many types of pleasure emotions.  (See: Psychology, emotion, specific, happiness).  The pleasure emotions are as important to survival and development as are the pain emotions.	11/28/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific, pleasure and pain.	Total final pain.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	.See also: Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	12/31/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	.This section is about sadness.  Topics include: ( ) Depression.  ( ) Grief.  ( ) Sadness.  ( ) Blues.  ( ) Despair.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Are all types of the emotion "sadness" related to and perhaps originated from grief?  When we are sad are we not just grieving for an object destroyed or an opportunity lost or a situation killed?	4/6/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Attitudes: "What's the use?  Doesn't matter.  Who cares?  I don't care.  Let me die." (is this really pathological or sub-optimal?).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Beat down, melancholy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Biochemical depression: chemicals involved.  Triggers like foods.  Sugar can cause rush then crash.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Causes of depression.  Low energy levels: lack of food, or lack of sleep.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression about past, present, and future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression as pathological psychology.  Too much, too long, too often, inappropriate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression is caused when we repress our mind (especially anger), or our actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression.  (1) When I am depressed, I think about my mistakes and bad luck.  (2) When I am psyched up I think about my successes and good luck.  How to avoid 1 and get 2?	09/01/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression.  Don't let the masses or any group or individual bring you down emotionally, intellectually, philosophically, or behaviorally.	04/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Depression.  Things that can make you depressed.  (1) It is not a perfect world.  (2) I did not think or act enough.  Could not figure out problems and goals clearly or fast enough or well enough.  Did not act on answers when I should have.  (3) The past, present, and future.  (4) Repression of drives, memories, emotions (anger), and thoughts.	08/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Grief from loss of person, object, or opportunity; due to nature, other, or self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Grief.  (1) Is grief simply depression?  (2) Or is grief depression combined with longing for a missed person or thing?  (3) Or is grief simply longing for a permanently lost thing?	4/23/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Grief.  Is grief a purely selfish emotion?  (1) Are we bioengineered to feel sad when a member of our gene pool dies?  Whether it be the gene pool of our close relatives or the gene pool of all humans?  (2) To rule out the above, lets say its an animal, not a human, that dies.  Do we feel grief when the family pet dies?  Or is it some other emotion we feel when a non-human dies?  (3) When a person who is a stranger to us dies we feel very little emotion.  When a mortal enemy dies we may even feel happy.  When a person we like dies we feel sad.  Considering this, could it be we feel sorry for ourselves when a person we like dies because the joy they bring to our lives is gone.  Thus, grief often has two components; we feel pain for ourselves and we feel pain for the person who died.	6/28/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Grief.  Time heals all wounds.  Grieving takes time.  Are wounds being healed, or are you simply forgetting?  Are you grieving, or just waiting till you can forget about the person?  It is a cruel thought.	10/05/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Grieving.  (1) What to we grieve?  The loss of a mate.  The loss of a pet.  The loss of a limb.  The loss of anything.  (2) How long does grieving take?  Your job gives you a week off to grieve.  It may take you a month to grieve.  It may take you several months to grieve.  It may take you a year to grieve.  There is no telling for sure what loss a person will grieve or how long the grieving will take.  (3) What forms will the grieving take?  Loss of sleep.  Loss of appetite.  Crying.  (4) What is the difference between grieving and depression?  Many depressed people are actually grieving.  (5) How did grieving evolve?  What is the evolutionary purpose or benefit of grieving?	4/30/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Of what evolutionary use is feeling sad?  Fear and anger are emotions that enable flight and fight.  What function does sadness perform in keeping an animal alive?  Happiness steers us toward things that will increase our survival, things that we generally like.  Other emotions steer us away from things that reduce our survival, things that we generally dislike.  Is sadness one of the emotions that steers us away from things that reduce our survival, things we dislike?  Another question, is sadness a mix of anger and fear?  Is sadness simply feeling cruddy because your survival chances have been reduced?	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Pathological psychology, effects of types of depression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Related affects.  No motivation.  Absent thoughts, or wrong thoughts.  No direction.  No urgency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Sadness must be consciously figured out and shaken (gotten rid of) by action, like fear and worry must, or it will linger intense, longer, unresolved, repressed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Sadness, depression is neurotic and unhealthy.  How much, for how long.  Types: (1) Over loss of opportunity.  (2) Over loss of object.  (3) Over loss of person, is called grief.  (4) Over you hurting yourself: mistakes.  You hurting others: guilt.  Others hurting you, or nature hurting you.  (5) Over being dissed or done wrong.  (6) Over the human condition in general, or me and my life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Techniques to get out of depression: change your perspective, change your environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific, sadness.	Whenever you get depressed, psyched out, hopeless, or filled with regret about the past, present, or future.  Especially instant deep psychouts.  Endure and it will pass away.  Keep going.  It is just a head fake.	10/15/1994

Psychology, emotion, specific.	.This section is about various other specific emotions.  Topics include: ( ) Appreciation.  ( ) Contentment.  ( ) Desperation.  ( ) Embarrassment.  Humiliation.  ( ) Jealousy.  Envy.  ( ) List of emotions.  ( ) Loneliness.  Solitude seeking.  ( ) Obsession.  ( ) Pride.  ( ) Redemption.  ( ) Remorse.  ( ) Social emotions.  ( ) Surprise.	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific.	(1) What is the neuro-chemistry of amazement?  What brain chemicals make people gaze in wonder at things like hot and  cold running water, electric light switches, and supermarkets?  (2) What is the neuro-chemistry of the emotion of ecstasy?  What brain chemicals cause people to feel transcendent?  (3) What is the neuro-chemistry of mania and manic energy?  (4) Amazement, ecstasy and manic energy are three distinct yet related brain states.	4/1/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Admiration is a tricky emotion.  Someone likes you.  They have pinned their ideals on you.  You have become the embodiment of their ideals.  They did not do so consciously.  And they did not notify you.  Do not treat the fact that someone admires you lightly.  There is a lot riding on it.  An entire world of perfection hangs in the balance.  Admiration is really about the values being admired.  It's not about you.	3/5/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Appreciation.  Appreciating what you have, and had.  Counting your blessings.  Appreciating the little things in life.  Emotional appreciation (emotion) vs. intellectual appreciation (ethics).	10/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Content and its relationship to feeling peaceful and calm.	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Content.  (1) I don't want to be so discontent that I screw up my life by throwing away the acceptable.  (2) I don't want to be so content that I never grow.  (3) There is a balance somewhere.	04/30/1993

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Content.  (1)(A) Content as smug (bad).  (B) Content as grateful (good).  (2)(A) Discontent as griping or complaining (bad).  (B) Discontent as striving to improve (good).	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Content.  Being contented means (1) Knowing what's important and not and why.  (2) Keeping goals in mind.  (3) Not flying off the handle, or over the edge.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Contentment is a form of happiness.  Discontentment or dissatisfaction is a form of painful emotion.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Contentment.  Count your blessings.  Thank your lucky stars.  There a lot of people worse off than you.  Be grateful for what you have.  Contentment is an important emotion.  Buddhists believe desire causes misery.  Desire is important, but so is contentment.	9/4/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Crying and laughing are weird behaviors.  It seems like they are both involuntary behaviors that may be residual animal instincts that were kept as humans evolved.  Crying and laughing seem like instinctual forms of animal communication.	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Desperation is a stage beyond mere urgency.  When it comes to getting things done there is nothing like desperation.  Some people say  "Necessity is the mother of invention", however, I think desperation is the mother of invention.  So get desperate!  Yet be warned, desperation can backfire, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake.  So don't get that desperate!	11/9/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Disgust.  Many of the things that humans find gross or disgusting are things associated with disease.  Also, rotten food is another item that provokes disgust.  Anything that makes you want to vomit is disgusting.	9/11/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Doubt and disbelief vs. distrust and wariness.  The two pairs often go hand in hand.	5/18/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Doubt.  (1) The thought of doubt.  (2) The feeling of doubt, both emotional feelings and physical feelings.  To feel unsure.  (3) The feeling of doubt is just as important as thoughts of doubt in terms of keeping a person alive.  (4) Feelings of doubt are just as important as feelings of certainty in keeping a person alive.  Any degree that you are not certain is the degree that you doubt.	5/18/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Embarrassment and humiliation.  (1) What's the difference?  Embarrassment by something you did?  Humiliated by something done to you?  (2) Are these both strictly social emotions?  Can we feel humiliated or embarrassed when alone?	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Embarrassment.  (1) To be caught doing the disgusting causes what emotion?  Example, to be caught drooling on oneself.  (2) To be caught doing the childish causes what emotion?  Embarrassment?  These are things that you do to yourself.  Example, to be caught talking and playing like a child.  (3) To be caught doing wrong (dastardly evil) causes what emotion?  Guilt? Shame?  (4) To be socially mocked.  To be beaten in competition.  To be rejected by another person.  These are all social pecking order things.  These are things that other people do to you.  What kind of emotion do they cause?  Humiliation?	5/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Embarrassment.  (1) We can feel shame and guilt even when we are not caught by others.  We can feel embarrassment and humiliation even when alone and not observed by others.  (2)(A) We can feel these emotions before the fact, in an anticipatory sense (guiding behavior).  (B) We can feel these emotions long after the fact (continuing to guide your behavior).	5/25/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Envy and jealousy are important social emotions.  They are so strong they spur people to achieve, and also to commit crimes.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Humor.  See: Arts, literature, comedy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Jealousy.  My girlfriend does not get angry-jealous, but she does get sad-jealous.	8/27/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Drive associated emotions.  Horny, hungry, thirsty.  Encouraged vs. discouraged.  Directed vs. not directed.  Inspired vs. not inspired.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Glib, smug, smarmy, self-satisfied, over-confident.	12/28/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Moods.  Crappy, shitty, bitchy.  Productive vs. non-productive.  Passive vs. aggressive.  Conformist vs. rebellious.  Optimist vs. pessimist.  Mood helping you vs. mood hurting you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Neutral emotions, including social emotions.  Resolution vs. unresolved.  Cautious vs. careless.  Astonished, overwhelmed, wonder, incredulous.  Reprisal.  Pride, boast, vanity, arrogance, insolence.  Humility, modesty.  Self esteem, self dignity, self respect, self worth.  Self obligations, duty to self.  Self discipline, self confidence.  Sympathy, empathy.  Confused vs. clear.  Hard: cruel.  Cold: unfeeling.  Passionate: feeling.  Warm: friendly.  Hot: sexy.  Soft: weak.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Pain emotions.  Physical: sensation. Mental: emotion.  Hate, loathing, anger, rage, dislike.  Laziness, inertia, desire.  Sadness, depression.  Lamentation, bereavement, grief.  Deprivation, disappointment.  Boredom, dullness, tedium.  Frustration, aggravation.  Fear, anxiety, nervous.  Horror.  Resentment.  Indecisive.  Impatient.  Tired, unmotivated.  Serious, solemn.  Malevolent.  Hopeless.  Longing, missing.  Jealousy, envy.  Cowardice vs. bravery.  Loneliness.  Abused.  Uncomfortable, comfortable.  Discontent, content.  Guilty, remorse vs. remorseless.  Regret vs. no regrets.  Unsure, unconfident, worry, paranoid.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Pleasure emotions.  Physical pleasure: sensation.  Mental pleasure: emotion.  Pride, smug.  Contentment, satisfaction.  Happy, amused, cheerful, rejoicing, optimistic.  Celebration, relieved, comfortable.  Brave, courageous, fearless.  Kicking ass, victorious, confident.  Reprisal, retaliation, revenge.  Sexy, lust, loving, like.  Patient, accomplishment, benevolent.  Hopeful, jolly, silly, loony, wacky, zany.  Fearless, assertive, aggressive, confrontational.  Committed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Pouty, sullen, sadness, sorrow.	12/28/2003

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Lists of emotions.  Some emotions listed in notes.  Anger.  Bravery/cowardice.  Confidence.  Excitement vs. peace, calm.  Boredom vs. interest.  Happiness, pleasure.  Hope vs. hopelessness.  Humor and lack of vs. seriousness and triviality.  Optimism vs. pessimism.  Pain (see also anger and sad) vs. pleasure, happiness.  Respect, dignity.  Sadness, depression.  Worry, anxiety, fear, paranoia, guilt, regret.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Loneliness.  (1) Desire or longing for any thing (see metaphysics).  (2) Missing someone specific vs. people in general.  (3) Amount you feel vs. how long since you interacted with people.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Loneliness.  (1) Loneliness of being physically alone.  (2) Loneliness of being psychologically alone.  Of having no one.  (3) The second is much worse.	11/13/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Loneliness.  Amount of being alone vs. amount of loneliness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Loneliness.  See: Sociology, solitude.	5/25/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Loneliness.  The physical aspect of loneliness is a dull ache in the entire body, especially in the front half, especially when it is loneliness or longing for a person.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Longing, regret and desire.  To what extent do people miss or regret not having things they never knew about?  For example, to what degree did the ancients miss or regret not having airplanes and telephones?  To what degree do we today miss or regret not having time travel and whatever else they may invent in the future?	6/8/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Mortifying.  There is something satisfying about mortifying someone.  Seeing the shock and horror on their faces as their ill-founded aesthetic tastes are assaulted.  They were so concerned about appearance with no substance.  I will give them substance without appearance.	11/18/2001

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Obsession.  Guilt as a form of obsession.  Reoccurring thoughts and feelings (attitudes).  Do I feel guilty or am I obsessing?	7/7/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Pity.  What causes more pity than to hear someone shout, "I don't want your pity!"?	2/23/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Pride.  Competitive pride accounts for a lot of the world's progress.  The idea that "I am better than you".	12/26/1997

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Pseudo dignity.  Pseudo self importance.  Pseudo seriousness.  Pretensions.  Condescending.  Sanctimonious.  Some people have an over-inflated sense of self importance.  Some people make excessive demands for respect from others.	7/16/2006

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Questions for each specific emotion.  (1) What causes it: in general and in me.  (2) What are effects of it: positive and negative, in general and in me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Questions.  (1) When should I feel an emotion, and not, and how much.  (2) Ideal, problems, techniques approaches.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Questions.  Ways to classify emotions.  (1) In trees, families, types and subtypes. (2) By pairs: opposites.  (3) By major and minor, important and unimportant.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Questions.  What is the best and worst way to deal with an emotion?  (1) Good ways.  (A) Feel it, acknowledge it.  (B) Think what the cause was.  (C) Deal with the cause: instantly or asap, and totally, for catharsis and justice.  (2) Bad ways to deal with an emotion.  (A) Not feeling (repressing emotions).  (B) Not thinking about it (repressing thoughts).  (C) Not doing anything (repressing actions).  (D) Taking out feeling on an innocent.  (E) Only partially feeling, thinking, saying, and acting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Redemption.  (1) Those who feel they have to redeem themselves.  Even when they don't.  (2) Those who don't feel they have to redeem themselves.  Even when they do.  (3) Who gets more done?  (4) Redeem themselves how and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Relaxed and calm versus hectic and frazzled and uptight.  Relaxed can be physical or mental, and its opposite, tense can be physical or mental.	4/15/2007

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Remorse is different from guilt.  (1) You have done wrong.  (2) You were responsible (guilt).  (3) You are sorry (remorse).	5/20/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Remorse.  We expect criminals to show remorse.  Do we expect non-criminals to show remorse?  Sometimes I get angry at people because they show no (existential) remorse.  Somewhere there has to be some remorse in a person.  Just as somewhere in a person there has to be some brash braggadocio.	5/20/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions felt toward others.  Like, love.  Dislike, hate.  Respect, admiration.  Contempt.  Loneliness.  Jealousy, envy.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  (1) Altruism: acting against self for someone else.  (2) Sympathy: feeling emotions for someone else.  (3) See sociobiology.  Evolution of emotions and ethics in humans.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  (1) Positive social emotions:  Openness.  Camaraderie.  Belonging.  Connectedness.  Helpfulness.  Caring.  Nurturing.  Protective.  Providing.  Pity.  Sympathy.  (2) Negative social emotions:  Envy.  Jealousy.  Ennui.  Isolation.  Alienation.  Loneliness.  Guardedness.  Hurtful.  Viscous.  Disaffected.  Fear.  Anger.  Hypercompetitive.  Spiteful.  Vituperative.  Bitchy.  Catty.  Needy.  Too distant.	12/30/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  A person x seems to care about what other humans feel about person x.  In fact, if person x does not care at all about what other persons feel about the behavior of person x then many people would call person x a sociopath.  On the other hand, humans often behave based on principle, regardless of what other persons may think, and that can be a good thing.  So the entire realm of social emotions, that is, the interplay of emotions a person x feels toward other people and the emotions other people feel toward person x, is a nebulous, shifting realm.	8/30/2005

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  Most people want to be accepted, respected, liked, loved, stroked, complimented.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  Respect is long and hard to develop, and quickly and easily destroyed, with words, or with actions.  (2) Trust: similar situation as above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  Trust vs. mistrust.  Like vs. dislike.  Love vs. hate.  Care vs. disregard.  Respect vs. no respect.  Loneliness vs. sociability.  Envy and jealousy.  To mock.  Social pride and pecking orders.  Cooperative vs. competitive.  Encouraged vs. discouraged.	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Social emotions.  Wariness vs. trust: justified or unjustified, by degree.  Trust who, to do what, in what situation, in face of what temptations?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Subtle, overlooked emotions.  Words often left in the dictionary.  Wariness.  Flustered.  Bereft.  Anticipation.  Serene.  Sang froid.  Haughtiness.  Peevish.  Elan.  Disconcerted.  Perturbed.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Surprise me.  That is the only hope we have.  The unexpected good surprises.	2/24/2002

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Surprise, Judging and Tolerance.     PART ONE.  Surprise.  Surprise for better.  Surprise for worse.  Based on: (A) Initial situation.  (B) Your expectations.  (C) Your estimates of probabilities.  (D) No surprise means a confirmation of our expectations.     PART TWO.  Judging.  We all judge.  We cannot not judge.  Judging is not something that we choose to do.  Some people say not to judge others, but that is impossible.  Other people say, "don't be so quick to judge".     PART THREE.  Tolerance.  There are at least two types of tolerance.  (A) Tolerating someone to lead their own life.  Some people do not do even this, and they protest the rights of others to live their lives.  (B) Tolerating someone to be in your life.  Tolerating people to be your friends.  To not do this is to not associate with a person.     PART FOUR.  All three of the above (Surprise, Judging, and Tolerance) are related.  We form a judgment of a person, then the person can surprise us to any degree, in either direction, positive or negative, and then we decide whether to tolerate the person.     PART FIVE.  More on Toleration.  (A) Things that we don't tolerate in society: murder, etc.  (B) Things that I don't tolerate in my life:  People who abuse or neglect me, whether intentionally or unintentionally.  Or people who display even the possibility of even potentially abusing or neglecting me.     PART SIX.  In general, in my life: My expectations have decreased.  Thus positive surprises have been greater.  But my requirements for friendship have become more defined.  Thus my tolerance has become less.	11/9/1999

Psychology, emotion, specific.	Surprise, stress, coping, relaxation and post-traumatic stress syndrome.  (1) To what degree is the emotion of surprise associated with stress and PTSD?.  Some people get PTSD from everyday life.  Some people are so sensitive that everyday life gives them PTSD.  (2) Surprise as stress.  Even good surprises are stressful.  Bad surprises are stress.  Surprises are stressful.  And what isn't a surprise?  Nothing happens exactly like we expect it to.  (3) People who are easily surprised (freaked out) go nuts more easily (?).  People who are psychologically fragile, and on the edge, are easily freaked out.  (4) Surprise and shock.  Surprises put one into a state of shock.  (5) The point is, if surprise is one of the basic human emotions, which is what it is recognized as, then the associated issues of stress, shock, PSTD and coping skills become much more important.	5/10/1999

Psychology, emotion.	.Introduction or sum up of emotion.  (1) Purpose or function of emotions.  (A) Personal function of emotions.  Emotion as an aid to drives (survive, reproduce, food, water, warmth).  Emotion as an aid to memory.  Emotion as an aid to thinking.  (B) Social nature of emotions.  Emotions as an aid to communication with other people.  Do other social animals have emotions?  Do social animals have emotions more so than solitary animals?  (2) How do emotions work?  (3) How did emotions developed in humans?  Did emotions develop in humans before, coincident or after drive, memory and thought?  Are emotions a vestige of the animal world?  Are emotions a hindrance to thinking?  Are emotions an aid to thinking?  Did emotions evolve as thinking evolved.	5/17/2002

Psychology, emotion.	.Introduction or sum up.  (1) Emotion as personally useful information vs. emotion for social communication.  (2) Expressing emotion to other people vs. observing emotions of other people.  (3) Specific emotions for specific situations vs. generalized emotions (moods).	6/23/2002

Psychology, emotion.	.This section is about various other thoughts on emotion in general.  Topics include: ( ) Apathy.  ( ) Causes of emotions.  ( ) Control of emotions.  ( ) Development of emotions (in individual, society or humans).  ( ) Effects of emotions.  ( ) Emotional knowledge.  ( ) Emotional overload.  ( ) Empathy.  ( ) Ideal emotional response.  ( ) Mood.  ( ) Language of Nature Emotions (LNE).  ( ) Problems with emotions.  ( ) Techniques for emotions.  ( ) Thought and emotion.  Memory, sense, personality and emotion.  ( ) Time and emotions.  ( ) Types of emotions.  ( ) What is emotion.  ( ) Who says we feel?	1/24/2006

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Emotion as a bio-chemical phenomenon (neurotransmitters and hormones).  The "one chemical per emotion" theory vs. the "combination of chemicals per emotion" theory.  (2) Emotion as a bio-electrical phenomenon.  (3) Emotion as energy theory.  Low energy levels can cause depression.  High energy levels can cause a high.  Hyperactivity as happiness.  Emotion and its link to sugar and ATP.  (4) Emotion as a physical, body-oriented phenomenon.	5/17/2002

Psychology, emotion.	(1) How do you make someone feel?  How do you cause an emotional reaction in people?  (2) How do you make someone feel with words?  How do you cause an emotional reaction by using only words?	7/31/1999

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Its a mistake to let things bother you too much.  Its a mistake to get overwhelmed and burnt out.  (2) At the other extreme, its a mistake to not let things bother you at all.  Its a mistake to ignore and avoid the problems of the world.  To be unmoved.  To not care.  To care only about oneself and one's family.  To limit oneself.  (3) Being bothered by things means to risk feeling pain, anger, fear and depression.  (4) You can confront things and work to improve the situation without being unduly bothered by things.  Maintain focus, energy and hope, even in seemingly hopeless situations.	7/30/2005

Psychology, emotion.	(1) List each emotion.  (2) For each emotion:  (A) What are the associated physical sensations?  (B) At what point does the emotion become a problem, or a sign of a problem?  (C) Techniques to deal with the emotion.  (3) When I say to list each emotion, that is inexact.  Because we never feel the same emotion exactly the same way twice.  Every emotion is unique.  (4) Emotional mix.  We hardly ever feel emotions one at a time.  Usually emotions come in groups.  (5) How do I feel now?  Calm, happy, motivated.	8/21/1998

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Positive emotions and their physical feelings.  Feel warm and fuzzy.  Muscles feel warm and relaxed.  Can sleep.  (2) Negative emotions and their physical feelings.  Feel cold.  Feel tense.  Can't sleep.	4/29/2003

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Some people will be happy even if things are going wrong in their life, and even if they are doing the wrong thing, because they are happy people, due to either positive thinking or brain biochemistry or a combination of factors.  (2) Some people will be unhappy (depressed, anxious, angry) even if things are going well in their life, and even if they are doing the right thing, because they are unhappy people, due to either negative thinking or brain biochemistry or a combination of factors.	4/30/2004

Psychology, emotion.	(1) There will always be something to be sad about, or be angry about, or be fearful about, or be discontent about.  Whether it be in the past, the present, or in the future.  Whether it be about evil that we ourselves did, or whether it be about evil done to us by others.  (2) And the opposite is also true.  There will always be something to be happy about.  There will always be something to be satisfied about.  (3) Thus it is your choice whether to be happy or upset.  Content or dissatisfied.  What do you want to focus on?  The greater quantity?	4/25/1999

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Things that felt great in my life.  The best I ever felt.  Pursuing and getting a great job, girl, ideas, books.  (2) Things that felt crappy.  The worst I ever felt.	07/22/1993

Psychology, emotion.	(1) To be unemotional is to be repressed.  It is easy to get into that mind-set.  (2) When you experience an emotion it brings up all past memories of situations where you had a similar emotion.  So emotional workouts (ex. art) are also memory workouts.	08/17/1997

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Unemotional people.  People who don't feel much.  People who don't show what they feel.  (2) Emotionally balanced people.  (3) Overly emotional people: hysterics.  People who feel too much.  People who express too much.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	(1) We have emotions 24 x 7.  Thoughts, however, come and go occasionally.  (2) Some emotions have names but most emotions do not have names.  We refer to unnamed emotions by saying "You know, the way you feel when...such and such event occurs".  (3) Most of the time we do not feel single emotions one at a time.  Rather, we feel complex combinations of various unnamed emotions.  (4) Emotions are not static and discrete things.  Emotions are dynamic and analog.  Emotions surge and vary.	4/19/2000

Psychology, emotion.	(1) Why are women more emotional than men?  Testosterone?  (2) Why are children and old people more emotional than adults?  (3) Why do we become emotional when tired?  Because when we think better, we rely less on emotions, and when we are too tired to think, we must rely on emotions and thus get more emotional.  (4) How do emotions help us?  They help us relate better to others (sympathy and empathy).  They help us make moral decisions.	09/15/1994

Psychology, emotion.	(1) You can feel happy, content and still be inspired to do more.  (2) You can also feel calm yet excited.  (3) These are the healthiest and most productive mental states.  (4) Better than feeling that you have to be unhappy and discontent in order to be motivated.  (5) Better than feeling tense and yet still lethargic and immobilized.	3/28/2000

Psychology, emotion.	(1) You can not react against everything.  What to put up with?  What should you and should you not put up with?  When to take action?  When to let it slide?  (2) What can you feel (notice, discern) (sensitivity) vs. what you do not notice or feel?  Are you too sensitive, or not sensitive enough?  (3) What bothers you, on principle, and how much?  Vs. what does not bother you at all?  Vs. what breaks you down, or reduces your performance?  How fragile are you?	07/03/1994

Psychology, emotion.	After his suicide, do I have the right to allow myself to feel happy ever again?  Do I have the right to feel guilt-free ever again?	04/24/1997

Psychology, emotion.	An experience: change in your emotion response to it over any time period.  Feeling better or worse about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Apathy.  Is apathy an emotion or a lack of emotion?	4/28/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Apathy.  Lets talk about apathy.  Apathy can be defined as a lack of emotion.  Apathy can be defined as a lack of empathy.  Apathy can be defined as not caring, which makes caring an important emotion because apathy is deadly.  To say "I care about what is going on" means to not ignore, not repress, not feel hopeless, and not feel indifferent.	9/4/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Are more things going right than wrong in the world?  (1) On a natural biological level.  (2) On a social level.  (3) On any individual level in my life.  (4) So should I feel pain or pleasure overall?	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Attitude = emotion + thought.  Negative emotional states lead to negative attitudes.  Positive emotional states lead to positive attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Better to categorize emotions broadly into "positive" and "negative" emotions.  (2) Sometime negative emotions are helpful.  When working correctly, the emotion of fear can help keep an organism alive.  (3) Sometimes positive emotions are unhelpful.  For example, sometimes the feeling of bliss can prevent a person from recognizing problem areas in need of improvement.	2/10/2007

Psychology, emotion.	Bother.  Some people say, "I'm not going to let anything bother me."  What an odd thing to say.  To say that you will not let anything bother you at all is an exercise in denial and repression.  To say that you will not let anything bother you at all is as bad an extreme as saying you will let everything bother you a great amount.  There ought to be a balance of bother.  Let each thing bother you just as much as it ought to.  Don't be bothered too much by trivial things.  Let important things bother you enough to motivate you to thought and action.	12/21/2006

Psychology, emotion.	Causes of emotion.  (1) Emotions are caused by the physical body.  Emotions are a result of the physical body.  (2) Emotions are caused by thoughts.  Emotions are the result of thoughts.  (3) It is more accurate to say that the mind and body affect each other.  The mind and body are inextricably linked in an two-way connection.  (4) It is also more accurate to say thought and emotion affect each other.  Thought and emotion are inextricably linked in a two way connection.	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Causes of emotions.  (1) A thought: new vs. memory.  (2) An experience: done by you, done to you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Causes of emotions.  (1) Drives.  (2) Physical states: Low energy.  Low t, low food, low sleep, tired from work (mental, physical).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Causes of emotions.  (1) Mental causes: thought, memory.  (2) Experiential causes: Setbacks, opposition, failures, bad luck vs. wins, good luck, etc.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Causes of emotions.  (1) One view is that events cause emotions.  (2) Another view is that our thoughts about events cause emotions; that is to say, our thoughts cause our emotions.  (3) There is an interplay between thought and emotion.  There is a back and forth between thought and emotion.  Thoughts cause emotions.  Emotions color thoughts.  (4) Another view says that thought and emotion are inseparable.  There is no thought.  There is no emotion.  There is only thought-emotion.	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Confidence = bravery.  Hope = optimism.  Can I condense four categories into two?	2/28/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Conscious emotions and thoughts are better than unconscious, because at least they can be dealt with.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Controlled vs. uncontrolled emotion.  Or better yet, call it managed vs. unmanaged emotion.  There are two types of uncontrolled emotion, physically uncontrolled emotion and psychologically uncontrolled emotion.  For example, let's say a person gets angry and then physically loses control of their anger and tries to put their fist through a brick wall.  That physically uncontrolled anger was a result of psychologically unmanaged anger.  And so it is with all emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety, etc.)  There are two levels of loss of emotional management, the psychological level and the physical level.	11/13/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Emotion feeling and emotional expression.  Controlled vs. uncontrolled.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Emotional control: should we, how much, how?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Emotions do not have to be passive, uncontrolled responses to thoughts.  Emotions can be more active, more willful.  A person can decide which emotions they will and will not take.  Completely uncontrolled emotions are as bad a completely controlled emotions.	9/12/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Feeling out of control, overwhelmed vs. in control of self and of situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  Limits.  There is a limit to how bad (sad, angry, guilty, regretful, grief and self-pity) I will let myself feel.  Limits for intensity and duration of these emotions.  The limits one could set include: (1) Having ANY effect on job and personal relationships (this is perhaps too repressed).  (2) Making one lose job or personal relationships.  (3) Making one kill self.  (4) The limits I set are to the point where you lose job and personal relationships (see 2), and to the point where you kill yourself (see 3).  For example, I limit how much I will let a song make me feel sad.	5/12/1999

Psychology, emotion.	Control of emotions.  We should have some degree of self control over our emotions so that we do not run amok and injure others or ourselves.  But we shouldn't have 100% degree of self control over our emotions, nor can we.  There is something about the nature of emotions that is beyond our complete control.	11/13/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Desire and anger are better than frustration, anxiety, and fear.  No wimps.  No fear.	07/01/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Desire.  (1) Desire for sex: lust.  (2) Desire for money and stuff: greed and avaricious.  (3) Desire for love: good?  (4) Desire for knowledge: good?  (5) We have words for unhealthy desires, but not for healthy desires.	9/26/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotion in humans.  Evolution of emotion.  Two alternate viewpoints.  (1) Emotions developed prior to thought.  vs.  (2) Emotions evolved side by side with thought.  (3) If emotions evolved prior to thought then we would expect to see an animal with fully developed emotional capability and with no thought capability.  Do any such animals exist?  No.  Animals have a mix of emotional capability and thought capability.  Thus, emotions developed side by side with thought.	5/28/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions (subtlety and distinctions), and development of emotional knowledge (awareness).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in animals.  (1) Which animals feel which emotions?  At what point on the evolutionary ladder, in what species, do the various emotions appear?  (2) How can you tell if an animal is feeling an emotion?  By its behavior.  Or perhaps a universal facial expression in animals as well as humans.  By CAT scan of the brain.  By changes in biochemistry, emotions being the result of chemical changes.  (3) Animals have brains.  Animals feel emotions.    Animals think thoughts.  Animals have rights.	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  (1) Development of emotions in the human species and other animals.  (2) Development of emotions in human individuals.	12/30/2003

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  (1) Did the strongest emotions develop first in humans?  What is a strong emotion?  Is it a strongly felt emotion?  Is it a singular, simple emotion?  (2) Did subtle emotions develop later in humans?  What is a subtle emotion?  Is it a barely perceptible emotion?  Is it a nuanced mix of many emotions?	6/23/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  Humans feel emotional pain about situations that limit or hinder our potential to survive and reproduce.  Humans feel emotional pleasure about situations that increase our potential to survive and reproduce.  How well does the human emotion system work?  How often does the emotion system lead to excess and addiction?	6/23/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  When is emotional maturity reached?   Emotional wisdom cannot be separated from thought wisdom.  Once you learn which emotion is warranted, the next step is to actually feel the emotion when warranted.     PART TWO.  Emotional strength defined as: (1) Ability to produce a positive emotional state in self.  (2) Not caving into emotions.  Emotional control.  Not being overwhelmed by emotions.  Emotional weakness defined as the opposite.	6/23/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  Which emotions are we born with?  How does emotional development occur?  What is the height of emotional development in humans?  Artists?	5/17/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions in humans.  Which experiences merit which emotional responses?  Which thoughts of experiences merit which emotional reactions?	6/23/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  (1) Children are pure emotion and drive.  If an adult were purely emotional they would be like a child.  If your thinking gets knocked out you are left with only emotion and drive.  You are left like a child.  This is a neurotic.  (2) If your emotion and drive were knocked out and you were left with only thought that would be neurotic too.	3/25/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  (1) Emotional development in humans.  Drives and instincts are baser than emotions, which are baser than thoughts.  Reptiles have instincts.  Dogs have emotions.  Humans have thoughts.  (2) Emotional development in individuals.  Children cry easily and throw tantrums.  Adults have better control of their emotions?	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  Change and development of emotional responses through life (evolution, stagnation, devolution).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  Emotional maturity is based on knowledge and thought.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  Learning emotions.  In one sense, emotions are supposed to be innate, as evidenced by how babies seem to be born with a basic set of emotion (ex. happy and unhappy).  In another sense, when we interact socially, we often ask our friends for an emotional reality check when we ask them, "Did I have a right to feel this way?  Was I justified in feeling this way?  Was it wrong for me to feel this way, when so and so person did such and such action toward me?"  Thus, apparently we learn to fine tune our coarse, innate emotional ability.  And apparently we decide, as individuals and as a society, that we should or should not feel one way or another.  And yet that is not always the way we do feel.	11/20/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  PART ONE. How did emotions develop?  Animals have emotions.  Primitive nervous systems evolved early in the animal kingdom.  First the nervous system senses the environment.  Then the nervous system develops the ability to determine if the environment is painful or pleasurable, helpful or harmful, good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.  The ability of primitive nervous systems to make judgments about the environment is probably the basis of  the development of emotions.     PART TWO.  Why did emotions develop?  Emotions are in-between instinct and thought.  Emotions are quicker than thinking but slower than pure instinct.     PART THREE.  In what order did the emotions develop?  First, a simple "pain - pleasure" duality.  Likes and dislikes.  At some point a "fight or flight" mechanism developed, and with it the associated emotions of anger and fear.     PART FOUR.  How are the emotions of pleasure and pain related to physical pleasure and pain?	5/15/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Development of emotions.  The development of the ability to recognize emotions in other people's faces, voices and words depends on your personal emotional knowledge.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Development of likes and dislikes, enjoy and don't enjoy, and tastes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Development of pleasures and pains through life.  Child: enjoy candy.  Adult: enjoy sex.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Development.  Learning of emotions.  You learn fear.  We learn to fear specific things, and we learn the fear of things in general (anxiety).  Babies have no fear.  Wild animals that have never seen man have no fear of man.  We learn fear.  And we learn, or develop, all emotions.	7/31/1999

Psychology, emotion.	Does emotional feeling precede and cause physical feelings?  Or, on the other hand, do the physical symptoms precede and cause the emotional feelings?  Or do the emotional feelings and the physical feelings coincide and reinforce each other, perhaps caused by something prior?  Yes.  Can a person have emotional feelings without physical feelings?  Yes.  Can a person have physical feelings without having emotional feelings?  Yes.	1/7/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of  (1) Pain: can make or break you.  (2) Pleasure: can inspire or spoil you.  (3) How do they affect character development?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotion.  (1) On mind: on thinking, on memory.  (2) On body: can cause physical pain or pleasure.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotions.  (1) People in general, personality types, specific individuals, me.  (2) Emotions in general, specific emotions.  (3) Effects on other mental areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotions.  Behaviors influenced: healthy and unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotions.  Justified, legitimate, founded, called for vs. unjustified, illegitimate, unfounded, uncalled for.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotions.  Positive and negative effects of emotions on thought and behavior.  For example, on sleep or appetite.	6/10/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Effects of emotions.  Responses in emotion, in thought, and in action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotion and thought and experience and biochemistry.  One relationship between them all is that any experience or thought can change your brain biochemistry in a positive or negative way, and thus change further emotions and thoughts in a positive or negative way.	10/25/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Emotion for thing in general (see attitude), and for a specific thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional communication through words (spoken and written), through non-verbal facial expression and bodily gesture.  Saying how you feel vs. showing how you feel.	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional detachment.  (1) Emotional detachment from someone or from something is like physical isolation : "i don't care", "stay away".  (2) How much detachment is necessary to do x healthy?  (3) Detachment is a way to stay sane, to stay an individual, and to maintain soul.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional expression (outer): if, when, how, why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional feelings and physical feelings.  How is the feeling of being unsure, doubtful or skeptical related to the physical feeling of being unsteady and teetering?	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional health involves not only the type and degree of emotions, but also the thoughts that produce the emotions.  One cannot separate emotional health from thinking health.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional knowledge is composed of the following:  (1)(A) Firsthand knowledge of emotions.  Experiential knowledge of emotions.  Knowing which bodily sensations to associate with which emotions.  Emotions cause bodily sensations.  Often one can tell what emotion they are feeling by how their body feels.  But this correspondence needs to be learned over time through experience.  (B) Book learning.  Knowing the mechanisms of emotion.  Functional knowledge of emotions.  Knowing how emotions work.  Knowledge of the human biochemistry of emotion.  (2)(A) Knowing all the types of specific emotions.  Knowledge of the diversity of emotions.  (B) General knowledge of emotions.  Knowing why emotions are important.  Knowing when emotions can help and hinder.	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional knowledge: Experience with an emotion.  Knowledge about an emotion.  Knowing what causes an emotion, and knowing how to deal with an emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional lives of animals.  Which classes of animals have which emotional capabilities?  What is the evidence?	5/28/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional overload: extreme anger, extreme depression or extreme anxiety, for extended periods of time, in the unconscious or conscious mind, can burn out a person.	6/10/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional overload.  A combination of negative emotions that incapacitates an individual.  Emotional overload can appear as a "nervous breakdown".	5/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional relativity: (1) Feel different emotions when one individual repeats same situation.  (2) Two individuals feel different emotions in same situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional relativity.  An event or thought causes one emotion in one person and another emotion in another person.  Who is right?	3/25/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional relativity.  Given the same stimulus.  (1) Same person feels different when things twice experiencing it.  (2) Different people feel different emotions for same thing.  (3) Which is healthier and truer?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional sensitivity and insensitivity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional stability (strength, control), and instability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional strength and weakness.  Feeling strong (not tough) means feeling driven (not lazy), directed and focused (not distracted), clear (not confused), hopeful (not pessimistic), confident (not anxiety ridden), energetic (not weak).	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional strength and weakness.  To be angry is to be strong.  To be sad is to be weak.  To be active (physically and mentally) is to be strong.  To be inactive (physically and mentally) is to be weak.	12/01/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional strength and weakness.  To be strong is to let yourself feel.  Many people mistakenly think that strength means feeling no emotion.  Feeling no emotion is a weakness.	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional strength and weakness.  Toughness or callousness.  Things don't affect you emotionally so strongly.  Good and bad points.  How to develop it and get rid of it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional strength vs. emotional weakness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional uniqueness.  Every person is unique.  Every situation is unique.  Every feeling is unique.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional variability.  Emotional variation for same subject from person to person.  Emotional variations for same subject in same person.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional variability.  Relativity of emotions.  Coming down off of highs causes pain.  Small pleasures in terrible states cause great joy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotional variability.  Variation of emotion.  In a steady state we can fluctuate between pleasure and pain moods.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions are about chemicals.	4/21/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions are fallible.  Emotions are not infallible guides to how to live.  The emotion a person feels in a situation may not be appropriate nor optimal.	2/10/2007

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions are not as important as dealing justly with situation (ex. paybacks a bitch).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions are sometimes not the best guide to estimating the importance of an event in your life.  Example, (1) You get in an everyday fight and feel much emotion, vs. (2) You stumble across a book or idea that will slowly change the way you look at the world, and barely think twice about it initially, let alone have any emotional reaction.  The second ends up being more powerful than the first.  Even if you remember and think about the first one more.	09/01/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions as information.  (1) When properly functioning, a negative emotion is a warning signal (ex. red flag) and a positive emotion is a signal to proceed (ex. green light).  (2) An emotion is a quick guess about a situation.  (3) These views presuppose that emotions have an important useful purpose in both animals and humans.  (5) These views presuppose that emotions are somewhere between instinct and thought.	12/23/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions can snowball or spiral.  Positive emotions can have positive spirals.  Negative emotions can have negative spirals.  Manic depression is perhaps due to uncontrolled emotional spirals.	12/10/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Emotions function primarily as a means of social communication.	7/31/1999

Psychology, emotion.	Empathy.  (1) Total empathy requires a strong imagination.  (2) Total empathy means becoming the other completely.   (3) Total empathy means you disappear.	4/4/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Energy levels and emotion.  To what extent does energy level effect emotion?  (1) Low energy levels.  Emotions: calm or else depressed and apathetic.  Thinking: little thinking occurs.  (2) High energy levels.  Emotions: excited, happy and manic, or else anxious and tense.  Thinking: distracted, hyperactive, much thinking.	9/7/1999

Psychology, emotion.	Energy levels are based on food and sleep.  Low energy, hungry and tired, produces one set of emotions.  High energy, nourished and rested, produces another set of emotions.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Ethics and emotion (see ethics).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Ethics.  Sometimes doing something good, vs. doing nothing, vs. doing something evil, all feel the same.  I realize intellectually that I did good or bad, but there is no extreme emotional happiness or sadness to reinforce it.  And so I do not pursue one and avoid the other, because they both feel the same.	08/17/1997

Psychology, emotion.	Event.  Initial emotion.  Secondary emotion: after any amount of time, or after any amount of thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Excessive anxiety, depression and anger are emotional problems.  The answer is not to have no emotions.  The answer is having greater emotional knowledge, understanding and facility.	6/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Fear and anxiety.  Depression and sadness.  Anger, disgust and contempt.  Acute and severe.  Chronic and mild.  Negative emotions can "fry" the brain and reduce thinking ability and creative ability and writing ability.  Negative emotions can immobilize one and reduce action.	12/15/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Feeling bad about the situation vs. feeling good about my actions in the situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Feeling not to do something.  Is it depression or intuition?  How can you tell?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Feeling overwhelmed and out of control (of self or situation) vs. feeling underwhelmed and in control.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Feelings before and after an action or event.  (1) Feeling bad before, but good after.  This is like working out, or doing your studies.  (2) Feels good before, and bad after.  For example, pathological sex.  (3) Feels bad before, bad after.  For example, something you know from experience that you will hate.  (4) Feels good before, good after.  For example, healthy sex.	04/12/1994

Psychology, emotion.	For all emotions, we can feel that emotion toward a specific thing, or we can feel that emotion as a generalized state or mood.  For example, we can feel a specific sadness toward an event, or we can feel a generalized sadness toward life.  We can feel a specific anger toward an event, or we can feel a generalized anger toward life, or even toward we know not what.  For the painful emotions (i.e., sadness, anger, fear, etc.) it is best not to let them become general feelings toward life.  But for the positive feelings (i.e., happiness, peace, hope, etc.) it is perhaps best to let them become general feelings toward life.	3/29/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Generalized emotions.  Free floating emotions.  Free floating fear.  Free floating anger.  Free floating depression.  Is there such a think as free floating or generalized happiness?  How can we generalize our positive emotions and yet limit our negative emotions to whatever caused them?	5/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Great solemnity (produced by profound thoughts) and a great sense of humor offset each other well.  One without the other is bogus.  Most people have neither.	10/05/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Healthy and unhealthy, pains and pleasures.  In many cases (1) For healthy things (like exercise).  Positive effects are not immediately or obviously.  Painful effects are immediate and obvious.  (2) For unhealthy things (like drugs, sugar etc.).  Pleasures are immediate and obvious.  Negative effects are not immediate or obvious.  (3) Thus these cases are a tough problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Hopes and fears.  We hope, and we fear our hopes will be unrealized.  However, if we try our best in thought, word and action, in all areas, then that puts both our hopes and fears to rest.	2/9/2004

Psychology, emotion.	How are our emotions related to our likes and dislikes?  Our likes and dislikes can be purely thought-based, rational, and without much emotion.  Our likes and dislikes can also be purely sense-based, for example, when we like the taste of one food better than another.  Emotional likes and dislikes usually apply to people we like or dislike.  Sense-based, emotion-based, and thought-based likes and dislikes are how our brain evolved to make "go / no go" or "approach / avoid" decisions to keep us alive and reproducing.	4/6/2001

Psychology, emotion.	How do emotions work?  How should we study our emotions?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	How much can we trust our emotions to guide us?  How can we tell if it is the best emotional response?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	How x emotion are you going to let yourself get over your situation, why, and for how long?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	How you feel vs. how society expects you to feel.	08/02/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Ideal emotional state.  Balance, appropriateness.  (1) Without repressing.  Without emotionally under-reacting.  Cold fish.  (2) Without getting carried away.  Without emotionally over-reacting.  Hot head.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Ideals.  Best emotional state.  Alert, calm, even (not to high or low), stable, fresh, aware of situation, intense, loose.  Worst emotional state: opposite of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	If emotions come from the reptilian part of the brain then emotions precede thoughts in everyday life.	4/21/2000

Psychology, emotion.	If life is half good and half bad, and if life leaves us feeling half happy and half sad, what is the net result?  A blank, dazed expression.  A neutral, far off stare.  If positive and negative cancel each other out then the net result is zero or nothing.	4/6/2001

Psychology, emotion.	If there were only a dozen emotions then we would quickly be bored by music.	4/25/2000

Psychology, emotion.	If your thoughts are in disarray and unorganized.  If your thinking skills are rusty.  If you are repressed.  The mind then defaults to emotion as a guide.  You are then subject to your emotions, and that is not always pleasant.  Your emotions can play havoc, run amok, and go on a rampage.  Thoughts mediate and mitigate emotions.	8/10/2006

Psychology, emotion.	Important emotions that have no names in English, and that need names.  (1) The feeling of wasting time.  I.e., the feeling of wasting life.  (2) The feeling of not doing what you want to be doing.  The feeling of not doing what you need to be doing and what you ought to (should) be doing.  (3) The feeling of being psychologically lost.  The feeling of being without direction in life.  The feeling of being aimless.  The feeling of being psychologically lost can be as painful as the panic, terror, and despair of being geographically lost in the wilderness.  This is why working on developing goals and working toward the goals you develop is so important.  (4) The feeling of losing sight.  The feeling of figuratively "Not being able to see clearly".  Mental fog.	11/13/1999

Psychology, emotion.	In all areas of my life, in general and specific terms, what makes me feel good and bad, best and worst, and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	In my entire life, not just now, (1) What causes negative emotion in me?  (A) Of these, which are "my fault", that is, bad things that I did that I am responsible for.  (B) Which of these things were done by other people or by nature?  Perhaps easier to deal with because its "not my fault" or its "beyond my control" because I could not do anything about it.  (2) What causes positive emotions in me?  (A) Of these, which are due to my efforts, that is, which are "to my credit".  (B) Which are due to other people or due to natural luck, that I can not rightfully take credit for, but that I can still enjoy?	5/23/2001

Psychology, emotion.	In the same situation, you can be happy, energized, and visionary one moment, and depressed, lazy, unmotivated, with no vision, the next minute.  Why?  What can be done?	02/07/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Internet and emotion.  (1) In order to stay healthy, people need more mental stuff than they do physical stuff.  (2) Of the mental stuff, people need more emotional stuff than they do information (i.e. pure knowledge) stuff.  (3) This is why people make such a big deal about "love" (caring, friendship, etc.).  (4) How to deliver emotion over the Internet?  That is a big question.  (5) The opposite, more common, and wrong view is that people need more physical stuff than mental stuff, and of the psychological stuff information is needed more than emotion.  I do not agree with that view anymore.	8/5/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Internet and emotion.  Delivery of emotion on the Internet.  How would you deliver the following emotions online?  (1) Love.  (2) Belonging.  (3) Comfort.  (4) Admiration.  (5) Hope.  ?  Delivering emotion via the Internet will help keep people happy, healthy and productive.	8/5/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Just as important in animals as the "flight or fight" response is the "approach or avoid" response.  For example, an herbivore encounters a plant and has an "approach or avoid" response that is based on whether the plant is edible or inedible, but the herbivore does not have a "flight or fight" response occurring in that situation.  That being said, we can say that, in humans, just as important as the emotions associated with "flight or fight" responses (i.e., fear and anger) are the emotions associated with "approach or avoid" responses.  What are the emotions associated with "approach or avoid" responses?  Our "likes and dislikes" are the emotions associated with "approach or avoid" responses.  "Approach or avoid" responses are just as important as "flight or fight" responses.  Likes and dislikes are just as important fear and anger.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Like and dislike.  Liking and disliking refer to emotions.  We like things that give us pleasure.  We dislike things that cause us pain.	6/8/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Looking back, much of the emotional highs and lows were needless tinsel.  Superfluous emotional expression.	8/10/2006

Psychology, emotion.	Me and emotions.  Most important subjects and most important (best and worst) emotional responses about them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Me.  I feel more, therefore I need more catharsis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mechanism.  How do emotions work (happen)?  Do they all happen the same way, using the same parts of the brain?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Memory and emotion.   (1) We can feel new emotions that we never felt before.  This is emotional creativity.  (2) We can remember feeling old emotions, which often can cause us to feel them again.  There a difference between remembering that you felt an emotion at one time in the past and feeling that emotion again.  (3) We can feel old emotions in new situations, although one could argue whether this is an old emotion or a new emotion.  (4) One view holds that every instance of an emotion is an new emotion.  Every situation, every moment, is different and thus every emotion attached to a situation is different.  (5) We have the ability to remember both thoughts and emotions (or both), although there is no clear dividing line.	2/10/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Memory and emotions.  (1) Memory of emotions.  You can remember the way you felt in the past.  (2) Emotions that raise memories.  Feeling an emotion can remind you of past events.	9/30/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Mood = most dominant and durable emotion in emotion complex.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  (1) Mood and its relation to personality.  (2) Mood as hard-wired and life-long.  (3) Change in mood over lifetime.  (4) Self control of mood.  (5) Strong moods vs. weak moods.  (6) Stable moods vs. variable moods.	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  Are you getting optimal work done?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  Causes and effects of moods on behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  Changing mood.  Self caused: change emotion by changing thought, especially a new thought, especially a better thought (truer, healthier).	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  Frame of mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  It is up to you to get yourself out of bad, unhealthy, unproductive moods.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  Should you, can you, control emotions and moods? Why or why not?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Mood.  What is a mood?  Persistent, dominant emotional state.  An emotional state that is not subject specific?  An emotional state that is not environment or situation specific?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Moodiness = shifting emotions.  Emotional stability vs. emotional instability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Morale.  Morale of the individual or society.  Keep up your morale in the fight.	10/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Most important ideas about emotions.  (1) Negative emotions can have a big negative impact on your life.  Healthly, positive emotional state should be pursued.  (2) Emotional intelligence and knowledge can be developed, thought and learned.  Self emotional knowledge (feelings of self), and emotional knowledge of others (reading another's emotions).	11/30/1997

Psychology, emotion.	Most important ideas.  (1) Emotions can help us think.  (2) Emotions can also interfere with thinking.  They can cripple and kill us.  Especially negative emotions.	10/30/1997

Psychology, emotion.	Most people would say that feeling safe and comfortable are positive emotions.  Yet progress often requires risk and discomfort, and thus, a desire to remain completely safe and comfortable at all costs can actually impede personal and societal development.	2/10/2007

Psychology, emotion.	Nature sights, sounds and smells evoke emotions more so than they evoke thoughts.  People who are drawn to nature are booting up their emotions and sorting out their emotions.  That is, they are learning an emotional language and they are speaking an emotional language.  When you "commune with nature" you are getting in touch with the primal, emotional part of your brain (circa 200,000 years ago).  When you exist in the state of nature you are living low on the brain stem.	12/30/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Nature.  Language of Nature Emotions (LNE).  We have a list of names for social emotions.  However, we have no names for nature emotions.  Thus, we are unable to talk about our nature emotions by name.  Thus, human culture contains relatively little verbalized expressions of our emotional connection to the natural environment.  We have few words for nature emotions.  We have little folk psychology for nature emotions.  We should develop them.  Emotions related to the seasons, time of day, plants, animals, landscape, weather, etc.  Perhaps humans have little language for nature emotions because as social animals we form strong bonds with other humans.  We don't form strong bonds with our environment.  There is an in-between state, we do form bonds with pets.	2/1/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Nature.  The Language of Nature Emotions.  (1) In humans, there is a "language of emotions (LE) that is akin to Fodor's "Language of Thought" (LOT).     (2) Like the language of thought, the language of emotion is an innate ability that we are born with, and that we continue to develop and strengthen throughout life through the process of learning.     (3) Like the language of thought, the language of emotion is not composed of English words, nor is it composed of the words of any spoken language.     (4) The "language of nature emotions" (LNE) is a subset of the language of emotions that has to do with how we experience and understand our natural surroundings and ourselves through the complex emotions that nature produces in us.     (5) The language of nature emotions is very strong in animals other than man.  Animals other than man rely primarily on the language of nature emotions and rely very little on the language of thought.     (6) The "language of social emotions" is another subset of the language of emotions that deals with the emotional language experienced when human animals interact with each other socially.     (7) People who are outdoor enthusiasts are people who have a strong, well developed  language of nature emotions.  These people, who sense that the "whispering pines" and "babbling brooks" have something to say to us, are people with a highly developed language of nature emotions.  People who are emotionally moved by a change in the slanting afternoon light, or who are even emotionally moved by a change in the temperature or humidity, are people with a highly developed language of nature emotions.  People who care about the environment are people who tend to have a highly developed language of nature emotions.     (8) The language of nature emotions is not about nature-lore or factual knowledge of nature.  The language of nature emotions is about the feelings that nature perceptions produce in humans.  Emotion being, as cognitive scientists say, a cognitive ability that speeds animals toward their goals faster than thinking can alone.	11/15/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Neutral emotional state.  There is no such thing as a neutral emotional state.  (1) If you look closely, what feels like an emotionally neutral state is often feeling good.  (2) Sometimes what appears to be an emotionally neutral state is merely the individual being too tired to think or feel.  (3) Other times, what appears to be an emotionally neutral state is merely many low level emotions of various types.  (4) Other times, what appears to be an emotionally neutral state is several opposing strong emotions that are balancing each other out.  (5) Other times, when people report feeling an emotionally neutral state, they are merely repressing thoughts and emotions that then simmer in their subconscious.	11/28/2005

Psychology, emotion.	No feeling anymore.  No pangs.  No urges.  No dreams, hopes, or visions.  No mysticism, wonder, awe, or rapture.  Just calm practical reality.	07/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	One emotion affects another.  They mix like oil paints.  They layer like a layer cake.	8/7/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Pathetic is a mixture of pity and contempt.	8/22/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Physical and emotion.  Emotions have a lot to do with energy levels, metabolism, and body type.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Physical feelings caused by emotions.  List emotion and associated physical feeling.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Physical pleasure and its emotional counterparts.  Emotional pleasure and its physical counterparts.	4/10/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Problem.  (1) Emotion that paralyzes.  (2) Emotion that causes pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problem.  (1) Feel too much vs. feel too little.  (2) Feeling without thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problem.  PART ONE.  Four emotional problems: (1) Hypersensitive to pain (i.e., misery).  (2) Hyposensitive to pain (i.e., callous).  (3) Hypersensitive to pleasure (i.e., addict).  (4) Hyposensitve to pleasure (i.e., dull).     PART TWO.  If you do not feel pain you are less likely to kill yourself.  However, if you do not feel pain you are perhaps more likely to be killed by something else, and more likely to kill someone else.	10/19/2001

Psychology, emotion.	Problems with emotions.  (1) Pressure, tension, stress.  How stressed you feel subjectively.  Is it an emotion?  (2) Worry and anxiety, anger, sadness and grief.  Depression, pessimism, and negative thinking.  All these things can demotivate, distract, break focus and concentration, and stop one from thinking clearly.	11/30/1997

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  (1) Not feeling: unconscious, conscious.  (2) Feeling wrong(?) emotion for a cause.  (3) Excess or not enough of right(?) emotion.  (4) In control vs. out of control.  (5) Taking out emotions on innocent non-cause target.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  (1) Repression of emotions of pain and pleasure.  (2) Emotional overdrive, excess emotion.  (3) Attributing emotion to wrong cause.  (4) Feeling wrong emotion for a stimulus.  (5) Not feeling at all.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  (1) When does emotion become a problem?  Emotion is a problem when emotion becomes debilitating.  Emotion is a problem when emotion interferes with living.  Emotion is a problem when it is unjustified, unrealistic or inappropriate.  (2) When is emotion a small problem and when is emotion a large problem?	12/2/2005

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  Emotion that causes pathological psychology or sub-optimal paralyses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  Emotional problems.  (1) Rage.  Uncontrolled anger.  Misdirected anger.  (2) No empathy.  No caring.  (3) Fear of future.  Regrets about past.  (4) Envy.  Jealousy.	8/5/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  Emotional turmoil, emotional confusion.  Don't know what I'm feeling.  Don't know what's causing it.  Don't know what to do about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  Not feeling right emotion: feeling wrong emotion, or nothing.  Feeling wrong amounts.  Feeling for wrong reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Problems.  Over-emotional.  People who get so emotionally excited about a problem till it incapacitates their thinking and action, or till they have a breakdown or make bad mistake.  What to do?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Related subjects.  Pathological.  (1) Repression of emotions causes emotional confusion, neurosis, and psychosis.  (2) Biochemical emotional disturbances.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Related subjects.  Social norms of what to feel about what.  Norms of emotional expression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Related subjects.  Social.  When society tells you what to feel, it can screw you up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Scientists have not enough emotion in their thinking.  Artists have too much emotion in their thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Security: everything is going to be o.k.  False sense of security.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Sensitive.  (1) Sensitive.  Ability to feel your own emotions.  Ability feel other's emotions.  Ability to heed your own and other's emotions.  (2) Insensitive.  Can't feel emotions yourself.  Can't see how other person feels.  Ability to ignore their own and other's emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Sensitive.  Don't feel the pain so much.  Get strong and tough.  You are too sensitive in the bad sense (weak).	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Solutions and truth makes us happy.  Problems make us pissed off and depressed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Stress is an emotional response, to a perceived threatening or adverse situation, that interferes with thought and memory, and that also causes physical symptoms.  Move all stress notes to emotion.  Stress reactions: shock, depression, frustration.	8/15/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques for how to deal with it.  Realize feeling, acknowledge feeling, and sort out feeling.  Figure out true causes.  Determine best action to get catharsis and justice.  Blowing of steam by solving problem vs. not solving problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  (1) Concentrate on negatives and you are bound to get depressed, and then you are bound to lose control.  The bigger and more important the obstacles, the more depressed you will become.  Learn to deal better with obstacles, frustration, and depression.  So you become less depressed and anxious, and lose control (of behavior and thinking ability) less often when you do become angry, anxious, and depressed.  (2) Angry, anxious, and depressed, all at once.  The triple killer.  Example, you get stressed, panic, and can not study, you fear failure and thus fail.  Do not get discouraged or psyched out, above all.  And do not give up either.	03/20/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Are you in pain?  You can either cure it, temporarily mask it, do nothing, or increase it.  Best to worst techniques against pain: (1) Solve the specific problem.  (2) Brave "fu*k it" attitude.  (3) Think of positive side.  (4) Think of other good things in past, present, future.  (5) Knowledge principles.  (6) Catharsis by other means.  (7) Solve other problems.  (8) Numb self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Best and worst ways to cheer yourself up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Best and worst ways to deal with emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Catharsis for justice and mental health.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Catharsis: total, instant, and directed at cause.  Justice: total.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Complete, instantaneous, accurate acknowledgment, and understanding to get catharsis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Don't force feelings.  Don't feel something about something because someone tells you that you should.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Don't ignore, deny or repress your emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Emotional catharsis in thought and in action.  Relationship of two.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Emotional techniques.  (1) Should we face our emotions?  Techniques for determining how we feel.  (2) Should we change our emotions?  Techniques for changing our emotions.  (A) Saying "I am happy" over and over.  (B) Smiling constantly to stay happy.  (3) Arguments against changing emotions.  If you are repressing, or not confronting why you feel that way.  (4) Arguments for changing emotions.  If you have confronted your emotion and (A) You feel pain when you should objectively be feeling pleasure.  (B) You feel pleasure when objectively you should feel pain?  Still a big question here.	10/15/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Examine your emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Figuring things out best helps you deal with emotions best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Future hopes, wishes, dreams, goals, desires.  Short term vs. long term.  Best hopes vs. worst fears.  Accurate vs. inaccurate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Healthy and unhealthy emotional responses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  How to make yourself feel really good, in order to perform your best, even when things are going wrong?  Face it, things are always going wrong, everywhere and always, and always will.  In order to perform your best to counteract these bad things and problems, you have to feel good.  Also, no matter how bad things get, there is always hope of luck, or hope that you can think and act and change it, or hope that it is not as bad as it seems.  So think of all the good things you have ever done, experienced, or heard of or read about.  Make a list of them.  Think of all the good things happening and that will happen in the world, especially if we cheer up and work hard.  This is so corny, but it works.  Calm down and relax and start feeling good.	04/01/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  It is good to feel calm, happy, and content.  It is a mellow, relaxed feeling.  Yet we have to deviate from this in order to make progress and move forward.  The question is to what degree and to which negative emotions we deviate.  Because the problem is that we also deviate from calm, happy, and content whenever we slip backwards into pathological states like depression, loneliness, frustration, etc.  How can we tell progress forward from decaying backwards?  Must effort and progress always be painful?  Can we move forward without negative states?  "Don't worry, be happy" has its strong points, but it also keeps us down.  How to create the calm, happy, content feeling?  (1) Just be glad to be alive.  (2) Take pleasure in simple things.  How to create the moving forward feeling?  (1) I have a lot of work to do.  (2) I have a lot of potential to realize.  How to get rid of the backward feelings?  (1) Realize what the feeling is.  (2) Realize it is bad.  (3) Realize why it is bad.  (4) Realize the need to get out of it.  (5) Realize how to get out of it.	12/30/1995

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Lies I tell myself to keep hopeful and happy.  And to avoid depression, anxiety, worry, and fear.  "Everything is and will be okay, with me and the world".	09/01/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Negative emotions.  You perceive a problem.  If you don't deal with the problem, and deal well with it, and deal totally with it, till you are satisfied, you are repressing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Often it is necessary to relax to think clearly.  Often it is necessary to feel to think clearly.  Feel first, sort it out, then relax and sort it out, then get amped up for solution and do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Repression is a problem (see pathological psychology).  Catharsis is a technology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Solutions: let yourself feel, don't deny your feelings.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  The foundations of feeling good.  (1) Good high protein diet with vegies and no garbage.  Exercise.  High t.  Sleep.  (2) Good job.  (3) Girlfriend.	05/06/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  The key is to find the thoughts that will change your brain chemistry (and thus mood, thought and attitude) in a positive way.  Thus you gain control of your mind and optimize your behavior and life.	10/25/1994

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Two step approach: (1) Get and keep pleasure.  (2) Avoid and get rid of pain.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  Understand what you are feeling, why feeling, and what to do about it.  Acknowledge and sort it out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Techniques.  You shouldn't force yourself to be happy.  You should convince yourself to be happy, based on valid reasons.	6/10/2004

Psychology, emotion.	The altruist feels emotional pain in the problems of the world and feels emotional pleasure in the successes of the world, even if it does not affect him either directly or indirectly.  It is difficult to feel so because humans are hard-wired to react to their local environment and not the global situation.  Yet this is undeniably the more advanced attitude.  How to develop this attitude?     PART TWO.  We are hard-wired on a low level to be egoists.  We are hard-wired on a higher level to be local altruists.  We have yet to become hard-wired to be altruists on a global level.	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	The degree of an emotion, positive or negative, is more important than the type of emotion.	10/22/1999

Psychology, emotion.	The difference between being not happy (not content) with a negative situation vs. not letting a negative situation make you severely unhappy or crazy.	11/15/2000

Psychology, emotion.	The emotional double whammy.  (1) When you do something good for yourself (ex. workout), you get the physical improvement itself which makes you feel good, plus the psychological boost of knowing you did good for yourself which makes you feel good too.  (2) When you do bad to yourself (ex. Over-eating) you feel physically bad from the action itself, and you feel psychologically bad from knowing you did bad to yourself.  (3) So the difference from doing good and bad to yourself is actually much larger (double) than what you would imagine.	06/10/1994

Psychology, emotion.	The most important emotion (or attitude) is determination to get justice.	3/25/1999

Psychology, emotion.	The number of emotions are infinite, even though we group them into a dozen basic categories.  Emotions vary by specific individual and specific situation.	3/30/2000

Psychology, emotion.	There are many negative emotions, like fear, anxiety and sadness.  But there is only one positive emotion, happiness.	11/5/1999

Psychology, emotion.	There should always be a correlation between your situation and your emotions.  However, it is not always the healthiest response that there be an exact correlation between your emotions and the situation.  Sometimes it is healthier if a person's emotional response does not correspond exactly to the situation, particularly if it is an extremely bad situation.  If you recognize the metaphysical and ethical aspects of your situation, and if you recognize that you feel a certain way about the situation, then you are free to feel otherwise.  Take, for example, the various reactions of people to concentration camps in Germany during World War II.  The concentration camps in Germany during World War II were a enormous injustice because the concentration camps were places where genocide took place.  However, there were many types of reactions to the concentration camps by the concentration camp inhabitants.  (1) Some people in the concentration camp recognized the concentration camp for what it was, a place for killing people, and these people also recognized the injustice of what it was, a horrible injustice.  In the concentration camps, some of the people who recognized the metaphysical and ethical implications of the situation were overwhelmed by despair, while others who also recognized the metaphysical and ethical implications of the situation were not overwhelmed by despair and retained a certain degree of mental resolve, balance, calm, or equanimity.  (2) Other people in the concentration camp were not able to recognize the concentration camp for what it was, a place for killing people.  These people made excuses to avoid seeing the metaphysical situation for what it was.  Perhaps these people told themselves that it was merely a temporary holding facility.  Perhaps these people believed the lies they were told by their captors.  Perhaps these people clung to a belief in the essential goodness of all humans.  (3) Still other people in the concentration camp were able to recognize that the concentration camp was a place for killing people, but were not able to recognize the horrible injustice of the situation.  These people made excuses to avoid recognizing the injustice of the concentration camp.  Perhaps these people said that they must have done something to deserve it.  Perhaps these people said that the ongoing war made it less unjust.  (4) There were many reactions, in both thought and emotion, by the people in concentration camps.  Some views of the of the metaphysical nature of the situation were more accurate and other views were less accurate.  Some views of the ethics of the situation were more accurate and other views were less accurate.  It should be observed that both the captors and the captives in the concentration camp were prone to distorted views about the situation.  And even today some people have distorted views of the concentration camps, some people so distorted in their views as to deny the existence of the concentration camps.  (5) In every situation, different people will have different views of the situation, some views being more accurate, other views being less accurate.  And in every situation, people have varying emotional responses to those views.  If a person has an accurate view of the metaphysics and ethics of a situation, then the person should not let themselves be permanently incapacitated by their own emotional response to the situation.  A person can, and should, develop the ability to control their own emotional responses.  On the one hand, a person should not be completely without feeling, and on the other hand a person should not be completely subject to their own emotions.	7/1/2006

Psychology, emotion.	Those who feel they have to prove themselves, to self or to others.  It can be a good thing or a bad thing.  (1) To self: self expectations.  (2) Socially: keeping up to Jones's.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and action is the only way to deal with emotions?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  (1) Thoughts being affected by emotions.  Emotions can change the way you think.  (2) Emotions being affected by thoughts.  Thoughts can change the way you feel.  (ex. Rational Emotive Therapy).	9/30/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  Emotion as aid to reason vs. hindrance to reason.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  Emotion without thought is as bad as thought without emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  IQ and emotion.  Dumb and happy, ignorance is bliss.  Are dumb people happier than smart people?  Are smarter people more unhappy because they realize how unjust the world is?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  Knowledge helps you deal with emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  Only a thought can change an emotion?	3/24/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  There is a difference between "feeling that way" and "thinking that way".  Merely "thinking that way" can lead you to do something because you think it is right even if you don't feel that way.  Merely "feeling that way" can lead you to do something even when you don't why and you don't have a reason.  When you "think and feel that way" your thoughts and emotions are working together.	4/19/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Thought and emotion.  Use your passions to drive your thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Thoughts cause emotions, emotions cause thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Three hypotheses.  (1) Every thought has an associated emotion.  The same thought may elicit different emotions in different circumstances, but the point is that a thought always elicits an emotion.  (2) We are immersed in emotion.  We may engage in thinking to a greater or lesser degree, but we always feel emotion.  Emotion 24 x 7.  There is no escaping emotion.  (3) Emotions shape thoughts.  Thoughts shape emotions.  It is a two way street.	11/13/1999

Psychology, emotion.	Time and emotion. There are various emotions related to time.  There are emotions related to present time, future time and past time.  The emotions related to time are about time itself, not the events that occurred in time.  That is to say, the emotions related to time itself and the emotions related to the events that happen in time are two different things.  In this note I am concerned with the emotions related to time itself.  PART ONE.  Emotions related to past time.  As time passes there is a sense of loss of time.  (A) To some extent we mourn the loss of time.  We grieve for lost time.  The grief for lost time is one emotion related to time.  (B) Also, to some extent, we wish to recapture lost time.  The emotion associated with desiring to recapture lost time is a separate emotion from the mourning for lost time.  (2) Related to, but distinct from the issue of lost time, is the issue of lost youth.  As we age there is a sense of loss of youth, and we want to recapture lost youth.  Recapturing lost youth involves several things, (1) the desire to be young again, (2) the desire to recapture our former selves when we were young, (3) and the desire to recapture the state of affairs of the world that existed when we were young.  (2) (<joke>.  Proust was obsessed with time.  The modern business man is obsessed with time.  What do Proust and the modern business man have in common?  They are both in search of lost time.  </joke>).  (11/6/2004)     PART TWO.  Emotions related to future time include emotions associated with anticipation, expectation, hopes, desires.     PART THREE.  Emotions related to present time.  Emotions related to present time are less obvious than emotions related to past time and future time.     PART FOUR.  Pathologies related to emotions about time.  (1) People can develop problems, small and large, related to the emotions of time.  Emotions related to time-itself are not easily recognized, understood and coped with.  The emotions related to time-itself can well up and overwhelm people.  To use a metaphor, people sometime ignore or repress emotions (and thoughts) related to time-itself until they burst forth in an overwhelming and debilitating episode that resembles psychological equivalent of the Johnstown flood.  The more people are aware of the emotions (and thoughts) of time-itself the more people can cope with the emotions of time-itself.  Coping with emotions takes awareness, understanding and practice.  (2) People can also develop problems related to the emotions about events that occur in time.  Problems related to emotions about events that occur in time are more easily recognized, understood and coped with than are problems related to the emotions of time itself.	12/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Time and emotions.  There should be specific names for emotions felt in regard to time.  There should be specific names for emotions felt in regard to past present and future.  For example, "regret" is a word used for anxiety about the past, and  "apprehension" is a word used for anxiety about the future.  But we feel all emotions in regard to past, present and future, and perhaps we should have distinct words to describe each emotion in regard to past, present and future.  For example, words to describe happiness in the present, happiness of past memories, and happiness of looking forward to things.  An emotional vocabulary that accounts for time would increase humans ability to understand their emotions and communicate their emotions to others, with the result being healthier, happier humans.	5/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	To say, "The situation warrants me feeling good, so I feel justified in feeling good.", is to use the concepts of warrant and justification in the realm of emotions.	11/16/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Total emotion complex at any moment = sum of experiences, thoughts, and biochemical states.  What will the final emotion be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Total.  Emotional complex: sum of all emotions, on any and all causes and effects (good and bad) of emotions.  Unconscious and conscious emotions.  Momentary or for any time period.  Justified, legit, founded emotions and not.  Number of emotions.  Type, duration, frequency, and intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Two emotional conundrums.  (1) When you don't know what emotion you are feeling.  (2) When you know what emotion you are feeling, but you don't know why you are feeling that emotion.  (3) Emotions are often mysterious.  Examples include:  When something is wrong but you don't know what.  When you don't know what is bothering you.  When you don't know why you are happy.  (4) If you are unsure what is bothering you, changing your circumstances can often lead to a change in emotions.	5/5/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Two emotional phenomena.  (1)  When you truly feel an emotion, rather than faking it.  (2) When you are justified in feeling an emotion, rather than feeling it in a situation where the emotion is uncalled for or unjustified.  For example, if the situation is the world then when are we justified in being happy?  Always?  Never?  Only when things go well for us as individuals?  Only when things are going well for everyone?  Or at least the majority?	2/1/2002

Psychology, emotion.	Two families of emotions.  The following emotions tend to gather into two sets, positive and negative.  (1) Positive emotions:  Hope.  Self worth.  Confidence (toward self and world).  Sense of control (toward self and world).  Happiness resulting.  Versus.  (2) Negative emotions:  Hopelessness.  Self worthlessness.  Lack of confidence (toward self and world).  Sense of no control (toward self and world).  Anger, anxiety and depression resulting.	5/15/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Two types of uptight.  (1) Repressed and anal.  Fear of unknown internal threat.  (2) Tense and apprehensive.  Fear of unknown external threat.	9/29/1998

Psychology, emotion.	Two views of the basic emotional state in humans.  (1) Some people argue that the normal state is a neutral, even-tempered state between happiness and unhappiness.  Then they argue that the sub-optimal state is unhappiness.  (2) There is another point of view that says the normal human state is a state of emotional happiness.  Most humans are happy most of the time.  Chronic happiness.  In this view a problem exists whenever a person is not happy, including the state of being neither happy nor sad.	4/8/2004

Psychology, emotion.	Types of emotions.  (1) Feelings you get from drives.  (2) Feelings you get from thoughts.  (3) Feelings you get from actions, behaviors, bodily activities.  (ex. heart rate.  This is like the James-Lange theory of emotions).  (4) Feelings you get from experiences. (Ex. Other people doing things to you).  (5) Feelings you get from environments.  (Ex. Aesthetics.  Color of a room.  Senses and perceptions).  (6) The point is, we don't just get feeling from thoughts.  We get feelings from lots of things.  (7) Also, it is a two way street in regard to emotions and drive, thought, and body.  They affect each other.  Drive affects emotion and emotion affects drive.  Thought affects emotion and emotion effects thought.  The body affects emotion and emotion affects the body.	4/19/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Types of.  Three types of emotions.  (1) Emotions related to fate, luck, happenstance, "god", nature, or objects.  (2) Emotions related to social relations, people, and actions of others.  (3) Emotions related to self and your own actions.  (4) One could argue that it is the same basic set of emotions that humans have, but they vary slightly in each of the above three cases.  However, some say there are distinct social emotions.  But consider the following cases, ancient man saw nature as anthropomorphized and so may have felt social emotions toward nature.  And ancient man may have considered himself as having multiple selves or spirits, and so he may have felt social emotions toward himself (?).  The point is, in ancient man the line between nature, other people and self may have been less distinct than it is today.  So ancient man may have worked with a single set of emotions.  However, the above three categories probably existed in some form, even if less distinct than today, and so emotions related to the above categories also existed.	6/23/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Types.  (1) Emotions: faked vs. real  (2) Emotional dislike vs. intellectual dislike.	06/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	Unconscious emotions.  (1) If it is true that one of the main sources of mental difficulties is the processing of unconscious emotions, then how does one facilitate the processing of unconscious emotions?  By making them conscious?  For that matter, how does one facilitate the processing of conscious emotions?  By talking about them?  (2) Another question, do conscious and unconscious positive emotions require processing in the same way that conscious and unconscious negative emotions do?  Why is it that negative emotions and  negative thought are more apt to cause mental difficulties than positive emotions and positive thoughts?  (3) Unconscious negative emotions are a challenge to deal with.	5/28/2005

Psychology, emotion.	We can differentiate between a positive attitude of hope combined with determination  and a pleasure attitude of happiness.  A positive attitude is more important than a pleasure attitude, because if people have a goal worth fighting for then they will put up with misery.  Happiness and pleasure pursued for its own sake borders on hedonism.  Hedonists tend to be egoists.  Altruists tend not to be hedonists.	10/19/2001

Psychology, emotion.	We rarely feel only one emotion at a time.  We are immersed in a pool of emotion.  We are immersed in a pool of thoughts.  A stew.  A brew.  A psychological goulash.  Awash.  Adrift.  Sailing the psychological ocean.	11/29/2005

Psychology, emotion.	What are emotions?  Emotions arise naturally.  Emotions are undeniable.  Emotions are important.  Emotions can help or hinder mind and behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	What are you satisfied and dissatisfied with in your life, and in the world, in all subject areas, and why?  How much and how often does it bug you?  Is it real or just your imagination?  If real, are you justified in being bugged as much as you are?	04/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	What is an emotion other than a physical feeling and colored thoughts?  Beyond your body feeling well and a series of thoughts like, "I am happy.", what is happiness or any other emotion?	1/7/2004

Psychology, emotion.	What is emotion?  Defining emotion in terms of information and thinking.  Defining emotion as subconsciously generated information about a situation.	10/9/2005

Psychology, emotion.	What is the ideal emotional state?  Pollyanna?  Depressive realism?  What is the ideal emotional response (mood) to your life and to life in general?  Is there an ideal emotional state for each situation?	6/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	What is the name for the emotion that is the opposite of regret?	1/4/2002

Psychology, emotion.	What was the simple, original, emotional system in the earliest animals?  Pain and pleasure.  Good and bad.  Healthy and unhealthy.  Approach and avoid.	12/4/2005

Psychology, emotion.	When good or bad things happen vs. the pleasure or pain I get out of them (kick).  I tend not to recognize or enjoy the good things.  I tend to blow the bad things out of proportion.  The big issue is: nobody deserves pain!!!  All creatures deserve pleasure and perfection.  It is an imperfect world.	04/30/1993

Psychology, emotion.	When things go badly.  When setbacks occur.  When our wants are denied.  When we subconsciously perceive a reduction in our survival potential.  It can be emotionally uncomfortable.	8/13/2006

Psychology, emotion.	When you feel surrounded, infiltrated and besieged (whether you actually are or not), mellow out.	12/25/2003

Psychology, emotion.	Who says we feel?  Most of us spend our lives like a brick wall.  Or else we are consumed by a single strong emotion.  The question is how to start feeling a myriad of subtle, varied emotions.	1/20/2000

Psychology, emotion.	Why are some people happy or unhappy all the time regardless of whether they are in happy or unhappy situations?	12/30/1992

Psychology, emotion.	Why feel envious of others or regretful of your own life?  Find thoughts to feel calm.  There are a lot of good people in the world.  I am trying my best.  Things will work out.	4/15/2007

Psychology, emotion.	Wimping out, fagging out.  Causes of.  (1) Especially in the face of stress, fear, risk, and uncertainty.  (2) In order to get physical or psychological comfort, or out of laziness.  (3) Going with the system.  (4) Being rational.  (5) Afraid of rejection, opposition (fight), or pain.	10/15/1994

Psychology, emotion.	You feel great (or the pits) for following your plan, giving it your all, doing your best (or not).  At some point emotions are determined less by the act itself and more by your values and standards.	11/27/1993

Psychology, emotion.	You should be calm, driven, hopeful, and happy 90% of the time in order to get things done.  You should be sad, lazy, angry, and depressed 10% of the time to empathize with the pain of the others.	10/15/1994

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	.See also: Philosophy, ethics, effort.	12/31/2000

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	.This section is about ability, effort and accomplishment.  Topics include: ( ) Ability.  ( ) Effort.  ( ) Accomplishment.	1/24/2006

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability and limitations.  One should not become depressed when one realizes one's true limitations, or one's accomplishments after total effort.  One should be happy one tried one's best.	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability is variable. (1) Ability can degrade with fatigue.  (2) Ability can improve with motivation.  Ability can improve with practice.	6/14/2004

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability, capacity, capability: are these three words synonyms?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  (1) Ability now.  (2) Capability in future: (A) Given.  (B) Gained through effort.  (C) Luck of circumstances.  (D) Natural development, etc.	06/30/1993

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  (1) Current ability: your potential at this moment.  (2) Future ability: your potential as time progresses and you either seize or lose opportunities to develop.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  (1) Development of capacities (by playing games for example).  (2) Use of capacities (to do something useful).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  (1) What you can do now: current actual ability.  (2) What you could do in future: potential ability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Ability can increase through study, practice, or exercise, and decrease through neglect or abuse.  There is a curve that describes increase in ability with increase in practice.  However the curve levels off at the top.  That is, there are limits to ability.  Better training methods will help you fulfill your potential faster.  Some people think there are no limits to ability.  They believe you can do anything.  This is an ideal to shoot for, but is not reachable.	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Development of mental abilities.  Without effort (passive) vs. with effort (active).  Development without effort is not automatic.  We have the ability to develop our entire lives.  How much greater is active development than passive development?	3/29/2000

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  How did I once feel about blue collar workers?  (1) Shame and guilt for not being one of them.  (2) Sympathy for them.  (3) Unsure of my own abilities and worth.  Sometimes I thought that I was one of them.  (4) Lockean human rights principles.  "All are created equal".  (5)  Thoreau-ian principles.  "Simple life is best".	2/20/1999

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Knowledge of how to do something vs. ability or skill to do.  Capacities for both.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Natural vs. developed.  Used vs. unused.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Talent.  (1) Relative to average person.  (2) Relative to educated, intelligent people.  (3) Relative to professionals in the field.  (4) Relative to greats in the field.	05/18/1994

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  The question, "How many different kinds of things can you do?", is as important as the question, "How much of any one thing can you do?"	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  Variations in ability.  The same task can seem easy one time, then impossible at another time.  What are the factors, variables and techniques involved to get from seeming tough to seeming easy?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  What abilities do you lose as what adverse factors appear?  What abilities do you gain from confronting adversity?	04/30/1993

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Ability.  What is your ability level if you put in x amount of mental learning or study, and x amount of physical practice or training.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishment is often dependent on time.  The more hours you put in the more you will accomplish.  Accomplishment = ((Ability * Effort) / Time) - Obstacles?  How to run the brain for more hours?	5/30/2005

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishment.  (1) How much do great accomplishments depend on you getting greatly psyched (adrenaline and other hormones caused by desire, fear, etc.)?  (2) How much does inspiration depend on same hormones?	06/15/1994

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishment.  Is what you accomplish judged useful by you, society, all societies, the experts, etc?  I.e., do you accomplish amazing yet useless feats (as found on Letterman's stupid human tricks)?	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishment.  What is an accomplishment?  The notion of what you think is an accomplishment depends on what you think is good an useful.  More precisely, the notion of what is an accomplishment depends on what you are able to accurately recognize as good and useful.  Accomplishment is a matter of ethics.  See Philosophy, ethics.	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishment.  You can graph someone's mental accomplishments on a 3 line axis graph.  Quantity on one axis,  quality on another axis, and effort (time x energy) on a third axis.  Zero effort = things you think of without even trying.  Other variables include: how much help you had; did you think of it all by yourself; or did you read some books on the subject.	02/04/1994

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishments = Ability * Effort - Obstacles.	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Accomplishments are what you get done.  Ability is talent.  Both raw, rough, latent, potential talent and polished, practiced talent.  Effort is degree (intensity) * time (duration).  Effort is how hard you try.  Effort is amount of work you do.  Obstacles are setbacks, mistakes, failures.	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Effort and accomplishment.  (1) Greatness of effort is (A) Rising to your natural talent and ability (potential).  (B) Rising to the situation, circumstances, opportunities (i.e. honing talent and then using it).  (2) Greatness of achievement is when your effort pays off and you actually accomplish something.	12/30/1996

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Effort.  (1) How hard are you trying?  That is effort.  (2) If you are trying 100%, all day long, day after day, only then is what you accomplish a reflection of your current ability.  (3) Keep trying.  Try again.  Improve your strategy, techniques, attitude.	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Effort.  100% effort is required.  No accomplishment is necessary.  Effort in all areas is required.	3/29/2000

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Effort.  To aspire is to struggle.  In both the areas of mental effort and physical effort.  Non-effort as a principle leads to being walked all over and taking advantage of.  That is the problem with Hinduism and Buddhism.  "Everything is fine" they say.	9/26/1998

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	It seems impossible to accomplish anything.	5/4/2007

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Physical abilities vs. mental abilities.  Is there any limit to mental abilities?	5/30/2005

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Types of ability.  (1) Mental ability: creative and non-creative.  (2) Physical ability: creative (new movements) and non-creative (repetitive movements).	5/15/2001

Psychology, general, ability effort accomplishment.	Under-achievers: What is holding them back?  (1) Achieving in a bullsh*t system is a non-achievement.  (2) Desire to remain "free".  Non-commitment.  Not take on any responsibility.  (3) Depression.  Mild and chronic.  (4) Fear of confronting the scary and painful world.  Fear of failure bruising their ego.  Fear of how their life will change with success.  Fear of change.  (5) An anti-intellectualism that sees intellectuals as lacking in emotion, and sees intellectuals as lily-livered wimps.  (6) A "free" mind means not committing ideas to paper, where they can confine you and limit your mind.	2/20/1999

Psychology, general, edge.	.This section is about the concept of the edge.	1/24/2006

Psychology, general, edge.	(1) Edge in the sense of being extremely important.  (2) Edge in the sense of being extremely urgent or desperate.  (3) Regardless of whether it actually is or not.	11/20/2001

Psychology, general, edge.	(1) Intense experience vs. intense state of mind.  (2) The edge vs. living on the edge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	(1) Physical edge.  (A) Danger sports.  (B) Pushing physical limits.  (2) Psychological edge.  (A) On the edge of a nervous breakdown.  (B) Pushing mental limits.	1/25/2000

Psychology, general, edge.	(1) The edge for you.  Your current abilities and limits of abilities.  (2) The edge for mankind.  The frontier of knowledge and action.  Things that never have been done or thought of before.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	(1) The psychological issue about the edge is  (A) How edgy you are psychologically.  (B) Unstable vs. thrill seeking, or easily bored.  (C) Can you change the above by conscious effort?  (2) The ethical issue about the edge is: should you enter edgy situations (to build character, for example)?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Confrontation of death in thought and mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Definitions.  (1) Edge of a nervous breakdown.  (2) Edge of survival.  Danger and risk.  (3) The above two can go together or not.  (4) Edge of knowledge.  (5) Edge of the known world.  (6) Where you go vs. what you get out of it, what you bring back, and what you learn.  (7) Mental travels vs. physical travels.	3/29/2000

Psychology, general, edge.	Edge.  (1) Edge as the limits of the possible.  (2) Edge of poverty.  (3) Edge of greatness.  (4) Edge of control.  Racing on the edge.  (5) Razor's edge.  Could go either way.  Lives in the balance.  (6) Leading edge.  Pushing the envelope.  Avant garde.  (7) Edge of the unknown.	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, edge.	Extreme experiences: why do people desire them?  Boredom, adrenaline rush.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Extreme or edgy situations, people, actions, lifestyles.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	For any extreme experience you go through, good or bad, the following is usually the case: (1) No matter how much you talk to people, they are not going to understand what you went through unless they went through the same thing themselves.  And if they do not understand they will not care.  (2) If they did go through the same experience, most of the time they will not discuss it because they consider it personal and private.  (3) The result is that almost no one knows or cares or wants to discuss it.  (4) Incidentally, what you are going through is not just an emotional experience only.  The entire self is involved, brain (sense, memory, emotion, thought) and body.	4/9/2001

Psychology, general, edge.	How much you choose to live on the edge vs. how much you are forced to live on the edge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	How really edgy is it?  For you, for anyone, for state of art (past and present).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Intense experience: degree of (1) Newness or unusualness (form or content).  (2) Unknown.  (3) Enjoyable vs. painful.  (4) Danger.  (5) Freedom, control, choice.  (6) Acute vs. chronic.  (7) To experience it vs. mentalize it.  (8) Effects: good and bad; psychological, physical, and economic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Intense experience.  Effects of stressful situations like (1) Danger.  (2) Near death experiences.  (3) War: effect of war on psychology and sociology.  Good and bad effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Intense state of mind: pros and cons.  Aware, urgent, important, motivated, directed, tense, passionate, creative problem solving.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Relativity of the edge: one mans edge is anothers easy place.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Self created edges.  Ex. walking becomes the edge if you are really drunk.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Synonyms for edge: extreme and radical.	1/24/2002

Psychology, general, edge.	Terms: adventure, danger, risk, security, pushing envelopes, exploring.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	The edge can make you appreciate life more, if you are sensitive.  Sometimes it is teaching you something you already knew.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	The edge: (1) Of social norms.  (2) Of physical danger.  (3) Of the unknown.  (4) Of the future (avante garde).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	The edge.  (1) Positive experiences: go through hell for big payoff.  (2) Negative experiences: no payoff at all.  (3) 50/50 experiences: good balances the bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	The unknown: the new vs. old (novelty, variety, boredom).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Types of edge.  (1) The financial/economic edge (poverty).  (2) The edge of sanity (crazy).  (3) The edge of the law (crime).  (4) The intellectual edge (genius).  (5) The cutting edge of time (present/future).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Types of edge.  (1) When we are forced to the edge.  Example, drafted into war.  (2) Choosing to visit the edge.  Example, extreme sports.  (3) Accidental visits to the edge.  Example, natural disasters.	5/15/2001

Psychology, general, edge.	Types of intense experiences: war, crime, drugs, wandering, poverty, great love/sex, surf/skate/climb, rebellion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	What you experience on the edge vs. what you accomplish on the edge.  For good or for bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	What you fight or give up to live on edge.  Tortured, true, seekers vs. smug, false, voyeur, posers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, edge.	Whether your situation is the edge for you depends on how much you know about your environment, your abilities and effects of actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	.This section is about various physical factors that interact with psychology.  Topics include: ( ) Energy.  ( ) Food.  ( ) Sleep.  Dreams.	1/24/2006

Psychology, general, physical.	(1) Genetics, nature.  Chemicals produced, effects of.  (2) Developmental, environmental, nurture.  Chemicals ingested, behaviors learned.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Biochemical link.  Hormones.  Testosterone and estrogen.  Adrenaline and noradrenelin.  Epinephrine and norepinephrine.  Endorphins.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Biochemical predisposition for fear + poor memory = neurosis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Body-mind link.  Often people are both physically and mentally rigid, stiff or uptight which is unhealthy.  Or loose and relaxed which is healthy.	1/31/2001

Psychology, general, physical.	Brain biochemicals.  What are them chemicals, list them.  What are their various effects of presence or lack.  What causes them to be produced?  How can I produce or reduce them?  What is the calm chemistry?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Brain biochemistry.  Hormones: list, purpose, mechanism.  Selfregualation: how to increase and decrease levels?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Don't blame learned problems on bio-chemicals.  Don't blame bio-chemical problems on learned behavior.  Some problems are combos of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Effect of body type on psychological development.  (1) When you grow up thin or small or sickly there is a tendency to feel fragile, fearful, deferring, effervescent, evanescent, easily blown over, temporary, exposed.  (2) When you grow up tall or fat or healthy there is a tendency to feel solid, permanent, secure, safe.	03/01/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Efficiency.  Accomplishing using little energy.  Working at low energy levels.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  (1) Causes: physical, psychological.  (2) Effects: physical, psychological.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Boredom vs. interest (see attention).  Excited vs. not excited (see emotion).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Factors: food/drink.  Rest/sleep.  Work/effort/exertion.  Health: psychological and physical.  Stamina, power.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Fatigue and energy types.  (1) Psychological.  Thought fatigue: burned out.  Emotion fatigue: wrung out.  (2) Physical.  Aerobic fatigue.  Anaerobic fatigue.  Exhausted.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Fatigue decreases ability to think, fight, resist.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Fatigue due to no sleep, or no food.  Overworked (physically and mentally).  Affect it has on your mind and behavior: in general, in me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Fatigue reduces thinking, feeling, creativity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Fatigue.  Effects of fatigue.  (1) Lower productivity, more mistakes.  (2) More susceptible to stress.  (3) Increase in pathological psychology.  (4) Less effective and efficient.  (5) Less quality, less quantity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  High and low energy.  Objective and subjective.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  I fatigue quickly and easily.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Problems.  Symptoms.  Techniques to cure, prevent.  Techniques to increase stamina, efficiency.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Recognize fatigue, avoid it.  Avoid important decisions and actions under fatigue.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Related phenomena: tired, lazy, bored, depressed.  Don't mistake one for other.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Two views of energy.  (1) Energy is a physical thing, based on factors like sleep and food.  (2) Energy is a psychological thing.  Depression reduces energy.  Lack of motivation reduces energy.	6/3/2004

Psychology, general, physical.	Energy.  Urgency creates adrenaline, which reduces fatigue.  Get motivated.  Get a sense of urgency of task and a sense of importance of task.	11/25/2001

Psychology, general, physical.	Environment: promotes, stagnates, inhibits drive to do x.  Psychological factors: genetic vs. learned.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  .See also: Health, food.  See also: Arts, gastronomy.  Food as nutrition (see health) vs. food as art (see gastronomy).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  (1) Food's relationship to physical body.  (2) Food's relationship to psychology.  Amounts, ingredients, effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  (1) Hunger.  Pro: stay hungry, motivated, driven, clear, angry.  Contra: no energy.  (2) Full.  Pro: can't think.  Contra: energy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  (1) Psychological causes: stress cravings, psychological comfort.  Physical causes.  (2) Psychological effects.  Physical effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  (1)(A) Too full can make you lazy, satisfies drives, clouds and dulls.  (B) A little full gives you energy.  (2)(A) Some hunger can clear, focus, drive the mind.  (B) Too much hunger can sap energy, make you cranky and depressed, can't think well.  (3) How to get the best and avoid the worst of both worlds?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  Altering internal environment, especially brain chemistry.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  Amount a person thinks about food, and cares about food.  (1) The utilitarian shovels it in.  (2) The Epicurean dwells on tastes and sights and smells and texture.  (3) The cook gets a hand in it.  (4) The food addict: overeaters, undereaters, junk food junkies.	01/01/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  Cravings, habits.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  Full stomach: unclear thoughts, undriven.  Empty stomach: clear, driven.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  Prayer.  May the booze not blind us.  May the food not beleaguer us or lay us low.  May the food not contain any substance that requires us to induce vomiting.  No e.coli, no botulism.  Neither rank nor fetid.  May it not be infested with parasitic worms.  No typhoid mary, no arsenic poisoner.  Let us live to tell the tale.	01/08/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  What foods do what mentally to me?  What diet makes me think most and best new thoughts and ideas?  What diet keeps me in optimal mind state?  How big a factor does good diet or poor diet play in my psychological life?  At what point does it become a crucial factor?	01/20/1994

Psychology, general, physical.	Food.  What, how much, when.  Time of day, intervals between meals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Good diet, rest, high t, exercise.  Less tired.  Less depressed.  Produce more quantity and quality.  More mania.  More noble.  More optimistic.  More horny.  More integrated.  Less = less of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Ideal.  High protein diet.  Many ideas, much work done, for many hours, with little sense of effort (seemingly effortlessly) or fatigue, with positive mind and mood (driven, calm, optimistic).	10/15/1993

Psychology, general, physical.	It is all about energy.  Energy for thought and action.  How to increase energy?  High testosterone.  In love.  Motivated by goals.  Psyched up.  Hopeful.  Caffeine.  Sleep.  Food.	9/30/1998

Psychology, general, physical.	List of chemicals: when produced, and effects of.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Physical body.  (1) Genetics.  (2) Physical development.  Non-genetic.  Illness and health.  Biochemical: brain and body.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Physical causes and effects of thinking, emotion, motivation, and memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Physical factors in health and illness (physical and psychological).	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Physiology: genetic vs. non-genetic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Psychological effects of physical illness vs. psychological causes of physical ills.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Relationships of physical and psychology.  Peak physical condition lets you perform in peak psychological, visa versa.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep deprivation can make you grouchy and depressed.	07/30/1993

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep is like a vacation from life.  A reprieve.  A short death.	12/29/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep time should not be wasted.  One must use sleep to (1) Solve problems (theoretical and practical), and (2) Create ideas, and (3) Resolve unconscious psychological issues.	06/05/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep, dreams.  (1) Part of the brain has to stay on at all times, or else the heart will stop beating and the lungs will stop breathing and the animal will die.  And actually, when you think about it, a sleeping animal needs to be able to wake up at a moments notice to avoid predators.  In fact, a sleeping animal should really have part of their brain sort of awake and listening for trouble.  Therefore, even though the animal is asleep, the entire brain must be on and ready to react at a moments notice.  So when we think about sleep, it helps to think of sleep more as "resting with eyes closed" rather than "dead as a door nail".  (2) Is there any animal that does not ever sleep?  Bacteria?  (3) What is the most complex animal that requires the least sleep?  Do more complex animals require more sleep?  (4) Why do some people require little sleep?  Why do other people require much sleep?  (5) What happens when you get only a couple hours sleep for a few nights in a row?  Many people turn to jello after a few nights of sleep deprivation.	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep: not enough causes poor performance, too much is a waste of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  (1) Disorders or sleep.  (A) Insomnia.  Cannot get to sleep.  Wake up too early.  (B) Sleep too much.  (2) Disorders of dreaming.  (A) Cannot dream.  (B) Dream too much.	5/30/2005

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Affects of lack of sleep on psychological and physical state.  Stressed, moody, can't think, pathological psychological susceptibility, poor performance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Disorders: insomnia, sleep walking, always tired, narcolepsy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Do all animals sleep?  Do they sleep a regular number of hours each day (ex. 8 hours)?  Do they sleep at a regular time of day (ex. at night)?	12/29/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dream analysis.  Frequency, type, quality, quantity, after how much awake.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dream analysis.  How did the dream make you feel?  This is more important than trying to logically understand a set of images from your irrational unconscious.  Example, this dream made me feel... scared, angry, hopeful, happy, etc.	02/15/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreamed I was a stranded polar explorer.	4/10/2006

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams are like movies, but they are free instead of costing $7.50.  And they are more interesting, fantastic, and intense.	01/07/1994

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams can reflect both past memories and future desires and fears.  Dreams can center on emotion or thought.	5/15/1998

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams in animals and proto-humans.  (1) Dreams and animals.  Do animals dream?  How do animals tell the difference between dreams and reality?  Do they say to themselves, "It was only a dream."?  (2) Dreams and proto-humans.  Did proto-humans dream?  How did proto-humans tell the difference between dreams and reality?  Did they say to themselves, "It was only a dream."?	12/2/2003

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  (1) Dreams: the cheapest form of entertainment.  (2) Dreams: to figure out problems and goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  (1) Types.  Night dreams.  Day dreams.  Dozing and nap dreams.  (2) Why dreams?  (A) For psychological health.  To work out psychological problems and issues.  (B) For creativity.  To figure stuff out.  Artistic creativity.  Solving intellectual problems (ex. Kekule).  (3) Techniques.  Book of dreams.  Dream book.	5/20/1998

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  I don't remember my dreams because I am repressing my dreams.  I am repressing my dreams because I fear what I will see in them.	10/10/1997

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  Lucid dreaming: how to.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  Remembering them, writing down your dreams.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  Three women.  Young, beautiful strangers.  When we dream of people and places we have never seen before, in detail, it is an extraordinary act of mental creativity.  I can't even be that creative when I am awake.  Our minds are powerful and untapped.  How do we do this?	11/30/1996

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Dreams.  Your average dream is a nonsensical collage of images.  And we consider such dreams to be strange because they are unlike real life.  Yet these are the dreams that we have 99% of the time.  However, occasionally you have a dream that is unusual in that it is just like real life.  A dream that has startling clarity and cohesion.  Like the dream I had where I was reading a newspaper article word for word.  A dream that is just like real life is truly a strange dream.	5/2/2002

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  How much sleep do I like?  How much do I need, what do I perform best with?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  If you work 9 to 5, and go to sleep right after work, you can sleep from 6 pm to 2am, get up and work from 2am to 8am.  Thus getting a lot of work done while still morning fresh.	07/30/1993

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  More than three nights with less than three hours sleep can drive a person off kilter.  Depression and anxiety can result.	6/14/2004

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Most important things to remember about sleep.  (1) Not enough sleep makes you grouchy, hate job and life, unfriendly to people, unmindful of procedures on job (fu*kup), no new ideas, depression, konk out after noon, have to drink coffee or cola to keep going.  (2) Enough sleep makes you happy, energetic, new ideas, love job and life, friendly to people, accurate on procedures, etc.	04/04/1994

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Purpose of sleep: repair and reenergize mind and body.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Too much: waste of time.  Too little: sub-optimal performance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Sleep.  Why do we sleep?  Why do we sleep 8 hours a day?  Why do we sleep at night?  Why do we dream?	10/30/1994

Psychology, general, physical.	Testosterone, diet, exercise, and sleep, in order to get together head and behavior, in order to get together work and school.	12/30/1995

Psychology, general, physical.	Testosterone.  (1) High t.  Clearer, creative.  Problem seer and solver.  Optimistic, directed, motivated, calm, focused.  (2) Low t.  Opposite of above.  Confused, depression, anxiety, no energy, no drive.  Can't think well or long, can't work well or long.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, physical.	Testosterone.  Feeling great = feeling horny = high t and in shape.	02/01/1994

Psychology, general, physical.	You: mind, body, actions.  Your life: environment, experience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	.This section is about strength and weakness.	1/24/2006

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) How much do we sense other things?  (2) How (better or worse) and how much are we affected by other things?  (3) How differently two people are affected by same thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) How to get tough, not fragile, and thus healthy.  (2) How to get sensitive, not callous, and thus wise.  (3) How to do both at the same time?	10/21/1998

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Mental power: strength of knowledge x IQ.  (2) Mental stamina: endurance.  (3) Mental strength: of character.  (4) Of all elements.  You are as strong as weakest link.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Mental stability (as good or bad) in general, in x situation, or for x activity.  How develop it?  (2) Mental instability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Psychological strength or weakness of memory, drives, emotions, and thought.  (2) Physical strength or weakness of body.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Strength as character.  (2) Strength as self control.  (3) Strength as endurance in face of opposition.  (4) Strength as social power.  (5) Strength as single mindedness, intolerance(?), inflexible(?).  (6) Strength as clarity of vision.  (7) Strength as insuceptibility to pathological psychology.  (8) Strength as moral virtue.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Strength: greater than average power, endurance, robust, hardy.  (2) Weakness, fragility: less than average.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Strength: sticking to ideals.  (2) Flexibility: improving ideals under pressure, over time.  (3) Weakness: cave in to self, others, or nature.  (4) Inflexibility, dogmatism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Strong: against self, other or nature (A) Opposition, or (B) Seduction (laziness, addictions).  (2) Flexible: to see and seize the better, instantly.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	(1) Tough as resistance or ability to withstand illness (physical and psychological).  Weakness as susceptibility to illness.  (2) Weakness as weak-willed.  Strength as willful.	11/20/2001

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Endurance through passive obstacles, active opposition, temptation, trouble, and forces of environment and experience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Endurance.  The concept of wind, endurance, staying power, is important.  Especially against opponents, both unchanging opponents and active opponents.	05/10/1997

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Psychological strength to withstand stresses (types, frequency, duration, and intensity) without breaking down or changing for worse in mental state, or in behavior.  How to acquire or develop it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Sensitive vs. insensitive.  Sensitivity without strength can drive you crazy.  Ex. glass menagerie.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Sensitive vs. tough.  (1) Sensitive.  Sensitive in positive sense, meaning emotionally perceptive.  Sensitive in the negative sense, meaning touchy or fragile.  (B) Toughness.  Toughness in the positive sense meaning resilient.  Toughness in the negative sense meaning callous.	04/23/1994

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Sensitivity.  (1) For people who are too sensitive, how to decrease sensitivity without the use of drugs?  (2) For people who are too insensitive, how to increase sensitivity without drugs?  Through sensitivity training?	8/13/2006

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Stability vs. instability.  How much something throws you (i.e. affects of changes for better vs. worse) depends on how new it is to you, how well you've figured it out, how firmly you are grounded, how set you are, and how open or closed minded you are.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Stay strong.  A lot of the bull shit will flow right past you, and you will not fall prey to it.	02/09/1997

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Strength = power * endurance.  (1) Physical strength.  (2) Psychological strength: intellectual strength, emotional strength, and memory strength.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Strength and weakness.  Not being easily swayed by bad arguments, or distracted by experiences, or moved by unjustified emotions.  Vs. being narrow minded, stubborn, and pig headed.  The former is good strength, the latter is not really strength at all.	06/01/1994

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Strength to stand up for your principles.  Even in the face of opposition by others.  Even in the face of isolation and non-recognition.	3/10/2007

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Tough and sensitive. (1) Tough.  (A) Tough: withstand high degree of many types of acute and chronic stress, problems, and opposition.  Endurance, stick-to-it-ive-ness.  (B) Tough: callous or insensitive.  (C) Tough: sadistic.  (2) Sensitive.  (A) Sensitive: ability to recognize.  (B) Sensitive: inability to tolerate or stand or put up with something.  (C) Sensitive: function of emotions and awareness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Toughness.  (1) Define toughness (as opposed to what)?  (A) Toughness as mean and nasty.  (B) Toughness as callous and unfeeling.  (C) Toughness as resilient.  (D) Toughness as defense or justice seeking.  (2) Can optimism replace toughness by providing resilience ("C").  (3) Is a certain degree of toughness needed for mental health?  (4) Can toughness and sensitivity coexist?  That is, when you become tough do you give up other things?  (5) How tough do I need to be?  At least as tough as the situation and the people in the situation?  (6) When am I too tough?  (7) Can you get tough, or is it just that at any moment you are some level of tough and there is nothing you can do about it?  (8)  How tough to get?	8/31/2000

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Two definitions.  (1) Strength as power and endurance, depends on energy.  (2) Strength as able to take opposition and punishment, and chaos.	5/30/1998

Psychology, general, strength and weakness.	Two definitions.  (1) Strength as unmoved by adversity or opposition.  (2) Strength as unmoved by pity.  Callous?	5/30/1998

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	.This section is about forgetting.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	(1) One view holds that we are continuously forgetting everything.  The implication is that we need constant studying of everything to maintain our memory.  (2) Another views hold that we remember everything unconsciously.  All memories live forever in the unconscious.  However it may not be accessible to conscious memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	(1) Trying to forget is actually trying to put something out of your mind.  It is an attention phenomenon.  (2) Trying not to forget.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Forgetting and forgiving is almost as bad as forgiving and forgetting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Forgetting is a waste.  Because then you need to re-learn.  However forgetting trivial garbage and lies is good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Forgetting leads to disorganization (loss of chronological structure, loss of logical structure, and loss of priorities structure), which leads to sub-optimal behavior and mental illness.	01/19/1997

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Forgetting occurs to both (1) Things you understand and memorized, and (2) Things you understand but haven't memorized.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Forgetting.  (1) To some degree, humans have to "forget everything else" in order to get anything done.  This is because our attention lets us hold only a few things in mind.  Thus, forgetting is the default mode for humans.  Humans tend to forget about everything except food and sex.  Remembering becomes the big challenge.  By the term "remembering" I do not mean merely "thinking about the past".  By the term "remembering" I mean "thinking about everything else that exists besides food and sex".  (2) People ask themselves, "How could I forget (such and such)?"  The answer is because humans are forgetful.  Very forgetful.  Humans have a built-in laziness and apathy that causes them to not think, to not feel and to forget.  That is why we use only 10% of our brains (see notes on auto-pilot).  (3) Wait long enough and you will forget it all.  (4) The real question is, how can I remember and what should I remember?  The "natural", "ancient" human state is navel-gazing, nit-picking and cloud-watching.  Remembering takes effort.  Remembering is work.  Remembering technology (ex. The Notes) is very important.	11/1/2000

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	How much you forget.  How soon you forget it.  Why you forget (causes).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	I forget an average of 50% of the material I learn in any subject within one year without studying.	10/25/1994

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Ideal: forget nothing.  Problems.  Forgetting momentarily, especially in clutch situations, when you need it most, and when the stakes are high.  Forgetting totally or completely important things about self, others, world, and relationships.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	If you forget faster than you learn at maximum effort then you are in sad shape (devolving).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Problem.  Forgetting that something happened, how happened, why happened, what its significance was, why important, how important, how you felt and thought about it, what you want to do about it, what you should do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	So we see, forgetting is as important as memory.  For if we never forgot anything, it might overburden our minds?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	States of forgetting.  (1) Repression.  (2) Depression.  (3) Amnesia.	6/2/2004

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	The price(s) we pay for forgetting.  (1) Mistakes made.  (2) Losses and failures incurred.  (3) Ignorance.  (4) Relearning time and energy.  (5) Inefficiency: slow.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Time heals all wounds.  Is this a case of forgetting emotionally painful experiences?  Is it thus healthy?  Only if they have been resolved, i.e. you have achieved catharsis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	To ignore (an attention phenomenon) something is an attempt to forget it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	Variable forgetting.  I'll never forget it vs. I just learned it and now can't remember it.  Why do we forget somethings quicker than others?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, forgetting.	We can speak of healthy forgetting and unhealthy forgetting.  Unhealthy forgetting involves things like psychological repression.  Also, forgetting important things is unhealthy.  Healthy forgetting means, for example, forgetting unimportant things.  To be unable to forget unimportant things leads to problems like OCD.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	.This section is about ideals, problems and techniques of memory.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Ideal state.  (1) Memorizing: Memorize important things quickly.  (2) Forgetting: Never forget anything.  (3) Remembering: Remember everything you need right when you need to.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Photographic memory.  Memorize everything, instantly, and retain it forever.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Having no memories.  I.e. lack of experiences.  Experientially impoverished.  Homogenous environment.  Unvarying routine.  Sensory deprivation.  This problem is as bad as having no thoughts, in terms of the "memory equals thought" point of view.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Those who let their past control their future.  "This is what I was (or my life was, or the world was), so this is what I will be (or my life will be, or the world will be)."	5/20/1998

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  (1) Memorizing: memorize too slowly.  (2) Forgetting: (A) Keep forgetting.  (B) Forget quick.  (C) Forget important (objectively important, not subjectively important).  (3) Remembering: (A) Inability to remember.  (B) Remember unimportant things only.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Causes.  What slows memorizing?  What causes forgetting?  What decreases ability to remember?  (1) Pathological psychology: repression, depression.  (2) Physical: lack of sleep, over work, poor diet.  (3) Passage of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Epidemiology.  How good or bad is most people's memory?  In what percentile do I fit in?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Faulty memory.  Mistakes of recollection.  (1) Manufactured memories.  (2) Amnesia - unable to remember.	2/6/2004

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  No long term memory.  No short term memory.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Two memory problems.  (1) Not being able to remember when you want to remember or need to remember.  Lack of ability of intentional remembering.  (2) Remembering when you don't want to remember.  Intrusive memories.  Obsessing.  Unintentional remembering.	5/15/2004

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Memorizing.  What increases memory capacity?  How to memorize faster?  (2) Forgetting: how to forget less?  (3) Remembering.  How to remember more?  How to remember more quickly?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Very few people can remember their entire life at once.  For most people, memories arrive in drips and drabs at odd moments.  What is needed is a way to capture stray memories and organize them.  The Notes method can be used for the purpose of saving and organizing one's personal memories.  Eventually the pieces of the memory puzzle start to come together and one can have a coherent picture of one's life to work with and enjoy.  It can seem daunting at first, given the apparent enormity of life.  It can also feel painful at first, because of the fact that most of us "waste" large portions of our time.  However, in the long run it helps to see one's past.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Give yourself time to memorize.  Cramming is not best way.  (2) Give yourself time to remember.  Memories come out in slow drips.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Ask yourself what is the most important thing to remember about x thing (x in general or specific x); for who: for life in general, for specific types of people, and for me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Intensity of experience increases memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Therapies.  (1) Write it down. (2) Repetition, studying.  Repeating it to yourself mentally.  Re-reading physical notes.  Saying it out loud.  Practicing an action.  (3) Re-experiencing (in thought or action).  (4) Rebuilding, recreating, relearning.  (A) Systematic mental rebuilding in head.  Plug in outlines (x in general).  (B) Rebuilding on paper.  (5) Organization improves memory.  Logical organization.  Chronological organization.  Prioritizing memories (most-least important).  (6) Want, desire (needs and luxuries) improves memory.  Importance of subject to you improves memory.  Urgency improves memory.  Interest improves memory.  Desire to learn improves memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Total immersion program, live the life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Ways to develop memory: practice remembering the important ideas for (1) Present situation you are in (work, girlfriend), and future goals and tactics.  (2) Theory (books and notes).  (3) Your past.	06/30/1993

Psychology, memory, lists.	.This section is about various lists of things to remember.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, lists.	Make a list of things to memorize and why (in general and specific).  Look at it carefully.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Most important things to remember.  (1) I am a free man, and want to stay that way.  Unemployed and without girl, penniless and no possessions, I can still be left alone, alone with my thoughts, to watch the beautiful sunset.  Do not blow this freedom.	03/23/1994

Psychology, memory, lists.	Most important, subjects, questions/problems/issues, views, arguments, evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Personal memories written (see personal history and estir).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Questions, answers, and reasons for answers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Some things worth remembering.  What is good and pure.  The inventors, scientists, artists and philosophers.  Nature.  Love with a beautiful woman.  Health.  Thinking of learning.	9/5/1998

Psychology, memory, lists.	Things to keep in mind, things to load up with.  (1) The good.  Beats, the road, California's golden age.  Great thinkers, great artists, great women.  (2) The bad.  Injustice, the Holocaust, crime, death, time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Things to remember and think about.  (1) Remember and think about this list.  (2) Drive safe and watch your step.  Safety.  Be careful.  (3) Workout, stretch, floss, brush, shower, eat right (physical health).  (4) Don't ignore sex or obsess about sex.  (5) Relax, enjoy life, don't get depressed (psychological health).  (5) Do a good job and work on career.  (6) Work on relationships.  (8) Affirmations.	12/30/1995

Psychology, memory, lists.	Things to remember every moment, day, week, month, and year.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	Things to remember.  (1) The big injustices: american slavery till 1865, segregation till 1958, entrenched power blocking change for better.  Holocaust.  WWI and WWII.  (2) The big justices: anyone who works hard, with little support, against big opposition and obstacles, against big odds, to get big justice.	10/01/1994

Psychology, memory, lists.	Those crucial, optimal ideas to keep in mind (remember).  List top 10 ideas for all areas.  Optimal idea = most healthy and most true (not a lie to self).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember (re-think): survival facts, hard learned lessons, mistakes, current goals and reasons, problems, choices and alternatives.  What to think anew about: new truths (practical and theoretical), survival facts, and goals, must move forward.	12/30/1995

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember most about what subjects.  (1) Logical order.  (2) Chronological order.  (3) Priorities: order by important and timing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember:  it is most important to remember that health is most important.  If you have your health you have everything.  You only get one body.  Take care of it.  No spare parts, and broken parts don't get fixed perfectly.	12/30/1995

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember?  (1) Ideals, problems, solutions. (2) Goals.  (3) All you have (count your blessings, take stock of resources)  (4) (A) How bad it could get, and how easily it could get bad.  (B) How good it could get.	12/30/1995

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember.  (1) Goals, strategies, tactics and reasons.  Problems, solutions, challenges, experiences.  (2) Behaviors, mistakes.  (3) Successes and wins (your best).  Failures and losses (your worst).  (4) Notes (figured out).  (5) Data (found out).  General knowledge, and knowledge specific to you.  Most important ideas on most important subjects.  Practical vs. theoretical knowledge.  (5) Metaphysics, epistemology, ethical, and aesthetic ideas.  (6) Personal ethics: values, priorities.  (7) Your best attitudes (thought and emotion complexes).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember.  (1) The big picture (Life on earth, past present and future).  (2) Foundational ideas.  Philosophy.  The basics.	10/3/1998

Psychology, memory, lists.	What to remember.  People starving to death.  People with their hands cut off by political terrorists.  People tortured by governments.  People killed by Stalin, Pol Pot, Rwandans, etc.  Those who were, those who are, and those who will be killed, if we do not take action.  What can I do?  Write letters to my government.  Give money to human rights organizations.	8/17/1998

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	.This section is about memorization.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	(1) We memorize the commonplace because it happens over and over.  Brute repetition.  (2) We memorize the odd and rare because it is so different.  (3) This is the cool trick of memory, that it works to capture both the commonplace and the rare.	6/15/2002

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	How much you memorize.  How quickly you memorize.  After how many times experiencing a thing, and after how strongly experiencing a thing.  How long you retain the memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	In order to memorize x: (1) How many times must you perceive it, experience it, see it, hear it?  (2) How many times must your repeat it to yourself, picture it in you mind, remind yourself of it?  (3) How many times must you practice a physical movement or skill?	5/15/2001

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	Memorizing a fact vs. understanding a fact vs. understanding and memorizing a fact.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	Random facts are difficult to memorize.  Order and organization increases memory (ex. alphabetical order, numerical order).  Logical organization increases memory even more (ex. classification, etc.).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, memorizing.	To memorize means to commit to memory and to be able to recall.  Memorizing can occur intentionally, that is, sometimes we consciously try to memorize.  Memorizing can occur unintentionally, that is, sometimes we memorize without even trying.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory, remembering.	.This section is about remembering.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, remembering.	(1) How often to remember something is akin to how often to think about something.  (2) You can remember practical goals, or things that increase vision and improve your writing. (3) You can remember and experience, a sensation, an emotion, a thought, etc.  (4) Remembering an emotion is akin to experiencing that emotion again.  (5) So there is not that big a difference between remembering, feeling, and thinking.	06/01/1994

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Given x person in y situation.  Total what they can remember.  How pertinent (useful or helpful) it is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	How much (breadth and depth) you can remember.  How fast you can remember.  In what logical arrangement you recall information.  How long you retain.  Cues needed to remember.  How accurately you remember.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	How to remember.  Write it down and re-read it.	1/25/1998

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Ideal.  Given x person in y situation.  Can they remember or think/create/generate most important ideas in most important order, or will they develop shit thoughts in wrong order.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Ideal.  Remember best/right thing (thought or emotion) at best/right time and situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Ideal.  We need the ability not only to remember, but also to remember best, right, most important things at right time and situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Important of "reliving"  or remembering things and thus learning a better truth about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Integrate the past.  Learn from the past.  Avoid repression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Knowing what it is you don't remember vs. not knowing what it is you don't remember.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Problems.  (1) Errors and mistakes made in remembering.  Incomplete recall, and inaccurate recall.  (2) What slows remembering?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Problems.  What decreases memory?  Psychological trauma, severe emotional states, pathological psychology, drugs and booze, shock reactions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Problems.  What to do when all you can remember or think of is non-useful ideas and harmful ideas?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Recall speed.  (1) The spectrum from instant recall speed to recall after any amount of time.  (2) Recall speed when one is prepared to recall vs. recall speed when one is surprised.	7/18/2002

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Remembering (1) Facts: what happened.  (2) Theories on the facts: what you think about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Remembering few, trivial, false, impotent, crap ideas vs. many, important, true, powerful ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Remembering principles vs. goals, strategies, and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Remembering.  (1) Doing so naturally (unconsciously).  Healthy people do, unhealthy people don't.  (2) Doing so yourself consciously.  Without writing or with writing.  (3) Doing so with a therapist.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Techs.  Systematically trying to remember by using chronological, alphabetical, logical or other mnemonic methods.	11/20/2001

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Things we keep remembering (haunting memories) and why.  Things that keep popping into our head.  Some aspect of it is still unresolved in our mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, remembering.	Two types of remembering problems.  (1) Specific item recall problems.  Not being able to remember a specific item at will.  For example, not being able to recall the name of a person you met.  (2) Problems with general random recall.  Not recalling much of anything in the course of a day.  For example, you go through the day without any memories entering your mind.  (3) Some people do not have an active memory.  For one reason or another, these people remember less often than other people.  Experimentally, one could measure how many general random memories the average person has on the average day, and see how certain people remember way below average.  I am talking here about memories of one's own life and the people, places and events that make up the experiences of one's life.  There are even some people who can remember anything at will, yet for one reason or another, they never have any random thoughts about their life history.  That is, they never remember.  That is not a healthy state to be in.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory, remembering.	What to remember, when to remember it, how to remember it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	.This section is about various types of memory.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory, types.	(1) Chronological memory.  (A) Your knowledge of history.  (B) Your memory of personal experiences.  (2) Memory by subject: logical order.  (3) Memory by importance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	(1) Memory as instinct.  (2) Memory of emotions: pleasurable, and painful memories.  (3) Memory of thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	(1) Momentary or working memory.  Things you can remember right off the bat.  Instantaneous memory.  (2) Figure out able memory.  Things you can remember if given time.  (A) Things you can figure out in your head.  (B) Things you can figure out on paper.  (3) Remindable memory.  Things you can remember if given cues.  (4) Total memory equals unconscious plus conscious memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	(1) Selective memory.  Things you intentionally try to remember.  (2) Random memory.  Things that just pop into your head.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	Both of the following are good and important.  (1) Passive memory.  Remembering anything, anytime, anywhere.  When a memory just pops into your head.  (2) Active memory.  (A) Setting aside time to remember.  (B) Walking through the years.  (C) Recording what you remember.	2/19/2000

Psychology, memory, types.	Conscious memories vs. unconscious memories.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	Four important types of memory.  (1) Chronological.  (2) Outline, hierarchical, theoretical.  (3) Practical.  (4) Importance, ethics.	06/01/1994

Psychology, memory, types.	Long term memory vs. short term memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	Memory as the ideas you boot up with when you wake up in the morning.	2/14/2000

Psychology, memory, types.	The memories you have (1) In your head, (2) Written down and saved as artifacts (see personal history).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory, types.	Three types of memory.  (1) Social remembering.  Remembering faces, names and phenomena related to other people.  (2) Self remembering.  Remembering phenomena related to yourself.  (3) Stuff remembering.  Remembering phenomena related to objects.	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory, types.	To remember a thought or idea, emotion, attitude, physical sensation, an event in a situation (an experience in an environment).	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory, types.	Two types of memory.  (1) Personal memories.  (2) Knowledge of history.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory, types.	Two types of memory.  (1) Remembering stuff you read.  (2) Remembering stuff you lived.	12/20/1998

Psychology, memory.	.See also: History.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	.This section is about various thoughts on memory in general.  Topics include: ( ) Emotion and memory.  ( ) Thinking and memory.  ( ) Consciousness and memory.  ( ) Sense, perception and memory.  ( ) What is memory.	1/24/2006

Psychology, memory.	(1) In the past, (150 years ago and before then) there was plenty of time, while one was watching the wheat grow, to stand around thinking and talking about one's past.  There was plenty of time to keep track of and sort out our memories.  (2) Today work keeps us busy.  Work keeps us apart from our significant others for many hours each day.  The media keeps us flooded with news and information.  Thus the effect is that everyone is memory-challenged today.  Everyone needs to give attention to their personal history today.  Memory helps us make sense of life.  We make sense of life after the fact.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	(1) Memory is the temporal dimension of our mind.  PART TWO.  (1) We can remember to plan for the future.  That is, we can keep in mind that we need to set goals.  I.e., remember the future.  (2) We can plan to remember the past.  That is, we can make a goal of doing history.  I.e., plan for the past.  (3) So a new quip: "Remember the future and plan for the past".     PART THREE.  Sometimes memory is not temporal, like when we remember an abstract idea.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory.	(1) Memory preserves our mental identity or self.  (2) DNA preserves our physical identity.	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory.	(1) To remember or to forget a fact, a skill (a mental or physical technique or method), an event, an experience, a feeling, or a person.  (2) Obsession means to be unable to forget.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	(1) Trying not to think of (remember) something.  (2) Trying to forget something.  (3) These are things that people with addictions try to do, often futilely.	09/01/1994

Psychology, memory.	(1) We forget, memorize, and remember different things at different rates depending on the interest, use, importance, etc., it has for us.	10/15/1994

Psychology, memory.	(1) We never experience the same thing twice because there is always a period of time spent living between the two times you experience something.   There are two ways to state this.  You can say that different you's experience the thing.  Or you can say the thing was different each time you experienced it and that you experienced two things.  (2) The above applies to the experience of external stimuli and it also applies to the experience of internal psychological stimuli.  (3) Thus, we can say that we never remember something the same way twice.  We are constantly recasting our memories.  We constantly re-interpret our memories.  And we can say that either two you's experience the same memory, or else the same you experiences two different memories.	6/15/2002

Psychology, memory.	Ability to remember and affinity for the past are two different things.  Some people have a strong memory but prefer to think about the future.  Some people have a weak memory but enjoy nostalgia.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	All the memories of a life, both the sensory memories of our environment and the psychological memories of our mental world of emotion and thought, how are they stored?  (1) As physical fixed things?  There would be far too many of them.  (2) As combination patterns of electrochemical nerve activity?  Yes.	8/7/2001

Psychology, memory.	Animal memory.  (1) If we say an animal behaves by instinct, is instinct a hard-wired memory?  (2) If we say an animal does not work by instinct, then does the animal have non-hard-wired memory?  (3) What is the difference between hard-wired memory and non-hard-wired memory?  Should we think of non-hard-wired memory as programmable memory?	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Animal memory.  Which animal species have which memory capabilities?  Is it true that elephants never forget?  Is recall ability related to the life span of the animal?	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	As individuals, other than with a shrink, we devote very little time to memorizing (studying) and remembering (our past).  This is bad.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	At some level, memory is a chemical phenomenon.  There are memory enhancing chemicals and memory inhibiting chemicals that the body produces naturally.  Sleep, diet and exercise affect the body's production of memory chemicals.  Various drugs also affect memory by either making memory more keen or by dulling memory.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	At some point, the number of times you experience something in a set period of time (frequency of reviewing), leads to points of decay, stagnation, and growth of memory.	08/02/1993

Psychology, memory.	At the extreme case:  The more new experiences, the less time for memory.  The fewer new experiences, the more time for memory.  Its a trade off.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Attention and memory.  Attention means keeping things in mind, which means constantly remembering.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Biology of memory.  Physical factors and memory.  Bio-chemistry.  What brain chemicals and their pharmaceutical equivalents increase memory?  What drugs are on the market to increase brain power?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Biology of memory.  What neurotransmitters, hormones, brain waves, areas of the brain, etc. are involved in storing and retrieving memories?	5/15/2001

Psychology, memory.	Biology of memory.  Which brain chemicals aid memory?  What foods help us produce those chemicals?  How can we naturally self produce memory-aiding chemicals to enter a reverie and trip down memory lane?	5/15/2004

Psychology, memory.	Body memory.  You don't walk everyday by thinking to walk.  You walk everyday by remembering how to walk.  Memory of movement is a major type of memory.  Humans remember physical skills as well as mental skills.	5/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Changes in memory content.  Bigger vs. smaller.  Better (more practical) vs. worse (less practical).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Changes in what you want to memorize.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Computer memory and human memory.  Computer technology gives us more concepts to apply to a discussion of human memory.  On a computer, you can choose to backup a single file, or you can choose to backup the entire operating system.  It is possible that in the human mind there is the ability to commit to memory a small chunk of information or a large chunk of information.  Does it make sense to talk about making a memory of the entire mind?	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Create a website called "Memory Lane" where people relate stray memories, and where people work on developing their life memories.	11/15/2003

Psychology, memory.	Deflationary view of memory.  One could argue that planning and future thinking is as important as memory.  Memory may precede future thinking on the evolutionary ladder, but humans today do as much future thinking as memory.  Humans need as much future thinking as memory in order to be healthy.	4/16/2006

Psychology, memory.	Development of memory in the animal kingdom.  (1) Memory of individual instances.  Multi sensory.  (2) Sets of memories of individual instances.  (3) Memories of abstract thoughts.  Abstract thoughts are creations of imagination.  An abstract thought produces a memory of an abstract thought.	11/14/2005

Psychology, memory.	Development of memory: actual memory and potential memory.  (1) Your past memory.  What you actually remembered in past.  What you could have remembered (potential).  (2) Your memory now.  All you actually can remember now.  All you potentially could remember if you tried.  (3) Your memory in future: future actual and potential.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Effect of a memory on our mind and behavior.  Aversion to doing things vs. drawn to doing things (see conditional learning).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Emotion and memory.  (1) Strong emotions (pleasurable or painful) sear in memories and make them last longer.  (2) Optimists remember the good, pessimists remember the bad.  (3) Most people remember only the good, I remember only the bad.  (4) Painful life leaves painful memories.  Pleasureable life leaves pleasurable memories.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Emotion and memory.  Remembering emotions is as important as remembering thoughts.	5/15/2001

Psychology, memory.	Evaluating your memory.  What's your attitude toward memory?  How much time do you spend remembering?  How much can you remember?  Are there any large gaps (time or subject) in your memory?  Do you remember the important things?  Do you draw the right conclusions?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Experience and memory: strength of experience and lasting of memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	False memory.  How often does it occur?  How does it occur?  By suggestion?	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory.	Given your memory capacity or limits, one must choose what one will decide to memorize.  One must choose their memory contents.  However, some memories we have no choice but to remember.  These are the memories we can't forget.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Goal setting and memory.  (1) Remembering the good things and bad things provides direction two ways.  (2) Remember goals (do's), and anti-goals (don'ts).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Good memories and bad memories.  (1) Bad memories are one of the main causes of psychological difficulties.  (2) One technique to deal with bad memories is to think of a more effective attitude to take toward a bad memory.  (3) Another technique to deal with bad memories is to take a more effective attitude toward life, so that you do not produce so many bad memories.  People with negative outlooks produce more bad memories, and bad memories are difficult to deal with.  (4) One reason that bad memories are difficult to deal with is because bad memories produce painful emotions, and painful emotions can be difficult to deal with.  (5) It is better to call it a painful memory than a bad memory.  Memory is not a bad thing.  A person can have a painful memory about an unethical event.  (6) Another technique for dealing with painful memories is to improve your skills for dealing with painful emotions.  (7) Bad things happen in life.  People commit unethical actions.  Nature itself is random and thus seemingly cruel and unjust.  Unjust actions produce painful memories.  Some people survive terrible events with little psychological trauma.  Other people are haunted by memories of unethical events.  Both psychological health and psychological problems have a memory component that needs to be explored and understood.  (8) Lack of good memories can be as big a problem as the presence of painful memories.  If a person does not let themselves remember the good times it can be a problem.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Having few experiences leads to having few memories.  Unless you have a vivid imagination, in which case you can have many memories of the various things you imagined.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	History and memory.  Memory is about the past.  History is about the past.  History can be defined as recorded memories.  Chronological memory is one type of memory.  Another type of memory is the memory of the logical structure of ideas.  Another type of memory is the memory of importance of ideas.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	How can we remember some things for a minute, and other things for a lifetime?  It is not just repetition that makes it sink in.  Do we unconsciously choose to commit these things to our memory for life?  How to do this best?  Techniques for instant, permanent memory.	07/30/1993

Psychology, memory.	How does the memory develop in humans?  How well do children remember?  How does memory decay in the aged?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	How easy a specific idea is to memorize, remember, and forget, in general, for personality types, and for a specific person.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	How important is memory in the functioning of animal minds (including humans)?  Inflationary views of memory hold that memory is the basis of thought and emotion.  Deflationary views of memory hold that memory is only as important as sensation, emotion and thinking, or perhaps even less so.  (2) How does memory function on a neurophysiological level?  (3) How is neuron-based memory different from computer memory?  (4) What if we forgot everything instantly?  What if we never forgot anything.  (5) Memory problems.  Memorizing slowly.  Forgetting quickly.  (6) Exceptional memory.  Photographic memory.  Memorizing instantly.  Memorizing massive amounts.  Recalling minute details after a long time.	6/12/2004

Psychology, memory.	How much time do we spend thinking about our personal past, present and future?  How much time should we spend thinking about the past, present and future?  (1) To never think about the past and future is bad.  That is, to always be in the present is bad.  (2) To never be in present is also bad.  That is, to always think about only the past or the future is bad.  (3) To never think about the past and future beyond our lifespan is also bad.	12/28/2003

Psychology, memory.	How much you put into your brain, minus how much you forget, yields a remainder of memory.	8/23/2005

Psychology, memory.	Humans are remembering all the time.  We are awash in memories.  Humans are future-thinking all the time too.	5/12/2007

Psychology, memory.	If all a person had was their memory, then the person would do the same things over and over.  Memory produces repetition.  Something more than memory is needed if an animal is to adapt, learn, and think.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	If one has too strong a memory, that is, if one's mind is monopolized by memory, then that person will have little room left for imagination and creativity.  That person will be locked into the rigid world of the unchangeable past.  However, a mind that is strong in all areas, and balanced among all areas, will make good use of a strong memory among all it's other strong abilities.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	If one neglects doing memory work then one may forget everything that happened to them.  (1) They will have no raw data with which to think.  (2) They will have nothing to hold them together.  They will be adrift.  They will be lost in the wilderness.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	If you remember better you will think better.  A better memory leads to better thoughts.  The phrase "better memory" meaning more memories.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	In every moment I am creating a memory.  Memory creation takes place in the present.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	In humans it does not make sense to talk about memory as distinct from thought.  To remember is to think.  To think is to remember.  Humans cannot remember without thinking.  Humans cannot think without remembering.  It may even be the case that the same neural pathways are used in thinking and remembering.	6/12/2005

Psychology, memory.	Information and memory.  We remember information.  Information can be recalled on any level of abstraction, from totally abstract to completely concrete.  For example, a mathematician can recall a math formula in the abstract, or she can recall the last time she wrote that formula on a chalkboard.  This notion implies that information is stored, or at least processed, at any level of abstraction.  We constantly re-process our memories and then re-commit them to memory, in order to survive, in order to be psychologically healthy, in order to learn.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Instant, willful, retrievable memory, versus random memories.	8/23/2005

Psychology, memory.	Interpretation of memories.  (1) There is no memory without interpretation of memories.  Each time we remember we re-interpret our memories.  (2) In this way, memory is like history.  History is an interpretive project.  (3) Memories and their interpretation is also analogous to sense data and perception.  Perception is the interpretation of sense data.  What do we call the interpretation of memory data?	11/18/2004

Psychology, memory.	Is a concept of time necessary for memory?  A concept of time is not necessary for memory because many animals have memory but are not wearing wristwatches.  What kinds of notions of time exist in which species of animals?  Temporal thinking, thinking based on time, is a basic type of thinking.  Now and then.  Before and after.  Now and later.  Once upon a time.	5/12/2007

Psychology, memory.	Is it possible to forget absolutely everything?  Is it possible to remember absolutely everything?	12/15/2004

Psychology, memory.	It could be that, through memory, the mind is constantly rebuilding itself.  When we remember one thing it triggers a train or web of memories of other things.  And each time we remember these things it makes the memory of them even stronger.  Against the constant fading of memories we have the constant remembering of memories.  Memory rebuilds the mind.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory.	Language and memory.  When we think using words, we remember the individual words, and we remember the grammar, but we think or create an entirely new idea.  Thus, thought is dependent on memory.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory.	Life is constant forgetting.  What seems obvious and clear today, you will forget given enough time.  Writing helps you remember.	7/31/2006

Psychology, memory.	Life is like a car ride, if you keep looking in the rear view mirror, you crash.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Lists.  Ideas to remember and boot up with daily.  (1) Morning affirmations.  (2) Your to do list.  (3) Remember positive emotions, in order to re-experience positive emotions.	12/1/2005

Psychology, memory.	Lists.  Things to remember.  (1) Remember what is most important.  (2) Remember your principles and the reasons why you hold your principles.  (3) Remember your goals.	12/1/2005

Psychology, memory.	Long-term memory.  Many psychologists use the terms "short term memory" and "long term memory".  They have spawned a brood of late-night infomercials that try to sell books on how to improve your short-term memory.  As if items in your long-term memory were locked in place forever.  I say that most long term memories are not permanent.  If you wait long enough you will forget even your long-term memories.  There are only a few experiences that most of us lump into the "I will never forget that" category.     (2) If it is true that most long-term memories are not permanent, then what are the techniques that humans have developed to aid their long-term memory?  One technique is oral story-telling, which has been used for tens of thousands of years.  Another technique to aid long-term memory is writing.  A third technique is the computer.  The computer is not just the same thing as writing.  The computer extends the capabilities of writing, just like writing extends the capabilities of oral story telling.  Two ways that the computer extends the capabilities of writing are through the use of hypertext and databases.     (3) I would like to make a point about hypertext and databases.  Many people have extolled hypertext because they say it mirror how our minds really work by using a web of associations.  This may be true.  However, we should also appreciate the database because it lets us work in a way that our brains are not accustomed.  To use an analogy, people appreciated a style of painting known as "realism" because it looks the way we see the physical world.  However, many people appreciate other artistic styles such as Cubism because they do not look like the way we see the physical world.  Computers not only do what our brains do, but they do it faster.  They also do what we couldn't even think of doing, and in that way they help change the way we think about the world.  Having changed the way we think by expanding our conceptions of what can be, computers then influence our oral story telling and our writing styles.     (4)  To sum up.  Long term memory is important.  Long term memory is not automatic.  It takes conscious effort to maximize the utility of long-term memory.  And several techniques, such as oral story-telling, writing, and computers, can help us better use our long term memory.	10/19/2000

Psychology, memory.	Long-term memory.  Most of your long term memory does not work on demand.  Most of the things that you are capable of remembering you cannot remember at will, but rather these things will come to you when you least expect it.  If, at any given moment, your momentary "memory on demand" is x amount, then your dynamic "all things ever capable of remembering" is 100x.  (2) Long term memory is important because it provides the raw material with which we make sense of our lives.  We are constantly rewriting our personal histories in light of the new knowledge that we obtain as we grow.  (3) The look of someone who has forgotten most of their long term memories is painful to see.  Luckily, the memories may be "in there somewhere".  Some people say we never forget anything.	10/19/2000

Psychology, memory.	Me and memory.  (1) My memory: chronological memory, structural memory, and importance memory.  What kind of shape it is in at any moment, at any age, and in long term.  (2) I learn slow and forget fast.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Memories of a life in which nothing happened.  What is that like?	6/15/2002

Psychology, memory.	Memory as "trace".	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Memory capability in humans vs. other animals.  Humans have conscious memory in addition to non-conscious memory.  Conscious memory is to know that you are memorizing, recalling or forgetting.  Most other animals have non-conscious memory.  Non-conscious memory is to not know that you are memorizing, recalling and forgetting.	6/2/2004

Psychology, memory.	Memory does not always operate "as it should" or as we would like it to.  For example, we often remember (seemingly) insignificant facts and events, and we often fail to remember significant facts and events.	2/6/2004

Psychology, memory.	Memory experiment with various media to see how repetition affects the ability to remember information.  (1)(A) You have four sets of media, consisting of numbers, texts, tunes and images.  The four sets of media are the same in terms of length, but different in terms of specific details.  You look at the first set of media once a day for a year.  You look at the second set of media once a week for a year.  You look at the third set of media once a month for a year.  You look at the fourth set of media once a year.  (B) For example, you have four sets of 100 random five-digit numbers (like zip codes).  You have four list of random words, each list 100 words long.  You have four sets of random images, with 100 images in each set.  You have four musical tunes, each tune being 100 random notes long.  (2) (A) You look at the first set of media (number, text, tune and image) once a day, every day.  (B) You look at the second set of media (number, text, tune and image) once a week, every week for a year.  (C) You look at the third set of media (number, text, tune and image) once a month, every month for a year.  (D) You look at the fourth set of media (number, text, tune and image) once a year, on January first.  (3) At the end of year how much will you remember?  (A) With what degree will ability to remember increase given more exposures and degrade given fewer exposures?  (B) Will the ability to remember vary depending on the medium (words, numbers, images, music)?  (C) What if the words, numbers, images and music are not random but rather exhibit some pattern; how would that make it easier to memorize?	9/4/2005

Psychology, memory.	Memory helps the organism survive.  Contrast memory in non-conscious animals with memory in conscious animals.  In conscious animals, contrast sub-conscious memory with conscious memory.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Memory involves memorizing, remembering, and forgetting, and all three go on all the time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Memory is a snapshot of the entire mind at any moment.  It includes senses, drives, emotions, thoughts, etc.  (2) And, in a similar way, we imagine about the future with our entire mind (sense, drives, emotion, thought, etc.).  (3) Memory and future thinking do not just involve thinking only.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	Memory is about memorizing, remembering and forgetting.  Memorizing with or without conscious intent.  Remembering with or without conscious intent.  Forgetting with or without conscious intent.	6/3/2004

Psychology, memory.	Memory is the basis for learning.  Memory is the basis for thinking.  The amazing thing is not that humans can think, but that humans can remember.  Thinking may just be a process of selecting from a group of distorted memories.  That is, if we have memory, and we have distorted memories, and we can remember our distorted memories, then we have to choose or select from amongst our distorted memories, and that makes us think.  Memory is the big trick, thinking is the little trick.     PART TWO. "The past, brought to you by memory."  Memory makes possible the past.  The past then makes possible the present and the future.  Without memory there is no present, there is only raw data.     PART THREE.  How low on the evolutionary ladder do you have to go to find an animal with no memory ability at all.  Pretty low.  An animal needs memory in order to find food and avoid predators?  Unless they have a hard-wired, instinctual algorithm that lets them do so without memory.	4/25/2002

Psychology, memory.	Memory is very important.  Our minds could not work without memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Most of the time we memorize experiences and knowledge without consciously trying, and we remember experiences and knowledge without consciously trying.  Only occasionally, in school for example, do we memorize by consciously trying, and do we remember by consciously trying.	11/20/2001

Psychology, memory.	One can contrast thinking about the past with thinking about the future.  It seems that thinking about the past (i.e., memory) is easier than thinking about the future.  It seems like hindsight is easier than foresight.  And thus, it seems memory could have evolved in animals much earlier than foresight.  (2) That is, if you define thinking as a form of consciously self-directed mental state, because if you define thinking as a non-conscious non-self-directed mental state then just about anything could be happening in the mind.  (3) Some people have many consciously self-directed mental states, and other people do not have many consciously self-directed mental states.  As a result, some people have many consciously self-directed memories, and other people do not have many consciously self-directed memories.	5/12/2007

Psychology, memory.	One view is that everything gets memorized and then everything gets either quickly or slowly forgotten.  Another view is that everything gets memorized and stays memorized.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory.	Pathological psychology and memory.  Abnormal psychology.  Optimal, health, sub-optimal, unhealthy.  (1) Psychological problems can reduce memory.  Repression destroys memory.  Depression destroys memory.  (2) Psychological health can increase memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	People good with numbers, words, music, images, etc.  Eight types of thinking (Howard Gardener) implies eight types of remembering.	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory.	People have memories that they are conscious of, and people also have subconscious memories that they are not conscious of, that roil in their subconscious.  If one's subconscious memories are associated with the emotions of anxiety, depression and anger, that can cause many problems.	6/14/2004

Psychology, memory.	Pessimists forget the good.  Optimists forget the bad.  Both are dangerous ways to live.  You need to remember the good and the bad.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Problems.  Drawing the wrong conclusions from an event.  Learning the wrong lessons from an event.	2/6/2004

Psychology, memory.	Pros and cons of memory (see past, present, future thinking).  (1) Pro: those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes.  (2) Contra: people stuck in thinking about the past.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Pros and cons of memory.  (1) Pro: we need historians.  (2) Contra: some people are stuck in past.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Psychotherapy and memory.  What is psychotherapy but new ways of looking at old memories?	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Recall (remembering) and forgetting are reciprocals.  The less you recall the more you forget.  The more you forget the less you recall.	6/2/2004

Psychology, memory.	Related subjects.  (1) Sociology: collective memory.  (2) Technology: memory techniques.  (3) History: history as memory, and memory as history.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Remembering facts of your life vs. learning the right lessons, drawing the right conclusions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Sensation and memory.  Sensations last a split second.  After a split second its all memory.  Memory is thus more important than sensation.	6/13/2004

Psychology, memory.	Sense and memory.  Are humans constantly sensing their environments?  Or, do humans merely remember their environment until there is a change in the environment that triggers new sensing or scanning of the environment?  It certainly seems like it takes less work, less energy, to hold a memory than to constantly re-scan or re-sense the environment every nanosecond.  Also, most of the time, most aspects of our environment are unchanging, and so thus it would seem more likely that humans rely on a memory of their environment.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Sense triggers to help remember: Old places.  Old songs.  Old scents.  Old newspapers and magazines.  Old clothes.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Significance of memories.  (1) Do we say particular events in our lives are intrinsically significant?  (2) Or do we imbue the events of our lives with significance by creating and attaching meanings to them?  I say the latter.	2/6/2004

Psychology, memory.	Some authors are rememberers, for example, Proust and Kerouac.  Other authors are imagineers who think about the future, for example, sci-fi and fantasy authors.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Some people have a weak memory, and they need to work on their memory.  Some people's memory is too strong, and they remain stuck in the past.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	Some people have active minds, while other people have inactive minds.  Therefore, some people have active memories, while other people have inactive memories.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	Some thoughts on memory.  (1) A memory can be about anything we sense.  A memory can also be about any mental state, because we have memories of our thoughts and feelings about the things we sense.  We even have memories of memories.  We even have memories of our feelings about our memories.  Its a continual looping mechanism, with new layers added each time, like winding a spool of thread.  (2) Any memory can trigger any other memory.  You can get to anywhere from anywhere.  A web, mesh, net of memories.  Memory is fluid.  (3) Memory plus imagination leads to new mental states.  Memory is not like replaying a musical recording in that memory does not replay exactly the same way each time.  Is there any animal that replays its memories exactly the same way each time?  If not, then all animals have some form of imagination, which simply means altered memories.  (4) When we gain conscious self-directed control over our mental states, including our memories, thoughts, and emotions, then we can create even more new thoughts.	5/12/2007

Psychology, memory.	The ability to remember something instantaneously, without trying, at the moment that the information is needed, is a fantastic, often under-appreciated ability.  Its is so fluid and effortless that we often call it "knowledge" or even "consciousness".  (2) Two examples of under-appreciated memory.  A worker who remembers how to do his task at the moment he attempts it is "just doing his job".  Likewise, a person who remembers how to do all the tasks of daily life at the moment he attempts them is "just living".	6/25/2001

Psychology, memory.	The most important idea about memory is that people forget what is most important (if they ever figured out in the first place).	8/15/1998

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory: learning, deciding, planning, problem solving.  Memory and learning.  There is no learning without memory.  Memory and studying: studying is memorizing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) Attempts to reduce memory to thought: When you remember you are just thinking about a past event.  (2) Attempts to reduce thought to memory: When you think, 99% of the time you are simply remembering.  (3) I think the latter is more accurate.	3/1/2001

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) In general, the tendency is to try to reduce thought to memory because memory seems a more simple process than thought.  (2) However, one argument for reducing memory to thought is this: Humans never remember a thing the same way twice.  This phenomenon is analogous to the Zen koan that one never steps into the same river twice because the water you step into the first time continues toward the ocean.  And since we never remember a thing the same way twice, that means that each time we remember a thing we have created a new mental construct, and that new mental construct can be called a thought.  Each occurence of memory is a new thought.  Now all one has to do is to get the scientific community to accept this argument based on an analogy to a Zen koan.	6/2/2005

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) Memorizing without understanding vs. understanding without memorizing.  If, and when to do either.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) Memory can be defined as thinking with images and sounds (audio/video) rather than thinking with text or numbers.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) Memory is equivalent to thinking (about the past).  Memory is a type of thinking.  (2) Forecasting and planning is equivalent to thinking (about the future).  Forecasting and planning are types of thinking.	10/26/1999

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) Memory is just "thinking about the past".  Reduction of memory to thought.  (2) Goal planning is just "thinking about the future".  Reduction of drives/goals to thinking.  (3) It seems funny that we do not have a special word for the notion of "thinking about the present".  We just call it thinking.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) We know our memories.  I.e., We know what we remember.  (2) We remember what we know.  All our knowledge is remembered.  (3) So what is the difference between knowledge and memory?  There is no difference between knowledge and memory.  Knowledge (thinking?) and memory are the same.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) What is the relationship of memory and thought?  (2) What is the relationship of memory (past thinking) and goals (future thinking)?	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  (1) You are either remembering or learning and creating.  (2) Everything we can think of is either a memory or a just formed new idea.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  Anything you think about you have to remember first.  You have to first load the data from memory and then you manipulate the data.  Thus, all thinking starts with memory.	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  Deciding what you will learn and understand vs. memorize.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  How organized is your memory means how organized is your knowledge?  (1) Logical knowledge.  (2) Chronological memory.  (3) Priorities memories (goals memories, i.e. memories of future wants).	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  In order to remember something, you have to know about it in the first place.  Which means you either have to figure it out or find out about it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  Memory helps us figure stuff out.  We revisit an issue or topic over and over until a solution comes to us.  In this way memory and thinking work together.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  Memory is as important as IQ.  Genius has creative aspects vs. the memory aspects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  Regarding thinking with images.  That is, audio/video thinking, like a movie in your mind.  The two ways of thinking with images are to remember or to imagine.  Memory can thus be considered a form of imagistic thinking.	3/30/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  The opposite of memory or "thinking about the past" can be either "thinking about the present" or "thinking about the future".	2/8/2001

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  There are many types of thinking.  For example:  Future vs. past.  Abstract vs. concrete.  Imagined vs. real.  First hand vs. second hand.  Memory is real, concrete, first hand, past thinking.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  We remember past events and experiences.  However, we retrieve or recall facts (knowledge).  We say we "know" a fact, but don't we merely remember it?  Experience vs. booklearning, we can infer lessons from either.	3/29/2000

Psychology, memory.	Thinking and memory.  What explains genius?  Its not that geniuses think about a subject constantly (thinking here defined as mental creativity).  Its that geniuses remember in a specific mode constantly.  Geniuses remember in numbers, or words, or images, or music constantly.  Genius is about a mode of memory.  Some people are more inclined than others to remember a certain way.  For example, there are people who remember mostly numbers but not words, and there are people who remember mostly images but not sounds.	11/25/2001

Psychology, memory.	Those who forget about their needs.  Forget to eat.  Forget to sleep.  Forget to find a lover.	12/15/1998

Psychology, memory.	Three hypotheses about memory.  (1) We never forget anything.  (2) Whenever we think of something, we use all our memories of that thing in order to think.  (3) We don't learn from experience.  We learn from our memories of our experiences.	1/16/2003

Psychology, memory.	Time (past, present, future) and memory.  Memory = past thinking.  Planning = future thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	To improve the brain one must improve the memory.	5/15/2005

Psychology, memory.	To keep remembering something is to obsess on it?  Memory and its relationship to pathological obsession.	10/30/1998

Psychology, memory.	To some degree we consciously decide what is worth remembering and forgetting.  On the other hand, to some degree we unconsciously determine what is worth remembering and forgetting.	6/2/2004

Psychology, memory.	To what degree are memories arbitrary mental sparks caused by bio-chemical-electrical brain events like neurotransmitters, bio-electrical currents, etc.?	2/6/2004

Psychology, memory.	Triggers, cues and random memories.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	Two important memory skills.  (1) Immediate memory: To be able to remember something when it is needed.  (2) Constant memory: Background memory of who am I, where am I, and what am I doing.  This type of memory is the basis for consciousness, personality and self.	7/20/2001

Psychology, memory.	Two natural limitations on memory.  (1) We can't be remembering all the time.  If we were remembering all the time it would prevent us from processing ideas about the present and future.  (2) We can't remember everything at once.  It would be impossible to remember everything at once.  (3) How does the brain manage memory?  Firstly, how does the brain switch back and forth between remembering the past and thinking about the present and future?  Secondly, how does the brain determine what order we remember things?  Is there a memory prioritization module that determines which memories will come to mind, or, alternatively, is memory primarily a free association?  Do memories move from the unconscious to the conscious?	5/15/2004

Psychology, memory.	Two theories about memory.  (1) We never forget anything.  Everything we have ever experienced we have access to.  (2) You can remember something one day and yet not remember it the next day.  People forget things.  (3) Which of these theories is correct?  What explains the phenomena of forgetting something and then remembering it years later?	5/15/2004

Psychology, memory.	Two types of memory.  (1) Raw memory is like the uninterpreted numerical data of a science experiment.  (2) Processed memory is like the interpreted numerical data after an experiment is analyzed.  (3) We interpret everything.	6/15/2002

Psychology, memory.	Types of memory.  (1) Intentional recall.  Remembering through conscious effort.  (2) Unintentional recall.  Remembering without even trying.	12/15/2004

Psychology, memory.	Types of memory.  (1) Memory of the input of the five physical senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, smell.  Sense memory.  (2) Memory of abstract concepts, especially as represented by individual words.  Word memory.  (3) Memory of the sentences you speak to yourself when you think.  Sentential thought memory.  (4) Memory of the pictures you imagine.  Imagination memory.	5/22/2005

Psychology, memory.	We are constantly in the process of making memories.  Are we making good memories or bad memories?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	We need to remember different things at different times in our lives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	What good is memory?  Memory helps provide cohesion for the personality.  Memory helps provide a structure or framework for the ego.  Memory helps provide an identity.  Without memory the person can spin apart into a nervous breakdown.  That is why it is important to record your history in addition to just doing your Notes.  Do them both.	9/25/2000

Psychology, memory.	What if one entered a state of non-stop cascading memories?  Does not part of our mind order our memories, classify our memories, and interpret our memories?  Thought, emotion, and memory are inextricably linked and go on at all times.	3/22/2007

Psychology, memory.	What is memory?  Why improve memory?  How improve memory?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	What is the mechanism of memory?  That is, what is the mechanism of memorizing, remembering and forgetting?  (1) Memorizing.  The more one repeats or reminds the more one memorizes or commits to memory.  (2) Remembering or recall.  The further back in time the event the less we recall an event.  The more ordinary the event the less we recall the event.  (3) Forgetting.  The further back in time the event the more we forget the event.  Forgetting is not on/off, rather it dims gradually.	6/2/2004

Psychology, memory.	What kind of scientific experiments could one design to investigate memory?  (1) A simple experiment would be to see how much people can remember.  Test a bunch of people and see what the average is.  Test word memory, number memory, musical memory, geographic memory, and individual temporal historical memory.  (2) Measure the memory ability of animals.  Some animals, for some tasks, have better memory than humans.	5/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	What to remember about X, should be "the most important ideas about X".	1/25/1998

Psychology, memory.	What.  Memory is a human capacity that is the basis of all knowledge.  Memory is very important.  Two points (present and past) are needed to form a line (to plot the future).	04/12/1989

Psychology, memory.	Why does Audrey remember only good (pleasure)?  She is an optimist.  Why do I remember only bad (pain)?  I am a pessimist.	09/20/1993

Psychology, memory.	Without memory we would be stuck in the present, like animals.  How well do animals remember?	12/30/1992

Psychology, memory.	You can think of memories as making copies.  Making copies.  Sort of like the Saturday Night Live skit about a photocopy machine clerk.  Sort of like the way you can copy a file on your computer.	3/11/2007

Psychology, memory.	You don't have a memory of an event, you have a memory of your perception of an event.  You have a memory of you attitudes about your perception of an event.  You can change your attitudes about your perception of an event.  You can improve your attitude about an event, in the direction of health, truth and justice.  Your attitude about an event can change for the worse, so don't let that happen.	4/16/2006

Psychology, memory.	You remember something one day but not the next day; what accounts for this phenomenon?  In the same way that we have thought trains, chains, webs, we also have memory trains, chains, webs.  That is, much like one thought triggers another, one memory triggers another.  Yet we also have seemingly random memories.  The subconscious brims with memories, emotions and thoughts.	11/30/2005

Psychology, memory.	Your total memory is everything you can remember.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	.This section is about attention.  Topics include: ( ) Attention.  ( ) Focus.  ( ) Interest.  ( ) Concentration.  ( ) Consciousness and attention.  ( ) Thinking and attention.  ( ) Sense and attention.	1/24/2006

Psychology, mind, attention.	(1) Consciousness and attention.  Does one have to be conscious to pay attention?  (2) Thought and attention.  Does one have to be thinking to pay attention?  (3) Sensation and attention.  At the very least one has to sense to pay attention.  (4) We either attend to the internal world of our minds or we attend to the external world of our senses, including senses about our body.  Anytime you are attending to something that is not there in front of you, you are attending to the internal world of the mind.	5/28/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	(1) Is it possible to talk about attention apart from consciousness?  Or should we say that simple animals have simple forms of attention and simple forms of consciousness?  (2) Is it possible to talk about attention apart from thinking?  Or should we say simple animals have simple forms of attention and simple forms of thinking?  (3) How does the concept of attention differ from the concepts of sense and perception?  I can be sensing one thing and thinking of another thing via the process of attention.	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	(1) To a certain degree we can control our attention, and this is a freewill aspect of consciousness.  (2) To a certain degree our attention is not within our conscious control, for example, one's attention can be captured if an unbelievably loud or incredibly close object looms in front of us, even if that object is not particularly interesting.	5/30/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	(1) What feats are capable by people with above average attention ability?  Do they acheive above average attention to detail?  (2) How is above average attention ability different from above average memory ability?	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Are attention, focus and concentration issues of consciousness, and thus should be moved to the consciousness section?	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) defined as being unable to concentrate relative to the average person.  (2) ADD defined as being unable to concentrate enough to make a living.  (3) ADD defined as being unable to concentrate enough to enjoy life.	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention to movement vs. stillness.  Sound vs. quiet.  Something vs. nothing.  (1) Our attention is captured by movement because we animals evolved that way, but important answers come to us in stillness.  (2) Our attention is captured by sound because we animals evolved that way, but important answers come to us in quiet.  (3) Our attention is captured by something (objects) (especially bright shiny objects) because we animals evolved that way, yet nothing is also useful (for example, minimalism, voluntary simplicity, etc.).	8/28/2000

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention, interest, sense, perception.  (1) Sense, perception, attention.  (2) Interest (unconscious and conscious).  (3) Concentration, focus and distractibility.  (4) Boredom and fascination, curiosity, and apathy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention, perception and sense.  (1) In a simple way, if you are sensing it then you must be perceiving it, and you must be paying attention to it.  (2) In another way, our senses take in raw data, then our brains perceptive abilities form that raw data into a picture, and then we direct our attention to any part of that picture.  We can "tune out" some things and "tune in" or focus on other things.	6/10/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention, types of.  (1) Innate attention: things that capture our attention without our control.  (2) Learned attention: things that we learn to give our attention to or not.	5/15/2001

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention, types of.  Natural, chosen vs. forced.  Momentary vs. long term.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  (1) We focus our attention on things that interest us.  Things that don't interest us fail to hold our attention.  (2) Attention is the direction of our senses onto things, and also the direction of our minds onto ideas.  (3) What interests us?  Things we need and desire.  Things we enjoy.  Things we feel important.  (4) Sometimes we pay attention to things that do not interest us, like our jobs.  (5) Attention is a concept often used in discussions of consciousness.  (6) Things that fail to hold our attention we deem boring.  Things that capture our attention we are curious about or interested in.  (7) Related terms: Fascinating, enthralling, compelling.  Boring, stultifying.  (8) Sustained attention to ideas is a feat necessary for advanced thinking.  However, some people can only pay attention to what is in front of their faces.  (9) How is attention related to perception and the senses?  (10) How is attention related to obsession and attention deficit disorder?	6/14/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Definitions of attention.  (1) Attention as things you direct your senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) toward.  (2) Attention as what you direct your mind toward.	5/15/2001

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Duration of attention.  Fast and slow cultures.	11/17/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Hearing without listening.  My wife was talking, but I did not hear a word she said.  The music was on, but I was reading.	04/24/1997

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  In a culture that does not let us sit still, how can attention deficit disorder be a disease?	1/25/2000

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Levels of awareness: unconscious to conscious.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Most people live their lives like dazed drivers on the highway, only occasionally "coming to", only rarely grasping their life situation.  When they do snap out of the trance or fog, they call it artistic inspiration, Zen enlightenment, flow, or peak experience.	02/01/1994

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Problems with attention.  (1) Some people's attention is captured by whatever is in front of their faces.  These people lack the ability to focus on anything beyond their immediate environment.  (2) Attention deficit disorder.  Inability for sustained attention.  (3) Absent mindedness.  Inability to attend to immediate environment.  Lost in thought.  The opposite of problem 1.  (4) Tangent mania.  Inability to follow a train of thought.	11/17/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Two cases.  When you attention is captured by something vs. when you direct your attention toward something.	6/10/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  Types of attention.  (1) Attention can shift from one thing to another.  This is a low level function that enables animals to scan their environment.  (2) Humans can consciously and intentionally shift their attention from one thing to another.  In addition, humans can shift their attention from the physical world to the mental world of memories, emotions and thoughts.	11/17/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Attention.  What captures our attention?  Things we think are interesting capture our attention.  Things we think are important capture our attention.  Things we enjoy capture our attention.  Things we think are problems to be solved capture our attention.  Things that get in our view capture our attention.	11/17/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Curiosity, a definition.  If you have a great curiosity then you find many things to be very interesting.	5/30/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Distractibility.  (1) Causes: what distracts a person, and doesn't.  (2) Level of a person: how much, how soon distracted, how long for.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Distractions and distractibility vs. single mindedness and focus.	04/30/1993

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus and drive are contingent on perception of importance, urgency, goodness of act or thing, usefulness, pleasure, wants/desire/needs.  I.e. ethics: values, priorities.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus means intensity and duration of attention.  Focus as intensity of attention means not letting other things distract you.  Focus as intensity of attention means single mindedness.  Humans have the ability to multi-task, for example, to rub belly and pat head at same time.  Focus means single tasking, not multi-tasking.	11/17/2004

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  (1) Area of focus.  How wide or narrow.  (2) Direction of focus.  Sense of purpose or meaning.  Focus is directing your view.	06/01/1994

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  (1) Degree and intensity.  (2) Endurance and duration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  (1) Focus.  (A) Pro.  Hunkered down.  (B) Contra.  Blinders on, tunnel vision, one track mind.  (2) Open mind.  (A) Pro.  Exploring mind discovers.  (B) Contra.  Distracted, scatter brain, spread too thin.	04/23/1994

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  (1) Ultimate focus and concentration.  I love x.  I desire only x.  I see only x.  Only x exists.  Only x makes me happy.  X makes me very happy.  X is vitally important.  I want to do x and can do x.  X all day long.  I can't wait to do x.  Give me more x.  (2) No concentration.  I can't see or do x.	07/03/1994

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  (1) Unfocused.  (A) Contra: drifting in circles.  (B) Pro: wandering into new areas.  (2) Focused.  (A) Contra: blinders on.  (B) Pro: sticking to and solving problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  Do not focus on what you were, are, or will be (some imperfect thing).  Focus on what you want to be (ideal).  See yourself as what you want to be (ideal).  Do not let being realistic and practical destroy your dreams and visions.	06/10/1994

Psychology, mind, attention.	Focus.  I don't need rest so much as I need to renew focus, sense of importance, urgency.  Each day and over a life time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	How easily are you distracted?  How often and far does your mind wander?  The extremes are bad.  Someone who cannot be distracted puts themselves in danger.  Someone who cannot focus also faces problems.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest and curiosity.  (1) What destroys curiosity?  (A) Fear.  (B) Learned helplessness.  (C) Depression.  (D) School -- rebellion against forced learning.  (E) "My brain is full".  Better organization and storage lets you fit more in.  (F)  "I can't tell truth from lies".  Improving critical thinking skills makes you more open.  (2) What improves or encourages curiosity?  (A) Bravery.	02/05/1998

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest depends on (1) How important we think it is (vs. it actually is).  (2) Energy.  When you have no energy, due to hunger, over work, or lack of sleep, nothing interests you.  (3) Ability (potential, vs. actual), we are more interested in things we can affect.  (4) Competing things.  (5) Drives.  (6) Emotions.  Especially likes and dislikes ratios (for individual thing, and comparison of things), and reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest, a definition.  If you find something interesting then you have a desire to pay a lot of attention to it, either because you like it or because you think its important even if you don't like it.	5/30/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest, types of.  (1) Passing interest.  Interest fling.  Passing fancy.  (2) Enduring interests.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) Healthy interest means curiosity.  (2) Unhealthy interest means obsession, fanaticism, escapism.	09/20/1993

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (2) Desire vs. useful (ethics).  (3) Causes vs. effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) Interest: (A) New and novel.  (B) Challenging activities.  (C) Wants and needs.  Important.  (2) Boring: (A) Old and familiar.  (B) Easy and simple.  (C) Do not need it.	10/1/1998

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) Likes  vs. dislike.  (2) Curious vs. not.  (3) Fear vs. no fear.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) Phases are about interest.  (2) Interest is related to mood.  To say, "I am not interested in that", is akin to saying, "I am not in the mood for that".  (3) To some degree, we do not choose our interests and we cannot control our interests.  People often say of an interest, "It picks you, you don't pick it", or "Its in my blood".  (4) The keys are to (A) Try to broaden your interests.  Get a bunch of different types of interests.  (B) Develop your interests.  Make the most of them.  Do not stagnate.  Grow.  (C) To the extent that you are able to choose what you are interested in, consider what things are worth being interested in.  (D) Consider how what you are interested in relates to the big wide world.  Do not hide in your little world.	9/26/2000

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  (1) When does an interest turn into an obsession?  Ask a hobbyist.  (2) What, beyond OCD, can cause obsession?  Massive sublimation in the Freudian sense.	5/7/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  Change in interests (true interests) of a person, (1) For better (healthy) or for worse (unhealthy).  (2) How quickly, to what degree.  (3) Cause and effects on psychological and behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  Degree something did, does, or will impact the situation, or one thinks it could.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  Environment, experiences.  Thoughts, attitudes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  We are only interested in unknown things we are curious about.  The known has less interest.  Work/burn through your interests quickly.  Figure shit out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  What accounts for enduring interests?  What explains sudden obsessions that are just as quickly dropped?  What is a healthy interest?  When does an interest become pathological, in subject or degree?  What explains curiosity, disinterest, boredom, and interest change?	07/27/1993

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  What interests you, and what doesn't, and why does it interest you, or not?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  What interests you?  Most people are interested in the goals they want to achieve.  Some people are interested in the values they hold.  A few people have the problem of having no interests.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  What would you be interested in if you had a million dollars and didn't have to work for a living?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interest.  Why people find things (1) Interesting due to psychological needs (catharsis) or (2) Worthy of time due to development of personal ethics.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interests.  (1) Progression of my interests shows no pattern.  (2) Neither are interests predictable.  (3) I can't think or do anything I am not interested in.  (4) This makes living tough.  (5) What to do?  How to take advantage of my shifting, strong interests?	07/30/1993

Psychology, mind, attention.	Interests.  Rapidly changing interests.  One day X is interesting and Y is not interesting.  The next day Y is interesting and X is not interesting.  What could possibly cause this phenomenon?  What use is this phenomenon?  Perhaps this phenomenon produced the Notes.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind, attention.	Problems (see also pathological psychology).  (1) Sense, perception, attention.  (A) Too much attention, to unimportant things.  (B) Not enough attention, to important things.  (2) Interest (unconscious and conscious).  (A) No interests.  (B) Interests too broad, many vs. too narrow, few.  (C) Interests not practical.  (3) Concentration, focus.  (A) Can't concentrate on anything.  (B) Can't concentrate on important things.  (C) Can't concentrate on desired thing.  (D) Can't concentrate on some thing.  (4) Distractibility.  (5) Boredom.  (6) Fascination, curiosity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, attention.	Related terms: Focus, Attention.  Distraction.  Concentration.  Boredom and curiosity.  Frustration and perseverance.  Mental energy and fatigue.  Motivation.  Attention Deficit Disorder.	1/25/2000

Psychology, mind, attention.	Somehow in a situation we dub certain things "background" and certain things "foreground or focus of interest".  We are able to ignore the background music, conversations, etc.	9/30/1998

Psychology, mind, attention.	The fog.  Preoccupied.  Being somewhere else in mind, not in here and now.  Is it good or bad?  What is it a sign of?	5/20/1998

Psychology, mind, attention.	The simplest animals attend to their environments in simple ways.  The more complex animals attend to their environments in more complex ways.  Humans attend to their environment in their own human ways.	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, attention.	To "concentrate" on something means to attend to it completely for a long period of time.	5/29/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	.This section is about consciousness.  Topics include: ( ) Definitions and types of consciouness.  ( ) Freewill and consciousness  ( ) Self identity and consciousness.  ( ) Unconsciousness and consciousness.  ( ) Unified sensory image.  ( ) Evolution of consciousness.  ( ) Awareness, attention (see following).	1/24/2006

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) Consciousness defined as sensory awareness of the environment external to the body, and sensory awareness of the environment internal to the body.  (2) This is not a simple idea.  For example, with regard to the internal environment of the body, our brain monitors and controls our flow of lymph, and so the brain is in some way aware of the flow of lymph, but the person has no awareness that their brain is controlling their flow of lymph.  Humans do not say, "I sense that my lymph levels are low, so I better adjust them".  However, some things in our internal environment we do have some awareness of, for example, we sense the pain of a sprained ankle.  (3) If humans were aware of everything in their internal and external environment in the same way that our brains are aware of our lymph levels then our behavior would be automatic, unvarying and we would have no freewill.  This is the way insects behave, even the social insects like ants and bees.  (3) A similar situation can exist in regard to the environment external to the body.  We can imagine that some animals are aware of their external environment in the same way that the human brain controls lymph without the awareness of the person.  Humans are aware of their external environment in a different way than the way our brains monitor lymph levels.	5/22/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) Some humans think that humans are the best.  The best at destroying the world perhaps.  (2) Some humans think that the human mind is best, and think that human consciousness is best, but that is also a mistaken view.  (3) Human vanity and egoism is destroying the world.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) Some people distinguish between consciousness as awareness of environment versus consciousness as self awareness.  But if you can see your environment then you can probably also see your own body.  And if you can see your own body then you have some degree of self awareness.  So self awareness is included along with environmental awareness.  (2) Another factor is consciousness with language versus without language.  Humans have consciousness with language.  Other animals have consciousness without language.  Language lets you give yourself a name.  Language lets you put the label "I" on all the self awareness sensations that you have.	2/27/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) The more you can do, including thinking, the more conscious you are.  (2) The more freewill you have the more conscious you are.	5/15/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) There are many definitions of consciousness.  (2) For each definition of consciousness there are many types of consciousness.  (3) For each type of consciousness there are many levels of consciousness.	1/25/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) Thinking-based view of consciousness, language version.  Consciousness means being able to think, when thinking is defined as talking to yourself.  (2) Memory-based view of consciousness.  Consciousness means sensing your environment and storing information in memory for later recall.  A picture in mind.  (3) Freewill-based view of consciousness.  Consciousness means having freewill, not being an automaton.  (4) Self identity based view of consciousness.  Consciousness means having a concept of "I".  It means being able to recognize yourself in a mirror, which is something that humans, apes and dolphins can do.	5/23/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) What is consciousness?  There are various definitions and uses of the word "consciousness".  (2) Is consciousness the same thing as mind?  No.  Is a theory of consciousness the same thing as a theory of mind?  No.  Can there be minds that are not conscious?  Yes.  Can there be consciousness without a mind?  No.  (3) Is consciousness the same thing as intelligence?  Can there be intelligent minds that are not conscious?  Yes, animals that are intelligent but not conscious.  By "animals", I mean "non-human animals", since humans are one species of animal.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	(1) What would consciousness be like without language?  (2) What would consciousness be like without a sense of self?  (3) What would consciousness be like without freewill?  (4) What would consciousness be like without the unified sensory image of the "movie in the mind".	12/2/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	An animal that posseses image thinking could only be "body conscious" or aware of physical self.  An animal that possesses language thinking is more likely to be aware of its own mind.	5/27/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Any mental phenomena above instinct is conscious.  Animals that are not 100% instinct-driven are conscious to some degree.  Animals that are not 100% instinct-driven are capable of learning, which gives them a survival advantage.  Thus, consciousness emerges, and by this definition many animals are conscious, not only humans are conscious.	5/25/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Awareness, definitions of.  "Aware" as capable of reacting.  "Will" as capable of acting.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Awareness, definitions of.  (1) Unconsciously aware of both yourself and your environment.  All animals are aware of their environment on some level.  And all animals are probably unconsciously aware of themselves in the sense that they have a system of internal monitoring.  (This is a different use of the term "unconscious awareness" than the one Freud used).  (2) Consciously aware of environment but unconsciously aware of self.  There are perhaps many mammals that have this ability.  (3) Consciously aware of both yourself and your environment.  This can have two components: (A) Consciously aware of the mind.  (B) Consciously aware of the body.  This is what humans typically call "consciousness".  Dolphins, chimps, apes and a few other animals probably have this ability.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Consciousness defined as talking to yourself.  I.e., consciousness defined as interior monologue.  To define consciousness as talking to yourself is to equate consciousness  with language ability.  Some humans, namely infants, have not acquired language yet.  Are we ready to say that infants are not conscious?  No.  Or, to put it another way, are we ready to say that people who have quieted their minds of all thought, for example Zen monks, these people are not conscious?  No.	5/22/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Consciousness is not an "all or nothing" phenomenon that only humans possess.  Consciousness comes in degrees.  Many animal species are conscious, although not in exactly the same way that humans are conscious.	5/27/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Consciousness is not the only defining psychological trait of human beings, nor is it the most important psychological trait of human beings.  (1) Consciousness is not the only trait that humans seem to have more of than animals do.  There are also the traits of language, culture, thinking, tool making, opposable thumbs, long childhoods for learning, etc.  (2) Consciousness is not the most important trait.  I would much rather be aware of my environment than be self-aware (conscious) of myself.	5/27/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitions of consciousness.  PART ONE.  (1) The unified sensory image.  See also, Psychology, sense and perception.  The complete working of all senses together (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch).  The unified sensory movie, this is perhaps what we are conscious of, but it is not what consciousness actually is, or is it?     PART TWO.  Recognition of self.  The sense of self.  (1) The recognition of physical self.  See also, Psychology, personality, self.  (A) Recognition of the body.  You can see and feel your body.  You sense your physical self as a unified object.  (B) You can observe that you can control all parts of your body to some degree.  (2) Recognition of psychological self.  Observing that you have some degree of self control over your mental activities.  For example, you can decide what to think about.     PART THREE.  The recognition of social self.  Observing that there are other humans out there.  We are to some degree autonomous as individuals, yet we also interact socially.     PART FOUR.  Recognition of "natural" self: occurs when we observe the natural world and figure out that we are not rocks and trees.  When we experience and learn about nature we actually learn about ourselves too.     PART FIVE.  Recognition of our historical self: occurs as time goes by, a series of events and experiences occur, and we change from child to teen to adult to old age.  Our temporal self thus has three parts: the passage of time; the events that occur; and the change of ourselves.  Consider hypotheticals in which these three requirements did not take place.  In principle, time could pass without us ever experiencing any diverse events, which would be a strange phenomenon.  In principle, time could pass without us ever changing from child to old age, which would also be a strange phenomenon.     PART SIX.  All these types of selves interact.  Each type of self helps develop the other types of self.	5/25/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitions of consciousness.  PART ONE.  Definitions of "unconscious".  (1) Either "knocked out" or asleep.  (2) Freudian unconscious.  Repressed.  Buried.  Can't recall.  (3) Unaware of because your attention was not directed at it.  PART TWO.  Consciousness, definitions of.  (1) Opposite of 1 above.  Awake.  (2) Opposite of 2 above.  Freudian consciousness.  (3) Opposite of 3 above.  Paying attention to.  Focused on.  (4) Unified sensory image.  Able to talk about a perceived unified sensory image.  (5) Aware of self.  Able to talk about self.  (6) How is consciousness thus dependent on memory?  (7) How is consciousness dependent on language?	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitions of consciousness.  There are many uses of the word "conscious".  (1) Some people use the word "conscious" to mean the same as "having knowledge of".  For example, "Did you know the earth is round?"  "Yes, I am conscious of that fact.  I know that fact."  (2) Some people use the term "conscious" to mean the same as "paying attention to".  Consciousness defined as directed awareness.	6/14/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitions or levels of consciousness.  (1) Aware of the environment.  (2) The above plus emotion.  (3) The above plus ability to think.  (4) The above plus self consciousness.	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitions or levels of consciousness.  Three levels of consciousness.  (1) Focused: thinking.  (2) Conscious: Zen, ungrasping, day dreaming, experience, undirectedness.  (3) Unconscious: sleep, knocked out.	02/01/1994

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Definitons or types of consciousness.  (1) To be able to direct one's thoughts, to be able to say to oneself, "I can think about whatever I want.", requires words, language, and requires talking to oneself.  This is a component of consciousness.  (2) Another component of consciousness is the seemingly unified audio/video experience when all our senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) are working together.  This component is another aspect of consciousness.  One could even call it another definition of consciousness.  One could even call it another type of consciousness.  Many animals besides humans have the hardware to produce a unified sensory input experience.  So to that extent many animals may be conscious.  But, using the notion from part 1, to what extent are these animals able to talk to themselves about the movie that they see?	6/23/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Freewill and consciousness.  Conscious beings have some degree of freewill because they can control and direct their thoughts even if unable to take physical action.  Freewill implies a degree of responsibility.  Therefore, conscious beings have a measure of responsibility.	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Freewill.  If human behavior was automatic and unvarying then humans would have no freewill.  Freewill is necessary for the wide ranging thinking ability that language enables.	5/23/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	How important is consciousness?  (1) Is consciousness a cause or an effect of the other abilities of the brain, such as memory, emotion and thinking?  (2) Is consciousness a necessary ability for the other abilities of the mind to occur, such as memory, emotion and thinking?  Is consciousness a necessary and sufficient condition for the other abilities of the mind, such as memory, emotion and thinking?	12/14/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	How important is consciousness?  If humans can explain consciousness, then will that knowledge explain everything about the mind?  No.  How important is consciousness relative to other functions of the mind like memory, emotion, thinking and language?	12/14/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	I am a consciousness deflationist.  (1) Deflationary view of consciousness.  Consciousness is an effect or by-product of an animal having senses, memory, emotion, thought and language.  (2) Inflationary view of consciousness.  Consciousness is a cause, not an effect, of having senses, memory, emotion, thought and language.	1/25/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Language and consciousness.  An animal that has language ability, and that thinks by using language, has a different type and degree of consciousness than an animal that does not have language ability.	4/16/2006

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Language and consciousness.  Consciousness is merely the individual talking to self.  Consciousness is a by-product of the development of animal communication.	1/25/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	One could argue that consciousness is simply knowing a lot about your environment.  Simple animals know little about their environment and thus are not conscious.  Complex animals know much more about their world and thus they qualify as conscious.  Consciousness is knowledge, and knowledge is based on memory.  The more you know, the more conscious you are.	5/15/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Self identity and consciousness.  To be able to recognize yourself in a mirror is to have a sense of self identity.  Apes, dolphins and humans have this ability.  What is the relation between having a sense of self identity and being conscious?	5/30/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Self identity and consciousness.  To be able to refer to yourself by using your own name is a big step towards self consciousness.  When did this occur in ancient humans?  Do solitary animals name themselves or even have a notion of "me"?  Social animals might have need to name each other, and thus develop a notion of "me" in relation to others.	5/27/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Some people make a big deal out of consciousness because they think an entity is either conscious or not, and they think humans are conscious and the other animals are not.  However, there may be varying degrees of consciousness, and the other animals may posses varying degrees of consciousness.  In this light consciousness is not as big a deal.	6/14/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	There are many types and degrees of consciousness.	4/16/2006

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Traits supposedly limited to humans.  Consciousness, language, culture, thinking, tool making, thumbs, long childhoods, etc.  To what degree are these traits dependent on each other?  Can you think without language?  Can you be conscious without thinking?  (List all combos).	5/27/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Traits supposedly limited to humans.  Consciousness, language, culture, toolmaking, are traits possessed by animals besides humans (ex. chimpanzees).  Humans can do some things better than other animals, but other animals can do some things better than humans.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Types of consciousness.  (1) Sense = consciousness.  This is not a plausible a view.  (2) Sense + memory = consciousness.  This is a somewhat plausible view for a limited definition of consciousness.  (3) Sense + memory + emotion = consciousness.  This view is about as plausible as view number two.  (4) Sense + memory + emotion + thought = consciousness.  This is plausible view for non-human animal consciousness.  (5) Sense + memory + emotion + thought + language = consciousness.  This is a view of human consciousness.	1/25/2005

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Unconsciousness and consciousness.  Relation of unconsciousness to consciousness.  If we didn't have a conscious mind then our unconscious mind would be vastly different.  Consciousness is not a layer on top of unconsciousness.  Rather, unconsciousness is dependent on consciousness.  For example, the ability of the human unconscious mind to manipulate symbols, as expressed in dreams, is a result of the ability of the human conscious mind to manipulate symbols.  If this is true, then the unconscious minds of animals that lack consciousness are vastly different than the unconscious minds of humans and other animals that have consciousness.	12/7/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Unconsciousness and consciousness.  The subconscious is even more wide ranging than the conscious.  And the subconscious is even more difficult to focus and direct than the conscious.  How to get the subconscious working for you to solve a problem?  (1) Strong conscious desire ("I really want this") can cause the subconscious to kick into gear.  (2) Long hours of conscious work can help convince the subconscious that "This is important", and thus get the subconscious to work.	1/7/1999

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Unconsciousness and consciousness.  What is the content, structure and mechanism of the subconscious mind?  Well, we can safely say that it is not as orderly as the conscious mind.  That is, if dreams are any indication.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Unconsciousnesss and consciousness.  When you are awake is your unconscious mind doing every brain function that your conscious mind does?  Sense, memory, emotion, thinking, and attitude?	12/20/1998

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	We are not conscious in real time.  There is a split second processing delay between when event occur and when we perceive them.	6/2/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Why are philosophers so amazed at consciousness?  Why are philosophers of mind so amazed that humans have a sense of self?  If humans can sense (see, hear, taste, feel, smell) that we have a unified body, and if we can observe that we have control over that body, then what is the big deal about having a sense of physical self.  Surely, many animals have a sense of physical self.	5/25/2002

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Why is consciousness important?  Can one "think" without being conscious?  If consciousness is a prerequisite for thought then consciousness is important.  If consciousness is not a prerequisite for thought then consciousness is not as important.  "Thought" meaning active thought used for communication, problem solving, decision making, etc., not passive thought like one does in dreams.	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind, consciousness.	Why is it good that there be in this world conscious animals like humans that can remember, feel and think?  Do conscious entities in the universe make the universe a better place?  That remains to be seen.  Conscious beings add meaning to the universe.  And one could argue that any increase in meaning is good.  Regardless, given that conscious entities exist, we should understand what is consciousness, we should understand how consciousness works, and we should understand the implications of consciousness.	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind, evolution.	.This section is about the evolution of mind.  Topics include: ( ) Animal minds.  ( ) Ancient human minds.  ( ) Modern human minds.  ( ) Future human minds.	1/24/2006

Psychology, mind, evolution.	(1) How did memory develop in humans?  How well do animals remember?  If they couldn't remember they couldn't be trained.  (2) How did emotion develop in humans?  Do animals have emotion?  Emotion is supposed to be one of the oldest parts of the human brain.  (3) How did reason develop in humans?  One IQ point at a time, I'm sure.  How well can animals think?	12/30/1995

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Ancient human tended to talk about concrete subjects rather than abstract subjects.  What is there to talk about when you don't (can't) talk about abstract ideas?  Basically you can talk about the weather and other people.  That is why gossip was (and is) so prevalent.  For hundreds of thousands of years we had nothing to do but gossip.  We talked about how people looked and what they were wearing.  This is why fashion was (and is) so big.	10/1/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Ancient human's (1 million years ago) mind was very "here and now".  Ancient human's mind was very concrete, more like an animals.  Future man's thinking will span space and time.  That is, in terms of time, it will involve both more future thinking (planning) and more historical thinking (history).  And, in terms of space, it will involve more global world oriented thinking.  Also, future human's thinking will involve more abstract thinking ability in addition to concrete thinking ability.	10/1/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Ancient humans.  (1) To ancient man, the night, the darkness, was another world.  There was the world of day and the world of night.  So there were at least two worlds to ancient man.  (2) And the night was a thing.  The darkness was a thing.  It was alive.	9/21/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Ancient humans.  How could ancient man determine that a tree was not animate in the same way an animal was?  Or that a rock was not animate but a tree was?  Or that an animal was not conscious in the same way a human was?  What then was to stop ancient man from talking to animals, trees and rocks?  If several cavemen were conversing, would not they presume that the trees were listening, and would they perhaps even include the trees as participants in the conversation?	10/25/2001

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal mind.  What does it mean for an animal to recognize the sight of a predator?  Even a hard-wired, instinctual animal must have some kind of memory of a predator in order to recognize a predator.  And any specific predator approaching may be larger or smaller, or any variation in color, or approaching at any angle, so therefore the animal must have an abstract memory of the predator.  Thus, animals have abstract memories.  That is to say, animals have abstract thoughts, and animals have memories of abstract thoughts, that let them discern predators.  Humans are not the only species with abstract memories.	6/8/2005

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  (1) Are dogs conscious?  Do they not see and hear?  (2) Unconscious.  Knocked out and unaware.  (3) Conscious.  Awake.  Aware of the environment.  All animals are conscious in this respect.  (4) Human subconscious can do symbol manipulation, which dogs cannot do.  So dogs are not merely subconscious as some suggest.  (5) Self-consciousness.  Apes can recognize themselves in a mirror.  They have an "I" concept.  Dogs cannot recognize themselves in a mirror?	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  (1) Do dogs feel emotions?  Yes.  They cry when sad, wag tail when happy, and get angry at enemies.  (2) Do dogs think?  They can learn.  They can be trained or conditioned.  (3) Dogs are social animals and evolved from wolves.  Wolves live in packs and have social rules and hierarchies.  Therefore dogs have a super-ego?  Dogs have an id which is their drives.  Do dogs have an ego?  Do dogs have consciousness?  Do dogs have an unconscious?  Are dogs unconscious (in Freudian sense) all the time?  If you can make a dog neurotic or psychotic then they have an unconscious?	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  (1) Memory ability of various animals.  (2) Emotional ability of various animals.  (3) Thinking ability of various animals.  (4) Social ability of various animals.	11/20/2001

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Animals have minds with various abilities.  (1) Animal sensation.  Animals feel physical pain.  (2) Animal instincts.  Animals have instinctual behaviors to varying degrees.  (3) Animal emotions.  Animals feel emotions.  Animals feel simple emotions like fear, anger, sadness and happiness.  Animals feel complex emotions, like social emotions.  Animals feel emotional pain like fear, anger, sadness.  (4) Animal thinking.  Animals can think.  Animals can learn.  Animals can solve problems.  (5) Animal consciousness.  Some animals can recognize themselves in a mirror.  (6) Animal personality.  Its no mistake that people recognize personalities in their pets.  Its not mere anthropomorphizing.  (7) Guess what, based on the above, animals deserve rights.	6/5/2004

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Animals, either completely or to a degree greater than us, are stuck in the present, without any awareness of the past or future.	10/31/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Ants are social.  Ants are aggressive, but that does not mean they have emotions.  Do dogs have emotions?  (2) Dogs seem to have personalities.  Personality meaning enduring behavior?  (3) Dog breeds.  Dogs are all the same species.  Breeds are like races.  Is one breed smarter than another?  No.  Ants are of different species.	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Do animals have emotions?  If emotion is more basic and primal than thought, as far as the area of the brain in which it occurs, and if animals think (which they do), then animals must have emotions.  We know that animals have drives and memory.  Animals therefore have all the basic mental building blocks (drive, memory, emotion, and thought).	1/20/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Drive, memory, emotion and thought in insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals.	5/17/2002

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Is it unethical to keep apes in cages in the zoo?  They are prisoners.  They think and feel.	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Levels of animal thinking.  (1) Symbol recognition.  Like in apes.  (2) Conditioning.  "Learn" to perform a behavior on cue to get a reward or to avoid punishment.  Learning is thinking?  (3) Instinct is something you are born with.  Rats are not born "knowing" to press buttons for reward, so it is not an instinctual behavior as some suggest.  (4) Drive is an urge.	9/20/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animal minds.  Thinking in animals.  When does animal mentality go from being hard wired instinct urge (unchangeable) to thinking learning (changeable)?  (2) How do instinct and learned thoughts behaviors mix and influence each other?  (3) What are some basic animal thoughts?  Food.  Sex.  Fight or flight.	12/26/2003

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Animals and man.  What separates man from the animals?  Nothing separates man from the animals.  (1) Technology does not separate man from the animals.  There are animals that use tools.  For example, there are chimps that peel sticks to get termites.  (2) Social organization does not separate man from the animals.  There are many social animals.  For example, the herd animals of the African savanna, such as zebra, wildebeest, etc.  (3) Communication does separate man from the animals.  Many animals communicate with calls of various types.  (4) Symbolic communication does not separate man from the animals.  Dolphins and chimpanzees have been taught to use symbolic communication.  And there have even been cases where chimpanzees have taught this symbolic communication to their young.  (5) Thinking and emotion do not separate man from the animals.  Animal researchers have shown that animals have emotions and animals can think.  (6) Politics does not separate man from the animals.  Animals have power hierarchies.  For example, the wolf pack.  (7) The point being, the differences that separate man from the animals are differences of degree, not differences of kind or type.	5/9/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Before writing, humans thought without letters.  Before language, humans thought without words.  Before language, humans thought with pictures and sounds.  More like a movie without dialogue.  Also, more emotion because less word thought.  Also, more sensation because less word thought.	8/4/2004

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Being subject to old ideas vs. creating new ideas.  There may have been a point in humankind's past (maybe 100,000 years ago) when humans were subject to their own ideas.  Our minds ruled us.  We had no rein on our brains.  We just "followed orders" from our brains.  There was little ability to "see or hear oneself thinking".  There was little ability to criticize one's own thinking.  And most importantly, there was little ability to think creatively.  This mental state may have been what kept human culture static for thousands of years.  At some point in our evolution, humans developed the ability to take control of their own thinking, and at that point humans began to think creatively, with a resulting rapid development of human culture.	12/30/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Change and development.  Evolution, stagnation and devolution.  (1) Speed, rate, and degree of change.  (2) Cause and effects of change.  (3) Short term vs. long term: speed to enact change.  (4) Temporary vs. permanent: how long change lasts.  (5) Natural changes vs. manmade changes.  (6) Self creation vs. self destruction.  (7) Total, and parts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Consciousness.  Learned consciousness.  Hundreds of thousands of years ago there may have been humans who gained consciousness who then literally helped other people gain consciousness.  That is, there may have been cases where consciousness was learned.  Sort of like the case of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller, except without the blindness and deafness.  (2) These cases of learned consciousness may have started quite early in modern human history, perhaps as early as five hundred thousand years ago.  These cases of learned consciousness may have continued quite late in human history, perhaps as late as a thousand years ago. (3) For example, Plato may have been speaking about achieving consciousness when he proposed the cave analogy  There may have been cases of members of a tribe "waking up" or making conscious other members of a tribe. (4) Any development of our mental abilities is an increase in consciousness, or a "consciousness raising".  We tend to think of the evolution of human mental abilities as a slow, gradual process.  But there may have been some situations where it was like turning on a light switch.	11/18/2004

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Development of human mind (individual and humankind).	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Development of human species (see here).  Development of specific individuals (see psychology, physical, age)	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Development of humans mind and behavior by functional elements.  Memory, thinking, speaking, which came first and when?  How did they affect each other?  What was the rate of development?  Where are we going?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Dreams and the evolution of the human mind.  (1) At what point in human evolution did humans begin to understand that dreams are "not real" and that time spent awake was "real".  The distinction between "dreams" and "reality" may not have been as obvious to early humans as it is to humans today.  (2) How did dreams contribute to the development of human thinking?  After all, the big question is, "Was it real or was it a dream?"  At what point in human evolution did humans question their memory as to whether what they remember is a dream or not?  (3) What role did dreams play in the development of human imagination?	10/18/2004

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Evolution of the mental.  (1) The first animal nerves.  (2) The first animal sense organs (specialized nerves).  (3) What can insects do?  How do we know?  (4) What can mammals do?  How do we know.  How well can dogs think?  What can chimps do?  How do we know?  What can dolphins do?  How do we know.  (5) What can humans do?  How do we know?  When did we develop the capacity?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Evolution.  Is human evolution proceeding at the same rate as animal evolution always had (slow)?  Is a human being today essentially the same as a human being 10,000 years ago?  (1) No.  Because humans can consciously pick mates based on intelligence, mental health, etc.  Animals are not as picky.  (2) Humans alter (improve) their environment.  Humans are able to create a more challenging environment where the smarter thrive and get selected.  Animals do not create a more challenging environment.  (3) So the hope for faster evolution of humans exist.  Thus the hope for more ethical humans exists.	3/30/1998

Psychology, mind, evolution.	First naming.  First question.  First lie.  First statement (simple, complex).  First induction, and first deduction.  By subject areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	From bone, muscle and skin ancient man got the notions of structure, mechanism and surface appearance.	3/1/2001

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Future man is similar to healthy human, mature human, and genius human.	10/1/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	How did human social development (political development, work organization.) affect human psychological development, and visa versa?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	How we evolved as information gathering beings.  If something is happening then I better pay attention to it (ex. friend or foe person approaching, predator or prey animal approaching).  Especially if something new and different is happening that we have never seen before and that we cannot use standard operating procedures for.  This is the basis of curiosity.	5/29/2001

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Human abilities:  Consciousness.  Self-conscious.  Intention.  Free will.  Aware of past, present and future: memory, and hypothetical thinking.  Use of language.  Emotion.  Ethical sense.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Human evolution.  Why camp fires smell good to us.  Over a hundred thousand years of evolution, those people who hated the smell of campfires stayed away from campfires and froze to death.  Those people who liked the smell of campfires huddled close to them and survived from the warmth.	9/15/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	I believe that humans, through natural evolution and cultural evolution, are becoming more ethical, more intelligent and more sensitive.  I believe it is a race to see if this progress will occur at a rate fast enough to prevent us from destroying ourselves through overpopulation, environmental destruction, warfare, etc.	1/19/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Let's talk hypothetically about the psychological traits of ancient primitive humans (say 1 million years ago), and compare them to modern humans, and then extrapolate to imagine what future man may be like.  And let me be clear that in this discussion I am making no remarks about supposed variations within the human species, because I believe all modern humans have roughly the same potential.     (1) I am going to hypothesize that ancient humans had certain psychological traits.  In general, there was not as much going on mentally in ancient humans as there is in modern humans.  And if there was something going on in it was most likely a loop (get food...get food...get food...) or some type of auto-pilot mode (see notes on auto-pilot mind).     (A) Memory.  Ancient humans (1 million years ago) had poor memory ability compared to modern humans.  Ancient humans were more animal-like than modern humans.  And although animals have memory, we can argue that animals tend to "live in the moment" more so than humans, and thus have less memory ability than humans.  I also hypothesize that ancient humans had an especially poor memory for abstract ideas as compared to modern humans.     (B) Emotions.  I hypothesize that ancient humans were less emotionally sophisticated and less emotionally complex than modern humans.  This emotional simplicity resulted in an ethical simplicity (e.g. more savagery than today).  Even though it is generally agreed that all animals have emotions, I hypothesize that because there was less going on mentally in general in ancient humans there must have been less going on emotionally in ancient humans as compared to modern humans.     (C) Thinking.  I hypothesize that ancient man had relatively few ideas compared to modern humans.  These ideas repeated to himself over and over, with little variety, little change, and little growth.  This would help explain the stasis of human culture over tens of thousands of years.  Even though I do believe that animals think on some level, let us look at an animal like a cow or a dog, essentially food and sex are the only thoughts on their minds.     (2) Now lets try to imagine the traits of future humans (1 million years from now, should we not destroy the earth or each other in the mean time).  Some scientists say that humans are no longer evolving biologically.  However, humans may evolve on a cultural level, or humans may evolve with the aid of technology.  When we talk about the possible psychological traits of future humans we may gain insight by looking at the positive psychological traits that we work toward acquiring in our lifetime and then imagining that perhaps in the future humans may indeed reach these ideals.     (A) Memory.  Future humans will have greater memory capacity and faster memory recall, especially for abstract ideas.  These greater memory abilities will allow for greater powers of thinking and greater speed of thinking, in a situation analogous to the way that more memory makes a computer faster and more powerful.     (B) Emotions.  Future humans will have a more complex, sophisticated and subtle emotional life than modern humans.  Their emotional sophistication will result in a greater ethical sophistication, since ethics has strong roots in emotional states such as empathy.  Emotional sophistication will also result in greater thinking ability, since the brain works as a whole with greater powers in one are (like emotion) can lead to greater powers in other areas (like thinking).     (C) Thinking.  Future man will have a huge number of ideas over the course of a lifetime.  The ideas will start at an early age and will not stop till death.  The ideas will be organized logically, that is, future man will possess a very logical, very organized body of knowledge.  We will see more ten year old children with Ph.D. level knowledge in many areas, not just in one or two areas like some adult PhD's have today.  These kids will do their notes in half the time and at half the age.  These kids will know more than us and they will figure out most of it themselves rather than finding out form the media.     (D) In general, future humans will have more active and more varied mental lives than humans of today have.  Future humans will make us look like bumps on logs.     (3) I may be totally wrong about all of this.  It may be that ancient humans (1 million years ago) had rich, varied, active mental lives just like we do today.  It may be that future humans (1 million years hence) will have no greater mental abilities than modern humans or ancient humans.  It is difficult to know with certainty.	9/28/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	One could argue that in human history the development of mental concepts came before the development of words.  Thus, the development of concepts is perhaps more useful and interesting to study than the development of words.  Here is a list of concepts and their possible associated physical gestures.  (1) Concept: Me.  Gesture: Hand points to self.  (2) Concept: You.  Gesture: Hand points to other person.  (3) Concept: World.  Gesture: Hand sweeps toward "everything out there".  (4) Concept: Mind, thought or emotion.  Gesture: Hand points to head or heart to refer to "me, inside".  (5) Concept: Body.  Gesture: Hand sweeps over body to refer to "me, outside".  (6) Concept: Slavery.  Gesture: Pantomime being caught or trapped.  (7) Concept: Freedom.  Gesture: Pantomime breaking free of a trap.  (8) Concept: Equality.  Gesture: Balances hands.  (9) Concept: Good or right.  Gesture: Happy face.  (10) Concept: Bad or wrong.  Gesture: Sad or angry face.  (11) Or, Concept: Good.  Gesture: flexing muscles to show strength, vitality and health.  (11) Or, Concept: Bad.  Gesture: Nauseous face and a weak shaky walk in order to show sickness or poor health.  (12) Or, Concept: Good.  Gesture: Kind, caring, gentle stroking.  (13) Or, Concept: Bad.  Gesture: Mean, aggressive, nasty face and lashing out motions.  (14) Many animals recognize the above concepts and gestures.  The above concepts and gestures are an early form of animal thought, emotion and communication.  Human thought, emotion and communication developed out of animal thought, emotion and communication.	5/11/1999

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Small, bright shiny objects capture our attention and the attention of many animals because small bright shiny objects are like eyes.  Small bright shiny objects are like small bright shiny irises.  They signal the approach of another animals, either friend or foe, either predator or prey.  In the natural world there are not many small bright shiny objects other than eyes, and the approach of another animal is very important, so we have a fascination with small shiny objects to this day, although today humans are able to manufacture small bright shiny objects like jewelry, trinkets and baubles.	4/19/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	The "Future man" view hypothesizes that there must have been a time in the past when adults acted like teens and teens acted like children.  The 1950's?	10/1/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	The brain was not designed in one clean sweep.  The brain evolved slowly.  The brain is a kludge, an assemblage, a mishmash.  The brain is a group of separate module patched together.  The brain is a group of layers pasted on top of each other.	5/12/2007

Psychology, mind, evolution.	The mind is the brain.  The most important idea about the brain is that it evolved.  The brain evolved.  The best way to understand the brain is by understanding the evolution of the brain.  The best way to understand the evolution of the brain is by understanding animal psychology.	3/27/2007

Psychology, mind, evolution.	The order of the evolution of mind in humans (sense, drive, emotion, thought) is also the order in which we experience the world as individuals.	4/21/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	There may be animals that only have the mental abilities of memory and emotion.  These animals have only emotions, and memories of emotions.  They have simple emotions.  Memories of pleasure and pain.  Memories of likes and dislikes.  No thought.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind, evolution.	To understand how the mind is built and how the mind works you should understand how it evolved and what it was built to do.  Understand eating, sleeping, and sex.  Understand the senses.	12/2/2001

Psychology, mind, evolution.	When we talk about ancient man (150,000 years ago), modern man (today) and future man (150,000 years hence), we can hypothesize that ancient man, modern children and modern adult neurotics are all at about the same mental level.  And to live one's entire life in this state is an incredible waste of human potential.  (2) Modern healthy mature humans are at another level.  (3) Future healthy mature humans will be at yet another level.  Genius traits (like those of Einstein, Ghandi, MLK Jr., Da Vinci and Aretha Franklin) will occur at much higher rates in the future population.  Genius as we know it today will be more common in the future.  And there will be the appearance of a few new supergeniuses with even greater abilities.  There will be much less wasted lives, which is a good thing.	10/1/2000

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Where are we headed.  What will humans be like in another 10,000 years, or 100,000 years?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, evolution.	Why is gambling popular?  It is not because humans find gambling to be exciting.  Rather, it is because humans are hardwired to find situations of uncertainty, risk and odds calculating to be interesting.  We are hardwired to find risk analysis interesting because it keeps us alive when we calculate the odds.	10/16/2001

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	.This section is about models and metaphors for mind.  Topics include: ( ) Body metaphor.  ( ) Computer metaphor.  ( ) Ecology metaphor.	1/24/2006

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body analogy: use it or lose it.	04/30/1993

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body analogy.  Mental pain of hard work is sometimes healthy, sometimes unhealthy, just like physical pain is sometimes healthy when you are pushing your limits, and sometimes unhealthy when you are breaking down your body.  The key is knowing which is which.  You don't want to avoid the good pain.  You don't want to engage in the bad pain.  In any case, pain is not always good, like some people say.  And pain does not always build character.	12/30/1995

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body analogy.  Your mind can get pumped up or burned out.	04/30/1993

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body metaphor is not just a metaphor.  The brain is a physical organ that requires energy and nutrition.  The brain is part of the body.	11/25/2001

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body metaphor.  (1) Power: quality and quantity ideas per time.  (2) Endurance: how long stay at a power level.  What your power curve looks like over time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body metaphor.  Body, muscle, exercise analogy.  (1) Use it or lose it.  (2) Get best equipment and tools.  (3) Do best exercise.  (4) Exercising to stay in shape vs. doing work.  (5) What weak part of body or brain do you want to or need to strengthen.  (6) Ideal: big, balanced and complete.  (7) You can get out of shape if you sit around.  (8) Takes time to warm up to best performance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body metaphor.  Getting in and out of shape mentally on a subject is like getting in and out of shape physically.	04/30/1993

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Body metaphor.  Mental endurance, mental strength or power, and mental flexibility is analogous to physical endurance, physical strength or power, and physical flexibility.	12/20/1998

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Car metaphor.  Is your mind a rusty race car that won't run or is your mind a well tuned compact car that takes you farther?  Mental tune-ups and mental customization should be America's new hobby.  Americans should pay attention to their minds as much as they pay attention to their cars, houses, etc.  After all, how many outdoor decks can we build?  Lets see a show on television called "This Old Brain".	7/6/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer analogy.  Mental breakdown (ex. depressive states where you become sick of your job) are analogous to computer disk crashes.  I am a high powered computer but I crash occasionally.	12/30/1996

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer analogy.  Need energy, fails with lack of energy.  Needs proper environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer metaphor.  If the brain is like a computer then there is a difference between: (1) Understanding the hardware, that is, understanding how brain nerves work, and (2) understanding how to use the software applications well, that is, knowing how to think productively.	8/7/2001

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer metaphor.  Most people walk around in screen saver mode.	9/13/1998

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer.  (1) CPU or IQ: capacity, speed, organization.  (2) Ram: working memory.  (3) Hardiness: stress.  (4) Down time.  Time not spent attacking problems vs.  Time spent attacking problems.  Methods used, progress made.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer.  Booting up principles: it takes time to warm up intellectually, emotionally.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Computer.  Some people have big RAM memory but small CPU processor.  They know facts but can't think for themselves.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Eating analogy: feed your head a varied, healthy diet of ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology metaphor.  A biology metaphor of the mind will include both the level of memetics and the level of ecology of mind.  Memetics is to ideas as genetics is to genes.  Memetics treats ideas like genes.  Ecology of mind is like ecology of the earth.  Ecology of mind studies the interaction of the various mental systems.  And just like in biology where we study genetics at the low level and ecology at the high level, so to in psychology we can study memetics at the low level and the ecology of mind at the high level.	11/23/2004

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology metaphor.  Diversity is healthy.  Lack of diversity is unhealthy.  Art is about diversity.  Thus, art is healthy.  However, science, philosophy and religion all sometimes have a tendency toward the "one right answer" attitude toward life.  They believe in one right answer, and they believe in one right method to find that answer.  The "one right answer" attitude toward life can often be counter-productive.	7/11/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology metaphor.  Diversity of thought is as important as biodiversity of living things.  Your mental eco-system and ecology is important.	4/11/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology metaphor.  Diversity.     PART ONE.  (1) Four types of diversity.  (A) Biological diversity: the diversity of life in an environment.  (B) Cultural diversity: the diversity of cultures in a world.  (C) Individual diversity: the diversity of individuals in a culture.  (D) Mental diversity: the diversity of attitudes in an individual.  (2) Ecology is about the relationship of elements in a system.  Diversity is an important principle in ecology.  So four types of diversity posits four types of ecology.  (A) Biological ecology: the interaction of all elements in the biosphere.  (B) Cultural ecology: the interactions of all cultures in the world.  (C) Individual ecology: the interaction of all individuals in a culture.  (D) Mental ecology: the interaction of all the attitudes in the mind.     PART TWO.  Lets talk about diversity as an important element of mental ecology.  Having a variety of attitudes available for use is key to mental health.  This is what mental diversity is all about.  It takes time to develop mental diversity.  Mental diversity develops in a series of steps.  (1) A person first develops one attitude.  I call this the "First thought, only thought." state of mind.  (2) Then a person recognizes that the opposite attitude may exist.  We can call this state "Black and white" thinking.  (3) Then the person sees that between the two opposites lies a spectrum of views.  We can call this "Linear" thinking.  (4) Then the person sees that rather than being a line, the real situation is more like a web.  We can call this "Three dimensional or holistic thinking".	7/11/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology metaphor.  Looking beautiful, attractive and cute is how many plants and animals try to stay alive (ex. Flowers, babies, supermodels, etc.).  According to the ecology metaphor for mind, there are ideas and attitudes that survive based on their cuteness.  Even if they are false or misleading.  That is not a good thing.  Examples.	7/4/2002

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology of ideas.  Why doesn't truth always come to light? Why does not justice always prevail? Because in the ecology of ideas of an individual or society, it is survival of the "most survivable" ideas, not survival of the truest ideas and the most just ideas.  The situation is akin to selection in nature, where it is not necessarily the smartest or most just animals that survive, which, incidentally, is why we are surrounded by weeds, roaches and pigeons.  The ecology of ideas has its own version of weeds, roaches and pigeons.	1/1/2002

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology of mind metaphor.  Psychopathology can be explained in terms of weakness of one area of the mind (example, drive, memory, emotion, thought, etc.) even if the other areas of the mind are strong.  Its a question of balance.	3/29/2002

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology of mind.  Ecology of ideas (or attitudes).  (1) Ideas depend on each other.  Its a web of ideas.  (2) Forgetting is like the extinction of an idea in the ecology of the mind.  Removing a key idea in a mental ecology, like removing a key species in a biological ecology, can cause a downward spiral of the ecosystem that can end in collapse of the ecosystem, also known as mental illness or nervous breakdown.  (3) Creativity is like a kind of Darwinian evolution of ideas, where ideas compete for survival, and the fitter ones survive.  Idea fitness means the idea is useful in helping you get goals.     PART TWO.  The above deals with the ecology of ideas in the individual.  There is also an ecology of ideas (or attitudes) in society.  An ecology of ideas amongst people.  We call these "memes".	11/25/2001

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology of mind.  Just like physical inbreeding, staying within a small social group can cause a form of psychological inbreeding which amounts to a stagnation of ideas.  Exposure to new individuals and new cultures can bring new ideas, which can widen the "gene pool" of ideas, which can be very healthy.	6/23/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Ecology of the mind.  Ideas compete with each other.	11/25/2001

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Evolution metaphor for ideas.  Does the evolution of ideas occur in the individual and in society?  Yes.  Does the evolution of ideas occur the same way in both the individual and society?  I would think differently.  (2) Do ideas compete for survival?  And do they thus become more complex?  Is it like an arms race?  Does it display "progress"?  (3) The development of ideas is not guaranteed.  (A) It is not a "natural" process.  It is not a random process.  (B) Many people devolve.  It takes work to evolve.  It is an intentional process.  It takes effort by a person to evolve.  (4) Do ideas really reproduce?  In an individual, one idea begets another.  In society ideas spread from person to person.  Do ideas really mutate?  If it does, is it the same idea?  Is it a random mutation, like in evolution?  No, its guided mutation.  (5) Do ideas die like living things?  In the individual, no.  In society, maybe.  (6) Do ideas ever "go extinct" like a species of living thing goes extinct?  In individual, and in society.  (7) Is there an idea equivalent of ecology?  Is it like a food chain that has a climax species at the top?  (8) Do ideas expand to fill niches?  (9) Do ideas follow strategies to survive, such as  (A) produce as many offspring as possible (ex. Insects).  (B) Produce smartest offspring possible.  (C) Produce offensive, aggressive offspring to kill others.   (D) Produce defensive offspring (ex. Armadillo).  (E) Produce longest lived offspring.  (F) Produce healthiest offspring.  (G) Survive anywhere under any conditions (ex. weeds, roaches, rats, humans).  Hardy.  Adaptable.	8/28/2002

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Fire analogy.  Some people minds are like wild fires.  Some people's minds are like lasers.  Some people's minds are like blocks of ice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Mental analogies list.  (1) Mind is like a fire.  (2) Mind is like the body.  (3) Mind is like a supermarket.  (4) Mind is like a computer.  (5) Mind is like mountain climbing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Metaphorically speaking... (1) Where do you come home to?  Where do you feel comfortable?  Where do you take your stand?  Vs.  (2) How often do you get out of the house?  Where do you travel?  How many suits do you wear?	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Mountain climbing metaphor.  A new idea is like a new route rockclimbing.  What hasn't been done?  Of that, what would be cool?  The more way out an idea is, the more chance it hasn't been done, and the less chance it will be done, unless you do it.	04/30/1993

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Mountain metaphor.  Higher altitude requires more effort for each step.  Tougher getting ideas as you go higher.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Supermarket analogy.  (1) Keep your mind well stocked, well ordered, working well.  Avoid over-stocking and under-stocking.  Avoid being unorganized.  Avoid a slow checkout.  (2) Do the best with the space you got.  Stay open 24 hrs a day.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	The head should not be the attic of the body, full of cobwebs, dust and seldom visited.	7/5/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	The mind, use it or lose it.  That refers not just to memory and intelligence.  It also refers to mental health.  If you don't use your brain, it can degenerate, and you can go nuts.  You can lose your mind much more easily if you don't use your brain than if you do use it.	02/09/1997

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	The SETI project metaphor for human thinking.  (1) Idle mips:  The SETI project searches for extra-terrestrial life by taking advantage of the computing power of thousands of idle desktop PC's.  In much the same way, we could take advantage of the processing power of millions of idle human minds by encouraging people to think.  Computers make it easier to make the most of human brain power by letting us record, organize and communicate our ideas more efficiently.  Idle human brain power is much more abundant, powerful and creative than idle computer power.     (2) Clustering:  Today, the way to build a super-computer is to link a hundred desktop PC's with clustering software.  In a similar manner, computers make it easier for humans to "put their heads together".  Computers allow increased inter-personal communication and group-work.  By clustering our heads together we are creating a human super-computer.	12/9/2000

Psychology, mind, models and metaphors.	Thermostat metaphor.  The mind has a feedback mechanism.  You are aware of your environment.  Your mind monitors the environment and then responds to changes in the environment.	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind.	.Introduction or sum up mind.  (1) Evolution of animal minds and human minds.  (2) Nature, hard-wired, genetic influences on the mind vs. nurture, learning, malleable influences on the mind.  (3) Consciousness vs. unconsciousness.  (A) Freud's definition of the unconscious and conscious mind.  (B) Modern neurobiology's view of the unconscious and conscious mind.  (C) Conscious as awake and aware vs. unconsciousness as unawake or knocked-out.  (4) Physical body vs. psychological mind.  How they affect each other.  The mind-body connection.  (5) The study of the mind.  (A) Folk views of mind.  (B) Philosophy of mind.  (C) Science of mind (psychology).  (6) Anatomy and physiology of the brain.  Structure and function of the brain on a micro-level and a macro-level.  (7) Entire mind.  "Minding".  Sense plus memory plus emotion plus thought.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind.	.Introduction or sum up of topics of mind.  (1) Consciousness and unconsciousness, and the connection between them.  (2) Mind body connection.  (3) Semantic content, symbolism and representation.  (4) Freewill vs. determinism.  (5) Nature vs. nurture.  (6) Modularity of mind.  (7) Functions of the mind.  (8) Language and the mind.  (9) Split hemispheres.  (10) Triune brain theory.  (11) Animal minds.  (12) Child minds.  (13) Damaged minds.  (14) Evolution of the human mind.  (15) Science of mind.  (16) Philosophy of mind.  (17) Emotions and brain.  (18) Senses and brain.  (19) Rationalism (deduction) vs. empiricism (induction).  (20) Artificial intelligence, robots.  (21) Extraterrestrial intelligence.  (22) Brain (physical object) vs. mind (mental phenomena).  (23) Self recognition, self reflexive thinking.  (24) Freudianism, Behaviorism, Cognitive Science.  (25) Brain as computer, computational mind.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	.This section is about the concept of mind.  Topics include: ( ) Brain.  (Neurology).  ( ) Computer and mind.  Artificial intelligence.  (see also Technology).  ( ) Content.  ( ) Head.  ( ) Mind and body.  ( ) Nature and nurture.  ( ) Philosophy of mind.	1/24/2006

Psychology, mind.	"Getting out of the house".  Changing your mental viewpoint in order to avoid mental inertia and calcification.  To gain experiences.  How to do it?  Changing physical location is one way.	05/10/1997

Psychology, mind.	(1) A memory is stored data.  How do nerves store data?  (2) Remembering and thinking are actions or functions that involve the transmission of information.  How do nerves transmit information?  (3) Memory may be transmission of information along an old path.  Thinking may be transmission of information on a new path.	8/7/2001

Psychology, mind.	(1) Developing mind.  Taking time to think your own thoughts.  (2) Losing mind.  Having work, school, girlfriend impose thoughts on you, or take away your time for thinking.  Forgetting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	(1) Free, wild, thinking for selves vs. (2) Unfree, capped, limited, molded, unquestioning acceptance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	(1) Having knowledge without ability.  (2) Having ability but not opportunity (environment factors).  (3) Having all three.  (4) Having none of three.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	(1) Instinctual, spontaneous.  (A) Pro: free.  (B) Contra: no planning.  (2) Deliberate, repressed.  (A) Pro: planning.  (B) Contra: rigid, no creativity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	(1) Organization vs. disorganization.  (2) Integration vs. disintegration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	(1) The brain is made of neurons.  (2) The content of the brain is data and operations.  The data is stored as memories in neurons.  The operations are also stored as memories in neurons.  For example, in language, the vocabulary is stored in memories and the grammar is stored in memories.  (3) It can't be the case of one neuron per memory.  The data must be a combination of neurons, or a path of neurons.  (4) How to devise a technology that can observe the brain without interfering with the brain?  How to observe the paths of neurons that fire when operations are performed on data?  How to separate data from operations?  How to download the brain to a computerized model and then run experiments?	12/6/2005

Psychology, mind.	(1) We can "re-wire" our brains through behavioral and environmental changes.  (2) Adults can grow new brain cells and brain cell connections.  (3) These are very empowering, pro-active views.	4/23/1999

Psychology, mind.	(1) What if someone consumed the same books, movies, music and art at the same ages I did?  How similar would we be?  (2) What if I never consumed any books, movies, music and art?  What if I had no experiences?  What would I be like?	3/29/2002

Psychology, mind.	(1) What is the structure or anatomy of the brain?  (2) What is the mechanism or physiology of the brain?  (3) How does the brain develop?  How to improve the brain?  (4) What can go wrong with the brain?  How to fix the brain?	12/5/2005

Psychology, mind.	A new type of thinking would be cool.  A new type of symbol would be cool.	6/28/2000

Psychology, mind.	An argument.  (1) There are no cultures, there are only individuals.  (2) There are no individuals, there are only multiple-personae or multiple-selves.  (3) There are no personae or selves, there are only attitudes (ideas and emotions) that bounce around and interact.  (4) So what can we now hang our hat on?  How will we feel secure?  Some people only feel safe in a pre-made mind that is like a fortress castle.  But it now looks like the mind is a handmade, light, portable, mobile, flexible, and adaptable like a tent.	8/18/2000

Psychology, mind.	Analysis of an individuals mind.  (1) Momentary vs. long term.  (2) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (3) Causes and effects.  (4) Conscious vs. unconscious.  (5) Problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Brain and body.  Brain without body vs. body without brain.  Which is worse?	11/30/1996

Psychology, mind.	Brain and body.  Where do we draw the line between physical and mental?  Brain and its chemicals are physical.  Thoughts and emotions have physical causes, but are they physical things?	01/01/1997

Psychology, mind.	Brain.  (1) How much of brain activity is purely random?  Current theories suggest that dreams are the result of random brain activity.  Perhaps when a thought "pops into our heads" this is also the result of random brain activity, and not the result of the Freudian unconscious as many attribute it to be.  (2) In the past much progress was made by viewing the mind in mechanistic terms.  But the mechanistic model does not deal well with the random aspects of brain activity.  Machines are seldom random.  Take a car engine, for example, which is a precisely tuned machine.  The less randomness in a car engine the better.  If you think of the brain in these terms you may not appreciate the random aspects of brain activity.  For example, a mild bio-electrical discharge in the brain, or a mild bio-chemical shift in the brain, may trigger a string of random thoughts and emotions.	7/16/2000

Psychology, mind.	Brain.  (1) How much of the brain is devoted to symbol content and its storage?  (2) How much of the brain is devoted to operations, functions, logic, thinking.  (3) How much of the brain is devoted to physical connectivity, transfer, transportation?  How much of the brain is (A) empty but potentially useful space,  and (B) empty and useless space?  (5)  How much of the brain is devoted to senses, drives and emotions?	6/25/2000

Psychology, mind.	Brain.  How much of brain activity is electrical?  How much of brain activity is chemical?  How much of brain activity is something else?	7/16/2000

Psychology, mind.	Building the mind.  (1) Pick components: Selection of concepts.  (2) Order components: Organization of concepts.  Creation of categories.  (3) Interaction of components: Mechanism of logic rules.	5/30/1998

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  (1) Making the brain more like a computer:  Implant silicon chips in the brain.  (2) Making computers more like brains:  DNA computing.  Quantum computing.	6/26/2000

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  Are we ready to claim that neurons are the same as transistors?  Or are they merely similar in some respects.  I say the latter.  (2) Are we ready to claim that human memory is the same a computer memory?  (3) What does a computer's central processing unit correspond to in humans?  Humans don't have a central location for processing.  (4) Are we ready to claim that computers are like animal brains?  If a sheep can easily recognize the face of its neighbor (experiments show) then why is it so difficult for computers to recognize faces?	7/1/2002

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  Brain as computer metaphor.  (1) Does the entire mind work like a computer, or only part of the brain?  (2) Our definition of a computer is changing from a number calculator to text processor to image processor.  Isn't it more fair to say that our computers are becoming like our brains than it is to say our brains are like computers?  (3) Saying the brain is like a computer vs. saying the computer is like a brain.  They have certain similarities and certain differences.  vs.  (4) Saying the brain and computer are the same thing.  Anything a computer can do a brain can do, theoretically or practically, now or in the future.  Anything the brain can do a computer can do, theoretically or practically, now or in future.	8/25/2002

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  How does the brain differ from computer?  It can direct itself, it can create new ideas without input.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  How is the brain not a computer?  (1) Computers are electrically powered.  Brain is not electrically powered primarily.  Brain is powered primarily by glucose.  (2) Computers are made from silicon.  Brain is not silicon.  Brain is neurons, neurotransmitters and some bioelectricity.  (3) Computers are software and hardware.  Brain is not software and hardware.  (4) Computers are preprogrammed.  Brain is not preprogrammed.  (5) Computers are not self learning.  Brain is self learning.  (6) Computers have memory.  Humans have memory.  (7) Computers perform operations on symbols.  Does the brain perform operations on symbols?  Yes.	9/1/2004

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  How is the brain not like a computer?  (1) Computers are based on electricity and silicon.  Brains are based on neurons, neurotransmitters and hormones.  (2) Computers are made of hardware that runs software.  If neurons are the brain's hardware then what is the brain's software?  (3) Computers are digital (discrete states) and binary (two discrete states).  A transistor is either on or off.  Brains are probably neither digital nor binary.	11/25/2001

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  If the brain is a network, then just as computer networks are geographically dispersed, so to the brain may be geographically dispersed within the skull.  It does not necessarily have to be that specific areas of the brain do specific tasks, just like the computers that perform a task on a network may be located on opposite sides of the world.	5/2/2000

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  Our brain neurons are functionally similar to transistors?  Totally or just somewhat?	8/9/1998

Psychology, mind.	Computer and mind.  The question is, in what ways does our brain work like a computer, and what ways does it not?  Does the brain have analogs to computer languages such as data types, literals, variables, operators, functions, flow control statements, input/output, etc.?  If math, natural languages and computer languages are similar then must they all, to some extent, mirror how the mind works?	7/12/2001

Psychology, mind.	Content.  Concepts.  Representational theory of mind.  (1) Content is not coded in mind by single neurons only.  What if that neuron should die.  Its a group of neurons.  Its not a new group of neurons each time.  Its the same group of neurons.  (2) The content in the brain is self rebuilding.  If part of the brain is injured, other parts take over knowledge and abilities.  (3) The senses.  Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.  The language, the word, attaches to the picture, the sound, the smell, the touch, the taste.	9/1/2004

Psychology, mind.	Content.  Mental content.  (1) How does the brain give the appearance of a unified sensory input of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell?  (2) How does the brain remember sights, sounds and images all at once?  (3) How are words, images, sounds and numbers stored in the brain?  How does the brain perform operations on words, images, sounds, numbers and other forms of mental content?	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	Content.  What is in our heads?  What is in our minds?  Ideas?  Sentences?  Words?  Pictures?	6/29/2004

Psychology, mind.	Content.  What is the content of our minds?  The content of our minds is primarily memories.  It is more accurate to say our minds are full of memories than to say our minds are full of concepts, ideas or thoughts.	6/8/2005

Psychology, mind.	Definitions of mind: (1) Can learn and adapt.  (2) Can sense its environment.  (3) Imagines.  (4) Controls and directs its thoughts and behavior (if embodied).  Has free will.  (5) Can feel pain.	02/01/1994

Psychology, mind.	Design principles for the brain.  (1) The brain evolved, so it will retain vestiges of previous structures and mechanisms.  The brain will be built in layers or modules.  (2) The brain requires energy to work, so the design of the brain should be energy efficient.	3/27/2007

Psychology, mind.	Design principles for the brain.  (1) The mind is not an algorithmic mechanism, rather, the mind is a heuristic mechanism.  (2) The mind does not use exact concepts, rather, the mind uses fuzzy concepts.	1/24/2007

Psychology, mind.	Development of a person's mind.  If you believe that humans are 100% nurture then you would think that the development of a person's mind is the result of learning.  Every ability of an adult mind is the result of learning.  (2) If you believe that there is some amount of "nature" then anything other than learning could be happening.  Genes could turn on and off later in life.  New physiological structures could form later in life.  New neuro chemicals could form.  (3) There could be a complicated interplay between nature and nurture.	11/30/2005

Psychology, mind.	Dreams and consciousness.  If an animal dreams then the animal must have a subconscious mind?	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind.	Entire mind.  There is no word that means "to use one's entire mind".  "Thinking" is a word used for reason.  "Feeling" is about emotion.  "Remembering" is about memory.  I use the word "minding" to mean doing all three (thinking, feeling, remembering).  We usually do all three at once anyway.  It is impossible to do one without doing the other two.	12/29/1997

Psychology, mind.	Every person's mind is different.  How different can people be?	3/11/2007

Psychology, mind.	Freewill and determinism.  To say "Only humans have freewill.", is to say that humans are the only animals that are not 100% pre-programmed and driven by instinct alone.  That is a false statement.  Many animals are capable of learning, and thus they are not 100% instinctual, and thus they probably have some degree of freewill.  Freewill is not an "all or none" proposition.  Nor is freewill only of one type, the "human" type.  Nor do humans have 100% freewill, without any influence from psychological, social and environmental pressures.  Eventually we will probably see that each animal has its own type and degree of freewill.	6/1/2002

Psychology, mind.	Gene therapy.  We could unlock the history of DNA to give humans the abilities that animals have.  New and better senses.	6/28/2000

Psychology, mind.	Head.  Don't let work, school, girlfriend change your personality, philosophy, and goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Head.  It does not matter where you live, or what job you have.  These things are irrelevant b.s.  All that matters is the place where your head is at, and where it is headed (going).	06/06/1994

Psychology, mind.	Head.  The key is to create a world, or get your head in a spot, which is impossible to duplicate, or at least which few people inhabit or share.  Make it a good world.  Don't let anyone or anything destroy your world.  Superman.  Yet don't lose touch with reality.  Most people are in the mental suburbs.	10/20/1997

Psychology, mind.	Head.  The lonely fight of the individual by themselves to get, maintain, and use head.  Some struggle harder, some get further.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Head.  The worst thing to lose or not develop is character, state of mind, attitude, mind-set.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Head.  Where is your head at?  What is your mental state?	05/06/1994

Psychology, mind.	How did Helen Keller think before she learned sign language?  Did she create her own language without even trying?	12/2/2001

Psychology, mind.	How did minds or brains come to be?  Through the process of evolution.	2/27/2005

Psychology, mind.	How do minds or brains work?	2/27/2005

Psychology, mind.	Human minds vs. animal minds vs. artificial minds.  PART ONE.  Human mind vs. animal mind.  (1) What can the human mind do that other animal minds cannot do?  The differences are mostly of degree than type.  (2) What can animal minds do that human minds cannot do?  Animals minds can do a lot of things that human minds cannot do.  The sonar of bats and dolphins for example.     PART TWO.  Human minds vs. artificial minds (i.e., computers).  (1) What can the human mind do that artificial minds cannot do?  (2)  What can artificial minds do that human minds cannot do?	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind.	I am interested in the mind or brain from a biological or medical point of view because we should not concentrate on explaining the mind, or predicting it.  We should improve it.  The brain is not a holy organ that is not to be touched.  We must try to make them better, even if we risk being called Dr. Frankenstein.  All other philosophy of mind is bullshit.	07/01/1994

Psychology, mind.	If mind equals brain, and if brain equals body, then there is only the body, and therefore it is the body that writes the book.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind.	Interpretation.  The mind is an interpretation machine.  The mind interprets all experiences.  (1) A mind without the capability for language must still interpret the meaning of thoughts and experiences.  (2) Once a sentient being acquires language, then it does much of its thinking in words and sentences which must be interpreted by saying to the self "What do I mean by that sentence?"	3/22/2007

Psychology, mind.	Introduction or summary of my view of the human mind.  (1) Drive.  A deflationary view of drive.  Innate drives may produce urges and tendencies, but drives ultimately do not determine how humans act.  (2) Thought.  A deflationary view of thought, relative to the popular conception which inflates thought.  The popular view is that humans think more that they actually do.  My view is that humans think less than they think they think.  Humans should think more.  (3) Memory.  An inflationary view of memory.  Memory is more important than humans acknowledge.  (4) Personality.  A deflationary view of personality.  There is no such thing as personality.  How a person changes and develops is more important than how a person stays the same through time.  (5) A deflationary view of behavior and behaviorism.  Behavior alone does not explain much.  (6) An inflationary view of attitudes.  One's attitudes (thoughts and emotions) are as important as behavior.  Thought, emotion and memory are welded together.  And thus, most mental content is attitudes.  (7) An inflationary view of emotion.  (8) To call a view inflationary or deflationary is to compare the view to the current, popular, mainstream views.	1/8/2006

Psychology, mind.	Intuition can only be unconscious reasons, emotions, or drives.  Nothing else.	06/15/1994

Psychology, mind.	Is a memory/emotion/thought a result of a combination of neurons firing?  Or is a memory/emotion/thought the actual electro-chemical impulse that travels through the brain?  The impulse that travels through the brain is not a physical container that picks up and drops off physical items along the way.  If nothing is physically moving then how does it work?  Does it work like the telephone system?  Does it work like a computer?	12/6/2005

Psychology, mind.	Its more useful to talk of minds (plural) than mind, because there are so many different types of actual minds, each having many different abilities.  An analogy can be made between minds and the Creative Commons form of licensing (www.creativecommons.org) where you pick the individual components of the license that you want to use.  You can talk about minds with language.  You can talk about minds with symbol processing ability.  You can talk about minds that have social ability, etc.	3/9/2006

Psychology, mind.	Mental states.  The infinite variety of mental states.  Pros and cons of different mental states or elements.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Mind and body.  The central nervous system extends through the entire body and thus we "mind" with our entire body.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind.	Mind and body.  Understanding with the body.  Music and dance are two examples of ways how humans "understand with the body" in addition to understanding with the mind.  Humans have been understanding with the body for millions of years, and we will understand with the body for millions more years.  Psychology has, up till now, paid relatively little attention to understanding with the body.  It is time we pay more attention to the concept of understanding with the body.  How could it be possible to understand with the body?  Our solar plexus, spinal cord and feet are examples of areas rich in nerve ganglia or nerve endings.  A nerve ganglia is a type of proto-brain.  When we experience an event and say we "felt it in my gut", or "felt it run up my spine", we are engaged in forms of understanding with the body.  What are some of the implications of understanding with the body for everyday living?  One piece of advice is to pay equal attention to your body and mind.	2/23/2001

Psychology, mind.	Mind complex.  (1) Total vs. partial.  (2) Momentary vs. any time period.  (3) Optimal, health, suboptimal, or pathological.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Mind is not the same thing as consciousness.  A theory of mind is not the same thing as a theory of consciousness.  Why?  Because not all minds are conscious minds.	5/30/2005

Psychology, mind.	Mind, brain, head.  Mind = perceptions.  Brain = physical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Mind, feel, and think accurately and fast.  Do accurately and fast.	12/30/1992

Psychology, mind.	Minds.  (1) What is a mind?  How does one define what is a mind?  How does describe what is a mind?  (2) Give example of a mind.  Does a rock have a mind?  Does a plant have a mind?  Does an animal have a mind?  Does a human have a mind?  Does a robot have a mind?  Does an alien have a mind?  (3) Consciousness and mind.  Some minds are not conscious.  Some minds are conscious.  (4) Language and mind.  Some minds have language.  Some minds do not have language.  (5) Minds have feedback mechanisms.  Minds react to environment.  All minds are cybernetic.  But not all cybernetic mechanisms are minds.  For example, a thermostat works by feedback but it is not a mind.  Plants grow toward sunlight but they don't have minds.  (6) Mind and body.  Minds control a body.  But what about cases of bodiless minds and mindless bodies?  Not all minds have bodies.  Not all bodies have minds.	6/1/2005

Psychology, mind.	Multi-tasking.  How does the brain determine priority of tasks?	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	My theory of the mind emphasizes memory.  Memory yields thinking.  Better memory yields better thought.  Language is the next most important factor next to memory, but we may discover that the ability for language is based on an ability for memory of language, which is a type of abstract memory ability.	6/8/2005

Psychology, mind.	Natural language (like English) in the human mind is not like computer languages in computer processing.  Lines of natural language do not make the mind think.  Rather, natural languages are like a report of the mind thinking, and natural languages are similar to the reports a computer generates about its processing.	12/1/2001

Psychology, mind.	Nature and nurture.  If human nature and behavior was 100% shaped by society (nurture) and completely malleable then (1) You could turn anyone's behavior into anyone else's behavior.  (2) You could make anyone act any way.	5/18/2000

Psychology, mind.	Nature and nurture.  The neuron wiring is hard wired.  Therefore the basic concepts are hard wired.  Therefore the basic language is hard wired.  Therefore the basic instincts and views are hard wired.  Therefore we are pre-disposed to believe certain things and act certain ways.	9/30/1998

Psychology, mind.	Nature and nurture.  To what extent are our minds "wired up" to work a certain way (i.e. predetermined)?  In what ways, and to what degrees?	03/30/1993

Psychology, mind.	Nature vs. nurture.  (1) How could the brain be 100% nurture?  Saying the brain is 100% nurture is as nonsensical as saying the rest of the body is 100% nurture.  The brain is part of the body.   Genes affect the development of the brain much like genes affect the development of the body.  (2) How could the brain be 100% nature?  Saying the brain is 100% nature is as nonsensical as saying the rest of the body is 100% nature.  The brain is part of the body.  The environment affects the development of the brain much like the environment affects the development of the body.	11/30/2005

Psychology, mind.	One of the best ways to think about mind is from an evolutionary perspective.  One of the best ways to study evolution is by studying animal psychology.	3/22/2007

Psychology, mind.	Perhaps the human mind, like the human body, has multiple ways of working, so that if one module goes down then the body can get along using the other modules.  Built-in fault tolerance.	12/2/2001

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  (1) Of course we get our ideas from our senses (empiricism) and logical rules (rationalism) both working together.  (2) We don't even need words.  Examples: A man sees a woman and imagines himself with the woman.  Child sees cake and imagines self eating cake.	09/01/1994

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  (1) Private language argument.  Only we know what we mean when we say anything.  (2) Other minds problem.  We can not know (at all? ever?) what another mind is thinking.  That is, each mind is unique, and each meaning of each word is unique.  (3) Free will (A) Personal, internal free will = degree of reason (ability to see choices and consequences) vs. degree emotionally overwhelmed (by id), or brainwashed by society (superego).  (B) Social, external freedom = what kind of job they allow you to have, due to educational degree, or due to legal or illegal discrimination.  (4) Human mind: consciousness, perception, memory, emotion, thought.  (A) From emotion to empathy to social justice to ethics.  (B) Thinking of things real or imagined, objects or events.  Visual thinking vs. verbal thinking vs. inferential thinking (rule based like math or logic).  Abstraction: an imagined perfect "x".  (5) Humans: use language, can lie, can speak of the future and the possible, are conscious, are self-reflexive, have freewill or intention.  (6) Simple to complex minds.  Number mental activities, and degree of difficulty or complexity of mental abilities.  Any mind, be it human, animal, or artificial.  A super mind = genius or god.	02/04/1994

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  (1) What is mind?  What does the word "mind" mean?  What do we mean when we say mind, soul, or spirit?  (2) How does the brain work?  (3) The mind is pluralistic by nature.  We should concentrate on identifying all the tasks and subtasks we can do with our minds.  Science experiments will show how we do it.  The sooner we stop using vague (through being excessively general) terms like mind, brain, human, etc., the better.  (4) Language thought vs. image thought.  Sight is the most primary sense.  (5) How do we experience vs. how do we think (inference, logic, algorithm vs. heuristics).  Abstraction as classification.  (6) Animal minds vs. human minds (evolution, comparative and developmental psychology).  (7) Content and structure vs. process and functions.  (8) Think of definitive experiments to prove or disprove important questions.	1/28/1994

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  Ascendancy of psychology (behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and neuro-psychology) over philosophy of mind.	05/30/1993

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  Has philosophy of mind come up with any arguments that psychology or biology has not thought of, or improved upon, conceptually or in terms of empirical knowledge?	01/08/1994

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  Hundreds of years of philosophy of mind theories, and we had to wait till new technology (Computer Aided Tomography) and experiments showed us how the brain really worked.	03/16/1997

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  People who say that the mind is just certain brain neurotransmitters firing are like people who say that a book is just paper with ink spread on it a certain way.  They ignore the semantic content.	8/26/1998

Psychology, mind.	Philosophy of mind.  The mind is just the brain.  There is no magic.  Consciousness is just a brain working.  The philosophy of mind craze is a joke.  Trying to philosophically explain mind and consciousness is ridiculous.  Just experiment and find out how the brain works using science.  Science is the way.	4/15/1998

Psychology, mind.	Randomness in brain processes.  Physical inputs like food, exercise and sleep can affect and trigger emotions, thoughts and attitudes in a random way.  There is a random element to psychology.	6/3/2002

Psychology, mind.	See also: Technology, computers > Artificial intelligence.	7/22/2005

Psychology, mind.	States of mind.  (1) Music is a pattern, a repetition, a drone, a sound mandala, a sound mantra.  The music focuses, the music calms, the music expands.  Its all about states of mind.  Chopping wood, or walking, or breathing, or making love, all can have the same effect.  (2) In different states of mind different answers come to us.  Different states of mind to accomplish different tasks.  (3) Know what state of mind you are in.  Know what state of mind you want to get into.  Know how to get into that state of mind.  Visit the different states of mind on a regular basis.  (4) How many states of mind are there?  Which states of mind are helpful and which are not helpful?  What causes states of mind?  (A) Chemicals like neurotransmitters and hormones.  (B) Electrical impulses.  (C) Fasting, diet, exercise, love, experiences, actions, body, people, arts.	8/26/2000

Psychology, mind.	Structure and function of mind.  The mind is often thought of in terms of structure and function.  Talking about conceptual structure and not physiological structure.  (1) Structure of concepts.  Alternative possibilities:  (A) There are many (competing and cooperating) structures of concepts in an individuals mind.  (B) There is one structure of concepts in an individuals mind.  (C) There are no structures of concepts in an individuals mind.  Its all random, or there is some degree of randomness.  (2) Function.  Alternative possibilities.  (A) There are many functions in an individuals mind.  (ex. modularity)  (B) There is one function in an individuals mind.  (ex. general purpose machine).  (C) There is no function in an individuals mind.  It is all random, or there is some degree of randomness.	7/16/2000

Psychology, mind.	Subconscious metaphors develop all the time, because the brain has an active subconscious, and the one of the things the subconscious does is generate metaphors.	10/17/2005

Psychology, mind.	The human mind is very versatile.  The human mind is complex.  The human mind can do many things.  The human mind does so many things, so quickly, almost instantaneously, without conscious prompting, that it seems quite amazing.  How does the human mind do all the things it does?  How did the human mind evolve to do all the things it does?	12/6/2005

Psychology, mind.	The mind is centered in the brain, and the brain relies on the body.  There has to be some physical movement for thought to happen.  The mind cannot be inert like a rock.  The movement is neurons firing.  Neurons firing is an electro-chemical phenomenon.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	Theories of mind.  (1) What is a mind?  Anything that can think?  Anything that can feel emotions?  Anything that can feel physical sensations?  (2) Who has a mind?  People.  Animals.  Robots?  Aliens (perchance we meet them)?  Animals have minds, but plants do not.  (3) "At what point would a robot have a mind?", is a different question than asking, "At what point would a robot be conscious".  (4) What are the things that a mind can do?  What functions can mind perform?  Functionalism.  (5) How do minds work?  (6) What are minds made of?  Minds built of neurons.  Minds built of silicon.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	Two key ideas.  (1) How fast and how much do I forget, for any specific fact, skill, or subject area?  That is the rate I should review.  (2) How many new ideas do I develop (find or figure) for any subject area?	8/15/2005

Psychology, mind.	Unconscious mind.  How to get along with, and make peace with, your unconscious mind?	4/1/2005

Psychology, mind.	What does the brain do?  Process information.  Keep the body working.  Eat, sleep, f*ck.	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	What happens when minds collide?  What is the nature of mind-mind interactions?  What gets exchanged?  Information gets exchanged.	6/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	What if the content, structure and mechanism of all human minds were the same?  Each individual the exact same as the next.  It would destroy diversity and adaptability of the human species.  It would reduce the overall creativity of the human species.  It would be like a single-crop economy that hovers perilously close to collapse.	3/25/2002

Psychology, mind.	What is a mind?  (1) What is a mind?  It depends how you define the word "mind".  In the animal kingdom we can observe all types of minds from the simplest animals to the most complex animals.  Simple worms have simple nerve nets made of neurons.  Earthworms have nerve nets plus ganglia.  Chordates have spinal cords and brains.  These things let animals sense their environment and react to their environment.  (2) The varying complexity of minds in the different animal orders is made evident by how well different animals orders can learn.  Reptiles cannot be trained.  Birds can be trained to press a button for a reward.  Simple mammals can engage in simple learning.  Rats can run a maze.  Even higher level cognitive abilities include tool use and language.  (2) Can there be minds that are not in animals and that are not made of neurons?  That is, can there be artificial intelligence?  Is it possible that there is intelligent extraterrestrial life?  There is no evidence yet of extraterrestrial life.  Its possible that computers in the future may equal human minds but they do not today.  (3) Is a computer a mind?  Is the earth a mind?  Is the universe a mind?  It depends how you define the word "mind".  (4) Not all minds are conscious.  Some minds are conscious.  Some minds lack consciousness.  And there are different definitions of the word "consciousness", just like there are different definitions of the word "mind".	2/27/2005

Psychology, mind.	What is the nature of mind and brain?  (1) What tasks does the brain or mind do?  Sense, emotion, memory, thought, behavior, etc.  (2) How does the brain or mind do the things it does?  By sending signals through a network of nerves.  (3) Multi-tasking.  How does the brain switch tasks?  How does the brain know when to go from sensing to memory to feeling to thinking?  Perhaps all tasks go on all the time and the brain only needs to switch our attention to these tasks.	10/13/2004

Psychology, mind.	What now?  Cognitive science is not the be all and end all.  Cognitive science cannot do everything.  Once you know how the brain works there are still left plenty of other problems in the world.	3/20/2007

Psychology, mind.	What now?  So you finally figured out how the human brain works.  What are you going to do now?  Maybe you can start working on solving the rest of the problems of the world which you have been ignoring up till now.	6/1/2007

Psychology, mind.	Why understand minds?  (1) To heal minds.  (2) To improve minds.  (3) To make artificial minds.	4/1/2005

Psychology, pathological, causes.	.This section is about causes of psycho-pathology.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Anything can go wrong with anyone's body at anytime.  Anything can go wrong with anyone's mind at anytime.  Its nobody's fault.  It's just life.  But both are medical emergencies.	11/14/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Causes of psychopathology.  (1) Environment.  Natural environment.  Man made environment.  (2) Other people.  Lack of good relationships (neglect).  Bad relationships (abuse).  (3) Self caused.  Self preventable.  (4) Issues of sleep, diet and exercise.  (5) Chronic vs. mild.  Acute vs. severe.	6/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Causes.  (1) The time and development factor.  Some things fester and grow worse.  (2) The chain effect.  Event screws up head, which causes another event, which screws up head worse, etc.  (3) The observer bias effect.  Observer notices problem and so acts cruel and exacerbates problem for individual instead of reducing it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Decay through mental neglect occurs quickly and easily for some.  Others actually keep growing despite neglect.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Development of neurosis in kids vs. adults; rich vs. poor; dumb vs. intelligent.  (1) Kids vs. adults.  One reason kids develop psychological problems is because kids are too stupid to fight back against what is wrong.  Also kids have little power to fight back against what is wrong.  Psychologists help us go back and see the injustice, re-evaluate it with an adult mind, re-fight it as adults, and vent our anger and sadness.  When we repress as adults we are suffering not from an inability to face, fight, and solve the problem (or injustice), and vent the just anger and sadness (like a child), but rather an unwillingness to.  The fight for justice leads to a healthy mind.  Don't repress.  And don't be stupid.  (2) Intelligent vs. stupid.  The intelligent mind generates more thoughts (and thus emotions) to repress, and thus can nuts from that.  But the stupid (and insensitive) mind does not have the brain power to recognize, figure out, and solve injustices in thought and action, and thus can go nuts from that.  The stupid mind cannot repress, only a smart mind can fool itself.  But the stupid mind can suffer mentally from injustices that it cannot fight due to its ignorance (like a child).  Get smart.  Be honest with yourself.  When you start lying to others, it becomes easier to start lying to yourself, and mental illness can start here as well.  (3) Rich vs. poor.  The rich are fearful of the masses.  The rich are fearful of losing what they have.  The rich are self-repressive in not wanting to offend and thus lose all they have.  The rich are self-repressive in their excessive manners.  The above factors contribute to repression and mental illness in the rich.  The poor just plain suffer from neglect and abuse.  The often have low self esteem from holding what society views as a low position.  They also have little access to education.  They often live in bad environments.  These factors contribute to mental illness in the poor.	12/14/1988

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Environment and experience.  (1) Abuse.  (A) Physical abuse: hitting, grabbing, spanking.  (B) Verbal and emotional abuse: threats.  (2) Neglect: emotional neglect, intellectual neglect, and material neglect.  Having poor models.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	G made the mistake of thinking psycho-pathology was all hereditary and biochemical, and that prescription drugs were the answer.  Instead of realizing a big part is environmental.  (A) Like who you interact with.  Stay away from assholes, jerks, nuts, and dopes.  Don't be alone.  Find good, healthy, ethical, smart people.  (B) And how you behave.  Mental hygiene.  Devoting time to mental health work.  Brain work.  (C) And how you "mind".  Psychological therapies like cognitive therapy (how you view world), behavior therapy, and psychoanalysis (thinking about past and future).	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Learned: from culture vs. from specific personal instances.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Many people think (ha!) or feel (ha!) that most psycho-pathology has to do with problems with our ability to think and feel.  I here now suggest that these problems are actually caused by a defect in our ability to remember what we once thought or felt.  Memory is an important and often overlooked mental ability that is often involved in psycho-pathology.  (2) Problems that we think are caused by an inability to think and feel are often caused by an inability to remember thoughts and feelings.  So we should treat these problems by treating our ability to remember.  To improve the condition we should improve our memory, and also give people time to remember.  I am talking not just about Freudian repression as a problem of memory.  I am talking of biochemical states that impede memory.	12/2/2001

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Organic, physical causes.  (1) Genetic: inherited vs. mutation.  (2) Developed: early or late, temporary vs. permanent.  (3) Caught: from environmental physical agents ingested.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Overbearing parents and sensitive artistic child.  It can be a parent that is overbearing, or some group in society, or the society in general.  The individual does not have to be an artist, they can be any fragile individual.  The effect is not only that of super-ego (norms and roles) on a fragile ego.  It is worse.  They are devaluing the individual, and destroying self identity and destroying the will.	11/8/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Poverty can contribute to psychological decay.  Uh oh.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Seldom discussed causes of common minor pathological psychological states.  (1) No friends.  Or pathological friends.  (2) Lack of love.  (3) Disorganized ideas.  From not writing down notes.  (4) Forgetting.  Memory problems.  (5) Ignorance.  Lack of education (finding out).  (6) Neglecting philosophy and deep thinking (figuring out).	11/1/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Stress.  What kind of stress will drive a fragile person into what kind of pathological mental state and behavior?  For example, stresses like rejection by women, being dumped by a girlfriend, getting fired, death of a loved one, etc. can cause effects or reactions in psychologically fragile people like anxiety, depression, fear, suicide, drug addiction, mental shutdown, fetal position, stupid decisions, anti-social behavior, etc.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Subconscious issues and questions depressing me in my youth (age 13 - 21).  (1) Can I get free from my parents?  Those well meaning neurotics (everyone being neurotic).  (2) Can I get a job I can live with (enjoy and make money)?  (3) Can I (A) Get away from the assholes, and (B) Find any cool people?  (4) Can I get good sex without having to put up with a bitchy woman (i.e. find a good woman)?  Can I get away from a grindstone of a system?  Can I survive without being degraded by the system (like school and work)?	11/08/1993

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Tenents of pathological psychology.  (1) Small psychological problems can snowball into major pathological conditions.  (2) The small problems can be prevented, or nipped in the bud, thus avoiding major pathological conditions.  (3) Pathological conditions can be experientially or environmentally caused, by factors such as abuse, lack of development of social skills, and lack of development of coping skills.  Others wrongly believe that major and minor pathological psychology is 100% biochemically caused, and unavoidable or unpreventable.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	The hope is that you will develop at a rate to keep up with the challenges you are faced with.  Not given too much too soon to handle.	10/3/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	The inability to clear minor psychological hurdles can kill people.  The lack of simple attitude improvements can be devastating.  Small hang-ups can throw one completely off kilter.  Lots of plates need to be kept spinning in a healthy individual.	12/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, causes.	The system and the people in it can drive you crazy without them realizing they are doing it, and without them intending to do it.  Do not let them.  Do not succumb to the garbage that gets thrown.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Theories on causes of mental illness.  (1) Behavioral - bad habits, conditioning.  (2) Cognitive: you learned wrong ideas, and can't figure better.  (3) Freud: childhood or trauma or pain or thought repression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Too many people look at pathological psychology with a sense of mystery and romance.  It is very easy to drive someone crazy.  The wartime brainwashers (psychological torturers) had an effective method.  Sleep deprivation, food deprivation, physical isolation, no human contact, no sensory stimulus, mind altering drugs.  The results can be a temporary nervous breakdown or long lasting impaired ability to function.  The point is that you can do the same thing to yourself.  You can drive yourself crazy.  It is easy.  So we must guard against it.  Mental hygiene.	6/15/1998

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Traumatic experience: type, degree.  Anything can be traumatic to anyone unprepared or susceptible to it.  Every man has his breaking point.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Triggers: what experience sets off a period of pathological behavior?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Various predispositions to pathological psychology: environment, experience, genetic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Various things can conspire to make adults remain childlike and passive.  (1) Their parents raise them as little servants, and to try to keep them controllable children.  (2) They can be seduced (promises, pleasures) or threatened into inaction (physical and mental).  (3) Religion can make and keep them meek, obeying, and unthinking.  (4) Consumer culture, which wants to cater to their needs by bringing everything to them, can create a comfort culture, which can turn them and keep them sheep-like, zombie-like.  (5) For various reasons they can become repressed, looking away from self and world.  Usually to avoid pain.  (5) Rarely do you find someone who "knows what they want, and knows how to get it".  People aren't active enough in degree, frequency, or duration.  They don't think and they don't act.  Laziness.  Mental permanent vacation.  Bread and circuses.	06/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, causes.	We avoid things out of pain, and out of fear (fear as the apprehension of pain).  Thus the sensitive and fearful go nuts.  The callous and brave do not go nuts?  The callous and brave commit atrocities, or even just callous acts, that drive the sensitive and fearful nuts.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, causes.	When is pathological psychology most likely to flare up?  Stress of deprivation or opposition, of long duration and intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, causes.	Why people go crazy today.  (1) Drugs are readily available.  (2) Increased pressure and stress.  Stress on the job, and pressure to succeed.  (3) More freedom than ever.  Many choices.  Bewildering and overwhelming to the small minded.  (4) Religion does not work.  Most people see through it.  (5) Information overload.  You need a lot of information to survive today.  Most people do not know how to gather, organize, and store the information efficiently.  As a result, they feel depressed and anxious knowing that they are falling behind.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, causes.	You can be of low income and survive.  It is worse to be (1) Information deprived (starved), (2) Information resistant, or (3) Not have a proactive, exploring, learning attitude.  (4) It is also bad to be mentally blocked up and rigid.  This is different from being narrow minded.  (5) Also unhealthy to be lazy, hopeless and despondent, and a reluctant thinker.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	.This section is about psychological health.  Topics include: ( ) Balance.  ( ) Flow.  ( ) Optimal mind.  ( ) Psychological health.  ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Peak.  ( ) Techs.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) All elements working well, and working well together.  (2) Clear head, reasoning well.  Clear of garbage: throw old garbage out, and keep new garbage out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Health.  Balance, strength, resilience, coping (with stress and problems), working well, rational, emotionally stable, good memory, ethical, analytical and good judgment.  (2) Illness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Healthy: Relaxed, calm, peaceful, loose, confident, open, self assured.  (2) Unhealthy: Hyper-defensive, psychological and physical tension, stress, besieged, obsessed, paranoid.	5/14/2004

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) How do we define what "healthy" means?  How do we then determine what things are healthy?  (2) How do we determine what "unhealthy" means?  How do we determine what things are unhealthy?  Unhealthy as unethical.  Unhealthy as illogical.  Unhealthy as insane.  Unhealthy as hurting self, others and earth.  (3) How do we determine what "optimal" means.  How do we determine what things are optimal?  (4) How do we determine what "suboptimal" means.  How do we determine what things are suboptimal?	10/2/2004

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) How do you get people psychologically healthy?  (2) How do you get psychologically healthy people to be productive?  Doing something useful.  Not wasting life.  (3) How do you get productive people to be creative?  Doing new useful things.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) How psychologically healthy people feel in healthy situations.  Calm, peaceful.  Self-directed, motivated, energized.  Self-esteem, self-worth.  Happy, playful, mirthful, sense of humor.  Interested, curious, connected to environment and others.  Safe and secure.  Relating well socially.  Friendly with others.  Not stressed.  Problem solving.  Productive.  Free thinking.  Psychologically healthy people in unhealthy situations manage to cope.  (2)  Psychologically compromised people in healthy or unhealthy situations feel:  Angry, horrified, mortified, terrified, depressed, sad, frightened, worried, anxious, fearful, paranoid, unmotivated, hopeless, goalless, low self esteem, low self worth, obsessive thoughts, not problem solving, lethargic, lazy, disconnected from environment, social problems: either aggressive bullying or passive submission.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Optimal mind state: Peace, clarity, drive, judgment.  Feel it in you shoulders, forehead, gut.  (2) Sub-optimal mind state:  Tension, confusion, unclear.  Feel it in same places.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Optimal mind: how to get it?  Peak performance of right acts.  (2) Sub-optimal mind: not efficient, unable to succeed or win.  Pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Signs of psychological health: Involved.  Proactive.  (2) Signs of psychological decay: Disinterest.  Unthinking.  Unfeeling.  No memory.  Low ethics.  Rigid.  Excessively yielding.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Signs of psychological thriving.  Positive attitude.  Connected to others and world.  (2) Signs of psychologically doing poorly.  Disconnected, isolated, withdrawn, unemotional, uncommunicative.  Negative attitude (hopeless, no motivation), couch potato, no goals.  Abusing booze, drugs, food, sex, gambling.  Self-destructive, or abusive toward others.  Unethical behavior.  Poor memory, emotion, thinking.  (3) How to improve.  It is slow.  It takes time.  It takes work.  You can not just say it and make it happen.  It takes attitude and practice.	5/15/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	(1) Stay calm, not anxious.  (2) Stay up, not depressed.  (3) Stay even, not swinging.  (4) Stay strong: power, endurance.  (5) Don't make screw up moves.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Active mind is good.  Imagination is good.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Balance.  (1) In philosophy: see ethics.  (2) In psychology.  (A) As a sign of mental health.  (B) As a way to get mental health.  (C) Development of all aspects of mind together.  (D) Keeping things in proportion, prioritized.  (E) Problems and solutions with balance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Balance.  A related term is complete vs. incomplete.  Some people get only half the answer, truth, or story.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Balance.  Aristotelean doctrine of golden mean or middle way.  Not too much, not too little.  Psychological balance is comprised of (1) Intellectual balance: subjects of thought, and modes of thought.  (2) Emotional balance: type, degree, frequency.  (3) Personality trait balance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Brilliant mind.  (1) Wide open.  (2) Transcending circumstances of origin.  (3) Burning to explore, drive, activity.  (4) Free: goes where it likes.  (5) Pure: never sold out to practicality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Civilization's progress in the definitions of psychological health and pathological psychology.	10/25/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Clarity and vision.  Things that destroy them and things that create them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Complete person understands (1) Young and old.  Male and female.  Wise and fool.  (2) Knows when to show which and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Creativity.  We cannot control our emotions.  We simply feel what we feel.  But we can control our thoughts about x.  The way we look at x.  And our thoughts influence our emotions.  To change our thoughts requires creativity.  Creativity is thus important for mental health.  Creativity is a whole mind process.  Not just thinking.  Creativity also requires emotion, memory, motivation, etc.  Creativity is vital for mental health.  Creativity is necessary for everyone, not just artists and writers.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Develop a strong consistent core; sane, ethical, and wise.  Never fall far for long.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Figure out what to go for, how to get it, and then get it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Flow.  Being alive vs. "really living".  Peak experience.  Flow.  What is its characteristics?  In both desperate and mundane circumstances.  What is the opposite of peak experience?  A coma?  You do not have to be happy to be having a peak experience, do you?  The peak experience in terms of the internal psychological subjective experience vs. the external actual objective physical experience.  Do certain objective situations tend to produce certain peak internal states?  Can you have the internal state without the peak external state?  How does flow compare to Zen enlightenment?  How can you cause yourself to consistently live high up the peak experience side?  The spectrum from brain dead, or all fu*ked up, all the way to peak experience or optimal psychology.  Intellectually and emotionally.	06/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Flow.  The zone.  Non-religious grace (?).  We never remember feeling this way (in the zone), perhaps because we feel this way rarely.  Yet most of us live most of our lives just one short step from perfect psychological health, total consciousness, and nirvana.  I hope this feeling lasts.	09/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Folk psychology.  Get a grip on life.  The grip is tenuous even in the best cases.  It depends on physical health, psychological health, social health, financial health, and security of possessions.  Requires defenses against attacks on all of above from all sides.  Developing all of above from nothing to highest states possible.  Getting a stronger grip vs. feeling shaky and falling apart.	08/10/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Get best attitude complexes for all things at all times.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Health is the poor man's revenge (defense, weapon) against the rich, smart and beautiful.  Physical health and psychological health (that is, to have one's head screwed on straight).  I.e., to be in a good frame of mind.  The philosophical advantage.  The attitudinal advantage.  Being ethical and happy.  Its the great equalizer that lets the lower classes deal with the neurotic, unhappy upper classes.	4/5/2000

Psychology, pathological, health.	Healthy relationships and healthy sex are the big challenge to get.  They are healing and they have more to say about life than pathological relationships and pathological sex.	09/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	How do you get people in a spiral of growth?  Self-booting, and self-learning?	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	I want to remain at all times calm and cool (optimal emotion level), clearheaded, in control, collected (focused), confident, motivated.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Ideal states:  Working.  Have friends.  Happy.  Smart (knowledgeable and wise).  Ethical.  Robust (Task endurance.  Get back up when knocked down).  Curious and creative.  Remember, feel and think early and often.  (2) Problem states:  Lazy.  Lonely.  Unethical.  Fragile (learned helplessness).  Negative emotions predominate (angry, sad, etc.).	11/15/2000

Psychology, pathological, health.	Improved psychology: various peoples have various criteria.  Better relationships.  Better work (more, higher quality, better directed).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	In the face of problems like the sun burning out, killer asteroids, nuclear destruction, germ warfare, new killer diseases, genetic mutations, computer takeover, etc., what keeps us going?  What keeps us from becoming depressed and despondent?  (1) The fact that there are good things in the world.  (2) Belief in our own abilities and powers.	12/03/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	It is not healthy for humans to feel frightened and worried 95% of the time.  5% is more like healthy.  Yet some live the former, and think they are healthy or ok.	03/20/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	It is scary.  You can be of average psychological health, and of average smarts (110 IQ), and not be able to figure the best ideas out.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Just as it is easier for some people to stay in better physical shape than others and don't realize it, some find it easier to stay in mental shape than others and don't realize it.  Some never lift a weight and look like a bodybuilder.  Others lift all day and still look like hell.  Some abuse themselves mentally and don't feel it.  Some take excellent mental care of themselves and still go nuts.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Keep mind in optimal condition for many, new, powerful ideas in all subject areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Mental activity is healthy.  If one decides to not think, to not feel, to not remember.  If you decided to shut down your mental shop.  If you decided to hang a "closed" sign on your brain.  If you decided to live like a simple animal, low on the evolutionary tree.  That is no way to live.  You want to have as active a mental life as possible.  It is better to be mentally active and physically inactive than it is to be physically active and mentally inactive.  That is why nerd trumps jock.  Actually, one should be mentally and physically active.  Meet people.  Go places.  Do things.  Have long conversations.  The mental slug, sloth, couch potato pays a price.	6/23/2006

Psychology, pathological, health.	Mental health requires mental growth, which requires (1) Active exploring thinking (i.e. searching), not passive thinking (thinking when it strikes you), and not avoidance or repression.  (2) Note writing, a record of thoughts.	07/18/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Not happy because of blindness or delusion, rather confident because seeing clearly and working well.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Optimal mind and optimal behavior.  How develop it, how maintain it, how use it?  Find truth, and develop and get best goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Optimal mind yields optimal behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Optimal mind.  Western: standard psychology terms.  Eastern: yoga, Zen, various definitions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Optimal, average, and pathological mind: slight differences in causation yield huge differences in effects.  The mind exhibits what economists call high elasticity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak mental health is all about getting your attitudes optimized.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak performance.  In sports, and with women, there are too many variables to keep track of, and too short a time to think about each.  Practice helps, but for peak performance you also want to get into a good frame of mind.  Open, driven, caring, trusting of others, and exuding trustworthiness.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak traits: Active, happy, driven (even without external reward), efficient, industrious, brave, robust, creative, problem solver, ethical, smart, knowledge.	3/29/2000

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  "In the zone" means the following: (1) Time flies.  You don't notice the passage of time.  (2) You don't notice your surroundings.  For example, if someone talks to you, you do not hear them.  (3) You don't notice yourself.  For example, you forget to eat.  (4) You are absorbed in the task completely.  You are immersed in the task.  Total concentration.  Total focus.	10/10/2005

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  (1) Descriptions of peak state.  Wasting no time.  New ideas arrive effortlessly.  Positive emotional state.  Good memory.  Thinking a lot.  Good critical judgment.  (2) How to get and stay in peak state?	5/15/2005

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  (1) My brain at its best.  Constantly develops tons of thoughts, feelings, memories, images, drives.  With a high frequency of new (for me, or anyone, or world) and useful ideas.  Actually, a finely tuned mental hyperactivity or mania.  (2) My brain at its worst.  Bump on a log.  Brain dead.  Coma baby.	08/15/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  (1) Optimal mind.  How to get psyched in general, and for specific goals like job, school, writing, women.  (A) Things to think of to get psyched or motivated: Inspirational works of art.  Reasons why the goal will help you.  How good it will feel once you get it.  (B) Things to say to self: "Treat every day as if it was your last".  "If you do it, it will come".  (2) Optimal mind = driven, hungry, eager; hopeful and belief in self, confident, ballsy, brave, cocky; energized; calm; clear.  (3) Feeling depressed can sap your energy.  Having no energy can make you feel depressed.  A large part of feeling good is feeling energetic (young).  Not tired, lazy, depressed, down, foggy, cloudy, dull, dim, slow.  Feel peppy, clear, up, with purpose and direction.	04/23/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  (1) Ultimate mood, attitude, and personality.  What is it?  What are its components?  How to get them?  What causes it?  Keep in mind things like economic survival; sex (both dark lust and sweet summer love); mans inhumanity to man (pain and injustice); cold winter loneliness; sacredness of ultimate lives; places like the west, the south, Africa; the worst case scenarios like Stalin; the best like Nietsczhe and Wittgenstein.  (2) What the ultimate mind is not.  What to avoid.	03/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Enlightenment = optimal mind.  You can have emotional or intellectual enlightenment.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Give up all negative thoughts to increase performance.  This includes doubts if I can do it, and doubts of its worth once accomplished.  (1) Should I do this?  The pro side is that it can yield optimal performance, and I can not be satisfied, happy or free of regret with anything else.  On the contra side, it can lead to Candide-itis, and disaster.  (2) When do this?  Only after you have considered all doubts and judged them not worth worrying about.  (3) How do it?	09/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  How to get into, prolong, and control those manic states of positive high energy and hard work?  Know when to turn up the power.  Do not dwell on depressing aspects of past, present, or possible future aspects of self, environment, or life.  Rather, be positive and optimistic about same.  Focus in on work, know why it is important.  Feel the desire to do it, and get it done.  Do not be distracted by anything.  Believe in what you want to do.  Believe it will save the world.  Once in that state, use it and don't abuse or waste it.  No regrets (past), no worries (future).	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  How to stay mentally toughened during soft periods of low stress?  Push hard?	10/05/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  It can take days, even weeks, to get into peak psychological condition, and only moments of abusive action or experience to lose it.	08/02/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  It is a mistake to think of peak performance only in terms of sport.  There are people performing at their peak in all areas of life, not merely sports.  Sport is not the most important area of peak performance.	12/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  It takes a clear mind.  Definition: calm, undistracted, impartial, objective, focused.	06/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Optimal mind, describe it.  Calm, clear, focused, vision, direction, driven, strong, no worries, not distracted, not confused, not blind, aware, smart, healthy, stable, hungry, practical, proactive, justice seeking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Optimal mind: not anxious, tense, nervous.  Not depressed, in general or in specific situations.  Thought is logical, relevant, and clear.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Optimal mind.  (1) Optimal thought state.  Thinking all the time.  Thinking all the best thoughts (practical and theoretical), (logical, historical, and importance order), with nothing needed left out, and nothing unneeded put in.  (2) Optimal emotional state.  Calm, confident, happy, driven, hopeful.  (3) Optimal memory.  (4) Optimal attitudes and personality.  (5) Optimal behavior.  Waste no time, energy, resources.  Efficient and productive.  (6) Optimal ethics.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Pathological mental states are about illness.  Peak mental health is about attitudes.  Attitudes are about ideas and emotions.  The emotions come from the ideas.  Thus, peak mental health is about access to ideas.	11/5/2000

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  The higher the level of mental performance you want to perform on mentally, the more mental maintenance you need.  Ex. (1) Knowledge organization (write notes).  (2) Reasoning skills (logic games).  (3) Emotional calm, focus, drive, hope, self confidence (Zen).  (4) Memory (study notes).  And also, the more physical maintenance you need to support the mental.  Example: diet, sleep, hormone levels, etc.  Peak performance requires peak maintenance and training.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  To be mentally healthy, at peak, is to be happy.  Want to create a lot?  Get happy!  This is weird.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  To get production: Get worked up, brainstorm desperately for new ideas, and feel the urgency of pressures of time limits and competition.	06/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Traits of excellent mental shape: analytical and reasoning skills, power and endurance, knowledge base breadth and depth.  Taste, judgment and ethics.  Big, quick memory.  Appropriate type and degree of emotions for any situation.  Industrious, optimistic, undeluded.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Use every spare minute to get minor chores out of the way in order to have time to do major work.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	Peak.  Yearn for going full blast 24 hours a day.  Not resting.  Don't let it burn you out.  It is not that tough.  Don't psych out over it.  Resting too much is a waste, not a joy.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, health.	People today seem to be taking better care of their physical health, but they do not pay the same amount of attention to mental health.  What preventative measures should they take?	5/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological checklist.  Now and lately, (1) What have I been actually experiencing in my environment?  (2) What have I been psychologically experiencing?  Emotions: degree calm (less emotion) vs. excited (more emotion), and type of emotion involved.  Thinking, etc.  (3) What have I been doing, behaving, acting?  (4) Where do I want to go in the above three areas, and how to get there?	02/07/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological health and peak performance.  Sometimes it takes conscious effort and we have to reason out every step.  Sometimes, with repetition and practice, it can become more automatic, instinctive, and we can just enjoy it.  What people call "being in the zone" can apply to mental health generally.	6/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological health exists apart from ethical health?  You can be psychologically healthy and ethically wrong.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological health is as important as physical health. Some people ignore psychological health.	4/16/2006

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological health is extremely important.  It is not automatic.  You can work at it and improve it.	10/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychological health means constant growth and development.  Growth means change.  Conservatives and repressed neurotics fear change.  Or they think things are fine (better) the way they are (or were).  Or they think growth and improvement is impossible.  So they do not grow and develop.  So they are not healthy.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Psychology has many words and concepts to describe what is wrong with people, but few to describe what is right with people.  That is why psychologists dwell on the negative.  Most all their words and thoughts are about the negative.  Most all their measures measure the negative.  Much work has been done studying the bottom half (average to most unhealthy), but little work has been done studying the upper half (average to most healthy).  So if we want humanity to rise above the average, we must develop more ideas, concepts, and measures for the positive half.  We should study the healthy side of the pathological-healthy spectrum, as well as the unhealthy side.	06/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Relationship of stupid, crazy and evil.  (1) If you are ignorant then you end up being immoral despite your good intentions.  Stupidity contributes to immorality.  (2) Learning and education contribute to mental health.  They can prevent you from going nuts.  They can help cure you when used in therapy. (3) A morality based on a reason is better than one based on blind obedience because it is less ignorant and thus more healthy.  (4) Not all crazy people are immoral.	8/27/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	Relationships of stupid, crazy and evil.  Using the concepts of some and all.  Using the concepts of cause and effect.  Ignorance (stupid) often leads to unethical behavior (evil).  Ignorance (stupid) often leads to psychopathology (crazy).  Psychopathology (crazy) often contributes to ignorance (stupid).  Unethical behavior (evil) often contributes to ignorance (stupid).	11/18/2004

Psychology, pathological, health.	Stay aware of what is out there, and what is important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Stay cool, rational, and focused.  Get healthy and then think on important subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Techniques.  Develop the ability to consciously do these things:  (1) Turn your brain on and start thinking.  (2) Turn your brain off and stop thinking.  (3) Change thoughts.  For example, change negative thoughts to positive thoughts.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, health.	Tests of psychological health.  (1) Are you happy (for the right reasons).  (2) Productive (work).  (3) Causing no unethical troubles or problems in society.  (4) Experiencing no problems like addiction or ignorance.  (5) High standards.  Ethical development.	08/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	The "normal", healthy person sees things as a realist, but feels things as an optimist (has hope), without being delusional.  They go with the highest odds, because anything can happen (good or bad), anything is possible.	02/07/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	The goal is the right thought at the right moment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	The state to get into is where others see you in a weird light, and you see everything in a weird light.  Noble, holy, deep.	05/18/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Things that contribute to mental health and mental resiliency.  (1) Good relationships.  No assholes.  No abuse or neglect.  Love.  Support.  (2) Optimal stress level.  Challenges not too hard or too easy.  (3) Purpose, interest.  (4) Decent job.  (5) Diet, rest, exercise.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Think and act smart, hard, long, efficient, effective, on important subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Three definitions of psychological health.  (1) Psychological health defined as quick and full development of an individual.  I.e. reaching psychological maturity by late teens.  Full development of drives, memory, emotion, thinking, social skills, and ethics.  (2) Psychological health defined in biochemical terms.  Just the right amount of this or that neurotransmitter.  (3) Psychological health defined in behavioral terms.  Doing this behavior, and not doing that behavior.	6/30/1999

Psychology, pathological, health.	Three separate factors.  (1) What individual considers as sick vs. healthy (types, degrees).  (2) What society considers as sick vs. healthy (types, degrees).  (3) What is objectively sick vs. healthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Three separate factors.  How crazy vs. sane.  How fragile vs. strong.  How stable vs. unstable.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Three variables: smart - stupid; good - evil; healthy (sane) - unhealthy (insane).  All three are related.  Any attempt toward psychological health (sanity - insane) must also address learning (smart - stupid) and ethics (good - evil).  So therapy must be wide in its scope.  It is a big project, that takes a long time, with slow progress.  You have to confront specific psychological problems, and learn about the world in general, and philosophize about ethics, all at once.  Therapy will include theory (thinking) and practice (action).  And memory, drive and emotion also.	8/27/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	To be totally driven to create, all the time, is great.	02/07/1994

Psychology, pathological, health.	Traits of psychological health:  Judgment.  Concentration.  Drive.  Emotional stability.  Thinking skills and knowledge base.  Wisdom.  Social skills.	1/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, health.	Two important psychological traits.  Resilience: the ability to bounce back.  Flubber: the ability to bounce back even higher.	9/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, health.	Want mind and behavior that's better organized, more logical, quicker, more efficient, and more productive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Western view:  A strong ego is a healthy ego.  Vs.  Eastern view:  Let the ego go.  Too much ego is the problem.	8/23/1998

Psychology, pathological, health.	What attitudes keep us going, optimistic in face of big problems?  (1) Life is problems.  Goal of life is problem solving.  (2) The Stoic attitude of the warrior.  The warrior knows he will die, but he/she fights well anyway.  (3) Eastern attitudes.  No struggle.  Go with flow.  Harmony.  (4) Hedonism.  Enjoy life.  (5) Belief in an immortal spirit, god, or heaven.  Bogus.  (6) Different attitudes are good for different individuals, different phases of life, different situations, and different societies.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	What to do once you are psychologically healthy?  This is an ethical question.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	What to do with health?  Get goals, learn, do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, health.	Who can we point to as the most healthy, best integrated, most developed (most mature?) individual?  Ghandi?  MLK Jr.?	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	You do not improve your thinking by studying thinking as much as by (1) Gaining and keeping mental health.  (2) Then doing a lot of thinking.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, health.	Your physical environment, physical health, and relationships can contribute to your psychological health (or unhealth).  Therefore, stay away from nuts, morons, and evil jerks, and get yourself to a good physical environment.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	.This section is about neurosis.  Topics include: ( ) Catharsis.  ( ) Neurosis.  ( ) Repression.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis through low entertainment (crying at cheesy movies) is not real catharsis.  Catharsis through understanding (high art) is real catharsis.	03/15/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  (1) Immediate vs. later.  (2) Partial vs. complete.  (3) Confrontation and acknowledgment.  (4) Resolution: in mind and in behavior.  (5) Understanding and expression.  (6) Total instant catharsis at cause to get justice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  All catharsis increases pleasure.  Not all pleasure increases catharsis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  Best way to get catharsis: solving cause of problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  Deal directly with problem, resolve it totally, instantly.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  I need some heavy catharsis, and so does everyone else.	03/13/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  I would rather be an outcast and get catharsis than be accepted and never get catharsis and have a breakdown.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  If I get all my past catharsis straight, and get catharsis for everyday offenses from now on, my cathartic requirements should be kept low.	03/19/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  It has to be complete catharsis.  It has to feel right.  You have to feel it.  You should get the truth smile.  And the justice smile.	03/19/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  People of different ages and social statuses have different cathartic requirements.  This is why they like different art.	03/13/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  The function of life is catharsis.  Sex is the ultimate catharsis.  Art and entertainment are about catharsis.  Trips to the shrink are for catharsis.  Justice is for catharsis.  This is all beyond survival.  Life is about survival and catharsis through knowledge and understanding of everything.	01/26/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Catharsis.  Total instant catharsis is best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neuroses can be ignored, but they only come back latter.  They are tougher to cure in latter life, easier to cure when caught early, and lets you avoid years of pain if caught early.	03/13/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis and neurotic thinking kicks up under stress, and ruins head.  The answer is to be brave to help avoid feeling stress, be smart, and keep your head together.	04/24/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis destroys relationships and the ability to have or pursue a relationship.	02/02/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis inhibits friendship, love, and sex.	02/07/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis is a state of mind (or a thought pattern) that can be slipped into and out of.  It is usually triggered by stress.  Stress can be internal or external.  Internal stress can be conscious or unconscious.  Some people, who are worse off, are in the neurotic state all of the time.	02/10/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis is almost always both genetic and environmental.  Genetics is from parents, who go on to provide poor environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis leads to repression of thought, which inhibits mental organization, which inhibits mental growth.  The neurotic mind is like the magical child's mind.	03/13/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis makes you intellectually stupid and emotionally stupid.  By ignoring thoughts and emotions, you stunt their development.  Emotionally weak.  Weak character.  No strength.  Weak and stupid, instead of strong, brave and smart.	02/10/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  As a neurotic, I tend not to think about what I should be thinking about; survival and sex.  Instead I think about what I should not be thinking about.	04/30/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  Children, teens to some extents, and neurotic adults.  They just do not know what is going on in the world and in life.  They have a skewed view of the world and of life.  (1) Contra.  The above ignorances leave these groups open to psycho-pathology.  (2) Pro: (A) The above ignorances also leave the above groups idealistic.  (B) It leaves them with a "magical, wonderful" view of the world.  (C) And it also leaves them creative.  That is, it leaves them with altered views of the world, some of which are useful.  (3) Ignorance can be bliss.  Ignorance can be protective.  Ignorance can be dangerous.	7/25/1999

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  In the neurotic, ideas, especially the truth, pop up in the mind and are immediately repressed.  Write down important ideas while they are still in your mind.	03/19/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  It is easy to see other people's neurosis, but it is difficult to see our own.  But we must look for them and decide how to deal with them.	03/15/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  The neurotic is afraid to think.  He ends up being rigid (not flexible) and unchanging (not growing).  He can appear either apathetic and inactive, or narrow minded and fanatical.	06/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  The neurotic is weak in mind, due to being out of practice of "minding" well, or never having learned to "mind" well in the first place.  Neurotic also has a weak character.  Can't think for self.  Can't stand up for self.  Neurotic is sensitive, fragile, unstable, not hardy and robust.  Neurotic can't see and therefore can't make crucial conclusions, decisions, and actions for self.	07/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  The truth for the neurotic is common place for the healthy person.	03/11/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  Three people.  The neurotic, the dim adult, and the child, all need a parent, someone to protect them, someone to tell them what to do.  Often that someone they turn to is god.	01/28/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  Three types of neurotics.  (1) Religious neurotic.  Rely on belief, not reason.  They worship big daddy god.  (2) Conservative neurotic.  Afraid of the new.  (3) Military neurotic.  Obey orders, not reason.  Worship big daddy superiors.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurosis.  To the neurotic, the unknown seems more imposing than it actually is, which causes fear and avoidance.	02/07/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurotics end up being stupid.  They have the inability to think ("mind") correctly and clearly.  (1) They are unwilling to think because it means facing repressed thoughts, emotions, and memories.  So they end up believing in magic instead.  (2) They have an unwillingness to face up to reality because it means facing repressed thoughts, emotions, and memories.  So they end up creating a fantasy world, having delusions of grandeur, or retreating from real world into isolation instead.	01/21/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Neurotics traits.  (1) Belief in magic, mysticism and religion.  (2) Resorts to authoritarianism ("do x action because, y person says we should"), rather than reason for explanations.  (3) Childlike: needs a parent figure (leader, god, etc.).  (4) Daft, undeveloped, empty headed.  (5) Repressed, inhibited: in mind, and in behavior.  (6) Attracts other neurotics.  (7) Repels healthy people.  (8) Cowardly: avoids, won't confront in mind, and in behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repressed people are out of touch with their emotions, thoughts, and memories.  They do not know they are repressed.  They do not know anything is wrong.  They do not know that they do not "mind" or act healthy.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression can occur at any time, for any time, of any event, to any degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression can occur in a specific mental ability like drive, memory, emotion or thought.  Repression can occur in a specific subject areas of life like sex, work, etc.  The above two types of specific repression are bad.  But perhaps worse is when repression becomes generalized and spreads to all mental abilities of an individual, and spreads to all subject areas of life.  These types of global repression can lead to total mental breakdown.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression destroys memory, feeling and thinking ability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression inhibits thinking and thus learning and growth and new important conclusions, thus neurotics may appear "immature".	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression is depressing, and causes anxiety too.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression screws up (1) The current problem and its future development.  (2) The whole problem area and its future problems.  (3) Other problem areas (by screwing mind).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) Denial: any subject area, any mental area.  (2) Avoidance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) Repression causes neurosis.  Repression can be caused by cowardice.  Cowardice is caused by fear.  Anxiety is a form of fear that can cause cowardice.  Thus, anxiety causes neurosis.  (2) Repression can also be caused by too many "rules".  Excessive rule making and rule following can cause neurosis.	3/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) Suppression: healthy, conscious.  (2) Repression: unhealthy, unconscious.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) Takes energy.  (2) Creates tension.  (3) Increases relaxation needs.  (4) Leads to breakdowns.  (5) Cuts down on thinking ability.  (6) Sub opts mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) The chain of events.  (2) Repression of any specific mental element, or area or mind in general.  (3) Learned compensating disturbed thought patterns.  (4) Causes reduced mental abilities.  (5) Amount: number of subjects and ideas on them.  (6) Frequency, duration, levels, depths.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  (1) What causes it?  Inability to deal with pain.  Pain avoidance.  Don't know how to act.  (2) How prevent it?  Remember, feel, think.  Confront in mind and then in action.  (3) What are effects of it?  Causes neurosis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Adhering to anti-intellectualism is a form of mental self-repression of thought.	08/01/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Always face up to all your repressed thoughts, even your most bizarre repressed thoughts.	01/21/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  An attempt at avoidance and escape.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Avoid repression.  I can think of whatever I can think of.  I can say whatever I can think of.	03/07/1989

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Don't repress pain and don't repress pleasure, both guide you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  If you repress parts of the mind (drive, memory, emotion, thought), it is easy for the whole mind to become repressed.  If you are paranoid in one area, it is easy for that paranoia to become generalized.  If you withdraw in one area it is easy for that withdrawal to become generalized.  If you repress one subject area (work, love, etc.) it is easy for that repression to become generalized.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Let the thought, feeling, memory, drive, entire "mind", etc. come.  Let the action come.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Levels of repression.  (1) Never think about it.  (2) Sometimes think about it but shrug it off.  (3) Think about it constantly, in every way.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Mental disorganization and mental distortion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Not only pain can make people avoid and repress.  Even the apprehension that something may be painful, even if it is a mistaken apprehension, can make people avoid and repress.  Thus, fearful and timid people are more inclined to repress and thus go nuts.	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Society teaches us to repress, "shut up and take it".  It is illogical, and unfair, and it screws us up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Tendency to be passive, accepting, repressive is greater when energy levels are low, and fatigued.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Three types of repression.  (1) Repression of mental state (drive, memory, emotion, thought).  (2) Repression of communication.  (3) Repression of action.	3/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  Two types.  (1) Repressing something you know as fact.  (2) Repressing the knowing that you should look into something.  Explore and discover.	01/08/1994

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  You can pay me now or you can pay me later.  Repressed thoughts crop up later as mental problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, neurosis.	Repression.  You can repress any experience or any aspect of mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	.This section is about addiction.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	(1) How many resources you spend on an addiction.  How much time you spend thinking about it, talking about it, and doing it.  How much money you spend on it.  (2) What you neglect in order to do it.  Do you neglect your spouse, kids, or social life?  Do you neglect your job?  (3) Physical addiction vs. psychological addiction.	1/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	(1) If you watch television sixteen hours a day are you addicted or merely depressed?  (2) If you engage in a behavior for sixteen hours a day that provides no pleasure are you addicted or obsessed?  (3) What if you neglect to bathe, eat, sleep, exercise?  What if you neglect your job, mate and kids?  That is a problem.  (4) And yet we all have to figure out some way to spend our days.  We all have to decide how to spend our time.  If a person decides to do nothing all day, is that an addiction?	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	(1) The human emotion of happiness or pleasure has distinct components.  There is excited-happy emotions and calm-happy emotions.  (2) The human brain produces specific neurotransmitters when a person is happy.  Specific neurotransmitters produce excited-happy emotions.  Other specific neurotransmitters produce calm-happy emotions.  (3) Various natural activities produce various types of pleasure.  For example, anticipating a meeting with your lover can produce excited-happy, and consummating a meeting with your lover can produce calm-happy.  (4) Drugs artificially affect the levels of neurotransmitters that produce the various types of happiness.  Cocaine and other stimulants produce excited-happiness.  Alcohol and other depressants produce calm-happiness.  (5) People often engage in excessive levels or durations of eating, sex, gambling, computers games, stock trading, Internet porn or drugs to produce a false, artificial happiness.  (6) Confronting and solving the problems of life can be challenging, arduous, and uncomfortable.  Avoiding the pain of life by pursuing unhealthy and nonproductive activities is a sign of addiction.  Any activity can be done to excess.  Addiction and avoidance is easy and unhealthy.  Effort is difficult and healthy.	5/1/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	(1) The question is how much time do you spend pursuing an activity, or even thinking about an activity?  (2) How harmful is the activity?  (3) What are you neglecting by pursuing the activity?	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Addicted to risk.  Addiction to risk can occur in criminals, illegal drug users, or anyone who participates in dangerous activities.  Risk addiction is related to, but not the same as, self destructive urges.  It is possible to be addicted to the rush that comes with dangers pursuits.  You engage in the pursuit more and more, not for their intrinsic rewards, but just for the danger rush of it.  Adrenaline junkie.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Addiction as habit.	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Addiction is a hypnotic state?	9/23/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Addiction to booze, drugs, junk food, etc.  (1) Trance like state.  Focused only on one thing.  Unable to think.  (2) Caused by (A) Rebellion.  (B) Low self esteem.  (C) Pain avoidance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Addiction.  Do anything that feels good to avoid pain.  Sourceless, mindless, urges.  Healthy vs. unhealthy urges.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Degree of addiction, habit, urges vs. self control.  (1) Thinking about the addicted substance constantly, once a day, week, year.  (2) Engaging in addictive behavior constantly, once a day, week, year.  (3) Degree you can control your thoughts and behavior, i.e. direct them elsewhere.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Dynamics of addiction.  (1) Addiction (physical pleasure to block out psychological pain) as actually a psychological obsession?  Ex. The person can not stop thinking about booze.  (2) Addiction as actually psychological self destruction.  Ex. The person knows they are drinking themselves to death.  (3) Depression can cause self anger and self loathing, that can lead to self destructive thinking, that can lead to addiction.  (4) Depression can cause psychological pain, that can lead to addiction as a means of relief.  (5) Depression can lead to apathy (extreme not caring, giving up), which can lead to addiction (why not drink, it feels good?) or self destruction (why not kill self?).	10/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	I do not agree with twelve step programs.  They seem to rely on religious belief and prayer instead of psychological self discovery, self confrontation, self understanding, self knowledge, and reason, found through methods such as journal writing and psycho-therapy.  Even drugs alone cannot bring epiphany, and help stop repression.	08/17/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	If you do an activity to excess on any single day, is that addiction?  No, its just over-doing it.  If you do an activity to excess everyday for a month or year, is that addiction?  Probably.	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	If you feel the urge for additives, sit down, relax, and figure out what is bothering you.	03/11/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Is the word "addiction" a useful word?  If you steal or rob to support a habit.  If the activity kills you.  If the activity puts the life of you or others at risk.  Risky behavior is not exactly the same as addictive behavior.  What if the behavior is merely a big waste of time?	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Is there a genetic component to addiction? Can it be overridden by environment?  Is the genetic component just a predisposition to becoming addicted?  Addicted to any substance or a specific substance?	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	People who work by instinct (urges), like me, fall prey to addiction easily.	06/17/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Physical addiction versus psychological addiction.  Since psychological states can cause physical symptoms there is no such thing as purely psychological addiction.  Since physical states can cause psychological symptoms there is no such thing as purely physical addiction.	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Physical addiction vs. psychological addiction.  Some people posit a difference between physical addiction and psychological addiction.  However, that distinction is not unproblematic.  When psychological feelings (emotions) can cause physical feelings (sensations), and visa versa, then where is the dividing line between mind and body, and where is the dividing line between physical addiction and psychological addiction?	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Stress and anxiety can both trigger addiction.  Boredom can also.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	The mental pain of depression can trigger addiction.  Longing for a good feeling to ease or cease the depression.  Depression and addiction go hand in hand.	03/05/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	Types of addiction.  Things to be addicted to.  Drugs (including alcohol, nicotine and caffeine), shopping, gambling, power, pain, sex, working, eating, Internet, violence.  (2) Any activity can be done to excess.  Any activity can be done to avoid boredom, depression, anxiety, anger, etc.  Any activity can be done for pleasure too much.	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	What do we say about a person who decides to spend their life enjoying the pleasures of life without ever efforting to solve the problems of life?  Is that person a pleasure addict?	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	What is the difference between addiction and habit?  What is the difference between addiction and obsessive compulsive disorder?	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, addiction.	When is it addiction and when is it a matter of ethics (good and bad)?  When is it a matter of sanity (sane and crazy)?  When is it a matter of ignorance (smart and stupid)?	5/2/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	.This section is about anxiety.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	"Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you", said Woody Allen.  I say, "Just because they are after you doesn't mean you have to be paranoid."	1/3/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	(1) Defining the opposite of anxiety as bravery means defining anxiety as cowardice.  (2) Defining the opposite of anxiety as confidence means defining anxiety as a lack of confidence.  (3) I think that the latter is a more accurate conception of anxiety than the former.  (See also, sections for bravery and confidence).	12/1/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	(1) Spectrum of fear.  When does prudence become caution become wariness become paranoia?  (2) Why do cocaine and methamphetamine promote paranoia?	6/23/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Is it paranoia or is it just a lack of social knowledge and social skills that causes a social clumsiness that leads one to fear and mistrust other people?	2/1/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia, causes of  (1) Stress: real or imagined.  (2) Ostracism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  (1) Argument against pessimism.  Pessimism can lead to paranoia, by always seeing the worst in people.  (2) Paranoia is due to lack of trust (?).  Trust is a (social) emotion (?).  (3) Is paranoia always sex based?  Is paranoia always due to us projecting our ill will on others?  Is paranoia always fear?  (4) Paranoia makes us see the wrong picture, and make the wrong moves, and screw up our lives.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  At what point does a desire for privacy turn into raging paranoia?  One is healthy, the other not.	6/4/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  Five thoughts about paranoia.  (1) If your superego is too big.  That is, if you follow a rigid rule system.  If you fear punishment by authority (god, police, government, parents, peers).  Then it is easy to become paranoid.  (2) Paranoia can easily drive a person nuts.  It is just too much stress and pressure.  (3) Those people biochemically disposed  to anxiety (fear) can easily become paranoid.  However, paranoia is specifically a social fear, a fear of other people in relation to self.  (4) Guilt increases paranoia.  If you  tell people that they are born evil and sinful, what does that do to self-worth?  It lowers it.  It creates people who feel a deep sense of shame, guilt and fear.  It creates paranoia.  That is no way to live.  (5) Paranoia: to think the worst of people, and to expect the worst from life.  From pessimism to paranoia is a short step.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  If you are a depressive person, and you have a negative attitude, and you hate yourself, others, life, and god, and you think people are shit and mostly do bad things, and you don't trust people for that reason, then you are suffering from depression and negative attitude, not paranoia.	01/12/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  Rooted in unconscious memories, emotions, and thoughts of sex.  Transferred to another subject or not.  Justified or not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  Sometimes it is not paranoia, it is just fear and an active imagination.	08/17/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  Techniques for reduction of paranoia.  (1) Don't break legal law unless necessary.  (2) Don't break social laws unless necessary.  (3) Don't make enemies unless necessary.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, anxiety.	Paranoia.  Will there be a rise in paranoia cases due to the increase in the use of surveillance cameras?	02/09/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	.This section is about bullying.  Topics include: ( ) Causes of bullying  ( ) Description of the bully.  ( ) How to handle the bully.  ( ) Misguided beliefs of the bully.  ( ) Treacherous goals of the bully.  ( ) Types of bully.  ( ) Unethical tactics of the bully.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Bullies want you to either join and support them in bullying, or silently submit to their bullying.  The way to handle bullies is to expose them and denounce their bullying.	10/23/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  (1) Needs to feel in control.  Order freak.  (2) Needs to feel like a man.  Homophobe.  (3) Needs to feel strong.  Eugenicist, wants to kill off the weak.	10/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  (1) The "realpolitik" bully.  The bully wants you to think and act in their interests, and the bully uses the unethical tactics of harassment, threat and force rather than reason.  (2) The bully wants attention.  (3) The bully feels inferior and wants to feel superior.  The bully is not content to be an equal among equals.	6/3/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Apathy, selfishness and lack of empathy on the part of the bully is a major cause of bullying.  The bully simply not caring what he does to others.	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Development of the bully.  (1) The self-taught bully figures out early on in life, due to being bigger and stronger, that he can get his way by bullying others, and he never figures out why he shouldn't bully others.  (2) The bully taught by others.  (A) The bully taught passively by watching other people bully.  The bully taught passively by living with a bully.  The bully taught passively by living in a bully culture.  (B) The bully taught actively.  The bully taught to bully by another bully, intentionally.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Development of the bully.  Bullying tendencies.  The angry personality.  The aggressive personality.  The combination angry and aggressive personality.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Development of the bully.  Development of three types of bully.  (1) The bully who develops an addiction to power.  (2) The bully who fails to develop ethically.  The bully who does not develop empathy or altruism.  (3) The bully who develops an ideological agenda and will do anything to carry it out, no matter how ruthless.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Development of the bully.  There are many ways that bullies develop.  There are many causes of bullying behavior.  Unopposed power.  Abuse of power.  Unchecked power.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Some people are content to be left alone and are content to leave others alone.  Yet, bullies enjoy messing with other people.  Why?  They crave attention and recognition from others.  They need to feel better about themselves.	6/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  The bully is addicted to power.  Bullying is a form of power addiction.  This view is sometimes used as an excuse by the bully.  They say its genetic and they can't help it.  Baloney.	12/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  The bully want desperately to be a man.  They mistakenly think that being a man means being mean, nasty and cruel.  So they try to be mean, nasty and cruel.	6/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  What produces a bully?  (1) Lack of empathy by the bully.  Disregard for other people by the bully.  (2) Us vs. them mentality.   (3) They learn it. They were bullied as kids.  Its all they know.  (4) Inculcated with blind belief and blind obedience.  (5) Feel insecure.  (6) Excess anger.  (7) Power mad.  The bully wants absolute power.	10/10/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Why bullies bully.  (1) Bullies bully because they mistakenly think bullying is fun.  (2) Bullies bully because they want resources like power, status and money, at any cost and by any means.  (3) Bullies bully because they mistakenly think they are doing the right thing.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Why do some people like messing with other people?  They can't live with themselves.	5/3/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of bullying.  Why does the bully want so much power?  Why does he want to feel powerful?  Why is he power mad?  Because otherwise he feels weak, ineffectual, powerless, useless, dead, impotent, like a nobody, like a nothing, a non-entity.  And he can't stand feeling that way.	10/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of the bully.  The bully is trying to exercise control over his own life by bullying others.  That is, the bully is trying to exercise control over his own life by exercising unethical control over other people's lives.  The bully has a control problem in three major ways.  The bully has control problems related to authority.  The bully has control problems related to the people he bullies.  And perhaps most importantly, the bully has a sense of lack of control over his own life, and that is what causes him to try to exercise unethical control over other people's life.  By trying to control other people's lives the bully is really trying to control his own life.	12/14/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Causes of the bully.  Why people bully.  (1) Money, greed.  To try and sell it.  For a profit.  (2) Ideological.  They think they are right and you are wrong.  (3) Amoral.  No empathy.  No ethics.  Don't care.  (4) To try and prove how clever they are.  They do it for fun these days.  Curiosity.  They don't realize the damage.  They don't foresee the damage.	8/4/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of bullying.     PART ONE.  (1) What is a bully?  A bully uses threat and force.  A bully uses intimidation, terror and coercion.  (2) Why does the bully bully?  To feel self worth.  To get what he wants.     PART TWO.  Bullying, three definitions of.  (1) Bullying as a social skills problem.  Don't know exactly how to act.  (2) Intentional bullying.  Know its wrong and do it anyway.  (3) Messianic bullying.  Thinking you are right and justified when actually you are wrong and unjustified.	6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of bullying.  The bully  (1) Wants to do whatever he/she wants.  (2) Wants to make other do what he/she wants.  (A) Regardless of what others think or say.  (B) Regardless of other's rights.  (C) Without consideration for other people's needs, feelings, etc.     (3) Types of bullies.  (A) The bully in school, as a child.  (B) The bully as tyrant parent.  Family dictator.  (C) The bully as unreasonable boss at work.  (D) The bully as potential political dictator.  Or groups of bullies (military dictatorship).     (4) The psychology, sociology and politics of bullies.  The development of the bully.  How the bully "minds".  Chief prey of the bully: the person who lets others walk all over him, the person who is not able to fight to stick up for self.  Effects of the bully on others.  Techniques for how to handle bullies.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Bullies claim to be about freedom, but only because they want to be free to victimize others.  They claim to be about justice, but theirs is no justice.  Theirs is oppression, exploitation, violence and terror.  They claim to want to be left alone, but they need someone to mess with.  They claim to act only in self defense, but that is not true either.	10/4/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Bullies don't care who they have to step on to get their way.	10/10/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Bullies represent an abuse of power.  Bullies abuse their power when they abuse other people.  Power unjustly taken.  Power unjustly used.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Definitions of a bully.  Abuse of power.  Unethical use of power.	3/10/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  If you call bullies fascists they take it as a compliment because they believe in exterminating "the weak" (i.e., anyone who does not blindly follow them).	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Terrorism.  (1) Terrorism defined as killing civilians.  (2) Terrorism defined as random violence.  (3) Terror as trying to incapacitate people with fear.  Intimidation.  Threats of physical harm, or destruction of property.  Coercion.  Brute force.     PART TWO.  Two types of terrorism.  (1) Random, arbitrary, public violence toward strangers and innocents, that one takes responsibility for publicly.  Vs.  (2) Directed, private secret anonymous violence or threats or harassment.	11/18/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Terrorists and terrorism, definitions of.  (1) Kill civilians.  (2) Maim civilians.  (3) Destroy civilian property, like blowing up buildings.  Steal property.  Hijack planes.  (4) Take hostages.  (5) Induce terror, fear and anxiety in the public.	11/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  The bully can exist on the extreme right or left.  Extreme, fanatical, radical, fundamentalist.  So the concept of the bully transcends the "left / right" political distinction.  The problem is not left vs. right; the problem is the bully, especially the secret bully.	12/19/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  The bully is callous.  With little empathy.  Low self esteem.  Poor ethical reasoning.  Power hungry.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  The terrorist is a bully.  The bully is a terrorist.	1/9/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  There are some people who enjoy messing with other people.  They are waiting for what they consider to be a good enough reason mess with other people.  They are waiting for a good enough means to mess with other people.  They will use any reason and any means to mess with other people.	6/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Two principles.  (1) The bully feels he can't win unless he bullies.  (2) The bully feels he has to win at any cost.	12/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  What can one say about bullies?  They have ways of making people talk (about their disgraceful behavior).	10/4/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Whenever power is abused, from the left or right, violence, terror and destruction are used.	11/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Description of the bully.  Who is opposed to free speech for the masses?  The bully is opposed to free speech for the masses.  Who wants to use terror to purge the Internet of free speech?  The bully wants to use terror to purge the Internet of free speech.	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  (1) At some level, bullies want you to support them, adopt their tactics, become like them, adopt their philosophy, because it validates their warped world view and twisted attitudes.  (2) Or the bully wants you to submit wordlessly, knuckle under.  The bully wants you to shut up.  (3) Or they want you to leave, so that they can bully on in peace.  (4) What to do?  Take the ethical high ground.  Work the problem.  Leave if necessary.  Talk about it.	10/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  (1) Don't be a bully.  (2) Don't join the bullies.  (3) Don't support your local bully.  (4) Avoid making deals with bullies.	2/28/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  (1) Don't become a bully.  Don't bully others.  (2) Don't support bullies.  Don't aid bullies.  (3) Don't turn a blind eye to bullies.  (4) Speak out against bullying.  (5) Learn to identify bullies and bullying behaviors.  Learn to spot the signs of secret bullies.	1/9/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  (1) Non-violent passive resistance.  (2)  Large numbers of people resisting.  (3) Get the world out.  Speak up.  (4) Larger, more ethical forces.	4/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Don't engage in bullying behavior.  Don't join those who bully.  Don't support those who bully.  Avoid dealings with those who bully.	2/28/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Don't support your local bully.	10/31/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Know about bullies.  Know what to expect from bullies.  Do not become a bully nor a target.  Do not remain a target if you are targeted by bullies.  Do not panic.  Do not cave in to fear.  Don't be intimidated.  Do not isolate yourself.  Talk with friends.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Learn to recognize bully tactics.  Share your bully defense stories.	5/14/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Mass non-violent resistance vs. local bully.	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Some people live their lives inconspicuously, in the hopes that the bully will not bother them.  That is a mistaken strategy in that many bullies operate on the principle of messing with everyone at least once.	5/14/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Stand up for what you believe in.  Continue to think and feel and speak and act.  Do not be coerced or intimidated into fear, silence, non-thought and non-action.  Do not be surprised or afraid if a bully or a group of bullies targets you at some point in your life.  Do not lose your hope and enjoyment in life.  Do not lose your confidence in people.  Most people are basically good.  Do not let long-term (chronic) or short-term (acute) unethical opposition bother or deter you.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Talk about it.  Avoid isolation and silence.	11/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  There are many ways to protect yourself from bullies.  Ways to avoid being bullied.  There are ways to reduce bullying behavior.  Expose bullying to the light of day.  Use reason to explain to them not to bully.  Show people how to handle bullies.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Things to say to a bully, "You don't scare me."	2/21/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Things to say to bullies. "Does that make you feel tough?  Does that make you feel like a man?  Picking on people?"	10/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	How to handle the bully.  Those living under bullies are of three types.  (1) The collaborators who fall for the "join us" pitch.  (2) The fear, silence, ignorance, denial crowd.  (3) The resistance.	10/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Introduction.  (1) What is a bully?  A power abuser.  Unethical.  (2) Why do people bully?  (A) Actual causes of bully behavior.  (B) Reasons bullies give for their behavior.  (3) How do bullies bully?  Tactics of bullies.  (4) How to handle bullies?  Tactics of handling bullies.	1/31/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  "The bad we do is balanced or mitigated by the good we do.  We only want to break even, so any good we do gives us the right to do bad".	11/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  (1) Bullies claim to be about justice, but they are not.  (2) Bullies claim to be about safety.  Safe for them to abuse their power.  (3) Bullies claim to want to be left alone.  But the bullies main purpose is to mess with other people.  (4) Bullies try to explain away their actions as being "natural" or "manly".  Wrong.  (5) Bullies claim to be reasonable, but they are not about reason so much as they are about blind belief and blind obedience.	9/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  Bullies lame attempts at justifying their actions.  (1) "Its natural".  As if everything "natural" is good.  How about poison mushrooms and hurricanes?  And as if "unnatural" things are bad.  How about artificial legs?  Do the bullies want to go back to the law of the jungle?  They do in fact.  The bully believes that "might makes right".  (2) "That's how it was in the past."  The appeal to tradition and dogmatism.  The mistake of thinking everything in the past was good.  The "good old days" fallacy.  The "good old boys" fallacy.  The mistake of thinking everything new is bad.  The mistake of thinking the future is bad.  The mistake of thinking everything old is good.	10/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  Bully attitudes.  (1) The bully believes women are inferior. Believes women should shut up and do as they are told.  (2) The bully believes in the inferiority of other races.  (3) The bully believes they always have to win.  Believes they always have to be the best.  (4) The bully believes he is a "real man" and that somehow others are not.  (5) The bully achieves his ends through force, threat, intimidation, terror, harassment, humiliation, etc. (6) The bully believes in command and emotive appeals, not reason.	10/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  Bully phrases.  "I do whatever I want to do, regardless.  No one tells me what to do.  I tell others what to do."	10/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  By abusing people the bully sometimes mistakenly thinks that he is: (1) Teaching people a lesson, or otherwise educating the person.  (2) Doing their job as a bully.  (3)  Doing what they feel they were born to do.  Being who they feel they are.  That is, the bully has come to accept himself as a bully.	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  Lame excuses bullies make.  (1) Sometimes you have to do bad to do good.  (2) The bad we do is balanced by the good we do.	10/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The bully believes in the "one right way".  The bully believes that his way is the "one and only right way".  The bully thinks everyone should do everything his way.  Thus, the bully lacks tolerance and diversity.	10/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The bully says, "In order to beat you (i.e., in order to win), I must beat you (i.e., I must physically, verbally or psychologically assault you, or threaten you, or harass you.)"	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The bully thinks he is big daddy, king, dictator, god.  The bully feels he always has to win.  The biggest irony of the bully is that they choose to operate in democracy.  They choose to live in a system whose principles they don't adhere to.	9/29/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The bully will try to think of every lame excuse and weak rationalization he can to abuse his power.  And he comes up with a lot.  (See Philosophy, ethics, reasons people give for doing wrong.).	12/18/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The bully's bankrupt reply is usually, "By preventing me from bullying other people, you are bullying me."	12/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  The weak reasons bullies give for using strong-arm tactics.	3/31/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Misguided beliefs of the bully.  They use excuses like: "The government is crooks, liars, bullies, corrupt, and its laws are unjust", in order to try to excuse their own unethical actions.	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Sum up.  (1) Attitudes of the bully.  Behavior of the bully.  (2) Unethical tactics of the bully: abuse and threats; physical, verbal and psychological. To induce fear and silence.  (3) More unethical tactics of bullies:  Group bullying.  Gossip, ostracism, malicious mocking, harassment, terror, invasion of privacy, isolating the target.  (4) Treacherous goals of the bully: push people around.  (5) More treacherous goals of bullies:  They want your silence, consent, approval and ignorance.  They don't want the light of day shining on them.  (6) Types of bullies.  Location of the bully: school, work, neighborhood, Internet, family, corporation, government.  (7) Sociology of those living under bullies.	10/10/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Sum up.  (1) Treacherous goals of the bully.  (2) Unethical tactics of the bully.  Legal, but unethical tactics.  Illegal tactics.  Invade privacy, spy.  Pester, annoy, harass.  Mock, humiliate, slander.  Threaten, terrorize, stalk (illegal).  Abuse, beat.  Burgle (illegal).  Destroy (illegal).  Murder (illegal).  (3) Resistance to the bully.  Talk about bullying.  Educate yourself and others about bullying, why its wrong, and how to avoid it.	12/13/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  Bully culture.  The bully tries to build a bully culture to support his way of life and to try to legitimatize his way of life.  Bullying is taught, consciously or unconsciously, by bully parents to bully children.	12/18/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  Bully wants to turn you into either a bully or a victim.  By bullying you they want you to become a bully.  They want you to adopt their attitudes and bully someone else.  Bullies want bullying to become accepted by society.  Bullies want to create a bully dictatorship.  Because legitimizing bullying is one of the few ways the bully will survive and flourish.  The decay of civilization and the breakdown of law is a situation in which the bully thrives.	11/21/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully beats you up for the following reasons: (1) So he can feel like a man.  (2) So he can feel superior to you.  (3) So he can raise his low self esteem.  (4) So he can continue running his racket without interruption.  (5) So he can continue messing with people and abusing power in other ways.  (6) Because he thinks its fun, and he thinks it feels good, and because he can't tell its wrong, and because he has no conscience, empathy or ethical reasoning skills.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully has power but craves legitimacy.  But the bully has no legitimacy.  The bully tries to sneak into legitimacy.  Sneaking.	12/22/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully is trying to protect and defend a flawed philosophy and an unethical way of life.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully measures his self worth by how many people he/she can intimidate and coerce.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully wants a world in which bullying is condoned, tolerated or accepted, because that is a world in which the bully can thrive. That is a world in which it is easier for the bully to operate.  That is a world in which it is easier for the bully to take advantage of people.  (2) On the other hand, a world in which bullying is not tolerated, not condoned, and not accepted is a world in which the bully has to play fair.  So lets not tolerate bullying.  Make it tougher for the bully to operate.  Make it tougher for the bully to take advantage of people.	12/13/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully wants to be able to say, "Ha, ha.  I beat you up.  I made you cry.  I made you scared."  (ala Simpson's Nelson Muntz).	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully wants to beat up half the people in order to keep the other half in terror.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The bully wants to feel like a "real man" or a "big man".  (See Sociology > hoax of "real man").	10/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The goal of the bully is to beat up people until people do things the bully's way.	10/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The goal of the bully is to have you live in fear.  The goal of the terrorist is to have you live in fear.  The bully is a terrorist.	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The goal of the bully is to pile up stressors (like threats, harassment, abuse, etc.) until you are exhausted and have a nervous breakdown and either give up or go crazy and simply can't function.	12/19/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  The goal of the bully is to traumatize people.  Psychological trauma.  Psychological injury.  The bully inflicts trauma unconsciously or consciously, in varying degrees.  The bully inflicts trauma unintentionally or intentionally, in varying degrees.	1/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  Two unethical goals of the bully.  (1) The bully wants to boss you around.  (2) The bully wants to say that nobody is the boss of him.  He does whatever he wants.  No one tells him what to do.  Bully feels no compunction to be ethical and obey laws.	2/18/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  What the bully wants.  The bully wants power, and anything that will increase their power (ex. money, information), in order to abuse their power.	12/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  What the bully wants.  The bully wants the freedom to bully other people.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  What they bully wants.  The bully wants to scare people.  The bully wants to terrorize people.  The bully wants to create fear and anxiety.	10/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Treacherous goals of the bully.  Why the bully wants you to be like them.  The bully wants people to adopt their twisted philosophy.  The bully wants to be able to say, "See, you do it too."  The bully attempts to legitimize his behavior.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) Relationship bullies.  Dating bullies.  Marriage bullies.  (2) Family bullies.  Parental bullies.  (3) Corporate bullies (monopoly corporations).  (4) Military bullies (plundering armies).  (5) Religious bullies (intolerant churches).  (6) Government bullies (dictatorship governments).	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) Secret terror groups and activities.  Operate secretly.  Vs.  (2) Public terror groups and activities.  Operate publicly.	11/29/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) Silent, secret bullies.  Mean, hateful, cold, ruthless, seething.  Hidden agendas.  (2) Loud, obnoxious bullies.  In your face.  (3) Sniping bullies.  Indirect.  Sneak attacks on your flanks.	10/7/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) The bully who beats up people to avoid feeling insignificant.  (2) The bully with an agenda to push.  The bully with a program.	1/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) The unemotional bully.  Cold and calculating.  (2) The emotional bully.  Angry outbursts.	1/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  (1) Urban bully.  Gang bully.  (2) Rural bully.  Small town bully.	4/4/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  A "terrorist" is a type of a bully.  A "spy" is a type of a bully.  A "hacker/cracker" is a type of a bully.	12/19/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Cyber bully.  Internet bullying often takes the form of automated harassment or robotic harassment.  For example, a program that detects when a person is online and then sends the person a harassing email.  In the computer age the bullies are automating the work of bullying.	6/8/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Cyber bully.  The cyber bully will use the Internet to harass, threaten, intimidate and attack their targets.	3/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Cybergangs.  Bullies in cyberspace.  The bully who uses the Internet as a means of bullying.  The Internet bully tries to scare people off the Internet.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Economic bully: monopolist.	4/8/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Efficiency and productivity bullies.  Want to treat the worker like a machine.  Want to dehumanize the worker.  Makes the worker feel worthless if they don't produce up to quota.  Views efficiency and productivity as the sole value.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Neighborhood bully, thinks he owns the neighborhood.	3/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Neighborhood bully: thinks he owns the neighborhood and everyone in it.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Political bully: dictator.	4/8/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Relationship bully.  The psychologically, verbally or physically abusive boyfriend or girlfriend.	4/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Religious bullies say "Its my intolerant way or the highway".  Orthodox.  Fundamentalism.  They think they are right, and you are wrong. They think they are better, and you are worse.  They think they are true and you are false.  They think they are going to heaven, and you are going to hell.  They use violence and terror against perceived infidels, heretics and blasphemers.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The boyfriend who subjugates his girlfriend.  The husband who subjugates his wife.  Who does so by force or threat.  Or who does so by trying to coerce the wife or girlfriend that its the right thing to do.	11/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The bully who likes to pick on anyone different than themselves.  Different physically.  Different beliefs.  Different practices.  The bully who says, "I'm superior to you, and you are inferior.  I'm right and you are wrong."  Intolerance of diversity.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The bully who likes to pick on minorities.  The bully who likes to pick on the weak.  The bully who likes to pick on the physically handicapped or mentally handicapped.  The bully who likes to pick on the young (example, high school bullies).  The bully who likes to pick on the small.  The bully who likes to pick on the peaceful.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The cyber-bully and the physical-bully; they want to scare the hell out of you in the virtual world and the real world.	5/14/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The hyper-competitive bully, who feels a need to beat other people and dominate other people in every situation.  Uses competition as an excuse to harass the weak.  (2) Bullies in the name of efficiency and productivity.  (3) Eugenics, bigotry and discrimination.	12/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The paternalistic bully mistakenly thinks he knows what's best for you.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  The tyrannical father.	11/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  There is a certain type of bully who likes to maintain a bourgeoisie respectability to try to lord it over others.  They want to appear prim and proper models of propriety.  For this bully, surface looks and appearances are more important than their rotted core.	10/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Three types of bullying.  Secret bullying: you don't know who is bullying you.  Private bullying: less apparent to the public.  Public bullying: public violence, threat, humiliation, intended to coerce others as much as the target.	10/4/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Types of power abusers.  (1) The physical strength bully: feels that if they are stronger than you then they have a right to push you around.  (2) The beauty bully: feels that if they are better looking than you then they are superior to you and can treat you badly.  (3) The popularity bully: feels that popularity gives them an excuse to pick on others.  (4) The intellectual bully: feels that intelligence gives them an excuse to boss others.  (5) The technology bully: uses technology to oppress others.	11/16/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Types of bullies.  Workplace bully.  Relationship bully.  Family bully.  Neighborhood bully.  Internet bully.	4/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully include humiliation and degradation.	5/5/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  "If we beat up half the people then the other half will get PTSD just from watching".	11/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  (1) Dispassioned pseudo-reason approach.  (2) Emotional approaches.  (A) Negative emotions.  For going against the group.  For opposing the group.  Feel banished.  Feel ostracism.  Feel anger towards you.  Feel disappointment in you.  Feel humiliation.  (B) Positive emotions.  For obeying the group.  For supporting the group. Feel friendliness toward you.  Feel safe.  Feel support.	10/4/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  (1) Insults and malicious mocking, private and public, to your face and behind your back.  (2) Harassment.  (3) Threats and intimidation, veiled or direct.  (4) Gossip, half truths and lies.  (5) Invasion of privacy, spying, secretly vs. letting you know it.	9/16/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  (1) Isolation.  Isolate the target.  Or at least try to make the target feel isolated.  (2) Gang up on the target. Make the target feel they are surrounded by enemies and under attack.  (3) Intimidate the target into inactivity.  Make the target feel any move they make will be wrong.	12/13/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  (1) The bully tries to claim its natural, and therefore good.  (2) The bully tries to claim its harmless.  (3) The bully tries to claim that he just don't care.	10/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Bullies are people who try to unremittingly abuse and batter people to the point where people believe that anything they do is wrong, anything they say is wrong and anything they think is wrong, so they merely believe and obey the bully."	11/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Bullies like to join together to make a band of bullies.	10/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Bullies often threaten, "We are going to beat you up if you say anything about us."  That is how bullies attempt to control thought and speech through threats and violence.	1/9/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Bully often says, "You better not say anything.  You better not tell."	10/10/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Control the media.  Promote your own views through threat, intimidation and harassment.  Get rid of opposing views through threat, intimidation and harassment.  Use every channel of the media: Internet, print, broadcasting.	11/15/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Create the illusion of freedom to mollify the masses.  The bully wants to pick a ripe, fat system.  The bully doesn't want to destroy the system, only abuse it.  (2) Use propaganda and lies to create the illusion of freedom and safety while you conduct a secret campaign of terror and intimidation.  (3) Peace time propaganda: Say, "All is well.", while you secretly and quietly oppress and exploit others.  War-time propaganda: Demonize the enemy and then use that to justify any action.  (4) Assuage guilt.  Try to convince yourself and others that you are doing justice and that god is on your side.  (5) You need a cover, a front, a flak.	11/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Cruelty, brutality, violence and abuse; the bully wrongly believes these to be good or inevitable.	10/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Dirty tricks.  Breaking and entering.  Burglary.  Destruction of property.  Assault.	12/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Distractions.  (1) "But look what that other person did.", attempts to distract people by trying to divert attention to others.  (2) "But look at the good I have done", attempts to distract by diverting attention to some token acts of good.	11/8/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Failing to achieve power, the next tactic of the bully is to try to maintain the appearance of power.   Prevented from hitting people, the next tactic of the bully is to try to scare people.	10/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Five levels of secrecy when people do bad things.  (1) Anonymously.  (2) Hinting to you alone.  (3) Telling you but you cannot prove it.  (4) Hinting to the public.  (5) Telling the public but so the public cannot prove it.	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  For the terrorist the keyword is harassment.  The terrorist tries to bother their target a little each day.  The terrorist tries to make their target uncertain and scared.  You have to say to the terrorist, "bug off".  The bully is a type of terrorist.	9/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Friendly by day, terror by night.	10/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Harass, nitpick, henpeck.  Ostracize, exclude, alienate.	10/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Harassment.  Harassment by a series of attacks.  Harassment by a series of threats.  Harassment by a series of dirty tricks or "practical jokes".  Harassment by a series of verbal abuses or maliciously mocking jokes.  Harassment by a series of psychological abuses.	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Harassment.  Harassment is like being beaten up in slow motion.  Or its like death by a thousand cuts.	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Hazing.  After the recent LI varsity football hazing incident.  Hazing is very often a form of bullying.  Hazing is very often abuse.  Hazing is very often unethical.  Hazing has no constructive purpose.  Hazing is arbitrary terror.  Hazing "to see how tough you are" is baloney.  Hazing involves asking a person to display trust in a group that subsequently betrays the person.	11/16/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Ironically, the bully says "actions speak louder than words", yet the bully's first course of action is to try to control the media and get rid of writers of opposition views.  Is that because "the pen is mightier than the sword"?	9/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Isolate individuals by silencing them.  Silence them by fear.	11/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Lame reasons bully gives for his behavior.  "Unfortunately, its necessary, because there is no other way."	2/18/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious mocking.  Malicious mocking is a form of verbal abuse intended to humiliate and denigrate the target.	12/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious mocking.  Name calling. Labeling.  Stigmatizing.  For example, calling someone crazy, gay, etc.	12/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious mocking.  The put down.  The bully wants to put you down in order to raise his low self esteem.  The bully uses racist jokes. Ethnic jokes.  Sexist jokes.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious mocking.  They mock out of a need to feel superior.  If they were actually superior they wouldn't need to mock.  If they were actually superior they wouldn't need to play dirty.  But they are not superior.	9/19/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious mocking.  Types of malicious mocking.  (1) Publicly, overtly, with others and you knowing it.  (2) Publicly, only hinting to you.  (3) Publicly, yet without the target knowing it.  For example, behind your back.  (4) Privately, hinting only to you.  (5) Privately, overtly to you.	12/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Malicious practical jokes.  Sex related practical jokes.  Scat related practical jokes.	1/18/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Might makes right (the bully wants his way no matter what the cost).  Fright makes right (the bully wants to threaten and scare you to death).  Slight makes right (the bully wants to slight you, the bully wants to put you down).	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Name calling, a type of verbal abuse used by bullies.  These are some names used by bullies to devalue, stigmatize and disempower: Fatty.  Four eyes.  Skin and bones.  Half breed.  Mutt.  Shorty.  Ugly.  Spastic.  Stupid.  Freak.  Weirdo.  Strange.  Etc.	1/3/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  One tactic of the bully is to pound on the weak, the vulnerable and the sensitive.  The bully is out to destroy people.  The bully actually thinks its a good idea to kill the weak.  By "weak" the bully means anyone weaker than him.  This attitude helps explain the bully's obsession with power, strength, dominance, winning, competing, fighting and conflict.	1/21/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.   For a bully, "practical jokes" often segway into "dirty tricks".	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  Bullies use malicious practical jokes.  Practical jokes are supposed to be harmless (physically and psychologically).  However, bullies use the practical joke as a tool of humiliation, harassment and terror.  Bullies use the practical joke as a means of threat, control and terror.     PART TWO.  Practical joking is a typical tactic of bullies.  Practical joking is about lack of empathy.  Practical joking is about abuse of power.  Practical joking is about venting anger on innocents.  Practical joking is not humor.	10/16/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  Harmless vs. harmful practical jokes.  Harmful practical jokes attempt to embarrass, humiliate, degrade and terrorize the target.  They try to avoid the illegal but often fail.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  Not anger.  Not sadism.  But a calculated power grab.  An attempt to elevate themselves by degrading others.  Shows a lack of ethical development.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  They will prank you.  They will threaten to prank you.  They will lie and say they pranked you when they actually did not.	10/14/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  Two "practical jokes" that bullies use to terrorize people.  Food tampering: putting shit in your food.  Sleep tampering: messing with you while you sleep.  Or lying about doing so.  Or threatening to do so.  The bully wants to keep you tired, hungry and worried.  The bully wants to exhaust you.  The bully wants to wear you out.	11/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical jokes.  Use of malicious "practical jokes" as a means of control and terror.  To silence critics.  To intimidate people.	11/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Practical joking.  Things bullies say when practical joking.  "Its just a joke.  Its all in fun.  We're just messing with you." Bullies like to harass and terrorize without breaking the law.	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Propaganda is crucial for a bully regime.  The "big lie" tries to convince the public of the regimes goodwill or harmlessness.  Charm and violence are the traits of sociopaths.	10/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Public terror vs. secret terror vs. anonymous terror.  Public terror means letting everyone see you going after your target.  Secret terror means letting only your target see you are after them.  Anonymous terror means not even letting your target know its you who is harassing them.	11/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Shady tactics of those pushing ideological agendas.  (1) When pseudo-reason and logical fallacies don't work, try emotional appeals.  And visa versa.  (2) When soft sell doesn't work, try the hard sell. (3) Negative emotional appeals.  Negative emotional appeals try to depress you and make you feel worthless and hopeless.  They try to scare you, frighten you and make you feel anxious.  They try to anger you until you are incapacitated by anger.  (4) Positive emotional appeals.  (A) Pride appeals.  Make us proud.  National pride appeals.  Be your best friend appeals.  Think of the fun we will have.  (B) Joining appeals.  Join the in-crowd.  Join the team. Hop on the band wagon.  (C) Safety and security appeals.  You can't live without us.  (D) These are appeals to basic psychological needs and wants.  (5) When one appeal tactic doesn't work on a person, they try a different appeal tactic.  They start with emotional appeals and slogans because they don't want people to think too much.	12/26/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Spectrum of bullying tactics.  Annoy.  Harass (repeated annoyances).  Terrorize (fear inducing).	11/30/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Terrorize innocent bystanders.  Secretly exploit and victimize.  Abuse their power.  Unethical, if not illegal.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bullies says, "Go ahead and live your life.  You are free.  But if you criticize us or talk negatively about us we will beat you up or threaten to beat you up."	1/26/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully attempts to harass you at the level of the basic needs of food, sleep and sex.  For example, putting shit or scum in your food.  For example, trying to scare you from sleeping.  For example, invading the privacy of your sex life.  The bully tries to mess with your basic needs.	6/10/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully is trying to shut people up by intimidation and degradation, or threat of same.  The bully is trying to maintain his power base by abusing others.  The bully is trying to promote his own views by viciously quashing the opposition.	5/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully says, "I don't care what I have to do to anyone to get my way.  I will do anything to win.  I have to be number one.  Win at any cost even if it means playing dirty."	10/25/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully says, "We are going to provide for you.  We are going to guide and teach you.  We are going to provide friendship.  We ask, or demand, or coerce your unquestioning loyalty, blind obedience, time, energy, money, etc".	10/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully tries to claim he is harmless. The bully says humiliating people with practical jokes is harmless.  The bully says terrorizing people with threats is harmless.  The bully says bilking the public is harmless.  The bully is wrong.	10/5/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully wants to terrorize people into keeping mouths shut, eyes closed, ears covered.  Deaf, dumb and blind.  "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys.  But the bully wants to know all about you.	9/25/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  The bully's tactics are physical, verbal and psychological abuse.  The bully wants to assault you physically, verbally and psychologically.  The rest of the world believes in fairness and reason.  The bully believes in abuse of power.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  They may treat you well at first.  They will ask you for one small lapse in ethics on your part.  They then coordinate the many small lapses in ethics by many people.  They try to get everyone to give one punch.  They try to give people plausible deniability, so that each individual can say, "I didn't know".	10/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  They play dumb when they say, "We just like to play rough."	10/8/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  They will call you every name in the book.  They will lie about you.  They will gossip about you.  They will harass you.  They will threaten you.  They will abuse you.	10/14/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Things bullies say: "Don't ask any questions".	11/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Those who abuse their power want to curtail free speech by others.  The Internet is a major form of free speech today.  Who would like to curtail the Internet as a medium of free speech?  The bully.  Who would like to see free speech and the Internet continue?  Those who use power wisely.	11/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threat is a form of terror.  Types of threats include the vague threat, the anonymous threat and the implied threat.  The bully realizes that he only has to brutalize a few in order to threaten many.	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  Crazed sounding, persistent, "I know who you are and where you live", types of threats are sleazy.	10/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  The bully loves to scare the daylights out of people.  The tools that the bully uses to scare people are the threat and the practical joke.  The bully enjoys scaring people for various reasons.  (1) Scaring people poses less physical and legal risk to the bully.  (2) Scaring people generates less guilt in the bully.  (3) The bully mistakenly believes that scaring people is harmless.  Scaring people is not harmless, as current psychology shows.  Scaring people can cause PTSD and permanent emotional scars and physical repercussions.	12/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  Types of threats.  (1) The crazy threat: tries to make you say, "Hey, that person is crazy."  (2) The angry threat: tries to make you say, "Hey, that person is angry."  (3) The threat carried out half-way.  This tactic is used by the bully to really scare people.	12/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  Types of threats.  The vague threat.  The anonymous threat.  The implied threat.  Any combination of the three.	11/6/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  Vague threat letters. "You don't know us, but we know all about you.  We know who you are, we know where you live, you are going to die, etc."	10/7/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Threats.  Vague, anonymous threats.	10/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Two pairs of variables.  Public vs. secret terror.  Random vs. directed terror.  Four combinations possible.	12/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Verbal abuse.  Name calling, either in anger or in jest.  Racial slurs.  Ethnic slurs.  Sexual slurs.  Slurs against physical or psychological limitations, etc.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Violence.  The bully enjoys beating people up.  He thinks its right and good.  He thinks its his job.	1/28/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying.	Unethical tactics of the bully.  Wannabe bullies often band together because alone they can't do as much, but as a group they can team up on their lone individual targets.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	.Introduction or sum up.  Psychological causes of crime.  Ethical dimensions of crime.  Political and legal dimensions of crime.  Social dimensions of crime.  Technological dimensions of crime.	6/5/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	.This section is about crime.  Topics include: ( ) Causes of.  ( ) Types of.  ( ) Ways to prevent.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	(1) Causes of crime.  Actual causes of criminal behavior, rather than the reasons criminals tell themselves or others.  For example: Money, greed.  Power.  Sex, love, women.  Anger, hate.  Ideological opposition.  (2) Reasons criminals tell themselves for their actions.  (3) Reasons criminals say to others for their actions.	7/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	(1) Psychology and crime.  Psychology of criminals.  Psychology of victims.  Psychology of law officers.  (2) Sociology and crime.  Sociology of criminals.  Sociology of law enforcement.  Sociology of victims.  Sociology of the general public faced with crime.  (3) Economics of crime.  How much money is lost to crime?  How much time is lost to crime?  (4) Politics, law and crime.  What acts does a society make illegal?  (5) Philosophy and crime.  What acts does a society consider unethical?  (6) Science, technology and crime.  Technology to detect crime.  Technology to commit crimes.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Bullying behavior often leads to criminal behavior.  Smaller crimes often lead to larger crimes.	10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Causes of wrongdoing.  (1) Amoral: no sense of ethics.  (2) Evil: intentional wrongdoing.  (3) Stupid: cannot figure out why not to.  (4) No empathy. Lack of feeling.  (5) Crazy: psychological problems.	8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime character test.  (1) How much you hate a particular person.  Do you hate all people of that social group because you are a bigot (hate crimes)?  Do you hate the person because they hurt you (revenge crimes)?  Is the person a complete stranger to you?  The less hate involved, the worse the crime because it is more icy?  (2) How much the crime would not hurt any single person (ex. embezzlement).  (3) How big is the payoff of the crime?  Does a bigger payoff make it more tempting to you?  (4) How small is the hurt the crime will cause (tiny crimes, inconsequential crimes).  Does this make it ok to do?  (5) Means.  How easy would it be for you to commit the crime?  Do you have the money or power available to do it, or to have someone else do it?  Ex. If you had a gun in your hand at the moment of anger, would you have killed the person?  (6) Motive.  How much do you hate the person?  How much of an injustice has the person done to you?  How vengeful are you?  How emotional are you?  How crazy are you?  (7) Opportunity.  What if no one was around, and you were absolutely sure you wouldn't get caught.  Would you do it?  How long are you faced with this temptation to do the crime?  Is it just a momentary chance opportunity, or do you have to live with the constant temptation?	05/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime is not just a psychological issue.  Crime is also a sociological issue, an ethical issue, etc.  I put all the crime notes here for convenience and ease of use.  At base, I think sociology and ethics are about psychology anyway.	4/29/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime, causes of.  (1) Sadists.  Get sexual kicks from others pain.  (2) Power mongers.  Destruction just to feel power and strength.  Unconsciously feel impotent?  (3) Freedom anarchists.	6/1/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime, types of.  (1) Crimes that deal directly with people (ex. robber) vs. crimes that do not deal directly with people (ex. burglar).  (2) Of the crimes that deal directly with people, some use trust and trickery (ex. con man), and some use threat and force (ex. robbery).	6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime, types of.  (1) Violent crimes.  Corporate crimes.  Organized crime.  (2) Personal crimes.  Property crimes.  Money crimes.	3/23/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) Criminal organizations.  Structure and mechanism.  Leadership.  (2) Initiations and enculturations.  (3) Status of criminal in society.  Societies that glorify criminals vs. societies that deal severely with criminals.	6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) Does technology help enable crime (ex. getaway cars)?  Does technology help prevent crime?  (2) Does education help prevent crime?  What kind of education helps prevent crime?  Does education enable crime?  Only if you teach people to be criminals.	5/17/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) Some criminals consciously feel impelled to perform a crime.  Impelled by an emotion.  Or impelled on principle.  Impelled so strongly they feel they have to do it.  They feel they have no other choice.  (2) Other criminals deliberate about whether to commit the crime.  They weigh their conflicting feelings.	5/9/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) Some want object of crime.  (2) Some just want to do something illegal.  (3) Some just want to do something taboo.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) The topic of crime fits into the area of legal and illegal actions, which is part of the more general area of good and bad actions, which is part of ethics.  (2) Two areas:  The causes of crime.  The reasons people give for committing crime.	1/14/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1) There is no correlation between the size of a racket (number of victims), the evilness of a racket (degree of harm to each victim), the degree a cad will go to protect his racket, and thus the degree of difficulty it takes to take down a racket, and the degree of vengeance of a cad taken down.  So thus, you have (A) The big vs. small racket (in dollars), (B) The easy vs. hard to take down, and (C) The big vs. small backlash reaction by the cad.  (Example: a small thug may kill you if you stop him from shoplifting.  His racket may be small, and his victims few, with little damage done to each, but if you foil it he may make your life hell through harassment.  On the other hand, a big swindler may back off if he thinks someone is on to him).  (2)(A) The cad may think no one objects, and so may stop immediately when someone protests.  (B) The cad may think no one knows of his racket, and he may backoff if he thinks someone is on to him.  (3)(A) Thus we develop an argument against fighting little injustices.  You can not be afraid to speak out against injustice, but do pick your battles and tactics carefully, because if you take down a little racket run by a fiercely protective cad, you may suffer a unreasonably big backlash.  (B) The argument for fighting little injustices is that speaking out against small injustices is good practice for speaking out against big injustices.  As you get better at fighting injustice, you take on bigger injustices.	03/08/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  (1)(A) The attitude of criminals has changed.  They have less community feeling.  They are more willing to screw their neighbor or the public.  They are losing their principles.  (B) The attitude of the public has changed.  They are less vigilant personally and publicly.  They are more fearful.  There is less community feeling among the public to protect neighbors or the public.  (2) Young people commit crimes because (A) They want to rebel.  (B) They are poor.  (C) Anger.  (D) Have little to lose (no job or family).  (E) Are not legal yet.  (F) Ethical sense not well developed yet.  (G) Want to prove to themselves or friends that they can do it, want to prove that they are tough.  (3) Older people commit crimes because...?	09/28/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  A theory of crime.  Attention = love.  (A simple but true equation).  People act up to get attention.  Criminals feel unloved.	3/29/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Causes of crime.  (1) Authority problems.  Attitude of, "No one tells me what to do."  (2) Economic issues.  Attitudes of, (A) "I am poor, starving and need to survive."  (B) "I want to be rich.  I am greedy."  I never want to work again.  I am lazy."  (C) He can't find a job.  Unemployment.  (3) He finds it a thrill.  Adrenaline junky.  Boredom.  (4) Ignorance issues.  Unaware of penalties.  Unaware of probability of being caught.  Unaware how to do it cleanly.  (5) Technological issues.  Means are easily available to do the crime and get away with it.  Low probability of getting caught.  (6) Cost benefit ratio.  If they are caught then the cost of the punishment is less than the benefits of doing the crime.	8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Causes of crime.  Few crimes are out of need, like stealing bread to survive.  (1) Greed.  Merely wanting more vs. wanting what others have and you do not.  Buddhism could help here: avoid misery by not wanting things.  (2) Not giving a crap about others.  Murder, rape, and hurting others vs. "victimless crimes", or property crimes like stealing money or goods, crimes where others are not present.  (3) Laziness.  Do not want to work to get things.  (4) Romanticizing crime.  The pirate syndrome.  (5) People can become hopeless and develop wrong views.  Their reasoning can be, "Life has been unfair to me by making me dumb or poor, so it does not matter if I do anything unfair back".  (6) Systemic injustice built into the system vs. isolated crime.  Systemic injustice can be bad laws, or lack of law creation, or lack of law enforcement.  Systemic injustice can also be a culture that does not view an unethical act as bad, regardless of laws about it.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Causes.  (1) They feel weak and powerless.  They do crime to feel power, strength and control.  Its not about money, it's about power.  (2) They feel anger too.  (3) They have low self-esteem.  (4) They do it because they think they can get away with it.  (5) They do it because they are on booze or drugs.  (6) They do it because they feel justified, because they feel deprived, cheated, ripped off, gypped, and screwed by life.  (7) They do it for the excitement.  (8) They just do not care about others.  (9) They can't imagine a better way, due to lack of imagination.  (10) Hopelessness that they cannot achieve, even if they can imagine.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Causes.  People get depressed, lose hope, and commit crimes.  Or they get angry, lose temper, and commit crimes.	09/14/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Corporate crime.  Corporate crime is widespread.  Corporate crime involves large sums of money.  Even worse are the unethical corporate actions that there ought to be laws against.  For example, corporations that exercise undue influence on government while at the same time bilking workers, stockholders, consumers and the general public.	12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Criminals can be (1) Not afraid enough to obey.  No fear.  (2) Not conformist enough to go along.  Too rebellious.  (3) Not smart enough to reason out ethics.  (4) Not enough emotions left to feel ethics.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Criminology tells us as much about ethics as anything.  There are economic crimes (ex. fraud crimes), violent crimes, and sexual crimes.  Some commit crime out of economic need (ex. stealing food).  Some commit crimes out of lack of morals (ex. no moral principles, do it for fun).  Some commit crimes due to lack of feeling (no empathy for victim).  Some commit crimes due to psychosis (crazy).	03/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Different causes of crime and all unethical behavior.  (1) Thrill.  Adrenaline rush.  Fun.  See if you can get away with it.  (2) Power trip.  Imposing one's will on others.  Trying to prove how smart you are.  (3) Out of anger.  General anger at the system and life.  Misdirected anger.  (4) No one will notice.  It will not hurt anyone.  Think you can get away with it.	12/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  How big a problem is crime in a society?  (1) What percentage of the population are targets of crime?  What is the average number of crimes they suffer?  What percentage of the population are committing crimes?  What is the average number of crimes they commit?  (2) How many people are attacked?  How much money is lost or stolen?  How much property is destroyed, damaged or stolen?  How much money and time does it cost the society to police and prosecute crimes?	12/30/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  How to prevent crime?  (1) Less greed.  Buddhist points of view.  No desire.  (2) Smarter people?  Do smarter people commit less crime or do they just get caught less often?  (3) More ethical people.  (4) Higher penalties.  (5) Higher rates of capture and prosecution.  (6) Jobs available.  Less poverty.  (7) Alternate thrills available.	8/5/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  In order to prevent crime, two sides of the coin can be addressed: the potential criminal and the potential victim.  (1) The potential victim.  Fighting crime by empowering the public.  (A) Ability to protect self.  Bats, dogs, robots.  (B) Security.  Locks, alarms.  (C) Surveillance.  Cameras, etc.  (2) The potential criminal.  Fighting crime by dissuading potential criminals.  (A) Improve their self worth so that they do not think, "If I do not have money and things then I am worthless."  (B) Give them ways to vent their anger and pain constructively.  (C) Socialize them so that they have empathy.	8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  It is greed, not need, that drives most criminals.  Some criminals are ambitious, not lazy.  Some criminals are smart, not stupid.  Some criminals are sane, not crazy.  But all criminals are unethical when they break ethical laws.	8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Lame excuses that people give for committing crimes.  (1) It was a complete, unavoidable accident.  (2) It was an accident due to the fact that I was drunk, on drugs, etc.  (3) I didn't know it was illegal.  (4) I didn't know it was wrong.  Or, I didn't know it was that wrong.  (5) I didn't know it was happening.  I wasn't aware.	5/18/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Organized crime does not only want to make money.  They want to rule; they want to govern.  They want legitimate government to fail or be corrupted, so that they can move in.	6/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Organized crime is a problem.  Organized crime is politically allied with the right wing in that organized crime wants "laissez fare" or "hands off" by the government.	12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Organized crime.  One wrong view of organized crime is that organized crime is the result when government makes certain activities illegal, such as gambling, drugs, booze and sex.  The example cited for that view is the flourishing of organized crime in the United States during the prohibition era.  The view of organized crime as a result of government policy can be shown to be wrong in several ways.  (1) Consider the situation in Columbia when Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medelin drug cartel, actually tried to run for office.  This was a situation where organized crime actually infiltrated the government.  (2) Very often organized crime attempts to infiltrate legitimate businesses.  For example, there have been cases where organized crime has infiltrated the construction industry, cement industry and the garbage industry, just to name a few.  (3) A third situation is that organized crime flourishes when governments collapse.  For instance, the collapse of government in eastern Europe has led to situations where organized crime moves into the resulting power vacuum.  (4) The above are three examples which show that organized crime uses tactics of infiltrating legitimate business, infiltrating legitimate government and also seizing power in situations of no government.  Organized crime is opportunistic and predatory.  Organized crime takes what it can, when it can, how it can.  A better understanding of the problem of organized crime will yield to more effective solutions.	12/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Poor criminals (desperate) vs. middle or upper class criminals (greedy).	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Psychology of crime.  Possible causes of criminal behavior.  (1) Low knowledge.  (2) Poor socialization.  (3) Poor ethical development.  (4) Raised in poor family conditions.  Abuse, neglect, poverty.  Lack of education.  No love.	6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Psychology of the victim.  Healing vs. letting it destroy you.	6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Reasons they say they do it.  (1) Cost benefit analysis of money gained vs. jail time spent show it worthwhile.  (2) Work is boring and low paying.	8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Reasons they say they do it.  Fun.  (1) Fun defined as an exciting, scary, thrilling rush.  (2) Fun defined as an intellectual or physical challenge.  (3) Fun defined as entertaining, enjoyable, amusing.	8/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Related subjects.  (1) Psychology.  (A) Psychological causes of crime.  (B) Reasons given by perpetrators.  (lame excuses).  (2) Philosophy, ethics.  Unethical nature of crime.  (3) Politics and law.  Illegal nature of crime.  (4) Sociology.  The targets of crime (crime victims).  The public and crime (potential targets).  (5) Economics of crime.  Resources lost to society.  Stolen money. Destroyed property.  Money spent to police and prosecute.  Taxes not paid on money siphoned off by organized crime.  (6) Science and technology of preventing and detecting crimes.  Versus the science and technology of committing crimes.  (7) Other.  Corporate crime: Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, Parmalat.  Public officials assassinated by organized crime in Columbia, Italy, etc.	6/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Solutions.  (1) Teaching people to not be so materialistic.  Teaching people to live simply, without a lot of material possessions and money.  People desire money (A) For security, because they are fearful of poverty, and (B) So not to have to work (leisure ethic).  (2) Teaching people not to be bullies.  Not to infringe on other people's rights.  Teaching people to be more cooperative.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  The big question is why are people assholes?  Because being an asshole is a precursor to crime.  Ignorance.  Bullies.  Selfish.  No empathy.  Greed.	5/18/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  The difference between criminals vs. everyday schmucks is like the difference between psychotics and everyday neurotics.  If you add up all the misery caused by everyday schmucks or the misery suffered by everyday neurotics, it is greater than the misery caused by criminals or the misery suffered by psychotics.  So to improve the world you should work on improving everyday schmucks and everyday neurotics as well as criminals and psychotics.	6/18/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  The recent drop in crime.  Is it due to stiffer penalties?  I think it is due to the increasing use of video cameras, and the subsequent fear of being caught on tape.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  They steal stuff because.  (1) They steal for fun, sport, and the challenge.  (2) They like the stuff and want to keep it.  (3) They hate you and want you to lose your job.  (4) Angry and pissed off at the system.  They feel ripped off and want to get back.  (5) Stealing is as natural to them as breathing.	06/10/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Two types of criminals.  (1) Enjoy doing evil regardless of whether it is against the rules or not.  (2) Enjoy breaking rules.  Would not commit crime if it was not against the rules.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  Types of causes of crime.  (1) Crime as rebellion.  (2) Crimes of passion.	03/01/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  What the outlaw is counting on.  The outlaw is counting on the following:  (1) Some people will look the other way if it does not affect them directly.  Some people are self centered.  (2)(A) Some people believe in the criminal way of life.  Some people are opportunistic predators.  (B) Some people have criminals as heroes.  Some people like bad boys.  Some people buy into the Robinhood myth.  (3) Some people can be intimidated into fear and silence by threats.  Some people can be blackmailed by humiliation.  Some people can be bribed out of greed.  (4) They mistakenly think that if a person does some good then it justifies the bad they do.  They mistakenly think two wrongs make a right.  They mistakenly think that if the powers that be are wrong then anything a rebel does is right.  (5) Some people are more impressed by the outlaw's flashy appearances than by the outlaw's unethical substance.  (6) Some people have ethics systems that are rudimentary at best, so they won't be able to recognize a misdeed.  (7) The outlaw is betting he can keep his misdeeds a secret.  He is betting that he can lie his way out of it if exposed.  He is betting he can do the time if convicted.	6/21/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Crime.  When it comes to addressing the psychology of the potential criminal, in an effort to dissuade him or her from committing crime, both of the following are important.  If either is missing then you have trouble.  (1) Feeling valuable.  That is, self worth.  (2) Feeling valued by others.  Feeling part of a group.  Not feeling denigrated by others.	8/10/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Criminals, types of: (1) Amoral vs. immoral.  (2) Want the booty.  (3) Want to prove how tough they are, to others.  (4) Compulsions.  (5) No tolerance: crimes of hate.  (6) Want to feel tough, cool, or powerful and important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Criminals, types of.  Rebel, sadist, stupid, crazy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Criminals, types of. (1) Devil worshippers.  (2) Career criminals.  (3) Crimes of passions.  (4) Causes of each.  (5) Crime and law, politics, ethics, sociology, and psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Criminals.  What they really want is respect.  They do not want to feel like small, low, worthless, poor people.  They want to be the big man.  They do not want to be envious and jealous of others.  They want others to be envious and jealous of them.  They can be ambitious, not lazy.  They can be smart, not stupid.  But they are unethical.	6/18/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Definition.  Crime defined as illegal acts.	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Ethics and crime.  Crime is a type of unethical behavior that stems from unethical thinking.  Crime, and unethical action in general, are the result of people not developing the ethical area of the brain.  Developing the ethical part of the brain is a learnable skill.  How does a person learn ethics?  Like learning anything else: read about it, talk about it, debate it, argue it, practice it.  Understand the reasons why certain actions are considered ethical and others unethical.  Discuss arguments for and against various actions.  See: Philosophy, ethics.	10/28/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	How many cops per population?  How many criminals per population?  How many cops per criminal?	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	How many crimes go unnoticed?  Of noticed crimes, how many go unreported to police?  Of crimes reported to police, how many are solved (solved meaning successful prosecution)?	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Law and crime.  What acts are considered crimes in most cultures?  Murder.  Attempted murder.  Robbery.  Etc.	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Math and crime.  Crime statistics.  What percent of the population commit crimes?  What percent of the population are victims of crimes?  The number of criminals is equal to the number of victims if each criminal commits one crime on one victim.  However, criminals often commit multiple crimes (repeat offenders).  And a single crime can affect multiple victims (ex. a family is robbed of their possessions).	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Mistaken views about organized crime.  (1) Some people have the mistaken belief that there is no organized crime.  (2) Some people have the mistaken belief that organized crime is a small and insignificant problem.  (3) Some people have the mistaken belief that nothing can be done about organized crime.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	One could argue that, to a certain extent, some people are afraid of thinking and speaking about crime, especially organized crime and corporate crime, due to fear of retribution by criminals.	10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Organized crime.  (1) Organized crime is a big problem.  As can be seen from the example of the nations of Columbia and Russia, when government fails organized crime tries to move in.  Organized crime will even try to cause government to fail.  (2) Organized crime is a business.  Organized crime is a corporation.  It is ironic that some organized crime groups try to distance themselves from corporatism in their propaganda, because organized crime is a corporation.  Organized crime tries to make money by criminal means.  (2) Organized crime has its roots in bullying and gangs.  Bullys and gangs are the breeding ground of organized crime.	5/13/2007

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Organized crime.  (1) Organized crime is a problem in every country, for example Italy, Russia, Columbia and United States of America.  (2) Organized crime begins with activities like extortion, gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, drugs.  (3) Then organized crime tries to infiltrate legitimate businesses like concrete, garbage, stock brokerages.  Organized crime tries to get into unions.  Organized crime tries to get into the construction industry by using tactics like bid rigging.  (5) Then organized crime tries to get into government.  Bribing officials.  Black mailing officials.  Trying to get their people into office.  (6) Organized crime uses threats, physical violence and murder.  (7) Organized crime are opportunists who bully to gain money and power.	1/15/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Politics, law and crime.  The trend throughout history has been that of recognizing the unethical nature of more and more actions, and then making those actions illegal.  The trend has been more laws, making more actions illegal, and thus more crime as a result of having more laws that make actions illegal.  Libertarians will sometimes use an invalid argument that fewer laws will mean less crime.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Possible causes of crime.  (1) Impulse control problems.  Inability to control one's drives.  (2) Anger management problems.  Inability to control one's anger.  (3)(A) They were taught (or learned on their own) that it is okay to commit crimes.  (B) Or, they were never taught that it is not okay to commit crimes.	9/13/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Psychology and crime.  (1) Causes of crime.  (2) Effects of crime.  On  targets.  On public at large.  On criminal.	6/11/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Psychology of criminals.  Bullies often become criminals.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Social injustice is a bigger category than crime.  Social injustice includes crime.  Social injustice also includes widespread, massive, systematic injustice.  Much social injustice is currently legal but still unjust.	4/1/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Sociology of crime.  Criminals often try to get other people to join them for several reasons.  (1) Sometimes the criminal mistakenly believes he is doing good.  (2) Sometimes the criminal wants to spread the blame, so that there is less blame on him.  (3) Sometimes the criminal is lonely in crime.  (4) Sometimes the criminal wants to build a criminal organization to commit more and bigger crimes.  (5) Sometimes the criminal wants a network of people to shelter him when he needs to hide.  (6) Thus, the criminal seeks to establish a network of accomplices and abettors.  (7) A criminal social structure develops.  The criminal seeks out desperate people.  The criminal seeks out ethically challenged people.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Sociology of crime.  Obviously, the criminal does not like people talking about his criminal activities, so he may try to develop a culture of silence.  The criminal wants no ratting.  The criminal will try to intimidate others into silence.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Sociology of crime.  People who commit unethical acts that are not legally classified as crimes often operate in similar ways as criminals who seek out both enablers and marks.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Sociology of crime.  The criminal often tries to build his social network through entrapment.  The criminal tries to convince other people that they have been inextricably drawn into a criminal network.  Do not fall for that.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Sociology of crime.  The criminal will extol a series of twisted pseudo-arguments to try to convince others to commit crime, and to try to explain away and excuse his own crimes.  The criminal will ask other people for blind support, loyalty and trust, with the request for no questions asked by the supporter.  The criminal looks for people easily convinced or easily intimidated.  That is to say, the villain looks for stooges in a similar way that the villain looks for marks.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Some causes of criminal behavior and unethical behavior in general.  (1) Criminals often suffer from a lack of ethics.  Lack of ethics can come from two places, lack of empathy and lack of reasoning ability.  (A) Lack of empathy is a common feature of sociopaths.  A lack of emotional empathy can cause an highly intelligent person to engage in unethical behavior.  (B) Lack of general reasoning ability can lead to lack of ethical reasoning ability.  (2) Extreme egoism is another feature of criminals.  The criminal is often an extreme individualist.	5/13/2007

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	The criminal is a drain on society when preying on society.  The criminal is also a drain on society after being locked up.	10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	The criminals are one percent of the population, preying on ten percent of the population, and hoping that the other eighty nine percent of the population  will ignore it, because the criminal thinks that the rest of the population are unethical egotists much like the criminal.	1/14/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	The people negatively affected by crime include not just the victims but many more people.  (1) The direct victim.  (2) The friends of the victims who grieve their dead or injured friends.  (3) The criminals, whether convicted or not, who debase their own lives through crime.  (4) The friends of the criminals, who grieve for the criminal and the path they have chosen.  (5) The general public who live in fear of the terror of criminals.	10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	The public's attitude toward crime is important.  (1) It is a mistake for people to view organized crime as a source of entertainment.  For example, the Sopranos.  (2) It is a mistake for people to glorify criminals.  For example, gangster rap music.  (3) It is a mistake for people to make excuses for criminals.  (4) It is a mistake for people to ignore crime or turn a blind eye to crime.  (5) It is a mistake for people to think that crime is not an important issue.	10/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	There is a lot of anger toward society that comes out in crime.  A student who was tired of being picked on was a perpetrator of a recent school shooting.  People who are fed-up with being picked on are often involved in other acts of violence.  Don't pick on people.  Teach your kids not to pick on other kids.  And work with people who feel picked on.	4/24/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	Ways the criminal attempts to excuse his actions.  Ways the criminal refuses to acknowledge his wrong doing.	11/25/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	.This section is about depression.  Topics include: ( ) Manic depression.  ( ) Depression.  ( ) Symptoms of depression.  ( ) Suicide prevention tactics.  ( ) Ways to treat it.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Chronic depression causes pessimism.  Pessimism is a dangerous condition.  Pessimism is dangerous to survival.  (2) Pessimists have few friends, because they do not think it is worth even trying to get friends.  They think that it cannot or will not work if they try to get friends.  They are not afraid to try.  They just do not think it will be successful if they try.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Depressed people are never happy.  They are never satisfied, either.  And nothing that ever happens will make them happy or satisfied.  They bitch perpetually.  No one they ever meet, no job they ever hold, will ever be good enough for them.  Tough shit, snot ass.  (2) Not me. I'm just happy to be here.  Relaxed, not up tight, it is the new Paul.  Grateful, peaceful, happy.  Just don't hurt me physically.  Please don't let me fu*k myself up.  Let me struggle, but please lets try to keep it fair.  No rabbit punches.  Please let me live.  And never die.  If I have to die, let me get something done first.  It is too early to go.	07/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Depression can incapacitate and even kill.  Depression reduces productivity.  (2) Depression can be lessened or avoided tactically.  (3) Happiness and its relation to the following.  (A) Happiness and humor or laughter.  (B) Happiness and beauty or the arts.  (C) Happiness and the sense of physical pleasure.  (D) Happiness and thought or optimism.	7/12/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Depression symptoms.  Unclear, unmotivated, sad, tired, undirected, no vision, can't handle job, loss of sense of self, deluded or exaggerated bad view of situation or self.  (2) Health.  Opposite of above.  (3) Mania symptoms.  Deluded sense of extreme opposites of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) How do testosterone, endorphin, adrenaline, and dopamine levels affect optimism and pessimism, and mania and depression?  (2) How do experiences affect optimism and pessimism?  Early experiences of loss can lead to expectation pessimism.  Early experiences of being deprived of making choices can lead to learned helplessness.	09/20/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Mania attitudes.  I'm way ahead of schedule.  I can relax and take my time.  I'm in demand.  Everything's possible.  (2) Depression attitudes.  Nobody wants me.  Competition is too much and tough.  I'll never finish my work.  I'll never get a girl or job.  Nothing is possible.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Mania attitudes.  I'm way ahead of schedule.  I can rest and take my time.  I can get a girl/job quick and easy.  I can remember anything.  (2) Depression.  I will never finish in time, even if I rush.  I will never get a girlfriend or job.  I can not remember anything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Mania.  (A) Symptoms.  Can't sleep 8 hours.  Mind and work really well and long.  Exaggerated optimistic feeling of hope.  (B) Causes.  Interest.  Strong feeling of reason to live.  Low opposition.  (2) Depression.  (A) Symptoms.  Sleep 10 or more hrs day.  Mind and work like shit.  No desire to work.  Exaggerated pessimism.  Unfocused and distracted.  Anxieties about things like physical health, security of home, disasters.  (B) Causes.  Large or constant opposition.  Especially one psychologically unprepared for.  Especially one psychologically unadjusted to.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Manic attitudes.  (A) I don't ever want to die.  (B) I don't ever want this to end.  (2) Depressive attitudes.  (A) Give me a gun and I will kill myself right here and right now.  (3) Feeling best to feeling worst.	10/20/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Manic attitudes.  I love everything.  Anything is possible.  Everything is going to be all right.  (2) Depression attitudes.  I hate everything.  Nothing is possible.  Nothing is going to be all right.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	(1) Pain suicides: emotionally feeling pain vs. (2) Justice suicides: rationally thinking it is the right thing too (ex. feeling you all are a burden on society, or feeling you will hurt someone physically in the future).	07/18/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	A person who is depressed may not be sad or angry.  This is because depression can deaden the emotions as well as thoughts and drives.  All that is left is a person whose only mental content is that they have no will to live.  They want to die.  They will not report that they feel sad, and they will not appear sad.  This is why it is so difficult to help them.	9/11/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Avoid depression and any experience or thought that causes depression.  Avoid them like the plague.  The depression they cause can cause you to lose interest in life and your goals to the point where you ruin your chances of getting or keeping your goals.	10/25/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Boredom and apathy are signs of depression.	07/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Causes of depression: anxiety about sex, job, health.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Causes.  (1) Food or drink triggered chemistry.  (2) Tiredness can lead to depression.  (3) Event triggered chemistry.	02/20/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depressed people are great at thinking up reasons why themselves or the world sucks, and why they should kill themselves.  But they suck at thinking of reasons why to live.  And there are good reasons to live.  But if you are depressed these reasons will most likely never occur to you.  And if they do they will have little emotional impact on you.	02/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depressed people do not want to reach out to others, because the depressed person often wants to spare others the pain when they commit suicide.	7/25/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depressed people often feel it would be ethically wrong to get involved with other people.  Their reasons are  (A) My bad mood is contagious.  (B) I will only hurt them when I kill myself.  (C) I will mess up their life because I am a screw up.  (D) This type of thinking is wrong because it only isolates and worsens their own chances of survival.	09/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression affects drive and will (as well as memory, emotion, thought, and attitude).  People who have no will, drive, gumption or goals may be chronically depressed.	5/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression and anxiety often occur together and sometimes compound themselves and each other.  Don't be depressed about being depressed.  Don't be anxious about being anxious.  Don't be anxious about being depressed.  Don't be depressed about being anxious.	2/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression and mania symptom scale.  How it affects motivation, thought, emotion, memory, behavior.  (1) Not motivated to do anything (lying there immobilized).  (2) Can't do anything even if you feel like it.  (3) Motivated to do x but not y (tougher).  (4) See no hope in anything vs. see x amount of hope in x thing.  (5) Feel unfocused vs. feel focused.  (6) Getting a lot of good mental and physical work done vs. lethargic, stupor.  (7) Jittery, hyper.  (8) Can't get going vs. can't stop.  (9) No direction vs. clear direction.  (10) Can't think of one new idea vs. great new ideas coming a mile a minute.  (11) Memory working like shit vs. memory working perfect.  (12) Feel motivated to do x.  (13) Feel really good about x.  (14) Feel really good and you don't know why.  (15) Feel like you can do anything.  (16) Think you can do anything (psychotic).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression can be caused as much by circumstances as by brain biochemistry.  If you have a series of losses or failures or just times of hard living, you can become depressed acutely or chronically.  When you get lucky, or accomplish something, you may lessen your chances of being depressed.  When you get a great job and a great girlfriend or find a powerful reason to live (etc.), it can make you less depressed.  Thus, struggling for these good things is important.  Happiness is important, because depressed people have increased chances of being unproductive, and making bad moves, and often hurt themselves and others.	07/04/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression can be caused by neurosis and the repression of anger.  Refusal to acknowledge anger, express emotion of anger (face, words), think about what is causing the anger, or take action against things making one angry.  Anger repressed becomes sadness and depression.  Also, if one has "feminine" traits (biochemical and social in cause), pain gets expressed passively as sadness and inactivity instead of actively as anger.  Both these factors, neurotic repression and feminine traits are noticeable in some.  Answer: Get angry!.	03/01/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression can snowball.  Negative thoughts, emotions, and attitudes can become habitual.  You are responsible for fighting negativity.  You can and should create better attitudes toward things.	6/19/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression causes one to not only lose hope, but also to not care (carelessness).  "I don't care if I live or die.  I don't care if things get better (or worse).  I don't care if I could help the world.  I don't care".  It is just total apathy.  A sort of mental exhaustion.  Disinterest.  Uninvolvement.  Detachment.  It is not a good thing.	01/07/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression sum up.  (1) Depression involves not just feelings of sadness, rather all the negative emotions, often all at once.  In addition, there is often an almost total absence of any of the positive emotions.  That is to say, few mixed feelings or conflicted emotions.  (2) As a result of the above situation, the thought component of the mind produces only negative thoughts to go along with the negative emotions.  (3) In terms of the temporal (time) aspect, one can remember only negative events from the past, one can see only negative things in the present, and when depressed one can only imagine negative situations in the future.  That is to say, depression seems to have the godlike ability to change the past and predict the future.  Very powerful.  (4) Depression makes you feel negative about yourself, other people, the world and life in general.  (5) Severe depression goes beyond negativity: remember nothing, feel nothing and think nothing.	4/26/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression, is it biochemical in nature, or sign of something wrong that needs to be fixed in your life?  Problems when you confuse the two.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression: I feel pain.  Repression: I will not consider my pain and problems.  Addiction: I can only think of booze (sex, drugs, work, etc.).  Escapism: I will not face my pain and problems.  Avoidance: I will think of anything but my pain and problems.  Regression: I don't have to face my pain and problems.	08/01/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression: it is not that you are just sad emotionally.  It also disrupts your thinking.  You can't think at all when you are really depressed.  You can't think of alternatives.  You can only think of negative things, pessimistic, hopeless, no drive.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Depression.  Causes.  (1) Experience done to you, by nature, or others, or self.  (2) Action done by you.  (3) Conscious or unconscious of it, aware or unaware of true effect.  (4) Voluntarily or involuntarily did it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Despair strikes suddenly and violently.	2/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Excessive, inappropriate guilt (regret) is a sign of depression.	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Feeling depressed does not have to correspond to how bad your situation is.  Depressed people cannot see their situation clearly.  It looks hopeless to them.  They cannot automatically cheer themselves up either.	01/12/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Figure out how to get into and stay into semi-manic state.  Figure out how to get out of depressed states.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Four mental states.  (1) Depression:  Confused, no interest, no energy, gloomy.  Sub-optimal thought subjects and thought mechanisms.  No work done, no focus and concentration.  Pain emotions, no drive, not thinking much.  No new important thoughts, goofing off, unsure and uncertain.  No vision or poor vision, thinking about trivia.  Slow and crappy mind and behavior.  Wasting time, no direction, slow.  Can't remember (important knowledge and goals fast enough).  (2) Even:  Feeling neither up nor down.  Still getting work done.  (3) Up:  Totally motivated, tons of interest in everything.  Tons of energy, overly optimistic thoughts.  Tons of active work, fast, way more happy.  (4) Deluded up, mania:	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	How specific behaviors relate to mania and depression, as cause or effect.  See failure spirals and success spirals.  They can be cause and effect at same time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	I am either (1) Too happy (everything is fine and wonderful) and thus become neglectful of myself, or (2) Too depressed (everything is hell) and thus obsessed with myself.	09/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	If you are repressed you cannot feel love, or even see the hope or promise of love.  If you are repressed you are most likely also depressed.  If you are depressed you cannot feel love, or see the hope or promise of love.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	If you base future actions on past failures you become depressed.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	If your standards are too high, you will always be depressed.  Likewise if you are too moral.  Take the pressure off.	10/20/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Is it better to be manic than depressive?  See optimism/pessimism notes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	It is good to feel good.  Depressed people forget, or never think of, all the types of ways to feel good, and all the things to feel good about.	06/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	It seems like everyone I talk to is depressed.  (1) One causal factor is that life is difficult, and getting more difficult.  Forty years ago many people could buy a house by working forty hours a week at a single job.  Today, many people need to have two or three jobs and still cannot afford to buy a house.  (2) Another causal factor is that people are sensitive, and getting more sensitive.  There are several reasons why people are more sensitive.  (A) Its not only that people have high expectations.  People may have high personal expectations which they set for themselves to achieve.  People may also feel pressure from social expectations when they feel pressure from others to act a certain way.  (B) Its also that people have high ideals.  People are more fine-tuned ethically.  People are using their brains more, thinking more, feeling more, and that can cause people to be more sensitive.  Also, when people achieve one goal, they feel ethically compelled to start reaching for an even higher goal.  (3) How to combat depression?  Happiness is a choice.  Happiness is a choice that people don't seem to be choosing.  Modern life is essentially difficult.  It is a long difficult struggle, especially when people keep raising the bar on themselves.  (4) Depression seems pandemic today.  Some people wonder if it is something in the air, food or water that is causing depression.  Other people wonder if the rate of depression is the same as years ago, only today we recognize depression for what it is.  I think part of the reason that many people are depressed is that life is becoming more difficult while at the same time people are becoming more sensitive.	12/21/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Keys to avoiding depression and anxiety.  (1) Do not go to bed so early that you wake up in the pre-dawn darkness and lie staring into the void.  Get up when the sun is up.  (2) Avoid the rain.  (3) Avoid the cold.  (4) The southwest is good.	8/9/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Killing yourself out of (1) Sadness or depression with self or world.  Feeling emotional pain about past or present.  (2) Anger at self or world.  Self destructiveness.  (3) Fear, apprehension, or anxious of future pain.	07/18/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Lack of a worthy satisfying goal, purpose or meaning can cause depression.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Mania and depression are triggered by events and associated ideas, that influence brain chemistry.	02/14/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Mania attitudes:  One feels invincible.  One feels that one cannot die.  One feels that one cannot make a mistake.  One feels that every move one makes is the best move.	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Manic depression's two scary states.  (1) Nothing can bring me down.  Not even loss of job, death of loved one, etc.  (2) Nothing can lift me up.  Not even a playboy playmate, Nobel prize, etc.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Mild chronic depression is a killer as much as acute severe depression.  It wastes as much human potential.	10/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	My depression causes a negative or pessimistic, mind set or state.  I see the bad sides of people and situations.  Force yourself to look for the positive side too.  Become a realist.	12/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	My depression is anger turned inward.  My depression causes me to, among other things, feel guilty and to obsess about the past.  I am angry at my parents, siblings, all the assholes in the world, god, everyone and everything, and myself.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Negativity.  Depressed people can experience increased occurrences of any negative feeling.  Hopelessness about the future, despondency, despair.  Dread, anxiety, fear, paranoia about the future.  Guilt, regret about the past.  Worthlessness of self, no self confidence, inadequacy.  Worthlessness of others, hatred, disgust, loathing of people, withdrawal, isolation, no friends.  Anger, rage.	02/07/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	One reason there is more depression and crime today is (1) People don't have time to think and feel, and thus they fail to develop, evolve, grow.  (2) This leads to emotionally and ethically immature people, living in extended teen states.  The teen state is depression in some, and anger/violence in others.  There is no time today to think or even feel.  This leads to both stupid and emotionally repressed people, which is a recipe for individual and social illness and destruction.	01/23/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Possible reasons why there has been an increase in the number of cases of depression in recent years.  (1) Actual depression rates are the same as 100 or 1000 years ago.  Its just that we recognize depression more today.  We have a name for it.  We know its symptoms.  (2) Life is actually harder today that it was 100 years ago, and thus there are more cases of depression.  (3) People have become soft because life today is too easy.  Thus, there are more cases of depression.  (4) People are becoming smarter.  Ignorance is bliss.  Intelligence is depression.  (5) People's expectations of self and world are higher.  High expectations, when not met, can cause depression.  (A) People, internally motivated, want to pursue their dreams.  (B) People, externally motivated, have their expectations raised by the media.  (6) The world is more globally competitive than in the 1950's and 1960's.  The USA does not hold the same lead it had fifty years ago.  Its tougher to make a living today that fifty years ago.  Many people cannot reach the same standard of living as their parents.  And that can cause depression in some people.  (7) Life was more simple 100 years ago.  Life is more complicated today.  The increase in the complexity of life can cause anxiety and depression.  (8) There was more of a social safety net 100 years ago.  (9) Even when people today proclaim to believe in god, their unconscious minds are figuring out the many inconsistencies in the god story.  The unconscious mind argues the pros and cons of each view.  The unconscious mind rates the arguments in terms of likelihood.  Depression can result when the unconscious mind comes to conclusions that the conscious mind does not want to recognize nor accept.  (10) Depression and anxiety occur together and cause each other.  An increase in anxiety can cause an increase in depression and visa versa.  (11) People have come to expect a greater degree of control over their lives.  People get depressed when they don't have the control that they desire or that they think they have.  Also, people are given greater choice, and greater control over their lives, and some people can't handle that and get depressed.  (12) People are more emotionally sensitive as a result of being more intelligent.  People feel the pain and losses of life more greatly.  (13) The possibility that there is some chemical in the air, water or food that increases the chances of depression and anxiety, perhaps by activating a gene.  If chemicals can cause frogs to be born with too few or too many legs, then humans may be suffering chemically induced depression.  (14) It could be a combination of the above factors.  It could be something else.	4/27/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Signs of severe depression (person may need medicine): Suicidal.  Can not hold a job or a relationship.  Can not think, or feel, or remember.  Hopeless, sad, or angry all the time.  Gloomy.  Above out of proportion with circumstances, uncalled for, unjustified.	03/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Suicide.  (1) People can commit suicide out of fear (of the future) as well as out of sadness or anger.  But they are not cowards.  (2) Also sometimes depression can just sap your will to live.  You are not sad or angry or afraid, you just have no will to live.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Suicide.  (1) The newspapers say that there are more suicides each year in America than murders.  (2) I would estimate that there are more attempted suicides each year in America than attempted murders.  I would think that for everyone who kills themselves, approximately 10 people try to kill themselves, and approximately 100 people are in real psychological pain and considering killing themselves.  This is a lot of people hurting.	1/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Symptoms.  (1) Withdrawal from people.  (2) Excess or lack of sleep or food.  (3) Hopelessness.  (4) Worthlessness.  (5) Despise people, job, life, and self.  (5) Fear of further pain in living.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Therapy.  Optimistic, positive thoughts.  (1) I am lucky to have what I have.  (2) I am learning from my mistakes.  (3) I can still make a positive contribution.	9/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Therapy.  Thoughts or drugs needed to prevent going into, or for help pulling out of depression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	To think of all the sadness and horror present in the world, and in ages past, and of any type imaginable, and to do this without thinking equally of the joys, surely that is depression and an unhealthy state.	02/22/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Two reasons for inaction in depressed people.  (1) Depressed people become pessimists.  Pessimists can easily think of reasons why not to do something, but they have trouble thinking of reasons why to do something.  They have trouble seeing the good in doing anything.  So the pessimist ends up acting rigid and neurotic.  Almost like a conservative.  They act unmotivated.  They do not grow, move ahead, expand.  (2) Depressed people can not think, feel emotions, or feel drive urges as well as non-depressed people, so they have trouble thinking of reasons to do things, and feeling emotions and urges to do things.  So they end up appearing lazy, unmotivated, or stupid, like zombies, vegetables, or bumps on logs.	07/04/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Unhealthy, sub-optimal attitudes (ideas, views) and depression can start in teens, and may prevent healthy ideas and views from forming.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	What is depressing me.  (1) My actions now.  (2) What I have done, or have been dealt, in the past.  (3) Prospects for my future.  Worries about job, or love life, or notes.	03/20/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	When a person is chronically depressed, negative, pessimistic, cynical, they have difficulty thinking of the good things in life.  And they think the bad things in life are unchangeable and unsolvable.  (2) The other extreme, the Pollyanna, has difficulty thinking of the bad things in life, and thus fails to improve the bad things in life.  (3) To be properly motivated, a person must think about two things: one must think about the things that are bad, wrong or suboptimal in the current situation, and one must think about the good and happiness that will result if the situation is improved.  Because thinking about achievable good things can be as motivating as thinking of present bad things.	10/28/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	When you feel whipped by life you feel exhausted.  When you feel exhausted you feel nothing.  Your mind is a void.  You are in a hole.  Depleted.  Empty.  This is beyond sad.	9/29/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Why are teens so depressed?  They once viewed adults as gods, now they see how imperfect adults are.  (2) They once viewed the world (natural) and the system (manmade) as perfect and self running.  Now they see how imperfect (unjust) it is, and they see how it does not run itself.  (3) They see how their parents cannot support them financially, and that they need to find a job.  (5) They see how their parents cannot support them emotionally, and that they need to find a lover, someone to love and be loved by.  (6) They see how they need to find a purpose in life, a reason to live, because just living in and of itself is no longer completely satisfying.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	Why do many people today feel a pervasive negativity that expresses itself as depression, anxiety and pessimism?  (1) People feel powerless.  They feel they cannot make a difference in the world.  (2) People are getting smarter.  People are becoming more intelligent.  People are becoming more knowledgeable about the world.  Ignorance is bliss; smart is painful.  (3) People feel the world is getting worse.  The world is actually getting better.  (4) Negativity is a wall of defense.  (5) Negativity is a fad.  (6) People were always this negative.  (7) People's expectations are too high.  (A) Life became so comfortable.  (B) The media raises expectations.  (8) People's detached ironic attitude is a defense mechanism that tries to say, "I don't care.  It doesn't matter."  But it does matter.  People need to be serious about life and humorous about themselves.	2/10/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific, depression.	You hate yourself, and others, and life and the world.  Therefore your self esteem is very low.  And social skills lacking.	10/25/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	.This section is about perfectionism.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	"I want everything to be perfect."  Perfectionism as a desire to please other people.  Stemming from a misguided need to be the perfect child with a desire to please parents.  Or stemming from a desire to fit in socially and please one's peers.	8/12/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Attitudes of perfectionists.  (1) If I can create a perfect work of art it will last forever.  Immortality.  (2) If I can create a perfect work of art it means that I am perfect.  I am a god.  Or at least a superhero.  (3) If I can create a perfect work of art then everyone will respect me, like me and perhaps worship me.  (4) If I can create a perfect work of art I will be better than everyone else.  Power.	6/26/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Definitions of perfection.  (1) Perfection as the good and true.  (2) Perfection as what philosophers pursue.  (3) Perfection as the ideal.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	First place gets the money and fame.  Second place not.  Perfection is thus fetishized.	12/2/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	I can't invest that much psychic energy in things that disappoint (ex. Jobs, people, etc.).  Everything disappoints to a perfectionist.  Don't be a perfectionist.	7/1/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	In a hyper-competitive society, people are pressured to be perfect and not merely the best.  In this case, the psychopathology of perfectionism is learned by the individual from the society at large.	11/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	People create abstract ideals that they strive for but never achieve.  Nothing is perfect.  Perfectionism is a psychopathology of abstract thinking run amok.	11/19/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfection as flawlessness, like a flawless diamond.  (1) In the world of manmade objects the brand-new is often seen as perfect.  The old is often seen as worn and imperfect.  Although there is an alternate aesthetic that says things need "wear" in order to be perfect.  For example, leather boots and blue jeans.  (2) In the natural world the new is seldom perfect.  For example, seedlings, larvae and babies need time to mature.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfection as the unspoiled.  In pursuing perfection, some people seem to almost be trying to reclaim their virginity.  For example, a cloth with a stain on it is described as ruined, soiled and dirty.  People try to make all their clothes perfect.  This attitude lets laundry soap makers thrive.  (2) Perhaps perfectionism arose in the human species as a bio-engineered, hard-wired evolutionary adaptation to make us fear and avoid contamination and disease.  Perhaps perfectionism arose out of a desire for pure drinking water and then went out of control and became a generalized reaction in some people.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfection.  For example, the perfect three minute pop song.  Another example, perfect little homemaker projects (Martha).  Perfection makes you feel like you can have heaven on earth.  Perfection is like an orgasm.  Perfect little objects make you believe perfection is possible elsewhere in your life.  Perfection in one area makes you believe in the possibility of perfection in other areas.  Its a great hope, a great delight, and a great comfort for some people.  However, for some people, one typo or one grammar error can ruin the illusion of perfection and they take it quite hard.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism and self-worth.  We like ourselves.  We think ourselves good.  We feel we deserve the best.  We may even feel we deserve perfection.  When things go well we don't feel happy, we feel justified.  When things go well we feel we got what we deserved.  Seldom do we feel positive emotions.  When things are less than perfect we tend to feel that we did not get what we deserved.  We feel ripped off.  We feel taken advantage of.  However, nothing is ever perfect.  So we feel negative emotions all the time.  "Who needs this?  This sucks.  I don't deserve this mess.  I didn't cause this mess."  Idealists and perfectionists suffer from excessive self worth.  This type of perfectionist can often destroy things, destroy self, feel sorry for self (self-pity and depression), or get angry and act out.  The opposite extreme is a low sense of self-worth.  "I don't deserve anything.  Anything I get I don't deserve.  I am bad.  I am not good enough."  Feeling evil vs. feeling inferior.  Feeling inferior can cause one to destroy things, destroy self, or not achieve or accomplish anything.	6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism and why we pursue it.  To "be all you can be".  To figure out "This is as good as it gets".  However, the view "Don't stop till its perfect" is often how artists ruin good paintings.  Know when to stop.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism as a control hang-up.  Three types of control.  (1) Self control: perfectionism can be a self control hang-up.  For example, thinking "Everything I do must be perfect".  Anorexia and bulimia and bodybuilding.  (2) Social control: perfectionism can be a social control hang-up.  For example, micro-managing bosses.  (3) Control of objects and nature: perfectionism can be control hang-up regarding objects and nature.  For example, trying to keep a perfectly clean house or a perfectly clean yard.  (4) The above three types of control-caused perfectionism all result from a deep fear reaction to the existential chaos of the world.  For example, some people dislike nature because (A) Nature is not under their control.  (B) Nature is not neat clean and orderly.	8/12/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism is related to feelings of self-worth.  There are two phenomena involved.  (1) If I own the best (most expensive) things then I am the best.  If I do not own the best things then I am not the best.  (2) If I own the perfect then I am perfect.  If I do not own the perfect then I am not perfect.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism may be a form of obsession.  This type of obsession with perfection may have several possible causes.  (1) A person's focus mechanism may be broken or stuck so that the person can only focus on one thing.  (This may be related to addiction.  An addict may be a type of perfectionist).  (2) The person may be repressing.  They may be focusing on one thing in order to repress or block out another thing.  In fact, their attempt to block one thing may lead them to block out everything except their one obsession.  (3) Obsessive/compulsive disorder can be caused by a biochemical imbalance that responds well to medication.  Perfectionists may have a neurotransmitter imbalance.	8/12/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  Causes of perfectionism. (1) Natural causes.  (A) Biochemical (to an individual).  (B) Evolutionary (to humans in general).  (2) Nurture causes.  (A) Family.  Overachieving parents.  (B) Society.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  Effects of perfectionism.  (1) Good effects: Perfectionists are good at detail work.  (2) Bad effects: Living with a perfectionist is difficult.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  One danger with pursuing perfectionism is that sometimes we become unable to accept imperfection, and such perfectionism is a pathological condition that renders us unable to deal with the world.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  The perfect as transcendent.  Two conceptions of the perfect as transcendent.  (1) Example, the perfect orgasm.  The concept of perfection as transcendence is a conception of a perfection that lets you leave this world.  This world is imperfect and we often seek an escape from this world, no matter how momentary that escape may be.  (2) Perfection as divine and other-worldly.  The concept of god is perhaps the result of perfectionistic thinking.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  Three conceptions of perfect self.  (1) Perfect body.  For example, body builders, anorexics and bulimics pursue this.  (2) Perfect mind.  Perfect rationality (the Spock syndrome and also computer geeks).  (3) Perfect "spirit.  Some people view our physical world as "dirty".  They view material possessions as "corrupting".  They view the body as "evil".  These people often become spiritual ascetics and religious fanatics.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionism.  Three conceptions of the perfect world.  (1) Perfect manmade objects.  Some people seek perfection in manmade objects.  These people develop an object fetish.  Example of object fetish are certain art collectors who have to possess a work of art, and also certain gearheads who always have to have the newest and most expensive equipment.  (2) Perfect experience or behavior.  For example, the search by surfers for the perfect wave, and the search by gastronomists for the perfect meal and the perfect wine.  (3) Perfect world or perfect natural environment.  For example, gardeners.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Perfectionists are people who are hung-up on perfection.  Obsessive-compulsives are perfectionists.  Perfectionism could be due to a chemical imbalance.  Yet perfectionism helps drive some people to achieve great things.  Call it achieving goals through psycho-pathology.  Or screwing up in reverse.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Psychological causes of perfectionism.  (1) People want to be the best at something because people want to feel like they are a useful and much needed member of society in order to ensure their survival.  (2) There is a survival urge in humans that produces a dominance urge that produces a perfectionist urge.  That is, to want to be perfect is to want to dominate, and to want to dominate is to want to survive.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Psychological effects of perfectionism.  (1) Good effects: (A) Drive to achieve.  (2) Bad effects: (A) Obsessive compulsiveness.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Social causes of perfectionism.  Society helps create perfectionists by teaching kids that (1) Only first place counts.  (2) Anything less than first place is losing and being a loser.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Social effects of perfectionism.  (1) Good effects: People pursuing excellence.  (2) Bad effects: (A) Crimes of obsession and compulsion.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Some people equate perfection of any type with moral goodness.  For example, some people attempt to equate a perfect lawn with a moral goodness which they try to parlay into a position of social power.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	The obsession with cleanliness.  Things must be perfectly clean, neat and orderly.  Some people see mess as chaos.  Some people see mess as disease and death.  They respond to mess with fear and anger.	8/18/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	The obsession with cleanliness.  Two opposing views held by neat freaks:  Orderly room, orderly mind, orderly life, orderly world.  Vs.  Messy room, mind a mess, life a mess, world a mess.  Mess as a threat to their sense of self.  Mess as a threat to their sense of control.	8/18/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	The perfectionist is an idealist, and apt to be a pessimist because they want things to be perfect and this world is not perfect.  Why are they perfectionists?  (1) Abstract, logical, formalists.  (2) Neat freaks.  (A) Fear and hate dirt, garbage and shit.  (B) Fear and hate mess, disorder and chaos.  (C) Fear and hate poverty and disease, a human instinct.	9/29/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Two types of perfection.  (1) Perfect simplicity, for example a Zen rock garden or Shaker furniture.  (2) Perfect complexity, for example, a fine race car or a symphony.	8/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, perfectionism.	Utopianists are perfectionists.  Idealists are perfectionists.	7/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	.This section is about self destruction.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	(1) It is not just anger at self that causes self destruction.  It can be any negative emotion, such as depression or fear.  Or it can even be apathy or lack of emotion.  (2) There is a great deal of similarity between self destructive tendencies and "giving up" or "giving in" to outside forces that either want to destroy you or don't care if you die.  And if you don't care if you die then chances are you will die.  (3) Self destructiveness can be caused merely by lack of self-like-ing and self-caring.  That is, apathy.  Inability to feel for self caused by emotional repression.  When you can't feel then you don't care (about self, or others, or anything).  When you don't care then you do anything, including really bad stuff (to yourself or to others).  (4) Often a series of small self-destructive acts can be as bad as one big destructive act.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	(1) Self destruction.  (A) Partial and slow self destruction (ex. booze).  (B) Complete and quick self destruction (ex. suicide).  (2) Destruction of other people or stuff.  (A) Partial and slow destruction (ex. physical or mental torture).  (B) Complete and quick destruction (ex. murder).	5/15/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Another reason I hurt myself.  Existential rebellion.  Didn't want to accept my situation and limitations.	12/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Causes and mechanisms of self sabotage and self destruction.  (1) Guilt.  Perceived or actual commission of a unethical (evil, sinful) act yields guilt over same yields self punishment to get out of the guilt or shame when societal punishment does not occur.  (2) Low self esteem.  Undeserving feelings like, "I don't deserve to be happy, healthy, successful", "I am no good", "I should suffer", due to low self esteem and low self worth yield self destructive acts.  (3) Depression and pessimism.  Inability to see your self worth at a high enough level to spur you to take care of yourself well enough to survive.  Self worth is based on future potential you could do (help self, help someone else, do good work, grow as a person, think good ideas in a healthy body).  If you don't see all the possible good you could do, you won't tend to be driven to care for yourself as well.  You won't see fully how much and many ways you are hurting yourself when you neglect or abuse self, waste resources, or when you don't go for your goals 100%.  (4) Unconsciously stopping yourself from doing something because you think (A) You can't do it at all.  (B) You can't do it well enough as others, or as it deserves to be done.  (C) You can't do it the best, i.e. others can do it better and thus should do it rather than you.  (5) Fear of failure.  (6) Fear of success.  (7) Self loathing, or loathing of others or world.  (8) Risk taking due to adrenaline addiction.  (9) Retarded ethical development.  (10) Acute or chronic craziness, evilness, stupidness.	12/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Destruction: self destruction and destruction of others.  Destruction is caused by anger.  Self destruction is caused by anger too?  Both are causes or effects of rebellion against unjust pain experiences.  Taking anger out on an innocent.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	I have an evil twin.  The pathological and sub-optimal Paul.  Destroying my life.  Why is he doing this?  He's a perfectionist?  He destroys the imperfect and starts over (like artist).  But nothing is ever perfect.  Reach perfection more slowly.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	It is not always a death wish, it is sometimes a death apathy.  You don't want to die, you just don't care if you die.  And you will accept high risks, especially in order to get a big kick or goal (like a first ascent).	11/20/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Knocking yourself down just to see if you can get up, or trying to prove to yourself that you can get back up, is no way to live.  Stacking the deck against yourself because you think it makes you better or greater when you win is no way to live.  Being naughty or bad or hurtful to yourself or others for no reason in order to try to assert your independence is no way to live.  Doing desperate things because you feel desperate is no way to live.	01/26/1994

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	My thanatos drive, i.e. self sabotage and self destruction.  Hurting myself physically.  Throwing it all away.  Giving up.  Destroying what I have worked for.  Hurting others.  Are these traits from depression, anger, low self esteem, fear of failure, fear of success?	12/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Self destruction.  Self sabotage of opportunities, of accomplishments, of goals, to any degree.  (1) Causes: (A) Anger, frustration at world, others, self, (B) Fear, anxiety, (C) Rebellion.  (2) Therapy: (A) Don't throw anything away, make it better.  (B) Follow your dreams, and give it your all because you'll feel better, you'll get farther, your mid life crisis will be smaller, you'll be less self destructive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Self destruction.  Why do I consciously and unconsciously try to ruin everything for myself and for others?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Self destructiveness and carelessness due to (1) Mania and feeling of indestructibility.  (2) Desire to break earthly bounds, limits, pains.  Freedom desire.  This is hubris.  Limitations increase with age.  (3) Self loathing.  (4) Riskiness, taking chances.  (5) Hypochondria and malingering.  Desire to take the role of the sick person.  (6) Masochism.  The desire to feel pain.  Self inflicted pain.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	Self destructiveness is suicidal behavior.  Suicide as a way to stop the pain of living.  Pain of living caused by low serotonin levels, which in turn causes a depression that makes it difficult to find an interest in things, develop a purpose in life, or find any happiness to counteract life's negative side.	07/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, specific, self destruction.	The roads to self destruction are many; to survival less; and to growth very few.  It is unbelievable we survive at all.  Chalk a lot of it up to instinct.	03/01/1988

Psychology, pathological, specific.	.This section is about specific psycho-pathologies.  Topics include:( ) Anti-social.  ( ) Authoritarian personality.  ( ) Gambling.  ( ) Inferiority complex.  ( ) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)  ( ) Power pathologies.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Shock.  ( ) Types.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) Getting lost, sidetracked, derailed.  (2) Getting lazy, content, safe, or afraid to progress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) Lose focus.  To lose site of the purpose of life, which is to solve the problems of the world.  To retreat into a consumer world of pleasure, forgetting about the real world.  (2) Lose hope, which leads to depression and addiction.  (3) Lose connection to others by becoming self absorbed.  (4) Lose site of the big picture, the world.	12/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) Memory: can't remember most important idea at proper time.  (2) Emotion: don't feel appropriate emotions.  (3) Knowledge: can't form best important conclusions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) Over-emphasis or under-emphasis: of importance of a thing, of value of a thing.  (2) Over-estimation or under-estimation: of a thing, of self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) People screw other people up.  Parents mess kids up.  (2) People mess themselves up too.  By not fighting and standing up for self.  Drugging, absexing.  Staying ignorant, not exploring.  (3) Consciously and unconsciously, by what they do, and don't do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) When does anger become pathological?  (2) When does any negative emotion start to be destructive instead of helpful?  (3) Is it when one is consistently unable to control one's anger (or any other emotion)?	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	(1) Years ago when people slaved under kings, bosses, husbands, and parents, people had less freedom and people had less options.  This created a specific psychological frame of reference, and a specific set of psychological problems.  Problems due to acquiescing to authority.  Problems of conformity.  (2) Today people have more freedom, and they have more options of things to do and things to own in their lives.  They are more responsible for their own lives.  This creates a different psychological frame of reference from years ago, and a new set of psychological problems.  Problems due to trying to control everything and be independent.  Paranoia, obsessive compulsion.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Abuse types.  Done by self, others, natural.  Psychological, verbal, physical.  Conscious or unconscious.  Intentional or not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Anal retentives.  Neat freak.  Repressed memory, emotion, thought, and action.  Uptight, holds in for pleasure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Anti-intellectualism.  See: Philosophy > Anti-intellectualism.	6/6/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Anti-social individual (1) Thinks people are scum.  (2) Feels no loneliness.  (3) Feels no social pleasure.	07/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Anti-social.  Loner-itis.  (See also: Sociology, solitude).  What if one decided to live without watching the news, or any television, or without reading the newspaper.  Nor even talk to anyone, nor even read any books, nor go to college.  That is, reduce all outside input.  People do take this view, and this course of action.  Their various arguments include, (1) I want to be independent, self-sufficient, self reliant.  (2) I am smart.  I can figure it all out myself.  To admit that I can not figure it all out myself is to say that I'm dumb.  And I am not dumb.  (3) I do not want anyone messing with my head.  I do not want anyone putting ideas in my head that I do not want or need.  (4) I want a quiet head.  Quiet means peace.  Busy means noise and pain.  (5) I am absorbed in my own life.  Others lives, and the rest of the world is not important.  (6) The news with its day today events are a distraction from contemplation of the eternal verities.	1/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian hierarchical personality says, "I follow orders from superiors, I give orders to inferiors."	10/9/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian personality simply wants to take orders from their superiors and give orders to their inferiors.  They exist in rigid hierarchies like military, business and church.  They are "black and white" thinkers who are uninterested in debating ideas.	10/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian personality, control freaks.  Obeys superiors.  Treats inferiors like shit.  Wants to avoid thinking for self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian personality.  (1) Military types.  (2) Institutional, bureaucratic types.  Abuses power.  Never gives reasons.  Never discusses.  Rules for rules sake.  Blind rule following.  Anti-democratic.  Disciplinarian, totalitarian, assholes.  Almost always not intelligent.	5/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian personality.  (1) Often has a rigid belief system.  (2) Often is attracted to rigid hierarchical social systems.  For example, church, military, business bureaucracy, government bureaucracy.	10/23/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarian.  Dogmatism, blind rule following, as a philosophical view or personality trait disorder.  Inhibits discovery, invention, growth, development, progress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Authoritarianism.  Authority problems.  Some people who have problems with authority deal with their problem by trying to be number one.  They try to do this by demeaning other people.  For example, dictators have an authority problem.  (2) Other people try to deal with authority problems by trying to work their way up a rigid, strictly defined social order.  (3) Other people withdraw.  (4) Having an authority problem is one thing.  Being under illegitimate authority (ex. unethical) is another.	9/7/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Beware moments when you feel stronger or luckier, blessed, divinely protected, than you really are.  You will take unjustified risks in such a state, abuse and neglect yourself, and then hurt yourself permanently.  There is no luck, except bad.	10/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Computers.  New computer related psycho-pathologies:  Internet addiction.	3/9/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Control related pathologies.  (1) Magic is an attempt at trying to gain a sense of control over nature and people by casting spells.  (2) Repression is an attempt at controlling a thought or emotion by banishing it from ones conscious mind.  (3) S&M is another pathology about control and power.  (4) People have a need for a sense of control.  Control is power.  Taken to an extreme, control becomes a psycho-pathology.  (5) People desire control over themselves, other people and nature.  (7) The two problems of lack of self-control and excessive self-control is akin to Freud's conception of the id and superego.	11/25/2001

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Control.  What causes control freaks?  (1) They want power.  (2) They feel safe only when they are in control.  They trust no one else.  Paranoid.  (3) They feel only they know best.	4/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Definition of a psychological problem: is this mental state or behavior helping or hurting you get your goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Destruction of mind.  Types, ways how to (by self, by others, by nature): addiction, repression, no sleep, no think, social pressure, brainwashing, poor diet, injure self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Gambling.  Psychology of gaming.  Casino gambling is about obsession with knowledge and control.  (1) People want to know their odds for their outcomes.  People feel better when they know their chances.  People feel better when they know for sure they have a chance.  (2) The quick and certain payoff of a winning casino bet strikes some people as more attractive than the slow and uncertain payoff of things like education and hard work.	10/27/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Gambling.  There is an excitement in risk assessment.  Gambling can be addictive.  But the obsession with gambling or betting on cards, dice, sports or at the tables in Las Vegas, is a stand-in for actual living.  Gambling is an avoidance of assessing the risks of real life.	10/25/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	How can you tell when someone is far gone?  When they realize they have wasted their entire lives and it doesn't bother them.	5/13/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Inferiority complex.  Some people chronically feel inferior to other people.  Inferiority complex can produce political types who ruthlessly pursue political power.  Inferiority complex can produce workaholics who sacrifice everything to pursue power at work.  Inferiority complex can also lead to criminals who pursue power via crime.  Inferiority complex can also lead to malicious practical jokers who pursue power via malicious practical jokes.  It can produce bullies like Hitler and Stalin.  The sad part of it is that the feelings of inferiority that torture those with inferiority complexes are often only perceived rather than actual, and they take out their unethical acts of overcompensation on the innocent.  Typical mental dialogue of those with an inferiority complex, "Look, they think they are better than me.  I need to show them that they are not better than me, one way or another.  I need to win over them at any cost in order to stop these feelings of inferiority.  I need to prove something to them.  I need to show them".  The problem is that the person with an inferiority complex will always feel inferior until the root of the complex is dealt with.	9/28/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Learn to spot subtle and obvious periods of disintegration, decay and stagnation.  Learn causes and preventive techniques.  And learn to recognize when you are doing well and improving.  Keep it going.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	List.  Manic.  Agitated, upset.  Lonely, withdrawn, isolated, disconnected vs. possessive, clingy, needy.  Confused, indecisive.  Jealous and envious.  Controlling or controlled. Overwhelmed.  Scattered and frazzled.  Exhausted.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Me.  Looking for the limits, I play with things till they break, like my relationships, myself, etc., because things suck and aren't perfect.  I tell them off, break away, ruin my slow climb.  Sometimes it is good to get out completely.  Sometimes starting over and over is a hassle.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Mistakes in assessing life.  (1) Thinking it is more or less than it is.  (2) Thinking it is better or worse than it is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Modern life has more stresses, more pain, more neurosis, less natural selection?  But modern life has better psychological knowledge, and more physical health.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Modern life.  We live in an increasingly complex, disorienting, confusing, world.  Disintegration is a natural course.  You have to work to stay mentally healthy.  Going crazy is analogous to getting out of shape physically.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Most people's brains (1) Are out of shape intellectually (brain as muscle).  (2) Use their brain when they are out of physical energy and unfocused psychologically (ex. After work).  (3) Think on unimportant subjects.  (4) Give up when only a few poor results have been achieved.  (5) Keep no record of their important ideas.	09/24/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Negative thinking can be habit forming, even addictive, much like alcohol.  First one thinks negatively for fun.  Then one uses negative thinking to help one through the day.  Finally, one can't live without negative thinking.  One can't "mind" without lapsing into negative thinking.  Some people say they can stop negative thinking anytime they want.  Really?	11/25/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Nervous breakdown.  Flood of unconscious opens.  Conscious tries to hold it back.  Something is wrong, you don't know what.  You are immobilized.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Nervous breakdown.  Not only are nervous breakdown's common, they are seemingly unavoidable.  Everyone of advanced age that I have talked to has had a nervous breakdown.  Prepare for your nervous breakdown.  Set aside six months to a year.  Get a comfortable sofa.  Rent some old movies.	12/16/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Normal mental discombobulations.  (1) Loss of emotional cool.  (2) Loss of thinking ability.  (3) Loss of memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Obsession.  (1) Where does drive end and obsession begin?  (2) What is the difference between obsession and addiction?  Is a workaholic obsessed with work or addicted to work?  (3) When does an obsession become unhealthy?  Example, if you are obsessed with noble goals it can provide purpose and direction.  Being obsessed with getting fit and finding cure for cancer, it helps you and helps society.  When does this obsession become harmful to self, or unhealthy for others, or just sub-optimal, like obsession with murder.  (4) Obsession is really specialization?  To be obsessed is to be a specialist?  People are naturally generalists?  Obsession is about balance, which is an ethical issue.  (5) What is the difference between habit, obsession/compulsion, and addiction?  (6) Obsession with a person, a thought, or an action (compulsion).	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Obsessive compulsive disorder is not merely about repeating a behavior over and over.  It messes up your mind.  Like a broken record.  It prevents your mind from working.	7/7/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Obsessive/compulsive disorder.  Ocd vs. superstition.  What's the difference?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Off days.  Thinking you're going nuts.  Losing sense of self.  Feeling you can't handle job or life.  Is this illness or legitimate gripes about crappy situation?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Organization vs. disorganization.  Integration vs. disintegration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Over intellectualizing.  "I must understand everything".  Avoids practical problems of life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Passives: masochists, wimps, inactives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	People can't handle the boredom and pain and desire.  So they destroy their brains.  They turn their brains off.  The Buddhists did it years ago.  People still do it today with repression and booze and pills etc.	01/20/1989

Psychology, pathological, specific.	People who remember, feel, and think too much, too little, or just right.  Problems of excess or shortage.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Power or control.  (1) People need to feel some sense of power and control over their own lives.  There are two pathological extremes regarding power or control.  When people feel no control over their lives the result is often psychopathology.  Alternatively, when people feel an excessive desire for control in their lives the result is often psychopathology.  (See also: Sociology, power.  See also: Politics, power.)  (2) Three pairs of examples of power pathologies.  (A) Some people feel an excessive desire for power or control over their own lives.  Some people give up all control over their own lives.  (B) Some people have an excessive, unethical desire for power over other people.  Some people give up all their power to other people.  (C) Some people have an excessive desire for power over objects and nature.  Some people give up all their power to objects and nature.	6/6/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Power pathologies.  (1) People who only respect a greater or equal power.  People who spit on anyone of lesser power.  (2) Power addiction.  Megalomaniacs.	1/3/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Power.  (1) Social power pathologies (power over others).  (A) The bully enjoys wielding overt power over others.  (B) The manipulator enjoys wielding covert power over others.  (C) The submissive enjoys giving up power too much.  (2) Object power pathologies (power over things), i.e., order pathologies.  (A) Some are too orderly, obsessive compulsives.  (B) Others are authoritarians, law and order types.  (C) The slob gives up power over physical things, like the submissive gives up power to others.  (3) Power over self.  (A) Too much yields anorexics.  (B) Too little yields those with no control.	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problem and crisis.  (1) Psychological crisis: speed of decay, degree of decay.  (2) Psychological problem.  (A) Slipping in and out.  (B) Recidivism.  (C) Recovery.  Partial vs. total.  Temporary vs. permanent.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problem and crisis.  Psychological problem is similar to psychological crisis.  An unconscious or conscious, theoretical or practical, dilemma or problem.  Struggling to solve it causes similar reactions as psychological crisis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problem approach - in general, specific types individuals, specific individuals.  (1) Problems.  (2) Symptoms, signs, and effects: on mind, on behavior, on life.  (3) Causes, etiology.  (A) Genetic.  Biochemical disorders (mechanism).  Congenital abnormalities (structural).  (B) Environment.  (i) Organic.  (ii) Psychological.  Nurture (childhood).  Later.  Freud - repression.  Skinner - learned.  Stress: when occurred, effect on you.  Learned wrong: taught wrong, figured out wrong.  Unlearned.  Traumatized by unhealthy environment, behavior, experience.  (4) Mechanism, prognosis, course.  (5) Effects.  (6) Epidemiologys, rates, prevalence.  (7) Diagnosis.  (8) Therapies.  By self, to self.  By others, to self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problem chains and webs.  When a problem is a symptom of one problem and cause of another problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problem: the usual minor crappy mood.  Effect: cannot think.  Causes: the usual culprits and ways to side step them.  (1) Distracted.  Something else on your mind.  (2) Depressed.  (3) Angry.  (4) Guilt, regret, shame.  (5) No direction, no ideas, no goals.  (6) Unmotivated, no urgency.  Do not see need for it.  Lazy.  (7) Hopelessness.  Believe it cannot be done, or believe you cannot do it.  (8) Hedonism.  (A) Thinking is work.  If you do not have a work ethic you will not think.  (B) Work is pain.  If you are a hedonist you will not to work.  (9) Rigidity.  Do not want to change, so do not want to grow, and thinking causes change and sometimes growth.  Fear of change; see stasis as safety (childhood).	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problems of memory, emotion, thinking, and behavior.  Causes, mechanisms, solutions.  In self and in others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problems that cause problems like anxiety, that cause problems like pathological sex, that cause problems like jail, disease, death, and unwanted babies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Problems with one mental element, or in one subject area can affect other mental elements or subject areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Psychological states: good and bad.  Bad: depression, binge, lazy.  Good: vision.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Quick deep descents are as bad as long shallow descents, and visa versa.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Recreational drugs and sex.  (1) One problem is never to experience or learn about them (hide in dogmatism).  (2) Another problem is never stopping doing them.	10/25/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Rigidity.  Unable to reclassify ideas.  Unable to entertain new ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Self-induced psychopathology, types of.  (1) When we make psychopathology happen to ourselves.  Sometimes we engage in thoughts and behaviors that have a deleterious effect.  (2) When we let psychopathology happen to ourselves.  Sometimes we let situations and circumstances get to us when they don't have to.	6/8/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Severity = types, degree, frequency, and what it drives you to do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Shock is a stunned state where you cannot think or feel quickly enough to deal with the situation.  Example, "frozen" with fright.  Overwhelmed.  Don't know what to say, do or think.  Stunned disbelief.  (2) Principles of shock.  There are various degrees of shock.  Minor shock is a fairly common event in daily life.   A series of major shocks can seriously, permanently incapacitate a person.  In a sensitive or fragile person, minor events can cause major shocks to the person.  (3) Shock prevention.  To what degree can shock be prevented by preparation?  Preparing by book learning vs. preparing by simulating the experience.  (4) Therapy for shock.  How much does rest help?  (5) How is shock related to surprise and the startle response?  Is shock the same thing as PTSD?	10/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Shock.  (1) Startle: simple reaction.  (2) Surprise: complex reaction, based on expectations, with an emotional component.  (3) Shock.  An enduring state of surprise.  Reduces abilities.	10/5/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Shock.  Shock is mindlessness due to overwhelming unconscious emotion.  Shock is not necessarily a feminine trait.  The seduction induced trance is similar to shock.  To help avoid shock, think rationally about your emotions.  When you are in shock you can't think.  You panic and freeze.  You become like a zombie, and listen to orders.  This is the nature of seduction.  Shock due to flood of emotion.  Unthinking due to submission (obeying orders).	12/26/1988

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Shock.  Some view shock as a pathological condition.  Some view shock as an emotional condition.  We all process experiential sense data into thoughts and emotions at different speeds.  Some people process quickly, and some people process slowly.  If you are incapacitated while processing that is called shock.	10/4/2002

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Shyness.     PART ONE.  Is the opposite extreme of shyness known as bullying?  Or is the opposite extreme of shyness known as shameless self-revelation?  Or is the opposite extreme of bullying known as being the victim of a bully?     PART TWO.  Shyness definitions.  (1) Shyness as having a problem expressing emotions in social situations.  (2) Shyness as having poor social skills.  (3) Shyness as having a communication problem.  (4) Shyness as fear.  (5) Shyness as needing an assertiveness training class.	6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Six pathological types.  (1)(A) Hyper-combative: sees everything as a war, fight or conflict.  (B) Hyper-competitive: sees everything as a contest or competition.  (C) Hyper-exchange: sees everything as a business deal, sale, or PR campaign.  (2)(A) Hypo-combative: can't or won't fight.  Can't or won't see things as a fight, war or conflict.  (B) Hypo-competitive: can't or won't see things as a competition.  (C) Hypo-exchange: can't or won't see things as a business deal, sale or PR campaign.	7/10/2000

Psychology, pathological, specific.	So many things that can go wrong with mind.  So many causes of each thing.  It is a wonder that anyone is sane, not a wonder that anyone is crazy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	So many ways to become fu*ked up (unhealthy).  So many ways to fu*k others up (cause unhealth in others).  So many ways to fu*k up (make mistakes).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	The Battle.  Hopelessness, physical breakdown, suicide, madness.  Vs.  Vision, creation, determination, work, effort, hope, and optimism.	11/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	The pleasure that hyper-competitive America is obsessed with is the pleasure of first place, i.e, the pleasure of winning.  As a result, some Americans tend to try to turn everything into a contest.  Some Americans will go to any extreme to find something at which they excel.  For example, people who say, "I won the blue ribbon for best performance by a person between the ages of 29 and 31 in the tri-county area during a full moon."	11/16/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	The problem is not just that people do not use 90% of their physical brains.  The problem is also that people (1) Do not think 90% of the time, and (2) They do not think about 90% of life's subjects or phenomena.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	There is a pathological mentality of chronic insecurity that does not feel secure unless one is the richest, most powerful, most armed individual.	10/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Time related pathologies.  There are many people who do not think about the future much, just as there are many people who do not think about the past much.  At the opposite extreme are those who think only about the future or past and who ignore the present.     PART TWO.  (1) Causes and reasons why people NEVER THINK OF FUTURE.  (A) You never know for sure how much time you have.  (B) They view the future with trepidation.  (2) Negative effects of not considering the future.  (3) Therapies for those who never think of the future.     PART THREE.  (1) Causes and reasons why people NEVER THINK OF PRESENT.  (2) Negative effects of never thinking of the present.  (3) Therapies for those who never think   of the present.     PART FOUR.  (1) Causes and reasons why people NEVER THINK OF PAST.  (2) Negative effects of never thinking about the past.  (3) Therapies for those who never think of the past.     PART FIVE.  (1) Causes and reasons why people ALWAYS THINK OF FUTURE.  (2) Negative effects of always thinking about the future.  (3) Therapies for those who always think of the future.     PART SIX.  (1) Causes and reasons why some people ALWAYS THINK OF PRESENT.  (2) Negative effects of always thinking about the present.  (3) Therapies for those who always think about the present.     PART SEVEN.  (1) Causes and reasons why some people ALWAYS THINK OF PAST.  (2) Negative effects of always thinking of the past.  (3) Therapies for those who always think of the past	11/13/1999

Psychology, pathological, specific.	To be lost, not see the light, sidetracked, derailed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	To what extent is anxiety and depression a function of hormone levels?  To what extent is anxiety and depression a function of the environment?  To what extent is anxiety and depression a function of behavior?  To what extent is anxiety and depression a function of thoughts?  Anxiety and depression is a function of all these factors.  All these factors must be addressed by the therapy.  Eclectic approach.	3/9/2005

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Total motivation, drive, hope, vision, and ideals (goals, effort) vs. sliding into no vision, no hope, no motivation or no drive, no ideals, no satisfaction.	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Two types of psychosomatic illness.  (1) You imagine symptoms that are not there.  (2) You work yourself into a mental state where your body actually starts to malfunction.  You cause an illness.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of commonly observed sub-optimal behaviors.  (1) Destructive.  (2) Self destructive: out of rebellion, or out of pain (physical or psychological).  (3) Workaholics.  (4) Romanticism.  (5) Dogmatism.  (6) Anal retentive: up tight, represses for pleasure.  (7) Survival neurosis: survive at any cost, and focus all energies on survival.  (8) Intellectualizers.  (9) Upper class neurosis.  (10) Religion, mysticism, magic, new agers.  (11) Digestive types.  (12) Teen cults: avoidance through narrowing your world.  (13) Suicidal.  (14) Totalitarian personality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of people to beware of; avoid them and warn others about them.  Nay sayers.  Flunkies.  Stooges.  Critics.  Legal threats.  The corrupt.  The sanctimonious.  Physical threats.  Bullies.  Gossipers and rumor mongers.  Character assassins.  Malicious mockers and hecklers.  Propagandists.  Demagogues.  Oppressors.  Exploiters.  Manipulators.  Users.  Malicious.  Vicious.  Petty.  Spiteful.  Unscrupulous.  Unethical.	1/23/2004

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of problems.  (1) Common pathological problems you don't often see in the text books.  Causes, symptoms, cures.  How to deal with these people without letting them hurt you.  (2) The list: No self confidence.  Self destructive.  Cult personality.  Anti-social.  Bully, angry, violent.  Teaser, seducer.  Afraid type.  Cheater, liar, thief.  Too competitive, dominant, controlling.  Too submissive.  Takes offense easily.  Lets others walk over or mock them.  Forlorn and despondent.  Too big for britches.  Dream world (heavy escapism).  Excessively parochial, small town.  Bigoted.  Egomaniac, narcissistic.  Rebel for rebels sake.  Unable to rebel, or even think for self.  Back stabber, trust breaker.  Hangs out with jerks, dopes, or nuts.  Aimless.  Too talky.  Too quiet.  No guts, wimp, wishy washy.  Beaten down (learned helplessness).  Spoiled brat.  Dizzy, foggy.  Loner, recluse.  Micro-manager.  Megalomaniac.  No vision.  No hope.  Fu*ked up attitudes (Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetic).	05/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of psychopathology.  (1) Psychological problems of life events.  Death.  Illness, injury.  Marriage, divorce.  Crime victim, crime perpetrator.  (2) Psychological problems by social groups.  Kids.  Old age.  Ethnic groups or nationality.  Racial groups.  Religious groups.  Political groups.  Male and female.  Straight and gay.  Rich and poor.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of psychopathology.  (1) Repressive.  (2) Anal retentive: shit holding.  (3) Dogmatism: fear of thought.  (4) Conservatism: fear of new.  (5) Survival neurosis: fear of death, do anything to survive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of psychopathology.  Pathological psychology happens just as often as physical pathology.  Three levels of severity:  (1) Extreme severity.  Schizophrenia is analogous to severe and permanently debilitating physical injuries like stroke.  Complete recovery not likely.  (2) Medium severity.  One year for complete recovery.  Psychological depression.  Physical back injury.  Chance of mild reoccurrences.  (3) Mild severity.  One week to one month for complete recovery.  Physical cold.  Psychological trauma like breakup with short term girlfriend.  Loss of job you never really liked.	6/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of psychopathology.  Problems by age.  (1) Youth.  Dealing with bullies.  Dealing with a mind less able to conceptualize and express.  Dealing with a small body that can not keep up in an adult world.  Dealing with having no freedom, at whim of stupid and sick adults.  (2) Adult.  Getting a partner.  Living with partner.  Having kids.  (3) Old age.  Dealing with frailty and decrease in abilities.  No job.  Dying friends.  Fear of impending death.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Types of psychopathology.  Problems by area of life.  (1) Work.  Dealing with abuses of authority by boss.  Dealing with competition from peers or subordinates.  (2) Family.  Dealing with rents, sibs, kids, relatives.  (3) Leisure.  (4) School.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Unconscious or conscious loss or degradation of, or having never developed and gained in the first place, by degree.  (1) Hope in a situation (dreams, goals, tactics, reasons).  (2) Confidence in self (self esteem).  (3) Drive, motivation.  (4) Focus.  (5) Effort.     PART TWO.  All of the above due to not keeping watch on one's own mental hygiene, due to distraction, or memory lapse.  Leads to (1) Anxiety (fear, panic).  (2) Depression (sadness).  (3) Sub-optimal and pathological reactions.  (4) Drifting and blowing in the wind, waffling (as opposed to purposeful behavior), stagnation, devolution, and loss of vision.	09/26/1993

Psychology, pathological, specific.	Unfortunately, crazy people think they are sane.  Evil people think they are good.  Stupid people think they are smart.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	What's buggin or bothering you, theoretically or practically?  Write it down, work it out in thought, work it out in action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, specific.	When people stop talking and writing they stop thinking.  Your mind, use it or lose it.	10/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, specific.	When you lose your hopes, visions, and ideals to any degree or for any duration, you end up settling for less, achieving less, wasting life, and behaving like crap.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	.This section is about psycho-therapy.  Topics include:( ) Affirmations.  ( ) Art therapy.  Writing.  Visual art.  Music.    ( ) Attitude therapy.  ( ) Eclectic therapies.  ( ) Meditation.  ( ) Types of psychotherapies.  ( ) Psych up.  ( ) Calm down.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	"Handle it.  Deal with it.  Learn to cope with it.  Come to terms with it."  Integration of experiences is key.  Relearn healthy mental habits and physical habits.	5/15/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Different techniques to get mind in (2) different states (calm, psyched, etc.), in order to get (3) different ideas or actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Fear of worse.  People are afraid to read and write and think because they are afraid to change.  Thus they do not grow.  They fear change for the worse.  (2) Pride.  They also say "I am ok the way I am"  To say otherwise is to say "I am not ok", which they will not admit.  And since they are "ok", they do not make the effort to grow.  (3) They also say "Things are fine the way they are.  I do not need to learn anything".  They are mental conservatives, keeping the status quo.	05/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Figure out what is optimal mind and behavior.  (2) Figure out how to get it.  (3) Figure out how to use it to identify and solve other problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Get real quiet.  (2) Listen to the quiet voices.  (3) Imagine anything.  Free yourself of limits.  I produce most and best when calm and serene.  No problems.	07/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) How to change someone's attitudes (emotions and thoughts) or mind.  One can use emotional appeal or appeal to reason.  One can use media of text, visual art, music.  (2) People get stuck in their ways.  Too proud to change (grow).  Too fearful to change.  Too stubborn and inflexible to change.  Too lazy to change.  Too avoidant of pain to change.  Change takes work.  Change can be painful.  (3) Sub-optimal minding makes one more susceptible to making mistakes in life, and more susceptible to mental illness.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) How to get me in a controlled manic productive mood for creative work (or drone work)?  (2) How to maintain the mood?  (3) What are the factors?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Prevention.  (2) Maintain.  (3) Repair: improve, control, cure.  (4) Developers, strengtheners.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Psyching in: focus.  (2) Psyching up: desire.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Some people are mentally ill and need drugs.  Some people are way off.  (2) Most people are just a little off.  They need to get the facts, and brush up on their reasoning skills and ethical views.  The lazy, etc.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) Stay hard and in shape mentally, because if you are soft and out of shape you will not be as willing or able to fight.  And then they will be able to beat you, not because they are stronger, but because you were not willing or able to fight.  (2) One must know how to fight.  Stay in practice, and stay strong.	03/14/1989

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	(1) The biggest place to make gains is tweaking individual's minds.  Many people "mind" poorly.  If we can get people "minding" better, they will act better, and society will be changed for better.  (2) Two problems, (A) People take an attitude, "I do not need to think".  (B) People can not think well even if they try, due to things like repression, depression, etc.  Thus, they can not develop the ideas they need to grow.  (3) Growth depends on generating and adopting new ideas.  Those who do not think do not grow.  Those who do not grow perish more easily.  (4) If one can not think and develop a new meaning system, and grow when one's current meaning system goes bankrupt and fails to satisfy, then you fall apart and die.  This happens a lot.  Death of a meaning system can occur due to either (A) Your situation changing, which causes old ways to no longer work, or (B) Due to your seeing the limitations or holes in your philosophy or attitude(s).	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	A small slight can kill someone, or drive them nuts.  A small kindness can save a life, or turn a life around.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Accurately assess all aspects of yourself and your situation, all the time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Acknowledge, confront, and solve problems best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Affirmation, chant.  It is not "everything is going to be fine", but rather "everything is fine".	12/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Affirmations.  (1) I'm ok.  (2) I know what I'm doing.  (3) I have my act together.  (4) I can handle any problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Affirmations.  Daily affirmation: If you work at it, the ideas will come.	05/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Affirmations.  Morning affirmations during stretches.  My body is healing.  My mind is healing.  I am relaxing.  Stress is leaving.	5/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Affirmations.  Positive statements.  I feel good.  Its going to be (or is, or was) a good day.  Life is good.  I'm a good person.	12/28/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Analyzing and improving psychology of yourself or someone else.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Any psychological talent or ability must be developed and applied for best purposes, much and often.  Otherwise it is wasted.  Use it or lose it.  See ethics of development and use.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Art and psychology.  (1) To psychologically help any person, you must understand how they see the world.  For example, to help a child you must understand how the child sees the world.  You must understand how a child experiences the world.  You must understand how a child's mind works.  You must understand their vocabulary.  The same goes for old people, women, etc.  This is where art becomes useful to psychology.  Art (literature, movies, etc.) can help us see life as a child (or old person, or woman, etc.) sees life.  Then can we begin to help that person.  (2) The artist has great (A) Memory, or (B) Empathy, or (C) Imagination.  The artist understands humans in a way, and to a degree, that many others do not.  And the artist transfers this knowledge to others through the work of art.  This is the importance of the artist to society.	5/15/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Art therapy.  Art as outlet for emotions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Ask yourself (1) What are this persons strengths, and how can it be made the most of.  (2) What are this persons weaknesses, problems (in self or in life), neurosis, and how can I be sensitive to them in order to help me get my goals, and help them get theirs.  (3) How can I help them improve their weaknesses, and solve their problems.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Attacking symptoms without attacking cure will just lead to a change in symptoms?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Attitude therapy.  (1) An attitude is a way of looking at a thing.  (2) Attitude therapy consists of finding a better way to look at something.  (3) Attitudes can vary from the general (about life, people, etc.) to the specific (specific events, specific people, etc.).  (4) Revealing your hidden attitudes is key.  Practice using new attitudes (and behaviors).  Replace sub-optimal attitudes.  (5) The big question is: How should I feel and think about x and why?  In general you can say that you should feel hopeful and not despairing.  Not lazy.  Not isolated and alone.	4/20/1999

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Attitude therapy.  (1) Create a catalog of your attitudes on every subject.  (2)  "Look at yourself."  "Can you hear yourself?"  That is, review your catalog of your attitudes.  (3) Collect attitudes of other people and classify them.  Sort them out, good and bad, better and worse.	2/28/2002

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Attitude therapy.  Much of psychotherapy is about attitude change.  The majority of people are mildly disturbed as a result of less than optimal attitudes.  See: Psychology, attitude	2/13/2002

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Be careful of the experiences you subject yourself to.  Be careful what you feed your head.  Don't starve it, and don't poison it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Behavior therapy is important, along with mental techniques and environmental techniques.  What are the suboptimal behaviors that are holding you back?  What are the healthy behaviors that you want to develop?	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Centering.  Focusing on your basic core self, environment and situation, and goals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Change.  How much can a person change?  And to what?  How best to effect the change?	06/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Change.  Psychological work on yourself, and psychological change.  (1) It is slow, gradual, imperceptible in the short run (2) It is unquantifiable, and not measurable.  It is tough to say how much better you feel.  It is impossible to say how much worse you would have felt in the same situation without it.  It is tough to see the difference it is making in your life.  There is no objective viewpoint.  It is just two different subjective viewpoints or realities, with no control over many dependent and independent variables.  It is tough to tell the success it helps you gain, or the failures it helps you avoid.  How do you measure a good feeling, or ability to concentrate intensely or long, or the ability to figure out and decide well and quickly?  How do you measure a more efficient mind?  How do you measure the work you put in (ex. I adopted a new attitude), and the improvement you got out?  How do you tell what cause had what effect?	10/15/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Comfort zones.  (1) In life, don't get too comfortable.  Challenge yourself.  Move out of your comfort zone.  (2) It can be uncomfortable sometimes when you move out of your comfort zone.  (3) Just like in physical exercise, sometimes pain is a sign of healthy growth, and other times pain is a sign of unhealthy destruction.  Know the difference.	4/27/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Constantly monitor your mind and behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Crackpot psychotherapists, symptoms of.  Techniques that crackpot psychotherapists use to try to help other people.  (1) Tell customer what they want to hear.  Make the customer feel good about themselves.  Give the customer attention in order to make the customer feel loved.  Yes the customer.  Kiss up to them.  Stroke them.  (2) Get the customer to become dependent on you.  Make them feel weak and make yourself appear strong.  (3) Don't have any method, simply make pronouncements.  Say, "Its just a gift I have".  No logic or reason involved.  Or, if you proclaim to have a method, keep it secret and don't write it down and publish it so that other people can review it.  (4) Give out free samples to get people hooked.  (5) Simply be a cheerleader.  "Cheer up!  You can do it!".  This technique is in the "not too hurtful, but not too helpful either" category of therapy.  (6) Who falls into the crackpot therapist category?  What do we make of palm-reading, astrology, numerology and psychics?	1/23/2001

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Deal with things once and for all?  Deal with things till you get it right/perfect.  Deal with things till you can live with them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Depression and other pathological states are not to be indulged in, as some would think.  They are to be spotted early, and fought with all one's strength and every means possible (except drugs).  It doesn't pay to romanticize mental illness as a prerequisite for artistic accomplishment.  No one learned anything by feeling screwed up that they wouldn't have learned quicker being healthy.  These views are a far cry from my old beliefs that (1) I am fine the way I am.  (2) I don't need anyone's help.  Be independent (don't even read books).  (3) I should leave my head alone, let it run free, don't direct my thoughts or examine my emotions.	12/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Describe in detail your (1) Best and worst mental states.  (2) How to get and avoid them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Develop mind.  Maintain and protect against (1) Garbage.  (2) Natural decay (forgetting or age).  (3) Antagonists (people and environments).  (4) Self (inner destruction).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Do a momentary analysis of (1) Focus.  (2) Energy levels.  (3) Psychological problems.  (4) All mental elements.  (5) Good and bad compared to my and others best, worst, and average.  (6) Ways to improve.  Definitions of improvement.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Drug therapy.  I think that drugs are over prescribed.  (1) Drugs are used as an easy out by both psychotherapist and patient.  (A) The patient often does not want to do the emotionally difficult and time consuming yet beneficial work of talk therapy.  (B) Some therapist do not want to do the difficult work of talk therapy with difficult patients.  (2) Insurance companies do not want to pay for the time consuming yet beneficial talk therapy.  Its economically cheaper in the short run for insurance companies to promote drug therapy rather than talk therapy.  (3) Drug companies.  (A) The drug companies over-promote their products.  The drug companies overestimate the benefits of their products and underestimate the dangers of their products, all in the name of making a dollar.  (B) The drug companies pressure the insurance companies and therapists.  The drug companies use pressure tactics like fear and greed.  (C) The drug companies also try to pressure patients directly through advertisements in the media.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Eastern arts.  Wisdom of the east.  Especially psychological ideas developed in martial arts and Zen on such subjects as harmony, flexibility, focus, concentration, self discipline, and mental toughness.	04/23/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Eclectic approach: use whatever ideas work, from wherever.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Effective therapy must address all  parts of the patients mind, for example, memory, emotion, thoughts, etc.  Effective therapy must address all parts of the patients life, for example, work, leisure, love life.  Effective therapy must address all the stages of a patients life, for example, childhood, teen years and adult years.  Effective therapy must use a variety of therapeutic modalities, for example, talk therapy, behavior therapy, environmental therapy, etc.  That is to say, one must confront a variety of problems with a variety of solutions.  Psychotherapy is not a case of a single simple problem and a single simple solution.  Humans are complex.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Emotions you have vs. emotions you get from others (social emotions).  Love for and from another person can be very therapeutic.  Lack of love can be very destructive.  Find a good lover.  A healthy relationship can work wonders on your mental health.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Environment therapy.  (1) There are three aspects to environment: natural environment, man made environment and social environment.  (2) Get yourself to a better environment.  The cause of your mental difficulties may very well be your environment.  See the notes on eco-psychology because we are talking here about eco-psychopathology and eco-psychotherapy.  (3) If you do not like your environment then that is a problem.  Here is where aesthetics can blend into psychology and thus ethics.  Something that really bothers you on the aesthetic level can begin to bother you on the psychological level.  Nothing is ever merely aesthetics alone.  Aesthetics is connected to many other areas.  There is a reason why something bothers you on the aesthetic level and it has to do with other non-aesthetic topics.	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Environmental therapy.  (1) Social environment:  Stop hanging out with jerks.  Start hanging out with healthy, ethical people.  (2) Natural environment: Do not isolate yourself from nature.  Either bring nature into your environment, or bring yourself out into nature.  (3) Man made environment: Improve your Man made environment.  Get some books, music, visual art, movies.  That is, develop your information environment.	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Everyday interaction with psychologically healthy people is a healthy thing and one might even say a therapeutic thing.  So if one is interacting daily with healthy people then that is like being in therapy everyday.  It is invaluable and irreplaceable.  You cannot replace that with a one hour a week session with a psychotherapist.	4/9/2001

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Everyone can use help, like a hint.  The help they think they need may not be the help they actually need.  The help you think they need may not be the help they actually need.  What to do?  We stumble across solutions.	6/16/2001

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Everyone should see a talking therapist every week.  Shrinks are not supposed to know your problems.  You go to a shrink in order to spend at least 50 minutes a week thinking about your psychological problems.  The shrink takes guesses, mostly wrong guesses, and it is up to you to figure out that he is wrong, why he is wrong, and what the actual case is.  You have to figure yourself out, and then tell him what is the problem.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Expansion of mind.  (1) Scope, breadth, depth.  (2) Unity: how well knit together.  Integrated.  (3) Accuracy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Find many mentally healthy people.  Interact with mentally healthy people.  See how a healthy mind works.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Freudian psychoanalyis.  Criticisms of Freudian psychotherapy.  Psychoanalytic therapists of the Freudian tradition are often taught that it is best to let the patient do all the talking, and for the therapist to say little or nothing.  A criticism of Freudian technique is that anyone can be a silent therapist.	4/7/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Freudian psychoanalysis.  At best people misinterpret Freud by over-emphasizing childhood.  We can correctly say that childhood is as important as adulthood, but some mistakenly say that childhood is all important.  They wrongly say that all problems start in childhood, or that all damage happens in childhood.  This wrongly implies that problems can not develop completely in adulthood, which they can.  This also wrongly implies that once the damage is done in childhood it cannot be undone, and that no important healing can happen in adulthood.  They overdo it.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Freudian psychoanalysis.  Criticisms of Freudian psychotherapy.  The psychotherapists may have an idea what is wrong with you and how to help you, but they won't tell you.  Because they think you need to figure out yourself.  Because they think if they tell you then you will reject it.  Silence is not therapy.	3/20/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Freudianism.  One often unspoken argument for the Freudian approach of the silent therapist is the ability to avoid culpability should the patient hurt themselves.  Using the Freudian approach the therapist can say, "I didn't do anything except listen."  Freudianism is an approach to therapy that lets the therapist avoid being sued in a court case.	12/6/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Freudianism.  There is something disingenuous about Freudian psychoanalysis when the therapist has a good idea of the patient's problem but won't discuss it with the patient for fear of rejection.	5/28/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Get much health very soon and make it last long.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Good mental organization helps prevent pathological psychology.  Good mental mechanism helps prevent pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Group lectures in philosophy, psychology, sociology basics would be useful in addition to individual psychoanalysis.	10/25/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Head.  Where to keep your head at?  Hawaii, the beach, the mountains, Tibet, with a fine babe.  Mental words or sounds.  Mental pictures.	12/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	How do you help depressed addicts who don't talk?  Be patient, expect setbacks and lapses.  Be supportive.  The nuts shrinks have to put up with, it must be easy to burn out as a shrink.  Dealing with lying, abusive, manipulative, self destructive, people.  Dealing with the dregs without ending up hating them.  Can you help them without having them hurt you, or have a bad effect on you?	01/12/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Humans are information generators and information processors.  Problems result when information is blocked.  Health is restored when information flows.	5/1/2006

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	I carry around in my head the memory of a clear sunny day from every month in the year.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	I use art, music, poetry, philosophical writing, and writing therapy frequently.  Examples: doodling with crayons, blasting tunes or hacking around on guitar.  It is good.  Do it daily.	11/10/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	If a person has an inaccurate interpretation of what was, or is, or could be, it may not necessarily be a delusion or a hallucination.  But it may not jibe 100% with reality either.  But this personal narrative may be all that keeps that person going.  And to try to destroy their narrative or change it violently may send that person into a chaotic tail-spin.  Yet living with an incorrect picture of reality, a substandard philosophy, may hurt them.  One has to weigh whether it will do more harm to try to gently change them or whether to let them be.	9/18/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	If stress causes anxiety, and anxiety causes pathology, then a therapy for pathology is to learn stress coping behaviors.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	If we have social skills, then we also have psychological skills.  Examples:  (1) How to be alone.  (2) How to live with self.  (3) Figuring out what to do with self.	1/25/2000

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	In psychoanalysis one talks.  One talks using words and sentences.  Words and sentences express thoughts.  The goal in psychoanalysis is to integrate memory, emotion and thought.  Another goal in psychoanalysis is to integrate the past, present and future.  But the means to achieve the goals of psychoanalysis is talking, and talking is essentially thinking out loud.  Thus, thought becomes the route to health.  Some people mistakenly claim that, "One cannot think one's way to health".  Thinking one's way to health is exactly what happens.  And thus we can see the link or bridge between Freudian psychoanalysis and Albert Ellis's Rational therapy.  (2) Incidentally, thinkers perform a similar function for society.  The history of human thought is essentially an exercise of cultural therapy.	4/19/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	It does not help people as much to destroy their arguments, and put down their values.  It leaves them defenseless and vulnerable and empty.  It helps to show them something better, so they have something to live for.  Having no will to live is dangerous.  People need love, not attack.	10/5/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	It is difficult to judge how psychologically fragile someone is.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	It is tough to tell from their exterior, how close someone is to the edge psychologically, or how fragile they are.  And these hurting people often will not admit it even if they realize it.  Yelling at them can push them right over the edge.  Therefore be gentle and kind with everyone?	5/20/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	It is tough to tell which of our actions will have what types and magnitude of affects on others.	02/07/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	It is tough to tell which person considers what event or treatment by others to be what type or degree of abuse.  Anything can cause any reaction.  People get into states.  And some people are fragile.  Why?	02/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Knowledge prepares you to deal with life.  Knowledge helps prevent pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Life requires constant mental training to stay in shape, to grow, to take advantage of opportunities, to fight fights, and to solve problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	List of good, happy and peaceful things in the world, others and me.  Nature.  Civil rights movement.  Nuremberg trials.	12/25/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Make lists and gather pictures of good things, happy things, and calm peaceful things, about the world, people and yourself.  Think about these positive things, not the bad things that cause fear, depression and anger.	12/24/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Meditation.  (1) What is meditation?  Meditation means learning how to not think, which is as important as learning how to think.  Meditation means learning how to relax the body and the mind.  (2) Why meditate?  Meditation is healthy.  Meditation helps reduce stress.  Meditation helps reduce anxiety, depression, and anger.  (3) How to meditate?  Sit quietly.  Close eyes.  Focus on breathing.  Relax the body.  Allow the mind to quiet.  Try it it for ten minutes twice a day.	2/10/2007

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Meditation.  20 minutes a day of a zombie like state is ok in order to calm down, de-stress, and be quiet and still, as opposed to feeling tense, wired, fried, frazzled, shot nerves, and fight or flight reaction.  (1) Learn to know what the meditative state of calmness feels like psychologically and physically.  (2) Learn to recognize how far from the calm state your state is at all times.  (3) Learn to alert yourself automatically when you are far from the calm state.  Learn to get yourself into the calm state quickly.	03/20/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Meditation.  The purpose of mediation is to calm oneself.  When a person relaxes one's body and quiets one's mind then that person is calming oneself.  A person learns to calm oneself during the meditation session and then learns to calm oneself throughout the entire day.  Then, when one is in stress situations, overwhelmed by negative emotions such as anxiety, anger or depression, the person is better able to calm oneself.	12/20/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Meditation.  There are at least two ways of meditating.  One way is to take a trip mentally.  To go out and find things.  The other way is to let things come to you.	7/15/1999

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Meditation.  Two opposing definitions of meditation.  (1) Meditate: to contemplate, to devote time to sitting quietly and thinking, feeling, and remembering.  Get in touch with feelings.  Listen to the quiet small voices.  (2) Meditate: To devote time to sitting quietly and focusing on nothing.  Or focusing on one thing, in order not to think about everything else.  To not think, feel, or remember.  To focus on a flower image, or one's breathing, or a mantra.	03/16/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Mental health help.  The one's who need it most do not get it.  They are less inclined to ask for help.	04/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Mental housecleaning: reorganization, reprioritization.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Mental performance.  Wasting less time is a function of (1) Having more energy (better mange food and sleep).  (2) Having more sense of urgency, importance and motivation for tasks at hand.  Feeling it strongly.  Believing it is worthwhile, important, useful and good.  A way to convince yourself of this fact is to repeat it over and over to yourself.  (3) Also get self into slightly manic state.  Avoid depression.  (4) Take advantage of spare hours here and there.  They are all you have and they add up.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Mental techniques.  (1) To improve good and to cure bad.  (2)(A) By you for you.  (B) By others for you.  (C) By you for others.  (3) (A) To free mind for creativity and free thinking.  (B) To control mind for self discipline.  (4) (A) To relax mind.  (B) To psych in and psych up mind.  (C) To psych out and psych down mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Most interpretations, or readings, of other people's thinking, or mind, are invariably wrong, or rather, incomplete.	07/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Narrative therapy.  People with under-developed narrative skills will have trouble integrating their experiences, and mental disorder, confusion and depression can result.	4/23/2006

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Not only must the therapist understand the patient's problem, the patient must understand the patient's problem.  This means not only understanding the cause, mechanism, effects, and therapy, but also seeing how often and how hard it hits, and not only the trouble it gets you into, but also the good it keeps you from doing.  At this point you are working on the patients ethical system, as well as their psychological problems.  A big part of pathological psychology and optimal psychology is pathological ethics and optimal ethics systems.	05/25/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	One useful psychological skill is to be able to control the psychological distance at which you hold a person or thing.  Be able to bring it closer and be able to push it away.  When people are unable to keep things at a distance they tend to put them out of mind completely (repression).  Or else they get so close they get overwhelmed and have a breakdown.  The goal is to keep things close enough that you can see them, but not so close that they overwhelm you.  This ability lets us work on solving problems calmly.	3/30/2000

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	People are fragile.  People are complex.  Be careful when you try to help them.  Figure them and their lives out completely first?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Pep talk.  Self pep talk vs. for or from another.  How often you do it (how many times a day or week).  How low you have to get before you give yourself one.  What you say, "You can do it.  Things aren't as bad as they seem.  I'm counting on you.  Don't let us down.  We need you.  Do it for (your girlfriend, your country, the glory)".  It is motivational.  In raises the spirits.  Get tough, be strong, fight, survive, win.	11/15/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Philosophy therapy.  Analyze metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics of a new situation.  It takes time to sink in, to integrate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Philosophy therapy.  Can we say that certain people are suffering from a philosophical crisis rather than a psychological crisis?  And in such cases they would benefit more from philosophical therapy than psychotherapy.	1/25/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Philosophy therapy.  Pro bono philosophy work.  How can I help you.  How to convince someone?  You must get them to accept and believe an number of presuppositions or assumptions or premises.  (1) It is possible to waste one's life vs. the opposite views that it is impossible to waste one's life (anything is ok), or that there is no such thing as waste.  (2) It is possible for your life not to be a total waste, vs. the opposite view that totally wasting one's life is inevitable.  (3) Wasting one's life is wrong, and bad, and emotionally painful.  (4) Writing is a good way to discover ideas, organize them, and remind yourself of them.  (5) Life is worth living.  It is difficult, but possible to make it.  And it is good to make it, because it gives you an opportunity to help.  It is wrong and bad not to take advantage of this opportunity.	10/30/1996

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Positioning of head through controlling experiences, environments, and thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Positive thinking as a type of psychotherapy.  (1) A person does not want to lie to oneself.  A person should not lie to oneself.  Thus, the view of positive thinking as lying to oneself is an unhealthy view.  (2) A person should not look at only the good things in life.  Thus, the view of positive thinking as looking only at the good things in life is an unhealthy view.  (3) Positive thinking defined as always looking at the good as well as the bad is a better, healthy view of positive thinking.	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Positive thinking can be dangerous if we let it repress our painful problems, and emotions we feel toward them, and if we avoid looking at poor probabilities in life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Positive thinking.  Many people's lives are wasted by mild chronic depression and negativity.  Postive thinking does not mean thinking only about the good things in life, repressing the bad.  Positive thinking does not mean thinking everything is fine, or will be fine, automatically.  Positive thinking means thinking that you will try your hardest to solve the problems of the world, and not let the problems of the world demotivate you and activate you, even if you are not completely successful.	5/25/2006

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Preventative maintenance.  The situation with the mind is similar to the situation with the body, in that doing a little preventative maintenance every day can help reduce the chance of acute crisis later on.  How does one do psychological preventative maintenance?  Talk things out.  Learn about the mind in general, and its components of memory, emotion, thought, etc.  Learn about yourself in particular.	5/1/2006

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Psyched up.  Getting psyched means getting drive, hope, and confidence (in self and situation) up.  Get psyched for what, how?  I get psyched for a long effort for a productive and content life in philosophy.  And the work I will have to do to support such a life.	01/01/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Psyched up.  Getting psyched, to do what, how, for what reasons.  You have to get psyched to the point where you do the activity immediately, and in every spare minute, and stay up late doing it.  The mood must be greater than, and override, all contrary attitudes toward not doing it, or doing anything else.	05/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Psyched up.  Getting psyched: drive or desire to find way to change and improve.  Vs.  Getting inspired: vision about the best and worst of past, present, and future in your life or in the world.	08/15/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Psyched up.  The best way to get psyched to do x is to believe that many excellent things will result from your effort of doing x.  This may be true, but even if this is not really true, if you believe it for the moment, you get a worthwhile task done faster.  It is self-deception?	08/30/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Psychotherapy is a political act when it empowers people.	12/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Reboot.  Booting is the set of instructions that a computer uses to start itself.  Booting is a metaphor that compares computers to the human mind.  Be aware what thoughts you are booting up with.  Boot up with the most important thoughts, emotions, and attitudes.  You can reboot in the morning, throughout the day, and before you go to sleep.	5/29/2007

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Recognize you have a pathological tendency.  Recognize when it flares up.  Attack the cause and effects.  Become knowledgeable about your problems.  Spend time working on them.	12/30/1995

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Reduce occurrences of (1) Harmful "minding".  (2) Harmful behavior: done to self.  (3) Harmful experiences: done by others, done by nature.  (4) Pain from all of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Relax the body and you will relax the mind.  Relax the mind and you will relax the body.  Mind and body are connected both ways.	6/12/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Relax, prepare.  Explore, search.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Reversibility of mental illness.  (1) To say that mental illness is not reversible is to destroy hope and thus to destroy chances of recovery.  (2) To what extent are different types of mental illness reversible?  (3) How to un-warp somebody's mind?	8/20/1999

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Say to yourself, "There has to be a better way of looking at this situation".	11/9/1999

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Self help.  To what extent is self help possible?  I say very much so.  Its all self help.  I disagree with those who say attempts at self help are futile.  I believe in long term self help.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Short term and long term.  (1) Patients need a short term therapy plan for crisis situations.  (2) Patients need a long term therapy plan:  (A) To learn about self and world.  (B) To practice skills: memory skills, emotion skills, thinking skills and social skills.	1/13/1999

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Sock drawer.  The brain is like a sock drawer.  From time to time it pays to (1) Empty your socks onto the bed.  That is, empty you mind (ideas, feelings, memories) onto paper.  (2) Re-organize them.  (3) Put them back in place.  (4) You will feel much better having done so.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Someday an hour a week of psychological therapy will be seen as a human right.  It may even be seen as a legal responsibility or obligation.  In order to give everyone therapy, they will have computers do it in the person's own home.	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Start a service that lets people who are unrealistically optimistic and people who are unrealistically pessimistic spend time together.	4/24/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Talk therapy is important and good.  Start talking.  Open talk.  Deep talk.	6/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Talk therapy.  Keep talking.  Keep talking to your partner, your friends, your therapist, etc.  That is healthy.  The problem is that cultures of enforced or coerced silence are repressive and unhealthy.  Cultures of open dialouge and conversation are healthy.  Honest talk.  Open talk.  Real talk.  Deep talk.  Not only surface chit chat.	11/12/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Techniques.  Instead of saying, "It doesn't matter", say, "Its a relatively small annoyance causing me disproportionately and unnecessarily greater distress."  Or, if it represents a greater injustice and distress, say, "I vow to myself to work to correct it."	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	The biggest mistake is to think that other people's lives (past and present), situations, and experiences are just like yours.  It is also a big mistake to think that other people's minds are just like yours, and to think their views are like yours and they see things the way you do.  It is very easy to make the above mistakes.  It is very difficult to imagine anything other than what you know, let alone guess exactly what another person is about.	02/09/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	The effectiveness of psychotherapy, and by extension, the helpfulness or destructiveness of any social relationship.  Without therapy we do not know if the person would get better, worse, or stay the same.  Therefore, with therapy we do not know if we are helping, hurting, or doing nothing.  And it is the same with social relationships.	8/27/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	The people who need help most realize this fact least, and ask for it least.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	The question for therapy: What is a most healthy person like, and what ways and degrees do I deviate from it?  What causes deviations from health, and what cures it?  How can I get back to health, or create health I never had?	02/15/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Therapies.  (1) Mental: cause finding and treating.  (2) Behavior and action: practice, practice, practice.  Habit forming, symptom treating.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	There are many thoughts and actions (diet, rest, high-test, exercise) that can (1) Guide you (vision) to the correct struggle, and (2) Buoy you (hope) during the struggle (of survival).	10/30/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	There is a difference between preventive maintenance and crisis management.  For example, if someone is falling from a building and calls for help, you should not say, "Let's start by studying the physics of gravitation."  When someone is experiencing extreme, debilitating depression or anxiety it requires crisis management techniques of therapy.  Yet there is also the concept of preventive maintenance therapy.  What do we mean by preventive maintenance psychological therapy?  In the realm of physical health, preventive maintenance involves things like eating healthy, moderate exercise and getting enough sleep.  In the realm of psychological health, preventive maintenance involves things like talking things out with friends, managing stress, art therapy, philosophy therapy,  rational therapy, meditation therapy, nature therapy and other therapeutic activities.  How much time should one devote to psychological preventive maintenance activities?  Psychological preventive maintenance activities should be a part of daily life.	9/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	There is a power in words.  Words have the power to heal.  (1) Speaking.  We want to speak.  We need to speak.  The talking cure is what Freud proposed.  Let the patient talk.  (2) Listening.  Yet we want to hear words also.  We want someone to say something.  We want to hear our friends' voices.  We want to read the poets.  (3) Its possible that the listening is as important as the talking.  Thus, its possible that the psychotherapists are not recognizing that the artists are doing half of the psychotherapist's job.	1/22/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Things a therapist should remember.  (1) Other people's mental states can be vastly different from your own.  How they feel, the world they see, and their abilities can all be vastly different from your own.  (2) They usually cannot fully articulate or communicate their mental state.  And if they could, you still could not understand it completely.  Like they say, "No one knows how I feel".  (3) They may not realize they need help.  If they do realize they need help, they may not ask for it.  They may not realize what types and degrees of help they need.  (4) You may not even notice that they need help.  There may not even be an indication they need help.  (5) Everyone can use a little help.  The trick is to figure out what kind of help and how to give it.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	To be able to "get away from oneself", "get away from a situation".  These are very important concepts.  Without a reprieve one becomes exhausted.  Recreation is important.	11/16/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	To help someone grow you can introduce them to a healthy idea (subject, view, argument).  Their resistance to the idea may be of various types and degrees (ideological, emotional, etc.).  How to reduce resistance?  One way is to let them think that the new healthy idea is their idea.	1/6/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	To prevent insanity eliminate inanity.  Exposing yourself to stupidity is harmful to your health.	6/21/2000

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Two more kinds of therapy.  (1) Knowledge therapy.  Can a person be considered healthy if a large portion of their basic assumptions are mistaken and false?  No.  Therefore, knowledge, information and reasoning are key components to psychological health.  (2) Ethics therapy.  Can a person be considered to be healthy if a large portion of their basic views are unethical?  No.  Therefore, ethics is a key component of psychological health.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Two pop psych phrases.  (1) Get your head together.  Cool out, unwind, clear mind, mellow out.  (2) Get your act together.  Behavior, clothes, job, etc.	01/01/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of psychological techniques.  (1) Dream analysis, day dream analysis.  (2) Get quiet and calm.  (A) Write down what images and ideas enter your mind.  (B) Work on them better.  (3) If nothing comes then use planned techniques to spur thought.  (A) Questions and answers about self (my best and worst memories, goals are..., why).  (B) Do general reading.	11/06/1993

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of psychotherapy.  (1) Preventative therapy (maintenance) vs. curative therapies.  (2) Writing therapy, talking therapy, and action/behavior therapy.  (3) Reason/thinking therapy, emotion therapy, memory therapy, social skills therapy.	12/26/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy by specific areas of mind.  (1) Memory therapy.  Write down all your memories.  (2) Emotion therapy.  Write down and sort out your emotions.  (3) Thought therapy.  Write down and sort out all your thoughts.  (4) Drive therapy.  Work on goals.	06/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy by thought, word, and action.  (1) "Mind" therapy.  Repeating thoughts to yourself.  (2) Talk therapy and writing therapy.  (3) Behavior therapy.  Acting or not acting a certain way.	06/10/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy.  (1) Cognitive therapy.  Get your ideas straight.  (2) Emotional therapy.  Acknowledge emotions, causes, how handle them.  (3) Action/behavior therapy.  (4) Memory therapy.  Journal, estir, dig memories up and record and sort them.  (5) Dream therapy.  (6) Etc. for all mental areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy.  (1) Knowledge therapy.  Figuring out ideas (thinking).  Finding out ideas (reading).  Recording ideas.  Studying ideas.  (2) Emotion therapy.  Sorting out one's emotions.  (3) Memory therapy.  Taking time to remember and record memories.  (4) Drive therapy.  Learning to acknowledge, develop, and pursue goals.  Assertiveness.  (4) Social therapy.  Love and friends.  Knowing how to compete, and knowing how to fight.  (5) Work therapy.  (6) Ethics therapy.  Studying ethics.  Ethical development.  (7) Any single therapy will not solve all problems, but all these therapies are useful and important.  These are preventative therapies, maintenance therapies.  They are general therapies, not problem specific therapies.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy.  If I were a psychologist, how would I help people?  (1) Memory work.  Learn about the importance of memory.  Spend one hour a week writing down memories.  (2) Emotion work.  Learn about the importance and mechanism of emotions in health and pathology.  Spend one hour a week sorting out your emotions.  (3) Thinking work.  Learn about the importance and mechanism of thinking in health and pathology.  Understand sound reasoning, logic, epistemology.  Do exercises to build thinking skills.  Build a store of knowledge from with which to think.  (4) Drive work.  Learn about the importance and mechanism of goals in health and pathology.  Spend one hour a week working on goals, strategies, tactics and reasons.  (5) Social skills work.  Spend one hour a week practicing social interaction with  significant other, friends, etc.  (6) Ethics work.  Spend 1 hour a week thinking about ethical issues.  Think about subjects, issues, viewpoints, arguments, and evidence.  (7) Behavior work.  Spend time focusing on one's behavior.  (8) Physical factors.  Sleep, diet, exercise.  (9) Environmental issues.  One's relationship to the earth is important for psychological health.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Types of therapy.  Three types of therapy.  Therapy to prevent.  Therapy to control.  Therapy to cure.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Unconscious priorities.  Sometimes we don't even know that we need to figure out or do certain things done before we figure out or do something else.  How to bring these unconscious priorities to conscious mind?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Unpack and repack your mental sock drawer.	8/15/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Use oldies stations music to trigger memories in repressed patients.	08/15/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	We hardly ever know, and often over or under estimate, the good and harm we do when we interact with other people.  It is never what it seems.	01/12/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	When it comes to psychological therapy one needs to negotiate the straight between charlatans and dictators.  The charlatans are the quacks and snake-oil salesmen who sell lies as medicine.  The dictators are those elements of the mental health system that wrongly hospitalize people and drug them against their will.  Many people under-estimate the ability of the mental health system to take you on a nightmare ride.  Once you are in the mental health system it can be difficult to get out.  Once you are labeled it can be difficult to shake the label.  Once they mess up your head it can be difficult to get your head back on straight.  Anyone can sell you down the river at anytime.	1/25/2001

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	When you feel productive and creative and happy and lucky and optimistic you should take advantage of it and not fu*k it up.	10/05/1994

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Which therapy works best and worst for who and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Work on being able to let go of negative thoughts.  Work on being able to not think (meditation).  Work on reducing over-thinking and over-feeling.  Its a useful, healthy skill.  Work on ability to be dispassioned, disinterested and objective.  Unemotional, unthinkful.  Set aside ego, pride, self.  Reduce expectations.  Don't push self so hard.  Don't expect so much from self, others and life.  Formulate and pursue ideals.  Don't freak when ideals are not reached completely.	3/20/2004

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Writing and health.  Recording and organizing your thoughts in writing can help prevent mental problems.  This is because writing helps prevent repression.  Repression is an unhealthy type of forgetting.  Forgetting actions and events.  Forgetting the reasons for your actions.  Forgetting your thoughts and feelings.  Forgetting can cause mental problems.  We all forget constantly, therefore, mental problems are always at risk.	10/1/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Writing therapy is similar to talk therapy.  Write open.  Write deep.  Write on.	6/12/2005

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Writing therapy.  I am a proponent of writing therapy.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	Wrong, false or sub-optimal hidden assumptions can destroy you.  True, right knowledge can save your mind.  Ideas and thoughts are very important for mental health.	10/30/1998

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	You can harp on people's weak points, and play up your differences with them, or you can show them their strong points, and emphasize the points you have in common with them.  Harping on weak points can discourage people.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	You don't get mental health by acting normal, you get it by dealing with past, present, future problems.  It has to come from within.  From healthy mind to healthy behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological, therapy.	You should spend much time working on improving your mental health?  Fine tune it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	.Introduction or sum up psycho-pathology in terms of: (1) Maturity and development.  (2) Learning problems.  Ignorance and stupidity make it easier to go nuts.  (3) Attitude problems.  (4) Perceptions and delusions.  (5) Self-induced neurosis vs. self-healing therapies.  (6) Physical issues like diet, sleep and brain biochemistry.  (7) Physical and psychological neglect and abuse by the environment, other people, or ones self.  (8) Fragility and susceptibility.  Health is not automatic.  (9) Labeling.  (10) Stuck or blocked.  (11) A life long issue.  Not just childhood.  (12)  Environment and experience.  How harsh, oppositional, barren, unfriendly, hostile and chaotic it is.  How to learn survival strategies.	6/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	.This section deals with optimal psychological (health) as much as it deals with pathological psychology.  Call this section "Optimal psychology and pathological psychology".	11/10/1993

Psychology, pathological.	.This section is about various other thoughts on psycho-pathology.  Topics include:( ) Emotion and psycho-pathology.  ( ) Fragile.  ( ) Information and psycho-pathology.  ( ) Labeling.  ( ) Self-induced psychopathology.  ( ) Susceptability.  ( ) Thinking and psycho-pathology.  ( ) What is psychopathology.	1/24/2006

Psychology, pathological.	"Attention as love" syndrome explains some (1) Comics.  (2) Criminals.  (3) Masochists.	8/2/2000

Psychology, pathological.	"Not comfortable in your own skin", is an important psychological pathological phenomenon.	11/15/2000

Psychology, pathological.	(1) A sign of pathological behavior (addiction and compulsion, etc.) is inability to recall all the reasons why you do or don't want to do something during times of pathological onset.  (2) Feeling good vs. feeling bad or feeling like crap is the most basic way of describing our psychological state.  Feeling like crap is no way to go through life.	05/12/1994

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Always are having a crisis (doubt, guilt) vs. never do.  (2) Are continually amazed (i.e. having their mind blown, in both positive and negative respects) vs. never are.  Both extremes are bad?	11/27/1993

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Apparently normal people can be really messed up psychologically.  And even psychologically "healthy" people, or even "normal" (average) people, can hold really wrong views.  (2) Apparently normal people can be on the edge mentally (susceptible, ready to trigger a downward spiral).	10/30/1997

Psychology, pathological.	(1) At what point does an "attitude problem" become psycho-pathology?  Its tough to say.  (2) At what point does ignorance develop into psycho-pathology?	4/2/2000

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Behavior: things did by self to self, or to others.  (2) Experiences: things done to you by nature, or by others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Confrontation, catharsis, and justice.  Vs.  (2) Repression, avoidance of memory, emotion, thought, experience (action done by you and action done to you).  (3) Pain emotions of anger, sadness, and fear, of (4) Past, present, and future.  (5) Chains: repress the first link and the rest is repressed.  Example: memory yields emotions yields thoughts yields actions.	07/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Delayed or stalled development can have just as many bad effects as mental illness.  (2) Mild chronic psycho-pathologies can have a total long term effect that is just as bad as severe acute mental illness.  (3)(A) How to recognize psycho-pathology?  How to recognize it in yourself?  How to recognize it others?  (B) How to care, improve, or just manage and live with psycho-pathology?  How to manage it in yourself?  How to manage it in others?  (4) How to determine your psychological strengths and weaknesses?  (5) One psychological problem can lead to another in a chain (series) or a web (network).  It can affect all areas of your life.	5/20/1999

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Growth, development, and integration.  (2) Stagnation.  (3) Decay and disintegration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) How much does it take to drive someone nuts, or just to the point where they engage in behavior that causes them to self destruct?  Not much.  (2) How much does productivity and mental health drop in various adverse conditions?  It can be a precipitous drop.  (3) Unexplained momentary "flip outs" of any type can happen to anyone, anytime.  It is bad and it is common.	07/11/1997

Psychology, pathological.	(1) How much resources is the suboptimal behavior using up?  (2) Are you confronting the problems in your life?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) How smart do you have to be, given any level of mental un-healthy-ness, to start improving with your own effort (bootstrapping)?  (2) How healthy (or ill) do you have to be to start improving with your own effort, or with a shrinks help, or with medications help?  (3) How reversible is psychological illness or debilitation?  (4) How rapidly can one improve their psychological health?  (5) How permanent can the change to health be?	1/25/1998

Psychology, pathological.	(1) If you can grow faster than you fall apart then the net result is positive growth.  (2) If you fall apart faster than you cohere then the net result is mental illness.	9/26/2002

Psychology, pathological.	(1) It is tough to tell when you are going nuts.  (2) It is tough to tell what type and degree of stress will drive you nuts.	04/15/1997

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Major misperceptions of thought.  Major paranoia thoughts.  Major depressive thoughts.  Major anger thoughts.  (2) Minor misperceptions of thought.  Minor paranoia thoughts.  Minor depressive thoughts.  Minor anger thoughts. (3) How do feelings of fear get generated and transfered into thoughts?  How do threats, real or imagined, get processed by the brain?	12/26/2003

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Mental health vs. mental illness.  (2) Optimal mental health vs. sub-optimal mental health.  (3) Normal, average mental health.  (4) Define these terms.  It is all on a scale or spectrum.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Pathological psychology: psychiatry.  (2) Suboptimal psychology: ?.  (3) Optimal psychology: sports psychology?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Signs of sub-optimal mind.  Inability to develop values and goals, prioritize, remember, and pursue.  (2) Causes of sub-optimal mind.  (A) Psychological abilities and limits.  Knowledge, intelligence.  Neurosis and psychosis.  (B) Physical.  (C) Financial and economic: poverty.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Slides, decay, disintegration, disorganization.  Speed, depth, ways.  (2) Recovery, growth, develop, integration, organization.  Speed, degree, ways.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Some people are stupid or ignorant.  There are two types of ignorance, having poor reasoning skills, and having a small pool of knowledge.  (2) Some people are crazy.  (3) Some people are immoral.  (4) Some people are one and two.  Some people are two and three.  Some people are one and three.  Some people are one and two and three.  Some people are none.	8/27/1998

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Some people were nuts, and not now.  (2) Some people are going nuts.  (3) Some people are nuts but haven't been labeled yet.  (4) Some people are nuts and have been labeled accurately.  (5) Some people are not nuts but have been labeled so.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Stability: variation in behavior given a constant environment.  (2) Susceptibitliy: given change in environment, probability of decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Tendancy to psychologically organize vs. disorganize.  (2) Tendancy towards psychological health vs. towards destruction.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) The problem is that we get into the following states of mind:  (A) Tired.  (B) Depressed.  (C) Crippled by doubt.  Indecisive.  (D) Satisfied.  Unmotivated.  (E) Distracted and diverted.  (F) Psyched out.  (G) Zombified.  (2) The above mental states yield the following:  (A) Not using head.  Not growing.  (B) Inactive.  Not productive.  (3) These states are not helpful.	3/11/2000

Psychology, pathological.	(1) This section should be renamed "Pathological, average, and peak states of mental and behavioral conditions".  Mental areas include knowledge of all subject areas.  Behavioral areas include practical life areas like work and sex, etc.  (2) Abnormal means "above or below average", not "diseased".  Pathological is a more accurate term for illness.	08/10/1993

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Those who dance nimbly on the edge, easily knocked off, into oblivion.  (2) Those who hobble along the main fare, fall often, and get up again.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	(1) To think too much and feel too much.  (2) To think too little and feel too little.  (3) There has to be a balance between being a lifeless blob and being a neurotic overwrought manic.  Where is the balance?  Where is the happy medium?	3/14/2000

Psychology, pathological.	(1) Types.  (A) Organic: genetic vs. non-genetic biochemical.  (B) Psychological.  (2) Causes, symptoms, therapies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	(1) What is the glue that holds people together?  What happens when people become unglued?  What events cause it?  (2) People for whom everyday is crisis.  They have a rough time.  Vs. those who have an easy trip mentally.	07/18/1997

Psychology, pathological.	(1) What it takes to optimize a mind.  If it takes a lot you are weak.  If it takes a little you are strong?  (2) What it takes to prevent development of optimal mind, or drive optimal mind into suboptimal, for how long and how deep.  If it take little abuse, neglect, trauma shock you are weak.  If it takes much you are strong?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	A big problem in psychology: (1) People often don't know something is wrong with them.  If they do know something is wrong with them, they often don't know what is wrong with them, and can't say.  People often don't know what health consists of, or feels like.  (2) It can be very hard to tell what's wrong with a person.  It can be tough to tell how they got that way.  It can be tough to figure out how to help them.  (3) Once you figure out what to do, it an be very hard to change a person, to make them well.  It can be slow, and painful, and recidivism and relapses can occur.	03/01/1997

Psychology, pathological.	A blow to the ego can drive a person crazy.  I am referring here to the "vanity" ego and not the "Freudian" ego.  Some experiences are such a shock to our self-worth and our sense of social status that it can drive a person crazy.  That's why it pays to be humble and modest; it is psychologically healthy to do so.	11/2/2001

Psychology, pathological.	A few mental health professionals are power-tripping shrinks.  (1) They want to label other people.  They want to define others.  (2) They want to dispense drugs.  They want to control other people.  Watch out.	6/14/2000

Psychology, pathological.	A lot of healthy mental state is attitude; knowing correct metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetic views, and correct reasons to mind and behave one way and not another.  Feeling good about it.  Ethics is connected to health on psychological, physical, social, and economic levels.	05/30/1993

Psychology, pathological.	A lot of people each a little crazy adds up to a lot of craziness.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	A model of psychopathology.  Multiple problems in each individual.  Multiple causes for each problem.  Multiple solutions required for each problem.	6/12/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Abnormal means away from norm.  Abnormal could mean good or bad.  Pathological means bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Adults and kids.  Why is it seemingly so easy for adults to flip out?  More so than kids.  (1) Adult minds are more complicated than children's minds.  There are more thoughts, emotions and memories in an adult.  Thus, there are more parts to break, just like a computer.  The more parts that can potentially break, the more breakdowns occur  (2) Adult minds are running longer than kids minds.  Forty years of adulthood give one more time to break down, and thus the probability of the breakdown increases.  (3) Adults have more freedom and power than children.  They make more decisions and take more actions.  Thus when they breakdown they make mistakes of action that are much greater in their consequences than children's decisions and actions.	7/21/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Adults who were abused or neglected as children.  (1) Quick to attach to people.  Fall in love easily.  No boundaries.  (2) Slow to let go.  Problems saying goodbye.	9/3/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Against the impending pain, the impinging pain, the natural injustices, the social injustices, the harshness, the overpowering world, we need a psychological barrier, cushion, insulation, shelter, for our mental health.  When that cushion fails, and when the floodgates fail, then we have a nervous breakdown.  Psychological health is about boundaries.  Not just boundaries for other people, but boundaries for all reality.  When our drives (id) and society's rules (super ego), and other people's opposition, and nature's opposition, and your own mind and behavior, overwhelm us (our ego), then we have a mental breakdown.  When you are defenseless it overwhelms you.	6/20/1999

Psychology, pathological.	An average person in an extreme situation will develop PTSD.  An extremely sensitive person in an average situation will develop PTSD.  Artists are extremely sensitive people.  Therefore artists are prone to PTSD.	2/14/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Any action by anyone can have any effect depending on how screwed up or weak or strong your mind is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Any specific mental state or behavior in any specific individual in any specific situation, how optimal or pathological is it and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Apathy.  Doing nothing is easy.  Doing nothing seems safe.  Doing something seems effort filled.  Doing something seems risky.  So people often do nothing rather than something.  That is a mistake.	8/23/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Avoidance tactics:  pathological regression, pathological joking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Bad situation to be in:  Can't relax.  Can't enjoy.  Can't have fun.  Can't be friendly.  Can't be happy.	7/7/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Balance.  Growing up.  Nerdier becoming cool, cool becoming nerdier.  Achieving balance, avoiding extremes, the golden mean.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Being severely depressed about what you failed to figure out or accomplish in life is counterproductive, unhealthy and unjust.  Remaining totally unaffected by what you failed to figure out and accomplish in life is also counterproductive, unhealthy and unjust.  There has to be a healthy medium.	3/21/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Break, cave and price.  (1) Breaking point: the point at which one goes crazy.  (2) Caving point: the point at which you are coerced or forced to do something against your will.  (3) Price: the point of temptation at which you change your mind and decide to do something.	10/10/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Break, cave and price.  Everyone has a breaking point, a cave in point, a price.  It depends on (1) How much you want to do (experience, become, or own), or not do, "x" vs. (2) How much actual or threatened/promised pain or pleasure is involved.  This determines (3) When you start doing an action or stop doing an action.	08/15/1994

Psychology, pathological.	Change.  Growth.  The personality has inertia.  It does not want to die, or cease to be.  So it does not want to change.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Change.  Sick people often do not know they are sick (sub-optimal, wrong).  They think they are fine (healthy, right).  Thus they often will not recognize better (healthier, more true) ways if they see it.  They will not listen if you tell them a better way.  Thus it is difficult for them to change and improve.  Basically people do not want to change.  They are often afraid of making a mistake and changing for the worse.	12/29/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Common pop and folk terms for psychological problems.  Heebee jeebees, willies, blue devils.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Competition can lead to deception, which can lead to pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Crisis.  Certain people are more susceptible to psychological crisis and deal more poorly with them than others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Crisis.  Frequency, duration, severity, symptoms of a psychological crisis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Crisis.  Length of time and mental effort it takes you to sort out a crisis, problem, or situation (if you can do it at all, and how well you can do it).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Crisis.  Psychological crisis.  A sudden, unconscious or conscious, total or partial realization of a fact of life (whether it is new, or a change of a view) whether it is about you or everyone.  Resulting in (1) Inability to act at all: nervous breakdown.  (2) Inability to act optimally.  (3) Inability to deal with problem.  (4) Inability to deal with problem optimally.  (5) Recurrence of some strange behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Defense mechanism.  People desire to defend and bolster their ego, and so they sometimes reject ideas that conflict with their views, attitudes, opinions, and values.  Defense mechanisms are at work even in so called psychologically "healthy" and "normal" individuals.  A problems results when ego defense and inertia inhibits the acceptance of new, true, good ideas.	7/25/2006

Psychology, pathological.	Delusions.  A minor delusion is just another way to say misinformed, misguided, and ignorant.  I have seen time and again how minor delusions can, on the one hand, keep people alive, and can, on the other hand, prevent people from making the most of themselves.  At base level we are all suffering a variety of minor delusions for none of us know 100% what is going on.	3/5/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Development.  Pathology can be defined as being immature for one's age.  (1) Neurosis can stunt a person's psychological development.  (2) Neglect can stunt a person's development.  (3) Mental retardation can stunt a person's development.  (4) And yet "normal" adults can have varying levels of maturity from one person to the next.	7/1/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Diagnosis.  Label symptoms generally, and then specific mechanism and cause in specific individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Diamond cutter analogy.  All it takes is one small action or experience at the right time to make us fall to pieces.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Differences in description of problem, symptom, explanation and treatment in various major psychological systems.  Which view is currently in favor.  Which view is best.	07/30/1993

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion and psychopathology  (1) Neglect, abuse, deprivation, injustice, vs. the suffering that they cause.  Are these two different things?  (2) Is the goal of life to end injustice, and thus end the stress and pain that injustice causes, or is the goal to end just the perception of injustice and pain?  The former not the latter.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, fear.  (1) Repressed fears can cause depression.  (2) Repression itself is actually a form of fear.  We run from what bothers us.  (3) High anger levels plus high fear levels (negative emotions) can cause repression, which causes pathological conditions.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, fear.  Chronic anxiety and chronic fear causes chronic apprehension and chronic tension (both psychological and physical).  Tension causes stress and makes one more susceptible to psychological pathology.  When fear and tension are lifted (momentarily or long term) one feels calm, peaceful, less stressed, happier, more positive, and healthier.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, fear.  Fear can often take the form of "what if ..." statements or  hypotheticals.  If you are a very imaginative person, or a very pessimistic person, you can consciously think of many negative hypotheticals, and this is really fear, which acts to inhibit action, and causes pathological conditions.  This is why it is healthy to have a positive attitude.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, fear.  The conscious emotion of fear can stop someone from taking action just as much as unconscious repression can, and thus cause pathological conditions.  There is a difference between unconscious repression to avoid felt pain, and the conscious emotion of fear of anticipated pain, but their results can be the same.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, fear.  You can repress because something is painful.  You can also repress because you FEAR something will be painful.  Highly fearful people will thus tend to have more neurosis.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, regret.  Guilt, regret and shame caused by not giving 100% in mind and action.  All three can be repressed, causing pathology.  That is why it is important for your mental health that you give 100%.	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotion, regret.  Living for your dreams with 100% effort is important because regret can cause a depression that kills.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotions and psychopathology.  (1) To what extent does emotional pain contribute to pathological psychology?  Is emotional pain an effect of pathological psychology, or is it a cause of pathological psychology, or both?  Loneliness, lack of love, sadness, anger, worry.  To reduce pathological psychology do we reduce pain?  (2) The mistake of trying to attain happiness by ignoring pain.  One can avoid emotional pain by repressing pain, but this is psychologically hurtful rather than helpful, and it does not help to solve the problem either.  The attitude "Nothing is bugging me, I am happy.", even when something exists that should be bugging you, is a problem, if only for the fact that repression of emotion is taking place, and one is also ignoring reality.  The view of Buddhism (ignore pains and give up desires) is really just another type of repression.  And yet, on the other hand if you look at life and the world realistically, the problems and pain can overwhelm and destroy us, and thus optimism is healthy.  Optimism vs. repression.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Emotions and psychopathology.  If someone is not crazy, but they are under a lot of stress from adverse conditions, and in a lot of emotional pain, it can make them give up or explode or commit crime.  So to reduce pathological psychology in the world, it helps to reduce the bad conditions that cause the emotional pain.  (2) Things that can cause stress.  Money worries: house, car, things, job.  Social worries: love, friends, family, social conflict, social injustice.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Epidemiology of psychopathology.  (1) What is the prevalence of psychopathology?  What percentage of population gets what psychological problems.  (2) What percent of those with psychological problems see a therapist?  What percent do not?	3/21/2006

Psychology, pathological.	Epidemiology.  What's worse, a few very disturbed people or many slightly disturbed people?  Second can add up to more than first.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Even a "bad" experience can be a growth experience.  Even a "good" experience can be disintegrative if you are not well.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Every action and experience has a psychological effect (strong or slight).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Every behavior and mental state is both symptom and cause of problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Excellent or poorly functioning minds, describe traits each.  How bad or good by degree.  What % of time.  In what situations.  With what results.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Exhaustion and the emotions of depression, anxiety and anger.  Push yourself too much for too long, or be pushed by other people too much for too long, or be pushed by life circumstances too much for too long, and you can become psychologically exhausted, which can result in days, weeks or months of feeling cruddy.  Just like with physical exercise, too much, too soon is not healthy.  Don't overdo it.  Pace yourself.	11/12/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Figuring out a persons mind.  Concepts and attitude and philosophies.  Strengths, weaknesses, problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Folk terms.  Feeling "shaky" is an oft used term to describe how it feels to be in sub-optimal states.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile and sensitivity.     PART ONE.  If you are sensitive but not fragile then you will sense or perceive negative things but they will not destroy you.  If you are fragile but not sensitive then you will not sense or perceive things that could destroy you.  If you are both fragile and sensitive then you will sense or perceive negative things and they will destroy you.     PART TWO.  How "bad" something is: ethically bad; aesthetically bad; physically or psychologically unhealthy; physically or psychologically unpleasant; all depends on (1) How fragile you are.  How much these things can upset your well being.  (2) How sensitive you are.  How well you are able to detect subtle changes.  How much these changes bother you.     PART THREE.  If "It does not bother me." or "I do not notice it." (sensitivity) or "I can take it." (robustness), then you are okay and it is not so bad.  However, if "I notice it." and "It bothers me." and "I cannot take it." then you might crumble.     PART FOUR.  Its a quirk of psychology that if it "seems bad" then it "is bad".  Our subjective perceptions are often all we have to go on.  Often our perceptions are all we know.	5/26/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile egos.  Naive' egos.  Sheltered egos.  People who lack coping skills.	1/20/2007

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile people just barely hanging on and working psychologically.  Causes of fragility: (1) Knowledge false, partial or sub-optimal, and poorly organized.  (2) Pathological or sub-optimal emotion responses.  (3) Repressive and/or poor memory.  (4) Grew up with neglective and/or abusive models.  (5) Genetic, biochemical problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  BW of BB fame.  His music is sweet.  He is sweet.  There is a common triad of personality traits that often coincide: sweet, defenseless and fragile.  Sweet, defenseless and fragile people get eaten up by everyday life.  Everyday life is rough and savage in its own way.  The sweet, defenseless, fragile people get pounded on by everyday life.  They get destroyed.  The sweet suffer.  They have no defense.  The have no recourse.  They have no psychic armor and they have no psychic weapons.  G was sweet.  The sweet, defenseless and fragile don't know how to fight for themselves.  Or they won't allow themselves to fight for themselves.  Everyday civilized life is savage.  The sweet refuse to be savage.  When you meet them keep this in mind.	6/23/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  How fragile a person is, is determined by how easily and often they are depressed, discouraged, distracted (or seduced), disoriented (confused), and intimidated (threatened, ordered about).  And the degree to which they can not remember, feel, think, and act for themselves.	10/25/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  How very fragile (vulnerable, susceptible) people are.  And how many things can go wrong in life.  Many things.  And how many ways, how easy it is for people to go crazy, or evil, or stupid.	01/12/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  It is so difficult to spot a fragile ego.  And it is so easy to crush a fragile ego, doing it permanent damage.	4/20/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  Many individuals are psychologically defenseless, fragile, and repressed.  They do not know how or when to fight, or defend themselves.  They do not know how to communicate.  You have to communicate for them.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Fragile.  The difference between a fragile person and a person close to the edge.  (1) The fragile person may be living normally.  They may be sensitive to small stresses and shocks, and a big shock may drive them to nervous breakdown (over the edge).  (2) The person close to the edge acts strangely.  But they may be very hardy and consistent in their precarious position.  (3) The worst is to be both fragile and close to the edge.  (4) I am fragile.	8/18/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Fragility definitions.  (1) Fragile as weak generally.  (2) Fragile as unstable, volatile.  (3) Keep the fragile ones alive, healthy, happy, productive.	11/30/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Getting stuck.  You may not be conscious of it, but your mind may be saying to itself "I am not going to do anything until I do x."  X may be figuring out answers to questions you are not aware of, or taking action on same.  You may not be aware that you are stuck, and you may not know what it will take to get you unstuck.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Good: growth spirals.  Bad: vicious death spirals.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	History.  Practice and theory (philosophy, science, tech).  Attitudes of society to mental illness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Hopes and dreams dashed.  (1) How early in life were your hopes and dreams dashed? (2) How many of your hopes and dreams were dashed?  (3) How completely were your hopes and dreams dashed?  (4) For example, if at a very young age you had many of your hopes and dreams severely dashed then that can be a big problem.  (5) Some people are able to regroup or reboot after their hopes and dreams are dashed.  Other people have a more difficult time, give up, lose hope or are unable to come up with new hopes and dreams.  (6) It is difficult, if not impossible, to go through life without having some of you hopes and dreams dashed.  Don't let it break your heart or hurt your mind.	9/13/2005

Psychology, pathological.	How fu*ked up can one become, how fast.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	How much is your sub-optimal or pathological psychology holding you back?  Could be very, very much.  A little pathological psychology goes a long way.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	How much of my pathological psychology is due to depression, anxiety, and lack of self respect, self esteem and self confidence?  What causes each?	04/30/1993

Psychology, pathological.	How much of my strange abnormal behavior is due to the fact that I enjoy being different, unconventional, eccentric, and like to test the boundaries of myself, others, and natural world?	05/30/1993

Psychology, pathological.	Humans are not machines, predictable, stable and simple.  Seemingly uncaused biochemical states of depression, anxiety and anger occur widely and frequently in humans.  Find the causes.	6/12/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Hypothesis.  People tend to pair up with people who have neuroses (ignorances or weaknesses) in areas other than their own neurosis.  A person says to themselves, "I like this person because their weak spot is not my weak spot."  Three cases are possible:  If two people's weaknesses reinforce each others then the pairs survival ability is in jeopardy.  If strengths reinforce then so what, who cares.  However, if their neuroses are different then they each serve as a model of health for each other.  They serve as a reality check for each other.	5/24/2000

Psychology, pathological.	If you are too hard on yourself then you get a lot of guilt, shame and regret.  These are repressed, and then cause neurosis and psychosis.  Therefore, you need to like and accept yourself.  And you need to care for yourself.	1/23/1999

Psychology, pathological.	If you let your head deteriorate, which mine does rapidly, often, and to a great degree, in many types and ways, due to many causes, with many bad effects, then you will not (1) Be able to get those desperately needed a+'s in school, (2) And you will not be able to keep job or get a better one because you will flip out.  But the good thing is, with much mental, behavioral, and environmental effort, you can get your head together, and keep it together, and reap the rewards.  That is, the entire sane-crazy thing is to a large degree controllable by me.	04/04/1994

Psychology, pathological.	Immaturity as psycho-pathology.  Adults who act like teens.  Teens who act like kids.  Its all relative.	6/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	In psychological terms, just as in physical terms, there is a difference between being weak and ill.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.  When we are weak we become susceptible to illness.  The psychology literature is full of discussions about psychological illness in the forms of neurosis and psychosis.  But from a preventive point of view, perhaps we would be better off discussing the various types of mental weakness that lead to illness.  And discuss how to get and stay mentally strong.	3/30/2000

Psychology, pathological.	In Russia, and I suppose in the United States as well, people who dissented were put in mental hospitals.  People who dared question the established order were labeled as crazy and they were locked up in mental hospitals against their will and subjected to cruel "treatments".  (2) How does society deal with the unethical, the negligent, the dim and the so-called crazy?   (A) One way is to determine whether the person is a danger to themselves and others.  But how do you determine that?  Not all dangerous people are crazy.  Not all crazy people are dangerous.  (B) Another way is to see if the person can get along in society and support themselves.  But how do you determine that?  Not all people who cannot support themselves or get along with others are crazy.  Not all crazy people cannot support themselves or get along with others.	2/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Individual and structural pathology by areas of life.  (1) Family.  (A) Individual pathology: Pathology rarely limited to single individual.  (B) Structural pathology: Group pathology.  (2) School.  (A) Individual pathology: The bully.  The troublemaker.  The misfit.  Cliques that have scapegoats.  (B) Structural pathology: Too little freedom for students.  (3) Work.  (A) Individual pathology: The fascist boss.  The futz-off subordinate.  Personality conflicts.  (B) Structural pathology: Glass ceilings.  Pay discrimination.  Hiring discrimination.  Sex harassment.  Harassment for any reason.  (4) Government.  (A) Individual pathology: Absent lawmakers.  (B) Structural pathology: Unjust laws made.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Inferiority-complex and superiority-complex often go together.  They are like two sides of the same coin.  They are both signs of insecurity.	1/22/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Information and pathology.  (1) Its a problem if there is too much information, or the information is too difficult relative to an individuals mind.  Its a problem even if there is a mere perception that the above is the case.  The therapeutic solution is information management tools like writing, books, computer, music, movies, Internet, etc.  (2) Realization: no one knows it all.  No one knows everything.  Therefore, some degree of uncertainty and ignorance is always present.  At some point we surrender to the flow of information.	1/22/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psycho-pathology.  (1) Paper and computer make it easier to organize and manipulate, record and store, and evaluate your ideas.  (2) This can lead to a better organized mind, better memory, better ideas chosen (knowledge base), and better thinking.  (3) A computer with voice recognition and Internet access makes it easier than ever to gather information (figured and found).  The computer can contribute to psychological health.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psycho-pathology.  Information theory and psychological health.  Two branches: knowledge base and thinking skills.  (1) Today we need more information in order to thrive and be psychologically healthy than we did years ago.  (2) The information we need changes more quickly today than years ago.  (3) We have more information (true and false) available today to choose from than years ago.  (4) We must developed two information skills: (A) Active searching, and (B) Critically choosing good from bad.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psycho-pathology.  People can be overwhelmed or underwhelmed by (1) The amount of knowledge (truth) needed to survive and thrive in a situation.  (2) The amount of  knowledge (both true and false) available for gathering and use in a situation.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psycho-pathology.  See also: sociology of knowledge.  (1) The most important subjects, issues, questions are not kept in front of our faces by the media.  (2) When they are brought up, the most popular answers to important issues are not always the best answers.  (3) Also an individuals needs for information may vary from the average person's needs which the media ladles out.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psychopathology.  All sentient beings have information requirements to survive and thrive in their environments.  The question is, is an individual processing enough information to survive and thrive?  Is the individual curious and does the individual search for information, or is the individual information avoidant?  We can talk about the level of information needed to survive and thrive in a society.  What information is needed?  Is that information available?  We can talk about the level of information needed to survive and thrive in a natural environment.  We can talk about the information processing capability of an individual or of a species in general.  To discuss information as a basis concept of psychopathology and psychotherapy is a big step from claiming that most psychopathology and psychotherapy has an emotional basis.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Information and psychopathology.  In this age of complexity and information overload, if you don't talk to someone or write for yourself you risk going mad.  We all need a way to process and store information.  The very act of talking and writing helps one process and store information.	8/20/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Information as control and power.  (1) Corporate (hyper-civilized) man has his hands tied.  He cannot punch others, and he cannot curse others, so he resorts to screwing with other people's heads.  Lies and secrets (misinformation).  Information hoarders.  (2) For people who are control freaks, information is a perfect medium to express their need for control.  We cannot control other people perfectly, or ourselves (our drives, emotions, or thoughts), or nature, or circumstances, but we can control information perfectly.  We can control who gets to know what.  We can control who we talk to, and what we tell them.  We can use information as reward, and we can withhold information as punishment.  (3) Academics and computer geeks are arguably two examples of information control/power freaks.  I do this too.  (4) More control freaks.  Shrinks are control freaks, saying who is sane and crazy, and putting people on drugs.  Teachers are control freaks, controlling kids and what kids learn.  (5) The information control freak phenomena is akin to other pathological control/power phenomena such as pathological authoritarian (dictators and their worshipers), militaristic (army hierarchy), and religious personality types.	4/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Information deprivation.  (1) Three types of deprivation: sensory deprivation, emotional deprivation, and idea deprivation.  All three types of deprivation can drive a healthy adult to breakdown.  Because sense, emotion and ideas are all forms of information (broadly defined), what is at issue here is information deprivation.  (2) Perhaps too much attention is given in the press to the issue of information overload.  An equally important issue is information deprivation.  The question becomes how to add variety to the information one acquires?  And what is the ideal rate of input of information?  For example, the number of edits per second in films has increased over the past century.  This shows that the comfortable rate of information has increased in society.  Also, the rate of information input increases as the individual grows from child to adult.	8/7/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Information management and its relation to psychological health and psychological growth.  What if you wrote down all your views on all the issues or subjects.  What if you wrote down all your arguments and counterarguments for all your views on all the issues or subjects.  (2) And, on the other hand, what if you did not?  How would it affect your health and development in the long run?  (3) That is, what would happen if you decided to think and feel?  What would happen if you decided to engage in some self-initiated philosophical therapy?  It would help, slowly but surely, via small daily gains.	11/20/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Information related pathologies.  Many people talk about "information overload" in a sense that focuses on the information that we find out from sources outside ourselves such as the media.  However, I say that we figure out as much information as we find out.  And the so called "information overload" has as much to do with information we figure out as find out.  The question becomes, how to deal with all the information we figure out.  Many people simply try not to think and try to ignore the ideas that they do think of.  However, this does little to stifle the production of information (thoughts, emotions, etc.), and this type of repression is in fact unhealthy.  Clearly, better technologies for information management of found-out ideas are called for.  Let's make a note of it.  The point is that the flood of information is unstoppable because it comes from within us as well as outside us.  The best we can do is (1) Take the time to deal with it, and (2) Talk about it, write about it, and otherwise manipulate, organize, store and disseminate it.	2/13/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Integration.  Many people say that "integration" is the main psychological goal.  Integration defined as every thought cohering with every other though.  And every emotion cohering with every thought.  A single, unified, monolithic mind.  I say this idea is overrated.     PART TWO.  They define integration as robust health.  They define disintegration as a nervous breakdown.     PART THREE.  They define disintegration as conflicting thoughts and conflicting emotions.  However, I say this state of mind is okay, perhaps even desirable.  Pluralism is healthy and realistic.     PART FOUR.  They use the notions of "resolved conflicts" and "unresolved conflicts".  I say that "resolved conflicts"  does not mean no conflict.  Rather, it means "I can live with that".  Psychological health does not mean a state of no psychological conflict.  Psychological health means learning to live productively in a state of psychological conflict.  Life is conflict.  The world is conflict ridden.  Our minds are full of conflict.	6/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Is the goal of psychology (1) To end craziness.  (2) To end mental suffering of emotional pain.  (3) To promote optimal health, and to fully develop all abilities.	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Is there anything to feel good about?  Don't get emotionally overwhelmed.  Don't repress either.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Is there just as much psychological illness as physical illness?  Same number of people with same degree of severity causing same levels of incapacitation?  Is there just as much time lost at work to both psychological and physical illness?	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	It is a quite common problem that a person can be a functioning adult, even over-developed in one area, and be totally messed up in another area, having real problems that threaten to destroy their lives, or at least reduce their quality of life.  Easy to have messed up metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, or aesthetic attitudes.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological.	It is not easy to optimize your own attitudes, or help someone else optimize their attitudes.	9/26/1999

Psychology, pathological.	It is so easy to slip away mentally.  It does not take much.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological.	It is very easy to temporarily injure, permanently injure, or even destroy yourself physically.  It is equally easy to temporarily injure, permanently injure, or even destroy yourself psychologically.  Many people do not recognize the latter.	1/7/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Just like we have physical self defense technologies, we can have psychological self defense technologies.  Just like we have physical hygiene technologies, we can have psychological hygiene technologies.	1/1/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Keeping busy.  "I don't have time to worry about such trivial matters".  Keeping busy can keep you from going nuts by keeping you from worrying (obsessing) about things you need not.  This is a different phenomenon than that described by the proverb "Evil finds work for idle hands".	7/24/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Labeling.  "Crazy" is a label that people slap on each other in order to ostracize, dis-empower, devalue, and control.  It is a power-play.	10/10/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Labeling.  Both of these types of labeling can be limiting in a negative way.  (1) Social labeling: when society tells you who you are.  (2) Self labeling: when you tell yourself who you are.	6/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Labeling.  By peers: family, workers.  By professionals: doctors, shrinks.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Labeling.  The "crazy" and "not crazy" labels are not very helpful.  There are many psychological problems that people can have, with many possible causes for each problem, and with many possible solutions for each problem.  It is an oversimplification to label people "crazy" and "not crazy".	6/15/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Layman's pathological psychology 101.  Three levels of psycho-pathology: a little screwed up; medium screwed up; very screwed up.  (1) Everyone is at least a little screwed up.  We are all neurotic.  They do not need special help.  (2) The medium screwed up people could improve, stay the same, or get worse.  They need help.  Even a kind word or gesture can keep them this side of crazy.  (3) The very screwed up can not be helped.  This may not be totally true.  John Nash recovered from schizophrenia.  (4) The main point may be that everyone needs our help.	7/10/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Learning.  Effect of learning on psychological health.  (1) In order to mature and reach optimal health we have a lot to learn.  (2) A problem is when we study wrong areas, and thus do not learn what we need to learn, and thus lose, or fail to gain, psychological health.  (3) Can learning be done through formal education?  (4) Can learning be done through self education?  If so, can it be done actively or is it all passive?  If it can be done actively, can the Notes help us learn faster and more, and thus contribute to psychological health?  (5) In psycho-therapy it can be said we get healthy by learning.  (6) It can be said we are learning all the time.  Some learn faster than others.  Some learn unhealthy (wrong, bad) attitudes and habits.  Some do not learn fast enough to survive in society.  Some do not learn fast enough to stay psychologically healthy.  (7) In fragile and susceptible individuals, learning can make the difference between going nuts and not crumbling under stress.  (8) If we fail to learn, or learn the wrong thing, then pathological psychology can occur.  You can fail to grow.  You can fail to mature.  Education is about getting healthy.  (9) Repression forms a learning disability.  (10) We learn (or fail to learn) not just the content of our minds (facts), but also how to use our minds (methods).  And we learn behavior too.	4/7/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Letting things bug you too much, letting things bother you too much, is not good because it can lead to an emotional breakdown.	1/14/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Life has many, powerful stresses.  One defense against those stresses is thinking, writing, communicating, and information management.  For example, Rational Emotive therapy, talk therapy, writing therapy.  Avoid boredom, meaninglessness, and wasted lives.  Create meaningful lives.  Optimize your life.  Fall back on your Reasons in times of stress and trouble.	8/25/2006

Psychology, pathological.	Lingering effects.  How long does pathological experience or pathological behavior continue to affect you.  Some people never get over some things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Lost.  When you are lost among people, for example in town, the feeling you have is much less terrifying than being lost alone, for example in the wilderness.  This has an important correlate in that when you become psychologically lost among people, it is much less terrifying than becoming psychologically lost alone.	11/13/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Making enemies.  Fear of reprisal leading to passivity (unhealthy) vs. confronting and dealing with problems, sticking up for self, not taking any shit (healthy).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Malfunctioning minds vs. shabbily built minds.  Real ignorance of metaphyscis, epistemology, and ethics of the world.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Me.  My main current problems - causes, symptoms, therapies.  How bad, how often do these problems get.  How much resources do I lose to them?  What could I accomplish with out them, how good could I get?  What's going right in my psychological life?  What state do I want to get to (ideals)?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Mechanism.  What is the mechanism by which psychopathology progresses?  What are the principles of psychopathology?  (1) The idea of increase in severity from minor severity to major severity.  (2) The idea of spread from localized to globalized.  That is, one area of the mind to many areas of the mind.  One subject topic to many subject topics.  (3) Self perpetuating feedback loops.  The notion of the negative spiral and the positive spiral.  (4) The notion of system shutdown.  The mind has various systems, for example, emotion, memory, thought, etc., that can shut down when under stress.  (5) The idea of levels of incapacitation.  For example, fully functioning, partially degraded, and completely incapacitated.	6/6/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Memory and psychopathology.  Forgetting and its resulting mental disorganization can cause a depression that kills.  This is one reason why notes are so important.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Mental hang ups, blocks and obstacles lead to gaps, weak areas and things never experienced or learned.	3/29/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Mental health is not automatic.  Mental development is not automatic.  Mental neglect yields mental rust, yields mental entropy.  Never learning, or learning and then forgetting, means never developing intellectually, emotionally, socially, etc.	5/16/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Mental health, like physical health, is not automatic.  Mental health takes work.  And neglecting and abusing your mind, like neglecting and abusing your body, can be very dangerous.  Most people don't realize they have to take care of their mind.  Like poor physical condition, some people start from poor mental health.  Like physical condition, mental condition can be improved with work.  We should learn to assess our mental condition as well as our physical condition.	01/23/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Mental illness as a form of monopoly or dictatorship of the mind.  Preoccupation.  Obsession.  Some people call it a weight.	6/4/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Mental illness by demographic segments.  (1)(A) Highly intelligent people keenly notice the absurdity and irrationality of life, and it can drive them nuts.  Life is not logical.  (B) The highly intelligent are susceptible to repression of emotion by reason.  (2)(A) Low intelligence people have difficulty figuring out their problems, and that can drive them nuts.  (B) Low intelligence people are susceptible to emotion overpowering limited reasoning.	8/9/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Mental illness, mental pain, and death at a young age are not events that must inevitably occur, or that should occur.  There are healthy, happy people who live long lives, and are still ethical, smart, and creative.  The above statements are tough for depressed people to believe.  I had to struggle to get myself to believe them.  I had to see an example or model of healthy, smart, creative, hip people.  They are rare.	04/24/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Mentalizing (drive, remembering, feeling, thinking) makes something real.  Writing makes it more real.  Saying makes it even more real.  Acting makes it even more real.  Your mind may require you to mentalize, write, say, or act about a thing, and if you only write about something when your mind wants you to do more, like say or act, then psychological problems result.  My mind asks me to write a lot, but I need to talk too.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Mind.  (1) Most pathological psychology cases, that is, most people, need very slight but very important adjustments to their understanding, which can make vast improvements in their lives, and thus make them very happy.  It is difficult to detect these small problems, difficult to determine their causes, and difficult to find a cure or solution.	05/20/1994

Psychology, pathological.	Much attention has been given by the media to the hyperactive individuals.  But not much attention has been given by the media to the hypoactive individuals, the inactive, the couch potatoes.	11/30/1999

Psychology, pathological.	My approach-avoidant behavior is conflicted and neurotic.  On the one hand I am flirtatious and charming in order to try to attract people.  On the other hand I say provocative (provoking) things in order to drive them away.  Or is it that I am just politically on the cutting-edge?  Or is it that I am just being honest and open which is good?	8/27/1998

Psychology, pathological.	My superego and id are ripping my ego apart.  Strengthen that ego.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Negative emotions like anger, depression and anxiety.  Degree and frequency amounts.  Its okay to feel these ways a little and sometimes, but its not good to feel these ways a lot (acute) or all the time (chronic).	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Negativity is a head fake.  Negativity is a self psych out.  Even if conditions are bad, stay positive and do your best to improve the situation.	5/1/2006

Psychology, pathological.	Neglect.  Four types of neglect by parents.  (1) Emotional neglect.  Parent as the robot.  (2) Intellectual neglect.  Anti-intellectual views of religious or military groups and parents.  (3) Memory neglect.  Parent refuses to talk about the past with children.  (4) Drive neglect.  No goals.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Nervous breakdown defined as exhaustion or incapacitation due extreme amounts and prolonged amounts of negative emotions like anxiety, depression and anger.  Its surprising, if you ask around, just how many people have had a "nervous breakdown".  Its also surprising how many people fully recover given time.	8/21/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Nervous breakdown.  One can feel as if one has no mental defenses.  Every nerve exposed.  A psychologically healthy adult can automatically (unconsciously) sense that they are heading towards a nervous breakdown and instinctually take steps to avoid it.  A psychologically unhealthy person veers uncontrollably into nervous breakdown.	3/21/2001

Psychology, pathological.	New problems develop and old problems fade as you change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Not wanting to join the crowd and get caught up in bull shit led me to (1) Inaction, (2) Not thinking, (3) Not writing.  I was happy that I was not with them, but I was depressed because I was free but had no answer or goal beyond that (beyond just being free).  The california dream (surf and climb subcultures) was a step up, but not the top answer.	11/08/1993

Psychology, pathological.	Often times people do not know what they feel.  People do not know why they are acting the way they are acting.  People do not know why they think a certain way, or why they believe what they believe.  People do not know exactly what is bothering them.  This is the case for the unconscious.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Package deal.  (1) Negative feelings come in packs.  You cannot talk about depression without talking about anxiety, anger, etc.  (2) Positive feelings come in packs.  You cannot talk about happiness without talking about self-esteem, hope, etc. (3) The mind rises and falls as one, all together.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Package deal.  Pessimism, anxiety, fear, depression, and anger are sisters.  If you are convinced things will go bad then you fear it, and you are depressed about it, and you are angry about it.  When people give up fighting, and feel whooped, and feel resignation, their anger becomes depression.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Package deal.  The areas of the mind are connected.  Psychological problems combine, coincide and reinforce each other, so that a person weak in one psychological areas will likely experience problems in other psychological areas.  The result is global, systemic psychopathology that affects the entire mind.  What are some of the symptoms?  (1) The person has not a lot of information in mind.  They are unlikely to figure out information.  They are unlikely to find out information.  (2) Poor social skills.  Few friends.  Isolated.  Poor job performance.  Poor school performance.  (3) A lot of wrong ideas.  A lot of crappy attitudes.  A crappy personality.  Crappy mood.  (4) Difficulty learning.  Uncertainty.  Confusion.  Ignorance.  Poor logic.  Frequently draw wrong conclusions and thus take wrong actions.  (5) Memory.  Lack of memory.  See no sense or logic in their memories.  No useful lessons learned.  Painful memories, emotional and psychological pain.  (6) Emotion.  Emotional confusion and emotional ignorance.  In addition, confusion and ignorance of ideas causes emotional anger, sadness, anxiety about the future, regrets about the past, mistrust and low self-esteem.  (7) It takes a while for this type of systematic decay to occur.  It can take a lifetime of neglect to occur.  And it also takes a long time to counteract and improve.	7/20/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Past was bad, future looks worse.  Yet probability equivalents of lotto wins do take place.  Prepare yourself to meet opportunity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Pathological psychology slides: rate, degree, time down, speed and extent of recovery.  See death spirals and growth spirals.  Problems can cause other problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Pathological psychology sufferers band together.  (1) To admit they have a problem.  (2) To say they don't, and try to legitimize activity.  (3) Try to keep it to themselves vs. get others into it.  (4) Ask them (A) Do you think it is good or bad?  (B) How much resources do you put into it?  (C) Why do you think you do it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Peace of mind and its relationship to mental health.  Peace of mind vs. getting yourself worked up into a lather.  Sometimes it's good not to care.  However, is not "not caring" the same as saying "I accept" (acceptance)?  Some things you should not accept.  Unjust things should bother you.  But other things should not make you hot and bothered, they should not drive you nuts.  Nothing should bug you so much that it drives you nuts.  It's a fine balance to strike.	7/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	People who always feel the need to prove they are better than everyone they meet.  Hypercompetitive.  Hypercombative.  Hypercapitalists.  Hypermilitarists.  (1)  Who have low self esteem.  Who have a tendency to overcompensate for their personal shortcomings.  Who have something to prove.  (2) Who were taught that all life is war, or all life is a competition, and that everyone they meet is a foe or opponent to be vanquished or beaten.	11/18/2003

Psychology, pathological.	People who are half crazy.  They seem normal at first, but then you find out that they are cannibals, serial killers, nazi's, or believe in a flat earth.	6/10/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Perhaps the difference between mental illness, average health, and optimal health is just a matter of degree.  And if it is true that you can develop your mind toward optimal health, then perhaps the opposite is true.  If you let your thinking skills, knowledge base, emotional intelligence, memory, and social abilities all degrade further and further, then perhaps that makes it easier to go mad.	3/21/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Pop and folk psychology terms and cures for pathological psychological problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Psychological hardiness and robustness can be self-developed in an individual.  Psychological fragility and susceptibility need not be permanent.  Self statements like, "I can handle this.  I'm not going to let this event or situation get me down, or scare me, or enrage me.  This is just temporary.  I have a lot to live for.  Life is good."  Ideas contribute to health.  Thoughts help us cope with adversity, setbacks, injustice, bad luck, etc.	6/15/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Psychological ills are often coincident with other ills such as oppression, exploitation, injustice, poverty, physical illness, no education, abuse, neglect, etc.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Psychosis.  Episodal psychosis is a scary concept.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Psychotic: delusions, hallucinations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Resilience.  Humans are psychologically resilient creatures.  Humans get knocked down and then get back up.  Humans go underwater and then bob back up to the surface.  How many other resilience metaphors are there?  The key is to hang on till you feel well again.	6/5/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Schizophrenia is the worst.  (1) Rates.  (2) Causes.  (3) Prevention or reversal.  Would less stress help those at risk?  Would more social support help those at risk?  Would interaction with model healthy people and model healthy groups help those at risk?  To what degree can the Internet help provide support?  What percentage of neurotics slide into schizophrenia?	2/27/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Secrets and lying and psychopathology.  Two postulates: Secrets and lying are related to each other;  Secrets and lying are both related to repression and neurosis.  (1) The problem with lying to other people is that we often start lying to ourselves.  The problem with keeping secrets from other people is that we often start keeping secrets from ourselves.  (2) Secrets are a type of lying in that when we keep a secret we are not telling the whole truth.  Lying is a type of secret in that when we lie we keep hidden the truth.  (3) Repression can be viewed as a type of lying or secret from oneself.  When we repress we refuse to confront and fully acknowledge psychological pain and the events that cause it.  That is, when we repress we keep hidden or fail to fully face the truth.  When we repress we lie and keep secrets from ourselves, and neurosis results.  (4) There is a truism to the effect that we all, to some degree, lie to and keep secrets from other people.  Perhaps it is equally true that we all, to some degree, lie to and keep secrets from ourselves.  However, contra the above idea, I think an Open Society (to use Popper's phrase) is a psychologically healthy society.  And similarly, I think an open individual is a psychologically healthy individual.  An open individual tries to keep a minimum of lies and secrets from both other people and themselves.	8/31/2001

Psychology, pathological.	Self control.  One view: pathological psychology is when you are out of control of yourself.  Whether you are out of control in addiction, or out of control of your emotions, or anything else.  Two opposing views: control as promoting tranquillity and health vs. control as repression and cause of illness.	11/28/1993

Psychology, pathological.	Self induced nervous breakdown.  (1) Thought induced nervous breakdowns.  Negative thoughts can so impede capability that they induce nervous breakdowns.  (2) Emotion induced nervous breakdowns.  Anger, anxiety and depression can can so impede capability that they induce nervous breakdowns.	12/21/2002

Psychology, pathological.	Self induced nervous breakdown.  Just the perception of adverse conditions, even if it is wrongly imagined, can make someone feel pain or go crazy.  This is why optimism is best?	5/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Self-induced nervous breakdown.  Psyching oneself out is a big part of pathological psychology.  The steps involved are... (1) Imagining the worst possible scenario.  (2) Focusing on the possibility that it could happen.  (3) You can give yourself a nervous breakdown by dwelling on one's frailties instead of one's powers.  There is such a thing as self-induced nervous breakdown, rather than nervous breakdown induced by others.  To prevent it, you have to give yourself some slack.	2/19/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Self-induced nervous breakdown.  Some people create imaginary monsters and then let those monsters destroy them.  That is, some people, rather than being destroyed by reality, are destroyed by a mental monster that they themselves have created.  Misperception of reality can be a dangerous thing.	1/16/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Self-induced psychological breakdowns.  To put too much pressure on oneself.  To drive self too hard.  To expect too much from self.  One can give oneself a nervous breakdown even when one is in a totally healthy and benign environment.	3/30/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Sensory deprivation makes people go haywire.  No people,  blank walls, that is a bad situation.	10/2/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Severity of psychological problems, analogies.  (1) In a rut.  Spinning your wheels.  (2) In a hole.  Can get out with someone's help.  (3) In the abyss.  (4) Fell off the face of the earth.	11/20/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Simple repetitive tasks like sports, prayer beads, and arts and crafts.  Do they calm the mind or do they just block the mind, a form of repressed psychotic behavior, like a psychotic banging their head on the wall?  Adherents of these activities argue the former is the case, but I think actually the latter is the case.	3/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Since we have identified the neuro-transmitters that control sadness and anxiety, and since we have developed drugs for them, perhaps we can do the same for the emotions of anger, horror, plus all the other emotions.	4/23/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Some people feel knocked about by life.  Some people have been battered by life to the point where they think that anything they think is wrong, anything they say is wrong and anything they do is wrong.  That is an untrue, unhealthy and unjust state of mind.  Yet if you tell them they are mistaken in their view they will react by saying, "See, wrong again".  So when a person has suffered as series of major setbacks and has fallen into a state of thinking that everything they say or do is wrong, one must reassure them that they are doing many things competently.	11/12/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Some principles of pathological psychology.  (1) Depression, anxiety and anger cannot be separated at base.  The negative emotions of depression, anxiety and anger travel together.  Thus, if you are experiencing one negative emotion then you are experiencing all the other negative emotions.  Likewise, the positive emotions travel together, and so if you are experiencing one positive emotion then you are experiencing all the positive emotions.  (2) Emotion, memory and thought cannot be separated.  Emotion, memory and thought live together.  Thus, if you are experiencing the negative emotions then you are also experiencing negative memories and thoughts.  Likewise, if you are experiencing positive emotions then you are also experiencing positive memories and positive thoughts.  (4) The major cause of most mental problems is the processing of negative, painful emotions, memories and thoughts.	6/4/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Stress can drive you nuts.  You have to know when and how to give yourself a break.  Know when to let up on your reins.  Know how much to push on your accelerator.  Know how "intense" to be.  Know how much to let things bother you.	7/24/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility in general vs. at any moment, to specific causes or to specific forms of pathological psychology effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  (1) Stability.  Variation in behavior given a constant environment.  (2) Susceptibility.  Probability of decay (to any level, frequency) given a change in environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  Life transitions are danger points.  A life transition is where the old way of doing things no longer satisfies.  Unless you can find actually satisfying and healthy new ways, you will slide into alcohol, drugs, or suicide.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  Mental illness.  One view says this world is so absurd and unjust that it would naturally drive any logical and fair person crazy.  So the people who go crazy are really the best, most sensitive and intelligent people.  This is the romantic view of mental illness.	12/01/1993

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  People most susceptible to going nuts.  (1) The fragile.  Those who are not robust, and who are knocked off kilter easily, and go nuts.  (2) The sensitive.  They feel pain more than others.  They repress the pain to avoid dealing with it, and go nuts.  (3) The fearful.  They are apprehensive, avoidant, and repressive, and go nuts.	06/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  People with above average pain levels (sensitive), and below average coping levels (repression, addiction, etc.), spells disaster.	10/25/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  Smart people go nuts easier.  They have more thoughts available both to repress, and to let get into a disorganized mess.  The dumb have few thoughts.  They think mostly of finding food, getting laid, etc.	02/15/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Susceptibility.  The scary thing about psychology is a that seemingly normal people can be one small step away from psychological breakdown at any time.  You do not know it, and they do not know it.  You can not tell what will cause it or prevent it, and they can not tell what will cause it or prevent it.  Tread lightly on them.  Be proactive.  Be loving, gentle, and sensitive.  Show them the good way to do things, and do not criticize their bad ways because that is all they have.	10/05/1997

Psychology, pathological.	Symptoms of the neurotic, repressed, sub-optimal mind.  Atrophied, shriveled, small (talking about the mind here, not the physical brain).  Rusty, dusty.  Unorganized, scattered.  Forgetful.  Poorly operating.  Ineffective, inefficient.  A bother to use.  Not easy, not enjoyable.  Fearful, apprehensive, avoidant.  Poor picture of the world.  Not in touch with reality.  Immobilized.  Not nimble.  Goes in circles.  Does not grow.  Static,  frozen.  Boarded up, ghost town.  Closed.  Poor values.  Poor ethics.  Poor judgment.  Poor decision making.  Poor goals.  Poor social relations.  Poor self direction.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Symptoms: apathy, depression, confusion, addiction,  non-motivation, no zest for life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	The amazing thing is how mental illness seems to be able to strike anyone at anytime without warning.  (1) We have so much freedom today, and make so many judgments.  Therefore the effects of poor mental conditions, and the poor judgments they lead to, is greater.  (2) We are more independent, and so more alone.  Less social connections, less talking, and less friends, makes us more susceptible to mental illness.  (3) The means to kill oneself are more readily available today.	02/28/1998

Psychology, pathological.	The big questions.  When does mind and behavior become sub-optimal and pathological.  What frequency, degree, situations, types.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	The future can cause as much neurosis as the past.  People get anxious, apprehensive and fearful.  Then they become avoidant and repressed.  This is the argument to "Live in the moment".  All we can do, we can only do now.  But there are also good arguments for planning for the future and evaluating the past.  (2) Natural cowardice is mentally unhealthy.  But it can be changed with techniques.  (3)(A) Fear can cause depression.  Fear can cause repression and neurosis.  (B) Depression can cause fear.  When you see no good, all looks bad, and you naturally fear.  It is a viscous cycle.	12/15/1998

Psychology, pathological.	The neurotic.  Something is bothering me greatly.  I do not know what or why.  How to figure it out?	12/20/1998

Psychology, pathological.	The problem is not merely that people are economically poor.  The problem is that people often have a bunch of f*cked up attitudes that keep them stupid, alone, drunk, crazy, or vegetated.  The world has an attitude problem.	9/26/1999

Psychology, pathological.	The spectrum from best to worst.  (1) People who are healthy and believe that they are healthy.  (2) People who are ill and believe that they are ill.  (3) People who are healthy but believe that they are ill.  (4) People who are ill but believe that they are healthy.	2/6/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Thinking and psychopathology.  Information overload vs. information starvation.  Thought overload vs. thought neglect.  Both pairs can cause a depression and kills.	03/03/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Thinking and psychopathology.  To say that either lack of information, or lack of learning, or lack of creativity contributes to psychopathology is to say that thinking, rather than emotion, is at issue.	6/6/2005

Psychology, pathological.	Thinking and psychopathology.  Ways to go nuts in the realm of thinking.  (1) Poor thinking skills.  (2) Lack of knowledge.  (3) Disorganization of knowledge.  (4) Poor storage and retrieval ability.	3/20/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Three views of psychopathology.  (1) Thought-based definitions of psychopathology.  Psychopathology as either springing from or resulting in illogical or irrational thought.  Also ignorance.  (2) Emotion-based definitions of psychopathology.  Psychopathology as either springing from or resulting in emotional pain.  (3) Ethics-based definitions of psychopathology.  Psychopathology as either springing from or resulting in unethical behavior.	11/20/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Too much super-ego:  (1) Fear of being punished.  Fear of being hit.  Fearful, apprehensive and pessimistic.  (2) Excessive obedience.  Submissive.  Can't think for self or act on own.	4/1/2000

Psychology, pathological.	Too tired to care.  Beyond fear.  When you are exhausted you do not fear.  Lack of physical energy can reduce fear.  An excess of physical energy can lead to more fear.  People with energy to burn can be higher strung.  A high metabolism can create neurosis, because energy creates fear, and fear creates neurosis.  Work therapy to occupy and workout the mind, and tire out the body.	9/30/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Total pathological psychological complex.  (1) Pathological psychology in an individual, in a society.  (2) Type, duration, frequency, severity.  (3) Optimal vs. sub-optimal vs. abnormal or pathological.  (4) Healthy vs. unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Tweaking the mind.  Identifying weak areas.  Identifying ideal condition.  Identifying techniques for improvement.  It's a matter of paying more and closer attention to your mind and behavior.  It is not necessarily that a problem is present.  You just want to improve.  Getting knowledgeable third party opinions (shrink).  Learning more about psychology from books, lectures, etc.	8/29/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Two big problems with mental illness.  (1) The person often cannot detect its onset.  (2) Even if the person could detect its onset, the person is often not able to stop its onset.	7/24/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Two main objections people wrongly use to avoid psychological self help (like the Notes).  (1) I was born dumb and can not think of ideas to help myself.  (2) I am already impaired beyond help (self help or other help).	1/25/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Two phenomena.  (1) Knocked down.  How not to get knocked down so far.  How to have a potentially major psychological setback actually be only a minor setback.  There are steps we can take.  (2) Bounce back.  How to bounce back faster?  There are steps we can take.	6/15/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Two possibilities.  (1) When someone is more pathological than conditions warrant.  "Nothing should have driven this person nuts."  (2) When someone is less pathological than conditions warrant.  "X situation would drive the average person how crazy?"	3/25/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Two problems:  (1) Impoverished.  In terms of emotions, ideas and attitudes.  (2) Got it all wrong.  A cluster f*ck of attitudes.	12/4/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Two problems.  (1) Too rigid.  Extremists and fanatics.  Kill self or others.  (2) Too flexible.  Blow with the wind.  Can not commit.  Can not take a stand.  Accomplish nothing.	1/1/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Two states.  (1) Relaxed and loose (psychologically and physically) means open, unfearful, optimistic, childlike, happy and healthy.  (2) Tense and tight (psychologically and physically) means closed, fearful, pessimistic, unhappy and unhealthy.	7/24/1998

Psychology, pathological.	Two unhealthy states:  (1) Completely unable to be present here and now.  (2) Its opposite is total atemporality: no memory and no future thinking.	12/27/2003

Psychology, pathological.	Two variables: the speed of onset of an illness and the speed of recovery from illness.  Either can be quick or slow.  This produces four types of illness.  Quick onset and quick recovery.  Slow onset and quick recovery.  Quick recovery and slow onset.  Slow onset and slow recovery.	1/4/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Types of psychopathologies.  (1) Psychopathologies related to area of life.  Work.  Relationships.  School.  Leisure.  (2) Psychopathologies related to area of mind.  Memory.  Drive.  Emotion (ex. anxiety, anger, depression).  Thoughts (ex. negativism).  (3) Psychopathologies related to time.  Past (regret).  Present.  Future (apprehension).  (4) Psychopathologies related to physical processes.  Diet.  Sleep.  Exercise.  (5) Psychopathologies related to: Thinking.  Saying.  Doing.  (6) Psychopathologies related to: Behavior.  Experiences.  Environment.  (7) All of the above areas are interrelated and interact.  Anything not well in one area can cause problems in other areas.	6/19/2004

Psychology, pathological.	Types of psychopathology.  Problems classified by mental area.  (1) Environment, experience, perception, attention, memory, emotion, thought, motivation, drive, behavior, attitudes, personality.  (2) Biochemical: sleep, food, age, exercise.  (3) Stress: too much, too quick.  Overloading: results in confusion.  Breaking: results in disintegration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Weak link analogy.  Your mental health is only as strong as your weakest mental link, whether that link be drive, memory, emotion, thinking, social cognition, etc.  One needs to build the whole mind.  Identify and work on weak areas.	4/20/1999

Psychology, pathological.	What kind of civilization is it when sensitive, intelligent people are killing themselves, and the dim, bullying people are not killing themselves?  I'm starting the "Save the Geniuses" foundation.  If you are a genius and in pain then give the foundation a call and they will help you so you don't have to kill yourself.  Its a huge problem and one that is not recognized by society.  "Life is pain.", the Buddha said.  Every single person is going to go through several periods of almost overwhelming emotional pain in their lives.  Every single person is at risk for depression, anxiety and suicide.  Humans are evolving to become more sensitive and intelligent, so that makes the issue more pressing.	7/7/2005

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Everyone is mentally ill by type, by degree.  Perfect health is an unobtainable ideal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Everyone is neurotic by degree.  Everyone represses, everyone uses defense mechanisms.  It is just a matter of degree, types, frequency, persistence.  Everyone is mentally ill by degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Illness, disease, disorder, injury.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Inability of individual to (1) Understand or make sense of self.  (2) Control self.  (3) Make sense of environment or situation (or any part of it).	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  More than one pathological psychology condition can exist in an individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Pathological conditions are easy to get into, but tough and long to get out of.	10/05/1994

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Pathological mind and pathological behavior affect each other.  Both reduce thinking and ability.	03/01/1993

Psychology, pathological.	What.  People slip in and out of neurosis.  People move up and down a mental health/illness scale, with or without realizing it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	What.  Two views.  (1) The mentally healthy see things as they are.  Then there are those who see things slightly skewed.  The skewed can be looked at as sick, or they can be looked at as valuable.  (2) Everyone's mind is different.  All combinations are possible.  Infinite variety.  Everyone has a different view of life.  Duh?	10/12/1998

Psychology, pathological.	What's the price you pay for being screwed up?	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	When a person lives most of their life in an emotionally painful state (simultaneously sad, angry and fearful) they tend not to like themselves, other people and the world.  They become loners who try to escape other people.  They try to escape themselves with booze.  They try to escape this world with booze.	8/30/2001

Psychology, pathological.	When does "I read that situation completely wrong" become paranoid delusions, or delusions of grandeur, etc?  When do everyday perceptual mistakes become pathological conditions?	02/05/1998

Psychology, pathological.	When people have a whole bunch of bad (wrong, unhealthy) attitudes, we do not call them crazy.  We call them ignorant.  But school, which is the traditional social institution for educating the ignorant, is not often successful in unscrewing their attitudes.  The ignorant person needs intensive, one on one therapy, over a long period of time.  A new type of shrink/philosopher could do this.	5/20/1998

Psychology, pathological.	When something is bothering you unconsciously and consciously, it monopolizes the mind, and it prevents the mind from doing all that it is supposed to be doing (drive, memory, emotion, and thinking).  Mental illness results.	2/28/1999

Psychology, pathological.	Why is health important?  (1) Effects on individual, and effects on society.  (2) Pain - to self, to others.  (3) Uses up societies resources (time, money, materials).  (4) Waste of individual and opportunities.  (5) Unethical.  (6) Reduced productivity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, pathological.	Why.  We have an ethical duty to ourselves to get yourself in optimal mind and behavior.  Rational, semi-manic state.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	.This section is about me.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	(1) I stayed totally out of the system so as not to be warped by it while I was getting strong.  (2) Now strong, I am working within the system to change the system.	10/30/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	(1) What is my purpose?  (A) Think.  (B) Write.  (C) Read.  In that order.  (2) Why is that my purpose?  (A) I'm good at it.  (B) I like it.  (C) It needs to be done, it should be done.  (D) I think 60000 words per year of above average quality.  I read and take notes at rate of 20 pages an hour, or 20 books a year, average of two hundred pages each.  I write (type) two pages per hour.	3/30/1998

Psychology, personality, self, me.	(1) Who am I?  I am that guy who spends all his time writing that big book about everything that nobody reads, even at the expense of career and social life.  (2) Why do I do it?  Because I am good at thinking, and I want to help the world?  (3) What if working full time as a writer gives me carpel and eye strain?  Then quit the day job and find something less taxing.  (4) What if I write a web site and no one reads it?   Its like, what if a tree falls and no one hears it?	5/21/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	41 years old.  What have I accomplished?  What have I done?  What did I try to do?  What were my goals.  Did not set high enough goals.  Did not set idealistic enough, progressive enough goals.  Did not set enough goals in enough areas.	1/20/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Academic with a wild streak.  Rowdy with soulful eyes.	06/07/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	All I do now, every spare minute, is look for, absorb, and generate information.  What a life.  For no pay, no money, no women, no status, etc., and with no goal and no end in sight.	01/24/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Am I a genius, or just someone who gets bored very easily?	06/17/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Am I a loner or does my work require me to be alone?	4/23/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Atheist, socialist, intellectual.	6/23/2005

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Audrey makes me feel safe, happy, calm and loved.  A good job makes me feel safe and calm too.	01/23/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Childlike, neophyte, naive, amateur, beginner.	1/22/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Description of self by personal ad: SWM 40, etc.  (2) Description of self by resume: Objective, experience, etc.	4/21/2005

Psychology, personality, self, me.	For years I have been scribbling illegibly on napkins and matchbook covers when I should have been creating a wide network of social contacts.  Whoops.	8/4/2000

Psychology, personality, self, me.	General, encyclopedic, categorizer.	07/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Generalist and foundationalist.  I am a philosopher.  My new self image, and role, and purpose, and passion.  Idea people should not do drone work.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Getting into lists of themes in literature.  Getting into quotes of specific philosophies.  Exploring neurosis, repression, catharsis, manic depression.	03/06/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	How I feel.  I am always an alien.  I am always an immigrant in a strange culture.	6/5/2000

Psychology, personality, self, me.	How I made the transition from comedian to intellectual.  It occurred at the point where said to myself "Hey, I have enough material to do 45 minutes on subject x.  Seriously!"	8/10/1998

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a freelance philosopher.	1/26/2004

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a mass of lusts whose source is unknown, and whose flow is uncontrollable and unstoppable.  I am a bunch of neurosis trying to control these lusts.	03/16/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a public generalist.  I'm reaching out to private specialists.	10/31/2004

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a thinker, not a philosopher.	03/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a thoroughbred.  I work best going full blast.  I am sensitive.  Keep charging forward.	11/15/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am a writing and reading machine.	08/22/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am an artist/philosopher.  Ultimate mix of reason and emotion.	01/01/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am an explorer, exploring the world of ideas.	01/16/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am an idea man.  I do philosophy for fun.  I am an generalist.  Research is my middle name.	08/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am an information activist.	5/15/2005

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am as destructive as I am creative.	01/12/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am beginning a formalized approach to the acquisition of knowledge in general.	11/23/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am changing.  A change has taken place.  I now see myself as a progressive activist as much as I see myself as a philosopher.  I am a problem solver and a pursuer of truth and justice.	4/30/2007

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am most happy covering new ground.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am my own best friend.  I am fighting alone.  A loner.  On my own.  Everyone else can go to hell.	08/08/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am not selfish.  I just have no patience and a lot of anger.	12/12/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am ok.  Not that bad, better than most.  I always was.  I just need a real job, real pay, real friends, real love, real sex, real books, real notes, real time, real thought, real body, real head, real place, real stuff, real life.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am on a rational kick now.  Fu*k art.  Useful subjects, and rational ways of thinking about them.  Survival and sex.  Bravery to face pain.  Achievement of goals.	04/10/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am on a rational, feeling, memory kick now.	04/10/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am the type who can (1) Get along with anyone.  (2) Always has something nice to say.  (3) Energetic.  (4) Positive attitude.	05/06/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I am truly a philosopher.  My nature, my bliss, and my job is to sit and think.  I could die trying to live like this.  Tough life for Paul.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I attempt little, and I fail much.  Not enough effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I can follow no one.  No one can follow me.	09/10/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I date the beginning of my life March 17, 1987.  (The day I quit my job).	09/06/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I don't want to be told.  And I don't want to fit into the mold.  So a lone thinker.	03/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I feel like I got a painful past, a present without meaning, and a uncertain and hopeless future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I feel not one drop of youth left.  Feel like a blob.  Going nowhere.  Years spinning by.  Work tedium.  "Minding" (mentalizing) and experiencing nothing.	09/10/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I fit in by being a loner, oddball, misfit, rebel.  I have a singular, unique contribution to make.  Do not feel bad.  Do not fret.  I do not hurt anyone.  I even do some good.  I help.	12/6/2005

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I found me again!  I am a philosopher.  I lost me when I couldn't find a passionate interest or direction, and then gave in to mass conformity.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I get complacent, comfortable, lazy, distracted, unfocused, tired and blindered.	12/20/1998

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I get off on staring hard, thinking hard, traveling in my head, letting the feelings wash over me, and not letting the b.s. around me depress me.  The b.s. was inconsequential.  They were not noticing me, and I was not noticing them any more than I notice grass.	07/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I gotta be me.  I am what I am.  Just be yourself.	06/15/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I hate everything.  Noble loser.  My life is boring and hard.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I have a tendency to avoid confronting painful, worrisome, effortfull obstacles like emotions, thoughts, and memories about problems, situations, and reality.  I avoid these obstacles by doing other things, or just by unconsciously repressing much constantly, so the memories, emotions, and thoughts don't occur.  This is bad.  I must find a way to stop it and bust through it.	12/30/1995

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I have the intuition to generate an idea, the intelligence to develop it, and the bravery to take a stand on it.	12/27/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I just had to believe in my self.  And push myself to produce.  Create myself.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I just want to feel good about myself (work, leisure, sex), like I fought my battles and didn't waste my time.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I know better who I was, am, and want to become.  (1) Explorer rather than practical "keep it running" type.  (2) Reason rather than mysticism and religion.  (3) Theorist rather than empiricist.  (4) Grand, broad, foundationalist, encyclopedist, rather than specialist.  (5) Free, independent, self oriented, rather than taking orders.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I learn a lot from meeting and analyzing assholes.	04/10/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I like big questions, general, foundational.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I loathe everyone and everything.	03/30/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I operate best as an idealist and an optimist.	09/27/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I seek the unknown.  I am an explorer.	12/09/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I think the world in the 21st century is at a crucial juncture.  Never before in history has the impact of humans on the environment been so great.  If humans cannot learn to live in an ecologically sustainable manner then there exists the possibility that humans will destroy themselves.  Never before in history have social justice issues affected so many people.  Social justice abuses can lead to the destruction of the human species.  There are two paths that human civilization can take at this point.  One path leads to ecological sustainability and social justice.  The other path leads toward pollution, crime, war, murder, death.  At this point, I give humans a 50/50 chance for survival.  I want to devote myself to trying to save the world.  Even if I am not successful at saving the world, at least I can say I tried.	5/24/2007	*

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I used to ask the world, "What is it going to take for me to make you feel?"  Now I ask the world, "What is it going to take for you to make me feel?"	9/24/1999

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I used to be into peace and tranquillity, excitement and kicks, and beauty (as in surfing, climbing).  Then I got into getting things done, kicking ass, and justice.	07/18/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I used to believe music was important and powerful.  I used to believe my writing would amount to something.  I used to believe my career would just happen automatically.  I used to believe I would stay the same for years, with same energy for work and play, same health, sex drive, and creativity levels.  I was wrong.  Now I am adrift.  Now I am decaying.  Now I have accomplished much less than I thought I would.	07/30/1996

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I used to think I was creative enough to get by flouting societies conventions and acting eccentric.  Now I think I may not be that creative.  And in order to have friends I will have to "respect" them, and act "normal", and play the game.  Maybe I can get by if I fake it.	12/26/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I want and need intellectual freedom and intellectual space.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I want to be running toward something, not running from something (like a succession of lost jobs).  If you are not running toward something, you are running away from something.	07/25/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I want to feel like I did not waste my time.  I want to feel like I did not hurt anyone.  I want to feel like I helped by making a useful contribution.	7/14/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I was a human being once.  With emotions, interests, and dreams.  Not anymore.  Just a machine, a money maker, and a pain avoider, like a squid.  I turned out to be less than I expected to be.  I have become capsulized like a bacteria, nothing comes in and nothing goes out.	07/30/1996

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I was given an opportunity.  Peacetime, not wartime.  Information technology in the form of writing and computers.  A brain to think.  How much did I make of this opportunity?  In terms of time (hours).  In terms of effort.  In terms of results.	6/15/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I wasted my young life because the vision, the dream was not clear, enduring, constant and strong enough in my mind and actions.	06/01/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I worship the big, new idea.	09/20/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I would rather do nothing than do something slutty that I don't believe in or have no interest in.  And I will keep doing nothing till I find something I would rather do.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I would rather have a million ideas than a million dollars.	12/29/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I'm a paradox wrestler.	3/31/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I'm a philosopher activist.  Philosovist.  Philactivist.	3/31/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I'm into ideas that are not easily discerned, but that are very important, especially the relationships and borders of subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	I'm looking for something that's not a joke or a waste of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Identify with your best brain states, not your worst.	11/29/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	If something meaningful, good and lasting should arise out of all the pain, depression, anxiety, fear, mistakes, nonsense, illogic, wackiness and dumb luck that is me, my life and this world, well then hooray.	8/1/2000

Psychology, personality, self, me.	In my life there have been some extended periods of mild weirdness and some short periods of extreme wackiness.  Yet I persist.	3/5/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Independent scholar.	09/20/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Instead of living in delusional fantasies, I should think about who I am, and what I should do in the future.	03/30/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Is philosophy for me?  I am not as smart as academics.  I will never understand all of them, even all of one.  The big question is how much to spend on their work vs. my work.  How to tackle or approach their work.  How to recognize when I am repeating their work.  How to not get psyched out by thinking I can't do anything that has not been done already.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Is the reason I never sold out because no one ever offered me the money?  No, that's not it.  I was offered money and I turned it down.	3/30/2007

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Is there anything that only I can do, and no one else can?  I.e., Any reason or purpose for me specifically to stay alive?  Yes, only I can get my head together.	06/17/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	It is my duty to myself and to the world to ensure my continued survival and peak performance production.	06/06/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	It is when I don't fight back that I feel like shit.	08/10/1988

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Layers.  (1) Emotionally reserved.  (2) Humor.  (3) Sadness.  (4) Anger.	7/30/2005

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Living in the village with Audrey, with a good job, there is much less coulda, woulda, shoulda, which is a much healthier state of mind to be in.	05/10/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me and audrey, people either love us or hate us.	11/15/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me: neurotic, oddball, misfit, loner.	04/29/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  (1) Attack and defend.  (2) Play your game by your rules, kick ass.  (3) Warrior, scholar.  (4) Dislike the imperfect: in myself, and in others.  (5) Handle it, deal with it.  (6) Maintain good, dump bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  (1) Me at best.  Encyclopedic, generalist, id-man, fighting, succeeding, winner.  (2) Me at worst.  Depressed, repressed, unthinking, zombie, anxious.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  Don't fall apart for anyone or anything.  Don't give up self.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  Everyone and everything is opposition.  Get what you want, don't get hurt, fight long hard smart fast.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  Remember always that my ultimate personal joy is to think.  Remember always that my ultimate personal duty is to think.  Full focus, full force, and full time.  The most important ideas.  I have a gift.  Work and girlfriend are vitally important to support this gift.	08/15/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  Rock and roll rebel.  Philosopher, artist.  Sharp, clear, driven.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Me.  Serious, with great sense of humor.  Loner, who can really chat people up.	06/10/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	My current mantra: I can do it.  I am good.	02/04/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	My favorite joys.  To sit and think, undisturbed.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	My new mantra, "relax and enjoy".	02/04/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	My survival depends on being an intellectually wild explorer, not a conformist.	07/25/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	My view of myself has changed over the years from artist to philosopher to thinker to problem solver.  (1) The biggest problems in the world are x, and why. (2) The biggest problems in my life are x, and why.  (3) Identify problems size and severity.  Identify problem cause(s) and mechanism.  Identify and analyze alternatives solutions.  (4) Solve the problem in theory.  Then solve the problem in action by communicating the theoretical solution and convincing others to adopt the solution.	12/27/1997	*

Psychology, personality, self, me.	No life, no future, living the nightmare.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Oh peace, oh joy, to think.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Paul as author.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Paul the wild animal.	06/01/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	People fear and dislike me because they sense instinctually that I am going to mess up their heads and screw up their world.  I am chaos.  I am conflict.  I am the existential threat!	5/20/1998

Psychology, personality, self, me.	People like me because I am full of life.  I nobly confront, attack, and discuss basic issues and problems.  (2) People do not like me because I am unsettling.  I make people think.  I challenge assumptions.  I am full of neurotic energy.	10/05/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Philosopher therapist.  Problem solver.	5/5/2006

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Pretty girls are my fuel.	12/29/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Rebel, philosopher, free thinker.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Since I met Audrey and moved in with her, I have experienced a reduction in psychological emotional pain and in unhealthy states of mind.  Less depression, anxiety, sexual frustration, paranoia, loneliness, lack of love (giving and receiving).  I am healthier, happier, and am getting more work done.  It is a good thing.  It is a beautiful thing.	04/24/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Spending money and free time are two concepts that no longer have any meaning for me.	10/30/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	State the problems for my adult years.  What I will pursue and not and why.	07/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	The artist in me chafes at being called a philosopher.  The philosopher in me chafes at being called an artist.	09/28/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	The fuzzy gray areas are my specialty.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	The mature me.  (1) Much drive, and well thought out goals.  (2) No anxiety over personal limits, or limits of world.  (3) No guilt or shame.  Thinking and acting best I can.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	The outdoor cafe' table, the park bench, the picnic table, that is my office.	6/14/2004

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Then: to do and not to think.  Now: to think and not to do.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	There are two worlds, and thus two me's.  Me in the job world, working as a drone.  Me in the life's work world, doing what I want.  The former stinks, the latter is great.  I do the former in order to do the latter.	01/01/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	There is important stuff that only I can think of.  Only me in my prime (physical, psychological, age, effort).  That's where I want to hang out.  Alone.  And bring back the jewels, as a philosopher and artist.  It will take all of my memory, sensitivity, logic/reason, drive and energy.	07/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	There is not a lot holding me together (string, paperclips, gum, duct tape).  I rattle in a cold wind.  I overheat in summer.  I get lost easily.	3/5/2001

Psychology, personality, self, me.	There is something about me that will always be a skateboarding, surfing, rock-and-roll-ing, minimum-wage earning, misanthropic, rebel, misfit teen.  I build on that foundation.	1/22/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	What are my capabilities now, my potentials, and my limits.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self, me.	What is left of me?  What has been accomplished?  I didn't save the world.  I didn't change the world (or did I?).  I didn't produce anything new, useful, important or truthful (or did I?).	5/4/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	What it seems like sometimes.  Sometimes it seems like I spent twelve years trying to accomplish something, and that the results were worthless.  Well, at least I lived my life the way I wanted to.  I lived for my vision and dreams.  It is not crazy to endeavor and aspire.  One must aspire or expire.  It is a good thing.  Did what I had to do.	9/7/1999

Psychology, personality, self, me.	What pleases me is not getting the idea.  That is talent or gift.  What pleases me is looking for the idea.  The effort and character the search takes.  Not for money, success, fame, or security, but to follow desires and values, even at loss of above.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self, me.	When are you going to believe completely 100% and full time that (1) You are a unique individual with a unique contribution to make, and (2) Your cause/mission is holy/sacred, noble, and important.	02/01/1994

Psychology, personality, self, me.	When I am in the park or cafe' I am in my office.  When I am thinking and writing I am on the job.  Everything else is downtime.	6/15/2004

Psychology, personality, self, me.	When I was strong, hard, quick, self reliant, brave, healthy, and energetic.  Yet bored, wasteful, physical, unfocused, dreamy.  Now mentally economical, crafty, industrious.  Can I make it?  Can I make it last?  How long can this go on?  I hope and dread.  Illness, accident, injury, old age, all take their toll.	03/20/1997

Psychology, personality, self, me.	When it comes to information I am a voracious omnivore.	7/12/2002

Psychology, personality, self, me.	When the gods are smiling on me it is usually a prelude to them laughing out loud at me.	04/09/1989

Psychology, personality, self, me.	Why do I get into philosophy?  It is fun, full of wonder, and semi-useful.  It satisfies me on a deep level.  You gotta do something, and not waste life away.  This is what I like most to do.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	.This section is about the self.  Topics include: ( ) Change of self.  ( ) Development of self.  ( ) Multiple selves.  ( ) Time and self.  ( ) Self identity.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	.Thoughts about the self perhaps do not belong here in the personality section, but I put them here for convenience.	11/20/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Causes.  (A) Primary vs. secondary.  (B) Direct vs. indirect.  (C) Why did this happen to me.  (2) Effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Me defined as my body.  Me defined as my mind.  (2) Bodies without minds are either living flesh or dead meat.  Minds without bodies does not sound as bad.  (3) Me without my mind is either a vegetable or a madman.  Me without my body is the Notes(?).  (4) The solitary mind vs. the mind interacting with other minds.  Without others would there be any conversation?  Without conversation would there be any thinking?  Thinking can thus be defined as an ability that we develop by interacting with other people by using language.  Thus, thinking can be defined as conversation or communication with self.	1/7/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) One view holds: I am my thoughts (or actions).  When my thoughts (or actions) disappear I disappear.  When I don't think (or act) I don't exist.  When I think (or act) poorly I exist poorly.  (2) Several other views hold: (A) I don't exist.  Or (B) I am just a grain of sand on a beach.  Or (C) I'll be back (reincarnation).	3/16/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) See also: Psychology, personality.  See also: Psychology, pathological.  (2) See also: Philosophy, identity (metaphysics of body and mind).  (3) See also: History, past me's.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) What is self-identity like for those people with no memory?  (2) What is self-identity like for those people with no emotion?  (3) What is self-identity like for those people with no thinking ability?	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Who am i, what am I?  (2) Why am I (causes), why am I the way I am?  (3) How do I happen, how did I happen?  (4) How am I supposed to deal with it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Who am I?  Do not lose yourself.  Do not forget who you are.  (2) Ways of defining yourself: (A) Defining yourself by your goals.  (B) Defining yourself by your abilities.  (C) Defining yourself by your accomplishments.  (D) Defining yourself by your friends and enemies.  (E) Defining yourself by your occupation vs. not allowing you occupation to define yourself.	7/16/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Who you are psychologically objectively vs. how you see yourself, your impression of yourself, subjectively, which can be accurate or inaccurate.  (2) Self respect: I am good vs. I am not good.  (3) Self worth: we are not worthy!  Believing I am a failure, I am worthless.  I can't make it in life, I am better off dead.  Others are better off if I am dead, I am a criminal, crazy, stupid, etc.  (4) Self confidence: I can do this vs. I can't.  (5) Self love: I care about me vs. I hate me.  Depression destroys all of the above.  Believing you have failed can destroy all of the above.  A failure can be something as simple as giving in to addiction.	12/03/1997

Psychology, personality, self.	(1) Why study self, or anyone?  (2) How study self, or anyone?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	An identity crisis, with all its attendant feelings of depression, anxiety and anger, can occur at any age, but especially at midlife, when one considers what one wanted or expected to accomplish compared to what one actually accomplished.	5/5/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Analysis: ways of (1) Empirical measurement.  (2) Philosophy description.  (3) Quantitative, qualitative.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Appearance.  (1) Some look their best during childhood.  Some look their best as teens.  Some look their best as adults.  (2) Some undergo major changes in their appearance.  Some stay constant in their appearance.	3/1/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	Appearance.  Some people's faces, when at rest, fall into a natural smile, or frown, or neutral face.  It affects how others react to them.  Thus it affects how they see themselves.	09/10/1994

Psychology, personality, self.	Buddhism and self.  Buddhists claim there is no self separate from other things.	3/15/2005

Psychology, personality, self.	Challenges to traditional Western notions of the self.  PART ONE.  The traditional Western notion of the self is that there is a one and only you.  A single enduring you.  I call it the "Only You" theory, after the Platters song by the same name.     PART TWO.  The "There is no self" challenge.  One challenge to the traditional Western view of self is the Eastern, Zen Buddhist view.  There is no self separate from everything else.  All is one.  The ego is an impediment to enlightenment.  Without ego the "I" seems to disappear into enlightenment.     PART THREE.  The "Many selves" challenge.  Another challenge to the Western view of mind is the view that we have many selves (roles, faces, attitudes, sides, etc.).  We have multiple selves and that is a healthy thing.     PART FOUR.  The "One big mind" challenge.  Another challenge to the Western view of mind is the view that we all tap into a type of Jungian collective unconscious.  The collective unconscious exists in a current, present mode and also in a historical cumulative mode.  There are some scientists today who believe humans may actually have the ability to read or sense each others minds.  Humans make up one big mind.	4/26/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Change and self-identity.  "That was ages ago.  I was a different person then.  That seems like another lifetime."  These are phrases people used to describe how much they have changed (psychologically and physically), or how much their situation has changed, and how much they have forgotten their old selves.  The questions become: How many people can one be in a life?  How long does it take to turn into another person?  How different can we become?	5/15/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	Change and self-identity.  (1) The big challenge to self identity as a concept is the change we all undergo during puberty.  Is the child the "same person" as the adult?  (2) Effects of age (other than puberty) on self identity.  (3) Affects of hormones on self identity.  When transsexuals go on estrogen, how does it affect their self identity.  And when they go off hormones also.	10/10/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	Change and self-identity.  (1) The philosophical problem of the person is that of who (or what) is a person and who is not.  This is a metaphysical, epistemological, ethical and even a legal question.  (2) The psychological problem of the person is...  (A) How do I remember who I am from moment to moment and day to day?  This may be a result of background memory.  (B) What prevents major, frequent changes of the personality or self?  This is perhaps a matter of consistent brain chemistry, because even with a memory I could remember a series of radical personality changes, and yet most people do not experience continued radical personality change.  Most people have a fairly stable personality that gradually changes as they age.  Perhaps only radical physical change (of brain biochemistry) would result in radical personality change.  (3) Legally.  What are the rights that a person gets?  And what are the entities that get "persons rights"?  Do humans in comas get the full set of  human rights?  Would a conscious computer be given persons rights?  Do any animals get any of the persons rights?  When we say "persons rights" is that the same sense as we use the term "human rights" in political discourse?	11/25/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Change and self.  (1) How much of yourself can you change without changing your "true" identity?  Do we have a primary essence vs. secondary qualities?  (2) If you never change you never improve or grow.  (3) Changes you can't control (ex. puberty) vs. changes you can control.  (4) If you get a haircut, or buy new clothes, or improve your voice (timbre, vocabulary, grammar), how will it change the way you view yourself, the way others view you, and how do the two effect each other?	05/06/1994

Psychology, personality, self.	Defining yourself by "What you stand for" and "What you fight for."  This can also be accomplished by defining "What the problems are" and "What are you fighting against".  The details of most of our peaceful suburban lives are relatively insignificant.  What is significant are the ideas, attitudes and causes that we value.  Therefore, "I" am not so much about my body, my mind or my experiences as I am about a set of ideas, attitudes, meanings and values.  That is one abstract proposition.	7/16/2002

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  (1) Past: was vs. potential.  (2) Present: am vs. potential.  (3) Future: will be vs. potential.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  (1) We need a complete world view (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics) for every level of development, and for every level of mental capability.  Each individual is unique in the areas of (A) Abilities, skills or tools; and (B) Needs of areas in which to grow.  But they must all cohere.  (2) Because every individual is unique, people must be more proactive and self directed in their total mental growth and development (not just intellectual knowledge).  It is a self-responsibility.  You must figure out what you know, what you don't know, and what you need to know.  You must figure out how you learn best.  You must figure out your strengths and weaknesses.	1/25/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  Actual change in you and your life vs. change in your (or others) perception of you and your life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  Change (1) In all areas and sub areas.  (2) Speed, direction.  (3) Evolution, stagnation, devolution.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  Change and develop.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Growth, stagnation, decay.  Development of attitudes, and development of knowledge in all areas.  What do I want to become, how to get there?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Development.  Chose to be vs. was forced to be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Every year its a different you, and every year its a different world.  For example, Paul age 41 in 2006 is different from Paul age 14 in 1978.  Not that much different.	4/17/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	Factors.  Life factors.  (1) Environments: nature, manmade, social.  (2) Experiences, history.  Things done to you: by nature, by others.  Things you did, actions done by self.  Good vs. bad.  Past, present, future.  (3) Where am I headed?  Where do I want to go?  How to get there (steering)?  (4) Problems, challenges, mistakes.  Luck, opportunities.  Swot.  (5) Work, leisure.  Like, lust.  (6) My perception of me vs. others perceptions of me.  (7) Could be, should be, want to be, and not.  (8) Actual me vs. potential me.  (9) Resources: time, energy, materials, money.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Factors.  Life factors.  (1) Life, what is it, why do it, how do it?  (2) What could life be given (A) I do something: effort.  (B) Something happens to me: luck.  (C) Probability of both.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Factors.  Mental factors.  (1) Abilities, attention and interest, memory, drives, emotions.  (2) Thinking.  IQ.  Knowledge.  Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.  Structure, contents.  Mechanism, methods.  (3) Attitudes.  (4) Personality types and traits.  Stability vs. drive for freedom.  Conformity vs. rebellion.  (5) Biochemical factors: hormones, food.  (6) Energy and fatigue.  Stress resistance.  (7) Pathological psychology.  (8) Behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Factors.  Physical factors.  (1) Genetic: inherited, or personal mutations.  (2) Effect of environment on physical: nutrition, soft/hard.  (3) Sex, image, health and illness.  (4) Size, strength.  (5) Physical athletic ability: body and mind coordination.  (6) Acuity of senses.  (7) Face, body shape.  (8) Endurance, power, size.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Growth is about change.  To change is to leave some aspect of yourself in the dust.  To grow is to create a new you.  Many new you's.  Static personal identity is unhealthy.	1/1/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	I (my mind): (1) Is not static.  It is ever changing.  (2) Is not a unified whole.  It is a collection of parts.  (3) Has no beginning or end.  The brain fits in your skull, but in your mind you can go anywhere.  (4) Is not isolated from other people and the environment.  I am open, not closed.  (5) One could argue, therefore, that there is no me, no individual.  This is an argument very much influenced by Eastern philosophy and Zen.	10/10/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	I am not my body.  If there is something I do not like about my body then I can change my body and still remain me.  For example, eat healthy and get fit.  (2) I am not my mind.  If there is something I don't like about my mind then I can change my mind.  For example, change my thoughts, change my attitudes.	4/23/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	Identify with positive, not negative, traits, actions, and experiences.  Use the good to motivate and guide your vision, and build.  Do not use the bad things in your life to depress, lead astray, and destroy.	11/27/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	Is the "self" the same thing as your personality?  Some people would say no, arguing that personality is just a predisposition to behave (and "mentalize") one way rather than another, while the "self" involves personal identity, a distinct and whole mind and body, and includes everything you ever did.  Other people would argue to the contrary by giving "personality" a broad, inflated definition and giving "self" a narrow, deflated definition.  For example, they would argue that there is not really any fixed "you" and that even if there was, the "you-ness" is not the most important thing about you.	11/20/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Judgment.  How you compare to (1) Your best and worst.  (2) Others in your class or group.  (3) Others in your time and place.  (4) Others who ever lived.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Judgment.  Your best and worst (1) To date.  (2) Possible now.  (3) Possible in your life if you start trying full time now.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Labeling.  Why not to label yourself.  When you label yourself you limit yourself.  (1) Limiting yourself means less freedom, which is bad.  (2) Limiting yourself means less ideas and less growth, which is bad.  (3) People who do not like being limited.  If you are a megalomaniac you do not want to be limited.  If you are manic you do not want to be limited.  If you have a big ego and strong drives you do not want to be limited.  If you want it all you do not want to be limited.  If you want to be free and if you want to grow you do not want to be limited.  The last case is perfectly understandable.	12/29/1997

Psychology, personality, self.	Me, or anyone individual and their life.  (1) Total, and parts.  (2) Criticism: analysis and judgment.  (3) Objective: actual.  Subjective: perceived by me, or by others.  (4) Structure and mechanism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Multiple selves.  (1) Multiple selves based on the multiple roles we play, even unto ourselves.  (2) Multiple selves based on our multiple intelligences.  (3) Multiple selves based on right and left hemispheres of brain.  (4) Multiple selves based on Freudian id, ego and superego.  (5) Multiple selves based on the tripartite brain (cerebrum, cerebellum, stem).	6/22/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Multiple selves.  As people grow and develop they often take on more roles, for example, worker, husband, father, etc.  These multiple roles are, in a sense, like multiple selves.  Diversity and complexity of the personality is healthy and good.	11/25/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Multiple selves.  For an individual to argue many sides sympathetically requires many points of view, which requires many personalities.  Its a good thing to have multiple personalities.	3/29/2002

Psychology, personality, self.	Multiple selves.  Interacting multiple selves is good.  (1) The key is to develop multiple selves that interact with each other, and that are not separate from each other.  Multiple selves that are separate from each other is a pathological condition that is perhaps the very definition of multiple personality disorder.  On the other hand, multiple selves that interact with each other enable a sort of personal dialogue or conversation which can result in greater adaptability.  To acknowledge one's multiple selves can lead to the development of a personal community or a personal culture, and allows a government of the self that is a democracy, which is the best form of government.  (2) Multiple selves is a form of democracy.  However, some people feel strongly that there has to be a "head" of the personality.  These people cannot accept that they are a composite of competing roles or selves.  These people feel a need for there to be a "king" of the personality that functions as the "supreme I".  Perhaps these people feel this way because they have a great need for control in their lives.  Perhaps they feel this way because they experienced a time of strong insecurity at some point in their lives.  Regardless, it may be that the reason some people vote for monarchy or dictatorship in political elections is because political choice may be a reflection of personality structure.  If a person has only one, uni-dimensional self (ex. specialists), or if they have trouble acknowledging or accepting their multiple selves, then that person may be inclined toward dictatorship or monarchy.	8/4/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	Multiple selves.  Rich, complex and varied personalities vs. flat, shallow, simple personalities.  The former is better than the latter.  It is good to be multi-faceted, almost to the point of having multiple personalities.  Many different people rolled into one is good.  You experience more, live more, and produce more.  Keeping it together can be tougher though.	7/24/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	My mental limitations.  (1) Speed I understand and memorize and retain many complex views, arguments, and couterarguments.  (2) Amount I create new, important ideas.  (3) Amount of work that I can do potentially, that I can find, and that I choose.	03/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	Optimal self.  (1) Personal level, (A) Mental: making most of self.  (B) Action: doing as much as you can in action.  (2) Social level: Contributing as much as you can to society.  (3) I can do more.  I am being wasted by myself, and by society.	12/01/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	People "flip to the other side" or radically change their views when they accept a new body of knowledge (a set of basic assumptions and conclusions which affect mood, attitudes, personality and behavior) and then re-evaluate their lives in terms of it.  It is a personal paradigm shift.	5/22/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	People often ask themselves "Who (or what) am I?"  (1) You are not one thing only.  You are a set of many things.  (ex. Student, worker, etc.).  (2) Of this set of things, only a few are predetermined (must do), and only a few things are ruled out (cannot do).  The rest is up to you.  Instead of asking, "Who am I?", ask "What do I want to be?" or "What do I want to do?".  (ex. You must breathe oxygen and drink water.  You cannot travel back in time.  The rest is mostly your choice.)	4/8/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Personal identity.  Change of personal identity, for better or worse.  Self induced change vs. natural change.  Speed and degree of change.  Change to your insides vs. outsides, for example, attitude vs. clothes, and how change in one can affect the other.  See public relations.  Self image vs. public image, how you see yourself vs. how others see you, the discrepancy between the two, great or small, and who is more accurate.	04/26/1994

Psychology, personality, self.	Problems.  (1) The shattered, fractured self.  The self broken into multiple pieces, roles, compartments, etc.  Viewed as bad in the West.  (2) The lost sense of self.  Those who say, "I don't know who I am anymore".  Viewed as bad in the West.	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality, self.	Questioning the importance of the individual.  (1) Buddhists question the importance of the ego vis a vis the whole of reality.  (2) Communitarians question the importance of the individual vis a vis the group.	11/20/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Self and Person under the law.  (1) Under the law, if you are a (human) person you have certain rights.  (2) Habeus corpus.  You have a body.  (3) Vegetable coma cases.	3/15/2005

Psychology, personality, self.	Self creation: how much can we control or choose our interests, what we want to be, what we become, at any age vs. how much does genetics and environment control it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Self creation: how to create, what to create?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Self identity.  Fragility of self identity.  (1) How can you destroy someone's self identity?  Sometimes all it takes is one insensitive remark.  (2) What is self identity?  It is who you think you are.  (3) How important is self identity?  In some fragile people the entire mind hangs upon it.  (4) Is self identity the same as (A) Freud's conception of the ego.  Strong ego as good.  (B) Buddhist conception of the ego.  Strong ego as bad?	11/6/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	Self identity.  How you look at yourself.  When does it change and why.  Development of mind.  Effects of age.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	Self identity.  I do not believe in reincarnation, but consider the following scenario: Given enough time and enough growth of the human population (perhaps even on other planets), the chances are good that eventually someone will be born who, though not an exact equivalent of you, is so similar to you that they are in fact a "functional equivalent" of you.  When this happens you will essentially be reborn.	2/23/2001

Psychology, personality, self.	Self identity.  Today it seems like everything from the neck down is replaceable.  For example, one persons hand could easily end up transplanted onto someone else's arm.  However, everything from the neck up, that is, the face and brain, is where our personal identity seems to be located.  Could someone else use my face and brain and not be me?  Surely, our hands are as unique as our faces, but humans seem to be tuned to facial differences.  (2) As a hypothetical, lets say we all had the same face.  Surely, that would only leave our brains to differentiate us.  Then, lets say we were all either trained or genetically programmed to think and feel the same thoughts and feelings.  Lets say we were taught or engineered to value conformity instead of individuality.  Where would that leave us, if we were all identical to each other in body and mind?  The communists tried it, with their uniforms and indoctrination, to no avail.	4/17/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	Self image.  (1) Actually am vs. think I am vs. want to be.  (2) Your image of you vs. others image of you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Self image.  (1) Overestimation or underestimation of self due to listening to other idiots, not thinking enough, or thinking flawed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Self image.  Self creation.  Self defining.  Tattoos.  Pro: A way of branding yourself, of claiming ownership to your body and yourself.  A way of creating your own identity, in body and mind.  Contra: A permanent way of defining yourself, labeling yourself, limiting yourself.  Doesn't allow you to change, or to grow.	07/25/1993

Psychology, personality, self.	Self-identity.  (1) Our memory is the only thing that keeps our self identity intact.  (2) Body cells regenerate so we have a new body every few years, but DNA copies itself in each cell so that our body stays the same.  (3) The mind is always on.  Even when you sleep.  (4) Brain injury can cause change in self identity by damaging memory, emotional and thinking centers of the brain.	8/9/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	Sum up of issues of self identity.  (1) Time and self identity.  Past, present and future self.  (2) Development, age and self identity.  Child, teen, adult, and old age self.  (3) Memory and self identity.  (4) Personality and self identity.  (5) Multiple-selves theories.  (6) No-self theories.  For example, in Zen.  (7) Self-defined self versus socially-defined self.  (8) Chance-defined self.  See: Philosophy, chance.  (9) Change and self.  See: Philosophy, change.  (10) Body-centered theories of self identity.  (11) Mind-centered theories of self identity.	6/6/2005

Psychology, personality, self.	Terms.  PART ONE.  (1) Self identity.  Who you think you are.  (2) Social identity.  Who others think you are.  Your view of your place in society.     PART TWO.  (1) Person.  Refers to a mind and body.  Has an objective connotation.  (2) Self.  Refers to a mind and body.  Has a subjective connotation.  (3) Personality.   Is a component of person or self.  Distinctly psychological.	5/29/2002

Psychology, personality, self.	The question is not, "Who am I?"  The questions are, "What is the situation?  What do I think is true and good?  What do I want to do?"	7/10/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	There is a self for every year you are alive.  For example, Paul 2006 is different from Paul 1996.  Of course, the counter-argument is to ask if you are a different person every day, every minute, and every second.	3/18/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	Three questions.  (1) How does it feel to be me at age 41?  (2) How does it feel to be me?  (3) How does it feel to be human?	3/19/2006

Psychology, personality, self.	Time and self.  How an individual views themselves changes over time.  Look at a history of a individual's resumes.  Look at a history of an individual's personal ads.	8/14/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Time and self.  Just as important as the question, "Who am I?", are the questions, "Who was I?", and "Who do I want to become?"	1/15/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Time and self.  Three ways of defining yourself based on time.  (1) Defining yourself by the past.  Saying, "I am the person who did acts in the past."  Old people often have a sense of self based on referring to actions and events in the past.  (2) Defining yourself by the future.  Saying, "I am the person who will do this in the future."  Young people often have a sense of self based on their goals, hopes and dreams for the future.  (3) Defining yourself by the present, the now.  Saying, "I am the person who is here now."  This is a good way to define yourself, and one that is often overlooked.	5/5/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Two questions we ask.  (1) Society (people around me), is it going to help or hurt me?  (2) Civilization (education), is it going to help or hurt me?	10/10/1998

Psychology, personality, self.	Two views against the concept of self.  (1) There is no self.  (A) All is one.  (B) There is no one there, no I, only memories emotions and thoughts.  (C) Its a deterministic universe.  We are determined.  We are machines.  (D) There is only the group, the culture, the species.  (E) There are only genes.  (2) There are multiple selves.  (See: Psychology, personality > mulitple selves)  (3) If either 1 or 2 is the case, that is, if there is no individual, then societies based on individualism are bunk.	1/15/2005

Psychology, personality, self.	We never really know who we are.  People constantly ask themselves, "Who am I?"  People constantly search for themselves.  The self is not fixed.  The self is always changing.  The self is multi-faceted and multidimensional.  The self is boundless, infinite.	1/2/2005

Psychology, personality, self.	When people define themselves or others, they become set, unchanging, codified, ritualized.  Thinking and growth stop.  Yet if we never define ourselves at all we remain amorphous.  Where is the balance?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, self.	Which is the real you?  (1) Your view of yourself.  With all your subjective knowledge of what is going on in your head.  (2) Other people's view of you.  With their objective knowledge of what you are like.  (3) Often others can see you better than you see yourself.  But just as often there is a you that nobody else knows.  The you that only you know.	2/21/2000

Psychology, personality, self.	Who am I?  (1) Social roles: chosen vs. assigned.  (2) What I am good at (excelling).  (3) What I like to do (likes and dislikes).  (4) What I am useful for (talent, ability).  (5) Chance or fate: sex, race, ethnicity, which are all arbitrary and due to luck.  (6) What makes me special and unique?  (7) What makes me fit in and belong?	5/10/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	Who am I?  Identity crises are of two types.  (1) I am not what I thought I was.  I was deluded.  (2) I am what I thought I was, but what I am turned out to be bankrupt.  I no longer value what I am.  My self worth plummets.	6/11/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	Who am I?  Sudden loss of self identity can be a crisis.  There are two forms of self-identity crisis: (1) "I am not who I thought I was."  Example, a person thinks they are a great "whatsit", but then they realize that they are actually a mediocre "whatsit".  (2) "What I am no longer seems so good, important, or valuable."  Example, a person is a great "whatsit", but then realizes that being a great "whatsit" is not a big deal.  (3) How much does mental health depend on self identity?	5/10/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	Who am I?  We often ask and answer, consciously and unconsciously, the question, "Who am I?".  "Who am I?", is a question that we ask and answer constantly and till the end of our life.  The degree to which we repress and avoid the question, "Who am I?", is the degree to which we lose our sense of self.  (2) Don't define yourself by things that change or disappear, because when they do you will lose your sense of self.  That is, don't pin your self identity on trivial details.	5/5/2004

Psychology, personality, self.	Who am I?  Why must I have an identity?  (1) Fluid, changing chameleon is good?  (2) Amorphous blob is good?	5/10/1999

Psychology, personality, self.	You are your history, current situation, and your goals and potential.	12/30/1995

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	.This section is about care.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	(1) Carelessness is related to risk taking.  Inattention is one definition.  Acceptance of a certain risk level is another.  (2) Carelessness is also related to feelings of invincibility.  How strong you are.  How weak you think opponent is.  (3) Carelessness is also related to apathy.  "I just don't care anymore".  (4) Carelessness is also related to perception of importance (ethics).  (5) Carelessness is also related to disregard of ethics.  "I don't care if it is wrong".	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	(1) Willing to risk your life: solo climber.  (2) Willing to risk someone else's life: doctor, pilot.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Care = attention.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Care and carelessness.  (1) Irresponsibility can lead to mistakes and pain.  (2) Carefreeness can be good, if it keeps you from being a slave/drone.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Care has an emotional component.  Care also has a thought component.  Thus, caring is an attitude (i.e., emotion + thought).  And so perhaps is not caring?   Or is caring a matter of attention?	5/15/2001

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Care.  (1) How much care, for how long, is needed for x to happen?  (2) How much care is overkill vs. how little care is lack of care?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Care.  Mental focus, attention.  How much, for what to happen successfully.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Carelessness due to (1) Rushing, (2) Fatigue, (3) Distractions, (4) Disinterest, (5) Not thinking of metaphysical or ethical aspects, (6) Not thinking about risks.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Carelessness in risk assessment vs. risk taking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Carelessness means (1) Not recognizing an objects present value and future value.  (see finance NPV and NFV).  Not recognizing the present risk and future risk posed to the object.	4/2/2000

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Carelessness, causes of.  (1) Apathy.  (2) Mistakes in importance assessment.  (3) No fear vs. self destruction urges.  (4) Inadequate analysis of: metaphysical, ethical risk.  (5) Absent minded: thinking about other things.  Especially due to under estimating importance of task at hand.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Caring has a psychological component and an ethical component.  (1) Psychological components of caring.  (A) Emotional components of caring.  (i) To emotionally "like" something causes you to think that you should care for it.  (ii) To think that you ought to care for something inevitably causes an emotional reaction that accompanies such thoughts.  (B) Thought components of caring.  (i) To think something is important (value) is to cause you to think you should care for it.  (ii) To think that you have a duty or responsibility for something is to cause you to think you should care for it.  (2) Ethical components of caring.  (A) What should we care about?  To answer that ask the following: What do we value?  What do we think is important?  What do we think we are responsible for?  (B) Some things we care about even when we know we should not.  Some things we do not care about even when we know we should.  (C) Types of things we care about: To care about a person vs. to care about an abstract idea (like justice, equality, liberty, etc.) vs. to care about an inanimate thing (like your job).  (D) Related subjects of caring.  (i) How is caring related to the psychology of goals?  To say you care about x is to say that x is one of your goals.  (ii) How is caring related to love?  Do you care about everyone you love?  Do you love the ones you care about?  (E) You should care about something, because the alternative is apathy (i.e., not caring about anything), which is psychologically unhealthy, and which is related to feelings of meaninglessness.  (F) Is it possible to care too much?  Yes.  Eastern philosophies warn us about becoming too attached to things.  Becoming too attached, and not being able to detach, can drive you crazy.  (G) The emotional component of caring is important.  To care deeply, passionately and strongly is a great motivator.  (H) A trait of severe depression to the point of exhaustion is not caring about anything or apathy.  (I) More ethical questions about caring.  Why should I care?  Who cares?  I could not care less. (J) More pathology of caring.  (i) Cannot feel: I know I should feel caring but I do not.  (ii) Cannot think: I cannot think of what to care about.	8/8/2001

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	Risky vs. overly cautious, pros and cons of each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, care.	The opposite of caring is apathy.  Apathy can be caused by things like exhaustion, depression, ignorance, lack of motivation, etc.	5/16/2002

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	.This section is about rebellion.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	A real rebel doesn't only have problems with authority figures (like boss, teacher, parents, police).  A real rebel has problems with everyone, including  his or her lover, friends and strangers.  And a real rebel also has trouble with himself, which expresses itself as self-destruction.  And a real rebel also has trouble with nature, life or the world, which expresses itself as an existential rebelliousness (ala Albert Camus' The Rebel).  Is this complete and extreme state of rebellion due to a gene, or a neurotransmitter, or birth order (ala Frank Sulloway's theory)?	8/26/2000

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Both.  Acceptance vs. rejection.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Both.  Give up, give in vs. struggle against.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Both.  Leadership: conforming, rebelling.  Followers: conforming, rebelling.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Both.  Rebellion, conformity, and deviance.  (1) Rebellion vs. obedient or compliant.  (2) Non-conformist vs. conformist.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformists: why are you taking part in the bad of the system?  Nonconformists: why are you not taking part in the good of the system?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformists.  They made the rules of the game their unconscious religion.  Even if it went against their grain (even worse!).	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity and rebellion.  (1)(A) Blindly following.  (B) Following with understanding.  (2)(A) Blindly rebelling.  (B) Rebelling with understanding.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity and rebellion.  One dynamic is that people conform out of fear of authority.  People rebel because they are trying to prove (to self or to others) that they are brave.  It is overcompensating for fear.  It is denial of fear.  It is the "I'm not afraid of anything" attitude.	10/12/2000

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity depends on an order or request made to the individual, how it is made, and the individual's philosophy, psychology and socialization.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity, definitions of (see politics, liberal and conservative).  (1) Strong superego.  Blindly obedient.  (2) Fear of change.  Fear of the new.  Fear of progress.  (3) Social follower.  Wants to fit in and be popular.  (4) No curiosity.  They don't ask questions.  They don't like to think (too much work).  Would rather just follow orders.  (5) Dislikes states of uncertainty and ambiguity.  Likes set answers.  Likes tradition and ritual.  (6)  Needs direction.  Needs a routine.  Needs structure.  Can't develop it on own.	4/2/2000

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity.  Complying in thought, word, and action.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity.  How well they've been socialized or brainwashed into considering or believing narrow answers, and how strongly they hold it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Conformity.  Some will follow orders (1) Willingly.  (2) If asked politely or begged.  (3) If ordered or threatened.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Deviance, rebellion, and rebellious types.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Drugs and leisure, business, medicine, psychology, sociology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Drugs.  (1) Sellers: casual and dealer.  (2) Users: causal and addict.  (3) Whole different psychology situation and experience for each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Failures oft become rebels.  Successful rebels are rare and good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	PART ONE.  Rebelliousness is the desire to remain free at all costs.  Rebellion is a control issue (or power issue).  Rebels are control freaks (or power freaks).     PART TWO.  People tend to speak of rebels as having an authority problem.  Actually it is not an authority problem but a control (power) problem.  More exactly, an authority problem is a type of control (power) problem.     PART THREE.  S&M lifestyles often attract control (power) freaks.  Many of the customers of professional dominatrixes are high powered executives who want to give up their power for an hour.  My thesis is that S&M will also attract rebels because rebels are also control (power) freaks.  Rebels fall for S&M.  S&M attracts both control freaks as we typically envision them (executives) and rebellion types.     PART FOUR.  The above discussion paves the way for my new six-part typology of control (power) freaks.  (1)(A) Control others.  Coerce, manipulate, influence.  (B) Control self.  For example, anorexia and bulimia.  (C) Control nature, life or the world.  For example, neat freaks.  (2)(A) Rebel against others and society.  (B) Rebel against yourself.  For example, self-destructiveness.  Another example, those who can not direct themselves and who are aimless and directionless.  (C) Rebel against nature, life or the world.  For example, slobs.	8/24/2000

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Psychology and sociology of (1) Misfits: don't fit in.  (2) Fu*k ups: screw up.  (3) Malcontents: dissatisfied.  (4) Misanthropes: hate people.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebel against enslavement, stupidity, injustice, and imperfection.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebelling against good vs. rebelling against bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion = change, for better or worse.  Rebellion = freedom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion = drive for power.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion against bad is good.  Rebellion against good is bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion against good for better is good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion against self or against our ideas held.  Our reasons held vs. the real reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion has an emotional component and a thought component.  Thus, rebellion is an attitude.	5/15/2001

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion is a type of struggling.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion is natural and healthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion vs. self destruction.  Frequency, degree, causes, effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion, types of.  (1) Active: doing opposite vs. passive: not doing anything.  (2) Overt vs. covert.  (3) Against problem vs. transferred against something else.  (4) Rebellion for rebellions sake.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  (1) How many personal and social rules do we as individuals set up and break, tells you how rebellious you are.  (2) Rebellion and conformity as personality traits.  (3) Types of rebellion.  Violent and passive.  (4) Predisposition to rebellion or conformity, depending on (A) Age: younger more rebellious.  (B) Situation: those who are oppressed rebel more (or should).  (C) Up bringing: the controlled conform but then freak out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  (1) Non-conformity vs. conformity.  (2) Rebellion as rule breaking.	10/10/1998

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  (1) Rebellion: to fight against, to actively oppose.  (2) The rebel or contrary says "Things are not perfect, therefore I reject them".  To rebel is to be idealistic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  All is not lost as long as you can raise you middle finger.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Getting fed up, sick and tired.  Getting bored, frustrated, dissatisfied.  Is it an emotional pain problem?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  How to rebel in thought, in word, and in action.  How hard, and how long to rebel?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  I loathe x, whether it is good for me or bad for me.  I'm going to do y instead whether it is good for me or bad for me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Possible casues of rebellion.  Feeling naughty, feeling pissed off, self destruction.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Problems.  (1) Not rebelling enough.  (2) Rebelling too much.  (3) Rebelling against wrong thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Resistance.  (1) Passive vs. active.  (2) Overt vs. covert.  (3) Justified vs. unjustified.  (4) Degree and type.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Symbolic rebellion against x, because of y.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Those who yearn to conform, yet rebel. Vs. those who yearn to rebel, yet conform.  Somewhere on the road they pass by each other, and appearing to be the same, they see their mirror images, if only for a split second.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion.  Who is rebelling against what and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion. (1) Individual rules vs. society rules.  How many follow, how close follow.  How many rules break, how far break them.  (2) Predisposition for rebellion: with age, with personality type.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Rebellion's price.  (1) May not change society.  Losses of going against society vs. gains from going against society (freedom and knowledge) vs. others profits from going with it (money, status, women) vs. others losses from going with society.  (2) Was it worth it?  How much did you choose it vs. were forced?  What did you do right and wrong?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	The basis of thoughtful rebellion is thinking for yourself instead of believing everything you are told.	11/20/2001

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Those who feel part of the crowd, and want to stand out, vs. those who feel strange, and want to fit in.	01/07/1997

Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	Trouble makers.  Sadists, paranoids, loners, social bull shitters.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	.See also: Philosophy, people.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	.This section is about personality traits.  Topics include: ( ) List of traits.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Austere, severe, classic, formal, ascetic (spiritual, intellectual, physical), cold, aloof, serious (restrained).  Vs.  Trendy, frivolous, fun, materialistic, comfortable, casual, warm, friendly.  (2) Hardworking and pragmatic vs. radical and daring.  (3) Proper vs. improper.	08/20/1994

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Best traits.  Just, confrontational, reflective, quick, precise and accurate, endurance, smart, brave, unforgiving, strong, fair.  (2) Worst traits: opposites of above.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Confirmation of reality and those people who need it desperately.  Tradition, ritual, comfort, security, order, structure, old.  This is the inertia of society.  Rituals are repetitive, non-religious practices.   (2) Who has trouble with the above?  Those easily bored.  Those with curiosity.  Those with imagination.  Those with active minds.	2/4/2002

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Dislike: east coast, gold chain ism, american princess ism, religion, conservative, conformist.  (2) Like: west coast, desert, independence, sensitive, strong.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Open minded vs. closed minded.  (2) No opinions on anything vs. very opinionated on everything.  (3) Polite, deferring and considerate vs. even tempered vs. rude.  (4) "We're all friends" and harmony vs. competition and conflict.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	(1) Past oriented vs. future oriented.  (2) Limit oriented (can't do, must do) vs. freedom oriented (can do, choose to do).	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality, traits.	Achievers (set on accomplishing something).  Social drones vs. creative vs. thrill seekers (for fun).  Healthy vs. unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Bad: fear, discouragement, pessimism, distraction, bored, unmotivated, no self confidence.  Good: courage, perseverance, optimism, concentration, interested, motivation, self confidence.	3/30/1998

Psychology, personality, traits.	Brains with no character, no spine, over-civilized, no strength.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, traits.	Broad minded vs. narrow minded.  Open minded vs. close minded.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Can we say empiricists are extroverts, and rationalists are introverts?	12/29/1997

Psychology, personality, traits.	Compromise.  Two opposing views of compromise, as described by two pairs of adjectives.  Is it being practical and adaptable or is it being unprincipled and wishy washy?	7/30/2002

Psychology, personality, traits.	Eclectic vs. scatter brained.  Shallow, narrow minded, one track vs. deep.	04/01/1994

Psychology, personality, traits.	Explorers.  (1) Wanderers: aimless.  (2) Seekers, pilgrims: looking for the known.  (3) Explorers: of the unknown.  (4) These personality types are sometimes products of dissatisfaction, boredom, unhappiness, un-peacefulness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Fluid vs. rigid.  Open vs. closed.  Dynamic vs. static.  Broad vs. narrow.	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality, traits.	Good personality traits.  Tough: persists in the face of much and long opposition.  Smart.  Wise.  Directed: focused, and has goals.  Driven: pursues goals.  Sociable.  Empathetic.  Democratic leader.  Caring.  Good value system.  Sane, not neurotic.  Energetic, vital, and industrious (the psychology-behavior link).	08/17/1997

Psychology, personality, traits.	Introvert vs. extrovert.  Passive vs. aggressive.  Bossy vs. nice.  Private vs. open.  Lying vs. honest.  Relaxed vs. uptight.  Curious vs. unquestioning.  Lazy vs. industrious.  Conniving and manipulative vs. straightforward and fair.  Legalistic vs. not.  Follower vs. leader.  Independent vs. interdependent vs. dependent.  Technological vs. not.  Scientific vs. magical.  Numbers vs. words vs. visual pictures vs. sounds.  Social vs. antisocial.  Political vs. apolitical.  Economic and business minded vs. not.  Artistic vs. not.  Time oriented (history or future) vs. not.	2/21/2000

Psychology, personality, traits.	Nice vs. noble.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Personality and environment.  Urban: tough, faggot.  Rural: tough, faggot (pastoral wimp).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Personality trait analysis.  (1) The classification of personality traits is important.  (2) The degrees of personality traits is important.  (3) The relationships of personality traits is very important.	10/20/1999

Psychology, personality, traits.	Rest and unrest: causes of.  (1) Energy level.  (2) Emotional excitation: anxiety, anger, drives, hormones.  (3) Intellectual hyperactivity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Self control vs. lack of self control.  Mental and behavioral.  Duration, frequency, degree, type.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Skate/surf/climb/hitch.  What types of personality does it attract, hold, let go.  What are the causes of these personality types.  What are the effects of these activities (psychological and social).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Smart cowards vs. stupid brave.  Why brave and wise is so rare?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Social vs. asocial.  Flexible vs. stubborn.  Practical vs. idealist.	5/15/2004

Psychology, personality, traits.	Stability vs. instability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Stable vs. inconsistent (on and off days, hot and cold, unstable) in mood, drive, interest, energy, iq.	05/30/1993

Psychology, personality, traits.	Student: docile.  Non-student: free, wild.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Sweet is a term with which most men seem to be completely unfamiliar, myself included.  Audrey tells me that "sweet" is a term that women use to describe actions that are endearing, vulnerable and childlike.	7/6/1999

Psychology, personality, traits.	Three traits:  (1) Low grade, chronic depression.  (2) Excellent critic.  (3) Very funny.  (4) The above three personality traits often coincide.  The critic and the comedian are often both depressed.	10/15/2004

Psychology, personality, traits.	Tolerance and intolerance.  Patience and impatience. Sympathy and empathy.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality, traits.	Tolerance.  (1) Tolerance of X individual in Y situation for Z view or idea or thing on W subject (racial, religious, sexual).  (2) Hardened: tough and durable vs. soft: impressionable.  (3) Hard: cruel and cold vs. soft: kind.  (4) Soft: wimp and spineless.  Soft: gay.  Soft: sensitive, feels, thinks.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Tolerance.  Can't tolerate (experience a situation and not succumb to negative emotion).  Tolerant: tolerates things well.  Intolerance: doesn't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, traits.	Wimp: no backbone.  Nerd: no knowledge of hip.  Gay: homosexual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	.This section is about personality types.  Topics include: ( ) List of types.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality, types.	(1) Many, varied interests.  Many sided personality.  Versus.  Few interests.  Few sides to personality.  (2) A personality that changes much through life.  Versus.  A personality that changes little through life.	6/19/2006

Psychology, personality, types.	(1) Strong personality.  Character, force.  (2) Weak personality.  Lack of character: spineless.  Lack of force: wimp.  Lack of development and organization of views: amorphous.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	(1) The rebel who acts vs. authority   (2) The contrary who acts vs. the masses.  (3) The risk taker, adrenaline junkie, gambler, likes excitement chaos and danger.  (4)  The self destructive.  Destroy yourself and your life because you don't believe you deserve it so good, or because you want to punish yourself for someone else.	08/17/1997

Psychology, personality, types.	Bums are free, travel, don't work, and have no family.	04/30/1993

Psychology, personality, types.	Bums know how to live without jobs, homes, money, friends, and family.  That is what fascinated me about them.  Freedom.	03/30/1993

Psychology, personality, types.	Bums.  What causes kids to admire bums?  Bums have street smarts.  They have survival knowledge.  They are free.  They are tough.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Bums.  What does the bum, prole, physical laborer, and oppressed minority know that the rich white collar does not know?  Maybe a type of strength, and a lack of a certain type of fear.  A kind of sureness about what life is all about.  Metaphysical certitude.	11/20/1993

Psychology, personality, types.	Business people see art as impractical.  Art people see business as too narrow.	05/18/1994

Psychology, personality, types.	Classification.  (1) By mental element, economics, interests, values, behavior, philosophy.  (2) Pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses of each.  (3) Pairs or spectrums.  (4) Major to minor.  (5) Logical branch relationships.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Classification.  (1) Ideal personality traits (see people, ideal).  (2) Health and unhealth.  Optimal, sub-optimal, pathological.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Classification.  (1) Physical types: sex, age.  (2) Psychological/bc elements: memory, emotion, intelligence, thinking, behavior.  (3) Social types: class.  (4) Philosophy types: ethics.  (5) For all 26 subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Classification.  Cool vs. asshole.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	College kids, hobos, business execs, specialists, generalists, blue collar, conservatives, liberals, scholar, cowboy, angry young man, nerd, brown noser, arty, hip/cool, fanatic, dilettante, preppy, burnout, cosmopolitan, provincial, mindless, gutless, happy jack, thinking, caring, careful, foresight, spontaneous, serious, solemn, happy go lucky, conformist, rebel, opportunist, dedicated, wishy washy, flighty, scared, stupid, withdrawing, confrontational, free thinker, idealist, pragmatist.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Computer people over emphasize logic, especially algorithm.  They dangerously under emphasize emotion and social skills.	02/05/1998

Psychology, personality, types.	Criminal.  Drifter, hobo, bum, tramp.  Scholar.  Entrepreneur vs. corporate: executive or drone.  Hermit.  Rebel.  Children, old people.  Men and women.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Extremes.  Mindless jock (no brain) vs. eggheaded computer nerd (unsocial, unphysical).  Clone (no independence) vs. Misfit (completely independent loner).	08/30/1993

Psychology, personality, types.	Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Simple vs. complex.  Set vs. vacillating.  Stable vs. unstable.  Introverted vs. extroverted.  Intelligent vs. unintelligent.  Smart vs. stupid.  Ethical vs. unethical.  Sane vs. crazy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Losers.  Face bigger opposition with less ability to deal with it than do the idle rich, thus accomplish less but possibly more heroic, and possibility to be more heroic (more to conquer).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Optimism vs. pessimism.  Passionate, strong vs. weak, bland.  Energetic vs. not.  Erratic vs. stable.  Broad vs. narrow.  The sheltered vs. the experienced.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Selfish vs. unselfish.  Sick, neurotic vs. healthy.  Wimp vs. brave.  Competitive, cooperative, combative.  Conformist vs. rebellious.  Brooding, morose vs. lighthearted, carefree.  Immature, childlike vs. mature.  Ditzy, airhead.  Nag.  Bitch, bastard.  Liar, cheat, thief.  Tightwad, cheap vs. spendthrift.  Ball buster, asshole.  Good egg: just, fair, friendly.  Holier than thou, sanctimonious.  Stuck up, snob.  Backstabber.  Coward, nervous wreck, meek.  Common, bourgeoisie vs. aristocrat, noble.  Decent, humanitarian.  Criminal, sleaze.  Social vs. antisocial.  Aloof vs. gregarious.  Vengeful, spiteful, vituperative.  Open vs. secretive.  Lazy vs. industrious.  Friendly vs. unfriendly.  Loud vs. quiet.  Mean vs. kind.  Considerate vs. spiteful.  Rowdy, rough vs. sensitive.  Surly, quarrelsome.  Stoic, ascetic, Spartan.  Solemn, dignified, noble.  Materialistic.  Epicurean, hedonistic.  Calm.  Studious, Athenian(?).  Enigmatic, mysterious.  Practical vs. idealistic.  Dreamer (future), rememberer (past), here, now (present).  Deep vs. shallow.  Dull vs. bright.  Many sided, multi faceted vs. unidimensional.  Simple vs. complex.  Stable vs. varying.  Sexy vs. prude.  Liberal vs. conservative.  Arty vs. business like vs. techno nerd.  B.s er, polished, smooth.  Unconfident: with self vs. with situation.  At ease vs. ill at ease.  Wild vs. civilized.  Gullible, innocent.  Experienced vs. inexperienced.  Sly, canny.  Witty.  Scammer.  World weary, veteran vs. greenhorn, neophyte, naive.  Clear vs. confused.  Quick vs. slow.  Driven.  Condescending, patronizing.  Active vs. inactive.  Open vs. closed minded.  Brave vs. coward.  Tough vs. sensitive.  Mean vs. kind.  Strong vs. weak.  Hip vs. not.  Smart vs. stupid.  Wild and free vs. tame civilized slaves (in mind and action).  Weird (different) vs. normal.  Deep and wide vs. narrow and shallow.  Noble vs. small bastards.  Hard, loud, fast, excited, unpredictable, vs. soft, quiet, slow, calm, predictable.  Civilized, refined, trained, obedient steers vs. free, wild, rowdy, lean, ugly, wolves.  Nerd, brown noser.  Arty, hip, cool, burnout, slacker.  Fanatic.  Dilettante.  Professional vs. amateur.  Blue collar vs. white collar.  Cosmopolitan vs. provincial.  Mindless.  Gutless.  Thinking vs. believing vs. brain dead.  Caring, careful.  Foresight vs. spontaneous.  Serious, solemn vs. happy go lucky.  Opportunist.  Dedicated.  Wishy washy and flighty vs. stable.  Scared vs. brave.  Stupid vs. smart.  Withdraw vs. confront vs. explore.  Conform vs. rebel.  Free thinker vs. dogmatic.  Idealist vs. pragmatist.  Abstinence, indulgence, debauchery.  Ambition, greed, industrious, restless vs. lazy.  Respect, worship.  Adapt, adjust.  Aloof vs. ambivalence.  Decisive vs. indecisive.  Apathy vs. concern.  Expectations.  Assured vs. shaky.  Easily bored vs. easily amused.  Boring vs. interesting.  Shy, timid vs. assertive.  Careful, reckless.  Calm, peaceful.  Perseverance.  Cruel vs. kind.  Shame vs. proud.  Taste, grace vs. tasteless.  Compliant vs. stubborn.  Patience vs. frustration.  Envy, jealousy.  Character, honor, dignity.  Hypocrisy vs. sincerity.  Sanctimonious, pompous, conceit, egotism, modesty, humility.  Mercy, pity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	The peasant mentality.  Simple bigots.  (1) Do not want to know or learn anything.  (2) Boost their self-esteem by putting down things they are ignorant of in order to feel superior to them.  (3) Secretly fear these same things.	11/15/1994

Psychology, personality, types.	There is a certain type of asshole who acts scary, crazy, or silly to see how people respond, to test the boundaries of acceptable behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality, types.	Thoroughbreds and Maseratis want to run.  Workhorses and Mac trucks want to pull.  For the former, going slow is as bad as going too fast.  The former is also sensitive, and feel big effects from small changes, and thus suffer or prosper greatly.  The former is also temperamental and moody.	08/15/1994

Psychology, personality, types.	What does the rich white collar know that the bum does not?  What does the bum know that the rich white collar does not?	11/20/1993

Psychology, personality.	.This section is about various other thoughts on personality.  Topics include: ( ) Development of personality.	1/24/2006

Psychology, personality.	(1) Aesthetics reflect personality.  (2) Behavior reflects personality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	(1) Attitudes: concerning metaphysics, epistemology, ethical, aesthetics.  (2) Behavior: most frequent types, how done.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	(1) How does personality change through the life cycle?  (2) Can you define personality as the traits that do not change throughout a person's life cycle?  (3) How aware can you be of your personality tendencies?  How can you change them?	5/31/2005

Psychology, personality.	(1) If one's personality is the sum of one's attitudes then as attitudes change so personality changes.  (2) If one's attitudes are the result of one's personality then if personality is constant then attitudes should remain constant.  (3) Yet, the situation is that people's attitudes change and their personality remains constant.  This would indicate attitude and personality are seperate.	9/28/2002

Psychology, personality.	(1) Intelligence quotient.  (2) Character quotient.  Ethical, industriousness, bravery, etc.  Are you 1 in 10; 100; 1000; 1 million; 1 billion?	06/10/1994

Psychology, personality.	(1) One personality in two bodies.  For example, identical twins?  Not exactly.  (2) Two personalities in one body.  For example, Jekyll and Hyde?  Not exactly.  (3) Neither of the above is really possible.	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality.	(1) Smart, uncool, asskissing, wimpy, faggot, late maturing, weak willed nerds.  Vs.  (2) Cool, independent, brave, strong willed, early maturing, dumb, heads.	06/17/1994

Psychology, personality.	(1) Some people think that not having a strong sense of self means being at risk of being controlled by others (ex. cult members).  (2) Some people think that having no personality means being a bore.	5/25/2002

Psychology, personality.	(1) Sometimes we use one word to describe a person's personality.  We describe a person: (A) by their best trait, or (B) by their worst trait, or (C) by their most unique trait which sets them apart from other people, or (D) by their most predominant trait which they display most often.  (2) Sometimes we describe a person by making a list of all the personality traits that a person displays.	10/1/2000

Psychology, personality.	(1) Stable personality: (A) Always the same.  (B) Always changing.  (2) Erratic personality: constantly, quickly changing emotions, thoughts and attitudes.	5/29/2002

Psychology, personality.	(1) Static definition of personality: Personality is the sum of the mental capabilities of a person at any given time.  (2) Dynamic definition of personality: Over time, some mental traits change and other mental traits do not change.  The mental traits that do not change are called personality.  The mental traits that change are called what?  There should be a name for that part of your mind that changes and develops.	6/6/2005

Psychology, personality.	(1) Strong sense of self (three definitions):  (A) Big ego.  (B) Selfish.  (C) Principled.  (2) Weak sense of self (three definitions): (A) Small ego.  (B) Unselfish.  (C) Unprincipled.	5/29/2002

Psychology, personality.	(1) Where is the ego when one is in a "flow" state?  The ego seems to disappear in a "flow" state.  Thus flow is very Zen-like.  (2) What is the link between concentration or focus and flow or Zen?	11/15/2000

Psychology, personality.	Animals and personality.  (1) Some people say it is a mistake to attribute human characteristics to animals, and they call this mistake "the anthropomorphic fallacy".  (2) Do we think it is equally wrong to attribute animal characteristics to humans?  What do we call this fallacy?  The animorphic fallacy?  (3) However, I do not think either of these so called fallacies are entirely credible.  Are not humans and the other beasts all animals?  Biologically, yes.  And humans and the other animals share characteristics and have traits in common.  The other animals have some human characteristics.  Humans have some characteristics of the other animals.  We shall see.	10/5/2000

Psychology, personality.	Animals and personality.  Sometimes we categorize people's personalities based on the animal that they most resemble.  For example, horse, fox, lion, bear, cheetah, pig, cat, dog, sheep, wolf.  And its important to note that we often say that people resemble these animals not so much in physical attributes, but rather in psychological characteristics.  It is not just the physical characteristics of animals that we are saying are similar to humans; it is the psychological characteristics of animals that we are comparing to humans.  (2) Do animals have personalities?  I say yes.  Animals have memory, emotion and thought, so why shouldn't animals have personalities?  Or should we say "animalities".	12/30/2000

Psychology, personality.	Are there personality traits that are not simply emotional moods, reoccurring thoughts, or persistent behaviors?  Is there such a thing as personality traits or types as distinct from the above?  If not, then there is no such thing as personality traits and types, and perhaps there may not be such a thing as personality itself.	4/5/2000

Psychology, personality.	Big question.  In x situation, what attitudes and behaviors should be considered what personality trait and why?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Can one's core personality change?  If so, can we consciously and actively effect that change?	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality.	Character is most important.  Reflected in "style" of doing things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Character, definitions of.  (1) Personality (what is her character).  (2) Integrity (she has a lot of character).  (3) Uniqueness (she is a character).	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality.	Character, definitions.  (1) Character as unique personality.  (2) Character as noble.  (3) Character as strong personality.  (A) Strong as opposed to mild or not making an impression.  (B) Unvarying whether good or bad.  (4) Character as good personality.  (5) Lack of character: wimp, amorphous.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Criticism: Analysis and Judgment.  (1) Of person.  (A) Psychological: intelligence, aptitudes, pathological psychology (neurosis).  (B) Physical: age, sex.  (2) Of their life: actions, experiences, situations and environments.  (A) History: environments, events and experiences.  (B) Education: schooling, knowledge vs. ignorance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Criticism.  Analysis.  Observe behavior.  Observe attitudes.  See how physical and social affect psychology.  Analyze mental elements: strengths and weaknesses.  Note any pathological psychology.  Figure out how to solve problems, and improve sub-optimal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Criticism.  Analysis.  What do they think about?  How do they think?  How much do they think, and how well?  What is their metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics system?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Criticism.  Judge.  Traits as strength or weakness: objective and subjective views.  Depends what situation calls for.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Criticism.  Judging personality traits.  Objective values.  Subjective values of individual and society.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Culture shapes personality (nurture) vs. genes shape personality (nature).  It is probably 50/50.	6/30/1999

Psychology, personality.	Development.  (1) Age.  (2) Sex.  (3) Childhood experiences.  (4) Physical capabilities, psychological capabilities.  (5) Environment, experiences.  (6) Things learned: true vs. false.  Found vs. figured.  (7) Attitudes.  (8) Biochemistry, body shape and size, beauty.  (9) Social reactions, wealth, status.  (10) Environment influence: social environment, natural environment, manmade environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  (1) Society: indirect social.  (2) Family: direct social.  (3) Peers: direct social.  Who you meet, and who you befriend.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  (1) Things that can go right: Good concepts.  Good organization of concepts.  Good logic to manipulate concepts.  Knowledge of important truths early.  Growth, fast, far.  (2) Things that can go wrong: Stupid.  Lazy.  Important knowledge delayed, or never comes, or is lost.  Big lies.  Much unimportant knowledge.  Psychological injury done.  Repression.  Dogmatism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Change and development of all aspects of personality through time, and through space (environment).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Change: area, speed, amount.  Forces that cause change.  How to improve your personality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Change.  Better or worse.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Growth, stagnation, decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Change.  How does it occur?  Can we control it, or should we?  How, to what, how fast?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  How does personality form or develop.  What causes it?  Shaping factors.  Genetics vs. environment.  Nature vs. nurture.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  How to improve and optimize personality?  Best and worst techniques.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Personality traits.  Developed naturally vs. consciously tried to change (how successfully?).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Physical body: genetic component, developed component.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Self change is tough because (1) It is tough to break habits.  (2) Don't know how or which way to change.  (3) Fear death of old self: good and bad points.  (4) Techniques to change: self help, help from others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Short term change vs. long term change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Traits, which to gain, which to lose.  How to do so.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Two views: (1) As individuals we are changing in both degree (growth and decay) and kind.  Therefore the type of person you are attracted to at age 20, 30, and 40 will all be different. vs.  (2) We have enduring personality traits, character, and philosophical views that will be attracted to similar types of people are whole lives through.  (3) How can one tell what will change and what will endure?	07/30/1996

Psychology, personality.	Development.  Why people do not want to change, i.e. being stubborn and rigid.  (1) They are control freaks.  (2) They believe that to change is to submit.  (3) They believe that to change is to lose.	4/15/1998

Psychology, personality.	Different societies and individuals view different personality traits differently.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Given x personality type in y situation and z event occurs, what will their behavior be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	How important is personality?  How important is self?  Some people think that personality and self are the central, defining concepts of psychology.  I don't think so.  I am much more interested in what you think and how you feel.  That is, what are your attitudes?	5/25/2002

Psychology, personality.	Ideal approach.  The optimum personality, what is it?  Succeeds in society?  Money and stuff, status, power?  Ethically superb?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Ideal personality is the mental part of an ideal person.  Ethical, honest, wise, smart, healthy, etc.  Development of all one's abilities.	5/15/2001

Psychology, personality.	Is the personality the same as the self?  If so, then combine the "personality" and "self" sections.	6/29/2001

Psychology, personality.	It is much more important to have a strong sense of purpose than to have a strong sense of self.	5/25/2002

Psychology, personality.	Me.  How to develop it.  How to maintain and defend it against crap from work, girlfriend.  Think about it, write it down, study it, practice it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Mild and strong personalities.  Some are easy to be around yet boring.  Some are tough to be around, yet you miss them when gone.  The lively and the dead.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Outside factors existing in relationship with personality: environment, stress, mistakes, success and failure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	People develop entertaining "characters" that consist of voice, vocabulary, attitude, facial expressions.  Then people slip in and out of characters in the course of conversation.  People even slip in and out of characters in the course of thinking to themselves.  What is the phenomenon of characters all about?  If your personality consists of a series of characters then who are you?  Is it possible that an ego that is too weak is as bad as an ego that is too strong?	4/25/2006

Psychology, personality.	Personality is the sum of attitudes.  Attitudes are the sum of memory, drive, emotion, and thinking.	10/25/1997

Psychology, personality.	Personality types, social aspects.  (1) Uni-dimensional.  (2) Good old reliable x.  (3) Stable vs. unstable.  (4) Different person everytime you meet them.  (5) Different person with everyone they meet.  (6) Multi-faceted.  (7) Multi-interested.  (8) Multi-mooded type and degree.  (9) Shallow vs. deep.  (10) Posers.  Bluffers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Problems approach.  (1) Things that can go right.  Knowledge: much, soon.  (2) Things that can go wrong.  Repression and neurosis.  Knowledge: little, late.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Problems.  Too introverted: oblivious of surroundings.  Too extroverted: oblivious of psychological interior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Problems.  Too much id: compulsion, addiction, emotional explosions.  Too much super ego: blind obedience, fear of punishment, following crap orders.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Questions about personality.  (1) Is there such as thing as a person (referring to psychology, the self and personal identity.  Not the physical body)?  (A) Some people say no.  We are all part of a big thing.  (B) Some say yes.  Based on memory.  Based on brain structure and function.  (2) Is there such a thing as personality?  (A) Some say no.  The self is mutable, malleable and change-able.  (B) Some say yes.  There is a constant self.  (3) Do people really change?  (A) Some say yes.  (B) Some say no.  (4) If people can change, then what causes change?  (A) Biochemistry of aging.  (B) Experience, rational knowledge, emotional knowledge.  (5) Can real, lasting change be consciously and intentionally caused?  How?	4/10/2000

Psychology, personality.	Radical sudden change in personality.  People who "flip" to the other side.  Conversions.  What causes this phenomenon?  They feel alone, adrift and discontent.  The other side starts to make sense and look good.	7/24/1998

Psychology, personality.	Spectrum of people: big picture vs. narrow minded, anal, detail oriented people.  Is there an even distribution or percentage of people all the way down the spectrum?  Or is it a bell curve?  What happens when a big picture person meets a detail person?  Opposites don't always attract.  What do they hate in each other?  Who is superior?  Do we need both?	06/20/1994

Psychology, personality.	Technique.  Discover your personality pre-dispositions.  Especially in the areas of drive, memory, emotion, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.  Know your personality strengths and weaknesses.  Work on your weaknesses.	1/25/1998

Psychology, personality.	Techniques.  Never be smug.  Things can always go wrong.  Someone's always ahead of you.  You can slow, stagnate, or decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Techs.  Can personality be changed?  How much and how fast?  Can you change your personality yourself?  How?  By changing thoughts and environment?  Thoughts: reactions, goals.  Environment: (A) People you meet and hang with, (B) Media: what you read, (C) Where you live.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Techs.  What are the causes and cures of poor traits?  How to develop highest degree of positive traits?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	The diversity of human personalities expand to fill every niche.  If you can imagine a personality, then it probably exists.  Plus some personalities you can't imagine.  They are all out there.  But its a bell curve.  Most of the people are near the average center.  The curve is three dimensional, like a hemisphere.  A disk with a bulge in the middle, like a pool cover.	9/21/1999

Psychology, personality.	The experience of war, poverty, death, life threatening danger, physical struggle against nature, independence from others and dependence on self alone, deprivation (monetary, emotional, etc.) can (may) have profound affects on (1) What you think life is like, (2) How you think you should live your life.  This goes beyond seriousness and foolishness, industriousness and laziness.  It causes a change in your concepts of (1) Metaphysical views of what is and why, and (2) Ethical views of what is important and why.  Experiencing the above things does not guarantee character.  Not experiencing the above things does not guarantee no character.  And we should not pursue poverty, war, and death in order to gain character.  Yet something is lacking in comfort.	09/10/1993

Psychology, personality.	There is no such thing as personality, only recurring patterns and associations of sense, memory, drive, emotion and thought.  Thus there is no "self" beyond the above.  Thus, you are no one.  And we should not even use the term "personality".	12/20/1998

Psychology, personality.	Topics.  (1) Biochemistry of personality.  (2) Animal species that have personalities.  (3) How early in life do children begin to show distinct personalities?	5/27/2002

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Analysis and judgment.  Causes and effects.  Structures.  Mechanisms.  Attitudes: philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetic views) and emotion complex.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Defining characteristics.  How they usually develop?  Strengths and weaknesses.  Get their strengths and avoid their weaknesses.  Mind of x personality types.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Demographics.  What are the statistics on numbers of personality types.  (Example, psycho killers, religious fanatics, moral-less shark competitors, specialized techno-nerds, wise philosopher generalists, etc).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  For all types and traits.  Causes: biochemical, experience.  Mechanisms.  Effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  How important is a trait?  What is its optimal state?  Problems that can go wrong with it.	06/30/1993

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Interests and values of each personality type.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Questions for each type or trait.  (1) What is the x type lifestyle like?  (2) What is the x type experience like?  (3) What is the environment like, how does it affect them?  (4) What happens to them?  (5) What do they do?  (6) How do they experience it?  (7) What things cause x type to develop?  (8) What are the problems and opportunities an x type experiences?  (9) What are strengths and weaknesses of the x type experience?  (10) What the strengths and weaknesses of x types?  (11) What causes a person to be interested in either studying x type or becoming an x type (consciously develop thoughts)?  (12) Non x type experience of the x type experience.  (13) X type experience of the x type experience.  (4) How does the x type mind work.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Types = dominant trait (?).	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  Ways to classify personalities.  People types, behavior types, lifestyle types.  Philosophy type, attitude type.  Classification by dynamics.  Classification by job, age, leisure activity, sex, society, geography region, class, status, race, philosophy, religion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Traits and types.  X type.  (1) Psychological analysis.  (2) Social analysis.  (3) Frequency rates in population.  (4) Typical development of.  (5) Strengths and weaknesses.  (6) Predisposing factors.	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	Types of personality.  (1) Narrow personality: limited ideas, limited emotions, limited actions, static, rigid, specialist.  (2) Wide ranging specialist: many ideas, many emotions, many actions, multi-talented, diverse, dynamic, evolving, adaptable, generalist.	5/22/2005

Psychology, personality.	Views of personality.  (1) Personality as sum of habits or behaviors.  (2) Personality as sum of abilities.  (3) Personality as sum of moods or emotions.  (4) Personality as sum of thoughts	5/15/2004

Psychology, personality.	What forms personality?  Nature or nurture?  Child years or adult years?  Individual or society?  Unconscious or conscious?	5/31/2005

Psychology, personality.	Where is the individual's head at, and how did it get there?	11/27/1993

Psychology, personality.	Work and personality.  Very often we categorize people's personalities in terms of the occupation that they resemble.  For example, the lawyer (litigious and argumentative), the judge, the merchant (bargainer, dealmaker), the soldier (warrior), diplomat (tactful), craftsman (workman-like), artist, salesman, scientist, accountant.  (2) Does work shape our personalities?  Or do our personalities shape the jobs we choose?  (3) Do we look at the personalities of children in these terms (i.e., based on work), or do we categorize children's personalities in terms of play and leisure rather than in terms of work?  (4) In the past, before women entered the public workplace, did we categorize women's personalities this way (based on work), or did we categorize women's personalities based on some other set of traits?	10/1/2000

Psychology, personality.	X behavior or philosophy (ex. surf, skate, climb, hitch).  What type of personality does it attract, hold, or let go?  What are the causes and effects of these personality types?	12/30/1992

Psychology, personality.	You can be strong in one area but weak in another area: emotion, knowledge, memory, etc.	12/30/1992

Psychology, sense and perception.	.This section is about sense and perception.  Topics include: ( ) Perception.  ( ) Senses.    ( )   ( ) Vision.  ( )   ( ) Hearing.  ( )   ( ) Smell and Taste.  ( ) Touch.	1/24/2006

Psychology, sense and perception.	(1) We miss a lot of sense data simply due to not being physically able to sense it.  For example, humans cannot sense infra-red radiation or x-ray radiation.  (2) Humans fail to perceive a lot of sense data due to the sheer volume of data.  For example, you can't see everything in a quick glance.  You can't hear everything at first listen.  (3) Of the data that we do sense, some data we perceive and are conscious of, and some data we perceive but are unconscious of.  For example, experiments show that humans who are shown cue cards at a rate too fast to perceive consciously can guess correctly at a higher than average rate due to perceiving them unconsciously.	5/25/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	A completely different set of senses would give us a completely different set of perceptions, and thus a completely different category system.	6/12/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Anatomy and physiology of the brain and the body. Types of nerve cells.  Sensory organ nerve cells.  Transfer nerve cells.  Brain nerve cells.	12/28/2003

Psychology, sense and perception.	Are there disorders of senses as distinct from disorders of perception?  Examples: Blurry vision is a disorder of sensation.  Double vision is a disorder of sensation.  Frostbite is a disorder of sensation.  Sight being out of sync with hearing seems like a disorder of perception.  Temporary blindness or deafness seems like a disorder of perception.	5/30/2005

Psychology, sense and perception.	Body sense.  How is feeling a human body different from feeling most other objects?  When we feel a human body, for example, a lover, we are unconsciously on the alert for three layers: skin, muscle and bone.  That is, we are used to "looking for" three layers.  That is, we are used to trying to find three layers.  (2) This act of sensing layers in the physical world may have helped lead to a mental model of looking for layers in the world of ideas.  The human body, our first and closest source of knowledge, has a phenomena of layers of skin, flesh and bone which lets us develop an abstract notion of layers, levels, substratum, in a way that our interactions with rocks and other inanimate solid objects cannot.  (3) From the body ancient humans also developed basic abstract notions of structure (from bone), function (from muscle) and surface appearances (from skin), and then applied these notions to the rest of the world.	2/13/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Body sense.  We do not sense our environment only.  We also sense ourselves.  We feel that we are embodied.  When we are in the womb we have very little sense input about our environment and most of our sense input is about our bodies.  Body sense is an important yet often overlooked form of sensing.	1/31/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Distance and the senses.  (1) Sight.  We can see farther than we can hear.  (2) Hearing.  We can hear farther than we can smell.  (3) Smell.  We can smell farther than we can taste and touch.  (4) Taste and touch.  We can taste and touch only what is right next to us.	12/2/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	For many people, all the meaning is wrapped up in material things.  All their thoughts, emotions and memories are connected to physical objects.  So not only are humans embodied as people, but our mental lives are also "embodied" in physical things.  (2) At one time in our past, humans were much more sense oriented than they are today.  Our senses continue to hold evolutionary sway over us, a kind of biological influence.  (3) In some way, a type of meaning is tied to each of the senses.  But humans have very limited vocabularies to discuss the meanings of the senses.  Even less vocabulary than that used to discuss the meanings of emotions.	2/13/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Foreground and background; center and margin.  We can look near or far, by changing the focus of our depth of field.  But we can only hear one way.  We can't control hearing the way we can control depth perception.  Or can we?  Given multiple inputs for any sense, we can choose to focus our sense perceptions on any particular object.  That is, we create shifting foregrounds and backgrounds with each sense.  In other words, we create shifting center and margin with each sense.	6/3/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Hearing.  Humans can "tune things out" with our hearing, especially when concentrating on a task.	6/14/2004

Psychology, sense and perception.	How do the specific senses contribute to our general thinking abilities?  (1) Sight and hearing are omnivorous, and as a result sight and hearing may have helped develop general thinking skills that help us gather all sorts of ideas and process all sorts of ideas.  Imaginative thinking and hypothetical thinking may have evolved from this.  (2) Taste, smell and touch are more finicky and selective senses than sight and hearing, and as a result, taste, smell and touch may have helped develop general thinking abilities that help us select and critique ideas.     PART TWO. You will notice that we often imagine (create?) visual pictures, so apparently our ability to imagine visual pictures is very great.  Our ability to imagine (create?) new sounds is also very great, as shown by the whistling and singing that we do spontaneously and often.  However, our ability to imagine new smells, tastes and touches is very limited.  Try as I might, I cannot imagine even one new smell, taste or touch.	5/25/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	How do we create a unified sensory image?  Is it simply by each of the senses working together in real time?  Real time sensory processing is something that we seem to take for granted.  Is there any animal that does not process sensory data in real time?  Is it even possible not to process sensory data in real time?  Would it serve an evolutionary purpose not to be able to process sense data in real time?  PART TWO.  Isn't the term "real time sensory processing" just a euphemism for how fast your reflexes are?  And doesn't that vary from species to species and individual to individual?  And furthermore, reflexes must have two parts.  For example, a starfish and a sloth are both slow moving animals.  Are they slow because of the link from the sensory nerve endings to the central nervous system?  Or are they slow because of the link from the central nervous system to the muscles that control movement?	5/25/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	If our different senses have different reaction times then how does the brain produce a unified image?  It seems impossible that all the senses have exactly the same reaction time, yet the image in our mind is always completely synchronized.	5/30/2005

Psychology, sense and perception.	Nerve impulse speed and sensation.  Let's say that impulses travel along nerve fibers at a set rate.  Two questions arise.  (1) The motor nerves that control the muscles in the bicep are a shorter distance to the brain than the motor nerves in the calf.  And yet a person walks easily across the room.  How?  (2) The sensory nerves in the skin on the bicep travel a shorter distance to the brain than the sensory nerves on the skin of the calf.  And yet when a person bumps into the wall it appears to the person to happen all at once.  How?	5/30/2005

Psychology, sense and perception.	Our senses give us a partial picture of what is out there.  For example, humans can only perceive the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum known as visible light.  An object may be reflecting electromagnetic radiation beyond that range but we don't see it.  Another example, Humans can only perceive sounds that fall within a certain frequency range.   An object may be emitting sound frequencies beyond that range but we don't hear it.  Other species of animals may well be able to perceive things beyond humans.  For example, bats have sonar and elephants can hear low frequency sounds.  Humans only have a partial perception of "reality".	3/15/2005

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception as a function of (1) Sensitivity: both senses and emotions.  (2) Pattern recognizing: thinking.  We do not feel and think because we are perceptive, rather, we are perceptive because we can feel and think.	5/15/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception is a function of what captures your attention or where you direct your attention.  What you perceive is based on what your brain thinks is important to attend to.  Our attention is directed to what consciously and unconsciously interests us.  So perception is based on attention which is based on interest.	6/12/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception is an ability that develops over a lifetime.  How do sense and perception trigger emotion and thinking?  Sense and perception trigger emotion and thought via memory.  Since memories accumulate over a lifetime, one can argue that perception develops over a lifetime.	5/17/2005

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception of motion is simply the perception of change of position through time, just as perception of melody is simply perception of change of pitch through time, and just as we also perceive change of taste, smell and touch through time.  Yet scientists remain captivated by the perception of motion for no good reason.     PART TWO.  Perception of color is simply perceiving a wider portion of the spectrum than black and white, just as a piece of music can incorporate a wider portion of the sound spectrum, and just as the other sense of taste, smell and touch can capture a wider portion of their spectrums.  Yet scientist remain captivated by color vision for no good reason.	6/3/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception.  How perceptive you are depends on your general knowledge and powers of situation analysis.  Momentary, and in general.  What you perceive has a lot to do with what's already in your head (attitudes).  See attribution theory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception.  Our perceptions are shaped (influenced) by our memories, emotions and thoughts.  Thus, perception is something that happens from the brain outward.  Sense is something that occurs from the outside moving inward.	6/14/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception.  PART ONE.  Two uses of the word "perception".  (1) "Perception" as interpretation by the brain of low level sense data.  The use of the word refers to processing of the individual senses.  (ex. visual perception, sound perception, etc.).  This is closer to the technical use.  This is what I use.  (2) "Perception" of situations, events, people, etc.  This is a less exact, looser use of the term that refers to our general impressions of a thing.     PART TWO.  How important is perception?  That is to say, how much processing occurs between the raw data of our sense inputs and how it appears in our brain?  If little processing occurs in our brain between our sense data and our mental images then perception is relatively less important.  If much processing occurs in our brain between our sense data and our mental images then perception is relatively more important.  My guess is, less processing so less important.     PART THREE.  How do we form the complete picture that we see in our minds?  How do we synchronize all our senses?  My guess is that this is a pseudo-question, and that each sense simply works in real time.     PART FOUR.  Perceptual illusions play an important role in giving us insight into how our sense perceptions work.  Many people are familiar with optical illusions, but there must also be hearing illusions, tactile illusions, taste illusions and smell illusions.  I think that the greater the number of illusions associated with a sense, and the more confusing the illusions associated with a sense, then this is an indication that the perception of a sense is a more complicated process in our brains.  (Or perhaps that sense is not well evolved).  And to the contrary, if we experience only a few, easy illusions associated with a sense then the processing of that sense in the brain is minimal.  (Or perhaps that sense is well evolved).  The idea is that the perception of some senses is more complicated and difficult than the perception of other senses.	6/1/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Perception.  What is the perceptual equivalent of "white noise" in all the other senses?  Static?	6/3/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Senses and Zen.  (1) The completely concrete can be as beautiful, informative and compelling as the completely abstract.  So say the artists.  (2) The specific details of concrete, actual "this-ness" can be indescribably positive and joyous.  (3) Life can be beautiful.  Being able to see the beauty is even better.	2/1/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Senses.  The five senses are sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.  Of the five senses it is the sense of sight and sound that are least finicky.  The senses of touch, taste and smell are most finicky of the five senses.  This is the case for two reasons: because smells are of specific things; and because smell is a close range sense.     (1) To elucidate this let us consider the sense of sight.  Humans tend not to find the sight of any particular color offensive in and of itself (unless socially conditioned to do so).  Nor do humans tend to find the sight of any particular shape offensive in and of itself.  At long distances almost all visible objects assume an abstract identity in regard to color and shape.  Only at close range, when colors and shapes are associated with specific things (ex. garbage or vermin) do we find the sight of things offensive.  That may be the key to the puzzle.  Smells are generally always of a specific thing.  There are no abstract, non-specific smells.     (2) Our sense of sight is voracious.  We want to see everything.  We are born voyeurs when it comes to the sense of sight.  The sense of hearing is also one we tend to use indiscriminantly.  We love to hear whatever we are able to hear, especially in the natural world from which we evolved.  However, the senses of touch, taste and smell are much more picky.  That is because the senses of touch, taste and smell are short-range senses that deal primarily with objects that are very close to our bodies and objects that we are about to ingest.  The senses of touch, taste and smell are very much concerned with discerning good smells from bad smells so that we can consume healthy foods and avoid foul smelling toxins.  I propose that we can group the senses into long-range (non-fussy, voyeuristic) senses like sight and hearing, and short-range (finicky, selective) senses like touch, taste and smell.	11/26/2000

Psychology, sense and perception.	Senses.  Who is to say whether a food tastes the same way to me as it does to you?  One answer is that if a consensus of people use the same adjectives to describe a food, then we can agree that our taste experience of that food are similar to each other.  Extrapolate: And if our senses of taste coincide, then so do our other senses.  Plus, it would not be evolutionarily advantageous for each of us to have a wildly different experience of sense input, because the resulting confusion would jeapordize the survival of the species.  Yet if we all had the exact same sense experience the resulting lack of flexibility would also jeapordize the survival of the species.	9/12/1999

Psychology, sense and perception.	Sensory deprivation experiments and prison isolation cells show how harmful sensory deprivation can be.  Sensory deprivation can cause people psychological harm.  (2) Counter argument: Not all forms of sensory deprivation are harmful.  Some forms of sensory deprivation are not harmful.  (A) What about sensory deprivation in the form of blindness and deafness?  The blind and deaf manage to survive and thrive.  The example of the blind and deaf shows that not all senses are necessary.  (B) The popularity of user-controlled sensory deprivation tanks show user-controlled sense deprivation (dark, quiet) can even be helpful.	6/13/2004

Psychology, sense and perception.	Sight and sound use waves (light waves and sound waves).  Taste and smell use molecules, which is a kind of touch.  Touch uses touch.	12/28/2003

Psychology, sense and perception.	Smell and taste.  (1) The taste and smell crowd.  Gastronomy people.  Beer, wine and liquor people.  Perfume people.  (2) The touch crowd.  Massage people.	2/21/2000

Psychology, sense and perception.	Smell and taste.  The human senses of smell and taste are connected because the mouth and nose are connected.  We can taste smells.  We can smell tastes.	12/1/2001

Psychology, sense and perception.	Smell and taste.  The senses of smell and taste are so closely related as to be almost inseparable.  (1) Can something smell good yet taste bad?  Perhaps only non-edible perfumes.  (2) Can something taste good yet smell bad?	11/26/2000

Psychology, sense and perception.	Smell.  Human pheromones.  Every year has its smell.  You may not be able to discern it consciously but you can smell it unconsciously.  And every year you feel differently about the smells of every other year, in various degrees of attraction and repulsion.  (Possible book title: "32 smells 28").	9/28/2000

Psychology, sense and perception.	Touch.  (1) People want to be touched.  People need to be touched.  That's why people are always hugging each other.  (2) People like touching things.  That's why there are so many "Hands off" signs.  (3) Sum up.  People like being touched and people like touching things.  Primarily with the hands but also with the rest of body.	6/14/2004

Psychology, sense and perception.	Touch.  Skin has the following traits: (1) Skin is an all-over sense.  Like being able to see in front of you and behind you at the same time.  (2) Skin can sense pressures like light touch and heavy touch.  (3) Skin can sense textures like smoothness and roughness.  (4) Skin can sense heat and cold temperatures.  And skin can sense humidity too.  So apparently skin is a weather sense.	6/3/2002

Psychology, sense and perception.	Vision.  (1) How do we perceive color?  (2) How do we perceive shape?  (3) How do the visual arts trick our eye into seeing two dimensional paintings as three dimensional landscapes.  By use of perspective and shadow?  (4) How do we perceive motion?  (5) How do the movies trick our eyes into seeing motion pictures?	6/6/1999

Psychology, sense and perception.	Vision.  All visual perception is color and shape.  Lines are just long, thin shapes.  Texture is just small patterned shapes that make us think that a surface would feel a certain way.	6/6/1999

Psychology, sense and perception.	Vision.  Our eyes move in their sockets so easily and so unconsciously that we forget that our other senses do not have it so easy.  If our eyes were fixed in position in our heads like our ears are then we would have a different time of it.	6/3/2002

Psychology, stress, causes.	.This section is about causes of stress.  Topics include: ( ) Environmental.  ( ) Psychological.	1/24/2006

Psychology, stress, causes.	(1) Emotional.  (2) Sexual: internal drives, external stimulus.  (3) Drives.  (4) Intellectual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	(1) Everyone and everything is stress.  (2) Life is stress, pain is stress, life is pain.  (3) Life is conflict.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	(1) Failures, mistakes.  (2) Decay: mind body, stuff and possessions.  (3) (A) Past things, (B) Present, (C) Future, the unknown.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	(1) Life stress.  (2) Physical vs. psychological.  (3) Real vs. imagined or exaggerated.  (4) Emotional: a feeling vs. intellectual: a thought.  (5) Behavioral vs. experiential.  (6) Healthy vs. unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Areas.  (1) Work: environment, people, task.  (2) Social: like/lust, family.  (3) Emotion: loneliness, fear, worry, anger, sadness, boredom, frustration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Drive repression causes frustration, which causes stress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Emotions cause stress?  Stress causes emotions?	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	In times of trouble (problems).  In times of plenty (challenges).	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Internal stress vs. external stress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Life today is very stressful.  Urban, overcrowded, poor, lonely, complicated, repressive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Opposition stress, change stress, environment stress, drive stress, job stress: the work, the people.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	People caused vs. non people caused (natural, manmade).  External vs. internal (body, mind).	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Stress caused by (1) Natural physical environment.  (2) Others, by their words or acts.  (3) Self by thoughts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Stress types and amounts we put ourselves under.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Stressors: ignorance, poor problem solving skills, poor logic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Stressors.  (1) Threat of death, homelessness, life without love. (2) Opposition: from nature, others, self.  (3) Failures and losses, rejection.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Too much, too soon vs. just right vs. too little, too late.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Types.  (1) Things that could help us vs. things that could hurt us.  (2) Things that are helping us vs. things that aren't.  (3) Things that are hurting us vs. things that aren't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, causes.	Work: forced to be with people you don't like, doing what you don't like to do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	.This section is about effects of stress.  Topics include: ( ) Psychological.  ( ) Physical.	1/24/2006

Psychology, stress, effects.	(1) Good stress reactions: we can handle.  (2) Bad stress reactions: we can't handle.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	(1) Positive: Growth, develop, creativity.  (2) Negative: (A) Collapse, confusion, exhaustion, get depressed.  (B) Give up, resignation, avoidance, demotivated.  (C) Immobilized.  (D) Breakdown, explosion.  (E) Psychological, physiologic, behavior.  (F) Neurosis, psychosis.  (G) Shock, suboptimal mind, suboptimal behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Approach vs. avoidance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Appropriate, healthy, ethical vs. inappropriate, unhealthy, unethical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Being able to fall back on good, instinctive, unconscious, problem solving thoughts and behaviors vs. pathological psychological states.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Calm in high stress situations: adrenaline.  Calm in low stress situations: no adrenaline, fall apart.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Calm in times of war vs. stress in times of peace.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Calmly fighting in battle.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Effect on mind and behavior reactions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Effects or reactions and their symptoms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Problem confront and solve vs. problem avoid.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Reaction alternatives: obsess on it, ignore it, or solve it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress causes physical illness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress disorganizes mind, and blocks mind processes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress reactions: healthy vs. unhealthy (too emotional, wrong emotion, too long emotional, wrong behavior).	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress reactions.  (1) Thinking poorly or not at all, confused, zombie.  (2) Poor emotion states: depressed, unmotivated.  (3) Unproductive non-problem solving behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress response (mind and behavior, health or pathological).  (1) Mind.  Poor mentalizing.  Emotion: strong and negative.  Reasoning: reduced.  (2) Behavior.  Addictive binges.  Reduced work.  Not assertive enough toward problem of stress.  Immobilized.  Less goal getting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Stress responses in mind, body and behavior, both healthy and unhealthy.  (1)(A) Mind healthy: bravery, focus on problem, attack problem, fighting attitude.  (1)(B) Mind unhealthy: shutdown or explosion.  Strong negative emotions that never subside, and that reduce reasoning.  Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, fearful.  Dwelling on possible bad outcomes.  Less goal setting.  (2)(A) Physical positive: hulking out into super-human performance.  (2)(B) Physical negative: stomach drops, start to shake.  (3)(A) Behavior healthy: behaviors that attack the problem.  (3)(B) Behavior unhealthy: addictive binges, reduced work time, immobilized, flee.	01/02/1997

Psychology, stress, effects.	Susceptibility to stress increases with tired, low energy, awake a long time, sleepy, over worked, hungry.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, effects.	Too much stress causes break down or explosion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	.This section is about ideals, problems and techniques of stress.  Topics include: ( ) Techniques for dealing with stress.	1/24/2006

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Optimal stress environment, optimal stress amount, optimal stress responses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Repression = unresolved, unconscious stresses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Stress can drive you crazy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Stress is cumulative, it piles up, and is blown off at different rates.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Susceptibility.  Healthy mind deals with stress better than unhealthy mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Adjust or cope better with stressful situation vs. (2) Change cause of stressful situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Change relationship to cause: distance, remove self, or remove cause.  (2) Change you: attitudes, behavior, goals.  (3) Change the cause.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Destroy the obstacle, go around the obstacle.  (2) Change goals.  (3) Recognize stressor, recognize problem.  (4) Confront it in mind and behavior.  (5) Analyze it, figure it out, do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Relax body, relax mind.  (2) Best attitudes to take: brave, calm.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Relax, think (positively), act.  (2) Practice self help stress techniques.  (3) Work out problems on paper.  (4) Know the cause, and know the solution.  (5) Be aware of stressors and stress feelings.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Take a mental trip to a nice place.  (2) Reduce causes, and reduce pathological responses.  (3) Analyze, decide, act.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  (1) Unconscious techniques, and conscious techniques.  (2) Past techniques, present techniques, future techniques.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  (3) Psychological techniques, behavioral techniques.  (4) Catharsis, justice.  (5) Defense mechanisms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Adaptive vs. maladaptive behavior?  Problem solving?	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Best techniques vs. worst techniques.  Things to do vs. things not to do and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Deal with causes and deal with symptoms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Feel, get angry, kick but.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Fu*k it attitude is helpful, anger is helpful.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Get quiet, get rededicated, get remotivated.  Defend self and attack.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Good laugh, run away.  Think it out, talk it out, act it out.  Take a bath, breath deep, stretch, exercise, walk/run.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Healthy, ethical, appropriate, practical vs. not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  How to handle the thoughts and emotions, unconscious and conscious.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Instead of spending time worrying about b.s., you might as well be physically relaxing and taking a mental vacation (tropic isle imagery).	06/30/1996

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Let it out, direct it towards source.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Mental imagery: I am a cloud, nature imagery.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Move away, calm down.  Think about big picture (life).  Review goals, review situation, review alternatives.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  One way to avoid stress is to not rush.  One way to not rush is to start early and leave early.	10/09/1993

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  One way to calm down (from real or imagined problems) and center head is to just delve into your work (books, notes, etc.).	06/30/1993

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Relaxation.  When you relax and "breathe" and stand with good posture and walk looking up (at sky), you can get yourself into a psychological and physical healing mode, which is very good because it lets you live longer and be more productive in your years.	11/30/1996

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Security reduces stress susceptibility.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Self talk.  "This situation aint nothing.  I can handle it, piece of cake.  No need to flip out.".	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Take instant, full action against cause.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Think about eternal truths, great art, great experiences, great works, great acts, great individuals.	10/25/1993

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  To be aware of my own breathing (inner states), and my environment (outer states), without purposeful thinking.  It is useful, relaxing, re-enegizer, focuser.  Take a deep breath.	10/23/1993

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  Ways to blow off stress and aids to problem solving.  Wide open space, fresh air, rock and roll, massage, shower, relax, breath deep, take a nap.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  When feeling stressed, work.	06/01/1993

Psychology, stress, ideal problems techs.	Techs.  When you can't figure it out, what do?  Stress ritual: do them all while trying to figure it out and calm down.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	.Introduction or sum up.  (1) Stressors.  Job troubles: low pay, losing job. Relationship troubles: no relationship, fighting with mate, breaking up with mate as dumper or dumpee.  Opposition by people: harassed, threatened, attacked, bullied, psychological verbal or physical abuse.  Illness or injury: physical or psychological. Housing situations: loss of place of residence, moving.  (2) Stress symptoms or negative effects.  Psychological: anxiety, depression, anger.  Physical: heart rate higher, breathing rate higher, twitch tremble startle.  (3) Stress reducing techniques. Physical exercise.  Meditation (empty mind, relax body).  Cognitive exercises (battling negative thoughts, creating positive thoughts).	12/18/2003

Psychology, stress.	.This section is about various other thoughts on stress.  Topics include: ( ) Self created stress.  ( ) Stress is relative.  ( ) What is stress.	1/24/2006

Psychology, stress.	(1) An ethics based definition of stress.  Stress is perceiving injustice.  Stress is perceiving badness (unhealthy, etc.).  Especially stressful are things that bother us just based "on the principle".  (2) A power based definition of stress.  Stress defined as things beyond our control.  Things we have no power over.  Choices we are not free to make.  (3) (A) Not all stress reactions are pathological.  (B) Not all stress causes and effects are physical.  (C) Thus, how to categorize stress?  It can be pathological or healthy.  It can be psychological and physical.	4/15/1998

Psychology, stress.	(1) Causes.  Anything can be a stressor.  Any internal mental state.  Any external environment or experience.  (2) Effects.  The effect is usually a negative emotion and its associated physical sensations (ex. ulcers, backache, migraines, upset stomach, etc.).	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	(1) Effects.  Increased stress can send people into pathological psychological states.  Avoidance mechanisms:  addiction (sex, drugs, food, etc.), escapism (climbing, hobbies, etc.), regression (infantilism, teen behavior in adults, running to rents, etc.).  (2) Techniques.  Good ways to deal with stress: first say "I can handle this".  Then start attacking the problem.	01/02/1997

Psychology, stress.	(1) Justified concern.  When you know it is going to be stressful.  (2) Unjustified concern.  When you know experience shouldn't be stressful.  (3) The unknown and stress.  When you don't know if experience will be stressful.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	(1) Negative responses to an event.  (A) Negative emotions like anger, sadness, fear, hopelessness, etc.  (B) Negative thoughts.  Shutdown of thinking.  (C) Negative behaviors like abuse of alcohol, food, drugs, etc.  (2) Positive responses to an event.  (A) Positive emotions like determination and resolution.  (B) Positive thoughts like problem solving, adaptation, coping.  (C) Positive behaviors like taking action to solve problems.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	(1) Relaxed: no drive, deluded, repressed vs. (2) relaxed: kung fu calm, aware, focused.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	(1) Stress can drive you crazy.  Stress can make you make mistakes.  (2) Stress caused by others.  Stress caused by self.  Stress caused by nature.  Which one bothers you most?	12/20/1998

Psychology, stress.	(1) Stress is basically how you handle risk and uncertainty.  It is an emotional response that can be healthy or unhealthy, and it affects your thinking and all other psychological areas, as well as physical areas.  (2) If you are soft, tender, wimpy, fearful, or anxiety ridden, stress takes a heavy toll on you.  If you are tough, and do not give two shit's, stress takes less of a toll on you.  Tough experiences can toughen you up.  How to stay tough in easy times times?	10/15/1994

Psychology, stress.	(1) Stress results in emotional pain.  When the mind is overwhelmed by a task it becomes incapacitated.  (2) The ability to control how much you let things bother you is a skill that you can develop and then use to keep the world from driving you crazy, and keep you from driving yourself crazy.  The counter-argument to all this is the repression argument, which says that controlling how much you let things bother you is a form of repression.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	(1) Stressed vs. relaxed, peaceful, calm.  (A) Relaxed: lack of drive, lack of tension.  (B) Relaxed: optimal fighting condition, optimal stress condition.  (2) Resilience vs. susceptibility.  (A) Resistant: how much can take.  (B) Resilience: speed and degree bounce back.  (C) Susceptible: how soon cave in.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	(1) When life is too difficult, opposition and conflict can lead to exhaustion.  (2) There is a point when physical limits give out and when mental limits give out.  (3) Your tolerance limits (coping, callousness) is greater if you have something worth living for.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	(1) You can create stress for yourself even in unstressful situations (like being a millionaire).  So you have to work on not creating stress, and de-stressing all the time and in every situation.  (2) You don't need stress to be creative.  Let the creativity flow.  Those untense, non-aspiring people invented lots of stuff and did much philosophy.	12/30/1996

Psychology, stress.	A amount of B type of stressors in C amount of time for D duration, decomposes E person in F way to G degree, and takes H activity or environment for I time to recover to J degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	A view.  Stress is the cause of mental illness.  When given more stress than it can handle, a machine (the mind) breaks down.  If the machine was built poorly, it will break down often and severely.  Built poorly means, for example, growing up in a poor environment, or never learned skills such as social skills or coping skills.  Never learned knowledge such as self-knowledge or emotional knowledge.  However, a machine that is built well can handle more stress.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Acute stressors: shock response, or flight or fight response.  Chronic stressors: defenses break down.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Capacity to deal with stress:  Knowledge.  Operational state of mind.  Motivation, desire, urgency.  Strength.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Causes of stress.  (1) Social mistreatment.  Injustice, slights whether they be perceived or actual, and also whether they have practical impact or just on principle.  (2) Health injury or illness.  (3) Economic unemployment, poverty, etc.	5/16/2001

Psychology, stress.	Common stressors.  (1) Money: lack of money, or debt.  (2) Physical injury or illness.  (3) Living alone, with few friends, little communication.  (4) Urban areas or close quarters.  (5) Small town gossip.  These stressors can slowly drive people to psychological exhaustion.	11/7/2003

Psychology, stress.	Common stressors.  (1) Physical injury as stressful.  (2) Conflict as stressful.  (3) Transitions are stressful: for example, job change, relationship change, place of residence change.  Stress can cause anxiety and depression.	12/30/2003

Psychology, stress.	Coping strategies.  Laugh it off.  Talk it out.  Write about it.  Draw a picture or make a work of art.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Definition: stress is an emotional response.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Destressing vs. getting excited.  Thrill seekers and addicts.  Stress causes medical problems like inflammation.  What causes stress?  Not getting my work done, not relaxing, not having a good job, no girlfriend, etc.	07/05/1997

Psychology, stress.	Emotion and stress.  Sadness, depression, anger and loneliness are all stressful.	5/6/1999

Psychology, stress.	Folk phrases about stress.  How well you "handle" or "deal" with things. Vs. how easily things "get to you" or "rattle" you.	08/10/1993

Psychology, stress.	How did I feel when all the stress left my mind and all the physical tension left my body?  I felt like a child on summer vacation.  I felt aimless.  I felt like nothing.  I felt non-existent.  I felt empty, like it was the stress that was giving me form.  Is this why people can't let themselves relax?  Is it because if they do relax they feel worthless?  Yet isn't this kind of "being-downtime" just what we need to rejuvenate ourselves?	7/11/2000

Psychology, stress.	How it happens.  How to deal with it.  How to study it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	How much of what type of stress to drive what individual to what level of nuts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	If nothing bothers you then you won't get stressed.  If you don't care then you won't get stressed.  How sensitive vs. callused to be?  How caring vs. apathetic should you be for mental health?	11/25/2001

Psychology, stress.	If nothing has any affect on you then you are not human, in a bad way.  If nothing has any affect on you then you are in an unhealthy state.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Me.  Destressing.  (1) Environments: sunsets and sunrises, beaches and mountains.  Going there in person, or in mental images.  (2) Activities: walk and run in neighborhood and mountains.  (3) Mental techniques: running through your principles, inspirations, goals, knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Me.  I am very uptight, tense, anxious.  I am putting myself under too much stress too often.  Expectations of self too high.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Me.  I make a lot of stress, and I handle it poorly.  I must learn to make less stress, and handle the stress that I do make better.	12/30/1996

Psychology, stress.	Me.  I prefer self chosen pressures.  When the pressure is on I perform well.	04/16/1994

Psychology, stress.	Me.  Techniques.  (1) What I usually do: psychological collapse.  (2) What I want to do: situation analysis and problem analysis.  (A) What's the problem?  Why is it?  How is it affecting me?  (B) What can do?  What's best thing I can do, and do it, or sit tight and ride it out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Me.  What are my usual stressors?  What are the usual emotions they produce?  How do I usually deal with stress?  How do I want to deal with stress?	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Mechanism steps: (1) Perception.  (2) Reaction: fight/attack, flight/retreat.  (3) Brain chemicals: endorphin, adrenaline.  (4) Effect of chemicals.  (5) Associated thoughts.  (6) Conditioned behaviors.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Not being stressed enough can be stressful in itself.  Not being challenged enough.  Bring it on!  Make it tougher!  Speed it up!	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Optimal stress condition.  Optimal objective stressors combos: not too much, not too little.  Optimal subjective stress response: thoughts, emotions.  Optimal behavior to take.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Optimal stress condition.  See ideal approach vs. problem approach.  Optimal problems and challenges.  Optimal reactions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Related areas.  Stress and pathological psychology.  (1) Effect of pathological psychology on stress handling ability.  (2) Effects of stressors on creating pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Relationship to behavior.  Stress makes you enter habitual patterns, bad and good.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Relationships to other mental areas.  (1) Memory.  Stress reduces memory.  (2) Emotion: Stress is an emotional reaction (unconscious and conscious) you are having.  (3) Thinking: stress reduces or destroys thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Resistance to opposition: physical resistance, and psychological resistance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Responses.  (1) Avoidance: psychological or physical.  (2) Escape.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Rising to the occasion.  Stress makes some people sharper.	01/02/1997

Psychology, stress.	Self-created stress.  If you say all stress is self-created, then you are saying that people should be able to completely control all of their anger, anxiety and depression.  That is an unreasonable request.	11/25/2004

Psychology, stress.	Self-created stress.  Some people argue that all stress is self-created stress.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Stress as defined by our response.  (1) Positive stress is a challenge or an opportunity that we respond to with positive emotions and healthy behavior.  (2) Negative stress is a stress that we respond to with negative emotions and unhealthy behaviors.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Stress can cause you to do less, or nothing, or pathological behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Stress can fry your brain, requiring months of recovery.  Learn to de-stress.	1/20/2000

Psychology, stress.	Stress defined as a change in our environment or experience.  Stress defined as change is a definition that captures why major life transitions are so stressful.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Stress is anything way beyond your current skills and abilities.  So develop your abilities to deal better with stress.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Stress is relative to the individual.  (1) Any thing can be interpreted by any individual as stress.  For example, for an extremely sensitive person even creaking floorboards can be stressful.  (2) Any thing can be interpreted by any individual as not stress.  For example, some well adapted people find extremely negative experiences to be not stressful.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Stress is relative; one man's negative stress is another man's enjoyable thrill and a third man's unenjoyable boredom.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Stress types.  (1) Thought stress.  (2) Memory stress.  (3) Emotion stress.  (Examples, worry stress, anger stress, sadness stress).  (4) Stress about others actions toward you.	1/1/2000

Psychology, stress.	Stress will always be present for everything.  Learn to relax more (degree) and more often.  Prepare early for things, do your best, and then say "fu*k it" and don't care about it.  Caring causes stress.	04/30/1994

Psychology, stress.	Stressors, types of.  (1) Simple physical stresses:  Tired.  Hungry.  Cold.  (2) Complex emotional stresses and social stresses.	2/14/2003

Psychology, stress.	Stressors: Death of mate, kids, relatives.  Injury or illness of same.  Loss of job.  Loss of fortune.  Loss of status.  Court cases.  Incarceration.  War or terrorism.  Natural disasters.  Physical assault.  Workplace stressors.  Threat of physical assault.  Conflicts with people.  Betrayal by friends.  Attacks on you by strangers.  Public turning against you.  Crime victim, robbery, mugging.  Psychological problems.  Invasion of privacy.  Spied on.  Abuse.  Threats.  Harassment.  Lies.  Malicious mocking.  Name calling.  Stolen.  Lost in fire or flood.  Failures in life.  Competitive losses.  Mistakes made by self.  (2) Imagine these stressors occurring.  Figure out that you can deal with them and handle them.  Figure out how to deal with them and handle them.  Figure out what stressors most affect you particularly.	11/6/2003

Psychology, stress.	Stressors: types, amounts, frequency, duration.  Reactions: types, amounts, frequency, duration.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Sum-up.  (1) Anything can be a stressor.  (A) Things we normally think are not stressors can be stressors in particular situations for particular people.  (B) Things we think are stressors can not be for particular people in particular situations.  (2) Causes of stressors.  (A) Physical environment.  (B) Psychological experiences (ex. Thoughts and emotions).  (C) Social phenomena or other people.  (3) Effects of stressors.  (A) On mind: chemicals, emotions, thoughts.  (B) On body: pains.  (4) Conclusion: Anything can cause stress.  A stressor can have any effect.  (Stress can be anything?  Wrong.)  (No such thing as stress?  Wrong.)	1/15/2001

Psychology, stress.	Symptoms of stress.  (1) Head does not feel clear.  Can't concentrate.  Can't create.  Can't think well.  (2) Pessimism and negative thoughts and emotions.  Depression.  Anxiety. Anger.  Unhappy.  (3) Lethargic.  Unmotivated.  No energy.  (4) Insomnia.  (5) Can't concentrate.  Distracted.  Intrusive thoughts.	5/6/2003

Psychology, stress.	The level of stress an individual experiences is inversely proportional to and individual's coping skills.	6/7/2005

Psychology, stress.	The time you must think best is the time you are under most stress, and thus think poorly.  This is the ironic problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	There are two types of stress, emotional stress and physical tension.  Thoughts are only stressful if they produce emotional stress.	1/11/2003

Psychology, stress.	There is no way to completely separate one's psychological response to a stress and one's physical response to a stress.  Psychology and physiology are linked.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Things that are bugging you.  Depends on your attitudes.  You may have right attitudes, and things are bugging you justifiably.  You may have sub-optimal or wrong attitudes, and things are bugging you unjustifiably.	10/10/1998

Psychology, stress.	Things that contribute to stress.  (1) Too many stressors at once.  (2) No escape from stressors.  Daily stress.  Chronic stress.  Repeating stress.  (3) Isolated, no one to talk to.  (4) Getting beat up and abused is bad.  These are all bad things.	7/20/2003

Psychology, stress.	Total Stress Complex.  (1) Types, amounts.  (2) X event in Y situation causes Z amount of A stress to B individual, causing D amounts of E behavior.  (3) How much are you experiencing objectively.  How much are you feeling subjectively.  (4) Total stressors, total reactions, total ability to deal with both.  (5) Momentary vs. in any time period.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	Trauma (i.e., stress) induced psychopathology is common.  Who is to say what is stress?  Anything can be traumatic, acutely or chronically.  Anyone can crack anytime, temporarily or permanently.	5/15/2001

Psychology, stress.	Two bad extremes.  (1) Nothing bothers me at all.  (2) Everything bothers me greatly.  (3) Somethings should bother us, but not overwhelm us.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Two common stress reactions.  (1) Total withdrawal.  Give up.  (2) War by any means.  Explosion.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Two types of self-induced stress.  (1) Putting too much expectations on oneself.  (2) Imagining, exaggerating or overestimating a situation, and letting it stress you out.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Types of stress.  (1) The stress of instantaneous, extreme events that take one by surprise.  (2) The stress of mild, chronic stress that slowly wears one down.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Types of stress.  (1)(A) Stress about yourself.  (B) Stress about others.  Ex. worrying about your kids.  (C) Stress about the world.  (2)(A) Stress about money, stuff and rent.  (B) Stress about your health.  (C) Stress about love.  (3)(A) Stress about injustices like abuse and neglect.  (B) Stress about needs denied.  (C) Stress about tastes.  Likes and dislikes.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Types of stressors.  Social stressors.  (1) Being stalked, hounded or monitored.  Invasion of privacy.  Ex. the paparazzi.  (2) Being constantly teased.  (3) Being bullied.  (4) Being ganged up upon.  (5) Being threatened.  (6) Being physically or verbally assaulted.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	Types of stressors.  Social stressors.  When you become unpopular for your views.  When people are against you.  When they mock and jeer.  When they are wrong.  Fug them.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	We are always under stress and having stress reaction, and then doing stress relieving technique: Optimal vs. suboptimal.  Unconscious vs. conscious.  Type, degree, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	We use the term stress to mean a negative stress, as opposed to a positive stress or a challenge that helps us grow.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	Weak character, emotional wrecks.  As compared to situation faced with, or as compared to average person in average situation.  It can lead to bizarre, self destructive behavior (ex. Addiction).  But we can adapt to stress, like Eskimos to cold?  Can you adapt well enough and fast enough?  Yes, I can.  It is like getting in shape, and you can get out of shape if you don't work at it.  Mental health takes work.	02/10/1994

Psychology, stress.	What is stress?  (1) Problems, challenges.  (2) Awareness of same.  (3) Perception of same.  (A) Unconscious and conscious incognizance.  (B) Conscious incognizance, unconscious cognizance.  (C) Overestimation vs. underestimation.  (4) Life = problems = opposition = pain = stress.  (5) Life is a problem, life is stress.  (6) Stress is a problem.  (7) Everything is a stress, by degree.  (8) Tension, pressure.  (9) Stress is cumulative.  (10) Blown of by speed and degree.  (11) Stress incapacitates by degree.  (12) Stress is relative to the person.  (13) The emotional response, the physiological response.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	What is stress?  (1) Stress defined as experiences and events.  Objective stressors.  (2) Stress defined as our perceptions of experiences and events.  How bad we think it is and why.  Subjective stressors.  (3) Stress defined as our reaction to experiences and events.  How we feel, emotionally and physically, about the stressors we perceive.	11/20/2004

Psychology, stress.	What is stressful to one person may not be stressful to another, based solely on their attitude toward life.	4/5/2000

Psychology, stress.	What the average person considers stressful and why.  What do you consider stressful and why.  Not interested in it, unknowledgable about it.  Goes contra to you, your goals, and your beliefs.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	What.  Stress is perception of a problem.  If you don't know a problem exists, or if you don't consider it a problem, then it won't stress you out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	When stressed and don't know why.  Recognized the stressed feeling.  Do physical exercise.  Feel care free, like an 11 year old.  Think about other things; distract yourself.	4/4/2007

Psychology, stress.	Why do we have the stress reaction?  Why should we study it: to handle things as best we can.	12/30/1992

Psychology, stress.	You are stressed by your perception of a situation and by your attitudes toward that perception.  Your perception of the situation may not be 100% completely accurate.  Your attitude toward your perception of the situation may not be totally optimal.  Try to re-perceive the situation.  Try to develop better attitudes about your perceptions of the situation.  Try to look at it a new way.	11/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	.Introduction or summary.  (1) Unconscious and creativity.  (2) Boredom and creativity.  (3) Emotion and creativity.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	.Introduction.  (1) What is creativity?  (2) Why be creative?  (3) Techniques how to be more creative.  (4) What is the average level of creativity?  What are the traits of very creative persons?	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	.This section is about creativity.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) Creativity during the good times.  Creativity when happy and calm.  Creating in times of plenty.  (2) Creativity during the bad times.  Creating when beset by problems.  Creating when angry, anxious or sad.  (3) The point is that one can be creative in both good times and bad times.  One should endeavor to be creative in good times and bad times.	11/19/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) Creativity involves all parts of the mind: sense, will, emotion, memory and thinking.  (2) Creativity is the result of a collection of mental skills, tools, tricks, in all parts of the mind.  (3) It would make sense that there are specific types of creativity for each of the eight types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardener.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) Many books on creativity today focus on (A) Better thinking (ex. more logical).  (B) Being more open to creative ideas.  (2) However, I think that we should also focus on (A) Spending more time at it.  Set aside some time each day to be creative.  (B) Improved methods to better store, organize and retrieve your "mental tracks".	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) The extreme of rigidity and stasis (bad) vs. balance of knowledge base + creativity (good) vs. the extreme of totally new experiences only (bad).  (2) Seeing the world anew each day can add to your creativity, and give a sense of awe, but it can also create anxiety.	12/27/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) The most important type of creativity for the individual is personal creativity: thinking of an idea you never thought of before.  As opposed to worldscale creativity: thinking of something no one has ever thought of before.  (2) Personal creativity is necessary for growth.  And growth is necessary for psychological health.	03/03/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	(1) You can search your mind one day and find nothing there.  You can search your mind the next day and find something good.  So search every part of your mind every day.  (2) This is a much different notion of creativity than most people have.  The notion of creativity that I am putting forward here is "taking what you find", much like a hunter/gatherer.  Most people have a notion of creativity that advocates a "pick a topic first and then create some ideas about it" which is more the attitude of an agriculturist.  Use whatever methods work best for you.	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Another view of the source of creative ideas: they come from the collective unconscious.	1/14/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Brain chemistry and creativity.  Chemicals that can increase creativity.  (1) Adrenaline, due to fear or desire or competition.  (2) Endorphins, due to love or exercise.	07/10/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Caring and creativity.  (1) Creativity requires caring.  If you don't care then you won't create anything.  Psychological health requires that you care.  Concern.  To be motivated is to care.  To care is to feel.  To care is to be pissed off when things are not optimal.  (2) Caring is an emotion.  Creativity is emotional (for scientists as well as artists).  Psychological health is emotional.  Apathy must be fought, and not indulged.  It is a matter of sanity and survival.	3/20/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity = Figuring out.	6/3/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity as an artist vs. creativity as a philosopher or scientist.  The artist wants to get into an ecstatic mental state in order to prime, inspire or transport their mind.  Music helps.  Youth helps.  Dance helps.  Spirit guide.  Vision quest.	11/10/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity experts recommend brain-storming.  Yet, too many people confuse brain-storming with barn-storming and then spend the next several years walking the wings of airplanes.	4/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity has testing procedures.  Once you create something, you test what you have created to see if its any good.	3/20/2007

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity is a process of revisiting over and over, remembering and building, gathering and working out all the parts.	2/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity is a whole mind phenomenon.  It is drive, memory and emotion as well as thinking.	03/03/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity is part motivation, part emotion, and part thinking skills (focus, imagination).	4/15/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity is slow because we often work from what is (the real world) and make only one small mental leap ahead (the next practical step).  If you can keep making leaps you sometimes go further.  Or if you can envision better goals you go further (endgames).	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity may be similar to logic in that although humans have the capability to be logical we do not have a natural tendency to be 100% logically rigorous, and so it may be with creativity.  Certain individuals (philosophers) and certain groups (academic philosophy departments) have nurtured their ability to be logical, and so to other individuals and groups have nurtured their ability to be creative.  Individuals and groups who pursue logic and creativity have reasons for believing in the usefulness of logic and creativity, and they make a commitment to those principles and they dedicate their efforts to pursuing them.  Most other humans apply logic and creativity only when they have to.  Otherwise, they are too lazy to do it.	5/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity requires motivation, not fear.  Focus, not preoccupied.	5/22/2003

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Creativity tips.  (1) Work every problem.  (2) Work every angle of each problem.  (3) Information management techniques help increase creativity.	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Culture of creativity.  Whether it be science, technology, philosophy or art, get in a group that has a culture which values creativity.	6/14/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Curiosity is the antidote to boredom.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Decreasers of creativity.  (1) What impedes creativity?  Mental rigidity.  (2) What causes mental rigidity?  Fear.	2/19/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Decreasers of creativity.  Creativity is healthy and growthful.  Various systems have limited or inhibited human creativity in the name of efficiency and order.  These systems include the educational system, the work system, the military system and the religious system.  People have been molded by these systems into blind, rule-following automatons.	9/21/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Decreasers of creativity.  It is a bad attitude for society to stereotype creative people (artists or inventors) as eccentric or crazy.  Because then people say, "I am not crazy.  Therefore I am not creative.", which inhibits their creativity.  Or they say, "Creativity is crazy", which reduces creativity in the world.	12/29/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Definitions of creativity.  (1) Creativity defined as the development of new concepts.  (2) Creativity defined as the development of new connections between concepts.  New relationships between concepts.  (3) Creativity defined as new operations performed on concepts.  New functions.  (4) Creativity defined as the development of new information, new data, about existing concepts, not necessarily new concept.  (5) Creativity defined as new behaviors.  (6) Creativity defined as new attitudes.  New emotions and new thoughts.  (7) Creativity defined as self learning as opposed to learning from others.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Effects on creativity of the following:  (1) Personality, character, strength.  (2) Ethical character.  (3) Experiences.  (4) Hard work.	11/15/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Emotion and creativity.  (1) When good things happen, and things are going well, I get psyched up.  When I get psyched up I start to think very well and produce many good ideas.  (2) When bad things happen I get depressed.  My creativity drops and my writing output drops.  (3) Keep me happy and I will produce.	12/29/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Emotion is as important as thought in the creative process.  Thus, creative feeling is as important as creative thinking.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Emotional components of creativity.  Creating out of the emotions of pain, joy or desperation.	1/28/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Exploring and Creativity are both important traits in a healthy, growing person.  (1) Exploring: To Find ideas that are new to you.  Exploring is key to growth.  (2) Creativity: Creativity is key to growth.  (A) To Generate or Figure ideas that are new to you.  (B) To Evaluate ideas that are new to you.  To evaluate ideas as logical or illogical.  To evaluate ideas as ethically good or bad.  Critical thinking.  (C) Question generating.	10/22/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Four increasing levels of talent (using singing as an example).  (1) Pure vocal ability.  I can sing any note.  (2) Expressive ability.  I can express any emotion with my singing.  (3) One of a kind distinctiveness as a person.  To be unlike anyone else.  (4) Creating new works of art.	8/6/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Freewill and creativity.  To create is to realize that you are free and to act on your freedom.  The gate is open yet you stay in the corral.  They taught you to stay put.  Inertia of the ego.	9/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Get in the zone.  Get energized and excited.  Get focused and calm.	3/29/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Getting an idea is like grabbing onto a thin, wet handhold.  Then getting a little more of a grip, and a little more, till you are able to pull yourself up top.  Then you feel great.	02/22/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Growth, health and creativity.  (1) Creativity and growth.  Creativity is necessary for development.  (2) Creativity and health.  Creativity is necessary for health.  (3) Creativity means adapting to a changing situation.  (4) Some people underestimate the scope and importance of creativity.  Some people think creativity is only something for artists and inventors.  Everyone needs to be creative.  Personal creativity is tied to personal development and personal health.  Stasis and rigidity leads to lack of development and lack of psychological health.	11/19/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Growth, health and creativity.  (1) Mental activity is essential for creativity.  Creativity is essential for growth.  Growth is essential for health.  (2) Mental activity is dependent on (A) Ability to turn your processor (i.e., mind) on and off, so that you can start thinking at will, and stop thinking when you need to rest.  (B) Keeping your processor (i.e., mind) running full time.  (C) Picking the most important topics to think about.	6/7/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Growth, health and creativity.  The development of the person depends on change (for the better).  Change is based on new attitudes (ideas and emotions).	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	How all good ideas emerge.  (1) First bodily sensations.  (2) Then emotions.  (3) Then mental audio and video.  You see it like a movie.  (4) Then single words.  (5) Then sentences.  (6) It can be a long journey of years.	12/27/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	How can we be more creative?  (1) Practice being creative.  That is, try everyday to be creative.  (2)  Persistence.  Try everyday for many years to be creative.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Humor and creativity.  The creative leap we make when we understand a joke is similar to the leap we make when we perform any other creative act.  Many of the great advancements in every area of human endeavor involve logical leaps, twists or turns that resemble the logical leaps, twists and turns found in jokes.  Thus, I think that closely reading, writing or listening to jokes is a good exercise for building one's creative abilities.	11/2/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	I believe in the conscious, methodical and persistent search for new ideas.	4/22/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	I suppose there are similarities as well as differences between the state of mind of the artist, the mystic, the scientist, the businessman, and the politician, when each is thinking of a new idea.	9/26/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	I work and produce best in an ultra calm state.  Doing things for pure and total joy, fun, pleasure, with no stress or pressure.	09/01/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Ideas can arrive when one is in a state of: (1)(A) Active mind.  (B) Still mind.  (2)(A) Active body.  (B) Still body (motionless).  (3) "That does not help me", you might say.  I can only suggest that you try all four states regularly.	9/26/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Imagine Aristotle taking a trip through time to the 20th-century.  He would be amazed by what we have learned.  And he would feel embarrassed that he could not think of these things himself.  He would look at printing and say, "Its so simple, I cannot believe I could not think of it myself."  And Aristotle was a genius.  To think of something you must have the entire trail of precursor thoughts that lead up to that idea.  Idea building is often a slow process.  If you want to think of something new you must accumulate the precursor thoughts.  That is why creativity is more often a long, slow journey, then a quick flash.	11/10/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Inspiration.  (1) Love inspires and increases creativity.  (2) Even the hope of love inspires.  (3) Even the delusion of love inspires.  (4) Chicks inspire.	7/9/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Key to creativity.  Links form between ideas when ideas are next to each other.  So get a lot of ideas and then put them next to each other, one by one, and see if they react.  If you have two ideas that are far apart they usually won't react at a distance, but they might react if they are next to each other.	4/10/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Maintain focus and belief in your creativity.  Work hard.  You will get the ideas.	11/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Mania is what you need to create most and best ideas.  Not mania produced by nicotine, caffeine, or speed.  Rather, the mania produced by love, or conversation with friends.  Mania that consists of hope, drive, support and knowing every other aspect of your life is okay.  No worries, happiness, and the scent of a trail.	02/04/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Manic depression and creativity.  Depression can inhibit memory.  An inhibited memory is like a clean slate with no preconceived notions and a need to create meaning.  Mania provides many new ideas to create the meanings which are needed because depression has wiped away the old meanings.  This process is how manic depression increases creativity.	7/22/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Motivation and creativity.  All these discoveries and inventions are often motivated not out of fame, money, altruism, egoism, but boredom.  "Just see if it can be done".  "Just determine the principle of it".  "Just to see".	7/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Music and creativity.  Rocking out is a precursor to creativity.  Music not only conveys emotions, it also births ideas.	4/4/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Nature and creativity.  Changes in weather, season, and scenery help me think by kicking up new moods or old memories.  Therefore, every day outside is a new opportunity for a new thought.  Inside it is just hopeless.  Caffeine and nicotine are your only hope.	06/07/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Nature and creativity.  I produce best outdoors.  So bring the outdoors in.  Sunlight with windows.  Plants, rocks, water.  Pictures of outdoors.  Tapes of outdoor sounds (brook, birds, etc.).  Also, take your laptop outside.	01/06/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Nature and creativity.  The reason to visit the wilderness and to experience the wilderness first hand is to get in touch with the wild in you.  For wild is freedom, and freedom is creativity.  To visit the wilderness outside is to reveal the creative inside.  Drop the mental chains of civilization and start seeing life anew.  Go wild, baby.	4/14/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	New ideas are like babies.  They start out small, and cannot speak well.  They are wild, rough, unsophisticated, and fuzzy.  They are easily ignored and forgotten, quashed and killed, especially by unhealthy repression.  The job of creativity is to give birth to an idea and then to nurture them and grow them up.  This is what the notes are good for, birth the baby idea and grow it up.	03/03/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	One of the most important things is how you deal when you are trying to create but not much is happening.  Constructive doodling, in whatever your chosen medium, is key to creativity.	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	People are plenty creative.  The problem is that they do not take the time to use their creative powers.  And people do not record and accumulate their creative acts, which results in the person forgetting what they create, and which prevents them from building on what they create.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Some people create out of: (1) Desire.  (2) Desperation.  (3) Sense of responsibility.  (4) There is a tradition, or continuing historical pattern, of the artist as irresponsible, which paradoxically leads many creative artists to feel being responsible for being irresponsible.  Responsible irresponsibility.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Sometimes I create best by poetry or brainstorming.	07/25/1993

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Sometimes it is possible to become so consumed, focused, motivated and obsessed with a project that you start thinking about it while you sleep.  You start dreaming solutions.  This is a productive state to be in.	11/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Take a mental trip.  Cover a lot of ground.  Mental wandering.	4/24/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques for creativity.  To improve the quantity and quality of new ideas.  (1) Physical techniques.  Well rested, plenty of sleep.  Good nutrition, healthy food.  Physical exercise.  (2) Psychological techniques.  Motivation.  Self confidence.  Inspiration.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  (1) Set aside blocks of time (2 to 4 hours) to create.  (2) Work in spare moments, like the shower, the commute, etc.	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  (1) The best creativity occurs when one is fresh, not frazzled.  (2) The best creativity occurs when one is freely associating.	3/2/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Creativity two-step.  Alternate the following two states of mind every few minutes.  (1) Mental states that provide access to the unconscious.  Rapture.  Open.  Reverie.  Calm.  Dreamy.  Free associating.  Single words.  (2) Mental states that consciously process ideas.  Logical.  Formalized.  Complete sentences.  Organize.  Order.  Rate.  Evaluate.  Judge.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Factors in creativity.  (1) Motivation, drive.  (2) Sleep, exercise and diet.  (3) Optimism, positive mood.  Believing you can do it.  Believing it will help.  (4) Focus, concentration of thought.  (5) Imagination.  (6) Determination, perseverance, industriousness.  Working hard and smart.  Don't waste time.	2/25/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  How to get a lot of new ideas?  (1) Be open to new ideas.  (2) Record and store new ideas.  (3) Develop new ideas.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  It is crucial to get pumped, psyched, and amped, in order to think and write.  An active mind produces many ideas.  Manic, hyper, teen frenzy.  Idealistic, optimistic, driven.  This is best.	7/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Methods to increase creativity and production of good ideas.  (1) Write down notes as soon as you get them, and type them as soon as you write them.  (2) Nutrition.  Need food energy to gain mental energy to be creative.  Start the day right with fruit, grain, protein, vitamins.  (3) Exercise boosts hi-t.  Start the day with a brisk walk, for peace and vision.  (4) Stress.  Spend sometime thinking about everything before you go to work.  Before you get stressed out and burned out.  (5) Sex.  Too much or too little reduces hi-t and creativity.  (6) Be happy, horny, and in love.  Be psyched, be excited, not depressed.  Get the dopamine going.  (7) Sleep.  Well rested gives you more mental energy.  Eight hours a night.	05/18/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  New experiences produce new ideas.  Try something new.  Meet a new person.  Travel to a new place.  Try a new activity.	2/24/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Reading spurs the brain and increases your creativity.  So read!  All the time.	12/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  The state of mind to create.  How to be more creative?  (1) Inspiration from music, chicks, new environments, etc.  (2) Motivation.  I can do it.  Its worthwhile.  I can make a difference.  I can make something good.  (3) Energy.  Perseverance.  Positivity.  Idealism.  Industriousness.  Dedication.  Optimism.  Happiness.  Motivated.  Inspired.  Focus.  (4) Maximal effort is an emotive state.  (5) Physical: Sleep, exercise, health food.  (6) Social interaction.	4/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Think of questions.  Pose problems.  Make puzzles.  Ponder paradoxes and dilemmas.	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Tips for creativity.  (1) Load up with lots of ideas.  The raw material for new ideas.  (2) Read widely and deeply.  Use all media, novels, movies, paintings.  (3) You do not have to figure out everything yourself.  Find out from others and then create beyond that.  (4) Learn to recognize personal creativity in yourself.  That is, learn to recognized when you are being creative versus when you are repeating something you said before or something you read elsewhere.  (5) Learn to recognize societal creativity in the works of others.  That is, learn to recognize when someone is doing something useful that has never been done before.	3/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  To escape the limits of your mind, and to get new ideas, pretend you are someone else, in another time and place.	7/16/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Walking.  The mantra like rhythm of a long slow walk helps me compose myself and compose my writing.  It calms me when overly excited emotionally.  And it excites my thoughts when they are lethargic.	06/07/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  Ways to spur your mind and get creative.  (1) Read quote pages on the Web and let the quotes jog your mind.  Riff on them.  (2) Browse bookstores online and offline.	6/16/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  What increases creativity?  Chicks.  Talk.  Music.  Walking.  Working out.  Travel.  Varying route.  Mania, not depression.	6/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Techniques.  When you learn a skill by practicing it until it is instinctual, you increase your chances of being creative with that skill.  (example, musicians practicing their instrument).	12/31/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	The creative state of the artist is sometimes called trance or reverie.  It is also something akin to the state called meditation.  Relaxed yet energized.  Open yet focused.	9/26/2000

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	The new thought often arrives small, weak, and quiet.  If you are busy you will not hear it.  (1) You have to give it some time, effort and attention (one hour a day?).  (2) Writing captures fleeting ideas.  (3) You have to be open to new ideas.  Open minded, not close minded, narrow minded, or rigid.  (4) You have to trust yourself not to mutate into wrong directions.  Do not let fear freeze you.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	The reason that creative people get depressed is because creativity is a rush or a high.  The high of creativity inevitably leads to a "come down".	3/21/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	There is a difference between being open to new ideas versus exploring for new ideas.  Openness is a passive state.  Exploring is an active state.  Openness is good.  Exploring is better.	7/12/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	There is a spectrum of creativity, from best to worst, of those who can (1) Generate arguments of their own.  (2) Follow others arguments.  (3) Can't follow arguments, but can accept conclusions.  (4) Can't even accept a conclusion.  Can't change.	02/22/1997

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Those people who never have a random or stray memory, emotion or thought are fenced in and blindered. Those who have a constant uncontrolled flow of random memories, emotions and thoughts are distracted.  Those who have harnessed the power of their mind and make use of that power are walking the tightrope of creativity.  You can try to do this consciously from time to time, but when you do it unconsciously all the time the results are greater.	6/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Those who (1) Never forget, and never create, vs. (2) Forget constantly and create constantly.	11/06/1993

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	To create a world is god-like.  Creators may be viewed as power seekers, just as much as politicians are power seekers.	7/24/1999

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	To increase creativity and spur new thoughts you should break out of your routine.  Go to new environments, do new activities, and have new experiences.  This is why travel is good.	6/19/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Two creativity metaphors.  (1) "Everyday I go into the fields and see which ideas are ripe for picking."  This metaphor has the source of creativity in the unconscious mind.  This creativity metaphor sees unconscious inspiration as the important element in creativity.  This metaphor is an artist's view of creativity.  (2) "Everyday I go into the shop and build some ideas."  This metaphor sees source of creativity in the conscious mind.  This metaphor is a craftsman's view of creativity.	11/13/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Two paradoxes of creativity.  (1) Desperate vs. fun.  The creative state has traits of both.  (2) Focused vs. open.  The creative states has traits of both.	4/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Two stages: Developing new ideas and evaluating new ideas.  (1) To develop new ideas one can try methods of calmness and quietude or methods of excitation and stimulation.  The method of calmness and quietude is a method often used by Eastern ascetics.  This method is helpful to produce important, profound, foundational ideas.  The method of excitation and stimulation is often used by those exploring the diversity and variety that life has to offer.  I recommend both methods.  (2) Evaluating ideas: Is it true?  Is it new?  Is it important?  Is it at least useful?	2/24/2001

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Two views of creativity.  (1) Curiosity and creativity is a view of creativity from the point of view of scientists.  (2) Expression and creativity is a view of creativity from the point of view of artists.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Types of creativity.  (1) Creativity in the arts.  (2) Creativity in philosophy.  (3) Creativity in the sciences.	9/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Types of creativity.  Creativity for any of Gardener's types of intelligence.  For example: Musical creativity.  Mathematical creativity.  Language creativity.  Interpersonal or social creativity.  Athletic creativity.  Intrapersonal or psychological-philosophical creativity.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Unconscious and creativity.  Where do creative ideas come from?  Most creative people say that creative ideas come "out of thin air".  I believe they come from our unconscious mind.  The question is whether they are generated by our unconscious mind while we are awake, in the moments before we get the idea, or are the creative ideas generated while we sleep, and we just remember them the next day.  Also, we may get an idea in our unconscious and it may take years to reach are conscious mind.  Why are our conscious minds not as creative as our unconscious?  Perhaps because our conscious minds are repressed.  A different view holds that creative ideas come from our conscious minds operating at very fast speeds, too fast to observe ourselves.	11/11/1998

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Variations in quality and quantity of idea production.  (1) The consistently high or low person.  (2) The consistently average person.  (3) The wildly inconsistent person.	06/17/1994

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	What is creativity?  (1) Thinking-based definition of creativity.  Creativity defined as a new idea.  (2) Attitudnal-based definition of creativity.  Creativity defined as a new attitude.  This adds an emotional component to the thought-based definition.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	What is creativity?  Creativity is putting ideas together in a new, useful, true, healthy way.  That is, creativity is thinking.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, creativity.	Why is creativity healthy and growthful?  Because creativity is about figuring stuff out.  And over the course of a lifetime a person does as much figuring out for themselves as they do finding out from others.  Figuring out (creativity) is just as important  as finding out (ex. passively watching television).  Do we spend as much time focused on active, creative personal "minding" as we do passively watching television?  Maybe we should.	9/21/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	.This section is about academia.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	(1) Business today is covering virtually every area that academia is.  (2) Today, many businesses are faster, flatter and more flexible than academia.  (3) Today many businesses are about change and college is left defending tradition.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	(1) College is about money.  (A) For example, how else do you explain the circus we call college sports.  (B) College is about professors kissing up to get tenure, and then using the power of tenure to one's advantage.  (C) College is about students striving for grades in order to get a degree in order to get a job in order to get money.  (2) Thus, college is not about truth and knowledge as much as it is about money and a job.   Academia is a business.  Academia is about money, position and power.  However, academia claims they are in the truth business.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	(1) The young are often liberals, so if anyone at a university is liberal it is more likely to be the students who are liberal, not the tenured professors.  (2) The old are often conservatives, and tenured professors are old, so tenured professors have a tendency to be conservative.  Powerholders tend to be conservative, and tenured professors are among the powerholders in academia, so tenured professors have a tendency to be conservative.  (4) Thus, academia, which can more accurately be described as the professors and not the students, has a tendency to be conservative, not liberal as is so often thought.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	A critique of college.  College today is too expensive.  It is wrong to saddle young adults with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.  College should be free, like high school.  Find an inexpensive college.  Teach yourself.	1/2/2007

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia always defends itself by bragging about its use of the "peer review" process like they have a patent on it.  The "peer review" process is used in business just as often.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia fears an "anything goes", all too permissive, relativism, not merely ethically but also epistemologically.  This is what academia and religion have in common, they are both about standards.  Religion is about self-appointed ethical standards (i.e., what is good).  Academia is about self-appointed epistemological standards (i.e., what is true).  However, we do not need religion to discuss what is good.  And in the same way, we do not need academia to discuss what is true.  The most fruitful discussions about what is good transcend religion.  The most fruitful discussions about what is true transcend academia.  The  interesting paradox is that as humans evolve, ethical behavior (good action) is becoming more important (see the ethical refinement of legal codes over the past 2000 years), and religion is becoming less important.  In the same way, epistemology (truth) is becoming more important, yet academia is becoming less important (for example, due to the Internet letting us learn online).	10/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia has power.  They decide what is truth.  And what they decide to teach trickles down directly to students, and indirectly to the masses through the media.  Academic turf battles between views are fought bitterly because they mean jobs, position, and money.	11/28/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia is an ideology.  Touting a cannon.  Rigid thinking.  System-bound thinking.  Rather than being flexible, pragmatic and pluralistic.	9/4/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia is an institutional bureaucracy, prone to the same flaws as other institutional bureaucracies such as business corporations, the military and the church.  The academic is an organization man.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia is very closed and clubby.  Notice how they only cite their fellow academicians in their articles.  They only cite other academic journals and academic books.  Very rarely will they cite an idea from any other form of media.  In effect, academia is creating a closed proprietary system, as opposed to an open system.  In computer terms, academia is Microsoft as opposed to Linux.  (2) Academia is also closed in a Popperian sense, with all its negative implications.  Isolated, insulated.  They are like various social groups that say "we are closed in order to protect our knowledge and remain pure, to maintain our standards and our way of life".  The effect of such attitudes is that these groups become out of touch, fringe, passe, restrictive, non-pluralistic, closed, unwelcoming, cliquish, old boy networks.	10/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia often has a holier-than-thou attitude, like they believe they have a monopoly on truth and knowledge.  (2) Academia is a self-perpetuating beauracracy.  (3) Today academia is on the defensive.  In the age of the Internet education, bricks-and-mortar academia is trying to justify their physical existence.  In the rapidly changing Internet age, academia is trying to justify an education based on the classics.  Their defensive pose gives academia a decidedly conservative posture.  (4) Many people today are skipping college.  They can get the knowledge anywhere, and they do not need a degree from a diploma mill to get a job.  (5) Anyone can buy the books themselves and read the books themselves.  How much does a lecture add?  Not much.  College is supposed to be about "learning to learn" and "teaching yourself".	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia says "We use rational argument, open debate and group consensus to arrive at our truths."  However, open debate in a small, closely-knit, closed society, where members are pressured to conform, is not really open debate.  Such is academia.	10/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academia, criticisms of.  Most PhD's do not come up with anything especially original or creative.  We create most PhD's because we need college teachers, and we decided that college teachers must have PhD's.  Most PhD's perform a defensive, conservative function.  They defend a body of knowledge.  They protect turf.  However, most PhD's are not one of the few "academic stars", but rather one of the many droning workers.  The "PhD thesis" is often just a review of other people's work, or a confirmation of other people's test results.  The PhD's know this.  The public knows this.  But the image that most PhD's have of themselves, the image they try to project, the image they would have us believe, is that they are somehow irreplaceable stars.  The actual image of the professor today is increasingly like the image of the priest today, once feared yet now not quite with it.	10/14/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academic disciplines overstepping their abilities and their subject areas of expertise.  Two mistakes are involved.  (1) In general, thinking, "My subject area explains everything.", when it does not  (2)  In specific instances, thinking, "This specific issue is an issue for my subject area.", when it is actually not.  Using the wrong tool.	5/5/1999

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academic gang warfare on the battlefield (or marketplace) of ideas, to determine whether one idea or view will be taught over another.  Force of numbers times academic positions and the power they hold.	08/15/1994

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Academics and pedagogues are insufferable.	01/11/1997

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Adjuncts are like secret agents.  Technically, adjuncts don't exist, and, if pressed, the faculty will disavow any acknowledgment of adjuncts.	3/20/2007

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	College is often a financial rip-off.  (1) Rooming in the real world to share a $300/month studio with a room mate costs $1500 a year.  Board (food) at $5 a day costs another $1500.  Tuition for one year at five courses a semester, and two semesters a year, at $400 a course would cost $4000 a year.  Combined Room/board and tuition would cost maximum $7000 a year.  Many colleges charge twice that.  (2) Many conservatives are trying to dismantle public higher education.  They are trying to close state universities.  That leaves only private universities, which are often even more of a rip off than public universities (many private universities cost more than $20,000 a year).  The total effect of the high costs of college education is to exclude and oppress the poor, who are the ones who need education the most.  (3) I say we should have cheap (or free) college level education available via the Internet.  Then we should have national college level tests which you can take in each subject area.  If you pass enough tests then you get the college degree.	5/24/1999

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	College should be free, and not paid for by tax payers either.  There should be a teach yourself cheap option.  On the Internet.  You buy nationally standardized texts cheaply printed on newsprint.  Study on your own, at your own speed, and then pay $50 to sit for a nationally standardized test at any age, in any subject, on any level, for any degree or career path (ex. Math for business majors).  College would end up costing $2000 total.	07/03/1994

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Criticisms of academia.  (1) How often does an academic defend an idea that s/he knows is wrong, simply because s/he has built a career on that idea?  Unfortunately, it happens quite often.  (2) How often does an academic cite a fellow academic simply as a form of favor swapping?  How often do academics say, "I'll cite you if you'll cite me?"  Unfortunately, it happens quite often.  (3) How often do academics write papers that are padded with fluff, simply because they are expected to "publish or perish"?  Unfortunately, it happens quite often.  (4) How often are academics hobbled by excessive specialization?  How often do academics feel that they cannot think about anything outside their narrow area of specialization?  Unfortunately, it happens quite often.	6/9/2007

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Critique of academia.  College in America is a scam.  (1) College in America is a scam aimed at making money for an institution, a corporation, called a university.  A university makes money by fleecing students, alumni, assistant professors, etc.  (2) Its a crime that young people are forced to start out in life saddled with $100,000 dollars of debt due to college loans.  (3) If you have to go to college, the best way is the cheapest way: two years of community college followed by two years of state university.  (4) Big name schools are a rip off.  (5) Do not join a frat.  Frats are a waste.	8/9/2005

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Critique of academia.  College is a scam.  Any system that sends young adults out into the world burdened by the crippling debts of student loan payments is a bogus system.  The only way that college prepares students for real life is by preparing them for crushing debt in a scam system.	6/23/2005

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Critique of academia.  Consider Wittgenstein's distaste for academia.  Surely, it is of some consolation to those who failed to get their PhD in philosophy.  And it gives credence to the view that the educational system is flawed.  Indeed, the entire system, of which the educational system is part, is flawed, yet it is the best we have at the moment, and we are trying to improve it, but to improve it we must first recognize its flaws.	2/15/2005

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Critique of academia.  Most people are in college because they have to be there, not because they want to be there.  They have to be there because employers want to see a college diploma.  Do you want to be in an environment where people don't want to be there and are only there because they feel forced to be there?  No.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Critique of academia.  Much of the work produced in academia is bullshit.  Many academicians are bullshit artists.  The academician, the used car salesman and the politician have much in common.  Academia, politics and business have high levels of bullshit.	6/23/2005

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Grad school.  Even in grad school, which is supposedly the most peer influenced and egalitarian level of education, there is a tendency in to produce authoritarian personalities.  The students submissively kiss ass to get a degree, and later they kiss ass some more to get tenure.  Then there occurs an inevitable backlash, as they flip to authoritarian, dictatorial, tenured professor mode.	2/8/2001

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	If a college diploma was not required to get a job then how many people would go to college?  What if there was another way besides a college diploma to prove your general knowledge or specialized proficiencies.  Like a national standard test.	6/20/2002

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	If a graduate level professor teaches too well, he may put himself out of a job sooner.  You are creating your own competition.	12/01/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	If every phd candidate did (1) One original historical study of another philosophers work.  (2) One translation of a philosophical work.  It would do much to peer judge and consolidate world philosophy through time.	08/07/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	If we look at college as a business, which it is, we see that the customers of this business (i.e., the students) are liberal, but the business itself (i.e., the professors and administration) is conservative, as are most businesses.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  (1) The Internet shows that high-priced private universities are not the only way to get smart.  The Internet also shows that there are many people just as smart as the college professors.  And the Internet provides a way to get as smart as a college professor.  (2) A related example of this phenomena is the medical industry.  The Internet puts a tremendous amount of medical knowledge online for free.  Patients become more pro-active by researching and discussing among themselves. They switch doctors if they do not agree with their doctor.  They question their doctors.  They talk back to their doctors.  They challenge their doctors.  (3) The Internet does the same thing to academia as it did to the medical community.  The Internet breaks academia's implied claim to a monopoly on knowledge.	8/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  Many academics will bluff by saying, "I can't wait till the average person understands my supposed area of expertise".  But what the academics really fear is students who know more than they do.  Students asking them questions they don't know the answer to.  (2) The academics have been polishing apples for years in order to get tenure.  They want to gain tenure not so they can "teach their own ideas" but rather so they can have a meager amount of power and money and rule their own little fiefdom.  Academia is about power and money just as much as business, the military and the government is about money and power.  The academics know how to play the power game just as well as the business men, soldiers and politicians do.	8/20/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  The academicians may soon find themselves struggling to keep up with the discussions of knowledgeable laypeople on the Internet who are forging ahead due to the ability of the Internet to let people put their heads together.	12/30/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  The Internet allows a far-reaching, instantaneous forum that can bring a layman (non-academician) quickly up to speed in a given subject area.  This fact will be welcomed by some academicians but it will strike worry and fear into other academicians.  At one point in time, in the seventies and early eighties, the Internet was only available to select researchers but today anyone can go online.  The academicians cried about "commercialization" of the web, but what they really worry about is how fast the Internet allows a person to become smarter than the academics are.  The universities once had a monopoly on knowledge, but now much of that knowledge is available online for free.  The academicians were once ensconced in positions of power, but now their power base is eroding.	8/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  The Internet disperses power.  The Internet takes power away from power centers where power is concentrated and disperses it among the people.  The Internet empowers the people.  The Internet is a democratizing force.  For example, money is power and so the Internet enabled people to do their own stock research and not fall prey to stock brokers.  Another example, knowledge is power and the Internet enables people to educate themselves without falling prey to universities and academicians.	8/20/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  The Internet will let you learn more and learn faster than the traditional models of education like the academicians lecturing in universities.	12/30/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Internet and academia.  Two cool paradoxes resulting from the Internet.  (1) People are smarter but the university has less power.  (2) People are wealthier but Wall Street brokers have less power.	8/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Many academicians take knowledge as received.  They aren't as skeptical and questioning as scientists.  They aren't driven to improve as much as technologists are driven to improve.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Most academics are not tough, brave, and free.  They are part of the "meekness and conformity = safety" school of thought.  I say meekness and conformity = death.	11/08/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Much of academia I have seen so far (undergraduate and graduate) is a bunch of pompous sycophants who pathologically deify the "greats".  What a load of bull.  How bogus.  I was right to stay out and away.	12/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	One can argue that: (1) The business world produces as much theoretical knowledge as academia (for example, there are almost as many books authored each year by business management gurus as there are published by academicians).  (2) The business world produces as much practical knowledge as academia (for example, the invention of computer hardware and software).	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	One of the problems of academia is that the process of publishing in peer review journals can be easily compromised and subverted by over-eager academics.  Academics put a high value on work being published in peer review journals because academics advance their careers through being published in peer review journals.  The question for an academic becomes becomes, "How to get published in a peer review journal?".  Unfortunately, the answer of some academics is, "Get published in a peer review journal by becoming friendly and forming alliances with the group of peers who referee a journal, thus making it more likely that one's own work with be published in the journal."  There is a certain amount of favor swapping in academia.  There is a certain amount of deal making in academia.  Academia is politicized on the micro-social level, in that there is a struggle for money, power, and publication on the departmental level and the subject-niche level.  Another issue is that, academia is also politicized on the macro-social level, in that academics express their national political affiliation through their work, which can and does affect the micro-social phenomena mentioned above.	3/11/2007

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	PhDs hoard key questions and answers in order to make careers.	7/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Professors get tenure by developing a line of thought, a series of arguments, a theoretical school, and then publishing their work.  If their school of thought is overthrown, they lose their jobs and salary.  So they defend their view (even if incorrect) and attack opposing views and new views.  Thus there is an inherent inertia, based on job security and greed, in academia.  Progress (change to new and better views) occurs, at best, at the rate of generational change.	3/8/1997

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Somehow, in the 1960's, academia attained a reputation for being liberal.  But it was not the professors who were liberal, it was the students who were liberal.  Academia (colleges, administrators, and professors) are not liberal.  Most colleges are non-profit organizations with boards and trustees, and they are run like corporations.  College is a business, and a rather traditional business at that.  (2) The job of the professor is to represent the school.  The job of the professor is to appear professional.  The job of the professor is to make an appeal for the classics and defend the accepted cannon of books in his subject area.  The job of the professor is to defend his subject area against attacks by outsiders.  Professors are defensive, conservative traditionalists.  Professors are tribal.  Professors are hired workers, just like those in automobile factory assembly lines and Fortune 500 corporate offices.	9/20/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Taste is important for a scholar.  Intuitively or unconsciously picking out what is important from what is bullshit.	11/27/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	The academics are so similar to each other.  Tweedy and quiet.  How limiting, how sad, to be stuck in the world of academia.	10/16/2001

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	The model of the classroom is a dictatorship.  The teacher tells you what to think and do.  All school succeeds in doing is producing a bunch of sycophantic yes-men.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	The PhDs.  (1) How do they view themselves?  How do they view their jobs (as survival job, or competitive game, or truth quest)?  How do they view the rest of the world?  (2) How did I come to idolize them?  (3) What are their heads like?  How enslaved to academia, how fearful, how jealous, how driven, how calm, how confident, how narrow minded vs. broad minded?  (4) How did they get so smart?  What did they read?  How fast do they read?  How good is their memory?  How broad and deep are they?	6/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	There is as much puffery in academic writing as there is in the most overblown business presentations.  People learn to shovel **it in school.	9/18/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Thesis ideas.  Find a better position, or a better argument for a position, or find a better way of expressing or saying an argument.  They are all good.	11/28/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Thesis ideas.  Find a new position, or improve an old one.  Defend and attack it.  Put it into relationship with other ideas.  See how well it stands up.	08/02/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Thesis strategies.  (1) Apply old techniques to a new area.  (2) Apply new techniques to an old area.  (3) Variation on an already successful paper.	07/27/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Thesis tactics.  Pick a topic outside the mainstream.  Pick and interdisciplinary topic.  Example, ethics of technology, psychology of economics, etc.	10/25/1994

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Thesis types: critical, historical, comparative, combo.  Transfer of idea or method to new subject or new object.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	To the extent that academics write in incomprehensible jargon about esoteric minutiae, and to the extent that academics adamantly refuse to write in layperson's terms about pressing issues, to that extent academia abdicates to other forms of writing.	11/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	True academics.  Pursue what interests you.  Think and write about whatever you like.  Teach whatever ideas you like.  Read and teach whatever books you consider worthwhile.  Pursue whatever you think is most important.  Advance the world of ideas.  Make some progress.  Not mindless repetition of outdated ideas.  Not the worship of a canon.	12/28/2006

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Two big mistakes.  (1) Academics have a tendency to hide and escape in their books.  To use abstractions to avoid pain of living.  (2) They are often too narrowly focused.  They avoid and ignore much of reality and the world.	12/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Two poles in academia.  (1) Risk, new, freedom, liberal, creators of new ideas, and destroyers of old ideas.  (2) Safety, old, conservative, conformist, enslaved, knockdown new ideas.	07/25/1993

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Universities and academicians do not hold a privileged position.  They are not dictators with a monopoly on knowledge.	12/30/2000

Psychology, thinking, education, academia.	Universities are profit-driven corporations.  (1) Universities run on the "wage slave labor" of grossly under-payed adjunct professors.  (2) Universities over-charge their students with exorbitantly high tuition bills.  (3) Universities unceasingly hit on their alumni for donations.  (4) Universities look for tax breaks from the government.	3/7/2004

Psychology, thinking, education, academic.	What, or who, is an academic?  (1) An academic described as a person with knowledge in their head.  (2) An academic described as a person with knowledge at their fingertips.  (3) An academic described as a person who is a creator of new knowledge.	5/1/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	.This section is about educaton.  Topics include: ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) School.  ( ) Teaching.  ( ) Techs.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) A surprising number of adults fallaciously reason the following: Kids go to school and learn.  Adults do not go to school and learn.  They are adults, therefore they don't learn.  (2) Another way to phrase this idea:  Kids do a lot of learning, and therefore kids do a lot of thinking (acquiring information by finding out and figuring out).  Adults do little learning, therefore adults do little thinking.  Most adults live in a slow fog of random memories and short-term wants.	12/13/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Best hope for education.  Natural curiosity.  Thinking.  Questioning.  (2) Biggest problem in education.  Curiosity squashed.  Despair of individual through loss of hope by thinking that education won't help.  Denied opportunity and access; told not to think.  Convinced not to care; apathy.	10/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Breadth-first education.  (2) Depth-first education.  (3) Breadth-depth optimal combination education.	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Comprehensive, cumulative (year by year) tests of all material from all previous grades, in all subject areas, for grade school, high school, college and graduate levels.  (2) Test methods: true or false, multiple choice (including multiple multiples), fill in, essay (short or long).  (3) Teaching methods: lecture, Socratic dialogue (nice vs. adversarial), team work, hands on active learning.  (4) Homework methods: reading, reports, case studies.  (5) Curriculum choice: what ideas to teach (where in knowledge pool).  How abstract vs. concrete, general vs. specific, roots vs. branches.  Curving vs. not curving grades.  Tracking vs. not tracking.  I am against research papers (waste of time after you have done it once).	11/28/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education "broadly" is about growing people up to "maturity" or optimal psychology.  It is about raising kids.  Development and health.  (2) Stuff people can not learn from books: What it is like to hang out with healthy, ethical, smart people.  What it is like to love and be loved.  Social skills.  Could you learn these things from a computer?  Using a virtual mentor?	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education as learning.  Student centered education.  (2) Education as teaching.  Teacher centered education.  (not).	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education defined as access to information.  Education defined as access to ideas.  Three problems.  (A) What if all you have access to is fluff, like the gossip newspapers, unimportant trivial celebrity gossip.  (B) What if all you have access to is lies and propaganda due to censorship.  (C) What if  you have no access to information at all.  (2) Education defined as access to information as opposed to education defined as development of thinking abilities.	12/1/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education defined as everything you know at point A.  That is more like knowledge.  (2) Education defined as everything you learn between point B and C.  All the ways you grow, develop, improve.  (3) Education defined as everything you forget between points C and D.  Or rather, the remainder after forgetting.	6/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education defined as the search for good books and web sites.  Finding good books and web sites is a good first step in education.  (2) Education defined as the search for good conversations.  One can argue that thinking has a tendency to stop when conversation stops.  Finding good conversations can be difficult.	5/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education in what areas, to what level?  It is not just school subjects that are important, but also education in life.  (2) What is education?  Education is about shaping attitudes, persuading, convincing, changing minds.  Education as therapy.  (3) Another viewpoint.  People's mental powers gain strength regardless of (A) What ideas you put in them, or (B) What thinking exercises you give them to do.  Thus school and education in general (other than self education) is bullshit.	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Education to produce generalists. vs. education to produce specialists. I am for generalists.  (2) Education to produce people who figure-out things vs. education to produce people who find-out things.	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) First look all over and decide all books to read till end of your education.  Then start reading.  That's what I should have done, and quick.	05/01/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Formal education: school.  (2) Informal education: anything else.  Teaching self or just living.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) How much can we learn?  How healthy and smart can we become?  How much can we grow?  And once we grow, how much can we accomplish?  (2) Let's say we have a computer shrink.  And let's say we have a computer mentor.  An avatar we can have a dialogue with.  A personal tutor who is always one level of development above us (the "next step"), but capable of going as high as we can.  (3) From age 15 to 20 we can spend 20 hours a week with it for school.  From age 20 onward we can spend five hours a week with it.  Instead of watching commercial television 2 or 3 hours tonight, we can watch high-quality Internet television.  Let's say we can have any book read to us by computer, text to voice.  We can learn at our own pace.  We can pursue subjects when they interest us.  We can learn academic subjects plus learn about life, i.e., the stuff they do not teach in school.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) How to motivate, inspire, and give hope to the masses in order to get them to lifelong self-education?  How to create a sense of urgency, that they need lifelong self-education to be healthy?  How to create a sense in themselves that they can do it, and that it will help, and that it is important in order to save themselves and save the world?  How to accomplish the above, as opposed to other tactics such as (A) Taking action in society like being politically active, and (B) Creating greater ease of access to information by using technology like the Internet, and (C) Pumping money into schools.  (2) What about those who are limited in mental capabilities.  What percentage are they?  What percentage of people have the mental capability to self-educate themselves?  (3) How much can you learn, absorb, and grow at any given age.  From age 13 on you can self-educate yourself about everything.  (4) How to avoid forgetting all?  Lifelong Notes.  (5) Problem: They say "I know it all" or "I know enough" when they do not.  What and how much do they need to know as adults (information), and what level of thinking do they need to reach (mechanism), in order to be able to think well for themselves?  (6) Does one need to know high-level philosophical and psychological concepts in order to be healthy, or to be a good citizen?  It is not book knowledge people need in order to develop (mature), but rather they need emotional growth, social development, and ethical development.	3/30/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) How to transfer knowledge from universities to the rest of society?  (2) What can academia figure out that a group of dedicated amateurs connected via the Internet cannot figure out?  That is, what is the Linux-style equivalent of academia?	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Imagine a national level test, or even world level test, for continuing adult education.  (2) Imagine a cumulative test that tests everything you've learned in every grade.	8/14/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Is college about what you know?  If so, you should be able to take a test to place out of college if you are smart enough.  (2) Is college about what you learn?  What you learn is the difference between what you know when you enter college and what you know when you leave college.	4/14/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Learning styles.  There are an infinite number of learning styles.  Each student has their own distinct learning style.  You can approach anything from any direction.  So do it your way.  (2) Teaching styles.  There is an infinite number of teaching styles.  Each teacher has their own distinct teaching style.  Thus, you could keep taking classes forever.  So do not get hung up on teachers.	2/10/2001

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Make people curious.  Make people want to learn.  (2) Teach people to teach themselves and each other.  Teach people to read and write.  Teach people to find out.  Teach people to find good books, websites, music and movies.  Teach people how to organize the ideas they find out and figure out, by using pen and paper, or index cards, or computer databases.  Teach people to figure out.  Teach people to think.  Encourage people to spend time thinking, talking, writing, publishing.	4/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Parents cannot adequately raise kids alone.  Not today, not ever.  The community helps raise (socialize) the child.  School is a major agent of socialization.  (2) How, and how well, does school currently socialize kids (teach culture and social skills)?  How and how well does it socialize kids at any level (elementary, high school, college)?  (3) How can we improve schools to help make psychologically healthy and advanced kids, rather than just teach kids the three R's (reading, writing, arithmetic)?  (A) Should each kid get an hour of therapy a week?  Yes.  (B) Should they teach more basic psychology, sociology and philosophy early on?  Yes.  (C) Should they do more exercises in team problem solving?  Yes.  (D) Teach conflict resolution skills.  (E) Teach self assertiveness skills.  (F) Teach ethical reasoning.	4/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) Related terms:  Information.  Critical thinking.  Reasoning.  Media.  Information technology  (2) Related issues:  No censorship or propaganda.  No excessive corporate influence on media.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of press.	12/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) The argument for national educational standards, or any educational standards, be they at local, state, national or world levels.  Everyone has a right to an education.  There is basic information that everyone needs to know.  (2) The argument against national educational standards.  To avoid totalitarianism, the government should not determine what everyone learns and thinks.  The counter-argument is that in a democracy the people are the government.  Another counter-argument is that if there are no educational standards then some people would be learning nothing.	12/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) There is a need for access to information.  There is a need for media like books, newspapers, television, radio, Internet.  There is a need for public libraries and free access to information.  All information should not be 100% privately owned and controlled.  (2) There is a need that information not be subject to censorship and propaganda.  (3) There is a need that people get a certain amount of basic information.  That is, there is an need for no cost, mandatory, public education.  (4) There is a need for keeping corporate influence out of public education and public libraries.  (5) There is a need for keeping religion out of public education and public libraries.  (6) There is a need for keeping censorship and propaganda out of public education and public libraries.	12/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	(1) What order to read books: (A) A single volume general encyclopedia.  (B) A multi-volume general encyclopedia.  (C) Single volume encyclopedias in specific subject areas.  (D) Multi-volume encyclopedias in specific subject areas.  (2) The above is my method of learning.  It is a "breadth before depth" method of learning.  And I consider it better than "depth before breadth" learning because it is faster, more balanced, and more holistic.  (3) Many schools usually teach by using the less ideal "depth before breadth" method.  These schools will make you read a series of monographs.  But you usually only have time in school to read two or three monographs per subject per semester, and thus your view stays narrow, and your breadth stays limited.  (4) Better to know one sentence (or one paragraph, or one page) about 1000 ideas than to know 1000 sentences (or 1000 paragraphs, or 1000 pages) about one idea.  The latter is the kind of narrow state of mind that occurs when people do not pursue lifelong learning, and when they forget most everything that they know.  The latter is also what happens when people specialize (see Philosophy, specialization and generalization)	5/18/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	A free education (minus the degree) is available at the public library.  The key is to make people want the education enough to go get it.	6/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	A major tactic of power abusers is to deny people education.  Three examples:  Slaves in the United States were denied education based on race.  Women are denied education based on being female.  Poor people are denied education based on income.	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Academia is a muzzle for ideas as often as it is a venue for the expression of ideas.	6/1/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Academia.  A defense of academia.  (1) Academia claims to be pursing truth rather than money or power.  More accurately, academia claims to be pursuing truth more so than money or power.  (2) Academia is cooperative more than it is competitive or conflict.	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	All education is about the question, "Are you ready for it yet?", which is a tricky question.  It can involve the following issues:  (1) What they want.  What the student desires.  In this respect they can  sometimes behave like little addicts, wanting what is not healthy or useful to them.  (2) What they need.  (A) What they need and know they need vs. what they need and don't know (understand or realize) they need.  (B) What they need and already learned about vs. what they need and haven't learned about yet.  (3) What they are ready for vs. what they are not ready for.	6/28/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	An over emphasis on science and business leads to an education biased towards numerical learning.  By keeping the humanities in the curriculum, one keeps writing itself in the curriculum.  Writing is essential to thinking.	5/3/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Argument against education.  Traditional education builds a category system (ex. Categories of arts, humanities and sciences).  That category system is supposed to reflect reality.  That category system is supposed to provide maximum creative freedom.  That category system is supposed to be the best category system.  However, it is not the only category system.  And thus it is a limiting category system.  People should be free to create their own category system.  There are many healthy and productive ways of looking at the world.	7/8/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	Asking teenagers to read is likely to result in low compliance.  But teenagers love watching television.  If educational materials could be put in enticing television format, then much more learning would take place.  One way to do this would be to have cable or direct (satellite) television channels devoted to education.  Another way to do it would be to stream audio/video over the Internet, so that it is available to those who want it when they want it.  Either way it would have to be free like television, and thus commercial.  Could enough sponsors be found to advertise on a show that does not have a huge audience?  Audio/video media does have tremendous educational potential though, although some material is difficult to make interesting.  Ways to absorb information: you can read it, listen to a lecture in person, or listen to lecture via audio/video media.	6/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Cheat sheets, crib sheets, are examples of information management.  Education itself is an exercise in information management.  Education is about how we store, organize, catalog and abstract information, and how we do so on paper, on computers and in our heads.	4/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	College is a scam.  Colleges are businesses that get rich by  saddling young people with massive debts.	5/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	College is supposed to be about learning to learn.  Higher education is supposed to be about teaching yourself.  Therefore, a college could really have no teachers, only tests.	1/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	College should be free.  If college is required to get a good job, then college should be free.  Preschool should be free also.  Child care should be free too.  Continuing adult education should be free to.  Lifetime Education should be be available at no cost to the user.	5/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Continuing education for adults means, in part, reading a good newspaper everyday, in order to find things out.  Continuing education for adults means, in part, setting aside time everyday to think and talk, in order to figure things out.  Doing these two things is part of being a responsible adult.  To not do these things is irresponsible.	12/18/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	Criticisms of college.  (1) College should be free, that is, available at no cost to the student.  High school is free.  High school is available at no cost to the student.  College should be too.  (2) College is not that much different than high school.  In fact, the first two years of college are often a repeat of the last two years of high school.  (3) College is too expensive.  Charging students $50,000 a year for college is a rip off.    (4) Another problem is that there is no guarantee of a job when you graduate college.  (5) A college degree is required for most good-paying jobs.	2/15/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Current debates in educational theory.  (1) Standards and standardized testing.  (2) Privatization vs. public schools.  (3) Computers for kids.  (4) Letting students pick the direction of their learning.  (5) Letting students pick the speed of their learning.  (6) Uniforms.  (7) Segregation by sex.  (8) Tracking.  (9) Rote learning.  (10) Home schooling.  (11) Internet schooling.  (12) Lifelong schooling.  (13)  Length of school year.	1/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Definitions of education.  (1) Education meaning formal learning, i.e., school.  (2) Education meaning including any conscious, intentional learning (a wider definition than 1).  (3) Education meaning including unconscious, unintentional learning (a wider definition than 2).  (4) Education meaning formalized teaching, where learning may or many not occur (related to 1).	1/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education by mode of organizing information.  (1) Historical based education.   Organizing information chronologically.  (currently overemphasized).  (2) Logical based education.  Organizing information based on the logical relation of the ideas.  (good)  (3) Importance based education.  Organizing ideas by how important they are. (good).  (4) Alphabetical based education.  (silly).	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education defined as communication of information.  Defining the concept of education in terms of the concepts of information and communication.	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education defined as knowing:  (1) What is going on (current events).  (2) What happened (history).  (3) Where are we headed (future trends).  (4) Where should we go?	2/16/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education is as key to democracy as a free media.  The public school system is a good thing, a functional necessity.	5/21/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education is just another word for learning.  Many animals can learn, not only humans.	6/10/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education should be done alone, without class or teacher.  Teach yourself.  Go at own pace.  There should be better incentive for knowledge progression.  School should pay for higher grades.  Mornings should be free for creative work.  Class should be in the evening.	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	Education sum up.  (1) Education for Gardener's eight types of intelligence. (2) Education by the basic modes of experience: science, philosophy and art.  (3) Education as gaining a body of knowledge vs. education as developing thinking skills.  (4) Education for social development, moral development, emotional development, and other types of development.  (5) Education to develop: (A) Study skills for school.  (B) Work skills for job.  (C) Living skills for life.  (6) Education as figuring out vs. education as finding out.  (7) Education as "learning to learn" (whatever that means).  Learning how to learn.  Learning why to learn.  Learning what to learn.  (8) Education as motivation to learn.  (9) Education by subjects.  Education as typical subjects in school: math, science, history, etc.  (10) Education as information management.  (11) Education as (A) Self education.  (B) Lifelong education.  (C) Anytime, anywhere education.  (12) Education as child raising (baby sitting) vs. adult education.  (13) Learning as behavior modification, regardless of mental content (i.e., behaviorism).  The opposite view holds that learning is entirely about mental content, regardless of behavior.  (14) Learning as repetition.  Memorization is not learning.  Or is it?  One view holds that memorization is not learning.  Learning is greater than memory.  An opposite view says that learning is nothing but memory; and to learn is to memorize.  A third view says that learning has an understanding component and a memory component, and both are necessary.  If you understand but forget immediately then you have not learned.  If you memorize without understanding you have not learned.  (15) Learning as imitation.  Mimicry is not learning.  Or is it?	6/10/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	Factors in education.  (1) Freedom vs. indoctrination, rule following, and fact memorization.  (2) Book choice.  (3) For leaders or followers.  (4) Role of parents, home teaching, self teaching.  (5) Teaching values vs. facts.  (6) How much a culture values education vs. hollywood, sports etc.  (7) Comprehensiveness (depth, breadth).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Finding out (from outside sources) is only half of education.  For the other half, figuring out (for yourself), people need to do their own notes.  Notes can be done by computer, typed, or handwritten.	6/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Four types of bad education.  (1) No formal schooling.  (2) Illiterate.  Cannot read nor write.  (3) Learned only lies and false information.  No truth.  (4) No knowledge at all.	8/8/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Getting the truth.  Getting rid of ignorance, lies, or sub-optimal views.  (1) Getting your hands on the right books (list them) (up to date, comprehensive, in depth, well out lined, concise) (quote books, college intro texts, dictionaries and encyclopedias).  Conceptual and historical layouts.  Read them, take good notes, memorize the notes.  (building a giant mental logical and historical outline).  Quickly.  (2) Figuring life out, in all subject areas, theoretically and practically.	01/01/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	Grade school education is not just a legal right.  It is mandatory.  Internet education should be a right and a legal obligation as well.	8/10/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Great books way of education should be dropped.  Why read Aristotle on politics when you can read 20th century experts on politics.  Why walk to California when you can fly.	9/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  (1) College has higher standards of work.  (2) College is more self directed.  You learn to learn.  (3) College involves more participation, more talking.  Grade school involved silence of student with teacher talking.	8/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  College discussions are more adult, mature, sophisticated and complex than high school.	8/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  College involves less dictation by the teacher, more of the students contributing their own ideas.	8/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  High school is more about absorbing factual information.  College is more about getting students to think.  Develop skills in thinking and writing.  You are old enough to think for yourself now.	8/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  In high school they just told you what was true and you wrote it down.  In college you see the process by which that truth was agreed upon.  That there are arguments being made for and against many views.	8/25/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  One difference is in the standard of work.  College requires a higher standard of work than high school.  More rigorous thinking.  Longer works.  More complex thinking.  More sophisticated thinking.	8/20/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  Standards of work.  (1) Whats the different between high school, college and grad school, in terms of levels of work?  (2) What's the difference between colleges of various levels?  Community college versus Ivy League.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  Standards of work.  Levels of complexity.  In high school, writing was fact-gathering and presentation, that is, research.  In college, good writing is thinking of new ideas that the individual has never thought of.  In graduate school, good writing is thinking ideas that no one has ever thought of.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	High school versus college.  Teacher and student.  In high school, the teacher spoke and the students listened.  In college, there is less of a gap between student and teacher.  The students talk, the teacher acts as a guide.  In graduate school, the teacher and student are almost equals.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Home schooling.  A criticism of home schooling is that if everyone decided to home school then it would dismantle the public school system.  Dismantling the public school system is bad, because a robust public school system is important for democracy.	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Home schooling.  How easy is home schooling to do?  How much time does it take from the teacher, per day, week, month, year?  How much does it cost?  Cost of books.  Cost of time spent.  How effective is it in producing happy, healthy intelligent children?  What are the drawbacks of the current school system that makes people want to home school?  How does access to information on the Internet make home schooling more appealing?  Is there a cost in terms of not developing socialization skills?	12/27/2003

Psychology, thinking, education.	Home schooling.  Promotion of home schooling is being used as a way to dismantle the public school system.  Dismantling the public school system is a bad idea, and thus home schooling should not be supported.	1/14/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	How cheaply can you educate?  Give them pencils, notebooks and carbon paper for them to do their notes.  Give them a single textbook that covers everything, cheaply printed, like an almanac.  Total cost $10 a year.	9/2/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	I loathe school.  I always loathed school.  School is a jail.  School is a perversion.  School is forced learning.  You get an A for agreeing.  School is not learning, it is agreeing.	7/10/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  (1) After teaching them the 3 R's (reading, writing, artithmatic), it is up to them to teach themselves. (2) Teach them about pathological-ethics and crime so as not to fall prey to it, and so as not to commit it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Best education system: structure, mechanism.  Knowledge pool: breadth and depth.  What teach: subject, issues, views, arguments.  How teach it, and how fast teach it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Education by computer.  Computer would break down all subjects by logic, history, and importance.  It would list all ideas, who held them, and state all alternate views.  It would answer your questions interactively.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Give out books to keep so they can take them home and write in them.  Avoid endless repetitive notes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Government issue books, government issue reading lists.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  How they should run school.  Books and notes or outlines should be given out for keeps.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Philosophy of education.  Teach them to read and write.  Then give them big notes outline and books.  No reports.  Review big picture often.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  Philosophy, psychology, and sociology should be taught much earlier.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Ideal.  What would my formal education system be like?  Who goes, when, where, for how long?  What subjects, views, and arguments learn?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	If someone bright never went to school or never even learned to read and write, how much would they learn about the world, and what would they learn about the world?	2/28/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	If you start learning what you like, natural curiosity takes over, and it goes much faster.	04/22/1989

Psychology, thinking, education.	Instead of educating people about facts we should educate them about attitudes (thought and emotion) because every thought has an emotional component.  (2) We should start with a set of basic attitudes.  (3) We should always provide alternative attitudes and argue for which ones are best.	6/24/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	It is tough to understand all of past, and stay on cutting edge of actual world and world of theory, in all subject areas.	02/24/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	Keys to education: motivation, values, mental health.  Strong foundational core (philosophy, psychology, sociology).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Learning facts vs. learning attitudes.  We don't learn facts only.  We start with facts and develop attitudes.	11/21/2003

Psychology, thinking, education.	Levels of educability.  (1) Some people can figure things out for themselves if they simply make the effort.  But many people can not think things out for themselves.  (2) Some people can teach themselves by reading a book.  But many people can not teach themselves from books.  (3) Some people can understand reasoning if a teacher explains to them the reasons behind facts.  (4) But many people can only memorize facts.	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Liberal schools, an argument for.  Elementary and high school are usually neutral in terms of politics, due to pressures on teachers to be apolitical.  College may seem liberal, but college is only four years.  Then its forty years of the work world, the business world, which is conservative.  Ten times as long a time is spent in the conservative work world than in the liberal college world.  And yet there are conservatives who decry even four years of mildly progressive education.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Me:  I would have been much better off without school, on my own.  I had a constant creeping desire to learn.  School destroyed that desire totally for years.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Middle ages: no school for anyone.  1800: grade school for many.  1900: high school for many.  2000: college for many.  2100: grad school for many.	8/20/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Most important ideas.  (1) Education for a job vs. education for life.  Both are needed.  (2) School is necessary for a diploma, but it does not teach you all you need to know.  (3) Self education and lifelong education are both important.  (4) Learn to learn.  Learn to think.  (5) Find the best books.  Keep a record on a computer of found and figured notes.	10/30/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Most important ideas.  (1) Self learning is key.  Writing down what you have learned is key.  (2) Lifelong learning is key.  (3) Developing judgment of choice of what to read and learn is key.	10/05/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Most important things I can tell you.  Lifelong learning on every topic.  Self-directed learning on every topic.  Figure out and find out.  Lifelong thinking and writing on every topic.  Information management.	4/2/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Negative sides of education.  (1) Academia:  There is much competition.  A lot of attack and defense.  People form gangs for power.  Academic gang violence.  Turf war.  Character assassination.  (2) High school:  Community pressures on teachers.  Teachers narrowly restricted by subject and view.	2/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	Objections to education.  At some point in your school career the following objections to school occur: (1) Unimportant information.  (2) Useless information.  (3) Wrong.  False.  Factually inaccurate.  (4) Suboptimal attitudes.  Suboptimal values.  (5) Objection to the teaching methods.	7/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	Objections to learning.  Attitudes toward psychological change that inhibit learning.  Personality types who refuse to learn because they do not want to change.  (1) Rigid, dogmatic, tradition bound.  (2) Weak ego, defensive, overly self-protective.  (3) Highly repressed.  Won't think of anything.  (4) Obsessed, pre-occupied, won't think of anything except x.  (5) Fear, anger, depression, and other forms of emotional interference.  (6) Lazy, apathetic, demotivated and other drive related problems.  (7) Poor attitude about life in general.  (8) Know it all attitude.  (9) Us vs. them, bunker mentality.  (10) Hedonism.  Thinking is too much work.  (11) Ostrich.  Head in sand.  (12) Staying in one's safe and secure little world.  Provincialism.  (13) Its too much of a blow to one's ego to admit and face one's ignorance.  (14) To painful to face the problems of this world.	4/8/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Objections to learning.  Three common objections to learning.  (1) It is to hard.  I cannot do it.  (2) It will not help.  It's not worth it.  (3) It's no fun.  It's a bore.	6/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Objections to learning.  What discourages people from pursuing education?  Education defined as lifelong information gathering.  And what discourages people from applying their education?  Applying education defined as lifelong problem solving, which is just as important as information gathering.  Some of the sub-optimal attitudes people take towards education: (1) I can't do it.  (2) I do not like it.  It is boring.  (3) I just want have fun.  (4) I do not have time, due to job or family.  (5) I forgot to do it.  (6)(A) The world is against me in particular, for whatever reason.  (B).  The world is hopeless in general.  (7) I am easily discouraged.  (8)(A) Education will not help me in particular.  (B)  Education does not help in general.  (9)(A) There is no good knowledge out there.  (B) I'm afraid of getting my hands on the wrong books, and my mind on the wrong ideas.  (10) I do not want to face the world.  Head in sand.  Willful ignorance.  (11) It is not my job.  Someone else is handling it.  (12) The person is a believer of propaganda, and not a critical thinker.	12/20/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Once the final mile problems is overcome, and we have high speed fiberoptic lines or wireless connections everywhere, the next big problem becomes the final yard from monitor to brain (i.e., getting knowledge into brains).  One solution may be digitized lectures free to anyone, anywhere.  Another question is what to learn?  The old curriculum was trigonometry, algebra, etc.  The new curriculum should be environmentalism, social justice issues, health issues, philosophy, psychology, and sociology.  Another big problem: how to convince or persuade people to learn?	3/11/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  (1) School interferes with learning.  (2) School stifles exploration and creativity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  (1) Some schools teach you to conform and obey.  (2) Some schools teach you to think for yourself.  (3) Avoid "1".	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  (1) The spirit of learning is liberal.  Change, progress, curiosity, mystery.  (2) The spirit of institutions of formal education is conservative.  Order, stasis, inertia.  (3) When curiosity enters stasis, the spirit of learning suffers, and they hate it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Contra: education at its worst is brainwashing; it creates wimps, clones, and drones.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Current US school system: why does it suck in general, and why did I hate it specifically?  (1) No freedom: to choose what learn when, how long.  (2) Too slow.  (3) Many areas left uncovered.  (4) They don't present subject completely (depth, breath) from logical and historical outlines, moving from basic to complex concepts, and from roots to branches.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  First two years of college are a waste review.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Formal education can impede your development, uses up time and energy, and keeps you from confronting important personal problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Formal education does not mean you are knowledgeable if you learned nothing, or learned lies, or learned unimportant, or if you forgot it all, or if you learned but can't use it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Great books (classics) way of education is b.s.  It takes too long.  Boil it down to one big outline.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  I love learning but I hate school.  School interferes with learning.  It is so slow.  It wastes time and energy on useless stupid papers.  It destroys natural curiosity and diverts attention from most needed directions of discovery.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Illiteracy is too simple a name for the lack of education.  It is not just that people can not read.  People have stopped thinking.  They have narrow, parochial minds.  They have closed minds.  Wasted time, wasted brain power, and unused brains.  People could be helping themselves and helping society.  People are abusing and neglecting their minds.  These conditions go way beyond not being able to read, and so illiteracy is too simple a term to describe what ails us.	3/29/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Pessimistic view of the educational system.  They are not teaching, they are just weeding.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Preaching, propaganda, and indoctrination.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  School destroys curiosity, and desire to learn and think on school subjects or any subject.  It destroys natural interest directions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Schools proves who has ability and motivation to do much boring work for long periods of time, under pressure and time limits, just like survival work.  School also proves who will obey.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  They told us what subjects to think about, what views to take on it, when to think about it, and how to think about it (modes of thought).  It was brain washing, mind control.  We were mental and physical prisoners.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Problems.  Too often school makes kids hate thinking, learning, reading, and writing, by forcing them to do things they don't want to do, when they don't want to do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Progressive education.  Conventional education has a tendency to de-politicize and distract people from Progressive activism.  Conventional education has a tendency to de-politicize people by taking a politically neutral stance on all topics.  Conventional education has a tendency to distract people by making them take courses that have nothing to do with Progressive activism.  So one must pursue a Progressive education alongside one's conventional, formal education.	5/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Progressive education.  Educating people to be better progressives.  Understand the entire world from a Progressive political standpoint.	3/15/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Public education available to anyone.  Public education should include preschool.  Public education should include college.  Public education should include adult education.  Public education should be no cost to the user.  Public education should be available free through the Internet.  The public education system should be expanded, not dismantled by mistaken conservatives.	11/13/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	Purpose of education.  (1) To exercise mind (puzzles).  (2) To learn to learn.  (3) To learn important ideas to deal with life.  (4) For degree, for career.  (5) For interest.  (6) Know how to survive.  (7) Occupational skills.  (8) Know how to think (function).  (9) Have a body of knowledge (content, structure).  What exists: metaphysics.  How we know: epistemology.  What to do: ethics.  (10) Develop right attitudes (emotion + thought) on all subjects.  (11) Education for workplace, citizenship, and life philosophy.  (12) Motivations for education.  (A) Fear punishment vs. want reward.  (B) Self motivated vs. other motivated.  (C) Self directed vs. other directed.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Raising kids vs. adult education.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Related subjects.  (1) Politics of education.  Education of the public is necessary for the form of government known as Democracy.  Democracy is based on education.  (2) Economics of education.  Education is needed to get oneself out of poverty.  Education costs money, though.  (3) Technology and education.  Pencils and paper.  Chalk and board.  Language, writing, printing, computers.  (4) Psychology and education.  Education is needed to develop the mind, in order to avoid the problems of ignorance, mistakes, emotional pain, and psychopathology.  (5) Sociology and education.  The school is a social situation.  One learns social skills in school.	8/8/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Related subjects.  Philosophy (ethics).  (1) Any attempt at education imposes values.  What values should we impose and how?  (2) Teaching motivation and values in school.  Can it be done, should it be done, how?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Related subjects.  Politics and education.  (1) Life is political, so how can education not be political?  (2) Of what value is an apolitical education?  Apolitical meaning non-political.  One can argue that an apolitical education does a disservice to a person.  (3) Is it possible for education to convey the importance of politics, without education being politically biased?  That is the challenge.  (4) And yet, in schools in the United States, civics class is an attempt to impart the political values of the United States on students.  And so on, every nation imparts its values on its citizens.  (5) There is a set of political ideas that are accepted, core, foundational.  And there is a set ideas that are in dispute, debate.  These two sets of ideas usually change over time, hopefully in the direction of progress.	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Related subjects.  Politics.  Political influence over education.  Who picks what is taught?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Scholarship as jazz.  Riffing off your work and other people's work.  Spontaneous improvisation.  Variations on a theme.	09/20/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School burnout.  Sick of school.  (1) Sick of professor.  (2) Sick of subject.  (3) Sick of the particular coursework.  (4) Sick of the school in general, or the administration, or the curriculum.  (5) Any combo of above.  (6) Sick of fellow students.  (7) Depressed about life in general.  (8) Depressed about some extra-school aspect of your life that is affecting your schoolwork.	06/20/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School is like swimming under water.  You try to pass the final before you run out of air.  After the final you can breath again.	07/08/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School is masochistic.  You pay for pain, and the potential of failure and loss of money.  Will it pay off?	10/15/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School should be free if you fail, plus a consolation prize.  Pay only if you pass.  No use piling up humiliation on top of monetary loss.  It demotivates people from pursuing an education.	09/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  (1) First 6 years of school (age 6 - 12), they are teaching you to read, write, and do arithmetic.  Learn how to use the library and the web.  You learn how to learn.  (2) The next 6 years (age 12 - 18) you are in jr. high and high school.  Busy with growing up.  You should also be teaching yourself.  Finding out and figuring out.  (3) From 18 on, including college, you are an adult.	05/10/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  In grade school, jr. high, and high school.  There should be one class a week in psychology, sociology and work/career.  Questions like: Who am I?  What do I want to be when I get older?  What are the jobs like?  So much is wasted because school is just way off the mark.  You can teach kids skills while teaching them about the current real world.  The way to teach is not just by using abstract theory or history.	08/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  Is a class easy or hard to you?  It depends on (1) Your pre-existing knowledge.  (2) How attracted or repulsed by the subject matter you are.  (3) How long and hard you study, and how well you study.  (4) How intelligent you are.  (5) How good you are at school (in other words, it is tough to say).  (6) How your life is going outside of school.	10/30/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  It all depends on time and effort.  If you stay ahead of the game, the class (or your co-workers at work), then your school (or work) experience will be a joy.  If you fall behind it will be hell.  If you stay even it will be neither.  I want my life to be joyful.  I produce more and better work in that emotional state, and have more fun too.	06/10/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  Learn the material before you enroll in the course.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	School.  Three problems.  (1) A lot of the stuff you learn in school is irrelevant and useless.  (2) A lot of the work you do in school is useless and does not contribute to society.  Busy work.  (3) You don't get paid for going to school.	02/22/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Schools segregated by sex, school uniforms and curfews are sub-optimal.	02/15/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Self taught vs. taught by others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Sitting in a cafe at an expensive, private, ivy league school, watching the smart, rich, motivated kids wending their way through life.  Meanwhile, what of the poor, aimless, confused, distracted, disenchanted, scattered, frazzled airheads?  	1/12/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Some people value grades.  Some people value knowledge.  Some people value both.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teach kids:  (1) How to teach themselves.  (2) Why to teach themselves: motivate them.  (3) What to teach themselves: give them an outline guideline.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  (1) Lecture.  (2) Dialogue.  Question and answer.  (3) Lab.  (4) Discussion of readings.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  (1) Which teaching methods are better for which age groups?  (2) Which teaching methods are better for which subjects?  (3) Which teaching methods are better for which individual students?  (4) Which teaching methods are better for which individual teachers?	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  Courses with assigned text readings versus courses with no texts.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  Homework.  (1) How much homework to give?  An equal amount of homework for each class.  Total amount not to exceed four hours a day.  (2) Whether to assign a paper or project.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  Individual work versus group work.  People should be able to work well with others and work well alone.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching methods.  Which books would you pick to teach the subject?  How would you teach the book?  What would you say about the book?  Have a set of lecture notes.  What would the syllabus or course outline look like?	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching spectrum.  (1) Will go out of way to teach.  (2) Will answer questions: gladly vs. grudgingly.  (3) Will not answer questions.  (4) Will lie and screw you up.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching yourself.  Self learning, auto-didactic, keeping at it, learning the material.  (1) Finding the good stuff.  Figure out what to learn.  Cover all areas.  Recognize good books.  (2) Reading fast.  (3) Taking good notes.  Organized, concise, clear.  (4) Remembering and applying the information.  (5) Keeping up with changes in the field.	03/20/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching: Is it molding young minds or is it making young minds moldy?	7/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  Best way to teach is to motivate and inspire.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  How best to teach individuals or groups?  What to teach to who?  Degree of force or freedom (choice).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  How do you teach six billion people?  You get them to teach themselves.  There are two ways how.  The first way is to get people to figure out stuff themselves.  The second way is to get people to find out stuff themselves.  The above two methods as opposed to having to hire teachers for everyone, which is much more expensive.     The issues involved are the following: (1) People need free time to learn.  (2) People need access to information to learn.  (3) People need the tools to record and share information.  (4) People need to be motivated.  (A) They need to value knowledge and learning more than they value money and stuff.  (B) People need to value critical thinking and debate more than they value blind belief and blind obedience.  (C) People need to value energetic industriousness more than they value laziness and apathy.  (4) What if people figure out the wrong things?  What if they do not want to teach themselves?  What if they are clueless?	8/6/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  One philosophy of education at the college level is that education does not involve the teacher telling the student what to think.  Rather, education involves the teacher getting the student to think, to generate ideas, and to critique ideas.	4/24/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  Teacher, three views of.  (1) Teacher as someone who knows everything.  Teacher as someone who knows all the right answers.  That is a fallacious view of teaching.  (2) Teacher as anyone who is one step ahead of the student.  Therefore, anyone can be a teacher because there is always someone less knowledgeable.  (3) Teacher as a fellow learner who guides class inquiry.  Any student in the class can be the teacher if motivated to lead a discussion.  The class as a group of learners.	3/18/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  Two teaching mistakes.  (1) Allowing anything.  Every one gets an A.  No one fails.  (2) Allowing nothing.  No one gets an A.  Every one fails.  (3) A counter-argument: One can imagine a situation in which an entire class gets A's because every student works hard.  One can imagine a situation in which an entire class fails because no student works hard. 	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  You can't teach anyone anything.  All you can do is show them what you do, and then they can decide if it works for them.	01/24/1989

Psychology, thinking, education.	Teaching.  Your teaching style does not suit my learning style.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  (1) Public vs. private (religious and non-religious) education.  (2) American vs. European vs. Japanese systems.  (3) Local vs. national vs. world control.  (4) How long day and year.  (5) Tracking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  All formal education should be aimed at survival work and or practical life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Books vs. computers vs. lectures.  Electives vs. no choice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Case method = problem solving = application solving.  Cases: simple vs. complex, clear vs. muddled.  You should have the theory down first.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Case study is for people who already know the theory.  It emulates real life examples, problems, and applications.	10/20/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Developing unhealthy slaves and drones vs. developing healthy free thinkers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Education spectrum.  (1) Encouraging them to memorize.  (A) Facts, or principles, or both.  (B) Explanations.  (C) Alternate views and arguments.  (2) Encourage them to think for themselves.  (3) Make them come up with questions as well as answers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Methods: wrote memorization, Socratic dialogue, case method, group learning, historical approach, theory vs. applications.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  There should be high school classes in (1) Physical health.  Not gym, but rather communicating the importance of sleep, diet, and exercise.  (2) Psychological health.  Types of problems, causes, therapies, and preventative techniques.  (3) Economic health.  Career search.  Jobs.  Budgets.  (4) Social health.  Importance of social relations.  Friendships.  Assertiveness (sticking up for oneself).  (5) Environmental health.  Taking care of the environment.  A green education.	07/02/1997

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Two education theories.  (1) Show kid nothing vs. show kid everything.  (2) Pros and cons of each.  2nd is right.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Two philosophies of education.  (1) Allow them no freedom.  (2) Allow them total freedom.  Pursue whatever you want whenever, at whatever pace, to whatever degree.  (3) Do we want to create drones or creative types?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  Ways to do it.  Force, threats, propaganda, psychological persuasion and coercion vs. reasoned argument.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Techniques.  What works best in education?  Slowly building for long time, vs. heavy and quick immersion, and then moving onto something else.	04/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, education.	Test types:  True or false.  Multiple choice.  Essays.  Problem solving puzzles.  Math questions.  Logic analogies.  Verbal vocabulary tests.  Spatial, object rotation tests.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	Tests.  It seems most graduate level standardized exams do not test, and are not meant to test, how smart you are (how much you know).  It seems most graduate level standardized exams test, and are meant to test, how hard you are willing to work at studying boring material (high school vocabulary and math).	12/30/1995

Psychology, thinking, education.	Tests.  Testing knowledge of facts vs. testing problem solving ability.	02/01/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	The "great books" method of learning is bogus.  (1) In 2000 years we have made a list of 1000 great books.  At that rate, in 20,000 more years there will be about 10,000 great books.  Nobody will have the time to read 10,000 great books.  (2) Or, alternatively, if you keep the list length at 100 books then in 20,000 years 90% of the current great books will no longer be great anymore.  (3) Either way, the great books method of learning is bogus.  The better way to learn is to abstract and outline the great ideas and just work from a logical outline of great ideas.	9/22/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	The best argument for education is that public education should be available for everyone, at any age, any place, at no cost to user.  There should be standardized tests that anyone can take for free, and that are universally recognized by the rest of society.	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	The big questions about education.  (1) To what degree are humans educable?  That is, is it 100% nature, 100% nurture, or somewhere in between?  I say it is 50/50.  (2) How do you define education?  Behaviorists would say that education means effecting a change in behavior.  Others would say education means changing thought, both thought content and thought mechanisms.  Others would say education includes emotional development and attitudes.  Yes.  (3) Who has effects on educating a person?  Parents, teachers, peers, community, the person themselves?  Actually all are important.  (4) How does the most effective educational methods change with the age of the learner?  And when is it too early or too late to learn something.  (5) Ways of learning.  You can learn by seeing the world (travel).  You can learn by interacting with people.  You can learn by reading a book.  You can learn by doing.  You can learn by imagining.	8/18/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	The only effect of education is to make people think they are credentially qualified to do jobs for which they are not mentally qualified; and to make people think they are not credentially qualified to do jobs for which they are mentally qualified.	10/31/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	The real world?  Some people think the world of work is "the real world".  Some people think school is not "the real world".  Some people denigrate school because they think school is not the "real world".  That is a mistaken view.   (1) School is real.  You are not imagining that you are in school.  School is not an hallucination.  (2) The "work world" created schools.  (3) The work world is not all its cracked up to be either.  (4) In this class you have the freedom to create.  You have what film makers call "creative control".  (5) Think of school as your job.  Its your job to learn.  They are not paying you, its true.  (6) College is a golden age of thought.  College lets you use your recently developed abstract thinking ability.  Gathering knowledge about the world.  Four years to ponder, wonder, sort things out.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	The schools have been depoliticized because schools are afraid to alienate their customers the students.  Afraid to teach politics.  Afraid to take political stances.  As a result of attending depoliticized schools, the populace has become depoliticized.  A depoliticized populace is a danger to itself.	7/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	The variables in education are (1) Who you teach: children vs. adults.  (2) What you teach.  What views you believe are true and false.  (3) Scope.  Breadth and depth.  (4) How you teach.  The methods that you use to teach, be they lecture, textbooks, etc.  (5) Whether you address only raw fact data vs. the whole person.  That is, in addition to building a person's knowledge base, do you also address a person's thinking-skills development, emotional development, social development, ethical development, etc.	2/1/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	There are many types of learning.  (1) Learning to avoid pain and get pleasure.  (2) Learning to avoid predators.  (3) Learning to get food.  (4) Learning to fight and to love.  (5) Learning a physical activity.  (6) Learning a piece of music.  Learning to recognize a piece of music.  Learning to play a piece of music in your head.  Learning to play a piece of music on an instrument.  (7) Learn a fact.  Learn a lie.  (8) Learning to be creative vs. learning to obey blindly.  (9) Learning to be honest vs. learning to be a criminal.  (10) Learning to be brave vs. learning fear.	6/10/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	There are two types of schools:  Schools that teach creativity vs. schools that destroy creativity.  Problem solving and decision making are forms of creativity (?).	12/30/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	There is a difference between (1) What you need to know to get the degree.  (2) What you need to know to do the profession	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	They key is to convince people to educate themselves, in their free time, for fun.  Otherwise, they will just forget all they learned in school, and spend their time vegetating or consuming bullshit entertainment.  So education is really about motivation.	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	Things they didn't or couldn't teach you in school are most important.  They couldn't teach you experiential knowledge.  They couldn't teach you everything if they tried.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	Three must haves.  (1) Access to information.  (2) Motivation to take in the information.  (3) Judgment to direct studies.	5/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	To what extent does raising your kids involve educating your kids?  Some would define raising a kid as educating a kid, meaning one is synonymous with the other.  An opposite view holds that raising a kid means providing food and water, much like growing a plant.  Raising a kid defined as merely keeping them from getting killed is a minimal conception.  If raising a kid means educating a kid then to what extent can one abdicate this task to the school system?    PART TWO.  If the majority of raising or educating a child is up to the parent then how are they to do it?  With books?  With computers?  What if the parent has to work 8 hours a day away from the child?  How to raise or educate the child in terms of ethics, social skills, emotional knowledge, etc.?  How to educate in terms of practical knowledge vs. theoretical knowledge?	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, education.	Two different ways of teaching.  (1) Breadth (broad scope) vs. depth (narrow details).  (2) Principles (roots or foundations) vs. the leaves (what word?).  (3) These two pairs (1&2) are not the same.  And in both cases it is better to first focus on the former (breadth and roots) and then the latter (details and leaves).	7/16/2000

Psychology, thinking, education.	Two ways of learning and living.  (1) Old way of life and learning: Get a degree in a particular subject area.  Then get a job in the same subject area.  (2) New way of life and learning: Self-directed learning via the Internet.  Be an activist in your free time.  Support yourself with odd jobs.	3/3/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	We must make philosophy of education part of the curriculum, because kids ask "why am I here in school?"  School is the problem.  Every year explain to them (1) The importance of education for job, life wisdom, and enjoyment.  (2) Importance of life long learning.  (3) Importance of self education on their own.  (4) Problems of learning "just for grades only".  Grades are important, but only half the story.  (5) Importance of thinking for themselves (figuring out vs. finding out).	06/17/1994

Psychology, thinking, education.	What are we to make of the situation where an "easy college" can seem like high school recapitulated, and a "challenging college" can seem like graduate school?	2/18/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	What is education?  (1) Education defined as developing a set of attitudes (thought and emotion) on all topics.  (2) Education as developing a set of arguments (reasons) on all topics.  (3) Education as developing a set of thinking skills for all topics.  (4) Education as developing the motivation to think on all topics.	12/11/2005

Psychology, thinking, education.	What school often does is make students think that learning is unimportant and that learning is not fun.  We need to transmit to students that learning is important and that learning is fun.  In education, motivation (drive) and emotion is at least as important as thinking.	12/5/1999

Psychology, thinking, education.	What to teach a person.  (1) Teach them WHY they should pursue lifelong self education.  Motivate them.  (2) Teach them HOW to pursue lifelong self education.  Teach them how to spur yourself to keep thinking.  How to record found and figured ideas.  How to write figured ideas as Notes (one idea per paragraph, and sort paragraphs by keywords).  For found ideas, teach how to pick what to read (i.e., choose foundational ideas of wide scope), and how to take notes on it.	7/21/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	When you educate yourself by reading a book should you consider yourself self-taught or taught by the author of the book?	1/26/2004

Psychology, thinking, education.	Why are we here in class?  Of course, to get a degree.  But also, because we have made a commitment to knowledge, thinking, reason, information, curiosity, questioning, and inquiry.	4/2/2007

Psychology, thinking, education.	Why does college suck so bad?  It is to prepare you for the world of work, which sucks even worse.	7/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, education.	Why I think teaching sucks.  (1) Usually you have to tell someone something ten times before it sinks in and a light bulb goes on.  (2) People seldom thank you for enlightening them.  Usually people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the truth.  (3) Learning is growth, and growth is change, and people resist change because they are comfortable where they are.  (4) Learning takes work, and people are lazy.  People conserve their resources.	10/11/1998

Psychology, thinking, education.	You are responsible for your own education, no one else is.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, education.	You do not want to spend your entire life reading books; and yet, you want to read a little every day.	5/10/2007

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	.This section is about the concepts of figuring out and finding out.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) A creative person often can figure out (for themselves) faster than they can find out (from others).  (2) A skilled researcher can often find out (from others) faster than they can figure out (for themselves).  (3) Do whichever is more efficient and economical for you.	5/8/1999

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Figure out: Putting two and two together.  That is, any new conclusion that you reach, based on pre-existing ideas, whether the ideas are self-generated or whether the ideas are from outside sources.  It can be a guess, a hunch, a provisional hypothesis, or a thought experiment.  Thus, figuring out is not the same as logic, deduction or rationalism.  (2) Find out: Verbal information from an outside source.  The source can be another person, print, television film or radio.  We are talking here about processed information, not raw sensory data.  Thus, finding out is not the same as science, induction, or empiricism.	5/8/1999

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Figuring out can be defined as: (A) Learning by doing.  (B) Active learning.  (C) Skill building.  (D) Mental exercise.  (2) Finding out can be defined as: (A) Learning by lecture.  (B) Passive learning.  (C) Finding out builds one's knowledge base, but it does not build thinking skills.	5/22/1999

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Find out.  We find out from the media.  We find out from talking to other people.  (2) Figure out.  We figure out by thinking critically, for example, thinking critically about what we find out in the media.  We figure out by being creative.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Found knowledge.  Speed of learning depends on (A) Hours available to read.  (B) Pages read per hour, and pages of notes written about them.  (C) Speed of memorizing.  (D) How long memory of knowledge lasts per each time you review (re-read) it.  (E) Speed of forgetting.  (F) Carrying capacity of mind.  (2) Figure.  How creative are you.  Ideas per unit time.  (3) Given our found and figure abilities, what can we expect?  What should we try to learn?  Picking what to learn is the most important part.	06/10/1997

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) How to decide what to think about (figure out)?  How to decide what to read about (find out)?  (2) Unfortunately, there are those who decide not to think (figure out) or read (find out).  (3) The most important step in life is to make a decision to think (figure out) and read (find out).  The second most important step is to decide what subjects to figure out and find out about.  These two important steps take place not in grades 1-12 (age 0-18) but after.  If you make this choice, most of your learning will take place after college, during your adult commitment to lifelong learning.	5/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Memory = Data = stuff you found out from other sources.  (2) Stuff you figure out is of two types.  (A) Senses stimulating imagination.  (B) Reason.  These two are creativity.	1/10/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) Thinking ("minding"), i.e. figuring out, and (2) Gathering information, i.e. finding out, are what humans are made to do.  It is what they are good at.  It is their purpose.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	(1) We figure out with our entire mind: senses, memory, emotion and thought.  (2) We are figuring out even while we are finding out.  The two processes occur simultaneously.  (3) We also figure out whether to believe what we find out.	7/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	A person who does all finding-out and no figuring-out is likely to not know who they are, and is likely to suffer from an overactive super-ego and an underdeveloped ego.  (2) A person who does all figuring-out and no finding-out is less likely to "play well with others", and is likely to suffer from an overactive ego and underdeveloped social skills.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Another word for figuring out is creativity.  Figuring out is personal-level creativity, even if not society-level creativity.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Arguments for and against (1) Figuring.  (A) It is fruitless, nothing can be known.  (B) It is not worth the time and energy.  (C) Other things are more important.  (2) Finding.  (A) It is boring.  (B) Domesticating, civilizing, enslaving, not freeing.  (C) Clone, drone.  (D) Waste of time, not useful.  (E) It can change you, for worse.  (F) It can't change you.  (G) Giving in to system.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Attitudes about information.  (1) Accept no information vs. accept information.  (2) Absorb information passively vs. look for information actively.  (3) Accept information uncritically vs. being critical about information.	11/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Definitions.  (1) Figuring out: "experience" or one's own thinking.  (2) Finding out: "book learning" or Internet, television, radio, etc.  (3) Not really.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Excuses for not searching for information.  (1) No time to do so.  (2) Do not know how to do so.  (3) Thinking your brain is full and cannot hold any more information.  (4)  Thinking you are perfect.  Thinking your views on any subject are 100% correct.  (5) Fearing having your ideas changed.  (6) Thinking that it is no fun to find new information.  (7) Thinking it is too difficult to find new information.  (8) Thinking it is no use and why bother because it is futile and worthless.	11/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Figure out is actually a combination of empiricism (sense data) and rationalism (logic).  Figuring out also involves: (1) Body knowledge (be).  (2) Action knowledge (do).  (3) Experiential knowledge (be done to).  (4) Memory (remember any of above).     PART TWO.  Finding out is a combination or mix of: (1) Book knowledge, or any other media.  (2) Second hand knowledge (testimony from others).	7/12/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Figuring out is more powerful than finding out because finding out will not get you to change as much as figuring out will.	11/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Figuring out is not the same as learning from experience because you can read something (book learning) and then figure out a new idea not contained in what you read but also not derived from any experience you had.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Figuring out vs. finding out is not the same as book learning vs. learning from experience.  Nor is it the same thing as rationalism vs. empiricism.  Its a unique category.  Its an important category.  Its an overlooked category.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Figuring out vs. finding out.  We figure out when we think of a new idea ourselves.  We find out when we get verbal information from outside sources.  (See psychology, thinking)	01/01/1993

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Find-out general theories.  Figure-out your own life.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Finding and figuring out.  (1) Figuring out: thinking for yourself.  Finding out: listening to what someone tells you.  (2) Figure out (think of it) vs. find out (hear about it).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Finding out.  (1) Building your mind is like building a house, or a garden, or a city.  The books, movies, websites, etc., that you find and absorb, or fail to find, or decide not to absorb, are all important for building the mind.  Reading a book is like buying a prefabricated, preassembled component for your mind.  (2) You are responsible for the construction (or destruction) of your mind and thus of yourself.  You could end up with an empty lot of a mind.  You could end up with a dilapidated slum of a mind.  You could end up with a thorny hedge of a mind.  (3) Dumb luck, and your past history, and indifferent society, all need not determine who you are.  (4) Constructing you own mind is not effortless.  It requires work to grow the mind.  It requires maintenance.  Garbage in, garbage out.  Nothing in, nothing out.  Good stuff in, good stuff out.  (5) Build your mind when you don't need to, so that you have it ready when you really need it.	6/9/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Finding out.  The big problem with second hand knowledge, i.e. knowledge we have found out instead of figured out, is that anything we are told or read could be lies and in many cases we have no way of knowing if it is.  We trust the newspapers, some of us more than others.	03/20/1993

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	How much do people figure out vs. find out?  Consider this: Most people can read and write.  One would think that they would do each 50% of the time.  But in fact they read about 95% of the time and write about 5% of the time.  This is a sign that people find out 95% of the time and figure out 5% of the time.	6/4/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Hypotheticals.  (1) What if we spend our whole life finding out from newspapers, television and conversation without ever figuring out?  (2) What if we spend our entire life figuring out using first hand experience without ever finding out?	7/12/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	In our minds, figure out is not separate from find out.  We figure out based on what we find out.  We direct our finding out based on what we figure out.	7/12/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	It is very easy to waste your entire life by thinking (figuring out and finding out) about essentially useless things.  It happens all the time.	5/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Just as societies vary from one to the next in terms of what degree they encourage their members to think (reason) vs. believe (obey blindly), so also do the societies that encourage their members to think vary in what degree they encourage their members to either find-out information or figure-out ideas for themselves.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Modern American society is, perhaps unintentionally, pathologically forcing its members to rely predominantly on finding-out rather than figuring-out.  It does this several ways: (1) Bombarding people with information at work and play, leaving little quiet time for the individual to figure out.  (2) Creating a society in which we defer to specialist experts who tell us we are not smart enough to figure out things for ourselves (see Philosophy, specialization and generalization).	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Needs.  For x person in y situation what combonation of find and figure would be best for them?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Pathology.  (1) When a person is put in an environment where they are constantly bombarded with information they experience "information overload".  In this situation they are forced to continually find-out without having any time to figure-out.  Its a dangerous way to live.  (2) On the other hand, when people have no access to information they are "information starved".  They have to spend all their time figuring out because they have no resources to find out.  This is also a dangerous way to live.  (3) So not only is it bad to have "no time to think".  It is also bad if your time to think is forced to be either completely figuring-out or completely finding-out.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	People today rely too much on finding out as opposed to figuring out, because they lack good means to record and organize figured out stuff, and as a result, their figuring out processes get rusty.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Some people are good at finding out but are not good at figuring out.  Other people are good at figuring out but not good at finding out.  Some are good at both.  Ideally you want the educational system and society in general to produce people who are good at both figuring out and finding out, and who use both those skills equally.	1/24/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Some people are not good at figuring out.  Some people are not good at finding out.  You need both skills.  And you need to recognize the importance of using both skills daily.	10/11/1998

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Somethings you can only figure out (ex. personal things).  Somethings you can only find out (ex. the news from the other side of the world).	5/8/1999

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	The link between, on the one hand, "specialization vs. generalization" and, on the other hand, "figuring-out vs. finding-out" is the following: When society is full of experts in every area, and adheres to a "listen to the experts" attitude, then individuals are discouraged from figuring out things for themselves.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	There may be a difference between the sexes in the degree they figure-out and find-out.  The difference may be genetic (nature) or cultural (nurture).  An example of the difference is how guys are inclined to "figure it out for yourself" and not ask others for directions.  While women are more inclined to ask for directions and find-out from others how to get there.  Could this difference explain why most new inventions and discoveries are figured-out by men?  If one operates primarily by finding-out from others the things that are already known, then less new stuff is created.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Two bad extreme attitudes.  (1) "I can figure it all out by myself.  I don't have to read any books."  (2) "I can't figure anything out myself.  I have to get all my knowledge from books or experts."	11/20/2003

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Two types of Finding Out: (1) Actively searching and exploring.  (2) Passively accepting what the media gives you.	9/21/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	What does someone look like when figuring out?  Sitting quietly alone, staring into space in silence.  American society has zero tolerance for such behavior, much to its detriment.  America is action obsessed.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	What if you could save and organize everything you found out in life (words, music, movies, visual arts) and have it immediately accessible?  What if you could do the same for everything you figured out in life too?  (2) Sad fact: most of what we figure out and find out in life is trivial, simple and obvious.  Most of what we do in life is repetitive and mindless.  So what good would it do to capture all this information?     PART TWO.  (1) What percent do we actually figure out?  What percent do we find out (ex. From school, newspaper, television, books)?  Is not the ratio about 10 to 1 find out to figure out?  (2)  What amount of time do we actually spend doing each?  If I spend equal amounts of time doing each then what would the ratio of the resulting amount of information be?  Not 50/50.  More like 10 to 1 find out to figure out.  (3) Rather than what we actually do, what amounts of time should we spend on finding out vs. figuring out?  What would the ratio of the resulting information be?	7/12/2002

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	When we find-out something it usually leaves a physical trace, like a newspaper clipping, or a book you bought, or a computer print out.  These traces allow us to remember more easily.  These traces allow us to build on our ideas more easily.  (2) However, when we figure something out, most people do not write it down, so no trace exists.  The result is that it is forgotten easily and it is difficult to remember.  Another result is that building on ideas does not take place.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Why do I think that the sycophants who deify the great thinkers of the past are not quite on target?  There will come a day when your typical curious teenager will be able to figure out (not just find out) most of the major ideas of most of the major thinkers of the past.  They will accomplish this perhaps with the aid of a technology that lets them effortlessly record, organize and retrieve their own ideas.  I'm not talking about reading the greats.  I'm talking about recreating over lunch the major concepts that great thinkers labored their entire live to create.  It is not arrogance to think so, just like it is not arrogance when a twelve year old girl today can rockclimb better than the best male rockclimbers of thirty years ago.  At this point, the pedantic academic argument of "They thought of it first" begin to sound like a lame exercise by fans of historical minutiae.  Its going to happen eventually because people are getting smarter and technology is getting more advanced.	9/9/2001

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	You can't just find out things (read) in life.  You have to create, think, write for yourself, because (1) Your learning style is unique, (2) You and your life situation and needs are unique, and (3) Your potential contributions to world of ideas is unique.	08/21/1993

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Your big choice.  (1) Choosing whether to find out.  Choosing what to find out about.  (2) You structure all your finding out (i.e., you figure out what to find out about).  You interpret all your finding out (i.e., you figure out what to accept and reject).  Thus, anything we find out we have to figure out anyway.  (3) Many people only find out in order to confirm their beliefs and maintain their existing structure of ideas.  That is not good.	11/15/2000

Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out.	Your figured-out thoughts are more genuine and authentically you than are the ideas that you find-out.  No one can tell you who you are.	6/4/2001

Psychology, thinking, genius.	.This section is about genius.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Create much truth, quickly, all the time, questions and answers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Creative scientists, philosophers, and artists vs. non-creative scientists, philosophers, and artists.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Creativity = thinking of a new idea (new for you, or new for world).  Most people just don't try.  Much, much potential is wasted.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Creativity: four levels.  (1) Can't create and can't be corralled.  (2) Can't create, only drone.  (3) Create within a structure set by others.  (4) Wild and creative, can't be corralled.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Creator as (1) Bored.  (2) Rebel.  (3) Pragmatist vs. idealist.  (4) Neurotic: avoiding practicality through theory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Creators: Some work in base, some in branches.  Bust into new territory vs. elucidate old territory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Definitions of genius.  (1) Above 140 on IQ tests.  (2) Creates new and important work.  (3) Personality (ex. Wilde or Shaw).  (4) Renaissance man (ex. Da Vinci).  (5) You can have combos of any of above.  All 4 = super genius.	02/04/1994

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Does tension (sexual, etc.), energy, or pain increase speed or volume of creativity?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Essence of creativity is rebellion: "those old ideas are not as good as this new idea".	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Everyone is a genius at least once in their life.  The trick is to recognize when it occurs.	10/11/1998

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius by subject area.  For each of Gardener's eight intelligences, we can posit geniuses in those areas.  Mathematical genius.  Musical genius.  Literary genius.  Etc.  (2) Can we also posit scientific genius, philosophical genius, artistic genius, political genius and technological genius?	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius clearly sees the problems, defines or states them, prioritizes them, analyzes them, solves them.  Problems that exist here now, possible ones, theoretical ones, unseen ones.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius creates something new, useful, way different and way ahead of anything that was.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius creates something very useful, very true, very difficult and very new.	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius has higher speed, capacity, and understanding, to find and figure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius is not merely about pure intelligence (IQ) only.  Many other psychological factors are involved in genius.  Zest, for example.  Zest is a much overlooked and underrated quality.  Drive, on the other hand, is a quality too single-minded to impress me much.  Zestiness I appreciate, both in salad dressing and in people.  Zest for life.  Spark.  Flare.  Rattle them bones.	6/8/2001

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius is talent plus focus, effort, persistence, industriousness.	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius travels a path.  The path is new.  The path goes far.  The path is followed by others afterwards.	9/17/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius vs. stupidity: even genius is capable of stupidity due to refusal to think in general, or refusal to think about a specific subject (due to pathological psychology).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius: knowledge without experience vs. moronity: experience without knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Genius.  (1) "Genius" is an almost meaningless term, for several reasons.  (2) Who qualifies as a genius?  Aristotle, Newton and Einstein?  Any label that only describes three people out of six billion is next to useless.  (3) How many people have made outstanding creative contributions in philosophy, science, technology and art?  Tens of thousands.  Do we call all these people geniuses?  No.  Were they all invaluable?  Yes.  (4) Many people have both extremely high IQ's and a vast store of second hand knowledge, yet they have never managed to develop any new and useful ideas for society.  Are they geniuses?  No, not really.  (5) Many people made contributions that seem, at first glance, unbelievable and mystifying, yet when you study the path they took to their discoveries, and when you study the time and effort they put in, it seems quite understandable, perhaps even obvious.  Were these people geniuses?  Who knows.  (6) So one option would be to simply stop using the word genius.  No one is a genius.  Another option is to call everyone a genius.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	How easy is it to come up with a new idea (new, true, important)?  How easy is it to do new, true, important work by applying old ideas?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	How much of genius is obsession?  How much of genius is creativity?  How much of genius is logic?  How much of genius is memory?  How much of genius is drive, will and ambition?	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Is genius a difference of degree or a difference of type?  Most people today would say degree.  If is is a difference of degree then is it a difference of the degree of quality of output or of the quantity of output?  And doesn't output have to be measured against amount of input of time and energy spent thinking?  Quantity of output also depends on the technology available to capture the output.	8/5/2002

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Is it better to create a few low quality ideas than to find and borrow a bunch of good ones?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Is there any genius whose work, had that genius not lived, could not have been recreated by a dozen lesser men a dozen years later?	6/26/2002

Psychology, thinking, genius.	It is one thing to be a genius, it is another thing to be "just right".  To have just the right attitude about everything.  To have no major problems or attitude mistakes.  This is an accomplishment in itself.  Not many people reach it.  Most people have quite a number of real problem areas.  Most geniuses are not "just right" about everything.  If you can not be a genius, being "just right" is a worthy goal.  Call it wisdom.  To really have one's shit together.	10/15/1994

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Man is a naturally creative animal.  Solves problems, creates new ideas, and has changing concepts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	New for you vs. new for all.  Originality vs. usefulness.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	One alternative would be to reserve the word "genius" for those who are able to pay their rent.  You can pay your rent?  You must be some kind of freakin' genius.	6/22/2006

Psychology, thinking, genius.	One important trait of genius is vision, which is the ability to see either (1) The way things will be.  I.e., the way things are currently headed.  (Predictive.  Realism).  Or.  (2) The way things should be.  (Normative.  Idealism).  (3) Vision is a type of future oriented thinking.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, genius.	PART ONE.  At first the genius mind is like a wild horse.  Then the genius develops the ability to get on the horse.  The horse still goes wherever it wants.  The genius rides along.  He goes places never visited by those who break their horses, force their horses and steer their horses.     PART TWO.  Alternate scenario:  At first the genius mind is like a wild horse.  The genius attempts to get on the horse but the horse bolts.  The genius gets his foot caught in the stirrup.  The horse drags the genius through mud and over cacti.  The horse finally stops and the genius is left smarting yet happy to be alive.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Quantity vs. quality of ideas.  Breadth vs. depth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Real men of genius?  Let's hear it for you, Mr. Advertising Copywriter.  You put your heart and soul into a carefully crafted pitch to sell beer.  Like the exploited and oppressed workers about whom you create jingles, you too go home and get shit faced with a case of cheap brewskies.  Real men of genius, indeed.	6/7/2005

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Relation of genius to social adaptation and madness.  Illogical nature of life drives logical geniuses to insanity?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Sometimes they call you a genius for what you do.  Sometimes they call you a genius for what you refuse to do.  I refuse to write like you.	8/31/2000

Psychology, thinking, genius.	The biggest hurdle for an independent thinker to get over is cases where "I am right and everyone else is wrong."  It takes rebellion, conviction, persistence and endurance to pursue independent lines of thought.  For example, Einstein.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, genius.	The genius has a good idea of (1) What we know and what we don't know.  (2) How to figure out what we don't know.  (3) How to get what we need.	4/6/2000

Psychology, thinking, genius.	The word "genius" is overused to the point of meaninglessness.  We shouldn't even use the word "genius".  The word "genius" should be retired	9/17/2004

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Things that increase ideas quantity and quality (creativity, genius): be rested, be fueled, hi t, drive, positive attitude first thing in morning.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Thinking is putting ideas together.  Genius means (1) Putting together the most important and relevant ideas.  (2) Putting together in the best way, to get the best answers.  (3) This is synthesis as opposed to analysis.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Three elements of genius.  (1) Technical virtuosity.  (2) Creative ability.  Generative.  (3) Ability to tell what is good, and what has power.  Judgment and taste.  (4) The third element is most important.	11/13/1988

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Tortured genius.  How necessary is it for genius to be tortured?  A shit world will drive a high flyer even more angry, sad, and crazy, it is true.  How sane can you be and still be a genius?  How healthy?  If you are healthy, does that knock you out of the running?	11/10/1993

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Traits of genius: memory, organization, and creativity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, genius.	Types of genius.  (1) Polymath genius vs. single-subject genius.  (2) Healthy genius vs. neurotic genius.  (3) Wasted genius vs. well utilized genius.	5/16/2001

Psychology, thinking, genius.	You can't put a leash on genius.  It has to run free, or it dies.	12/14/1988

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	.This section is about ideals, problems and techniques of thinking.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal mind or optimal mind.  At all times you want your brain working at peak performance, at the boundaries of your knowledge, on all subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal person has ideal mind which includes total knowledge, which means know all, all the time.  Know what is.  Know what is most important, in all perspectives, for all situations.  Know what should be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  (1) Balanced, adapting, broad, expanding mind.  (2) Attack everything from every angle.  (3) Brave and wise.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Fast, complete, accurate, important, healthy, clear, balanced, powerful.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Free, unrepressed thought.  Freedom from internal repression.  Freedom from external repression.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Keep a balanced mind.  Keep a balanced intellect (methods).  Keep a balance knowledge pool.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Many big thoughts, old and new, theoretical and applied, in logical order and importance order.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Optimal mind.  Optimal thought structure for any situation, event, problem, or thing.  Optimal emotion, and memory too.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Optimal thought for a situation, and optimal knowledge base for a situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Place to get head.  Desperate, intense, driven, urgent, important, everyday in danger of being last, no b.s.  Ultimate, basic, foundation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  Smarter, better, and faster.  More efficient and more effective.  Less mistakes, and fewer logical fallacies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  To an ideal mind every idea is a hypothesis, subject to revision.  Ideal mind is adaptable, it grows and progresses.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  To the point vs. besides the point.  Truthful, subtle, precision, all the time.  Economical, big picture.  Focus: broad vs. narrow.  Concentration: long vs. short; deep vs. shallow.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Ideal.  To think, feel, and remember freely, powerfully, truthfully, all the time, on everything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem: no thoughts.  No thoughts due to no words versus no thoughts due to not thinking	4/26/2005

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  (1) People's interior monologues are very poor.  They don't use the right concepts (like situation, problems, goals, etc.).  Their minds are cluttered, not clean and efficient.  They are not up and running full time.  They do not think and do not write.  (2) The big problem with individuals.  Their mental content is cluttered with junk.  Their mental processes are inefficient.	11/10/1993

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  95% people don't think much or well.  Many people go cradle to grave without an important thought.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Blind obedience vs. free thinking and acting.  Wide and flexible views vs. narrow and rigid views.  Missing most important ideas in a situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Figuring out vs. finding out.  People give up to soon or end prematurely.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Knowledge deficiencies in key areas.  No thoughts, or false views, or unimportant views, or repressed thoughts, can all kill you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Most people don't think much or well on important things.  Many people have poor booting up ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  My big problem.  Determining information needs.  Finding quickest easiest way to get information.  Reduce reading and note-taking time.  Improve notetaking and memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Narrowness of thought.  Specialization of thought = cult thinking = unhealthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Old days: didn't need to know as much, and had more time to think about it.  Today: need to know more, and less time to learn it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  One fu*k up early on in a thought chain can send you far off course.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Optimal thought train for a situation vs. thought trains that are irrelevant, gap ridden, undirected.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  People don't think and write enough on their own.  They are too specialized, and not enough generalized.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  People who do not think:  Lazy minds.  Crazy minds.  Dull minds.  Fearful minds (fearful of what one might figure out).  These are people who do not think.  These are people who may turn to things like cults or religions.	7/24/1998

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  People who think they know it all, or think they know all they need to know.  These people stop thinking and learning.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Rigidity as a personality trait.  Causes and effects, pros and cons.  Close minded: nothing comes in.  Narrow minded: thinks only on few subjects, on one track.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  The problem is not that people don't use 95% of their brain.  The problem is that they don't use their brain 95% of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  There is no time to think or remember in order to integrate for health, between the demands placed on us by school, work, friends, etc.  This lack of time to think causes more stupid, unintergrated sick people.  Go off and integrate in quiet beauty.  Spend more time thinking, think more efficiently.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  They don't have time to think, don't want to think, don't know how to think, are interrupted by things, are seduced by other things, or let media think for them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Thinking of past, present, future.  Some people think too much or too little about any of these.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  When people think, "We don't have to think, others will think for us.", it is dangerous.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problem.  Wrong subject, wrong method, not enough thinking, or do it poorly,.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problems with thinking.  (1) Too much on one subject, and too little on another subject.  (2) Thinking on unimportant subjects.  (3) Not thinking at all, poor methods.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problems with thought.  (1) Obsession, narrow minded.  (2) Rigidity, unchanging.  (3) Poor reasoning ability.  (4) Shallow pool of knowledge, few ideas, inaccurate facts.	11/30/1997

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  (1) People who decide that they will not add any more ideas to their pool of knowledge.  (2) People who decide that they will not change any of the ideas in their pool of knowledge.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Most people think not enough, poorly, and on wrong subjects.  This leads to many big problems and a few crappy solutions.  A wasted life doing many sub-optimal things poorly.  And bad things too.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Problems.  Two problems.  (1) Having a wealth of experiences, yet not forming any inferences, hypotheses or conclusions.  (2) Being able to form conclusions, yet having little raw data, observations and experiences from which to draw inferences.  (3) The solution: Get a lot of experiences and make a lot of inferences.	1/1/2001

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Classification thinking (logical structure).  (2) Time thinking (historical organization).  (3) Value thinking (prioritized organization).  Think about most important things.  Think about what's most important and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Figure out best thoughts for a situation.  (2) Learn as much as you can.  (3) Know and do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  (1) Improve your thinking (reasoning) skills.  (2) Improve your creativity skills.  (3) Gain a wider and deeper pool of knowledge.  Read more books and better books.  (4) Get the rest of your head working well (memory, goals, emotions, etc.).  (5) Organize your knowledge.  Examine your hidden assumptions.	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Avoid stress.  Avoid wasting time and energies.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Bringing all your types of knowledge and intellect and skills resources to bear on a problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  How to "mind" best.  How to think, feel, remember best.  Keeping the big picture, staying philosophical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  How to think more: make time, and use the time.  How to think better: get more data, use "x in general" method.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  I get best ideas after warming up for an hour or two.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Mental exercises.  Puzzle solving.  Creative exercises.  Brainstorming.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Reading: (1) Fiction: linear.  (2) Textbooks: outline.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Relax to think, energize to think.  Focus energies, and economize energies.  Keep the garbage out: false, unimportant, sub-optimal.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Think about everything all the time because we experience everything, directly or indirectly.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Thinking takes time.  Take time to think.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Thinking when directionless or uninspired: work on subject outlines, most important ideas for me, goals, problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Three forms of knowledge. (1) Put knowledge in the form of math equations (i.e., math models).  I'm not good at this.  (2) Devise science experiments to test knowledge.  I'm not good at this.  (3) Put knowledge in the form of logical models.  This I may have a chance at.	7/25/2000

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Three tactics.  (1) Learning about thinking and creativity.  (2) Doing intellectual exercises (working out various intelligences and ways of thinking).  (3) Gaining wide and deep subject knowledge.  (4) How much is thinking improvable?  To what extent is thinking limited by IQ?  Can you turn an average person into a genius?  To what extent will gaining the above three help improve the quantity and quality of your thinking, and your life?	11/29/1993

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  To think well you need to feel comfortable (with self and with environment), and calm.	11/06/1993

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  Transfer of ideas to other subjects, and to other situations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  What increases the quality and quantity of thinking?  Time, effort, concentration, calmness, lack of distractions, unrepressed, practice, raw data (experience and books), writing.  What decreases quantity and quality of thinking?  Depression, fatigue, etc.	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, ideal problems techs.	Techniques.  What to think about in present situation.  What's going on?  How good is it for me?  What am I doing?  How well am I doing it?  How good is it for me?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	.This section is about imagination.  Topics include: ( ) Imagination.  ( ) Inspiration.  ( ) Vision.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	(1) Broad definition.  One way to define imagination is to say that any time you "think" of something that is not directly in front of you then you are using your imagination.  Thus, all memories and non-sensory thoughts are exercises in imagination.  (2) Narrow definition.  Another way to define imagination is to say that if you think of something that never happened to you then you have used your imagination.	5/29/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	(1) Imagination means to think of anything that is not actually the case.  If you know something to be true then you can imagine otherwise.  (2) Wonder means to imagine the possibilities for when you do not know something.  Wonder is a form of imagination.  (3) Doubt means to question.  Doubt is a form of questioning.  See: questioning.	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	(1) What is imagination?  Imagination is the ability to think of things that are not, that never were, and that never can be (impossibilities).  (2) Why did the ability of imagination develop in humans?  If you need to figure the odds of a situation, if you need to assess the probabilities, then you need the concepts of improbable, probable, impossible, and possible.  You need imagination to figure probabilities.  Humans needed to figure probabilities to survive.  Imagination is a survival tool.  (2) If humans had no imagination then there would be no abstract thought.  Imagination makes possible abstract thought.  Abstractions are things that are not physically real.  Imagination lets humans create thoughts about things that are not physically real.  (4) Imagination lets humans tell lies.  (5) Imagination makes possible question asking.  "Is there a hyena behind that tree?"  "It is possible that there is a hyena behind that tree."   These abilities increase survival potential.	11/14/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Are there any people who have a disorder that prevents them from imagining?	5/30/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	How is the ability to think abstractly related to the ability of imagination?  For example, when one does geometry, and considers the abstract notions of point, line and plane, is that an exercise in abstract thinking or is it an exercise in imagination?	5/30/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination about past, present and future.  Statements of imagination, that is, hypotheticals, take the form of "If...then", which is a type of conditional.  For example, "If it were not so in the past then perhaps something else", and, "If it was not so in the present then perhaps something else.", and "If it were not to be so in the future then perhaps something else."  The above quotes are counterfactual conditionals and are useful when engaging in reality checks such as the following: (1) Can I believe what the other  person is saying?  Is the other person lying?  Does the other person have a faulty memory or senses?  (2) Can I believe what I am seeing?  Are my senses faulty?  Can I believe my memory?  Is my memory faulty?  Am I remembering something that didn't happen?	9/14/2004

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination and counterfactuals.  (1) Examples.  The factual statement, "The earth is round."  The counterfactual statement, "The earth is not round."  The counterfactual conditional statement, "If the earth was not round but rather flat then you could fall off the edge of the earth."  (2) Examples like the above lead one to posit two types of imagination.  (A) Visual imagination is the type of imagination that lets you create an audio/visual picture in your mind that deviates from real experience.  Visual imagination is a result of image thinking.  (B) Logical imagination is the type of imagination that lets you use negation (NOT) to create a counterfactual statement.  Logical imagination is a result of linguistic or sentential thinking.	11/17/2004

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination and environment.  If you imagine your environment is another time and place, and if you imagine that tomorrow you will wake up and do something other than you will actually be doing (ex. Imagine you will harvest wheat, or be executed), and if you imagine this often, and intensely, how and how much will it change your mind and behavior?  Can it make you more creative?  How will it help or hinder you?	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination can take you farther than drugs can.  But imagination takes work.	8/23/1998

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination is a byproduct of the human ability to transcend the present "here and now" to think about the future (and past).  Thinking about the future let us develop the ability to plan, and develop the ability to choose between alternative courses of action, and to think about what possible courses of action our opponents might use.  From thinking about specific cases of what might be (or what could have been) it is a short step to a more generalized imagination that can think of things that can never be.  All creativity, artistic and otherwise, stems from the same ability.	11/10/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination is the basis for creativity, and thus art and invention, and thus progress.	12/29/2003

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination running wild.  A vivid, overactive imagination can sometimes be a hindrance if it causes you to panic and overreact.	11/7/2003

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  (1) Imagination is based on "pretending".  Just like kids play "lets pretend".  (2) Many psychological skills are based on imagination.  (A) "Vision" is based on imagination (vision defined as long term forecasting and strategic goal setting).  (B) Creativity is based on imagination.  (C) Hypothetical thinking is based on imagination.  (3) Imagination is a key component of genius, and it is crucial for all thinking.  "What if..." is a key phrase for imagination.  (4) (A) Future studies is based on imagination.  (B) Historical understanding is based on imagination.  (5) Emotional empathy is based on imagination (imagining how another person feels).  (6) Any thinking beyond the here and now relies on imagination.  Memory is very close to imagination.  Abstract thinking is very close to imagination (ex. imagining geometric shapes).  (7) What is imagination?  Thinking by creating a picture, or a movie (audio-video).  A vivid, active imagination is able to imagine clearly, strongly and often.  (8)(A) How to develop and exercise the imagination?  Play as a child?  Play as an adult?  Taking the time.  (B) What kills or degrades the imagination?  Constant lock-step work.	3/16/1999

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  (1) Imagination is good because (A) It is a mental workout, which is healthy.  (B) It is creative.  (2) Take a mental trip.  Two types of mental trips.  (A) Imagining the historical, the real or the possibly real.  Imagining what could have been, should have been, could be or should be.  (B) Imagining the impossible, or fantasy.	10/1/1998

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  (1) Imagine a setting or environment.  That's easy.  (2) Imagine a person or persons.  That's tougher.  (3) Imagine people interacting.  That's almost impossible.  (4) By imagine I mean, in this note, to create using your imagination.  I do not mean to picture or create a mental image of an existing person or place.  I also do not mean to call to mind a pre-existing mental picture of a fictional person or place.	11/20/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  (1) Personal emotional imagination answers the question, "How would I feel if their experience happened to me?"  (2) Sociological emotional imagination answers the question, "How would they feel if my experience happened to them?"	12/29/2003

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  (1) What destroys imagination?  (A) Depression.  (B) Spirit or will broken by authority.  (C) Constant work with no free time.  (2) What improves or encourages imagination?  (A) Quiet time to daydream.	02/05/1998

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  A good imagination is key to creativity.  Seeing something like a film in one's head.  Imagining people, places, things, actions and events.  To be able to envision.	07/02/1997

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  Five ways to get to imagination.  (1) From memory to imagination is a short step.  Memory produces imagination.  Because we never remember exactly.  There is always a question as to which of two similar memories of an event is the accurate one.  If one memory is accurate then the other memory is a figment of your imagination.  (2) From sense perception to imagination.  If you can ask yourself, "I can't believe what I am seeing.  Am I imagining it?", then the notions of illusions and mirages can lead easily to the notion of imagination.  (3) The notion of dreams can lead easily to the notion of imagination.  If you can dream when you sleep, and if you can remember your dreams, then you can more easily imagine things.  (4) The notion of doubt can lead easily to the notion of imagination.  If you can doubt that something is true, then you can imagine that it is otherwise, and that requires imagination.  (5) The notion of lying can lead easily to the notion of imagination.  If you can lie then you can imagine otherwise.	6/12/2002

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  Pretending, imagining, trying on roles through behavior and dress, experimenting, acting.  It can be a useful way to learn and grow, as well as a communicative technique and a public relations technique.	01/24/1994

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  To what degree can you use imagination to live in another world?  Can one be completely in an imaginary world?  Do novel writers do so?  Do novel readers do so?  How healthy is it?  How educating is it?  If you imagine a better world, to what degree do you reap the psychological benefits?  That is, if you live in an imaginary world(s) in addition to the real world what can you gain?  We tend to mock those who inhabit imaginary worlds instead of the real world.  But what about inhabiting imaginary worlds in addition to the real world?  Can you imagine so well that it seems real?  Can you gain imaginary experience?	3/29/2000

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Imagination.  What is the lowest animal to possess imagination?  Lets give two definitions of imagination.  (1) Imagination defined the ability to picture or call to mind the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch of anything that is not directly in their immediate environment.  This is imagination defined as mental imaging.  Perhaps the first animal to have memory was the first animal to have imagination.  Here I posit two types of memory.  Reactive memory causes an automatic reaction to a stimulus without conscious thought.  Image memory is memory that plays like a movie in the head.  Humans are so used to using image memory that we forget that most animals possess only reactive memory.  (2) Imagination defined as the ability to picture (using any of the sense abilities) something that one has never experienced before.  This definition rules out all memory-based images.  This is the common definition of imagination.  Yet how about confused, distorted or melded memories?  They can create new pictures which fit this definition of imagination.  Thus we can define imagination as a distortion of memories.  And one can argue that anything we can imagine must in some way be based on memories of what we have previously experienced.  (3) What survival benefit does an animal get from having imagination?  Imagination lets you plan strategy.  Imagination lets you invent tools.	6/14/2002

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration: grab it when it strikes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  (1) Getting in the mood to create.  Inspiration as a mood or motivation.  (2) Getting an idea.  Inspiration as a new thought.	10/1/1998

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  (1) Getting inspired (vision), getting psyched (drive), and being optimistic are three different things.  (2) Getting inspired 24 hours a day.  How to do it?	06/17/1994

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  Biographies of heroes, pictures of babes, mountain walks.  Travel, change of view.  Great works of art (literature, visual arts, music, movies, etc.).  Seeing the work of past and current greats.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  Definitions of inspiration.  (1) Inspiration as motivation.  (2) Inspiration as ideas and emotions which arrive seemingly out of nowhere, but probably out of your subconscious.	5/15/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  Music is very inspiring.  Music provides vision and emotion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  The big two questions: (1) X inspires you to do what most?  (2) What inspires you most to do x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  Types of inspiration.  (1) Inspiration to create.  (2) Inspiration to live.  (3) Inspiration to do anything.	4/10/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Inspiration.  What inspires me currently?  The lives and works of artist and thinkers.  Any great and noble act or work.  Quality, excellence, genius.	12/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Is imagination a form of thinking?  When we imagine an emotion are we thinking of that emotion?  Should I move all my imagination notes to the thinking section?  Yes.	5/29/2005

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	PART ONE.  Imagination and its relation to depression and anxiety.  (1) Depression and imagination.  Lack of imagination is a cause of depression.  Lack of imagination is not merely an effect of depression.  When you cannot imagine any possibilities it is depressing.  (2) Excess of imagination is a cause of anxiety.  Excess of imagination is not merely an effect of anxiety.  When you imagine too many negative possibilities it can cause anxiety.   PART TWO.  (1) Imagination is a key element of the human mind, in both health and in illness.  Usually imagination is a useful, helpful thing.  What causes imagination?  Imagination is in large part based on memory.  The hypothesis that I am advancing here is that memory, through its role in imagination, plays a larger part that suspected in both psychological health and psychological illness.  (2) Imagination is a mental process.  There is a mechanism of imagination.  There is a neurochemistry of imagination.	2/15/2006

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision and inspiration are closely related.	5/30/1998

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision is future thinking, in at least three ways.  (1) To imagine clearly a better situation.  (2) To believe it is obtainable.  (3) To want it.	1/22/1999

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision is important.  What could be and how.  What should be and why.  Seeing what is most important.  How clear you see it.  Vision of the new; vision of the future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision vs. inspiration.  Vision is seeing the big picture, and far into future, and most important things.  Seeing ways to go, and not, and why.  Percent of time you spend with any size vision window.  It closes due to fatigue, stress, distractions, poor nutrition, and pathological psychology.	06/01/1994

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision, future thinking.  Being able to see the possibilities.  Being able to see the potential in a situation.  Vision, or future thinking, is a vitally important skill, because vision is one of the major bases of motivation.  What motivates people is often a vision of the future.	4/23/2006

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision, types of.  (1) Vision of what could be.  (2) Vision of how to achieve goals.  (3) Vision of seeing beyond surface appearances.  (4) Vision as seeing beyond the present.	11/20/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  (1) The vision yields focus, concentration, drive, and energy to pursue it.  Lack of vision yields depression, aimlessness, no drive, and laziness.  (2) Aimless wandering and doing nothing, is it all bad?  How much time should we devote to it?  Vs. aimless yet actively searching and exploring, wandering for any good idea.	06/10/1994

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  Definitions of vision.  (1) The big picture.  Global thinking.  (2) Long term picture.  Future thinking.  (3) Complete picture.  All the details in every subject area.	5/15/2001

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  Holding the vision takes psychological and physical effort, time and energy.  Our normal state is mental rest (like a lion), pleasure, and satisfaction.  High ethics takes work.  Cool out and wait for the next big idea.	03/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  The vision is in music and babes, which yield hope, energy, ideals, life and love.  Not in despair, lethargy and practicality, which yield death and emptiness.	10/8/2000

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  To get the vision: Calm down, relax, get quiet.  See and feel your interests, and likes/dislikes, and reasons why.	01/01/1993

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  Without the vision there is only depression, hopelessness, and lazy inactivity.  The vision is future thinking.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, imagination.	Vision.  You have to have a strong, sure sense of (1) Who you are, and (2) What you believe in.  And you have to be willing to fight for yourself, and for what you believe in.  And you have to know how to fight.  Otherwise people will just use you for their purposes, or destroy you when you get in their way.  Knowing what you believe requires ethical development and thinking.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	.This section is about knowledge.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	(1) A person can be intelligent (high IQ) but dumb (unknowledgeable).  (2) A person can be knowledgeable in one area, but ignorant in another.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	(1) Great ideas make life easier, help us save resources, help us develop and get goals.  (2) Lesser ideas: don't as much.  (3) Bad ideas: do opposite.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	(1) Other terms that are similar to knowledge: information, ideas, thoughts, mental content, propositions.  (2) Philosophers have a technical use of the term "knowledge" to mean "justified, true, belief".  See: Philosophy, epistemology.  (3) There is an enormous amount of "background" knowledge that humans possess.  Subconscious knowledge that a person knows but is not consciously aware that they know.  (4) A body of knowledge or set of knowledge has a structure.  Some knowledge depends on other knowledge.  One can view a body of knowledge as a web (coherentism, holism).  Or one can view the structure of knowledge as an edifice built on a foundation (foundationalism).  (5) Types of thinking produce types of knowledge.  (6) Knowledge depends on memory.  Knowledge is stored in memory.  Knowledge is retrieved from memory.  (7) Animals, including humans, are information processing machines.  (8) Thinking is a mechanism that can produce knowledge.	12/5/2005

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	A culture or an individual has a set of ideas; some true and some false; some ethical and some unethical.  One can call this set of ideas the beliefs of the culture or individual.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	A paradox of knowledge.  (1) Knowledge during eras when the quest for knowledge is stagnant.  You return to your studies from a ten year absence and almost everything you learned ten years ago is still true.  "Look how much knowledge this culture has.", you say proudly.  Yet the quest for knowledge is stagnant in the culture.  (2) Knowledge during eras when the quest for knowledge is advancing rapidly.  You return to your studies after a ten year absence and almost everything you learned ten years ago is now wrong because new knowledge has made your old knowledge obsolete.  "Almost everything this culture knew ten years ago is wrong.", you lament.  Yet the quest for knowledge is advancing rapidly in the culture.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Applying knowledge to behavior.  Knowledge put into practice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Change in conceptual organization.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Classic ideas transcend time and place.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Development of knowledge.  (1) Initial ideas on x.  (2) Ideas after any time period.  (3) Final views.  (4) Change in views on x: degree and rate.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Faulty knowledge (wrong or omitted) vs. faulty reasoning processes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	For every subject.  What you need to know and why.  What you'd like to know and why.  What you should know and why.  This is the basic knowledge pool.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Four types of knowledge.  (1) Knowledge for your job (practical, necessary).  (2) Knowledge for your hobby (for the love of it).  (3) Knowledge for living (wide and theoretical).  (4) Knowledge for your special contributions (narrow).	11/27/1993

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Gain knowledge.  Use knowledge.  Create new knowledge.  Create new solutions to problems.	12/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Given my memory limits, how much of each, and how to organize my (1) Book knowledge (found).  (2) Personal knowledge (figured).  (3) Practical knowledge (for me living) (important, need to know).  (4) Theoretical knowledge (want to know, but do not need to know).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How knowledgeable do you have to be to (1) survive vs. (2) grow vs. (3) be complete.  How fast can a person reach and stay at any level?  What's the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to get to any level?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How many arguments, on how many views, on how many subjects, do you know?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How many new ideas will you get in your life?  When was the last time you got a new, great idea?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How much do you need to know about what in a situation to get how far?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How much does the average person today "know"?  The stuff they learned in school.  The stuff they learned outside of school.  The stuff they got from the media.  The stuff they figured out for themselves.  The physical skills.  The mental skills.  The body of factual information.  The body of working hypotheses.  The information in verbal form.  The emotional information tied to the verbal information.  The experiential knowledge.  How much information is that?  How can it be recorded and represented?  How much of that information can be transmitted to other people?	2/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	How wise are you?  (1) How many factors in a situation can you spot?  (2) How well can you tell how they work?  (3) How well can you tell which are most important?  (4) How well can you tell what to do?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Importance of knowledge: the more ideas you have to choose from the freer you are, the smarter you are, and the better the chances of finding right answer.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Individual knowledge vs. societal knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Information management perspective.  Speed you get information (finding or figuring).  Weed out lies and extraneous unnecessary b.s.  Replace poorer information with better information.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	It is not what you knew, or what your test scores are, or what you know, it is what you can use.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge can help reduce pain of (1) Not knowing what's going on and why.  (2) Wrong ideas that don't work well.  (3) Confusion, anxiety, and future mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge dispels fear.	9/16/1998

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge is power.  Knowledge is health.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge pool breadth and depth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge.  (1) Things every world citizen should know about earth.  What would that that knowledge set look like?  (2) Things every sentient being should know about the universe.  What would that knowledge set look like?	12/14/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Knowledge.  Two extremes.  Imagine someone with absolutely no knowledge of their own personal history (amnesia), and with absolutely no knowledge of world history.  Imagine someone having extremely detailed knowledge of their own history, and having extremely detailed knowledge of world history.  Total ignorance versus total knowledge.	3/25/2006

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Maturity = knowledge of life.  Metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical knowledge.  Practical knowledge, emotional knowledge, and experiential knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Most people keep their knowledge secret, or play dumb, for survival advantage, or because they don't communicate well.  Most people expose their knowledge only as much as needed.  So you get three groups: the dumb, the acting dumb, and the people driven crazy by the above two.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Needs.  Given x person in y situation, what will (and should) their thought trains be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Needs.  Given your psychological condition, and situation, what should your knowledge goals be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Needs.  Knowledge and behavior needed to survive in a situation for any type of person.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Needs.  What does the average joe need to know to survive and to grow?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Needs.  What does x person in y situation need to know?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Pool of knowledge.  Deciding (in an ever expanding pool) (1) What to memorize, (2) What to understand, (3) What to have in your personal library, and (4) What to expose yourself to (newspaper, magazine, library, bookstore, walking around, traveling).	09/01/1994

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Rate your gaining knowledge at any age, factors that affect it, what increases it, and what decreases it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Sometimes you don't know for sure till you do it.  If we could predict everything with 100% accuracy then what kind of world would it be?  Boring, with no freedom and no chance of variance or change.	2/3/2001

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Suboptimal attitudes toward information and knowledge: (1) Knowledge is power; therefore, knowledge is to be hoarded like power is to be hoarded.  (2) Knowledge is property; therefore, make them pay for any knowledge you give them.  (3) Use knowledge for competitive advantage.  Keep others stupid and ignorant.  (4) Keep everything a big secret.  Lie when you have to.  (5) The above are unhealthy attitudes toward knowledge.	2/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	The quality of the ideas you use to boot up, every moment.  In terms of truth and importance.  The source or origins of these ideas, found out and figured out.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Three levels of knowledge.  (1) Practical (here and now). (2) Wisdom (wider subject matter, and more abstract).  (3) Greatness (contribution to a field).  Must have all three.	04/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Total ideas that individual or society is possessor of, vs. available currently, vs. being used currently.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types of knowledge, as opposed to types of thinking.  (1) Knowledge of self, people, and world.  (2) Working knowledge: retrievable instantly or on demand.  (3) Instinctual knowledge: knowledge working in your unconscious.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types of knowledge: street smart vs. book smart.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types of knowledge.  (1)(A) Knowledge as a result of figuring out for ourselves.  (B) Knowledge as a result of finding out from other sources.  (2)(A) Knowledge we are reasonably sure of.  (B) Knowledge that we are tentative on.	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types.  (1) Impractical vs. practical.  Theoretical vs. factual.  (2) Specific vs. general.  Concrete vs. abstract.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types.  (1) Knowledge of what, why, how.  (2) Metaphysical, epistemological ethical, aesthetic knowledge.  (3) Knowledge of existence, structure, mechanism, purpose etc.  (4) Knowledge of a skill, best solutions, best techniques (technical knowledge).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Types.  (1) Working knowledge vs. (2) knowledge we have down on paper vs. (3) knowledge we thought of, and then forgot.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	What do we know, and how do we know it?  What don't we know, and how can we find out?  How can we prove our knowledge more (stronger proof).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	What information do I need, and what's the easiest way to get it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	What is knowledge?  What you know consists of what you can speak or write about extemporaneously, i.e., immediate access to knowledge on demand.	3/20/2007

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	What to understand, and what to memorize?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	Why know it?  Why is knowledge of it important?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, knowledge.	You know something when you are able to teach it to another person.	12/14/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	.This section is about learning.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) Find and pick the right books (current, complete, etc.).  Take good notes.  Memorize them.  (2) Figure out for all subjects areas the problems, views, and arguments.  Especially your problems.  Get the logical outline right.  (3) Do it on your own.  Do it fast.  Do it your whole life.  Apply it to your whole life.	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) Learning defined as a change in behavior caused by an external stimulus.  (2) Learning defined as problem solving (figuring out).  (3) Learning defined as information gathering (finding out).	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) Learning how to learn.  Learning what to learn.  (2) Speed, direction, and distance.  (3) Styles of learning.  (4) Staying current.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) Physical gathering of information, and then (2) putting information in head.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) Self directed and self taught vs. directed by others and taught by others.  (2) Good vs. crappy job of education.  Good = complete, current, simple to complex, broad to deep, quick and lasting.  (3) Education by experience vs. through reading or hearing.  I look forward to the day we are able to learn in our sleep, or zap it all in at birth.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) What know, and not.  (2) How know, how find out.  (3) Why know it: best reasons to, and reasons you do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	(1) What to learn?  Learn what you don't know yet.  Learn about what your problem areas are in life.  (2) How to learn?  First by books.  Then by virtual reality training.  Then by real life practice.  (3) Lets say you forgot everything that you know, or lets say you were an alien visiting earth, what knowledge would you boot up with?  What would you learn first?	6/20/1999

Psychology, thinking, learning.	A lot vs. a little.  Truth vs. lies.  Unconscious vs. conscious.  Sooner vs. later.  Useful vs. not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	After a certain point (age) we are responsible for the construction of our own minds.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Animal learning.  Birds learn to press a button for a reward.  Rats learn to run a maze to get a reward.  Chimpanzees learn to use symbols.  Humans learn language.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Animal learning.  Some animals have no ability to learn; they are entirely pre-programmed.  The simplest and fewest types of learning occur in the simplest animals capable of learning.  The most complex types and the most numerous types of learning occur in the most complex animals capable of learning.	6/11/2002

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Anything not instinct (nature) is learned (nurture).	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Coping vs. learning, what's the difference?  When we adapt to poor situations by devolving then that is not a good thing.	5/27/2002

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Depth first learning versus breadth first learning.  Consider a grid that is ten squares wide and ten squares high, with a total of 100 squares, each column represents a subject area of knowledge to be learned, each square representing a learning module.  Consider two learners, one a depth-first learner, the other a breadth-first learner.  The two learners learn at the same rate, that being one square per unit of time.  The depth-first learner starts at the beginning of one column and works down, completing one column before moving to the next column.  The breadth-first learner learns the first square in every column, then the second square in every column, and so on.  The point is, when half the total time has elapsed, the depth-first learner will have learned five out of ten subjects, while the breadth-first learner will have learned fifty percent of all subjects.	2/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Desire for learning.  (1) Won't listen, won't ask questions, won't explore on own vs. (2) Will listen, will ask questions, will explore on own (books, people, world).  (3) Resources committed to learning (time, energy, money, materials).  Causes and effect of above views on individual.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Difficulty of ideas vs. number of ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Four types of learning.  (1) Learning by being shown by an instructor.  (2) Learning by being told by an instructor.  (3) Learning by reading a book on your own.  (4) Learning by figuring out on your own without a book.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	How many times and ways you need to explain an idea to someone before they "get it".	10/25/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	How much time to spend on each: (1) Books vs. your notes.  (2) Old vs. new materials.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Ideal.  Fast, true, important, long retention, complete.  Learn faster, more complete, remember longer.  Learn much, fast.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Ideals: efficient, effective, productive.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	If you understand a new piece of information the first time that you hear it, is that really learning?  It can only be considered learning if you define learning as simply the act of acquiring new information.  On the other hand, if you do not understand something the first time you hear it, and understand it only after hearing it ten times, then that seems more like learning.  This is learning defined as the effort required to overcome befuddlement.	4/25/2002

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Improving learning.  More time, more selective, more efficient.  Better goals, do it faster, better schedule.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Inobvious to obvious.  Learning involves going from "this is impossible" to "this is easy".  When something goes from being inobvious to obvious.	06/01/1994

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Inobvious to obvious.  When the foreign, strange, and alien becomes intuitive, second nature, and obvious.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Inobvious to obvious.  Why does something remain inobvious to someone for years, only to become completely and plainly obvious one morning?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning and application of learning.  Work hard at both, one without other is useless.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning and teaching.  The view that children learn on their own.  Children discover.  Children teach themselves.  Children are learning machines.  Humans are learning machines.  What if no one went to school?  What would happen?  Like, for example, in prehistoric times.  Even in prehistoric times people were showing each other how to do stuff.  Even in prehistoric times people were arguing for and against various viewspoints.  There was never a time when learning and teaching in humans did not take place.	4/3/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning curves: learning speeds up with familiarity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning for mental health.  Ignorance causes anxiety, which causes pathological psychology, which causes mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning ideas vs. developing mental skills and abilities (ex. learning how to learn).	03/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning requires thinking.  One view holds that most people don't want to learn.  Most people find learning difficult.  Most people don't enjoy learning.  Most people don't see the importance of learning, and thus don't value learning.  (Since learning requires thinking, one can easily replace the word "learning" with the word "thinking" in the above paragraph.)	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning style is connected to thinking style and personality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning to solve a short term problem vs. learning for life long knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning tools.  (1) A list of concepts.  (2) An alphabetical list of concepts.  (3) An alphabetical list of concepts with their associated subject areas.	2/18/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning tools.  (1) Glossary.  An alphabetical list of concepts with their associated subject areas and a brief definition.  (2) Outline format.  Concepts arranged in logical order.  (3) Timeline.  Concepts arranged in chronological order.  A history of the subject area.	2/18/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning tools.  (1) Reading.  (2) Writing.  (3) Brainstorming.  (4) Study, review, repetition.	2/18/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning tools.  (1) Table of contents.  (5) To Do list.  (4) Questions list.  (2) Glossary.  Concepts arranged in alphabetical order.  Plus the subject area of each term.  Plus a brief description of the term.  (3) Bibliographys.  Books.  Web sites.  Music.  Movies.  (6) Database format.  Searchable.  Sortable.  ( ) Index.	2/18/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning.  (1) When you have to learn something (forced).  (2) When you think you should learn something (desperate).  (3) When you want to learn something (interest).  (4) When learning provides deep psychological meaning, pleasure, and solace.  Number four is the place to be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Learning.  When the new becomes familiar, and the familiar becomes instinct.	2/4/1994

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Levels of learning.  (1) Can give a kick ass lecture on it (logical, history, important).  (2) Can transfer knowledge to other areas.  (3) Can figure it out yourself.  Through intuition vs. through reason.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Levels of learning.  (1) Recognize it if see it.  Understand it if shown how it works.  (2) Memorize and recall it.  Repeat without understanding vs. repeat with understanding.  (3) Understand it on your own.  But still unable to say it in words vs. able to say it in words.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Lifelong learning.  What is required is not just lifelong learning in one's career area, or even in the practical areas that will help you live your life, but also in all subject areas.  And this lifelong learning in all subject areas must involve lifelong thinking, not just lifelong reading.  This is a high standard, but one we all must aspire to, or risk wasting our potential and our lives.  If we help each other, and use high-tech learning (ex. everyone writing and developing ideas on laptop computers), we can come close to the ideal.	12/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Mind as filter.  What you do not have the concepts for you don't see, you are blind to, you don't understand, and does not exist for you.  Learning makes things exist for you, makes things come to be.  To learn is to develop concepts and relationships between concepts.  We learn by learning words?  Do all concepts have names to us?  What about the stuff we know, that we don't know we know?	3/11/2000

Psychology, thinking, learning.	No one can change no one.  No one owes no one nothing.  We learn everything ourselves.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	One could argue that humans are innately curious, innately creative, and that learning takes place naturally without us even trying.  Humans are learning animals.  The goal then becomes making sure we don't impair or destroy the desire to learn that we are all born with.  An opposite view holds that humans are inherently lazy, inherently apathetic, must be taught to learn and must be exhorted to learn.  I do not agree with this second view.	11/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Polar attitudes on learning.  (1) It is not important vs. it is important.  (2) I hate it vs. I love it.  (3) The more I learn the better vs. the less I learn the better.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Problem: You read a good book, learn a lot from the book, and then after a few years you forget everything you learned from the book.  Solution: write a summary of the book.  Outline the main parts of the book.  Give a summary for the entire book and give a summary for each chapter in the book.  Answer questions like, "How good is this book?  Why is it a good book?  What is the author saying?  What is the author's argument(s)?  What are some counter-arguments to the author's argument?  How strong is the author's argument?  What are the weaknesses of the author's argument?  What is new, original and good in this book?"	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Problems.  Too little, too late.  Learning lies, or unimportant subjects.  Unmotivated, no urgency, reluctant (fear).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Social learning: pick up from society.  (1) Negative effects: pick up more bad than good.  (2) Positive effects: pick up more good than bad.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Steps in learning.  (1) A list of words.  (2) Attaching definitions to the words.  (3) Elucidating the relationship between related words.  For example, concepts that are synonyms, antonyms, or cause and effect.	2/15/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Study in head in free time.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Study: is like watching a boring rerun.  Look for new details.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying = reorganizing and memorizing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  (1) What is studying?  What to study?  (2) Why study?  Why is studying important?  (3) How important is studying?  (4) How to study?  Principles of, techniques for, styles of.  Problems and ideals approach.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  Cramming vs. studying bit by bit.  Pros and cons of each.  Cramming saves time and energy.  But you forget it faster.  Studying bit by bit reduces stress levels, increases odds of good grade, but can be boring and distasteful.	02/24/1994

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  If you were on a desert island, you would read your school textbooks with glee.  Why can't you otherwise?  Try to get into that state of mind when studying for school.	12/30/1995

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  Need both attitudes.  (1) This work I am studying is important, I need to know it, and society needs to know it.  (2) It is interesting and fascinating.	10/05/1994

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  Overstudying.  (1) You can get so sick of looking at it that you don't want to see it again, even if it means "F" on test.  (2) You can get so stressed out and demoralized that you do poorly on the test.  (3) Sick of school.  How to avoid it.  What are the causes and symptoms.	06/20/1994

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Studying.  Reviewing is easier and quicker than learning.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Teaching.  You have learned something well when you are able to teach it.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  (1) How to learn: best ways for individual  (2) Think it, write it, study it, practice it.  (3) Information: gather, verify, organize, prioritize, memorize, store.  (4) Logical outlines: organize, prioritize, keywords.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Best way to learn is to work on and study outlines of found and figured knowledge.  (1) Outline by structure.  (2) Outline by importance, by perspective.  (3) Answers all x in general questions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Finding and picking best books.  Learning by using quote books, college texts, dictionaries and encyclopedias, bibliographies, general reference works, current stuff.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Finding best people.  Finding best books: Important, true, condensed, organized.  Reading best, and outlining best (book notes).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Gain the books, gain understanding, gain memory.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Learning from observation vs. experience.  Somethings are better or worse to learn each way.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Techniques.  Notes outlines: (A) Logical.  (B) Importance.  (C) Historical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	The big hope of learning: how quickly the intimidating becomes easy as cake.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	The big problem is immediate access to good books, at their level, on their current interests.  Computers could supply this.  It would allow self teaching (pick own direction and speed).  It could answer questions (ex. Clarify or expand paragraph x).  It could speed note taking (print out sentences or paragraphs x, y, z.  Or printout a summary.).	07/27/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Three types of learning:  (1) Fact learning.  (2) Concept learning.  (3) Skill learning.	3/11/2000

Psychology, thinking, learning.	To learn you must think.  You think because it happened to you, you saw it, you heard about it, or you set up a hypothetical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Two important topics in learning.  (1) Attitudes, both good and bad, toward learning, knowledge and information.  (A) Low value placed on learning and knowledge.  Bad.   (B) High value placed on learning and knowledge.  Good.  (2) Tools, both good and bad, for learning, knowledge and information.	2/22/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Two problems of learning.  (1) Memorizing without understanding.  When a person memorizes without understanding then the person has information but does not know why the information is useful.  (2) Understanding without memorizing.  When a person understands without memorizing then the person may forget the information soon thereafter.	8/4/2006

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Two problems.  Having no ideas.  Having wrong ideas or suboptimal ideas.	5/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  (1) Learning a behavior.  (2) Learning information, whether figured out or found out.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  (1) Passive: natural, unconscious, without consciously trying.  Active: conscious.  (2) Informal: conscious trying on own.  Formal: in school, being taught by someone.  (3) Abstract theory vs. practical techniques.  (4) Experience 1st hand.  Observe 1st hand.  2nd hand sources.  (5) Find out vs. figure out.  (6) Theory and facts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  (1)(A) Learning simple behaviors: single step.  (B) Learning complex behaviors: many steps.  (2)(A) Learning simple ideas: single step.  (B) Learning complex ideas: many steps.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  Conscious, intentional learning.  Unconscious, unintentional learning.	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  Learning alone versus learning in a group.	3/15/2007

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Types of learning.  Learning by reading versus learning by doing.	3/15/2007

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Views on learning.  (1) I want to learn, in and of itself.  (2) I want the "A+".  (3) I don't want to learn or get the "A".	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Ways of learning  (1) Textbooks.  (2) Encyclopedias.  (3) Quote books.  (4) Bookstore books.	04/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What is learning?  (1) Learning defined as acquiring a habit of mind or action.  (2) Learning defined as thinking.  Thinking defined as creating new thoughts.  Figuring out.  (3) Learning defined as absorbing information, either critically or uncritically.  Finding out.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What is learning?  (1) Learning defined as adaptation.  Humans adapt to their environment.  Humans adapt their environment to themselves.  (2) Learning defined as information processing.  Humans are information processing beings.  All animals are information processors.  Learning as gathering information about one's environment.  (3) Learning defined as problem solving to satisfy needs.  (4) One view is that humans are always learning.  Humans are naturally curious.  We learn more outside of school than inside school.	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What is learning?  Forming a new idea in mind (concept or concept relationship).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What is learning?  The acquisition of knowledge.  The acquisition of skills, mental skills and physical skills.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What know, and what don't know.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What to learn: subjects, views, arguments, evidences.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What to learn?  (1) What to memorize from: data, notes, and why?  (2) What should average individual, or above average individual have memorized, and understand?  (3) Big questions: what books to read, in what order, and why.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What to learn?  Big questions.  (1) How much to learn about what by (A) Find out by experience: to self vs. seeing others.  (B) Find out by: books, people.  (C) Figure out by thinking on it.  (2) How much time to spend thinking, learning, and studying.  (3) How much time to spend goofing off, working, anything.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	What to learn?  Given current brain state, brain capacity, and brain ability to learn, then what should you learn next and why?  And at what point will the rate you learn (put in) be less than, equal to, or exceed the rate you forget (put out).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, learning.	Why do people stop thinking?  Because to think is to learn.  Why do people stop learning?  Because to learn is to be a student.  And to be a student is to admit to a type of subservience.  Many people think that being an adult means being all powerful.  And to them this means not learning and thus not thinking.	3/16/2000

Psychology, thinking, learning.	You are always learning, and you are always teaching.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	.This section is about logic.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) A narrow definition of logic: a small academic discipline.  (2) A broad definition of logic: how the world works.  (3) In terms of the latter, we are constantly rewriting the rules of logic.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Argument regarding facts.  Scientific argument.  (2) Argument regarding action decisions.  Ethics arguments.  (3) Arguments regarding argument itself.  Epistemic argument.	3/25/2006

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Argument, formal or symbolic.  (2) Argument, informal or real world.  (3) Weak or lame forms of informal argument: "That is the way everyone does it."  "That is the way most people do it"  "That is the way we have always done it."	3/25/2006

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) How much would our thinking be held back without our theoretical knowledge of logic?  (2) Everyday thinking relies on what kinds and degrees (levels of complexity) of logic?  (3) What kind of logic mistakes are out there, committed by thinkers, speakers, and listeners who fall for them?  Would having a theoretical knowledge of logic lead one not to make or fall for these mistakes?  How big a subject is logic?  Not big.  How important an area is logic?  The worlds best thinking relies on what kinds and degree (of complexity) of logic?  How much can knowledge of language and logic help us?  Related areas: game theory, decision theory, thinking, philosophy of logic, philosophy of math, philosophy of language.  Creativity and logic (leaps).  Computers and logic (how simple?).	01/26/1994

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) If there is no logic then there is no truth.  If there is no truth then there is no knowledge.  (2) There are logical relativists, epistemological relativists, ethical relativists, semantic relativists, who say that nothing is sure, and therefore, anything goes.  These people are trying to revert to the law of the jungle.	3/30/2007

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Logic in human minds.  Logic can conceivably be done by non-human minds?  For hypothetical example, could an intelligent extra-terrestrial understand logic?  It seems plausible.  (2) Can logic exist outside of sentient minds?  That makes less sense.	3/15/2007

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Psychology and logic.  Some people view logic as a term associated with terms like thinking and reason.  One argument against construing logic as a psychological concept is that computers use logic, and yet computers are mechanical, not psychological.  Computers are machines, not minds.  Unless you call a machine a mind, and unless you call a mind a machine.  (2) Metaphysics and logic.  Another argument against logic as a psychological concept is the argument that logical concepts describe the metaphysical nature of reality, and in fact exist independently of minds.  Philosophers like David Lewis and Saul Kripke argue that logical concepts point toward possible worlds that are metaphysically real.  (3) Symbol systems and logic.  Math and natural languages are both symbol systems.  Symbol systems contain symbols and rules to manipulate symbols.  The symbols have meanings.  Symbolic logic is itself a symbol system.  (A) Math and logic.  Bertrand Russell gave an good, if unsuccessful attempt to reduce math to logic.  Has anyone tried to reduce logic to math?  (B) Language and logic.  Grammar has rules, like logic has rules.  Grammar is not the exact same thing as logic.  Yet we use language to talk about the concepts of logic.  (4) Logic is a word that can have a narrow, technical definition on the one hand, and a wider, looser definition on the other hand.	12/5/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Statements: propositions, premises and conclusions.  (2) Inferences.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1) Symbols and logic.  If you want logic, math and grammar, then you have to have symbols.  Does it make sense to talk about logic apart from symbols?  (2) Rules and logic.  Does it make sense to talk about logic apart from rules?	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	(1)(A) Logic alone, without the aid of emotion (ala Spock).  vs.  (B) Logic with the aid of emotion.  (2) Non-logical behavior.  (A) Insanity.  (B) Mindless animal-like behavior.  (3) The natural world is not 100% logical.  There is randomness.  (4) People are not 100% logical.  There is insanity.  There is ignorance and errors of reasoning.  There are acts without thinking.  Pure drive or pure emotion.  (5) Could humans have an ethics based on logic or reason alone, without recourse to emotion?  What would that ethics look like?  Is the law a form of ethics based on reason without emotion?  Just because you are being logical does not guarantee you are being ethical.  What is the relation of logic and ethics?	12/20/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	An individual's internal logic: the quality of it, and the development of it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Analyzing formal logic systems (symbolic).  Analyzing actual verbal arguments (natural language).	11/25/1993

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Ancient man spent much of his waking hours in a kind of dream state.  Day dreaming.  Humans are dreamers.  Thus, what role does logic play in human "minding"?  Humans apply logic after the fact.  Logic is usually an afterthought.  Unless it is the case that humans have a built in logic module in the brain, which is a possibility.  But if we did then why does it work so poorly?  Because it is version 1.0?	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Can there be truth without logic?  (1) Sense perception.  Empirical data.  These are "true" without resorting to logic.  In terms of the truth of existence as opposed to the truth of a statement.  (2) Truth in art.  In art there can be truths expressed without logic.  (3) Illogical worlds.  If one exists in a world that contains no logic, or a world that is illogical, then one can have truth without logic (?).	5/4/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Definitive logical proof is not something we often achieve in real life.  More often we deal with "more likely" and "less likely".  More often we are hypothesizing or prognosticating about the future.  Logical proof is a less common achievement.  There is much more uncertainty and guessing.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Degree to which ideas on any subject can be formalized, axiomatized, analyzed.	02/04/1994

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Do humans have a mental logic module?  If we do then it seems like it is easily over-ridden.  If we do then it does not seem very robust nor accurate.	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	First get all the facts, then start using logic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Humans have created a variety of geometries.  One geometry, Euclidean geometry, is good at describing the human-level world.  Another geometry, hyperbolic geometry, is good at describing the large scale phenomena of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.  All of these geometries are "true".  Similarly, humans have created many types of logic.  One would think that one type of logic does well at describing the human-level world.  However, perhaps other logics do well at describing other levels of reality.  And perhaps all these types of logic are "true".  (Side note: What's funny is that geometry and logic are both systems of rules.  Geometry and logic are both axiomatic rule systems in that a small set of base rules are used to derive a larger set of higher order rules).	11/25/2001

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Humans seem to induce much more than they deduce.  That is, in every day reasoning we use the techniques of science much more than the techniques of logic.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Ideas: simple vs. complex.  Phrases: simple vs. complex (or compound).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	If logic is about rules, and rules are about limitations, and art is about freedom, then why would an artist have anything to do with logic?	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Is it true that everything has its own "internal" logic?  Example, checkers, automobiles and animals.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Key to logic is: (1) The notions of truth and falseness.  (2) Notions of rules, laws, function.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Knowledge, information and logic.  When we say that a body (or set) of knowledge (or information) can be arranged in a logical structure, we mean that the ideas in the set of knowledge stand in various logical relation to each other.  An idea (or thought, or proposition) should be logical in and of itself.  Yet we also look for logical relations amongst ideas.  And yet, human knowledge is not complete.  There are areas of knowledge that are not 100% logically complete.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Limits of logic.  (1) A person could design a machine that only works strictly according to the rules of logic.  An example would be a computer.  Computers are useful.  Computers can do many useful things that humans cannot do.  But computers are not human.  (2) Humans can do many useful things that computers cannot do.  Humans are not always logical.  Some people argue that it is not even desirable that humans always follow the laws of logic.  Sometimes humans are emotional, rather than rational.  Sometimes humans make mistakes in their logical thinking.  Sometimes humans use heuristic thinking, metaphorical thinking, or associative thinking, which are forms of thinking that are not purely logical.  Sometimes humans think by using images instead of, or in addition to, words.  (3) One could easily argue that most humans would benefit by being more logical in their reasoning.  However, a human that can only reason by using logic would perhaps appear less, rather than more, cognitively capable.  Logic is good but there are other good things too.	3/18/2007

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic defined as deductive thinking.  Science defined as inductive thinking.	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic expresses metaphysical relationships.  New metaphysical situations would require new forms of logic?	09/14/1993

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic is about what moves you can and cannot make.  Logic is about what must be and what is impossible.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic is not a requirement for survival.  Not all animal species have logic ability.  Some animal species have more logic ability than others.  Some logic ability may be hard wired, other logic ability may be learned.	3/20/2007

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic is not about truth.  Logic is about forms of valid arguments.  An argument can be valid (logical) but not true.  It is so if the premises are untrue.  Logic is primarily not about proving the truth of premises.	11/1/1998

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic is not the be-all and end-all.  Logic is not the most important thing.  Logic is important, though.	3/20/2007

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic is part of epistemology in that epistemology depends on arguments as well as evidence.	5/15/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic of imaginary worlds can be whatever you want it to be.  The best science-fiction begins with new types of logic.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic with words vs. logic with numbers or symbols.  Logic as principle of right reasoning.  Logic as forms of argument.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic, language and truth.  (1) Relation of language and logic.  Language is capable of expressing logical relations.  The language can be informal English, formal English, or other formal symbolic notations.  (2) Relation of logic and truth.  Logical reasoning is necessary but not always sufficient for truth.  Must also get the premises correct too in matters of fact.  (3) Relation of logic and mind reason thinking.  There is thinking, logical thinking, and truthful thinking (which must also be logical).  Illogical thinking is when something doesn't follow.  (4) Relation of thinking and language.  We can not think without language.  Is writing a direct transcription of mind?  (5) Relationship of thinking and truth.  (6) Relationship of language and truth.	8/8/1998

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic, truth, meaning, and usefulness.  (1) Example of logic without truth.  (2) Example of truth without logic.  (3) Example of truth without meaningfulness.  "A glimx is a glimx".  (4) Example of truth without usefulness.  "Batman's cape is blue".	6/10/1999

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic.  Various definitions.  What distinguishes logic from psychology, epistemology, science, etc?  Types of logic: classical, modern, mathematical logic, philosophical logic.	09/14/1993

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logic.  Why study it?  To analyze your and others arguments better.  Think more logically when under stress.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logical vs. illogical.  Factually true vs. false.  Important vs. unimportant.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Logical, practical, ethical vs. crazy, stupid, unethical.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Most ideas can be put in mathematical equation form or logical symbolization.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Related subjects, effects of and on.  Thinking, reasoning.  Philosophy: epistemology.  Language: grammar.  Rhetoric, argument.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Some people have a tendency to be more logical than others.  Logic is a skill that can be learned.  Logic does not guarantee truth, but the use of logic does increase the probability of reaching truth.  Logic does not guarantee justice, but logic does increase the probability of reaching justice.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Subconscious logic module.  I posit that our unconscious minds have a logic module or machine churning away constantly.  Any thought that pops into our heads the logic module will attempt to link with another thought and churn out as many conclusions as possible.  And the logic module will churn out as many "if-then" statements as possible.  And the logic module will churn our as many assumptions and entailments as possible.  Then from all of the above the logic module will try to sort out the logically valid from the logically invalid and the physically possible from the physically impossible.	7/30/2000

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Things exist in relation to each other, and in interaction with each other.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Thoughts and words must correspond to reality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Three types of negation.  (1) Opposite of x.  (2) Not x: anything but x.  (3) Absence of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Two types of "is".  "Is" defined as "is only", which is a definition used in mathematics.  "Is" defined as "is among other things", which is a definition used in natural languages.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Types and degrees of complexity of logical problems, puzzles, and arguments.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, logic.	We do not think logically.  We think by generating many ideas.  Then we apply logic models against the ideas to rule out the illogical.  In a practiced person this is done quickly, almost unconsciously.  Humans are not instinctively logical.  Example, religious thinking, superstition, medieval law (trial by drowning) etc.  Children are fearful and primitive humans were fearful because to them anything can happen and anything is possible.  Adults and modern humans are more logical.  In terms of logic being defined as knowing what can't be and knowing what must be.	3/15/1999

Psychology, thinking, logic.	What can you apply to an idea besides logic?  Experience?  Imagination?	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	What is logic?  (1) Logic is a type of thinking.  (2) Logic is a tool, a technique, a skill, a method.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	What is logic?  Right reasoning.  Laws of truth.  Laws of true relations.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, logic.	What is the relation of logic to grammar?  Is grammar the logic of language?  No.  For example, a sentence can be grammatically correct yet illogical in content.  Second example, Can you have a sentence that is logical yet ungrammatical?  If a group of words is ungrammatical then its not a sentence.	5/15/2002

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Why is logic important?  (1) Humans have an ability to be logical.  Sometimes humans are more logical than other times.  Sometimes humans are aware of their use or misuse of logic, and sometimes humans are unaware of their use or misuse of logic.  Logic helps humans understand the world.  Logic helps humans pursue truth and justice.  (2) The formal development of logic helped humans build computers.  The formal development of logic helped humans develop all the areas of knowledge.  Not to get all Jorel here.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, logic.	Why study logic.  Most of us don't need a logic course to think.  But in complex situations we may make logical errors that someone trained in logic can spot and sort out.  Ditto for philosophy.	03/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	.This section is about the concept of a mistake.	12/30/2003

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	.This section is about the concept of a mistake.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	(1) Ethics and mistakes: negligence, responsibility.  (2) Elements and principles of mistakes.  (3) Causes and effects of mistakes.  (4) Mistakes in general, and in your specific situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	(1) Mistake death spiral.  Mistakes that lead to more and bigger mistakes.  (2) Mistake chains and webs.  One mistake leads to another.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	(1) Mistakes: the cost is what is important.  (2) Is a mistake (A) An accident (pure chance) or (B) A failure (totally your fault).	4/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	A mistake is a wrong guess, a nice try, a swing and a miss, thanks for playing.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Assimilation and understanding of mistakes is important.  From mistakes we learn what does not work, and what is no good.  But you have to look closely to see what was wrong and why.  It is all a big science experiment.	03/07/1989

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Causes of mistakes:  (1) Fatigue.  (2) Don't think.  (3) Think poorly.  (4) Repression.  (5) Ignore.  (6) Poor ethical system.  (7) Mistake priorities.  (8) Poor technological development.  (9) Crazy.  (10) Stupid.  (11) Ignorance.  (12) Unethical.  (13) Carelessness.  (14) Forgetting.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Causes of mistakes.  (1) Lack of information.  (2) Lack of learning.  Due to (1) not being motivated, (2) not knowing what to learn, (3) not knowing how to learn, or (4) not knowing to learn.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Causes of mistakes.  (1) Lack of preparation.  (2) Lack of practice.  (3) Lack of planning.  (4) Wrong plans made.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Causes.  How we make mistakes (causes).  (1) Causes of thought mistakes vs. causes of action mistakes.  (2) Common causes vs. rare causes.  (3) Psychological factors, and physical factors.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Definition.  (1) Everything is a problem.  (2) For every problem an infinite number of mistakes are possible.  (3) A mistake is a type of problem.  (4) A mistake is a wrong solution.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Definition.  Nothing is perfect.  Everything we do is a mistake by degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Definition.  What is a mistake?  Any unethical act.  (1) Didn't get a goal.  (2) Got an anti-goal.  (3) Hurts.  (4) A loss.  (5) Creates more problems.  (6) Knowingly done vs. unknowingly done.  (7) Totally out of our control vs. totally in our potential control vs. totally in our actual control.  Implies it is in our control to some extant.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Definitions of a mistake.  (1) Mistake as wrong.  For example, the test paper had two mistakes on it.  (2) Mistake as accidental, unintentional and unintended.  For example, he drove across the town green by mistake.	11/12/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Degrees of mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Didn't even attempt it vs. did it wrong.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Do's vs. don'ts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Freedom vs. forces.  Internal (ourselves) and external (others and nature).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Given an individual in a situation.  (1) Mistakes possible, and not.  (2) Mistakes most likely, and not.  (3) Mistakes actually make, and don't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Learning from mistakes is good.  Learning before you make mistakes is better.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Little mistakes that add up.  Unrelated mistakes accumulate arithmetically.  Related mistakes accumulate exponentially.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Mistake defined as a failed attempt to solve a problem.  Thus, you can have epistemological mistakes and ethical mistakes, corresponding to failures to solve epistemological problems and ethical problems.  And you can have mistakes in theory and mistakes in practice, corresponding to failures to solve theoretical problems and practical problems.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Mistakes analysis.  (1) Type.  (2) Size: how many affected.  (3) Degree: how badly affected.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Mistakes of thought precede mistakes of action.  The biggest cause of mistakes is pathological psychology.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Not knowing that it is a mistake, or why it is a mistake.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  (1) Figuring out mistakes.  Before the incident, during the event, or after you make it.  (2) Seeing your mistakes: how soon you see them.  Seeing them before you make them, seeing them during, or how soon after.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  (1) Figuring out your own mistakes.  (2) Finding out, or being told of your mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  Analyzing mistakes, ours and others.  What went wrong?  How did it go wrong?  How could it have been prevented?  What should have been?  How should it have been done?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  Avoid mistakes.  (1) Know the mistakes.  (2) Know the causes.  (3) Know the mechanisms.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  How to avoid mistakes.  Imagine all mistakes possible.  Know the mistake before you make it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Techniques.  Recognize mistakes and understand mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	There are many areas in which to make mistakes.  There are many possible mistakes in each area.  In general, and especially for you.  Know them and know why they are mistakes.  Avoid them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Time and mistakes.  (1) Past mistakes.  Could have made vs. couldn't.  Did make vs. didn't.  (2) Present mistakes.  Could be making vs. couldn't.  Am making vs. am not.  (3) Future mistakes.  Could make vs. can't.  Will make vs. won't.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Two types of mistakes.  (1) Failure to identify a problem.  (2) Failure to solve a problem.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Amount: too much/too little, excess/lack.  (2) Timing: too soon, too late.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Common vs. rare.  (2) Reversible vs. irreversible.  (3) Obvious vs. inobvious.  (4) Costly vs. not costly (inconsequential).  (5) Simple mistakes vs. complex mistakes.  (6) Intentional vs. unintentional mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Major vs. minor.  (2) Thought mistakes vs. action mistakes.  (3) Mistakes by goal, by subject, and by perspective.  (4) Mistakes by time: past, present, future.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Metaphysical mistakes:  Take something that is as not.  Take something that is not as is.  (2) Epistemological mistakes:  Wrong reasoning.  Wrong fact gathering.  Bad scientific methodology.  Blind belief rather than reason.  (3) Ethical mistakes: against self, against others.  (4) Aesthetic mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Mistakes in thought.  (2) Mistakes in action.  Wrong action, or incomplete action (leaving out a part).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Mistakes of value, importance.  Too much vs. not enough.  (2) Mistakes of care.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Mistakes you make, others make, or nature makes.  (2) Mistakes by subject.  Mistakes by perspective.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  (1) Technical mistakes (action) vs. logical mistakes (thought).  (2) Action mistakes.  (A) Doing nothing: omissions.  (B) Doing wrong thing: commissions.  (3) Crucial, blink of an eye mistakes vs. little, everyday, long drawn out mistakes.  (4) Acute vs. chronic mistakes.  (5) (A) Mistakes of thought: logical fallacies.  (B) Mistakes of action: omission vs. commission.  (6) Super-mistakes, mistake, sub-mistakes.  (7) Thought mistakes.  (A) Didn't think of it.  (B) Wrong conclusions.  (C) Wrong arguments.  (7) Oft repeated mistakes vs. one time only mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Ethical mistakes: Mistakes in goals.  Mistakes in means.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Mistakes in what you do, become, get, and experience.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Mistakes that cause damage vs. mistakes that prevent improvement (blown chances, missed opportunities).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Mistakes you saw coming vs. didn't see.  Mistakes you did not see but could have if were more careful or if learned more.  Mistakes you did not see but there was no way could have seen them.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Subjective, perceived mistakes.  Objective, actual mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving, mistakes.	Types of mistakes.  Understandable mistakes vs. not (stupid mistakes).  You couldn't help it, anyone could have done it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	.This section is about problem solving.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	.This section is about the concept of a problem.	12/30/2003

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Do not think that it is not a problem.  (2) Do not think it is someone else's problem, for someone else to solve.  (3) Do not think the problem cannot be solved.  Do not lose hope.  (4) Do not think the problem is unimportant.  Do not be side tracked or distracted.  (5) Do not cease to care about the problem.  Do not be apathetic.  (6) Do not ignore the problem.  Do not think you cannot do anything about the problem.	5/5/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) For totalizing absolutists, either everything is a problem or nothing is a problem.  Or, for any issue, it is either a problem or it is not a problem.  (2) For people who are not totalizing absolutists, some things are problems and other things are not problems.  Or, for any issue, if you ask them if it is a problem, they will say, "Its a problem and its not a problem".	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Given a situation with a variety of problems, should you attack the most important problems first, or the easiest solutions first?  (2) Problem cost in time and money vs. solution cost in time and money.  (3) Solution alternatives for problem.  (4) Current known and unknown solutions.  (5) Problem definition: any obstacle to obtaining a just and healthy goal, be the goal a need or merely a want.	9/30/1998

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Human created problems.  Done by ourselves or others.  Also known as mistakes.  (A) Done by accident, unintentional.  (B) Done on purpose, intentionally,  but later seem to be wrong, by doer or others.  (2) Natural created problems.	9/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Practical problems and solutions.  Here and now.  (2) Theoretical problems and solutions.  Hypothetical.  In principle.  (3) The best approach is a combination of the practical and theoretical problem solving.	2/27/2007

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Problem as an unknown.  Problem as a question to be answered.  That is, an epistemological problem.  (2) Problem as something wrong that needs to be righted.  That is, an ethical problem.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Scale of problem.  Size of the problem.  Local vs. global problems.  Isolated vs. systemic problems.  (2) Severity of problem.  Degree of intensity of problem.  (3) Scale multiplied by severity equals the total negative impact of the problem.	5/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Some people think there are no problems, only solutions.  Others look at everything as a problem (and risk a nervous breakdown).  (2) Some think there are no mistakes.  Others think everything is a mistake (perfectionists, idealists).  Or they think that life is a series of mistakes from which we learn.  (3) There is a danger of taking life too seriously, or taking life too lightly.  Both extremes are bad.	2/21/2000

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Theoretical and practical problems.  A problem can move from being one to the other.  (2) Historical development of a problem.  Birth, growth, peak, decline, death.  (3) Qualitative descriptions and quantitative measurements of a problem.  (4) Existence of a problem vs. recognition of a problem.  (5) Problem theory and ethics.  Person A thinks X is a problem.  Person B thinks X is not a problem.  Person C thinks X is actually good.  (6) Common problems are frequent (enduring) and widespread (ubiquitous).  (7) Rareness vs. commonness.  Simplicity vs. complexity.  Importance vs. trivialness.  Example: common, simple, trivial problems vs. rare, complex, important problems.	07/08/1994

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Top down problem solving.  Working from theory to practice.  For example, from political theory and economic theory to practical political and economic problems.  (2) Bottom up problem solving.  Working from practical experience and practical problems to theoretical knowledge.  (3) Sideways.  Applying problem solving skills from one area to another.  Cross training.	5/15/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1) Two types of problems.  (A) Problems of the world (social problems).  (B) Personal problems.  (C) Most people focus entirely on their own personal problems.  (2)(A) Problems of the world:  Environment.  Health (physical and psychological).  Education.  Justice.  Peace.  (B) Typical personal problems:  Getting a job.  Paying the rent.  Stay out of jail.  Find a mate.  Raise kids.  How to be happy.  How to not go nuts.  How to deal with jerks.  How to not be a jerk.  House.  Car.	11/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	(1)(A) Find the known problem.  (B) Find the known solutions.  (C) Find new solutions.  (2)(A) find new unknown problems.  (B) Find new solutions.  (3) Always pick most important problems to work on.	05/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	26 Subject areas: list, analyze, evaluate all potential problems, and all potential solutions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	A big problem.  (1) If we focus on bad things in life, like our mistakes and failures, we get depressed.  (2) But if we ignore the problems in life (bad things) we are being avoidant, escapist and Pollyannas.  (3) Solution: Focus on finding solutions to problems.  Focus on past, present and future solutions.  If you can not solve the problem at least you can say you tried.	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Any time you improve the world you are solving a problem.	4/10/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Attitudes and problems.  (1) If we all work hard we can conquer problems.  If we laze around then we will slide into decay.  (2)(A) If we bash it, it will die vs. (B) it can take laziness and abuse vs. (C) even effort won't save us from doom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Attitudes, problems and challenges, and me.  Is the problem or challenge insurmountable or conquerable?  What is the effort in resources required for each solution strategy?  What are the chances of succeeding, if luck is involved?  What are the gain and losses involved in getting or not getting success?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Coming up with a better way, progress, improvement, is problem solving.	2/12/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Communicating the problem and the solution to both the power holders and the masses.	5/16/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Confrontation and working on problems vs. avoidance and escapism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Currently, The biggest problems in the world are in other countries.  If you want to help, then look abroad.  Don't quibble at home.	1/20/1999

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Definitions.  Problems cause pain.  Everything is a problem.  Life is pain and happiness is an illusion.  Problems as challenges and opportunity.  Problems as trouble.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Economics of problems.  Which is costlier, the problem or the solution?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Every area of life has its problems.  Every subject area has its problems.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Every subject has its current great unanswered questions.  And every subject area has some great problems that have already been solved (ex. Many of the problems have been solved from Hilbert's list of twenty great problems in mathematics).	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Go find the problems.  Go see the problems.  Search out the problems.  Look for trouble.	10/25/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	How are things changing, for good and bad?  How should things be?  How can I promote the good, and hinder the bad?  What are the most important problems today?  Which problems are most open or ripe for solution?	01/06/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	How big is the problem?  Total costs: psychological, physical, economic; direct vs. indirect; short term vs. long term; opportunities lost.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	How long it takes you to anticipate or figure out your problems and their causes and solutions, in a situation, and how well.  Soon enough?  Well enough?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	How much can computers do for us?  How much can text do for us?  How much can thinking do for us?  How much else remains to be done?  How else can we accomplish it?  Problem solving in thought and action.	4/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Human society is faced with multiple problems, for example, health problems, education problems, political problems, economic problems, technological problems, etc.  Each problem has multiple causes and multiple effects.  The problems are inter-twined, in that the causes and effects of all the problems affect each other.  We require multiple solutions for each problem.	4/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Identify a number of problems.  Explain why it is a problem.  Work toward solving a number of problems by using a variety of methods.  Solve can mean prevent, manage or cure.	2/3/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	If its a question, is it a problem?  Are all problems questions?  Are all questions problems?	7/23/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Ignoring your problems vs. preparing for problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Instead of saying everything is a problem or a mistake, say that the world is good and you are trying to improve and make it better.  This is a more positive, less stressful viewpoint.	1/11/2003

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	It is tough to see one's own problems.	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	List problems in my life, country, and world.  Crime, drugs, environmental pollution, illiteracy (uneducated), crass mindless materialism (values), human rights abuses.  Describe and measure these problems.  Causes and solutions.	02/07/1994

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	List problems in the world today.  Injustice.  State sponsored injustice.  Crime: illegal and unethical acts.  Acts that are legal yet unethical nonetheless.  Complacent, self-satisfied, selfish smugness.  Hopelessness, despair and helplessness.  Power abusers, oppression and exploitation.  Hate, violence and intolerance.	1/7/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	List world problems.  U.S. and World problems and challenges, alternatives and arguments.  (1) Psychological: psychological problems due to poor child raising.  (2) Ecological: overpopulation, hunger, pollution.  (3) Economic: inflation, unemployment, poverty.  (4) Sociological: child raising, the sick (physical and psychological), the old, crime, drugs.  (5) Philosophical: Not enough philosophizing.  Poor values.  Too much believing, not enough thinking.	11/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Major problems of the 20th century.  (1) Human rights issues.  (2) Genocide.  Hitler: 6 million.  Stalin: 10 million.  Pol Pot: 1 million.  Rwanda: 500,000.  (3) Environment: Chernobyl nuclear accident.  Bhopal poison gas accident.  Gulf War oil spill.  Exxon Valdes oil spill.  Miyamata mercury spill in Japan.  (4) Wars: WWI dead and injured.  WWI dead and injured.	5/21/1999

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Many problems cross categories or subject areas.  Their causes and solutions are of many types: psychological, sociological, technological, political, and economic.  Problem theory differs from interdisciplinary philosophy in that it focuses on problems.  In problem theory we must take an ethical stance and say "this phenomena is a problem".  (Note, it is tough to categorize problems, so put them in keyword "Psychology, thinking, problem solving. specific problems").	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Metaphors for problems.  People describe problems as either ruts and holes or as bumps or walls.  Problems are often metaphorically described as physical obstacles of various types.	12/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	More problem related phenomena.  (1) Trade-offs of a solution.  Frequently a solution will involve trade-offs.  (2) Clues.  Problem solving often proceeds from gathering and organizing clues.  A clue is like a piece of a puzzle.  (3) The path toward a solution, often found by eliminating wrong ways.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Once you get people physically healthy, and not poverty stricken, and having political rights, the big goal is to get their heads screwed on tighter, so they do not waste their lives, so they enjoy life more, so they are more productive, so they don't hurt themselves or others.  How to do this?	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Overcoming problems vs. being overcome by problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	PART ONE.  Problems.  (1) How am I going to solve these problems?  Work on these problems.  Describe them.  Say why its wrong.  Figure out solutions.     PART TWO.  Solutions.  (1) Raise consciousness.  Increase awareness about the problem.  Write about it.  Speak about it.  Reach the masses.  Reach the politicians and other power holders.  Publish newspaper or website.  (2) Raise money.  (3) Oppose those who support policies that contribute to the problem.	3/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	PART ONE.  Problems.  (1) Which are biggest problems?  Which are most widespread problems.  (2) Which are most severe problems?  Which are deadliest problem?  (3) Which are fastest growing problems?     PART TWO.  (1) Which is most effective solution?  How much does it cost?  (2) Which is an inexpensive solution that anyone can do?	3/1/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	People forget important facts about themselves and situations.  This leads to bigger problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	People have different views of what situations qualify as a problem.  Therefore, when you state a problem you should state why you think its a problem.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	People who don't see the real problems (blind).  People who see false problems or pseudo-problems (hallucinating).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem solving methodologies.  (1) "All eggs in one basket" method.  Pick one problem.  Think of one solution.  Think of one strategy to achieve that solution.  Devote your entire life to it.  Pros: works well if you guessed right.  Cons: a big waste if you guessed wrong.  (2) "Scattershot" method.  Pick many problems.  Think of many solutions.  Think of many strategies to achieve those solutions.  Pros: works well by covering all bases.  Cons: you may spread yourself too thin.	2/28/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem solving.  (1) Think creatively about the problem.  Then think critically about the problem.  Figure out.  (2) Research the problem on the Internet.  Find out.  (3) Write it out.  (4) Persistence is good.  (5) Try many solutions systematically.	7/25/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem solving.  One type of problem we are often faced with is one where we are given some, but not all, of the facts, and some, but not all, of the logical inferences, and we have to fill in the puzzle.	4/12/2000

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem solving.  Two approaches to problem solving.  (1) This is the problem I want to solve.  Inventing the tools to solve the problems that I want to solve.  (2) These are the tools I have.  What problems can I solve with these tools?  (A) Take advantage of the newest tools.  (B) Transfer tools across disciplines.	7/22/2002

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem theory is really a part of the study of problem solving, which is part of psychology.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem theory.  (1) Every moment and situation is a problem or challenge.  (2) Causing problems vs. solving problems.  (3) Something is good if it solves problems without causing problems.  (4) A problem exists when you are not solving problems or creating more problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problem Theory.  What is a problem?  Why do we have problems?  Why study problems?  How to solve problems?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problems as questions.  Problems as challenges.	2/28/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problems classified by category, and solutions classified by category.  For example, you can have a technological solution to a political problem or you can have a political solution to a technological problem.	5/16/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Problems with problems.  Doing nothing, or doing wrong thing.  Leaving something out (partial).  Destroying something you need.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Anticipate your problems.  Predict your problems.  Prevent your problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Causes or etiology.  (1) You causing your own problems.  (2) Society causing your problems.  (3) Nature causing your problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Effects, course, prognosis, or mechanism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Epidemiology, frequencies, or rates.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Recognize problem exists.  Identify your problems.  Define problems.  Analyze problems.  Prioritize your problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Solution types, solution alternatives.  (1) Perfect solutions vs. imperfect.  (2) Acceptable solutions vs. unacceptable.  (3) Direct solutions vs. indirect solutions.  (4) Strengths vs. weaknesses of any solution.  (5) Partial solutions vs. total solution.  (6) Easy solution vs. difficult solution.  (7) Quick solution vs. long, dragged out solution.  (8) Current solution vs. old, out-dated solution.  (9) Best solution vs. worst solution.  (10) Solutions by self vs. solutions by others.  (11) Effective solution vs. ineffective solution.  (12) Easy solution or difficult solution.  Difficult to think of, or difficult to enact.  (13) Side effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Symptoms, signs.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Process of problems.  Therapies, solutions, cures, or problem solving.  Problem solving methods, techniques, tools, or steps.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Recognition of a problem.  Being able to state why something is a problem.	4/10/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Recognition of problem.  Recognition of importance of problem, how important it is, and why it is important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Related subjects, effects of and on.  (1) Epistemology: identifying and proving existence of problems.  (2) Ethics: choosing problems to deal with.  (3) History: the history of your problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Related subjects.  Situation theory or system theory: problems of a situation or system.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solution alternatives can be logically mapped.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solution criteria.  (1) Health approach: do whatever is healthiest.  (2) Money approach: do whatever is cheapest.  (3) Aesthetic approach: do whatever is most beautiful or appealing.	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions in theory or on paper.  Solutions in action or in practice.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions to problems.  (1) Partial solutions improve the situation.  (2) Temporary solutions provide stop gaps.  (3) Practical solutions can compromise.  (4) Managing the problem vs. curing the problem totally.	5/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions to problems.  Finding the "optimal solution" means, for problems that have multiple solutions, finding the best solution.  Some problems have multiple solutions, but one solution is better than the others.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions, types of.  (1) Economic solution: cheaper, faster, better.  Save money.  Least expensive solution.  Most "cost effective" solution.  (2) Political solution: find a compromise solution; make a deal.  (3) Law solution: make it a law.  Make it legal.  Make it illegal.  Make it required by law.  Make it a legal right.  (4) Technological solution: find a better method.  Use less resources; get more output.  Find the best solution given a set of materials.  Find the best solution "as soon as possible" (time constraint).  Find the best solution that is the highest quality; or the easiest to use; or the easiest to maintain; or the longest lasting.   (5) Socio-psychological solution: Convince people to change their minds on an issue.  Convince people to see one solution as better than another solution.  Convince people to see the situation as not a problem in the first place.  Convince people to see the problem as a minor problem, rather than a major problem.  (6) Mathematical solution: a mathematical proof.  (7) Logical solution: a logical argument.  (7) Scientific solution: do an experiment to find an solution.  (8) Environmental solution: develop a sustainable solution.  (9) Literary solution: write a memoir.  (10) Temporary solution: patch it.  (11) "Good enough" solution: "It'll do.".  Satisfice.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  (1) Solving in theory.  (2) Solving in practice.	4/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  (1) Solving problems in theory and in practice.  (2) Working toward solving problems in thought, word and action.  (3) Opposition to problem solving.  Inertia.  People's habits.  Active opposition by those who risk losing power, money and status when things change and progress is made.	2/12/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  (1) Technological solutions.  (2) Socio-political solutions.  Getting past resistance, inertia, opposition, etc.	4/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  (1) Types of solutions.  (A) Technological solutions.  (B) Attitude solutions.  (2) Costs of the solution.  Economic cost of problem solving.  (3) Political implications or effects of a solution.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  Be able to state the solution criteria.  Be able to state what would qualify as a solution.	5/16/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  How best to help others solve their own problems?  (1) Do not criticize or tear them down.  (2) Do not preach or lecture at them, rather give them enough hints so they think they figured it out themselves.  (3) You can give them your notes.  (4) You can tell them the best books you know about x problem.  You can buy them the book.  (5) Do not waste time and words when you talk to them.  Say "How can I help you and how can you help me?"	12/26/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Solutions.  Single step solutions vs. multi-step solutions.  Working out a multi-step solution is always harder because it is not always clear after each step if you are headed toward the solution.	08/01/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Some important questions.  (1) What scale or level will I think at: personal, community, nation, world, universe?  I will think at the world level.  I may even think at the universe level.  (2) What are the important subjects?  The important subjects are the problems that prevent the masses from happiness, truth and justice.  The problems that give people the most trouble.  Also, problems that we already have solutions too.  And also problems that are ready to be solved.  Also, problems that can occur, may occur, and will occur.  (3) What are the important questions?  The important questions are: How can I help?  What causes these problems?  What cures these problems?	6/29/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Some problems are puzzles (fitting pieces).  In most manmade puzzles the pieces are of the same type (cardboard, flat).  In real life puzzles different pieces fit together from different subject areas.	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Terms defined.  Problem chains.  Problem webs.  Problem systems.  Problem complexes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	The big problems sheet.  Perspectives x subject areas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Think about your problems, and work on your problems, but don't let your problems weigh so heavily on your mind that they incapacitate you.  That is not healthy, and that is not productive.	05/08/1989

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Time and problems.  Past problems, present problems, and future problems.  History of a problem.  Problem change.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	To call something a problem is to make an ethical evaluation about that thing.	7/31/2006

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	To say that something is a problem is to infer a conception of an ideal.  People differ on what exactly constitutes a problem state because people differ on what exactly constitutes the ideal state.	11/1/2000

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Two meta-problems.  (1) Deciding what qualifies as a problem.  (2) Deciding what qualifies as a solution.	10/23/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Two polar ways of looking at things.  Everything is a problem, or nothing is a problem.  People who view problems as challenges prefer the former.  People who views problems as stressful prefer the latter.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems people are faced with: Physical, psychological, financial, social, spiritual(?).  (1) Do they realize the presence and importance of the problem or not?  If not, is the problem solved by accident?  (2) Is the problem ignored or confronted?  If ignored, do they pay the price, or luck out?  (3) Is the problem attacked in thought and action effort?  If so, do they fail or succeed?	12/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Actual present problems versus potential problems that could occur if you let them.  (2) Problems for which we have solutions versus problems for which we do not have solutions.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Acute vs. chronic problems.  (2) One time vs. recurring problems.	6/4/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Dilemmas.  For example, ethical dilemmas.  Dilemmas require decision making.  (2) Puzzles.  For example, epistemological puzzles.  Puzzles require problem solving.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Ethical problems: what do?  (2) Epistemological problems: how know?	2/28/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Old problems we've seen before.  Old problems with new names and faces.  (2) New problems we've never seen before.	8/14/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Personal problems.   (2) Global problems.	1/19/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Practical problems.  Examples: Finding a place to live.  Finding a meaningful job.  Finding a significant other.  Finding a meaningful use of one's leisure time.  (2) Theoretical problems.  Problems whose solution has no immediate, direct bearing on one's life.	1/19/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Problems in your life vs. problems in the wide world.  (2) Big problems and small problems.  What makes a problem big?  How many people it affects.  How much it affects each person.  (3) Theoretical problems vs. practical problems.	1/7/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Problems of individual persons.  (2) Problems of society.	4/29/2007

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Problems, challenges.  (2) Practical problems vs. impractical problems.  (3) Totally solvable problems to totally unsolvable problems.  (4) Problems of choice: Decision making.  (5) Problems of past, present, and future.  (6) General to specific problems.  (7) Major, important, significant vs. minor, unimportant, insignificant problems.  (8) Complex vs. simple problems.  (9) Problems you can handle vs. can't handle.  (10) New vs. old problems.  (11) Problems can do something about vs. can't do anything about.  (12) Common vs. rare problems.  (13) Expected vs. unexpected problems.  (14) Avoidable vs. unavoidable problems.  (15) Obvious vs. inobvious problems.  (16) Acute vs. chronic problems.  (17) Problems you are aware of vs. unaware of.  (18) Nasty vs. mild problems (disruption they cause).  (19) Problems you can put up with vs. can't.  (20) Problems that cure themselves vs. don't.  (21) Reoccurring vs. solved once forever vs. never ending, constant problems.  (22) Urgent vs. not urgent problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Real, actual problems.  Currently exist here now for you.  Currently exist on earth.  (2) Intellectual, theoretical problems.  Exist only as ideas (ex. math).  (3) Hypothetical problems.  Could occur, could exist.  (4) Possible problems, and probable problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Simple problem has one cause, one effect, and a one-step solution.  (2) Complex problem has many causes, many effects, and a multi-step solution.	8/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  (1) Sub-problems and super-problems.  (2) Problems by subject and by perspective.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  Problems by perspective.  (1) Problems of Nature.  Environmental problems, pollution, natural disasters, fires.  (2) Problems of Society.  (A) Social: racism, sexism, ageism; religious and ethnic; wars, crime.  (B) Technological: pollution.  (C) Health: diseases.  (3) Problems of individual.  Psychological, physical, economic/financial.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  Problems by subject.  (1) Psychological problems.  Depression, laziness, hopelessness, ignorance, despair, meaninglessness, disappointment, frustration, confusion.  (2) Economic problems: poverty, unemployment, inflation.  (3) Sociology: racism, crime.  (4) Politics: anarchy, fascism, slavery.  (5) Ecological problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Types of problems.  Problems you can only figure out in one way (one right way).  Problems with only one solution vs. many solutions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	We allocate resources to solve problems.  Many important problems are well funded and well manned.  However, some important problems are underfunded and undermanned, and thus deserve to have more resources allocated to them.  Find out which important problems are underfunded and undermanned, and then work on those problems.	10/23/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	What are the problems (or challenges) in this world?  Hate, violence, war, crime, illness, famine, ignorance, illiteracy, lack of education, intolerance, injustice, inequality, oppression, exploitation, abuse and neglect.	12/26/2003

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	Where is the problem?  (1) If you cannot generate any questions about a topic then you will not see any problems.  (2) If you cannot generate more than one answer to a question then you will not see any problem.  That is, if you cannot come up with alternative views about a topic then you will not see any problems.  (3) People who do not ask questions and who cannot tolerate alternative views do not see problems and thus are not problem solvers.  (4) If you cannot imagine anything better then you will not see a problem.  People who lack imagination do not see problems and thus are not problem solvers.	9/1/2005

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	World.  One of the big problems in the world is that people do not think about, and work on, the big problems of the world.  They think of the small problems of their lives 75% of the time.  They think of leisure, fun and sex the rest of the time.  To change this situation, we need not just literacy and education, but a change in values towards exploring and problem solving.	08/17/1997

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	You can make a list of problems in this world but the big problem is that many people simply stop thinking.  People have stopped thinking about what are the big problems.  People have stopped thinking about problem solving.  Why have people stopped thinking?  People have stopped thinking because thinking is not popular.  People have stopped thinking because they were told by advertisers to stop thinking.  People have stopped thinking because they decided they would not do anything unless someone paid them to do so.  People became pros.  People have stopped thinking because thinking takes effort and people would rather resort to the lazy apathy of blind belief and dogmatism.  People have stopped thinking because they believe someone else will think for them, and that is because they believe we are all specialists now.	5/20/2004

Psychology, thinking, problem solving.	You can work on a problem a long time before a solution, or even a solution method, hits you.  Keep trying.	08/17/1997

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	.This section is about ways of thinking of any subject.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	.This section is not methods of thinking.  This section is thinking about aspects of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Abstract and x.  (A) X in general.  (B) Specific types of x.  (C) Specific actual x's.  (D) Theories on x.  (E) Abstract thoughts on x.  (F) Ideas on x.  (2) Practice of x.  (A) Actual x.  (B) Applied x.  (C) Most practical information on x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Best, good, bad, worst ideas on x.  (2) Best current theoretical and factual arguments attacking or defending x or views of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Causes of x.  Helpers, promoters vs. hurters, hinderers.  (2) Effects of x.  (A) Ramifications, implications.  (B) Influences of x.  (C) Positive effects of x, and negative effects of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Costs vs. benefits.  (2) Drawbacks.  (3) Losses vs. gains.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Current best bibliography of x (state of the art).  (2) Classic best bibliography of x (historical).	3/23/1999

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Current best ideas on x, and who developed them.  (2) Current controversies about theories and facts of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Factors, elements, components.  (2) Variables, constants.  (3) Principles.  (4) Methods, techniques, tools.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Individual, school, or styles view on (2) Subject, issue/problem/questions, view/conclusion/answer, argument/evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Logic of x.  (2) Structure and function.  Anatomy and physiology.  Elements and mechanism.  (3) Related subjects to x: philosophy; psychology and sociology; politics and law; science and technology; economics and business; history, current and future; work and leisure; the arts.  (4) Five W's: who, what, when, where, why.  (5) The view of experts on x.  The view of the masses on x.	6/16/2004

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Mainstream views on x.  Currently generally accepted theories on x.  (2) Far out views on x.  (3) Old views on x: still good vs. outdated.  (4) Cutting edge views on x.  Current unanswered questions on x.  Current big debates on x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Powers and abilities of x vs. limitations of x.  (2) Advantages of x vs. disadvantages of x.  (3) Truth about x vs. lies about x.  (4) Practical vs. academic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Proof of x.  (2) Explanations of x.  X simply put (2 minute explanation).  X completely put (full explanation).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Put x in historical context.  (2) Put x in logical context.  (3) Put x in importance context.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Study of x.  Ideas on x: philosophy, science, folk.  (2) Study of x.  Best directions: knowns vs. unknowns.  Degrees certainty vs. uncertainty.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) What do we/i know about x, and not know about x?  (2) What do we/i need to know about x, and not need to know?  (3) What can we/i use knowledge about x for?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) What.  What is x, and also what x is not.  (2) Why.  Why do x (pro), and also why not to do x (contra).	3/30/1998

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	(1) Wrong views on x.  Why they are wrong?  Who held them?  Mildly wrong to very wrong.  (2) Better views on x.  Why they are right?  Who held them?  Better to best views.	3/23/1999

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Classification and x.  (1) Types of x.  (2) Branches of x.  (3) Super-classes.  (4) Sub-classes.  How can you break down x.  Similarities and differences.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Conception of x.  All your present and past ideas on x determines your attitude on x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Criticism of x.  (1) Criticisms of x (different from pros and cons).  (2) Criticism of ideas on x.  (3) Criticism of x: analysis and judgment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Criticism of x.  For any idea about x, what is the important critical literature, of assent and dissent, qualification and refinement.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Decisions on x.  Most important goals on x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Elements and principles.  Factors and variables.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Elements, principles, fundamentals.	2/10/2005

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	For all questions: reasons why, by perspective, prioritized.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	For any subject area.  Is it a relatively simple or complex subject area?  (2) Have we figured out all, or most, or a little, or none of it?	09/28/1993

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	For science, philosophy, technology, art, etc.  (1) Whose doing the best current work on subject x in fact and theory?  (2) How do we know they're the best?  (3) Who did the best past work?  (4) How do we know?  (5) Arguments and evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	History by period, geographic area, subject or style.  Who, what, when, where, how.  Theory (philosophy, science, tech) and practice (methods).	06/30/1996

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	How can we measure x?  What useful experiments could we do?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	How many views on x are there?  How do they criticize each other?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	How.  (1) How do x?  (2) How learn or study x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Hypotheticals and x.  (1) What would the world be like without x?  (2) Imagine what any other forms of x might be like.  How would it affect individual, society, and nature?  (3) What will future x be like?	08/10/1993

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Ideals, problems, and techniques.  (1) Ideal x.  (A) What is the ideal x?  (2) Problems of x.  (A) Problems, symptoms, causes, effects.  (B) Courses (etiology).  (C) Rates of occurrence (epidemiology).  (D) Therapies: what do, how it works, why it works.  (E) Most important problems on x and why, by perspective.  (F) Most common problems.  Most costly problems.  (G) Most important mistakes about x.  Being made, capable of being made.  How to avoid making them.  (3) Techniques for x.  (A) Most important solutions, cures, therapies.  (B) How best to deal with x, and why?  (C) Easiest, cheapest, most effective.  (D) How well solution works.  Strengths, pros, good points, merits.  Weaknesses, cons, bad points, demerits?  (E) Theoretical solutions vs. actual solutions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Ideas on x, philosophies of x, views on x.  True vs. false, important vs. unimportant.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Importance of x.  (1) Why study x?  (2) Why is x important, and how important is x?  (3) How powerful is x?  (4) Why is knowledge of x important: by perspective.  (5) Why should I study x, what areas, how far?  (6) Significance of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Language of x.  Terms, vocabulary associated with x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Language of x.  The folk and formal vocabulary associated with x.	06/20/1994

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Literature of x.  What is the seminal literature on x?	12/30/1995

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Me and x.  (1) Past, present, future - attitudes about x.  (2) Paul cannon of ideas on x.  (3) Thoughts on x.  (4) Actual experience with or behavior of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Measuring: change in x, level of x, size of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Mechanism of x.  (1) How does x work, how does x function?  (2) Method.  (3) Technique.  (4) Dynamics.  (5) Physiology.  (6) What's going on here?  (7) What's at play?  Elements, how do they interact?  What aspects, how often, how much.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Most important ideas on x.  Prioritized ideas on x.  In general, and by perspective.  Most important truths, concepts, basic ideas or thoughts, fundamentals, principles, general ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Natural x vs. manmade x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Perspectives and x: total, nature, social, individual, me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Philosophy and x.  (1) Metaphysics and x.  (2) Epistemology and x.  (3) Ethics and x.  (A) How do x?  (B) How react to x?  (C) What x can be, what x ought to be?  (D) X and health vs. x and unhealth.  (E) Is x healthy or unhealthy, good or bad, help or hurt, important or unimportant.  (F) Value of x, importance of x, worth of x.  (G) Choices available on x (accepted and rejected).  (H) What's the best way to deal with x?  (I) Do's about x vs. don'ts about x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Pros and cons.  Proponents of x vs. opponents of x.  Arguments for x vs. arguments against x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Purpose of x, function of x.  (1) Why x, uses of x.  (2) What is x good for, what good is x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Questions and x.  (1) Questions on x.  (A) Most important questions about x.  By perspective.  (B) The five big questions on x (w,w,w,w,h?).  (C) Hypothetical questions.  (D) Most important unknowns about x.  (2) Answers about x.  (A) Most important answers to questions on x, by perspective.  (B) Most important proofs to answers: arguments, evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Questions.  A good way to come up with new ideas is to ask self "the big question about x is what?".	08/08/1993

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Questions.  What are the current top 10 unanswered theoretical and applied questions in every subject area.	04/16/1994

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Related subjects: effects of and on x to 26 subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Related subjects.  (1) Related subjects, related ideas and arguments.  (2) Relationships of x: effects of and on.  To psychology, sociology, philosophy, politics, law, economics, business, etc.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Structure, organization of x.  (1) Parts, elements, factors, variations.  (2) Morphology.  (3) Structure of study of x, arrangement of ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Theory and practice of x.  Theories on x: proponents and opponents.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Thinking methodologies.  Art.  Math.  Logic.  Computer technologies.  Science experiments.  Philosophical arguments.	6/12/2005

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Time and x.  (1) History and x.  (2) Present and x.  (3) Future and x.  (4) Theory and practice.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Time and x.  (1) Past, history of x.  (A) History of study of x.  (B) Theory (philosophy, science, tech) of x.  (C) Practice.  (D) Who, when, where.  (E) X's place in history.  (F) Origin, growth, develop, decay, death of x.  (2) Present, current issues with x.  (A) Where is x today (practice and theory).  (B) Most important issues with x.  (C) By perspective, prioritized.  (3) Future of x.  (A) Where is x heading?  (B) What are the forces pushing x in that directions?  (C) Where ought it to go?  (D) How can we get it to where it ought to be?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Ways of thinking about any subject or thing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What am I leaving out about x.  Unremembered, unknown.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What am I missing about x?  What haven't I thought about x yet?  Where is my knowledge of x weak?	10/12/1999

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What are all the lies, falsities, and half truths about x?  How far from the truth are they?  How far from the healthiest, most ethical view are they?  How much damage can they do?	08/16/1993

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What would improved x be?  How can we get improved x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What: definitions.  (1) Definitions by people through history.  (2) Best definitions.  (3) My definitions: personal definitions.  (4) Dictionary definitions vs. popular definitions.  (5) Broad definitions vs. narrow definitions.  (6) Academic definitions, and definitions by any society.  (7) Inclusive definition vs. exclusive definition.  (8) Definition by example.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	What: definitions.  (1) What are we talking about here?  (2) What is x, what is x not?  (3) Nature of x.  (4) Scope of x.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Why is it important?  How important is it?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Why.  (1) Why study x?  (2) Why do or not do x action or behavior?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	Wrong ideas or attitudes about x, and why.	01/23/1997

Psychology, thinking, types, x in general.	X and mankind, average person, and me.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	.This section is about types of thinking.  Topics include: ( ) Decision making.  ( ) Problem solving.	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Creating, done by artists.  (2) Discovering, done by scientists.  (3) Inventing, done by technologists.	5/25/2004

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) History.  Theory: view, argument, counterarguments.  Practice: time, place, events.  (2) Future.  Goals.  Conditional goals: if this happens then I will do this.	5/16/2005

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Identifying objects.  (2) Connecting objects with connectors.  For example, logical connectors.  (3) Performing operations on objects.  Give examples of operations or functions.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Identifying objects.  (2) List making.  A list is a set of objects.  Lists are made by aggregating objects.  (3) List sorting by attributes.  Objects have attributes.  Objects can be sorted by attributes.  (4) Flat file database making.  Records and fields.  A flat file database is a series of horizontally connected lists.  (5) Relational databases.  Linking together flat file databases.  (6) To what extent is the mind a database?	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Image thinking vs. verbal thinking.  (2) Algorithm vs. heuristic thinking.  (3) Metaphor vs. analogy thinking.	12/28/2003

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Passive vs. active thinking.  (2) Directed (problem solving, goal seeking) vs. undirected thinking.  (3) Rigorous vs. unrigorous thinking.  (4) Abstract vs. concrete thinking.	8/15/1998

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Perspectives: total, nature, society, individual, me.  (2) Modes of mentalizing: (A) Myth, magic, religion.  (B) Art.  (C) Philosophy.  (D) Science.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Reflection, introspection, meditation.  (2) Actively thinking.  (3) Not thinking: blocking thought.  (4) Nothing: going with flow.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Scientific thinking: reason based on evidential proof of fact. (2) Philosophical thinking: using reason.  (3) Artistic thinking: art is a method of communication.  Using visual imagining.  Using figurative language.  Using sound to express felt emotion.  (4) Religious thinking.  Religion is a subject matter.  There is no such thing as a religious method of thought.  Religious people simply believe, or else they are thinking philosophically or scientifically (see 1 and 2).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Study, remember.  (2) Learn, create, realize.  (3) Learn: figure out vs. find out.  (4) Criticism: analyze and judge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	(1) Undirected vs. directed.  (2) Thinking about what you are interested in vs. thinking about what you think is important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Advantages and disadvantages of planning ahead vs. spontaneous, last minute, play it by ear.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Apply theory to facts vs. derive theory from facts.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Big thoughts: broad, basic, noble, abstract, theoretical vs. small thoughts: narrow, practical.  % you do each, and amounts forced vs. chosen.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Categorical vs. uncategorical.  Systematic vs. unsystematic drifting and daydreaming.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Convergent thinking focuses in on a goal, like problem solving.  Divergent thinking is tangential, associative, creative.	04/24/1997

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making and planning.  (1) The speed it takes you to come up with (2) how good an idea or goal for a situation or problem, and (3) how long it takes you to do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making and problem solving.  (1) Decision making: Choosing from several alternatives.  Arguing for and against each choice.  (2) Problem solving: Finding the one correct solution.  Troubleshooting.  Diagnosing.	5/25/2004

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making and problem solving.  (1) Decision making.  Decision defined as making a choice between several tenable alternatives.  Decision making, in some cases, involves choosing from equally good alternatives.  Decision making, in some cases, involves choosing from equally bad alternatives.  (2) Problem solving involves finding a single solution by eliminating many wrong answers.	8/25/2004

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making and problem solving.  (1) Problem solving.  In problem solving, there is one definite solution, and the rest are wrong answers.  Examples of problem solving: math problems, word puzzles, spatial puzzles, logic puzzles.  (2) Decision making.  Decision making involves fairness and judgment calls.  Hearing the needs and values of opposing or completely unrelated groups.  Taking into account different factors like time, money, social factors, psychological factors, political factors, economic factors, technological factors, etc.  There is usually not one obvious definite answer.	6/30/1998

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making, types of.  Classified by variables.  (1) Pure money decisions.  (2) Pure time decisions.  (3) Pure stuff (physical resources) decisions.  (4) Intra-personal decisions.  Matter to only you.  (5) Inter-personal decisions (other people involved).	4/19/1999

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making.  (1) Method.  (2) Freedom: how many decisions you can make for yourself, and how important.  (3) Power: how many decisions you can make for others, and how important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making.  (1) Tough decisions (complicated, with many factors and variables) (2) That need to be made quickly, (3) Under crappy circumstances (unprepared, caught by surprise, fatigued), (4) With inadequate information, (5) With much pressure and stakes, (6) Separates the cream from the whey.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Decision making.  Finding the best answer.  Judgments.  Tradeoffs.  Ethical problems.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Empiricism, perception, and sensation.  Types of input data.  (1) Visual: numbers, words, images.  (2) Aural: words, music, noise.  (3) Feel.  (4) Taste.  (5) Smell.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Finding out vs. figuring out.  Problem solving.  Forming general principles.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Hard vs. lazy.  Efficient vs. not.  Long vs. short.  On x subject.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Hypothetical thinking.  Probabilistic thinking.  Estimation.  Estimating present or future.  Overestimating yourself vs. underestimating yourself.  Overestimating the situation vs. underestimating the situation.  Degrees of certainty and probability.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	If there was only one thing to think about, and one method of thinking about that thing, then life would be simple and boring.  Luckily, there are many things to think about, and many methods of thinking about things, and thus life is complicated and interesting.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking, types.	Imagination: whenever we think visually are we imagining?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Imagination's link to creativity: thinking of what could be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Information management: gather data, store, organize, and retrieve information.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Judgment.  Is judgement decision making or criticism (analyze and evaluate)?  What is judgment (good and bad) exactly?	02/04/1994

Psychology, thinking, types.	Problem solving, decision theory (decision making under risk), game theory, heuristics (problem solving with inadequate information), algorithms.	03/01/1997

Psychology, thinking, types.	Processes.  (1) Induce vs. deduce.  Analyze vs. synthesize.  Thinking with images vs. thinking with words.  (2) Percepts: concrete ideas.  Concepts: abstractions.  Mental manipulation.  (3) Observation, recognition, association.  Inquiry, describe, explain.  (4) Observe, think, understand, record.  (5) Cognitive powers: IQ.  Associative powers: creativity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Science: great advances in (1) Theory.  (2) Facts: gathering and proving.  (3) The people.  (4) The experiments.  (5) The papers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Science: investigate, inquire, observe, analyze.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Subject scope or breadth of thinking: broad vs. narrow.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Thinking with words: abstract thinking.  Thinking with images or pictures: concrete thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Time and  thinking.  Thinking of the future.  Using the imagination to imagine you are what you want to be.	12/15/1994

Psychology, thinking, types.	Time and thinking.  (1) Past: remembering, historical thinking.  Was vs. could have been.  (2) Present: current, is, should be now.  (3) Future: forecasting, planning, imagine, hopes, expectations, dreams, could be, want to be, will be.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Time and thinking.  Thinking about history vs. current events of here and now vs. future studies.  How long in future, what subject, whose perspective, problems and opportunities, cause and effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Time and thinking.  Thinking of past, present, and future.  It is not good to have excess or lack of any of the above types of thinking.  Hit the balance.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking, types.	Types of thinking, and techniques how to do each best.  (1) Analysis vs. synthesis.  (2) Induction vs. deduction.  (3) Problem solving, decision making, judgment.  (4) Classification, organizing, prioritization.  (5) Vision, imagination, intuition.  (6) Visual thinking vs. verbal thinking.  (7) Exploring, discovering.  (8) Observe, experiment.  (9) Anticipate, forecast, plan.  (10) Critical thinking, comparative thinking, evaluate.  (11) Question theory, answer theory.  (12) Social knowledge.  (13) Emotional knowledge.  (14) Alternate viewpoints.  (15) Methodical vs. intuitive.  (16) Extrapolate (extend) vs. interpolate (file in).  (17) General vs. specific.  (18) Abstract vs. concrete.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Types of thinking.  (1) Decision making (choosing).  (2) Problem solving.  (3) Goal pursual.	5/15/2004

Psychology, thinking, types.	Types of thinking.  (1) Goal getting.  Getting food, clothing and shelter.  (2) Decision making.  Figure out how to spread out cost and benefits.  (3) Problem solving: find one correct solution.  (4) Cause and effect reasoning.  (5) Meaning determining and meaning making.  If you can't see any meaning then make some up.  (6) Ethical thinking.  (7) Magic thinking.  Daydreaming.  Dream thinking.  Based on images.  The most prevalent form of thinking, especially years ago.  Logic is not required for thought.	5/8/2002

Psychology, thinking, types.	Types of thinking.  Induction.  Deduction.	6/4/2004

Psychology, thinking, types.	Unconscious thinking and learning vs. consciously know we are learning it vs. consciously know we know it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking, types.	Unthinking vs. thinking.  Creative thinking vs. uncreative thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	.Introduction or sum up types of thinking.  (1) Image thinking vs. symbol thinking. (words, numbers, musical notation, computer languages, logic symbols, etc.)  (2) Categorization and classification.  (3) Abstract vs. concrete thinking (a spectrum).  (4) Black and white thinking vs. shades of gray thinking.  (5) Analogical, metaphorical and figurative thinking (art, dreams).  (6) Conscious vs. unconscious thinking.	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking.	.Introduction or sum up.  (1) Thinking as talking to yourself.  So adding vocabulary adds thinking ability?  (2) Thinking as picturing (or, like a movie, picturing with sound added) or imaging.  (3) Are math, music and dance thinking radically different from the above two?  Music is feeling, but playing music requires thinking.  Math is quantity imaging.  Dance is movement, which requires thinking, imaging, or just intention?	8/23/1998

Psychology, thinking.	.This section is about various other thoughts on thinking.  Topics include: ( ) Abstraction.  ( ) Analogy.  ( ) Classificaton and categories.  ( ) Development of thought.  ( ) Emotion and thought.  (See also: Psychology, emotion.)  ( ) Freedom of thought.  ( ) How we think.  ( ) Ideas.  ( ) Ignorance.  ( ) Image thinking.  ( ) Intelligence.  ( ) Language and thinking.  ( ) Memory and thought.  (See also: Psychology, memory.)  ( ) Metaphorical thinking.  ( ) Organization of knowledge.  ( ) Question theory.  ( ) Thinkers.  ( ) Who says we think?	1/24/2006

Psychology, thinking.	"Don't think, we'll think for you.", are the most dangerous words ever spoken.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) A large amount of thinking can be accomplished by mental swapping, that is, the replacement of one mental variable with another through the use of imagination.  (2) The feat or ability of mental swapping of ideas is also the basis of metaphor.  Metaphorical thinking powers much of the arts.	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Booting up thoughts.  Thoughts at the start of the day.  (2) Pop-up thoughts.  Throughout the day.  (3) What's on your mind?  Concerns.  Desires.  (4) Shutting down thoughts.  Thoughts at the end of day.	4/12/06

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Brain states without thought vs. brain states with thoughts.  Humans can have thoughtless brain states.  For example, Zen meditation can produce a thoughtless brain state.  (2) Brain states without words vs. brain states with words.  Humans can even have thought brain states that are wordless.  For example, when you are parallel parking a car you are thinking about complex geometric angles, yet you are doing so without words.	5/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Critical thinking.  (A) Analyze arguments.  Judge or evaluate the quality of the logic of the argument, and the overall epistemological strength of the argument (premises and conclusions).  (B) Analyze and judge the ethical strength of the argument.  (2) Creative thinking.  (A) Problem solving.  (B) Idea creation or generation (quality and quantity).	04/10/1997

Psychology, thinking.	(1) How much to think about something?  Once a day?  All day long?  (2) How much to let something bother you?  Less than it should, to the point of apathy?  More than it should, to the point of incapacitation?	6/15/2005

Psychology, thinking.	(1) How much to think on a subject?  (2) Methods used, and how often each?  (3) How many ideas get, how good ideas, range of ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) How much you see in things determines how gifted you are.  The dim simply do not see much in things.  (2) How much things move or bother you determines how gifted you are.  The dim simply are not moved by things.  (3) How much you see in things determines how much you are moved or bothered by things.  That is, 1 determines 2.  (4) For example, the dim see a flower or a tree, or a mountain, or a person and the only thought that crosses their mind is simply the name of the object.  The gifted, on the other hand, see the same objects and a myriad of thoughts, emotions, memories and sensations cross their mind.	11/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	(1) If you are going to be a thinker, then you must confront the whole ball of wax, all of the universe.  You must have knowledge of all subject areas, and all points of view.  You give each view what it is due.  You do not over-emphasize or under-emphasize an area.  It takes a great deal of judgment and balance.  (2) Everyone is a thinker.  (3) The reason to be a thinker is to stay mentally healthy.  Not to lord it over others.  Not to build a career.  Not to pick up women.	3/23/1999

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Intelligence defined as the ability to think.  The ability to create a new idea beyond the contents of memory.  (2) Thinking defined as the ability to control one's thoughts, which derives from the ability to control one's memories.  (3) Thinking defined as anything that is not 100% hardwired instinct.  (4) Thinking defined as creative problem solving.	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Intelligence helps, but other psychological factors are just as important.  Factors such as: (A) Hard work (number of hours more so than degree of intensity).  (B) Good memory.  (C) Good attitude.  (D) Social skills.  (E) Motivation and drive.  (F) Emotional knowledge.  (G) Practical knowledge.  (H) Curiosity.  (I) Mental health.  (J) Attention and focus.  (K) Healthy environment.  (L) Good role models.  (M) Picking good goals and good plans.  (2) All these factors can make up, to some degree, for lack of intelligence, and they can even propel a person of average intelligence past a person of higher intelligence.  (3) Problems with the above factors can drop a person of high intelligence below a person of average intelligence.  Such problems include: (A) Poor attitude.  (B) Poor role models.  (C) Distractedness.  (D) Mental illness.  (E) Emotional problems.  (F) Poor social skills.  (G) Pessimism, negativity and depression.  (H) Fear.  (I) Laziness.  (J) Lack of motivation.  (4) All these problems can impede intelligence.  They can lower one's functional or working intelligence.  Functional or working intelligence level is the intelligence level that you operate with on a day to day basis.  Functional or working intelligence is different from "test taking intelligence under ideal conditions", which is what most IQ test measure.	5/21/1999

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Internal logic: quality of, development of.  (2) Booting ideas: quality, quantity, source.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) IQ: intelligence quotient, your max.  (2) KQ: knowledge quotient, your max.  How much you know on any subject.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Knowledge pool depends on gathering information, and memory of information gathered.  (2) If you change the facts or views or ideas you deal with, you can change your outlook and behavior.	11/30/1997

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Many people have heads that are impenetrable barriers.  (2) Some people have ideas going into their heads.  (3) A few people have ideas coming out of their heads.	3/11/2000

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Mechanisms of thought, and (2) Organization/structure of ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) New thoughts.  What would a totally new situation be like?  Unrecognizeable?  (2) Old thoughts.  Remembered.  Categorized.  Processed.  Automatic.	4/3/2005

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Percent of time you're in a type or method of thinking.  (2) Percent of time you're on a subject of thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Reading words.  Is reading words a form of thinking with words?  (2) Seeing images.  Is seeing images a form of thinking with images?  (3) When we are reading words and seeing images at the same time, for example, in a television commercial, are we simultaneously thinking with words and images?	6/6/1999

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Some people have only a few concepts or categories.  Some people have only a few connections between concepts.  Some people have a very static set of concepts, and do not readily form new concepts.  That is a bad situation.  (2) Other people have many concepts.  Other people have many connections between concepts.  Other people have a dynamic set of concepts, and readily form new concepts, and form new relationships between concepts.  That is a good situation.	2/24/2007

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Subjects of thought.  What do you spend your time thinking about and why?  What to think about?  (2) Efficiency of thought.  Quantity and quality of ideas per time period.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) There are many methods of thinking.  (2) The various methods of thinking are all learnable skills.  (3) The various methods of thinking can each be applied on many types of data.  Thinking skills are transferable across subjects.  (4) Applying thinking skills to data results in either new data or organized data.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Thinking as talking to yourself.  Verbal thinkers.  (2) Thinking as seeing pictures.  Visual thinkers.  For example, Einstein.  (3) Thinking as hearing sounds.  Not necessarily music.  Not necessarily the sounds of spoken words.  Aural thinkers.  (4) Thinking as a combination of words, pictures and sounds.  For example, like one perceives a movie.  Movie thinkers.	10/30/2005

Psychology, thinking.	(1) To think of something really cool that no one has ever thought of.  An intellectual first ascent.  To boldly go where no man has gone before.  (2) My turf is between philosophy and literature.  Not in either camp.  Too literary for philosophy, too philosophical for literature.  (3) Do it working through my notes, not by reading books.	04/26/1994

Psychology, thinking.	(1) Viewpoint: from where you are looking.  (2) Vista or view: what you can see.  (3) Horizon: limits of what you can see.  (4) Direction - ?  (5) Perspective: same as viewpoint?  (6) How much time you spend in each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) We think most of the time with images, sounds, smells, tastes and touch.  Not as much with words, numbers and other symbols.  (2) Asking questions, even to yourself, requires thinking with words, which is something we rarely do.  (3) Therefore, people seldom ask questions to themselves.  And therefore, people seldom generate answers.	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking.	(1) What is the difference between the way we think when we are first learning a fact or skill versus the way we think when we are adept with a fact or skill?  (2) For example, what is the difference between the way we think when we are first learning to touch typewrite versus the way we think when we are adept at touch typewriting?  When we first learn to touch typewrite we think about every move and our thinking is hesitant and deliberate.  When we are adept at touch typewriting we seem to think more swiftly, fluidly, easily, almost effortlessly.  (3) One can argue that the same shift from difficulty to ease occurs with thinking about any idea, and when using any thinking method.  Our first thoughts on a subject, and our first use of a thinking method, are apt to be clumsy and difficult.  However, once we become familiar with a body of ideas on a subject, and once we become practiced at a method of thinking, our thinking becomes easier and flows.	11/22/2004

Psychology, thinking.	(1) What is thinking?  What should we think about?  (2) Why think: purpose, importance, need for, use for?  (3) How think: mechanisms, methods, techniques?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	(1) What is your mental range, low to high, i.e. What is your level of consistency or inconsistency?  (2) What is your average, i.e. What level are you most often at?  In general, for any subject area, and through time.	05/12/1994

Psychology, thinking.	(1) What things do you think about?  (2) How do you think about those things?  (3) Many people spend a lot of time thinking about the things they want to gain or obtain.  Many people's heads are filled with the statement, "If I get x then I will be happy.".  (4) Many people think mostly about trivial bullshit in a totally superficial way.  Few people think about important things in a critical way.	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking.	(1) You can do a lot of thinking, but not having an adequate pool of information to work with can hinder you.  (2) You can have a huge pool of information, but if you never think about it you will make little progress.	1/15/1999

Psychology, thinking.	A great mind has both discipline (memory, organization) and creativity (freedom, tangents, new ideas).	05/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	A systematic exploration of the idea world is required.  A systematic exploration travels every path in an organized manner.  For example, one can solve a maze by following every closed path until one finds the solution path.	12/16/2004

Psychology, thinking.	A web metaphor for concepts (ex., the Internet as a web) is useful but incomplete because a web metaphor cannot capture all the types of set relationships that we find in set theory and that are so useful in human thought (ex., union, intersection, subset).	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstract thinking.  A concept is an abstraction (summary, outline) from all the memories associated with a thing.  For example, the concept of a cat is an abstraction from the image of a cat, the sound of a cat, the behavior of a cat.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Abstract thinking.  The ability of humans to think abstractly is a result of the human ability to think of ideals.  The ability of humans to think of ideals is a result of the ability of humans to think of goals.  Goal seeking is an ability of many animals who spend their day trying to fulfill their needs.  That is to say, goal seeking produces ideals which then produce abstract thoughts.  And thus abstract thinking in not necessarily limited to humans.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  (1) See also: Abstract vs. concrete thinking in early humans.  (2) See also: Symbolism in the arts.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  Abstraction = to be more general and less specific.  Symbolism = 100% abstraction.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  An abstract term like "equality" is abstract because it is about an idea.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  Concrete and specific versus abstract, universal and general.  (1) Two examples: "cat" and "nine"  (A) Cat.  A specific instance of a cat (concrete, specific).  Any and all cats (abstract, general).  (B) Number nine.  A specific instance of a set of nine things (concrete, specific).  Any and all uses of number nine (abstract, general).  (2)(A) Concrete, specific.  Who would say that specific instances of "cat" exist only in the mind and not in the real world?  No one.  They are real, physical animals.  (B) Abstract, general, universal.  Abstract, general ideas of "cat" exist only in the minds of those who think them, and not anywhere else, and thus they are fictions.  (3) The mind naturally attempts to classify any concrete, specific thing it experiences.  Thus, once we see our first cat, our mind immediately starts forming a abstract, general concept of cat.	1/1/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  Is abstraction a type of classifying and categorizing?  Or is categorizing and classifying a type of abstraction?  Or is abstraction the same thing as classifying and categorizing?  Or is abstraction unrelated to classifying and categorizing?	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  Levels of abstract thinking.  (1) Specific concrete thing (no abstraction).  (2) All x's (types).  (3) All things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  Only words can be abstract.  Sentences cannot be abstract.  So thinking abstractly means thinking using abstract words.  What is an abstract word?  If a word is not denoting a person, place or object then that word is abstract.  If its an idea then its abstract.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  PART ONE.  Three levels.  (1) A particular, individual tree.  (2) The category or class of all trees.  (3) The abstract notion of tree-ness.     PART TWO.  A class or category is a group.  Plurals are used to denote classes and categories.  Groups are collections of individuals.  By generalizing the notion of individuals in a group we get the notion of the abstract.  So classes and categories are a stage on the journey to abstraction.  Individual, group (class or category) and abstraction are three different things.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  There is no such thing as a purely concrete or a purely abstract idea.  All ideas have a spectrum of meanings from concrete to abstract.	8/6/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  What degree of abstraction is a person most comfortable thinking at?  There is a spectrum from no abstraction to total abstraction.  An example of no abstraction is a concrete object like a tree.  An example of total abstraction is a completely symbolic expression, such as a math formula or an abstract painting.  In the middle of the spectrum lies something like a realistic painting of a tree.	7/2/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Abstraction.  What level of abstraction do you like to think at?  I must confess that I don't enjoy always thinking at the "highest" level of abstraction.  That is why I am not a mathematician or a computer programmer.  Sometimes I enjoy delving into the less abstract, sensuous types of thinking.  In any event, it is a mistake to consider high levels of abstraction as somehow better than lower levels of abstraction.  For example, it is a mistake to regard the mathematician as somehow better than the artist merely because the mathematician works at a different level of abstraction.  We can call this mistake "the fallacy of abstraction".	7/10/2000

Psychology, thinking.	After certain degree of needs are met the drive to think is less, and thinking becomes work.  You must spur yourself to do it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Algorithmic thinking.  (1) We can define memory as a person recalling a thought that the person had previously.  (2) We can define thinking as the creation of a new thought.  (3) The new thought is the result of performing an operation on data inputs and thus the new thought can be the result of a new operation or new data inputs.  (4) Some acts of creativity involved an old operation with new data inputs.  Some acts of creativity involve a new operation with old data inputs.  Some acts of creativity involve new operations with new data inputs.  (5) Take the example of multiplying a five digit number by a five digit number.  This is something that I have never done before, and the result is thus new.  However, multiplication is an operation that I have done before.  (6)  How much creative thinking is involved in simple calculation?  Not much it seems.  Perhaps none at all.  Yet notice how much of what we call "profound artistic creativity" can be broken down into simple algorithmic steps.  Quite a bit actually.  The artist may appear like a magician but he is only doing simple replacements of one operation or data input with another.  If simple algorithms are no big feat of thinking, then neither are our creative leaps.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking.	All thinking of past and all thinking of future serves present situation.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	An essay on thinking.     PART ONE.  Sensing and thinking.  Any sense input, be it sight, smell, taste, sound or touch, can trigger the memory of any other sight, smell, taste, sound, or touch (or emotion, or thought).  A sight or sound can include reading or hearing a word.  Any sight, smell, taste, sound or touch can be a symbol (i.e., can trigger or stand for another).  We can even imagine new sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches.  So there seems to be less of a distinction between sensing and thinking than I thought.  If any sense data can be a symbol.  If any sense data can be imagined or thought of.     PART TWO. Sensing and thinking.  Seeing vs. mental imaging (or imagining).  Seeing images vs. mental picturing of images.  When we read fiction we mentally image the story.  Can we say that we imagine the story?  Or did only the author imagine it?  Do we imagine non-fiction too?  I.e., do we mentally picture everything?  If so, then besides Fodor's "Language of Thought" there is also an "Image System of Thought".  Is mental imaging a form of thinking by using images?     PART THREE.  Categorization and classification, are they the same thing?  Are they defined as hierarchical tree building, or are they, more simply, merely the process of creating sets or groups?  Hierarchies are subsets.  But hierarchies cannot represent the set function known as intersection.     PART FOUR.  Categorization and classification.  More fundamental than the hierarchical classification and categorization of concepts is the psychological process of organizing information, be that information in the form of knowledge, data, or merely symbols.  Information can be organized serially, such as the alphabet and whole numbers.  Serial organization is a more simple process than is hierarchical classification into tree-like structures.  Even more simple than the organization of information is the mental process of pattern recognition of physical objects.  Pattern recognition is where intelligence starts.     PART FIVE.  "If-then" thinking is a type of temporal pattern recognition.  Whereas "Which of these things is not like the other" thinking is a form of spatial pattern recognition.  Temporal pattern recognition and spatial pattern recognition both evolved in animals as a survival skill.  Spatial pattern recognition is the more simple of the two, and it probably evolved earlier, in lower forms of life.  Spatial pattern recognition helps the carnivore pick out the weak prey, and it helps the herbivore pick out and avoid the bad fruit and the inedible plant.  Thus, spatial pattern recognition helps both the carnivore and herbivore survive.     PART SIX.  If-then thinking.  (1) "If-then" thinking (i.e., rule based thinking) evolved from the causal aspect of nature, which in turn is based on time.  If time did not exist, then cause-effect would not exist, and as a result if-then thinking would not have evolved.  It is because humans learned to recognize actual "if-then" causal phenomena in nature, we were able to then set up our own abstract "if-then" scenarios such as laws and formal logic.  (2) Pattern recognition in groups of physical objects is based on space (not time).  If space did not exist, then our ability to recognize patterns of objects in space would not have evolved.  And if pattern recognition had not evolved, then our ability to recognize groups and sets would not have evolved.  And our ability to categorize and classify would not have evolved.     PART SEVEN.  Symbols.  (1) Sound can evoke a word or an image.  Example, the sound of a dog bark can evoke the word lassie, or it can evoke a picture of lassie.  (2) Some things can evoke only feelings.  Music can evoke feelings only?  Paintings that are abstract (i.e., not of recognizable objects) can evoke feelings only.  Nonsense words can evoke feelings only.  Are these three all examples of non-symbolic arts?     PART EIGHT.  Symbols.  Is a picture (of a flower, for example) symbolic in the same way that a word (the word flower, for example) is symbolic?  Or is a picture differently symbolic than a word?     PART NINE.  The question remains: What is thinking?  Is there really such a thing as thinking, such as we traditionally envision it?  Do we think with words only?  Can we think with images?  For example, if you picture a robber taking the payroll, is that essentially the same as saying "A robber could take the payroll", or "A robber did take the payroll"?  When you think about and solve a spatial relation puzzle, you do so without using words.  It appears, from the above two examples, that we can think with images.  If we can think with words and images, can we also think with sounds, smells and tastes?	6/6/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  "Is" and "be" are the most commonly used verbs.  (1) "Is" and "be" can be used to mean "exists".  For example, things are themselves.  (2) "Is" and "be" can be used to mean "equals".  For example, "x is y" means "x = y".  (3) "Is like" means "is similar to".  For example, "X is like y" means "x is similar to y in some way but not equal to".  (4) Metaphorical thinking, speaking and writing is inevitable because people are always comparing things.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  (1) Analogy: "a is to b as x is to y".  (2) Metaphor (a comparison) "x is y".  (3) Simile (a comparison using like) "x is like y".  (4) Metaphors and smilies are types of analogies?	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  (1) Good points about metaphors.  Metaphors can reveal new and useful relationships between things.  (2) Bad points about metaphors.  Metaphors can confuse more than they clarify.  Things are what they are, so why call one thing another thing.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  (1) See also: "Psychology, mind, development. > Use of metaphors by early humans".  (2) See also: "Arts, literature. > Use of metaphor in the arts, especially literature, especially poetry".	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Analogy is the use of one thing to represent or mean another thing.  And we convey analogies through language, which involves the use of one word to mean another word.  The use of one word to mean another word is a feature of many modes; a feature of slang; a feature of code; a feature of humor.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Analogy, metaphor and simile.  Analogical thinking.  Metaphorical thinking.	6/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Metaphor thinking.  One argument is that human thought evolved layer by layer.  Starting with simple, single word thoughts about the immediate physical environment and immediate physical needs.  Evolving to complex, multi-sentence thoughts about abstract ideas.  The way these layers relate to each other is through metaphors.  We arrive at complex ideas from simple ideas via metaphorical thinking.  This evolution over millions of years is replayed in every child's development, to some degree.	9/1/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Metaphorical thinking and analogical thinking is a type of classification and categorization thinking.  To say "this is like that" is to put "this" in the "that" category.  Alternatively, it is to form a new category that contains "this" and "that".  Categorization and classification is just a form of "grouping".  We group ideas together in various ways.	8/28/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Metaphorical thinking is when you say, "This is like that."  What type of thinking do you call it when you say, "This is unlike that."?  It is just as important a type of thinking.  Perhaps we can call them "synonym thinking" and "antonym thinking".     PART TWO.  Analogy thinking is when you say "This is to that as this other thing is to that other thing".  Analogy is formally symbolized as "X : Y : : A : B".  Analogy thinking is a form of double metaphor.  Its actually a triple metaphor consisting of a metaphor on each side and the metaphor of the whole analogy itself.	6/3/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Analogy.  Our minds find it easy to think analogously.  "This is like that.  This is not like that"  To think analogously is to group things together by some abstract pattern.  Our minds like to group things.  Metaphor and simile arise out of analogy.	3/23/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Analysis of your thinking.  Ways to improve it and what to get it to.  How do we think, and how best to think.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Anyone, from any philosophical school, anyplace in the world, can think of any idea, in any form (visual art, poem, philosophy), on any subject, at any time.	12/01/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Arguments against thinking (figuring and finding).  Boring.  Enslaving, not freeing.  Waste of time, not useful.  Will change for worse.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Arguments against thinking.  Many people think(?) that thought cannot solve everything.  You can't think your way out of every situation.  (1) Thinking vs. emotion.  They argue that emotion is more important than thought in some situations.  (2) Thinking vs. drive.  They argue that drive is more important than thinking in some situations.  (3) Thinking vs. action.  They argue that action is more important than thinking in some situations.	4/10/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Arguments for and against thinking, reading, and writing.  (1) Against.  If your are changing fast it can hold you back.  You can become a studier rather than doer.  It can enslave, not free you. (2) For.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Association.  One thing calls to mind another thing.  One thing reminds you of another thing.  One memory triggers another memory.  So much of human "thinking" is association of memories.  People think they are thinking, but most of the time people are really associating memories.	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Association.  What does it mean to say that we associate one thing with another?  What does it mean to say that our thought trains move in vague associations?  (1) Memories of all past encounters with a thing.  (2) One thing reminds you of another thing.  (3) A mental web of associations.	8/3/2004

Psychology, thinking.	At certain times in your life you are more apt to get an idea than at others.  There is a window of opportunity on getting ideas.  This is why you have to start early, and do your notes your entire life long.	01/01/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Automatic thinking.  Consider the act of walking along a forest path.  Are you thinking when you walk along a forest path?  Are you thinking about walking?  Are you thinking about the path?  Are you thinking about the forest?  Most likely you are thinking about something else.  Humans are able to do some things by using little conscious thought or effort, seemingly automatically.	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Avoidance is the most common intellectual mistake.  Many people make the mistake of avoiding thinking about many things.	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Basic thoughts are most important.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Believing what you hear, read or see.  Is it true and why?  Is it important and why?  What are alternate views and arguments?  Figure it out!	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Bias in authors.  In the intellectual world, as well as the material world, you have to ask (A) What does the person want to get (their goals), and (B) What are they selling (what ideas are they pushing).	11/2/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Big fears: (1) How do I know what I am reading isn't a bunch of lies?  (2) How do I know I won't go further, or in better direction, if I don't read it?  (3) How do I know they are not trying to socialize, steer, brainwash, and program categories and views in my mind?	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Big intellectual sins.  (1) Being wrong.  (2) Working on the trivial and unimportant.  (3) Producing ideas that go nowhere, and are not powerful and lasting (producing much change for better).  (4) Being too airy (theoretical) or too concrete (practical).	06/15/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Big problem in life.  You can't do anything, if you don't have knowledge.  But by time you get the knowledge, you can't use it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Build a brain trust.  Get many, good, diverse brains, communicating well.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Can we and should we control or direct our thoughts?  (1) If we can direct our thoughts then we can choose to widen our scope of thought or narrow it.  Widening our scope of thought is good.  (2) Controlling our conclusions and our premises.  (3) Controlling facts vs. beliefs.  (4) Believing a lie even when you know its a lie.	9/26/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Capacity is limited so choose what to think about (subject), when to think, how to think (method), how to load up.  Mistakes of doing any of these, and effects of mistakes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Catalogues and cannons of ideas.  Best ideas, best structures, most complete, most accurate and true, best importance ratings.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) Classification means to arrange or organize categories.  (2) Categories are groups of individual objects.  (3) For examples: The Dewey Decimal classification system; the Library of Congress classification system; the Biological classification system.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) Creation of a mental category by a person can be a conscious or unconscious process.  (2) Some categories we figure out for ourselves, some categories we find out from other sources (media, peers, etc.).  (3) Creation of a mental category by a person is similarly to the process used by a library cataloger.  (4) We often assume that our categories are organized in a logical structure, and that categories are created based on whether they are logically called for.  However, category creation is often based on importance as well as logic.  Things we deem unimportant we put in an "everything else" category.  Things we deem important we create categories for.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) Simple and rigid category thinkers:  (A) Each item is in only one category.  (B) Each category has only one attribute.  (2) Complex and sophisticated category thinkers:  (A) An item can belong to many categories.  (B) A category can have many attributes.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) Things exist.  (2) We create categories to describe sets of things.  (3) We then create categories to describe sets of categories.	11/5/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) To some degree the categories we create are influenced by our needs and by the obstacles or problems we face in getting those needs.  (2) To some degree the categories we create are influenced by our psychological abilities, like our perceptual abilities, memory abilities, emotional abilities and reasoning abilities.	11/5/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) We have categories.  We have logical structures of categories.  We have importance structures of categories.  (2) We have ideas.  We have logical structures of ideas.  We have importance structures of ideas.  (3) Is every idea a category?  Is every category an idea?	10/31/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) What determines the type, number and structure of the categories a person forms? (2) The average person has what type, number and structure of categories?	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  (1) Why did humans evolve the ability to categorize?  Perhaps the ability to categorize evolved in humans and other social animals in order to sort out kinship.  (2) Categorizing is not the same thing as thinking abstractly.  For example, the category of "all the barking animals I have seen" is not abstract, but it is similar to the concept "dog" which is abstract.  Perhaps the ability to categorize eventually evolved into our ability to think abstractly.  (3) One can think inferentially without thinking abstractly.  One can think inferentially without thinking in terms of categories.  So inference seems somewhat separate from categories and abstraction, and possibly evolved some other way.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  A category or class is a group or a set.  Categories and classes can thus be analyzed using set theory.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Categories are acquired based on: (A) Everyday use.  If you use it often you will develop a category for it.  (B) Once in a lifetime occurrences or use.  If you ever experienced it, even once, you will have a concept for it.  (C) The education we never use.  The ideas we think of that we never use.  That is, we are constantly generating a multitude of categories in our minds.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Categories are different from levels of abstraction.  (A) You can have many categories at any level of abstraction.  (B) You can abstract a single item into symbolic form without recourse to categories.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Categories or ideas.  Simple vs. complex.  New vs. old.  Best vs. worst.  General vs. specific.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Concepts are not the same as categories.  Concepts are what we put into categories.  (You can, however, have the concept of category.  You can also have the category of all concepts.).	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  For any sentence, paragraph or paper ask, "What subject is it about?"  It could be about more than one thing.  (ex. Symbolism, double entendre, subject-verb-object, etc.).  It could be about many things.  What category to put it in?  It can go in many categories.	6/14/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Having many, varied categories does not determine how ethical you are.  There are many single-minded individuals who perform simple yet much-needed tasks with great tenacity, and these individuals are to be admired.  On the other hand, having many, varied categories, the result of mental flexibility and constant learning, is a healthy psychological trait.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  If everything is connected to everything else and related to everything else, then what business do we have categorizing and classifying?	10/22/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Is it possible to think without using categories?  No.  Is it possible to speak without using common nouns?  Yes.  Is it possible to think of anything that is not a category or not in a category?  No.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Is there only one set of subjects or categories?  If no, is one set of categories or subjects better than another?  Better in terms of what is useful, healthy, true or good.  For example, some people's mental organization is based on goals (the future).  Some people's mental organization is based on the past (memories).	7/16/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  On what basis do people create categories?  (1) People create categories for what they think is important.  The unimportant does not merit its own category.  (2) People create categories for the basic foundational ideas.  The minor details are relegated to sub-categories in a hierarchical classification system.  (3) People create categories when they have many things that need to be organized by pattern.  A small quantity of things with no discernible pattern do not get a category.  (4) People create categories at busy intersections, like the nodes on a network or web.  The seldom visited routes and places rarely get a name or a category.  (5) See also psychology, thinking, classification and categories.	9/24/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Pokemon, baseball cards, etc.  People love to differentiate, classify, categorize and keep statistics.  If only they would apply these skills to something useful.	11/30/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Single-item categories.  It may be that the brain forms a category for every single thing it encounters.  If you don't have a category, then you can't think of a thing.  You can't think about things you don't know of.  Perhaps "concept" is a better term to use in this case.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  The traditional academic divisions of knowledge, which Western civilization has to a degree been based on, are a useful way of categorizing and structuring knowledge, but they are not the only useful way of structuring knowledge.  To make new advances often requires discovering new concepts and new relationships between concepts.  New ways of seeing the world.  Of course, there are many, many useless concepts and concept structures, and even counter-productive ones.  It is not merely a matter of using different words, although that may help.  Sometimes you have to make up new words.	4/14/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  The uncategorizable: (1) Things we know nothing about.  Things that fit into no known category.  (2) Things that fit into so many categories that you can't confine it to any single category.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Thinking as categories and classification.  (1) The number, types, and levels of classification you set up, or have set up for you, consciously or unconsciously, has an important effect on how you think.  (2) Levels of abstraction.  How much time you spend in each.  (3) How you categorize any specific experience, situation or event is very important.  (4) Classification theory: inclusion, exclusion.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  To categorize is to put into groups.  Two types of categories:  (1) Putting concrete, singular individual items into groups.  (2) Putting groups into groups.	12/26/2003

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  To create a category or class is to create a label.  To put an idea in a category is like putting a label on the idea, which is like putting label on a person.  Labels can limit the idea, just like labels can limit a person.  Labels can stunt the development of an idea, just like labels can stunt the development of a person.  Labels can build barriers between ideas, just like labels can build barriers between people.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categories.  Types of thinking.  (1) Simple declarative sentences: "I think this is Spot".  (2) Categorizing: "I think Spot is a dog".  (3) Inference: "I think Spot is pregnant".	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categorization.  (1) Is abstract thinking a type of classification and categorization thinking?  (2) Can we classify and categorize without using logic?	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Classification and categorization.  What does it mean to say a thing cannot be categorized?  (1) Its uncategorizable.  It fits into no known category.  Its the first member of a new category.  (2) It fits into many categories.	1/1/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Come up with new ideas.  Work out the internal logic of the ideas.  Work out how the idea relates to other ideas (logical relationship, historical relationship, etc.).  Evaluate the usefulness and importance of the idea.  Evaluate the truth and logical validity of the idea.	1/1/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Coolest, newest, hottest ideas are not in books, or even journals.  They hover in minds and on lips.	11/04/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Critical paper.  (1) What he says.  In general, in specific works, and in specific phrases.  Which are the important passages?  (2) What various other people think he means.  Arguments pro and contra each of their views.  How various people respond to his views.	01/09/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Critical thinking skills.  (1) Put it into words.  (2) Clarify what is being said.  (3) Get your definitions straight.  (4) Deliver arguments for it.  Deliver arguments against it.  (5) Find examples or cases where it is true.  Find examples or cases where it is not true.  (6) Rate the arguments, for and against, in order from strongest to weakest.  (7) Expose hidden assumptions of the view.  Expose the inobvious implications of the view.	8/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Critical thinking.  Good critical analysis of a work.  (1) Lay out what he says in logical outline.  (2) Fill in other people's views.  (3) Don't make mistakes in interpretation.  (4) Leave nothing out.  (5) Do it clearly and concisely.  (6) Get right importance order.  (7) What he thinks, and what you think of what he thinks.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Critical thinking.  Practice thinking critically on all readings and writings.  Ask yourself about an idea (1) What is wrong or right with this idea, and to what degree?  (2) What is incomplete, excess, or irrelevant in this idea?  (3) How can this idea be applied, or transferred to other subject areas?  (4) How can this idea be made more abstract or specific, broader or narrower?  (5) What is the opposite view and arguments?  (6) Thus can you develop your own great ideas and improve others.  (A) Totally new ideas, vs. (B) Significant improvements, vs. (C) Holes found (questions or problems raised).	11/06/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Criticism means analyze and judge.  Analyze means describe and explain.  Judge values and standards.  For what existed, exists, and will or could exist.  Ideally, ideally in this world, and ideally for you.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Curiosity is natural and healthy: learn about everything.  Never stop questioning, never stop thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Curiosity may have killed a cat, but curiosity kept the cat species alive and well.	11/23/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Curiosity.  (1) Curiosity is an attitude of inquiry.  Curiosity is an attitude of questioning.  Curiosity is an attitude of exploration.  Curiosity is a good thing.  (2) Curiosity is not the same thing as doubt.   Curiosity is not the same thing as creativity.  Curiosity is not the same thing as thinking.  Doubt, creativity and thinking are other good things	12/16/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Database approach to thinking and knowledge.  The view that all knowledge can be represented as a database, either on paper or in the mind.  The stronger view that all knowledge is best represented as a database.	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Deep and free, my motto for thinking.	11/20/1997

Psychology, thinking.	Development of thinking in humans.  Three types of thinking ability.  (1) Thinking about animals helped develop human thinking abilities.  "To catch a fox you have to think like a fox".  The development of hunting for animals caused an increase in our thinking abilities because many animals have a rudimentary consciousness that helps them avoid being killed by allowing them to engage in active opposition.  (2) Social thinking.  A very important step in the development of human thinking is the development of social thinking.  To try and figure out what's the other person thinking and what's the other person feeling takes a new kind of thought than is possessed by solitary animals.  (3) The development of planning or thinking about the future.  Did it occur gradually, where at first we could think an hour into the future, then after a thousand years of evolution we could think a day into the future, then after thousands of years of evolution we could think a year into the future?	5/6/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Development of thought.  (1) Development of thought in mankind:  Who first said "i can think"?  History of human development of thought, and language, and relationship of both.  (2) Development of thought in individuals: ability to think.  Ways and types of thinking.  Degrees how well they do any type.  Idea pool: knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Development of thought.  Did humans think in single words for a long time (hundred of thousands of years) before they thought in sentences?	4/10/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Development of thought.  What age you think of a thing (and with how much effort).  Some people have certain dispositions to figure out (or be "hit by") certain truths or ideas at a young age.  How hard something hits you, at what age, how long it lasts, and prominence it takes in your personality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Directed (focused) vs. undirected (wandering) thinking.  What combo of each produces best quality and quantity of ideas for you?	08/20/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Directed thought.  (1) Directed thoughts.  (Def of)  (A) Pros.  Directed thoughts can improve problem solving.  (B) Cons.  Directed thought can lead to narrow thinking.  (2) Undirected thoughts.  (Def of)  (A) Pros.  Undirected thoughts can lead to reverie, tangential thinking, subconscious thinking, creative thinking, wide ranging thinking.  (B) Cons.  Undirected thoughts can be unproductive.	10/28/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Directed thoughts.  (1) The degree to which a person is able to direct their thoughts is a learnable skill.  (2) Spending all your time with undirected thoughts is a bad thing.  Spending all your time with directed thoughts is also a bad thing.  (3) A mix of 50% directed thought and 50% undirected thought might be a good mix.  (4) When we focus we direct our thoughts.  When we daydream we have undirected thought.	10/28/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Eight types of intelligence, yield eight types of thinking, yield eight types of knowledge.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and reason.  Leading with the left (brain) instead of the right (brain).  (1) Emotion.  Feel something is true, or have a hunch.  You then find arguments to support that conclusion.  And then see if the data supports the arguments.  (Deduction?)  (2) Reason.  Gather data, and form arguments, and then form conclusions.  (Induction?)  (3) Both are good just as long as you do not operate strictly on either emotion or reason alone.	4/28/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and thinking.  High intellectual involvement and high emotional involvement go hand in hand?  Help each other?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and thinking.  Reason vs. drive or emotion.  Reason is king, emotion is queen.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and thinking.  The problem is not reason vs. emotion.  The problem is thinking vs. not thinking, and feeling vs. not feeling.  We need thought and emotion against the void.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and thinking.  There is a two way link between feeling and thought.  (1) Thinking about one's emotions.  For example, thinking "Why am I happy about x?", or asking "What is happiness?"  (2) Feeling one's thoughts.  For example, "What do I feel about x?"	2/10/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Emotion and thinking.  When you talk about your sensations and emotions, you are actually talking about your thoughts about your sensations and emotions.  The song is correct, "Nobody knows how I feel".  Through language, other people have direct access to your thoughts, but they have only indirect access to your sensations and emotions.	1/24/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Every experience fills your brain and has an integrative or disintegrative effect.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Evolution of thought.  (1) Why would thinking evolve?  Thinking evolved because it offers an evolutionary advantage over instinct.  (2) How could thinking or intelligence arise in animals?  Through the process of evolution.  (3) How necessary is language for thought?	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Factors in thought: complexity, extensiveness and density.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Figuring out and finding out how to think for yourself.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Finding a new and useful relationship or link between categories is as good as finding a new and useful category.	6/5/2000

Psychology, thinking.	First move from breadth to depth.  Then move from recognition to recall.	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Four stages.  (1) Data: facts.  (2) Information: drawing (metaphysical) conclusions about data.  (3) Knowledge: a body of information that coheres (epistemologically).  (4) Wisdom: knowledge used in the ethical realm (ethics).	12/20/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Four stages.  More data (numbers), yields more information (facts), yields more knowledge (coherent body of facts), yields more wisdom (ethical decisions).	5/30/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Four types of thinkers.  (1) Single idea thinkers who dwell on one point.  (2) Dualistic thinkers (either/or thinkers) who can only think of an idea and its opposite.  (3) Spectrum thinkers who can interpolate the points on a line between two opposite poles.  (4) Web thinkers who link ideas in shapes other than straight lines.	7/29/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom of thought: unrepressed, and unsocialized.  Once you free yourself of everything society tells you to do, and everything society tells you to think, you are free and must create your own world and life.  You can only improve culture by going beyond culture.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom of thought.  Thinking anything about anything vs. controlled thought.  By self or others, for better or worse, pros and cons of each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom vs. repression.  (1) Freedom of thought.  In any method, on any subject, at any moment vs. (2) Dogmatism, rigid, controlled thinking.  Any method, any subject, any moment.  (3) Which way is better, when use either way.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom vs. repression.  Acknowledge repressed thoughts, let the thoughts come, free your mind from yourself and from others.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom vs. repression.  Repression is bad, it causes mental illness.  Don't limit your conscious thoughts.  Acknowledge unconscious repressed thoughts.  How?  Say, "I let myself think anything about anything".  If your unconscious mental policy is repression then pretty soon you stop thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom vs. repression.  Self repression and social repression of mind.  Negative effects on iq.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Freedom vs. rigidity.  Dogmatism destroys creativity and development.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Getting the knowledge vs. using or applying the knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Gray areas.  (1) Combine the notes on "gray areas" with the notes on "black and white thinking.  (2) Shades of gray.  Don't call me a shady character.  (3) Black and white thinking is a type of polar thinking.  Shades of gray thinking is a type of spectrum thinking.  (4) There are at least two ways we use the terms gray, black and white to apply to thinking.  (A) Gray areas as the unknown.  Black and white as the known.  (B) Gray areas as subtle distinctions.  Black and white as clear cut.	4/6/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Gray areas.  Black and white thinkers like to remain safely in ports of certainty, leaving the pioneers to explore the gray areas on the map of reality.  There are two types of gray areas.  (1) Ethical gray areas are the cases where the boundary between good and evil is not clear.  (2) Epistemological gray areas.  There are cases where the relationship between the concepts in a set of concepts is unclear.  One is tempted to call this a metaphysical gray area.  But I prefer to call it an epistemological gray area in that any statement we make about the relationship of concepts in a set of concepts is going to be either true or false.	4/7/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Gray thinking.  Black and white thinking.  Who engages in black and white styles of thinking?  (1) Fanatics and other rigid people.  (2) Children, neurotics and dim adults.  Black and white thinking is a simplistic style of thinking.  Children, neurotics and dim adults are simplistic thinkers.	7/29/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Great accumulation, organization, and consolidation must take place before growth can take place.	03/10/1989

Psychology, thinking.	Great thinking and great thoughts can occur, or be put off, at any time.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Having knowledge is great, but getting knowledge is a pain in the ass.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	How far can you see beyond your situation, and how often do you?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	How fast (in hours) can I learn how much material (in pages), how well (test scores?), and how long remember it?  Be competitive with yourself.  Create time to study.	03/20/1994

Psychology, thinking.	How much do you think?  How can the amount of thought be measured?  TPM: thoughts per minute.  TPD: thoughts per day.  UTPD: Unique thoughts per day without repetition.	12/8/2006

Psychology, thinking.	How to improve a person's thinking ability?  Have them think more often.  Have them think on a wider number of topics.  Have them develop more thinking operations.  Have them store their thoughts in writing on a computer.  Secondarily, develop a better memory system, drive system and emotion system.	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	How to think.  Gather best facts.  Use good logic.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  "Making stuff up" is something that many of us often do.  (1) For many of us, "making stuff up" is how we think.  We often stick with the first thing that we can think of.  Sometimes we refine it by sticking with the first thing that seems plausible.  The point is that the way most of us actually think is that ideas pop into our heads every now and again, and then we may, or may not, occasionally apply rules of logic and science against those ideas, partially or completely.  (2) A variation on this theme is lying to ourselves and others.  We are so good at "Making stuff up".  (3) Another variation is tale telling or mytholygizing.  We love "Making stuff up".	1/20/2000

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  (1) Most people's minds are not organized in rigid hierarchical outline classification systems, but rather in loose associative systems.  (2) Also, they remember, forget, create, or revise categories as needed.  (3) Study the category systems (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) of kids, mentally ill, primitives, and ancients.	05/03/1994

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  A large amount of the so called "intellectual activity" that takes place in society is merely an activity that I call "reading the instructions".  This is especially true in areas such as medicine, law and computers.  How proud and superior some individuals feel having read the instructions.  How smart they consider themselves to be, having acquired an advanced degree by reading the instructions.  Is this the cream of the crop that says, "Yes, I read and followed the instructions!"?  No, it is not.  (2) Much of medicine, law and computers involves merely following the instructions.  Many highly paid doctors, lawyers and techies spend most of their time merely following the instructions.  What if you want to create full time?  You are up the creek without a paddle.  (3) In most of the top jobs, the professional jobs like doctor, lawyer, programmer, etc., you have to be smart in that you need to have command of a large body of detailed knowledge, but you do not have to be creative, in fact creativity is discouraged because they want you to go by the book.	8/30/2001

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  Booting up.  (1) Related to notes on "What to remember" and "Organization of ideas by importance", is the concept of "What ideas to boot up with."  The ideas that you choose to boot up with have a big effect on the new ideas that you generate.  (2) Some good ideas to boot up with: (A) There is little time left.  Do not waste time.  (B) Solve some problems.  (C) Find truth and get justice.  (3) Vapid ideas that most people boot up with: (A) I want sex.  (B) I want riches.  (C) I want fame and status.  (4) This topic is also related to cognitive therapy.  Cognitive therapy attempts to change attitudes by changing thoughts.  This topic is also related to optimism and pessimism.  Optimism and pessimism is often a result of the ideas we boot up with.  (5) GIGO: garbage in, garbage out.  If you boot up with sub-optimal ideas, then you will produce sub-optimal ideas.  (6) Sometimes you just draw a blank and cannot think of any ideas to boot up with.  In those cases, you can fall back on your "boot up" list of ideas.  (7) We "boot up" with ideas many times a day.	6/2/1999

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  How do humans think?  Very often humans think pre-verbally and pre-logically.  PART ONE.  Humans use a lot of pre-verbal thinking when we first encounter a new phenomenon.  This is the type of thinking that children and teens do a lot of, but adults do it too.  When you first experience something you may spend a long period of time before you generate any verbal thoughts on that phenomenon.  (1) An example of this type of thinking in children is their single word answers.  You ask, "Did you like the movie?".  Child answers, "Yes".  You ask, "What did you like about it?".  Child answers, "I don't know. " (2) Another example is teens.  Teens are able to generate their own verbal thoughts, unlike like children who merely respond to questions.  But the sentences that teens generate are usually simple sentences like, "This is cool." and "That sucks", ala Beavis and Butthead.  (3) What many adults do not realize is that when an adult encounters a new experience they go through the same stages of "child thinking" and "teen thinking".  It may take an adult years to come up with any verbal (sentential, propositional) thoughts on the subject.  Another misperception that many adults make is believing that children and teens are not thinking most of the time when in fact children and teens think and learn as much or more than adults when you take into account nonverbal thinking and learning.     PART TWO.  Also note that when you first encounter a phenomenon your thinking is non-logical.  It may take a long time to develop logical thoughts on the subject.  However, that does not mean that our non-logical thinking is unimportant.  Non-logical thinking is very important.  The types of non-logical thinking include dreams, free associations, emotions, metaphors, etc.  We are all artists when we first encounter a phenomena.	1/9/2002

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  How the mind could hypothetically work.  (1) One neuron for one thought.  This is not a likely scenario.  (2) One combination of neurons for one word in one thought statement.  This is perhaps more likely.	6/10/1999

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  Humans think by performing operations on data.  The data is in the form of concepts.  Sets of concepts are called categories.  What are all the types of operations humans perform when they think?  (For example, logical operations.  Functional operations).  Operations and data can be combined into procedures.  Is this how are brains work?	12/1/2001

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  Most people's information gathering is random, unrigorous, and unorganized.  They read the paper, watch the news, talk to friends, and read bestsellers.  They don't search, and they don't plan their searches.	02/22/1997

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  One way of describing how humans think: (1) Generate a lot of views (pro's and contra's).  (2) Rule out the impossible.  (3) Of the remainder, decide which is best.	12/30/2000

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  Top down solution: theoretical to practical.  Bottom up solution: practical to theoretical.  It is tough to tell which will yield better answers sooner.  Always try both.  Attack all problems from all directions and levels.	06/15/1994

Psychology, thinking.	How we think.  Two opposite views.  (1) The mind is always trying out new ideas.  And the mind is constantly remembering.  We limit our minds when we decide that we are going to think about one thing.  Vs.  (2) The mind thinks and remembers only when we spur it to, and if we do not spur it then it does nothing.  We tend to do nothing or do loops.  (3) I think the former (1) is more accurate.	2/10/2001

Psychology, thinking.	How well you compare to age peers, IQ peers, anyone alive, or anyone who ever lived.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Human knowledge, in the individual and in society, exists as a patchwork of ideas in various states of development.  Some old ideas are well developed.  Some new ideas are fledgling.  Sometimes new ideas cause old ideas to be revised.  Human knowledge is not static.	9/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Hyper-active thinking vs. slow deliberate thorough thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Idea conflict and resolution.  Cognitive dissonance and consonance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas about things, events, and processes.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas are like billiard balls.	12/20/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas tend to congregate in groups.  If you change your views on one idea, often it changes a bunch of preceding assumptions and following conclusions.  And it often changes neighboring ideas as well.  A change in one view can start a web of idea changes, because ideas are inter-linked.	6/9/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas: engines or frogs?  People sometimes ask me why I include very simple notions in my Notes.  The basic idea is that complicated ideas are constructed out of simple ideas.  And complicated ideas can be disassembled into simple ideas, much like an automobile engine can be disassembled and reassembled.  Other people hold that ideas are like frogs in that they die when you try to dissect them.  Break out the CAT scan.	10/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas: find them, research them, write your own outline, rate them for quality.	03/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  An idea is a tool.  Get better ideas.	3/3/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Development of an idea.  (1) When the idea is born mentally.  (2) When the idea is put into practical concrete form.  (3) When the idea is adopted by rulers.  (4) When the masses accept the idea.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Education for an idea.  Some people have heard of the idea, some have not heard of the idea.  Some people understand the idea, some people do not understand the idea.  Some people agree with the idea, some people disagree with the idea.	3/11/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Get many ideas.  Get good ideas.  Get ideas on important subjects.	7/30/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Ideas exist.  Ideas are important.  Ideas have an effect on our lives.  Some people, like anti-intellectuals, would like to ignore ideas completely.	8/1/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Metaphysical status of ideas.  If an idea can affect anything, it is real.  Ideas have power?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  New idea formation.  All new ideas are combos of old ideas.  What are the simplest ideas we started with?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Sets of ideas.  Building with information.  Ideas link.  Ideas combine.  Synergies form when ideas combine, i.e., the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  A syllogisms displays synergy.  When two premises lead by inference to a conclusion then that is analogous to synergy.  It is also analogous to a chemical reaction.	10/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  The world of ideas.  (1) There is a world of ideas.  A world of theory.  (2) The world of ideas is more interesting than the physical world.	1/16/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  The world of ideas.  Does it have any effect?  Merely psychological?  Does it last?  Does it endure?  What is an idea worth?  More or less than stuff and actions?	12/10/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  There is a world of ideas.  Ideas exist.  There is a large set of ideas.  Ideas stand in logical relation to each other.  Ideas effect the physical world.	6/22/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  There is a world of ideas.  The world of ideas is easily ignored.  The world of ideas is easily dismissed.  The world of ideas is easily left unexplored.  It is a big mistake to ignore, dismiss or not explore the world of ideas.  Anti-intellectuals are people who make the big mistake of ignoring the world of ideas.	11/17/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Ideas.  Types of ideas.  Useful vs. not.  Important vs. unimportant.  General vs. specific.  New vs. old.  Original vs. not.  True vs. false.  Simple vs. complex.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Ethical vs. unethical.  Valid vs. invalid.  Fruitful vs. unfruitful.  Currently held vs. outdated.  Broad/narrow.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	If we define thinking (and thus intelligence) as any mental content that is not memory then we can say that thinking is any act of creativity or imagination.	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Ignorance is a disease.  Fortunately, it is curable.	7/1/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Ignorance: responses to the unknown.  (1) Unthought of gets no response.  (2) The unknown pondered.  The mysterious, when pondered, arouses either fear or curiosity, attraction and allure.  Overestimation vs. underestimation.  Confusing issues cause frustration and avoidance.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ignorance.  (1) What is ignorance?  (2) What is the result of ignorance?  Mistakes.  Pain.  Injustice.  Untruth.  Cruelty.  (3) What causes or contributes to ignorance?  (A) Illiteracy.  Unable to read.  (B) Rusty thinking skills.  (C) Low value placed on reason and thinking.  (D) High value placed on blind belief and blind obedience, for example, as found in religion and the military.	11/22/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Ignorance.  Causes.  (1) Not learning, not thinking, not searching.  (2) Thinking you know it all already.  (3) Thinking there is nothing to know.  (4) Not knowing how to think.  (5) Lack ability, time or energy to think.  (6) Lack drive or desire.  Don't see need to learn.  (7) Fear change and resist change.  Think it is brainwashing.  Don't want to change.  (8) Don't know how to think or learn.  (9) Unintelligent.  (10) Repressed, rigid.  (11) Poor skills, no clue, no resources.  (12) Culture discourages individual from learning.  Unconsciously or consciously.  (13) Effects of ignorance: mistakes, pain, loss, confusion, anxiety.  (14) Ignorance types: momentary vs. long term.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking vs. word thinking.  (1) Two more types of thinking.  (A) Imaging, that is, thinking with mental images, sounds, touches, tastes, and smells.  (B) Symbolic thinking with words, numbers, etc.  (2) These two types of thinking are linked.  (A) Every image, sound, touch, taste and smell is a symbol.  That is, we tend to imbue everything with symbolic content, so that everything "stands for" something else.  Everything has associations to other things (i.e., triggers, links).  For example, we see the color light blue and we think "sky blue".  (B) Every symbol can be stripped of its symbolic content and taken at face value for its non-symbolic value.	2/10/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking vs. word thinking.  If humans think more with pictures than with words then the importance of the visual arts increases relative to the literary arts.	7/14/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking vs. word thinking.  Some people use a lot of words when they think, while other people do not.  It would be interesting to count the words per minute of various people's thoughts.	7/19/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking.  All words are based on pictures.  Thus, language-thinking is based on image-thinking.  Even abstract concepts like "freedom" are based on an image in your mind of a slave in chains and your desire not to become a slave.	6/3/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking.  Hypothesis: Most people (95%?) think most of the time (95%?) with images rather than with words.  Their thinking consists mostly of picturing themselves performing certain acts or achieving certain goals.  When they occasionally (5%) do think with words, most of the time (95%) they merely state facts or beliefs, which involves no inferential breakthroughs that we normally associate with thinking.	3/9/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking.  If we think with pictures then how do blind people think?  With "pictures" they create from their other senses?  The argument is not that we think merely with visual pictures, but that we think non-symbolically.  A counter-argument is that everything we perceive we create a symbol for, because everything we perceive we categorize, and categories are abstract classes which are themselves a type of symbol.	7/12/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking.  Thinking with images really means thinking with audio/video/smell/taste/touch.	4/11/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Image thinking.  To those who say that humans think by using language I say that we think by using pictures, and only occasionally do we tack language onto those pictures.  Picture thinking is more prevalent and more basic than language thinking.  PART TWO.  Three arguments to support the above.  (1) Ancient people were thinking with picture long before the invention of language.  (2) Babies think with pictures before they learn language.  (3) Animals think with pictures even though they have limited language ability.  PART THREE.  Thinking with pictures can be called imagination.  PART FOUR.  If most of our thinking is done with pictures and not language then language is not that big a deal.	7/12/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Importance of new and old ideas to deal with a new and old world.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	In every day life most people use the reasoning skills of a Phd, except without the specific knowledge of a Phd.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	In order to spend a lot of time thinking, one has to think that the thinking will do some good, and that progress will be made.  Some people lack confidence and say, "Don't think too much".  Those people are anti-thought.  Ignorance results from not thinking.	6/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	In the past, logic and reason were less prominent.  Art and magic were much more prominent.	7/19/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Information and psychological health.  (1) The world is complex, with many parts, things, ideas.  The result is massive amounts of information.  (2) Humans are information processing beings.  Part of human health in information management.  Do not ignore information because ignoring information leads to problems.  (3) How to deal with massive amounts of information?	1/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Information and psychological health.  Gaining knowledge, storing knowledge, and organizing knowledge are all important for psychological health.	9/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Information management.  In ten thousand years, how much writing will there be?  A lot.  How will we deal with all this writing?  Will we just snip out pieces and say, "this idea is useful currently", or "this idea is useful and new to all humanity", or "this idea is useful but outdated"?  How will we get all the information into the heads of people?  Can there be information pollution?  Garbage or junk.  Toxin or poison.  For any idea, will we list all the people who held that idea?  And list all those who held the opposite view?	3/13/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Information.  (1) How is information stored in the human mind?  In memory as pictures, sounds and words.  In memory as abstractions.  (2) How does the human mind process information?  Ways of thinking.  (3) How does the human mind produce new information?  Hypothesis generating and testing.  Question asking.  Epistemological testing procedures that run automatically, subconsciously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.	10/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Information.  How much information can a person know?  How much information does a person need to survive in a situation?  How much information does the average person know?  How to measure amounts of information quantitatively?  By number of sentences?  How to diagram information structures?  How to describe the importance of a piece of information?	10/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Information.  PART ONE.  How much can information help?  The answer to that question is the the cumulative accomplishments of all scientists, inventors, philosophers, artists, thinkers, writers.     PART TWO.  The arguments of anti-intellectuals.  What are the limitations of information?  Limitations of reason due to emotion.  Limitations of reason due to persistence in the face of apparent reason.	10/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Information.  Things learned and forgotten: facts, attitudes, behaviors.  Information is like building blocks; and forgetting is like losing the foundation or even the entire building.  Forgetting requires relearning; and learning takes time and energy.  Learning involves mistakes; relearning involves repeating mistakes.	10/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Inobvious to obvious.  (1) Things that are obvious to school children today were inobvious to the great minds of the past.  (2) Things that are considered "intuitive" to people today were considered "counter-intuitive" to people hundreds of years ago.  (3) Thus, what is obvious and intuitive to humans changes from time to time and place to place, and it is in large part dependent on culture and personal experience.	6/26/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Instead of thinking about what I can't do, or what I could have done, think about what you can do.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intellectualism is often a defense mechanism.  Intellectualism is an attempt to recast the world according to your personal strengths.	3/9/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Intellectuals.  An intellectual is someone who cares about ideas.  An intellectual is someone who works with ideas.  An intellectual in America is someone who retains a college level education for more than a year after graduating.  (2) An intellectual is someone who thinks ideas are important, useful and valuable.  An intellectual is someone who thinks reason and logic are good things.  An intellectual is someone who values knowledge.  An intellectual is someone who values intelligence.  An intellectual does not hold that knowledge is the only thing, or even the most important thing, but that knowlege is important, as contrasted with anti-intellectuals who think knowledge is not important.	8/9/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence (and education) depends on the organization and growth of the mind, like an organism.	03/13/1989

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence evolved from the need for a "reality check".  A reality check consists of two parts, a sensory check and a memory check.  A sensory check is when you wonder if you can believe your eyes, or other senses.  A memory check is when you wonder if you can believe your memory.  The need for a reality check is when you realize that your senses and your memory are sometimes faulty.  When an animal wonders "Is this real?" and thinks, "Perhaps it is otherwise.", that is a form of reality check.	10/1/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence, types of.  (1) Having many, varied categories (knowledgeable).  (2) Having a strong inference engine (able to solve logic problems).	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  (1) High intelligence defined as exceedingly rational.  (2) High intelligence defined as being knowledgeable, which is really a function of good memory.  (3) High intelligence defined as having good problem solving abilities.  (4) High intelligence defined as creativity or inventiveness.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  (1) Intelligence defined as mental ability of any type.  For example, emotional intelligence.  (2) Intelligence defined as thinking ability.  However, there are many types and ways of thinking.  (3) There are many types of intelligence and there are many ways of testing each type of intelligence.  For example, you can test either the ability to recognize a solution, the ability to recall a solution, or the ability to create a solution.  (4) Therefore, intelligence tests that can be taken in a few short hours and which therefore tend to measure only a few types of intelligence and which test for these types of intelligence in only a few ways are by their nature incomplete and not accurate.  To test for every type of intelligence in many different ways would take days and days, and thus would not be economically feasible for testers.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  (1) Intelligence is a mental ability.  (2) There are many types of intelligence.  (3) Intelligence develops over the lifetime.  Not just knowledge, but also mental ability.  (4) Many factors can either help or hinder the development of intelligence.  (5) You have to make an effort to use intelligence because it does not always pay off automatically.  (6) Some people use the term intelligence to describe all one's mental abilities including memory and emotion.  (7) If so, standard IQ tests do not measure all of intelligence.	5/16/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  (1) Intelligence: ways of thinking.  (2) Knowledge: areas or subjects of thought.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  (1) Memory and intelligence.  How many people remember the algebra and geometry that they learned in high school?  How many people can remember the information they learned in the classes they took in high school and college?  How many people can remember the information in the books they read?  Very few people remember very much information.  Memory is a big part of intelligence.  (2) Beyond memory, how many people can think critically about the information they absorb?  And how many people can think creatively about the topics they study?  Critical thinking and creativity are also important elements to intelligence.	9/4/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Components of intelligence.  (1) Knowledge base.  Large if you have a photographic memory.  (2) Judgment: choosing what to learn, or do (work and leisure time).  (3) Creativity.  (A) Inductive and deductive logic creativity.  (B) Problem solving creativity.  (C) Artistic creativity.	06/05/1997

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  High intelligence (smarts) is no guarantee of being ethical, sane or hard working.  Intelligence isn't everything.  You don't have to be super intelligent to be a good person or a useful person.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  How well you compare to peers (percentile).  How well you compare to young and old (average mental age).  At any age, at any type of thinking.  It can change by the moment.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Howard Gardener posits many types of intelligence.  Social intelligence or interpersonal intelligence, and perhaps, by extension, political intelligence.  Mathematical intelligence, and perhaps, by extension, financial intelligence and economic intelligence.  Musical intelligence, and perhaps, by extension, emotional intelligence.  Linguistic intelligence.  Intrapersonal intelligence.  Kinesthetic or athletic intelligence.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  If you are intelligent but never apply your intelligence then your intelligence is wasted.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  If you are intelligent but you have no interest in a topic then you won't take to that topic, unless you have been trained as a mindless drone, which many school children are.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Intelligence defined as a measure of thinking ability.  High intelligence defined as being good at thinking.	11/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  IQ is potential: it must be used, exercised, directed.  Repression and neurosis can destroy working IQ.  IQ, potential and actual, can rise and fall depending on whether you shoot ahead or fall behind your peers.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  IQ is potential.	03/15/1989

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Nature: hereditary effects.  Nurture: environmental effects of society or poor living conditions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Two ways of defining intelligence.  Absorbs a lot quick (finds out well).  Thinks of things others don't (figures out well).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intelligence.  Types of intelligence.  Ways to measure intelligence.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Intuition.  (1) Estimating probabilities (risk).  (2) Thinking with incomplete information (uncertainty).  (3) Unconsciously thinking, and coming up with a conscious answer.  (4) Use of feeling to aid thinking.  Pros and cons of intuition.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	It is harder to think today because (1) There are so many, immediate, cheap, easily accessible, distractions (TV, drugs, etc.).  (2) It is easier not to think in life (comforts).  (3) It is easier to escape.  Drugs and booze are everywhere.	12/12/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Its simple once you know the answer.  Its easy once you know the answer.  Its a cinch once you know how.	1/1/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Knowledge and ignorance of skills and facts are always relative to the situation, problems and goals.	5/8/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Knowledge is content and structure.  Thinking is process and mechanism.	10/20/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Knowledge, feeling, and memory.  Do I "know" that I have the psychological resources to deal with life, or do I "feel" confident, or do I "remember" all the times I handled the situation I was in.  Is there a clear distinction between knowledge, feeling and memory?  It seems impossible to do one without doing the other two.  If people use their entire brains all at once, then what is the best way to study the mechanism of the brain?	12/8/2006.

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thinking.  Adults who never learned to talk.  (1) How well do they think?  (2) How similar are they to human beings that lived before human language developed?  (3)  To what degree is language required for thinking?  (4) To what degree is thinking required to be human?  One view holds that your thoughts are what make you the person you are.  The opposite view holds that the self can get by on emotions, memories and drive.	2/26/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thinking.  Language and communication.  The blind use language.  The deaf use language.  Helen Keller was blind and deaf and she used language.  Who doesn't use language to think?  Who doesn't use language to communicate?  Only people who choose not to think and communicate.	10/13/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thought.  Thinking defined as talking to yourself.  Thinking to self co-evolved with talking to other people.  Humans didn't start thinking to themselves till they started talking to each other.	10/2/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thought.  Thinking defined as talking, discussion or conversation, be it with another person or with yourself.  To talk is to think.  Talk therapy is really thinking therapy.  Likewise, to write is to think.  Talking, writing and thinking have much in common.	6/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thought.  Thought defined as speaking to yourself.  If you define thought as speaking to yourself then thought requires language.  If you define thought as speaking to yourself then no language means no thought.	5/22/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Language and thought.  Without language there would be no talking to yourself and thus there would be no thinking.	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Levels of mental activity.  (1) Ideas per minute.  (A) Creating new ideas vs. remembering old ideas.  (B) You can be quiet, dull and mentally inactive, with few ideas per minute or you can be hyperactive, distracted and tangential, with many ideas per minute.  (2) Thinking (and remembering) with images vs. words.  (3) Scope of thought.  (4) Level of abstraction of thought.	6/1/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Limits of reason: at some point we must act on reasons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Logical structure vs historical structure vs. importance structure.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Me: current ideas held, history of ideas held.  Current and past history of alternative ideas considered but not held.  Current and past method of thinking, generating and evaluating ideas.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  (1) An argument about thinking.  Thinking requires learning only.  Learning requires memory only.  If you have memory then you can learn, and if you can learn you can think.  Thus, memory is sufficient for thinking.  (2) The counter-argument is that the thinking done by animals, like birds that learn to get a snack by remembering which button to push, is somehow less complex than some of the thinking done by humans.	5/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  (1) Thinking about past events is memory.  (2) There is no present, only past and future.  (3) Thinking about the future using "if" statements (hypotheticals) is really imagination.  (4) Therefore the only true thinking is atemporal thinking about abstract concepts.	02/28/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  At what point does memory become thinking?  (1) Speed of memory.  (2) Abstraction.  (3) Imagination of hypotheticals.  (4) Clearness of memory.  Not hazy hunches.  (5) Speed of reaction.	5/17/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  If you can remember you can learn.  If you can learn you can think.	5/17/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  Remembering quicker, easier and better leads to thinking quicker, easier and better.	11/22/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  The things you think about are the things your brain finds easy to remember.  Different people remember different things.  A person remembers some things more easily than other things.  For example, some people remember their future goals, some people remember their past experiences.	6/21/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thinking.  We remember images more than we remember information that is in symbol form (words, numbers, etc.).  Therefore we think with images more than we think with information that is in symbolic form.	5/16/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thought.  (1) Thought is just a succession of memories.  A new thought or idea is just a new connection, combination or succession of memories.  Thus, memory is more important than thinking.  We do more remembering than we do thinking.  The good thing for the neuro-scientist is that memory is not that complicated a biological process.  Many animals have memory capability that we understand.  So that takes a lot of the mystery out of our brains.  (2) Types of memories: (A) Memories of words.  (B) Memories of ideas and thoughts.  (C) Memories of events (mental audio/visual movies).  (3) The lightbulb of inference goes on only when we have the exactly right memories loaded in exactly the right order (ex. syllogism).  In this light, inference is a minor, fragile and rare step compared to all the memory work we do which leads up to inference.  (4) During the course of an average day: I perceive about 75% of the time.  I remember about 15% of the time.  I feel about 4% of the time.  I actually think only about 1% of the time.  And I come up with maybe two or three new ideas per day.  Yet people seem to believe that we go around thinking all day long.  This is not so.	3/21/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Memory and thoughts.  (1) Thoughts raised by memories.  (2) Memories raised by thoughts.	9/30/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Mental efficiency = progress per effort.  Effort = resources used per time period.  Progress = quality and quantity.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Mental organization leads to mental growth.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Most important ideas.  (1) Keep your brain in shape.  (2) Critical thinking and creative thinking are both important.  (3) Think often, and on a wide variety of subjects.  (4) Keep a record on computer of both figured and found notes.	10/30/1997

Psychology, thinking.	Most of what humans think about are topics called to mind from their drives urges or desires.  Thus, drive is crucial for stimulating thoughts.	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	My thinking is a mix of (1) Formal reasoning to dissect ideas (male philosophy), and (2) Hazy memory traces, feeling and emotion, intuitive hunches, and bodily feeling and sensation (female art).  Both are needed to generate ideas.	06/10/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Narrative.  (1) Narrative can be defined as story telling.  (2) People sort out their experiences, thoughts and emotions after events occur.  People do this via memory.  People do this via narrative story telling.  Narrative story telling is a psychologically healthy and therapeutic thing to do.  Narrative story telling is a form of psychotherapy.  Some would argue that we cannot not tell stories, even if only to ourselves.  (2) To give no thought before or after the fact is unhealthy.  To have no narrative storytelling is unhealthy.  (3) Yet narrative is not the only way that humans think and communicate.  There are other ways to think and communicate besides narrative.  For example, logical organization of ideas rather than temporal organization of ideas.  And thus, it is possible to have, on both a personal level and a societal level, an over-emphasis on narrative.	11/22/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Narrative.  (1) What is the deal with narrative?  Why do people love narrative?  Oral history, or story telling, was and is the primary way humans confront reality, deal with reality, and communicate reality.  (2) People want to tell their life story (first person narrative).  They say, "All I know is what happened to me and what I saw".  Through retelling their story they are (A) Reliving it, which is enjoyable for happy stories and cathartic for tragic stories.  (B) Recommitting it to memory, which helps it last longer in their mind.  (3) People's first person narratives are typically totally out of perspective.  They contain gaps due to the repression of things they dislike.  They contain fabrications, exaggerations, and fictive additions.  They contain bias and slants.  They try to make themselves look good.  They contain mistakes in assessing what was important.  They vary widely in what conclusions or lessons to draw, if any.  (4) If it wasn't for newspaper, radio and television we would have limited knowledge of the world at large.  So for a long time, people only knew about their community or town and not the world.  The invention of reading and writing started people organizing knowledge logically instead of chronologically.  However, today, few people read and fewer people write, so the result is many people are still in an oral tradition of chronological organization of reality.  That is, many people in modern society continue to live like cave-dwellers.  (5) Most people think only in concrete terms about their immediate needs in their immediate environment.  The fate of the world depends on people thinking globally, long term and abstractly, in addition to using first-person narrative.	5/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Narrative.  People love narrative.  They are like children who want to hear a bedtime story.  They can only think in narrative form.	6/10/1999

Psychology, thinking.	New reasons for old conclusions yields new attitudes for old subjects.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Object of thought: how often, well, complete, accurate, and fast, we can think of it.  Conclusions reached: how well we act on it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Once we know something (epistemology), then how use that knowledge (ethics), and can we do what we want to do (technology)?  Proof for ethical issues is a major problem.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	One can define thinking as operations performed on content drawn from memory.  However, is it sensible to distinguish mental operations from mental content?  Are there operation neurons as distinct from content neurons?  Are there people with mental injuries that let them access content without the ability to perform operations?  Likewise, do some people have mental injuries that let them perform operations without access to specific content?	5/31/2005

Psychology, thinking.	One thing that I do not like is a cultural climate in which nothing can be criticized (ex. excessively politically correct cultures).  This describes cultures where you can only mention the good side of things.  In a climate where we cannot criticize, the first thing that goes out the window is critical thinking.  And that is bad.	7/6/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Organization of knowledge is based on (1) Creation of categories.  (2) Creation of relationships between categories.	6/3/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Organization of knowledge.  Knowledge is good, and the organization of knowledge is also good.  (1) Organization of knowledge lets you learn or absorb information, store or remember information, and handle or process information in greater quantities.  (2) Organization of knowledge lets you be more creative.  It lets you figure out more.  (Creativity = figuring out).  It lets you self-learn.  (3) Organization of knowledge lets you work quicker.  (A) You get more done.  (B) You get smarter at a younger age.  (C) You make time critical decisions before its too late.  (4) Organization of knowledge lets you work more accurately.  (A) You make less mistakes.  (B) You get closer to truth and justice.  (5) Organization of knowledge makes you healthier, with less confusion, anxiety and stress.	6/3/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Organization of knowledge.  You can organize many types of media.  (1) You can organize ideas in your mind.  (2) You can organize symbols like bits on a computer disk, or words on a page.  (3) You can organize physical things like books on a shelf or baseball cards.	6/3/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Organization of mind allows for coverage of larger areas, and greater subtlety.	03/13/1989

Psychology, thinking.	Organization or structure of mental content.  The most popular view today is that mental content is organized in a web of loose associations.  Yet humans also consciously organize their mental content into more formal structures.	3/22/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Our concepts are not always organized in a tree-shaped hierarchy.  Sometimes they are organized in a web.	3/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Our time and place limits how we think about things.  How we think today blows away how we thought 3000 years ago.  The question is how will we think in another 3000 years?	12/15/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Pattern recognition.  Visual patterns.  Sound patterns.  Other types of patterns.  Patterns involve repetition and then variance.	11/20/2004

Psychology, thinking.	People need to think globally and long term.  It is a problem if people think only about local issues and short term issues.  Yet it is difficult for many people to think globally and long terms.  People have a tendency to think locally and short term.  Egoists think locally and short term.  Altruists think globally and long term.  People do have some ability to plan for the future, for example, many people save for retirement.  People also have some ability to think globally, for example, when people think about global warming.	10/30/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Percent of your time you give to thinking about a subject.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Picking your subject is the first step and perhaps the most important step in thinking.  Are you going to think about trivial bullshit?  Or are you going to think about solving the problems of the world?  Let's make the decision a little more difficult?  What if someone pays you a lot of money to think about trivial bullshit, and what if you are likely to face poverty and failure for trying to solve the problems of the world.  See?  Not so easy.  You are being pressured into thinking about trivial bullshit.  Do not fall for it.	5/15/2007	*

Psychology, thinking.	Power = complexity * speed * choosing subject and ideas, using whole mind.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Power, intensity and effort you are thinking at, and for how long.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Progress has been slow, in my life, in other individuals lives, and in world history, not because everything has been thought of, or because we are too stupid to think of anything else, but because (1) People were and are too burnt out from work to think in evening.  (2) People hogged questions and answers in order to build their careers.  (3) No one told people "Go out and find and solve problems".  Advertisers say, "buy our products and relax".  Churches say, "pray to god".  Others told us, "just do your job", "you are stupid and you can not think of anything", "watch sports and movies", "only big science, and not individuals, can make advances", "there is no hope for you", "you will slave miserably for pennies".	12/12/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Purposes: (1) Problem solve.  (2) Decision making or choosing.  (3) Judging.  (4) Doing.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Quantitative methods.  Find out important statistical information for all subject areas.  Historical statistics, and future projections.  Comparative statistics.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Quantity and quality of ideas you generate.  Speed you can generate them (hopefully not too late).  And how well you apply them to your life.	07/10/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) Curiosity can be defined as the ability to formulate a question.  Curiosity can perhaps more accurately be defined as the tendency to ask questions.  Curiosity is a good thing.  (1) Curiosity is not the same thing as creativity.  A person could ask a lot of questions and yet not be able to create any possible answers to those questions.  However, curiosity and creativity aid each other.  Curiosity is a good first step.  Creativity is a good next step.	5/14/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) How important are questions to thinking?  Can we think without questions?  (2) Is there such a thing as a non-linguistic question?  That is, when we are thinking non-linguistically, for example, by image thinking, can we form a question?	12/10/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) Knowledge is gained by asking questions.  Although, its true that something may occasionally strike you out of the blue.  (2) If you don't ask the right questions then you won't get the right answers.  (3) Asking questions is important.  Asking the right questions is important.	5/24/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) People who ask few questions.  Do no questions occur to them because they are dim?  Have they been told its best not to question and do they believe that unquestioningly?  Have they been scared into silence and mental stasis?  (2) People who ask many questions.  Are they curious?  Are they anxious?  Do they simply value knowledge.	11/10/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) Question theory: ask best questions (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  Best question trains, structures, and hierarchies.  (2) Answer theory.  Develop best answers, develop best proofs, and use them best.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) Questions beget more questions.  (2) A question is often a problem.  That is, once a problem is identified or posed, one asks (a question) for the solution to the problem.  (See, Psychology, thinking, problem solving).  (3) A question is like a riddle.	8/24/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) Structure of questions in a field of thought.  (2) Questions lead to more questions.  (3) Questions are logically related to each other.  One can draw flow charts of questions in a field of thought.	1/16/2003

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) The "question space" of a subject is the total number of questions associated with that subject at any given time.  As one's knowledge of a subject increases the question space increases.  That is, more knowledge produces more questions.  (2) The structure of questions on a subject.  Questions on a subject often form a pattern or structure.  For example, a diagnostic or troubleshooting flow chart is a structure of questions designed to help repair a thing.	10/5/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  (1) What is the result when a person is psychologically incapable of formulating questions?  (2) What is the result when people are discouraged or prohibited from asking questions?  (3) What happens when a person gets into the habit of not asking questions?	9/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Asking questions and searching for answers is natural and healthy.  Dogmatics don't want you to ask questions.  Neurotics don't want to ask questions.  Both dogmatics and neurotics are unhealthy.	03/13/1989

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Asking questions is natural and healthy.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Asking vs. not asking.  Best questions and toughest questions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Best questions for a situation or problem.  Asking the tough questions: tough to ask, and tough to answer.  Honestly and earnestly vs. not.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Erotetic logic is the logic of questions.  What is one doing mentally when one asks a question?  What types of questions are there?  "How?" questions ask about how something is done.  "How?" questions are often technological questions.  "Why?" questions ask for an explanation.  "Why" questions are often scientific questions.  Often, questions are in an if-then format.  For example, if so and so, then why or how thus and thus?	5/14/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Form a collection of questions.	10/13/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Gather ye questions while ye may, because having the questions is almost as good as having the answers.	10/8/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Getting smart is about asking questions, and in particular, asking the best questions.  However, in order to think of the best questions, it helps to have a body of knowledge in place.  Rarely do excellent questions come out of the blue.  You have to build from the ground up, in all subject areas.  For example, if you believe the earth is flat then chances are you will not ask any "round earth" questions.  (2) Two major problems are (A) Not asking any questions at all.  (2) Not having a series of your "wrong path" questions eventually lead you in the right direction.	7/2/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Humans are naturally curious.  Humans naturally ask questions.  Humans have evolved a question asking module in the brain.	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Importance of asking each type of question.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Is x a y thing (metaphysics)?  How do we know about x (epistemology)?  Should we do x (ethics)?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  People can lose the ease with which they are able to form questions.  People can get out of practice or habit of asking questions.  The habit of not asking questions inevitably leads to the habit of not thinking.  That is unhealthy.	9/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  The ability to ask questions is aided by the ability to rule out the impossible, and then to evaluate the various possible answers.	5/14/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  The mental state immediately preceding question formation is known as befuddlement.	9/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  The most important question is, "What are the most important questions?"	1/20/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  The question is the start of all new thoughts.	10/13/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  There are an unlimited number of questions that one can ask about anything.  Asking questions randomly does not guarantee that you will head in the direction of increasing knowledge.  It requires practice to know which questions to ask.	5/14/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Two year olds often go on a question asking rampage.  Why?  I don't know!	12/6/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  What is the role of question formation in thinking?  Good question.  Questions drive thinking forward.  Do we unconsciously form questions?  Do we consciously form questions without paying much attention?  Is there a question forming area of the brain?  At what point in human evolutionary history did humans first begin to ask questions?	5/15/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  When did humans first start asking questions?  Was it after the development of language?  Or was it possible to ask a question before the development of language?  If language was not available, was it at least possible to feel uncertain and to make a quizzical face?	9/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Who, what, when, where, how, why.  Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetic questions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Question theory.  Your ability to think of the answers is based on your ability to formulate the questions.  If you want to solve problems you need to pose problems in the form of questions.  If you want to make progress in this world, and improve the world, you need to question what is wrong and how to fix it.	8/14/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Reasons to think.  Reasons to not think.  Reasons to write.  Reasons to not write.  (1) Others say, "Don't think".  They may even give reasons not to reason, which is an oxymoron.  Others say, "Obey orders.  Rule of might, force, violence, rule of jungle."  Or they may say, "Have fun, relax".  (2) I say, "Think, reason".  I give reasons to reason and think.  I say, "Write".  I give reasons to write.	10/28/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Related subjects.  (1) Psychology in general: we think with the aid of entire mind.  (2) Memory: remembrance is the basis for all thinking.  (3) Emotion: feelings are thrust upon us, but thinking takes effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Relationship of stimuli (old or new, thoughts or experiences) and creativity.  How to stimulate the mind?  How any degree of stimulus, or lack of it, affects creativity.	04/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Right or wrong conclusion is not as important as reasons and arguments, true or false or none at all.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Rigorous thought is logical, precise, important, with true arguments, and yields rigorous speech and actions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Sensation and thinking.  Sense and thought are inseparable.  (1) When we sense our environment we also have thoughts about the environment we are sensing.  (2) When we think about our past sensations, there is probably triggered, to a small degree, a bodily response similar to the one we experienced during the initial sensation.  (3) If sensation and thought are inseparable then it does not make sense to talk about "paying attention to our senses" on the one hand and "paying attention to our thoughts" on the other hand.	5/29/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Sets of ideas.  Consider the notion of one hundred ideas separately versus one hundred ideas connected.  Either connected serially, via 100 connections.  Or each idea connected to every other idea, via 1000 connections.  Ideas have more utility when connected to each other.  We weave a web of ideas in our minds.  An idea network.	5/16/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Sociology of knowledge.  (1) Which ideas get most exposure (press) to (A) Academics, and (B) Masses?  (2) How many supporters an idea has = the idea's power.  Idea's power is related to political power.	11/20/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Sometimes big thoughts come without trying vs. with intense effort.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Sometimes you get a good answer.  But don't know how, or the reasons.  It is intuitive, instinctual, unconscious thinking.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Speed of information processing is critical.  Develop ideas sooner.  Evaluate ideas quicker.	10/23/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Speed: how long it takes you to figure things out how well.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Subject-picking is as important as method of thinking.  Do you pick your subjects based on what is fun or do you pick subjects based on what is important?  To what degree does society determine what subjects you think about and what you think about these subjects?	1/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Subjects of thought vs. methods of thought.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	The abstracting mind vs. the detail oriented mind.  Some people have a tendency to abstract.  Some people have a tendency toward detail.	10/8/2004

Psychology, thinking.	The cycle: reasoning, learning, studying, knowledge, understanding, wisdom.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	The phrase "new thought" is redundant.  All thoughts are new, otherwise they are just memories.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	The question is not just "what do you think about, and not, and why?"  The question is "what do you think about x?" (if you do think at all).  Not just what view do you hold on x, but what is the total number and complexity of thoughts you have on x?  And what logical and importance structure do you put your thoughts in?	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	The way knowledge should be organized.  (1)(A) History.  (B) Logical.  (C) Importance.  (D) Alphabetically.  (2) Levels: (A) Grade school.  (B) High school.  (C) Graduate school.  (3) Length: (A) One paragraph or one minute.  (B) 10 pages or one hour.  (C) 100 pages or one week.	12/31/1997

Psychology, thinking.	Theoretical knowledge is useless (?) if one is not aware what is going on in the world.  And knowing what is going on is useless (?) without a theoretical framework to apply it to.	07/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	There is a debate that goes on in the head.  A person must have sufficiently strong arguments for holding any thought, or taking any action, because the subconscious mind very often produces counter-arguments against thoughts and actions, or at least questions thoughts and actions.	8/16/2006

Psychology, thinking.	There is a difference between being (1) A good test taker.  (2) Wise.  (3) Creative.	02/01/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Think about what, why, how (methods).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers: who are the best: Test takers, game players.  Fastest and most accurate.  Busiest workers.  Most wise, most ethical.  Direction pickers, importance seers, goal setters.  Broadest thinkers vs. most in depth.  Ground breakers and explorers.  Industrious thinkers vs. productive thinkers.  Best total overall.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectual as (1) Not beholden to money, power, or position (in government, academia, or the press).  (2) Not a specialist.  A generalist.  (3) An amateur.  Not a professional.	09/01/1994

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals in government, business, academia, and amateurs.  Credentials.  (1) Learning: degrees.  (2) Creating ideas: original vs. critical (ideas about ideas).  (3) Creating things.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals: dogmatist (conservatives) and creators (liberals).	06/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  Healthy: confront practical problems.  Neurotic: unconsciously driven to try to confront unconscious problems, which leads them exploring all over.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  Idea men: creating vs. analyzing and appraising the created.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  People who work with ideas.  Creator of ideas.  Historian of ideas.  Criticizer of ideas.  Synthesizer of ideas.  Researcher, gatherer, librarian.  Questioners.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  Professional intellectuals (teachers, writers, journalists, etc.) need to make a living at what they do, and so they often write obscure cryptic garbage.  It is a power play/ploy.	6/15/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  Psychological traits of various types of intellectuals.  (1) Do it for fame, (2) For knowledge, (3) For money, (4) Sex, (5) Status etc.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Intellectuals.  The pure intellectual forgets about his body.  Forgets he has a body, and forgets he needs to take care of his body.  Wants to ignore his body.	12/30/1995

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Pressing need for excellent critics in each field to provide clear, concise, exact, complete synopsis of books into a page or two, and to rate its importance, and show where it fits it.  They make things manageable.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Scholarship definitions.  Likes to learn: student.  Likes to do research: scientist.  Likes to save and organize information: bibliographer.  Synthesizer vs. analyzer.  Critic.  Philosopher.  Historian.  Teacher.  Problem solver or question answerer.  Information technologist: create or find, organize, store, and retrieve information.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  Scholarship.  (1) Quantity and quality of knowledge.  (2) Quantity and quality of contributions.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinkers.  The most important trait for an intellectual, philosopher, or scientist, besides smarts, is taste, having a feel for things.  I got taste.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking about things as they pop into your mind vs. thinking of things intentionally and methodically.  How much time to spend on former and latter.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking about what you're doing vs. about something else.  Pros and cons.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking and behavior.  What think, and how think?  What do, and how do?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking as connections between ideas.  I am not referring to our mental habit of noticing similarities (analogy, metaphor) and differences, that is, comparing and contrasting, rather, I am talking about noticing whether there is either a connection between ideas or no connection between ideas.  The connection does not have to be inferential (ex. logical syllogism).  The connection can be associative.  For example, artists pile up sensations, perceptions and impressions.  Artists connect ideas.	4/10/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking defined as operations or functions only.	6/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking functions: (1) Classify, organize.  (2) Integrate (merge).  (3) Consolidate, unify.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking hard keeps your brain in shape for when you need it.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking is a two-step process.  (1) Idea generation, which involves imaginative thinking.  (2) Idea criticism, which involves critical thinking.	1/1/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking is moving ideas (words and images) around in your head.  Putting them next to each other (grouping).  Putting them above and below each other (in order).  Putting them in hierarchies (classify).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking is the most important thing.  Avoiding it by not thinking, or thinking about one narrow area all the time, or accepting other people's thoughts uncritically, is a big mistake.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking of past, present, and future.  (1) Those who think of what they were: act like kids.  (2) Those who think of what they are: never grow.  (3) Those who think of what they will be.  Those who think of what they want to be: get it.  (4) Percent anyone does each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking requires that one challenge oneself with a new idea.  Some people, for example, conservatives, are not comfortable challenging old ideas with new ideas, and thus conservatives have a tendency to not think.	6/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking style differences between the sexes.  Or, what is the deal with my girlfriend's high phone bill?  (1) Men's thinking:  (A) Figure it out for yourself.  For example, don't ask for directions when you drive.  (B) Conflict (War) of ideas or Competition of ideas.  Defend you views from critical attacks.  Think critically about other people's views and attack them.  (C) Abstract, universal ideas.  (2) Women's thinking:  (A) Talk with friends to figure things out.  (B) Cooperation of ideas.  Hear other people's views uncritically.  Respect the truth of other people's "experiences".  Arrive at a consensus.  (C) Concrete, subjective truths.  (3) This is why women spend hours gabbing on the phone.  This is also why women tend to call psychic hotlines and men don't.  This is also why women tend to not go for science, and prefer the pseudoscience of astrology, tarot, palm readers, fortune tellers, etc.	5/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Thinking today.  We are faced with a complex world, difficult to understand, need to know a lot to survive, frantic pace: decisions must be made more quickly.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thought as computer code.  If you're a thinker then you are a computer programmer.	10/5/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Thought is defined here as a new connection between memories.  The instant you have a thought, that thought becomes a memory to be used later to make new thoughts.	6/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Thought trains.  Starting and stopping points.  Speed, direction.  Old vs. new lines.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thoughts come one at a time, build like bricks.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Thoughts exist in relation to each other.  Thoughts affect each other.  Thoughts exist in larger structures.    There are issues of precedence, assumptions, and presumptions.	7/2/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Three different pairs of concepts.  (1)  Obvious ideas: occur first vs. subtle ideas: occur later after reflection.  They can be simple or complex.  They can be important or unimportant.  (2)  Simple ideas: take a few steps vs. complex ideas: take many steps.  They can be obvious or subtle.  They can be important or unimportant.  ("Subtle" meaning difficult to find, difficult to discern, easily overlooked).  (3)  Important ideas vs. unimportant ideas.  They can be simple or complex.  They can be obvious or subtle.  (4)  Sometimes the simplest ideas can be the most important, much to the mortification of academicians.  (5)  The order of priority is to find the important thoughts, then the subtle thoughts, and lastly the complex thoughts.	1/12/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Three useful thinking techniques.  (1) A useful math technique:  Take a phenomenon.  Represent it quantitatively using mathematics.  Perform calculations to transform it.  And then bring it back into the real world in the form of new knowledge.  (2) A useful computer technique:  Take a phenomenon.  Represent it digitally using the computer.  Perform software programs to transform it.  And then bring it back into the real world in the form of new knowledge.  (3) A useful art technique:  Take a phenomenon.  Represent it as something else using artistic analogy.  Perform artistic exercises to transform it.  And then bring it back into the real world in the form of new knowledge.  (4) The point is that math, computers and art can all be used for analogical thinking to create new knowledge.	10/25/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Three views of thinking.  (1) Thinking as opposed to remembering.  I.e., thinking as coming up with a new idea, as opposed to remembering an old idea.  This view essentially equates thinking with creativity.  A criticism of the "thinking as creativity" view is that when a musician creates a new piece of music, those who hold this view would say that he is thinking.  And when an abstract artist creates an artwork, those who hold this view would say that he is thinking.  But both the musician and the artist might say that they are doing more feeling than thinking when they create.  So we cannot say that all creativity is thinking.  We may not even be able to say that all thinking is creativity.  (2) Thinking defined as inference.  Criticism: if one defines thinking as inference then one would say that a novel writer is not thinking (novels being mostly description and not inferential argument).  But it seems like the novel writer, as opposed to the musician and artist, is thinking.  (3) Thinking defined as symbol manipulation.  Criticism of this view is based on the following argument.  (A) There is no such case of a thing being either a symbol or a non-symbol.  (B) Everything is both a symbol and a non-symbol.  For example, even a flower has symbolic content; and even a word has non-symbolic content, such as its font.  (C) Therefore, you cannot distinguish symbol things from non-symbol things.  If everything is both symbol and non-symbol, and if you define thinking as symbol manipulation, then we are always thinking, because we are always perceiving symbols.  To perceive is to think.	6/6/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Three ways to rate ideas.  (1) Degree of complexity or difficulty.  (2) Degree of truth.  (3) Position in overall argument.	8/6/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Time you spend thinking well or poorly, in any method of thinking, on any subject of thought.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	To make an idea fly you need (1) A good idea.  (2) Political weight and push.  (3) Marketing skills to sell it.	10/09/1993

Psychology, thinking.	To those who mock brainy nerds.  Yesterdays nerd is tomorrow's dope.  People are getting smarter.  Those we think are too brainy today will seem dumb in the future.	5/1/1999

Psychology, thinking.	Transfer of knowledge and thinking skills to new subjects, and to new situations.  Three step process: specific to general to specific.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Truth.  Improvisational truth is quick, effortless, and high quality.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Two big attitudes.  (1) I want to know: leads to health.  (2) I don't want to know: leads to pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Two big ideas.  What to know about, and what to think about.  That is, how to structure knowledge, and what methods to use to think.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Two techniques for thinking.  (1) Dispassioned thinking.  This technique is useful for comparing multiple views without taking sides.  (2) Empassioned thinking.  Thinking with emotion.  This technique is useful when developing an argument for or against something.  (3) Use both methods regularly.  Know when to use each method.	5/14/2007

Psychology, thinking.	Two views.  (1) To be happy don't think: dogmatic religion, Zen, hedonism.  (2) To be happy think: problem solving, mental activism.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Two ways to get new ideas.  (1) Same operation on new objects of thought.  (2) Same objects of thought with new operations performed on them.     PART TWO.  Some examples of thinking operations.  (1) X is necessary for Y.  (2) X is part of Y.  (3) X is a condition for Y.  (4) X is opposite of Y.  (5) X is same as Y.  (6) X as compared to Y.  (7) X union with Y.  Boolean operators.  Math operators.	7/11/2002

Psychology, thinking.	Types of ideas.  (1) Ideas we can put in single words.  (2) Ideas we can only put in sentences (S-V-O  subject - verb - object).  (3) Ideas we can only put in paragraphs.  Connections between sentences.  (ex. syllogism).	4/11/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Types of minds.  (1) Inactive minds.  (2) Active but not gaining new knowledge.  That is, going round in circles.  (3) Active and gaining new knowledge but not getting useful knowledge.  That is, immersed in trivia.  (4) Actively gaining new and useful knowledge.  (A) New and useful for that particular individual person.  That is, your story.  (B) Useful for all individuals.  That is, learning what others already know.  (C) New and useful for all individuals.  That is what scientists, philosophers, inventors, and artists do.	12/12/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Types of thinking yields types of knowledge.  Howard Gardener posits eight types of intelligence.  That can also mean eight types of thinking and eight types of knowledge.	6/4/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Types of thought.  (1) Language thought.  (2) Mathematical thought.  (3) Visual image thought.  (4) Social thought.  (5) Natural environment thought.  (6) Physical movement thought.  (7) Musical thought.	5/22/2005

Psychology, thinking.	Use every minute of every age, because you change.  You decay hormonally, and grow experientially, and the kind of ideas you are "primed" to think of, and the kind of work you will produce, changes with every age, and every situation.	04/30/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Usefulness of ideas.  In the intellectual world, as well as the material world, you have overvalued ideas (usefulness gained is not worth price of time spent reading) and undervalued ideas (much bang for buck).  Bargains and rip-offs.  Useless junk (plastic baubles) and Edsels (lemons).  Overly hyped stuff (lied about what it was).  Like auto mechanics you have two factors: (1) Honesty vs. lying.  (2) Reasonable price vs. rip-off.	11/02/1993

Psychology, thinking.	Using old thoughts vs. creating new thoughts.  How often do each.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Vocabulary.  Truth.  Reason: rational thinking.  Intelligence: types and measures of.  Thinking: moving images or concepts or symbols.  Understanding.  Knowledge: what we gain through reason.  Ignorance.  Wisdom, genius.  Smart, clever, cunning.  Knowledgeable, learned.  Learning: formation of a new idea, new knowledge.  Education: process of learning.  Studying.  Scholarship: study of x (philosophy, science, etc).  Information, data, ideas.  Analogies: computer, muscle, knowledge pool, and knowledge tree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ways of thinking lead to types of knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Ways to proceed with thinking.  (1) First a word.  Then a definition.  Then an  exhaustive discussion.  (2) Then a question about a word.  Then alteranative answers to the question.  That's a debate.  That's a problem.  (3) Whose view is closer to the truth?  Whose view is closer to justice?	9/8/2005

Psychology, thinking.	We are all dumb by degree.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	What amount of time do people spend thinking actively and creatively?  In a 24 hour day we spend 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours monopolized at work or school, and about 2 hours commuting.  This leaves 6 hours to think, of which we actually think only about 10 minutes.  Most people spend most (90%?) of their free time in some type of vegetative, auto-pilot, fugue, screen-saver state of mind.	10/22/2000

Psychology, thinking.	What are most important subjects, and most important ideas on them?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	What do people think about all day long?  A thinking experiment would have people report into a tape recorder every minute what they are thinking about.  Or, better yet, you could just have people speak their thoughts out loud and record an entire day of thoughts.  Then compare the total number of words spoken from one person to the next.  Also tally up the total number of times any particular word is spoken, to see which are the most frequently occurring words.  Also see which people are thinking about the largest number of words or topics.  One could also see how much of people's thinking is productive thinking and how much is non-productive thinking.  This could be a very interesting experiment.	6/2/2005

Psychology, thinking.	What do people think about?  What are their ideas and how are they connected?  How their heads are organized conceptually?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	What does an individual spend most of their time thinking about?  What percent of their time do they spend on each subject that they think about?  What does their mind map look like?  What are the thought methods that they use?  How advanced are the thought methods that they use?	4/22/1999

Psychology, thinking.	What is thinking?  Here I am defining thinking as the active creation of new ideas, as opposed to the recall of old ideas by memory, and as opposed to the passive receipt of new ideas from other people or media.	9/25/2004

Psychology, thinking.	What price pay for neglect of x vs. study of x?	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	What to think about: Job.  Women.  Current situation of self and world.  Ideals, ethics.  Problem solving, and doing work.  (See memory: what to remember).	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	What we think about.  (1) What most people think about most of the time.  90% of their free time most people think about things like (A) Their popularity amongst their friends.  (B) Car: buying, maintaining, repairing, insuring, cleaning.  (C) Home: buying, maintaining, repairing, insuring, cleaning.  (D) Mate.  (E) Kids.  (F) Job.  (G) Partying: planning, doing, recovering.  (H) Shopping.  (I) Sports.  (J) Hobbies.  (K) Food, sex, money, power.  (L) Television.  (2) What people do not often think about and perhaps should.  (A) The state of the entire world.  Global thinking.  (B) Temporal thinking.  World history and the future of the world.  (C) Their own past and future.  (D) Information management.	10/22/2000

Psychology, thinking.	When we learn a skill (e.g. typing) to the point where we can "do it without thinking", is it really the case that we do it without thinking?  No.  Do we just think quickly?  Or is it conscious vs. unconscious thinking?	8/23/1998

Psychology, thinking.	When you think of something for the first time, and say to yourself, "I never thought of that before", you should also say to yourself, "Good job."	7/26/2006

Psychology, thinking.	Whenever you think of something and do not write it down you are repressing it.  You are saying, "I refuse to acknowledge and confront this".  You are saying, "Do not remember this in the future".  You do this by saying, "This is not important", or "This is dirty." etc.	11/16/1998

Psychology, thinking.	Who says we think?  Many of us spend most of our time in a pre-rational state, such as (1) Non-thinking.  Unfocused.  Vegetative.  (2) Magic and myth.  (3) Confused.  Fuzzy.  Fog.  (4) Thinking same few thoughts on same few subjects.  (5) They question is not "How do we think?", but rather, "How to start thinking?", and "How to think often on a lot of topics?"	1/20/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Who says we think?  Most people do not spend most of their time thinking, neither using inductive nor deductive logic.  Most people spend most of their time in an aimless drifting state of free-association, with their conscious and unconscious minds interacting, so that ideas appear and disappear like specters.  When people do by chance think, the mode of thinking that is most often used with this type of free-associating is metaphorical thinking.  In the metaphorical state of mind things are not so much "true or false" nor "logical or illogical", rather they are "like or unlike", where one thing reminds you of another.  When we have a pressing intellectual task at hand we break out the big guns like reason and logic.  However, for the most part, most of us spend most of our waking hours in a mental state resembling a dream.  It is an energy saving flow of associations.  When people do think, which is only occasionally, most people use metaphorical thinking most of the time.     Actually, most people use a technique best described as "free-associate and see if it sticks", which is not even as rigorous as metaphorical thinking.  This is the ultimate energy saving mode of thought.  Things like "organizing one's ideas", "logic", and "cause and effect reasoning" and "thinking about anything that is not directly in front of one's face" are perhaps relatively modern forms of thought (perhaps 50,000 years ago).	11/15/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Who says we think?  Most people suffer from the attitude mistake, "Animals cannot think.  Humans can think.  I am human.  Therefore, I spend all my time thinking."  The reality is that most humans are about 50% memory, 30% emotion, and 20% thinking.  Memory and emotion are often overlooked yet vitally important.	6/26/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Who says we think?  Thinking defined as "pure reasoning" is not something humans do often and it may not even be possible.  Most of the time we operate using a melange of thoughts, emotions, memories of past experiences and desires for the future.  Humans do not engage in pure thinking.	6/5/2000

Psychology, thinking.	Who says we think?  Two types of thinking.  (1) Creative thinking.  Thinking of something new.  (2) Non-creative thinking.  Thinking of something you have already thought of before.  This is really memory.  Most of our thinking (95%) is non-creative thinking.  Most of our thinking is memory.  The above two types of thinking are linked.  We create from memories.	2/10/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Why some people don't like to think.  (1) Thinking is difficult.  Thinking is hard work.  Thinking is not always fruitful.  Sometimes mistakes are made when thinking.  (2) Thinking can be scary.  You never know what you will think of.  You may think of something that challenges your assumptions.	2/21/2004

Psychology, thinking.	Wisdom is as much thinking right thought at right time (using old knowledge well) (and decision making), as it is understanding something new.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Wisdom means knowledge of general principles vs. specialist knowledge.	12/30/1992

Psychology, thinking.	Wisdom, definitions of.  (1) Knowledge, broad and deep.  (2) Thinking skills, many types, quick and accurate.  (3) Creative.  (4) Emotional knowledge.  (5) Ethical  (6) Tactical.  (7) Excelling in all mental areas vs. a specialized area.  (8) Excellent memory.	5/16/2001

Psychology, thinking.	Working out the possibilities.  Thinking by hypothesis is very important.	3/25/1999

Psychology, thinking.	You can't do your best thinking unless you are in tip top shape physically.	07/25/1993

Psychology, thinking.	You see a woman and you say, "She really has a dancer's body.  Look at how gracefully she moves."  We can say that humans think with the aid of their bodies.  We can also say that humans think by looking at other people's bodies.  When a person sees other people, the person will "mirror" the other person to some extent.  If we say that a person thinks with the aid of their own body, and even with the aid of other people's bodies, then where is the mind, where is the self, and where is the individual?	4/16/2006

Psychology.	.This section is about various other thoughts on psychology.  Topics include: ( ) Adjustment and adaptation.  ( ) Auto-pilot.  ( ) Eco-psychology.  ( ) Environment.  ( ) Experience.  ( ) Hypnosis.  ( ) Purity.  ( ) Types of psychology.  ( ) What is psychology.  ( ) Why study psychology.	1/24/2006

Psychology.	"Find something that works and stick with it.": This is the penultimate phrase of the traditional, the conservatives, the bourgeoisie, and the mentally rigid.  It is a rather algorithmic attitude, like a computer program.  It is robotic.  It is an attitude trapped in the routine and the schedule.  We can build robots now.  People, you don't have to be robots anymore.	7/11/2000

Psychology.	"Looking good and feeling fine".  How mood affects self-image.	11/9/1999

Psychology.	(1) A life in which nothing happens to the person.  (2) A life in which nothing is done by the person.  (3) A life in which no interior life (memory, emotion and thought) is possessed by the person.  (4) Or how about a life in which much happens but is immediately forgotten.  (5) What kind of life is that?	5/29/2002

Psychology.	(1) Boredom = brain lock.  Boredom = death.  The plodding boredom makes the system work.  The system keeps people alive, but turns off their minds, so that the people end up like the living dead.  The system tends to turn off our minds.  Everyday after work I struggle to turn on my brain.  (2) They debase life.  They make lifeless.  They decrease life.  They deaden.  They mortify.	11/27/1999

Psychology.	(1) Focus and concentration.  (2) Interest and curiosity.  (3) Effort and accomplishment.	5/30/1998

Psychology.	(1) Good.  (A) Focus: think of, concentrate on x.  (B) Motivate: emotional desires and good reasons to do x.  (2) Bad.  (A) Lazy: Reasons to not do x, or reasons to do nothing.  (B) Temptation: lack of focus, reasons to do other things.	05/30/1996

Psychology.	(1) It is very easy to ignore reality and still keep dreams and remain productive, hopeful, happy.  This is what squares do.  (2) It is very easy to confront reality and lose dreams.  This is what the heads and decadents did.  (3) It is very difficult to confront reality and keep dreams and remain productive, hopeful, and happy.  This is the big goal.	09/01/1994

Psychology.	(1) Learned helplessness: sometimes found in school children, oppressed workers, etc. vs. (2) Peak experiences, kairos, and self actualization.	07/30/1993

Psychology.	(1) Mental states: type, degree, duration, frequency, and percent time spend in.  (2) Behavior states: type, degree, duration, frequency, and percent time spent in.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	(1) Mentally naive (virgin) vs. mentally sophisticated.  (2) Experientially naive vs. experientially sophisticated.  (3) Experiential sophistication usually implies mental sophistication.  But you can be mentally sophisticated without being experientially sophisticated.	1/25/1998

Psychology.	(1) Morning: Energy; Focus; Motivation; Clarity.  (2) Evening: Tired; Discouraged; Frustrated.	2/15/2006

Psychology.	(1) People's fascination with the strange, curious, weird, odd, unusual, bizarre, as typified by the carnival freakshow.  (2) People's fascination with the related phenomena of ... (A) The gross.  (B) Disease and illness.  Especially gross diseases.  (C) Death.  Blood and gore.  (D) The perverted and kinky.  (E) The rare.  The singular.  One example of this is our fascination with coincidences and serendipity.  Another example of this is our fascination with stone gems.  (F) Anecdotes.  (G) Daredevils.  The possibility of blood and gore.  (H) The wacky.  The goofy.  (3) Television shows like "In Search Of", "That's Incredible", "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and "The Guiness World Book of Records" appeal to our fascination with the above phenomena.  (4) Teens especially have a fascination with the above phenomena.  Why?  Perhaps they want to see just how varied life gets.  (5) Related phenomena: curiosity, the mysterious, the fascinating, the disturbing, the shocking, the exotic.  (6) People want to be shocked out of their day to day tedious lives.  It helps to alleviate boredom.  Helps us deal with the mundane.  (7) However, the above tendencies also promote discrimination and ostracism by singling out whoever is different and using them as a scapegoat.  (8) For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived as hunter-gatherers in a lifestyle that was essentially unchanging.  In an unvarying culture the game to play becomes "Kill the mutant.  Kill whoever is different.  Beware of change."  This attitude may be the roots of today's conservative impulses.  For hundreds of thousands of years all that humans had was tradition, and it kept us stuck in caves.  However, in contrast, today we embrace creativity, invention and the new, and as a result we have walked on the moon.  (9) It is a survival tactic when we focus our attention on whatever is new, novel or oddities in our environment.  It helps us recognize possible danger and also possible opportunities.  Even today we pay attention to things that we don't recognize or don't understand.  Curiosity kept us alive in the long run.	5/25/2000

Psychology.	(1) The human species needs psychological diversity to survive.  Different people to do different tasks.  Variability in personality and talents.  How is this accomplished?  Why isn't everyone exactly alike?  How much psychological diversity is good?  Total complete diversity, as long as it is not unethical.  (2) The species needs psychological adaptability to survive.  To adapt to changing environments.  To adapt to changing problems and challenges.  How is this accomplished?	4/1/2002

Psychology.	(1) Those who think or say they are but aren't (posers).  (2) Those who think or say they aren't but are.  Don't know they are vs. actually know they are.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	(1) Usefulness, achieve, engaged, see clearly, positive attitude.  Versus.  (2) Complacency, sliding by, bad attitude, withdrawn, isolated, mistaken views, negative attitude.	2/25/2006

Psychology.	(1) Weather and mental states.  Cloudy, sunny, cold, hot, rain, snow.  (2) Seasons and mental state.  Winter, spring, summer, fall.	12/10/1999

Psychology.	(1)(A) Good state of mind:  Wide open spaces.  Wide open mind.  Traveling mind.  Rambling mind.  Big mind.  Dynamic mind.  (B) Bad state of mind:  Small mind.  Static mind.  Narrow mind.  (2) Mental diversity can be healthy.  Many mental landscapes.  Many selves.  Many voices.  Many conversations going on at once.  These can be good things, that help us set up an interior creative dialectic, to produce new ideas.  However, these things have been wrongly stereotyped as an unhealthy state (ex. multiple personality disorder).  (3) Thinking is often defined as talking to self (silently).  Thinking or talking to self (silently) is healthy.  However, talking to self (aloud) is generally discouraged and labeled as "crazy".  The result is that many people tend to think that all forms of talking to self, including talking to self silently, is also crazy.  Thus, society, by discouraging talking to self in general, discourages thinking.  And that is a bad thing.	6/23/2000

Psychology.	(1)(A) Some things naturally spring to mind for some.  (B) Some things neither spring nor retreat from minds of some.  (C) Some things retreat from minds of some (due to repression).  All above, quite independent of (2)(A) Whether they like the subject matter or not.  (B) Whether they are interested in the subject matter or not.  (C) Whether they think the subject matter is important or not.  (3) When looking for a job, pick a job that covers 1A.  Do not do a job that entails 1C (repression).	02/04/1994

Psychology.	A common saying is that, "Actions speak louder than words."  My counter argument is that, "Words are actions."	3/21/2004

Psychology.	Active and passive.  (1)(A) Active mind: Self-directed, searching, exploring.  (B) Passive mind: Directed by externalities, distracted.  (2) A passive mind can be psychologically unhealthy.  An active mind is healthier to have.  A passive mind can be deadly.  An active mind can thrive.  (3) A mind can be trained to be passive in youth.  Learned helplessness (taught not to try).  Taught to obey (ex. religion or military).  (4) An active mind can take a stand and defend itself.  A passive mind is defenseless, helpless, tossed by wind and tide.	03/03/1998

Psychology.	Adjustment and adaptation: learning, changing.  (1) Figure out what new situation is.  (2) Figure out the ethics of it (acts done to you, by you).  (3) Memorize and integrate above.  (4) Depends also on your flexibility and rigidity.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Adjustment and adaptation.  Being psychologically prepared for an event.  How does it help.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Adjustment and adaptation.  Getting hard: becoming immune to pain and adversity.  Getting soft: getting out of shape.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Adjustment and adaptation.  How well, how completely, how quickly, to what?	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Adjustment and adaptation.  The amount of time and stress it takes you to adapt and adjust to a new situation (better or worse).  How different the situation is, in degrees and ways, from what you are accustomed to.  How soon it takes you to (1) Recognize a change in environment, (2) Figure out the change (cause and effects), (3) And figure out and make your behavioral change.	04/04/1994

Psychology.	Altered states.  The questions remain: (1) Are there natural (non-drug) altered states of consciousness?  (2) Are they HIGHER states of consciousness?  (3) Can they reveal truth or health to us?  Is it transformative?  Can it change us for the better?	7/25/1999

Psychology.	Altitude.  What is it about altitude that I enjoy so much?  What are the psychological effects of living in Yosemite or Boulder?  Does it affect mood, thinking, or memory?  What is the psychological biochemistry of living at altitude?	5/13/1999

Psychology.	Animal psychology.  Advances are being made today in training dogs and horses.  We are starting to see things from the animals point of view.  Example, The Real Horse Whisper on PBS showed how a wild Mustang can tamed without force.  Advances like these benefit the animal's rights, make humans more peaceful and enlightened, and will also help us and raising our own kids.  We discover what is effective and works best.  We discover what is most ethical.  We discover what does and doesn't create animal fear, neurosis and psychosis.	9/20/1998

Psychology.	Auto-pilot is a state when we are in a routine.  Routine is predictable, safe, comforting and ritualistic.  Routine is the mode of conservatives and traditionalists.  But routine is auto-pilot and auto-pilot is not living.	9/3/2000

Psychology.	Auto-pilot.  (1) Most of us are on auto-pilot most of the time.  To conserve brain power we use routines and scripts.  No think, no feel, no remember.  Another type of auto-pilot is to prejudge everything and everyone.  (2) The state of being on auto-pilot is a state of not living.  People feel robbed when they live their life on auto-pilot and then have a mid-life crisis.  (3) Auto-pilot isolates, insulates and walls off.  (4) Other types of auto-pilot:  Doing what we are told.  Doing what is expected.	9/1/2000

Psychology.	Auto-pilot.  Many people have a bunch of pat answers that they work from.  They essentially live on auto-pilot.  Then one day they "come to" and they are overwhelmed by their circumstances.  They often get angry and depressed.  They may lash out at others or themselves.  When people operate from a series of set answers they are not really thinking.  When one is on auto-pilot one is working from wrote memory or sheer habit.  They are not thinking.  And then one day they start thinking all of a sudden.  Watchout.	11/6/1999

Psychology.	Auto-pilot.  We go into auto-pilot automatically.  Auto-pilot is the default mode for humans.  The screen-saver mode.  The energy-saver mode.  The "same old, same old" induces a hypnotic trance.  Zen masters and revolutionaries yell "Wake up!" to try to rouse people out of auto-pilot.  Non-auto-pilot mode takes a lot of concentration and energy.  How to get out of auto-pilot mode?  Carry a reminder.  Go to new situations and meet new people.  Experience new thoughts and new emotions.	9/3/2000

Psychology.	Brain states, types of.  (1) Brain states that are slow to get into and out of.  Good if you want to stay in it.  Bad if you want to get out of it quickly.  (2) Brain states that are quickly changing.  Good if you want to get out of it.  Bad if you want to stay in it.	9/29/2003

Psychology.	Clear.  The phrase "things become clearer" can mean (1) Figured something true(er) out.  (2) Values repriortized.  (3) Knowledge concepts reorganized.  (4) Memory working better.  (5) Feelings identified and sorted out.	07/30/1993

Psychology.	Comic books.  America's fascination with comic book superheroes.  People are fascinated with power.  People want to know what their power or abilities are.  People want to know what are the powers or abilities of the people around them.  Sometimes people feel powerless.  People want to feel empowered.  People want more power.	5/27/2006

Psychology.	Complain, whine, moan, bitch, criticize.  To complain is to reveal your dissatisfaction.  Complaining is the first step toward critical thinking.  Four variables involved in complaining include: (1)(A) Personal tendency to complain.  (B) Personal tendency to not complain.  (i) Repressed: will not reveal it even to self.  (ii) Optimistic: not unhappy about anything.  (iii) Uncommunicative: generally tend not to express anything.  (2)(A) Taught by society to complain (ex. whining cultures).  Generally communicative cultures.  As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  (B) Taught by society to not complain.  Generally uncommunicative cultures.  Generally repressed cultures.  Fatalistic cultures.  Learned-helplessness cultures.     PART TWO.  Cheerleaders, complimenters and praisers.  (1)(A) Personal tendency to compliment.  (B) Personal tendency to not compliment (ex. overly competitive).  (2)(A) Taught by society to cheerlead.  (B) Taught by society not to cheerlead (ex. They believe "If you compliment a person you spoil that person.").	9/12/2000

Psychology.	Constructing and directing your mind. vs. a naturally flowing mind.  Pros and cons of each.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Construction of own mind.  Active, not passive.  By self, not by others.	10/5/2004

Psychology.	Conviction meaning confidence, persistence and passion.  Dispassioned meaning removed, unmoved and objective.  We need both conviction and dispassion.  We need to balance both conviction and dispassion.  Its a paradox.  Its a challenge.	8/3/2004

Psychology.	Direction.  A self-directed mind or a mind directed by others, are minds that are not free to entertain any and every thought, and thus is a repressed mind.  This is the contra side of being very focused and directed.  Not being free to wander means being repressed.	02/15/1997

Psychology.	Direction.  Right direction: causes and effects.  Wrong direction: causes and effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Drive vs. fear.  Success vs. failure.  Pleasure vs. pain.  How much can you take of each?	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Drive vs. none.  Mania vs. depression.  Confidence vs. lack of confidence.  Optimism vs. pessimism.  Hope vs. despair.  For any trait, chart yourself on an axis, through time, for positive and negative conditions.  What is your average level?  What is your range of extremes?  What is your frequency of cycling?  How does it compare to the human average?	07/08/1994

Psychology.	Eco-psychology.  Basic idea of eco-psychology.  By examining our relationship with the natural world we become healthier.  Just like examining our relationships with others helps us as individuals.	02/28/1998

Psychology.	Eco-psychology.  Possible tenets of an eco-psychology.  (1) Environment is just as important as heredity.  (2) Physical environment is just as important as social environment.  (3) A poor physical environment can make you susceptible to pathological psychological conditions.  (4) Humans evolved over millions of years in a natural environment and so humans have a hardwired predisposition to live in a natural environment.  (5) People who know nothing of nature and who have lost all contact with nature have lost a part of themselves.  (6) How is eco-psychology contradicted by the existence of psychologically healthy city dwellers?	7/10/2002

Psychology.	Embodiment.  (1) A person has to live with their face.  A person has to see their face in the mirror every day.  (2) A person has to live with their body.  A person has to see their body in the mirror everyday.	5/27/2006

Psychology.	Empathy.  (1) Narrow definition: "To feel what others feel", is about emotion.  (2) Wider definition: "To see what others see", is about senses.  Imaging sense perceptions.  (3) Widest definition: "To walk in others shoes", is about the entire self.  Imagination.	5/6/2000

Psychology.	Energy efficiency.  How to burn bright and strong the whole day long, instead of burning out early?	06/30/1993

Psychology.	Environment.  (1) Effect of a specific, or specific type of environment on a specific, or specific type of psyche.  (2) Types of effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Environment.  Environment change.  (1) For better or worse.  (2) Cause: natural or manmade (by others or by you).	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Environment.  Events in situations, and actions by us, change us as we flow into changing situations.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Environment.  Types of environment.  (1) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (2) Direct: direct sense perception.  Indirect: beyond direct sense perception.  (3) External vs. internal, i.e, physical and mental.  (4) Natural vs. manmade.  (5) Social vs. personal.  (6) Static, momentary environment  vs. dynamic, past/present/future.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Environment.  Types of environment.  (1) Social environments:  Do it yourself vs. dependent on others.  Learning vs. repeating tradition.  Individual respected vs. mass conformity.  Freedom vs. control.  Work vs. hedonism.  Peaceful vs. conflict.  Supportive vs. not.  (2) Manmade environments:  Diverse vs. boring.  Changing vs. stagnant.  (3) Natural environments:  Ecological vs. polluted.	3/29/2000

Psychology.	Evolutionary psychology.  (1) Psychological behavior in animals.  (2) Psychological behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Psychology.	Expectation.  Why do people (1) Slow down on Friday.  (2) Feel depressed on Sunday night.  Expectations can change the way you feel and act greatly.  Some people speed up when they see the end in sight, and some people slow down when they see the end in sight.	09/23/1993

Psychology.	Experience and time.  (1) Past: see personal history.  (2) Present: at this moment.  (3) Future: want, and will get.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience, lack of.  An uneventful past, with no experiences, with no actions performed, with no mental life, no thoughts, no emotions, no memories, how does that affect the development of the individual?	3/11/2007

Psychology.	Experience.  (1) Some have the mind to create something out of unusual, great, extreme, real (not fake), rich experiences, but never get the experiences (either by fate, accident, or by searching them out).  They remain sheltered and safe, all their lives.  (2) Some get the experiences but don't have the mind needed to squeeze the juice out of them.  So they gain nothing from the experience.  (3) Some have neither.  (4) A lucky few have both and use both.     The point is, you have to search out these authentic, real experiences.  These types of experiences are (1) Not entirely pre-planned (by you or anyone else).  (2) Where you run the show yourself and make your own decisions.  (3) Where something new and different happens to you.  (4) There should be some danger (physical, legal, social taboos).  (5) You should have to make an ethical decision, and take an ethical action.  (6) Fall in love.  (7) Fighting for what you believe in.  Hero stuff.  Anything less is wimping out, bad faith, giving up on life.  (8) How often to have these experiences?  Where to get them?	06/17/1994

Psychology.	Experience.  Different people "experience" the same situation in different ways.	3/22/2007

Psychology.	Experience.  How you experience life depends on (1) Your past experiences.  (2) Your memory of past experiences.  (3) Current concepts.  (4) Current methods of thinking.  (5) It is a meld of old and new.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  In the same way that there must be a way to become enlightened without taking drugs, so to there must be a way to gain experiential knowledge without going through horrible experiences.  The dilemma is this:  (1) We need knowledge of the bad things in life in order to know what are the problems of the world in order to be motivated to solve these problems.  (2) But we don't want to experience these evils first hand because they can shatter our lives, reduce our productivity, cause pain and suffering, etc.  (3) We don't even want second hand knowledge of these problems if it means that we have to see friends or anyone suffer these problems.  (4) So in the future, in an increasingly perfect world, how do you explain to people what is war, poverty, crime, oppression, etc.?  (5) Overcoming adversity gives many the motivation to succeed.  But adversity also crushes the spirits of many others.  (6) It is not just a question of motivation.  In addition to motivation you simply need to know about the ills of the world and you need to know about them in an immediate and direct way.  You have to experience them.  And yet, as we said before, you don't want to experience them, nor do you want anyone else to experience them.  So what to do?  The only thing I can suggest is exercising your imagination, perhaps with the aid of art and history, to the point where you can say "I know about these bad things.  I've lived through them via art and history."	7/16/2002

Psychology.	Experience.  Relativity of experience: Two people experience same situation different ways.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  The important thing is what ideas (important and unimportant) and emotions (powerful and bland) a environment or experience (or its absence) causes you to "mind" about (or not), or do (or not).	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Total experience: psychological, physical, behavior, and environment.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Type of effect of any type of experience on individual  (1) Healthy vs. unhealthy effect.  (2) Growth, stagnation, devolution effects.  (3) Duration of effect: no effect to permanent effect.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Type, frequency, duration, intensity.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Types of experience.  (1) Actual vs. perceived.  (2) Healthy vs. unhealthy.  (3) Painful vs. pleasurable.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Types of experience.  (1) First hand: experience it yourself.  (2) First hand observation: see, hear it happening to someone else.  (3) Second hand: get it from a primary source.  (4) Third hand: get it from a secondary source.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Types of experience.  Experiencing something  (1) Second hand: vicariously.  (2) First hand: as a tourist, with easy way out.  (3) First hand: for real, with no easy way out.  There is a big difference between all three.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  Ways of experiencing the environment.  (1) Not alive.  (2) Alive.  (A) Instinctual.  (B) Unconscious.  (C) Conscious: magic myth religion, art, philosophy, or science.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experience.  What experiences should people have (do and done to) and not and why (in abstract and specific terms).  Have: education.  Not have: abuse and neglect (see human rights).	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Experiences and situations.  The amount you have in life: few or many.  Vs.  What you get out of the experiences you have: much or little.     If you have a great imagination, you can imagine an experience, and if you have a keen mind, you can get a lot out of an imagined experience.	01/02/1997

Psychology.	Experiences.  A bad experience can make environments seem cold, sterile, alien, strange, evil.  A good experience can make environments seem warm, comfy, cozy, friendly.	4/8/2004

Psychology.	Fascination with the commonplace.  There are two types of fascination with the commonplace.  (1) Fascination with the commonplace when you do not know it is the commonplace.  This often occurs when one is new on the scene.  An example is tourists visiting a place for the first time.  Another example is teenagers who experience the commonplace for the first time.  This type of fascination with the commonplace is usually followed by either gradual or swift disenchantment.  (2) Fascination with the commonplace even when you know it is the commonplace.  One way this expresses itself is when a person becomes a mystic of the commonplace, where one sees enlightenment in chewing gum, etc.  Another way it expresses itself is when a person becomes a pop culture maven.  The phenomenon of fascination with the commonplace even when you know it is the commonplace is usually followed by the gradual or swift disenchantment of your friends regarding your behavior.	4/6/2001

Psychology.	Focus, drive, confidence, and self esteem.  Focus: I see it.  Drive: I want it.  Confidence: I can get it.  Self esteem: I deserve it.	12/30/1995

Psychology.	Folk psychology terms.  (1) Unraveled.  (2) Wound too tight.  (3) Knit self together.	10/21/1998

Psychology.	Four important factors: mind, body, activity and environment.     PART ONE.  Some people say that all four are equally important.  But those with no body (ex. paraplegics) might argue that body is not so important as mind.  And those who live in a bad environment (ex. the urban poor) might argue that environment is not that important.  And those who do not engage in much activity (ex. couch potatoes) might argue that activity is not that important.     PART TWO.  Some say that variety of environment, activity, body and mind is just as important as the quality of environment, activity, body and mind.  How to achieve a variety of experiences, activities, bodies and minds?  A variety of environments can be achieved through travel.  A variety of activities can be achieved through work and leisure alternatives.  A variety of bodies can be achieved by body metamorphosis or by virtual reality.  A variety of minds can be achieved through reading books.	6/6/1999

Psychology.	Four states of mind.  (1) I never did anything illegal.  (2) I have done something illegal but no one will ever know.  (3) I have done something illegal but the statute of limitations has run out.  (4) I have done something illegal, and it is punishable by jail time, and I could get caught at any time.  One or another of these views is in our conscious or unconscious mind all the time, and colors our world view, and shapes us.	04/30/1993

Psychology.	Fragility versus resilience and robustness.  Sensitivity versus callousness.  Its healthy to be sensitive yet resilient.  Its unhealthy to be fragile and callous.	6/5/2005

Psychology.	Free psychologically.  (1)(A) Social freedom: what society lets you do, vs. (B) Psychological freedom: what we permit ourselves to do.  What we permit ourselves to need, feel and think.  Where we permit ourselves to go in the physical world and in the mental world.  (C) Some people experience for themselves the phenomenon where you unchain an animal and the animal stays in the yard anyway because the animal has been conditioned by the chain to stay in the yard.  Even though social freedoms can shape psychological freedoms, the point is that you can have social freedom but still lack psychological freedom.  Social freedom yet psychologically in chains.  (2) Even when psychological chains are broken and one has a sense of psychological freedom, there is still one further step that needs to be taken, that is the urge to explore.  (3) It is easy to gripe about society for the way it limits your physical freedoms.  It is less easy to blame ourselves for our own participation and culpability in limiting our own psychological freedoms.  What things do you say to yourself in order to limit yourself?	5/1/2000

Psychology.	Genius and education are not just about thinking.  They are also about emotion, memory, drive, etc.  We should stop specifying them as merely thinking.  Take them out of the thinking section.	9/28/2000

Psychology.	Give your mind a rest.  At what point do we use our mind too much?  Use it or lose it.	11/8/2004

Psychology.	Goals and problems.  Work toward achieving goals.  Work toward reducing problems.	3/23/2004

Psychology.	Harness the energy.  Direct the energy.  Control the energy.  Yet, the energy is like nature, it has its own agenda.	8/24/2000

Psychology.	Haze, blur, fog, unclear, confusion, directionless.	4/6/2001

Psychology.	Her mind was like a gently sloping table.  You could discuss any topic with her, but like a ball on a gently sloping table, her mind always returned to the same subject.  My mind is also like a gently sloping table, except the table is on a boat and the boat is on a stormy sea.	11/20/1999

Psychology.	Here now and there then.  "Be here now", as they say, is only half the story.  "Go there then", I say, is the other half of the story.  Be able to do both.  Know when to do either.	11/23/2004

Psychology.	Here now and there then.  (1) Develop the ability to "be here now".  That is, when your mind is not "here now", develop the ability to get "here now" quickly, and develop the ability to stay "here now" for hours.  (2) Develop the opposite ability, which I call "there then", which has to do with memory and imagination.  Develop the ability to mentally traverse time and space.  When your mind is "here now", develop the ability to go "there then" quickly, and develop the ability to stay "there then" for hours.  (3) Know when to use either ability ("here now" or "there then") as needed.  When overwhelmed by the present use your "there then" ability.  When an important task is at hand use your "here now" ability.  The ability of "here now" lets one focus undisturbed by one's own stray thoughts and emotions.  The ability of "there then" lets one focus undisturbed by one's environment.	4/4/2001

Psychology.	Here now and there then.  It is a much richer life if you mentally traverse time and space using your imagination than if you always and forever stay in the here and now.  It is very limiting to be only you, here and now.	1/1/2002

Psychology.	Heredity of psychological traits.  (1) What's heritable?  What's not heritable?  Physical traits are heritable, like eye color.  Are psychological traits like personality or intelligence heritable?  What is 100% predictably heritable?  That is, what traits can we predict with 100% certainty.  What is heritable by some degree of probability?  No one is an exact copy of anyone else, except identical twins.  Even identical twins are not mirror images.  (2) To what degree can environment and behavior override inherited traits?  For example, if a person has inherited limited intelligence, their hard work can make up for that deficit.	9/4/2005

Psychology.	History of psychology.  Schools, individuals, subject of interest, theories or views, arguments, evidence.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Home is where you come to rest physically.  There is also a mental state at which you spend most of your time, or where you come to rest mentally, and I call that your mental home.	10/1/2001

Psychology.	How do people make sense of their lives?  Some people have in their minds an amalgamation of world history, personal history, figured-out ideas, found-out ideas, plus music, emotions, words, images.  Other people make sense of their lives by collecting money, objects and people, because the thought of it consoles them.  Its all simmering, bubbling, churning, stewing in the subconscious mind.	6/20/2006

Psychology.	How.  (1) How important is psychology?  (2) How study psychology?  (3) How apply psychology?  (4) How to do psychology?	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Hypnosis.  Degree, speed, ease with which, and methods by which a person can be mesmerized or hypnotized.  Examples, a girl by a guy on a date (or visa versa); a consumer by a commercial; a consumer by a used car salesman; anyone by anyone.  Ways how to do it.  Powers of suggestion.	01/02/1994

Psychology.	Hypnosis.  Mind control.  Lack of freewill.  Believing and obeying instead of thinking and acting freely.  Having an effect on someone's mind.  We all have an effect on each other.  We influence each other.  Types of people.  (1) Some are better at influencing than others.  (2) Some are more impressionable than others, especially the young and the psychologically fragile.  (3) Those easily persuaded.  (4) Those easily encouraged or discouraged.  (5) Those who give in quickly to opposition.  (See suggestion, hypnosis, susceptibility to advertising, and persuasion).	12/29/1997

Psychology.	Hypnosis.  Suggestibility.  S&M people get themselves into a trance.  The trance is similar to the one an addict gets into.  When they get into the trance they are more susceptible to suggestions.  The trance can also take the form of a fantasy or daydream.  Most people can snap themselves out of the trance, but some addicts and others cannot.  They get stuck in the trance.	9/30/1998

Psychology.	Hypnosis.  The drone note in music produces a hypnotic affect by focusing your thoughts like a swinging watch.  A steady rap will have the same affect on people.  It monopolizes their thoughts, preventing other thoughts, and letting their emotions run free, disabling their rational minds so that they can not form arguments against you.  Everyone is susceptible to this (Women perhaps more so than men because they are perhaps more emotional).  The drone, the state of shock, the verbal rap, and hypnosis are all very similar states.	03/01/1989

Psychology.	Hypnosis.  Who can be hypnotized?  What can be done under hypnosis?  How bad can you mess up a mind with hypnotism?  Does self hypnosis work?  Can only hypnotists hypnotize?  Or does it occur everyday, by everyone?  Related topics: suggestibility, brain washing, cults, advertising, seduction.	10/05/1997

Psychology.	Hypocrisy is about three things; (1) The difference between what people think and say.  (2) The difference between what people say and do.  (3) The difference between what people think and do.	10/18/2004

Psychology.	I have a fickle brain.  It does not work on demand.  Coaxing it is of little use.  (1) Give it a lot of attention.  (2) Be patient.  (3) Take and save what ideas it gives you, when it gives you them.  (4) Solutions can come to you long before or long after you face a problem.  The former is better.  Write down the answer.	12/15/1998

Psychology.	Impressions.  Adult-age impressions.  Freud put a great deal of emphasis on childhood, but who can say absolutely that we are most impressionable as children?  I say we can be impressionable at any age.  Adult-age impressions are important in at least three ways: first impressions at any age; impressions on neurotic adults; and impressions on sensitive adults.     (1) First impressions at any age.  One reason adult-age impressions are important is because first impressions are important at any age.  We say children are impressionable because first exposures, first experiences and first impressions are so important.  Childhood is a time of many first impressions.  First impressions of a thing are considered to shape our attitudes toward that thing into the future.  Thus, childhood impressions are important.  However, we continue to experience new things throughout our lives.  As teens and adults we continue to have first impressions.  For example, the first time you have sex, or the first time you become a parent, or the first time you enter old-age.  The first impressions that we have as adults can be just as important as the first impressions that we have as children.     (2) Neurotic adults.  Another reason that adult-age impressions are important is because many adults are fragile.  Childhood impressions are considered to be important because children are considered to be psychologically fragile because their egos have not yet developed fully, and painful experiences to a fragile ego can damage that ego.  However, adults can have fragile egos also.  Adult neurotics can have fragile egos that can be further damaged by painful experiences.  Some people argue that adult neurotics are the result of childhood psychological scaring (in a Freudian sense), however others argue that adult neurotics are the result of biochemical imbalances of brain neurotransmitters.  And if this latter view is the case then it can produce fragile adults who are very susceptible to adult-age impressions.  Some would argue further that we are all neurotics.     (3) A third reason that adult-age impressions are important is the sensitive adult.  Childhood impressions are considered important because children are so sensitive.  Adults are considered to be less sensitive and more callused than children.  However, some adults, artists especially, maintain a high degree of sensitivity through adulthood.  Sensitive adults can be just as impressionable as children.     (4) To sum up.  Adults can be just as impressionable as children.  Psychological damage can occur at any age.  Psychological healing can occur at any age.	7/13/2000

Psychology.	Impressions.  First impressions.  (1) If humans were not so rigid and static then first impressions would not carry so much weight.  (2) If humans valued thought, and thought often, then first impressions would not carry so much weight.  (3) The problem with over-weighting first impressions is that it does not give you the ability to correct wrong first impressions.  That is, the problem with being bound by personal traditions based on first impressions (like "I always did it this way." and "I always thought this way.") is that there is no room for improvement, and once you get a sub-optimal attitude it can not be optimized.	7/13/2000

Psychology.	In order to free the mind it takes a mental revolution.	8/23/1998

Psychology.	Independence.  (1) The reason to pursue physical freedom (ex. Drop out of school, hitch-hike across country, become a hobo, etc.) Is to achieve psychological freedom (learn "I am free").  (2) Can you achieve the latter without doing the former?  Or must one always be a hobo?  (3) And then avoid letting anyone or anything (a job, a situation, a lover) make you a slave again.  Let nothing own you, physically or psychologically.  (4) Achieve autonomy, independence, sovereignty, self-determination, self reliance.  Don't be an unwitting pawn in someone else's game.  Don't be used.	4/28/1998

Psychology.	Independence.  I used to have such a need to be independent.  I would scoff at (1) Going to a shrink, (2) Using psychological self help books, (3) Talking about problems to friends.  (4) Now I realize I can live healthier by interacting with others.	12/30/1996

Psychology.	Industriousness vs. the following sub-optimal mental states: (1) Laziness.  (2) Apathy.  (3) Pathological immobilization.  Neurosis.  Frozen.  Blocked.  (4) Hedonism.  (5) Zen, passive calm.	3/3/2000

Psychology.	Inertia, laziness, lack of motivation, boredom.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Inertia: causes, effects, cures.  Causes: uncertainty, fear, no direction, no urgency, perceived as unimportant.  Vs. energy: causes, effects.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Inertia.  Resistance and fear (for better or worse) against change (for better or worse) vs. momentum and drive for change.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Inertia.  The inertia vs. direction interface is very important.  Four cases (1) High inertia, right direction.  (2) High inertia, wrong direction.  (3) Low inertia, right direction.  (4) Low inertia, wrong direction.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Information is a key concept in psychology.  Ideas are information.  Attitudes are information.  A large part of thinking is about information management.  A large part of psychological health is about information management.  Humans have various techniques of information management, such as lists, outlines, databases, libraries, computers, etc.  People ignore information management at their own expense.	10/13/2004

Psychology.	Instincts.  I used to have better instincts and reflexes.  Now I can't trust my urges, perceptions, emotions, and reasoning.  Things must be thought out and tested, conferred on with associates and experts.  This is because (1) I am in more complicated situations, and (2) I have to make more important decisions, with higher stakes, and more responsibility on me than I did when I was a teen.	12/30/1996

Psychology.	Integration.  PART ONE.  (1) Integration: How does it occur?  What causes it?  (2) Unintegrated: How does it occur?  What causes it?  (3)  Disintegration: How does it occur?  What causes it?  Forgetting.  Pathological psychology.  PART TWO.  Unintegrated is not a pathological condition, it is just a condition of being half baked.  PART THREE.  What happens when society does not give the individual the time or opportunity to integrate?  What happens when an individual does not give themselves an opportunity to integrate?  PART FOUR.  When we integrate the result is we create new conclusions and ideas, and as a result of that we grow.  PART FIVE.  We are always slowly forgetting and we are always slowly remembering.  Integration and disintegration take place simultaneously.	2/16/2002

Psychology.	Integration.  PART ONE.  Integration of the sides of the personality.  Integration of various conflicting views.  Integration of past experiences.  Integration of past selves (i.e, child, teen, adult).  (2)  Revisiting places is how we integrate.  Revisiting memories is how we integrate.  History is about integration.  Memory is about integration.  (3)  If we had no memory, and life was a constant series of new experiences, how would we deal with it?  If the world was new each day, with new physical laws (i.e., opposite of Groundhog Day movie) how would we deal with it?  (4)  Even if we look back and say " You know, it was all just random chaos and chance.", we are still making a statement about life, still attributing mean, still attempting to deal with life, attempting to integrate it.  (5) Synthesis.  Sense making.  Meaning making.  Logic making.  Justice making.  (6)  To some degree we are each a collection of random experiences.  An unintegrated personality is a collection of random experiences with no conclusions drawn.	2/20/2002

Psychology.	Intelligence does not imply knowledge, which does not imply ethics, which does not imply sanity.  None of them implies or necessitates the others.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Internal guidance system.  (1) Do you have a good one?  Or do you have a poor one?  Can it be developed or improved?  (2) Strong internal guidance system: towards health, towards destruction.  Weak internal guidance system: drifting.  (3) Home in, on track, focused, in thought and action.  Duration and degree of concentration.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Interpretation.  (1) Interpretation of a text written by someone else in the same language you speak (i.e., to guess what it means, and to put it in your own words) is essentially the same thing as translation of a text written in another language.  Interpretation (within a language) and translation (to another language) are basically the same thing.  (2) Humans interpret (or translate) everything (all experiences), not just written texts, not just spoken words, not just body language.  In this way, everything (all experience) is, metaphorically, speaking a language.  Everything is saying something.  Everything has a voice.  Or, to put it less figuratively, humans ascribe meaning to not only sentences but also to everything else.  (3) (A) Another reason we can say humans ascribe meaning to everything is because humans do not use formal, exact languages like computers.  Figurative language (i.e., metaphors) is a result of human analogical thinking.  (B) Another reason we can say humans ascribe meaning to everything is because many words have multiple meanings.  Many sentences have multiple meanings.  It is not always perfectly clear what the author (or even the thinker) means.  Is the author being literal?  Is the author being poetical?  Is the author being sarcastic?  (4) So interpretation (translation) essentially takes place in all communication.  And everything is communicating to us.  (5) When we interpret/translate, we ascribe meaning as much as we infer meaning.  That is, when we interpret/translate, we make an informed guess what the speaker means as much as we know accurately what they mean.	10/5/2000

Psychology.	Is reality the way you feel about stuff at your (1) optimum best, (2) pessimistic worst, (3) middle of above range, or (4) average (most of the time)?	10/15/1994

Psychology.	It is possible that there may be (1) Karma, (2) A spirit world, (3) Cosmic poetic justice, (4) Irony.  There definitely is (1) A mind-body connection (when one feels good or bad so does the other),  (2) Guilty consciences, (3) Stress, (4) Self destructiveness.  If anything goes wrong you will blame yourself for every poor decision you ever made.  If you do anything wrong it will affect you psychologically (unconsciously and consciously) and physically.	12/30/1996

Psychology.	Key terms.  (1) Technique (behavior): how you do things.  (2) Attitude (mind): how you feel and think about things.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Key terms.  (1) Vision: see goal.  (2) Drive and effort: work toward goal.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Laziness.  (1) A certain amount of laziness is bio-engineered into us.  Humans evolved to conserve their bodily resources.  Just like the lazy lion that spends most of its time sleeping.  (2) And humans, though they evolved the ability to think, seemed to have evolved to think only when they had to.  Humans were not bio-engineered to think constantly.  (3) However, keep in mind the "naturalistic fallacy" which states that you cannot derive "ought" from "is".  The way nature designed us is not necessarily the way we should be.  For example, if humans somehow evolved for fighting over caves that does not mean we should constantly make war.  So it also seems that just because we bio-evolved to be lazy and think rarely, that does not mean we should continue to be that way.  In fact, the ethical imperative is that we think and work.  (4) But the above argument does help explain the rampant hedonism and lack of thought in society.  The laziness, the hedonism, the lack of thought are an ecological vestige.	7/7/2000

Psychology.	Laziness.  (1) Two types of laziness: the physical laziness of laying about and the mental laziness of rarely thinking.  This second type of laziness is more common and much worse.  (2) Causes of laziness.  (A) Goal-lessness.  Aimlessness.  (B) Existential protest.  (C) Viewing passive inactivity as a virtue.  (Ex. Eastern religions).  (D) Protest against society, work, school, etc.  (E) Lack of meaning.  Lack of a sense of urgency.  Lack of a sense of importance.  Lack of a sense of good.  (F) Depression.  Hating everything.	4/7/2001

Psychology.	Learning, through practice, how to stop (thoughts) and calm (emotions) the conscious and unconscious mind is a very important skill.	3/21/2004

Psychology.	Living low on the brain stem.  Using only a few of your mental abilities.  Making no effort to develop your mental abilities.  Not thinking.  Not feeling.  Repressed.  Self imposed repression.  Societally imposed repression.	4/16/2006

Psychology.	Making sense.  How do people make sense of their lives?  How do people make sense of their situation?  (1) People create stories.  People tell themselves stories.  People tell each other stories.  (2) People create meanings.  People attach meanings to the events in their lives.  People attach meanings to the world.  (3) People are curious monkeys searching for knowledge.  People gather knowledge like monkeys gather fruit.  (4) People try to figure out what to do in the world.  People try to figure out what in the world to do.  (5) People talk to themselves.  People talk amongst yourselves.	3/19/2006

Psychology.	Making sense.  Its a basic human need and desire to make sense of oneself, one's life, and the world.  One's life can be defined as the intersection of one's self and the world.  People need and desire meaning and understanding.	4/17/2006

Psychology.	Many people make the mistake of conflating critical thinking with a negative disposition.  Its a mistake to think that thinking critically means being negative about everything.  This phenomenon may be the result of the very word "critical", which can mean "improving" on the one hand and "negative" on the other hand.  It could be that the unconscious mind has more trouble distinguishing homophones than the conscious mind.  As a result, people often have psychological problems due to unconscious difficulties distinguishing words with multiple meanings.  Another example of this mistake are people who are conservative because they think its the "right" thing to do.	8/27/2004

Psychology.	Meaning, in terms of "life meaning", is an important psychological topic.  Meaning, in terms of "life meaning", is also an important philosophical topic.  See: Philosophy, ethics, meaning.	9/12/2005

Psychology.	Mental control defined as the ability of an individual to control what is going on in their own head.  Many people focus on individual physical control, defined as the ability of the individual to control their physical behavior, for example, the ability to stop overeating.  However, individual mental control is equally important.  Achieving some degree of mental control is an important skill for learning, health and development.  There are various types of individual mental control.  (1) Thinking control.  (A) The ability to say, "I refuse to think about that topic.", and make it happen.  For example, if its taking up too much of your time.  (B) The ability to say, "I will now think about this topic for one hour.", and make it happen.  For example, if studying for school.  (2) Emotional control.  (A) The ability to say, "I refuse to feel this way about that topic.", and make it happen.  For example, if you are feeling a way that you think you ought not feel.  (2) The ability to say, "I will feel this way about that topic.", and make it happen.	2/11/2006

Psychology.	Mental control is variable.  (1) Mental control is variable from person to person.  (2) A person can have much mental control in one subject area and little mental control in another subject area.  (3) A person can have more mental control at one moment and little mental control at another moment.	10/17/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  (1) A positive aspect of mental self control is that it gives someone the focus to pursue goals single mindedly.  (2) A negative aspect of mental self control is that it can reduce levels of tangential thinking that result in creativity.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  (1) If you have a strong, active subconscious then you may have less conscious mental control.  (2) If you tend to obsess, dwell or brood then that may be seen as a lack of mental self control.  (3) If you are subject to your moods then you may have a lack of mental control.  (4) Addiction can be viewed as a lack of behavioral self control, which is based on a lack of mental self control.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  (1) The greater the number of addictive distractions available in an environment, and the easier their availability, the more difficult it is to maintain mental self control.  (2) The greater the number of stressors to distract a person in an environment, the more difficult it is to maintain mental self control.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  In today's society there are: (1) Increased access to addictive substances like alcohol, drugs, food, sex, computer games.  (2) Increased number of stressors.  (3) This leads to more challenges to mental self control.  As a result there in an increased need to teach mental self control techniques and coping skills.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  Is mental self control a learnable skill?  How to learn or practice mental self control skills?  Meditation?	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  Learn to control your own mind, or risk that someone else will control your mind.  Mental self control techniques: Sensory skills.  Picture in your mind.  Sound in your mind.  Memory of past.  Imagination about future.  Emotional recall.  Doing the opposite.	4/1/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  Mental control components.  (1) Emotional self control.  (2) Memory self control.  (3) Thought self control.  (4) Behavioral self control.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  PART ONE.  Mental control defined as the following: (1) The ability to think of something that you want to think of, and not think of something that you do not want to think of.  (2) The ability to remember something that you want to remember, and not remember something that you do not want to remember.  (3) The ability to feel an emotion that you want to feel, and not feel an emotion that you do not want to feel.  PART TWO. Different people have different levels of mental self control.  PART THREE.  Mental self control is not necessarily an all good nor an all bad phenomena.  There are pros and cons to mental self control.	10/10/2005

Psychology.	Mental control.  The degree to which a person can direct their own mind, from none to all.  The ability to willfully remember a thought.  The ability to focus on a thought.	4/3/2005

Psychology.	Mental energy.  (1) How long and well can you do mental work.  (2) How often great ideas just pop into your head, on any subject, at any moment.  (3) How mentally active you are.	06/06/1994

Psychology.	Mental states.  Two states.  (1) When your soul is jumping out of your body.  Drive, energy, confidence.  Vs. (2) When your soul quivers and cowers inside.  Fear, paranoia, self consciousness.  1 is better than 2.	12/30/1995

Psychology.	Methodology.  Behaviorism.  (1) One way to define behaviorism is to reject any concept that cannot be empirically verified.  Behaviorism as an outgrowth of Logical Postivism.  Behaviorism as a rejection of the limitations of Freudianism.  Arguments pro and contra this view.  (See also: Psychology, behavior > Behaviorism).	9/12/2005

Psychology.	Methodology.  Cognitive science.  Arguments pro and contra cognitive science.  (1) One way to define cognitive science is as a study of the brain/mind that focuses on the brain/mind as a computer.  Pro this view.  Contra this view. (2) Another way to define cognitive science is as a study of the brain/mind that focuses on thought.  Pro this view.  Contra this view.  Then then how do you define a thought. And what of emotion?  (3) Another way to view cognitive science is as a rejection of the limitations of Behaviorism.	9/12/2005

Psychology.	Methodology.  Freudianism.  (1) One way to broadly define Freudianism is as a theory of mind that distinguishes between the conscious and subconscious or unconscious mind.  Pro.  Contra. (2) Another way to define Freudianism is a theory of therapy that focuses on delving into a person's past.  Pro.  Contra.  (3) There are objections to seeing childhood as the source of all problems.  (4) There are objections to the completely passive, silent therapist.	9/12/2005

Psychology.	Mind trains are the sum of drive, memory, emotion, and thought trains (or flows) through time.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Much of our time is spent with free floating images, sound and words in our minds.  The contents of our minds is a melange or stew.  We have seemingly random access to memories.	8/9/2005

Psychology.	Narrow minded vs. close minded.  Narrow minded means only thinking of a few subjects.  Close minded means not open to new opinions.	12/30/1995

Psychology.	Newness and novelty vs. Familiarness and habit.	6/4/2004

Psychology.	Nirvana comes from within, not from without.  Not from any person or thing.  People and things are merely the building blocks you build with, or the garbage you avoid, in order to create, find, or recognize the truth.	06/06/1994

Psychology.	Non-development, static, stall.  To what extent can we spur development of self and others?  Development defined as health.  Development defined as maturity.  To what extent is development equivalent to one's knowledge base, thinking skills, emotions, ethics and social skills?	9/7/1999

Psychology.	Not looking someone in the eye can be a sign of shyness, timidity or fear.  Not looking someone in the eye can be a sign of anger.	6/23/2000

Psychology.	On the social side of psychology and on the nature side of psychology.  One cannot be fully developed and completely healthy as an individual if one is removed from either society or nature.  One cannot be fully developed and completely healthy if one is in a poor social situation or a poor physical environment.  Social psychology and ecological psychology are vitally important but often overlooked components of psychology.	1/14/2002

Psychology.	Organization (structure).  Mental organization improves mental efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity.	06/30/1997

Psychology.	Pace.  City boy: quick thinking, fast talking, and fast walking.  How do you feel when you finally slow it down?  Like on vacation on a beautiful summer day in the country.  It feels strange at first.  A slower pace.  Did a slow pace or a fast pace ever make anyone healthier, happier or more productive?  What is the best pace?	7/11/2000

Psychology.	Para-psychology.  Find the record of success and failure rates by psychics in police work.  Evidence of psychic phenomenon.	04/30/1993

Psychology.	Para-psychology.  Why astrology may work.  It is not the stars that affect us.  It is the weather and seasons, and their order of occurrence in your impressionable first year.  Freudian.	06/17/1994

Psychology.	People desire that there be some sort of sense to their lives.  People desire meaning as much as justice.  When people see only the absurd, nonsense, emptiness, nothingness, waste, and meaninglessness, then pain and misery can result, anger anxiety and depression can result, psychopathology can result.     People do not want to say, "It was all a big waste.  It was all for nothing.  It was all a lie.  It was all nonsense."  People want order, truth, justice, reason, meaning, purpose.  People want, desire and need all these things for happiness and psychological health.	3/19/2006

Psychology.	People don't just want to be encouraged.  People want to be reassured.	6/8/2001

Psychology.	Perfect storm.  Why is the public fascinated with the concept of a perfect storm?  (1) Because a perfect storm represents a perfect frenzy.  (A) For example, the frenzy of orgasm.  (B) For example, the frenzy of emotional outburst.  (C) For example, the frenzy of temporary psychosis.  People want to get out of their heads temporarily.  Out of control.  Go wild.  (D) For example, the frenzy of murder.  (E) For example, it represents perfect id (a Freudian term).  (F) Thus, to exaggerate the point, one could argue that, subliminally, a movie about a perfect storm is just more sex and violence.  (2) A perfect storm shows that Nature can still kick human's butts.  Nature as a higher power.  Another example of this idea is the recent spate of mountain climbing tragedy books.	6/23/2000

Psychology.	Power, control.  A synonym for "power" is "control".  Three types of control.  (1) Attempts at controlling natural accidents.  (2) Attempts at controlling other people's lives (bully).  (3) Attempts at controlling your own life (perfectionism).  Control freaks and power freaks.	11/7/2003

Psychology.	Practice shifting gears and focusing.  Practice serial thought, as well as parallel multi-tasking.  Instead of thinking of everything at once (to avoid obsession), practice thinking of one thing at a time (to avoid distraction).	5/21/2006

Psychology.	Progressivism and psychology.  Rights of the mentally ill.  The civil rights struggle during the 1960's in the United States helped many groups of people gain civil rights, including the mentally ill.  The courts decided that it was illegal to hold peaceful people in mental hospitals against their will.  The mental hospitals emptied out.  That was a good thing.  People should not be held prisoners in mental hospitals.  The United States should not be run like Stalinist Russia.	5/5/2007

Psychology.	Psyched = motivated, driven, desire, have to want it bad.  Also confident, hopeful, think you can get it.	5/30/1998

Psychology.	Psychologist go on and on about how genetics is what determines who we are, or how parents, or peers, or culture (via the media) determines who we are.  But I want to focus on how we ourselves determine who we become through will, reason, writing and action.  We have freewill and thus responsibility to create ourselves.  By exercising our reason we learn, grow and change ourselves.  We create ourselves to a great degree.  Or at least we have the capacity to create ourselves.  (1) Because to a great degree we can ignore parents, peers and society, we can rebel against them, and we can surpass them.  (2) To a great degree what we do after age 13 (when we can read, write, and learn to learn in a self-directed way) has as much effect on us as what happens from birth to age thirteen.	10/22/1998

Psychology.	Psychology of hero worship vs. leader hatred (rebellion?).  Are they opposite sides of same coin?	05/30/1993

Psychology.	Purity as (1) Innocence (never did wrong).  (2) Naivete (never knew evil or wrong) (intellectually or experientially).  (3) Idealism, idealistic.	06/30/1993

Psychology.	Purity of mind (Zen mind, Child mind?) = focus (no distractions of thoughts like sex, etc.), and calmness (no emotional pain).  Simplicity?	12/01/1993

Psychology.	Purity.  Terms.  (1) No mind: unthinking.  (2) Egolessness: humble, no big head.  (3) Transparency: no real self.  (4) Inscrutable: others can't see your real self.  (5) Unselfconsciouness: you can't see you; not aware of self.	11/20/1993

Psychology.	Purity.  When I had purity of pursuit (ex. skateboarding and climbing) I enjoyed the process and devoted all my time, attention, and energy to the pursuit.  I believed in what I was doing.  I was obsessed.  I would give up all and live off air to do it.  I was happy with my results.  An ascetic, obsessed lifestyle fits me well.  I have a reason to live.  Man on a mission.  Dedicated, devoted, pursuing.  Reason is my reason to live.  Calm, confident purpose.  Intense, single minded concentration and effort.  Lean, mean, writing machine.  The only way to live is as an idealistic visionary.  High feeling of youth in spring, summer of life ahead.  "Purity of essence.  Peace on earth.  Precious bodily fluids.  God bless america", to paraphrase the movie "Dr. Strangelove".	04/26/1994

Psychology.	Quiet mind vs. busy mind.	12/4/1998

Psychology.	Related subjects, effect of and on.  (1) Body: nature, genetics, heredity vs. nurture, developed, formed.  (2) Philosophy: ethical systems as a sign of mental health and mental development.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Repetition can induce a trance or a type of hypnotic calm.  Types of calm inducing repetitions:  (1) Repetitious actions.  (A) Grooming another, like our ape ancestors did.  (B) Chewing gum.  (C) Dance.  (2) Repetitious experience.  (A) Being groomed.  (B) Beach waves.  (C) Sounds like heartbeats or music.  (D) Sights like strobe lights.	8/14/2000

Psychology.	Resolve, Persistence, Dedication.	6/4/2004

Psychology.	Rock and roll is the key to the brain chemistry that will create the vision.	12/15/1998

Psychology.	Seeking attention.  (1) Having a good sense of humor (creating jokes and enjoying hearing jokes) is different from actually being a comedian, performer, entertainer.  The latter likes to receive laughter because laughter is feedback.  Feedback is attention.  Attention is love.  (2) Another form of attention is abuse (psychological, verbal, physical), or other strong negative emotions.  People with low self esteem, who are love and attention starved, will do anything for attention, and this can lead to masochistic behavior.  (3) It would be interesting to see how many comedians are masochists.  I think there would be a high correlation.  Do people with low self esteem seek attention from others as a form of validation from others?  Does low self esteem form comedians and masochists?	12/30/1996

Psychology.	Self censorship.  Unconscious limits or sanctions you put on your thought or behavior at any time.	05/30/1993

Psychology.	Self concepts: self confidence, self esteem and self worth, self respect (dignity).	5/30/1998

Psychology.	Self concepts.  (1) Self confidence.  Lack of it is worry and anxiety.  (2) Self respect.  Lack of it is loss of self esteem.  (3) Self direction.  Lack of it is aimless wandering or else motionlessness.  (4) Self motivation.  Lack of it is no drive or laziness.	09/01/1994

Psychology.	Some people contend that each of us has the accumulated knowledge of past generations in our genetic unconscious.  Wouldn't it be cool if that knowledge was conscious?  It might go something like this:  "I have worked in the fields.  I have fought in wars.  I have had countless loves.  And countless children.  I have died countless deaths and been born even more."  If each of us had the real memories of all humans past, how differently would we live?	4/13/2000

Psychology.	Sometimes when I am walking, I forget about my body and I feel like a detached head hovering six feet off the ground.  It is the reverse of the headless horseman phenomenon.  I call it the bodiless pedestrian.	8/31/1999

Psychology.	Stable people are the same person everyday and see the same world everyday.  Unstable people are different people everyday and see a different world everyday.  Unstable people are more prone to creativity, and more prone to mental illness.	1/18/1999

Psychology.	States of mind.  (1) Bad states: Feeling beat, old, wacky, mocked, alone, low energy, motivation, hope.  (2) Good states: No fear, not letting fear stop you.  Fear understood and controlled.  Strong, steady, clear, energized, endurance, power. Physical and psychological.	9/29/2003

Psychology.	Techniques for psychological improvement.  You can build your mind.  You are responsible for building your mind.  You can choose which knowledge and skills to learn.  You can pick views or attitudes to hold.	2/12/2006

Psychology.	Terms.  (1) Wisdom: breadth of knowledge pool.  (2) Expertise: depth of knowledge pool.  (3) Vision: idealistic, sight, future.  (4) Savvy: pragmatic, present.	06/10/1994

Psychology.	The big problem for the masses: Let's say that you are an average person, or more to the point, below average.  The big dilemma is (1) How to maintain your self respect and self worth, despite being average or below average.  (2) How to find meaning and purpose in life, knowing that your chances of doing anything remarkable is slim.  (3) This is the dilemma of the proletariat or the working class.  To know that life is passing you by.  To know that you are the less fortunate.  How to justify one's existence?  Those who are parents have a project, that being their children.  Childless mediocre artists have a dilemma.	7/15/1999

Psychology.	The big question is (TBQI):  (1) What to do with my brain?  (2) How much can using your brain help?  (3) How best to use your brain?  (A) By addressing your own problems (job, mate, kids, friends, relatives, money, love).  (B) By learning about the world in general.  (4)(A) Some people have their brain in the "on mode" by default, and they have to expend energy to not think (i.e., to relax).  (B) Some people have their brain in the "off mode" by default and they have to expend energy to think.  (5)(A) Some people don't use their brain.  (B) Some people use their brain but don't build.  (C) Some people use their brain and build by saving and organizing ideas.  (6) How much do the following help?  (A) Reading: how much can it help?  (B) Talking: how much can it help?  (C) Just be and observe: how much can it help?  (D) Hang out with friends.  Deep talk.  Or shallow talk.  Or just bowling.	8/26/2000

Psychology.	The big question is how does sense data become attitudes?  Apparently by adding memory, emotion and thought.  But if you take senses and just add memory and emotion you still have an interesting being even without thinking.  Even sense with memory alone could produce an interesting animal.	6/3/2002

Psychology.	The chain of psychology.  One leads to the next:  environment, experience, memory, drive motivation goals, emotion, think, attitude, personality, behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	The most important psychological state to achieve is one where (1) New ideas are not considered a threat by you.  (2) You actively search for new ideas.  (3) You can tell an idea that is new to you from an idea that is not new to you (so that you do not repeat ideas).  (4) You can tell a better idea from a worse idea.  (5) The most important aid in achieving the above state of mind is an idea sorting machine to aid your brain, which is itself an idea sorting machine.  The best idea sorting machine that we have today is a computer.  The Notes are also an idea sorting machine.	6/10/1999

Psychology.	The new Buddhism.  (1) Life is emotionally painful.  (2) Pain is expressed as sadness and anger.  (3) Sadness begets free floating depression.  (4) Anger begets free floating rage.  (5) The world is full of free floating rage and depression.  (6) The innocent suffer.	10/26/1999

Psychology.	The Quest is what makes life worth living.  A quest for an unobtainable ideal insures that the quest, and life, will continue.  Quest for ideal love and woman.  Quest for the big idea.  Quest for the unknown.  Quest for the dream.	11/16/1998

Psychology.	There is a tendency in people to put a high value on what they are good at.  That is to say, people have a trait of seeing their personal strengths as values that are good for all.  Whatever they know, whatever they have mastered, whatever they can do well, so should other people value, do and be.  "Why can't others see things my way and do things my way", we all say.  This is an example of how people have an instinct for success.	3/21/2001

Psychology.	Three alternatives to growth.  (1) Static stasis.  (2) Furious circles.  (3) Devolve.	4/8/2001

Psychology.	Three types of mental states to practice being able to get in and out of.  Be able to turn it on and off at will.  (1) Calm.  Still.  Quiet.  Blank.  Nothing mind.  Resting.  (2) Free flowing mind.  Free associating mind.  Goes where it wants.  (3) Focused and directed mind.  Lead it where you want.  Concentrated, not distracted.	6/4/2000

Psychology.	Time and psychology.  Freud viewed the past as the source of all problems.  However, the current situation may also be a source of problems.  And anxiety about the future may be another source of problems.	4/27/2006

Psychology.	To dwell or obsess on past mistakes, failures and losses is not healthy.  To always worry or be apprehensive about the future is not healthy.  Yet to remember only the good things, or to anticipate only the good things in life is also not healthy.	12/28/2003

Psychology.	To label is to stifle.	10/21/1998

Psychology.	Today we are faced with a whirlwind of information and a cyclone of change.  People often grab hold of other people, things and ideas and try to hold on for dear life.  However, what if you lost everything in a disaster and were left with nothing?  All you have left is an attitude.  My point is that we tend to get very anxious and cling to other people, objects and ideas.  But if we become comfortable with emptiness and nothingness then a lot of the anxieties disappear.	2/10/2001

Psychology.	Two phenomena.  (1) Sell out: To give up on ideals.  (2) Burn out: To be fed up.  To give up.	2/23/2000

Psychology.	Two problems.  People who act without thinking.  People who think without acting.	9/1/2004

Psychology.	Two ways to look at change.  Reflected in political persuasions.  (1) Pro Change: Can cope vs. can not.  Flexible vs. rigid.  Adaptable vs. not.  Learning vs. not.  Growing vs. not.  (2) Contra Change:  Incorruptible vs. corruptible.  Not gullible vs. gullible.  Strong vs. weak and wishy washy.  Good memory vs. forgetful.  Dedicated vs. blowing in wind.  Enduring classics vs. changing fads.  Not decaying vs. decaying.  (3) I still am in the Pro Change camp.	2/21/2000

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  (1) Philosophy: philosophy of mind.  Philosophy of psychology, conceptual analysis.  (2) Science: qualitative and quantitative.  Theory and experiment.  (3) Technology: methods, tools.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  Cognitive science is interdisciplinary.  Philosophy, psychology, computer science, linguistics.	10/27/1993

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  Hard psychology: facts vs. soft psychology: theories.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  Psychology: study of mind and behavior.  Psychiatry: study of sick mind and sick behavior.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  Systematic analysis (trained professional) vs. intuitive analysis (everybody).	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Types of psychology.  Types of psychology.  (1) Clinical vs. experimental.  (2) By area: work, school, family, sex, organizational.  (3) By school or method: behaviorist, psychoanalyst, etc.  (4) By subject: children, old people, men, women. (5) By culture: academic, pop, folk, primitive.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Use all of your thinking ability.  Use all of your emotional ability.  Use all of your mental ability.  Emotion is as important as thought.  Thought is as important as emotion.	4/16/2006

Psychology.	Viewpoint.  Three different points of view, or vistas, or ausblickts, or horizons, from bad to good, of what people think of.  (1) Right here, right now.  (2) My entire life, everywhere I go.  (3) All the world, all through time.  (4) What percent of time do you spend in each phase?	05/20/1994

Psychology.	What is psychology?  (1) Psychology as the study of the mind.  (2) Psychological as the study of behavior.  (3) Psychology as the care, feeding, and running of head.  (4) Philosophy, science, and technology of psychology.  (5) Psychology never sleeps.  The mind is always working.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	What we need.  (1)(A) A thought generator.  (B) A thought organizer.  (2)(A) An emotion generator.  (B) An emotion organizer.  (3)(A) An attitude generator.  (B) An attitude organizer.	1/20/2000

Psychology.	What's on my mind?  What can I think about?	12/5/2006

Psychology.	When things go badly.  (1) Illness and injury.  (2) Fear, depression and anger.  (3) Unemployment, poverty.  (4) Rejection, breakups, shunning.  (5) Death of a loved one.  (6) Personal attack, gossip, lies, humiliations, degradations, mockery, ostracism.  (7) Setbacks, failures, losses.  (8) Ruthless competition, name calling, deception, betrayal.  (9) Crime.  Assault.  Robbery.  (10) Invasion of privacy.  (11) Threats.  Bullying.  (12) Loneliness.  (13) Emotional pain.  Emotional hurting.  Emotional stress.  (14) Develop psychological techniques to deal with all of the above problems.  Develop ways to drop negative thoughts and emotions.  Develop ways to create positive thoughts and emotions.	3/21/2004

Psychology.	When you feel like you can't do anymore, as you reach a deadline or shortly thereafter, that is often a psychological, unconscious, self-playing, mind game.	12/25/2003

Psychology.	Why do people vegetate?  (1) It works for them.  (2) No other options.  Trapped.  (3) No other ideas.  (4) Conformist.  Doing what they are told to do.  Doing what everyone else is doing.	3/29/2002

Psychology.	Why is psychology important?  (1) The times at which you need psychology most are in times that are stressful, difficult, confusing, complex, high stakes, one of a kind, oppositional situations.  (2) It is tough to get head together at last minute, so get it together ahead of time.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Why.  Goal of psychological study.  Optimal, ideal, peak mind.  You have to have experienced it.  Excellent ethical judgment, industrious, wide ranging, etc.	09/28/1993

Psychology.	Why.  Personal reasons why study psychology, for anyone or me, reasons (past, present).  (1) Understand yourself better.  (2) Improve yourself, improve behavior.  (3) Get goals, solve problems, avoid mistakes.  (4) I'm neurotic and need help.  (5) Get head and behavior together.  (6) For mental health, and to get a clear head.  (7) Develop, maintain, protect, improve head.  (8) Position and expand head.  (9) Get a fully integrated, constantly, optimally working mind.  (10) Skill in struggling, survive, kick ass.  (11) Get successes, avoid failures.  (12) Reach potentials.  (13) Improve performance: mental and behavioral.  (14) Avoid, prevent, cure mental illness, decay, damage, breakdown.  (15) Gain psychological strength.  (16) Gain strength of character.  (17) Get: goals, successes, wins, growth, progress.  (18) Get head and behavior together to develop and get best goals best.  (19) Avoid self destruction, embarrassment, failure, loss.  (20) Avoid destruction of self, property, life.  (21) Avoid destruction by self, others, nature.  (22) Avoid mistakes, pain.  (23) Avoid pathological or sub-optimal mind or behavior.  (24) Avoid stagnation and decay.	12/30/1992

Psychology.	Why.  Social reasons.  (1) Understand other people.  (2) See how they see things.  (3) Figure out their agendas.  (4) Figure out their weak spots.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	.This section is about various aspects of religion.  Topics include: ( ) Afterlife.  ( ) Cosmology.  ( ) Cults, sects and religions.  ( ) Evil.  ( ) Faith.  ( ) God.  ( ) Mystery.  ( ) Prayer.  ( ) Ritual.  ( ) Religious texts.  ( ) Spirit, soul.	1/24/2006

Religion, aspects.	After life.  (1) A hypothetical case: Person A loves person B more than anything in the world.  Person A has led a very good life and goes to heaven.  In heaven, as a reward, person A spends all their days with person B.  However, on earth person B hates person A more than anything else in the world.  Person B has led a very bad life and goes to hell.  In hell, as punishment, person B has to spend all their time with person A.  (2) The arguments: Really now, person B cannot be in heaven with person A, because person B is evil.  Person A cannot be in hell with person B, because person A is good.  So perhaps the nature of the afterlife is a situation where each person gets their own personal individual version of heaven or hell, complete with virtual copies of all the people they love (for heaven) or hate (for hell)?  This would seem the case, as opposed to some communal form of heaven and hell where all the people (good and bad) are together, which is what most people seem to believe in, and which we have shown is self-contradictory.  Heaven and hell, as traditionally conceived, cannot be for real, because the good people and the bad people cannot be together at the same time in the same place.  And they also cannot be in two places at the same time.  (3) The Audrey reply: Maybe heaven and hell is the same place, where the good people are enjoying everything (even the bad things), and the evil people are not enjoying anything (even the good things).	5/20/1999

Religion, aspects.	After life.  Hell.  Views on.  (1) There is vs. isn't a hell.  There is vs. isn't a devil.  Nature of both hell and devil.  Arguments pro and contra both.  (2) Hell don't exist, men create their own hells.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	After life.  Man does not have an eternal soul vs. does.  There is no afterlife vs. there is an afterlife.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	After life.  Most people do not want to die and thus cease to exist.  So religion says, "You will not die.  You will live forever.  And as a bonus, the place you will live forever in will be perfect".  Thus heaven was created.  The appeal was immense and immediate.	12/26/1997

Religion, aspects.	After life.  Options.  (1) Heaven.  (2) Purgatory or limbo.  (3) Hell.  (4) Reincarnation and karma.  (5) Nonexistence.  (6) Any of above forever vs. limited time span.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	After life.  Traditional conceptions of heaven are total b.s.  Either that or we are all going to hell.  I can just see getting to heaven and seeing someone and saying "that asshole got up here?"  I don't want to see no one in heaven.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	After life.  We should choose to do good acts simply because they are good, not to receive a reward.  We should choose to not do bad acts simply because they are bad, not to avoid punishment.  If it were otherwise then we would do bad acts if we could get away with them, and we would not do good acts if there was no reward involved.  Thus heaven and hell are baloney, because heaven and hell are all about reward and punishment.  But reward and punishment should not be the basis for our ethics system.	5/13/1999

Religion, aspects.	Afterlife.  (1) People don't want to believe their loved ones are dead and gone forever.  People don't want to believe their own selves will die and be gone forever.  (2) People say they can't be sure their loved ones are dead and gone forever.  People say they can't be sure their own selves will die and be gone forever.  (3) If we could be sure or if it were preferable to be dead and gone forever then people would obsess less about it.  (4) Grief and uncertainty thus seem to be the roots of religion.     PART TWO.  (1) I don't feel it necessary that I or anyone live forever.  It does not strike me as desirable.  (2) There is no evidence that anyone lives after death.  (3) So religion is not compelling.	4/15/2002

Religion, aspects.	Afterlife.  The thought of one's own death with no subsequent afterlife is primarily an affront to the ego, an affront to vanity and an affront to one's self-esteem.	11/19/2001

Religion, aspects.	Before life we did not exist vs. we did exist.  Existed on this earth in another life.  Existed somewhere else, some other form.  Existed as us vs. existed as someone or something else.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Cosmology.  Cause and end of universe.  Physics view: big bang origin and heat death or cold death end.  Religious view: creation stories and apocalypse stories.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Cosmology.  How and why the universe began is the biggest question of them all.	06/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	Cosmology.  Some people wish the following.  (1) There has to be some (happy, just, perfect) ending that everything is hurtling toward.  Some people yearn for happy endings.  Some people feel that it can't all end as nothing.  (2) Some people wish that beyond what humans can achieve, there has to be a reason and order in the universe; and that it can't just be meaningless chaos.	6/22/2004

Religion, aspects.	Cosmology.  The big argument for religion.  How did the universe start?  Which leads to the big question, how did god start?  Which leads to the big question, how does something come out of nothing?  The answer to all these questions may be that the concepts we use in them are antiquated or just not right.	04/10/1997

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  Creationism is the belief that some god created the Earth approximately ten thousand years ago.  Creationism stems from a belief in the literal interpretation of the bible.  Creationists do not think evolution is true.  Creationism should not be taught in public schools, because creationism is false, and evolution is true.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  Creationism.  Intelligent design is wrong.  Intelligent design is a view that believes that an organ as complicated as the eye could not evolve without an intelligent force guiding it.  An organ like the eye can and does develop without an intelligent designer.  An organ like the eye can and does develop through the process of evolution.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  Evolution is not "only a theory".  Evolution is supported by factual evidence.  The fossil record.  Carbon dating.  DNA evidence shows a trail of evolution.  Creationists think some god ten thousand years ago created the fossil record, carbon dating and DNA evidence, to make it appear like the earth was older than it actually was.  Preposterous.	9/2/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  If polls show that a majority of people believe in creationism then a majority of people are wrong.  At one point in time the majority of people believed the earth was flat and the majority of people were wrong.  Creationists today have much in common with the flat-earthers of years ago.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  Its the Scopes Monkey Trial all over again.  See the movie "Inherit the Wind".  Next it may be the Salem Witch Trials all over again.  See the play "The Crucible".	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  Public schools are not the place to promote religious beliefs.  Public schools are a place for reason, knowledge, evidence, and science.  Creationism is a religious belief and should not be taught in public schools.  Evolution is science and should be taught in public schools.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Creationism.  What would cause a person to believe in creationism?  (1) Willful ignorance.  Some people refuse to learn about evolution.  (2) Dim bulbs.  Some people do not understand evolution even after reading about evolution.  (3) Blind belief.  Many people believe that creationism is true based on a blind belief in the bible.  These people mistakenly favor blind belief over reason.  (4) People dislike the idea of having evolved from apes.  People don't' want to consider themselves descendants of animals.  That is a form of species-ism.  People don't want to consider themselves descendants of black people who migrated out of Africa millions of years ago.  That is a form of racism.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Cults, sects and religions.  Cult dynamics.  Dominant, power hungry, money hungry, leader.  Submissive, passive, believers, obeyers, insecure, fearful, followers.	5/14/2004

Religion, aspects.	Cults, sects and religions.  Is a cult a small religion or is a religion a large cult?  Yes.	5/14/2004

Religion, aspects.	Cults, sects and religions.  Some people say that Protestant sects (ex. Lutheran, Methodist, etc.) are all part of the same christian religion because they all believe in the same god.  Actually, all religions are sects in that all religions believe in god.  You can call them all sects or you can call them separate religions.  Its semantics.	11/12/2004

Religion, aspects.	Cults, sects and religions.  When they are new and small they are called cults.  When they are big and old they are called religions.  Its semantics.	11/12/2004

Religion, aspects.	Evil, devil, hell.  (1) The problem of evil: if god is all powerful, why does he let evil exist in the world?  (2) The problem of the devil: if god is all powerful, how could the devil exist, a sort of anti-god?  (3) The problem of hell: if god is all powerful, and if he loves us, and if he forgives us, how could we go to hell?	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Evil.  (1) Stupid, crazy and evil are three separate factors that can occur in any combination.  (2) Some people argue whether it is possible if anyone can commit evil or whether people always act in their own self interests doing what they think is good.	4/17/2001

Religion, aspects.	Evil.  If you believe in 100% freewill then evil can exist.  If you do not believe in 100% freewill, that is, if you believe we are determined, then evil does not exist.	4/17/2001

Religion, aspects.	Evil.  The religious problem of evil is not why do people do bad things, that is the problem of ethics, psychopathology, ignorance, selfishness, fanaticism, intolerance, etc.  (2) The religious problem of evil is why would a divine being allow bad things to happen.  Maybe there is no divine being as we imagine it.	4/15/2002

Religion, aspects.	Faith and mystery.  (1) The argument some religious people use for faith: somethings we don't and never will understand (mystery).  We know what things fit into this category and don't.  Don't even try to figure them out.  Don't try to think.  Have faith (see faith).  (2) The problem with faith: eventually you stop thinking all together.  Instead one should think, be philosophical, scientific - on every subject.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Faith based living.  People who believe things contrary to logical reasoning and scientific evidence will eventually cause themselves needless suffering out of ignorance.	11/12/2004

Religion, aspects.	Faith: blind belief, blind obedience (see mystery).	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Faith.  Hope is not the same thing as faith.  We need hope to live.  Hope is future-oriented belief thoughts.  Hope also has an emotional component.  (2) Belief can be warranted or unwarranted, grounded or ungrounded.  Groundless belief is when there is no evidence and no arguments one way or the other.	11/19/2001

Religion, aspects.	Faith.  Sometimes people use the term "faith" when they actually mean things like hope, belief, trust, etc.  People are often conceptually confused about the term "faith".  Faith is blind belief on religious topics, often contrary to evidence and contrary to reason.  Faith is not the same thing as belief, hope or trust.  (1) Belief.  We all have many beliefs on many topics.  Belief is usually based on evidence and reason.  We call such beliefs supported, warranted or justified.  (2) Trust.  We trust in other people.  We rely on them to do things.  We have some degree of confidence that they will do a thing.  Sometimes the term trust is used in a non-social sense, like when someone says they trust in the laws of nature.  (3) Hope.  Sometimes we hope against the odds.  Sometimes we maintain hope even in the face of seemingly certain defeat, perhaps so as not to be "faked out" by circumstances.  (4) You need belief, hope and trust to live.  You do not need faith.	11/19/2001

Religion, aspects.	God as love, is a god you love.  God as anger, is a god you fear.	04/01/1994

Religion, aspects.	God is an imaginary friend for grownups.	10/30/1997

Religion, aspects.	God.  (1) God as creator: of universe, of souls.  (2) God as judge.  (3) Omniscient: sees all.  (4) Omnipotent: all powerful.  (5) Outside world vs. in world.  (6) We can know something about him vs. we can't.  (7) Doesn't tell us what to do vs. does.  (8) Doesn't show us what to do vs. does.  (9) Makes mistakes and needs to be forgiven.  (10) Just another jerk we have to deal with.  Just another jerk I have to deal with.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	God.  (1) There is no god vs. there is a god.  (2) God exists vs. doesn't exist.  (3) What is his nature.  Proofs of it.  (4) What's his relationship to man: uninvolved vs. involved.  (5) Influences minds (inspiration) vs. matter (miracles).  (6) All powerful vs. limited power.  (7) All pervasive vs. not.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	God.  (1) Why is god called he, not she?  That is sexist.  (2) Why is god called father?  That is ageist.  (3) Why was Jesus a guy and not a gal?  God could have sent a gal named Jessica or Christy.  She could have been a supermodel instead of a carpenter.  That would have added appeal to the religion.	12/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	God.  Divine: god or devil.  Views of what the divine is.  Views of what divine says we should do and why, and arguments for same.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	God.  Do you believe in god?  Isn't it more appropriate to ask if you believe in cod?  Fish is good for your health.	6/20/2004

Religion, aspects.	God.  Four views of God.  (1) God as separate totally vs. (2) sees/knows us but doesn't influence, interfere, or intervene vs. (3) sees/knows and influences vs. (4) actually is in us.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	God.  I believe we should be polite to god, civil to god.	05/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	God.  If a god does exist they should call him Moot.  Because the question of god is Moot.	1/21/1999

Religion, aspects.	God.  If a person imagined, and talked to, and expected a response from any other imaginary figment they would be judged insane and committed to the loony bin.  But if a person believes in, talks to, and expects a response from god, they are called normal and healthy and good.  It doesn't make sense.  It is not just neurosis, it is psychosis.	08/24/1994

Religion, aspects.	God.  If god created us in his image, then maybe he makes mistakes just like we do.  Maybe god needs to be forgiven too.	01/10/1989

Religion, aspects.	God.  If god knows everything, he knows what will be, and knows we will end up in hell, so why did he bother creating us?	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	God.  If you believe there is a god who tells us as individuals to be good, or who told us 1000 years ago to be good, then you probably believe there is a devil who tells us as individuals to do evil, or who told us 1000 years ago to do evil.  So then when you do bad you can say "the devil made me do it".  This does not hold up in court.  It is an abdication of taking responsibility for your actions.  And so belief in a god who tells us to do good, or who makes us do good, is an abdication of responsibility in the same way.	12/26/1997

Religion, aspects.	God.  Maybe god wants us to get over religion.  God's self esteem is fine.  He does not need people thanking him and telling him how much they love him.  "Stop fussing over me and take care of each other", god might say.  God is like a Hollywood star and some religious people are like fans.  Stop stalking god!	1/3/1999

Religion, aspects.	God.  Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy.  Elves, Sprites, Pixies, Gnomes.  Witches,  Angels, God.  All figments of the confused.  All figments of the deluded.  All figments of the ignorant.	11/12/2004

Religion, aspects.	God.  Santa Claus, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy and leprechauns; there is no scientific proof they exist.  There are stories that they exist.  Some people believe they exist.  But they don't exist.  So it is with god.	6/20/2004

Religion, aspects.	God.  So what if god exists.  God does not, and should not, demand worship from you.  God would rather you spend your time helping others and yourself than praying thanksgiving to him.	09/26/1997

Religion, aspects.	God.  The concept of god is the ultimate abstract creation by man.  Man is an animal that revels in his ability to think abstractly.  God is abstract thinking taken to the nth degree.	4/7/1998

Religion, aspects.	God.  Who says the gods of the ancient Romans and Greeks were not real?  They were real to the ancient Romans and Greeks.	4/17/2001

Religion, aspects.	Holidays.  (See: Sociology > Holidays).	12/30/2003

Religion, aspects.	Holy, sacred.  (1) In a society, or for an individual, something can have such survival importance, monetary value, actual or perceived utility, rareness, or irreplaceableness, that it comes to be perceived as sacred or holy.  (2) For example, a tradition developed about saying grace before eating because food was not easy to get, nor guaranteed to be able to be found.  Thus, having food was a cause for celebration, thanksgiving, and keeping in mind its importance and dearness.  Also some spells were cast to try to keep the food coming in the future.	03/01/1994

Religion, aspects.	Miracle.  Various definitions of the term "miracle".  (1) Some people define a miracle as an action that goes against the laws of nature.  However, against this view, it is very difficult to substantiate with solid evidence any such occurrence.  (2) Some people define a miracle as a heck of a coincidence.  A million to one shot.  A lucky break.  Seemingly against the laws of probability.  However, against this view, events of low probability will occur, for example, people win the lottery on a weekly basis.  (3) Some people use the term miracle in cases where they misattribute the cause of an event.  Any situation of unknown cause they call a miracle.  However, against this view, there are lots of things that we currently do not know the cause of, and it is intellectually lazy to label them all miracles.  (4) Some people call any magic trick, illusion or hallucination a miracle.  However, against this view, it is unreasonable to call every sleight of hand a miracle.  (5) Some people call it a miracle whenever anything good happens.  However, against this view, to call every good event a miracle is a rather mushy sense of the term.	11/19/2001

Religion, aspects.	Mystery.  (1) Learning is when things go from being mystifying to obvious.  Humans have evolved as learning animals.  Therefore, humans search for things and situations that are mystifying.  And often, if we cannot find anything mysterious we create something mysterious.  Thus, we create mystifying religions and mystifying new age spirituality.  (2) Its just like how humans have evolved as problem solving animals.  If we cannot find any problems we create problems to figure out (ex. crossword puzzles).  Thus, in some ways, religion is like a crossword puzzle.	6/3/2001

Religion, aspects.	Mystery.  The religious emphasis on mystery is neurotic.  They make mystery holy.  This is neurotic.  I say find out as much as possible.  I say make knowledge holy, and the search for knowledge holy.	02/19/1989

Religion, aspects.	Mysticism.  Belief in divine inspiration or knowledge beyond natural world?	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Prayer is a rudimentary attempt at talk therapy.  When a person wants to talk something out, and when no other person is around with whom to talk, then the person starts talking to an imaginary being that is supposedly always around.  Talk is often therapeutic.  Prayer is a rudimentary attempt at talk therapy.	2/15/2006

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  (1) Helps you develop your goals (For example, "Please give me this, god.") (2) Helps you sort out your values and keep your priorities straight (For example, "Please give me this first, god.")  If you pray many times a day you program your mind like a computer (neuro-linguistic programming?).	12/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  (1) Prayer as pre-set, memorized statements that serve as reminders (memory) and focus attention on issues.  (2) Repetitive prayers (ex. rosary beads) are mantra like ways to self induce a hypnotic calm.  (3) Prayer as free form prattling (4/01/94).	02/01/1994

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  (1) Prayer defined as repetitive phrases that you repeat several times a day.  Actually, positive thinking in the form of repetitive phrases can be healthy, and they don't have to refer to any religious, divine, supernatural or superstitious entities.  (2) Prayer defined as meditation.  Actually, meditating by relaxing the body and emptying the mind can be healthy and it does not have to refer to any religious, divine, supernatural or superstitious entities.  (3) Thus, people often use the word "prayer" when they are actually talking about non-religious activities.	12/18/2003

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  (1) To calm self (like a mantra).  (2) To beg, or to thank.  (3) Talking to ourselves, self talk.  (4) Working out a problem.  (5) Repeating and reminding ourselves of a philosophical belief, healthy or unhealthy.  (5) Some people believe that the divine hears them, and that the divine responds to them.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  A bare bones prayer.  Thank you.  Please forgive me.  Please protect me.  Please inspire and guide me.  Please help me.	06/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  If god knows everything then he knows what is on your mind and therefore you do not need to pray.	4/17/2001

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  Say a prayer.  Make a wish.  What's the difference?	7/1/2002

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  Some prayer involves focusing on a phrase in order to block out all else, in order to calm one's nerves.  Some prayer is too close to unhealthy psychological repression.	9/15/1998

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  The power of prayer, its affects on people, can be explained by several factors.  (1) One factor is the de-stressing and peace that prayer provides by the calming, if untrue, thought that there is a benevolent, powerful, personal friend who is looking out for you and is ready to grant you favors.  (2) Another factor is that the repetitive nature of prayer calms one just as a mantra or twiddling one's thumbs does.  (3) Thankful prayer lets one concentrate on the good in life, which can make one feel better.  Counting your blessings, so to speak.  (4) Begging prayer lets one focus on the future and gives one time to plan one's goals.  This is psychologically helpful.  Begging for forgiveness prayers lets one unload guilt for wrong doings.  If you believe you are forgiven that makes you feel even better.  (5) Prayer is like being on the psychiatrist's couch.  It gives you a set time to prattle on, even if it is just to yourself, much like psycho-therapy does.  (6) Prayer gives you time to intensely focus and concentrate.  It can help develop powers of concentration.  (7) Prayer can also give you time to think, if you use thinking prayer rather than babbling prayer, and this can help develop your thinking ability.  (8) But the whole point is that all these things can be done, and done better, without prayer and without thinking about god.  In fact, prayer, religion and god just acts as an impediment to doing the above.  Yet people still pray.	08/11/1993

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  What is the difference between praying and begging?  We are raising beggars.	4/25/2000

Religion, aspects.	Prayer.  When you say "I put it all in gods hands", you have taken a lot of stress (and responsibility) off yourself.  This works whether there actually is or is not a god.  But must you believe in god for this to work?	05/30/1996

Religion, aspects.	Prayers are repetitive, boring and mindless.  Prayers deaden the mind.	4/4/2004

Religion, aspects.	Priests.  Child molesting priests.  When you force the clergy to be celibate, thats what happens.  By some estimations, in 50 years 5000 priests molested 10,000 kids.	8/30/2005

Religion, aspects.	Priests.  One more time, let the priests date!	12/31/2003

Religion, aspects.	Priests.  Priests evolved from shaman.	3/30/1998

Religion, aspects.	Priests.  Priests, unmarried and sex segregated, is a bad thing because it more likely leads to abuse.	8/9/2005

Religion, aspects.	Priests.  Some say there should be marriage for priests.  Some say there should be women priests.  Better yet, married lesbian priests.  Even better, no priests.	4/24/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious fanatics.  (1) Does the Koran implicitly express violent views?  No more so than the Bible.  (2) Are Moslems implicitly violent?  No more so than Christians.  (3) Many people mistakenly use religion to try to justify anything, including violence.	8/15/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious fanatics.  Christian fundamentalist extremists are as dangerous as fundamentalist extremists of Islam, Hindu or any other religion.  Religions have a tendency to produce fundamentalist extremists.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  Christmas carols played incessantly are a form of psychological torture.  For all we know, the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being tortured using the same incessant Christmas carol soundtrack that is being played incessantly in our local cafes.	12/5/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  Christmas carols playing in every store is bogus.  Repeating the same songs over and over is torture.  People should not be subjected to repetitious Christmas carols in public spaces.	12/11/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  Christmas should not be a national holiday because religious holidays should not be national holidays.	12/4/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  Christmas should not be a national holiday because religious holidays should not be national holidays.  There are many different religions in this country.  It does no justice to make one religion's holiday a national holiday at the expense of other religion's holidays.  National holidays should be secular.	1/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  I do not celebrate Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a religious holiday.  How so?  Who are they thanking?  They are thanking a god.  I am not religious.	11/25/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious holidays should not be national holidays.  National holidays should not be religious holidays because national holidays should not be about religion.  Religion and government should be separate.  The government should not promote religion, nor should the government favor one religion over another religion.  Thus, Christmas and Easter should not be national holidays.	11/25/2005

Religion, aspects.	Religious texts.  Any ancient scripture is inadequate as an ethical guide.  One reason why is because the ethical situations, problems, and decisions described in ancient scriptures are narrow in scope and simple in degree of difficulty.  Today we are faced with many situations, problems, and decision choices not found in ancient scriptures, and these decisions are more complex than those found in ancient scriptures.	12/30/1995

Religion, aspects.	Religious texts.  If someone is using religion to tell another person that they should only read a single book, or that they should look for all their answers in a single book, then they are keeping that person ignorant and uneducated.  If someone uses religion to tell another person to accept whatever anyone does to them then they are keeping that person down and disempowered.	10/8/2000

Religion, aspects.	Religious texts.  Literal interpretation of sacred religious texts is bogus because sacred religious texts are bogus.	11/23/2004

Religion, aspects.	Religious texts.  Many religious people think all answers are to be found in one book, and that all other books are not necessary.  Wrong.	10/05/1997

Religion, aspects.	Religious texts.  The notion of sacred or holy texts, or divinely inspired texts, is preposterously wrong.  There are thousands of religions, each claiming to have sacred texts that reveal the word of god, and every one of those religions is mistaken in that claim.  Many of the problems of religion stem from claims about religious texts.	11/10/2004

Religion, aspects.	Ritual.  Religious rituals are meant to be a comfort.  Religion relies on ritual to the point of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), a neurotic condition in which repetitive actions are used to make oneself feel better.	11/10/2004

Religion, aspects.	Ritual.  Ritualism is b.s.  Mindless, blind ritualism is repetitive neurosis.	12/30/1992

Religion, aspects.	Sacred texts.  There is no god.  No book is the word of god.  The bible is not the word of god.  The bible is only a book some people wrote.  If there was a god then god would not be so shy, and god would not be an author nor publisher.	9/1/2005

Religion, aspects.	Spirit world, soul.  Do you believe in ghosts, angels, demons, etc?  Do you believe in para-psychology: e.s.p., telekinesis?  Do you believe that the dead see us, hear us, talk to us, influence the world and cause events to occur?	08/24/1994

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul is sometimes used to refer to conscience.  Conscience is used to refer to a sense of right and wrong.  Conscience has both a reasoning component and an emotional component.  The emotional component of conscience can refer to having sympathy for other people (and self?), and it can also refer to having feelings of guilt and regret (and their opposites?).	11/2/2001

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  (1) Spirit or soul as a supernatural entity that inhabits this world or other worlds.  (2) Spirit or soul as some part of the self that we don't know what it is, where it is, or what it does.  (3) Both conceptions are baloney.	4/15/2002

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  If there are spirits, ghosts and angels that walk among us then they probably observe a lot nose-picking and wanking, sometimes by people doing both at the same time.  If that's heaven, no thanks.	12/2/2001

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  People use the word "soul" to refer to what?  Integrity?  Opposite of selling out?  Purity?  Inherent nobility?	10/12/1999

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  Some people wrongly believe that there is something called a soul or spirit that enters your body at some point, and that leaves your body when you die and goes somewhere else.  These people say the spirit or soul cannot be see because it is non-physical and non-psychological.	12/6/2005

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  Three definitions of "soul" that are wrongly used.  (1) Soul as referring to our ethical nature.  (2) Soul as referring to our dreams, hopes and aspirations.  (3) Soul as referring to our personal identity.  (4) We should not use the word "soul" to refer to any of the above.	12/20/1998

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  What is soul?  (1) Soul music is a style of rhythm and blues that originated during the 1960's.  (2) Soul power is a term that originated during the 1960's African-American movement.  (3) Soul surfing, as opposed to competitive surfing and aggro surfing, is a style of surfing that values fluidity.	11/20/2001

Religion, aspects.	Spirit, soul.  When people talk about "soul" or "spirit" they usually use words that describe emotions or other psychological traits.	12/26/1997

Religion, aspects.	Spirit.  (1) Spirit definitions: Intuition.  Inspiration.  Divine guidance.  (2) Soul definitions: Apart from body.  Lives on after body.	5/30/1998

Religion, aspects.	Spirit.  People misuse the word "spirit".  (1) The word "spirit" does not to refer to (A) Ethics.  (B) Hopes and dreams.  (C) Emotions.  (D) Motivations and inspirations.  (E) Intuition: Subconscious decisions or split second decisions.  (2) The term "spirit" only refers to things like (A) Belief in a spirit world beyond the physical world.  (B) The after life.  (C) The divine or god.  (3) The term "spirit" also does not refer to (A) Action at a distance, or (B) Scientific knowledge that we have not discovered yet.	1/23/1999

Religion, aspects.	Spirit.  What do people mean when they talk about spirit and spirituality, soul and soulfulness?  Is it something they think is in themselves that they associate with, and refer to when they have feelings of calmness, peacefulness, optimism, hope, a sense of wholeness or health of themselves, and a sense of being "at one" with the universe?	09/27/1993

Religion, aspects.	Spirit.  What do religious people mean when they use the words "soul" and "spirit"?  What do people in general mean when they use the same terms?  Hipness, empathy?	09/20/1993

Religion, aspects.	Supernatural.  Within this world vs. beyond this world, another world.  Spirits, souls, forces, luck/destiny.	12/30/1992

Religion, issues.	Priests.  Too often, priests and other religious leaders function as cult-like leaders.  People become too dependent on their religious leaders.  People become pathologically subservient to religious leaders.	3/25/2007

Religion, Zen.	.This section is about Zen.	1/24/2006

Religion, Zen.	(1) Developing the ability to focus is good.  Constant distractions can be bad.  Attention deficit disorder is bad.  (2) Developing the ability to be quiet can be good.  Constant noise is bad.  (3) Calmness and peace is good.  Constant mental disturbance is bad.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	(1) Mindfullness: Self aware of thoughts.  (2) Mindlessness: Not-thinking.	1/10/1999

Religion, Zen.	(1) The psychology of Zen.  (A) The brain science of Zen.  Meditation, much like biofeedback, generates brain waves that can produce calming brain states.  (B) The psychotherapeutic aspects of Zen.  Zen meditation, combined with the philosophical attitudes of Zen, can help improve outlook on life.  (2) The philosophy of Zen.  Zen is a set of philosophical ideas.  Zen is a set of metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic ideas.  The philosophical ideas of Zen can have be used as a kind of Rational Emotive Therapy, when used to replace negative and counter-productive attitudes with improved attitudes.  (3) The religion of Zen is bullshit, because religion in general is bullshit.	6/1/2007

Religion, Zen.	(1) They say Zen can not be communicated.  I say anything that exists can be communicated.  (2) Two different phenomena.  (A) Thinking about Nothing.  That is what Sartre the existentialist did.  (B) Not-thinking.  That is what Zen does.  (3) Epistemological ways of knowing.  (A) To know a fact or statement.  (B) To know by experience.  (4) Zen engages in "not-thinking" because what it is trying to impart has to be known by experience (senses), and not as a statement (see 3A).	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	A road to Zen.  (1) Its not all about me.  (2) There  is no me.  (3) Who am I?  (4) Where do I end and everything else begin?  (5) What is mind?	4/4/2001

Religion, Zen.	All things are related, i.e., they coexist in relation to each other.  All is one if you look at it as a set in set theory.	1/9/1999

Religion, Zen.	Another road to Zen.  (1) What is a body?  I am not my body.  (2) What is a mind?  I am not my mind.  (slightly more difficult to see).  (3) What is left then?  Buddhists say an eternal essence.  I say just the opposite.	4/4/2001

Religion, Zen.	Bad Zen.  (1) Institutionalized.  (2) Repressed.  (3) Zombifying.  (4) Thinking and doing nothing ever.  (5) Do it your self lobotomy.  (6) Denies rationality.  (7) What do you do when you have "no mind" left.	12/30/1992

Religion, Zen.	Balancing East and West.  In a world where there are so many unhealthy opposite extremes and so few happy mediums.  In a world where the West often argues one extreme and the East argues the other extreme.  In such a world the individual must see both extremes and find the balance between them.	1/8/1999

Religion, Zen.	Be the ball.  Flow.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Common Zen sentiments.  (1) Be here now.  (2) Just do it.  (3) Do what you are doing.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Egolessness.  If no one is there then who or what is there?  An animal?  Nothing?	5/27/2002

Religion, Zen.	Good Zen.  (1) Yogic breathing and posture.  (2) For relaxation.  (3) For clarity and calmness/stillness.  (4) For fewer unimportant thoughts, and more important thoughts.  (5) The search for peace/tranquillity vs. the search for knowledge and problem solving.	12/30/1992

Religion, Zen.	I do think Zen is helpful when it says to (1) Take time to experience and recognize yourself.  (2) Learn to see your unity with all things.  See your unity with the universe.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	I think Zen is wrong when they say our desires are the source of our misery.  I say, injustice is the source of our misery.  Our drives are not bad.  Drives are necessary for mental health.  It is not bad to desire.  At one extreme, repression of drives is bad.  At the other extreme, drives running out of control is also bad.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	If one sits and meditates 24x7 that is overkill.	4/4/2001

Religion, Zen.	If the problem with most people was that they thought too much, then I would say "go do the Zen to get back in balance, and learn to enjoy direct experience."  But the problem with most people is that they do not think enough.  So I can not endorse Zen.  People should think hard.	1/14/1999

Religion, Zen.	If you are doing zazen all day long, in every activity, letting thoughts and feelings drop as they arise and are acknowledged, you will not get far.  We need active, directed, striving thinking to sort out our personal problems and the problems of the world.	1/10/1999

Religion, Zen.	Issues.  (1) No mind.  Forget yourself.  Experience other things.  Transcend yourself.  Think about other people and the earth.  See the big picture.  (2) Stillness.  Mental stillness.  Physical stillness.  (3) Clarity.  (4) Zazen sitting does nothing special.  It is irrelevant.  (5) Enlightenment.  No such thing as enlightenment as they describe it.  (6) Greed, anger and ignorance I understand.  And I understand not having such feelings.  And I understand the opposite of greed, anger and ignorance.  If that is all enlightenment is, then no big deal.  (7) Beginners mind.  An open mind is a good thing.  A closed mind is not a good thing.  (8) Koans are ridiculous.  Both the questions and the answers they give are ridiculous.  (9) Mu is ridiculous.  (10) You can not "see yourself" as they say.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	It is good to enjoy the moment.  It is good to learn skills that help you to enjoy the moment.  This is a contribution of Zen to psychology.	10/17/1999

Religion, Zen.	Many people attracted to Zen are confused, suffering emotional pain, or on the verge of a nervous breakdown.	1/10/1999

Religion, Zen.	One needs to find the balance.  People with too strong a sense of self ("a big ego") may benefit from Zen.  People with not enough sense of self would benefit less from Zen.  In general, I think that people would be better off seeing a psychotherapist than doing Zen.	1/9/1999

Religion, Zen.	Problems with Zen.  (1) There is no true or false, no right or wrong.  (2) It asks you not to think, and not to feel, which is a recipe for repression.  (3) Life is but a dream, illusion.	04/24/1997

Religion, Zen.	Pure Zen is not religion.  Zen is strong on focus and attention, calmness and peacefulness.  Zen is weak on thinking; weak on acknowledging instead of repressing healthy drives and emotions.	12/01/1994

Religion, Zen.	Sometimes they use the term enlightenment to refer to truth.  Sometimes they use the term enlightenment to refer to goodness.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	The benefits of Zen are psychological only.  The concept of "Buddha nature" is just another wrong religious view concerning the divine.	1/21/1999

Religion, Zen.	The cause of all suffering is not desire, as Buddhism claims.  Some people think they are doing right and they are actually doing wrong and causing injustice.  This is injustice caused by screwed up ethical systems, which in turn is due to not thinking and feeling out their ethics enough.  (2) Desires are good and necessary.  We should desire to do good.  Some people desire the wrong things.	1/9/1999

Religion, Zen.	Their grave precept is, "Do not be angry".  Wrong.  If you should be angry then be angry.  If a situation is unjust then you should be angry.  To not be is to be a repressed unhealthy neurotic.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	There is no such thing as Zen enlightenment.  There is no such thing as pre-conceptual thought or consciousness.  There is pre-conceptual unconsciousness, yes.	05/10/1997

Religion, Zen.	They say "know thyself", but they refuse to explore the self.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	They say that Zen is not a philosophy, but it is.  They have metaphysical, epistemological and ethical views, which is unavoidable in life.  (1) To say that everything is empty is a metaphysical view, and a false one at that.  (2) To say that all things are perfect is a metaphysical view, and a false one at that.  (3) To say to do good is an ethical view.  To believe that good will reveal itself to you without your thinking is a wrong view.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	They say that Zen is not a religion, but it is.  They have liturgy and chants just like traditional churches and temples.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	They say Zen is not a religion and not a philosophy.  But if you take away its religious aspects and its philosophical aspects, there is very little left.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	They turned Zen into a religion, with all the ritual and hierarchy.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	To some degree Zen is about gaining control of your mind.  Meditating takes a lot of mental self-control and physical self-control.  When a person becomes anxious and agitated then their previous hours of Zen meditation helps them develop the ability to say "I can handle these feelings.  I can handle this situation."  This differentiates Zen from other forms of therapy.  For example, Rational-Emotive therapy might say "Try replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts".  Psychoanalysis might say "Lets explore your past and see how these feelings may have developed".  Zen says "I am riding the water buffalo (mind), and the water buffalo (mind) is not riding me".  Zen is like hard work that helps develop your self-confidence and strengthens your personality.  This is Zen as training.  Other views of Zen include: (2) Zen as a mental electro-chemical state, like that achieved in biofeedback.  (3) Zen as paradox, which, incidentally, is closely related to humor.  (4) Zen as introspection.	10/31/2000

Religion, Zen.	Views of what Zen is.  (1) Loss of self.  No ego.  No self awareness.  Unselfconscious.  No mind.  Flow.  (2) Merging with the object.  Breaking the subject-object duality.  "Be the ball, Danny", from the movie Caddyshack.  (3) Experience put above and before thought.  Preconceptual thought.  Just being.  (4) Reality is an illusion.  (5) All is one.  Unity.  (6) All is holy.  Sacred.  (7) Extinguish passions.  (8) Things are they way they are.  The truth is in front of you.  Stop searching for ghosts.  (9) Simple life.  Seeing great beauty and preciousness in the everyday.  (10) Sabi: solitude.  Wabi: poverty.  (12) Be here now.  This-ness.  In the moment.  (13) Zen in martial arts.  Practice something so much that it becomes instinct, and you can do it without thinking.  (14) Void.  Emptiness.  Nothingness.  (15) Zen and Humor.  The fool.  The trickster.  Zen lunatics.  Play.  Joy.  (16) Zen and work.  Work is the way.  (17) Nature.  Love the natural. (anti hi-tech).  (18) Typical "spiritual" values.  Humility, modesty, low ego, mercy, kindness, generousness.	04/24/1997

Religion, Zen.	What is it about Nature and the Wild that lends itself so well to Zen?  When one has been alone in the wild long enough the thoughts stop, or at least slow down to a rivulet.  One looks around and says to oneself, "Ah, sun.  Ah, water.  Sun good.  Water good."  From here to Zen is not that difficult.  You become animal-like in an empty-headed way.  You become almost vegetative.	2/29/2000

Religion, Zen.	What most of the people at the Zen monastery seemed to be looking for is optimal health, and a metaphysics, epistemology and ethics they can live with.	1/10/1999

Religion, Zen.	When one has quieted the mind, and forgotten about the body, then it seems like there is no self.  Only seems like.	1/9/1999

Religion, Zen.	When they say that Zen can not be communicated or thought about, that sounds the same as the religious concept of mystery.  And that is baloney.  Magical baloney.	1/10/1999

Religion, Zen.	You can not drop, or let fall away, your body or your mind.  And if you could then there would be nothing left.  And if there was something left, then a pin drop would have no effect on it (as opposed to the Zen view that a pin drop can cause enlightenment).	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Zen Buddhism.  Ways of saying: (1) Let go.  (2) Let drop.  (3) Set down.  (4) Set aside.  (5) Give it a rest.  (6) Stop obsessing.	5/13/2004

Religion, Zen.	Zen is a do it yourself lobotomy.	11/17/1988

Religion, Zen.	Zen is a passive mind.  An active mind is healthier.	1/22/1999

Religion, Zen.	Zen mind.  (1) Mindlessness.  Still mind.  Quiet mind.  (2) Mindfulness.  Self awareness.  Awareness of actions one is performing and environment one is performing in.  (3) Both mindlessness and mindfulness are no big deal.  No big accomplishment.  It is a small thing.  It is a simple thing.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Zen people use the term "subjectivity" to refer to delusion.  They use the term "objectivity" to refer to enlightenment.  This is simplistic, and wrong.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Zen seeks to destroy the ego, destroy the self, and lose the self.  And it attracts those people who feel ill at ease with self and who have difficulty living with self.	1/11/1999

Religion, Zen.	Zen term "enlightenment" is a joke.  They refuse to define it.  They refuse to discuss it, yet they says it exists, and they say it is a wonderful mind-expanding big deal, and they say they are enlightened but other less fortunate people are not enlightened.  Ridiculous.	1/1/1999

Religion.	.Sum up.  (1) Psychology and religion.  (2) Sociology and religion.  (3) Ethics and religion.  (4) Science and religion.  (5) Politics and religion.	3/25/2007

Religion.	.This section is about religion.  Topics include: ( ) Atheism.  ( ) Economics and religion.  ( ) Ethics vs. religion.  ( ) History and religion.  ( ) Magic.  ( ) Myth.  ( ) Philosophy vs. religion.  ( ) Politics and religion.  ( ) Problems of religion.  ( ) Psychology and religion.  ( ) Sociology and religion.  ( ) Science and religion.  ( ) What.  ( ) Why.	1/24/2006

Religion.	(1) How religious an individual or society is (in mind or behavior).  (2) How big a part the belief-mode mode of experience plays in their life.  (3) How big a part thoughts about divine etc. play in their life.	12/30/1992

Religion.	(1) Religion as a means of social organization, which involves politics and economics.  (2) Religion as providing psychological emotional solace, emotional pacification, calming of unhappiness, reduction of anxiety depression anger.  (3) Religion as attempting to satisfy psychological information needs.  Religion attempting to provide a world view.  Religion coopting philosophy.  Philosophy being comprised of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics.	10/1/2005

Religion.	(1) Religion that will defer to reason vs. (2) Religion that will not defer to reason.  Religion that will not defer to reason is not a good idea.	6/20/2004

Religion.	A problem exists when people use the ten commandments as an abdication of personal responsibility.  People who say, "I was doing everything I was supposed to do.  I was obeying orders.  I was obeying the commandments."  Its a problem when people take the attitude that, to be good, all they have to do is obey the commandments.  Its a problem when people have been so indoctrinated into blind belief that they hold the view that they no longer have to think.  Sometimes the problem is similar to the way that Nazi soldiers attempted to use the invalid excuse, "I was only following orders.", when performing unethical acts.	11/22/2005

Religion.	Argument for religion.  Some people say children cannot reason well.  So these people teach their children to obey blindly (religion).  These parents think religion is good for children.  However, we need to teach children to reason as soon as possible.	4/17/2001

Religion.	Art and religion.  (1) Art about religious topics.  (2) Religious suppression and censorship of art.  For example, religions forbidding the drawing of pictures of god.  Religions forbidding the drawing of the human body.	11/12/2004

Religion.	Atheism is not a religion.  Atheism is not based on blind belief.  Atheism is based on the lack of evidence of the existence of god.  Atheism is a response to the logical contradictions that many religions are founded on.	6/22/2004

Religion.	Atheism.   The number of closet atheists is very high.  Unfortunately, in America today, and in the world, people do not always feel comfortable admitting they don't believe in god.  As a result, atheists are often a minority in the USA and the world.  And as a minority, atheists are often discriminated against.  Discrimination against atheists is wrong.	6/22/2004

Religion.	Atheism.  Do not be silent on religion.  Do not say "whatever you believe is fine".  Be a vocal atheist.  Just like it is not good to take the view in ethics that "whatever you want to do is fine", for example, murder is not fine.  There is freedom of thought and freedom of speech so therefore society should not outlaw religion, but we should speak out against religion like one would speak out against any other suboptimal attitude.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Atheism.  Ethics and religion can be separated.  Ethics can and must stand on it's own.  Thought and reason can replace ritual and belief.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Atheism.  One does not need the concept of god or religion to raise kids.  People only need the concept of right and wrong.  I know many people raised as atheists who are ethical people.	2/15/2005

Religion.	Atheism.  Progressivism and atheism.  Progressives tend to be atheists more so than non-progressives.  Good for Progressives.  Go atheism.	5/5/2007

Religion.	Atheism.  You don't need god to be good.	6/23/2005

Religion.	Atheists are often wrongly persecuted.  (1) Some religious people wrongly believe that anyone who does not believe in god must be for evil.  (2) Some religious people wrongly believe that anyone who does not believe in god must want to force their views on other people.  (3) A reason why religious people believe this may be because its the way they themselves act.	12/23/2003

Religion.	Children and religion.  Children do not need religion.  Children should not be taught religion.  Children should be taught ethics.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Children fear monsters that they have never seen and that do not exist.  Similarly, adults fear gods that they have never seen and that do not exist.  Gods and monsters are the product of human fear and abstraction.	9/11/2005

Religion.	Children tend toward the magical.  Teenagers tend toward the mythical.  Why shouldn't adults tend toward the religious?	7/19/2001

Religion.	Christian.  (A) They tried to raise me as a christian.  I has some issues with it.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Christian.  Problems I have with the views of some christians.  (1) They don't believe in pre-marital or extra-marital sex.  (2) They do not believe in abortion under any circumstances.  They do not believe in contraception.  (3) They think the pope is infallible.  Opinion:  The whole concept of a pope is too hierarchical, authoritarian, militaristically organized.  (4) Transubstantiation (belief that communion turns into body and blood of christ) makes no sense scientifically.  It is too magical.  (5) Belief in mysteries and miracles is not based in reason.  They teach people not to reason, just to believe.	03/20/1993

Religion.	Christian.  Protestantism.  Views pro.  (1) Work ethic produces successful people.  (2) Humanism, world centered, produces people well adapted to living in this world.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Christian.  Some christians believe that suffering and pain is good.  Some christians also believe that pleasure is bad, sex is bad, the physical body is bad, etc.  So the individual pursues states of psychological and physical pain.  The individual also has guilt and shame when they feel pleasure, or joy.  This all ends up with the individual having depression, which can cripple and kill.  Another result is that the individual is repressed, which can cripple and kill.	10/10/1997

Religion.	Christian.  Some christians believe that suffering is good and pleasure is evil, so they feel guilty when they get pleasure (good things give pleasure), and they feel virtuous when they are depressed.  This reinforces depression, and screws up their minds.	08/01/1997

Religion.	Christian.  Some forms of Christianity are sub-optimal because they believe that whenever anything good happens it is because of god and not you, and whenever anything bad happens it is your fault and not god's.  This does nothing for your self esteem.	11/30/1993

Religion.	Christian.  Things about some christian views that I do not go for.  Opinion: the following are unhealthy:  (1) Prone to inaction (prayer rather than action).  (2) Too nice.  Accept injustice against self.  The "turn the other cheek" belief.  A psychologically damaging point of view.  (3) Anti-materialism and otherworldliness, which can produce maladjusted, poor, neurotic people who have problems living.  (4) Priests and nuns, who live without mates and without sex, which is a sub-optimal way of living.  They are the ones who teach the congregation.  (5) Transubstantiation.  (6) Infallibility of pope.  (7) Emphasis on mystery.  (8) Repression of anger.  (9) Repression of sex.  (10) Premarital abstinence.  (11) Views against divorce.  (12) Symbolism.  (13) Women priests not allowed by many versions.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Components of religions.  (1) People.  (2) Places.  (3) Things.  Books, writings, texts.  (4) Actions.  (5) Thoughts, ideas, views, beliefs.	2/15/2006

Religion.	Conservative, right wing, reactionary, backward, fundamentalist religions are a problem.	3/27/2007

Religion.	Contra religion.  By promoting a supposed other world view, religions have a tendency to disregard this world.  Many religions wrongly believe that this world is completely dirty, sinful and to be given up as lost.  Many religions wrongly see the human body in this world as completely dirty, sinful and to be given up as lost.  Many religions wrongly see humans in this world as completely dirty, sinful and to be given up as lost.	12/16/2004

Religion.	Contra religion.  By promoting faith over reason, religions have a tendency to be anti-intellectual and against reason.	12/16/2004

Religion.	Contra religion.  Religion does more harm than good.  Religious wars, religious terrorism, religious intolerance and all the other unethical actions done in the name of religion are greater than any supposed good religions do.  Therefore, people should endeavor to lift themselves above religion.	6/20/2004

Religion.	Contra religion.  Religion has negative value because religion does more harm than good.  Religion holds people back more than it improves people lives.  By emphasizing blind belief over thinking and reason, religion creates repressed, stunted, non-creative individuals.	11/21/2004

Religion.	Converting others.  Religious people who try to convert other people have two goals.  (1) Egoistic.  Some religious people  believe they will go to heaven if they can convert another person.  (2) Altruistic.  Some religious people believe that they will "save" the other person if they can convert the other person.	5/31/2000

Religion.	Criticisms.  (1) The notion of religion as a man made institution can be criticized in many ways.  (2) The notion of god can be criticized in many ways.  (3) The notion of the spiritual can be criticized in many ways.	12/14/2004

Religion.	Divine mistakes.  Its amusing to think that besides those cast out of heaven there are also those rejected from hell.  Those to whom it is said, "You are not evil enough to hang with us.  Please vacate your cubicle."  There are those who will be homeless in the next world too.  Not so bad.  Pretty good.	9/28/2003

Religion.	Economics and politics of religion.  The Church as a political and economic force.  The Church, especially before the era of non-profit organizations, was similar to both a political party and an economic corporation.  There was a political tendency in the church toward dictatorship.  There was an economic tendency in the church toward monopoly.  Self perpetuating.  All consuming.  Warped by power and greed.	11/25/2004

Religion.	Economics and politics of religion.  Witchdoctor, Shaman and Priest are simply occupations by which individuals make a living.  These activities are started and promoted by people trying to make a buck.  It starts with someone making a claim of supernatural expertise, which is then is used to gain money and a sense of social power.	5/25/2000

Religion.	Economics and religion.  Religion is a business.  Many people use religion as a way to make a buck.  Many people use religion as a way to make a living.  Religion is about money.	5/15/2004

Religion.	Economics, business and religion.  Religion is a big business.  Millions of dollars a year are made by companies that produce religious products.  Religious groups and businesses employ tens of thousands of people.  These people have a monetary interest in the perpetuation of religion.  Many of these people are selling religion because they can make a buck at it.  Some of these people become millionaires through religion.  They line their own pockets with the proceeds from religion.  These are the rich and powerful religious, corrupted by money and power.	11/13/2004

Religion.	Economics, politics and religion.  (1) Religion as an economic force.  Religion as a business.  Religions want your money.  (2) Religion as a political force.  Religion as a power grab.  (3) Religion claims not to be about the evils of money and power; yet, religions are all about money and power.	1/16/2003

Religion.	Elements of religion: from without and within.  (1) Beliefs (subject, view, argument).  (2)(A) Practices: reasons for them (believed and actual).  (B) Roles: priests, monks, nuns, mystics, hermits.  (C) Institutions: church structure, mechanism, etc.  (D) Activities: prayer, almsgiving, fasting, etc.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  (1) Ancient religious ethical systems (especially ancient texts) are often primitive, narrow, shallow, and inadequate.  Today our rational analysis of ethics is deeper and broader.  (2) Ethics based on belief, and not reason, (i.e. religion) are often sub-optimal.  (3) Most religions prescribe morals and ask you to accept them on faith without thought.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  (1) Some people mistakenly believe religion is the same thing as ethics and morals.  Religion is not the same thing as ethics and morals.  Religion is concerned with the divine.  Ethics and morals is concerned with right and wrong.  (2) Some people mistakenly believe that religion is the only way to ethics and morals.  Religion is not the only way to ethics and morals.  Religion accepts ethical pronouncements on faith.  Philosophy reasons ethics and morals.  (3) Some people mistakenly believe that religion is the best way to ethics and morals.  Religion is not the best way to ethics and morals.  Reasoning about ethics and morals improves your ability to make ethical decisions in new situations.  Believing and obeying religious precepts degrades your ability to make ethical decisions in new situations.	11/10/2004

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  (1) You don't need religion to know what "good behavior" is.  Primitives can be good, and they are not going to hell.  (2) God only cares that you are good.  God does not care what religion you are.  Anyone from any religion can go to heaven if they are good.  If you say no to this, you are wrong.  (3) Therefore, we do not need religion, and even thoughts of god are a waste.	09/26/1997

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  Ethics can, should, and does, exist apart from religion.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  Ethics concepts like good and bad stand on their own without recourse to religion.	12/6/2005

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  If you believe the only way to know what is right and wrong is if "god tells you what is right and wrong", then you are in a non-reasoning state.  Or if you believe "the holy-book will tell me what is right and wrong", then your ethical-thinking skills will wither and die.	3/20/1999

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  Many people practice religion because they want to be good.  However, good exists apart from religion.  You don't have to be religious, or even spiritual, in order to be good.  If you focus solely on religion then it is an impediment to being good.	1/26/2004

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  Reason based ethics is works better than magical witch hunts and magical god hunts.	6/20/2004

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  Some people say that devoted religious practice guarantees a refined ethical system.  It does not.  Some people say religious practice is the only way, or the best way, to develop a refined ethical system.  It is not.	4/17/2001

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  The problem with doing good in order to go to heaven is that it is like eating your dinner to get dessert, or getting A's throughout high school in order to get a car from your parents at graduation.  It is a childish reason to do good.  The mature person eats dinner because it is good for them, not to get dessert.  The mature person gets A's because it is good to learn in and of itself, not to get a car from their parents.  For the ethically mature person doing good is its own reward.	12/01/1994

Religion.	Ethics versus religion.  When people confuse religion with ethics or emotion, they do ethics and emotion a disservice.  When people use the term "spirit" to refer to ethics and emotion, they confuse the issue.	3/20/1999

Religion.	Far out views.  (1) Was Jesus an alien?  (2) Was Jesus a man from the future?	3/15/1999

Religion.	For those people excited by religious discussions, consider the following: The percentage of people who claim to believe in god, or who practice religion, runs at about 60-80%.  I suggest these figures have been fairly consistent for the last 20,000 years and are unlikely to change in the future.  Those people fearful of a sudden and enduring rise or fall in the percentage should relax knowing such a change is unlikely.  If someone feels a strong urge to "convert or destroy" the opposition they should relax and realize the percentage is unlikely to change.  In the long run, a variety of efforts by both sides have not changed the percentages much.	2/8/2001

Religion.	Freewill and religion.  (1) If god is all knowing, then he knows we will sin.  Then how can he send us to hell?  If he knows what we will do, then we have no freewill.  It could be god does not know the future, only the present and past.  (2) If he is all powerful then why does he allow evil?  (3) When people say, "It's all gods will.", they leave no room for freewill.	9/15/1998

Religion.	Freewill and religion.  If god's gift to us was to give us free will, then he could have given us freewill in a nicer world.	9/15/1998

Religion.	Freewill and religion.  If you believe in fate, predetermination or inescapable destiny then you have abdicated all responsibility, all sense of ethics and all notions of good and evil.	4/17/2001

Religion.	Genetic basis for religion.  Is there a genetic basis for religion?  Is there a hard-wired instinct for religion in humans?  (1) Many religious people say yes.  So first we have to consider the irony (or, rather, hypocrisy) of religious people who argue for a genetic basis to religion one minute and then deny evolution the next minute.  (2) Secondly, consider if, at some point in human history, there was a population of humans, some of whom had a genetic predisposition to kill other humans that did not believe in god, then one can easily see how a genetic aberration for religion could spread via the murder of people who did not have the aberration for religion, and through the reproduction of people who had the aberration for religion.  Is there any evidence in human history, that religious believers have had a tendency to murder non-believers whom they labeled as heretics, blasphemers and infidels?  Yes, there is plenty of evidence.  Two examples are the Crusades and the Inquisition.	11/8/2004

Religion.	God is conceived by religious people as being infallible and perfect.  However, organized religion is viewed as a construction of man and is thus imperfect, fallible and undergoes a process of development.  As a result, to question religion helps make religion better.  To question our understanding of god helps make our understanding of god better.  So therefore, religious people should thank those who question our understanding of religion and god because they improve the situation.	4/17/2001

Religion.	Hindu, Moslem, Jew, Zen.  They all have their teachings.  Is one religion true and the others false?  Or do they all point to the same thing.  I think, if anything, the latter is true.	1/11/1999

Religion.	History of human's religion (in general and specific religions).  (1) Prehistoric religion.  (2) Ancient religions.  (3) Religions of indigenous peoples (American Indians, African, Polynesian).	12/30/1992

Religion.	History of magic, myth, religion.  (1) In humans through history, or in an specific society. (2) In an individual: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, as related to development of reason.	12/30/1992

Religion.	History of religion in humans.  (1) History of major religions coincides with the development of writing.  Writing provided religions with a way to keep an "official and original version" that will not be forgotten and will not change.  (2) History of major religions coincides with the development of civilizations.  Large, stable, enduring groups with more leisure time to devote to religion.  And hierarchical power-obsessed structures.  Monotheism.  (3) Older religions were in smaller, nomadic groups who had an oral tradition.  These religions would be more changing, flexible and malleable.  These societies were more egalitarian.  These societies were polytheistic.	4/7/2004

Religion.	History of religion.  Early humans may have thought that everything was alive.  Early humans may have thought that there were spirits animating all things.  Early humans may have engaged in personification, treating non-human animals as human, and treating inanimate objects as human.  Early humans may not have had the critical thinking skills that modern humans take for granted.	3/25/2007

Religion.	History of religion.  Monotheism.  Why did monotheism take over pantheism?  Because people want strong, powerful gods, to whom they can appeal to improve their lives.  And the result of this desire is to appeal to a strongest god, an all powerful, all knowing god.	12/30/1996

Religion.	History of religion.  Polytheism and monotheism.  Polytheism is egalitarian.  Monotheism is hierarchical, and a feature of empires and power.	5/13/2004

Religion.	History of religion.  Polytheism and monotheism.  Why did monotheism replace polytheism?  (1) At a psychological level, monotheism was more popular because people thought there could only be one strongest, true, real god, not many weaker, false gods of plant or animal nature.  Monotheism represented a step when human reason began to outweigh human perception.  Monotheism represented a intermediate step on the way toward philosophy and science.  (2) At a socio-political level, monotheism was state sponsored.  Monotheism was an easier way for power holders to control the populace.  A single, unified, monotheistic, state religion was easier to administer than many polytheistic religions.  Monotheism represented a unification of power of the state.	2/6/2004

Religion.	History of religion.  Religion does not really develop.  Religion devolves.	12/1/2004

Religion.	History of religion.  Religions continue to be born even in modern times, and grow and spread if they are psychologically appealing enough, and socially organized enough.	12/30/1996

Religion.	History of religion.  There was a need in ancient societies to be able to "pass the buck" when necessary and so thus gods were created.	11/2/2001

Religion.	History of religion.  There was a need in ancient societies to have someone or something above all humans in order to make the laws seem  unreproachable in order to enable dispute resolution. So they created gods and said the laws were from the gods.  Initially the gods were a legal entity.  God as a legal entity, a final authority, requires that there be only one, true, all-powerful god; that is, it requires monotheism.	11/2/2001

Religion.	History of religion.  To caveman and primitives everything is alive, and everything is magic.	9/15/1998

Religion.	History of religion.  Two ways religions evolve are from bottom up and from top down.  The bottom-up evolution of a religion starts with a hero or someone we admire, who is then exaggerated via tall tales into a legend or myth, and who is then over time and increasing popularity raised another level to the status of god.  (2) The top-down evolution of a religion starts with someone's abstract notion of a perfect being, which is then humanized a little (for mass acceptance) with the creation of the idea of a legendary superhuman god-man, which is then humanized even more (for lowest common denominator acceptance) with the recognition of real world examples who we call heroes.  Sometimes a religion evolves using both the top-down and bottom-up methods at the same time.	10/16/2001

Religion.	History of religion.  Why did all the major religions take off 2000 years ago?  One reason was writing, which allowed the religions to perpetuate themselves.  Another reason was settled, stable civilizations with high population densities, which also allowed religions to perpetuate themselves in enduring social organizational form.	12/30/1996

Religion.	How to study religion?  Use science to study religion as much as possible.  Use philosophy to study religion to answer questions that science cannot yet answer.  Do not use religion to study religion.  Do not use religion.	3/25/2007

Religion.	How.  (1) How do people practice religion.  (2) How to study religion: from within religion, from without.	12/30/1992

Religion.	If a religion was against abortion, then it would seem they would be for contraception.  If a religion was against contraception, then it would seem they would be for abortion.  A religion that is against both contraception and abortion makes less sense.	3/14/1999

Religion.	If there was a supernatural entity that was influencing your thoughts, or a prophet's thoughts, or events in the world.  If it was only for the good that would be one thing.  If you posit two entities, one good and the other bad, then when a thought or event is supernaturally caused, how do you tell if the good or bad supernatural entity caused it?  (2) What if the supernatural entity is mercurial and does good and bad actions?  (3) An event that is good for one person is often viewed as bad by another person, so how can you tell except in obvious cases, whether its good or bad?	10/5/2002

Religion.	Instead of saying that all major religions point to the same thing, its more accurate to say that all the major religions, by each claiming to be the one true religion, essentially contradict each other.	9/5/2004

Religion.	It is difficult for someone to hear that all their family's inherited, cherished, comforting beliefs are wrong.  Thus, religion continues.	12/30/1995

Religion.	Kicking the religion habit.  Evolution not revolution.  One argument for religion is that religion keeps a lot of people in line.  To quickly abolish religion would leave many people ethically adrift, without an ethical system to fall back on.  It takes time for a person to develop a rational ethical system.  It can take years.  What do they do in the interim, during the transition from a religious, belief based ethical system to a rational ethical system?  Commit crimes?  It is also emotionally painful for many people to hear that their most strongly held, cherished, comforting, family inherited beliefs are wrong.  The key is to gently bring people up from religion.  Evolution not revolution.  Evolution helps avoid an emotionally painful period of ethical drifting.	09/29/1994

Religion.	Law and religion.  Religious law is a bad idea.  Keep religion and law separated.  Lack of separation of church and state is unjust.  	4/27/2007

Religion.	Magic is a power ploy.  (1) Magic is sometimes used by individuals as a means of self-empowerment.  People want to feel a sense of control over nature, other people and themselves.  (2) Magic is sometimes used by people to scare the hell out of other people.  Terror as a power trip; terror as an abuse of power.  For example, when parents try to scare their kids for laughs, the parent is acting like a child.  (3) Religion is often used the same way as magic, as either an attempt at self empowerment, or as an attempt at gain power over others by scaring others.	5/13/2004

Religion.	Magic, myth and religion.  Appeal to magical beliefs is pandering.  Whether its snake oil salesmen hawking miracle cures for a buck, or amusement parks advertising "magical" experiences, or hoaxers con-artists and pseudo-scientists.   They all want to downplay reason and critical thinking.  They want to play up blind belief and emotional appeals.	1/3/2004

Religion.	Magic, myth and religion.  Myths are not just quaint old stories told by people.  Myths exist today.  There are people today creating myths about themselves and others.  There are also people who are pushing or selling the whole concept of myth because it serves their self interests, such as making a quick buck or increasing their power base.  They promote myth and mythic ways of viewing the world because they don't want people reasoning.  Because people reasoning would see through their baloney.	1/3/2004

Religion.	Magic.  (1) Magic as an activity of sleight of hand and trickery.  vs.  (2) Magic as a way of thinking.  Belief in spells, curses, amulets, etc.	12/2/2001

Religion.	Magic.  (1) Magic is really closer to religion than science.  The charlatans who pitch magic don't believe in logic.  They don't believe in cause and effect reasoning.  Houdini helped expose charlatans, quacks and snakeoil salesmen who falsely claimed special abilities.  (2) These charlatans take advantage of people who are desperate, confused and full of emotional pain.  The charlatans take advantage of people who are often poor, uneducated and dim.  The charlatans prey on the vulnerable.  (3) Houdini helped expose a variety of charlatans.  There are many types.  Those who claim to contact the dead.  Claim to see into the future.  Claim to read your mind.  Claim to see into your past and tell you your life story.  Claim to tell you who you really are, and claim to tell you what you should do.  (4) The charlatans often use methods of divination that rely on random choice, such as the shuffle of cards, the roll of dice, or the date of your birth.  By having chance determine who you are and what will happen to you, the charlatans make the same mistake as those who practice racism, sexism, classism and other forms of discrimination.  (5) Other techniques charlatans use.  They watch your pupils dilate to see if you like something, or contract if you dislike something.  They watch your facial expression and body language for subtle signs of positive affirmation and negative dislike.	2/10/2001

Religion.	Magic.  (1) Magicians who mean to entertain, even though the audience knows its fake.  (2) Magicians who mean to deceive the audience in order to take advantage of the audience.	12/2/2001

Religion.	Magic.  Astrology, numerology, tarot, palm reading, etc.  These are more like religion than they are like science.  We should refer to them as religions rather than pseudo-science.	1/15/2001

Religion.	Magic.  Types of magic: belief in ability to (1) Control people or nature, (2) Through spells, potions, amulets, charms, superstition, voodoo.  (3) Benevolent magic ("white magic") vs. malicious magic ("black magic").	12/30/1992

Religion.	Many religion have a poor record of treatment of homosexuals, and that reflects badly on religions.	3/27/2007

Religion.	Many religions have a poor record of treatment of women, and that reflects badly on religions.	3/27/2007

Religion.	Myth.  Conceptual clarifications regarding myth, falsehoods, lies, fictions, and wrong guesses.  (1) Myths are false.  Yes, myths are false.  Myths are not true.  The reason it is a myth is because it is not true.  For example, it is not true that the earth  (2) Myths are lies.  No, not in the narrow sense of the word "lie".  In the narrow sense of the word, a lie is an intentional falsehood.  The people who made up myths were not usually telling intentional falsehoods because they usually did not know any better.  (3) Myths are fictions.  No, not in the narrow sense of the word "fiction".  In the narrow sense of the word, a fiction is a story written by an author who understands that what he is writing is an imaginary creation.  (4)  Myths are wrong guesses.  Yes, myths are wrong guesses.  Myths are attempts to explain the world, however, the myth is a wrong guess.  The  myth has been proved to be false.  (5) Religion is a myth.  That is, religion is a wrong guess.     PART TWO.  (1) Some people continue to perpetuate myths even though they know that the myth has been proved false, and those people are liars.  (2) Some people perpetuate myths because they do not know that the myth has been proved false, and those people are ignorant.     PART THREE.  There are various ways that the word "myth" is used.	1/22/2006

Religion.	Myth.  Definitions of myth.  (1) Myth as false, inaccurate, lies.  (2) Promoters of myth will argue that myths contain a grain of truth.  A mote of truth wrapped in a pack of lies.	1/3/2004

Religion.	Myth.  Types of myths.  (1) By subject.  Myths about (A) Origin of x: earth, people.  (B) Using y type story: gods, animals.  (2) By geographic area.  Greeks, Romans, Norse, Eastern.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Mythology.     PART ONE.  Mythology is sub-optimal form of  "minding" or mentalizing.  It is shares similarities with the mental abilities of both cavemen and children.  (1) Mythologizing is a "primitive" or ancient form of mentalizing, in that the mythologizer, just like the ancient, uses myth to explain his world, because he has not yet developed cause-effect thinking.  (2)  Mythologizing is also an immature form of mentalizing or "minding" in at least two ways.  Firstly, mythologizers, just like children, have not yet developed cause-effect thinking.  Secondly, the mythologizer views the hero as god-like, just as the child views the adult parent as god-like.     PART TWO.  Related to the mythologizing way of experiencing the world is the phenomenon of telling tall tales.  Tale telling or story telling can be viewed as a primitive (like cavemen) or immature (like children) form of mentalizing.  Firstly, tale telling is knowledge organized by anecdote, which is less efficient than knowledge organized by logical organization.  Secondly, tale telling is knowledge by concrete example, which is more cumbersome than knowledge by abstract ideas.	6/1/1999

Religion.	Original sin.  The notion of original sin is neurotic.  To believe that children are born sinful is a neurotic notion.  To believe adults have original sin is a neurotic notion	11/19/2004

Religion.	PART ONE.  One view holds that people create the idea of god because people wish they were gods.  People create the idea of heaven and hell because they wish there was a heaven or hell.  People create the idea of angels and witches because they wish there were angels and witches.     PART TWO.  Another view holds that people create the idea of god because people fear.  People create the idea of heaven and hell because they fear.  People create the idea of angels and witches because they fear.     PART THREE.  (1) These entities, god, heaven, hell, angels and witches are all creations of average people.  (2) These entities are all human creations resulting from human exercises in abstract thinking.  (3) These entities are all human creations resulting from human attempts at wish fulfillment.  (4) These entities are all human creations resulting from various human fears.	4/20/2003

Religion.	People who decide to do "whatever it takes to save your soul" are scary people.  People who try to convert other people at any cost are sick.	5/13/2004

Religion.	Person A says, "Merry Christmas".  Person B says, "If Allah wills it".	12/22/2003

Religion.	Philosophy of religion.  (1) Philosophy of religion: from outside.  (2) Theology: philosophy of religion from inside.  (3) Scientific study of religion practices: psychological and social.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Philosophy of religion.  Ethical system of a religion (by perspective and subject area).  How should we respond to self actions, others, nature, and divine.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Philosophy of religion.  Metaphysical, epistemic, and ethical topics.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Philosophy vs. religion.  (1) Philosophical arguments for existence of god.  Weak.  (2) Philosophical study of ethics as separate from religion.  Reason-based ethics.  Strong.	2/3/2004

Religion.	Philosophy vs. religion.  When you take the philosophy and psychology out of religion, not much is left.  (1) When you take the psychology out of religion not much is left.  For example, people saying they practice religion to feel peaceful and joyous.  I.e., people practicing religion to manage their emotions.  When you take the psychological concepts and techniques out of religion, not much is left.  (2) When you take the philosophy out of religion not much is left.  For example, people saying they practice religion to do good and justice.  I.e, people practicing religion as a means of being philosophically ethical.  When you take away philosophical ideas, namely metaphysics, about the nature of god and man, and when you take away philosophical ideas, namely ethics, about the nature of good and evil, then not much is left of religion.	2/3/2004

Religion.	Politics and religion.  Power and religion.  Many people use religion to pursue position, status and power.  Religions are hierarchical, bureaucratic and attract organization men.	5/15/2004

Religion.	Politics and religion.  Religion and politics should be kept separate.   Keep religion out of politics.  Theocracy is a bad thing.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Politics and religion.  Religions should not receive tax-free status.  Religions should not get government funding.  The arts, philosophy and sciences should get tax breaks and government funding because the arts, philosophy and sciences produce knowledge.  Religion does not produce knoweldge; religion produces blind belief.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Politics and religion.  Separation of church and state vs. religious dictatorships.	5/14/2004

Religion.	Politics, law and religion.  Many people have a religo-politico agenda, and that agenda is the creation of a religious state.  Many religious people don't believe in the separation of church and state.  However, they inevitably want their own religion, not any other religion, to be the official religion of the state.  Thus, they don't believe in religious freedom.	11/13/2004

Religion.	Problem of religion.  Theocracy, the combining of church and state.	11/10/2004

Religion.	Problems of religion.  (1) Religion used for terrorism.  Terrorize people into conformity by threat of social ostracism.  (2) Religion used as a sanctimonious power play.  (3) Religious wars.  Religion used to convince oneself that god is on your side during wars.  (4) Religion used to convince yourself you are safe and calm, and that everything is fine and dandy.	7/1/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  (1) Religious terror.  The Inquisition was church sponsored terror.  (2) Religious wars.  The Crusades were church sponsored war.	11/29/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  (1) Too many people confuse religion with ethics.  Solution: Separate religion and ethics.  (2) Too much fighting between religions.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Problems of religion.  One can argue that the strife caused by religious wars and conflicts has countered any good that religion has done in the history of the world.	1/31/2004

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religion gave us the Inquisition, witch burning and other acts of unchecked power in the hands of the church.	11/20/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religion has a tendency to produce fanatics because it promotes blind belief in the face of reason.  Most people mistakenly think religion is about good and evil.  It is not.  Ethics, the subject of good and evil, does quite well without religion.  Religion is actually about blind belief and blind obedience in the face of reason.  Religion is about strictly following instructional books and training manuals.	9/17/2001

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religious terrorism.  The Inquisition was state sponsored religious terrorism that murdered many innocent people.	12/10/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religious torture and executions continue till as recently as Salem, Massachusetts, and even today.	12/10/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religious wars.  (1) Catholics vs. Protestants (Ireland).  (2) Catholics vs. Muslims (Serbs vs. Croatians in Bosnia).  (3) Hindu vs. Muslims (India vs. Pakistan).  (4) Jewish vs. Muslims (Israel and Arab countries).  (5) Hutu vs. Tutsi (Africa).	6/30/1998

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religious wars.  What percentage of wars today are religious wars?  A high percentage.  If religion is a perennial cause of conflict and war then religion is less than optimal.	11/29/2003

Religion.	Problems of religion.  Religious wars.  Who's not fighting?  The Buddhists.	11/29/2003

Religion.	Problems with religion.  (1) Religion attempts to provide emotional comfort at the expense of reason.  (2) Religion encourages moral obedience at the expense of ethical thought.  (3) Religions promotes intra-group social cohesion only through attitudes and practices that result in inter-group warfare.	11/22/2004

Religion.	Problems with religion.  (1) Religious intolerance.  Unable to accept other points of view.  Believes that non-believers are damned.  (2) Religious imperialism.  Feels compelled to spread the religion by converting people.	5/14/2004

Religion.	Problems with religion.  By promoting unquestioning belief and unquestioning obedience, religion ends up causing religious wars and religious terrorism.	5/5/2004

Religion.	Problems with religion.  By promoting unquestioning belief and unquestioning obedience, religion is against reason, thinking, philosophy and science.	5/5/2004

Religion.	Problems with religion.  What civilized society is up against is religious extremists, zealots, radicals and fundamentalists who say, "If anyone says anything against my religion, or any religion, we will either kill them, beat them up or drive them out of town."  What society is up against is religious bullies.	11/12/2004

Religion.	Problems with religion.  When I say that religion is a problem, I am not using the word "problem" in the sense of a a question or a puzzle.  I am using the word "problem" to mean a negative, unhealthy, unjust, untrue thing.	11/22/2004

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  All religions have a tendency to produce neurotics because they are (1) Dogmatic.  (2) Pro magical and mystical.  (3) Anti-body and anti-worldly.	03/13/1989

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Does god change people's lives?  Or does people's belief in a god that does not exist change their lives?  Are they really changing themselves, through their beliefs?  Is religion just a mind game?	04/10/1997

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Mental states associated with religious practice.  (1) Ecstasy, rapture, bliss, joy.  (2) Peace, serenity, calm, safe, content.  (3) Are these merely mental states identified by electrical brainwave patterns or chemical neuro-transmitters?  If so, what other ways besides religion can these mental states be produced?  For example, from nature, mediation, exercise, love, hobbies, drugs, etc.	4/3/2001

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  One reason many religions incorporate music and dance into their practices is because music and dance are effective psychological and social control techniques.	1/1/2002

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Religion is popular because early on it developed a set of useful and healthy psychological techniques and attitudes.  However, these psychological techniques and attitudes are too easily misused for unethical purposes.  Religion was one of human's first attempts at psychology.	11/6/2001

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Religion is used by some people as a psychological tool to feel (1) less anxious, fearful and worrying about the future, and (2) less guilty and regretful about the past.	4/13/2001

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Religion was an early, misguided attempt at psychotherapy.  A way to feel optimistic.  A way to assuage guilt and regret.	6/21/2004

Religion.	Psychology and religion.  Religion works for some people as a useful psychological tool.  It helps some people deal with control (power) issues.  (1) Use of religion for a reduced sense of self control (and responsibility).  Examples, "Its all in god's hands.  Let god's will be done.  Let god decide".  (2) Use of religion for an increased sense of self control (and power).  Examples, "I may not be able to take action in this situation but at least I can pray.  God will surely punish the unjust"  Religion helps people feel more powerful.	4/16/2001

Religion.	Psychopathology and religion.  (1) Abnormal psychology of religious zealots and fanatics.  (2) Abnormal psychology of religious neurotics.  (3) They believe everything needs to be understood in terms of religion.  They believe everything in society must be organized around religion and under the control of religious institutions.	5/14/2004

Religion.	Psychopathology and religion.  Religion is mass neurosis.  Religion is mass psychosis.  Believing in things because its written in a book (neurotic).  Believing that god talks to you (psychotic).  Believing in things for which there is no evidence (neurotic).  Believing in things blindly (neurotic).  Believing in things to reduce levels of negative emotions of anxiety, sadness and anger (neurotic).  Magical thinking (neurotic).     PART TWO.  The view that religious behaviors are a result of neurosis.  Versus.  The view that religious behaviors are a cause of neurosis.	10/5/2004

Religion.	Psychopathology and religion.  What aspects of religion are neurotic and what aspects of religion are psychotic?  PART ONE.  Neurotic aspects of religion:  (1) Resorting to prayer rather than reason and action.  (2) Believing that the bible is the only book you need.  (3) Belief in witches.  Belief in angels.  Belief in exorcism.  Belief in devil, damnation and hell.  Belief in heaven.  (4) Focus on mystery for mystery's sake, instead of reasoning to resolve mysteries.  Blind belief.     PART TWO.  Psychotic aspects of religion:  (1) Belief in miracles.  (2) Belief that you hear god talking to you.  Hearing voices.  Auditory hallucinations.  (3) Belief that you see blood coming out of statues.  Visual hallucinations.  (4) Belief that god gives you super human powers.	10/5/2004

Religion.	Questions for specific religions (description and evaluation).  (1) History - dates.  (A) Origins and development.  (B) Founders and major individuals.  What they said, what they did.  (2) Political power.  Number of adherents, dollars they have.  Politically active or inactive.  (3) Similarities/differences other religions.  (4) Structure: social organization (groups, roles, status, institutions, etc.).  (5) Mechanism: practices (prayer, rituals, sacraments, holidays, etc.).  (6) Theology, doctrine, dogma, belief system.  Metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetic views of (A) Divine, man, (B) Worldly, other worldly, (C) Before life, during life, afterlife, (D) Texts: sacred and supporting, (E) Sects: similarities/differences among them, (F) View of other religions as valid/invalid, and tolerance/intolerance of them.  (7) Evaluation.  Arguments pro and contra any of its beliefs.  Good points vs. bad points.  Bad: logical problems, ethical injustices.  How neurotic/healthy is it, and why.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Related subjects.  (1) Art: religion as promoting or hindering art.  (2) Magic, myth, and religion: religion came from myth, and myth came from magic.  (3) Philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetic views of various religions.  (4) Political: freedom of religion; separation of church and state.  (5) Psychology:  Affect of religion on psyche.  Affect of psychology on religion.  Affect of psychological personality on tendency to pick up religion.  (6) Science: scientific view of creation vs. religious fundamentalist view of creation.  (7) Sociology:  Affect of religion on sociology (binds people).  Affect of sociology on religion (sociology can promote or discourage/hinder it).	12/30/1992

Religion.	Religion encourages people to base their actions on blind belief and blind obedience.  People who base their actions on blind belief and blind obedience end up using the empty plea of Nazi soldiers, "I was only following orders".	11/12/2004

Religion.	Religion evolved out of human fear.  (1) Religion came about out of the human fear of death.  (2) Religion came about out of a fear of an abstraction invented by humans called god.  God is a bogeyman.  (3) Religion came about as a response to free floating anxiety.	9/1/2005

Religion.	Religion is an impediment to knowledge.	10/5/2004

Religion.	Religion is for people who desperately want to convince themselves of the following: That they are loved (not unloved).  That they are good (not evil).  That they are right (not wrong).	6/21/2004

Religion.	Religion is the result when you combine anti-materialism and anti-intellectualism.  If its not a thing and its not a thought then what else is there?	4/17/2001

Religion.	Religion produces fanatics who have a "convert or destroy" mentality.  Religion produces terrorists.  Religion produces wars.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Religion promotes ignorance.  (1) Religion promotes ignorance by promoting blind faith over reason.  (2) Religion promotes ignorance by telling people that they only need to read one book.	9/2/2005

Religion.	Religion sum up.  (1) Three different concepts: The divine.  Religious institutions of society.  Religious experiences in humans.  (2) Philosophy of religion.  Sociology of religion.  Psychology of religion.	10/16/2003

Religion.	Religion tends to make people stupid.  (1) Many religions teach that the  theory of evolution is wrong, and thus these religions spread ignorance.  (2) Many religions downplay reason in favor of blind belief and thus these religions spread ignorance.	5/12/2007

Religion.	Religion: crazy, stupid, or evil?  (1) Stupid.  I notice a lot of dim people are involved in religion.  This raises two sets of questions.  (A) Were the people dim before they joined the religion?  Is religious involvement a result of being dim?  (B) Or did the involvement of the person in religion cause their dimness?  Is religious involvement a cause of dimness?  Religions tend to value blind belief over critical thinking, so religion can impede the development of reason.  (C) Or does one affect the other in a downward spiral?  (2) Crazy.  I think that religion is a psychological maladjustment.  Frankly, I think the core ideas of religion are crazy.  (A) Is religious involvement a cause of craziness?  (B) Is religious involvement a result of craziness?  (3) Evil.  A lot of evil is committed by people who are stupid and/or crazy.  If religion is tied to stupidity and craziness, either by cause or effect, then we should not be surprised to find that religious people do evil things.  Throughout history, a lot of evil has been committed by people in the name of god and religion.	2/7/2007

Religion.	Religious attitudes that are baloney: "It is gods will.  It happened for a reason.  It is part of gods plan.  Everything is fine.  Everything will be all right.  It all works out for the best".	12/15/1997

Religion.	Religious terrorism.  If a person tells you that if you do not believe what they believe regarding religion then they will kill you, then you are living with religious terrorism.  If a person tells you that if you do not believe what they believe regarding religion then you will burn in hell forever, then you are living with religious terrorism.  Religious terrorism is wrong.  Preaching hellfire and damnation is wrong.	9/1/2005

Religion.	Religious wars threaten to destroy the world.  It is a lame excuse to say religious ware are not about the "real" religion, but rather something else like money or power.  Religions are about blind belief and mindless expansion.  The antidote to religion is critical thinking about religion, reasoning about ethics, and the willingness to leave a religion and live without religion.  Unfortunately for the adherents of religion, these are skills that religions do not teach.	5/22/2007

Religion.	Ringing church bells is noise pollution.  If one religion is allowed to ring bells then all religions should be allowed to ring bells.  If all religions ring bells then it would be a ceaseless din.  Therefore, ringing church bells is noise pollution.	10/13/2004

Religion.	Roles of religion in humans.  (1) Sociology.  (A) Managing human interactions.  (B) Ethics systems.  (C) God as law giver.  (D) God as judge.  God as wrathful.  (2) Psychology.  (A) Managing negative emotions of fear and anxiety, sadness and anger.  Also, guilt, regret, shame, etc.  (B) Especially fear about death.  (C) God as love.  (3) Information attempts.  (A) Explaining the world.  (B) Creation myths.  (4) The things that religion tries to do can be done better by science, psychotherapy, the legal system, etc.	3/30/2005

Religion.	Science and religion.  (1) Scientific evidence for god.  None.  (2) Scientific evidence for angels.  None.  (3) Psychological study of mental states of religious experience.  Temporal lobe stimulation produces a sense of another.  Parietal lobe stimulation produces a loss of sense of self.	2/3/2004

Religion.	Science and religion.  Many religious people are anti-science.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Science and religion.  People turned back to religion because science couldn't give them all the answers to all their questions fast enough.  People couldn't handle having any uncertainty in their lives.	01/01/1993

Religion.	Scientific study of religion.  Religion evolved.  Religion does more harm than good, which just goes to show that not all natural things are good things, and not all evolved natural things are good things.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Sociology and religion.  How popular or unpopular is religion in a society?  How powerful is religion in society?  How many converts, how much money, how much political position do they have?  How to combat a religion that is powerful, abusive, and unjust?	04/01/1994

Religion.	Sociology and religion.  Humans are social animals.  Social animals tend to develop hierarchies of power.  For example, the wolf-pack is headed by an alpha wolf.  The tendency in social animals toward the formation of leaders and followers in a group may to some degree be residual and instinctual in humans.  In this way, religion can be viewed as an expression of the human social instinct toward the formation of leaders and followers.  God is an abstraction of the concept of the "ultimate alpha person".  This may be how religious ideas initially developed and caught on.	5/6/2000

Religion.	Sociology and religion.  Religion is a destroyer of indigenous cultures.  The Church is imperialist, intent on converting or destroying the world's cultures.	3/11/2007

Religion.	Sociology and religion.  Religious people are often cultural imperialists who have a "convert or destroy" mission, and thus religions often destroys other peoples and cultures.	3/25/2007

Religion.	Sociology and religion.  The primary function of organized social religion is social reassurance.  People want to be reassured that their neighbor is not going to harm them.  So they all gather and say how good they want to be.  They say how they want to help each other.  They say won't harm each other.  This is an important, much needed social function.  It keeps people calm, so that they don't panic or live in fear and suspicion.  It is not really about god.  God just serves as something above the entire group, so that the entire group can say, "We, as an entire group, are telling you (god), as a higher being above the group, that we are all nice people."  Because for larger groups it becomes difficult and time consuming for every individual to reassure every other individual.  Religion evolved from the need for "en masse" social reassurance.	8/26/1999

Religion.	Sociology of religion.  If people go to church simply because if they do not then their friends will ask, "Why don't you go to church?", then religion becomes simply a form of social coercion, and people will go to church simply because everyone else does.	5/22/2003

Religion.	Sociology of religion.  Some religious people are not so much interested in being holy as much as appearing holier than thou.	2/15/2003

Religion.	Some people can only be reached through religion?  Just like some people can only be reached through art?	12/30/1992

Religion.	Some people say that even if god did not exist, we would have to invent god.  I say that even if a god did exist, we would have to behave as if god did not exist.  Life is not about god and the afterlife, life is about doing some good here on earth.  Putting the focus on humans and the natural world rather than on any so called "spirit" world.  Developing a reason based ethics rather than an ethics of blind belief and blind obedience.	5/17/2001

Religion.	Straining the limits of credulity with increasingly incredible claims.  (1) There was a cause of the universe.  (2) The universe was caused by an intelligent divine being.  (3) A divine being influences our minds, thoughts, emotions, etc.  (4) A divine being influences the world in a physical sense by performing miracles on inert matter.	1/5/2000

Religion.	The big question is (tbqi): If you do not belong to an organized religion and if you do not believe in god, yet if you have a refined ethical system and do good acts your entire life, are you not better off than if you belong to an organized religion and believe in god, yet you perform a series of very bad acts, asking for forgiveness each time.	4/17/2001

Religion.	The big questions about religion are:  What variety (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics) of ideas do these religious types come up with?  How strongly do they hold these views?  How intolerant are they of people with alternate views?  How bizarrely and sub-optimally do these views cause them to act?  How far are their ideas from rational, logical, just (fair), thinking and behavior.	08/10/1993

Religion.	The concept of god is the result of overly perfectionist thinking.  The concept of god is an example of pathological perfectionism.	11/19/2004

Religion.	Three areas of the subject of religion.  (1) Claims about the invisible or ineffable.  For example, claims about the divine, the afterlife, the soul, etc.  (2) The psychological.  For example: The ideas and emotions derived from an oral story telling tradition or written texts.  (3) Material things.  For example: sacred objects, artifacts and relics.  Sacred places and buildings.	9/30/2002

Religion.	Three lies of religion.  (1) Its fate.  Its unavoidable.  Its preplanned.  (2) Its god's will.  (3) Its for the best.	3/12/2005

Religion.	Three views of religion.  (1) The view that religion is dangerous.  Should society thus make religion illegal?  No, people must be allowed to hold their religious views.  (2) The view that religion is a disease.  Should society thus try to "cure" religious adherents.  No, people must be allowed to hold their religious views.  (3) The view that religious adherents are logically challenged, epistemologically challenged and ethically challenged.  Yes, that's it.	9/12/2004

Religion.	Three views.  (1) The percent of people who believe in some form of the divine, but who don't believe in organized religion.  (2) The percent of people who believe in some form of divine, but who are humanistic and focused on man and earth.  (3) The percent who are empirical and philosophical.	1/16/2003

Religion.	Three views.  One can be ethical without being spiritual.  One can be spiritual without being religious. One can be ethical without being religious.	12/20/2003

Religion.	Two views.  (1) Many people say they are ethical but opposed to notions of the spiritual which they view as unnecessarily confusing.  (2) Many people say they are spiritual but opposed to organized religion which they view as an unnecessary political and economic institution.	4/17/2001

Religion.	Types of religion.  (1) Animism: animals are conscious. (2) Pantheism: god is actually the laws of nature.  (3) Polytheism: many gods.  (4) Monotheism: one god.  (5) Deism.  (6) Agnosticism: don't know, can't tell, may or may not be a god.  (7) Atheism: they don't believe in god.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Unconscious logical fallacies of the religious: "God is good, by definition.  God is a subject dealt with by religion.  Therefore religion is good, by definition.  Therefore anything that is not religion is not good.  Therefore, reason, science, philosophy, logic are bad."	1/28/2004

Religion.	Unconscious logical fallacies of the religious: "God is good.  God is completely good.  God is the best.  If you want to be on the winning side then go with god.  Anyone who doesn't believe in god is a loser.  Don't be a loser, believe in god."	1/28/2004

Religion.	Unconscious logical fallacies of the religious: "God is good.  If its not god then its not good.  Therefore all non-believers are evil.", so goes the pseudo-logic of the faithful.  Why do so many religious people find it so easy to make this logical mistake?  Because they were raised to believe blindly rather than to reason.	1/26/2004

Religion.	Unconscious logical fallacies of the religious.  Many people mistakenly equate god with good.  They say, "God is good, therefore anything good is god."  Its a confused jumble of pseudo-logic.	1/26/2004

Religion.	Use of the terms "BC" and "AD" is bogus.  Time should not be a religious construct.  I am for the separation of church and time.	12/1/2004

Religion.	What are we to make of religions that offer forgiveness for sins by saying a few prayers?  Does it encourage people to sin again once their slate is clean?	11/8/2003

Religion.	What is religion?  (1) Religion is just philosophical beliefs (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) on the supernatural; origin and end of universe; and associated practices.  (2) A form of mass neurosis.  (3) A stage in development of the human mind.  Useful if you haven't reached it, useless if you have moved beyond it.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What is religion?  How to define religion?  Religion favors faith over reason.  Religion promotes faith over reason.  However, religion very often tries to bolster its position by using appeals to reason, and that is hypocrisy.  If you are going to go around promoting faith over reason, then you shouldn't do it by appeals to reason and logical argument.	11/10/2004

Religion.	What is religion?  Religion is the result when one tries to tack an ethics system onto a system of magic.  Religion is the result when one tries to tack an ethics system onto a system of myth.  Ethics being a form of philosophy.  Religion is the result when one tries to tack philosophy onto magic or myth.	5/15/2004

Religion.	What.  (1) Religion as a means of social control, a way for the power elite to control the masses.  (2) Rule by terror.  (A) Psychological terror: woe to unbelievers, mentally damaging for long term.  (B) Physical terror: the inquisition, and other intolerances.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What.  (1) Religion as a way for dim and neurotic people to mollify themselves, and to believe without thinking.  This is a psychological view against religion.  (2) Religion as a way for poor people to be mollified and kept down by power and money holders (organized church).  This is a more Marxist argument against religion.	02/22/1997

Religion.	What.  (1) Religion impedes ethical development.  (2) Religion impedes critical thinking.  (3) Religion promotes blind obedience.  (4) All three above cause neurosis in individual and society.  (5) Time spent praying is time not spent problem solving.  (6) Belief vs. reason.  Are you going to teach your kid to believe and obey blindly, or reason freely and act accordingly.  (7) Impedes ethical development, because ethics is more complicated than any 2000 year old book's ten do's and don'ts figured out.  (8) In times of crisis will you - spend time praying (screaming for parent), or spend time solving problems?  Religion produces adults that mentalize and behave like children.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What.  (1) Religion is a defense mechanism to deal with things you don't understand.  (2) Religion is a primitive way of thinking.  Religion has a prevalence of pre-rational, pre-logical forms of thought.  It has a sub-optimal effect on individual and society.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What.  (1) Security from the unknown, for our intellectual inadequacies.  (2) Prevents and limits people from thinking.  (3) Anti-corporeal, anti-worldly = suicidal, self-destructive.  (4) Anti-reason and anti-knowledge.  (5) Destroys thinking, especially free thinking.  (6) Dogmatic, ritualistic, rigid, traditionalistic, escapist.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What.  (1) We do not know if god exists or not.  (2) More importantly, it does not matter if god exists or not.  (3) What matters is helping others and ourselves, and improving the world.  Ethics is separate from religion.  Keep them that way.	10/25/1997

Religion.	What.  Good religion helps, bad religion hinders.	12/30/1992

Religion.	What.  Religion as organized myth and magic.	12/22/2003

Religion.	What.  Religion developed from magic.  Religion is a form of magic.  Religion is an intermediate step toward reason (reason as exemplified by philosophy and science).	6/4/2004

Religion.	What.  Religion is a holdover from caveman days.	09/26/1997

Religion.	What.  Religion is anti-thinking much like entertainment is.	12/30/1995

Religion.	What.  Religion is for people who can not think for themselves.  Religion is for people who have no recourse but to follow orders.  The problem with religion is that it does not help develop the ability to think for oneself.  Religion keeps you obeying orders like a kid.	10/05/1997

Religion.	What.  Religion is like the fourth grade.  It is a step up for third graders, and a step down for fifth graders.	10/30/1997

Religion.	What.  Religion is so illogical it can drive logical people crazy.	10/30/1997

Religion.	What's wrong with the religious right.  Fundamentalists, Orthodox, Evangelicals, Born agains, Fanatics, Extremists.  Wants abortion illegal.  Wants homosexuality illegal.  Wants to eliminate separation of church and state.  Wants a religious state.  Wants their religion alone to be the official religion.  Believe in violence to achieve their goals.	6/20/2004

Religion.	When you sneeze and someone says, "God bless you.", say, "No thanks."	4/19/2005

Religion.	When you think you are going to heaven, you are less likely to care about earth.  The "rapture right" believers do not care what happens to the earth.	5/12/2007

Religion.	Why do people do religion?  (1) Man is a religious animal.  Unfortunately for worse.  (2) Comes from fear, vulnerability, and uncertainty.  (3) Comes from superego and need for parental approval.  (4) Comes from undeveloped minds.  (5) Comes from neurotic minds.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Why do people have such a strong urge to believe in magic, myth and religion?  (1) Because people often say, "Is this it?  There has to be more to life."  (2) A political explanation.  People do not like to feel powerless.  People will look anywhere for more power, including belief in spells, curses, etc.  People like to feel in control of themselves, others and nature.	2/10/2001

Religion.	Why not worship clouds?  They are so big.  They are so high up.  Sometimes they reach down and touch us.	3/5/2000

Religion.	Why study religion?  (1) Because the problem of the origin and the end of universe, and the problem of evil are big philosophical problems.  (2) Because a lot of people do it, it is a big phenomenon.  (3) Because it is a problem.  (4) Because it is a useful psychological trick.	12/30/1992

Religion.	Why.  (1) Religion is something people fall back on when they have forgotten everything they have learned.  After years of mental neglect, veging on the couch, some people forget just about every fact they ever learned and rust away just about every reasoning skill they ever had.  Then they turn to religion when they have nothing left to stand on.  (2) Religion is especially popular in times of personal crisis, when one is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, unable to think, and in need of someone or something to hold onto, like a child.	09/24/1993

Science, astronomy.	.This section is about astronomy.	1/24/2006

Science, astronomy.	(1) At what point in history did humans understand the stars to be a two dimensional appearance of a three dimensional universe?  (2) At what point in history did humans see the sun as just another star?	1/31/2004

Science, astronomy.	(1) History: people, concepts, theories, facts, experiments, known facts, unknown theories.  (2) Methods.  Telescopes: light, radio, x-ray.  Spectroscopy: light, radiation.  How built, how work, how invented.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	(1) How old is the universe?  Around 15 billion years is the current best answer.  How long will the universe last?  Another 15 billion  years?  Whatever the answer, this is the amount of time for a civilization to evolve without escaping to another universe.  (2) How long does the average star live?  This is the amount of time for a civilization to evolve without escaping its solar system.  (3) How quickly can life evolve?  How quickly can intelligent life evolve?  How quickly can that intelligent life evolve to the point where it can send and receive messages from other galaxies or universes?  How quickly can intelligent life evolve to the point where it can travel to other galaxies or universes?.	10/5/2002

Science, astronomy.	(1) Solstice: sun is farthest from the equator.  Longest and shortest day and night.  June 21 and December 21.  (2) Equinox: Sun over equator.  Night and day are equal in length.  March 21 and September 21.  (3) Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall start on these dates.	01/12/1997

Science, astronomy.	(1) What is the fastest moving object in the universe?  What percent of the speed of light?  (2) How fast can a human built spaceship go currently?  What percent of the speed of light?	7/18/2002

Science, astronomy.	(1) Why does the moon rise and set?  Because the earth spins on its axis.  (2) Why does the moon wax and wain?  Because of the moon spins around the earth.	10/30/1994

Science, astronomy.	400 billion stars in a galaxy.  100 billion galaxies in the universe.  Farthest reaches 14 billion light years away.  The observable universe is only part of the total universe?	10/30/1997

Science, astronomy.	April 1994.  Planet spotted outside our solar system.  07/94.  Comet hits Jupiter, earth size explosion.	08/15/1994

Science, astronomy.	Astronomy is a great hobby for insomniacs who live far from bright lights and who enjoy sitting quietly alone in the dark.	9/25/2004

Science, astronomy.	Computers and astronomy.  One can make a searchable, sortable database of every star, galaxy and deep space object.  Include information about its position, distance from earth, magnitude (apparent and absolute).  Then make an engine that graphically renders that information.	1/2/2005

Science, astronomy.	Cosmic rays, radio waves, x rays.  Dust, gas, liquid.  Black holes, pulsars, quasars.  Meteoroids, meteorites, asteroids, comets.  Matter, antimatter.  Solar system.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	Cosmology.  Space, time, matter, energy.  How old, how big.  How many galaxies.  Past, present, future of universe.  Methods: trigonometric, photometric.  Distances, velocities.  Space, void, nothingness.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	Galaxies.  How many, how big, how old, number of.  Distribution of, classification of.  Structure, dynamics: birth, death, decay.  Local groups, milkyway.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	In the world of star constellations there is no top, bottom, left, right, north, south, east, west.  There is only "next to" and "between".  That is an interesting perspective to have on the world.	10/30/2005

Science, astronomy.	Life supporting conditions on other planets.  Life on other planets, even intelligent life.  How much, how far away.  To talk to it, or to visit it.	09/01/1994

Science, astronomy.	Light pollution is getting worse.  Due to light pollution, fewer people can look up from their place of residence and see the Milky Way.  Due to light pollution, astronomy is becoming a commuter pastime where astronomers have to drive further and further to reach dark skies.  If the spread of light pollution continues the endgame is that eventually nobody will be able to see any stars from anywhere on earth.	10/19/2004

Science, astronomy.	Of course Einstein was happy, wouldn't you be if you discovered GTR and STR.	01/01/1993

Science, astronomy.	Solar system: sun and planets.  Speed of rotation, time of rotation.  Speed of revolution, time of revolution.  Distances far and close to sun.  Diameter, mass, gravity (% of earth's), moons.  Date discovered.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	Sometimes astronomy should be called astromania.	11/6/2004

Science, astronomy.	Stars: structure, mechanism, brightness, age, luminosity, constellations, mass, size, distance, location/position/coordinates.	12/30/1992

Science, astronomy.	Terra-forming Mars.  Making it habitable.	12/29/1997

Science, astronomy.	Trends.  (1) Search for killer asteroids that could hit earth.  (2) Universe seen as ever expanding, and facing cold death.  As opposed to contracting into heat death explosion.  (3) Search for life supporting planets outside our solar system.  (4) Search for extra terrestrial life (SETI).	5/20/1998

Science, astronomy.	What if all the UFO sightings reported are not aliens, but rather humans from the future who have traveled back in time, but who do not show themselves because they do not want to interfere with life on earth.	8/27/1998

Science, biology.	.This section is about biology.	1/24/2006

Science, biology.	Areas of biology by levels.  (1) Microbio level: biochem, biophysics, cytology, virology, bacteriology.  (2) Organism level.  Morphology, physiology; behavior (ethology?); genetics, eugenics; man, botany, zoology; ornithology, mammology, bacteriology, parasiteology, primatology, icthiology.  (3) Macro level.  Ecology.	12/30/1992

Science, biology.	Areas of biology.  (1) Evolutionary biology: evolution in general, evolution of groups and species.  (2) Reproductive biology: cell, organ, system.  (3) Developmental biology.  (4) Comparative biology.  By systems, by behavior.  The differences of all groups.  By groups, by individuals.  (5) Systems biology.  (6) Bioethics for man, plants, animals, ecology.	12/30/1992

Science, biology.	Biology is the scientific study of living things.  Biologists are scientists who study plants, animals and other forms of life.  Living things evolve.  Evolution is a key concept in biology.  Living things exist is a inter-related web called the eco-system.  Ecology and environmental science are an important part of biology.  Living things are grouped into a classification system (Kingdom, Phyllum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).  Biodiversity is important.  Humans are merely a part of the eco-system.  Ignorance of biology can lead to the destruction of the natural environment and the extinction of the human species.	5/12/2007

Science, biology.	Cloning is just the start.  Decoding the human genome will be the key.  We will alter our genes.	12/29/1997

Science, biology.	Cloning is neat, but what we really need is a way to take a mind and put it in a new body, and keep getting smarter while shedding old bodies when they wear out.  The self will live on.	11/6/1998

Science, biology.	Cloning.  The fascination with cloning humans will fade when we clone a few humans and find out that even if two people have identical DNA they are still two different people.  An example of this phenomenon is identical twins.  You cannot recreate a person by cloning.	1/8/2001

Science, biology.	Computers and biology.  One can make a searchable, sortable database containing information about every species of life on earth.  Include each species' classification, anatomy, physiology, behavior, where it is found, population levels, photo of species, sound recording of the species, etc.	1/2/2005

Science, biology.	Evolution should be taught in schools because evolution is true.  Creationism should not be taught in schools because creationism if false.  Intelligent design should not be taught in schools because intelligent design is false.	5/12/2007

Science, biology.	Evolution.  (1) That living things evolve is a fact.  Evolution is true.  The creationists are wrong.  (2) The theory of evolution is an idea that affects every area of life.  (3) The theory of evolution is a set of inter-related ideas.	3/11/2007

Science, biology.	Evolution.  All living things evolve.  Humans evolved from earlier forms of primates, which in turn evolved from earlier forms of life.  There is compelling scientific evidence for evolution.  People who remain willfully ignorant of evolution are doing themselves and others a disservice.  Ignorance is ethically wrong.	5/12/2007

Science, biology.	Evolution.  People who are willfully ignorant of evolution are more likely to destroy the ecosystem.  People who are willfully ignorant of evolution are more likely to cause the extinction of species.  People who are willfully ignorant of evolution, of biology, of nature, are likely to destroy themselves.	5/12/2007

Science, biology.	Genetic engineering of bacteria, plants, animals, and humans.	03/29/1993

Science, biology.	How low on the biological ladder do you have to go to find animals that do not care for their young?  Mammals do.  Birds do.  Reptiles do not.	12/29/1997

Science, biology.	How many species of life have been discovered?  How many species of life do scientists estimate remain to be discovered?  How many species of life do scientists estimate exist total?  What percent are animals?  What percent are plants?	12/16/2004

Science, biology.	Humans are bioengineered to care for their young.  Therefore, they are attracted to anything that remotely resembles a baby.  We use the term "cute" to mean "baby-like".	7/18/1999

Science, biology.	Nature vs. nurture.  (1) Nurture: We are 100% shapeable, it all depends on how you are raised.  This view is sometimes held by some so they can say that their failures are the fault of society, not themselves.  This view is also held by Marxists who want to reshape society.  (2) Nature: man is 100% predetermined, all depends on our genetics and heredity.  This view is held by some racists.  It is also held to a degree by some sociobiologists, who believe in an evolution of animal sociability.  Example, chemical communication.	10/05/1994

Science, biology.	Nature vs. nurture.  Evidence of hardwiring.  (1)(A) In reptiles: 100% hardwired instincts, with no learning possible.  (B) In mammals: capable of learning.  (C) In man: language is innate?  Altruism, evolved from caring for babies?  (2) Is anything 100% hard wired in humans?  Perhaps breathing, thirst, hunger, and sex?  Is anything 100% learned in humans?  Perhaps thoughts?  What lies between these extremes?  (3) What can and can't you teach a bird, rat and chimp?  What can and can't they learn?	5/20/1999

Science, biology.	The extinction of the human species.  It is possible that the human species has become, through the use of intelligence, a hardy species with the ability to survive catastrophes such as a killer asteroid or a nuclear war.  A global catastrophe might kill millions, but some humans will probably survive.  However, the death of millions of people is also an issue of ethics.  When humans gained sentience, ethics became as important as survival.	3/11/2007

Science, biology.	What % of total species have we discovered?  What % of those species discovered do we totally understand?	01/01/1993

Science, chemistry.	.This section is about chemistry.	1/24/2006

Science, chemistry.	(1) Are there any chemicals that humans have not yet identified?  Is there any chemical that humans cannot make?  (2) Economics and chemistry: How much does it cost to make a chemical, given any production method.  (3) Ecology and chemistry: What were all the chemicals that existed before humans started making new chemicals?  How many chemicals do humans make and how much of each?	1/22/2005

Science, chemistry.	(1) Chemicals that exist naturally vs. chemicals that do not exist in nature but rather are man made.  (2) Chemicals that are not harmful for us to touch, eat or breath vs. chemicals that are poisonous or carcinogens.  Chemicals poisonous to animals and plants	9/18/1998

Science, chemistry.	(1) Given two molecules what kind of bond will form between them?  (2) X substance under y environmental conditions.  What will they react with and not?  How will they react and not?  What will the products be?  How can we tell (proof)?	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	(1) Research chemistry vs. mass production chemistry.  (2) The most important idea in mass production chemistry is environmental sustainability.  Can we make the chemicals we need without depleting all our resources and creating excessive toxic pollution?	5/20/1998

Science, chemistry.	Amounts of compounds.  (1) In nature.  What are the most abundant elements?  What are the most abundant compounds?  Air.  Water.  Earth.   (2) Man made.  What do humans make the most of and why?  Oil byproducts.  Plastics.  Fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide.  Metals.	6/20/2004

Science, chemistry.	Chemistry lays between physics and biology, and thus we have the branches of physical chemistry and biochemistry.	1/20/2007

Science, chemistry.	Chemistry.  Atoms,  molecules.  Elements, compounds.  Reactions: types, rates, when, where (environment), starters, resultants, how (mechanism), how fast, how far.	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	Computers and chemistry.  One can make a searchable, sortable database containing information about chemical compounds.  Include information about the symbol for the chemical, a 3-D picture of the chemical, properties of the compounds, what it reacts with, how to make the compounds, and things you can make with the compounds either by analysis into its components or by synthesis with other compounds.	1/2/2005

Science, chemistry.	Elements and compounds.  Any chemical.  How to get it pure?  How to make it cheap?  What does it react with and not, and how and why, and how do we know?  How do you detect its presence?	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	Goals: new chemicals, better manufacturing processes (more efficient, less pollution), and new uses for chemicals.  Inorganic chemicals: new materials like plastics, metal alloys, ceramics, electronics.  Organic chemicals: new chemicals from rainforests.  Human chemistry: new chemicals for humans, pharmaceutical drugs.	02/22/1997

Science, chemistry.	Importance of a chemical.  Most abundant, most rare, most useful, most uses, most necessary: it alone does a specific thing.	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	Limits of all the chemicals we can create.  Limits of all the useful chemicals we can create.  How complex can we create it?  Can we create life in a lab?  Can we speed up and control direction of evolution?  Can we build better brains and people?	09/24/1994

Science, chemistry.	Testing chemicals for their effects on humans and all other forms of life.  Example, DDT, Asbestos, Thalidomide.  If testing is done by the companies who make and sell the chemicals then a conflict of interest occurs.	4/17/2001

Science, chemistry.	There is a difference between (1) Natural source chemicals vs. manmade chemicals.  (2) Chemicals occurring in nature vs. chemicals that do not occur in nature.  (3) You can artificially make a chemical that occurs in nature.  You can artificially make a chemical that does not occur in nature.	12/17/2000

Science, chemistry.	Ways to produce, ways to use (by subject areas), detection, isolation/purification.	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	What chemicals can we find, get, or make?	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	What uses does a chemical have for man?  What roles do they play naturally?  How much do we know about each chemical?	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	What we know how to make.  Ways we know how to make it.  What we make, how, how much.  What we use it for.  What we do with wastes of production and consumption.	12/30/1992

Science, chemistry.	Worldwide 9 million natural and synthetic chemicals identified.	12/30/1992

Science, earth sciences.	.This section is about earth science.	1/24/2006

Science, earth sciences.	Air: atmosphere origin, vertical components, horizontal components.  Climate, clouds, storms, wind.	12/30/1992

Science, earth sciences.	Air.  All weather is due to presence of gas (air), inertia of gas, heat and cooling, and moisture.  Heated air rises and moves horizontally, and then slows down.  Moisture is picked up and dropped.  It is like cigarette smoke in a room, except on a grander scale.	12/30/1992

Science, earth sciences.	Dirt.  Love the dirt.  The big brown earth.  (1) What is dirt?  Part rock.  Part clay.  Part dead organic plant and animal matter.  Part live organic plant and animal matter.  Part water.  Part air.  (2) Many people are uncomfortable with dirt.  Many people are dirt-phobes.  (3) Farmers know the land, the soil, the dirt.  Organic farmers know the dirt.	3/25/2006

Science, earth sciences.	Earth.  Components of earth.  Mantle, hot molten core.	12/30/1992

Science, earth sciences.	Water: lakes, oceans, ice, estuaries.	12/30/1992

Science, earth sciences.	Water.  (1) What causes the currents in the ocean?  Is it similar to the wind in the atmosphere?  Heating and cooling.  (2) What causes the tides?  Gravitational pull of the moon.	9/18/1998

Science, earth sciences.	Weather.  You can set the scene by describing the weather.  Wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity level, cloud cover, time of year, time of day, and geographic place says it all.  If you say, it was a spring day, about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, with a north wind, low humidity, on a sunny day with few clouds, around four in the afternoon, in New York, that says something.	4/17/2006

Science, ecology.	.This section is about ecology.  Topics include: ( ) Nature.  ( ) Philosophy and ecology.  ( ) Pollution.  ( ) Population.  ( ) Psychology and ecology.  ( ) Resources.  ( ) Vegetarianism.	1/24/2006

Science, ecology.	(1) Ecological levels.  Individuals, populations, communities, ecosystems, the biosphere (gaia).  (2) The environment.  Elements, mechanisms.  Problem approach, ideal state approach.  (3) Mans effect on environment, and thus on himself.  Help vs. hurt.  Ability to recover, time it takes.  Damage takes to destroy completely.  Manmade extinctions.  Pollution/poisoning.  Destroying ecosystems: rainforests.  Overcrowding by humans.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	(1) How much green plants (trees, shrubs, grass) do we need per person for oxygen production?  How much fresh water does a person need (drinking one gallon a day)?  How much arable land does a person need (four acres per year)?  Fruits and vegies: 1/2 lb. per day.  Grain: 1 lb. per day.  Protein: 1/2 lb. per day.  (2) How much pollution can you put in the air, water and land without it changing the environment for the worse?  One person's garbage per year (and also garbage from pets, livestock and industry).  Paper, plastic, metal, and human waste.  Biodegradable vs. recycled vs. landfill.	4/4/1999

Science, ecology.	(1) How to save the top soil?  (2) Get rid of clothes dyes and wood varnishes.  Recycle plastics into clothing.  (3) How many tin cans, paper, and plastics do I create in waste per year?  (4) My car used approximately 500 gallons of gas per year, which produced how much co2 when burned?  And took how much energy and pollution to refine, and transport from refinery to local gas station?  (5) If I eat 8 oz. Spaghetti, 15 oz. Kidney beans, 1 qt. Milk, 2 eggs, 6 oz. Tuna, 1 banana, apple, orange, 4 oz. Oatmeal per day, how much per year in money, weight, and land does it take to grow?	02/24/1994

Science, ecology.	(1) Needs: everyone should have food, clothing, shelter, and a library of words, music, and images.  We don't need shit that breaks quick, can't be recycled, useless junk. (2) Strategies.  Reduce amount and toxicity of stuff used and wastes produced.  Reduce excess: things too big or too many made.  Public outcry must force corporate change and development.  Government must make better ecological laws.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	(1) Organic: reproducing plant and animal population management, too few vs. too many.  (2) Inorganic: air, water and earth, too much vs. not enough.  (3) Monitor everything everywhere.  (4) Resources: what do we have, and what can we use it for.	09/08/1993

Science, ecology.	(1) Renewable vs. non-renewable resources.  Renewable is better.  (2) Biodegradable vs. non-biodegradable resources.  Biodegradable is better.	11/15/2001

Science, ecology.	(1) Save yourself: physical, psychological, financial health.  Save your neighbor: charity of $ and time.  Help poor and third world.  Do not screw your neighbor.  Save the earth: We do not own the earth, we just borrow it from our kids.  (2) Buy organic food.  Buy local.  Support farmers who do not use pesticide, herbicide, or petroleum fertilizer.  Do not waste water or paper, etc.  Do not buy tons of junk, material possessions.  Recycle paper metal glass plastic, make little garbage.  Take mass transit, save gas and decrease pollution.  Preach it.  Pressure legislators to enact pro-environmental legislation.  We all need the environment.  Do not let one person fu*k it up for the others.  Individuals are not free to screw others.  Organic clothes.  $ to environmental organizations.  Support researchers of environment.  Wear forest green as a political statement, and promote green awareness.  Electric cars.  Zero population growth = no new houses.  Join a green organization and get a newsletter.  The seventies were a back to nature decade.  One good effect was the environmental awareness it raised.  Ozone hole.  Global warming.  Deforestation.  Biodiversity.  Endangered species.  Eat low on the food chain, it has less impact, avoid fished out seas, meat wastes grain.  Public safety, the speed limit, car safety standards.	03/16/1997

Science, ecology.	(1) Toilet.  Toilet flush uses 2 gallons?  4 flushes per person per day uses up 8 gallons per person per day.  Two people 16 gallons.  Urinals use less?  (2) Lighting.  Fluorescent bulbs cost 10 times as much and last 10 times as long (same cost), but they give the same lighting using 1/3 the energy (25 vs. 75 watts).  (3) Combine the television, computer, and stereo.  Give this new device a flat screen (like a laptop).  (3) No hair dryers (wear short hair).  No clothes dryers (set up lines inside).  (4) Smaller homes for new smaller families.  No homes and yards as status symbols.  (5) No cars (use mass transit).  (6) Organic food, and organic clothes and shoes.  (7) Donate unneeded stuff to goodwill.  (8) The green lawn, american symbol of success, is an environmental disaster area.  It requires large quantities of fresh water.  It requires herbicides and pesticides.  It uses oil based fertilizers.  It often requires a small engine lawn mower which is highly polluting.  Don't grow lawns.  (9) Get rid of bleach (chlorine) and other household chemicals, especially aerosols.  (10)  No air conditioning.  Use ceiling fans and spray bottles.  (11) Take quick showers.  (12) Voluntary simplicity.  Less stuff.  Less clothes.  Little furniture (bed, desk, chair, couch, all ecologically friendly).  (13)  Books on cd-rom to save paper of books and wood of bookcases.  (14) Energy efficient windows and frames.  (15) Ecological cellulose based insulation.	07/02/1997

Science, ecology.	Alternatives for a sustainable society.  (1) Make all non-renewable resources illegal.  (2) Make all non-biodegradable resources illegal.  (3) Ration meat, or heavily tax meat.  (4) Heavily tax cars.  Reward mass transit use.  (5) No plastics.  No gasoline.  (6) Reduce coal produced electricity use by making it illegal.  Promote solar, wind and water power sources.  (7) Reduce pollution by electricity generating plants.  Reduce pollution by automobiles.  (8) Penalty for bad things (tax).  Reward for good things (tax breaks).  (9) Sustainable society mandatory.	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	An alternative.  We should set up a mandatory sustainable society.  Use of non-renewable resources should be illegal.  Use of non-biodegradable products should be illegal.	1/20/1999

Science, ecology.	Biomass.  Types of species, number of each species.  Changes in population size.  Relationships to other life forms (effects of and on). Relationships to the inorganic environment.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Buy organic, not so much for your personal health, but to make the environment healthier.  Less nitrate fertilizers, pesticides, and loss of topsoil.	01/06/1997

Science, ecology.	By individual, by country, and total, how measure mans control over his actions?  Tech questions.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Clothing.  Help the environment by wearing locally grown, organic clothing.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	CO2.  A breathing human puts out how much greenhouse carbon dioxide?  How many plants (algae, grass, shrubs, trees) are needed to transform that carbon dioxide into oxygen?  In addition, how much carbon dioxide per person is created by automobiles, industry and the animals we eat?  How many more plants are need to transform that additional carbon dioxide into oxygen.  Carbon dioxide is only one small part of the pollution issue.  Many other compounds are involved.	8/8/2000

Science, ecology.	CO2.  How much Co2 does one tree use up per day and how much 02 does it produce?  How much O2 does one person breathe per day and how much c02 do they expel?  How much c02 do cars and industries produce per day?	09/06/1993

Science, ecology.	Coffee and tea.  If one drinks two cups of coffee or tea per day, how much land is required to grow the plants that produce that coffee or tea?  That is, what is the environmental impact of drinking two cups of coffee or tea per day?	12/16/2004

Science, ecology.	Coffee and tea.  They cut down rain forests to grow it.	3/30/1998

Science, ecology.	Computers and ecology.  PART ONE.  Objections to computers.  Computers are not ecological.  Computers will never be ecological.  Putting computer chips in everything (ex. toasters, etc.) only messes up the environment more.  (2) Computers are not cheap.  Computers will never be cheap.     PART TWO.  Hope for computers.  (1) Make PC's smaller, so that they are cheaper and have less environmental impact.  (2) Network computers connected to webservices and application service providers will require only a screen and a keyboard.	6/20/2001

Science, ecology.	Coral reefs occur in coastal areas and hold most of the ocean's biodiversity.  They are being destroyed by warm water and run off of fertilizer and manure.	9/18/1998

Science, ecology.	Endgames: global, societal, and individual.	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	Energy.  Wood, oil, gas, coal.  Amount we have, amount we use.  Energy they yield, pollution they make.	08/24/1994

Science, ecology.	Environment factors: animate and inanimate.  Role they play in health/unhealth.  Move from big to small.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Environment.  The degradation of the environment by humans continues to be a big problem worldwide.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that the environment is not an important issue, but those conservative pundits are wrong.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that its either not a problem or that nothing can be done about it, but those conservative pundits are wrong.	6/26/2005

Science, ecology.	Environmental science (ecology) = biology + earth science.	09/20/1993

Science, ecology.	Food.  Every day I eat how much?  Every year I eat how much?  How much does it take to produce this food?	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	Food.  Help the environment by eating locally grown, organic foods.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Food.  Pesticide free farming, fertilizer free farming, how much land, work, time does it take to feed one person for one year if they grow their own vs. modern agribusiness is used.	04/01/1994

Science, ecology.	For any level of ecological sustainability, the question, "What is the maximum carrying capacity?", is a different question from, "What is the optimal carrying capacity?".  By levels of ecological sustainability I mean, for example, if only renewable resources are used, or if only biodegradable wastes are produced.	3/29/2002

Science, ecology.	Genetic engineering.  I do not think we should genetically alter plants, animals and humans.  Let us lower world population rather than alter plant genes to feed us.  Have less kids.	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	How much does one person, a nation, and the world; in one day, a year, and a life; need optimally vs. actually use, produce, or drink, eat, piss, shit, or breath in O2, breath out CO2?  How can we conserve resources and reduce waste?	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	How much stuff does a person need?  How much junk does a person produce?	04/01/1994

Science, ecology.	Human ecology is most important.  What is an ecology system like when it is working right?  What are the causes and effects when it starts whacking out?  How can we tell when this is happening?	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Humans are the kudzu of the animal world.  Unfortunately, humans seem to be in the same category as roaches, rats, kudzu and other encroaching species.	7/1/2006

Science, ecology.	Humans: getting them up to speed takes a lot of work, they fu*k up easily, and they are tough to control.	08/25/1994

Science, ecology.	I do not believe in shaping tofu into hot dogs.  I do not believe in knitting synthetic fibers to resemble fur.  Tofu hot dogs and faux fur are an homage to hot dogs and fur.  Why bother doing a homage to something that is bad to begin with?  Why shape tofu to resemble hot dogs?  Why knit synthetics to resemble fur?  If you say that meat is murder and fur is murder then why shape good materials to resemble bad materials?	10/29/2005

Science, ecology.	I knew society was in trouble when society voiced a desire to get synthetic chemicals out of the drinking water and then at the same time society started putting its drinking water in synthetic plastic containers.	9/19/2001

Science, ecology.	If everyone in the world consumed as many resources as Americans consume then the world could not support it.  If Americans lived as sustainably as most of the rest of the world then Americans would have to curtail many of their activities.	10/8/2005

Science, ecology.	Information, media, education.  Help the environment by recycling newspapers.  Help the environment by purchasing green computers.  Help the environment by recycling your computer.  Help the environment by buying rechargeable batteries.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Lawns and pools.  It is well known in ecological circles that the average American lawn and pool are chemical dumps.  Start living green.	6/22/2001

Science, ecology.	Light and heat.  (1) Instead of lighting the entire room, light what's in front of you by wearing a headlamp.  (2) Instead of heating the entire room, heat what's around you by wearing self-heating clothes.	2/21/2004

Science, ecology.	Low technology attitudes hamper the environmental movement.	11/30/1997

Science, ecology.	Man controlling his environment: what is the best mix (quantity and quality, number and type) of living things vs. man vs. manmade things (tech).  Once you determine this, how do you maintain control over the mix, against natural and manmade changes (technological and legal)?  I.e., which, where, how much, how to, why?	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Method.  (1) Acquire scientific proof of how earth is being polluted.  (2) Proof of harm the pollution is causing to humans and environment.  (3) Pressure government to pass pro-environment laws.  Higher standards, and stiffer penalties.  (4) Educate people to change their behavior.  People are lazy, dumb, self centered, and apolitical.	08/17/1997

Science, ecology.	Methods.  Monitor everything, everywhere.  Resources: what do we have, what can we make from it?  Inorganic environment: air, earth, water, chemicals.  Organic environment: population management of living things (plants, animals, humans) too few vs. too many.	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	Methods.  Monitor.  Know every living and nonliving thing in environment.  Know optimal levels of each.  Know when explosions or extinctions occur.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Methods.  Save the environment.  (1) Monitor to prove pollution.  (2) Communicate to spread the word.  (3) Regulate: the only way to save the environment.  (4) Discover and invent new green technologies.	12/20/1998

Science, ecology.	Methods.  Steps to take: (1) Prove that an ecological problem exists.  (2) Prove its cause.  (3) Prove the solution.  (4) Sell solution to policymakers.  (5) Educate the masses.	3/30/1998

Science, ecology.	Miniaturization.  If we were 10 times smaller, all our resources would last 10 times longer.	12/15/1994

Science, ecology.	Mobile, non-polluting unit.  Put all books and notes on laptop computer.  Walkman for stereo.  Solar electric heated, Goretex spacesuit acts as personal tent.  Tents and bicycles are the future.  Where to shower and shit?  Public facilities.  Security: Video cam?  Living out of lockers like at train station?	08/24/1994

Science, ecology.	Nature and wilderness are not just subjects of leisure.  Nor are they simply subjects of ecology.  There are also ethical, legal, psychological, aesthetic, etc., aspects to nature and wilderness.	1/1/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature as familiar vs. nature as unfamiliar.  At one time all humans lived in nature and were familiar with nature.  As technology developed, humans separated themselves from nature, spending more time indoors in featureless cubicles and less time outdoors.  The inhabitants of the developed countries have become unfamiliar with nature.  Nature has become strange, scary and mysterious to many modern humans.  (2) Paradoxically, today's scientists know more and more about nature.  Today we understand nature scientifically but we are unfamiliar with nature at a first hand level.  The inhabitants of primitive and ancient cultures were familiar with nature but did not understand nature on a scientific level.  The ideal would be to both be familiar with nature and to understand nature scientifically.	10/5/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature is interesting for its complex sensations of sight, sound, touch (wind, ground, etc.), smell, taste, etc.	12/30/1995

Science, ecology.	Nature is like a supermodel: beautiful yet boring.	9/5/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature is neither our friend or enemy.  Just a bitchy neighbor we have to get along with.	06/20/1994

Science, ecology.	Nature is the supreme dominatrix; she is beautiful and she does not care if you live or die.	8/8/2001

Science, ecology.	Nature survivalists: violent nature freaks, law of jungle.  Versus.  Hippies: peaceful nature freaks.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Nature views.  (1) Nature is the enemy vs. nature is neutral vs. nature is our friend.  (2) Nature overpowers us vs. we overpower nature.  (3) Spending time outdoors is fun vs. indoors is fun.  (4) Be independent, live off the land.  (5) The city, and man, degrade you.  (6) Simplicity is good.  Freedom is good.  (7) Adventure (exploration + danger) is good.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Nature, philosophy of.  Views of nature.  (1) Nature as provider.  (2) Nature as obstacle.  (3) Nature as destroyer.  Everything decays and dies.  (4) Nature as chaos.  Wilderness vs. civilization.  (5) Nature as ordered.  (6) Nature as ruthless.  (7) Nature as indifferent.  (8) Nature as fecund.  Everything is reproducing and growing.  (9) Nature as cyclical and rhythmic.  (10) Nature as on a scale much bigger and longer than human lives.  (11) Nature as everywhere.  We are surrounded by nature.  (12) Nature as difficult to find.  Places untouched by man are increasingly rare and difficult to find.  (13) A lot if it depends if you are familiar or unfamiliar with nature.  If you have knowledge of how nature behaves (nature lore).  If you have skills for survival in nature.  (14) A lot of it depends on the natural environment you are faced with (ex. Desert, arctic, Caribbean, etc).	6/26/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature: Thoreau, Zen, hippies.  Nature looks good, peaceful, harmony with natural world, simplicity, unpressured.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Nature.  (1) Horror movies about animals.  Jaws (shark).  Anaconda (snake).  Wilbur (rats).  The Edge (bear).  Moby Dick (whale).  Swarm (bees).  Alligator (alligator).  Squirm (worms).  Arachniphobia (spiders).  The Birds (birds).  Cujo (dogs).  (2) Perhaps one of the reasons that people do not care much about the environment is because they fear the natural environment.  People fear the natural environment because Hollywood has conditioned people to view the wilds as teeming with horrifying, viscous animals that are out to get them.  Hollywood has conditioned people to have this view by producing a succession of animal horror movies.	9/5/1999

Science, ecology.	Nature.  (1) Nature as indifferent.  Nature does not care what happens to you.  (2) Nature as empty.  There is nothing out there.  The void.	11/15/2000

Science, ecology.	Nature.  Attitudes toward nature.  (1)  Nature is my friend.  Nature will provide for me.  (2)  Nature is oblivious and apathetic towards me.  (3)  Nature is malevolent and out to destroy me.	1/22/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature.  Attitudes toward nature.  (1)  Nature needs me to protect it.  (2)  Nature can take care of itself.	1/22/2002

Science, ecology.	Nature.  Black and white thinking about nature and civilization.  (1)(A) Nature: good, healthy, organic.  (B) Civilization: bad, polluted, stinky, sickly.  (2)(A) Nature: malevolent, merciless, dangerous, amoral.  (B) Civilization: benevolent, comforting, safe.  (3) (A) Nature: indifferent to our plight.  (B) Civilization: Indifferent to our plight.  (Technology is neither good nor evil.  Technology can be used for good or evil).	7/25/2000

Science, ecology.	Nature.  I used to think nature was pure and good, and humans were bastards.  Then I realized that nature can be a bastard too.	12/29/1997

Science, ecology.	Nature.  Philosophy of Nature.  Indoor lifestyle vs. outdoor lifestyle.  (1) Outdoors has more space, and is closer to Nature.  Inside, one tends to lose the connection to Earth and Nature.  You tend to think that you do not need Earth and Nature.  One becomes disconnected, remote, uncaring and unthinking.  (2) Yet paradoxically, I used to spend much time outdoors and yet I did not join the Green Movement at that time.  Now I spend a lot of time indoor with high technology, trying to save the environment.	4/20/1999

Science, ecology.	Nature.  Philosophy of nature.  People think they like Nature because nature is simple.  They actually unconsciously like nature because it is complex.  They like to feel breezes.  They like to feel the changing temperature.  They like to smell the various scents.  They like to see the various scenery.  They like to see the varied sunlight, clouds and shade.  They like to see the 3-D landscape of hill and dale.  They like to move around in the environment.  All of the above make nature much more varied and complex than being in a cubicle in a 70 degree office.  People enjoy complexity if it is healthy and sustainable.	4/20/1999

Science, ecology.	Oil and water.  PART ONE.  Oil.  (1) Those who say there is plenty of oil in the ground yet to be discovered are mistaken.  (2) Those who say that oil combustion has no effect on global warming are mistaken.  (3) People who say that global warming does not matter are mistaken.     PART TWO.  Water.  (1) People who say there is plenty of fresh water available are mistaken.  (2) People who say the corporations should own the water are mistaken.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Paper or plastic?  A rough estimate.  Worried about taking a plastic bag instead of a paper bag?  Perhaps you should instead be worried about your gasoline consumption habits.  If you burn 3 gallons of gas a day, that's 1000 gallons a year, and that's twenty 50 gallon drums of oil.  Each drum weighs 300 pounds (at six pounds per gallon).  That's 6000 pounds of oil a year.  Look at it as 6000 pounds of plastic a year, that's 18 pounds of plastic a day.  You may need that plastic bag to carry around your 18 pounds of plastic.	9/1/2004

Science, ecology.	Paper or plastic?  The correct answer is to skip the bag or have a reusable cloth sack.  If you cannot, choose paper.  (1) Trees are a renewable resource.  The oil to make plastic is not a renewable resource.  (2) Paper production makes less pollution then plastic production.  (3) Paper decomposes in landfills more quickly than plastic, and pollutes less than plastic garbage.	12/26/1997

Science, ecology.	People complain about plastic and silicon computers.  But can we live without all plastic, metal and glass?  No, not even Shakers did that.  Just reduce, reuse and recycle.	10/30/1998

Science, ecology.	People eat 1000 meals a year (plus tax), 80,000 meals in a 80 year life.  If, for each meal, they get a bag (paper or plastic), plate or container (paper or plastic), utensils (plastic), beverage container (glass, aluminum or plastic), napkins (paper), then that is a lot of garbage.  (2) Another source of waste is newspaper and magazine subscriptions for each person.  Use the Web or the library.  (3) Another source of waste is junk mail.	6/15/1998

Science, ecology.	People should live in warmer areas to save oil, to reduce pollution.  People should commute less.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  (1) The state of affairs we need to reach is 100% sustainability.  All materials recycled.  No pollution in manufacturing.  No garbage after use.  This is almost impossible to reach.  If the population is too huge, we will eventually use up all the earth's resources quickly and live on a trash heap.  Keep the population down.  (2) The question has been put forth whether environmental rights have gotten out of hand, or whether it is the other side (free market and no environment regulation) that has become too powerful.  I say, until the ideal of 100% sustainability is reached, we ought to give more money and power to the environmental cause.  (3) We ought to police the environment like we police people, and treat environmental crimes as severely as we treat human assaults.  This is because when we fu*k up the environment we are really fu*king up people who have yet to be born.	11/30/1996

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  Ethical questions and choices.  (1) Make no manmade materials.  The wood and straw people, living like Indians.  (2) Make no non-biodegradeable materials.  (3) Limit who can use what resources.  (4) Limit who can make what.  (5) Control waste amounts and what's done with it.  (6) Control areas you move into.  (7) Control how much you develop them.  (8) Problems: other countries abuse.  (9) Solutions: develop better ways to live.  Cleaner energy, cleaner manufacturing processes.  Better waste management.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  Future.  If we were the last generation on earth we could trash the place.  But we are not.  (1) With a carrying capacity of 10 billion, and zero population growth, and an average life span of 100 years, 100 billion people live in 1000 years, if everyone in each generation is born at once and dies at once (for simplification of calculation).  Civilization has already been in existence for 10,000 years.  One trillion people will live in the next 10,000 years.  We must live sustainably so that these future generations have resources to use, and so that they are not covered in garbage and pollution.  (2) What is the intrinsic value of one trillion human lives?  And what is the value of all the knowledge one trillion humans could discover?  And what is the value of all the work that one trillion human lives could accomplish physically.  It is immense.  A great deal is on the line when we decide whether to live sustainably or not.  (3) Most people do not think about this, nor do the calculation, nor realize the sheer number of people who will come after them.  Thus they care less about the environment than they would if they realized what was at stake.	12/29/1997

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  Land.  (1) We used to use the phrase "I own land" to mean "I can do whatever I want with the land.  The land is mine."  (2) Today we use the phrase "I own land" to mean "The land is mine but I can not dump toxic chemicals on it against the law".  (3) Really, no one owns the land.  We merely borrow the land from future inhabitants of the earth.  We should leave the land better than we found it.  (4) We should not even use the phrase "I own land".  (5) All things come from the earth.  When you look at an object you should think of it as coming from the earth and closely connected to the earth.  We should call things by their first and last name.  Examples, cup earth, book earth, phone earth.  (6) All things from the land.  Nothing exists apart from the land.  So no one owns anything.  We borrow everything from our descendants.  (7) Three definitions of the word "own".  (A) Own as in "to be ethically responsible for."  (B) Own as in "To make it all mine."  However nothing and no one is separate from all.  (C) Own as is the legal sense.  Legal ownership.  (8) We don't even own ourselves, because we are from the land.	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  Land.  In the 1700's the wife was the property of the husband.  The husband owned the wife.  The husband was legally responsible for caring for and controlling the wife.  It was ownership as ethical responsibility to care for.  It was ownership as legal responsibility to control.  And it was often construed as ownership in the sense of complete ownership.  And thus the husband felt he could rape and beat the wife.  (Like to own a toy is to be free to destroy the toy.)  Nowadays we see this view of woman as wrong.  And in the same way these views of the land are wrong.	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	Philosophy and ecology.  Modern ecology, American Indian views about nature, and Buddhist views about nature all share similar metaphysical, epistemological and ethical attitudes.  (1) If all things are connected, via the earth, how can there be any personal freedom?  (2) We all come from the earth.  We all subsist on the earth.  We all go back to the earth.  So why does not anyone care about the earth?  Because the earth does not have a loud and active voice.  And everyone cares only about themselves.  It will boomerang.	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	Philosophy of ecology.  The resources of earth are owned by everyone on earth, and future generations.  Any individual or nation that uses those resources, and makes money off them, must give back to everyone.  Individual nations have no right to resources, because national boundaries are arbitrary.  Communist countries should re-distribute their goods to the world, not just themselves.	09/26/1997

Science, ecology.	Pollution.  How much garbage does one person create in a lifetime?  How much of that garbage is biodegradable?  How much of that garbage is recycled?  How much of that garbage is natural vs. manmade toxic plastics?	9/8/1998

Science, ecology.	Pollution.  How polluted are we?  (1) Past pollution.  (2) Current pollution being produced.  What are the best methods to measure pollution (1 and 2)?  How harmful (to man directly, or to ecosystem and then man) is pollution (1 and 2)?  What are the best methods to reduce pollution (1 and 2)?  Technological methods and political methods to reduce pollution.  What kind of political pressure does it take to make what kind of laws?  What is the strongest, worst pollution?  What is the most (quantity) pollution?  Who are the biggest polluters?  Land, air and water pollution.  Oil spills, pesticides, food poisoning, heavy metals, nuclear waste.	11/10/1993

Science, ecology.	Pollution.  I produce how much garbage in one year?  How much is recycled?  How much of it is metal, paper, plastic, glass?	04/16/1994

Science, ecology.	Pollution.  One-third of all air pollution is caused by generation of electricity.  One-third is caused by tail pipe emissions.  One-third is caused by all other.	3/30/1998

Science, ecology.	Pollution.  People do not like to think about pollution, garbage, and recycling for the same reasons they do not like to think about their shit.  The shit taboo.  They do not like to think about or talk about shit or garbage.  They think it is dirty and disgusting.  Some people try to avoid it.	04/24/1997

Science, ecology.	Population.  (1) The question is not how many people the earth can hold, because if we are not living sustainably then we could put a greater number of people on earth for a shorter time before critical resources are used up.  (2) The question is not how many people the earth can hold if we live sustainably because even if we live 100% sustainably, humans could still fill the entire planet, much like a kudzu vine, and crowd out other species.  (3) So the question becomes how many people can the earth hold if we live sustainably and give all other species the right to live also.	3/25/2002

Science, ecology.	Population.  Can we create a large population (10-20 billion) of intelligent, peaceful, justice seeking, people living in balance with nature?  So we don't destroy each other or the earth?	08/25/1994

Science, ecology.	Population.  Given any way of living (tech), what's highest human population earth can support?	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Population.  Greater population means more potential Einsteins, as well as more potential Hitlers.  The trick is to increase the number of Einsteins while decreasing the number of Hitlers.	08/15/1994

Science, ecology.	Population.  Questions of population.  (1) What number of people will the population stabilize at and when?  (2) How many people can the world hold, given any degree of ecological living?  (3) How many people should the world hold?  As many people as can live with good quality of life, sustainably.  (4) What causes birth rates to stabilize?  Education.  Empowering women.  Industrialization.	9/12/1999

Science, ecology.	Population.  Some misguided individuals write books about how terrible it will be if we have a decrease in human population levels.  These pundits predict a collapse of civilization if fewer people populate the earth.  Guess what?  The earth can use fewer people.  Civilization will not collapse with fewer people.  Fewer people will result in a healthier, more livable earth.  People who say that civilization can only progress if we produce higher population levels are wrong, much like people who say the economy will only develop if we produce a greater number of things.  These people mistake growth for development.  Growth in size or number in not the same thing as development in terms of in health, justice and sustainability.	11/12/2004

Science, ecology.	Population.  Speed of population growth vs. speed of technological development vs. use of resources.	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	Population.  We are keeping the evil nuts in check, while waiting for the Einsteins to arrive.	08/24/1994

Science, ecology.	Power.  Help the environment by using renewable energy.  Get off oil.  Use solar power and wind power.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Problems: ozone depletion, over-population, resource depletion, pollution, green house warming.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Psychology and ecology.  (See also: Psychology > ecopsychology).	12/30/2003

Science, ecology.	Psychology and ecology.  People put up with a certain amount of dirtiness in the environment.  It is analogous to cleaning your house.  As long as they are not dropping dead from disease, they do not clean up.  But, on the other hand, humans have become cleaner over thousands of years, all in the name of health.	8/26/1999

Science, ecology.	Psychology and ecology.  People who feel disconnected from the earth.  They know nothing of the earth.  They think not of the earth.  They do not feel for the earth.  They screw the earth.  How do these people live?	1/14/1999

Science, ecology.	Psychology and ecology.  Trying to get people to change to ecological products is difficult.  (1) One part of it is that it is difficult to get people to change their behavioral habits and their mental habits (thoughts).  There is a tendency to repeat behaviors because it is easier than thinking of why one should change one's behavior.  There is societal inertia that exists (due to human nature?) which makes implanting a new idea difficult.  Societal inertia is something that conservatives play upon.  (2) Another part of it is that when you tell someone that their ways are not the best, or are actually wrong and harmful, there is a certain resentment from them in response.  When you ask someone to admit that they are not the best, or even ok, they are reluctant to.  Their ego needs demand them to think that they, and their ways, are the best.  This superior attitude is common, and is a second factor that acts to prevent useful change from occurring.	07/04/1997

Science, ecology.	Psychology and ecology.  Why is it so difficult to get humans to care about the earth?  Perhaps it is because we have trouble thinking in ecological terms.  Why do humans have trouble thinking in ecological terms?  Perhaps it is because there is no evolutionary precedent for thinking in ecological terms.  Is there any animal species that exhibits ecological behavior and cares for its environment?  No.  Why?  Because  no animal species was capable of impacting the earth on a global scale.  Animals develop the ability to discern predators and prey, but they did not develop the ability to judge their environmental impact.  Humans inherited much of their cognitive tool kit from animals.  For example, humans excel at things like face recognition but they do poorly at judging their environmental impact.	7/7/2000

Science, ecology.	Rainforests.  5% of land mass.  50% of biodiversity.  2% of the rainforest disappears each year.  40% of our drugs come from plants and animals.  We have only discovered x% of existing species in the world.  We have only totally worked out x% of the species we have discovered.	10/05/1994

Science, ecology.	Rechargeable batteries.  (1) Run everything on rechargeable AA batteries.  (2) Get a solar powered AA battery charger.	2/21/2004

Science, ecology.	Rechargeable batteries.  Solar battery charger.  (1) What can you run off of rechargeable AA batteries?  PDA.  Cellphone.  CD player.  MP3 player.  Radio.  Flashlight or headlamp.  Personal heater.  (2) What necessary items can't run off rechargeable AA batteries?  House heat, so use solar.  Electric bicycle, so use solar.  Water pump and water heater, so use solar.	2/28/2004

Science, ecology.	Reducing physical possessions yet increasing mental richness.  All your books, records, paintings and movies digitized will fit in your pocket.  (2) Do people want stuff (ex. airplanes) or do people merely want the experience of owning stuff (ex. flight simulators)?  How far can virtual reality take us in this way?	2/20/2002

Science, ecology.	Replace the chemical dump of shampoo, shaving cream and soap with organic, plant-based cleansers.	6/26/2002

Science, ecology.	Resource using.  (1) A technology that uses 10 units of resources to produce 1 unit of pollution, vs. a technology that uses 8 units of resources and produces 2 units of pollution.  Which is worse, using resources or producing pollution?  (2) How rare is stuff?  How costly is stuff?  What is the biggest waste in modern american life (amount of stuff wasted, times number of people wasting it)?  Wasted water does not pollute?  Who are the biggest polluters in US and world?  Air, water, and land pollution.  Oil spills, pesticides, food poisoning by chemicals.  (3) Other environmental issues.  Overpopulation.  Extinction.  Ozone.  Rainforest.  Oil spills.  Mexico City.  East Europe.  (4) Alternate energy: fusion, solar, wind.	11/10/1993

Science, ecology.	Resources and waste.  (1) How much resources does each person use?  Air breathed.  Food eaten.  Energy used.  Materials like paper, plastic, metal, glass.  How much does the typical American use?  How much does the typical world citizen use?  (2) How much waste does a person produce?  How much human waste?  How much garbage?  How much pollution?  How much does the typical American produce?  How much does the typical world citizen produce?	12/13/2005

Science, ecology.	Resources and waste.  PART ONE.  Resources.  (1) How much water, electricity and heating oil does a person use per year?  Drink about one gallon water per day.  Shower and wash uses how much water?  Electricity, how many watts use per day?  Heating oil?  Gasoline?     PART TWO.  Waste.  (1) Human waste.  How much crap does one person produce per day and per year?  1 pound per day?  365 pounds per year?  (2) How much urine does one person produce per day and per year?  1 gallon a day?  365 gallons per year?  Outhouse puts it into the earth.  Sewer puts it into the ocean.  (2) Garbage.  How much garbage does a person produce a day?  How much pollution does a person produce per day?	9/1/2004

Science, ecology.	Resources.  A world with limited resources is like a hike with limited water.  Do you walk faster and risk getting thirstier, or walk slower and risk never reaching water?  Is there an optimal pace of technological development?  Population growth: the more people the more Einsteins we produce, also the more Hitlers.  The trick is to increase the number of Einsteins we produce, and decrease the number of Hitlers.  Is there an optimal level of population growth?	09/01/1994

Science, ecology.	Resources.  How rare is the resource, how costly is the resource?  Use vs. waste.  What do we use a lot of, what do we waste a lot of?  What is the biggest resource waste in U.S. as far as amount stuff wasted, and number of people wasting it?  Big problems: loss of top soil, loss of ozone, loss of rain forests.	01/01/1993

Science, ecology.	Resources.  If I wanted to conserve all of my resources I would lie down on the floor in a dark room doing nothing.	12/26/1997

Science, ecology.	Resources.  We do not own the earth's resources, we merely borrow them from our children.  Wasting the earth's resources is as easy as taking candy from a baby.	04/24/1997

Science, ecology.	Shelter.  Help the environment by living in environmentally sustainable housing.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Social justice and ecology.  Ecological techniques promote social justice because ecological practices leave the world in good condition, habitable for humans and other living things.	10/1/2005

Science, ecology.	Solar power.  In the year 2004, one square foot of solar cell costs how much and produces how much electricity?	2/28/2004

Science, ecology.	Sustainable culture.  Physical, psychological, and social needs must be met.  Individuals must not be deprived.  Society must advance toward sustainability.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Testing of chemicals.  Don't just test new chemicals for five years and say its safe.  They should really test for 100 years on humans.  That is, they should test for the lifespan of humans.  In fact, they should test chemicals against the lifespan of every species in the ecosystem.	1/24/2002

Science, ecology.	The American dream is turning out to be the American nightmare, because if everyone in the world lived like Americans, with big cars, big houses, etcetera, then the world will end up depleted, polluted, and lifeless.	5/29/2007

Science, ecology.	The anti-fur campaign is cool.  The basis of it is animal rights, animal misery and sensitivity to same.  Leather is baloney also.  Too many cows, too much methane.  Switch to cloth clothes and vegetarian diets.	12/26/1997

Science, ecology.	The more members and dollars an environmental organization has, the stronger they are, and the more they can get done.	10/05/1997

Science, ecology.	The science and technology of environmental sustainability needs a lot more people and money.  And it has a long way to go.	1/7/2000

Science, ecology.	There may come a day when no part of the natural world is untouched by man.  Then all of life will cease to be "natural" and will be completely "artificial" and "man-made".	10/9/2005

Science, ecology.	Transportation.  Help the environment by using environmentally sustainable transportation that does not rely on the internal combustion engine.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  (1) Contra.  (A) Boring, as far as taste, smell, and texture.  No fats, no sweets, no aromas, no creamy smooth, no meat vices.  (B) You get gas a hell of a lot.  (C) Protein deficit mental retardation and physical deterioration.  (D) Pain to prepare.  Expensive and hard to find.  Monotonous, few ingredients.  (2) Pro.  (A) Meat is murder.  (B) Vegetarianism is healthy.  Meat causes heart attacks and strokes.  (C) Meat uses up too much grain.  (3) Types of vegetarianism:  (A) No meat, no fish, no dairy and no eggs or any other animal product.  (B) Organic vs. not.  (C) Fresh vs. canned or frozen.  (D) Macrobiotic.	01/08/1994

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  (1) Pro: takes less resources to make plants.  Animal rights argument, arguments against hunting.  Health argument, fewer heart attacks.  Hormones in meat.  (2) Contra: Gas.  Lack of taste, epicurianism.  Protein deprivation: physical and psychological affects.  Pro-hunting arguments.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  How many people are vegetarians because they consider eating animal meat to be a slippery slope to cannibalism?	4/23/2002

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  If everyone eats half a pound of meat a day, or 150 pounds meat per year, it is like eating your weight in meat a year, it is like doubling the earth's population, twice as many o2 and h2o consuming, and co2 and shit and piss producing, animals.	04/01/1994

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  More arguments for vegetarianism.  (1) Health argument.  Longer life, less cancer and heart attacks.  (2) Animal ethics argument.  Meat is murder.  (3) Ecology argument.  It is easier on the environment.  (4) Change cultural values.  Get a built, medal winning athlete, who is a vegetarian, to pitch it to people.	02/20/1994

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  Most Americans eat 1/4 pound of meat for lunch and dinner each day.  This equals three pounds per week, or 150 pounds per year.  (2) I eat 1/2 pound meat per week, or 25 pounds per year.	1/6/1998

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  People who want to eat meat should be forced to kill their own meat.	2/18/1999

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  See: Science, ecology>Vegetarianism.	12/15/2004

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  The traditional meat eating diet: bacon/sausage for breakfast, luncheon meat sandwich or hero lunch, and meat for dinner.  Half a pound of meat per day.  175 lbs. per year.  Call it 200 lbs/year = 1/5 cow, or 2 pigs, or 40 5 lb chickens.  How much air (o2 use, co2 make) do these animals use up?  How much grain and water do they use up?  How much shit and urine do they produce?  Could you survive on the feed they need?	02/20/1994

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  Things to think when you are eating meat, poultry and fish.  By eating this animal food I am causing emotional pain and physical pain.  By eating this animal food I am engaged in needless killing, i.e., murder.	12/16/2004

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  Types: (1) No dairy, no eggs, or fish.  (2) Macrobiotic: believe specific food can cure specific ills.  (3) Health food store.  (4) Fruitarians, breatharians.	12/30/1992

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  Why be a vegetarian?  Mad cow disease is one reason.	05/18/1997

Science, ecology.	Vegetarianism.  Why I am only 90% vegetarian.  Because 100% vegetarian is an extremist view.  And extremists are rigid and tend to have more mental breakdowns than adaptable moderates.  Extremists often kill themselves or others	12/28/1998

Science, ecology.	Waste.  Human waste.  How much urine, feces and carbon dioxide does the average person produce in 24 hours, or in 365 days?  If the human population on earth levels at 10 billion people then how much human waste will 10 billion people produce each day, or each year?  How to handle that amount of human waste in an environmentally sustainable way?  If each person produces a pound of feces and a gallon of urine a day then, well, you do the math.	12/12/2005

Science, ecology.	Water.  (1) How much water does a person drink per day?  One gallon.  Six billion people require six billion gallons of fresh clean water per day.  (2) How much water does a person use each day for other reasons?	4/4/2005

Science, ecology.	Water.  NYC has 10 million people.  20 gallons of water used per shower (3 gal per minute for 7 minutes).  If people shower every other day we can save 200 million gallons of fresh water each day.  Enough water each year to fill a square cube the height of the world trade center.	12/29/1997

Science, ecology.	Water.  Shower heads.  Do the math.  The old one ran at 6 gallons per minute.  The new one at 2.5 gal/min.  10 min shower per day is 60 vs. 25 gallons.  Two people (me and audrey) is 120 vs. 50 gal/day.  18,000 vs. 43,000 gal/year, a difference of 25,000 gallons.  Cutting showers to from 10 to 5 minutes would double that saving to 50,000 gallons of fresh drinking water (and the energy used to make it hot) saved a year.  We drink about a gallon of water a day, or 365 gallons a year.  150 people could be kept alive with the 50,000 gallons saved each year from switching to a low flow shower head.	07/02/1997

Science, ecology.	We can make individual efforts to help the environment.  Conserving water, for example.  But even better is to influence the political system.  To do that you can write letters, but better yet is to become as rich and powerful as you can and then change the system, hoping that not everyone trying to help the environment gets corrupted by the money and power, losing their ideals and dreams, selling out to the other side.	12/26/1997

Science, ecology.	What country uses the most non-renewable resources per capita?  USA.  What country creates the most pollution and garbage per capita?  USA.	12/1/2001

Science, ecology.	What should the future be like?  How should we live?  We should live by the principles of environmental sustainability and social justice.  (1) Should we live technologically like the Amish?  Driving horse and buggy?  No internal combustion engines?  No Internet?  Yet, with no mandatory beards and no weird religious practices.	5/22/2007

Science, ecology.	What.  Ecology is about (1) Balance, and (2) Endgames (non-renewable resources).	02/24/1994

Science, ecology.	When you buy overseas goods (coffee, tea, etc.) instead of local goods, you pay for the resources used and the pollution created to make and use trucks, boats and planes that transport.	02/28/1998

Science, ecology.	Why invest in "green" environmental stock market funds?  That is, why should I invest in a green fund that returns 10% on an investment instead of an anti-green fund that returns 15% on an investment?  Because if we all stop investing in anti-green companies then their stock prices will fall.  We can thus pressure anti-green companies to change their ways.	11/4/1999

Science, physics.	.This section is about physics.	1/24/2006

Science, physics.	(1) Macro-level.  Superstring theory.  Einsteinian relativity.  Time slows as it approaches the speed of light.  (2) Human level.  Newtonian physics.  Gravity, force, mass, acceleration formulas.  (3) Micro-level.  Quantum physics.  We cannot know the location of electrons precisely.  Sub-atomic particles like quarks.	5/20/1998

Science, physics.	Action at a distance is scary, because people's minds may be connected at a distance.  And the modern advances in physics concerning the theoretical capability of time travel is scary, because minds may be connected across time.  Thus the whole world may be one the big mind, from the beginning of time till the end of time.  We may be less autonomous and independent than we think we are.  We may be more connected, interrelated, and effect each other more than we thought.	12/15/1997

Science, physics.	Energy and Matter.  (1) Energy.  Heat energy.  Visible light.  Radio waves.  Ultraviolet waves.  Gamma rays.  X-rays.  Sound energy.  Physical energy, kinetic and potential.  Magnetism: electrons moving.  Electricity: electrons moving.  (2) Matter.  Atoms and molecules.  Elements and compounds.  States of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, colloid.  Electrons, proton, neutron, meson, boson, gluon, quark.  (3) Gravity.  Friction, inertia, force, mass, weight.  (4) Laws of Thermo dynamics.  (5) Relativity.  Gravity warps time and space.  (6) Quantum physics.  Heisenberg uncertainty principle: we cannot locate electrons, observation affects it.	9/20/1998

Science, physics.	Multiple universes.  Today there are physicists who think the concept of multiple universes is possible, if not probable.  If two universes have different laws of physics then how can travel or communication between the two universes be accomplished?  What is the space between the two universes?	9/8/2005

Science, physics.	Physics.  Applications.  (1) Electromagnetic - motors, wires, solid state, through air.  (2) Lenses.  (3) Radioactivity - power, bombs.  (4) Heat issues - expansion/contraction.  (5) Four forces - strong, weak, electromag, gravity (magnetism?).	12/30/1992

Science.	.Introduction or sum up of science.  (1) Math and science.  To what extent does modern science depend on math?  (ex. statistics and probability).  Quite a bit.  (2) Technology and science are symbiotic.  Technology makes it possible to do science.  Science makes possible technological advances.  (3) Pseudo-science vs. science.  Pseudo-science claims to be scientific but it is not.  (4) Philosophy and science.  Science is slowly but surely encroaching on the domain of philosophy.  However, some philosophers are scientifically oriented, and some scientists are philosophically oriented.  (5) Religion and science.  Science and religion are seemingly at odds.  (6) Politics and science.  Political funding of science.  Political policy based on scientific knowledge.  (7) Art and science are seemingly at odds.  Art being inexact, figurative and qualitative.  Science being exact, literal and quantitative.  (8) With the blurring of the animal-human distinction, there will be a blurring between the natural sciences (astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology) and the social sciences (psychology, sociology, economics, political science, anthropology).  (9) Science and society.  (A) Science is, by its nature, a group effort.  (B) The masses tend to put great hope in science, and then get disappointed when science does not answer all their questions.  (10)  Individual and science.  To what degree do individuals think scientifically in everyday life by using the scientific method?  To what degree do individuals think about the subjects matter of the sciences?	12/1/2001

Science.	.This section is about science in general.  Topics include: ( ) Method.  ( ) Philosophy of science.  ( ) Pseudo-science.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) What is science.	1/24/2006

Science.	(1) Science and individual: applying philosophy and science principles in your life.  (2) Science and society:.	12/30/1992

Science.	(1) Science in realm of epistemology.  (2) Science in spectrum of religion, art, philosophy, science.	12/30/1992

Science.	Big and small science.  (1) Big science: (A) Government funded.  (B) Corporate funded.  (C) University funded.  (D) Non-profit funded.  (2) Small science: Use of the scientific method by people in everyday life.	7/12/2001

Science.	Big science vs. small science.  (1) Big science.  Many people.  Lots of money.  Long time.  Much data.  (2) Small science.  One man.  Few dollars.  Short time.  Little data.	5/20/1998

Science.	Classification of sciences.  (I) Natural sciences.  (A) Physical sciences.  (1) Astronomy: astrophysics.  (2) Physics.  (3) Chemistry: physical, analytic vs. synthetic, inorganic vs. organic.  (B) Life sciences.  Biology, biophysics, biochemistry.  (C) Earth sciences.  (1) Earth: geology, geochronology.  (2) Air: meteorology.  (3) Water: hydrology.  (II) Social sciences.  (A) Psychology.  (B) Sociology.  (1) Political science.  (2) Comparative law.  (3) Economics.  (4) Anthropology: cultural, physical.	12/30/1992

Science.	Creative scientists vs. run of mill, by the book scientists.	12/30/1992

Science.	Development of man's thought.  Four ways of experiencing world: science, philosophy, art, and myth/magic/religion.	12/30/1992

Science.	Ethics and science.  Science is not the same as ethics.  However, science produces knowledge, and knowledge can improve ethics.	12/6/2005

Science.	Everyone is a scientist.  The essence of the scientist is the willingness to try something new.  Experimental creativity.  The opposite of which is psychological rigidity and behavioral rigidity.  Rigidity can be caused by fear, learned helplessness, fanatical traditionalism or conservatism.	1/6/1999

Science.	Goal: gain knowledge, communicate knowledge, use knowledge.	12/30/1992

Science.	History of science in general vs. specific sciences.  The idea of science in general, the methods of science in general.  History of technological applications of science: see technology.  The man, his life's contribution, how great was he and why, specific works, the theory/concept advanced, the fact proved, the experiment, the book or article wrote.  Systematic exposition of issues (past and current) in philosophy of science.  Development of the methods (technology, techniques) of science.	12/30/1992

Science.	How do the different sciences differ, and what are their similarities?  Especially in terms of methods.	12/30/1992

Science.	I would rather that I not believe in something that really exists for lack of sufficient evidence than I would believe in something that does not exist for lack of high enough epistemological standards.	11/10/2001

Science.	Many scientists say there is no physical proof of the Freudian Unconscious.  How much proof (types and degrees) do you need for it to be scientifically accepted?  If the proof is one hundred years away in the future, should you still believe it?	4/10/2000

Science.	Method.  (1) Define problem or question (see Psychology, thinking, problem solving).  (2) Review literature. (3) Form hypothesis.  (4) Research design.  Types of research: experiment, survey, content analysis, and field observation.  Historical approaches.  Experiment in nature.  Experiment in lab.  Statistical experiment.  Historical experiment.  (5) Degree of control in an experiment: from total to none.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  (1) Simple experiments.  (2) Complex experiments: many questions, many methods, many subjects, many trials, much data, long time, many researchers.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Collect data, analyze data, draw conclusions.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Create, organize, store, and retrieve knowledge.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Description: qualitative and quantitative.  Explanation.  Prediction.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Discovery, validation, unification.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Express information quantitatively.  Express laws in numerical equation form.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Folk wisdom: the unconscious scientific method.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Form laws.  Discover constants.  Recognize order in world.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Isolate, observe, measure, manipulate.  How to do above without making mistakes?	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Measurement.  Theory.  Instruments: tools and techniques, precision of.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Observation of human vs. nonhuman phenomenon.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Observer influence on subject.  Observer bias toward or against subject.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Search, explore, observe, experiment, classify.	12/30/1992

Science.	Method.  Types of experiments.  (1) Experiments you can do anywhere, with easily found materials vs. experiments that require specialized equipment.  (2) Experiments on inert matter, on plants, on animals, on yourself, and on others.  (3) Experiments that hurt or destroy vs. harmless experiments.	1/6/1999

Science.	Most important idea about science is the problem of the vast number of people who reject science in the name of religion.  That is, the problem of people who reject truth and justice in the name of blind belief.	5/29/2007

Science.	Nature influences man, and man influences nature.	12/30/1992

Science.	Origins of science.  Science has roots in technology and philosophy.  (1)  Science has one of its roots in technology.  However, to differentiate the two, while technology is concerned with the practical application of knowledge, science is concerned with knowledge for knowledge's sake.   (2) Science has another of its roots in philosophy.  However, unlike philosophy, science limits its scope to nature, and science limits its methodology to the scientific method.	1/3/2002

Science.	Philosophy and science.  (1) Science vs. philosophy:  One view is that science evolved from philosophy, and now science is kicking philosophy's butt.  (2) Science vs. ethics.  I say that ethics should be firmly grounded in science.  You have to know what is in order to know what to do.  You have to know what is true before you can know what is good.  (3) Science vs. aesthetics: (A) A pro-science view would say that there is a biological basis for aesthetics and hence art, so science and art are directly and closely connected.  (B) An anti-science view would say that the realm of art is completely separate from science.  I disagree with that.	7/12/2001

Science.	Philosophy and science.  Is scientific knowledge superior or inferior to philosophical knowledge?  Is there any difference between science and philosophy?  Can we really separate evidence and argument?  Can we really separate fact and logic?	4/17/2001

Science.	Philosophy of science.  .See also: Philosophy, epistemology.  See also: Psychology, thinking, logic, etc.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  (1) Types of thinking: analysis vs. synthesis.  (2) Logical inference: deduction vs. induction (science).	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics and science.  (1) Scientists cannot afford to ignore ethics by taking an amoral position.  (2) Scientists cannot afford to be unethical and act immoral.  (3) Ethicists cannot afford to ignore science.	7/12/2001

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics and science.  They often say that science can tell us nothing about ethics.  But evolutionary psychology yields many insights into ethical topics such as reciprocation, altruism, etc.	11/20/2001

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics and science. Some people think scientists should have no public opinions regarding ethics and make no public statements regarding ethics.  I disagree.  It is neither possible nor advisable for scientists to completely avoid the realm of ethics.  It is impossible for science to be value free.  It is inadvisable for science to be value free.  (1) One example, scientists must consider the ethics of their experimental design.  Scientists must decide whether to experiment on animals, or on humans.  (2) Another example, silence itself can be a statement.  Communication is unavoidable.  And communication is an unavoidable arena of ethics.  When scientists decide not to speak on an issue, their silence is often construed as consent.  (3) A third example, scientists should consider the ethical implications of the knowledge they discover.  Technologists should also.  Everyone should consider the ethical implications of the knowledge they discover.  Because knowledge has unavoidable ethical implications.	11/12/2004

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics.  Good science vs. bad science.  Good philosophy vs. bad philosophy, traits of each.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics.  Science and ethics.  Turning away from science is unethical.  Depending completely on science is unethical.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics.  Sciences cannot remain ethically neutral.  But can't allow ethics to color results.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics.  Unethical science practices.  (1) Experimental subject manipulation.  (2) Lying or withholding information.  (3) Doctoring or hiding or revealing results.  (4) Fudging data and results.  (5) Plagiarizing.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Ethics.  View that science should take ethical stances.  View that science should not take ethical stances.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Fact and theory.  Inquiry and proof.  Good reasoning and bad reasoning.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  How to scientifically prove and disprove an idea.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Metaphysics.  At what point does philosophy become science and visa versa?  Metaphysics is being replace by science.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Methods of inquiry/investigation/discovery; explanation; verification/proof.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  Science: empirical fact.  Philosophy: logic, ethics, belief.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  View that science is better than other types knowledge.  View that science is inferior to other forms knowledge.	12/30/1992

Science.	Philosophy of science.  What exists, how do we know?  How does it work, how can we use it?  What works best?  How can we make life healthier and better?	12/30/1992

Science.	Problems some people have with science.  (1) They say that science does not take care of everything.  Science does not know everything.  Science does not address all questions.  For the questions it does address, science does not have all the answers.  (2) They say science is simply too much information to know.  (3) They say that science has a tendency to ignore, discount, devalue or discredit anything that it does not have a proof for.  (4) They say that science ignores ethics.  (5) They say that the ordinary person has no use for science.  (6) They say that knowledge is no good.  Too much knowledge is bad.  (7) They say that human scientific knowledge is outpacing human ethical reasoning.  (8) Some say that even though science has had big successes in the past 500 years it is not the only way to think about life, and that the arts are still useful.	7/12/2001

Science.	Problems with science: cold, impersonal, lacks ethics, lack of emotion.  Problems of lack of science: too emotional, not enough reason.	12/30/1992

Science.	Progressivism and science.  Progressive scientists get involved and speak out for Progressive views.	5/5/2007

Science.	Progressivism and science.  Scientists should think about politics and be active in politics.  For example, the Union of Concerned Scientists.	4/15/2007

Science.	Pseudo-science views.  Their adherents main argument is that science does not know everything.  Channelling.  ESP.  Seeing into the future: trances, dreams.  Possession.  Past lives.  Being able to move objects with mind.  Out of body experiences and travel.  Near death experiences.  Interference of the spirit world in our lives.  Speaking to the dead.  De ja vu.  Witches (alive).  Ghosts (dead).  Astrology.	07/05/1997

Science.	Pseudo-science.  Astrology is baloney.  Scorpios get discriminated against.  People feel frightened of scorpios for no good reason.  To make one sign out of the zodiac a poisonous animial, feared and reviled by many, is discriminatory.	10/05/1997

Science.	Pseudo-science.  Astrology.  The seasons affect our emotions.  And newborns are especially sensitive.  Astrology's so-called effect on our personality could be due to the sequence of seasons through out the formative years.	10/05/1997

Science.	Questions for sciences.  (1) What's known.  Facts.  Experimental proof.  How sure, arguments, evidence.  (2) What's theorized.  Concepts/theories.  Philosophical/logical proof.  How firmly believed.	12/30/1992

Science.	Related subjects, effects of and on.  (1) Sociology: society's perception of important of science.  (2) Psychology: type of personality that makes a good scientist.  (3) Religion: religion opposed to science, and science opposed to religion.  (4) Art: traditional dichotomy of reason and emotion.  (5) Tech: science evolves from technology, technology evolves from science.  (6) Economics: science enhances economics, and economics enhances science.  (7) Math: science laws quantified.  Data gathered quantified.  Measurement theory.	12/30/1992

Science.	Related subjects.  (1) Science and individual.  (2) Science and society.  Public funding of sciences.  Degree the public believes in the scientific method vs. degree public believes in magic.  (3) Science and ethics.  Scientists need to take ethical stands.  Science should not be 100% free of ethics.	6/20/2004

Science.	Related subjects.  Technology and science.  Development of science and technology is not linear, one affects other.	12/30/1992

Science.	Related subjects.  Technology and science.  Techniques used in science (especially latest and classic).  Techniques that evolve from our scientific knowledge gains (especially latest and most important).	12/30/1992

Science.	Relationships of specific sciences.  Hierarchy of sciences.  In order to understand society, understand psychology, understand biology, understand chemistry, understand physics.  Things exist together at once, not as separate sciences.	12/30/1992

Science.	Religion and science.  (1) One pro-science view is that there is a scientific (biological) cause of religious tendencies in man.  (2) Another pro-science view is that if you believe in some kind of divine and if you ignore science then you are ignoring the world the divine made.	7/12/2001

Science.	Science is necessary but not sufficient because philosophy and art are also required to understand the world.	5/10/2007

Science.	Science is one of the best ways to acquire truth.  Truth has many uses.  Truth is intimately connected to justice.  Truth helps us develop technology.	7/12/2001

Science.	Should government fund the sciences?  If science provides knowledge, and knowledge is power, and government is about power, then government must confront science.	7/12/2001

Science.	Should private corporations be forced to make their scientific discoveries public?  Practically speaking, they are forced to when they apply for patents.	7/12/2001

Science.	Some people say there is an scientific explanation for both art and religious behaviors.	12/1/2001

Science.	Some scientists are good at thinking up experiments to do.  Some scientists are good at analyzing and explaining experimental results.	1/6/1999

Science.	Some scientists ignore at their peril the following: (1) Anything that cannot be quantified.  (2) Anything that cannot have an experiment designed for it.  (3) Talking about emotions, words, or the humanities.	4/22/1999

Science.	Study of x.  Questions for all x.  Questions for all sciences.  Questions for all philosophy.	12/30/1992

Science.	Terms.  Hypothesis: a guess.  Theory: an explanation; descriptive/explanatory theories vs. proscriptive/normative theories.  Law: accepted theory (increasingly confirmed, substantiated, evidence).  Explore and discovery.  Fact: proven hypothesis.  Application.  Proof, disproof, lack of proof.  Truth, lies.  Knowledge, ignorance.  Skepticism.  Doubt vs. belief.  Fact vs. conjecture, hypothesis, belief.	12/30/1992

Science.	There are some things we think don't exist that do exist.  There are things that are real that humans don't know about yet, that we have yet to discover, due to our incomplete knowledge. But there are also some things we think exist that do not exist, because we are mistaken in some of our views.	7/30/2005

Science.	Think of scientific experiments to perform in all areas of knowledge.  (1) Sociology.  The interview call.  (2) Cognitive science.  The insect brain.  The fish brain.  (3) Physics.  Drop a brick to observe gravity.  (4) Biology.  Collect and classify specimens of living organisms.  (5) Chemistry.  Collect and classify specimens of materials.  Isolate elements.  Develop synthetic and analytic techniques.	1/6/1999

Science.	Trends.  Hot areas: biochemistry, neuroscience, computers.  Cold areas: political science, economics, sociology.	01/06/1997

Science.	Trends.  Most interesting areas of the sciences.  (1) Astronomy: origin and fate of universe.  (2) Physics: quantum theory (small) and relativity theory (big).  (3) Biology: evolutionary theory, origins of life, especially of humans, especially of consciousness, and language.  How far and fast can we develop?  (4) Ecology: save the earth.	06/10/1993

Science.	Trends.  The big questions in science.  (1) Biology: evolutionary theory, human evolution, consciousness, reason, language, genetic engineering.  (2) Physics: quantum, relativity, nature of matter, energy, space, time.  (3) Astronomy: origins and ends of universe.  (4) Chemistry: fusion, new materials, bio-chemistry, artificial life.  (5) Computer science: networking.	12/30/1995

Science.	Two important things.  (1) Science changes technology and thus society and psychology.  (2) Science changes our conception of metaphysical reality and thus our ethics.	12/30/1992

Science.	Two questions: To what extent can and should an individual apply the scientific method in their daily life?  To what extent should an individual know about the scientific method and the specific sciences?  Some answers: To the extent that the individual finds science interesting?  To the extent that the individual can understand and absorb the information?	7/12/2001

Science.	Understanding causal relationships without leaving out or making mistakes in causes and/or effects.	12/30/1992

Science.	What does and doesn't pass as science in a culture?  (1) Due to it being considered philosophy.  (2) Due to it being considered pseudosience.  (3) Due to it being considered myth magic or religion.	12/30/1992

Science.	What is science?  (1) Science is inductive reasoning.  (2) Science is a division of epistemology.  (3) Science is a refinement of thinking.  (4) Science is public knowledge: jury of peers with professional reputations on the line (economic survival promotes competition and therefore justice); experiments can be repeated successfully.  (5) Science is a way of thinking to describe, explain, predict.	12/30/1992

Science.	What is science?  (1) Some people consider science to be a part of epistemology, which is part of philosophy.  Science is a method of inquiry.  (2) Some people consider science to be a part of psychology.  (But psychology itself is suppossed to be a science.)  Science as a method of thinking.	12/6/2005

Science.	What is science?  Almost all people use a type of scientific method in everyday life, yet we do not call them scientists.  If science is a method rather than a job description then it does not refer only to professional scientists or even amateur scientists but also to everyday uses of the scientific method by ordinary people.	4/17/2001

Science.	What is science?  Important scientific principles can be proven by very simple demonstrations using ordinary items like a straw, cup and napkin.  Complexity is not required.	4/17/2001

Science.	What is science?  Science is:  Based on reason.  Based on logic.  Based on empirical observation.  Based on evidence.  Based on argument.	6/22/2004

Science.	What is science?  Three ways to define science.  (1) Science as a method.  The scientific method.  (2) Science as a standard.  That is, not pseudo-science, and not superstition.  (3) Science as a subject matter.  That is, not philosophy, and not art.	1/1/2006

Science.	What.  (1) Science as opposed to technology (pure knowledge vs. practical applications).  (2) Science as opposed to philosophy (experiment vs. argument).  (3) Science as opposed to religion (reason vs. belief).  (4) Science as opposed to art (exact, literal vs. figurative, metaphorical).	4/17/2001

Science.	What.  Common definitions of science: (1) Repeatable experiments.  (2) Falsifiable theories.  (3) Public publishing of results.	4/17/2001

Science.	What.  Rough definition.  Philosophy can be accomplished simply by thinking.  Science requires that we do something.  The experiment is a physical activity.	1/6/1999

Science.	What.  Science is about instruments.  How much could we know about the world without instruments?  Are not our eyes instruments?  Are not our brains instruments?	11/30/1999

Science.	What.  Science is ever current, ever new, due to new situations, new data, new problems, new phenomenon, new theories, and new facts.	12/30/1992

Science.	What.  Science is often a political power thing concerned with what do I want to prove (to further my interests), and how can I prove it.  Science is often not an open minded thing.	04/21/1993

Science.	What.  Standards.  (1) What counts as "science" vs. "pseudo-science".  (2) What counts as "good science" vs. "not as good science".	6/20/2004

Science.	What.  Standards.  The nature of science is this: A theory is considered "good science" until a better theory comes along, and then the old theory becomes "bad science" and the new theory becomes "good science".	4/17/2001

Science.	What.  Standards.  What qualifies as science and what does not qualify as science?  Many unwitting quacks and scheming charlatans use (faulty) logic and (poor) experimental design.  Thus, science is defined not just by a method but also by a standard.	4/17/2001

Science.	Why is science important, why do science (purpose)?  Knowledge is power, knowledge is health.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	.See also symbolic thinking, and concept formation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	.This section is about linguistic meaning.  Topics include: ( ) Definition.  ( ) Meaning.  ( ) Semantics.  ( ) Types of meaning.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) "Truth" is a relatively simple concept.  "Meaning" is a much richer concept than "Truth".  (2) Meaning is context dependent.  (3) Meaning of an idea in your head vs. Meaning of a sentence that you write to try to describe an idea that is in your head.  (4) Types of meaning.  Meaning of a sentence.  Meaning of a facial expression.  Meaning of a dance.  Meaning of a picture.  (5) What does X mean vs. what does X say or what does X communicate.  (6) People often "mean" one thing yet say another thing.	6/23/2002

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) All the meanings (definitions) of the word "meaning".  (A) Meaning in language.  Meaning of letters or sounds, words, sentences, etc.  (B) Meaning of objects to people.  (C) Meaning of people to people.  (D) Meaning of visual arts and music.  That is, non-language meaning.  (2)(A) Meaning of language.  (B) Meaning of symbols.  (C) Meaning of anything (what x means to me).  (3) Meaning (semantics) is separate from grammar.  (4) "What does New York mean to you?", involves emotions, memories, drives, and thoughts.  (5) What does a person mean when they scream?  Nothing?  (6) I'm for a deflationary, reductionist, "no-theory" theory of meaning.  (7) Meaning evolves out of sensory input, memory, and association (to stand for).  (8)(A) Language, and communication in general, is a trait of social animals.  Human language and animal language is an evolutionary adaptation.  It is a symbol system (including grammar) where one things stands for another.  (B) Types of languages: sign language, semaphore, Morse code, computer languages, body language.  (C) Evolution of languages: first single words for specific objects.  Then words for abstract groups and classes.  Then words for abstract ideas like freedom and liberty.  Then groups of words formed into sentences with the use of grammar.  (9) One view holds that there is no meaning, only thought.  (10)  "What does x mean to you" equals "what you think and feel and remember about x".  (11) Meaning is a byproduct of thinking beings.  People think with language.  See Fodor's mentalese.  (12) Meaning is a byproduct of intentional beings.  Therefore, anything manmade will have meaning to it.  (13)(A) Social meaning is a contract or agreement among people.  (B) Personal meaning, see Wittgenstein's private language argument.  (14) To study language and meaning, study human language evolution, animal communication, child language acquisition, and computer imaging technology such as MRI and CAT scans for language areas of the brain.	7/26/1998

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) Language and problems of thought.  (2) Language and problems of communication.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) Meaning as when one thing stands for another thing.  However, one thing can be associated with many things.  Can one thing ever be associated with only one other thing?	8/31/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) Meaning is speaker dependent.  The meaning of a word or sentence depends on the speaker.  Meaning is what the speaker says.  (2) Meaning is listener dependent.  The meaning of a word or sentence depends on the listener.  Meaning is what the listener hears.  (3) Meaning is context dependent.  (A) Verbal context.  The meaning of a word or sentence depends on the surrounding words and sentences.  (B) Physical context.  The meaning of a word or sentence depends on the physical environment or situation in which the conversation place.	12/11/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) One view holds that everything has meaning.  Even things you see for the first time, you say "This reminds me of that".  Even nonsense words start to take on meaning, especially when they are repeated.  (2)(A) The human mind has a natural tendency to ascribe meaning to things.  (B) And without minds present nothing has a meaning in and of itself.  (3) Meaning systems exist where one thing has meaning only in relation to another.  This is an example of meaning holism.  (4) The above discussion of meaning is oriented toward the language definition of meaning, which is completely different from the use of meaning as in the sentence "What gives her life meaning?", which refers to meaning as purpose.  (5) How meaning (and language) evolved.  (A) Nouns.  Naming of specific concrete objects.  (B) Naming of groups of objects, that is, the abstract notion of classes.  (C) Naming of abstract ideas like freedom and liberty, which evolved from specific cases.  (D) Verbs, adverbs, adjectives.	7/27/1998

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) The meaning of a word.  Two views.  (A) The meaning of a word is due to a naming or dubbing event (Kripke).  (B) The meaning of a word is in its use (Wittgenstein).  (2) The meaning of a sentence.  (A) The meaning of a sentence is due in part to the meaning of the individual words in the sentence.  This is the concept of compositionality.  (B) The meaning of a sentence is due in part to grammar.  Grammar is the set of rules that determines word order.  (C) The meaning of a sentence is due in part to the context surrounding the sentence.	12/11/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) The meaning of every single word in the dictionary is disputed.  There are always competing definitions for every single word.  (2) Therefore, the entire dictionary is disputed.  That is a sobering thought.  (3) Therefore, the meaning of every sentence in every book ever written is disputed.  (4) Its all up for grabs.  Go figure.	7/18/2002

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) There is no such thing as a dictionary definition, only encyclopedia entries.  There is no such thing as encyclopedia entries, only entire libraries.  There is no such thing as entire libraries, only everything ever thought and said on a topic.  (2) One cannot give a definition of a specific person.  One can only describe a person.  So it is with words.  One cannot define a word.  One can only describe a word.	8/15/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) Three types of meaning: meaning of ideas, of words, and of physical objects or actions.  (2) No two individuals share the exact same meanings for words.  (3) Meaning of words constantly changes for individual, as well as for society.  (4) No two different words have exactly the same meaning.  (5) And no two different actual uses of the same word have the same meaning.  Meaning of word changes with context in which it is used.	11/08/1993

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1) Words and their meanings are arbitrary.  (2) Humans assign meanings to words.  (3) Meanings of words can change.  (4) Meaning is context dependent.  (5) Therefore every use of a word means a slightly different thing.	7/30/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1)(A) If a human being (or any thinking being) is present, then everything has meaning.  Each thing always refers to, or is associated with, or reminds you of, something else.  (B) If no thinking being is present, then nothing has meaning.  (2) Reference.  Nothing ever refers to, or stands for, something else exactly.  There are always minor differences.	7/28/1998

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	(1)(A) Objective theories of meaning.  Meaning exists apart from individuals.  Example, Plato's view of meaning as an ideal form.  (B) Subjective theories of meaning.  Meaning as intrinsic to the individual.  Example, literary theory views of meaning.  (2) Meaning is to a degree unique for each person, and meaning is also to some degree shared by people.  (3) Meaning is unique for each context and situation.  (4) People don't "mean" anything when they speak, as much as they want, hope, and expect, which are all just intentional psychological states.  (5) People say "mean" when they actually mean "intend".  To say, "I meant to do x, but I did y instead", is an example of "mean" used as "intend".  Intending is about intentionality and will.	7/26/1998

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Ambiguity and vagueness.  (1) Ambiguity: more than one meaning possible.  (2) Vagueness: any meaning is not clear.	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Ambiguity and vagueness.  Two problems.  Calling the same thing by different names (ambiguity?).  Calling different things by the same name (vagueness?).	11/20/2001

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Ambiguity vs. exactness.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition: (1) Say what it is, say all that it is.  (2) Say what it isn't, say all that it isn't.  (3) Say its relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  A definition can answer any combo of "x in general" questions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  A definition is an explanation or example.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  A totally true, totally complete definition is a re-creation of reality.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Complete definition vs. incomplete definitions.  Anything ever thought/written/experienced/acted about x.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Extended definitions: you can write a book for any word in the dictionary.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Forming definitions.  Getting words (ideas) straight, precise, agreed on, clearer.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Individual definitions.  (1) Most commonly accepted definition and why.  (2) Commonly unaccepted definitions and why.  (3) Most logical definitions.  (4) Most useful definitions and words.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Majority definition vs. minority definitions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Say what it is, and what it is not.  Inclusion and exclusion.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definition.  Types of definitions.  Simple/complex.  Short/long.  Narrow/broad.  Strict definitions/broad definitions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definitions: the 2 minute, 5 minute, and 10 minute explanation for a thing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definitions.  (1) A good definition.  Logically structured.  Contains all main/important ideas.  Leaves out minor/unimportant ideas.  (2) A bad definition: is opposite.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Definitions.  To say what something is, you have to say its relationships, and thus describe everything.  Therefore to describe an element in a system you must describe the system.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Disputes about x.  Disputes about words about x.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Equivalent symbols can replace each other without meaning loss.  If any meaning is lost, they are not equivalent.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Expressing emotion vs. expressing thought.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Grammar: refinement of word order adds to meaning.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Language is a code taught by each of us, and learned by each of us.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning consists of ideas represented by symbols.  Objects have no meanings in and of themselves.	2/4/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning is influenced by tone: timbre, pitch, speed.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning varies (1) From person to person.  (2) With tone.  (3) In every different sentence used.  (4) If same sentence, with every paragraph (written context).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning, types of.  (1) Language meaning.  Meaning of natural languages.  Meaning of words, sentences and texts.  (2) Symbolic meaning.  Meaning of symbols generally.  Semiotics.  Math symbols.  Logic symbols.  (3) Meaning of music.  Meaning of visual images.  Gestures.  Film.  (4) Meaning of sender or author.  Meaning of receiver or reader.  (5) Meaning of actions by people.  Meaning of events of nature.  (6) Animal communication.  Meaning of animal noises and movements.	1/1/2004

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning: definition of a word.  Reference: applying a word to an object.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning: what does x mean?  Causes and effects (implications).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning: what you associate it with.  (1) Personal meaning.  The word means nothing to him.  (2) Personal momentary meaning.  At that moment the word meant nothing to him.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning.  (1) Distinguish between meaning vs. meaningless on the word level and sentence level.  (2) Grammatically incorrect sentences vs. semantically meaningless sentences.  (3) Meaninglessness within a context of a paragraph, conversation or situation.  (4) Meaning vs. truth.  You can have meaningful yet untrue sentences.  (6) Meaning in ordinary language, logic statements, math statements and computer languages.  (7) If a statement is true then it must be meaningful.  Meaning is necessary for truth.  (8) Truth applies only to statement.  The statements can occur in ordinary language, math, logic or computer languages.	3/5/2001

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning.  Words are symbols of things and ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Meaning. (1) Personal meaning: based on all experiences and/or uses.  (2) Group meaning: much narrower, or more general.  (3) Universal meaning?: human race?  (4) Dictionary meaning.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	New ideas yield new words or word combonations.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Percent of time, and degree of accuracy, you understand other person.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Problem: one word having different definitions for each individual.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Relationship of logic and language.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Relationship of spoken and written language.  (1) A spoken word is a sound symbol for a thing.  (2) A written word is a visual symbol(s) for a thing (ex. Pictograms).  (3) A written word is a visual symbol for a sound (ex. Alphabetic).  I.e. a symbol for a symbol.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Semantics.  (1) Every word used in every different sentence, and used in every different context (the entire piece), and used in every different situation (time and place), and used by every different speaker, has a slightly different meaning.  (2) It has a slightly different meaning as used by speaker.  And has a slightly different meaning as heard by listener.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Semantics.  (1) Total number of ideas in an society.  (2) How ideas are expressed: as single word, multiple words, or multiple phrases.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	So how and how much do we understand ourselves and others?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Symbolism.  Everything is a symbol for every other thing in its class?	03/26/1994

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Take two ideas, X and Y.  To say, X means Y is the same as saying:  (1) X equals Y.  (2) X is similar to Y.  (less strict).  (4) X is associated with Y.  (less strict).  (4) X causes Y.  (5) X means Y to me.  All associated memories.	2/4/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Thought, word, and object.  Triple agreement within a person, and between people, is important for thinking and for communicating.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Tone and meaning.  (1) Pitch: high/low, rising/falling.  (2) Timbre: rough/smooth.  (3) Speed: fast/slow, legato/staccato/obligato?  (4) Vowels vs. consonants.  (5) Melody vs. rhythm.  (6) Cries vs. shouts.  (7) (See poetry).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	True vs. false.  Simple vs. complex.  Complete vs. incomplete.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Two big problems.  (1) For X idea or thing: when person A calls it Y, and person B calls it Z.  (2) For X word: when it means Y to person A, and it means Z to person B. (3) These two problems can combine:  X person means idea A and says word B, and then Y person hears word B and thinks of idea C.  This happens all the time, with everyone, and with every word.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Two problems: One word having many definitions.  And one definition having many words.  Solution: one word having one meaning.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Types of meaning.  (1) Concrete meaning: when a word refers to an object.  (2) Abstract meaning: when a word refers to other words.	5/22/2002

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Types of meaning.  (1) Meaning of words.  (2) Meaning of objects.  (3) Meaning of actions.	5/22/2002

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Types of meaning.  Words need to have meaning or else they are just nonsense words.  Objects and actions don't need to have meanings, they only need to have causes.	5/22/2002

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Various meanings of the word "is".  (1) "A is B" can mean "A is a type of B" (ex. Socrates is a man).  (2) "A is B" can also mean "B is an attribute of A" (ex. Snow is white).	7/1/2006

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	We define words with other words.  In a circle.  Holistically.	4/20/2001

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	What do we mean when we say "x means y".  Do you know what I mean = do you understand me.  Understanding = shared meanings.  What do we mean when we say "x understands y".	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	What is the meaning of meaning?  What is the problem with meaning?  How is meaning stored in the brain?	2/4/2005

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Words.  "And".  The problem with commas and "and" is that you can't tell if the final term is related to the second to last term.  Examples...	12/30/1996

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Words.  "Or".  Semantic troubles with.  (1) The problem with "or" is you can't tell if it means "both" (either or) or "one or the other".	12/30/1996

Sociology, communication, language, meaning.	Words.  "Or".  Two uses of the word "or".  (1) The word "or" used to state a new idea.  For example, you can have pie or cake.  (2) The word "or" used to restate a concept.  For example, she said "bonjour" or "hello".  (3) How can you base a language and a mind on that kind of basic conceptual confusion?	7/12/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	.Introduction or summary of language topics.  (1) Development of language: in humans, in specific languages, and in specific individuals.  (2) Mind and language.  Thought and language.  Psycholinguistics.  (3) Naming.  Reference.  (4) Obscenity.  (5) Slang.  (6) World language.  (7) Writing.  (8) Semiotics.  Symbolism.  (9) Semantics.  Meaning.  (10) Syntax and Grammar.  (11) Translation and interpretation.  (12) Definitions.  Dictionaries.  Encyclopedias.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	.This section is about various other thoughts on language.  Topics include: ( ) Development of language.  In individual, society, and humankind.  ( ) Interpretation.  ( ) Language acquisition (in an individual).  ( ) Language change (in a society).  ( ) Mind and language.  ( ) Naming.  ( ) Obscenity.  ( ) Philosophy of language.  ( ) Slang.  ( ) Translation.  ( ) World language.  Universal language.  ( ) Writing.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) How many vocabulary words are necessary for a basic understanding of a language?  1000 words?  5000 words?  (2) How many vocabulary words are necessary for fluent understanding of a language?  10,000 words?  20,000 words?	12/6/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) How simple or complex a language is (how easy to learn).  (2) How efficient it is.  (3) How subtle and refined it is.  Number and structure of categories.  (4) How flexible a language is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) Letters.  A letter is a written symbol.  (2) Words.  A word is a sequence of letters.  Not just any sequence, rather, only specific sequences of letters form words.  (3) Sentences.  A sentence is a sequence of words.  Not just any sequence of words, rather only specific sequences of words form sentences.  (4) A word is also a sound.  Or a sequence of phonemes.	7/1/2006

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) Semiotics = study of communication.  (2) A group of related symbols = text, discourse, or literature (even if they are in visual arts or natural environment.  Ex. Text of beach = umbrellas, sand, sun tan oil, babes).	02/07/1994

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) Words.  Its all about words.  What is philosophy but talking about words?  (2) What things are as yet un-named?  What things are as yet undescribed?  New things without names.  New things not yet put into words.  (3) Thinking with words versus thinking without words.  Feelings often have no names.  Each thought has a nameless feeling attached.	12/16/2006

Sociology, communication, language.	(1) Worth of a single statement (% truth x % importance).  (2) Worth of a combination of statements.  Power can increase in combinations (Ex. Five tenets of Darwinism).  Sum is greater than parts.	12/30/1995

Sociology, communication, language.	Acquisition.  (1) If animals do not have language, then how do they think?  Poorly?  (2) In humans, language developed after our vocal cords changed, and language in turn shapes our brains?  What was the order of development of each?  All at once?	9/20/1998

Sociology, communication, language.	Acquisition.  (1) Language acquisition in children.  Is it purely innate vs. is it purely learned?  How much of each is it?  (2) Language acquisition in adults: why is it tough to learn, especially accents?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Acquisition.  How fast an individual can learn a language.  How many languages an individual can learn.  Best ways to learn a language.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Acquisition.  Learning a language.  (1) Learn the phonemes and pronunciation.  (2) Learn the vocabulary: basic to subtle, important to unimportant.  (3) Learn the spelling.  (4) Learn the grammar: cases, tenses, gender.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Acquisition.  Results of language acquisition studies.  (1) It is easier to learn a language as a child, before age six.  (2) There appears to be an innate universal grammar structure, or so says Chomsky, based in part on experiments of children's grammar mistakes.	9/20/1998

Sociology, communication, language.	Art language vs. practical language vs. everyday language.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Both Wittgenstein and Sapir-Whorf thought that languages limit thought.  However, if you can create new words to describe new concepts then how can there be any limit?  Language does not limit worlds, language creates worlds.	6/12/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Change and development in languages (historical change), both in society and in individual.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Change and development of languages in the world.  (1) Origin.  (2) Change.  (A) Change on own.  (B) Influence of other languages and societies.  (C) Increase in usage vs. decrease in usage.  (D) Increase in complexity, and practicality.  (3) Death of a language.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Change.  History of language: (1) In humans.  (2) A specific language.  (3) In an individual.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Change.  Language change.  New words form, and old words die.  Changes in pronunciation: vowels, consonants.  Changes in grammar.  Changes in spelling.  Changes in writing style.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Change.  Language history: rise and fall, or spread and shrinkage, of languages and language families.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Creativity and language.  (1) Some people are creative with language.  Artists, poets and people who use slang are people who use language creatively.  They make new words, new meanings for words, new grammatical constructions, etc.  (2) Other people are language purists, literalists and formalists.  Those who use language more precisely include mathematicians, logicians, philosophers and scientists.	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Development of language (and thinking).  (1) Development of the ability of talking about the past and future.  Discussing one's wants, hopes and probabilities.  (2)  Development of the ability of talking about hypotheticals (might have been, might be, etc.) and contingencies.	11/18/2001

Sociology, communication, language.	Development of language in humans.  Things heard before the naming of people: "How are...you...today?"  "How's old so and so?"	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Development of language in the human species.  (1) Primitive (simple) words were combined to make complex words (and qualified words).  For example, "Go" yielded both "walk" and "run".  (2) Primitive sentences combined to make complex sentences.  (3) Primitive paragraphs (ex. bare bones syllogisms) combined to yield complex paragraphs.	4/11/2000

Sociology, communication, language.	Development of language.  The naming of all the things.  How did people speak before the names, or before most things were named?  Were the words "stuff", "thing", "this" or "that" among the first names?  How did people think before the names, or before most things were named?  How did the naming of things like emotions proceed?	11/18/2001

Sociology, communication, language.	Development of language.  Two basic concepts.  Two basic gestures.  Two basic vocal expressions.  (1) Acceptance.  Arms pull in.  "Come here."  (2) Rejectance.  Arms push away.  "Go away."	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Development.  How did language evolve in humans?  What impact did the development of language have on humans?	4/24/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	English.  Making English more phonetic.  Making English more standardized.  Weeding out the exceptions to the rules.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	How complex is any specific language?  How many words are in the average speaker's vocabulary?  How many meanings are there per word, on average?  How many possible meaningful grammatical constructions are there?	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Humans did not invent language.  Humans did not discover language.  Humans simply acquired the ability to talk, over a long period of time, millions of years ago, through the process of evolution.	3/20/2007

Sociology, communication, language.	Hypotheticals.  A language where you assign the most frequently used concepts to the shortest words.  And you use all letter combinations to create words, from shortest to longest.	8/2/1999

Sociology, communication, language.	Hypotheticals.  A language where you have one word for one concept, with no homophones (same word having different meanings).	8/2/1999

Sociology, communication, language.	Hypotheticals.  Imagine a language with only one consonant and one vowel.  Or one noun and one verb.  Or a universe where only two things exist and one action can take place.	11/08/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Idea development in an individual or society.  Corresponding word(s) development.  Corresponding written word(s) development.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Imagine two groups of people who speak the same language with the exception of different company names and product brand names.  Person 1: "I went to Krogers to get some Surf."  Person 2: "I went to Waldbaums to get some Tide."  How would their perceptions of reality differ?	7/6/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation and translation.  Is it ever the case that a person does not understand their own conscious verbal thoughts?  That is, does a person interpret their own thoughts?  If all communication involves interpretation; and if thinking is communication with the self; then perhaps a person interprets their own thoughts.	12/11/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation or translation.  In the same way that there is automated translation from one modern language to another by using Internet web pages like Babelfish, so to should there be automated translation of ancient texts written in languages no longer spoken to modern languages.  This is useful because as a language changes texts become unreadable unless there is translation across time as well as space.	10/16/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation.  A translator is also known as an interpreter.  Translation and interpretation are the same.  Translation and interpretation always occur, whether its between texts written in two different languages or words spoken between two different people.	6/29/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation.  All communication is interpreted.  People interpret between different languages.  Even in the same language, interpretation takes place between two speakers.  (1) People interpret at the word level.  People interpret at the sentence level.  People interpret at the paragraph level.  (2) Word meanings change from person to person, and from place to place.  Different people have different conceptions of any given word, and thus interpretation between people must take place.  (3) At any given time, words can have multiple meanings, thus interpretation must take place.  (4) Word meanings change through time, thus interpretation must take place.  (5) Written texts are always interpreted.  Spoken words are always interpreted.  Non-verbal communication is always interpreted.	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation.  Translation is a sub-problem of interpretation?  Interpreting human thought, communication, and action.  Every action communicates among other things.	09/15/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Interpretation.  Translation.  Whenever you change the language (not content) of your message in order to take into account your audience's language system, i.e. whenever you "put it in words they can understand", you are translating.	09/01/1994

Sociology, communication, language.	Is it communication?  Five strange cases.  (1) Thinking to self, or talking out loud to no one.  (2) Communication from the dead (ex. books by dead people).  (3) Communication to the unborn (ex. a letter to your descendants).  (4) Deduction from unconscious behaviors of others.  Are they communicating to you?  (5) Writing yourself a note and reading it years later.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Jargon.  (1) There is an unconscious natural human predisposition to form tribes that speak their own languages.  Examples of this phenomenon are the following: medical-ese, business-speak, political-ese, sports-talk, academia-ese, guilds and gangs.     (2) People have a bio-engineered, hardwired instinct to form groups, teams or tribes.  Humans have an instinct to be team players, to be loyal.     (3) Humans have an instinct to form their own languages with their own vocabularies and dialects.  They have an instinct, which is not conscious or deliberate, to form their own jargons.     (4) There are several reasons why: (A) They want to impress outsiders through obfuscation.  (B) They want to confuse and mystify outsiders.  (C) They want to appear big, like the wizard of Oz.  (D) They want to protect their secret knowledge.  (E) They want to build a verbal wall or barrier to separate themselves from others.  They want to create an in-group and an out-group.  (F) They want to hide or camouflage their averageness and mediocrity.     (5) In order to do the above, the group talks in code and euphemism instead of plainspeak.  The slang of gangs; the secret passwords and handshakes of frats and business groups; the esoterica of the masons; and the jargon of academic "schools" all have the above same things in common.	8/20/2000

Sociology, communication, language.	Kerouac's type of argument: it doesn't matter what you say, as long as you get your meaning across.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Language change.  There are study aids that translate Shakespeare into modern English.  (1) Words have life spans.  We can see when words are born, become popular, fade from popular use and then are no longer used.  (2) Word meanings have life spans.  We can see how various meanings of a word emerge, catch on, fade and perish.  (3) Language change is fostered, in part, by geographic isolation.  Therefore, it is possible that a worldwide language will result in words and word meanings with longer shelf lives.	11/12/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Language extinction.  What is lost when a language goes extinct?  Can languages be saved?  Can languages be saved by having a record of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar?  Can languages be saved by having sound recordings of speakers?	4/26/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Language is about words and sentences.  Language is also about meaning and reference.  Meaning is about the relationship between words and the ideas or concepts the words stand for.  Meaning is mental or internal.  Meaning is an arbitrary agreement.  Reference is the relationship between words and the external objects the words stand for.  (2) A word can be meaningful or not.  A word cannot be true or false.  A sentence can be meaningful or not.  A sentence can be true or false.  (3) Using the narrow meaning of reference, concrete words refer to concrete objects.  Abstract words refer to nothing.  Abstract words mean abstract ideas or concepts.  (4) The ordinary speaker makes no distinction between meaning and reference.  The ordinary speaker uses the word meaning for both meaning and reference.  That is, for the words connection to the physical object and the words connection to the idea of the object.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Language is the consistent use of one thing to symbolize another.	11/20/2001

Sociology, communication, language.	Linguistics, general topics.  (1) Language: spoken and written.  (2) Verbal communication.  Tone: timbre, pitch.  Dynamics, amplitude.  Staccato and legatto. (3) Word choice and grammar choice.  (4) Pronunciation, dialects, style.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Mind.  How well can we think without language?  How well can we communicate without language?	12/01/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Mind.  Is language needed to think abstractly?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Mind.  Relationship of thought and language.  Is thought silent language?  Is thought without language possible?  Is thought without image possible?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Names.  I have no name.  Names are arbitrary.  Names are necessary evils, helpful tools.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  (1) People should name themselves.  (2) Any word, any symbol, should be allowed as a name.	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  Humans name physical objects.  Humans name abstract ideas too.  Every instance of word creation is an instance of naming.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  It should be your right to choose your own name.  For that reason, having a nickname cast on you by others is offensive.  Nicknames are often a power play, used by those who want to label other people.  You determine your name.	6/11/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  Name Zen.  (1) The names of humans are arbitrary social conventions.  You are not your name.  No one has a name.  (2) The names of non-human objects are arbitrary social conventions.  The thing is not its name.  Nothing has a name.  (3) In fact, the same argument can be made for all words.  All words are arbitrary social conventions.  Even abstract words which denote ideas are arbitrary social conventions.  (4) In a Zen way, see things before their names were given.  See yourself before your name was given.	10/8/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  Only when an idea is deemed important enough does it get its own word.	9/8/1998

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  PART ONE.  Naming of things (like climbs, people, etc.).  To name a climb (or person) is (1) To claim ownership or possession.  To claim ownership to the rock vs. to claim ownership to the idea of the line and the moves.  (2) To assert what its metaphysical characteristics are.  (3) To assert what its associations are.  To call to mind other things.  Reminders.  (4) To have a public forum that lets you make metaphysical, epistemological, or ethical statements about anything.     PART TWO.  Types of climb names include (1) Statements about the climbs creator and his or her abilities.  Example: "I am a Bad Man" is a climb at Smith Rocks, Oregon.  (2) Statements about the qualities or characteristics of the route.  Geographic names like North Slab, or Thin Crack.  Names attesting to difficulty like Torture Chamber or Terminator.  (3) References to other things, like works of art such as literature (ex. No Exit), music (ex. Midnight Lightning), or visual art.  (4) Climb names rarely involve numbers (ex. X400), due perhaps to confusion with  rating system numbers.  (5) Honorarium names like "So and so's wall".  Memorium names say "remember this, never forget".     PART THREE. The names climbers give climbs are closer to the names abstract artists give works of art.  An artist makes a work of art, and gives it a name that strikes his or her fancy.  A name of what the artwork evokes rather than what it actually is.  Or a name reflecting what the artist had on his or her mind at the time of the creation of the work of art.  Not necessarily a name that describes the work of art.     PART FOUR.  The naming of climbs is unique from the naming of people, pets, cars, buildings, streets, etc.  (1) People usually get people names.  It was not till recently that people would name their kids Flower or Sunshine.  (2) Pets usually have personal "pet names".  We usually do not give pets people names like Harry or Sally.  We do not give them impersonal names though either.  (3) Names of racing horses usually are less personal and involve word play (puns).  (4) Names of boats also usually involve much punning.  (5) Few people name their houses, I wonder why.  (6) Automakers name cars, but no one names refrigerators.  (7) Street and building names are usually descriptive or memoriums.  There are certain popular street names like Main, Elm, Oak, Park, etc.	02/15/1997

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  People sometimes use nicknames as a way to put a label on you and try to gain power over you.  People should freely name themselves.	5/13/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Naming.  Sometimes I think I will change my name from Paul to Saul.  Except that I object to the name Saul as well as the name Paul.  I do not want a Christian, Jewish or Islamic name.  I don't want a religious name.  I do not want a white, black, red or yellow name.  I don't want a racial name.  I do not want a language-specific name that means something in one language but not another.	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity or "curse" words.  There are no intrinsically bad words.  Word meaning varies with use.  When someone tries to prevent you from saying a word they are trying to limit your speech and they are trying to limit your thought.  They are also trying to keep that word for themselves.  And on top of that, isn't the word "murder" worse than any word describing sexual intercourse?  So we see that the concept of "curse" words is fucked up.	10/12/2003

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity.  First they want to ban words as obscene.  Then they want to ban books as obscene.  Then they want to ban people as obscene (like they tried to ban Lenny Bruce).	10/26/2003

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity.  Some people spend their time denigrating other people without using obscenity.  Other people spend their time pursuing what's fucking wonderful in life.	11/2/2003

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity.  Taboo curse words are illogical.  It is illogical for a group to say "you can say this word but not that word".	10/25/1994

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity.  To say that saying the word "intercourse" is acceptable, but the word "fu*k", which means the same thing, is not acceptable, is illogical and idiotic.  The same with "feces" vs. "shit", and all other curse words.  To have taboo words is stupid.  Censorship of curse words is idiotic.  Obscenity is a concept that only applies to language used to degrade people.  To say the phrase, "the moronic "x" race", is obscenity without using curse words.	04/24/1997

Sociology, communication, language.	Obscenity.  When they start trying to tell you what words you can and cannot use, beware.  In that words express ideas, all words are good.  When they label particular words as obscene, ugly, sexual or dirty, beware.  When they say you can't say these words, beware.  They want to censor you.  They want to silence you.  They want to control you.  They want to limit your thought.  They want to control the conversation.	10/30/2003

Sociology, communication, language.	Of the number of words in the vocabulary of the average American, what percent are slang words and what percent are non-slang words found in the typical dictionary?	1/12/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Philosophy of any word or phrase.  It is more than semantics.  You go deeper than vocabulary definitions.  See dictionary vs. encyclopedia.	07/22/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Philosophy of language.  (1) One view: my world is limited by my vocabulary, or language, the words I know (ala Wittgenstein).  (2) An opposing view: all big words can be broken down into phrases of little words, so vocabulary does not limit what you can think or feel.  (3) A view in the middle: good vocabulary makes it easier to think.  Good vocabulary increases mental efficiency, and therefore increases the production of good new ideas.	11/20/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Philosophy of language.  Areas of philosophy of language.  Semantics.  Meaning of a word = what it refers to (reference).  Sense = ?  Content vs. form.  Explicit vs. implicit (assumptions, or hidden arguments) meaning.  Associative meaning: what does it remind you of?  Meaning of a "thing" can change through time.	08/15/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Philosophy of language.  The main philosophical, psychological, and sociological questions are (1) What is language?  (2) How does thought depend on language?  (3) What is communication? (4) Is communication possible?  (5) Can two people understand each other?  (6) Can one person understand themselves?	07/30/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Politics and language.  Spin.  The language itself is a political football.  Language is a tool for power grabbers.  People try to twist meanings to gain power.	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Questions about language.  (1) How did language evolve in humans?  (2) How does language work?  (3) Classify and compare all existing world languages.  (4) Discuss artificial languages like Esperanto.  (5) What are the most general language concepts?  (6) How does language work in the mind?  (7) How does language work in society?  (8) Discuss these terms: semiotics, information, communication, meaning, semantics, grammar, syntax.	3/18/2007

Sociology, communication, language.	Rating the languages.  (1) Ease of use, subtlety, and adaptability.  (2) Ease of learning, and vocabulary scope and depth.  (3) Accuracy, precision, and complexity.  (4) Conciseness (economy), range and subtlety.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Related subjects, effects of and on.  (1) Philosophy: of language.  (2) Scientific study: of language.  (3) Technology: of languages, mechanics.  (4) Art: of language, speaking and writing beautifully.  (5) Psychology: thinking, logic.  (6) Sociology: communication.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Slang as a way to express creativity.  It shows how smart you are, and how funny you are.	9/20/1998

Sociology, communication, language.	Slang is good if it adds expressiveness to language.  However, most slang is used as a stock repertoire of catch phrases and buzzwords that quickly become cliche'.  Thus, while slang increases the vocabulary available to a society by adding new words to a language, slang also tends to decrease the vocabulary of the individuals who use it.  Slang decreases the expressiveness of the individual.	10/28/2001

Sociology, communication, language.	Slang: (1) Slang as a way to create an identity, exclusivity, group membership, cult thinking.  (2) Slang as a way to rebel.  (3) Slang as a way to hide meaning, code talk.  (4) Slang as a way to empower yourself.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Stable words, meanings, and concepts vs. unstable words, meanings, and concepts.  In a person and among people, through time and space.	9/15/1998

Sociology, communication, language.	The future of language.  (1) Language change is inevitable.  Languages are never static, unless they are dead.  (2) Decrease in cultural isolation means fewer new languages are being born.  Many old languages are dying due to increases in cross-cultural contact and globalization.  (3) New words.  New physical things will get new names.  New ideas and attitudes will get new names.	11/20/2001

Sociology, communication, language.	The simple, basic, common sense views of language, meaning, truth, etc.     (1) Things physically exist.  We sense and perceive them.  We name them with words (concrete particulars).  We then make words about groups and classes (all x) (all x except y) of things, events, and relationships of things.  What order did humans start acknowledging and naming metaphysical things?  Abstractions (universals = a type of abstraction).  One word standing for a group of words.     (2) Meaning is when the words represent or stand for something.     (3) Truth is when the words represent or stand for something which actually exists, or is real.  What is so bad about this?  Where is the problem?  What is the complexity?  Where does it fail?  Vagueness, double meanings, etc.     (4) Knowledge is holding what is true.     (5) Grammar is the logic system of language?    (6) Definitions are different ways of saying, explaining, or showing what a word means.  Could and should we do away with the word "definition"?     (7) Semantics is the study of meaning.     (8) Language = grammar (logic) and meanings (semantics).  Language = communication through symbols (not signs or icons).     (9) In logic, the words "and, but, is, is not", are called operators.  In language they are called conjunctions.     (10) Noun, verb, adjective or adverb deal with object, action, and quality.     (11) Unify logic and math, logic and grammar, are they all the same?  Language = logic + meaning.  Language is the basis of all thought, communication, and philosophical argument.     (12) Spectrum of words from concrete and specific to abstract and general.  Classes and categories: kind, degree, and level.     (13) Semiotics is the study of communication, and language is a type of communication.     (14) Language can be grammatical but not meaningful.  Language can be logical but not grammatical.  Language can be meaningful but not logical or grammatical, etc., etc.     (15) The problems are when our philosophical arguments have logic, grammar, and meaning problems that we don't perceive but that fu*k us up.  We must clean it up.     (16) In ordinary language the meanings of words and phrases (and therefore conjunctions) are flexible and changing.  And change is healthy.  This sort of thing would screw logic.  Philosophical language is more formal, less flexible, less vague, with no double meanings.	09/13/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	Thinking and language.  The interior monologue (thinking) is as important as dialogue between people (communication).	4/26/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Thought and language.  Does language help other areas of mind besides thinking, such as memory and emotion?	4/26/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Thought and language.  How important is language for thought?  Is it true that humans think better by building their vocabulary or studying grammar?  Or is it the case that humans think better by developing the ability to direct our minds to new subjects, generate questions, generate possible answers, and argue for and against each answer?	4/26/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	Types of language.  The Fashion approach to classifying languages.  (1) Casual language:  Informal.  Used amongst friends.  (2) Business casual language:  Used in business situations.  (3) Semi-formal language:  For example, used in court cases and legal writing.  (4) Formal language:  Logically precise writing.  Used in symbolic logic.  (5) Lingerie language:  The intimate apparel of language.  Oohh.  Aahh.	12/11/2005

Sociology, communication, language.	What is the number of words in the vocabulary of the average American?  Is that number significantly more or less than in other languages?  (2) When can a person call oneself fluent in a language?  When one can negotiate everyday life?  Is it when you can speak as many words and sentences in the second language as your first language?  (3) How should one go about learning vocabulary?  By learning conversational words first?  Or by learning the most abstract, general words and then working toward the most concrete, specific words?	1/12/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	When can you say you have learned a language fluently, even your own native language?  (1) When you can order Chinese food. (2) When you can curse and swear.  (3) When you can spin an idiom.  (4) When you can spot an idiot.	11/23/2004

Sociology, communication, language.	Why speak?  What can be said?  What can be understood?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Working language: the language type and level you use every day or most often.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	World.  Lack of common language and measuring system is holding back the development of worldwide journals and government.  Nationalism in all areas (academia, etc.) must go.  Stop writing nationalistic survey books ("Best of American Literature", etc.).  Make it world scope.	11/02/1993

Sociology, communication, language.	World.  One language for the whole world.  How much would it help political peace and scientific advancement?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	World.  Universal language.  (1) Create a new one, or (2) Take the best words (concepts) from existing languages and combine them.  The latter is happening today anyway.	07/08/1994

Sociology, communication, language.	World.  Will the best of all languages be sifted out and melded together into one big world language?  This has been happening in English for years (bits of French, Latin, Greek, etc.).	05/10/1997

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing combines the visual and linguistic.  Glyphs.  Runes.  Hieroglyphics.  Chinese pictograms.  Japanese pictograms.	5/8/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing systems.  (1) Alphabetic: symbol represents the sound.  Ex. cuneiform.  (2) Pictograms: symbol represents the thing.  Exs. hieroglyphics, Chinese, Japanese.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Calligraphy is a mix of pictorial and non-pictorial.  In the same way, handwriting and printed type fonts always mix elements of pictorial and non-pictorial.	5/2/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Handwritten letters are a stand-in for people.  They help us feel socially connected and thus help us stay in balance psychologically.  They are a stand-in for people.  And they last; they are tangible and enduring.  Also, they force the writer to organize their thoughts, and to make a stand on their thoughts.  (2) With the phone age that we are in, letters are seen as too arduous to write.  And handwritten letters are seen as too intimate to write in most cases.  Letters are also seen as a paper trail.  For these reasons, most people avoid writing to others, and they also end up avoiding writing notes to themselves.  (3) But the phone call is too ephemeral, it doesn't last.  It is easier to forget a phone call, and to drift away from your own and others thoughts.  Thus people end up drifting aimlessly, alone.  This is the negative side of phone calls.  The positive side of phone calls is closeness it brings for short durations.  But then comes the long duration of absence between calls.	9/30/1996

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Historical development of writing in general, and the specific writing systems.  Mesopotamia, Egypt, China.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Importance of both reading and writing in the development of the individual and society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  In five thousand years these words may be unintelligible to speakers of future-English, due to vocabulary changes.  These words have a freshness date.  If I could draw a picture instead perhaps it would last longer.	3/16/2000

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Nature of the written word.  (1) Link of mind (thought) and spoken language.  Link of mind (thought) and written language.  (2) The thought of the thing is the primary symbol.  The spoken word is the secondary symbol.  The written word is the tertiary symbol.  Acronyms are quaternary symbols.	5/2/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Possible origins of English writing.  PART ONE.  The simplest line shapes are the straight line, the curve and the angle.  (1) The straight line: vertical, horizontal, forward slash, back slash.  (2) The right angle of "r", "L", "J" and "7".  (3) The curve of "U", "C", "n" and "backwards C?".  (4) The double curves of "m", "w", "3" and "E".     PART TWO. Straight lines are quicker and easier than shapes like curves and angles.  (1) "L", "F", "J" and "T" are similar in that they use staff and branch.  (2) Curve (facing left and right) and staff (pointing up and down): "p", "q", "b", "d".     PART THREE. 180 degree rotations: "A" and "V".  "M" and "W".  "E" and "3".  90 degree rotations: "I" and "H".  "S" and "Z" and "N" and "the opposite of N".  PART FOUR. If we have a circle letter "O" then why not have a square letter and a triangle letter?  If we have an "X" letter than why not have a "+" letter?  PART FIVE.  What can explain B, D, G, K, Q, R, Y?  What can explain 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9?	5/24/2002

Sociology, communication, language.	Writing.  Writing lets humans store and retrieve information.  (1) How did writing develop in humans?  From numerical tally marks.  From pictures.  One can suppose that language before writing was more fluid, dynamic and changing.  (2) What impact did writing and reading have on civilization?	4/24/2005

Sociology, communication, media, books.	.This section is about books.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, media, books.	(1) Books defined as writing or text.  (2) Books defined as a collection of ideas.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication, media, books.	(1) Pro:  (A) Books let you figure out quickly what it took others a long time to figure out, and thus can speed things up.  (B) Books are still the best information system: small, portable, and quick to skim.  (2) Contra : if you believe everything you read, books can keep you back.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	A book is a tool.  Get better books.	3/3/2007

Sociology, communication, media, books.	A country, or individual having many crappy books is not harmless.  It drives people crazy who are dying of thirst for truth and logic (reason).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Any book written long for longs sake is a waste of time, energy, paper, and money, for both the author and readers, and even for the society who suffers from the authors and readers waste.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Be very choosy what books you read.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Best techniques for book organization is (1) Detailed logical outline.  (2) Up to date.  (3) Clear.  (4) Comprehensive.  (5) Succinct.  (6) Well organized (Three ways: logical, historical, and prioritized).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Beware the print equivalent of bad television programs.  There are books that will waste your time as surely as bad television programs.  Finding worthwhile books to read is much like finding worthwhile television shows to watch.  Avoid trite, pointless, vapid, vacuous, banal, fluff.	12/16/2006

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Book learning vs. experience.  Book learning can prevent unpleasant experiences vs. some good things you need to experience first hand to truly understand and appreciate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Books = ideas.  Good books have many, new, helpful ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Books are heavy in three senses: (1) Physical weight.  (2) Deep and profound.  (3) Ethical responsibility.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Books are passe'.  (almost) All the information you want and need is online for free (or will be soon).  Those who protest this most are people in the book business, i.e., publishers, editors and book reviewers.  (1) Compare the cost of purchasing a small library of paper books to the cost of going online.  Two hundred books at twenty U.S. dollars each costs four thousand dollars.  For the same amount of money you can get a computer and ten years of Internet access.  Once online, the amount of information available to you is roughly a million times more than your purchases of paper books.     (2) The collective ability of what will soon be a billion Internet users to accumulate, organize, evaluate, store and disseminate information is greater than all the publishing companies combined.  The publishing industries claim to expertise as gatekeepers is sadly mistaken, as exemplified by the fact that the Amazon.com "top 5000" amateur Internet book reviewers do a better job reviewing books than the top 5000 professional book reviewers.  Does the publishing industry really think they are the only people with taste or critical skills?  The publishers use a scare tactic by claiming that the Internet will create a flood of slush when a large number of books of low quality are published online.  However, that is exactly the situation of traditional paper-book publishing, which publishes a large number of trash books just to make enough money to publish a few books of merit.  So no change will take place except the readers will keep their spending cash.	12/4/2000

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Books can keep you from thinking and living, or they can bring new thoughts and experiences.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Books: good things to have in them.  Contents in brief, and contents expanded.  Chapter outlines, chapter intros, and chapter summaries.  Key concepts, defined, in logical order.  Bold faced words.  Index.  Researchers and dates.  Pro and contra arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Consider three forms of media: reading books, listening to audio books, and watching audio/video books.  What is the difference between them?  The medium is not the issue.  Rather, the quality of the content is the issue.  Avoid consuming junk, whatever medium it is in.	12/16/2006

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Definitions.  (1) A book is nothing but a collection of ideas that can be true or false, or important or unimportant.  (2) A book is not a holy thing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	E-books and e-publishing vs. traditional paper books and traditional publishing.  PART ONE.  The state of e-book publishing today.  (A) No publisher today is making money from e-books.  (B) No crackproof method of e-book copy protection has been devised.  (C) Napster and its cousins seem unstoppable.  PART TWO. Some observations on traditional publishing.  (A) Traditional publishers are less likely to accept your book if you self-publish it first.  (B) Traditional publishers are less likely to accept your book if you do not write it in the traditional prose style of paragraph formatting.  (C) Traditional publishing is as much about money as it is about quality of content.  (D) Traditional publishing is clubby and closed.  Only about 5% of all books submitted get published.  PART THREE. Paper books vs. e-books.  (A) Paper is portable, durable and requires no batteries.  People seem to like the look and feel of paper books.  (B) E-books are good in that you can carry an entire library on a small handheld device.  Online books can be accessed via the Internet from anywhere.  Ebooks are cheaper to produce and faster to transmit.  E-books have lower distribution costs, and thus easier to do-it-yourself publishing.  E-books combined with print-on-demand (POD) book production technology which prints and binds on site is a powerful combination to reduce inventories.  PART FOUR.  Any information you can pay for you can find its functional equivalent on the Internet for free.  Any art you can pay for you can find its functional equivalent for free on the Internet.	8/10/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	E-books.  People often wonder what will be the online business model for e-books.  I think it is helpful to look at models of computer software for insights into where e-books may head.  Today there are at least two computer software models that the user can choose.  One option is to download a copy of Linux (free) and Linux Office (free) for a total of $0.  Another option is to buy a copy of Microsoft Windows 2000 ($300) and a copy of Microsoft Office ($700) for a total of about $1000.  If a billion people choose the first option it will keep a trillion dollars in the pockets of consumers and out of the pockets of Microsoft.  The point is that the Linux model, which paradoxically relies on  an independent "Do-It-Yourself" attitude combined with a spirit of cooperation in order to create free software, is just as powerful as Microsoft, the biggest and richest corporation on earth.  The Linux model of free and open software is where ebooks are headed.  Today online there are free newspapers, magazines, journals and books and their numbers will only grow.	12/5/2000

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Ebooks: Notes from the Future by Paul Nervy.     (1) There was once a very funny commercial parody on Saturday Night Live in which a publisher of electronic books promises a new, richly textured reading experience.  The commercial parody proceeds to demonstrate the ebook.  It shows the user in a virtual living room, sitting on a virtual sofa, with a virtual book in their lap.  Scroll to the right and you see a lamp.  Scroll to the left and you see a coffee-table!  The joke being that electronic books are exactly the same as printed books.  Twenty five years and SNL is still producing great comedy.     (2) The real future of electronic books (ebooks) promises new alternatives, new choices, and more freedom.  In contrast to today's publishing environment of a few giant corporate conglomerates, the equitable, level playing field of ebooks holds out a hope for variety, competition, and dissension.  The gatekeepers shout "Who will judge quality?"  The answer: the readers and the feedback they provide with their reviews.  No longer will publishers decide which books will be read by which target segments.  Ebooks will find their own audiences.     (3) The following are six attributes of the ebook of the future.  They show how the future of ebooks will change our view of what is a book.  Ebooks of the future will differ from our traditional conceptions of the book, however, there are proto-examples from the history of literature that we can use to envision what will be.     (4) Databases:  Much attention is given to hypertext these days.  There have even been several books written about hypertext.  However, the database is just as useful and important.  Databases are searchable by field, allowing rapid retrieval of data.  Databases are sortable, enabling the book to literally organize itself.  Ebooks of the future will owe as much to the database as they do to hypertext.  The two forms, database and hypertext, will eventually combine and we will see more hypertext-databases hybrids.     (5) Non-linear and non-narrative:  Databases allow non-linear, non-narrative books.  These are books that you can dip into, rather than read using the "one book, start to finish" model.  An example of a non-linear book that many of us are familiar with is a book of quotations.  Another example of a non-narrative book is Walter Benjamin's "Arcade Project" which tells a story without a narrative plot line.     (6) Macro-books and micro-books:  Ebooks don't have to fit into the "one book, 200 pages" formula. Ebooks do not face the minimum page and maximum page binding limitations of paper books.  Ebooks can be 20 pages or 2000 pages.  Proto-examples of macro-books in the past include the complete works of Marcel Proust and the collected works of Jack Kerouac.     (7) Wide scope:  Macro-books allow many subjects.  The "one book, one subject" model relinquishes its hegemony.  A large ebook need not limit itself to one topic.  A common example of a macro-book of wide scope is an encyclopedia.  An ebook can be a "book of books". There is less need to parcel out information and entertainment piecemeal.  Less need to leave readers holding their bowls like Oliver Twist asking for more.     (8) Multimedia:  With the coming of higher bandwidths we will see more ebooks that incorporate images, sounds, and audio/video.  In the mean time, text-based ebooks will achieve variety by combining side by side the genres of poetry, jokes, aphorism, essay, and other forms, styles and voices.  The "one book, one genre" model is no longer the only model available.     (9) Low cost:  In the world of ebooks authors and publishers can keep their cut of the profits.     However, the cost savings of materials, printing, warehousing and distribution can be passed onto the consumer.  The result is the potential for lower prices for consumers.  Its called supply chain disintermediation, people.  Look into it.     (10) Where can one find an ebook of the future today?  The Paul Nervy Notes series are ebooks that embody all of the above traits.  The Paul Nervy Notes are database influenced, non-linear, global scope, multimedia, low cost macro-books.     (11) The future is bright for books if we are willing to grow and develop our idea of what is a book.  The ebook is evolving into new forms of life containing many media, many subjects, many voices, and many styles.  Today more than ever we celebrate and value bio-diversity and cultural diversity.  Let us now celebrate and value ebook diversity.	4/15/2000

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Everyday good books are published.  Find them and read them.  It keeps the hope up.  It gives one purpose.	02/22/1997

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Expectations of the public.  90% of readers are looking to have their beliefs confirmed.  They are looking for a friend, an ally, a comrade.  When you do not give them what they want they get very resentful.  Only 10% of readers are looking for new ideas.  I've been thrown out of more tribes than I can remember.	10/28/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Expectations of the public.  Many writers stick to single views on single issues in order to maintain their audience and their customer base.  To disagree with your audience is to risk alienating and losing your audience.  The Notes, however, has many views on many subjects, and as a result the Notes has something for everyone to disagree with.  Thus the Notes could drive away everyone.	9/19/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Expectations of the public.  They (the reading public) will like you as long as they agree with you, however, the Notes has something to offend everyone.  People have been conditioned by the media to expect communications that express single views on single subjects.  People get confused and angry if you switch subjects or if you seriously consider multiple viewpoints.  Looking at all sides of a situation is perceived by the public as waffling or vacillating.  If they cannot label and categorize you then they do not know what to make of you.  They want you to stay "on message".  They believe in the "one person, one idea" school of thought.  That school is a waste.  By devaluing intra-personal dialectic, the media stunts people.	10/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Face it, nobody reads books anymore.  If you want to reach people then make a movie or write a pop song.  Books are an old, out-dated technology, like stone glyphs.  Why did I choose text as my medium?  Ugh.	8/31/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Finding and picking books is very important.  Be a finicky reader.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Good book.  (1) Well structured.  Conceptually: right concepts in right outline.  Physically: form, type, etc.  (2) Comprehensive, in depth, up to date, cheap.  (3) Covers theory and practice.  (4) Historical and logical layouts.  (5) Can grow with it.  (6) Excellent structure.  Only most important ideas.  (7) Good table of contents, critical bibliography, and glossary.  (8) Rigorous academic style.  (9) Discusses, compares and criticizes all theorists and theories.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Most books are b.s. because it takes too long to read it.  Too much padding, poor structure, and takes to long to break it down by subject, view, argument.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Most books could say all they have to say in 1/10 the pages.  They pad, fill, and drag it out in order to make a longer book, in order to make more money.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Most permanent, least affected by advertisers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	People today want and need short, truthful stuff.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Publishing options.  (1) Traditional publishing.  If you go to a traditional publisher, and make it past their 99% rejection policy, you are faced with a situation where 95% of the time very few people will buy your book.  And worse, you have signed over to the publisher all your rights to the book.  Then, worse still, the book will quickly go out of print.  That is not a pretty picture.  (2) Self publishing.  If you choose to self publish a paper printed book for a profit then 99% of the time next to nobody will buy your book, one reason being because the "informational functional equivalent" is available for free on the Internet, and another reason being people often balk if a book is not from a traditional publisher.  (3) Online fee-based publishing.  If you publish online for a fee then chances are no one will read your work.  (Because people don't read.  Because people don't pay to read.  Because people don't pay to read your bilious rants.)  (4) Online no-fee publishing.  If you post your work on the Internet, where anyone can read it for no fee, there is a chance that more people will read your work than if you went the route of traditional publishing or self publishing.	9/1/2004

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Publishing.  Why write a book and then hand over all your intellectual property rights to a major publisher for a pittance royalty in return?  Will more people read the book if its published or if its free on the Internet?	1/25/2004

Sociology, communication, media, books.	The best books you can find on a subject are still 6 to 12 months behind the times, due to the publishing process.  So find top periodicals in all subject areas, and you will only be a month or two behind the times.  Formulate counter arguments to philosophy articles.  Write papers.	08/08/1993

Sociology, communication, media, books.	The goal of today's corporate-dominated, mass-market, publishing industry is to find books that fit neatly into the existing categories.  However, finding books that fit neatly into the existing categories is often merely repetition, not progress, and it does not really help us.  Progress is when we find something new and useful that does not fit neatly into the existing categories.  It forces us to develop new categories.  This book is progress.	6/5/2000

Sociology, communication, media, books.	The problem with writers is they make their living by writing more words.  The more words the more money.  So we get tons of shit, and the marketers tout it as great to further boondoggle us.  It's a waste of life to sort through it and figure it out.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	There are many, many books that are 80% to 90% close to being publishable.  Should no one be allowed to read them just because they are not 100%?  What a waste that would be.  Fortunately, the Internet makes possible the inexpensive self publishing of books that just barely missed being published by the major publishing corporations.  What a cool thing.	8/26/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	There is a cannon of so called current "greats" that is available for $25 hardcover in bookstores.  There is also a cannon of "pretty darn goods" that are available for free on the Internet.  A community of focused  and energetic readers can often make more out of the free "pretty darn good" works than a group of bored and listless readers can make out of the expensive so called "greats".  The common counter-argument is that Shakespeare was light years ahead of his nearest competitor, and civilization would never get to where it is today without Shakespeare.  However, I am not a fan of "great man" theories of history.  I believe in the "second place will do" or "second string is in the wing" theories of history.     PART TWO.  Why should I write about movies that one has to pay for to see?  Why should I write about books that one has to pay to read?  Those authors must think they are pretty special to expect other people to pay for their writing.  I am not so sure that they are so special.  Therefore, I will write about texts that are freely available for all to read.  As an analogy, its true that the first place winner gets the trophy, the money, the interviews, the commercial deal, the publicity and the fans, but the second place no-name is often only a single step behind the winner.  And there are movies, books and paintings, not to mention webpages, reviews and conversations, available for free on the Internet and their quality is often only "one off" or "slightly irregular".	11/10/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Time is very limited today, and there's too much to learn for wasting time on shit.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Two objections to the current situation of authors and publishers.  First you authors have the temerity to charge money for ideas that you got for free, and for information that the next person can think of and give away for free.  Then you stupidly gave the rights to the publishers and now they own your work, so you can't give away your work if you wanted to.  PART TWO.  Two more objections.  You only showed us your best work when nowadays we have technology (i.e., computers) of unlimited storage and unlimited speed that obliges you to show all your work.  Secondly, you decided to work in only one medium and you decided to write only on one subject.	11/20/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	What is the difference between watching a soap opera and reading a soap opera?  There's not much difference, despite what the reading snobs think.	3/5/2002

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Why don't they sell books in digital form like they now sell music and Encyclopaedia Britannica?  You could purchase and download books onto a DVD to create a library, just like digital music.  When can I get rid of my paper book library?	02/28/1998

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Why should one pay attention to so called experts when their insights lay hidden amidst tons of fluff that they will let you read only if you pay them?	10/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Wittgenstein's librarian might have said, "The limits of my library is the limits of my world."	3/11/2007

Sociology, communication, media, books.	Write one book.  Don't waste any words.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, television.	.This section is about television.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, media, television.	A searchable catalog of television shows.  Searchable on the television screen.  Pay per view.  Or pay in advance for a certain number of shows.	8/5/2002

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Commercial vs. public (government or viewer sponsored) television.  Pros and cons of each.  Much of the advertising on commercial television brainwashes with propaganda, and molds shit values.  Commercial TV appeals to lowest common denominator.  Censorship of language and pictures about sex and violence is another issue.	03/30/1993

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Consider the amount of time people spend watching television relative to the amount of free time they have.  Some people devote fifty percent of their free time to television.	9/17/2005

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Many of the past objections to television no longer apply.  (1) It is not realistic to expect every show on television to be suitable for you.  There are many other demographics besides you.  (2) It is not true that there is nothing of value on television, especially when you consider PBS, TLC, TDC, etc.  (3) Television has improved since its start in the stolid 50's.  (4) There are so many alternative media (ex. Internet, DVD, videotape, etc.) that television has lost its preeminent, all powerful position.  (5) So get off television's back.  Go create your own media if you don't like television.	10/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Museum of Broadcasting.  Arguments for and against it.  (1) Argument for.  Episode x of series y, of any radio or TV show, may not present any new earth shattering idea, or be great art, but someone, somewhere, may need, and may only be able to understand, the relatively simple message that show communicates (about drugs, pregnancy, etc.), in the candy coated format (audio-visual form) the show is in.  So it is therefore good to keep all those sitcoms saved and available for consumption.  (2) Argument against.  (A) When does watching television all day (even "good" reruns) start holding us back and wasting our time, as opposed to helping us grow?  How much did you ever really learn from a sitcom episode?  Maybe you learned about comedy writing for television, but that's about it.  (B) Also, how much does a Batman episode tell us about our actual culture?  So the argument that these shows are very historically significant is very thin.  Fun house mirror reflections that distort as much as they reflect can be worthless.	09/20/1994

Sociology, communication, media, television.	My favorite television shows:  The Simpsons.  Charlie Rose.  Soul Train.	10/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Nature shows are not about nature.  They are about the absence of people.  That is why they are so popular.	3/3/1999

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Ninety percent of television programming is low quality, escapist, dumbed down to lowest common denominator, pablum.	9/12/2004

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Possible reasons why television shows have improved in quality over the last fifty years.  (1) the major networks face increased competition from cable and the Internet.  This competition results in better programming.  In the past, when the major networks enjoyed a monopoly, they were able to get away with poor programming.  (2) Cable provides more channels.  More channels means greater market segmentation.  Instead of programming for the lowest common denominator, shows are now created for varied levels and segments.  (3) The American public has grown more sophisticated in the past fifty years.  An amusing notion.  The improved television programming reflects a more evolved American public.  (4) A counterargument is that there was good television in the 1950's as well as bad television.  And there still is today.  There is always a mix of high and low quality television on the air so as to hit every demographic.	2/23/2001

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Sitcoms.  What the sitcoms would have us believe.  There is a philosophy of life that has been around for a long time which holds that the best way to spend your life is to sit in your rocker on the porch and watch the world go by.  This is the philosophy implicit in sitcoms.  In order to make this philosophy more modern and more appealing, the sitcoms update this philosophy by saying that if you get a cool chair and make some hip jokes to some smart friends who get your obscure yet cogent pop-culture references then that's as good as life gets.  You've made it to the top.  However, even though the actuality is that we all need a little rocker time everyday, you can't base your life on continuous rocker time.  You can't build a life around 24 x 7 rocker time.  But that is what the sitcoms would have you believe, and that is what they imply.	8/10/2000

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Soap operas.  (1) Soap operas can tell you much.  (A) What women are interested in.  (B) How women think and communicate.  (C) How women want to be wooed.  (D) How people socialize.  (E) How sleazy people can be.  (F) What duplicitous techniques they use in their sleaze.  (2) Too much soaps can be harmful.  (A) You can forget about the man's perspective.  (B) You can get paranoid that everyone is as evil as soap opera villains.	05/30/1996

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Soap operas.  There are people out there who actually are in a position to learn a lot from watching soap operas.	3/5/2002

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Specific shows.  Dance shows.  Pretty, slim, smiling things in skin-tight outfits, gyrating suggestively.  Closest thing to porn on TV.  A life of pure youth, pure health, pure beauty, and pure sex.  Nice idea, not practical or ethical.  No words or even ideas, emotions, or memories.  Just bodies and sensations, and drive to fu*k.	9/30/1996

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Television commercials.  (1) When are television commercials good?  When they do more than sell a product.  Like make a truthful, useful statement about life.  When they are art.  (2) When are television commercials bad?  When they shamelessly attempt to manipulate the public.	12/28/2003

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Television is the education of the American masses.	02/20/1989

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Television speeds up time, and thus television can be used as a time management technology.  (1) If you have a tendency to say to yourself, "Time is really going slowly, much too slowly for me.", then by all means turn on the television.  (2) If you have a tendency to say to yourself, "Time is moving way to quickly.  My life is passing me by.", then by all means unplug the television set.	2/13/2001

Sociology, communication, media, television.	TV is depressing and a waste of time.  Must it be that way?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, television.	TV.  (1) Arguments for: another window to the world.  (2) Arguments against: too many commercials, TV schizophrenia.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, television.	TV.  (1) Can't review it (unless you tape it).  (2) Can't carry it (portability).  (3) Most is poor quality, waste of time.  (4) Too much entertainment, not enough information.  (5) Not enough user control (choice).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Was there ever anything good on television?	9/17/2005

Sociology, communication, media, television.	When you watch a movie on television, are you watching a movie or are you watching television?  It seems like either a really bad movie experience or a really good television experience.	10/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Why is television entrancing?  Because we are genetically programmed to monitor our environment, especially when something is happening, even more especially when the happening involves people.  When the television is on, and our normally quiet rooms are full of sights, sounds and active people, we are held spellbound.	7/24/1999

Sociology, communication, media, television.	Why is television important?  Because a lot of people spend a lot of time watching television.	9/17/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	.This section is about the media.  Topics include: ( ) Independent media.  ( ) News.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, media.	(1) Media floods us with information both true and false.  Wrong information at wrong time, organized poorly.  Impermanent: we throw it out, we forget it.  (2) The Notes: organize important information permanently.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	(1) Radio and television are free.  That is the most important thing.  (2) Radio and television are often used as "background" media.  That is the second most important thing.  They are on all the time.  You absorb it passively by osmosis.  You do not have to devote full attention to it.  (3) Any other successful media will have to do the same.  If you charge money or demand full attention then you are lost.	8/8/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	(1) The mass media has a homogenizing affect, and destroys regional color.  (2) More specifically, it has a leveling affect.  It raises (educates) those who are below its 12 yr. old mentality.  It fails to challenge (stunts) those who could easily rise above its 12 yr. old mentality.  (3) It can be argued that it has a civilizing affect.  Those below its 12 yr. old mentality learn by watching the behavior, vocabulary, emotional reactions, of the characters on television.	01/23/1997

Sociology, communication, media.	(1) The media shapes the message that the public receives.  The media transmits what is convenient for them (the media) to transmit.  The media transmits what they can sell and what can make them money.  The media does not necessarily transmit what the public needs most to know.  The media likes to give air time to "one idea" spokespeople who have simple, short messages that fit neatly into a soundbite.  The media does not like to give air time to spokespeople who say that "things are complicated" and who take a lot of time to sort out many issues.  (2) An example of the tendency of the media to use single-issue messages are the "diet gurus", each of whom writes a book on a single diet issue and then go do the mass-media talk-show rounds in order to promote that book.  What happens is that these so called experts cause the public to go on a mad, diet merry-go-round, by switching from one diet to another.  (For example: Vitamin C diet. Beta carotene diet. Low carbohydrate diet.  High protein diet.  Low fat diet.  High healthy fat diet.)  The truth is that almost all these diet elements are important.  Almost all these nutrients are essential for health, and they need to be balanced.  But the media knows it can make more money if they tout merely one nutrient at a time.  The result is that the consumer is the one who suffers the confusion, panic and loss of money.	9/18/2000

Sociology, communication, media.	(1)(A) Newspapers and TV news have a finite amount of time and space available to use.  (B) They must sell ad space, attract viewers, and in general be profitable.  Thus they cater to what is popular.  (C) Therefore you get 50% of their space and time dedicated to sports and Hollywood, both unimportant entertainment.  (2)(A) The news reports on what is, not on what we should do.  (B) By focusing only on where we are, and not where we are headed, we may get into a situation which is irreversible, and from which we cannot go back, such as ecosystem destruction.  (3) The media takes a centrist position.  When a movement or idea starts out it is small and extreme, and thus gets little coverage.  Then it becomes big and popular and is covered by the media.  (4) The most important subjects, issues, questions in life are not kept in front of our faces by the media.  Instead garbage is.  The news focuses on what is new, not necessarily what is important.	03/03/1998

Sociology, communication, media.	A healthy media is important for a healthy society.  If the media is not working well then the society will not work well.  There are many problems that can beset the media.  Excessive corporate influence.  Excessive government influence.  Propaganda and censorship.  In America today, the media does not work as well as it could.  (2) In addition to having a healthy media, the public needs to use the media.  It does not help to have a healthy media if the public does not make use of the media.  People need to read.	12/11/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	Academia today rewards you the more you publish.  In my world you would have to pay money for every word you publish.  Thus the flow of bullshit would hopefully slow.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Any written work.  Scope/breadth and depth.  Density (complete and tight vs. holes and gaps).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Before the development of mass communication technologies like printing, radio, film and television, the media were less influential, with fewer messages reaching fewer people.  Today, technology makes the media more influential, with many more messages reaching many more people.  To some extent society today has become more media dependent.  The media today is much more a part of the way we live than it was hundreds of years ago.	8/24/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Commercial media is afraid to bite the hand that feeds it.  Afraid to antagonize the advertisers who support it, and afraid to antagonize the customers who watch it.  The truth is the first casualty.	9/21/1998

Sociology, communication, media.	Computer and media.  How will the computer change the way we communicate?  Hypertext, and multimedia.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Computer.  What could nonfiction hypertext do better than textbooks and encyclopedias?  Could it handle logical and historical outlines?  Elementary, high school, college, and graduate levels?	10/20/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	Critical thinking about the media means not only thinking critically about what you read in the media, but also thinking creatively and critically about what the media is not telling you.  The media leaves out a lot of important things.	8/23/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	Criticisms of the media.  (1) Sensationalism.  Stories about violence.  Stories about sex.  Stories about personal scandals.  (2) Invasion of privacy.  (3) Slander and libel.  Printing gossip and rumors.  Unconfirmed stories.  Just because it sells.  (3) Self censorship.  Just because it doesn't sell.  (4) Sound bites.  Slogan-neering.  Refusal to think in depth.  Refusal to think.	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Degree of power, how used, how they affect, how much they affect, which directions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Effect of mass media on individual and society.  Effect of individual and society on mass media.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Explicit and implicit values conveyed by media.  (1) Explicit: this is right/wrong, unimportant/important (editorials).  (2) Implicit: amount of coverage implies how important it is.  Nuances of word choice say right/wrong.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Finding out everything prevents you from developing ability to figure out things.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Forces on the media.  (1) Government can control or manipulate the media through censorship.  (2) Big business can influence the media via advertising dollars.  (3) The masses can influence the media through their thirst for sensationalism.	11/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	How do I know I am not reading lies and sub-optimal truths?  I don't.  I can only expose myself to as many arguments as I can.	06/15/1994

Sociology, communication, media.	How it comes out is media.  Talk, art, diary, letter, notes, action.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	If we can't trust the media, how do we know what political reforms to back or push for?	04/30/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	Implicit and explicit values: important/unimportant, good/bad.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Increasing corporatization and monopilization of media.  Clearchannel is taking over many radio stations.  Rupert Murdoch is taking over many newspapers.  Independent bookstores are being driven out of business by Barnes and Noble.	1/4/2006

Sociology, communication, media.	Independent media.  Why is independent media necessary?  PART ONE.  Just as a few big corporate superstores have swallowed up or driven out their competitors and taken over the production and distribution of physical goods, so to have a few big corporate conglomerates taken over the production and distribution of information and entertainment.  They have their own profits and self interests at stake.  They want to either absorb or destroy the competition.  They want to gain money and power.  They want to survive at all costs.  PART TWO.  However, all is not lost.  Independent media lives.  Independent media is non-profit, non-commercial, viewer supported media.  The types of independent media include: independent newspaper and book publishers, retailers and writers.  Independent record labels and recording artists.  Independent movie studios, distributors and film makers.  Independent television stations.  Independent radio stations.  Independent news.  Independent galleries and visual artists.  And we also must have independently thinking consumers, rather than fully owned corporate subsidiary consumers.	5/17/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Independent media.  Why is independent media necessary?  Without regulation, corporate power quickly goes out of control, screwing shareholders, consumers and the public.  Corporations have proved themselves unable to police themselves.  Corporate media is unable to report the stories of its own problems.  Corporate media has proved itself unable to report stories that go against its own self interests.  Corporate media is unable to engage in self criticism.	5/17/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Individual's or society's total mass media complex.  Types of media, number of each.  Variety of subjects dealt with.  Variety of views on subjects.  Quantity of ideas and quality of ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Introduction to the media.  Basic ideas about the media.  (1) The media does not always tell you everything you need to know about any specific issue, nor about life in general.  (2) The media sometimes makes mistakes, honest errors.  The media may leave stuff out or gloss over something.  The media may even occasionally lie, knowingly.  (3) The media has biases.  Personal biases.  Corporate biases.  (4) The media bends to pressure.  (5) You can't believe everything you read.  You have to be a critical thinker and reader, independent.  (6) The media is better than nothing in most cases.	1/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Magazine articles are to both peer review journal articles and art literature, as Muzak is to Beethoven.  Dumbed down repetition of better stuff, that has been sanitized for the masses.	07/30/1996

Sociology, communication, media.	Magazines and news are more biased than books due to advertisers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Magazines are interested in selling themselves, and their world view.  Therefore you will never hear from magaizines vital arguments against themselves, or anything that would imply that their subject matter is not important, or that another subject is more important.	04/30/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	Media and fame: doing something great or not vs. getting media attention or not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media as reflecting society vs. media as creating society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media has the power to (1) Change the subjects that the masses think about.  (2) Change the views on subjects that masses hold.  (3) Change masses philosophies.  (4) Change masses actions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media in the USA in 2000's is not a leftist biased media, as the right claims.  Media in USA in 2000's is a corporate owned media biased toward corporate interests.  Big media.  A monopolist media, where a few big corporations own most of the media channels.	8/24/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Media is a distorted reflection of society; a funhouse mirror.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media listed in terms of increasing amount of imagination required: television, radio, book.	4/20/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	Media manipulation: if what the media shows is all you know, and you accept it wholly as true, then they'll fu*k you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media needs to be free from control by governments, corporations and other meddling groups or individuals.	5/21/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	Media: agent of socialization.  Media shapes what public thinks about (subjects).  Media shapes what they think (views).  Media shapes behavior and shapes values.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media: for a buck they (1) Beat stories to death.  (2) Make mountains out of molehills.  (3) Make molehills out of mountains.  (4) Blow things out of proportion.  (5) Coverage = a value decision.  (6) Thus they give a skewed view of metaphysical reality, and ethics system.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media: shit values, warped metaphysics, crappy epistemology.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Media.  (1) What is media?  Media is channels of communication.  (2) What is mass media?  Mass media is media that reaches many people (the masses).  For example, print (books, magazines, newspapers), radio, television and the Internet.  (3) What is non-mass media?  Small presses.  Self publishers.  Web pages.  Web blogs.  (4) The Internet has traits of mass media in that a web page can be read by many people.  The Internet has traits of non-mass media in that a web page can be created by an individual.	8/24/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	More coverage says more important.  Choice of words and ideas reflects good/bad.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Must be selective: (1) keep false out, (2) keep unimportant in general out, and (3) keep unimportant to situation or problem out.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	News (paper, radio, TV).  These media go on regardless of if there is much or little news.  They try to sensationalize stories (make them sound bigger, or more important, or worse, than they are).  It sells papers.	11/06/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	News (TV, radio, newspaper) (see also: Arts, literature, journalism).  If news media is powerless and not free.  If they unconsciously or consciously print lies.  If they can't analyze a situation properly.  If they can't search out important questions and answers.  Then the people are lost.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	News in the various media.  (1) News on the television and newspapers is apt to be compromised by advertisers.  (2) News on the Internet is apt to have more hearsay and less confirmation of sources.  Also, it is apt to have more opinion rather than just facts.  (3) News on television is short.  News on television usually has only a few stories and a few ideas on each story.  Newspaper news is longer, has more stories, and has more ideas in each story.	11/19/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  (1) Can you learn everything you need to know from the news?  No.  Most news is bullshit.  Even if the news was good, it is necessary but not sufficient.  Some people mistakenly think the news is all you need to read.  (2) Can you get along without the news?  Not very well.  One should read a good news source daily, because ignorance of the world is not a good thing.	9/8/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  (1) Ideal.  The media has a very important role to play in democracy.  Its role is to educate the populace by asking hard questions in order to uncover truth.  And cover all sides of an issue equally.  (2) Reality.  The media suffers from problems like (A) Softball journalism, fluff.  (B) Sleazy journalism, sex.  (C) Lies.  (D) Bias.	3/30/1998

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  (1) The news only shows the bad.  (2) Gives only fact, not commentary.  (3) Doesn't give history or future implications.  (4) Doesn't put things in perspective.  (5) Makes no judgments of ethical importance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  (1) Why does it seem like the news reports more "bad" events than "good" events?  (2) Why does it seem like the news reports rapidly changing events than slowly changing events?	4/4/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Contra of news media.  (1) Saying something is important (by giving it coverage attention) when it is not important, just to use as fill on a slow day.  (2) Saying something is not important (by not giving it coverage) because it is too boring.  (3) Half truths and fabrications.  Lies, libel, and slander.  (4) New(s) does not necessarily mean important.	12/30/1996

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Do you want to sell newspapers or tell the truth?  Degree you hide or warp truth to sell papers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Due to commercial pressures, the news has become entertainment.  That is a bad thing.	11/8/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Free press.  Various conceptions of the term "free press".  (1) Does free press mean free to print lies, or is the press ethically obligated to print the truth?  (2) Does free press mean free of charge or no cost to the reader?  Or does free press mean free to charge the customer as high a price as you like?	11/25/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Not only is a free press important, but a competitive press is important as well.  To be able to prove wrong a rival publisher competitor is key.	3/30/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Pressures on free press.  Desire of reporters and editors to please the owner of the paper.  Owners inevitably have a bias.  Today, right wing corporations own many papers.  Thus, today the media has a right wing, corporate bias.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  See also: Arts, literature, journalism.	12/30/2003

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The "News" is not just about what is new.  It is also about what is true, important and right/wrong.  To say that something is news is to say it is true.  To say something is news is to say it is important.  To say something is news is to say it is a wrong that needs to be righted.	4/13/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The free press plays an important part in a good society.  Therefore, the news plays an important part in a good society.  Therefore, journalists play an important part in a good society.	4/13/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The new vs. the important.  The news reports what is new.  The news also attempts to report what is important.  Since more things happen than can fit on or in the news, the news must decide which events to report.  The news reports what it feels is most important.  (2) Criticisms of the news.  Instead of reporting the important:  The news reports what the customers want to hear.  The news reports what the advertisers want to hear.  The news reports what the news media owners want to hear.	4/4/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The News is not philosophy.  Perhaps people need philosophy everyday as much as they need the news everyday.  There should be philosophy programs on television, radio and newspaper.  For example, The Ethicist is a column in the New York Times.	5/15/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The news neither picks things, nor puts things in (historical, logical, or importance) perspective.  "This is new, this just happened", is what they say.  They mostly pick concrete events, and not abstract ideas or trends.  They don't get into things in depth.  Discussions are disgustingly short and simple.  There should be shows that put things in historical, logical, and importance perspectives.  The latest and most important in all subject areas.	04/30/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  The news wants you to think something is happening.  That cataclysmic events are taking place.  Drama.  The news freaks people out unnecessarily.	6/29/1998

Sociology, communication, media.	News.  Three issues.  (1) The news should not be emotionless, yet neither should the emotion overpower the reasoning.  (2) What if the news only reports the facts without considering ethics?  Is it even possible, or are ethical values implicit and inescapable?  Is news without ethics a good or bad thing?  (an ethical question)  (3)  Using the terms of science, what if the news only describes without explaining or predicting?	11/19/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	PBS has an excellent archive.  PBS should make their archive open, free and online.	10/27/2003

Sociology, communication, media.	People rely on the media to know what is going on in the world.  If the media does not function adequately then people do not know what is going on in the world.  Today the media does not function adequately because the media is corporate owned.  A corporate owned media does not function adequately.	5/16/2007

Sociology, communication, media.	People will consume/absorb anything, even empty calories of junk food trivia, and even poison of lies, if it has low cost, high availability (no effort to find), and ease of decoding (no effort to absorb).  Two examples of this are TV and newspaper.	12/12/1993

Sociology, communication, media.	People will lap up any halfway decent argument presented to them.  They believe what they read.  Getting heard, getting airplay, is half the battle.	06/15/1994

Sociology, communication, media.	Pressures on the "free press".  PART ONE.  Is it a free press?  Commercial newspapers are "free to print" what they want in the United States.  But commercial newspapers are not always "free to read" because they charge the reader a fee to buy the paper.  Exceptions are papers that are free to read on the Internet or in public libraries.  "Free to read" took place with the development of public libraries and the Internet.  "Free to the reader" took place with free papers like the Village Voice.     PART TWO.  Pressures on newspapers.  (1) Customer pressures.  The newspaper wants to keep its readers, so it tries not to alienate its readers.  And it tries to entertain its readers.  The pressure to please its readers may lead a paper to pander to its readers.  (2) Competitive pressures.  A newspaper competes against other newspapers for readers.  A newspaper competes by trying to find a niche or a target market.  The pressure to outdo the competition may lead a paper to appeal to its target niche at the expense of accuracy or comprehensiveness.  (3) Advertiser pressures.  The newspaper does not want to alienate and lose its advertisers.  The result of subscriber pressures and advertiser pressures are the following:  The newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from controversial subjects.  A newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from controversial truths.  A newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from non-niche or non-target subjects.	11/2/2003

Sociology, communication, media.	Problems with the media.  (See: news, journalism, advertising).  (1) Advertisers pitch junk.  (2) The media ignores important issues.  (3) Communications that are untrue, unimportant, containing omissions, bias and propaganda.	8/24/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Questions for each type of media.  Arguments for and against.  Technology: tools and techniques.  U.S. industry size, structure and mechanism.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Radio is a wasteland.  Television is a wasteland.  Newspapers are a wasteland.  Movies are a wasteland.  The mass media is a wasteland.  So much fluff.  One has to write one's own books.  One has to make one's own movies.  One has to break one's own news stories.	7/31/2005

Sociology, communication, media.	Sex and violence in  the media.  Isn't it better to see sex than violence?  Sex is healthy.  Sex is good.  Sex is natural.  Nudity is natural.  Nudity is healthy.  Nudity is good.	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Sex and violence in the media.  Including movies and television.  Including video games.  Including rock music lyrics.  Four views.  (1) Does sex and violence in the media cause sex and violence to be committed in real life?  (2) Or, on the other hand, does sex and violence in the media alleviate sex and violence in real life by providing an outlet?  (3) Or, alternatively, does sex and violence in the media have no affect either way?  (4) Or, alternatively, does sex and violence in the media have a dual affect, both causing sex and violence in some cases and preventing sex and violence in other cases?	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Some technophiles make a big deal out of the promise of interactive television.  However, maybe people do not want interactive television.  On the one hand, maybe the main use of television is to "veg out" in a passive mode, to let the mind go blank, in a state very close to that of sleep.  On the other hand, maybe people use television as a type of background noise, similar to the way people play the radio while working.  PART TWO.  Using the radio as an example, what would you call interactive radio?  Answer: the telephone.  Or perhaps the telephone chat lines.  Or perhaps talk radio.  We have all three of those technologies today, yet people continue to use the radio.  In the same way it would be silly to think that interactive television would completely outplace ordinary television.  PART THREE.  To use another example, when ten ancients sat around the campfire, each one probably only spoke ten percent of the time (if each person got equal speaking time).  Each individual spent ninety percent of the time listening.  And probably a great deal of time was spent passively staring at the fire in restful reverie, half asleep and half awake.  We still have some of those tendencies.  PART FOUR.  So why should we expect the Internet to be 90% interactive?  We should not.  We should expect it to be 90% passive, which it is.	8/4/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	Somethings we know about only through the media.  Somethings we know about only through personal experience.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Television matters less today because of other audio/video media (Internet, DVD's, etc).  Major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) also matter less today because of other networks (UPN, WB, cable, etc).	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Television.  (1) Americans watch too much television indoors passive alone instead of physical exercise outdoors in nature engaging with other people in active thinking and active conversation.  The result is obese people, detached from nature, isolated from other people, passive quiet unthinking recipients of information.	9/12/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Television.  (1) Commercial television vs. non-commercial television.  (2) Pay-per-view television vs. no-fee television.  (3) Viewer supported television (ex. PBS).  Corporate supported television (ex. ABC, NBC, CBS).  Government supported television (ex. BBC).  (4) Television vs. other audio/video media like movies, Internet, etc.	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Television.  Censorship on television.  Censorship of words, like "obscene" words or sexual words.  Censorship of subjects, topics or issues.	6/23/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Television.  Norman Lear, good television.  Aaron Spelling, bad television.	6/23/2006

Sociology, communication, media.	The media gives the masses instances of people to like and dislike, to love and hate, heroes and villains.  The masses are fueled by unconscious feelings of love and hate.	12/28/2003

Sociology, communication, media.	The media manipulate and take advantage of the young, impressionable, and ignorant, just to make a buck.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	The reason why it is important that media be able to play in the background and be passively absorbed is because no one has time these days to give their attention to art.  No one has the time.  What, are you kidding, no one reads anymore, unless its for work.	8/8/2001

Sociology, communication, media.	Today there are fewer professional journalists and more amateur bloggers.  Can the latter make up for the former?	4/30/2007

Sociology, communication, media.	Today, people rely on the media to find out about the world.  If the media is compromised then it affects everybody.	6/23/2006

Sociology, communication, media.	Too much data, not enough assimilation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	Types of media.  (1) Big media.  Commercial media.  Corporate owned media.  (2) Small media.   Non-commercial media.  Not beholden to advertisers.  Not beholden to customers.	8/21/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Types of media.  (1) Commercial media vs. non-commercial media.  (2) Independent media.  Viewer owned and viewer supported media.	8/24/2004

Sociology, communication, media.	Types.  Print: sheet, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, journals, books.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, media.	We are seduced by a portion of the culture that uses the media to preach mindless, excessive consumption, which only makes advertisers rich.  The advertisers pitch an entire lifestyle, weltanschauung, and the pleasure ethic.  The problem is not the media, it is the advertisers.  Or is the problem capitalism in general?  The free market leads to too much snake oil salesmen and fly by nighters.  There must be laws to protect the buyer.	12/30/1996

Sociology, communication, media.	We experience the world in large part through the media.  What keeps the media true and accurate is inter-company competition and inter-reporter competition.  Each reporter and news company knows the next reporter or company down the line can prove them wrong and ruin their reputation if they are inaccurate.	12/29/1997

Sociology, communication, media.	Why are sports and movie people the stars?  Sports and movies are simple and visual (immediately perceptible and apprehended by the masses).  The media can use them easily.  The masses take what's given to them, and don't have the courage, brains, or memory to think of anything else.  The artist (romantic emotional appeal) stars over the engineer, even though the latter contributes more.  Romance and emotion and sex is sold above utility and reason and work.  It sells better, it makes more money quicker.	11/02/1993

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	.This section is about propaganda.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	(1) All communication is propaganda.  (2) All communication is trying to sell something.  All communication is trying to persuade and influence.  All communication has an agenda and is trying to prove something.	4/20/2001

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Definition.  Propaganda does not have to be from the government.  Propaganda does not have to be political.  A broad definition of propaganda is that it can be put out by any individual or group, and it can be on any topic.	11/18/2001

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Four definitions of propaganda.  (1) Lies.  (2) Asks you to accept based on belief, not reason.  (3) Asks you to accept based on emotion, not reason.  (4) Forces you to accept based on coercion.	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Is all communication propaganda?  No.	6/5/2004

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	PART ONE.  Propaganda definitions.  (1) Any communication is propaganda.  This definition is too broad to be a working definition of propaganda.  (2) Any one-sided, partisan, persuasive communication is propaganda.  This is also too broad a definition.  (3) Propaganda is communication whose arguments rely on twisted, faulty logic.  (4) Propaganda is communication that favors emotion over reason.  (5) Propaganda is communication that favors blind belief over reason.  (6) Propaganda is communication that lies.  Or that uses half truths.  Or that distorts the truth.     PART TWO.  Types of propaganda.  (1) Political propaganda.  (2) Business propaganda.  (3) Religious propaganda.  (4) Military propaganda.     PART THREE.  What is the opposite of propaganda.  What is not propaganda?  (1) Reasoning.  Rational argument.  (2) Arguing both sides of an issue.	6/26/2004

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Persuasion.  Persuasive speaking.  To seek to persuade someone.	10/10/2004

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Propaganda, negative connotations.  (1) Propaganda defined as lies, distortions and half truths.  (2) Propaganda defined as emotional appeals, devoid of reason.  (3) Propaganda defined as slogans without reasoning.  (4) Propaganda defined as indoctrination.  Coercing people to believe and obey without thinking.	6/5/2004

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Some people say all communication is propaganda.  Others say that by limiting the mode of discourse we can eliminate propaganda.  (1) Simply stating the facts, backed up with proof.  We see that politicians can do even this in a slanted, biased way.  (2) Emotional content is often useful and needed.  Removing all emotion from communication is no way to ensure that propaganda is no being spread.  (3) Not using normative statements such as "This or that is good or bad" and "We should or shouldn't do this or that" is no way to ensure that propaganda will not take place.  Normative statements have a valid place in discourse if they are backed up with reasons.	1/1/2001

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Spin and hype.	5/15/2004

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Techniques of propaganda.  Lies, half truths, omissions.  Pushing and angle and spin.  Censorship and secrecy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Three definitions of propaganda.  (1) Propaganda as lying.  (2) Propaganda as indoctrination.  Believe and obey.  (3) Propaganda as not allowing dissenting opinion.  (4) The opposite of the above three being truth and reasoned discourse.	9/21/1998

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Two parts of propaganda.  (1) Employ writers, artists, filmmakers, etc. to communicate a carefully crafted message.  (2) Silence the opposition.	11/18/2003

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	What is the opposite of propaganda?  Critical thinking.  Propaganda can be defined as techniques used to attempt to deter critical thinking.	8/29/2005

Sociology, communication, propaganda.	Who wants to tell their side of the story?  Everyone.  Who wants to broadcast their side of the story?  Everyone.  Who wants to influence the media?  Everyone.     PART TWO.  When does it become unethical?  Who wants to seize control of the media through force, intimidation or harassment?  Who tries to control the technology of communications, and the people in the media industry?  Good question.  When does it become unethical?  When secrets and lies are used?  Who tries to control information, communication, education, thinking?	11/29/2003

Sociology, communication, public relations.	.See also: Business: public relation firm, public relations department.  Public realtions campaign: goals, opposition, problems, strategies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	.This section is about public relations.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, public relations.	(1) Emphasizing your good side and strong points.  (2) Selling yourself, marketing yourself.  (3) Anticipating opponents criticism and arguments and deflating them in advance.	9/11/1998

Sociology, communication, public relations.	(1) Planning.  Picking the image goals (combo of values and traits).  Picking strategies for each media.  (2) Execution.  Building, projecting, maintaining the image.  Changing the image (speed, degree).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	(1) What you think you are vs. (2) what you say you are vs. (3) what your image says you are vs. (4) what you do vs. (5) what you actually are.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Elements and factors.  What you were, what you are, what you want to be vs. what you want to project.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Elements in a personal public relations campaign.  Visual: face, body, clothes, stuff, moves/behavior.  Verbal: tone/voice, words/language, ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	PR is showing your good side.  Drawing attention to strengths and away from weaknesses.	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Principles.  The message is contained in "sound bites".  The message is also contained in "image bites".  Stay on message.  Stay on image.	11/18/2001

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Public relations can be truthful and open, or public relations can be lies and secrets.	11/18/2001

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Public relations.  To be able to move people to tears when you speak, or make them laugh, lust, love, admire, fear, or respect, etc.  Acting and public relations are very closely related.	04/16/1994

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Related ideas.  (1) Public opinion, propaganda, truth, lies, b.s..  (2) Openness vs. secrets vs. gamefaces, roles and poses.  (3) Kissing ass: ingratiation.  (4) Fitting in: conforming.  (5) Denying self: repression.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	The public relations industry has the effect of subverting and counteracting the free press.  The effect of the public relations industry is to prevent the public from getting the whole truth.  The public relations industry works primarily on the behalf of large corporations who pay big money to influence the masses.  The public relations industry is a propaganda machine.	1/14/2006

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Traits you have vs. want to communicate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Two problems: (1) Wrong image for situation.  (2) Image you can't keep up.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	What is public relations?  (1) Formulating communication responses to press, public, and government.  (2) Formulating action/behaviors to improve image.  (3) Damage maintenance.  (4) Concerned with image, public opinion.  Perceptions by audience.  Power (gaining and keeping).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, public relations.	Why: to get what you want.  How: for who: individual, group, organization, business, nation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	.See also logic, struggling.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	.This section is about rhetoric.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	(1) Building your argument complex, building your emotion complex, and planning your tactics.  (2) Analyzing his argument complex, analyzing his emotion complex, analyzing his tactics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	(1) Hard sell: scare (quietly or loudly), threaten, bully, rush, intimidate, terrorize, pain, make uncomfortable.  (2) Soft sell: happy view, pleasurable experience, seduce.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	(1) Oral vs. written.  (2) Spontaneous, extemporaneous vs. prepared in advance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Appeals to reason, emotion (pride, greed), and drives.  Conscious and unconscious.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Applications of rhetoric: job interviews, law cases, political speeches.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Arguing, debate, rhetoric.  See also: Sociology, struggling.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Argument.  Definitions, arguments, conclusions.  Yours and others.  Analyzing them.  Attacking them, counter-arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Arguments.  Valid vs. invalid.  True vs. false.  (3) Good vs. bad arguments.  (4) Better vs. worse views.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Assert your argument, protect your argument from attack, attack his arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	At what level of the argument (base vs. conclusions) does a person go wrong, and how.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Audience the arguments take place before, and your intention for them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Coming to a conclusion.  Without knowing your reasons.  Without knowing the counter-arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Countertactics.  (1) Piss him off: emotional confusion.  (2) Red herrings: rational confusion.  (3) Dominate the conversation.  (4) Use up time: filibuster.  (5) Stone wall, ignore, insult, question them.  (6) Ask them their point of view and cut it apart.  (7) Don't let them side track you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Ethics of the argument: practicality and importance of an argument or topic.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Forms of discourse: oratory, prose, poetry, art.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Know, make clear, and attack all counter-arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Planning the argument.  Before.  During (thinking on feet).  After (better late than never?).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Power + persistence = effect.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Power of an argument, effectiveness of an argument.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Recognize, define, and state the problems in a situation.  State important issues in a situation, or on a subject.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Seeing all factual information: things, relationships, etc.  Seeing all ethical stances.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Seeing and knowing both sides of an issue vs. not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Tactics.  (1) Fight hard and smart.  (2) Counterattacks.  Emotion pleas, red herrings, yes men, interruption.  (3) Thought: search for any truths, hammer them in, support it.  (4) You are always right, he is always wrong.  Kick ass, get justice.  (5) Argue fully, forcefully, persuasively.  (6) Prepare it in advance: mental outline, written notes.  (7) Emotion through voice (volume, timbre, rate), body (gestures), face (gestures).  (8) Use gut feeling to feel power of argument combos.  (9) Find your best, most effective personal style.  (10) Mixing tactics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Tactics.  (1) Skill and subtlety of destruction.  (2) Be a detective, lawyer, judge, executioner, all in one.  (3) What you say (idea), and how you say it (skill).  (4) Tactics: find the truth, gather information, ask questions.  (5) Statements, questions, answers.  (6) Most important ideas, in most important order.  (7) Every link should be strong, with no weak links.  (8) Attitude: confident.  (9) Setting best tones: serious, angry, righteous wrath.  (10) Body language: jibe with words, add force.  (11) Rev them up.  (12) Associate him with pain.  Associate you with pleasure and justice.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	The war in your head, and between people.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	The war of thinking, saying, and doing.  Ideas, words, and actions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Unspoken philosophical implications: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Valid counter arguments: things to keep rightfully keep in mind.  Invalid counter arguments: just plain wrong.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	What is rhetoric?  (1) A means for an end.  (2) A subject, issue/problem/question, view, argument.  (3) Persuasion, convincing people, sales.  (4) Thought and emotion, i.e., an attitude.  (5) Verbal struggling, argument.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, rhetoric.	Why (purpose, importance).  (1) Get goals, get catharsis, get justice.  (2) Protection from attacks.  (3) We do it naturally, well or poorly.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	.This section is about styles of communication.  Topics include:  ( ) Nonverbal.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Clams: won't reveal or acknowledge anything.  (2) Verbal diarrhea: won't shut up.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Communication tightwads: never communicate.  (2) Communication hogs: take only.  (3) Communication flooders: give only.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Expressive or not expressive.  (2) Directed vs. wandering, tangential, drifting.  (3) Critical vs. noncritical.  (4) Combative, litigious vs. non-combative.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Some individuals and societies never say outright what they think and feel.  They hedge and hint (repress) out of politeness, fear, or caginess.  Other individuals and societies respect forthrightness in communication.  (2) Some individuals and societies are quiet, others are talkative.	08/15/1994

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Those who communicate much and expect much.  (2) Those who communicate little and expect little.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	(1) Will volunteer true information.  (2) Will answer questions truthfully.  (3) Will not do "1".  (4) Will not do "2".  (5) Will volunteer lies.  (6) Will answer with lies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Business communication: linear, goal oriented, unemotional, secrets and lies, pre-planned, exact, bland.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Humorous, playful, tangential, dialogical (questioning), vs. linear and monologueic.  The former is better than the latter.	08/16/1993

Sociology, communication, styles.	If you're perceptive you pick up a lot.  If you're expressive you put out a lot.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal communication.  Posture, gestures, face, clothes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  (1) Body positon forced by situation.  (2) Attempted (the battle for body position).  (3) Chosen body position.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  (1) Expressionistic.  (2) Unexpressionistic.  (A) Conscious: to hide.  (B) Unconscious: unemotional or just not expressive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  (1) Face: poker face, game face, stone faced.  (2) Eyes: direct contact vs. looking away (up, down, beyond).  Lids open: fear, surprise, innocence, acceptance, passivity.  Lids closed: aggressiveness, protection.  Brows up: confusion, surrender, openness, acceptance.  Brows down: anger, aggression, protection, confusion.  (3) Mouth shape: smile, frown.  (4) Standing: erect, slouched, leaning.  Sitting: slouched vs. ramrod.  (5) Distance of speakers: close, far.  Angle of speakers: face to face, turned away.  (6) Height of speakers: equal, higher or lower.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Acting natural and relaxed vs. acting artificial, tense and self conscious.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Body language: unconscious (honest), conscious (acting/lying).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Mouth.  (1) Lips.  Parted: acceptance, passivity, want, woman (kiss me), kid (feed me).  Closed: aggression, protection.  (2) Teeth.  Unbared.  Bared: snarl, sneer.  (3) Jaw: relaxed, clenched.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Movements/gestures and possible meanings.  (1) Fu*k you: the finger, the arm.  (2) Crazy/loco gestures: touched in head, cuckoo.  (3) Impatience/boredom: tapping foot, tapping fingers, yawn, roll eyes up, dancing.  (4) Head down: submissiveness, weakness, old age.  (5) Head up: confidence, independence.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Postures.  (1) Male prototype: hips forward, hands near hips.  (2) Female prototype: breasts out, ass out.  Hands over head or back.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Proxemics.  How close vs. far away.  Lean in vs. lean back.  Face to face vs. side by side.	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication, styles.	Nonverbal.  Which positions or movements are usually interpreted by modern american society as being a symbol of, or revealing the trait of what.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Three styles of communication (1) Emotional language vs. thought language.  (2) Artistic language (figurative) vs. technical (exact) language.  (3) Concrete language vs. abstract language.	9/21/1998

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types and strengths and weaknesses of each.  (1) Unemotional vs. over-emotional.  (2) Expressionistic. (3) Direct vs. indirect.  (4) Game players, bush beaters, ramblers, Japanese yes men.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types of communication.  (1) Personal communication.  (A) Talking about self.  (B) Talking to self.  (2) Social communication.  (A) Talking about other people.  (B) Talking to other people.	5/6/2003

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types of communication.  Interpersonal communication, mass communication.  Verbal vs. non-verbal.  Public speaking, public opining.  Propaganda, persuasion.  Spontaneous vs. prepared.  Formal vs. informal.  Effective vs. ineffective.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Hot and fast communication vs. languid and slow and cool communication.  Information vs. entertainment.  One way vs. two way.  Prepared vs. unprepared, spontaneous and off the cuff.  Statements, questions, commands.  Giving information, finding out information, verifying information.  Thoughts and emotions.  Warn, invite, persuade.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types of communication.  Truthful vs. lying.  Malicious vs. not.	5/6/2003

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types.  Four types of communication.  I.e., four types of languages.  (1) Women talking to women.  Delicate.  (2) Women talking to men.  Trying to be one of the boys.  (3) Men talking to women.  Trying to be polite.  (4) Men talking to men.  Swearing, bragging, tough talk.	1/15/1999

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types.  Like to vs. forced to.  Time takes you to vs. how much time you got to.  How well you do it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication, styles.	Types.  Private musings and public pronouncements.  Mistake of a private musing in a public pronoucement.  Mistake of a public announements during a private musing.	06/30/1993

Sociology, communication.	.See also "Technology, information theory".	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	.This section is about various other thoughts on communication.  Topics include: ( ) Elements of communication.  ( ) Gossip.  ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) Techniques.  ( ) What is communication.  ( ) Why communicate.	1/24/2006

Sociology, communication.	(1) After thinking, and reading, communication is key.  Finding someone who will continually surprise you with new ideas.  Someone who is unpredictable.  Someone who you can not "figure out" in five minutes.  Someone who will not bore you.  Someone you can keep the long, intimate, deep rap going with for many years.  A friend.  (2) The problem is it is very difficult to (A) Stay on the topic of complex philosophical questions without becoming confused.  (B) Use conversation as psychological therapy without feeling the heartache therapy results in.  (C) Discuss world problems without growing despondent.  Yet these are the topics we must address.  This is why real conversation is so difficult to maintain.	10/20/1997

Sociology, communication.	(1) How inarticulate must one be to communicate by sending flowers?  (2) How difficult it must be to communicate if we resort to sending flowers.  (3) Each of us communicates differently, with a different set of symbols and meanings.  For example, words meant much to me, but not to her, so I gave her a hug.	3/14/2000

Sociology, communication.	(1) How much communication do we need?  Everyone, average person, specific person.  (2) What types do we need?  (3) Why do we need it?  (4) Why is it so tough and only possible with a few?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	(1) Normal words can be used in a derogatory manner.  Example, When you call an adult a "boy".  (2) If you use the word asshole to describe a person, then that use is defamatory.  But you can use any word to describe an idea, because you can only defame a person.	12/5/1998

Sociology, communication.	(1) One of the many non-linguistic phenomena associated with communication is the phenomenon of turn taking.  We take turns when we converse.  (2) Turn taking in communication leads to two different possible mistakes.  (A) One mistake of communicative turn taking is interruption or the hogging of time and turns.  Speaking when the other person is speaking, or speaking when its someone else's turn to speak.  (B) Another, often less noticed, yet equally important, mistake in communicative turn taking is not speaking when its your turn.  Its a mistake to keep silent when its your turn to speak.  (3) The less formal the communicative interaction the less turn taking norms apply.  The more friendly and informal the communicative interaction the more we permit enthusiastic interruptions.	11/20/2004

Sociology, communication.	(1) Subtlety: capable of discerning and making distinctions between similar meanings.  Subtle does not mean unclear, to self or to who you are talking to.  (2) Discreet: being clear to who you are talking to, but being private so know one else knows.  (3) Vague: unclear.  (4) Ambiguous: multiple meanings possible.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	(1) Thinking defined as a form of communication with self.  (2) Communication defined as a form of thinking between people.	8/7/2001

Sociology, communication.	(1) We cannot help but communicate.  We always communicate.  (2) We always communicate attitudes, which have thought, feeling and memory components.  (3) The ideas we communicate exist on a spectrum from concrete to abstract.  (4) The words we communicate have multiple meanings, which yield multiple messages having multiple layers.	8/6/2001

Sociology, communication.	(1) You are always communicating.  You cannot "not communicate".  (2) You are always "saying" or "writing" in both your own language and the language of your audience.  (3) You are always "listening" or "reading" in both your language and the language of the other person.  (4) What does the brain do beside communicate?	8/7/2001

Sociology, communication.	A complaint about fashion is that fashion styles are completely arbitrary.  However, fashion styles are symbols, and all symbols are arbitrary.  Language and most other forms of human communication involve the creation of a set of arbitrary symbols.  Another trait of human communication is that meaning (of symbols) varies with culture or setting.	8/6/2001

Sociology, communication.	Age.  Communication increases with age up to a point (mid twenties), then communication decreases with age.  Why?  Combonation of physical, psychological, and social factors.  We figure things out for real.  We figure out our attitudes.  Less wonder, less social equality, less energy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Age.  The golden age of communication is age 14 to 21.  At this age you have the leisure time to have many extended chats.  You also have just developed the capacity to think critically.  Many new problems enter your mind.  You have not formed set views on them yet.  As a group, you are all basically faced with the same problems, and thus have much in common to discuss.  As teenagers you are all undifferentiated, amorphous blobs.  After age 21 you have less time due to work.  We become differentiated as we grow older, on our own trips, with our own problems and needs.  We start to understand each other less.  We have figured out our views and don't care to discuss them as much.  Talk becomes less productive, a waste of time.  We get less out of it.  Less learning and growing comes from it.	12/30/1995

Sociology, communication.	Analyze the message.  Truth/lies, important/unimportant, clear/unclear, powerful/not, logical/illogical, information/entertainment.  Concise, precise, organized, prioritized, decisive, subtle, expressive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Areas of communication: work, like/lust, family, friends.  Participants and their nature and relationship to each other.  Communicating with women, kids, etc.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Attempts at communications with humans.  Questions to ask: (1) What is your philosophy?  (2) What are your politics?	6/23/2006

Sociology, communication.	Audience.  It does not pay to talk down (dumb) to people.  If everyone did this we will all end up thinking, speaking and hearing dumb.  Bring them up to your level, don't dumb down to their level.	01/22/1989

Sociology, communication.	Before television, radio, movies, phonograph and Internet, people talked to each other.  Then they stopped talking to each other when the above technologies arrived.  Today one can survive without speaking to anyone.  Today, most communication has become one way, passive interaction with machines.	1/17/2002

Sociology, communication.	Call things what they are, in plain english.  All else is confusing insanity, a waste of time and mental energy.  Ex. Don't give things number names, or names that have nothing to do with what the thing is.	08/07/1993

Sociology, communication.	Code in communication.  PART ONE.  Two uses of code.  (1) Code as hiding.  That is, code to prevent a message for being read by those not intended.  (2) Code as symbolizing, but not necessarily hiding.  That is, code to make problem-solving easier through abstraction.  For example, by using symbolic logic.  PART TWO.  Code as hiding.  Originally code was used to hide communication. For example, code was used to hide communication for military or political or economic advantage.  Code was used to hide talk about illegal subjects (criminals).  Code was used to hide talk about taboo subjects (deviants).  PART THREE.  Code as symbolizing to transmogrify a problem.  Code as translation into a language we understand.  For example, talking about electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom as being like planets orbiting the sun.  For example, translating complex ideas into the concepts of nature to explain it to hill-people.  Code to create a program that a machine can run (example, computer code).	1/1/2002

Sociology, communication.	Communication and ethics.  Yes, we can talk about anything, but in the interest of time and energy, shouldn't we talk about the most important things?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Communication can be very difficult.  (1) You can say something and someone will claim not to understand you.  (2) The next person will claim that you mean the opposite of what you said.  (3) The third person will understand you, but will falsely try to persuade a fourth person that you mean the opposite of what you said.  (4) How does anyone understand anyone?	3/13/2000

Sociology, communication.	Communication complex: subject, duration, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Communication complex: subject, issue/question, view, argument, evidence.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Communication defined as sharing information.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication.	Communication is the primary method of human social interaction.  Of the time spent with others, people spend most of that time talking.  Communication is primarily a cooperative activity, not a competitive or conflict activity.  Thus, human social behavior is primarily communicative and cooperative.	11/25/2005

Sociology, communication.	Communication should be logical, grammatical and meaningful.	4/15/2005

Sociology, communication.	Communication with who: friends vs. opponent/foe.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Communication, that is, the exchange of information, is the most common social activity.	1/1/2006

Sociology, communication.	Communication: (1) How much do we need, what types, with who?  (2) Why do we need it?  (3) Why is it so tough, why is it only possible with a few?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Computer.  Communicating by email is like trying to run a foot race (100 yard dash or marathon) in ski boots.	2/29/2000

Sociology, communication.	Computer.  Email is not my favored form of communication because it cannot capture the subtlety of face to face communication in terms of vocal tone, gesture and immediacy of feedback.	2/29/2000

Sociology, communication.	Content (say) vs. intent (mean).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Degree of sophistication.  Degree of intimacy/revelation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Don't understand vs. don't agree vs. don't care, not interested.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  (1) Signal: attention grabber.  (2) Sign: the thing itself.  (3) Symbol: represents something else.  (4) Gesture: body language symbol.  (5) Icon: stands for a set of symbols.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  Environment: effects on communication.  Time: of communication, and duration.  Order: you give information.  Speed: you give information.  Total message, parts.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  Response time, or time takes to figure out what was said and what to respond.  To develop an adequate answer vs. to develop a great answer.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  Talking vs. listening.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  Time spent on what subjects.  What you manage to say, how many ideas, how important, how new.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Elements.  Who, says what, when, where, how (with what emotion, through what medium), how effectively/skillfully, to who, why (to get what, to do what).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Email sucks.  Never email if you can talk on the phone.  Never talk on the phone if you can talk in person face-to-face.	4/10/2007

Sociology, communication.	Ethics and communication.  Honest and open vs. lies and secrets.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Evasiveness.  What happens when one person is interested in a topic and another is not: changing the subject, escape hatches, red herrings, and other clever ways to stall and avoid questions and b.s. in general.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Exactness.  Not only must you say what you mean, you must say it so it can't be taken any other way.  Ambiguity is b.s..	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Explicit (say directly) vs. implicit (implied).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Express your needs.  Inquire as to their needs.  Hear their needs.  Verify what they say.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Figure out what a person "needs to hear from you".	9/20/1998

Sociology, communication.	Focus.  Can you maintain focus in conversation?  Keep self from drifting, and keep other person from drifting.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Four levels of communication.  (1) Written e-mail.  (2) Phone talk.  Where you can hear vocal inflections.  (3) Audio/video.  Where you can see facial expressions.  (4) Face to face talk.  Where you have a three dimensional encounter.  The distance between speakers matters.  People touch each other.  (5) However, some email romances are better than some face to face romances.  So go figure.	9/7/1999

Sociology, communication.	Gossip is a low power strategy, traditionally used by women, who were often in low power positions.	10/30/1997

Sociology, communication.	Gossip tactics.  They try to mock and humiliate their perceived enemies.	5/8/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip, types of.  (1) Gossip that is lies, slander and libel.  (2) Gossip that is truths, yet spiteful, vindictive, holier than thou, and malicious.  (3) If you are saying something good then its not gossip (?).	4/25/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip.  Various definitioins of gossip.  (1) Some people say its not gossip if its simply stating the facts.  Thats not true.  (2) Some people say gossip is not malicious if its simply stating the facts.  That is not true.	5/6/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip.  Various definitions of gossip.  Gossip defined as talking about other people.  Gossip as defined as malicious talk about other people.  Gossip as lying talk about other people.	5/6/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip.  Why do people gossip?  (1) They feel insecure and thus attack others.  (2) They feel they need to boost their self esteem at the expense of others.  (3) They feel they need to "win" and "be number one" at any cost.  (4) They have nothing else to do except talk about other people.  (5) Gossip is akin to bullying.  (6) Those who engage in gossip degrade themselves.  Gossip is more degrading to the gossiper.	5/6/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip.  Why do people gossip?  When people let atrophy, through lack of use, their ability to think abstractly then they have no recourse but to talk about what is before them.  I am not a fan of gossip.	5/8/2003

Sociology, communication.	Gossip.  You would be surprised how interested some people are in you.  They want to find out all about you.  They want to find your weak spots and vulnerabilities.  They want to take advantage of you.  They want to destroy you for their gain or just for laughs.	10/23/2003

Sociology, communication.	I think we should write as if we had to pay by the word.  However, if we had to pay by the word, we would all be writing in "telegram" style.  Stop.	4/11/2000

Sociology, communication.	Ideal communication.  The goal is to make yourself understood.  So you may have to speak their language (slang, etc.).	9/20/1998

Sociology, communication.	Ideal: instant access to everything ever written, from any language into any language.  Introductions to any area of subject, on any level of learning (grade school, high school, college, graduate school).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideal: when you communicate with someone, quickly cut to the core.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideal.  Information needs to be timely, complete, concise, accurate, and relevant.	09/26/1993

Sociology, communication.	Ideal.  Perfect balance of emotion and reason.  No excess or lack in either one.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  (1) Good communication = knowing when to say what to who, how, and why.  (2) Bad communication = not knowing same.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  (1) Important ideas, powerfully communicated.  (2) Bad communication vs. good communication, traits of each.  (3) Communicate sometimes greatly, often adequately, and never poorly.  (4) Make them think, make them feel.  (5) Honest, effective, and practical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  (1) Productive thinking.  (2) Productive communication: problem solving.  (3) Productive action.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  (1) Stay focused.  (2) Talk about what is most important.  (3) Say what is most important.  (4) Get the feeling right.  (5) Put it in logical order.  (6) Put it in priority order: importance, chronological.  (7) Be direct.  (8) Don't b.s.  (9) Don't beat about the bush.  (10) Don't be metaphorical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  Degree of effectiveness.  What you could have communicated vs. what did get through.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  Effective communication is tough because you must form all the proper thoughts, in logical order, with no b.s. ideas or non-germane ideas, and with no differences in symbol meaning systems of the participants.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Ideals.  Real good communication is very, very rare.  Deep, frequent, and prolonged.  Logical, concerning many important subjects, with feeling.  Understanding, and agreeing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	If you can read, you must know how to write?  If you can write, you must know how to read?	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication.	In today's society writing text has usurped speaking and reading text has usurped listening.  Text has usurped voice.	7/25/2002

Sociology, communication.	Increasing levels of complexity of communication.  (1) Argument: strictly logical.  (2) Rhetoric: emotional persuasion added in.  (3) Discourse: changing meaning of text added in.	07/30/1993

Sociology, communication.	Knowing but not telling.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Levels of abstraction.  (1) Concrete: it is what is.  (2) Association: it reminds one of other things.  (3) ? : one symbol with many possible meanings.  (4) ? : one symbol with one meaning.  Note: everything has all four above levels of meaning.	8/6/2001

Sociology, communication.	Limits of communication.  What is there to talk about really?  What can we really say?  How well can we say it?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Listening.  (1) Listening as hearing.  (2) Listening as hearing and understanding.  (3) Listening as hearing, understanding and empathizing.	11/15/2001

Sociology, communication.	Me and communication.  (1) My communication style: open, honest.  (2) Development of my communication style.  (3) What I like and need from others.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Me.  My communication style.  Exploratory, tangential, riffing, emotional (tones, gestures, words), dramatic, revelatory, spontaneous, animated, hyperbolic, colorful.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Message wanted to send vs. message sent vs. message received.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Modes.  Cultures and individuals that speak, read, write, combos.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Modes.  Just as there is a difference between cultures that think, speak, read, and write, so is there a difference between people who do same.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Modes.  Oral traditions vs. written traditions.  The differences between them.  Pros and cons of each.  How it affects other areas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Multimedia.  Communication today is increasingly multimedia.  Multimedia adds more information.  Multimedia makes it easier to understand.  (1) Visuals with text.  Photos.  Diagrams.  Charts.  Graphs.  Maps.  Computer graphics.  Graphic design.  (2) Sound with text.  Soundbites.  Music.  (3) Audio/visual with text.  Video clips.	8/16/2006

Sociology, communication.	Other ways to communicate besides language: random grunts, growls, cries, laughs, etc.	11/20/2001

Sociology, communication.	PART ONE.  History of communication tools.  (1) Data storage tools.  (2) Data manipulation tools.  (3) Data communication tools.  (4) Data collaboration tools.     PART TWO.  The Future.  (1) Machines assist human mentalizing.  The human-machine interaction.  (2) Continued development of collaboration.  The human-human interaction.  (3) Human-data interaction.  A bigger pool of free data, better organized, easier and quicker to navigate at the speed of thought.	9/19/2001

Sociology, communication.	Patches, buttons, and stickers.  What is the fascination teenagers have with them?  Bright and colorful trinkets.  They say things, short and sweet, colorfully and with an attitude.	04/30/1994

Sociology, communication.	People like to make clear distinctions, however, I must say, at this point I lump together the following categories: (1) People who talk to other people.  (2) People who talk to their pets.  (3) People who talk to their plants.  (4) People who talk to their television sets.	9/10/2001

Sociology, communication.	Persuasion, attitude change, and social psychology.  Easily persuaded or not.  Persuasive or not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Possible communication problems.  (1) Everyone is writing.  No one is reading.  Why write if no one reads?  (2) Every one is reading.  No one is writing.  How is that possible?  (3) Substitute speaking and listening and you get two more problems.  Everyone is speaking and no one is listening.  Everyone is listening and no one is speaking.  (4) Is the ideal to read 50% and write 50%?  Is the ideal to listen 50% and speak 50%?	5/14/2004

Sociology, communication.	Problems of communication.  "Mind reading."  Some people make the mistake of assuming mind reading.  (1) Some people make the mistake of thinking other people can read their mind.  (2) Some people make the mistake of assuming they can read other people's minds.  (3) There is no mind reading.  Communication should be overt, not covert.  Communication should be explicit, not implicit.  Do not assume mind reading takes place.	4/20/2005

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  (1) Incoherent rambling, illogical.  (2) Does not sound like you mean it.  Insincere.  Untruthful.  Insincerity is a type of falseness.	4/20/2001

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  (1) Tangent mania.  (2) Using people as your shrink.  (3) Dominating conversation vs. too passive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  (1) When one person thinks a throw away line is etched in stone.  (2) When one person thinks a line etched in stone is a throw away line.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Communication message conflict.  (1) Bad communication.  (A) Say wrong thing, or omit right thing.  (B) Double meanings and multiple definitions reduces communication efficiency.  (C) Different people with vastly different definitions for same words reduces communication effectiveness too.  (D) Ambiguity of words (generalness or inexactness) reduces communication efficiency.  (E) Ignorance of definitions decreases communication.  (2) Solutions.  (A) One word, one definition.  (B) Say the same thing three different ways.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Most people communicate poorly, most people waste words.  Unimportant ideas, unimportant subjects.  Poorly communicated, few truths, much b.s..	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Person A wants to talk and person B doesn't.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Saying the wrong thing vs. not saying the right thing (by degree, to get your goal).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  See traits of good and bad writing.  (1) Unfocused, unthought out, unorganized.  (2) Rushed delivery vs. too slow delivery.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Some people ramble.  What causes it?  Unselfconscious, unrigorous thought, unconsciously or consciously.  Some think it is not that bad.  They think it is good.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Three problems.  (1) Individuals who read but never write.  (2) Individuals who write but never read.  (3) Individuals who speak but never read and write.	5/30/1998

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Trivial, banal, stupid, cliche', small talk.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  Two problems.  (1) Conclusions with no argument.  (2) Arguments with no conclusion, no point.	11/15/2001

Sociology, communication.	Problems.  We don't communicate enough about important things, as lovers, as parents, etc.  We don't think.  We don't lay things out logically.  We don't add feeling to them.  We never develop best attitudes, and if we do, we don't care to share them.	06/30/1993

Sociology, communication.	Propaganda, public relations and rhetoric are all the persuasion game.  Is all communication the persuasion game?  At least, to persuade the audience that the speaker is telling the truth, not lying, and has good intentions.  Persuade you to the speakers point of view.	6/5/2004

Sociology, communication.	Public speaking.  (1) One on one vs. large group.  (2) Prepared vs. off cuff.  (3) How to do it well?  Stay on target, stay well organized, cut to heart of matter, act serious, don't drift, sound confident and sure, don't hesitate, be clear, be direct, look them in the eye, transmit emotion.	06/06/1994

Sociology, communication.	Real communication is mostly impossible.  We should not expect it to occur.  We should be surprised when it does occur.  Just making the effort to communicate is enough.  In those rare instances when people understand each other, do not expect agreement.  Diversity of thought is the norm, thankfully.	4/11/2000

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  (1) Communication and politics.  One could argue that all communications is political.  All communication is persuasion used to gain power.  All communication is power struggle.  (2) Communication and sex.  One could argue that all communication is sexual.  (3) Communication and economics.  One could argue that all communication follows economic laws.  Costs of communication (ex. telegram, snail mail, phone, Internet).  Exchange theory of communication: You give, and you want to get, thought and emotion.	4/11/2000

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  (1) Psychology: interior aspects of meaning.  Development of meaning: change in concept type and level.  (2) Sociology: shared meanings.  (3) Law: limits on free speech.  (4) Economics: how communication technology increases productivity.  (5) Education: education as communication of ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Communication and art.  Art as communication of thought and emotion that both informs and entertains.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Psycho-analysis.  (1) Criticism of phrases.  What do they reflect: slights and power plays vs. friendliness and openness.  Is it a good or bad phrase to use and why?  (2) Leaving expressions.  Later, see you later, so long, see you next time, see you whenever.  (3) Meeting expressions.  Hey, what's up, what's happening, what's going on.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Psychology and communication.  Cognitive dissonance is conflicting messages.  Conflict of what meant vs. what said.  Words said, emotions said, face, body clothes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Psychology and communication.  Neurotic repression as cause or effect of non-communication.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Psychology and communication.  Screening: out, in.  Repressing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Sociological aspects of communication.  How much you control it vs. how much they control it vs. how much it just drifts.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related areas.  Sociology and communication: power and fighting.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Related subjects.  (1) Psychotherapy and communication.  Talking can make you feel better and make you mentally healthier.  (2) Sex and communication.  Communication differences between men and women.  (3) Age and communication.  Communication styles of children, teens, adults and elderly.	4/20/2001

Sociology, communication.	Sending (talk, gesture) and receiving (see, hear) emotions and ideas in order to communicate attitudes.	1/25/1998

Sociology, communication.	Silence = death?  Silence = consent?  Silence = a virtue?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Silence.  It is not only what you are saying that is confusing me, it is also what you are not saying.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Silence.  Saying nothing is like saying something bad to people.  Little hello's reassure them.	10/30/1994

Sociology, communication.	Small talk.  (1) Frankly you don't want to get too involved with the people you work with.  So you would rather say nothing to them.  But you have to say something or people get suspicious or resentful.  So you talk about nothing (ex. The weather), and say nothing real.  Fake friendly but not familiar.  It is empty, trite, trivia, boring, bullshit, fake, lying, but it works, it helps people get along.  It is lying to self though, and repression.  You have to be with them, even if you don't want to, and you didn't choose to be with them.  Trapped enemies.  Argumentative topics like religion, politics, and sex are off limits.  (2) After a life at work, adults get unconsciously stuck in this mode.  Teenagers however have a need for real communication, real talk.  Saying what you really think and feel.  Saying what you think is important and true, problems and solutions.  And they are pissed off when they can't get it just anywhere.  They can't get it from their parents.  The teens know something is wrong, but don't know what or why or the solution.  (3) I don't go to work to have real relationships or real talk.  I go to fill a role and play a game.	06/12/1994

Sociology, communication.	Small talk.  Keep chatting.  (1) The urge not to chat.  (A) I am absorbed in thought.  (B) I hate small talk.  (C) I am disgusted with my intellectual and moral inferiors.  (2) However, there is also the need to chat.  (A) As a social lubricant.  (B) To keep channels open.  (C) To reassure people.  (D) So things do not degenerate into silent hatreds.	01/10/1994

Sociology, communication.	Social interaction.  (1) Some people feel silence means "everything is fine", and talk is required only when there is a problem.  (2) Some feel shallow talk means "everything is all right", and silence or deep talk is an indicator that there is a problem.  (3) Some feel that deep talk means that "everything is all right", and that shallow talk or silence is an indicator that there is a problem.  When these three types of people interact with each other there can be misunderstanding.  (4) Some people talk in either case (all right or problem).  (5) Some people are quiet in either case (all right or problem).	06/01/1994

Sociology, communication.	Speaking.  (1) Public vs. private, planned vs. off cuff.  (2) Pitch, volume, timbre.  (3) Posture, gesture, facial expression.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  (1) Revealing others.  Questioning and listening.  Getting others to reveal information or beliefs so you can figure them out.  (2) Con man.  Getting others to confide in you, and to trust you.  Make them think you are honest, and of their kind.  The good con artist never shows himself.  The mark never knows he has been taken until long after.	10/05/1994

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  (1) Saying what you think and feel.  (A) To get catharsis and stay healthy, and (B) To take an ethical stand, and (C) To be the voice of reason.  (2) Saying what you think they want to hear to get a goal.  (3) "A" is healthier than "B".	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  (1) When in doubt, say it.  (2) Know what you want, communicate to get it.  (3) Picking subject, ideas, tone, words, grammar.  (4) Say what you mean, mean what you say.  (5) Listen critically.  (6) Don't talk about the unimportant to kill time, or out of laziness.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  Best way to present information.  What media, what order (conceptual structure).  Worst ways to present information.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  In what situation, with what audience, what messages send?  How do so, to get what goals?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  Leave nothing important out vs. leave nothing unimportant in.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Techniques.  Rhetoric.  The right idea works best.  The right idea gets goal most, fast, cheap, without getting anti-goals.  The right idea is not necessarily truest idea, and is not necessarily most ethical idea.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	The futility of communication: different people have different concepts for same word.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Things to ask people.  (1) What's going on?  How do you see the world?  (2) What's the plan?  What to do?  What's the program?	6/23/2005

Sociology, communication.	Understanding how communication works is a big part of understanding how the mind works.  We can communicate with words, images, music, gestures, etc., and each of those abilities are major areas of the mind, so in total, communication encompasses a large part of the mind.	8/6/2001

Sociology, communication.	What determines whether you talk to someone about something?  If you're unsure of your analysis of something.  If you have questions about how to analyze something.  If you know what's bugging you, deal directly with it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What good is a great idea if it is not communicated, or communicated sub-optimally, or wrong message given, or communicated partially?	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  All behavior communicates.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  All communication is rhetorical argument to get goals and satisfy drives.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  Art, advertising, and conversation (persuading you to see my view, to inhabit my world) is all creation and communication of a world.  A World = a set of things (concrete and abstract ideas) and their relationships.  The world can have its own logic and ethics.	07/30/1993

Sociology, communication.	What.  Can't help but communicate somehow.  Silence can speak louder than words.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  Communication is important, difficult, and complex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  Communication is struggle.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	What.  Encoding, sending, receiving, decoding (interpreting).	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Why we communicate.  (1) Reasons to talk: bored, pain, need help.  (2) Reasons not to talk: no energy, no time.  You are no help, your below me.  Competition.  Don't want to hurt, don't want to be hurt.  Don't know it could help with a problem they don't know they have.  Afraid of threats to their psychology or lifestyle.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	Why.  (1) Communication is key for social cooperation.  Understanding the other person's metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical views, and negotiating disputes to solve problems and conflicts.  (2) The two main factors in sociology are (A) How well two people(s) understand where each other is coming from.  (B) How they will settle their disputes.  Also, (C) How intellectually, emotionally, morally, etc., advanced they each are.	09/15/1993

Sociology, communication.	Why.  Communication is important in order to coordinate, cooperate, stay healthy, avoid violence, and negotiate or compromise.	12/30/1992

Sociology, communication.	You don't understand vs. you don't make any sense.  Arguments on both sides of a communication.	06/30/1993

Sociology, competition.	.This section is about competition.  Topics include: ( ) Ethics.  ( ) Techniques.  ( ) Types.	1/24/2006

Sociology, competition.	A common phenomenon.  People trying to dominate lame situations and engaging in idiotic pursuits just so they can say they won.  It starts when young and still in school.  In school they teach kids to jump through hoops.  They teach kids to compete without considering the worth or value of the contest.  They teach kids that when the teacher says jump the student says how high.	2/12/2004

Sociology, competition.	Beware those who think everything is competition.  They think everything is war.	9/19/2003

Sociology, competition.	Competition can lead to the equivalent of an arms race.  Every individual constantly looking for an edge not only over other individuals, but also over the system itself.  Thus, competitive systems ratchet toward conflict.  Competitive systems tend toward conflict.  Like an arms race.	6/29/2004

Sociology, competition.	Competition: friendly and unfriendly.	12/30/1992

Sociology, competition.	Competition.  All social relations are competitive.  It is always a contest.  It sucks.	10/17/1999

Sociology, competition.	Competition.  If you lose you are not worthless.  If they win they are not better than you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, competition.	Competition.  Some people define competition as a form of conflict.  Some people define competition as a 50/50 mix of conflict and cooperation.  I prefer to define competition as a form of cooperation, because the basis of competition is the rules we agree to (often implicitly) that define competition.	4/28/2001

Sociology, competition.	Competition.  There are some people who view every situation as a competition.  We call these people assholes.	11/20/2001

Sociology, competition.	Excessive degrees of competition leads to monopoly in economics and dictatorship in politics.	10/23/2003

Sociology, competition.	Hyper-competitive and hyper-conflict individuals.  (1) Thinks every situation is a competition or conflict.  (2) Thinks unethical tactics are justified, even though they are not.  (3) Does anything to win.  Does anything to kill their opponent.	12/8/2003

Sociology, competition.	Hyper-competitive personality type.  Sees every social situation as a competition.  Feels the need to always win.  Feels the need to always dominate.	10/23/2003

Sociology, competition.	In America, a big slur is calling someone a loser, which reflects the hyper-competitive nature of American society.  We train our youth for mindless competition by means of a hyper-competitive school environment, sports and awards shows.	9/1/2004

Sociology, competition.	Many times competition is couched in terms of conflict.  "Destroy the competition.  We murdered them.  Etc."  So that what starts out as competition quickly devolves into conflict.	10/23/2003

Sociology, competition.	Problems with competition.  The "Win at any cost.", attitude.  At any expense of anyone or anything.  Eliminate the competition.  Caught up in meaningless contests.	10/9/2003

Sociology, competition.	The limits of competition.  Ask surfers about competitive surfing and most will tell you that competitive surfing is a business tool, and that surfing at its heart is not about competition.  Human life is like surfing.  Human life, at its heart, is about much more than competition.  Human life is much more than the acquisition of money.  Competition has its limits, especially as an explanation of human life.  Money also has its limits.	8/29/2005

Sociology, competition.	The tactic of school and parents is to inculcate into youth the notion of competition for competitions sake, thus guiding people into inane competitions.	6/8/2004

Sociology, competition.	Two problems of competition.  (1) Mindless competition.  It is a problem when you socialize people to engage in competitions mindlessly, without a thought of the purpose or value of the competition.  Sports are an example of mindless competition.  (2) Hyper competition.  Hyper competition is treating all situations as competitions.  And treating all competitions as to the death.  Not every social situation is a competition to the death.  Yet some people mistakenly believe it is so.	11/8/2005

Sociology, competition.	Two views of competition.  (1) Is competition a form of cooperation?  (2) Is competition a form of conflict?	6/5/2004

Sociology, conflict.	.This section is about conflict.  Topics include:  ( ) Ethics.  ( ) Techniques.  ( ) Types.  ( ) War.	1/24/2006

Sociology, conflict.	(1) Psychological aspects of struggling.  Psych up: motivation, determination.  Vs.  Psych out.  (2) Physical aspects: strength, power, endurance, reserves.  Energy: food, sleep, effort.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	(1) Sociology as conflict.  (2) Sociology as contest.  Who wins and who loses in a social situation.	6/15/1998

Sociology, conflict.	(1) Struggling for wrong things is wrong, and struggling for right things is right.  (2) Not struggling for wrong things is right, and not struggling for right things is wrong.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	(1) The warrior studies conflict tactics.  Prepares himself physically and mentally for war.  The Zen samuri.  Bushido (code of samuri).  Who or what is my opponent?  Others, nature, or myself?  Less wasting time, etc.  (2) Often though, the best way to conquer is to seduce or persuade.  Example: getting them to like you, or agree with you.  That is because it does not cause me to go against my principles to do so.  Another, less ethical, tactic is to kiss ass to survive.  (3) Mental preparation of the warrior.  Tough, enduring, focus, fearless, calm, well prepared.  (4) Getting what you want, getting your way, by any means.  Fighting fair or dirty, rough or nice.	12/01/1993

Sociology, conflict.	(1) What determines if we are fighting?  Its always a struggle.  Little struggles with allies.  Big struggles with enemies.  (2) What are we fighting about?  What is the subject matter of the conflict?  What is my view?  What is the opposition's view?  (3) What determines who wins and who loses?  (4) What determines when the fight is over?  The fight is never over.  (5) What are the rules of the fight?  Deciding how you will fight.  Deciding what you will and will not do.  Even if the other side fights dirty.  (6) The big problem is that often people cannot agree on any of the above.	11/24/2004

Sociology, conflict.	(1) What.  All relationships = struggling.  All existence = struggle.  Unconscious vs. conscious.  Mild vs. severe.  (2) Why: it is natural.  (3) How: healthiest ways.  Ethical vs. effective.  Get most goal with least effort.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Acknowledging: starting fights vs. finishing fights.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Adversity, opposition, oppression, exploitation.  Fight it with knowledge and bravery.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Allies are tenuous and changing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Allies vs. neutrals vs. enemies.  Participants vs. noncombatants.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Battle.  Person x: gains and losses.  Person y: gains and losses.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Battles.  Chosen vs. received.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Boxing metaphor for struggling.  Boxing has many factors to it, including:  (1) Speed: if you can react faster than your opponent then you have an advantage.  (2) Power: if you can hit harder than your opponent then you have an advantage.  (3) Armor: if your hide is tougher than your opponent's punches then you have an advantage.  (4) Will to fight: if your will to fight is greater than you opponent's then you have an advantage.  (5) Smarts: if you knowledge of tactics is greater than your opponent's then you have an advantage.	12/23/2000

Sociology, conflict.	Computers.  Flame is a sociological phenomenon.  Vituperation.  Gossip.  Slander and libel.  Ad hominem attacks.	3/9/2000

Sociology, conflict.	Conflict resolution techniques.  Dispute resolution techniques.  Any use of conflict de-escalation is a use of peace.	1/1/2006

Sociology, conflict.	Conflict theory.  People will walk all over you, and take advantage of you, and try to destroy you, for kicks, if you give them the chance.  I am engaged in a battle.  At stake is my psyche and my self autonomy.  I am going to fight you.	03/06/1989

Sociology, conflict.	Conflict theory.  You need an opponent who is your equal in order to bring out the best or most in you.  A worthy opponent.	06/10/1997

Sociology, conflict.	Conflict.  PART ONE.  Types of conflict.  (1)  Physical conflict.  (A) Pushing and shoving.  (B) Hitting.  (C) Weapons.  (2) Verbal conflict.  (A) Shouting matches.  (B) Cursing matches.  (C) Ad hominem attacks.  (3) Psychological conflict.     PART TWO.  Tactics of psychological conflict.  Make them think you are stronger than them.  Make them think you are right.  Sow fear, uncertainty and doubt.  Attack their assumptions and conclusions.  Distract them.  Feint.  Surprise them.  Fake them out.     PART THREE.   Tactics of cooperation.  Make them think you like them.  Make them think you are one of them.  Make them think you share same goals.  Do them a favor.  Smile.  Be nice.  Have a contract.  Don't be a pushover.  Have good boundaries.  Know what is non-negotiable.  Spot scams.  Respect them as much as you respect anyone else.	5/31/2000

Sociology, conflict.	Dealing with assholes.  (1) As you become more socially attuned and skillful in conflict, dealing with assholes becomes easier.  (2) As you understand assholes better (causes, behavior), they bother you less.  You see how pathetic they are, and you know how to deal with them.	06/17/1994

Sociology, conflict.	Do not let the opposition, no matter how many they are, no matter how powerful they are, no matter how unjust they are, no matter how much of a threat they are, no matter what setbacks or losses occur, do not let the opposition degrade your ability to struggle for justice against all their crappy ways.	11/23/2004

Sociology, conflict.	Elements of a struggle.  (1) Major, minor.  (2) Opponents: number and types.  (3) Opposition: types and amounts.  (4) Arena, battleground, terrain, environment, subject area.  (5) Means: form of their attack (strategies, tactics, and reasons for them).  (6) Ends: what their fighting over, and reasons for.  (7) The stakes: what happens if each wins?	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Elements.  (1) Planning and preparation.  (2) Positioning.  (3) Timing: acting too late vs. acting too soon.  Before your ready to attack, before their ready to be attacked.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Elements.  Resources: time, energy, money, materials.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics of conflict.  (1) Fighting fair even when the opposition does not fight fair.  (2) Doctrine of equal opposition.  Like the punishment fitting the crime.  (3) Doctrine of explaining why you are fighting (punishing) and explaining how the opposition can change their behavior for you to stop the fight (punishment).	11/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics.  (1) You and opponents.  (2) Subject area, issue/question/problem, view, argument, evidence.  (3) Goals: freedom, peace, knowledge, status, prestige, respect, power, sex, economic (money and stuff).  (4) Goals, strategies, tactics, and reasons: yours and theirs.  Goals and objectives: what fighting for.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics.  Hard sell: force.  Soft sell: seduce.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics.  Playing (struggling) by the rules.  The fair fight vs. dirty pool.  Rules of engagement.  The just war.	9/7/1999

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics.  Stay in fighting shape, physically and psychologically.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Ethics.  Struggling vs. nonstruggling.  Means vs. ends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Fight type, duration, frequency, intensity.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Fight who, when, where, why, how, how hard.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Fights classified by time, environment, rules, medium.  (1) Physical (action).  To him, to his weapons, to his other stuff.  Hand to hand, guns or knives.  (2) Verbal (communication).  To him, to his allies, to others in environment.  Harass, bitch.  (3) Ideological (ideas).	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	First thing, determine immediately whether you are dealing with an uptight square asshole (traditional, hierarchical, conservative), or someone who is cool, liberal, democratic, egalitarian.  If you can't tell, try to get them to reveal it.  If they won't, or if they lie or spy, then to be safe treat them like a square.  These are two different personality types, it is not just politics.  How is each formed?  What is the mechanism of action for each?	05/30/1994

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  (1) The problem with a view of life as a struggle.  The problem with a view of life as conflict.  The problem with conservatism, capitalism, etc., is that they lead to social relationships where one person feels they have to destroy, or beat, or humiliate, or overpower, or dominate the other person.  The tactics used to do so include ostracism, bullying, discrimination, etc.  (2) When the "winning is everything" attitude of sports becomes an attitude held about life in general it leads one group to want to dominate another group.  It can lead to discrimination, exploitation, oppression, etc.	4/17/2000

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  Be ready to fight always.  Be ready to fight anyone or anything, anytime, anywhere.  Know how to fight and be willing to fight.  The same goes for love.  Know when and why to do either (love or fight).	9/26/1998

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  It is necessary to fight if you want to survive.  Fight for self-defense, and for protection.  Fight so that you don't let others abuse you and adversely affect you mental health.  Fight for justice, justice for yourself and for others.  Fight so assholes don't continue abusing other people.  Fight others to maintain your sense of self-respect and self-worth.	05/18/1997

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  People think "All is fair in love and war".  They also think "Those who are not my friends (and I love my friends) are my enemies (and I am at war with my enemies).  Thus they conclude "the rules are there are no rules".  That is how the world got so screwed up.	9/26/1998

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  The big questions.  (1) What will you struggle against and not and why.  (2) What will you struggle for and not and why.  (3) What tactics will and won't you use and why.  (4) It is an ethical question.  See - support, permit, condone, neutral, discourage, prohibit.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  There is a lot of anger out there, and a lot of people not conscious of it and its cause and how to deal with it.  They are repressed and ignorant of psychology and psychological therapy.  So there ends up the injustice of much intense misplaced anger.  Beware!  Don't get caught as a scapegoat for misplaced anger, whether you did something wrong or not.	10/23/1993

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  Two wrong views people often hold.  (1) When encountering another individual, people make a conscious or unconscious decision, based on any criteria, that "this person is on my side" vs. "this person is on the other side".  Any loss to the "other side" is a gain for "our side".  If a person views you as on the other side, then they will want to see you fail, suffer, and die.  (2) "Any step down for anyone else is a step up for me".  They want to see you fail, suffer and die regardless of whose side you are on.	10/20/1997

Sociology, conflict.	General thoughts on conflict.  View of life as a struggle leads to view of life as war (extreme competition or conflict).  This is how the hierarchical conservatives see it.  "You're in the army now".  Blind obedience.  Survival neurosis.	06/17/1994

Sociology, conflict.	Get used to being attacked from all sides (right and left) by seen and unseen foes.  Also, be prepared for quick changes from friend to foe, and from foe to friend.	01/07/1994

Sociology, conflict.	How peaceful your life is.  (1) Inner struggles (psychological tension and stress).  (2) Outer struggles: nature and social.  Ones you pick: intentionally or unintentionally vs. ones others give you: intentionally or unintentionally.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Ideal.  Is the ideal absence of struggle, or is the ideal struggling perfectly?  Perfect struggle = effective or just?	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Importance (relative) of a fight.  Affects of outcome: wins vs. losses.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	In any situation you are in, (1) The amount, type, and degree of opposition you are faced with, and (2) How to deal with them.  (A) Kiss up to them (no).  (B) Fight them secretly.  Don't let them know you are acting against them.  (C) Outright fighting.  Let them know you are fighting them.	09/10/1994

Sociology, conflict.	Is it possible to defend self without attacking others?	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Just war.  (1) Some fights are ethically justified, others are not.  (2) Sometimes killing is justified, other times not.	11/25/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Means and ends.  Means = technology: tools and techniques.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Never give in to the enemy spiritually or mentally.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Non-violent (peaceful) resistance.  Ghandi.  Martin Luther King.	04/24/1997

Sociology, conflict.	Not all conflicts are zero-sum games.  Not all conflicts are "life or death" situations.  Not all conflicts are "overpower or be enslaved" situations.	11/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	One cannot and should not always avoid confrontation and conflict.  One cannot always avoid a fight.  One cannot always avoid a loss.  Sometimes you have to stand up and fight for what you think is right, even when you don't win, even when justice does not prevail, and even when you suffer humiliation, pain and loss for it.	3/31/2004

Sociology, conflict.	Opponents, types of.  (1) Person.  (A) Self/me.  Sub-optimal and pathological.  Psychological, physical, behavior, my life.  (B) Others: individuals or groups.  (2) Natural objects: weather, land.  (3) Manmade objects: pollution.  (4) Natural forces or conditions.  Time, age.  Death, loss, decay.  Luck/fate/destiny/misfortune.  Necessities.  Money, work, stupidity, lies.  Crap and mediocrity.  Limits: physical, psychological, social, nature.  Problems, mistakes.  (5) Situations: combos of above.  (6) Ideas.  (7) Life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  (1) Natural fights: weather, food, pests, etc.  (2) Social fights: here.  (3) Individual fights: emotions, motivation, memory, learning, etc.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  Are they against you for what you believe, or what they think you believe.  Correct their wrong impressions of you.  Get your message out (public relations).	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  Being attacked, fairly or unfairly, by weaker or by stronger.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  Beware those who hurt you and then are nice to you, over and over.  Avoid them like plague.  Beware those who befriend in order to betray.  Trust no one.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  Biggest opponent is your lesser self.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Opposition.  Objective obstacles vs. subjective obstacles.  Mind, body, energy, attitudes (emotion and knowledge).	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Peace vs. violence.  (1) Violence as a means to get goals.  Forms of violence.  Ethics of violence.  (2) Peaceful methods.  Non-violence.	5/30/1998

Sociology, conflict.	Peace vs. violence.  The lure of violence.  (1) As catharsis for anger (twisted into hatred and aggression) caused by one thing, but taken out on another innocent.  (2) As catharsis for sexual tensions.  Sadists.  (3) As catharsis for destructive urges (thanatos), and for anarchic urges (freedom).	01/22/1989

Sociology, conflict.	People can use true information against you.  Directly to blackmail you, or indirectly by telling others.  In order to keep you out of office, or to put someone else in.  To advance their philosophy, views, causes, interests, and to hinder yours.  And people can also lie about you.	11/27/1993

Sociology, conflict.	Persistence is key.  Giving up too soon is a big mistake.	9/28/1998

Sociology, conflict.	Playing fair vs. playing dirty.  Fighting fair vs. fighting dirty.    The big question is what are the rules of engagement.  What is fair and not.  Inevitably you and your opponent may have differing views on this.	9/19/2003

Sociology, conflict.	Problems.  Conflict as a problem.  Causes and methods of settling or resolving.  Problems of fighting best.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Psychological: before fight, during fight, after effects.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Psychology of conflict, competition and cooperation.  (1) Psychology of conflict.  (A) Will to fight if have to.  (B) Will to keep fighting in a losing battle.  (C) Knowledge of ways how to fight and when to fight.  (2) Psychology of competition.  (A) Will to compete if have to.  (B) Will to keep competing in a losing contest.  (C) Knowledge of ways how to compete and when to compete.  (3) Psychology of cooperation.  (A) Will to cooperate if have to.  (B) Will to keep cooperating in a losing deal.  (C) Knowledge of ways how to cooperate and when to cooperate.	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Psychology.  Bravery vs. cowardice (fag, wimp).  Causes of each.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Some genetic traits that we evolved in the past, that were useful in the past, are perhaps not useful today.  For example, in a primitive society that wages many wars, perhaps only the war-like individuals survive (i.e., those who enjoy war and those who are good at war), and it becomes a prevalent trait in the population, and perhaps it even becomes a hard-wired trait in brains.  However, today war is less necessary and yet we still have people wired for war.  The point is, just because we have these traits does not make these traits good.	11/25/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Some people want to see you go nowhere, do nothing, or screw up miserably, so it will confirm their suspicions of your inferiority and their superiority (as a person, and of the ideology they adheres to).  Do not give them that pleasure.  Fight them.	10/01/1993

Sociology, conflict.	Sources of war, violence and murder.  (1) Politics.  People ordered to commit violence by a government that rules by terror, intimidation, coercion, etc.  (For example, Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, Rwanda in 90's.)  People with no freedom forced to act against their will.  (2) Emotion.  Hatred of another group.  Anger.  Fear.  Revenge.  (3) Media.  People persuaded to violence by propaganda.  Use of the media to spread lies.  (4) Ideology.  People who believe they are justified in committing violence.  They feel they have good reasons.  They adhere to an ideology.  A belief, a thought, an idea or a rational argument motivates them, even if it is false.  For example, they may believe their enemy is subhuman and should be exterminated.  (5) Economic concerns.  Desire for scarce resources.  Desire for land, money and food for survival.  (6) Political.  Desire of a state for political power and dominance.  (A) Leaders telling their obedient followers to pursue aggression.  (B) Grass roots violent revolutions despite what leaders say.  (7) Religion.  Religious wars.  Blind obedience to religious beliefs.  (8) Moral grounds.  For example, the USA against Hitler in WWII.  (9) Attitude of escalation.  (10) Lack of conflict resolution skills.  No diplomats in place.  (11)  An uncontrolled technological arms race.  (12) An uncontrolled military whose job it is to make war, and who wants desperately to do their job.  (13)  Hypersensitive, hyperdefensive people.	6/1/2000

Sociology, conflict.	Stakes.  (1) Health: psychological, physical, financial/economic.  (2) Justice, catharsis.  (3) Sub-optimal and pathological vs. optimal and ideal, me and my life.  (4) Goals: by area, by time frame, do, experience, get, learn.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Stakes.  Struggling over (1) Environment type desired.  (2) Use of shared resources. (3) Doing things.  (4) Dominance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Strengths vs. weaknesses.  Actual, perceived, apparent.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Struggling.  Being dissed.  Conscious vs. unconscious of it.  Frequency, degree of it, from how many.  To face vs. behind back.  Some feel it more than others.  How much they take vs. fight back (fully).	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Taking down people is now sport in america.  Anyone can accuse anyone of anything (rightly or wrongly), strictly for thrills, kicks, smiles.	03/23/1994

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  (1) Improve: plans, tools, techniques.  (2) Dig in vs. move, maneuver, position.  (3) Negotiate, diplomacy.  (4) Go all out at once vs. save some till later.  (5) Prisoners: interrogate, enslave, torture.  (6) Trap them, vs. drive them out, expose them.  (7) False submission or self deprecation vs. bragging.  (8) Diversions, distractions, fakes, fool.  (9) Surprise, ambush, secret weapons.  (10) Lies, secrets.  (11) Single front vs. multiple front.  (12) Leaders, recruits, followers, public.  (13) No mans land, sanctuary, neutral zone.  (14) Terror, psychological war.  (15) Outlast them.  (16) Harass, cheat.  (17) Adaptability, flexibility, agility.  (18) Hide vs. display.  (19) Resupply, repsych, rephys.  (20) Bombardment.  (21) Outnumber.  (22) Armor, defense.  (23) Diplomacy, negotiation.  (24) Trapping and blocking.  (25) Weapons: acquire, develop, prepare, posses, use.  (26) Knock them out of contention vs. totally destroy them.  (27) Block them: actively or passively.  (28) Make them look bad.  (29) Psychological warfare: destroy their desire and will to fight.  (30) Sabotage them.  (31) Charm them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  (1) Propaganda: selling your side, putting opposition down.  (2) Espionage and counter-espionage.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  (1) Speed: too fast, too slow.  (2) Timing: too soon, too late.  (3) Amounts: too little, too much.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Always stay aware it is a battle, always keep fighting.  Always stay on guard, don't fag out, don't forget.  Don't act or be weak: physically, mentally or in character.  Go all out in everything you do.  Look ahead.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Attack vs. retreat.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Attack.  (1) Sneak, surprise, secrecy, ambush.  (2) Warned, threat, overt.  (3) Guerrilla, harass.  (4) Orthodox, siege, frontal, flank, rear.  (5) Single, double, envelopment.  (6) Penetration.  (7) Counterattack.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Be a good counter-puncher, payback is a bitch.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Best strategy.  Be well rested, be well fueled.  Be well psyched, be up for the fight.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Calm, relaxed, physically and mentally, yet motivated and focused, yields optimum psychological and physical performance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Intelligence gathering.  Spies, scouts, reconnaissance, observation, interrogation, shots across the bow.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Methods/procedures: when use, how use best, why use, how you going to fight.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Offense: sneak attack.  Defense: anonymity.	9/26/1998

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Spy, intelligence, logistics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Strategies and tactics list.  (1) Attack vs. retreat.  Offense vs. defense.  (2) Seduce vs. destroy.  (A) Overpower, outwit, out last, surprise, bluff.  Block, wear down, or destroy physical and psychological abilities, psychological will.  (3) Form of his attack and defense. (4) Weapons: tools and techniques used.  Brain.  Behavior/work/effort.  Stuff, resources (money, energy, time).  Skills.  (5) Physical: fists, holds, sticks and stones, knives, guns.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Strategies: when, where, how, why to use each.  (1) Deceive, deception.  (2) Planning and physical and mental preparation.  (3) Deployment: how much, where, how.  (4) Movement, maneuver: numbers, direction, speed.  (5) Campaign, position, timing, leadership.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Strategies.  Get what you want through other people by: (1) Seduction or destruction.  (2) Study and know opponent.  Capabilities: psychological, physical, financial/economic.  Allies and enemies.  Strengths and weaknesses.  Motives and goals, strategies and tactics, and reasons.  (3) Study and know self strengths and weaknesses.  (4) Prepare self physically and mentally.  (5) Study and know your relationship to opponent.  (6) Study and know environment: opportunities, risks.  (7) Personal factors: skill, smarts, strength, resolve, determination, motivation, will, actuation, health, character.  (8) Fight: harder, fairer, longer, smarter, stronger, faster, leaner, meaner.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Tactic: belittle them (see rhetorical tactics).	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Techniques.  Use your strengths on your opponents weaknesses.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Terms: struggles, problems, challenges, opportunities.	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Terms.  Intentions, capabilities, motive, opportunity, obstacles.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Terms.  Struggling, achieving, getting.  Conflict, combat, war.  Cooperation.  Fighting.  Seducing, persuade.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	The mains forms of struggling in the second half of the twentieth century.  (1) Cold war.  War of ideas.  Economic war.  (2) Guerrilla war and terrorism.	3/11/2000

Sociology, conflict.	The meaning of the phrase, "Know when to fight", can have several meanings.  (1) Know when you are justified in fighting.  Know in what cases to stick up for yourself.  (2) Pick your battles.  There are many battle you are justified in fighting, but you don't have time to fight them all, so choose wisely.  (3) Time your attacks carefully so as to optimize chances of success.	7/11/2002

Sociology, conflict.	They are out there, my age, learning and creating, the intellectual elite, philosophical and artistic.  I want to race them and beat them.  Out of intellectual pride.  I am better and greater.	07/30/1993

Sociology, conflict.	Total struggling complex.  All struggles: past, present, future.  Total current struggling complex: for current total situation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types of conflict.  (1) Intense battles (acute).  (2) Prolonged battles (chronic).	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Types of foes.  Natural foes (ex. natural disasters).  Social foes (ex. other people or society).  (3) Self foes (ex. your lesser selves).	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle, classified by (1) Intra-individual vs. inter-individual  (2) Intra-group vs. inter-group.  (3) Chosen vs. forced into.  (4) Aware of vs. unaware of.  (5) Giving opposition vs. receiving opposition.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle.  (1) Physical.  (2) Psychological  (3) Verbal (see rhetoric).  (A) Insinuation: implicit or hidden arguments.  (B) Mock (see humor, biting).  (C) Taunt.  (4) Ideological.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle.  (1) The legal battle.  (2) The political battle.  (3) The economic battle.  (4) The cultural battle.	11/24/2004

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle.  Increasing levels: friendly competition, unfriendly competition, respectful war, unrespectful war.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle.  Psychological warfare.  Rhetoric and debate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types of struggle.  Terrain, situation, environment, area.  Work, leisure, like/lust, blood relatives, strangers, other, alone, social.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types.  (1) Battling self.  (A) Psychological.  Abilities.  Views.  Oppositional state: what type, how bad.  Ideal or goal states: what type, how far to go.  How to get from one to other.  How far you get.  Gains made, gains ungotten, losses.  (B) Behavior: most important.  (C) Physical.  (2) Battling others.  (3) Battling environment: nature, manmade.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types.  (1) Easy fights vs. tough fights.  (2) Nonstop fights vs. intermittent fights.  (3) Fights till death vs. peace treaties.  (4) Long fights vs. short fights.  (5) Repeating fights vs. endless fights vs. one time only fights.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Types.  Communication struggling: rhetoric, public relations, sales.  Rational and emotional.  Promote self and put down other guy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	Vulnerability of X person, in Y situation, at Z time, to A weapon, used by B opponent.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	War as a thrill and adrenaline rush.  Fighting as a thrill and adrenaline rush.  Conflict as a thrill and adrenaline rush.  Some people like conflict.  They seek conflict.  They think its fun.  For them conflict is a leisure pursuit.  Same for violence and crime.  Its a hobby for sadistic sociopaths.	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	War is a very wasteful means of conflict resolution.  (1) Loss of time.  (2) Loss of materials used to make the weapons, and of stuff destroyed by weapons.  (3) Loss of money spent on weapons that are eventually destroyed.  (4) Human loss of life.  (5) Physical and psychological injury.  (6) Emotional pain of loved ones of soldiers and of civilians in war zones.	04/24/1997

Sociology, conflict.	War.  (1) The feeling of being shot at by humans.  (2) The feeling of having to shoot other humans.  Neither is good.	09/15/1994

Sociology, conflict.	War.  (1) Why the fascination with war?  It is a fascination with fighting, and death or mortality.  Metaphysically most curious subjects.  A way to experientially confront death.  Attacking and being attacked.  Killing and being killed.  How will you handle it, how will you hold up?  Let the women cooperate and give birth.  Bloodlust and violence.  Conquering and winning stuff, power, space or territory, women.  (2) WWII was considered a clean war, with an atrocious foe, and no nukes and no jets.  Big.  Nice setting.	06/15/1994

Sociology, conflict.	War.  Ethics of war.  Kill no civilians.  No chemical weapons.  No nuclear weapons.  No murder or torture of POWs.  No kill those who give up.	12/30/1992

Sociology, conflict.	War.  People are fascinated with war.  War as death.  War as a test.  War as killing.  War as combat and fighting.  Some even desire war.  They like war, fighting, killing, death.  People are strange.	05/18/1997

Sociology, conflict.	War.  The generals who start wars should be the ones who have to fight wars.	4/20/2001

Sociology, conflict.	War.  Various aspects of war.  (1) Economics of war.  Have more money than the opposition.  (2) Technology of war.  Have better technology than opposition.  (3) Propaganda, public relations, communications.  Have a better image in the public arena than opponent.  (4) Psychology of war.  Have better morale than opponent.  (5) Intelligence war.  Have more information than opponent.  (6) All of the above aspects can be used for peace instead of war.  (See: Sociology, cooperation).	11/24/2004

Sociology, conflict.	War.  What we learned from Vietnam and the Gulf War.  Apparently, just like the way to get over an ex-girlfriend is to get a new girlfriend, the way to get over an old war (Vietnam) is to get a new war (Gulf War).	4/25/2002

Sociology, conflict.	War.  Why were wars fought originally, and even today?  (1) For money, wealth and assets.  (2) For power.  (3) For religious beliefs.  (4) For glory, fame, bragging rights, vanity, honor.  (5) As a competition.  As a bloodsport.  As a game.  (7) As a job.  (8) War is killing.  War is death.  Stop war as a bloodsport.  Stop war as a job.  Stop war as a game.  Stop religious wars.  Stop war.	1/9/2004

Sociology, conflict.	When doing something against anyone (against authorities or criminals, majorities or minorities), doing anything, good or bad, you have to ask yourself, how much is this going to raise my paranoia levels (degree, duration, and frequency), and is there another way to do it that will lower my paranoia level.  When fighting evil, try to do it silently, so they won't know you are after them (so they can't evade you), and so they won't know what hit them (so they won't know who to strike back at).  Of course, sometimes it is better to fight evil publicly, but usually only when you are in a group or have some protection or have some authority.  This note can be cross referenced in psychological pathological paranoia, and ethics of struggling/opposition (who to fight) vs. ethics of care (who to look out for).	11/20/1993

Sociology, cooperation.	.This section is about cooperation.  Topics include:  ( ) Ethics.  ( ) Techniques.  ( ) Types.	1/24/2006

Sociology, cooperation.	(1) Basis for cooperation:  Shared interests.  Common goals.  Shared ideas.  Trust.  Communication.  Combining work.  (2) Examples of types of cooperation: the United Nations.	4/25/2000

Sociology, cooperation.	(1) Humans are social animals.  To be social means to be cooperative.  People are by nature more cooperative than conflict driven.  In this respect conflict is an aberration, not a norm.  (2) Law is a form of cooperation.  Competition is a form of cooperation.  Even conflict has rules and is a form of cooperation.  Total conflict would kill us all very quickly.	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	(1) Sharing work.  (2) Sharing results of work.  (3) Sharing information.  Sharing power.  Sharing money.	1/1/2006

Sociology, cooperation.	All the techniques and tools of warfare can be used for peacefare.  (1) The economics of peace.  Spending money on peace.  (2) The technology of peace.  (3) Communications for peace.  (4) The sociology and psychology of peace.  (5) Information and peace.	11/24/2004

Sociology, cooperation.	Cooperation as "leaving each other alone".  Not interfering with each other.	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Cooperation is a basic, important attribute of humans.  There is an evolutionary basis for cooperation.  (Symbiosis, reciprocity and altruism).  Many animals exhibit sociability and cooperation.  If man is a social animal then part of that socialness is cooperation.	11/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Cooperation means sharing.  You can share money, stuff, information, or work.  You can share troubles and surpluses.	3/25/1999

Sociology, cooperation.	Definitions of cooperation.  (1) Friendliness.  Like and trust.  (2) Deal making.  Contract, promising, favor owing, economic exchange.  (3) Communication.  Understanding and agreement.	4/20/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Free Software and Open Source Software.  Working together.  Letting anyone use it.	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	If there was more conflict than cooperation then humans would destroy themselves by now.	4/20/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	If you have a section in your book about social conflict, then you should have a section in your book about social cooperation.	3/25/1999

Sociology, cooperation.	Just as important as warriors are the diplomats, negotiators and dealmakers.	4/20/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Principles of social interaction.  PART ONE.  (1) Do not resort to competition if cooperation will work better.    (2) Do not resort to conflict if competition will work better.     PART TWO.  (1) Do not resort to unfriendly cooperation if friendly cooperation will work better.  (2) Do not resort to unfriendly competition if friendly competition will work better.  (3) Do not resort to "unfriendly" conflict (ex. poison gas, killing civilians, torturing prisoners) if "friendly" conflict works better.	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Propensity of children to share.  Are children taught to share or are children taught not to share?	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Sources of peace and cooperation.  (1) Communication lines open.  (2) Interdependent economically.  Business ties.  (3) Inter-mixed blood lines.  Kinship ties.  As opposed to having two different groups, each group being homogenous, and attacking each other based on physical traits.  (4) Shared culture.  Shared language.  Shared values.  (5) Shared goals and objectives.  Working together toward a shared goal.  (6) Mutual respect.  (7) Tolerance.  (8) A degree of fairness, justice, equality and freedom.  Rather than aggression, oppression and exploitation of one group over another.  (8) Some agreed upon basic ground rules.  (9) The ability to negotiate, bargain and compromise.  Also, a discussion of what issues each side feels to be non-negotiable.  (10) Each side must learn how the other side views the situation.  (11) A higher, disinterested, unbiased legal authority.  Like an arbitrator.  (12) A bargaining chip.  Each side should have something the other side wants.  Leverage.  (13)  Both sides should feel like they won.	6/1/2000

Sociology, cooperation.	The rules of war (ex. truces) are a type of contract or agreement and thus a form of cooperation.	11/20/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Truth and justice lead to peace and cooperation lead to conflict resolution.	11/24/2004

Sociology, cooperation.	Types of cooperation.  (1) Reciprocity.  Doing favors.  Conditional sharing.  (2) Sharing "extra" resources.  (3) Sharing perishable resources.  (4) Sharing a renewable vs. non-renewable resources.  (5) Sharing a seemingly limitless resource (ex. wilderness areas, public areas).	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Types of cooperation.  (1) Working together and dividing the spoils equally.  (2) Sharing a resource or tool.  Example, a library book, or a national park.	4/18/2001

Sociology, cooperation.	Who says the primary social relationship and mechanism must be struggling, conflict and competition, with only occasional bouts of altruism?  Can we not say the reverse is true?  Can we not say that the primary social relationship is caring, love and friendship, with occasional bouts of conflict?  And instead of studying struggling should we not be studying ways to help each other?	12/29/1998

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	.This section is about classism.	1/24/2006

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Attempt by an individual to create a class system in a relationship, based on their value system, in order to gain power, consciously or unconsciously.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Class is bullshit, four reasons why.  (1) Class is bullshit because class boundaries are not distinct.  There are no distinct classes.  We are all points dispersed along a line.  (2) Class is bullshit because everyone is unique.  Each person is a class of one.  Therefore, class is not a useful concept.  (3) Class is bullshit because we share similarities with everyone.  There are many things we all have in common.  We are all in the same class, so class is not a useful concept.  (4) Class is bullshit because we each have many traits.  We share some traits with some people and other traits with other people.  To arbitrarily select one trait as more important than another trait as a basis for class making is wrong.	11/24/2004

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Class.  (1) Causes: survival instinct.  Effects.  (2) Individual's perception of where he stands vs. others.  Society's perception of where individual stands vs. others.  (3) What criteria used, priorities of the criteria.  (4) Variation from society to society.  (5) Pecking order: what type evolves, how does it evolve, by who.  (6) Natural classes: health, intelligence, contribution.  Artificial classes.  (7) Ethical class divisions.  Unethical class divisions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Four reasons why people go slumming.  (1) Some people go slumming to mock the poor.  (2) Some go slumming to see how the other half lives.  (3) Some go slumming because they think of the poor are better and they admire the poor.  Why?  Because the poor have to struggle against more than the rich.  (4) Some go slumming to see a different yet equally valid culture.	1/1/2002

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Having new stuff.  Having clean stuff.  Having expensive stuff.  Some rich people think it is okay to have old and dirty stuff as long as it is expensive stuff.  However, most classist people are obsessed with new, expensive, clean stuff.	11/20/2001

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Judging people by how much money or stuff they have.	11/20/2001

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	No one is "working class" anymore.  No one is "country" anymore.  No one has that naivete and ignorance anymore.  We are all too sophisticated and intelligent.  Do not even pretend you are working class or country.  One would have to deliberately cut themselves off from the rest of the world in order to get even close to how people used to be working class and country.  No television, no radio, no newspapers, no conversation, no shopping malls.  It is impossible.  People bellying up in poor rural bars today are trying to conjure characters and a world long gone.	4/3/2001

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Rich and poor.  (1)(A) Having money.  You sigh a lot.  (B) Having none.  You say fu*k, fu*k, fu*k.  (2) The sociology of being rich vs. being poor.  Metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic views of the rich and the poor.  Their own views of self, and their views of each other.	05/06/1994

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Snobbery as a survival strategy.  If you believe life is a struggle (mortal combat), a great way to get ahead is to persuade or convince others that you are naturally better than them.  (1) So they feel it is not worth attacking you, fearing they will get beaten badly.  (2) So they believe you deserve to advance over them.  This way you avoid struggles.  If they feel they can or should beat you they will, especially if they feel you are inferior, or that you should be eradicated.	10/30/1994

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Snobbery is a social power tactic.  Causes: (1) Think they are better.  (2) Say they are better because they fear you.  (3) Don't fear you but are protective of their territory.  (4) They don't like you, for various reasons.  (5) Don't like being near you, for various reasons.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Snobbery.  People who are snobs but have no reason to be.  People who are not snobs but have every reason to be.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Status ideas start in childhood, with or without adult help.  (1) Person "a" subjective status values.  Is other person good or bad.  Is other person better or worse than me.  (2) Person "b" subjective status values.  (3) Culture "c" subjective status values.  (4) Objective status values.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Status: personal perceptions and values.  Person A and person B, perceptions and values of themselves and each other.  Society's values and society's perception of both of you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Status.  People will only like you if they feel superior to you.  They will dislike you if they think you are superior to them.  (1) Why do we pity and feel good about those below us in a patronizing, condescending way?  Yet we dislike them as inferior products.  But they do boost our egos.  (2) Why do we burn with envy for those above us?  They make us feel small.  Yet we also idolize them and love them as perfect ideals.	09/20/1994

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Status.  Why people feel superior (justified, unjustified).  Genetics, physical condition, intelligence, beliefs/values, work harder, sex, age, combos.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Stratification.  Despising perceived inferiors.  Awe and admiration of perceived superiors.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Two types of snob thinking.  (1) Person to person.  One person vs. another person.  (2) Group to group.  One group vs. another group.	4/11/2000

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	Types of classes.  (1) Economic classes.  The rich and poor.  (2) Religious classes.  ex. Hindu castes.  (3) Class created by slavery.  (4) Class created by discrimination against women. (5) Classism is the view that it is good that there are strictly defined social classes.  Classism is wrong.  Classism is bullshit.  Classism exploits and oppresses the weak.	11/24/2004

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	When one person or group subjectively thinks they are better than another, and why.  Subjective and objective measures of differences.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, classism.	When people say class they mean group.  Classes are arbitrary in-group out-group distinctions.	11/24/2004

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	.This section is about racism.	1/24/2006

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	(1) Even if there were separate races (which I do not believe), discrimination based on race would not be justified.  (2) Even if one race was lesser than another race (which I do not believe), racism would not be justified.  Take a hypothetical example: Today, if both the species Neanderthal and the species Homo Sapiens were alive, and if the Neanderthals were slower, that does not justify racism or even species-ism against the Neanderthals.  (3) Even if it is possible to do so, we should not try to selectively "breed" traits into humans by discriminating against people by denying them human rights, justice, equality and freedom.	12/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	(1) I deny the concept of race.  (2) If there were races, I deny the concept that one race is superior to another.  (3) If one race was smarter than another, I deny that the weaker race should be discriminated against.  That is, I deny that any group who claims any type of advantage should discriminate against any other group.  (4) I deny that groups should segregate themselves.  That is, I deny isolation.  (5) I deny that we should all be forced to act the same, like under a dictatorship or totalitarian state.  That is, I deny homogenization.  There should be diversity and pluralism.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	(1) Some minorities are overly sensitive to a lifetime of slights.  And I sympathize because I felt that way myself at times.  (2) Some minorities are quick to take a offense and fight.  And I applaud them for standing up for themselves.  (3) Some minorities demand a lot of respect.  Good for them.  But I have always gotten along well with people who do not take themselves so seriously.	9/29/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	A discriminator is:  (1) Anyone who hates a group.  (2) Anyone who thinks a group is inferior, without the emotional hate.  (3) Anyone who thinks the races should be segregated, either by prohibiting inter-marriage, or separating communities.	9/15/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Abstractly.  Two groups, what are their perceptions of themselves and each other.  vs. the objective truth?  What's the mass public opinion vs. isolated individuals?  What acts are taking place and how often.  What are the legal rights and protections in the situation?  How much cooperation vs. conflict is occurring?  Should there be affirmative action, welfare, etc?  Political and economic opportunities and rights.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	An argument for affirmative action.  We have not nearly made up for the injustice of 300 years of slavery, segregation and racism.  We have more to do in order to make up for it and reach justice.  Some will say, "I was not the one who enslaved their ancestors."  To which I say, "Tough luck, too bad, it is our duty to make up for past injustices anyway".	7/21/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Causes of racism.  (1) People use a minority as a scapegoat, as an outlet for their unconscious anger and pain from life.  This is one reason why some poor whites becomes racists.  (2) Some people are stupid enough to fall prey to racists arguments.  They are not smart enough to see the mistaken assumptions and mistaken logic in racists arguments.  They are not smart enough to generate the more persuasive counter arguments to racism.  (3) In some people the survival drive leads them to try to dominate others, even if it is unjust and tramples other's human rights.  They are survival neurotics.  Power freaks.	01/22/1989

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Examples of racism: lynching, slavery, segregation, making education illegal for minorities, making intermarriage illegal.  Racism is not always by a numerical majority over a numerical minority.  Racism is just one type of discrimination and oppression.	9/22/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	How much of racism can be explained as immature teasing behavior by bullies?  Some people never grow out of the bullying and teasing behaviors often found in grade-school children.  They pick on the physical differences of other people.  Thus, it may not always be true that racism is taught by adults to innocent children.  Rather, like in the novel "The Lord of the Flies", racism may be a behavior that we need to unlearn as we mature and become civilized.	11/22/1999

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Minority individuals who know little about their minority's historical experience vs. minority individuals who think about nothing else.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	One reason why racism is wrong is because there really are no distinct races.	08/17/1997

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Perceptions of group differences (true or false).  How and why you think they are different.  Tolerance of group differences.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Race relations in the USA in the 1990's.  (1) Demographic mix in numbers of people, and rate of rise or fall.  White, black, Hispanic, Asian, other, mixed.  Young and old.  Male and female.  Handicapped.  (2) Demographic mix of those in power.  In government, business, university and military.  (3) History of injustice.  Present injustices.  Improving or worsening in future.  (4) How to make the situation just in the USA and world?  Which are the worst injustices?  Which are easiest to fix?  (5) The mulatto is the future.	9/15/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Race.  Given enough time, and enough intermarriage, everyone is going to be the same color, and we will all look back on the age of racism as a disgraceful, sad, stupid tragedy.	11/24/2004

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Race.  Prejudice against inter-racial couples is wrong.  Prejudice against people of racially mixed descent is wrong.	3/23/2004

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Racial and ethnic discrimination continues to be a big problem worldwide.  Racism continues in America.  Conservative pundits would have you believe that there is no more racism in America, but those conservative pundits are wrong.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that racism is either not a problem or that nothing can be done about it, but those conservative pundits are wrong.	6/26/2005

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Racism (prejudice based on race).  Prejudice (stereotyping for good or bad).  Bigotry (feeling superior to another group).  Individual or systemic.	6/15/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	The black experience in the USA.  (1) The history: struggles and gains and losses.  (2) The current situation.  (3) Future prospects.  (4) Studying it vs. experiencing it.  (5) Variations by region: south, north and west.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Three affirmative action arguments.  (1) The argument, "The best person for the job, whatever their race or sex." is baloney if it is used to keep hiring white males, because white males have an educational advantage due to a history of systemic bigotry and oppression.  (2) The argument for hiring anyone currently capable of doing the job, with preference given to disadvantaged minorities is a slightly better argument.  (3) An even better argument is to say, "We will take excluded minorities who are potentially capable of doing the job, and train them to do the job".	7/21/1998

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Types of prejudice.  (1) Prejudice against (A) Other nations, (B) Other people in your country.  (2) Caused (A) Out of emotional fear and hatred.  (B) Out of rational, emotionless desire to stay in power, or to get power (economic, political).  The latter is worse than the former.	11/04/1993

Sociology, discrimination, racism.	Whites who love, are neutral, or hate blacks and why.  Blacks who love, are neutral, or hate whites and why.  Whether they learned this feeling from (1) Personal experience.  (2) From their own race's actions toward the other race.  (3) From the other race's actions toward their race.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination.	.This section is about social discrimination in general.  Topics include: ( ) Causes of.  ( ) Types of.  ( ) 	1/24/2006

Sociology, discrimination.	(1) Discrimination is rooted in intolerance for anything different or unknown.  (2) Intolerance for anything different is rooted in mistrust, suspicion, fear and paranoia.  Intolerance for the different is similar to the "If it works then stick with it." conservative philosophy.  (3) Intolerance for the different is also similar to the way some people are extremely reluctant to try new foods.  (4) The phenomena of intolerance to different people and intolerance to different foods may both be rooted in fear motivated by self preservation that causes rigidity and dogmatism.  (5) An extreme form of intolerance of the different is the hermit.	5/17/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	(1) Life is pain.  (2) Pain is often expressed as anger or sadness.  (3) Anger is often unfairly misplaced and focused on minorities who often become scapegoats.  (A) People often do not know the extent of their suppressed anger.  It is often more than they recognize.  (B) People often don't know the actual causes of their suppressed anger.  (C) People take out their suppressed anger on those who don't deserve it.	5/8/2002

Sociology, discrimination.	(1) Stereotype: Saying that members of a group are all alike.  (2) Prejudice: Saying you know a person before you meet them.  (3) Bigot: Saying they (out-group) are all inferior and we (in-group) are all superior.  (4) Discrimination: Treating an out-group worse and treating an in-group better.	1/15/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	(See also: the notes on the curious, odd and weird).  Humans perhaps have an evolutionarily hard-wired trait, which causes us to fear mutations, and which causes us to fear everyone who is even slightly different than ourselves.  This is a negative trait.  (2) Remember the "naturalistic fallacy".  Just because humans evolved a certain way does not make that trait ethically good today, or even back then.	12/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	A major cause of discrimination is not just bullying but also the rigid group identification between in-group and out-group.  Discrimination often stems from a group mentality that has the following traits: (1) Feeling you must belong to a group.  (2) Feeling you must belong to only one single group.  (3) Feeling you must not disobey the group.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	A person who realizes that it is possible to support groups that one does not belong to is less likely to become a discriminator.  For example, a man who supports women.  Or a person of one race who supports people of another race.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	A person who understands that they belong to many varied groups is less likely to discriminate, especially when they realize that these groups can have conflicting ideas.  A person who understands that they themselves have many varied sides to their personality is less likely to discriminate, especially if they realize that their multiple sides can have conflicting ideas.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Ageism.  (1) "You're too young to understand.", is a bogus ploy, a power play used by older people on younger people.  (2) "You're too old to understand.", is a bogus ploy, a power play used by younger people on older people.	5/15/2004

Sociology, discrimination.	Ageism.  Adults use age as a power play over the "weaker and dumber" young people and old people.  Just like men often use gender as a power play over women.  Another example, older kids using age and size as a power play over "weaker and dumber" younger kids.  The young and old must struggle for their rights.	3/29/2000

Sociology, discrimination.	Ageism.  Unethical techniques people use to try to invalidate and dis empower you.  If they do not like what you are saying some people will first claim that you are too young to matter, and then claim that you are too old to matter.	11/18/2005

Sociology, discrimination.	Ageism.  Varieties of ageism.  Youngism: The young are good and the old are worthless.  Oldism: The old are good and the young are worthless.	08/17/1997

Sociology, discrimination.	Arguments often used to discriminate: "We are just trying to defend ourselves.  They are the ones who are attacking us.  Its a state of war.  Anything goes.  There are no rules".	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Arguments they use to discriminate: "They will take our jobs.  They will take our women".  Counter-arguments: (1) There is no "they" and there is no "us".  You have more in common with many of "them" than you do with many who you think are one of "us".  (2) There is no woman nor job out there with your name on her.  There is no woman nor job which you are somehow entitled to have without merit.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Causes of discrimination.  (1) Discrimination caused by fear, suspicion and mistrust of the different and unknown.  (2) Discrimination caused by a false sense of superiority.  (3) Discrimination caused by competitive pressure for jobs, money, power and women.	5/17/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Discrimination has its basis in tribalism, which has its basis in kinship, which has its basis in the preservation and promulgation of genes.  (2) Discrimination has its basis in rigidity, monomania, and intolerance for diversity.  It is found in those who practice authoritarianism, fundamentalism.  It is also found in those who fear other people physically different from themselves.  It is also found in those who fear cultures that are different from their own.  (3) Types of discrimination, when discrimination is defined as promulgating genes.  Nationalism is a form of discrimination.  Nepotism is a form of discrimination.	12/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Diversity is the bane of the simple-minded.  (1) Without diversity things would be very boring. (2)  Diversity results in complexity. (3) Among the first people to object to an increase in diversity are the simple-minded (Simple-minded used in a negative sense, see below).  Why?  Because diversity is too complicated for the simple-minded.  The simple-minded understand their simple world and sometimes they even enjoy their simple world.  The simple-minded feel threatened by both change and diversity (i.e., complexity).  (4) The mental state of feeling threatened by diversity because of the resulting increase in complexity is more often a matter of attitude than a matter of intelligence.  No one, not even the smartest of us, knows all of what is going on.  And even unintelligent people with the right attitude can handle complexity.  Being comfortable with uncertainty and partial knowledge is a healthy attitude that promotes tolerance for diversity.  (5) So simple mindedness is often a matter of attitude than ability.  PART TWO.  There are many types of simple mindedness.  (1) One type is the close mindedness discussed above, which is bad.  (2) Another type of simple-mindedness is the good type that approaches things with a "beginner's mind" as is discussed in healthy strains of Zen.  Look at things fresh.  Drop preconceptions. (3) A third type of simple mindedness is the healthy set of attitudes that results in an ecologically sustainable life style, which avoids unnecessary clutter and unneeded material possessions.  As exemplified by the "Simplicity" movement.  (4) The negative unhealthy simple-mindedness mentioned in part one is often based on a grab for power and control.  The need to be an absolute ruler of even a small fiefdom.  The "big fish in a small pond" mentality.  And the bully mentality.  (5) Healthy simple-mindedness means being comfortable with the realization that you don't have total knowledge or total power.  Absolute knowledge and absolute power are not always possible to achieve, nor are they worthy goals in every situation.  PART THREE.  Simple mindedness defined as revelry in ignorance is an unhealthy attitude.  Anti-intellectualism is bad.  (2)  Simple mindedness defined as low IQ people claiming their value and worth as humans is healthy and good.  The discrimination against the low IQ is bad.  Empowerment of those marginalized because of low IQ is good.	2/20/2002

Sociology, discrimination.	Emotional and rational appeal techniques often used to teach prejudice and discrimination.     PART ONE.  Emotional appeal techniques often used to teach prejudice and discrimination.  (1) Elicit every negative emotion toward enemy:  Fear them.  Be jealous of them.  Be angry at them.  Be sad at your condition relative to them.  (2) Elicit every positive emotion toward your own group:  Happy to be together.  We feel strong and confident together.  We feel brave and fearless together.     PART TWO.  Rational appeal techniques often used to teach prejudice and discrimination.  (1) Appeals to logic: faulty arguments and inferences.  (2) Appeal to observation of so called "facts".	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	In humans there is an unjust unconscious analogical thought process that works like this:  The majority says "We are many, and thus we are big and strong.  The minority are few, and thus they are small and weak"  The majority treats the minority the way the runt of the litter gets treated.  At an unconscious level in the human mind the concepts of "many, big and strong" run together, and the concepts of "few, small and weak" run together.  This helps explain why people have an unjust predilection for trampling minorities rights.	10/8/2000

Sociology, discrimination.	Isms (racism, sexism, ageism).  When you act for someone because they are in your group (whether white, black, or your relatives), you are acting against every other group, and that is actually as bad as discrimination against any single group.  Therefore, hiring someone because you like their race is as bad as than not hiring someone because you dislike their race.	11/28/1993

Sociology, discrimination.	It is impossible to not notice differences.  Discrimination based on physical appearance is wrong, but it is very prevalent.  It occurs in many societies, in many situations.  People have a natural tendency to generalize or stereotype ("one x did it, so all x do it").  The person who does this must figure out that it is irrational to stereotype people.  People have a tendency to group things and make inferential laws about things.  (2) Legalized systematic discrimination is worse.  Examples: slavery; women cannot vote; homosexuality is outlawed.  (3) People are discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, clothes, activities, beliefs, and even hair color.  (4) Reverse discrimination.  Hatred oppressed have for oppressors.  Two types.  (A) Based on mistreatment, personally to themselves, or historically to ancestors.  (B) Based on pure prejudice, much like oppressors have for oppressed.	8/27/1998

Sociology, discrimination.	One unsound argument used by those who discriminate is "Let's kill off the x group because they are dumber (or weaker, or more sickly, etc.) than we are".  They usually resort to this argument only after they have tried to kill off all the smart (healthy, strong) members of x group.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	PART ONE.  When we talk about discrimination against adults by adults we don't often use the child-centered concepts of "bullying" and "picking on" (perhaps because we feel belittled to do so) yet perhaps we should because in many cases the discriminator is acting like a child.     PART TWO.  The phenomenon of being "picked on" can be extremely destructive to a person's psychological state.  It can drive people crazy.  It can drive people to suicide.  It can drive people to drink or drugs.  The phenomena of being bullied is one that we often consider to be confined to the school yard, yet adults engage in bullying as much as children.  That is to say, adults often behave like children.     PART THREE.  What are the traits of the bully?  (1) Raise their own self-esteem by putting down other people.  (2) Try to have a sense of superiority over anyone at any cost.  Achieve dominance.  (3) Attempt to maintain political power or maintain a majority.  (4) Maintain economic power.  Work to get into the "old boys network" and then work to keep everyone else out.  (5) Vengeance.  Vendetta.  The feuding mentality comes with the clan mentality (ex. Hatfields and McCoys).  They are told, or decide for themselves, the situation is that someone or some group offended or hurt them or their group and thus it is their duty to "get them back".     PART FOUR.  (1) Who gets picked on in today's society?  Often it is minorities.  Also the poor, the stupid, the ugly, the aged, the young, the fat, the thin, glasses, acne, etc.  (2) What are the forms of being picked on?  Being mocked.  Being jeered.  Slurs and curses.  Physical abuse.  Psychological torment.  (3) What is the process of being picked on?  (A) Label someone.  (B) Say that person is different or "other".  Say they are "not one of us".  (C) Stigmatize them.  Ostracize them.  (D) Say they are not as good as us.     PART FIVE.  Types of "picking on".  (1) Anyone can be picked on for any physical attribute.  Ex. fat, short, bald.  (2) Anyone can be picked on for any ideological belief.  (3) Anyone can be picked on for any culture, lifestyle or behavior.     PART SIX.  Types of abuse.  The abuse can be systemic or isolated; overt or covert; physical or psychological.  Some argue that systemic abuse is worse than isolated abuse.  Some argue that overt abuse is worse than covert abuse.  Some argue that physical abuse is worse than psychological abuse.  Yet it is all bad to the person being abused.     PART SEVEN.  Tactics of oppression and injustice.  (1) Examples of political oppression.  Deny the vote.  Deny them political office and power.  (2) Examples of economic oppression.  Deny them jobs.  (3) Examples of social oppression.  Exclusion from clubs.  Unfriendliness. Deny them common respect and decency.  Deny them quality education.     PART EIGHT.  What is most important is the history.  If we take a static snapshot of the current situation things may not look so bad.  But to really see what is going on one must understand how a history of injustice can undermine a person's self-esteem, economic chances, and political power.  A static photo does not tell you about a person.  A static snapshot does not tell you about a culture.	1/1/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	Prejudice and bigotry.  Definitions, types, causes, mechanism, cures.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination.	Racial discrimination exists.  Racial discrimination is wrong.  The United States has a history of racial discrimination, oppression an exploitation.	5/10/2005

Sociology, discrimination.	Reasons people feel superior to others depends on what they value: genetics, race, physical appearance, mental ability, they work harder, religion, feel more ethical, sex, age, combos of above.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination.	Snobs.  (1) Reading snobs think they are better than you because they read while you watch television or surf the Internet.  (2) Travel snobs think they are better than you because they have traveled more.  (3) Language snobs think they are better than you because they speak more languages than you.  (4) College snobs think they are better than you because they went to a better college than you. (5) Money snobs think they are better than you because they are richer than you.  (6) Art snobs think they are better than you because they go to more gallery openings than you.  (7) Intelligence snobs think they are better than you because they have a higher IQ.  (8) Beauty snobs think they are better than you because they are prettier.  (9) Tech snobs think they are better than you because they have more gadgets.	6/8/2002

Sociology, discrimination.	The Darwinian drive to survive and reproduce, to protect one's genes, yields the phenomena of kinship, which yields tribalism, which yields prejudice, which is a wariness and animosity towards those not your kin or in your tribe, even if its just an ideological tribe.	11/20/2001

Sociology, discrimination.	There is a model of a specific type of socio-pathology that we call "the master-slave relationship".  It is a power relationship.  It is a political relationship.  Real life examples include:  Landlord and tenant.  Boss and subordinate worker.  Imperialist colonialist and native indigenous peoples.  Parent and child.  Teacher and student.  Dictator and masses.  Upper rank officer and lower rank enlisted man.  Banker and lender.  And they all often use the "Its for your own good" excuse.	3/29/2000

Sociology, discrimination.	Three definitions.  (1) Discrimination: To treat unequally.  (2) Prejudice: To stereotype.  (3) Bigotry: To think oneself superior.	1/1/2000

Sociology, discrimination.	Tolerance for different.  How, how much, and why you think you are better and someone else is worse.	12/30/1992

Sociology, discrimination.	We fear the different because we do not understand the different.  Ignorance is not bliss.  Ignorance is fear, suspicion, mistrust and paranoia, which turn into anger and hatred.	6/8/2001

Sociology, family, kids.	.This section is about kids.  Topics include: ( ) Having.  ( ) Raising.	1/24/2006

Sociology, family, kids.	(1) Its wrong to have kids if your reason for having kids is that you are lonely and starved for love.  (2) Its wrong to have kids if your reason for having kids is that you are bored.  (3) Its wrong to have kids if your reason for having kids is to gain or maintain social status.	4/16/2006

Sociology, family, kids.	Children's rights to have their voices heard.  Children deserve a say, but they never get one.  Adults do not own their kids.  Adults can not raise their kids "anyway they like".  Adults can not abuse or neglect children.  Adults should not spank children.	12/31/1999

Sociology, family, kids.	Four ways to carry a baby.  (1) On your front, with baby facing forward.  (2) On your back with baby facing backward.  (3) On your front, with baby facing your chest.  (4) On your back, with baby facing your back.  Numbers 3 and 4 for the baby is like staring at a wall, and may lead to stimulus deprivation.  Number 2 is backward looking, and the baby only sees the past.  Number 1 is forward looking, and the baby sees what's coming, which is how humans see the world, which is the best.	11/6/1999

Sociology, family, kids.	Having children is not something above me that I have not matured to yet.  It is something beneath me.  I am made for greater stuff.	08/15/1994

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids is a big, important job that is easy to start but tough to do well.	02/15/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids just for the insurance they provide in one's old age is bullsh*t.	11/30/1999

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids makes people yearn for stable partners and a safe society.	12/26/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids only makes you a glorified babysitter.	5/13/2006

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids.  (1) For many women, kids are the big project, to which they aspire, that gives their lives meaning and purpose, and without which they feel less of a person and woman.  (2) It also gives them something to do, to prevent boredom.  (3) It is also something to be in charge of, to be an authority figure and have social position.  (4) Society and peer pressure signal approval for women to have kids and disapproval for women with no kids, and thus contribute to the spread of the above attitudes.  (5) Having and raising a kid is viewed as a challenge to be met, to prove your self worth, to prove you are as good as the next woman.  Keeping up with the Jones's.  "I can do the job" vs. "I am no good".  (6) Having a baby is also a lot like owning a slave, a car, or a fur coat.  It is viewed as a possession.  You own the baby.  There is a progression in views from stewardship (watching out for), to authority (bossing around), to ownership (personal possession).  Summing up, these are some of the bad reasons to have kids:  (1) To own something.  (2) To be in charge of something.  (3) Out of boredom.  (4) To play a pre-set social role.  (5) To keep up with the Jones's.  (6) A do it yourself project.  What are the good reasons?  To make a kids life better.  To make the world a better place.  To spread good physical and psychological genes.  To keep the population level constant.	12/30/1996

Sociology, family, kids.	Having kids.  Sometimes people have kids when they essentially give up the struggle, throw in the towel, and say, "The world is too complicated and thinking is too difficult so I'm just going to ignore it all and focus on my kids."  Then they mistakenly believe that they only have to think about their kids and nothing else.  That is a wrong reason to have kids.	6/24/2004

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Another reason not to have kids is overpopulation.  This is an ecological reason.  Zero population growth will only occur when each couple has only two children throughout their entire life, including divorce and re-marriage.	08/17/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Another reason women have kids.  They give up, quit job, and stop thinking about everything except raising their kid.  In effect they shutdown, and shutout the outside world.	04/15/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Anyone who wants to have kids should first take care of a plant for a year.  Then a cat or dog for a year.  If both have survived then have a kid.	11/25/1993

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Can both parents handle them without (1) Inflicting physical or emotional abuse or neglect, (2) No matter what the future brings.  (3) How crazy, stupid unethical are parents, (4) At best, on average, at worst?  (5) How better/worse could you become?	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  If 20% of the population shouldn't have kids for one reason or another (economics, psychology, etc.).  60% of couples should have 2 kids, lifetime total.  20% should have 4 kids.  This would keep the population level at zero.	11/30/1996

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  If you have kids then you have time for nothing else.  Most people have kids.  This is why nothing gets done.  This is why society evolves slowly.	11/30/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Kids and me: wouldn't be fair to them, genetically, psychologically, and environmentally.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Kids reduce your ability to think freely, about what you want, when you want, as long as you want.  You are forced to think how to support them and raise them.  Same with girlfriend.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Kids.  I couldn't support them monetarily.  I couldn't raise them unneruotically.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  More reasons people have kids.  (1) Power trip: to be in charge of something.  To be able to say "I own you".  (2) Ego trip: to be able to say to the kid "I made you.  I created you.  You would be nothing without me.  You owe me."  This is like what a manager says to an artist.  It is bullshit.	04/24/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  More reasons why people have kids.  (1) Good reasons:  (A) Done living for self only.  Ready to care for another.  (B) Done living for fun only.  Ready to accomplish something.  (2) Bad reasons:  (A) To alleviate boredom and loneliness.  (B) To try to gain a sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.	5/12/2000

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  More wrong reasons to have kids.  (1) Power trip: to have someone to boss around.  (2) Money: for the salary raise it will bring you.  (3) Social legitimization: looking for social acceptance, respect, and admiration from other people as you assume the role of parent.  (4) To try to bring together couples who may want to divorce.	04/30/1993

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Once you have a kid you have an ethical imperative to devote every spare minute to them.	10/10/1994

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  There is no guarantee with kids.  You may give birth to a dud.  You may raise a dud.  Even If you raise them correctly, a good one can turn out to be a dud.	05/30/1993

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  What level of genetics, intelligence, psychological health, physical health, and financial health (money) should you be certain of maintaining for how many years for it to be ethically cool to have and raise kids?	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Why do people have kids?  (1) Accident.  (2) Boredom.  (3) Momentary stupidity, inability to remember.  (4) Weakness to sex drives.  (5) Societal pressure, like mate, peers, society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Why people have kids.  (1) Think it will bring them happiness (wrong).  (2) Think it will cement a bad relationship (wrong).	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Having.  Why.  People have kids to stave off the constant march of death in your life.  Without kids its is just a series of people dying.  First people your grandparents age dying, then people your parents age dying, and then people your age dying.  Kids help keep the specter of death at bay.	9/21/2000

Sociology, family, kids.	It may be true that raising their kids is the most important thing for parents, but many parents make the mistake of thinking that raising their kids is the only important thing, and they forget about many other important things.	6/15/2004

Sociology, family, kids.	Kids are the big project for most people.  Kids are the big issue for most people.  Kids take up most of your time, energy and money and leave little for anything else.  Job, mate, kids, that's it.  Who has time to write?  Who has time to think?  Who has any time at all?	4/29/2001

Sociology, family, kids.	Not everyone should have kids.  Those who wisely decide not to have kids should be applauded.  Those who have kids are not superior to those who do not have kids.	11/18/2001

Sociology, family, kids.	People have kids to try to add meaning and purpose to their lives.  Put meaning and purpose in ideas and actions, not things and people.	5/5/2006

Sociology, family, kids.	People take less risks when they have kids.  That can be good or bad.  It increases physical safety.  But it cuts down on entrepreneurship.	5/30/1998

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising kids is (1) Very complex, very difficult, and very easy to screw up.  (2) How many and what things to force them to do?  (3) What exhort them to do and not?  (4) What leave them free to do and not?  (5) How much time devote to them?  (6) What and how often you tell them things?  Normative vs. explanatory.  (7) How much above you do at each age?	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising kids.  (1) Giving love.  Smiles, hugs, attention.  (2) Discipline.  The purpose of discipline is to teach behavior and the reasons behind it.  It is possible to teach these things without having to resort to excessive control (jailer mentality), or psychological or physical abuse or neglect.  (3) For the kid to learn, he or she must gain good experiences and ideas.  Talking is key.	05/10/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising kids.  How much time to spend with the kid?  What activities to do?  What to say to the kid?  How to act toward the kid?  What to teach the kid?	4/17/2005

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  (1) Creating blind obedience vs. developing critical reasoning skills.  (2) Creating dependence vs. self reliance and independence.	07/05/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  (1) Is one good parent (caring, knowledgeable) better than two bad ones (ignorant, no time)?  Yes.  (2) Is group day care a good social development?  Yes.	12/30/1996

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  (1) What you do to them.  (2) Physically, verbally, body language.  (3) Intellectually and emotionally.  (4) How they see you responding to them, to others, to problems/challenges, and to life in general.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  For thousands (millions) of years kids were raised by the extended family, or the community.  Primitive day care.	08/15/1994

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Hitting, yelling, threatening is psychologically damaging.  How severe, how long, how frequent, how nice returned to.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  If physical abuse towards children and adults is illegal, then verbal abuse towards kids and adults should be illegal.	1/22/1999

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Kids.  (1) Don't tell them life is too hard, because saying that will discourage them.  (2) Don't tell them life is too easy, because saying that will make them lazy.  (3) Don't tell them nothing, or they will have to figure it out all themselves.  (4) Tell them everything?  (5) When tell them what?  What age?	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  No one owns kids, they are all our responsibility.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Parent as manager, parent as judge.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Parenting should be based on openness and communication, especially on the part of the parent.  The child will often not communicate because (1) They don't know anything.  (2) If they are a teenager they will naturally be rebellious and non-communicative.	03/07/1989

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  So you had a kid, on purpose or by accident.  Theories of raising them.  (1) Like business management you can be (A) Totalitarian, authoritarian.  (B) Hands off.  (C) Active democracy, involved with them.  (2) Some believe in "one right way" to raise all kids, some believe in suiting the raising method to the child's personality.  (3) However, some things will always be wrong, like physical, verbal (screaming), and psychological (threats, guilt) abuse and neglect.	12/01/1993

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking should be made illegal.	9/22/1998

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking.  (1) Most adults strike their children in anger.  If society condones the hitting of children (i.e. spanking) then the overall result will be more child abuse by adults who have lost their temper.  (2) Hitting another adult gets you arrested.  How is it okay to hit a child?  Its not okay.  (3) We don't hit prisoners, so how is it okay to hit kids?  Its not okay.  (4) Most people are against corporal punishment in schools and in the workplace.  How is it okay to hit kids?  Its not okay.	11/15/2003

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking.  (1) Most people who hit their children were hit as children.  Its a self-perpetuating cycle of violence.  Violence is learned.  (2) Most people who hit other people were hit as children.	10/14/2003

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking.  It is wrong to hit adults and it is also wrong to hit kids.  It is abuse, mostly psychological.  It creates apprehensive kids.	07/05/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking.  Parents should not hit the kids unless they want to get hit back later.	02/28/1998

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Spanking.  Some people argue the following, "I was hit and it didn't affect me negatively."  Barring the notion that it affected their reasoning ability, we say that they should consider themselves one of the few who escaped without permanent emotional scarring.	11/15/2003

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Teach parenting skills.  Create healthier, more ethical, smarter parents, who are more dedicated to child raising.  Better parents create better kids.  Better schools create better kids.  Better kids become better adults.	3/30/1998

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  The reason single mother males have high crime rate is not because of the single mothers, it is because most of them grew up in poor, violent neighborhoods.	08/15/1994

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  There is no study manual for raising kids.  (Actually, the bookstore has many).  More importantly, there is no test you have to pass to prove you know how to raise kids.	11/20/2001

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Treat kids like adults.  Purpose: to teach, not to hurt.  How: (1) Patiently, with humor, caring, and kindness.  (2) With reasons and explanations.  (3) Teach them to think and understand, not to blindly obey.  (4) Give them notes.  (5) Teach them how and why to learn.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Type of value system parents should teach their kids.  (1) Keep an open mind.  Keep an inquiring mind.  Gather and assimilate information.  Find what works best for you.  (2) Show what seems to work for most people in general.  (3) Describe your value system and why you choose it.  State explicitly that they are not expected to follow it blindly, but rather should try to reason out their own value system.  (4) Most parents do the exact opposite of the above.  They don't talk, are closed minded, and are dogmatic.	03/07/1989

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  Various attitudes toward kids.  Various attitudes toward discipline.  (1) Yell, hit, threaten (all bad) vs. don't.  For what, how much, why.  What I agree with, what I disagree with.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  What makes parents take care of their kids?  Pride (bad pride) that makes them try to prove they are better than anyone else.  Pride that makes them try to prove that they can be better parents than the Jones's.  The parents don't care about the kid so much as they care about their own reputations as adults and parents.  Ego.	10/20/1997

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  You can't raise your kids anyway you want.  There are laws against abuse and there should be more laws.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Raising.  You shouldn't force them to do things.  You should teach them the reasons why we do things.  Teach them to think, not to believe and/or obey.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Sum up of wrong reasons to have a kid.  (1) Its wrong to have a kid as an insurance policy for old age.  (2) Its wrong to have a kid for the entertainment the kid will provide you.  (3) Its wrong to have a kid only because some members of society say to have a kid.  (4) Its wrong to have a kid only because some members of society wants to deny women birth control and abortions.  (5) Its wrong to have a kid as an unplanned accident.  (6) Its wrong to have a kid simply because kids are the biological result of unprotected sex.  (7) Its wrong to have a kid in order to have a little servant who does your bidding.  (8) Its wrong to have a kid in order to have something to control.  (9) Its wrong to have a kid because you are bored.  (10) Its wrong to have a kid just because it seems like everyone else is having kids.	4/17/2005

Sociology, family, kids.	Two more views on having kids.  (1) Various views include: Its my job to have kids.  Its my duty or obligation to have kids.  Having kids is what I was built for.  Its my purpose to have kids.  Having kids gives my life meaning.  If no one has kids then the human species will go extinct.  (2) Its my privilege to have kids.  Its a joy to have kids.  Having kids is entertaining.  Having kids makes me happy.  (3) In my situation the arguments to not have kids outweighs the arguments to have kids.	7/4/2002

Sociology, family, kids.	Two problems.  (1) Whether to have kids or not, where, when, how, with who, why.  (2) How raise them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family, kids.	Why do people have kids?  Because they feel an urge to have kids and can think of no reason not to have kids, due to lack of development of critical thinking skills.	4/3/2005

Sociology, family, kids.	Why do people have kids?  People have kids because people have been conditioned by society, religion, etc. to think they should have kids.  For example, when people have been conditioned by society, religion, etc., not to use birth control.	4/3/2005

Sociology, family, kids.	Why do people have kids? There's nothing else to do.  Work is a bore.  Leisure is a bore.  Everything is a bore.  Nothing is new.  Sadly, many people have children for the entertainment value.	3/5/2002

Sociology, family, kids.	Without children it is quiet.  Without friends it is still.  Without family it is cold.  I am alone.  I am surrounded by death and ghosts.  This is my endgame.  I play cards with death.  I relive my memories.  I relive my mistakes, failures and bad luck.  I relived my victories, successes and windfalls.  I relive the sensations of being alive.  I envy those surrounded by warmth and joy.	2/10/2002

Sociology, family.	.This section is about family.  Topics include: ( ) Marriage.	1/24/2006

Sociology, family.	(1) Marriage is not for everyone.  (2) Kids is not for everyone.  (A) Poor genetics.  (B) Poor ability to raise kids without neglect or abuse, whether it be financial, physical, or psychological (intellectual, emotional).	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	(1) Some people's view on family: kids need a parent of each sex.  Specifically, boys need a male authority figure or else they grow up to be criminals (or wimps or faggots).  (2) Opposing view: single sex parent of same or opposite sex of child can raise a kid fine.  So can gay parenting (two parents of same sex), of same or opposite sex of child.  It is no worse than two parents of opposite sex.  Some people see the nuclear family as absolute and vital, but that is not true.  There is no such thing as a nuclear family.  The world, and everyone you meet in it, is all one big extended family.  Society is the "big family".  Children seek role models outside the nuclear family.  Other groups, like relatives and friends, form other "families" for the individual.  (3) The word "family" is a bogus word.  The word "nuclear family" is a bogus word.  The word "illegitimate" is bogus, because being born out of wedlock does not make you illegitimate or not count.  (4) Divorce is not such a tragedy.  Kids may "miss" their parents, but it is strictly emotional attachment only.	07/01/1994

Sociology, family.	Associations and organizations of like minded people are becoming the new family.  There will need to be a loners association.	08/12/1993

Sociology, family.	Becoming a parent makes a person neurotic.  Unless they are neurotic to begin with, in which case they become psychotic.	9/17/2001

Sociology, family.	Blood.  If someone gives birth to you that doesn't mean they're good or right.  It doesn't mean you have to like or obey them.  They have a duty to raise you.  Do you have a duty to them?  No.  Even if they helped you?  No.  Especially if they hurt you?  No.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Children without parents are called "orphans".  Adults without children are in a somewhat similar boat, and they should get their own name because they are marginalized and discriminated against just like orphans are.	11/20/2001

Sociology, family.	Computers.  The computer in many ways improves the family.  (1) Email and instant messaging allow dispersed members more interaction.  (2) The Internet makes possible cheaper long distance phone calls.  (3) Families become more extended and less nuclear in a networked world.  There is more support, more diversity and thus less pathology.	3/9/2000

Sociology, family.	Dynamics.  For the stages of child, teen, and adult, what are the dynamics between (1) Brothers and sisters.  (2) Sisters.  (3) Brothers.  (4) Daughter and mother.  (A) Child: love?  (B) Teen: model?  (C) Adult: competitor?  (5) Daughter and Father.  (A) Child: fear?  (B) Teen: desire?  (C) Adult:   (6) Son and Mother.  (A) Child: love.  (B) Teen: desire?  (C) Adult:  (7) Son and Father.  (A) Child: fear?  (B) Teen: model?  (C) Adult: competitor.	10/10/1997

Sociology, family.	Dysfunctional family dynamics.  (1) In families where there are neurotic parents there really is no adult present since the neurotic adult is really a child.  Therefore the child has no adult model, and fails to mature for lack of an adult model.  (2) Or the child may have a dysfunctional adult model, and grows up emulating a dysfunctional adult.  (3) Or the parent may be physically or psychologically absent.  The psychologically absent parent can be absent in (A) Attention provided, (B) Emotional capability, (C) Reasoning displayed.  (4) The smothering parent keeps the child in a child state and prevents them from maturing.	02/28/1998

Sociology, family.	Family is b.s.  There is no freedom of choice of the family you are born into.  You owe your rents nothing.  If they didn't want to work at raising kids then they shouldn't have had them.  Family values is b.s.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Family or any group (community, race, religion, nation).  (1) Do you put them before all vs. do you say they don't matter at all (individual is most important)?  (2) Is it predetermined vs. do you choose your own?  (3) How much time spend together.  Who listens to who.  How effect each other.  Roles of each (what you would like it to be vs. what it is).	05/30/1993

Sociology, family.	Family relationships.  (1) Father son relationships.  Father daughter relationships.  (2) Mother son relationships.  Mother daughter relationships.  (3) Brother relationships.  Sisters relationships.  Brother sister relationships.  (4) Ideal and problem types.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Family relationships.  (1) Husband, wife, spouse.  (2) Father, mother, parent.  (3) Daughter, son, child.  (4) Brother, sister, sibling.  (5) What are the most important ideas about these relationships and roles.  What are the functions of these relationships and roles.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Family, four views on (1) Whoever takes care of each other is okay.  (2) Single parent is okay.  (3) It takes two parents to split the work and time of raising a kid.  (4) It takes two parents of opposite sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	If your family has unethical values then your family values suck.	11/20/2004

Sociology, family.	If your family is unethical then your family loyalty is bullshit.  Loyalty to an unethical family is bullshit.	11/20/2004

Sociology, family.	Just as we provide daycare for children, we should provide day care for the elderly.	11/30/1999

Sociology, family.	Marriage and me:  Get a pre-nuptual contract.  Get a vasectomy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Marriage as a religious and legal institution is bogus.	11/20/2004

Sociology, family.	Marriage, kids and me, would be a major mistake.  (1) Kids would drive me crazy.  (2) I would drive kids crazy.  (3) I can barely take care of myself.  (4) I would flee or breakdown or explode.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Marriage: (1) Arguments pro marriage.  (2) Arguments contra marriage.  (A) Sexual enslavement.  (B) Jerked around more.  (C) Highway robbery.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  (1) I don't believe in marriage; as a religious, social, or legal institution.  (2) Four views on marriage.  Some believe in monogamy for life, serial monogamy, free love, or bigamy.	05/30/1993

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  Gays should not need to get married.  Marriage should be abolished for all, as a legal, social, and religious institution.	07/03/1994

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  Pre-marital sex is not wrong.  Marriage is wrong.	11/30/1997

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  Reasons people get married.  (1) Women: for money, security, status.  (2) Men: for sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  They jerk you around more when you are married.  Society does, and spouse does.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Marriage.  Unmarrieds.  (1) Living together but not married because of (A) Divorce in past.  (B) Don't believe in marriage.  (2) Haven't found the right person.  (A) Not looking enough.  (B) Isolated or poor situation.  (C) High standards (justified or unjustified).  (D) Very unique, different, rare.  (3) Incapable of having a relationship (neurotics).	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Most important ideas.  Your family is arbitrary.  It is just luck, bad or good, that you are with them.  You do not owe them.  If they do you harm then leave.	10/05/1997

Sociology, family.	Parents should be a guide (show all and tell all).  Instead most parents are (1) Neurotics.  (2) Don't know how to parent well.  (3) Don't parent well.  (4) It is not instinctual, Spock.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Parents, problems with.  (1) Not only would you never choose them as friends, (2) They actually have power over you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Rents.  The parent problem (relationship of child to parent, not visa versa).  (1) It was chance you were born to them.  (2) You don't owe them nothing.  (3) You are not a slave.  (4) You are not an insurance policy for them.  (5) This goes double if they do things against you, intentionally or unintentionally.	12/30/1992

Sociology, family.	Single parents.  Even if a child has a female and male parent, sometimes the breadwinner is physically or emotionally absent and thus neglect ensues.  Or the parent may be ignorant, complacent, or abusive.  In these cases it is better to have a healthy single parent or two healthy same sex parents.	08/15/1994

Sociology, family.	So much of family interaction, just like any other group, is about factions, taking sides, ganging up, and playing favorites.	8/8/1998

Sociology, family.	Some argue that peers have greater effect on shaping teen behavior than family does.	9/22/1998

Sociology, family.	Some believe in family for (1) Raising kids (what about nannies and child care?).  (2) Sex.  (3) Companionship and friendship (what about friends?).  (4) Economic reasons (cheaper to live, less taxes too).  (5) Political reasons (family as a powerful business organization, like a syndicate).	05/30/1993

Sociology, family.	The nuclear family is not necessary.  (1) For millions of years we were raised in extended families.  (2) Many cultures still use extended families.  (3) Child care is just an extension of the extended family concept.  (4) Like the kibbutz of Israel, for example, extended family child raising can be very successful.	09/10/1994

Sociology, family.	Three definitions of family.  (1) Family that raised you.  (2) Family of those stuck in same boat as you (peers of age, school, work, neighborhood, situation).  (3) Family of those who love what you love, who choose what you choose (hobby, or philosophical views).  (4) That is, who you are stuck with vs. who you choose.	05/30/1993

Sociology, family.	Various dynamics are set up depending on the number of kids you have.  (1) Only child and two parents.  Each parent and the child all face a triad.  Three triads exist.  (2) Three kids and two parents.  Each kid faces two triads:  the triad with the parents, and the triad with the siblings.  (3) Triads are unstable and hurtful.  One person is always left out (like a love triangle).  Triads create suspicion and jealously.  (4) Single parent with two kids.  Triads again.  (5) Single parent, one kid.  Pair.  (6) Two parents, two kids.  No triads between siblings.  Also, zero population growth.  (7) Two parents, four kids.  Ok.	9/30/1996

Sociology, friends.	.This section is about friends.  Topics include: ( ) Friends.  ( ) Enemies.  ( ) Acquaintances.  ( ) Strangers.	1/24/2006

Sociology, friends.	.This section should be called "Friends, neutrals, enemies, strangers, acquaintances, etc.	11/15/2001

Sociology, friends.	(1) Emotional friends and foes.  Personality conflict vs. emotional attraction.  (2) Ideological friends or foes.  Agree or differ on principles or ideas.	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Everyone is my friend.  (A) Met and unmet.  (B) Anyone I haven't fought with.  (C) Any one I agree with.  (D) Any one who has helped me.  (2) No one is my friend.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	(1) Friend, lover, spouse.  Friends and lovers are healthy to have.  What are they?  How to get them?  And why do I have none?  (2) Friend, lover, spouse.  One does not necessitate or eliminate the other.  (3) What does a person consider what activities makes you a friend, lover, or spouse?  Social interaction based on (A) Proximity (neighbors, work friends).  (B) Past history (old friends).  (C) Physical attraction.  (D) Blood relations (relatives).  (E) Values, ideals and ethical views.  (F) Metaphysical and epistemological views.  (G) Interests (leisure friends).  (H) Attitudes.  (I) Personality (optimism vs. pessimism, communication style).  (J) Loser quotient (social standing relative to you).  (K) How much free time and money you have.  (4) (A) Talk.  Small talk and bull shit (shallow) vs. talk about life and philosophy (deep).  Talk about personal life and secrets.  (B) Action.  Sharing work activities.  Sharing leisure activities.  Helping each other in times of trouble.  Sharing the good times.  Sex.	03/31/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Friends are tough to find and keep.  (2) Maintenance of friends takes up a lot of time and energy.  (3) They can betray you.  (4) They can be a disappointment.  (5) They can be needy.  You end up helping them all the time, and they don't help you at all.  (6) Despite all of the above negatives, we need friends.  Social relationships help prevent us from going haywire.  But building a social network is a pain in the neck.	7/10/1998

Sociology, friends.	(1) Friends ideals.  (A) Positive, growthful.  (B) Willing to give and desiring interaction.  (2) Friends problems.  (A) Too needy vs. see too often.  (B) Never see, never talk, never listen.  (C) Give too much vs. not give enough.  (D) Sharing only problems with them, and never joys.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	(1) Friendship is a rare phenomenon, and thus not worth studying.  (2) Acquaintance-ship is a much more common phenomenon and should be studied more.  Acquaintance-ship is when:  (A) You don't know who they are very well.  (B) You don't agree with them much.  (C) You don't ask a lot of them.	4/15/2002

Sociology, friends.	(1) Friendship maintenance.  One hour a week is too much.  One hour a month is ok.  Ten minute call each week?  (2) Do not expect deep thoughts or confessional revelations from them.	12/26/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Good friends (and girlfriend, and job) enrich your life, broaden your mind, and increase your health.  (2) Having no friends results in a tough life, with no anchors.  (3) Bad friends can ruin your life, and ruin your mental health.  (4) Getting good friends is crucial to survival.  Work hard at it.	10/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) It is tough to live alone.  It is easier to go nuts without good friends.  Bad friends can drive you nuts too.  (2) Get a social network.  (3) How to quickly make good friends (long term and trusting)?  Where go, what say?  (4) So difficult to find someone to talk to, let alone talk deeply, let alone agree.  To be able to talk to them, and also to want to talk to them.  (5) On what basis to make friends?  Politics?  Social status?  Sexual attraction?  Job similarity?	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Making friends.  Actively searching and finding like minded people.  Evaluating candidates good and bad.  (2) Keeping friends.  Maintenance calls and visits.	11/30/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Making new friends.  (2) Old friends.  Emotional bonds, how strong, how long.  Despite what change in individuals or situation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	(1) One reason I don't make friends is because you become responsible for helping them.  You see that you are the one who can make a difference in their life, and then when their life goes bad you feel responsible.  (2) They also expect a certain amount of time from you.  An hour a week on the phone times 20 people is 20 hours a week of your free time shot.	01/11/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) Taking care of self.  Taking care of others.  Talking and listening.  Talking about problems (talk therapy), and talking about important issues in life (doing philosophy).  (2) A tricky area: who to take care of how much?  (3) Giving each other needed love and attention.  Man is social.  We have social roles and social needs.	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) The recalcitrant friend.  Friends who don't want to be your friend.  Should you be a friend to them anyway?  Why?  (2) Friends who hurt you or try to hurt you, intentionally or unintentionally.  Dump them.	12/29/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) The search for healthy social relationships, i.e. for good friends, is of vital importance.  It helps keep you alive and healthy and productive.  (2) Friends.  Too picky and you lose them all.  Too loose and you screw yourself by hanging out with jerks.	02/15/1997

Sociology, friends.	(1) The true friend: you can show your real self to, including weaknesses.  (2) The fair weather friend: you are friend as long as things are going ok.  (3) The fake friend: not really your friend.  (4) The neutral: cold.  (5) The opponent: competitive with you.  Generally opposed to you or your type (race, religion, political views, etc.).  (6) Deadly enemy: will hurt you if they get the chance, or will go out of their way to hurt you.	12/01/1993

Sociology, friends.	(1) What do my friends want from me?  (2) What do I want from my friends?	4/7/2006

Sociology, friends.	(1) Why get friends?  To survive.  (2) How treat friends?  In a manner to keep them.  Kiss up to them.  Say they are smart.  Say they are beautiful.  Say they are better than you.  Ask to take them out.  Do whatever they want.  Shameless kiss-ass for a crash pad.	02/28/1998

Sociology, friends.	(1) Why it is good to socialize and have lovers, friends, acquaintances, and family.  (A) To gain multiple perspectives on and solutions for problems.  (B) Multiple heads are better than one.  More knowledge.  (2) Why it is bad.  (A) They can be loonies, morons, evil, and it can lead to fighting too much or too often.  They can hurt more than they help.	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	A friend is someone who entertains and informs and challenges your mind without even trying to.  You both grow, learn, and you don't hurt each other.	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	A friend is someone you can talk to.  To me friendship is about communication.  The criteria is that neither of the friends consider talking to the other a waste of time.  You meet by chance, share a few ideas, then go your separate mental ways.	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	A very basic type of communication between friends is to say, "Hey, guess what, something good happened", or "Guess what, something bad happened".  This type of sharing of joys and sorrows is something with which some of us are utterly unfamiliar.	1/4/2002

Sociology, friends.	Although I don't like them.  Although I don't believe what they believe.  I may need them for an emergency crashpad, relationship, job, etc.  Is this caving in to practicality too much?  Yes.	4/23/2002

Sociology, friends.	An advertisement.  I am not a shrink, philosopher, or priest.  You can talk to me for $10 an hour.  I can hear a confession.  I can be an audience for people who preach an ideology.  I can be an audience for people who entertain.  I can be a partner for people who want to dialogue or have a conversation.  I can be an opponent for people who want to debate.	12/29/1997

Sociology, friends.	Are friends important?  How important and why?  The hip are rare.  The hip I meet are fewer still.  The hip I meet who like me are rarer still.  This is an argument to find, and develop, and keep friends.	11/29/1993

Sociology, friends.	As an adult, making friends can be based on (1) Ease of communication, similarity of communication style (part of personality).  (2) Shared ethical values and goals (as reflected in lifestyle).  (3) Similarity of world view (metaphysics), the way you think things are.	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	Audrey is important.  Having a good love relationship is very important.  Friends of various types (work friends, leisure friends) and degrees (strong, close, frequent friends vs. far, weak, infrequent acquaintances) is important for survival and development (esp. psychological development).  They are not easy to come by.  They are not often come upon.  They are not easy to keep.  Finding them and keeping them takes work, it is an effort, not all fun and games.  They are important not to "have fun" but to discuss important issues and grow and develop as people.  Girlfriends and friends are just more work in order to survive.  Having fun is serious important business.	12/30/1996

Sociology, friends.	Basis of cohesion, in the face of basis of dispersal, how much of former will overcome how much of latter?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Basis of friendship.  (1) Trust, not betrayal.  (2) Ideological friendship.  (3) Compatible personalities.  Enjoy each others company.	3/16/2000

Sociology, friends.	Change in friendship relationship is constant.  How much change, how change (to what), why.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Change.  All friendships change.  Form, peak, decay, die.  For various reasons.  Degree, speed.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Close friendship is the same as a lover, except without the sex.  Communication, trust, honesty, etc.	4/7/1998

Sociology, friends.	Conditional friendships vs. unconditional friendships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Contrary to popular opinion, it is not necessary for two people to like each other in order to be friends.  What is necessary is that two people arrive, implicitly or explicitly, at some type of agreed upon "contract of friendship".  A common contract, in a most basic form, is "Treat me civil and I will treat you civil.  Do me a favor and I will do you a favor.  Do not cross me and I will not cross you."  Why is it not necessary for people to like each other to be friends?  Because when people interact they rarely know who they are dealing with.  People rarely understand who the other person is.  (2) However, some people live together fifty years and never know who the other person is.  And other people talk for only an hour and are able to know who the other person is.  (3) Additionally, some people do not know very well who they are themselves.  And even worse, some people are so devoid of opinion that there is very little there.  Nothing to like or dislike about the person.  Ghostly.  Ghastly.	6/4/2001

Sociology, friends.	Deciding how often to visit and how long to stay.  Does the guest or host think the guest is coming over too little or too much, and staying too long or too short?  Does the guest or host think that the other person thinks it is too much or little, or too long or short?  Do both guest and host think it is a ritual or socially required ritual, or do they really want to visit?	10/15/1993

Sociology, friends.	Develop a good (adequately large) network of good friends (healthy people in healthy relationships), without which people get depressed or go crazy and kill selves.	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	Dropping friends and finding new friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies (see also: Sociology, struggling).  (1) Degree they oppose you and why.  Degree you oppose them and why.  (A) Ideological enemies: opposing views.  (B) Actual enemies: actual struggle.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) Degree they oppose you.  (2) Degree you oppose them. (3) Ethics of the struggle (means, ends).	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) How much they want to hurt you.  (2) How much they hurt you.  (3) How often and long they think bad against you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) Ideological enemies (views differ) vs. struggling enemies: (A) Competing for same goal.  (B) Hurt each other.  (2) Whether it is good or bad (values).	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) That hate you personally.  (2) That hate your type.  (3) That have different goals or agendas.  (4) Outright enemy vs. secret enemies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) Tries, tried, or will try to hurt you.  (2) Intentionally or not.  (3) Opposition in thought, word, and action.  Directly against you.  Or against what you believe in.  (4) Don't kiss up to them.  Vanquish them.  (5) Get catharsis, get justice.  (6) Never take any shit from anyone at anytime.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  (1) Types of assholes, and the tactics they use, what caused them to be that way, where they are encountered (subject areas), and what you can do about them.  (2) One discrimination we can make is between sophisticated, intelligent, mannerly, high class assholes, who you will never see screw you, and low class, moronic assholes who are in your face.  Also, there is the stupid, crazy, evil classification.  More types: bullies, double-agents, fu*k ups, fu*k offs.  (4) Do they hate you (A) Because of something you did, good or bad.  (B) Because of who you are (prejudice).  (C) Because of personality differences.  (D) Because they just hate people.  (E) Because they hate what you believe in (ideological foe).	04/04/1994

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  A good enemy is hard to find.  A good enemy gives one a reason to fight.  And a reason to fight is a reason to stay alive.	08/08/1988

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  Betrayal of confidences.  Ignoring, cold shoulder, ditching, dropping.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  People who don't like you (even if their perception are wrong, or their perceptions are right but their morals are wrong) will try to push you around hard (even if wrong).  Protect yourself.	09/24/1993

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  There are people who will tell lies about you and try to destroy you just because (1) You don't say hello.  (2) They don't like your face.  (3) For fun.  (4) They are having a bad day.  (5) And these people are almost impossible to spot.	08/20/1994

Sociology, friends.	Enemies.  To a fanatical enemy, everything you think say and do is wrong and will be used against you.  They are not objective.  They are not rational.  They will not cut you any slack.  They will put your every move under a microscope of negativity.  They will use dirty tactics.	12/19/2003

Sociology, friends.	Friends (1) Trust, (2) Respect, (3) Admire, (4) Tolerate.  (5) Therapy for each other, to reveal problems and listen to problems.  (6) Discuss goals and philosophy.  (7) Have fun.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends and enemies.  (1) Enemy is someone you struggle against, and who struggles against you.  See struggling.  (2) Friend is someone you like and who likes you.  See like.	4/7/1998

Sociology, friends.	Friends and enemies.  (1) What individual or society thinks one person's behavior toward another (by doing or not doing with them, for them, or to them) makes them a friend or enemy.  Values (types of actions) and standards (degrees of action).  Vs.  (2) Objective health standard.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends and enemies.  Degree a person will like/dislike you right off the bat, after finding anything out about you (ex. your natural political tendencies) vs. the degree a person will suspend judgment in thought or action  (1) Out of noble toleration, (2) Out of political realist tendencies, (A) To be secretive,  (B) To see how they can use you,  (C) To see how you will react.	05/30/1993

Sociology, friends.	Friends and enemies.  One of the best things life has to offer is meeting someone cool.  One of the worst things life has to offer is meeting an asshole.	10/05/1994

Sociology, friends.	Friends and enemies.  Speed it takes you make friends and speed it takes you to make enemies.  These two variables lead to four personality types.  (1) Slow, slow.  (2) Slow, fast.  (3) Fast, slow.  (4) Fast, fast.	11/27/1993

Sociology, friends.	Friends help each other grow.	01/10/1994

Sociology, friends.	Friends or lovers.  X thinks y is their friend because of,  (1) Mutual respect.  (2) Shared values.  (3) Similar backgrounds.  (4) Equals in all areas.  (5) Helps me?  The reciprocation of favors issue.  (6) Choose to spend much time together.  (7) Cares for you.  (8) Won't hurt you.  (9) Won't just use you.  (10) Revealing things to each other.  (11) Communication: how much tell, about what, how soon.  (12) Trust.  (13) Honesty.  (14) Openness.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends share same views.  Friends help each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends you turn to (1) To help you with your problems.  (2) To help them with their problems.  (3) To share your windfalls with them.  (4) To share their windfalls with you.  (5) To get things done together.  (6) Degree and frequency you do any of these.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends, problems with.  (1) Spending too much time together vs. spending not enough.  (2) Telling me too much vs. telling me not enough.  (3) Interact often vs. interact seldom.  (4) Close vs. distant.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends, types.  (1) Close vs. distant acquaintance.  (2) Old vs. new, long vs. short time.  (3) Steadfast vs. fair-weather.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends, various definitions.  Nice things said to a growling dog to prevent being bitten is not friendship.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends, why are you wasting my time?  Why cannot I understand you, and why cannot you understand me?  Why do you not say what you mean?  Why do you prattle on inanely?  Why do we sit in sullen silence?  Why are we wasting our lives?  We smile, we say hello, and go our separate ways.  Two paths diverged in the woods, and I headed off trail.	2/7/2007

Sociology, friends.	Friends: how many do I want, and how close?  Who do I want to be close vs. very far away, and why?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends: how many, how close?  Moving away, moving together, or stagnating, and at what rates.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends.  Talking and seeing too much or little of each other.  Knowing where to draw the line.  How the line changes as the relationship or the situation changes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friends.  Who to approach, and who to let approach you?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friendship is a mild form of love.  And love is good to have.  Love is a must have.  Thus, friends are good to have.  But we also need boundaries and privacy.	03/16/1997

Sociology, friends.	Friendship logic.  (1) Widest definition: friends with everyone.  (2) Wide definition: Anyone not my enemy is my friend.  (3) Less wide definition: Omitting strangers and acquaintances.  (4) Narrow definition: Spending time with a person.  Sharing information.  Doing "friend" activities.	4/1/2005

Sociology, friends.	Friendship math.  A three month friend is a friend you talk to every three months.  If everyone has 12 three month friends, and they call their friends once a week, then the person has someone to call to each week, and everyone gets talked to on a rotating basis.	04/16/1994

Sociology, friends.	Friendship math.  You want to meet twice a week with your "every two weeks" friends (i.e., those friends you see every two weeks).  So you must get at least four "every two weeks" friends.	5/6/1999

Sociology, friends.	Friendship, basic questions.  (1) What's the basis of our friendship?  (2) What and how much do we put into and get out of the friendship?  (3) What would it take, and how easy would it be, to break up our friendship (unconscious and conscious views of both friends, and objective view).  (4) How well do we know each other (views on x)?  (5) Who do I want as my friends?  (6) What do I want from my friends?  (7) How much time to spend with them?  (8) How close to let them get?  (9) What and how much you want from them?  (10) What and how much you'll put out for them?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Friendships of same vs. different age, class, race, or sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Have limits, boundaries, and safety mechanisms.  You have to be on guard with friends because they can intentionally or unintentionally screw up your life.	10/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	Having friends is hard work, it takes effort, and it can be a drag.  The best you can do is find friends who share your ideals.  So they recognize your worth, and spending time with them is pleasant.	10/30/1997

Sociology, friends.	History of a friendship.  (1) The discovery phase: The excitement of finding a new friend and discovering who they are and what you have in common.  (2) The post-discovery phase: After you have a better idea who they are.  After you know what they have to offer.  (3) The discovery phase involves finding out: (A) Who I am.  What my goals are.  (B) Who they are.  What their goals are.  (C) What we have in common.  What we differ on.	4/30/2005

Sociology, friends.	How close, in what way, how long, how constant, how reliable?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	How easily you get along with friends depends on how much you need vs. desire them.  Need much, desire much, leads to vampirism.  Need much, desire little, leads to needy bastard.  Need little, desire much, leads to me.  Need little, desire little, leads to aloofness.	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	How friendly should one get with people you know little of?   How much do you have to know about them (religious view, political views, etc.) before calling them acquaintance or friend?  What bad view held, or what bad behavior done, should put them at what distance from you, and why?	03/01/1997

Sociology, friends.	How good friends are depends on (1) How much they help you when you are in how bad a situation.  (2) How reliable or constant they are, especially when you and/or they change (and how much change).  (3) Reasons they think, say, actually are your friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	How much help you when you are in how bad a situation.  Reasons they think, say, and actually are your friend.  Reasons you think they are your friend.  Visa versa.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	How much interact, and how interact?	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	How much to confide in friends, and how soon?  How do you know when to trust them?  Do not tell them anything that can be used against you.	9/22/1998

Sociology, friends.	How much to let your friends (consciously and unconsciously, on both your part and their parts) change or affect you for better or worse.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Ideal friends are as tough to find as ideal lovers.	12/30/1996

Sociology, friends.	If one is "average" and "not picky" then one can have many friends.  If one is unique or different (not necessarily above or below average) and if one is also picky then it is more of a challenge to find friends.	3/20/2004

Sociology, friends.	If they say just one thing loving, or even insightful, or even just amusing, each time I see them, perhaps they are worth keeping as friends.	05/18/1997

Sociology, friends.	Is a friend and a friendship just an experience for you, something to taste and move on, or is it real, deeply felt, deeply meaningful, important, and much needed for you?	12/30/1995

Sociology, friends.	It is easy to be friends with an equal.  The tough part is being friends with (1) Someone better than you (it is humiliating), or (2) Some one worse than you (it is a waste of time).  Usually a person tends to get along better with 1 or 2.  Ex. I have less trouble putting up with those below me than those more talented than me, or those in formal authority positions.  Others are better at kissing up.	12/30/1996

Sociology, friends.	It is easy to have friends if you have no standards or principles, and if you accept any type of thinking and behavior in others.  If your values and standards are too narrow and high then you won't be able to accept anyone.  When do you get rid of a friend, or not make a friend, on the basis of ethical principles?  Ideally we would like to help everyone, but we don't want to associate with slime.  How solve this paradox?	02/07/1997

Sociology, friends.	Let's say you have many friends.  Let's say you have forty friends.  And lets say each friend wants to have an hour-long chat with you once a month.  Your friends can easily use up all of your free time in frivolous conversation.  That is a problem.  Friends can waste your time.	11/28/2005

Sociology, friends.	Like vs. dislike.  (1) Friends, neutrals, and enemies.  (2) Old and new, known and unknown.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Like vs. dislike.  (1) Like vs. hate is an emotion.  (2) Friendly vs. unfriendly is a behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Logic of friendship.  Various common views and definitions of friendship. (1)  Anyone who is not my enemy is my friend.  (2)  If you are not my friend then you are my enemy.  (3) If you are not for us then you are against us.  (4)  The enemy of my enemy is my friend.	1/1/2002

Sociology, friends.	Looking for friends in the city.  (1) There are more people to choose from, which only makes people more picky about choosing their friends.  (2) More people means more crazy people and evil people, which makes people more picky about choosing their friends.	9/11/1998

Sociology, friends.	Me.  (1) Another theory.  Perhaps I have no friends because I think that I am hot stuff.  Big headed.  (2) Another theory.  Perhaps I have no friends because I am intolerant.	10/15/1999

Sociology, friends.	Me.  Reasons I do not have many friends.  (1) Avoid responsibility.  I don't like to get mixed up with them.  (2) Selfishness.  If they are not giving me sex why bother.  It takes time away from my work.  (3) Fear and paranoia.  Who am I dealing with?  (4) Anger and disgust, with them and with myself.  (5) Anti-social.  I do not enjoy, or even understand, friendship.  (6) Intolerance to ideological foes.  (7) Jealousy.  I get jealous when they spend time with other friends.  (8) I dislike it when they screw up your life.  (9) Maybe I should just enjoy feeling good when I help someone.  Good karma.	10/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	Me.  Why do I have trouble getting and keeping friends?  I used to think it was my anger.  Now I think that my fear has more to do with it.  Also, a perfectionism and idealism that makes me intolerant.  Also, my interests in reading and writing philosophy are not popular.	7/6/1999

Sociology, friends.	Most important ideas.  Having friends is important.  Having good friends is important.  Find out their character.  You have to work at finding and keeping them, just like you work at finding and keeping a girlfriend.  It takes time and effort.	10/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	Mutual friendship vs. one sided friendship.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	My criteria for spending time with friends.  (1) You tend to want as much from them as you give to them, in terms of ideas and emotional output.  (2) You tend to want as much from them, in terms of ideas, as you could generate alone.  (3) In either case, if you are not getting anything from them, you tend to feel you are getting shortchanged, ripped off, gypped, and wasting your time.	01/11/1997

Sociology, friends.	My latest basis for friendship is just like sex.  If they like me, I like them, provided they do not abuse me.  Do not give friends or lovers an opportunity to seriously hurt you or yours.	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	Nature of friendship at any age: optimal, sub-optimal, and pathological.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Neutrals, acquaintances, and strangers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Neutrals.  (1) Amount you are in presence of another person.  (2) Amount you interact with a person.  (3) Amount you know about them.  (4) How you treat them: as neutral, friend, or enemy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	People united by enduring, shared principles have a chance at enduring friendship.	2/27/2005

Sociology, friends.	Pessimists remember the worst things about interactions with others, and foresees only bad things happening with others in the future.  Thus, pessimists have few friends.	5/6/1999

Sociology, friends.	Real friends can help you grow, and can be your psychotherapist.  False friends and bad friends don't really talk to you or listen to you, and they use you.	06/30/1993

Sociology, friends.	Reasons to have friends.  (1) Fame and success.  You help each other succeed.  You combine your strengths to create an art movement or professional organization, etc.  (2) Survival.  Without social contact people become depressed for lack of love.  They also become isolated and weird.  This reason is very important.  You support each other.  Get friends for your health (physical, psychological, and economic).  They also take care of each other when sick, or when lose a job and need a place to stay.  (3) To get stuff done.  People gather in groups to achieve goals they could not do alone.  They have principles and values in common.  Political goals, etc.  (4) Loneliness.	04/15/1997

Sociology, friends.	Secret friends vs. publicly acknowledged friends.  Secret enemies vs. publicly acknowledged enemies.	6/1/2003

Sociology, friends.	So you want to be social.  To help yourself and others survive.  Even if you do not enjoy it, and are not drawn to it.  Who to pick as friends?  What is their philosophy of social interaction, friendship (and love, sex)?  When are you wasting your time?  When are you overdoing it by putting too much time and energy into a friendship and getting nothing out of it?	04/24/1997

Sociology, friends.	Some people want and need a lot of friends and much social interaction.  Other people want and need few friends and little social interaction.  These variables correlate to nothing.  For every loner who kills themselves there are ten socialites who utterly waste their lives on an endless round of parties.  Cheers.	11/25/2004

Sociology, friends.	Strangers.  Meeting someone new, anonymously, and privately (one on one only).  Amazing how giving and kind they can be.  The intimacy of strangers has a specialness all its own.  We confess to strangers.  There are things we would never say to the ones we know, or do with the ones we know, that we do with strangers.  With strangers we can satisfy strange urges, experiment, play and learn, disclose truths, and tell lies, all mostly without harm.  Strangers defined not only as people we never met before, but also people we know we will never meet again.  Places where anonymity is maintained are interesting.  Places like Internet chat, phone sex, and anonymous phone calls are interesting social phenomena with many unique good points to them.  They can be very addicting because they provide human contact easily and instantly.  No loneliness.  Yet they can be dangerous and unethical if one is doing harm.	06/20/1994

Sociology, friends.	Strangers.  Treating unknowns as friends, neutrals, or enemies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Summary of problems of friendship and social relations in general.  (1) The problem of reciprocity.  Owing favors.  (2) The problem of differing ideals.  Ideological differences.  (3) The problem of knowing who they are.  A circular problem, being that you can not be their friend if you do not know them and you can not know them unless you are their friend.  (4) The problem of how much you need to know about them before you call them friend.  Can you call them friend without knowing anything about them.  Can you only call them friend if you know absolutely everything about them, and is that even possible.  (5) The problem of them messing with you.  To what degree and amount should you put up with them doing you wrong either by mistake or intentionally.  (6) The problem of trust and betrayal.  How much to trust them.  What to do about betrayal.  (7) The problem of how much do they want from you, and how much you should give them.	3/20/2001

Sociology, friends.	Terms.  Friends, neutrals, enemies, strangers, knowns.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	The big question is what do we have in common?  What holds us together?  What will you ask me to do, and not?  What can I ask you to do, and not?	10/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	The big sociological question: why is it so difficult to find and keep friends and lovers?  The turnover is high due to (1) They move away.  (2) They flip ideologically.  (3) They dump you or you dump them.  (4) So you must continuously re-supply.  Hit on one per week, or better yet, make one new friend per week.  Make one maintenance call per month for each friend.	3/30/1998

Sociology, friends.	The friendship cycle.  Coming together, and drifting apart.	11/30/1997

Sociology, friends.	The lost art of friendship.  People have forgotten how to meet, make and keep friends.  Or they do it poorly and meet low quality friends with bad results.	6/21/1998

Sociology, friends.	The people I like don't like me.  The people who like me I don't like.  It is a stand off.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	There is only close lasting friendship for unchanging, uncritical people.  Stagnant vegetables.  Much like life-long monogamy is neither natural nor good, life-long friendship is neither natural nor good.	2/27/2005

Sociology, friends.	Three levels of friends.  (1) Don't ever change.  (2) May good things happen to you.  (3) I want to help you.     PART TWO.  Three levels of enemies.  (1) I want them to change their tune.  (2) I want bad things to happen to them.  (3) I want to hurt them.	6/1/2003

Sociology, friends.	Three problems.  (1) Conditional friendship.  (2) Manipulation.  (3) Power and control, using and abusing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	To me, friendship means finding friends who are hip.  Friends-hip.	8/30/1998

Sociology, friends.	True friends vs. false friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Two types of false friends.  (1) They think you are their friend but you are not.  (2) You think they are your friend but they are not.	7/7/2003

Sociology, friends.	Two views of friendship.  (1) Friendship as contract.  Exchange theory.  (2) Friendship as allies.  Conflict theory.	4/15/2002

Sociology, friends.	Two views.  (1) I am basically friendly.  Everyone is my friend.  People are basically good.  (2) I am basically finicky.  My friendship has to be earned.  People are basically bad.	4/15/2002

Sociology, friends.	Types of friends: (1) Non-enemies, (2) Acquaintances, (3) Real close friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Value of friends.  (1) Share knowledge.  (2) New perspectives.  (3) Achieve goals by working together.  (4) Emotional support.  Cheering up.  (5) Support in times of crisis.  Crash pads.	07/05/1997

Sociology, friends.	Various definitions of levels of friendship.  How often interact.  How complex interact.  How positive or negative interact.  How long interact.  How long between interactions and still stay friends.  How much abuse take and still stay friends.  How much understand each other.  How much agree.	12/30/1992

Sociology, friends.	Ways of describing friend relationships.  (1) "I am a friend of hers."  That is, she considers me a friend.  (2) "She is a friend of mine."  That is, I consider her a friend.  PART TWO.  (1) "I am an enemy of his."  That is, he considers me an enemy.  (2) "He is an enemy of mine."  That is, I consider him an enemy.	6/1/2003

Sociology, friends.	What are the limits of friendship?  Should I be your friend if you hurt me, or try to hurt me, intentionally or accidentally?  Should I be your friend if you hurt others, or try to hurt others, intentionally or accidentally?  Should I be your friend if we have a major difference in views?  Like if you believe its okay to do something that I believe is unethical?  Is loyalty to friends the paramount virtue?  No, it is not.	1/2/2004

Sociology, friends.	What counts most in friends?  Intelligence?  Agreeing with your views, agendas, goals?  Trustworthy?  Communicative?  Not a drain on you, low maintenance?	12/26/1997

Sociology, friends.	What makes for friends?  (1) Not wanting nothing from each other.  (2) Not being able to take anything from each other.	06/30/1993

Sociology, friends.	When a person has no mate, they do not see the use of gaining another friend.  Once a person has a mate, they start to see the value of friends again.  It happens all the time.	9/24/1998

Sociology, friends.	Why friends?  (1) To learn.  (2) For love.  (3) For therapy (cheap).	03/16/1997

Sociology, friends.	Why have friends?  There are various views people have about why to have friends, including the following: For conversation.  For emotional support.  For financial support.  For favors, and labor.  For protection, escort, chaperon.	7/1/2006

Sociology, friends.	Years went by without a decent conversation.  I began to lower my expectations.	8/20/1999

Sociology, friends.	You do not have to know any universal geniuses.  Just meet a lot of people who are expert in their fields.  Geniuses are tough to find.  Experts are easy to find.  Experts will know what they know, but will not know what they do not know.  An expert is a poor excuse for a genius.	08/15/1994

Sociology, generations.	.This section is about generations.	1/24/2006

Sociology, generations.	(1) Generational thinking is an easy story, a compelling story and an easy sell.  Generational thinking is convenient for the media.  (2) People are hungry for an identity.  People want to be told who they are and what to believe.  Generational thinking is an easy identity to take on.  (3) People want to differentiate themselves.  People want to feel unique and special.  Generational thinking helps both oldsters and youngsters set themselves apart.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	(1) Is every generation (A) Hipper than their parents, period?  (B) Or do we become unhip with age?  (C) Or does youth have a false sense of hipness?  (2) Do we "mind" differently from those in the past?  Is this difference due to technological influence on society and then on psychology?  Is it a difference of type or degree?  Is it due to more people being better off psychologically (healthier, smarter, less repressed)?	05/30/1994

Sociology, generations.	Another argument against "generation" thinking.  The saying "There is nothing new under the sun".  We all face the same basic problems such as raising kids, keeping peace and achieving justice.  The young and old have more in common than they have differences.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	Arguments against "generation" thinking.  (1) Time is an artificial construct.  Thus, generations is also an artificial construct.  (2) Physical (body) age vs. mental (maturity) age vs. actual (years) age are three different concepts.  Many oldsters are mental children.  Many youngsters have old souls.  So generational thinking is baloney.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	Definition of generation: Anyone within a certain age group within a certain place or culture.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	Definitions of generation.  (1) Generation as a distinct and historical time and place.  (2) Generation as anyone who is young or anyone who is old.  The generation gap.  All the young share similarities.  All the old share similarities.  (3) Twenty years passing by, until the kids have kids.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	Generational thinking is a form of "us vs. them" mentality.  "Us vs. them" mentality wrongly holds that there always has to be an enemy, and there always has to be a group we view as inferior in order to oppress, exploit and mock to help us feel superior.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	I don't believe in the validity of the term "generations" for the same reason I don't believe in the validity of the term "society".	7/16/2000

Sociology, generations.	Just because people are born around the same time and around the same place does not mean they share the same experiences and the same attitudes.	7/16/2000

Sociology, generations.	Labeling time.  (1) The media feels compelled to name every year (ex. the year of the cat), every decade (ex. the decade of the mind), and every generation (ex. the me generation).  "Generation" thinking is a ridiculous creation of the media.  (2) Not to mention that people feel a need to name every day (ex. national X day), week (ex. national Y week) and month (ex. national Z month).	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	Media exploits generational thinking to make a buck.  They know that both the young and old lap it up, so they serve it for all its worth.	7/18/2000

Sociology, generations.	PART ONE.  A lot of books have been written recently about generations such as The Depression generation,  the WWII generation, the Baby Boomers, Hippies, Yuppies, Generation X.  Frankly, I think the whole idea of "generations" has been over-done.  (1) Generation naming is a form of labeling, and social labeling is wrong.  (2) Generation naming is a form of stereotyping, and social stereotyping is wrong.  (3) If a generation can be easily named it shows that the generation has a dangerous lack of diversity.     PART TWO.  We often hear today's generation whine "Our generation does not have a name."  Be proud that your generation does not have a name.  Be proud that you and your friends can't be categorized.  Accept no labels.     PART THREE.  One good thing that can be said about discussing generations is that it is a way to get people to look at things from a historical perspective.  But "generation" thinking is simplistic.  Lets go a step beyond "generation" thinking.  Lets critique "generation" thinking.  (1) People are born each day and people die each day.  Its not like humans are produced by the batch that we can label a "generation".  (2) People develop at different rates.  Psychological age is not the equivalent of physical age.  Thus, even members of the same graduating class experience the same events at different (psychological) ages.  (3) Generational thinking displays an unacceptable level of actual or impugned homogenization.  (4) The "One great event shaped all our lives", view of generational thinking is baloney.  Its like Carlyle's "Great Man" theory of history.  Both are over-simplifications.  (5)  Critique the concept of "generation" as you would critique the concept of "society" or "culture".  They do not exist.  They are composed of individuals only.  (6) Critique "generation" as not being based on any specific time or place.  Take any group of twenty-somethings from any time and place and compare them to any group of forty-somethings from any time and place.  The twenty-somethings well have more slackers and burger-flippers.  The forty-somethings will have more stable careers.  This is just due to the ages of each group.  People of different ages have different needs and goals, big deal.	7/16/2000

Sociology, generations.	Perhaps people are hard-wired or bio-engineered to think in terms of generations.  This predisposition is reflected in modern family sagas such as Roots, The Godfather, and Gone With The Wind.	7/17/2000

Sociology, generations.	The media exploits the generation gap by focusing on generational thinking.  (1) Oldsters want a pat on the back.  They buy themselves luxury cars.  The media exploits the generation gap by giving oldsters "Look What We Did!" types of books, and "When I Was A Kid We Didn't Have It So Good" types of books.  (2) Youngsters want to reaffirm that they are different from the oldsters.  The media exploits the generation gap by giving the youngsters "You are so Different and Unique and Special" types of books.	7/17/2000

Sociology, groups, pathological.	.This section is about pathological social groups.	1/24/2006

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological group traits.  (1) Mandatory membership.  If you don't join our group you are a loser.  (2) Exclusive membership.  You can't join our group so you are a loser.	3/7/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups and toxic cultures.  (1) Fear of being mocked leads people to express a minimum of thought and emotion.  (2) Intra-group relations and extra-group relations are ones of violence, intimidation and threat.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups and toxic cultures.  (1) Towns that are intimidated by local bullies.  (2) Towns that are suspicious of change, progress, outsiders, etc.  (3) Toxic workplace cultures.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups are often built around pathological sets of attitudes or a pathological culture.	10/7/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups are sometimes formed for the acquisition of power.  They form a majority (group) to try and trample the rights of minorities (individuals).	9/20/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups often publish propaganda that tries to convince people that god is on their side and that they are doing justice.	10/9/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups preach and teach intolerance, violence, hate, oppression and exploitation.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups say things like, "Our group can't be seen beating up people, but if you want to join our group then you should beat up someone first and then we will let you in."	4/16/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups sometimes start based with a promise of friendship and then decay into a means to accumulate and abuse power.	9/28/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups squelch dissent.  They threaten to beat up anyone who speaks against the group.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups try to cover up their unethical actions with good deeds.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups try to keep a false front of propriety and friendliness.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups, tactics of.  Discourage questions.  Limit discussion.  Downplay logic and reason.  Squelch dissent.  Encourage blind obedience.  Reward blind belief.  Promote mindless conformity.  Promote unquestioning allegiance.	10/7/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups, traits of.  (1) Coerce assets from individual members.  (2) Sues anyone who says anything negative about the group.	10/10/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups, traits of.  Blind obedience.  Blind rule following.  Fanatical devotion is tantamount to being an automaton.	9/22/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups, traits of.  People who want to belong at any cost.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups, traits of.  Unthinking: blind belief.  Unfeeling: callousness.  Unquestioning obedience.  Automatism.  Their typical response is, "I don't know, I don't care, and I was only following orders".	10/14/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) Any organization can spin out of control.  (2) A large organization, with many members, is a powerful organization.  And power corrupts.  Power makes it easier to spin out of control, since powerful actions are great in magnitude.  (3) Also, just being large in and of itself makes an organization tougher to control since it is more difficult to keep tabs on members.  (4) Secrecy is another factor that makes organizations easier to spin out of control (Ex. FBI, CIA, KGB, STASI).  (5) An organization can have its missions subverted at either the highest or lowest levels by its members.  (6) An organization can also think it is doing the right mission but it turns out it is doing wrong.  (7) Who monitors these large, powerful secret organizations?  (8) How can we protect ourselves against large powerful secret organizations?  (9) List of large powerful secret organizations.  Every country has its version of the CIA.  (10)  See Senator Daniel Moynihan's book on Secrecy.	12/20/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) Gangs are a problem because gangs pursue violence and crime.  (2) Feuding clans.  Vendettas.  Intergenerational blood feuds.  These are a problem.  (3) Organized crime is a problem.  Criminal organizations often recruit from street gangs.	12/11/2005

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) If you have healthy individuals, then will a healthy group form?  If you have pathological individuals, will a pathological group form?  (2) Will a pathological group ever form from healthy individuals?  Will a healthy group ever form from pathological individuals?	6/6/1999

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) Recognizing and breaking free from sub-optimal social groups is an important social skill to learn.  Especially when you are young, relatively unknowledgeable, and dependent on others.  For example, breaking away from dysfunctional families, religious groups and cults, school groups, work groups, and friends that are holding back your development.  The steps are to take are (A) Establish independent means of support, (B) Make new, more optimal, friends, (C) Announce departure and reasons for it to the old group, (D) Do not backslide.  (2) Another important social skill is the ability to find and join a group, or to create your own group.	02/28/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) Signs of a healthy group.  (A) Fairness.  (B) Cooperation.  (C) No pathological dependence of members on each other, for example, in the form of slavery or exploitation.  (D) Members do not tear each other down.  (E) Peaceful conflict resolution.  (F) Freedom of individuals to develop themselves.  (2) Signs of a pathological group.  (A) Injustice.  (B) Violent, destructive conflict.  (C) Abuse.  (D) Exploitation.  (3) Speaking here of intra-group relationships and inter-group relationships.	6/6/1999

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  (1) Why secretive?  Because if the public knew they would be appalled.  (2) Why a group?  To try to justify their sleazy actions.  Alone they feel exposed.	9/29/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  A primary dynamic in pathological communities is social conformity achieved through fear of ostracism.  Luckily there are other places to go.  This is a frequent criticism of small town, insular communities.	5/8/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  A synonym for pathological is dysfunctional. Dysfunctional connotates unable to function.   Some groups function efficiently even though they have pathological means and ends.	12/30/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Any group can become pathological if it dehumanizes and devalues the individual at the expense of the group.	10/27/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Any group can become pathological.  For example, family, work, neighborhood, nation, etc.  There are many ways a group can become pathological.  For example, (1) Aimlessness, no vision.  (2) Unethical means and ends.  (3) Abuses of power.  (4) Pathological communication.  (5) Exploit and oppress those within or outside the group.	10/4/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Blind obedience makes you a robot.  A blind, rule-following automaton.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Cults, street gangs, and criminal organizations, as opposed to benevolent clubs.  (1) Reasons people get into pathological groups.  (A) People want to belong (to a group).  They want to feel safe, valued, and accepted.  (B) Life appears too difficult, so they retreat into groups.  They sometimes get sucked into pathological groups.  (2) Pathological group tactics.  They take your money.  They destroy your identity.  They make you worship the leader.  (3) (A) How do you get someone out of a cult?  (B) How do you spot and help those susceptible to going into a cult?	3/30/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Enculturating someone into a pathological group.  (1) Intimidate them to conform.  (2) Lie to them about the nature of the group.  (3) Convince them to believe.  Target those who know no better.  Target those who can form no counter-arguments.  Its all they know.  (4) Get them to obey without thinking.  (5) Convince them to ask no questions.  (6) Try to convince them to a specious argument.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Fraternities and sororities are baloney.  Hazing is a sado-masochistic ritual.  Paddling is baloney.  Even without hazing, fraternities are just arbitrary in group/out group distinctions.  They are cliquish, clubby, snobs, prejudiced, closed, secretive, exclusive.  Secret societies are baloney also.	6/15/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Fraternities and their pathological attitudes:  (1) "You should think, feel and act like us just because the group does".  Blind belief and blind obedience.  (2) "If you don't you will be ostracized, criticized, shunned and put down".  (3) Such a situation is beyond what sociologists call "group think".  It is in fact "no think" and "no freewill".	7/6/2002

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Frats at their worst are gangs in that they resort to violence, intimidation and harassment to accomplish their goals.  One does not have to go far, geographically or chronologically, to find frats engaged in gang-like behavior.	11/20/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Frats at their worst are gangs.	9/28/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Frats at their worst are gangs.  Some frats work as a group to coerce, abuse, harass and humiliate both members and outsiders.  Its a part of their culture.  Then they try to make excuses for it.	12/10/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Gangs and fraternities.  A fraternity is supposed to be a group of young men who band together to help each other.  A gang is a group of young men who band together to help each other at other people's expense or regardless of other people's rights.	9/5/2002

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Group behavior becomes pathological when it starts abusing the rights of those within the group or those outside the group.	11/16/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Group pathology can be exhibited in behavior.  Group pathology can also be exhibited in the attitudes, or thought-emotion complexes, that the group holds.	10/27/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Groups exhibit intra-group pathology when it displays pathological behaviors toward people within the group.  Groups exhibit inter-group pathology when it displays pathological behaviors toward people outside the group.	10/27/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Hazing.  Excuses given for hazing.  "Its tradition".  "Someone did it to me, so I am going to do it to another person."  these excuses don't hold water.  Thus, hazing is an example of the worst aspects of conservative, dogmatic traditionalists in that it mindlessly promulgates unethical and unhealthy practices.	11/16/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Hazing.  People who dump their scum and shit in other people's food or drink, or threaten to, or pretend to, are worse than the monkeys in the zoo who hurl their feces.	9/1/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  I'm not for groups that exclude others based on race, creed, color or sex, even if they are private groups.	12/5/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  In order to keep up with the Jones's.  In order to out do the Jones'.  In order to feel superior to the Jones'.  It is necessary to know what the Jones' are doing.  And it is necessary to tell everyone else how you are better than the Jones'.  Thus, key elements of hypercompetitive power madness are spying and gossip.	10/26/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Look at the group's global record, because if you look only locally you may see a front that handles the pathological group's public relations and propaganda.	5/13/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Methods that social groups used to coerce behavior from their members.  (1) Calling someone a chicken.  (2) Calling someone crazy.  (3) Discouraging free thinking, originality, independence, and non-conformity.  (4) Saying to the individual "You are letting us all down.  You are letting down the group.  You are betraying us.  You are abandoning us.  If you leave then you are a loser and a scared run away".  The group says this to try to keep the individual in the group.  (5) Cults as examples of pathological social groups.  Techniques cults used to destroy the individuals mind.  (6) Other examples of pathological groups.  (A) Organized crime gangs.  (B) Nazi's rule by terror and fear.  (C) Pathological families.  Especially when children are involved as victims.  (D) Some college fraternities and sororities.  (7) Isolated and weird groups that limit freedoms of the individual, and keep members weak and in the dark.  Dis-empower vs. empower members.  Example, many work situations.  Some corporate cultures.  Authoritarian personalities.	9/13/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Not all secrecy hides corruption.  And not all corruption is secret.  But there is a statistically significant correlation between secrecy and corruption.	12/5/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  One could argue that group pathology is more important to study than individual pathology because groups have more power than individuals and thus pathological groups can do more damage than pathological individuals.	1/1/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Pathologies of teams, tribes and nations.  Team: pathological peer pressure.  Tribe: closed society tribalism.  Nation: nationalism and xenophobia.	10/14/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Peer pressure can happen in cults, families, religions, work situations, gangs, clubs.  It can result in group-think.  Letting the group think (feel, mind) for you can be easier than thinking for yourself, especially if you have painful issues to confront.  You give up your own mind for security and comfort, and let the group "mind" for you.  Your own mind atrophies, and you become weaker and more susceptible to the group.	02/28/1998

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Secret knowledge.  Secret groups often claim to have secret knowledge.  They want to maintain a monopoly over their secret knowledge.  They use claims to secret knowledge as a means for recruitment.	12/8/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Secret knowledge.  Secret societies often claim to have secret knowledge systems, yet the public knowledge system known as science is better in the global long run.	11/1/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Social practices of pathological groups and individuals.  (1) Oppression and exploitation.  Inequality.  Force and terror.  (2) Communication tactics.  Secrecy and lies.  Attempt to coerce, discourage or force others not to think, talk and write.  Discourage meaningful discussion.  Promote only perfunctory small talk.  (3) Power tactics.  Rigid, hierarchical structures rather than flexible, flat, egalitarian organization.  Obedience prized above all else.  Abuse of power.  (4) Other tactics.  Malicious mocking.  Belittling others.  Harass.  Humiliate.  Intimidate.  Threaten.  Vague anonymous threats.  Random acts of violence.  Gossip.  Libel and slander.  Malicious "practical joking".  Scapegoating.	8/5/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Sometimes an individual can corrupt a group.  Sometimes a group can corrupt an individual.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Spread of group pathology.  (1) Top down vs. bottom up.  (2) Designed, systematic pathology right from the start vs. subverted or changed into pathology.	12/30/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Sum up of pathological persuasion methods.  (1) Obey mindlessly.  (2) Believe without thinking.  (3) Specious arguments.  (4) Emotional appeals.  (5) Lies and half truths.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Their argument: Why should one join the gang?  For protection.  Protection from what?  From gangs.  Its a vicious cycle.	9/22/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  They mistakenly believe that these unethical tactics are the best intra-group behavior.  The mistakenly believe that these unethical tactics are the best inter-group behavior.  They mistakenly believe that these unethical tactics are the best behaviors for an individual to do and to have done to them.	8/5/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  They try to convince you that you cannot make it without the group.  They try to convince you that you are nothing without the group.	10/28/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  They try to make you feel like nothing outside the group.  Try to make you feel less valuable outside the group.  They try to make you feel unsafe outside the group.	10/4/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  They want an excuse to bully people.  They need to fabricate a reason to bully others, so that they can try to feel justified, to try to expatiate their guilt.  "Just give me a reason to go off.", the bully says.  The bully is waiting for an excuse to go ape shit.  Often any excuse will do for the bully, such as skin color, gender, sexual orientation, etc.	9/20/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  They want to feel that they "own" you.  They want to feel that they control you.  They want to feel that they can mess with you.	5/8/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Traits of pathological group members.  Unquestioning support.  (1) We will blindly support you regardless of the actions we know you do.  (2) We will blindly support you without wanting to know what actions you do.	11/2/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Types of group pathologies.  (1) Intra-group pathologies.  For example, pathological relations between leaders and followers, such as in cults.  (2) Extra-group pathologies between the group and those outside the group. For example, when the group believes that all those outside the group are evil, or that all those outside the group are below the group.	9/29/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Types of group pathologies.  (1) Power pathologies. Coercion.  Force and threat.  (2) Communication pathologies.  Secrets and lies.  (See Sissela Bok's books).	9/29/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Types of pathological group behavior.  (1) "Lord of the Flies", after the novel by William Fielding.  A group of teenage boys stranded on a desert island lose their heads.  (2) The little dictator.  A little dictator gets his henchmen to terrorize the local populace.  Rule by force and threat.  Remember, you can't spell little dictator without "little dic".  (3) The sanctimonious, holier than thou posse.  In which a mob of reactionary types, who believe in extreme paternalism, smash a few heads.  (4) Secret bullies.  Happens a lot on the Internet.  Some self styled clever types harass others.  (5) Henpeckers.  (6) Ostracizers.	9/19/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Very often pathological groups end up like the "Lord of the Flies", i.e., a clusterf*ck of teenage boys (or girls) run amok.	9/12/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Vigilantes claim to be about justice but are a major source of injustice.	12/5/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  We should be more concerned about pathological groups than pathological individuals.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Pathological groups.  Wrong attitudes. "I don't care how a person treats other people as long as they treat me well".  Or, "They never bothered me."	11/7/2003

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Peer pressure, for worse, not for better.  When the group drags the individual down.  When the individual acts without thinking critically.	6/5/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	See what the group is doing worldwide.  They may be fronting in one country and wreaking havoc in another country.	3/10/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	The two-faced organization.  Front  office and back office.  Front office, face to the public, the front, appearing friendly, appearing legitimate, appearing proper, appearing fair.  Back office, treachery, exploitation, oppression.  The degree of group pathology is in part measured by the degree to which a group has diametrically opposite values and actions in front office and back office.  The degree of group pathology is in part measured by the degree that a group separates its front office and back office, so that the two offices are not aware of each other.  It is easier to see when an individual is two-faced than to see when an organization is two-faced.	1/1/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	The worst of the organization is when it says, "Keep your mouth shut.  Keep your head down.  Don't ask any questions.  Do what everyone else is doing."  The worst of the organization is when it quashes dissent, destroys creativity and requires mindless conformity.	6/8/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	There are unethical tactics possible in each of the departments of an organization:  (1) Human resources department:  Recruiting by peer pressure.  Using propaganda to convert people to your view.  (2) Marketing and advertising department:  Marketing by using propaganda.  (3) Public relations and media department:  Using propaganda as a public relations tool.  (4) Finance department: dirty money, blood money.  (5). Goon squad and dirty tricks department: violence, threat, intimidation.  Harassing opponents.  (6) Intelligence: gathering information, spies, psyops, hacker/crackers.  Lies and secrets.  Intelligentsia: the brains, the idea people, framing ideological views.	1/10/2004

Sociology, groups, pathological.	Why some individuals join pathological groups.  They want to belong to a group because they can't stand being alone.  They want structure, a pre-structured sets of ideas and attitudes, and a pre-structured set of activities, because they can't stand doing nothing.  They can't stand uncertainty.  They can't stand doing things themselves.  They can't stand doing their own thinking.  They can't stand building their own individual meaning system.  They can't stand defining their own purpose.  Its willful abdication of the self to the group.	7/15/2004

Sociology, groups.	.This section is about social groups.	1/24/2006

Sociology, groups.	(1) Joining groups (religious, military, cults, etc.) is for people unconsciously fearful of going it alone, and who can't think of a way to live by their own self developed code, so thus they adopt one.  Also for people who unconsciously feel they lack an identity and desperately want one.  So they put on the uniform.  (2) People who are into spectator sports (i.e. The fans) are, like politics and religion, engaged in tribe instinct.  When the team wins, they win.  When the team loses, they lose, but they don't lose alone, but rather with a group, so it doesn't feel so bad.  They feel the strength of the group.  They soak up the power of numbers.  Alone they feel like nothing.  Alone they feel small.  Alone they feel scared.  With the group they feel big.  With the group they feel safe.  Cows, sheep.  Herd mentality.  Mob psychology.	06/15/1994

Sociology, groups.	(1) The teen years are a time of gangs and cliques.  (2) Clubs, organizations, associations.  (3) Secret societies with their secret handshakes.	08/17/1997

Sociology, groups.	Clans, feuds, vendettas.	10/05/1994

Sociology, groups.	Clique, club, gang phenomenon.  (1) Exclusive membership.  You can't join us.  We are better than you.  We are different than you.  We are special.  (2) Exclusive knowledge, privileged information.  We know things you don't.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Clubs.  The club syndrome operates throughout society.  In groups vs. out groups.  It is set up for survival.  It consists of a system of allies with something in common.  Hollywood and Washington are examples of exclusive clubs.  The club attitude is: If you are what we consider good, then you are in, and we are your friends.  If you are below par, you are out, and we are not your friend.  If you are in a rival club, you are out, you are not our friend.	04/06/1989

Sociology, groups.	Crowds.  Mobs, mob unrest, mob panic, mob violence, and mob rule.	10/05/1994

Sociology, groups.	Group characteristics.  (1) Frequency and duration of social interaction.  (2) Closeness of members in group.  (3) Group means and ends.  (4) Group actions and group "mind".  (5) Cohesiveness of a group, and the groups attitude toward other groups or other individuals.	4/24/1999

Sociology, groups.	Group formation.  Degree forced together vs. choose each other.  Thought cohesion, and emotional cohesion.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Groups can hold us back, or pull you forward.  It depends on where you are at, and where the group is at.	04/30/1993

Sociology, groups.	Groups classified by size, function, structure, etc.  Dyads, triads, quads, quints, etc.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Groups, organizations, and cultures tend to be self perpetuating, insular, and cliquish.  The big question is how to get cultural attitudes to change for the better (development), since they are resistant to change.  Often the main obstacle in the face of progress is "tradition" or cultural inertia.  You can tell them a better way, or show them a better way.	12/15/1997

Sociology, groups.	Groups.  (1) What are the goals and tactics of each group?  Are the groups goals and tactics ethical?  (2) How much influence does the group have?  On its members.  On the rest of society.	9/1/2004

Sociology, groups.	Groups.  Aggregates, crowds mobs, groups, organizations, and societies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Groups.  Group think.  Group mind.  Group philosophy.  Group behavior.  Group pressure.  Group structure: power hierarchies, and function webs.  Group neurosis.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups do:  (1) Full disclosure.  (2) Globalized arguments.	10/6/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups, traits of:  Egalitarian.  Democratic.  Open, with a minimum secrets and lies.  Free to join.  Free to leave.  Cooperative.  Friendly.	2/28/2002

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  Clear statements of the goals and tactics of the group.  Transparency.  Open books.	10/1/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  I like groups that anyone can join.  I like groups that are open about their goals and tactics.  I am not a fan of groups that are discriminatory.  I am not a fan of groups that are secretive or deceptive about their goals and tactics.	9/25/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  In healthy groups reason is valued, communication is open,  power is justly distributed and corruption is minimized.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  Open communication.  Transparency.  Ethical means and ends.	10/12/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  Two healthy group freedoms:  Freedom to join the group.  Freedom to leave the group.	10/16/2003

Sociology, groups.	Healthy groups.  Well defined mission statement.  Global actions in accordance with mission statement.	11/2/2003

Sociology, groups.	Initiation rituals.  For fraternities, gangs, clubs, and tribes.  Humiliation vs. tests.	03/26/1994

Sociology, groups.	Military.  The military and similar organizations are about (1) Obeying orders. (2) Not thinking. (3) Don't develop or express your thoughts, emotions, creativity, or your unique self.  (4) Repress. (5) Be same as everyone else.	12/30/1996

Sociology, groups.	One view holds that there are no groups, only a series of dyadic relationships.	5/14/2006

Sociology, groups.	Power of any social organization is the sum of the money it has, assets it has, number of people, fanatical devotion of people, and what are their goals and means.	04/30/1994

Sociology, groups.	Problem.  Groups sometimes drag individuals to a lowest common denominator.	12/5/2005

Sociology, groups.	Stories a groups tells reflects (1) What they value.  (2) How sophisticated their thought is.  (3) How communicative they are.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	The "mind" of the group (do a psychoanalysis of it).  Example, open minded vs. close minded.	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	The group of people you think about every day, whether they are living or dead, and whether you have met them or not.  The people you identify with, as your heroes or cohorts.  This is an important group, and yet we have not given it a name.	11/30/1996

Sociology, groups.	The question is whether a group has: (1) Accurate or inaccurate metaphysical views.  (2) Just or unjust goals and tactics.  (3) That is, people say "This is the way things are and  this is what we think we should do about it."  Each group thinks themselves viewing accurately and acting justly.  Whether they are actually viewing accurately and acting justly is another matter.	1/10/2004

Sociology, groups.	Two big question.  (1) How should the group run (mechanism)?  (2) How should the group be run (be lead)?	12/30/1992

Sociology, groups.	Two types of groups in relation to the individual.  (1) Static groups: slower relative to the individual.  Holds back the development of the individual.  (2) Dynamic groups: faster relative to the individual.  Speeds up the development of the individual.  (3) Most groups are static relative to the individual.  Your friends do not want you to grow.  Your friends do not want you to change.  Your friends like you the way you are.  Your friends say "Stay with us."  They do not want you to grow away from them.  However, creativity = change = growth = health.  Friends hold you back.  Groups often inhibit individual growth.	8/26/2000

Sociology, power.	.See also, Politics, power.	4/18/2005

Sociology, power.	.This section is about social power.	1/24/2006

Sociology, power.	(1) Types of social power.  Power between lovers.  Power in families.  Power in work places.  Power in schools.  Power in social class situations.  (2) Political power.  Who is in political office: politicians.  Who is in the legal system: lawyers and judges.  Who has an effect on law making: voters.  (3) Economic power.  Who has money.  Who has assets.	7/30/2005

Sociology, power.	Abuse of power.  There are examples of abuses of power in every type of social relationship.	1/1/2005

Sociology, power.	Power in social relationships.  Ethical uses of power in social relationships.  Unethical uses of power in social relationships.	6/10/2004

Sociology, power.	Power is an important part of any social relationship.  At issue is shared power vs. hogged power.  See Politics, power.	6/4/2004

Sociology, power.	Power.  (1) All social relationships have a power component.  People try to get each other to do things.  People try to get each other to believe things.  People try to influence each other.  (2) Even if one person has obvious power advantages over another person, the other person is never completely powerless.  The other can resist.  The other can also engage in counter power strategies.  (3) The ethical exercise of power involves sharing power as much as possible.  Ideally we create a situation where everyone has the same types and amounts of powers.  And ideally, the form of influence used is reasoned communication, rather than force, threat and propaganda.  (4) Unethical exercise of power, or abuse of power, involves tactics like: Hoarding and hogging power.  Keeping others disempowered.  Fear tactics.  Physical abuse.  Threats.  Verbal abuse.  (See Psychology, pathological, specific, bullying).	6/11/2004

Sociology, power.	Types of social power.  (1) The power to get someone to think something.  Power over the mental.  (2) The power to get someone to do something.  Power over action.	12/5/2005

Sociology, relationships.	.This section is about dyads and person to person interaction.	4/18/2005

Sociology, relationships.	.This section is about interpersonal relationships.	1/24/2006

Sociology, relationships.	(1) A healthy social relationship benefits both people in the relationship.  What are the traits of healthy social relationships?  Ideally it involves two psychologically healthy people.  No taking advantage of each other.  A win win situation.  What are some examples of healthy social relationships?  (2) An unhealthy social relationship hurts one or both people in the relationship.  What are the traits of unhealthy social relationships?  What are some examples of unhealthy social relationships?	11/25/2004

Sociology, relationships.	(1) All relationships are a mix of cooperation and competition.  All relationships are political.  (2) All relationships have an ethical component.  We analyze how good or bad each person's means and ends are.	11/20/2001

Sociology, relationships.	(1) All relationships are sexual.  (2) All relationships are power struggles.  (3) All relationships are dilemmas, problems, or question resulting in (4) Tension, pressure, or stress.  (5) All relationships are complex and difficult.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	(1) Social relationships as (A) Political: gaining power, (B) Economic: gaining values.  (2) Player A: Nothing to win vs. nothing to lose.  Something to win vs. something to lose.  (3) Player B: same.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	(1) What do we need?  (2) What do we think we need?  (3) What are we consciously looking for, what do we want?  (4) What do we get from the other?  (5) Above for each member in relationship.  (6) Pathological and healthy.  (7) In general, specific types relationships, and specific relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	All relationships are oppositional.  All relationships are stress.  All relationships are struggle.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	All relationships.  (1) What to I want from the other person?  What to I want them to do?  How do I want them to behave?  (2) How to I get "1".  Reward and punishment?  Beg, threaten, etc.?	10/30/1994

Sociology, relationships.	Analyzing a relationship.  See also: History, relationship history.	12/12/2004

Sociology, relationships.	Deciding relationship.  How close both of you want to be to the other (closer, farther).  If so, why (2 subjective views, 2 objective explanations).  If not, why (ditto).	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Dyad relationships.  Each individual has different priorities of values that they want to give to the other person or get from the other person.  Or that they want to keep to self or keep away from self.  These values can include money, ideas, emotion, promises, work, love, attention, compliments, power, etc.  Even such seemingly innocent behaviors as "just being together" and "just talking" involve the expenditure of values such as time and energy.	5/17/2002

Sociology, relationships.	Dyadic (2 person) relationships, same sex or opposite sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Escalating spirals of love and trust, or hate and distrust.  Tendency of social relationships to polarize.  Friend or foe.  What causes this tendancy in people?	08/15/1994

Sociology, relationships.	Every relationship is dysfunctional by degree.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	How does a relationship form?  Why does a relationship form?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	In a specific situation or environment, two people meet.  Psychology vs. psychology.  Behavior vs. behavior.  Who will get their goals?  Who will neither get nor lose?  Who will lose?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Pathological.  Typical pathological sociological relationships involve fear, loathing and mistrust.	10/1/1999

Sociology, relationships.	People train each other through reward and punishment.  Study your relationships, work on your relationships, and kick ass in your relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Reasons why relationships are formed.  Forced vs. chosen: to get goals.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship = mental (social psychology) + behavior or action (social behavior).	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  (1) Power: dominant vs. submissive, (willingly vs. by force).  (2) Emotion: like vs. dislike.  (3) Similarities and differences of (A) Psychological abilities.  (B) Physical abilities.  (C) Degree agree on views and values.  (D) Degree you are equals (standards).	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  (1) Psychological condition: in general, and during interaction.  (2) Physical condition.  (3) Life.  (4) Actual vs. as guessed by each one.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  (1) Psychological forces (see psychology).  (2) Environmental forces (see environment): needs, scarcity, utility, value.  (3) Political, economic, and psychological, outcomes of social interaction.  (4) What will happen when x type of person meets y type of person in z environment?  (5) Gains and losses on each side.  (6) Goals and antigoals gained and lost.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  (1) What the relationship is objectively vs. what it should be objectively.  (2) What participants think it is subjectively vs. what participants think it should be ideally subjectively.  (3) Variance from objective.  Variance from both people's subjective views.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  (1) What they mentalized, said, and did vs. what I mentalized, said, did.  (2) What she and I should have done in past vs. what she and I should do now and why.  (3) Was it good or bad and why?  (4) Actual vs. perceived.  (5) Subjects.  Importantce of subject to relationship.  Variance of views, and importance of variance to relationship.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  At all stages in relationship, from start to finish, who do you think you are vs. who do you think they are?  (example, what do you expect from their personal ad?)	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Chances that person A will get B response from person C if he follows D strategy in E situation, and why.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Degree know/unknown about a person.  (1) Their attitudes and views on all subjects.  How close or different to yours.  How good or bad you consider their different views, and (2) Their actions in any situation, towards you or others.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Degree someone hurts or helps you vs. degree you hurt or help them.  Unconsciously or consciously, by them, to you.  And when and how much one perceives the other as trying to do the opposite.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  For both persons: mind, communication, and behavior.  On the relationship, and on all other subjects.  Before, during, and after interaction.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  How much am I going to become like you vs. how much are you going to become like me.  Consciously (forced or willing) vs. unconsciously.  To me, to you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  How much could I hurt/help them, how much do I want to?  How much could they hurt or help me, how much do they want to?  And then what actually happens.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  How pleasurable was it to be with x person.  How much did I grow or learn vs. devolve.  (A) Figured out for self vs. learned from them.  (B) Easy way: taught, shared, discussed vs. hard way: suffered, hurt.  (C) Unconsciously or consciously, for both people.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Interaction analysis.  (1) Who was she?  What did she want?  What did she do, and why?  What should she have done, and why?  Vs.  Same for me.  (2) You can analyze above in a historical perspective, and also in a future planning perspective.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Interaction analysis.  Most important, frequent, or overt events that person X did or said, and that person Y did or said or felt (if it is you).	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Interaction: x, y, and z personality types meet, what will happen?  Who are we, and who are they?  What do we want, and what do they want?  What's the objective relationship, and what are the two subjective relationships?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Interpretation.  What did they think it meant vs. what did you think it meant vs. what would anyone think it meant vs. what did it actually mean?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  One type of person meets another type of person, in a specific type of situation, what will happen?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Person A and person B meet.  (1) When person A can tell who person B is better than person B can tell who person A is.  (2) When one can tell who the other is better than the other can tell who they are themselves.  (3) When one or other realizes "1" or "2". (4) And the other realizes it too.	11/20/1993

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Relationship analysis through time.  One person grows, stagnates, or devolves and other other person grows, stagnates, or devolves.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Relationship analysis: effects of mind, words, and actions on each other, for better or worse, intended or not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Social analysis.  (1) Members.  Number, types, psychological analysis.  (2) Interaction.  Behavior, type, frequency, duration.  (3) Causes, effects.  Psychological changes till next interaction.  (4) Healthy vs. pathological.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Subjective view of person A of what the relationship is vs. subjective view of person B of what the relationship is vs. what it really objectively is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Their philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics) vs. your philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  What they want and expect from you vs. what you want and expect from them (stuff, actions, favors).	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  What do you think you will become vs. what do you think they will become.  Who do you think they were vs. who do you think you were.  Vs. the actual, real, objective truth.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  What happened between me and so and so (events, actions, words, thoughts and feelings, etc.)?  How did it make me feel?  How do I feel about so and so?  What do I think of so and so?	02/15/1997

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Which events caused problems for relationship?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Who was saner, wiser, and smarter vs. who dominated.  For every subject, view, and argument brought up in communication and action.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Whose perceptions are truer (closer to reality).  Whose decisions are healthier.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  Will the individuals like or hate each other.  Will the individuals interact or not.  Many factors, values, and standards are involved.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship analysis.  X person (personality, sex, age, culture)  with y person in z situation, what happens, why?	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship elements.  (1) Predictable elements: human nature, social mores.  (2) Decidable elements: your choice.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Relationship types.  Healthy and happy relationships.  Unhealthy, problem relationships are interesting.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Social relationships are like businesses or governments.  Information gathering, deal making, bargaining, negotiating, goal getting.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Social relationships are person-to-person interactions.  Social relationships are a micro level form of sociology, as differentiated from macro level forms of sociology such as the study of society.	11/25/2004

Sociology, relationships.	Social relationships described in terms of Newtonian physics.  (1) Each body is a certain distance from every other body.  That is, each person is a certain distance from every other person.  By "distance" I do not mean physical distance, I mean social distance.  In terms of social distance, you bring closer the people that you like, and you keep further away the people that you dislike.  (2) Bodies either attract or repel each other.  You can bring a person into your orbit.  You can eject a person from your orbit  (3) In terms of social distance, two bodies can be moving toward each other, or away from each other, at any speed, any rate of acceleration, and at any distance.  (4) You can see a couple standing physically next to each other, but in terms of social distance they can either be in close orbit around each other or they can be hurtling apart at great speed, and it can be difficult to tell.  (5) In the social realm, there is a problem analogous to the three body problem in physics.  When there are three or more people present it becomes difficult to do the math to describe the social situation.  (6) People are like billiard balls.  Ideas are like billiard balls.  People collide, careen, carom of each other much like billiard balls.  Ideas collide, careen, carom of each other much like billiard balls.  However, there are limitations to the analogy of describing people and ideas as physical objects.  In some ways people and ideas resemble physical objects, but in other ways people and ideas are very different from physical objects.	12/2/2005

Sociology, relationships.	Some wrongheaded people think the parent-child, boss-worker, government-citizen, god-human relationship should be to force kids, workers and citizens to do the right thing, without reasoning with them (Socratic method) to do the right thing, or explaining reasons for them to do the right thing.  They wrongly think it is ok to simply tell (preach) them what is right without explaining why you think so.  And to punish them without explaining the reasons why what they did was wrong.  They say to do things just because they say so, or because god says so, which is not a good reason.  In essence telling them to believe and obey blindly.  Obey orders.  Just do it, and don't think about it.  Don't develop your capacity to reason and think for yourself.  By doing so we raise morons.	12/30/1995

Sociology, relationships.	Stages in relationship development.  (1) Meet, learn about each other, and decide whether to meet again.  (2) Growth, stagnation, decay.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	There is no such thing as a purely sexual relationship.  There is no such thing as a purely economic relationship.  Even when a john visits a prostitute the relationship is neither purely sexual nor purely economic.  All relationships are a mix of the sexual, the economic, the political, the communicative and many other factors.  Individual factors in a relationship can be emphasized or de-emphasized, brought to the foreground or put in the background, brought to the center or kept at the margins, but that does not mean the other factors do not exist.	11/25/2004

Sociology, relationships.	Things that make relationships go bad.  Things that destroy love.  Things that destroy trust.  Things that destroy communication.	12/20/1998

Sociology, relationships.	Total agreement, even total understanding, never occurs.  Opposition always exist.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	Types of relationships.  Friend of.  Enemy of.  Know of.  Know well.  Acquaintance.  Stranger.  Friend of a friend.  Business contact.  Legal relationships.  Mentor and protoge.  Equals.  Cooperative, competitive or conflict.	6/3/2001

Sociology, relationships.	Views on the purpose of social relationships.  (1) Solving problems: yours and theirs.  (2) Not causing problems.  (3) Causing problems for others.  (4) Sometime they think they're doing one, but actually do another.	12/30/1992

Sociology, relationships.	What do you want to achieve?  What does the other person want to achieve?  Can a deal be made?  Is cooperation possible?	7/31/2005

Sociology, relationships.	What is this relationship about?  There are two ways to determine what a relationship is about.  (1) Agreement between the two people regarding what the relationship is about.  The agreement can be explicit or implicit, express or implied, overt or covert.  (2) The relationship can be defined by pre-existing social roles and norms.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality, development.	.This section is about sexual development.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, development.	(1) Physical development.  (2) Psychological development.  Development of conceptions of love.  What is love and why is love important.	4/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality, development.	(1) Stages in relationships.  (2) Stages in psychological and physical development of individuals in relationship.  (3) Stages in situation the relationship takes place in.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	(1) Types of sexual development: (A) Sexual development in terms of development of knowledge and emotion regarding the subject of sexuality.  (B) Sexual development in terms of physical body development.  (C) Sexual development in terms of sexual experiences development.  (2) Sexual development of a person versus the general development of the entire person.  One's sexual knowledge, body, or experiences can either lag or lead the rest on one's knowledge, body, or experiences.  (3) Development of sexual fantasies versus development of sexual experiences.  (4) Societal enculturation and its affects on a person's sexual views and behavior.  (5) Amount of thought a person gives to their sex life versus the degree to which sex is an urge acted upon without thought.	4/19/2005

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Age.  When you are young, you want and need sex and each other more.  When you are older, you want and need sex and each other much less.  Thus, can true love exist when one is older?  What do we mean by true love?  Love in all its dimensions?  Powerful love?	11/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Age.  Youth obsession in sex.  Youth is associated on the one hand with innocence and vulnerability.  In another way, youth is associated with vigor and power.  People also see youth as both health and beauty.	02/07/1997

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Change of partners, perceptions, and relationship.  Speed, degree, for better or worse.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Change, development, stages, age.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Coming together vs. moving apart.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Cycle: (1) Interest (based on misconception).  (2) Disenchantment (based on revelation).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Dating.  What was once a new game, wondrous, exciting, and practiced just for fun, has turned into a quick, calculated, weeding out process on both sides.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Development of paternal or maternal feelings.  Desire to have kids.  Protective feelings toward mate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Development of sexuality through life.  Physical, psychological, and social.  Healthy and pathological.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Early sex: more drive, more stupid, more experimenting, more mistakes, more desperate, more foolish, more frequent, more disgusting.  Later sex: less experimenting, more refined, less foolish.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Guys and gals, at any age.  What do they like to do and not?  How do they relate to opposite sex?  How do they relate to same sex?  What are their psychological, physical, and social characteristics?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	How sex changes for individual through time/age in terms of physical, psychology, and sociology.  Children viewed as sexless, aged viewed as sexless.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Lack of like/lust development in attitudes or experience.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Like/lust and time and age.  Sometimes by the time you've found someone you are compatible with intellectually, sexually, culturally, ethically, psychologically (interests, personality), sociologically (class), economically (money), and then have pursued, caught and gotten to know them, you've turned into someone else, and they have changed, and thus you both become incompatible.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Love cycle: interest, mystery, knowledge, disinterest.  Speed for two people.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Marriage, kids, divorce.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Phases.  (1) Strangers first meet.  (2) Friends.  (3) First time you fantasize about them.  (4) Flirting games.  (5) First time you seriously consider them as your lover.  (6) First time the other does same of you.  (7) First time you both know the other knows (and you know the other knows you know).  (8) First touch, kiss, and fu*k.	05/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Sex, love, marriage, and kids are four different things.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Stages: (1) Pursuit and flight, courting, coming together.  (2) Initial relationships, and then long deep relationships (the four bases).  (3) Marriage and kids.  (4) Splitting, at any stage.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	Stages: find, woo and win, keep.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	The change to middle age.  (1) It is less exciting.  It is not new, unknown, curious.  You have done it already.  (2) Less drive: hormonal condition.  (3) Less physical ability and sensation.  Youths are tender, physically sensitive.  Old people are crusty.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	When you are young you can't always tell when someone likes you, which causes lost opportunities.  You can't always tell when someone is not interested in you, which causes rejection, abuse, pain, and  confusion.  As you get older you can tell better, make fewer mistakes, and experience less pain.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, development.	When young, like/lust is a game, new and exciting.  When older, like/lust is a job, an obligation to self.  A boring, often fruitless, effort.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	.This section is about sexual ethics.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	(1) Ends: plenty sex, plenty types.  Healthy sex.  Best women (best looking, best personality).  (2) Means: scooping tactics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	(1) The limit you or a woman will take of the following behavior (degree and frequency and duration): cold, abrupt, lie, pompous, take them for granted, wimp, dependent, don't pay enough attention, jerk around.  (2) Some take a lot, some take it only once.  (3) Standards for behavior.  Standards for deviation from standard behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	(1) What kind of woman you are willing to settle for.  How far from your type and standards?  (2) How much you are willing to change?  What you are changed into (consciously and unconsciously, voluntary and involuntary) and not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Big sex questions.  (1) How much resources (time, energy, money) are you spending on mentalizing, talking, and action about sex?  How much is it helping or hurting you?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Don't get hurt, don't hurt others.  Emotionally or physically.  Aware or unaware.  Intentional or unintentional.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethical issues: trust, betrayal, lies, secrets, taking advantage of, fu*king over.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethical problems of love and sex.  (1) Unasked for.  Rape.  (2) Too young.  Pediophilia.  (3) Already taken.  Stealing.  (4) Unwanted pregnancy.  (5) Disease.  (6) Emotional turmoil and disregard for others feelings.  (7) Lack of commitment.  Love 'em and leave 'em.	4/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethical views (want to do and not) vs. self control (actually do and not).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethics and sex.  Of society, and of individual.  Issues, views, arguments, evidence.  (See also philosophy, ethics)	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethics for sexual communication, seduction (coming on), and sex act.  Some like soft or rough, fast or slow.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Ethics or psychology.  How much a person feels they want like/lust (emotion).  How bad they feel if they don't get it.  How much the person actually needs it (drive).  What they are willing to do, and give up, and not and why, to get it.  In general, in a specific situation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Frequency.  Hours per week spent fantasizing, spending time together, talking, cuddling, or having orgasms.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	How big a part does and should like/lust play in your life: thoughts, actions, money, time.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	How desperate will you become?  What will you then do, or not?  How much power will you give up, or not, for sex (wife), or for money (job).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	How much responsibility do we have or should we take for other people?  No responsibility: let the buyer beware, law of the jungle vs. 100% responsibility for the other, they have no responsibility for themselves(?).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	How much will you change for a woman?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	How much you let horniness and loneliness change your mind (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, attitudes and values) and behavior.  How much it will drive you to pathological sex, paying for sex, a controlling prude nasty bitch?  How much you let it destroy you vs. how much you use it to grow.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Like/lust is supposed to make you happy and productive.  If it is doing the opposite, something is wrong, either with your partner or with your attitude.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Lonely, bored, horny.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Love vs. flak.  How much give, and not, and when, and why?  How much take, and not, and when, and why?  What's healthy to put up with and what's not?  Where do you draw the line?  How to respond to healthy and unhealthy behavior?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Lying: how much, about what.  Secrecy: how much, about what.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Most important thing to know about sex is when it is healthy and unhealthy, ethical and unethical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Picking a lover.  Values and standards.  Long term (most women) vs. short term (most men).  Unconscious and conscious.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Reasons they actually hold ethical views.  Reasons they think they hold them.  Arguments they and others have pro and contra ethical views.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Sex, or lack of it, should not hinder the rest of your life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Sex: how much, with who, when, where, how.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Sex.  (1) Sex: good it can do.  (A) Pleasure it gives.  Physical pleasure: the feeling.  Psychological pleasure: release of tension; emotional release; having a really good friend.  (B) Growth it affords.  Maturing(?).  Takes sex search off mind, and lets you think of other new things.  (2) Sex: damage and harm it can do.  (A) Physical: disease, unwanted kids, abortions.  (B) Psychology.  (C) To self and other.  Intentional (e.g. getting pregnant on sly to get married) vs. unintentional.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Sexual mores.  (1) Free love: one night stands, any type of behavior.  (2) Conservative prudes: no sex till marriage, missionary style only.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Some things in sex are a matter of ethics.  However, other things in sex are not a matter of ethics, rather, they are a matter of aesthetics.  Know the difference.  For example, if you prefer one person's one hairstyle to another hairstyle then that is a matter of aesthetics.  When two consenting adults prefer one type of sex act to another then that is a matter of aesthetics.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Tastes formed by physical, psychological, and sociological influences.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Tastes:  (1) Aesthetic tastes.  (2) Personality tastes.  (3) Lifestyle tastes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Things you won't do because it is too wild and you won't get sex vs. things you will do even if it means no sex.  Things you will do because you want to get sex vs. things you won't do even for sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Three philosophies of like/lust.  (1) Take as much as you can and give nothing in return vs. (2) Take nothing and give everything vs. (3) Give as much as you get.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Two spheres of sexual ethics.  (1) Emotional issues.  Hurting the feelings of others.  (2) Physical issues.  Disease, pregnancy, etc.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Type: values.  League: standards.  You are not my type vs. you are not in my league.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Values, standards, tastes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Various cultural views on sex that I disagree with  (1) No fu*king till married.  Virgin required for marriage.  (2) Man should work, women should stay home an raise kids.  (3) No contraception allowed.  (4) Women should wear veils.  (5) Death for adultery.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	What you are willing to do (and give up) for like and lust vs. what you are not willing to do (and give up) for like lust.  At any moment vs. what actually happens.  And same for her.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	What's the proper place of like/lust in life?  Purpose of love, frequency, and type?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ethics.	Why sex: procreation, physical pleasure, emotional closeness, to experiment, to enjoy, to get it off mind (horniness).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	.This section is about sexual ideals.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	(1) Ideal like: being best friends with someone.  (2) Ideal lust: Pure hunger.  Pure attraction.  Lose mind and self in pleasure.  Whole body becomes one big orgasm.  Multiple orgasm.  (3) Ideal partner, ideal me, and ideal relationship.  (4) Ideal environment.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	(1) My ideal woman: healthy, hip, smart, beautiful, horny.  Puts out a lot, and we have great, mind blowing sex.  She has a great mind: intelligence, humor, emotional perception.  Horny yet faithful, wild and intelligent.  I.e. a hip, hot, beautiful, brainy babe.  (2) Ideal woman of my imagination.  Thinks like me, shares my interests.  Wants me intensely, and only me.  Rich as sin.  Can handle a poor guy.  Is not an asshole, is hip.  Artist/dead head, athletic jock, intellectual/worker.  She has got to be all three.  Noble prole.  Hip, cool, radical, arty.  Intelligent, smart, wise.  Young, horny, puts out, sane, poor, noble.  Good looking, funny.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Best relationship: two people obsessed with each others real selves.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Best sex will be found between two young, beautiful, idealistic, creative, intelligent, wild, philosophers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Best sex: best partner, in best environment, plus best you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Great sex: most healthy and most enjoyable.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Healthy sex grows the mind.  Pathological sex destroys the mind.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal individual and relationship: honest, rational, and brave.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal mate: just like you except opposite sex.  Ideal relationship: total communication and understanding.  Mind blowing sex, inspire each other, learn from each other, drive each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal physical sex relationship, and ideal psychological sex relationship.  Ideal sex partner, and ideal you.  How close can we come to it?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal relationship: respect, trust, honest, open, fair, good communication, psychological attraction, physical attraction, equals as partners, healthy, caring, sharing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal relationship.  (1) Two fine minds.  Two different minds.  Not identical.  Doing the mind meld, the mind merge, the mental synchronization.  (2) Two creative minds, each one constantly generating new, good ideas.  Never ending.  (3) Synergy.  The whole is greater than the parts.	8/31/2005

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal relationship.  (1) Undying, enduring loyalty.  (2) Dynamic, not static.  Growing together not apart.	4/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal sex (best and worst) vs. actual sex (best and worst).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal.  Great sex = great physically (healthy, sensitive) + great mentally (head in good spot, no pathology).	10/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ideal.  The healthy, all american, ideal couple.  They are both psychologically, physically, and financially healthy.  They love each other, the true other and not a fantasy image of the other, with a healthy love and not a twisted love.  He is a well adjusted male, not a wimp and not a pig.  She is a well adjusted female, not a nag or bitch or doormat.  They are well adjusted sexually and have good sex but that is not all they live for.  They are hip, not prudes.  They keep it going for a long, happy, healthy, productive life.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	In an ideal world (1) You could be a guy when you wanted, and you could be a girl when you wanted.  Heterosexual or homosexual.  (2) Or there would be just one sex.  Or there would be a million sexes.  (3) But in this world: you are a guy or a girl.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Intelligence, personality, life, fight, individuality, and vision, attract me more than anything.	04/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Like/lust.  What it could be: ideals, illusions, art, vs. what it is: in this world, in your life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	My muse, my ideal woman, my Beatrice.  I've never seen her, let alone talked, gone out, or fu*ked her.  I've never even caught a glimpse of her in the media, or read about her.	06/06/1994

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Of course the ultimate woman will never arrive, and if she did I would immediately start looking for better.  I am lifting weights for my Beatrice (Dante's ideal woman).  Dante had that much right.  I live for my perfect, ideal woman.  The vision changes, and hopefully progresses, as I build on and refine the old versions.  They don't make girls that hip, smart, sexy, and horny, or do they?	08/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Our idea of the perfect partner, our idea of perfect love.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Perfect relationship: he perfect, she perfect.  They perfect together, perfect match, perfect fit.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Perfect relationship.  (1) The two partners are totally unified as one.  (2) They are the only ones that exist.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Relationships, how good can they get?  Very close in values, emotion responses, goals, thought structure, thought processes.  Understand and agree with each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Sex, how good can it get?  Both really horny at same time for same type of sex.  Intense, enduring physical pleasure.  Simultaneous orgasm.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	The best sex is idealistic.  Sex should be idealistic.	09/27/1993

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	The big hope of youth for love is to find someone (1) Who understands you, (2) Who agrees with you, and (3) Who is your equal or better.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	The woman you deserve, or can reasonably expect vs. the woman you want vs. the woman you get.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Three ideals: imaginable, in this world, and in my life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Three traits of great sex.  (1) Each person conquers the other.  (2) Each person gives in and surrenders to the other.  (3) Each person remains independent of the other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	Ultimate woman.  Hot body and face.  Athletic and smart.  Brave and free.  Warrior personality and character (ala Zena?).  And I am slightly stronger than her, and more excellent behaving and mind.  We are like superheroes.	04/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	What it takes to have a great romance.  Two people, intelligent, imaginative, communicative (must be shared, not isolated in two heads), mature, experienced, un-naive; sensitive; horny and romantic both; noble (not petty, trivial, or mundane); mentally and physically healthy; brave (not afraid to defy convention); creative; spunky; alive.  Plus they have to meet (ha!).  Plus they have to fall for each other (ha!).  The probability of all this happening is 1 in 10,000 couples?  Which means 20,000 people.  Examples of great romances.  (1) In art.  Bogey and Bacall.  Wuthering heights.  (2) In reality.  Sid and Nancy.  Captain and Tenile.  Bogey and Bacall.	09/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	What you think you got vs. you can attract, in any category.  (1) Physical: face and body.  (2) Psychology: maturity, intelligence, cool, emotional stability.  (3) Financial: money and stuff.  (4) Over and underestimating above three.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, ideal.	You always love the finest overall woman that you have ever met.  For example, "B" was the best I have met so far overall, in terms of looks, brains, and personality.	04/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, love.	.This section is about love.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1)  To what extent does love have magically transformative powers?  (2) To what extent do music, poetry and the other arts have magically transformative powers.  (3)  To what extent does nonfiction prose have magically transformative powers?  (4) By magically transformative powers I mean the following:  (A) Unable to tell when it is happening.  (B) Unable to determine how it is happening.  (C) Unable to have foreseen or planned the effects of the change.  Unable to have intentionally produced the change.	1/1/2002

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) Are you "in like" if you are in control?  Are you "in love" if you are out of control?  (2) Is delusional, or obsessive, or possessive, or pathological, or unrequited love still true love?  (3) Is love totally subjective?  If you think you are in love, are you in love?  (4) After what degree of knowing a person does infatuation turn to love?  (5) If you love her only during sex, are you in love?  (6) If you haven't seen her in years, and still think about her, are you just missing her as the best love you ever had, or are you actually still in love?  (7) At what degree of strength does like become love?  (8) I am an idealist.  Love (pure romantic love) is pure idealism.  There is no such thing as practical true romantic love.  (9) Face it, I won't get all I need from one woman.  I will have to go to one woman for "x" need, and another woman for "y" need, and yet another for "z" need, as far as the needs of physical sex, looks, intelligence and conversation, heart warming love and caring affection, and social acceptability (been seen together in public).  A real bargain is getting two or more of above needs taken care of by one girl.  (10) Objective criteria for being in love.  (A) Do you spend more than 50% of your free time thinking about her?  (B) Do you spend more than 50% of the time you spend thinking of her while you are in a state of having the "willies" or "shakes"?	10/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) How does the experience of love differ between men and women?  (2) Who feels love more, the blue collar (more feeling) or the white collar (more thinking)?  (3) How do we "understand" emotions?  (4) Can philosophers know what love is, since they deal with concepts abstractly?  Do poets know what love is?  (5) To what degree does suppressed ardor drive good philosophers?  (6) What couple had the strongest love in history?  Were they philosophers?  I don't think so.	01/04/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) Is my friend my lover and my lover my friend?  Especially if my friend (a girl) gives me important things (conversation) that my comfortable lover doesn't?  (2) I love it when things get complicated in love.  Like I imagine they do in France.  I should move to France.  They understand love in France.  Americans are so practical and business minded.  (3) Complicated love is bittersweet, and it makes you grow.  It is good because it is very real.  It is a reality of life many people never get to experience.	08/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) Love as companionship, and friendship against loneliness.  (2) Love as lust.  (3) Love as a partnership, teamwork, to get goals.  (4) Love as sharing, communication, putting heads together.  (5) Love as a contract, a deal.  (6) Love as admiration, worship, devotion, enslavement.  (7) Love as support, parenting.	12/15/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) Love as money and kids vs. love as the metaphysical union of two souls.  (2) Love of greater for lesser vs. love of lesser for greater vs. love of equals.  (3) How hard you have loved and grieved a lost love or unrequited love.  (4) The reasons why you love them.  (5) Objectively, how happy you would have been together, and for how long it would have lasted.  (6) Love missed, or that couldn't be, because of circumstances.  (7) Your true love is your intellectual and emotional (emotionally perceiving) equal.  (8) The middle manager hell of no emotion.  (9) The best love (living ideal) you ever met, had, and lost, vs. the second best, or the love that you settled for.	10/27/1993

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) To the dull, unimaginative, and mentally inactive, a real love affair may exceed all they have imagined, and may teach them many powerful new things.  And they are thus very satisfied and happy with love.  (2) At some point of mental development there is a break even point.  (3) To the intelligent, creative, and mentally active, a real life love affair will not come close to the many ideal affairs they had with an ideal imagined partner.  They will learn nothing from the affair or partner.  And they will be profoundly disappointed, dissatisfied, and frustrated with love.	01/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) True love is when feelings of love and sex are strong and inseparable.  (2) First love is the strongest and truest?  (3) How important is love and sex?  The ideal and pursuit of perfect love and sex gives us hope and drives us forward.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	(1) We need oxygen and we know how to breathe it instinctually.  (2) We need love but we do not always realize that we need it.  We are not always instinctually aware that we need it.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	A friend is someone you can talk to.  A lover is someone you can fu*k.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	A set of problems.  (1) You love her more than she loves you.  (A) It feels good because you adore her, obsess over her, idealize and worship her.  You are in love.  (B) It feels bad because you get jerked around and have no emotional control.  (2) She loves you more than you love her.  (A) It feels good to be loyally and unconditionally loved.  (B) It feels bad because you miss the spark of being head over heels in love.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, love.	All love is temporary, transitory, and in flux.  Love is not stable, constant, or permanent.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Animals, children, and adults all need love (to love someone, and to be loved by someone) in order to be happy, at peace (satisfied), and to survive.  For adults, parental love is b.s..	03/16/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	At what point are you obsessed with your lover?  At what point is the obsession unhealthy?	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Can I only love something better than I am?  Am I such an idealist?  Am I genetically programmed to fall in love with the smartest and hottest babe I meet, and love no other as long as I live?  Am I thus doomed?	10/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Can't sleep, can't eat.  The symptoms of being in love are the same as the symptoms of depression.	9/1/2000

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Can't wait to see her, can't bear to leave her.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Comfortable love.  Versus.  Difficult love.	11/8/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Consider a couple, one of whom says, "I am so in love with you.", and the other then saying, "I am so in love with you, too."  Later on in the day, one says, "I love you very much.", and the other then says, "I love  you very much, too."  This is the extent of their conversation.  That is all they say to each other.  Now, who is to say that this hypothetical couple is not deeply in love with each other?  Assuming that they are speaking truthfully, and not lying.  It goes on like this for years, let's say, fifty years.  That's a lot of love.  That's a lot of valentines.  That's a lot of vomit.	4/16/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Do I love her?  Do I love her because she is the only one I can stand and get along with?  Do I love her because she is the only one who will fu*k me?	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Falling in love and falling out of love.  How long it takes for either.  How often it happens.  For example, falling in love or out of love too quickly and too often is bad.  Falling in love or out of love too slowly and too rarely is bad also.	12/28/2003

Sociology, sexuality, love.	For all social phenomena there are corresponding psychological phenomena including thoughts, emotions, attitudes, drives, and memories.  Nothing is ever simply sociological.  Especially love.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	How can we measure love?  (1) By the happiness we feel when we are with the other person?  However, the human capacity to feel happy appears to be limited in degree.  (2) By the amount of emotional pain you feel when the other person is absent?  The human capacity to feel pain appears to be limitless, so this may be a more accurate measure than "1".  (3) By the degree your ability to think is degraded by the person.  I.e. how dizzy the person makes you.  Or how fast they make your heart beat.	4/28/1999

Sociology, sexuality, love.	How much do you emotionally need the other person?  How much do you think you need the other person?  How much do you actually need the other person?  In order to avoid emotional pain.  In order to avoid pathological psychological states.	6/23/2002

Sociology, sexuality, love.	How much do you love her?  How often do thoughts to use her run through your head?  Some people can't control these thoughts.  Does it mean you love her less?  How hard do you work against these thoughts?  Does that mean you love her more?  Do these thoughts mean you are a faker, and that your love is not genuine?	05/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I believe in the redemptive power of love.  I believe in the power of love to save my soul, to heal my mind, to bring me psychological health, and to save society.  Without love I am a twisted wretch.  With love I am healthy, and my spirit breathes again.	6/1/1999

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I do not believe in love.  It is a myth, an ideal, a hope, a delusion, an illusion.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I don't believe in love anymore.  Love is just a temporary state (up to 2 years) in order to get you to have kids.  Love doesn't last.  True love doesn't exist.  People are selfish.  I used to believe in love, but it is just an ideal, not real.  Love is only a survival tactic.	07/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I love anyone who loves me.  Sadly, this is not true.	9/22/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I never thought love would mean selling your soul to the devil just to get laid, but that's what it is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I saw something in her eyes that was not there.  I guess I imagined some great and noble possibility in her, but it never panned out.  Or maybe it was an illusion that I saw, some trick of her iris or the shape of her face.  I dreamed a dream of what we could be.  She had no inkling, and all our talks came to nothing.  Our great love was one of possibility and potential only.  Why would not she walk with me?  Why would not she talk to me?	4/30/2007

Sociology, sexuality, love.	I used to think there is no magic.  Now I think there definitely is magic.  Love is a trick that gets us to reproduce, and even more importantly love is a trick that keeps us alive.  Love makes life worth living.  Nature is the magician.  Love is the trick.  Love may be an illusion, but it beats the alternative.  Enjoy the show!	10/23/2000

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Is it love or is it two people using each other for emotional crutches?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Is it right to love someone who doesn't love you?  No, it is hurtful.  Talking romantic, sexual love here.  Not parental love, or friendship love.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Is it sincere or are they using you to satisfy their sexual urges or gain something non-sexual from you, i.e., kissing up to you to gain power over you, or hurt you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Is true love possible?  What is true love?  Is there love at first sight?  Is the above possible for me?  Is friendship possible for me?  If true love exists, is it temporary or can it endure?  If it is true love, are you in love every single minute?  Definitions of true love.  (1) Love with the entire heart and mind.  (2) Forever, everlasting, monogamy.  (3) Never met anyone you loved more.  (4) Can't even imagine a stronger love, or a better partner or relationship.  (5) Obsession.  (6) Respect and admiration.	11/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Is true love romantic love?  Can true love between a man and woman exist with children present to sap the love off?	11/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Its best if love happens naturally.  Otherwise its too much time, energy, and money all for some attention and a spoonful.	6/11/2002

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Like and lust are rare and fleeting.  We desire them so bad, yet we get them so little.  It is a shit set up.  It sucks.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love (psychological aspects) as opposed to sex (physical aspects).  How much to put out emotionally?  Not too much, so that if they pull back, they can't mock you.  But enough to make them feel you are giving, sensitive, not cold.  So just put out a lie, or rather a myth.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love as obsession.	8/15/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love can be analyzed in four aspects.  The emotional and physical comfort you give and take.	03/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love don't last?  True love don't exist?  Love as respect, trust, honesty, open communication, good sex, compatible, fairness, equality, justice, liberty, true attraction, both mentally healthy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love feels as good and helps as much as rejection feels bad and damages.	10/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is a selfish high or pleasure that keeps us alive.	11/20/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is a state of longing and pining for what you don't have.  Once possessed the love object becomes regular and boring.  In this respect love is very idealistic.	10/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is an upset stomach.	9/1/2000

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is biodegradable.	5/20/1999

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is more important than sex.  Orgasm lasts only a few seconds.  Foreplay lasts only a few minutes.  But the time spent just being together is hours, and if you are in love with the person you will be much happier for these many hours.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is necessary.  Sex is necessary.  Love is more necessary than sex.  Avoid pathological unhealthy love.  Avoid pathological unhealthy sex.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is something to be felt, not understood.  Love is an emotion.  It is not to be reasoned or known conceptually.	8/23/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love is the temporary hope or delusion that you finally met someone who understands you, respects you, shares your interests, shares your views (agrees with you), and trusts you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love of idealized other person vs. love of real other person.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love, before it falls apart, is pure idealism, and feels great, and is what I live for.	09/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love, being in love, is a giddy, high, happy feeling toward your lover and life.  Physically you feel warm and tingly all over, and get the shakes and the willies, or have a type of adrenaline rush.	9/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love, kill it before it grows.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love, types.  (1) Wild passionate love vs. stable boring love.  (2) Young love vs. old love.  (3) First love vs. much, much, later.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love, what did you expect?  Better conversations.  What did you get?  Boredom.	4/15/2007

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love: either you break their heart or they break your heart.  There's no winning for anyone.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love.  (1) Is it a bullshit illusion that does not exist for anyone?  Or am I just incapable of love?  (2) Feeling and expression of love.  Is feeling 90% in love and expressing 10% better than feeling 80% in love and expressing 20%?	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love.  (1) It is a delusion.  (2) It is a shit compromise of ideals.  (3) A psychological, sociological, economic and political event.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Love.  So difficult to find a match.  Looked so hard to find love.  When it finally appears, love evaporates, it disappears, it is an illusion.  Love is not worth the effort.  There are several reasons why love seems not worth the effort.  One reason is that it is difficult to know anything about anyone.  Another reason is that people are constantly changing, people are moving targets.  A third reason is that the heart has reasons all its own.  The heart does what it wants.	12/1/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Loving women is like being held a long-term captive, requiring occasional futile gestures on your part to try to preserve your dignity and sanity, yet knowing that at any time they can take it away from you if they so decide.	5/17/2001

Sociology, sexuality, love.	More than friends, less than lovers.  It is a great sociological phenomenon.  And a good name for a song.	11/11/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	PART ONE.  The psycological side of love.  (1) There is an intellectual side to love.  You have to be aware of what you have and how precious it is.  (2) There is an emotive side to love, obviously.  The emotion of being in love.  (3) Intelligent, emotionally sensitive people have great love affairs.  Dim, callous people are doing a pale imitation of love.  Smart, yet callous, people are also doing a pale imitation of love .  Dim, yet emotionally sensitive people are also doing a pale imitation of love.     PART TWO.  There is a also a physical side to love.  There is a physicality.  There is physical sex.  There is physical beauty.  Should one say that only people having sex are in love?  No.  Should one argue that only beautiful people are in love?  No.	10/30/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	People need love.  Deny it at your peril.  Be choosy where you get it from.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Romantic love dwells on love lost.  What they really miss is what the love could have been in an ideal world, but what it probably would not have been in this world.  It is grief for an ideal love.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Sex without love.  Love without sex.  Both suck.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	She makes my pulse race.  The sound of her voice.  The way she walks.  The look in her eye.  The touch of her lips.  The way her body feels next to mine.  The things she says.  She makes me hopeful.  She makes me happy.  She makes me calm.  She makes me excited.	9/1/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The amount of love in a relationship is the sum of each person's love for the other.	4/28/1999

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The answer to the question, "Why did we break up?", can be as mysterious as the answer to the question, "Why did we hook up?"	8/19/2004

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The best way to get over lost love is to find a new lover, they say.	9/23/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The healthy, felt need for love and search for love is more instinctual in some people than others.  Or are they less repressed?  Or are they "more in tune with themselves"?  What does it mean to be "in tune with oneself"?  How to do it?	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The person you love the most is the person who brings the most out of you.	2/25/2000

Sociology, sexuality, love.	The spectrum from "fu*k you" to "I love you".  (1) Fu*k you.  I hate you.  I don't care what happens to you.  I will hurt you if I get the chance.  I will go out of my way to hurt you.  (2) I love you.  I care what happens to you.  I will help you if I have chance.  I will go out of my way to help you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	There is no love, only decreasing levels of dislike, repulsion, conflict, and ignorance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	There is no love, only like and lust.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	There will always be someone with whom you are falling in love.  There will always be someone for whom you pine.  You will always be desiring, longing, wishing, hoping for a lover, and getting upset about it.  Humans are genetically engineered to seek love and sex, apparently all life long.  This realization makes it easier to handle.	12/23/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Three more types of love.  (1) Last love: the opposite of first love.  Last love is the last lover you have in your life before you die.  (2) Ripe love: the opposite of new love.  Ripe love is any love beyond the seven year (itch) line.  (3) Old love: the opposite of young love.  Old love is the love you have in your old age.	8/9/2000

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Three types of love.  (1) Young love.  The love between teenagers.  (2) First love.  The first time you fall in love.  It might occur when you are an adult.  So it is different from young love.  (3) New love.  The first meeting with a person when you fall in love with them.  It is different from both young love and first love.  It need not be your first love, nor when you are young.	7/9/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	To be in love, to have someone to love, and to be loved by someone, is more a feeling of peace than it is a feeling of joy.	03/16/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	True mutual love may be rare, but true love by one for another is more common.  What is this true one way love?  Accepting them for who they are, undeluded.  Wanting the best for them.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Two conceptions of love.  (1) Love is a psychological emotion.  (2) Love is a social bond.  A social relationship.  A social attraction.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Two great kinds of love/sex.  (1) Unconditional love.  Sex any time.  Vs. (2) Love tough to earn and easy to lose, with rare sex.  (3) Get both 1 and 2.	01/30/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Two kinds of love.  (1) Person A loves person B because person B loves person A.  (2) Person A loves person B regardless of whether person B loves person A.  (3) The above two are different from conditional vs. unconditional love.	06/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Two types of love.  (1) Love as ego glorification and ego gratification.  Selfish love is all about you.  (2) Selfless love is about the other person.	8/15/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Two wrong, extreme views or attitudes about love and sex.  (1) Having a girlfriend will do nothing for me.  Having a girlfriend will not help me at all.  (2) Having a girlfriend will do everything for me.  Having a girlfriend will solve all my problems.	7/31/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Types of love.  (1) Non-sexual love:  Parental love.  Sibling love.  Love of friends.  (2) Sexual love.  (3) To love someone is to care deeply about them.  You can love someone without liking them?	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Ultimate circle of unrequited love.  Hetero male loves a lesbian female, who loves a hetero female, who loves a homo male, who loves original hetero male.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Unconditional love.  I am incapable of it.  Which is why I should not have kids.	6/30/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Unrequited love.  (1) A major, pathological component of the traditional conception of romantic love is pining away for an unrequited love, or for a lover who has dumped you.  This feeling is not really love but rather either grief or a wallowing in and enjoying of feelings of pain (self pity?), which is actually masochism, not love.  (2) The idea "you don't know what you have till it is gone" reflects a similar idea.  Those people can't let themselves enjoy love when they have it.  And they call it love when it is gone.  But it is only masochistic regret.  This inability to enjoy things at the moment happens in many areas of life, and at many ages.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, love.	What if two people get together based on overwhelming physical attraction, and then never get to know each other through a communication process known as "talking to each other", let alone find out that they hold vastly disparate views from each other on a wide variety of issues?	8/10/2006

Sociology, sexuality, love.	What is love?  (1) Obsession.  Want to be with them all the time.  Can not live without them.  (2) Admiration, worship, respect for ideal.  (3) Whoever you think about when you come.  (4) You will remain in love with best (overall, in all categories) you ever met till better comes along.  (5) Infatuation.  Can you love someone without really knowing all about them?  Can you be in love with just one aspect of a person?  Do we ever really know anyone?	10/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality, love.	What is love?  Billions of relationships.  Zillions of ideas of what they are about.  Zillions of experiences and definitions of what love is.  And these relationships and experiences and ideas change with every moment and every encounter.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	When is a love relationship officially over?  When has a couple officially broken up?  When all the attraction is gone.  When all the repulsion is gone.  When all the joy is gone.  When all the anger is gone.  When all the feelings have cooled.  Cool over.  Calm done.  Exhausted.	8/19/2004

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Why is love/sex boring?  Because people are boring.  Because sex is boring.  Because the emotion of love is boring.	8/15/2005

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Why people like each other.  For all areas of life, and all personality traits.  Your preferences, likes and dislikes.  How important it is to you (very, not much, etc.).  How wide a range of variation is acceptable to you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, love.	You can love more than one person at a time.  You can love whoever is lovable.	8/9/1998

Sociology, sexuality, love.	Young love: Fun, energy, optimism, and idealism.	7/9/1998

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	.This section is about men.  Topics include: ( ) Hoax of the "alpha male".  ( ) Hoax of the "real man".	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	"Be a man.", they say.  "What does it mean to be a man?", they ask.  Nothing.  It does not mean anything.  What does it mean to be human?", is a better question.  What does it mean to be a good human?  That is the real question.  Fair, hardworking, brave, etc.	6/30/1999

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	At what age do you go from being a horny young buck to a perverted old man?	12/12/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Being a man is an attitude, not a physical thing.  There exist wimpy hunks as surely as there exist manly cripples.	05/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Critique of "macho".  Macho as violence.  Macho as cruelty.  Macho as abuse of power.  That is what some people think a man is.  They are wrong.  They desperately want to be men.  They desperately want to be seen as men.  They desperately want to feel like men.  Because they are not self confident.  Because they have an inferiority complex.  Because they are power addicts.	10/18/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Essence of being a man is desiring (the elusive) women.  Therefore one phenomenological view holds that gay men are not men, and lesbians are men (?).	05/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "alpha male".  (1) All alpha males achieve?  No.  (2) No non-alpha males achieve?  No.  (3) Anyone who achieves is an alpha male?  No.	10/8/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "alpha male".  Physically strong.  Smart.  Many sexual conquests.  Achieve.  Leader.  Fighting.  Bullying.  To say that anyone who shows the above traits is an alpha male is baloney.	10/8/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "real man".  I hesitate to call it a myth, lest they think of themselves as mythic.  The hoax is that some people believe that a real man must be (1) Physically strong.  (2) Break the law.  (3) Control and abuse other people.  (4) Patriarch ruling with an iron gauntlet or velvet glove.	10/14/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "real man".  It is a fallacy to believe that men are naturally violent, therefore to be a man you must act violently, and if you do not act violently then you are not a man.	1/3/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "real man".  Pathological notions of what it means to be a man:  You have to kill something.  You have to kill someone.  You have to hurt someone.	9/25/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Hoax of the "real man".  Some people mistakenly believe that to be a "real man" one has to have big muscles.  Some people mistakenly believe that to be a "real man" one has to be the tyrant of one's family.	12/5/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	In general: nature of, traits of, causes and effects of.  Types: ideals and anti-ideal stereotypes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	It is better being the guy.  They make all the moves.  All you need is guts and savoir fare, charm, polish.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Male roles.  Soldier, boxer, knight, sports star.	06/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Maleness.  Healthy, clean, pure (undecadent), robust, strong.  Male role models.  Cowboy, ironworker, fireman, astronaut, muscle beach, weightlifter, lumberjack, railroad man, hunter, farmer.  The idealistic, physical, country, nature, wild.	10/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Men who are trying too hard to be a "real man".  Hypermasculine cartoon caricatures.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Money = looks, for a man.  That is, women value a man with money as much as men value a woman with looks.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	There is a warped attitude in America that takes inarticulateness as a sign of manliness.  Unfortunately, inarticulateness often leads to stupidity and repression, both of which are unhealthy.  The result is that there is a common yet pathological model of men as being silent, stupid, clogged dolts.	1/1/2002

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Three realms of being male.  (1) Physical.  (2) Psychology.  (3) Social.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Traditional conceptions of man.  (1) Warrior: against hostiles.  (2) Competitor: for women.  (3) Provider: of stuff.  (4) Leader: of clan.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Traits and roles.  Warrior, fighter, competitor, contestant, provider.  Pursue, dominate, aggressive.  Wants: sex without love, looks.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Types.  The fix it, the bachelor, the father husband.  The booze horses and vegas guy, the sports guy.  Mr career, preppie, yuppie.  Poet, aesthete, romantic, dreamer, artist.  Logical, science, academic.  Cheesy shark pragmatist businessman.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Types.  Wimp, fighter, lover, domesticated vs. wild.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	What does it mean to be a man, as opposed to a woman?  What does it mean to be a man, as opposed to a mouse?  These are two ways to define manhood, in opposition to something else.	9/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, men.	Why do guys have big egos?  When you are facing rejection from women you develop an ego as a defense mechanism.  It is similar to the way that a salesman develops an ego to deal with rejection from customers.  Rejection rates from women can be as high as 10 to 1.  When women start asking men out then men will lose the attitude, but then the women will develop an attitude.  By now, ego has been hard-wired or bio-engineered into men.	9/1/2000

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	.This section is about women.  Topics include: ( ) Feminism.  ( ) Sexism against women.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	(1) Women who fall in love.  (2) Women who have to be wooed and pursued to fall in love.	11/20/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	A disservice done to women.  Many women are taught that the men will fight to win them, and then work to keep them.  Many women are taught that all the woman has to do is sit passively, doing nothing, like a queen.  What a way to waste your life.	4/11/2000

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	A negative view of women.  Women are like kids.  They cry easily, and then you have to ask them what is wrong, and then they say they don't know, and then you have to kiss them and hug them and tell them everything will be ok and cheer them up.  You have to keep them happy and entertained too.	03/01/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Beware the giggle twins.  Beware the hag.	6/15/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Biochemical, psychological, behavior, and social factors.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Celebrate women's periods.  Instead of menstruation being considered a private shame, menstruation should be a public celebration.  Take your menstruating lover to dinner.	11/10/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Chick's games.  (1) Keep 'em hangin on.  Keep 'em interested but don't make it definite how you feel.  (2) Love me but don't touch me.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Drunk women falling in love with you, then hating you when sober.  Ego booster!.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminine aesthetics.  (1) Young look vs. older look.  (2) Delicate look vs. rough look.	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism is good for women and good for men.  Feminism is good for the USA and good for the rest of the world.  Feminism helps create women that are: (1) Smarter: more worldly and sophisticated, better able to think for themselves and speak for themselves.  (2) Stronger: better able to stand up for themselves and able to stand up for what they believe in.  (3) Healthier: smarter and stronger women means fewer neurotics and fewer psychotics.  Fewer nervous breakdowns.  Less misery and pain.  Less illness.  Fewer eating disorders.  Less sick days.  (4) More productive: more useful contributions.  (5) Less of a ball and chain.  Less of a burden.  Less dependent.  (6) Less easy to take advantage of.  Less likely to be a victim in life.  Less crime.	6/30/2000

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism, various definitions of.  History of equal rights struggle.  History of what men and women think of (and act on) womans experience.  It is a political thing, like ageism, and racism.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism, women's rights, is still very important today, except the front is overseas in Africa and Arabia.	04/24/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  (1) Equal and same (androgyny) vs. equal and different.  (2) Superior or dominators vs. inferior.  (3) Overt vs. covert.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  (1) Equal but different vs. androgyny.  (2) Want equality vs. want domination.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  (1) Positive sense.  Want sovereignty.  Equal job/life chances, i.e. freedom of job/life choices.  Equal pay.  (2) Unhealthy sense.  Want to abuse men.  Want to emasculate males.  Want to overpower men.  Want to be separate from men.  Want to be male.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  (1) Some lame males want a female who is dependent, subservient, and obedient.  (2) Some lame men treat women like sex objects.	7/16/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  History of wrong views against women (or any minority).  (1) Bad metaphysical views of women.  Women as weak (physically and mentally).  Women as passive.  Women as stupid.  Women as too emotional, and not rational enough.  Women as crazy, especially during period.  (2) Bad laws against women.  Women as man's property.  Women can't own property.  Women not allowed in public life (work, government).  Women stuck at home, doing all housework and child raising.  (3) Arguments used to justify wrong views: it is tradition so it must be right.	06/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Issues.  (1) Political issues.  Male power issues.  Entrenched patriarchy with females oppressed.  (2) Female body issues.  Abortion.  (3) Female mind issues.  Female epistemology: knowing by feeling.  Female ethics of caring.  (4) Social issues.  Female communication methods.  Female-female relationships.	02/28/1998

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Men see the world differently from women.  Men act differently from women.  World has been created in mans image.  Man has been created in mans image.  Woman has been created in mans image.  Woman must break free from this cycle, and create or remake herself, man, and the world in her image.	07/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Patriarchy is baloney.  There are people out there promoting patriarchy, saying women should be obedient to men, saying wives should be obedient to husbands, and those people who promote patriarchy are full of baloney.	1/16/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Sexual discrimination continues to be a big problem.  Sexual discrimination continues in America and worldwide.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that sexual discrimination against women is a thing of the past, but those conservative pundits are wrong.  Some conservative pundits would have you believe that its either not a problem or that nothing can be done about it, but those conservative pundits are wrong.	6/26/2005

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Spectrum of positions.  (1) Pro lesbian, all men are evil.  (2) Pro lesbian, all men are idiots.  (3) Pro lesbian, only a woman can understand same.  (4) Hetero, androgynous.  (5) Hetero, separate but equal rights and opportunities and representation.  (6) Hetero, equal opportunities, merit, no reverse discrimination.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  The simple fact is that there has been, and there continues to be, both in the USA and the world, oppression and exploitation of women by men.	5/10/2005

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  There is a tendency for men to abuse their power (size and strength) simply because, firstly, its in their own self(ish) interest, and secondly, not abusing power requires ethical reasoning which is often acquired long after the power itself is acquired.	9/7/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  When women believe their main purpose in life is to look beautiful like a model (beauty object or sex object), or if they believe that looking beautiful is all that men want and value, then women do not develop their other abilities.  If they think there is a better chance for bigger economic payoff for beauty, sex, or being a kept wife, they will pursue those activities and not develop their minds or careers.	07/18/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Why are some women so quiet and passive?  Why do not some women speak?  Some women have been socially conditioned to be passive and quiet.  Some women have been put down for speaking up.  Women have been done a disservice by society.  Women have been done a disservice by men.  Some women cannot see that they have been wronged by a male dominated society.	7/31/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Why support women's rights?  Population control is important.  Population control depends on contraception, which depends on women's rights, which depends on education for women in order to gain economic independence, in order to gain political equality and exercise their rights.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Women today continue to be pressured to sit down and shut up.  Women should stand up and speak out.	6/22/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Women who think (1) Men are all bad, so separate totally.  (2) Men are half bad, so do not separate totally.  (3) Men are good, but should be dominated over by women.  (4) Men are good, and should be equals of women.	01/24/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminism.  Women who want (1) Together and equal (hetero).  (2) Separate and equal (lesbos and homos).  (3) Equal and same.  Androgyny.  Both sexes alike, whether as femme (female), middle, or butch (male).  (4) Equal and different.  (5) Women superior, with men feminized.  Men do womens work; men dress, talk, and act like women.  The women remain femme.  (6) Women superior, keep men as masculine slaves.  Women may or may not be masculinized.	06/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Feminists, types of. (1) Means: will fight fair vs. will abuse.  (2) Sexual orientation: (A) Heteros vs. dykes.  (B) Like men vs. hate men (hetero or homo can hate or like).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Girls want passion, and excitement, vs. stability, security, and money.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Girls who go for older men want a father figure, and an authority figure.  Girls who go for younger men want a little brother, a lovable scrap, a wag.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	It is difficult to perceive what is going on with a woman.  Did she come or did she not come?  Is she feeling excited or is she not feeling excited?  Being a male these things are obvious.  Women are subtle.	10/31/2001

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Just yes them.  Give them what they want.  Do not be who you are.  Do not ask or expect anything from them.  The above attitudes are how men get beaten down into wimps.  This is s&m in everyday life.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Man lovers vs. man haters.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Most women are into surviving, fitting in, social status, money, and security.  I have been living with poverty, insecurity, eccentricity and rebellion.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	PART ONE.  Women shopping why?  (1) Possible genetic reasons.  (A) Women are gatherers.  Women are acquisitive.  (B) Women are beautifiers.  Women like to make things beautiful.  (C) Women are nest builders.  Home makers.  Materially acquisitive.  (2) Possibly learned from culture.  (A) Learned materialism and overconsumption.  (B) Women learned from culture to pursue beauty.     PART TWO.  The above train of thought implies that men as hunters and warriors.  (1) Possible genetic reasons.  (A) Fighting for women.  (B) Hunting for food.  (2) Possibly learned from culture.  (A) Fighting for women.  (B) Competing for money.  (C) Face to face competition of sports.     PART THREE.  Counter-arguments to the above ideas.  (1) Women compete for men.  (2) Men cooperate as much as they compete.  (3) Men are as materially acquisitive as women.  (4) Men are as interested in beauty as women.  (5) Men are as interested in home-making or house-making as women are (ex. the home shows on television).  (6) Evidence of men as gatherers and child-raisers.  (7) Evidence of women as hunters, warriors and leaders.	5/12/2000

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Paul's "Ralph Kramden" analysis of women.  They want it.  I know they want it.  They know I know they want it.  I know they know I know they want it (key).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Some women don't know how to flirt.  They don't make eyes, but they still may like you.  They may be shy.	10/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Some women need leadership, they want to be told what to do, and told what the both of you will do.  This may be genetic: want leader for family.  This may be social: taught to be passive and submissive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Stereotypes of women.  Rural vs. urban.  Virgin vs. easy slut whore.  Naive vs. sophisticated experienced.  Healthy vs. debaucher party-girl sex drugs rock-n-roll.  Young vs. old.  Passive vs. aggressive.  Sub vs. dom.  Athletic vs. not.	12/27/2003

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	The best thing about NYC is that here you will find women from every place on earth, wearing every type of clothing, with the freedom to live like they will.	11/2/2001

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	The girls in summer.  Now, in summer, we see the differences between man and woman.  The endless parade of thinly and skimpily veiled FEMALE FLESH.  The endless variety of hips, butts, breasts, and faces.  You can see your type.  The hip dress.  The beatnik look in the eyes.  They see you too.  They call to you with their eyes.	07/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	The problems with some women is they think it is their duty to treat guys like shit.  They want equality but don't give it.  They think guys have no feelings.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	They are taught not to be verbal, active, overt.  They are taught to be nonverbal, passive, subtle.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Tiny, soft, smooth, curvy, emotional, sensitive.	11/27/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	To woo a woman, it is not about what happens physically.  You must create a mental fantasy in their heads, of the ideal man and the ideal relationship.  Sex is mental, and love is mental.	10/20/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Traits: sensitive, quiet, manipulative, seductive.  Moody, teasing, selective, fleeing.  Subtle (in action, and in observation).  Resisting, nervous, afraid, hold out for better.  React later, perceptive, material, worldly.  Practical, selective.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Two worst kinds of women.  (1) Fall in love with you without knowing you, and flirt and tease, and dump you when they find out who you really are.  (2) Fall in love with you when they are drunk.  Flirt and tease and promise.  Show interest, raise expectations, and dump you when they sober up.	12/06/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Types of girls.  (1) Fresh, innocent, healthy.  Ex., the school girl, the cheerleader, the girl jock.  (2) Slutty, scuzzy, skanky, banged out, drugged out, partied out, tired.	04/24/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Types, negative: dyke, psycho, frigid, black widow, tease.  Bitch, prude, slut, man bashers.  Man trappers, non-committers, cheats.  Non-reactors, sub-standard, nag.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Types.  The cheerleader, the homemaker.  The career woman, the slut, the trendoid.  The ditz, the bimbo, the rich bitch.  The crunchy, grunge, earthmother.  The quirky looking and thinking quiet loner.  The tease, the gabby one, the shy one, the fat one.  The ugly one, the beauty.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Unless a woman thinks you think you are better than her, she won't stick with you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	When a woman likes you.  She drops her defenses.  Starts to act warm, stupid, give up-ish.  Their emotions interfere with their brains.  (2) When women don't like you, or are using you, they act cold and smart.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Why do women love old men?  Old men are not just father figures for women.  Any man strong, smart, or peaceful enough to stay alive through a youth of stupidity and fighting instinctually earns a woman's respect.	06/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Woman qualities.  Emotional vs. unemotional.  Horny vs. prude.  Straight vs. kinky.  Tease vs. honest.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women and astrology, psychic hotlines and magic.  Why does it seem that women are more interested in astrology, psychics and magic than are men?  Firstly, is it a matter of emotion over reason?  And is it learned or innate?  Are women taught to be emotional and men taught to be rational?  Or are women biologically hardwired to be more emotional than men?   Are women so emotionally attuned because children are so emotional and women raise children?  If children were primarily rational instead of emotional, would women be more rational?  To the extent that men interact primarily with rational adults and not emotional children men exercise their rationality regularly.  To the extent that women interact with emotional children and not rational adults women exercise their emotionality.  Secondly, is it because women rely more on their "intuition" where men rely more on reason?  What is intuition?  Is intuition a form of unconscious thinking?	9/19/2001

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are bio-engineered to play hard to get, to keep holding out, to never give in, to be stand off-ish, to have an attitude.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are like a box of chocolates.  They all look basically the same on the outside, brown, some lumpy, some smooth.  But on the inside some are sweet and tasty, and some are disgusting.	06/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are programmed to be wary and give up their attention, words, looks, touch, and sex to sensitive, honest, and secure men.  Make her feel special with wit, charm and kindness.	11/16/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are sensitive to being women.  Women are sensitive to abuses of male power.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are strange creatures to the male.  What is it like to live in a world of cats, bunnies, koalas, dolls, stuffed animals, and babies, so peaceful and sweet and cute?  It is utterly foreign from the male world of sex lust, money greed, twisted kinks, power craving, competition and conflict, etc.  Let them enjoy it.	02/09/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women are subtle.  Subtle in affirmation: looking for the most persistent.  Subtle in rejection: out of fear for their lives.  That drives guys crazy.  Guys like overt cues.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women go for a cute, funny, flirty, safe, harmless, puppy attitude.  Flirt and tease.	03/20/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women gossip because they lack the habit, or power, to act instead of talk, and to think abstractly instead of dwelling on what's in front of their face.	06/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women like guys who are brave, serious, funny, sensitive, receptive, aggressive, strong, and communicative.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women like guys who are in control of the situation, themselves, and her.  Women are instinctively wary and put off by guys who seem out of control of the situation, themselves, or her.	06/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women spellbind, enslave, and overpower, intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously, with or without trying, they use and abuse it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women use clothes to communicate mood, personality, self identity, aspirations, and philosophy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women usually react.  Indirectly, not directly.  Covertly, not overtly.  Later, not at present moment.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women want to feel desirable.  They want your attention.  They want to know you want them.  It is a form of power for them, sadistic teasing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women want to fu*k.  Don't want anyone to know they want to fu*k.  Don't want anyone to know they fu*k.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women want you to be sensitive without being weak.  Strong without being overbearing.  Communicate both thoughts and emotions.	11/20/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women want: money, kids, crawling man, don't want to put out.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women want: money, stability, status, security.  Attention without putting out.  Love without sex, emotional vampires.  Babies, conformity, looks, personality, humor.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women who are trying too hard to be a "real woman".  Hyperfeminized cartoon caricatures.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women who have a natural view about their bodies and sex, and who fu*k like rabbits, vs. women who are sex obsessed, hung up about their bodies and sex, flirt and tease like mad, and never put out.  Find the first, avoid the second.	07/11/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women who were raised spoiled princesses think they should get whatever they want.  Think they can treat anyone anyway they like.  Life and love is just a game, people are pieces.  It is an immature attitude.  Protect yourself from these pathological types.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women with women faces.  Women with girl faces.  Girls with women faces.  Girls with girl faces.  And same for bodies and voices.	07/03/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women: we fu*k their bodies, they fu*k our minds.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women.  What can one expect from a woman?  (1) If she fu*ks you, and likes you, and doesn't bust your chops, that's all you can reasonably expect.  (2) To expect her to be a genius on top of that is perhaps asking too much.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, men and women, women.	Women's sixth sense.  Do they sense dishonesty, deceit and repression?  Do they sense confidence or lack thereof?  Do they sense genuineness?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	.This section is about men and women.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	"All men are the same", women say.  "All women are the same", men say.  Everyone's the same.  Fu*k off.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	"All she wants to do is be friends", complaint by men is the same as "All he wants to do is fu*k", complaint by women.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Female goal: get as many men to be as deeply in love with you for as long as possible.  Whether they have sex with you is immaterial.  (2) Male goal:  fu*k as many women as possible, as many times as possible, for as long as possible.  Whether love is involved is immaterial.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Its woman's nature to be picky, fussy, fuss-budget, nitpicker?  To select only the best mate.  (2) Its guys nature to take any chick they can get.  To not be fussy.	5/15/1998

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Male.  (A) Positive traits: strong, adventurous.  (B) Negative traits: overbearing, risky.  (2) Female.  (A) Positive traits: sensitive, security.  (B) Negative traits: wishy washy, housebound mouse.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Men.  Strength, toughness, action.  (2) Women.  Beauty, sensitivity, passivity.	05/06/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Most women want looks, mind, status, money, stuff, and prestige, in that order.  (2) Most guys want looks (face and body), mind, status, prestige, money, and stuff, in that order.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) What do men want women for?  (A) Companionship.  (B) Comfort, mothering.  (C) Someone to protect, fathering.  (2) What do we see in women's eyes?  (A) Someone socially acceptable.  (B) Someone forever different and mysterious.  (3) Is this really true?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	(1) Women in their peaceful, pretty, decorated, indoor world.  (2) Men in their wild, chaotic, raw, rough, physical, exterior world.	10/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	All people are both dominant and submissive.  All people are both heterosexual and homosexual.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Any gal or guy can have an overdeveloped or underdeveloped male or female side.  Balance is the key in both sexes.	11/10/1993

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Are women ever really interested in sex?  Are men ever really interested in anything but sex?  Crappy plan.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Communication vs. sex.  Most men could live on sex and forget about communication.  Most women can live on communication and forget about sex.  How far from the average am I in thinking both sex and communication are critical?	10/25/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Deep down all women loathe all men.  Deep down all men loathe all women.  Deep down everyone loathes everyone.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Difference between being (1) Wimp: no back bone, caves in, no identity or values.  (2) Homo: gay.  (3) Submissive: likes to follow orders.  Likes to be passive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Female vs. male "minding", communication, and ways of socializing.	12/26/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Four types of people.  (1) Man's man: embodies males idea of ideal male.  (2) Woman's man: embodies womans idea of ideal male.  (3) Woman's woman: embodies womans idea of ideal woman.  (4) Man's woman: embodies mans idea of ideal woman.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Four types of people.  Womans idea of ideal male (female's male).  Womans idea of ideal female (female's female).  Mans idea of ideal female (male's female).  Mans idea of ideal male (male's male).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Gender stereotypes.  (1) Women: polite, quiet, neat, clean, indoors.  (2) Men: rude, loud, slobs, physical, outdoorsy.	8/5/2001

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Guys want to get laid and to not give up any emotion.  Women want to get as much and as many emotions out of guys as possible and to not have to screw them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Men and women.  Differences in physical, psychological, and social.  In any individual, and in any society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Men are loud in everyday behavior compared to women.  Although men are not loud compared to men, they are just normal.  Women are quiet and subtle compared to men.  Although women are not quiet compared to women, they are just normal.  Women can hear men, only too well.  To women the men seem overbearing.  Men can not hear women unless they really listen.	01/26/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Men get turned on by visual stimulation.  Women get turned on by verbal and touch stimulation.	08/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Men: fight, hunt.  Woman: love, nurture.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Men: provider, protector.  Women: nurturer, care giver.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Natural men and women vs. artificial men and women (plastic, fashioned).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Percent of needy (adult) people in an society (1) getting any like/lust, (2) getting crappy, so so, good, or great like/lust.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Putting the issue of reproduction aside, I think that if the human race consisted only of men they would have destroyed themselves completely quite quickly, such is their violence.  It is the caring presence of women that keeps the human-race going, even without the actual physical birthing.  I can see a woman-centered civilization lasting a very long time.  Women and sustainability are a match.	2/25/2001

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Sex.  (1) Man.  Can provide.  Strong physically.  (2) Woman.  Emotionally sensitive.  Physically not as strong.  Has kids.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	The life experience of men and women.  What each sex values in selves, other sex, and life.  Pro and contra of hard, rough, violent, vs. soft, sensitive, and kind.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	They hoax of the alpha male and alpha female.  They want to be the big dogs.  The premise of the hoax is that some men and women are naturally physically and psychologically stronger and more resilient and have a need to compete and win.  There is a mistaken definition of alpha male or female as smart, driven, strong, aggressive and successful.  And they assume everyone else wants to be an alpha.  What a load of hog wash.  The alpha male and alpha female is a joke.  A ploy to try to justify hyper-competitiveness and bullying.  The fallacies involved include thinking that "because nature is like that humans should be like that too".  Its a mistake to think that "what's natural is what's ethical".  Its a mistake to think that "we have to behave like animals".  And its a fallacy to think that nature is always pure competition anyway.  There are many examples of animal cooperation and nurturing.  Alpha male and alpha female smacks of social darwinism and eugenics.  It smacks of the flawed "great man" theory of history that holds that only the "great" are important, or that the "great" are more important than others.  It makes the mistake of seeing money and occupational success as the sole or highest values.  Most progress in art, philosophy and science is made by cooperative, thoughtful individuals.	1/3/2004

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Two intersecting axis.  Vertical one labeled positive (healthy) and negative (unhealthy).  Horizontal one labeled traditional male traits and traditional female traits.  By trait I mean a psychological trait, a way of thinking, a behavioral trait, a philosophy of identity, or a view of the world.  The best zone to be in is across the top of the diagram.  The ideal is for any male or female to be able to adopt any trait, behavior, identity, or view of the world, that is healthy, regardless if it is seen as a traditionally masculine or feminine trait, and no one else (person or persons) gives them shit (stress) for it.  Such a condition is not called androgyny.  Androgyny is when everyone is the same, and they are all in the middle between masculine and feminine.  What we are talking about here is rather maximum freedom of choice for all individuals.	03/01/1997

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Where did man come from?  He walked out of the forest.  Where did woman come from?  She walked out of the department store.  (That is a tongue in chic remark).	9/26/2000

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Which mental states and behaviors an individual or society considers to be manly or unmanly, and womanly or unwomanly (and why) vs. what actual objective truth is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women and men in general have different values, goals, and priorities.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women are not as tough as men, they are more sensitive, their feelings are more easily hurt.  Men are more callous and insensitive, but women are just as vicious.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women try to get love without giving sex.  Men try to get sex without giving love.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women: caring, sharing, child bearing.  Men: staring, scareing, noseflaring.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women: form, beauty.  Men: function, action.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, men and women.	Women: tiny, soft, curvy; mysterious, inscrutable.  Men: big, hard, angular.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	.This section is about problems of sexuality.  Topics include: ( ) Pathological   ( ) Rejection.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	(1) Like: too emotional vs. not emotional enough.  (2) Lust: too horny vs. not horny enough.  Objectively vs. subjectively.  In eyes of either partner, or society.  Why.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	(1) Psychological health (see pathological psychology).  Sadism, masochism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, rape urges, fetishism, transvestia, transexualism.  (2) Physical health.  Stds.  Organic problems: premature ejaculation, retarded ejaculation, frigidity.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	(1) Sex obsession or sex addiction.  When does sex become excessive?  How often doing it.  How often thinking about it.  How much money spent on it.  How many important thoughts and activities put aside in order to pursue thinking or acting on sex.	1/1/2006

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	(1) Too horny vs. not horny enough.  (2) Too emotional (hot) vs. not emotional enough (cold). (3) Why are we forced to walk a tightrope in this life?  Different people perceive giving and receiving of different actions as all four of above.  What levels of above four is healthiest, for specific individual, for specific type, and in general?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	(1) Too much emotional dependence on wrong person (abusers, users, non-givers).  (2) Too little emotional dependence on healthy people.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	At what point does sex become pathological?  (1) Frequency.  (2) Reasons for doing it: horny, anxious.  (3) Fantasy while doing it: healthy or pathological.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Dependent and addictive vs. controlling and domineering vs. independence.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Disease.  How disease gets spread.  (1) People lie, (2) people get carried away, (3) people don't know about the diseases in general, or (4) they don't know that they have a disease.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Don't get caught in unhealthy relationship, or do unhealthy acts.  Dependent vs. domineering, demanding, controlling, pressuring.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Excess or lack, in frequency or types, of acts or quality of partners.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Four problems.  (1) Too much or too little sex (mind or behavior), (2) wrong types, (3) unhealthy sex attitudes, (4) pathological urges.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Getting hurt physically and emotionally, by crazy, stupid, unethical women, or to do same to them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Healthy and unhealthy relationships and acts.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Healthy sex vs. unhealthy, pathological sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	How frequent and bizarre are your thoughts?  How much can you control your behavior?  How much your like/lust mind and behavior helps or hurts your life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	If you are neurotic you can't always go on first instinct, feeling, or thought.  Mull it over.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Lack of sex is not healthy.  Hurtful sexual behavior is not healthy.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Living without sex, let alone without love, is degrading.  It is psychologically unhealthy too.  No one should have to live without sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Obstacles in relationships and odds of overcoming them.  (1) Physical: any diseases, especially incurables.  (2) No unwanted kids.  (3) No emotional damage: give or receive.  (4) Study and learn about it.  (5) Get enough (keep trying).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	One problem is that some people think sex is natural, healthy, good, physical exercise.  There should be something more to sex.  Even beyond a spark (of love) or spice (variety).  There should be something dangerous, menacing, and thus thrilling about sex.  Yet without sex being evil or hurtful.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex adds to stress, it does not relieve stress.	10/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex causes paranoia, guilt, and depression.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex is giving up the all American dream.  It is one thing to realize we may never reach it.  It is another thing to give up the pursuit of it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex is psychologically destructive, socially dangerous, illegal, and unethical to others.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex, and excessive sexual behavior and "minding" is not evil, it is just a waste of time.	07/27/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex, pro and contra.  (1) Are you expanding your partner and yourself, or are you corrupting your partner and yourself?  Are you safely experimenting and living out fantasies, or are you developing permanent bad habits?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex: types, and effects on head.  Healthy sex: types, and effects on head.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex.  (1) Bad social backlash, (2) it is habit forming, (3) ruins regular sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological sex.  After initial sub-optimal and pathological sex experimentation, life is too short to waste time on it, and not searching out ideal relationship.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  (1) At some point pathological sex hurts (psychic disintegration) more than it gives pleasure.  It is difficult to tell what point this is.  (2) Pathological sex is not as enjoyable as sub-optimal sex, which is not as enjoyable as healthy sex.	08/02/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  (1) Sex repression.  Telling yourself you don't want it.  Telling yourself it is not important.  (2) Sex frustration.  Not getting it though you want it.  (3) Both spell disaster.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  After you have thoroughly explored all the fetishes, then normal sex seems strange and alluring.	11/02/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  All sexual kinks (homosexuality, s&m, fetish, tv, etc) are a matter of taste.  There's nothing ethical about it.  There is no pathological sex.  As long is does not hurt anyone.	5/15/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Four levels of pathological sex dependency.  (1) Not being able to get hard, or (2) not being able to come, (3) without thinking of pathological ideas, or (4) without engaging in pathological acts.	11/27/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Guys get more kinks than girls because (1) They have stronger drives (more input), and (2) They can't cry (fewer outlets).	11/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Person A feels and thinks pathological urges more, and more often, than person B.  Person B acts on it, while person A does not.  Who is worse, A or B?  Who is ethically more evil?  Who is psychologically sicker?  Person B because they acted on it?  Person A because they felt it more?  What if A feels it more than B and does not act?  You could say he is in worse shape, even if he is repressing it.  They are both in sad shape.  What if B just does the action "for a laugh", or "for an experiment"; is such a thing possible?	11/10/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m is a subject that has been beaten almost to death by the media.	4/26/2001

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m is about psychological repression.  It is an expression of the need to remain in a psychologically repressed state.	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m is just a caricature of everyday relationship pathologies such as the possessive, controlling boyfriend (dominant) or the needy, clingy girlfriend (submissive).	4/6/1999

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m is the same as high school power games.  Seeing how much a woman can get a guy to do by using (1) Promise of sex, or threat of withdrawal of attention or sex; or (2) Actual reward and punishment.  It all depends on how desperate (alone), horny, stupid, spineless, and submissive the guy is, and how manipulative, clever, and machievellian the woman is.	11/02/1996

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  (1) How much control do they want to get or give up?  (2) How much control, submission, or independence do they both like?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  (1) Transvestia.  Fear of failure as a man.  (2) S&m.  (A) Guilt (for whatever unconscious acts) and punishment wish.  (B) Beaten as a kid.	08/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  (1)(A) Causes of submissiveness: learned helplessness.  (B) Causes of masochism: beaten as child and see pain as attention and love.  Or feeling guilty and seeking punishment.  (2)(A) Causes of dominants: power hungry, control freaks.  (B) Causes of sadism: anger and revenge.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  A conflict between superego (which says obey blindly), and id (which says never obey or be controlled).  Develop ego and reduce unconscious power of other two.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  A person may have submissive tendencies because they are repressing and overcompensating for unconscious dominant tendencies which are rooted in existential rage, existential freedom drive, strong id, and thanatos drive.	10/21/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Another S&M theory.  Masochism is anger (especially toward women), and sexual aggression turned inward?  Sadism is the same anger expressed outwardly?  The sadist and masochist are both suffering from the same thing, just showing it in different ways.	04/15/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Braces are a form of S&M.	02/28/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Dominant seeks to gain power.  Submissive seeks to give up power.  Both are unegalitarian, undemocratic.  Both are pathological.  Causes of both: (1) Biochemistry, hereditary.  (2) Early childhood raising.  (3) Experiences later in life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Everyday life.  How much of "normal", "healthy", and "holy" relationships is covertly (unconsciously or consciously) S&M?  Where one partner holds power, makes decisions, and other partner carries out the actions of the dominant's decisions, and gets punished (physically, verbally, or sexually) for mistakes.  A lot.	11/02/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Everyday life.  S&M phenomena in everyday life.  Women who like to control passive men.  Women who like to be controlled by strong men.  Men who like to control passive women.  Men who like to be controlled by strong women.  The healthy way is to be an equal couple.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Give up easily?  Easily discouraged?  You may be too submissive.  Just as some people are pathologically dominant and authoritarian, some people are just the opposite, pathologically submissive.  It is sado-masochism in a non-sexual form of expression.  Learned helplessness is another sign of this phenomena.	7/4/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Interesting aspects of s&m.  (1) Gender issues.  Gender bending, and role reversal.  (2) Political issues.  Power, and giving up power.  (3) Psychological issues.  Mind control.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Many people engage in mild forms of s&m.  Is it pathological if you resort to it at crucial moments with disastrous results?  Is it pathological if it interferes with healthy behavior?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Masochist: wants to feel pain (physical, psychological).  Submissive: wants to give up power (childish?).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  One group of participants and observers says it is ok, even healthy to engage in it and sell it.  Another group says it is a problem.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  One view of the cause of S&M.  The desire of a man to be sexually dominated is really the desire to have a mommy.  It is due to a condition where the man has not completely separated psychologically from the mother.  He still is attached to the mother.  He wants his mother.  It is a type of Oedipus complex.	4/28/1999

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  People into s&m.  Who are they, and why are they into it?  How conscious and unconscious are they of their tendencies?  How knowledgeable are they of the psychological and ethical implications of their actions?  How in vs. out of control are they?	4/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Reasons people get into s&m.  (1) Something new, different, and exciting.  (2) Joy of taboo breaking.  (3) Power kicks.  (4) Sick.  For both parties involved.	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  s&m sex acts between consenting adults is fine because it is a mock game.  It is not real.  It is consensual.  It is meant for enjoyment, not for hurt.  (2) The majority of truly sadistic acts in this world are non-sexual, between non-consenting adults, and are intentionally hurtful.	11/16/2003

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Sado-masochistic submission is about loyalty.  (1) Dog-like loyalty.  The same desire to be loyal that drives some people to become soldiers in the military.  (Followers?)  (2) It is child-like loyalty.  Child-like love.  The desire for protection.	5/15/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Several causes of submissiveness.  (1) Because a person is so "alpha-male" dominant.  They take a break to be submissive.  (2) Because one is so wild at heart.  Take a break.  To be civilized.  To be domesticated.  (3) Take a break to be a slave.  (4) To be owned like an object.  To be reduced to the object level.  Which means to take a break from being human or being a person.  (5) To be taken care of like a child.  Which means to take a break from being an adult.  (6) If anything, I veer toward the second.	7/30/2000

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submission.  Both the order obeying authoritarian personality (both militaristic and religious), and the sexually submissive or masochistic personality are actually reverting back to the role of the child obeying the parent.  This is neurotic.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissive says "I give up".  (1) They are giving up their freedom, and thus their responsibility.  (2) They are giving up on the existential struggle as well.  (3) It is a seductive, yet pathological state of affairs.  It is somewhat similar to when people "give in" to god (or The Good), or "give in or surrender" to love.  The problem is, sometimes it is good to give in to certain things, and other times it is bad to give in to certain things.  It is a control problem.  When to give up, keep, or take control?	01/23/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissive.  If masochism is due to (1) Low self esteem and (2) Childish giving up of power, then you should learn to think more highly of yourself and love and care for yourself.  Also, act like an adult.  Be responsible toward yourself and for your actions.  Do so even if you think most adults are phonies and if you trust no one over 30.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissive.  Masochism definitions.  Is it sadism turned inward (inverted)?  Or is it just horny begging?	08/21/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissive.  S&M is about (1) People who will do anything to get attention, love and sex.  (2) People who perceive only humiliation, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and neglect as being love, sexual love, and sex.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissive.  Six definitions.  (1) Submissive.  Not cowardly.  General submissiveness vs. sexual submissiveness.  Submissive to all, or just women, or just one woman?  If you are a sexual submissive by choice (lifestyle choice?) it means you can rebel against your submissiveness.  If you are submissive out of cowering fear, you are a spineless coward, and cannot rebel against your submissiveness.  Then you are submissive to any opposition, threat, or violence.  (2) Spineless.  No backbone.  Cowardly.  (3) Effeminate.  Acts like a girl in mind, speech, gestures and body language, and dress.  Effeminate does not necessarily imply queer or spineless or sexual submissiveness.  (4) Queer.  Homosexual top or bottom.  Macho or effeminate.  (5) Wimp.  Can mean either spineless or effeminate.  (6) Faggot can mean either effeminate or queer.	01/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Submissiveness (sexual and non-sexual) can be looked at as weak (low ethics), sick, and evil.  All three are dangerous.	9/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  The dominant, in effect, brainwashes the submissive.	07/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  The id wants to control (top).  The superego gives in to control (bottom).  If sex results in egolessness (the often stated desired goal state of sex is to forget yourself) then all that's left is an id and a superego (i.e., a top and bottom) sparing with each other.  Thus, it would seem that S&M is inevitable.  It is surprising more people are not into S&M.  It is surprising that S&M is not more socially acceptable.	4/1/2000

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  The key to the duality of S&M is that sometimes the bottom says to the top, "Dominate me, slave".	08/17/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  The type of male submissiveness that women enjoy.  Covert and unconscious on both people's parts.  Not explicit.  Having someone under their spell, in love with them.  Devotion, not obsession.  Being in control.  Teasing.  Having a boy toy that they can jerk around.	11/14/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Views of S&M.  (1) Familial: The dominant as parent, the submissive as child.  (2) Military: The submissive wants to obey orders and serve like in the army.  (3) Religious: The submissive wants to worship, like worshipping a goddess.	01/06/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  What causes guys to go for it?  What cause girls to go for it?  As dominant or as submissive.  Aren't power struggles present in all relationships?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  s&m.  Why are men more sexually sadistic than women?  Four possible explanations: sex, power, violence and lack of caring.  (1) Sex.  Men are biologically more horny than women (although this is debatable).  If men are hornier than women, then in general there would tend to be more men sexual sadists than women sexual sadists.  (2) Power.  Men seek power and dominance more than women.  This is a biologically evolved trait.  Sadism can be looked at as a power phenomenon.  Men are more sadistic because they are more power hungry.  (3) Violence.  Men are more violent than women.  Men biologically evolved this way through years of hunting and fighting in wars.  Sadism can be looked at as a violence phenomenon.  Men are more sadistic than women because men are more violent than women.  (4) Lack of caring.  Women are more caring and empathetic than men.  Women biologically evolved this way through years of being mothers and raising children.  Sexual sadism can be viewed as a phenomenon of lack of caring and lack of empathy.  Men are more sadistic than women because they do not have as much caring and empathy as women.	8/6/1999

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Sex addiction.  (1) When is it a problem?  Wrong behavior, wrong time.  Too much/too little, out of control.  Interfering with goals.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Sex addiction.  Causes.  (1) They crave love and attention.  (2) They crave mental excitement.  (3) They crave physical pleasure.	5/15/1998

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  The big question: Is pathological sex better than no sex?  And is indulging in fetishes better than never getting healthy sex?  No.  And if you spend your time, and drive on pathological sex, you reduce your chances for healthy cool women, healthy relationships, and healthy sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  The question is not only (1) Is all pathological sex ethically right or wrong?  (2) And should pathological sex be treated equally under the law, with equal rights?  The question is also (1) Why do people get off on pathological sex?  And why do they get off on pathological sex more than they get off on regular sex?	09/20/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  tv.  Transvestism, causes of.  (1) Afraid of failing as man, economically, emotionally, sexually.  (2) Want to explore feminine side.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  tv.  Transvestism: two reasons pro.  (1) Experience and know how women feel.  Similar example, a recent show sends out the same person on the same job interview, once normally dressed, once dressed in "fat suit", to see how the overweight are discriminated against unjustly.  (2) It is a taboo that needs breaking.	09/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  tv.  Transvestitism types.  (1) Rebellion.  (2) Androgynousness.  (3) Aesthetic sensuality of fine fabrics, light colors.  (4) As dissatisfaction with own sexuality.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Warped, twisted, kinky, perverted.	04/23/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  When you engage in any type of fetish or pathological sex, you have essentially given up hope for real love and real sex.	06/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Pathological.  Why do you have pathological fantasies and engage in pathological behavior?  Because you feel hopeless, despair, useless, worthless, depressed, anxious, nervous, or otherwise bad or negative about yourself or the world.  Low self esteem, lack of confidence, no faith in self or in humanity.  Also, bored, lazy, horny, obsessed, addicted, tunnel vision, one track mind, narrow minded, poor ethical self discipline, break down of reason under desire, no imagination of the good you could do, no vision, not able to say "I don't know what, but I will do something good, worthwhile, useful".	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problem approach: problem, symptoms, causes, courses, epidemiology, therapies.  Ideal state approach.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems types: physical, psychological, sociological, and environmental.  Therefore, chances of a good like/lust complex is very rare, and for it to continue through time is even rarer.  Great like lust is just not that common.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems with either an excess or lack of either sex or love.  Four combinations are possible.  (1) Excess sex.  (2) Lack of sex.  Two types.  (A) Frigid, sexually repressed.  (B) Unable to obtain sex.  (3) Excess love.  Is there such a thing as either loving someone too much, or being loved too much?  Loving someone too much can lead to a clingy dependency.  Loving someone too much can lead to obsession and stalking.  (4) Lack of love.  (A) Problems establishing intimacy with another person.  (B) Problems with social bonding in general.	1/1/2006

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems with sex.  (1) People who preach that sex is dirty or unnatural.  (2) People who sexually abuse others.  (3) Sexually transmitted diseases.  (4) Unwanted pregnancy.  (5) Fundamentalists who want to make sex between consenting adults illegal, or who want to limit sexual freedom between consenting adults.  (6)  People intent on prying into your sex life in order to harass you.  People who want to invade your privacy.  People who want to publicize your sex life.	10/27/2003

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems with sex.  People who think the human body is dirty, obscene, disgusting or evil.  People who think nudity is dirty, obscene, disgusting or evil.  People who think sex is dirty, obscene, disgusting or evil.  People who think specific types of sex between consenting adults is dirty, obscene, disgusting or evil.  These people can be a problem if they want to legislate against all others, or even if they just want to harass you, beat you up or kill you.	12/27/2003

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems.  (1) Emotional dependency and addiction.  (2) Sexual dependency and addiction.  (3) Psychology.  (A) No drive.  (B) Repression (of mind, communication, and action).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Problems.  Too excited or not excited enough, mentally or physically.  Solutions?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Prudery or frigidity vs. nymphomania.	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rape.  Acquaintance rape.  Date rape.  Stranger rape.	12/10/2004

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejecting those who love us vs. loving those who reject us.  Getting hot over cool situations vs. being cool about hot situations.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection is less painful when you attack and defend perfectly.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection is painful.  It becomes less painful with repetition.  You see that you shouldn't take it so hard.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection means nothing if you gave it your best shot.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection, how to handle it.  Protect and defend self.  Don't promote it in her.  Don't do it to her prematurely.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection, splitting.  Whether it works out or not, split up on good terms, act like adults.  But don't take any shit whatsoever, give back any flak they give you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  (1) Dumper.  Do it slowly and easily.  Always make an excuse that it wasn't the dumpee, just you or your circumstances.  (2) Dumpee.  Don't go down easy, fight.  Let the dumper know you are better than they are, and better than any partner they'll ever have or even meet.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  Have a ruthless attitude when rejected.  Always as ruthless as the rejector is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  How friendly to be: only as friendly as they are.  How unfriendly to be: as unfriendly as they are.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  Hurts worse when (1) They reject you without knowing who you are.  (2) They reject you because they think you are something else.  (3) They reject you when you are better than them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  They reject on the basis of (1) Looks (face or body).  (2) Money, status, job, possessions.  (3) Personality, lifestyle, values.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  When it comes to convincing someone not to dump you, give it your best shot, then say "her loss".	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  When relationship is over, end it quickly and completely.  Don't let it drag on unresolved.  Complete understanding on both parts.  Ask her what she thinks, tell her what you think.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  Who dumps who, after how long, after getting how much, and how do they dump?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Rejection.  Would we have been good together?  Is the rejecter making a mistake?  Who is better than who?  Is the rejecter rejecting their better?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Sex drive must be expressed in order to be healthy.  Repressing sex drive leads to pathological psychology.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Sex excitement and sex need can so easily cloud the reasoning and distract the mind.  It takes effort to not let it do so, especially without repressing sex thoughts all together.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Sex problems.  (1) Too little: partners, frequency, or positions.  (2) Too much: orgasms, mind and behavior (resources wasted on it), too much importance and value place on it.	04/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Sexual repression and sexual frustration spell disaster.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Sexual repression.  (1) Sexual repression on an individual level.  For example, some individuals are sexually repressed.  (2) Sexual repression on a cultural level.  For example, the United States, as a culture, is sexually repressed.	5/15/2004

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Three nightmares.  (1) Lose girl of your dreams to another.  (2) Girl of dreams turns out to be a witch.  (3) You never meet the girl of your dreams.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Three problems: (1) Unwanted babies.  (2) Sexually transmitted disease.  (3) Sexually caused psychological damage (broken hearts).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Total adoration (clingy) vs. never showing love (distanced).	06/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality, problems.	Uptight, repressed, puritanical types who want to condemn, abuse or kill people for their sexual orientation.  Who want to limit what consenting adults can do sexually.	11/2/2003

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	.This section is about psychology of sexuality.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	(1) Causes of like/lust: horniness, loneliness, boredom, miserable.  (2) Psychological states that like/lust leads you into: horny, excited, loss of reason and control, addictive behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	(1) The knowledgeable and ignorant about love and sex.  (2) The experienced and naive about love and sex.  (3) They are two different things.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Aesthetic tastes in men and women, in general, specific types, and specific individuals.  Personality tastes in men and women, in general, specific types, and specific individuals.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Affects of any mental element on sex behavior.  Affects of any sex behavior on any mental element.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Arousal theory.  (1) What sexually excites people?  What gets people horny?  In general, for specific types, and for specific individuals?  How horny, how often, and why?  (A) Internal stimulation: mental.  (B) External stimulation: sights.  (C) Physical stimulation: rubbing etc.  (2) What turns people off?  How fast, and how much?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Attraction: turn ons vs. turn offs.  How tastes develop.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Be rational and be emotional, but avoid excess or lack of either.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Desperation, deprivation, satiation, and excess.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Emotion and drive.  %like vs. %hate vs. %lust vs. %unattracted.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Emotion and like/lust.  Thought and like/lust.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Illusions about opposite sex in general, a specific opposite sex member.  Illusions about sex relationships in general, and specific relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	It is best to be rational about your emotions, tough but best.  Don't repress emotions, acknowledge them and be rational.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Psychological aspects of sex.  For all mental elements: drive, memory, emotion, thought, attitude, personality.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Psychological stimuli, arousal, and  excitation.  How does physical excitation and arousal build up, mentally and physically.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Psychology and behavior.  (1) Drive: high, low.  (2) Expression: much, little.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Stimuli.  (1) Natural stimuli: hormones, uncontrolled thoughts.  (2) Manmade stimuli: (A) Self induced: reading porn, playing with self.  (B) Other induced: teasing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Stimulus leads to excitation, which leads to behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Three relationships: (1) Like - like.  (2) Like - dislike.  (3) Dislike - dislike.  How much, total and subareas, why.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, psychological.	Your and her philosophical views on sex and other things (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	.This section is about interpersonal relationships involving sexuality.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	"Promise me this.  Promise me that.", she said.  Baby, I don't like promises.  A promise is a contract.  I don't conduct my personal relations based on business contracts.  I don't stay with a person based on contractual obligation.  If I stay with a lover it is because I love her.  If I stay with a lover it is because my positive attitudes toward her outweighs my negative attitudes toward her.  Or perhaps I feel some sort of moral obligation toward her.  However, I won't stay with her based on a business contract, which is what a promise is.	7/7/2000

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	(1) How much can I and she feel and understand?  (2) How close can I and she get to anyone, her, me?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	A relationship is like a time bomb.  It is only a matter of time before it blows up in your face.	12/11/1998

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	All relationships are oppositional.  Get what you want, don't get hurt, fight hard and smart.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	At all times people are either coming together or moving apart.  It is all speed, velocity, acceleration, and duration, in order to adjust distance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Being friends without being lovers.  Being lovers without being friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Break ups, types of.  Amicable break ups.  Break ups with sadness.  Break ups with anger.	3/7/2004

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Closeness and distance.  (1) Sometimes I feel distant due to my need for privacy, my boredom with her, my neurosis, my anger, my drive for independence.  (2) Sometimes I feel close to her due to my need for people, women, her, sex.  Sociability, amiability and calmness due to decreased anger and neurosis.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Communication.  What ask, and not, when, why?  What say, and not, when, why?  What do, and not, where, when, why?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Compatibility.  (1) Sexual: great in bed together.  (2) Social: can be seen in public together.  (3) Psychology: get along with each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Competitiveness between lovers in a relationship.  (1) Struggle for dominance.  (2) Struggle to prove who is better.  (3) Competition should always exist at a low friendly level in a relationship.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Compromises: degree will and won't change given any ultimatum.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Each person in relationship should ask self and other person, (1) Who are you?  (2) What kind of person are you looking for?  (3) What kind of relationship are you looking for?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Each person should maintain their identity and individuality.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Girls as friends not lovers.  I'm not looking for friends, I'm looking for lovers.  Friends is a b.s. concept, they use it to gain power, they use it out of fear, fear of rejecting.  Girls just want to have friends.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	How close will you get, for how long?  How close should you get?  How much will you dislike them?  How much time to spend with her vs. other goals?  How much can you expect to understand each other?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	How much you add to your partner.  How much your partner adds to you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	How well can two people know each other?  What can two people say to each other?  What is there to talk about really?  What is there to do?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	How well can you and should you know someone?  How truly friendly can and should we be?  How much time to spend together?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	In a relationship, who is more loved?  Who is power holder?  Who is dominant?  Who is initiator?  All four are not the same.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	It is not how many things you have in common, it is how few things you can't stand about each other.  If there is one thing that bothers the hell out of you, it can break a relationship.  If nothing is intolerable, even people with nothing in common can get along.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Non-sexual relationships of sexes.  (1) Competition for lovers against same sex.  (2) Standards of opposite sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Nothing will straighten out your head like a good relationship with a good woman.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Percent a relationship is unconsciously or consciously sexual.  In either persons mind.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Perceptions yield actions, which yield perceptions etc.  (1) I like her, she likes me.  Life and growth spiral.  Magnetic attraction.  (2) I dislike her, she dislikes me.  Death spiral.  Magnetic repulsion.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Power aspects of like/lust.  Like all relationships there is a power element to it.  Equality vs. dominance and submission, control.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Predictability, old reliable.  Some like the stability, others find it boring.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Relationship distance.  Not being too close vs. not being too far apart.  Be close but still be independent, not dependent.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Relationships are for learning.  Who was she?  What did I figure out while knowing her, about her, about myself, about like/lust, about women, about life?  What did I figure out after, due to knowing her?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Reveal vs. keep secrets.  Honest vs. lies.  Open vs. private.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Roles in relationships: healthy and pathological.  Sexer, lover, nurturer, confident, catharsis.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Social aspects of like/lust relationships.  Power, conflict, exchanges, respect, trust, admiration.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Social similarities and differences.  Similar direction, and similar level of development, promotes like.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	The quickie relationship, spur of moment, one night stand vs. the long, getting to know you relationship.  For sex or for friendship.  All are necessary and good.  Second is better, but try for all four.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	The relationship: treating it too seriously vs. too lightly.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Three attitudes toward relationships.  (1) Looking for someone to save you.  This is not optimal because it leads to total dependence.  (2) Looking to save someone.  This is not optimal because  it leads to dictatorship.  (3) Looking for a partner, a fellow independent (economically, emotionally, socially, sexually, philosophically).  This is optimal.	4/17/2001

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Traits of good relationship: communication, honesty, trust, respect.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Types of compatibility: psychological, physical, social status, and economic.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Types.  Inter-age, inter-class, and inter-race romances.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Variables.  Powerholder and not.  Dominant and submissive.  Male and female.  Aggressor and recipient.  Initiator and follower.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	What brings people together?  Availability, sexual compatibility, social compatibility.  Much more than interests or attitudes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	What he wants from relationship: priorities and amounts.  What she wants from relationship: priorities and amounts.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	What it takes to get together:  You have to meet.  And have similar economic status, looks, personality, views, intelligence, values, and compatible bodies (physical types, sex diseases).  It is a wonder we get together at all.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, relationships.	Wild and passionate vs. stable and boring, sex and relationships.  Short relationships vs. long relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	.This section is about sex.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	(1) Arguments for sex.  It makes you old fast.  Which is good when you are young and need to mature quickly in intelligence and experiential knowledge.     (2) Arguments against sex.  It makes you old fast.  Which is bad when you already have the knowledge, and the sex just wears you out physically and mentally over short and long term.	3/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Behavior.  Frequency of smooching, of climax, of talking, of being around each other.  Too much vs. too little.  Optimal frequency: no more than x, no less than y.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Behavior.  Heterosexual vs. homosexual.  Quick sex vs.long sex.  Hard sex vs. soft sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Behavior.  Types of sexual expression: (1) Homosexual, heterosexual, and auto-erotic.  (2) Sixty nine, doggie style, missionary, mutual masturbation.  (3) Lying, sitting, standing.  (4) Kissing, hugging, stroking, caressing, massaging.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Behavioral, action, and expression aspects of sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Can you be healthy without a good sex life?  Can you be complete without a good sex life?  Can you be human without a good sex life?  Thinking on it, and doing it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Even just thinking about sex can be addictive, leading you to think about it more, and act on it, leaving you depressed when you don't have it (withdrawal).  The only solution is to (1) Explore it in theory, figure out all the questions and answers, feel all the emotions.  (2) Explore it in practice, and do all the things.  (3) Then basically drop it, and work off of love only, without sex.  It is like drugs, do it all, figure it all out, and then drop it.	10/05/1994

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	I'm sick of sex or I'm sick from sex?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical and biological aspects of sex.  Hormones, drives, gender.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Hormones.  (1) Estrogen.  More body fat.  More crying.  (2) Testosterone.  Less body fat.  More combative.  Less crying.	9/24/1998

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  How do you know if you are horny and hard from (1) lust, (2) love, (3) stress, (4) pathological sex, or (5) just have to piss?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Love: it is a warm glow, a buzz that starts in the thighs and spreads all over your entire body when you relax.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Orgasm is the place of strong emotion.  Everyday life is the search for orgasm.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Orgasm, is it electroschock?  Electrical buildup by friction, then discharge?  Does it destroy memory?  Does it change personality slightly?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Orgasm.  Every orgasm equals (1) One days physical work gone.  (2) One days mental work gone.  (A) New ideas, memories, learning and studying postponed.  (B) Emotional development and social development postponed.  (3) One day goals not gotten and not thought of.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  Orgasm.  Why does orgasm feel so good?  What's going on when we orgasm?  What does it do to your mind?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Physical.  When you neuter a male dog, how does it affect the dog?  Does the dog become feminized?  Does the dog become less horny?  Does the dog become less aggressive?  Does the dog become less creative?  Does the dog become homosexual?	4/23/1999

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Safe sex is the kinkiest type of sex, with its condoms, rubber gloves, dental dams, and no kissing.	02/09/1997

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex can be the ultimate form of communication.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex can heal or sex can destroy, it is up to you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is a commodity.  All sex relationships are business arrangements.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is a problem: we want it bad, but it is not right there for us, like breathing and the air is.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is a temporary power, use it wisely.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is like a pressure that builds up and must be let off.  Not really.	03/26/1994

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is not about body parts or chromosomes.  Sex is about fu*king and getting fu*ked.  Both sexes should be allowed to do both.  It is a power game, a head game, too.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is often a copout like drugs.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex is pleasurable but ultimately boring and also a waste of time.  Do Progressive activism.	6/12/2007	*

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex: what everyone thinks about, yet what no one talks about.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Sex.  (1) The less you do it, the better it feels.  Up to what point?  A week, no more.  (2) The more you do it, the worse it feels.  Up to what point?  No limit.	01/08/1994

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	The conservative's old definition of sex: sex is a means to procreate only.  The conservative's new definition of sex: sex is a means to blackmail your enemies only.	9/25/2003

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Two types of lovemaking and guys and girls who prefer either:  (1) Rough, urgent, quick.  (2) Soft, slow, tender.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Two types of sex.  (1) Casual.  Neither partner exchanges any fluids.  Safe and fun.  (2) Serious.  Both partners exchange all fluids (including blood).  Emotionally deep, unsafe, and earth shaking.	02/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	We are sexual from birth to death.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	What is sex like?  Some people say sex is like eating a peach.  Not really.  Some people say sex is like sneezing.  Not really.  I say sex is like sneezing while you are eating a peach.  Yeah, that's it.	6/30/2004

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	What percent of the benefits of sex are due to touching?  What percent of the benefits of sex are due to intercourse?  What percent of the benefits of sex are due to orgasm?	11/10/2001

Sociology, sexuality, sex.	Who doesn't deserve tons of great sex on demand?  Most don't get it.  Many never get any good sex at all.  No one deserves this deprivation.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	.This section is about techniques for meeting that special someone in your lifetime.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	(1) Get and keep them in the mood by total communication complex.  Words, voice (pitch, timbre, volume).  Gesture, posture, movement, body shape and tone.  Clothes, personal space, touch, touches, gifts.  (2) It should say: I like you, you should like me.  You can trust me, I trust you (even if you don't).  I think your sexy, desirable, I want and need you.  I'm paying attention to you.  I'm good in bed, in public, at job, at home.  I'm funny, cool, sexy.  I'm not a jerk, wimp, or bastard.  (3) Factors: intensity and frequency a message is unconsciously or consciously sent or perceived.  (4) Scooping - it is all public relations, rhetoric, propaganda, advertising.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	A writer needs the experiential knowledge of like/lust.  Tell her you are a writer and need sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	All love affairs start with a small act of bravery.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Always be looking for something better.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Approaches.  Different women require different approaches.  Some want it slow or fast.  Some want pace controlled by them or you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Approaches.  Each woman has a distinct personality, value system, and needs.  Each woman has a best approach.  Types of approaches: Mr. stable, Mr. freewheeling, Mr. intellectual, Mr. hardbody, Mr. sensitive, Mr. big ape, Mr. romantic.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	As much as I like warming up my car on winter mornings, that's how much I like getting women in the mood.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Avoid pathological chiks like the plague.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Be careful in love, go slow.  It is easy to burn yourself (flip your own head) or be burned by someone.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Best and worst moves for women in general, and for specific women.  One move can blow it.  Esp. for hyper-critical, un-understanding women.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Body language.  The double take, the smile, the stare, the touch, the look up and down, the shift, the turn, the lean, the move in closer, the open up arms and/or legs.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Communication: complete, direct, clear, important.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Do best you can, with all you got, all the time.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Don't be a jerk (abuser).  Don't be a fool (abused).  Flirting is allowed.  Flirting keeps you in social conversation practice.  Flirting helps you network.	07/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Don't change your core self to please her.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Don't get jerked around, don't get abused.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Don't let fear of getting hurt prevent you from looking.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Don't pass up any chances.  And go out and create more chances.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Dying of thirst by the well.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Each person has a most effective natural style, based on physical body (and voice), and personality.  Chicks are attracted to your natural style.  Tweak, enhance, and emphasize your natural style with haircut, clothes, etc.	4/7/1998

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Every woman I meet I learn more about myself, women, people, life, and that specific woman.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Every woman is unique, every situation is unique.  Every chance is unique: don't blow it, give it all you got.  You never know who you will meet.  You never know if the one you meet is the love of your life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Figure her out quick.  Figure out who she is and not and why.  Figure out what's going to work for her and not and why.  Figure out what she's looking for and not and why.  Get laid.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Find a woman as attracted to you as you are to her.  All else is garbage.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Finding a girl is like finding a job.  It can take six months to a year, and at least 100 "interviews" (hitting on women).  Dress nice and act friendly.	04/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Finding any woman, let alone the best woman for like/lust, takes considerable resources (time, money, energy, etc.).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Finding your muse vs. finding your house frau.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Flirting.  (1) Scope crowd, scope her, size her up.  (2) Keep cool, calm, relaxed, confident.  (3) Eye contact, smile, friendly touch, body contact.  (4) Hang in there, be driven, chat her up, talk about her.  (5) Show your best side first, not worst side.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Get any girl, for any period of time, for any relationship (friend, fu*k buddy, like/luster).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Get everything settled between you every time.  So you won't feel unsettled.  So you can do your work.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Get goals, and protect yourself.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Get laid early and often.  Date a lot of different women.	7/4/2002

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	How much are you willing to compromise in order to get how much?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	How much b.s. to take.  None.  Ever.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	If they say they like you, or show they like you, don't spurn them.  Even if you don't like them, don't spurn them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	It is like the lotto, one in a million.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Lines in any situation, with any woman.  (1) Opening lines: best, worst.  (2) Types of lines: compliment, inquire, reveal, proposition.  Truth, lies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Madison Avenue marketing plan pickup line: Ladies, when was the last time you had a really good orgasm?	9/4/2000

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Make all the right moves, keep the good vibrations flowing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Never give away your soul, heart, will, power, or dignity, so you don't have to do something nasty to get it back.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Never give your soul away totally, keep your self respect.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Opportunities: create more opportunities, maximize each opportunity.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Physical: body, face, clothes.  Psychological: psych up, psych in.  Social: lines, moves.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Picking up a woman is like sales, public relations image, and a show biz performance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Picking up women.  The six reciprocal steps of flirting.  You look, and they look back.  You smile, and they smile back.  You wave, and they wave back.  You talk, and they talk back.  You touch, and they touch back.  You fu*k, and they fu*k back.	12/26/1997

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Preparation.  You can meet your dream girl, the love of your life, anytime anywhere.  Be prepared mentally and physically.	12/01/1993

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Reject no available woman, for any possible action, for any reason.  Pursue any available woman, for any gain, for any reason.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Scooping, courting: (1) Everyone has values (arranged in hierarchies) and standards (for each value), and goals (derived from above two).  How do above three develop (biological, psychological, social, and situation factors).  How close two peoples value systems are.  (2) When two people meet they begin forming views of who the other person is and how the other person fits into their own value/standard/goal system.  If they like you as you are, good.  If you can't make them like you without lying significantly to them, or without lying significantly to yourself, or without changing yourself significantly, or without compromising your value system significantly, then you are sunk.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Scooping, pairing, courting.  (1) Person A perception of whether person B is above or below them.  What person A values as above or below.  (2) Person B perception of whether person A is above or below them.  What person B values as above or below.  (3) The range person A and person B will accept (how much above or below).  They usually take anything above, and nothing below.  (4) What the actual situation is.  What really is above or below.  What each individual really is in relationship to other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Scooping: move slow, talk slow, talk low.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Scope out the joint: analyze and prioritize.  Hit on them: use wit, use warmth, be positive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Shotgun approach.  Hit on more than one girl at a time.  It is healthy, and necessary in order to beat the low odds.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Some times it just falls in your lap.  Some times it takes hard work.  Be prepared at any moment, look good, go for it attitude, be in scooping practice.  Get out there and mix it up.  Study like/lust, yourself, and your partner carefully.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk, lines.  Pick up line for waitress.  "How about a date?  Well then, how about an apricot?"  (or "I mean, do you have any dates?").	04/24/1997

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk.  Conversation: light, funny, sexually aggressive.  Show your sensitivity, dazzle them with your intelligence.  Inquisitive, propositioning.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk.  Lines.  My favorite pick up line: Now or never, you and me, yes or no?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk.  Trying out lines is like comedy.  Funny vs. serious.  Nervous vs. calm.  Braggart vs. modest.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk.  What did I have when I was drunk that let me score so much?  A smile?  Relaxed?  Coming on strong?  They were drunk too?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Talk.  What to tell her vs. what not to tell her.  What to ask her vs. what not to ask her.  Anything?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	The mood, the vibe.  (1) Be aware of the mood, the vibe.  (2) Creating and sustaining the mood, the vibe.  (3) Not destroying the mood, the vibe.  (4) Total mood equals: her mood (in general, to you in general, and to you in the specific situation), plus your mood (in general, to her in general, to her in the specific situation).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	The personal ads are like a lottery.  That caller's message and phone number gives you the high of (1) Knowing someone is interested in you, or likes you.  (2) They may be the perfect person for you.  (3) Both chances are a million to one that your ticket is a winner.  It is a gamblers high.  The high of expectation.	06/17/1994

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	There's a line where people will say concerning the other either "Yes, you're ok.", or "No, stay away."	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Think out every move in advance, practice the moves, study the moves, and stay in practice.  Make it look effortless and thoughtlessly spontaneous, be seamless, consistent, and keep your story straight.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Three cases.  (1) Person A likes person B, and B likes A.  (2) A likes B, and B dislikes A.  (3) A dislikes B, and B dislikes A.  (4) How, how much, and why?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Treat women as people, friends, and sex partners.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Treat women like anyone.  Take no abuse, get instant complete catharsis from source.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Two types of seduction, and two types of communication: soft-sell and hard-sell.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Type and level or league.  (1) Not my type. Based on physical attracttion or repulsion to any social group (liberal vs. conservative etc.).  (2) Not my level.  Based on whether above or below me (for whatever reason).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Various approaches guys take to attract the opposite sex.  (1) Sensitive, intelligent, artistic, fragile guy vs. (2) Strong, big, healthy, energetic, lug.  (3) Rebel, decadent vs. dependable, straight laced, sober.  (4) Pick the type that you fit into best.  Then play up all the traits of that type (talk, haircut, clothes, etc.).  Play each role to the hilt.  Send clear communication signals to the girl of the type you are.  Because each girl has a type they go for, an ideal picture in their mind that they fall for.  Go after the girls most likely to fall for your type.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	Ways to get sex: force, demand, plead, seduce (seduce works best).	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	What to talk about.  Brag about your accomplishments.  Compliment her and show her attention.  Talk about sex - in general, and for you and her.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	When to give in, get swept away, zombie eyed, hypnotized vs. when to stay sharp, snake eyed, conscious.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	With women, a soft, slow, low voice and smiles works best, not high fast loud frowns.	10/25/1993

Sociology, sexuality, techs.	You only have time for a few hits on women.  Only a few pan out to any degree.  Make each attempt a good one.  Give it your all, make it perfect.  It is a memory you'll replay forever.  Look them in the eye, use your voice, and body.  Be expressive, and receptive.  Pick up their vibes, push on ahead, scoop them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	.This section is about various other thoughts on sexuality.  Topics include: ( ) Androgeny.  ( ) Cheating.  Monogamy.  Polyamory.  ( ) Fantasy.  ( ) Homosexuality.  Bisexuality.  ( ) Pornography.  ( ) Prostitution.	1/24/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Friendship and love are the same thing.  If you are true friends with someone then you love them.  This is why men and women have trouble being just friends.  (2) Sexuality is a fact of life and exists whether you are friends or enemies with a person.  You can be horny for a person you dislike.  Unfortunately.	6/19/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Love: the psychological emotion.  (2) Sex: the physical behavior act.  (3) Love life vs. sex life.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Sex.  (A) Pro.  Sex is necessary for a true close relationship.  (B) Contra.  Sex is a necessary evil.  Sex is a waste of time and energy.  Sex causes crimes, disease and babies.  (2) Love.  (A) Pro.  Love is great.  (B) Contra.  Love is ok.  Love sucks (painful).	02/07/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Sexual intercourse and orgasm is a trick to get you to reproduce and keep the species alive.  (2) Love is a psychological trick to keep you happy, to keep you as an individual alive.	6/28/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Some people like the feeling of physical relationships, regardless of their partner.  These people are people are addicted to the physical pleasure of sex.  (2) Other people like the feeling of emotional love, regardless of who is their partner.  These people are addicted to the emotional pleasure of being in love.	4/26/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) To have a chick be crazy about you.  To have a chick shower you with love and affection.  To have her attention.  To have her smile and eyes.  To have her hugs and kisses.  That is awesome.  Chicks are so cool.  (2) The counter argument is that chicks, people in general, use up a lot of time and energy, and give little in return.	7/10/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) What does she want from me?  Attention.  Affection.  Appreciation.  Money?  Ring?  Baby?  House?  Car?  Sex?  Control?  Trophy?  (2) What do I want from her?  Sex.  Beauty.  Conversation.  Non-interference.	4/7/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) When couples go out with other couples, it is pure competition.  See through the veneer of friendliness.  It is never fun, it is always, "lets see who is better off than who".  (2) With man and wife it is always a power struggle also, never fun.  Who can get who to do what, and how much.  Even goody two shoes, if pushed to a corner, will fight tooth and nail.	08/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	(1) Why does sex feel good physically?  (A) What is the physiology of orgasm?  (B) What is the purpose in sex being physically pleasurable?  To increase reproduction?  (2) Why does sex feel good emotionally?  (A) What is the psychology of sex?  (B) What is the purpose of love?	10/27/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	1000 girls meet.  100 like as friend.  10 romantic about.  1 get to fu*k.  .01 percent are love of life.	12/06/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	A kiss is a lip hug, sensitive and concentrated.	02/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	After good sex you will feel like an amoebae in space.  Total relaxation and total unawareness of self and environment.  To paraphrase Audrey.	03/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Americans are both sex obsessed and sexual prudes.  Hung up and uptight.  Europeans in general are less obsessed and less prudish about sex.  Sex is more natural and beautiful to Europeans, which is a healthier attitude.  Americans think sex is dirty, and should be hidden, which is a bad attitude.  Sex should be open for public discussion.	9/26/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Androgyny essay.  Androgyny is a phenomenon with many facets.  (1) Hormones and androgyny.  Hormones have an effect on the development of both mind and body.  Yet hormones are secreted in varying amounts from person to person, producing a spectrum of results.  It causes people with similarities to the opposite sex in both body shape and personality.  We have all met manly-women and womanly-men.  (2) Old age and androgyny.  In old age men secrete less testosterone and women secrete less estrogen.  The result is that in old age men and women begin to resemble each other.  (3) Childhood and androgyny.  Hormone levels rise during adolescence.  Before adolescence, during childhood, boys and girls resemble each other.  (5) Bisexuality and androgyny. Bisexuality is a separate phenomenon from androgyny.  Bisexuality is a sexual behavior.  Most androgyny is less sexually based and behaviorally based (ex. old age and childhood) and more based on physical body type and mental psychology.	3/24/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Androgyny, today on the Orpha show.  (Orpha speaking to audience)  Audience, when you are in a restaurant, and you see an androgynous couple seated next to you, does it bother you?  (Audience grumbles).  When you see the man run his disconcertingly slender fingers across the woman's disconcertingly athletic arms, how does it make you feel?  (Audience yells, whistles, etc.)  Today on Orpha, we will explore the unsettling, yet strangely compelling, and completely legal topic of "Mannish Women and the Feminine Men Who Love Them".  (Audience cheers).	8/13/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Androgyny, two types of. (1) Combining the worst traits of man and the worst traits of women in a single individual.  (2) Combining the best traits of men and the best traits of women in a single individual.	1/24/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	Androgyny.  The sexual ideal is in the center.  Tom-girl and Jane-boy.  The problem is that people think the sexual ideal is at the extremes (macho-man and fem-woman), not the center.  One has to consider above categories in terms of mind set, as well as physical appearance.	04/24/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Arguments against love-sex.  (1) Love-sex is a waste of time and energy.  Maintaining a relationship with a lover is only slightly less time consuming than raising kids.  (2) Love-sex has a tendency to make people emotional wrecks, if not drive people crazy.  (3) Disease is rampant.  (4) Unwanted pregnancy.	6/6/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Audrey and me making love in middle of night, both half awake in a dream state, and both thinking we are with another person.  Is this love?	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Before.  How can she be so beautiful?  How can she be so smart?  How can I meet her?  What will I say to her?  Here I go.  A conversation ensues.  Afterwords.  How can she be so shallow?  How can she be so unappealing?  What was I thinking?  How do two people fall in love with each other anyway?  It must be two very calm and amiable people who fell in love.  Find those two lovers and study them in a lab until their secrets are uncovered.	1/12/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Being or having an inexperienced vs. experienced lover.	05/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Bored with love and sex.  (1) When do you become bored with sex?  (A) When you cease to learn from it?  (B) When you cease to desire it?  (C) When you cease to get pleasure from it?  (2) When do you become bored with love?  (A) When you cease to learn from it?  (B) When you cease to desire it?  (C) When you have had enough of it?  (3) When do you become bored with people?  (A) When they cease to inspire, enlighten or entertain you?  (4) What is the most you can get from another person?  (A) To learn from them?  (B) To talk with them?  (C) To be with them?	9/30/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	Bored with sex.  At what point will you become bored with sex?  Not curious about love, sex or other people's bodies and minds.  No desire.  Think you've seen it all, done it all, know it all.	5/4/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  (1) If you can cheat on your girl emotionally (without any physical contact), then it should be possible to have close physical contact without emotion and say it is not cheating?  (2) Cheating by a series of one night stands with different women vs. cheating as one long term close emotional relationship with another woman.  Which is worse?  The second seems worse.	02/09/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  At what point does cheating occur?  Is there a difference between cheating on a wife vs. cheating on a live-in lover, vs. cheating on a long or short term girlfriend?  Is a two timer a cheat?  Emotional cheating is where you are investing all your time and emotional energy in another person other than your girlfriend or wife.  Physical cheating is when you are hugging (?), kissing (?), getting naked with (?), fu*king (?), another woman than your wife or girlfriend.  Which is worse, emotional cheating or physical cheating?	02/09/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Can I be friends with a woman while I have a girlfriend, without it being considered cheating on my girlfriend?  That is, can it be considered cheating just on the basis of time spent and emotional investment made?	12/29/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Emotional cheating.  Flirting with, looking at, and even thinking of other women.  Any time you invest emotional energy in another woman besides your girlfriend you are committing emotional adultery.  Then you unconsciously get guilty, then you unconsciously punish yourself to get out of the guilt.  Do yourself a favor and avoid it completely.	07/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Extra-marital or extra-relationship sex is natural.  You keep looking for better.  Otherwise animosity builds up towards your mate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Flirting with another woman, or even fantasizing of another woman, can make one feel guilty, and then turn self destructive.	07/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  If you are spending more time with another woman than your girlfriend, is that cheating?  Hugging, kissing, mutual masturbation, fu*king, what is permissible without it being cheating?	01/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Lying, cheating and stealing.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Monogamy is bogus.  Serial monogamy is bogus.  Multiple sex partners is natural.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Most women who cheat do so only when they believe that (1) The man loves them and (2) The man no longer loves their wife.  Few women cheat if either of the above is not the case.	6/2/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Polygamy vs. monogamy (lifetime monogamy, or serial monogamy).  Pros and cons of each.  Percent in population of each.  Everyone is always looking for something better, and should.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Cheating.  Who says its cheating?  Two people can agree to have an open relationship in which they agree that its fine to see other people.  There are two types of open relationships.  Firstly, where the two partners both agree to see other people and agree to inform each other as to who they are seeing and what is going on.  Secondly, where the two partners agree to see other people and agree not to inform each other as to who they are seeing and what is going on.	10/26/2003

Sociology, sexuality.	Common unethical courting strategy.  They come on strong to a stranger.  They drop that person just as fast when they find out they are not compatible.  This is not the nicest way of doing things.	9/18/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Computer.  The computer has changed the way we look at sexuality.  (1) Online love affairs.  Online sex.  Online cheating.  (2) Gender is chooseable online.  (3) Anonymous online sex.  (4) Romance online is based on how well you speak or type, not how good you look.	3/9/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Critiques of sex.  (1) Sex, the physical act, tires one out physically and thus mentally.  No energy, no gumption.  (2) Sex, the physical act, can become all one thinks about.  Sex can occupy one's entire mental life.  (3) Sex, the physical act, can become all one does all day.  (4) Even love, the emotional bond, can become overwhelming if all one does all day is think about the other person or spend time with the other person.	9/11/2005

Sociology, sexuality.	Deprivation: no like/lust, what a waste of potential.  For physical sex pleasure, for psychological development, and for psychological creation.  And how it warped my mind too.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Desire, horniness and drive, both psychological desire and physical itch (hard guys and wet girls).  This is what youth has in spades.  Both young and old can have physical sex.  Both young and old need emotional love.  But what the young have that the old do not is a high level of horniness.  The urge that "If I don't get laid tonight I am going to explode."	5/20/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Desire.  The burning desire that drives me crazy and makes me feel weak all over.  How bad does it get (not very bad?).  How much better it is than feeling nothing.  This urge to look, touch, hear, taste, smell, every time I see a woman.  Fantasies run through my mind.  So alive I feel, I want it to last forever.  This is definitely a good pain, destroyed so quickly by one come.	06/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Different views on (1) What is love?  (2) How to show someone you love them?  (3) What is healthy sex?  (4) What proper roles of sexes are.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Do I want a (1) Loyal, loving, earth child, prole, haus frau, or an (2) Angry, bitch, sophisticate.	04/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Don't flip your head over a dame.  They are meant to make you more productive and happy, not less productive and happy.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	Elements in like/lust and ways they can vary for better or worse.  Trust.  Respect.  Communication: open and sharing, honest.  Physical intimacy, and psychological intimacy.  Many shared likes, and few unshared dislikes?  Low neurosis.  Many strong likes of each other, and few minor dislikes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Elements.  (1) Drive: horny vs. not horny.  (2) Emotion: loving vs. unloving.  (3) Behavior: easy vs. prude.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  (1) Any fantasy (enduring mental pleasure) feels better than masturbation (momentary physical pleasure).  (2) Pathological mental fantasies are more satisfying than any pathological behavior.  (3) Any healthy behavior is more satisfying than any (healthy or pathological) fantasy.	10/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  Dream girl.  The ideal is what keeps us going.	5/30/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  My current sexual fantasy: getting a woman to sign a pre-nuptial contract.	02/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  My latest fantasy: one good relationship.	01/24/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  Two types of fantasies.  (1) Sex fantasy.  (A) Partner does anything you want to do sexually.  (B) You do what your partner wants to do sexually.  (2) Love fantasy.  (A) Partner is madly in love with you.  (B) You are madly in love with your partner.	10/4/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  Various fantasies.  (1) Seduce every young beautiful healthy virgin.  A fantasy of power.  (2) Being seduced by an older, more experienced woman.  A fantasy of powerlessness.  (3) Nonstop sex with many women.	12/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  What causes us to have one fantasy during one sexual episode and another fantasy during the next sexual episode of a similar type?  Should we not have the same fantasy?	10/22/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  What kind of fantasies/desires you have vs. what you really like in actuality.  Didn't turn me on as much as I thought it would vs. turned me on more than I thought it did.  This is why you should try everything once.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Fantasy.  You can have sexual fantasies about anything at any time.  It does not correlate to anything.  You might as well pick a healthy fantasy.	7/1/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Find the hip, smart, pretty one.	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Flirting, positive and negative views of.  (1) Flirting as play.  Let yourself pretend.  Like when you were a kid and played either "cowboys and indians" or "house".  (2) Flirting as role playing, like in the theater.  This can let us explore alternate roles and then choose one for real life.  This can let us explore fantasies, that we will not choose for real life.  This can let us explore and develop dreams and ideals which we can hold onto, if we choose, to guide us in life.  (3) Flirting as lying.  Many people criticize flirting as outright lying or misrepresentation.  However, that is a polarized view of flirting.  Just as movie acting is a type of professional lying that is used to convey a truth of art, so to flirting is sometimes a type of lying to reveal truth.  On the other hand, sometimes flirting actually is malevolent lying.  (4) Flirting as teasing and torment.  It all depends on what degree you are comfortable with.  Some people like a lot.  Some people don't like any.	8/5/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	For each guy there are three kinds of women.  (1) Will approach you, pursue you, minimal effort to scoop, will take abuse, will forgive mistakes by you.  (2) Will never fall for you no matter how much and how well you pursue them.  (3) Women who will cave in if you make all the right moves (in-between 1 and 2).	09/23/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Functions of (1) Friends: nurturer, confidant, catharsis, non-disser.  To give to, and to receive from.  (2) Lover: to receive love from, and to give love to.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Game players.  What are the games?  (1) Making you love me even though I do not care about you.  (2) Manipulating you.  Seeing how much money and emotion I can wring from you.	9/22/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Good sex builds up slowly, and loses control completely.  To paraphrase Audrey.	04/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Good sex is working past the kink to healthy epiphanies.  Good sex makes you and your lover feel like Romeo and Juliet.  Like your first love, and like your first time having sex.	04/15/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	History of sex.  Great fu*kers of all time.  (1) Based on most people fu*ked.  Without forcing them (slaves are ruled out).  Without deceit or lying to them.  Without third part arranging it (rules out most porn flicks).  Without paying for it (ruling out prostitutes).  (2) Highest frequency of sex, and for longest duration in years.  (3) Most ways fu*ked (kama sutra), and strangest acts (kink), and most physical environments where did it.  (4) Ethical outcome.  Most love given vs. most despair caused.	01/11/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Homophobia.  If man X feels that he is justified in beating up man Y if man Y flirts with man X, then it follows that man X should feel comfortable being beaten up by woman Z if man X flirts with woman Z.	2/3/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality was once viewed as a mental illness, a criminal act, and a religious sin.  These are all pathological viewpoints.	9/23/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality.  Some people mistakenly try to deny the existence of bisexuality.  They mistakenly say that anyone who claims to be bisexual is actually homosexual.  The actuality is that everyone is bisexual to some degree.	9/26/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  (1) Love is not wrong.  Physical expression of love is not wrong (hugs, kisses).  Aesthetic appreciation of physical bodies is not wrong.  (2) Mindless promiscuity is wrong among homosexuals as well as among heterosexuals.  Unsafe sex is wrong among homosexuals as well as among heterosexuals.  Sex without love is wrong among homosexuals as well as among heterosexuals.  (3) Two guys or two girls living together is not wrong.  Two people caring for each other and supporting each other is not wrong.  (4) Gender swapping and androgyny are not wrong.  (5) Hate, bias, and violence are wrong.	11/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  (1) People are bisexual.  They have bisexual thoughts.  (2) People experiment with homosexual behavior naturally.  (3) People have close friendships with members of the same sex.  Sometimes these friendships are so strong that we call them love, even though there is no physical intimacy.  It is good to have close friendships (love) with the same sex, even if it is not sexual. (4) Homosexual thinkers, experimenters, and close friends should not be persecuted socially or legally.  They should not be burned like witches.	07/18/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Lesbians.  Another reason men like lesbians: The "two for the price of one" theory.  Twice as many women.  Its more economical.  A remnant of buying pornography.	11/18/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Lesbians.  Theories on why men are attracted to lesbians: (1) Any Gal is Fine Theory: Men are attracted to women in general, be they lesbians or not.  (2) Lure of the Unobtainable Theory: You always want what you can't have.  The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  (3) Male Lesbian Theory: Men who are attracted to lesbians have an unconscious desire to reveal their feminine side.  (4) Ultimate Seduction Theory: Lesbians are the ultimate challenge for a man's seduction skills.  He figures if he can seduce a lesbian, he can seduce any woman.  (5) Safe Relationship Theory: Sex with lesbians is a theoretical impossibility, and so a lesbian friend is safe for men who are uncomfortable or scared of sex.  There is a similar situation of women who are attracted to queer males.  (6) One of the Guys Theory: The butch or tomboy lesbian has manly physical and psychological traits that are appreciated by men.  This is similar to the phenomenon of women who get friendly with queer guys because the queer guy acts "just like one of the girls".	7/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Metaphysical status of homosexuality.  Sexuality is a spectrum, not black and white.  Each person is an individual case.  Many people have homosexual fantasies.  Many people experiment with homosexuality early in life.  People switch back and forth from heterosexuality to homosexuality in life.  People are bisexual, heterosexual and homosexual at the same time.	07/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Past treatment of homosexuals.  They jailed Allan Turing, who subsequently died prematurely.  They jailed Oscar Wilde, who subsequently died prematurely.	3/24/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Rates of "out of the closet" homosexuality and bisexuality would be higher if homosexuals were not harassed, beaten and killed.	3/23/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  The hate against homosexuals, especially by religious groups, is wrong.	11/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  There is evidence of homosexuality in animals.  Is homosexuality a useful social tool in the animal kingdom?	5/21/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Homosexuality.  Wrong views: Persecution and discrimination against gays.  Laws outlawing homosexuality.  Those who believe the divine is against gays.	07/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	How important is love/sex?  Two basic views.  PART ONE. Views in favor of love/sex.  (1) "All you need is love.", sez McCartney/Lennon.  (2) Love/sex helps turn young potential psychopaths into civilized gentlemen.  (3) Everyone needs love and sex.  PART TWO. Critiques of love/sex.  (1) Love/sex is overrated.  You cannot live on love/sex.  Love/sex does not pay the bills.  Love/sex does not put food on the table.  (2) Love and sex are not necessities.  There are more important things in life than love and sex.	5/10/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Hypnosis.  (1) The hypnotic state is also close to the addictive state.  (2) Hypnosis is also related to habit.  Hypnosis and behavioral habits.  Hypnosis and mental habits.  (3) Unconscious self hypnosis.	5/30/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Hypnosis.  (1) To what extent is seduction of another dependent on hypnosis?  (2) To what extent is arousal of self dependent upon entering a hypnotic state?	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Hypnosis.  Spellbound or spell casting, mesmerized, hypnotized, seduction, entranced.  To fall prey to it, or to cast it on others.	4/12/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Hypnosis.  Women are entrancing, mesmerizing, hypnotic.  Not a good state to be in.  It is close to addiction.  It also lets others control you easily.  It is close to submission and masochism.  You get hurt easily.	06/10/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	I am happy knowing that she is alive.  The thought of her calms me down.  She relieves an existential tension that I carry always and do not even notice anymore until it is gone.  She also inspires me, and she makes me feel young again.  Find your equal and she will bring you peace and happiness.	08/17/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	I don't expect to get that much from women and people (like new ideas).  But the little I do get is very important.  I don't expect them to give me that little bit I need from them.  I will have to wheedle or charm it out of them.  A look at her, a glance back, a word, a laugh.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	I need to chase women to be more creative.	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	I want a woman who does not want anything from me.  No family, friends, being taken out, spending money, or having kids.  I want a low maintenance woman.	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	I want more women throwing themselves at me, body and soul.	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Ideally you want a woman you can learn from, but you will settle for a woman who doesn't cramp your style.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	If my affection for women is so great as to border on worship, in the romantic sense, in the spiritual sense, and in the kinky s&m sense, so much the better.  Ever so much, more so.	06/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	If you can't get laid in NY, you can't get laid.  Conversely, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.	09/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Imagine the difference between people with the following sexual experiences: (1) A person who only had phone sex.  (2) A person who only had sex with a doll.  (3) A person who's partner never allowed intercourse.  (4) A person who never had an orgasm.  (5) A person who never had someone they loved and never had someone who loved them back.  (6) A person who only had safe sex with bodies separated by thin latex membrane.  (7) How would these people differ from the average?	7/6/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	In a relationship between lovers, at what point will the two of you makeout or neck for the first time?  At what point will the two of you f*ck for the first time?  Everything after the first kiss and the first f*ck is anti-climactic (pun).	6/24/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	In New York City in the 1990s, the first thing you have to do when you meet someone is (1) Determine the sex they were born with, male or female.  (2) Determine their present sex, male or female.  (3) Determine their gender, masculine or feminine.  (4) Determine if they are attracted to men or women.  (5) Determine if they are attracted to masculine or feminine men, or masculine or feminine women.	11/30/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	In the heat of passion, people lose control mentally and physically.  That's why sex works.  That's why the human species is still alive.	9/30/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Is it preferable to be a man or a woman?  One way to tell is to see how many sex change operations there are male to female vs. female to male.  There are more male to female sex changes.  So it would appear it is better to be a woman.	3/16/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Is true love without sex better than sex without true love?	10/10/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Life comes down to desperate competition for women, and money/stuff.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Like and lust, quantity and quality, received and gave.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Like and lust: get both even if you have to get them separate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Like and lust.  To develop either toward a person vs. to lose either toward a person.  To receive either from another person vs. to lose either from another person.  By degree, to the point of joining or splitting.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Like.  (1) Similar direction (goals and values).  (2) Similar level of development.  (3) Similar likes and dislikes, interests and disinterests.  (4) There's a certain point where you'll say: Yes, friend vs. no, foe vs. no, above or below or different from me.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Like/lust.  Get what you need.  Keep your priorities (job, Notes, woman).  Don't let it decay or lose your thoughts and emotions.  Be rational about your drives and emotions.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Look at it from the other side.  She finds me interesting.  She is attracted to me.  She likes me.  There is something about me that tickles her fancy.  I embody her ideals.  She has pinned her hopes upon me.  I have become her dream bank.  She thinks of me constantly.  She always wants to call me.  I am her endorphin rush.  I am her scratching post.	1/12/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Looking for someone who will (1) Tolerate me, or even better likes me, or even better loves me.  (2) Understands me.  Knows what I mean.  (3) Appreciates me.  Sees value in what I say.  Agrees with me.  (4) Co-conspires with me.  Plays along with me.  Co-writes with me.  An equal.  A blood-brother sister.	11/20/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Love and sex.  (1) Sex is two people jerking each other off without using their hands.  (2) Love is two people trying to rationalize their addiction to sex.	12/23/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Love and work.     (1) Freud said the two most important things in life are love and work.  I say that by comparing work and love we can shed light on both.  And, only half facetiously, having compared work and love we are in a position to combine the concepts of work and love into a type of Grand Unified Theory (GUT) or Theory of Everything (TOE).     (2) Work and love are similar in that work and love both involve people spending a lot of time together, through good times and bad.     (3) There are several phases of work and love that are analogous.     (A) Searching for a job is analogous to searching for a lover.  You might have to read a thousand help-wanted ads (or see a thousand people in singles bars), and send out hundreds of resumes (say hundreds of pickup lines), and go on tens of interviews (dates) just to get one job (lover).     (B) Moonlighting on a job is analogous to cheating on a lover.  Is moonlighting wrong?  Some people say no, some say yes.  Is cheating wrong?  Some say no, some say yes.     (C) Lifetime employment at the same job is analogous to lifetime monogamy.  Lifetime employment was more prevalent in the 1900's than it is today.  Lifetime monogamy was more prevalent in the 1900's than it is today.  If you ask people if lifetime employment and lifetime monogamy are good or bad some people say good and some people say bad.     (D) Leaving a job (either quitting or being fired) is analogous to breaking up with a lover (either rejecting them or being rejected by them).  In addition, in work and love, you can leave on good terms with mutual respect or you can leave on bad terms.     (E) In their teens and early twenties, people often go through similar stages in work and love.  In love this stage is called "dating" and involves a series of short relationships to familiarize oneself with various types of members of the opposite sex.  In work there is an analogous situation where a person holds a series of short-term jobs at the start of their work career in order to familiarize themselves with the various types of jobs in the work world.  Call it "job dating".     (F)(i) Temp work (i.e., short-term work) is analogous to short-term love relationships.  (ii) Part-time work (i.e., working only a few days a week) is analogous to love relationships in which the participants live far apart and only get to visit each other on weekends.     (G) Prostitution occurs in the world of work just as often as it occurs in the world of love.  Prostitution in the world of work is worse than prostitution in the world of love because in the world or work you are selling your body and your mind for a dollar.  Prostitution in the world of love involves selling only the body for a dollar.  (One must say that the body and mind tend to travel together, though.)     (4) Some people will read this piece and say, "Don't degrade love by comparing it to work".  Baloney.  The more you know about work and love, and the similarities between them, the better off you will be.	6/30/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Love letter from a philosopher:  (1) I love you.  I have always loved you.  I always will love you.  (2) I love only you.  I have always loved only you.  I always will love only you.  (3) I have nothing but love for you.  I have always had nothing but love for you.  I always will have nothing but love for you.	6/1/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Masturbation.  For some pathological types masturbation is something they want to catch other people doing.	12/14/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	Masturbation.  Isn't it about time that we come to grips with the subject of masturbation?  (pun).	8/20/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	Most important ideas about sex.  (1) How short the season (15 - 35).  (2) How important to get laid early and often.  (3) How important to keep searching for ultimate woman.	03/23/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Most lame women want men who are sensitive, non-threatening, subservient, attentive, friendly, do anything they say, never rebellious loud angry demanding or power hungry, yet not a female, well dressed and groomed, civilized.	09/26/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Old view: the girl next door will be the love of my life.  New view: I am searching high and low to find someone I can stand.	10/05/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Once you get excited, can you get unexcited?  Physically and mentally, is there a point of no return?	12/12/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	One aspect of childhood is being unconcerned with sex.  One aspect of adulthood is being almost obsessed with sex.  This obsession can be looked at as a joy or burden by the same individual at various times.  The above unconcern can be looked at as a joy or cursed as well.  There is a certain joy at times in forgetting about sex, and taking a sexless childlike view of the world.  There is a certain joy in reveling in sexuality and sex (viva la difference!).  At other times either view can be inappropriate or uncomfortable.	10/25/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	One fu*k is worth 100 masturbations.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Opportunity.  You only get x chances with x women in this life.  A chance is an opportunity for success.  A blown chance is a failure.  A chance utilized is a success.  A chance utilized that pays off is a double success.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Paul's law of love.  Everyone should have a really good mutual like/lust relationship at least once in their life, preferably early on.  That they are deprived of this is natural injustice.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	People tend to use fantasizing about sex as a pleasurable way of avoiding the issues at hand; although sex is actually an issue to.  How much fantasizing about sex, or even thinking critically about sex, is too much?  Think about it when pursuing women, and only then.  Too much vs. too little.  Repression vs. obsession.	04/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Personal ad.  Atheist, Socialist, Intellectual.  Vegetarian.  Activist.  No to marriage and kids.  Yes to companionship and conversation.  Seeking same.	2/4/2005

Sociology, sexuality.	Porn can be visual pictures or porn can be verbal literature.  Porn can be softcore nudes or hardcore explicit sex.  Women prefer literary softcore porn (ex. romance novels) and men prefer visual hardcore porn (ex. girlie mags).	7/6/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	Pornography.  (1) Arguments against porn.  (A) Debases women.  (B) Excites men to the point they freak out, resulting in (i) Perverts, (ii) Jerking off, (iii) Sex crimes like rape, child molestation, obscene phone calls, etc.  (C) Gives men false ideas of the reality of love and sex.     (2) Arguments pro porn.  (A) It can give a knowledge of the female body in terms of anatomy, and also in terms of aesthetics and beauty, and also in terms of knowledge of sex.  It can inspire those who need general inspiration and sexual inspiration.  (3) My position.  I am not against nudity.  I think it is beautiful and unrepressed.  But I am against too much nudity, too often, in too many (public) places.  It should be something you choose to see, not are forced to see.	04/26/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Pornography.  (1) Pro: it is beautiful, it is a part of life.  (2) Contra: it distorts, it is too powerful.  (3) Visual vs. verbal pornography.  (4) Art vs. porn arguments.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Pornography.  Arguments for pornography.  (1) Nudity is beautiful and sex is beautiful.  (2) Whether verbal or visual, depictions of nudity, depictions of sex, and depictions of so-called obscenity, are protected by our freedom of speech, and (I say) protected by our freedom to information.  (3) (A) There is no such thing as obscenity when it comes to consensual acts between adults.  (B) There's no such thing as curse words or obscene language (or art).  Vagina or pussy, a rose is a rose.  (4) Andrea Dworkin and Katherine McKinnon seem to argue that pornography, and the sex business in general, exploits women.  But in today's world we can say that if so, then it exploits men just as well.  It does not really exploit either if done correctly.	9/24/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Pornography.  Nowadays pornography does the useful service of making women realize that they are attractive no matter what their body type.  Pornography today depicts young women, old women, flat chests, huge chests, fat women, thin women, hairy women, and every skin color.	9/24/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Pornography.  Some possible reasons why people get into porn or prostitution.  (1) The money.  (2) They have great bodies.  (3) They enjoy sex, or are addicted to sex (or love?).  (4) They feel they are bad or worthless.  Low self esteem.  (5) Submissive or dominant.  (6) Rebellious.  Want to break social taboos, regardless of whether themselves or the taboos are right or wrong.  "No one can tell me what to do."  (7) Believe philosophically in nudity, free sex, etc.	06/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Post-coital oceania: I am the entire United States, and the entire United States is at peace.	7/11/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution for single men is different from prostitution for married man because when you are married there is the additional aspect of cheating on your mate.	9/24/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution.  (1) At its best.  (A) Helps sexworker: makes money for her.  (B) Helps client: lays the unlayable, keeps him happy, sane, keeps him from killing others.  (2) At its worst.  (A) Harms sexworker: abuse by client, disease, and the act itself can lower their self esteem.  (B) Harms client: disease.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution.  (1) Pros of ho's. (A) It is the right of people to get laid.  (B) A lot of jobs besides prostitution don't develop the mind.  (C) Athletes have short careers as well as beautiful girls.  (2) Contra prostitution.  (A) It is also the right (duty?) of women and men to take care of themselves and reach their full potential.  Having sex all day doesn't really do this.  You have to battle against disease, drugs, social stigma, and the low self esteem and hopelessness the sex industry engenders.	12/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution.  (1) Prostitution and shrinks are the only two occupations where money is paid to have a person present.  They both charge about $200 an hour.  I guess that is one way to determine what a human is worth.  If you say to yourself "I could really use someone to be with and talk to, right now.", the only two options are shrink and prostitute.  The shrink requires you to make an appointment and go to an office.  The prostitute shows up at your place right away.  There should really be another profession that is an instant outcall person on demand to talk to, without the sex.  This is an important need in society.  It could save much suffering and violence.  (2) Not enough love is given or received by people in this world.  People need love bad, and don't even realize it.  And there is a short supply of love.  There is not enough to go around.  There is not enough love supplied as there is a demand for it.  (3) I am not talking about possessive love, where you love the person like a pet you own, and for the pleasure they give you.  I am talking about non-possessive love, where you love the person even though you consider them free of you, and you give them the pleasure.  (4) Fu*king is often a power thing.  To fu*k something is to dominate it, to be in control of it, to take possession of it and own it.  Males use fu*king as a power thing over females.  I am speaking of sex as a nurturing, caring, giving thing.  (See feminine ethics.)  (5) People need love.  And people need sex.  (A) Can you give love in one hour to a stranger?  I say yes.  Can you give sex in one hour to a stranger.  Obviously yes.  (B) Do prostitutes give love?  I say, in the best situations, yes.  Do prostitutes give sex?  Obviously yes.  (C) Are prostitutes asked by johns to give love?  I say, in most cases no, in a few cases yes.  Are prostitutes asked to give sex?  Obviously yes.  If prostitutes can give love, is it a genuine love or just a fake love?  (6) Some prostitutes and johns look at it as a business, for money, strictly an economic transaction.  Do either ever look at it as more?  What do they see it as?  (7) Can one get or give love without sex, for free or for money?  Where and how?	02/09/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution.  Not only should prostitution be legalized, but sex workers should also be accepted as important and useful members of society.	12/26/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	Prostitution.  Worldwide sex industry.  (1) Rampant disease, including AIDS.  (2) Women kept as sexual slaves against their will.  (3) Children sexually abused.  (4) Must it be this way?  Can prostitution be done right?  Like in Holland?  (5) Should prostitution be illegal or legalized?  Will legalization of prostitution increase, decrease, or have no effect on the above crimes?  (6) Phone sex is legal and good.  Live Internet video sex is good too.	9/24/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Purely emotional or intellectual love vs. purely physical sex.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Related areas.  (1) Effects of all aspects of sexuality on rest of your life.  Effects on work: increase, decrease.  (2) Effects of other areas of life on like lust.  Effects of work: decreases sex drive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Related areas.  Relationships to other subject areas, effects of and on.  (1) Politics: women in power (how many, how much power).  (2) Law: laws saying what sex acts are legal and illegal.  Female rights, porn, obscenity, sex crimes.  (3) Economics: sex sells, what, why.  Advertising.  How resources spent on sex influence economic output.  (4) Technology: techniques to solve problems or enhance abilities.  Toys, and psychological techniques.  (5) Religion: specific religious attitudes about sex through history, and changes of.  (6) Arts: sex in the arts, legal limits.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Related areas.  You can get sex right and the rest of your life wrong vs. you can get sex wrong and the rest of your life right.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Self control.  (1) Control of self in love and sex.  Control of others in love and sex.  This is S&M in everyday life.  Controlling others completely is topping.  Giving up all self control is what a bottom does.	11/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Self control.  (1) One loses control during the sex act.  The good thing about sex is that for once you can completely lose control.  (2) One also loses a degree of self control when you allow someone into your life.  Love, not just sex, involves a loss of self control.  However, you also gain a degree of control over the other person, which I suppose some people like and perhaps even abuse.  (3) Love and sex are full of control issues.	11/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Self control.  Like/lust.  (1) Being in control.  (2) Being out of control.  It is fun, maybe even necessary for true love, but it leaves you wide open to abuse.  (3) In health and unhealth.  (4) When to lose control, if ever?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Self control.  People lose control during sex and have babies, catch diseases, injure self, cheat on loved ones, and engage in perversions.  Sex is a powerful thing, making us lose control like that.	8/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Self control.  Two extremes of falling in love.  Some people will not let themselves fall in love due to having excessive self control in the realm of love.  Some people can't help falling in love due to having no self control in the realm of love.  Yet, to some degree, falling in love should be beyond your control, automatic and irresistible.	11/20/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex cannot be a lifestyle focus for the same reasons that drugs cannot be a lifestyle focus.  (1) It is addictive.  (2) It is not productive.  (3) It wears you out.	10/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex is a waste of time.  Love is only slightly less so.	10/30/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex is overrated.  Love is overrated.  Love/sex is temporary, transitory, fleeting.  Working towards goals based on principles is more important than love/sex.	12/2/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex with no thoughts running through your head.  Sex with no emotions running through your head.  Sex with no memories running through your head.  Some people will argue that the best sex is mindless, animal-like sex, when you experience only physical pleasure with a minimum of mental involvement.  Other people will argue that sex is best when accompanied by love, and that love is a complex psychological phenomenon comprised of many subtle emotions, thoughts and memories.  Still other people argue that both types of love making are good.  One should experience a variety of sexual experiences.	5/14/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex, definitions of.  There are many ways that people attempt to define sex.  (1) Sex as coitus or intercourse.  (2) Sex as genital contact between two people, even without coitus, and even without orgasm.  (3) Sex as achieving orgasm, which can be done alone, theoretically.	9/11/2005

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex, love and friendship are necessary for emotional well being and mental health.  They should all be easily available and affordable.  Sex, love and friendship are a human right.	5/10/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Sex/love: the interaction of physical, psychological, behavior, and social factors on each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Sexual revolution, three definitions of.  (1) Sexual revolution defined as people having more sex.  This definition is not that big a deal.  (2) Sexual revolution defined as people talking about sex openly.  People talking about sex as couples.  Discussion of sex in public seminars.  Discussion of sex in the media (books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, Internet).  This definition is a very good thing.  (3) Sexual revolution defined as women's rights and homosexual rights.  This definition is a very good thing.	5/8/1999

Sociology, sexuality.	Sexual segregation.  It can be argued that gender segregated youth activities, gender segregated schools, and gender segregated religious orders are sexual perversions because they have no members of the opposite sex.	07/22/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Sexually transmitted diseases.  (1) People often do not know what sexually transmitted diseases they have.  Often a person has an STD but does not know they have it and thus transmits the disease to another person unknowingly.  (2) People are often reluctant to talk about any sexually transmitted diseases they have.  People are often not forthcoming about their STDS and thus may transmit it to another person out of lack of communication.  (3) People sometimes lie about what sexually transmitted diseases they have.  People sometimes say they have no STDs when they know they do.	6/17/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Sexually transmitted diseases.  People are full of germs.  Sex should be referred to as "the germ swap".  He gave his germs to her.  She gave her germs to him.	5/5/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Sexually transmitted diseases.  There are a multitude of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, hepatitis, warts, and herpes simplex 2, that are incurable for life, and that can be transmitted asymptomatically without one being aware of it.  What a nightmare.  How can one safely have sex today?  It is unethical to ignore the problem.  Individuals should get tested for all STDs at the beginning of a relationship.  Some people choose to always use a condom.  Meanwhile, the emotion of love has a tendency to disable the reasoning part of the brain.  Love, desire, and sexual urgency, tend to make people less cautious, more spontaneous, more risky.  Its a recipe for potential disaster.	6/17/2007	*

Sociology, sexuality.	She and I once made love.  (One can synonymously read the word "once" as "used to" or "in the past".)  (1) What did our lovemaking mean then?  What did it mean then to her?  What did it mean then to me?  (2) What does the fact that we once made love mean now?  What does it mean to her now?  What does it mean to me now?  (3) We cared about each other.  We cared for each other.  We took care of each other.  (4) What happened to that?  What happened was that some people's annoying traits began to outweigh their attractive traits.  And yet we are still friends.  (5) Some people make love and it means very little in their minds.  Other people make love and it means a lot in their mind.  Can we say that sometimes making love means too little to some people, and that is not good; while other times making love means too much to other people, and that is not good either?  You do not want to make more of love/sex than it actually is.  You do not want to make less of love/sex than it actually is.  (6)(A) What does love mean?  What can love mean?  (B) What does sex mean?  What can sex mean?  (C) What can two people mean to each other?  How much can two people mean to each other?  (D) These are the voyages of the relationship enterprise.	11/13/2005

Sociology, sexuality.	She said she loved me, over and over again.  She begged me not to leave her, over and over again.  That is all that she said.  And that is why I left her.	1/12/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Six mistaken ways to experience sex.  (1) To experience sex only on a sensual level is to be a hedonist (or an animal).  (2) To experience sex only as emotion is to be a romantic.  (3) To experience sex only as thought or logic is to be an academic.  (4) To experience sex with sense and emotion only (1&2) is to be thoughtless.  (5) To experience sex with sense and thought only (1&3) is to be an emotionless sociopath.  (6) To experience sex with only emotion and thought (2&3) is to be a senseless, disembodied virgin.  (7) To experience sex with senses, emotions, and thought (1,2&3) is to do it justice.  Give it all you got.	3/3/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Social influence on sex.  Social taboos: how close they are to health and justice.  Paranoia and abuse of those who break social taboos.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Software to mimic social interactions, to be used for training the socially inept.  For example, a "How to pick up women" training software that presents a number of different virtual women standing at a virtual bar who respond better or worse to different pickup lines.	8/5/2001

Sociology, sexuality.	Some view sex and love as something you have to earn.  If they give you either they're doing you a favor.  It is conditional love (bogus), it is a reward.  They make you beg for it.  This view is bull shit.  I won't be controlled by it.  I'd rather not have it.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Sometimes I feel like I am talking directly to her vagina.  Sometimes she feels like she is talking directly to my dick.  Sometimes our relationship consists merely of a conversation between our genitals.	9/24/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Swinging one night stands are just a form of mutually consenting prostitution.  Each person is both whore and john.  Prostitution is not wrong, so neither is swinging.  It is not optimal, but it is better than nothing (no sex).  People need physical affection and emotional affection, be it real or faked, even if it is for one night, even if it is for money.	5/15/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Swinging.  Pro.  There is something to be said for going out and partying.  Loud music, and young women in small bits of tight clothing.  Even if the women are daft.  Even if you don't meet your type.  Even if the chance of getting laid is nil.  Life can get so boring.  Being a hardworking drone is so deadly dull after a while.  Anonymous fu*ks, gropes, smiles, eye contact, there is an argument to be made for each of them.  It is not all bad.  One last chance for romance.  The last dance.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	The big questions.  (1) How much time do you spend thinking about sex, and acting on sex?  Too much, or too little?  (2) What turns you on?  What gets you off?	10/05/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	The French view on relationships: mature, intelligent people can sometimes have complicated sexual relationships without getting hurt or being purposefully hurtful, immoral, or abusive.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	The key to life is feeling young, which means feeling horny.  Intimate friendship, love, sex, beautiful women, are all important to know about experientially only in that they let you know firsthand that they are not that important.  They let you know the boundary of reality and ideal dreams.  Everyone is alone together.	01/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	The love game, two ways to play. (1) Idealists, romantics.  Honest, trusting, open, be yourself, act natural.  Let it go where it will.  (2) Schemers, machiavellians, pragmatists, realists.  For good or for evil.  Hidden agendas, backstabbers, bloodsuckers.  They say, "I want to go this way, so I will act this way."  (3) Whether you are 1 or 2 depends on the degree and amount of self conscious planning and action.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	The promise of healthy sex: happiness.	09/20/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	There are a lot of things going on between men and women, like metaphysics (men's vs. women's brains and bodies), ethics, psychology, and sociology.  (1) Sex as physical pleasure, as power games, and as addiction.  (2) Emotions.  Friendship and love.  (3) Aesthetics.  Beauty and youth obsession.  (4) Kinks and fetishes, fantasies, obsessions.  Psychology.	02/07/1997

Sociology, sexuality.	There are people who think the human body, nudity and sex are profane, dirty, obscene and sinful.  And so they feel the body, nudity and sex should not be seen or talked about.  At the other extreme there are people who believe the human body, nudity and sex are sacred and holy and so they should not be seen nor talked about.  People's ideas of what is sacred and profane should not be used to limit discussion and conversation about a subject.  De facto censorship by threat and intimidation is wrong.	12/28/2003

Sociology, sexuality.	There is something to be said for carnal lust sex.  To engage in it proves that you are not afraid of it.  It is neutral, neither good nor evil.  Not to be adored or despised.	01/30/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	These are a few of my favorite positions: she is sitting on my lap and we are seeing eye to eye on things.	4/27/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Thinking about wanting to have sex vs. thinking about sex philosophically.	10/15/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Three criteria of attraction.  (1) Pursuing girls based on how pretty they are.  (2) Pursuing girls based on where they are located, that is, proximity.  (3) Pursuing girls based on their principles, values, attitudes.  This is best.	12/7/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Three definitions of nice.  (1) Socially and monetarily upper class vs. lower class.  (2) Puts out sexually vs. doesn't.  (3) Angelic vs. hurtful.  You can have any combo of the three.	05/30/1993

Sociology, sexuality.	Three types of sexual relationships.  (1) Sleeping with a friend, someone you know and like.  (2) Sleeping with a stranger, someone you don't know.  (3) Sleeping with the enemy, someone you know you disagree with, or someone you dislike on some level.	7/31/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	Trying to impeach a president for having sex, or for having an affair ("cheating"), and even putting someone on the stand about consenting sex between adults is a farce staged by prigs.	10/27/2003

Sociology, sexuality.	Two components of love/sex.  (1) Emotional comfort.  Emotional intimacy.  A friend.  A conversation.  Communication.  Caring.  Happiness, joy, laughter.  Understanding.  (2) Physical comfort.  Physical intimacy.  A touch.  A hug.  A kiss.  Intercourse.  Release.	4/22/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Two problems.  One guy says, "I'm locked into a loveless marriage, and so I must pretend to love her."  The other guy says, "She has told me repeatedly that she is not interested in me, and so I must pretend to not love her."	1/24/2007

Sociology, sexuality.	Types and levels of like/lust.  (1) Like: (A) I would give up anything to do anything you want for no reward.  (B) I would give up anything to do anything I thought was good for you for no reward.  (2) Lust: I would give up anything to fu*k you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Views.  It is surprising (scary?) How many people disagree with the following: Interracial love is ok.  Premarital sex is ok.  Divorce is ok.  Single parent families are ok.  Homosexuality is ok.  Prostitution is ok, and should be legalized.  Pornography is ok.  Trangenders and transvestites are ok.  May-December romances (older and younger) is ok.	3/30/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	Voyeurs.  If they had a sex life they wouldn't be concerned about other person's sex lives.	4/25/2003

Sociology, sexuality.	What do I want?  A flirtation, a smile, a look, kind words, a friend, a potential lover.	8/2/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	What good are baseball statistics?  They teach us a method to keep track of the love/sex game.  Singles, doubles, triples and home runs.  How many at bats.  How may hits vs. strikeouts.  Batting average.	6/26/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	What I am looking for in a woman:  Pretty and Witty.  Perky and Quirky.	8/23/2005

Sociology, sexuality.	What I look for now in a woman.  (1) Sanity.  Not neurotic.  (2) Loves me.  (3) Ethical.  (4) Lets me do my thing.  (5) Not a prude.  Not a social clone.  (6) Easy going.  (7) Low maintenance.  Can take care of herself and provide for herself, and has her own life.  (8) I do not require from my women intelligence, humor, or their understanding my work.	10/12/1998

Sociology, sexuality.	What if two people meet, have sex, get to know each other completely in two months flat, and then spend fifty static, unchanging, boring years together?	8/10/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	What if you spent all your resources on sex?  What if you spent all your time, energy, and money, pursuing sex?  What a waste.  What if you spent all day eating?  A complete waste.  What if you spent all day sleeping?  A complete waste.  Therefore, if you spend all day eating, sleeping, and having sex, then that too is a complete waste, as difficult as that is too imagine.	5/27/2006

Sociology, sexuality.	What is sex?  Sex defined as like/lust.  Aspects: (1) Like: Emotion.  Emotional need vs. emotional desire or want.  (2) Lust: Drive.  Physical hunger for touch.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What is sex.  Sex, like poison ivy, is an itch you cannot scratch (except rarely), and it does not go away for 40 years or so.  (A thirst you cannot quench.  A hunger that never leaves.  A cliche' that will not die.)	04/01/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	What is sex.  The most dangerous sport in '90s is sex.  The potential for inflicting or receiving psychological or physical harm is enormous.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What is sex.  Virginity is a commodity.  Sex is a commodity.  Women don't want to be fu*ked and forgotten.  They want assurances for future.  They want security and constancy.  Thus divorce laws.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What is sexuality.  Everyone is bisexual to a degree.  A normal heterosexual relationship is really a four way orgy.  Her female side and his male side.  Her male side and his female side.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What percent of the women that you see do you like (10%)?  Of these, what percent like you (1%)?  Of these, what percent are single and available (50%)?  And how many girls do you see in a week (100)?  So it is no wonder it is tough to hook up.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	What woman would go out with him?  What woman would go out with a man in his condition?  He figured his only hope was to go to cafes and bars, pick the sweetest woman he saw, and then stand next to her.  He would smile and converse politely, but his main goal was to get within three feet of an interesting woman.  Hear her soft voice.  See the sparkle in her eye.  Catch her scent.  "If I can do that", he thought, "I can make it through the rest of this life".	3/16/2002

Sociology, sexuality.	What.  All social relationships have a sexual element to them.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What.  Being a sexual being is great if you are getting great sex.  It isn't if you are not.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What.  Can you be a complete person without knowledge of sex?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	What.  Contra.  Too much sex will kill you.  It weakens the body to point of injury and illness.  It weakens the mind to point of wrong or too slow survival decisions.	12/30/1995

Sociology, sexuality.	What.  Definition.  (1) Like: an emotional attachment, many strong positive feelings.  (2) Lust: a natural biochemical (hormonal) drive.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Which is better:  (1) Desire or desire satiated?  Desire.  (2) Lust or sex?  Lust.  (3) Beauty or love?  Love.	2/6/2000

Sociology, sexuality.	Which is worse or better, sex without love, or love without sex?	03/23/1994

Sociology, sexuality.	Why a girlfriend?  For intimacy, for mental health, for survival.  Living alone makes it much easier to wig out.	9/30/1996

Sociology, sexuality.	Why have sex?  Why study sex?  How have sex?  How study sex?	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Why I am fascinated with exotic women.  If fascination with the opposite sex is fascination with the "other", then fascination with exotic women if fascination with the "other other".  Exotic women are doubly fascinating.  By exotic I mean women from other cultures.	11/25/2004

Sociology, sexuality.	Why study like/lust?  (1) To avoid mistakes and pain they cause.  (2) To make the most of your sex life.  (3) To make the most of your life.  (4) To know what's going on.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Why study sex?  To get more and better sex.  To avoid mistakes and pain in sexual realm.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Why.  Like/lust is important (1) For pleasure.  (2) For the experience of it.  (3) To get rest of life going.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Why.  Like/lust, like money, is necessary for mental health.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Why.  Purpose of like/lust.  To help each other, and to not hurt each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, sexuality.	Young beautiful women inspire me in a way I don't fully comprehend.  Youth and beauty.  When I touch their bodies, and look into their eyes.  I am an aura vampire.	02/22/1997

Sociology, social psychology.	.This section is about social psychology.  Topics include: ( ) Brainwashing.	1/24/2006

Sociology, social psychology.	(1) Mind patterns.  (2) Behavior patterns: personal patterns, and social patterns.  (3) Found out or learned from society vs. figured out by self.  Good vs. bad.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	(1) Psychic defenses, personal armor.  (2) Personal weapons: used defensively and used offensively.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	(1) What you think and feel about other people.  (2) What other people think and feel about you.	5/15/2004

Sociology, social psychology.	Attraction: what causes it?  Liking is based on similar direction and similar level.  Similar values and standards.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Attributing = guessing.  We do it in all relationships all the time because we can't get in their heads.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Body language.  Its not just body language, its also thinking with the body.  People communicate with their bodies, and people also think with their bodies.  A person thinks with their entire body.	3/31/2006

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing and indoctrination techniques.  Breakdown and rebuild.  Empty out and refill.  Tell it to Humpty Dumpty.  Sometimes people stay broken.	4/6/2000

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing by (1) Military, school, church, family.  (2) Explicit (say directly) vs. implicit (implied in words or actions).  (3) Overt (openly) vs. covert (hidden).  (4) Consciously doing it vs. unconsciously doing it.  (5) Conscious recipient (know it is being done to you, or tried) vs. unconscious recipient (unaware it is tried to or actually being done).	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing.  (1) Brainwashing defined as hypnosis does not exist.  Because they say you cannot force a hypnotized person to do something against their will.  (2) Brainwashing defined as inducing a nervous breakdown does exist.  This is brainwashing as destroying the will.  This is brainwashing as inducing learned helplessness.	4/29/1999

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing.  (1) Forcing their ideas vs. preventing your ideas.  (2) Methods: weaken mind and body through no food, little sleep, much work, and pressure.  (3) Why does it work: some people want to give up, give in, and be told what to think, feel, and do.  (4) Who is susceptible.  (A) Those who can't think well.  (B) Those without a strong core of ideas.  (C) Those without a strong, coherent personality.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing.  How big the lie.  How susceptible the audience.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing.  How forceful the message.  How frequent the message.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Brainwashing.  Turning someone into a zombie.  Prisoners, submissives, school kids, soldiers in boot camp, religious novices, slaves, etc.  Taking away their will and their ability to think and act for themselves.  Learned helplessness.  This phenomena is more common than thought, and more destructive than thought.	11/20/1997

Sociology, social psychology.	Coercion.  Using reward or punishment to get people to accept ideas or perform actions.	11/25/2001

Sociology, social psychology.	Effects of the group on the individual, for good or bad.  Family, school, job and community can either (1) Put heavy pressures on an individual, or (2) they can respect the freedom of choice of the individual, and respect the diversity of views of individuals.	5/20/1999

Sociology, social psychology.	Emotional bonding, types and causes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Emotional need for others.  Emotional addiction for others, especially when under stress vs. healthy emotional need.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Emotional needs.  What emotion needed (respect, love, friendship, etc).  How much emotion need, for what reasons, from whom.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Extroverted vs. introverted.  Closed vs. open	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	How does society shape the individual?  What are the unexamined assumptions that we pick up from society?	10/10/2004

Sociology, social psychology.	How much will a society or environment (1) Destroy your spirit.  (2) Destroy your mind.  (3) Destroy your body.  (4) Change it for worse.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Individual imposing on others vs. individual being imposed on.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Individual thoughts on what groups belongs to, why.  How much belongs.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Ingratiation.  Popularity contests.  Mutual admiration societies.  Psychological pyramid schemes of people trying to please each other can inflate and then burst like a stock market bubble.	3/20/2007

Sociology, social psychology.	Interactions, causes and effects.  Of individuals in a group on each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Like/hate levels.  (1) Not attracted.  (2) Not getting along.  (3) Not messing with each other intentionally.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Needs.  (1) What people want from a relationship.  (2) What they think they want.  (3) What they say they want.  (4) Variance between the three.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Needs.  We need and get different things from different people.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Perceptions.  Two people see same object with (1) Different mental categories.  (2) Different ethical systems.  Competing self interests.  (3) Inability to understand other persons perception, even when communicated.  (4) Inability to agree even if they understand.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Persuasion.  Social pressures: by who to do what, how pressured.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Resistance vs. impressionability and susceptibility.  To manipulate and influence vs. be manipulated and influenced.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Self control in social relationships.  Up tight and repressed vs. focused on getting goals vs. let it all hang out.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Self control.  How much a person controls what they show, tell, and do with another person.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Self control.  In control of self vs. out of control of self.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Social attention, two aspects of.  The desire to get attention from others.  The desire to give attention to others.	2/19/2000

Sociology, social psychology.	Social interaction and mental health are vitally connected.  How I conduct my social relationships.  (1) If I go for it (assert) (attack).  (2) If I protect myself (defense).  (3) Both are important and necessary.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Social interaction.  (1) Metaphysical perceptions.  What is situation?  Who are you and me?  What is our relationship?  (2) Ethical perceptions.  Is this good or bad?  What should I do in response?  Get goals.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Social pressures on individual.  Messages to individual.  Power to resist.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Socialization, teaching (mind), forcing (body), propaganda, social pressure, brainwashing, propaganda, indoctrination, rhetoric.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Society can hinder you, trap you, and limit you.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Society's influence on our (1) Psychology.  (2) Behavior (words and actions).	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Some people will remember your best.  Some people will remember your worst.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Total like or dislike = sums and weights on all subjects.  At some point it goes from coming together to moving apart; friend to foe.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	Types of individuals by social aspects.  Loners vs. social butterflys vs. clique ers.	12/30/1992

Sociology, social psychology.	What are the elements of social psychology?  (1) Social awareness.  How aware the person is that they live in a social world.  (2) Social knowledge.  How knowledgeable is the person about social situations and social interactions.  (3) Social emotions.  How developed is the person's social emotions.  (4) Social memory.  How much and how often does the person remember their past social interactions.  (5) Social ethics.  How developed is the person's sense of social ethics?  (6) Social behavior.  How often does the person interact with others?  How well does the person's social interactions go?  What social skills does the person possess?  How politically aware is the person?  How socially aware is the person?  How socially aware and skilled is the person on the micro level, which involves personal relationships.  How socially aware and skilled is the person on a macro level, which involves society.	11/25/2004

Sociology, social psychology.	Who knows you?  Nobody knows you.  Everybody knows you.  You will eventually realize that nobody will ever understand all of you.  You will eventually realize that everybody understands some part of you.	3/18/2007

Sociology, social psychology.	You go through life.  You meet people.  You form various opinions of people based on what you value compared to what the other person values.  Questions you ask about the other person include: What is the person into?  Where is the person's head at?  What does the person value?  What does the person want or desire, i.e., what motivates the person?	3/27/2007

Sociology, social psychology.	You make guesses about who the other person is.  Over time, with more observation, interaction, communication, you know better who the person is.  Your guesses, your opinions, get closer to the actuality.  You begin to ascertain the person's philosophy, that is, the person's views on the fundamental questions of life.	3/30/2007

Sociology, society.	.This section is about society and culture.  Topics include: ( ) America.  ( ) Culture.  ( ) Global society.  ( ) Groups  ( ) Individual and society.	1/24/2006

Sociology, society.	(1) Analysis of a society.  (2) Judgment of a society.  Psychological, physical, and economic/financial health.  Optimal, healthy, sub-optimal, unhealthy.  Smart, sane, ethical.  Efficient, effective, practical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	(1) Discover: science.  (2) Make: technology.  (3) Trade: business.  (4) Order: politics.  (5) Think: philosophy.  (6) Relax: art and entertainment.  (7) Types and levels of development of above.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	(1) Societies in the past.  Small.  Tribes.  Villages.  (2) Society today is a global society.  Communication of ideas via the Internet.  Travel of people across borders.  (3) Society in the future will be interplanetary, intersolar or even intergalactic?  Society in the future will have more diverse inhabitants, perhaps other life forms?  Communication and transportation will be far and wide.	10/13/2004

Sociology, society.	(1) What was the nature of ancient primitive human societies?  Did they have a common universal nature or were they highly diversified?  (2) Societies today, are they basically the same or are they highly diversified?  (3) What are real world examples of the "best" and "worst" societies?  What are their traits?   (4) How good can society get?  How low the rates of crime, illness, poverty, war, oppression, exploitation, corruption, ignorance?  How much truth, justice, equality and freedom can we get?  (5) Is there a "human nature" of individual humans?  Is there a "societal nature" of human societies?  Is it basically good or evil?  Is it a result of nature or nurture?  Can it be changed, and if so to what degree?	5/17/2002

Sociology, society.	America today is a hyper competitive society, and that is a bad thing.  America is obsessed with winning.  American is obsessed with being the best.  To view every situation as a competition; and to be obsessed with winning; and to be obsessed with being the best; leads to policies of imperialism, domination, and bullying, and those policies are wrong.	11/13/2005

Sociology, society.	America worships the dollar.  All values subordinate to money.  All activities subordinate to business.	12/2/2003

Sociology, society.	America, don't think you are so special.  America, you are not number one.  America, you are not the only democracy, nor the best democracy, nor the first democracy.  America, much of your success is due to luck, not hard work.  America was lucky to have many natural resources.  America was lucky to be isolated from world wars by two oceans.  America, not everything you do is good.  America, much of your aggression you hide from your people.  America look at your mistakes.  America, national pride goes before a fall.  America, KKK McCarthy Kowboys, so called land of the free, is it the freedom to invade countries, is it the freedom to split skulls?  America, you're not so hot.  America you're not so high and not so mighty.	9/28/2005

Sociology, society.	America, good and bad.  (1) America at its worst.  Bigotry.  Willful ignorance and isolation.  Intolerance.  Overconsumption.  The mistaken view of some Americans that, "We are the best, we are rich, we are strong, you stink, you don't matter, and we are going to exploit you for our purposes and interests."  (2) America at its best.  Justice.  Equality.  Freedom.  Fairness.	1/10/2004

Sociology, society.	America, good and bad.  (1) Pros of American society.  What's good about American society?  What good does American society contribute to the world?  Jazz.  Blues.  Individualism.  Democracy.  Independence.  (2) Cons of American society.  What's bad about American society and culture?  What bad does American society and culture contribute to the world?  Overconsumption.  Pollution.  Bullying foreign policy.  Exploiter and oppressor.  Religious fundamentalism.  Anti-intellectualism.  Intolerance.  Bigotry.  Prejudice.  Sexual prudery.   Slavery and its aftermath of segregation and racism.  Overemphasis on business and money at the expense of other values.  Obsessed with entertainment, sports, Hollywood, etc.  Obsessed with leisure.  Obesity.  Overproduction and overconsumption.  Rich, relative to other countries.  Big, fat, rich, powerful.	6/26/2004

Sociology, society.	America, good and bad.  America is backward in many ways.  America is backward in its attitudes.  Religion is a major cause of America's backward attitudes.	8/27/2004

Sociology, society.	America, good and bad.  Two views of America.  (1) Worst of America.  Willfully ignorant.  Anti-intellectual.  Prudish about sex.  Religious fanatics.  Arrogant, Americans mistakenly think they are the best.  Rich.  Pigs.  Overconsuming.  (2) Best of America.  Jazz.  Democracy.	6/4/2004

Sociology, society.	America, good and bad.  Worst side of America.  (1) Obsessed with money and business.  (2) Bigoted, prejudiced, intolerant.  (3) Religious fanatics.  (4) Militaristic, imperialist.	6/5/2004

Sociology, society.	America, negative traits.  Americans are characterized by the following: (1) Over-consumptive.  Americans are resource pigs.  Americans use excessive amounts of energy and material goods.  (2) Willfully ignorant.  Apathetic.  Most Americans neither know nor care what is going on in the world.  The only exception is when events directly effect American interests abroad.  (3) Unjustified arrogance.  America thinks it is the best at everything, when, in fact, there are other countries where the quality of life is just as good or better than in America.  Some countries exceed the US in certain areas.  (4) Interventionist.  America imposes itself on other countries.  America coerces and pressures other countries to conform to America's will, and not always in a good way.	9/2/2004

Sociology, society.	America.  (1) Is there today, or was there at anytime in the past, any distinctly American traits?  (2) Is there today, or was there at anytime in the past, a typical American?  (3) Some people might propose the following traits as being quintessentially American:  Frontiersman.  Hard working.  Strong.  Brave.  Not bound by history (revolutionary).  Egalitarian, democratic.  Blue collar, blue jeans.  Uncynical.  Just, fair.  Freedom fighter.  Rural.  Urban.  Suburban.  Smart.  Dumb.  Rock and roller.  (4) I think that, if there is any, the quintessential American trait is health.  Robust physical health and un-repressed, non-neurotic psychological health.  Not that all Americans are healthy, just that Americans strike me as bright-eyed, mongrel hordes.	4/6/2000

Sociology, society.	America.  (1) Much of American society believes in Creationism, and thus much of America is backwards intellectually.  (2) Many people in American society do not support the goals of the United Nations.  The United States pursues a "go it alone" foreign policy.  The United States isolates itself from other countries.  (3) Thus, the United States is isolated and backward, and that makes the United States like a third world country.	9/28/2005

Sociology, society.	America.  The screwed up ethics of the typical American is to work a job and then go home and watch television, except don't watch the news, don't think.	1/1/2006

Sociology, society.	America.  The worst traits of America are converging.  Low-life urban culture, as exemplified by the thug, is converging with low-life rural culture, as exemplified by the redneck, and the result is ignorant, coarse, unethical people.	1/4/2006

Sociology, society.	America.  Typical American works long hours at meaningless job in order to return home and do nothing.  Nothing followed by nothing.	11/11/2005

Sociology, society.	America.  What made America great?  A lot of it had to do with luck, not hard work.  Lucky USA wasn't destroyed in WWII.  Lucky USA has natural resources.  Lucky that the talent of the world came to America to avoid persecution in their homelands.  However, some people mistakenly think it was only hard work that made America great, and these people are turning Americans into workaholics.	8/3/2004

Sociology, society.	America.  Worst traits of America: Rich.  Spoiled.  Fat.  Ignorant.  Apathetic.	4/2/2006

Sociology, society.	American society, a cultural matrix.  Pick one attribute one from each of the following five categories:  (1) Urban.   Suburban.  Rural.  (2) Rich.  Middle class.  Poor.  (3) Old.  Middle aged.  Young.  (4) North.  Middle America.  South.  (5) East coast.  Middle America.  West Coast.  (6) Create demographic segments by picking one attribute from each of the five categories.  How many demographic segments are possible if you pick one attribute from each of the five categories?  (7) Describe the traits of each demographic segment produced when you pick one attribute from each of the five categories.  Give a name to each segment that summarizes the traits of the segment.	12/13/2005

Sociology, society.	American society.  How do other nations perceive Americans?  How do Americans perceive themselves?  How do Americans try to portray themselves to others?	6/26/2004

Sociology, society.	American society.  In modern American society, you can find groups of people living for anything.  Any idea, any emotion, any object, any action.  Any combination of the above.	5/1/2000

Sociology, society.	American society.  Modern America is (1) Obsessed with leisure pleasure.  (2) Idolize pop stars.  (3) Values formed and manipulated by a mass media that knows that sex, fantasy, and delusion sell big.  (4) Mass modern american society: idiotic, neurotic, unethical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	American society.  Modern america.  What are the most important and powerful forces in our society?  (1) Business, (2) The media, (3) Political groups, (4) Technology.	04/30/1993

Sociology, society.	American society.  Modern american socio-cultural system (mascs).  (1) Sub-systems: political, economic, work, leisure, art. (2) History: Development.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Degree and rate.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	American society.  Modern american socio-cultural system (mascs).  (1) Whoever has power shapes the masses values.  (i.e., laws, media).  (2) Whoever has money shapes values.  (i.e., advertisers).	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	American society.  Subgroups.  (1) Categorized by (A) Density: urban, suburban, rural, wild.  (B) Class: upper, middle, lower.  (C) Age: old, middle, young adult, teen, kids.  (C) Geography regions: NE, SE, NW, SW.  East coast, west coast, mid west, plains, rockies, desert.  (2) Analyzed by (A) Structure.  Size, institutions, geographic variations.  (B) Mechanism.  (C) Philosophy and attitudes.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	American society.  There are significant ways that modern American society discourages thinking, writing and talking.	10/25/2001

Sociology, society.	American society.  There is no distinctly modern society anymore.  There is no distinctly American society anymore.  People have mined time and space for lifestyles.  (1) Time.  People have mined time (history) for lifestyles.  Today in America, you can find people who live as primitives, Luddites, Victorians, and sci-fi futurists.  (2) Space.  People have mined space (geography) for lifestyles.  Today in America, you can find communities of every ethnicity from around the globe who cherish their arts, music, literature, food, clothes and other cultural artifacts.	5/1/2000

Sociology, society.	American society.  Two things they do not talk about in polite american culture: money and sex.  Thus they repress the two most important and strongest drives: survival and sex.  This is wrong.	03/10/1989

Sociology, society.	American society.  What attitudes and behaviors are distinctly American?  Vs.  What good and bad things is American doing that other nationalities are doing as well?	6/26/2004

Sociology, society.	American society.  What do Americans do commonly, consistently or stereotypically?  What do Americans do more so than other nationalities?  Why bother talking about national stereotypes?  Why bother talking about nations?  Why not discuss other sub-national or super-national (international) phenomena?	6/26/2004

Sociology, society.	American society.  Why do other countries and cultures dislike we Americans?  We are rich.  We are powerful.  We are stupid.  We are everywhere.	2/16/2002

Sociology, society.	Average member of society.  What he or she does for work, leisure.  What thinks.  Number and degree of variances.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Awareness (consciousness).  (1) Society's awareness of itself.  (2) Individual's awareness of society.  (3) Society's awareness of individual (human rights?).	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Can society be too big or too complex?  Out of control.  No one knows what is going on.  No one knows what to do.	10/1/1999

Sociology, society.	Categorization of cultures.  Abstract types.  By mode of food production.  By economic system.  By political system.  In general, specific types, specific actual ones.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Change.  Speed, degree, type.  Growth/development, stagnation, devolution/decay.  Historical development of an society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Classifying categories of people by race, nationality, culture, religion, government, geography, class, sex, age, job, hobbies, philosophy.  Rich/poor, smart/dumb, beautiful/ugly, healthy/unhealthy (mentally, physically), ethical/unethical.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Culture change.  Teens feel the need to differentiate themselves from their parents.  Teens feel the need to develop a new culture.  Culture changes as a result of teens need to differentiate themselves from their parents.  Teens drive cultural change.  Teens develop new music styles, new fashion styles, new slang styles, new attitude styles, new lifestyles.  Teens are quick to adopt whatever new technology they can find in order to differentiate themselves from their parents.  (2) Yet all humans to some extent have the same basic needs and those basic needs help limit cultural change to some extent.  (3) Technology is another big driver of culture change.  Culture changes within the realm of what is possible technologically.	1/7/2004

Sociology, society.	Culture.  (1) Be proud of the good points of your culture, but don't be proud of the bad things.  (2) Preserve cultures because cultural diversity is like biodiversity.  (3) Don't be stuck in a culture, and don't let adherence to a culture hold you back from progress.	1/4/2004

Sociology, society.	Culture.  (1) Cultural diversity is like biodiversity.  Both are valuable and should be preserved.     (2) If you place no value on history and no value on diversity you will have a homogenized "here/now" culture.  If you value history and value diversity you will preserve records of cultures past.     (3) Cultures arise and die naturally.  The next 10,000 years of civilization will see even more cultures rise and fall.  We should document them all and put them on the library shelf.     (4) Hopefully what is good in a culture will live on, and what is unimportant or bad will die out.     (5) Two opposing trends today.  (A) The spread of Western culture (and democracy) creating a homogenized "McCulture".  Vs.  (B) The Internet as promoting a multitude of distinct cohesive groups (cultures) not bound by geography/space/place, language, or time.     (6) I would like to see homogeneity in some areas such as a polyglot world language, and a stronger United Nations.  But I would also like to see diversity in other areas, such as creativity of ideas.     (7) Cultural segregation is bad (Ex. Groups that want to separate from other groups in order to keep themselves culturally and genetically "pure").  Just like trade segregation and political isolationism is bad.  Cultural segregation is racist.     (8) Three types of culture.  (A) Living cultures.  (B) Dead but preserved cultures (record of language and arts etc.).  (C) Dead and lost cultures (no record exists of the culture).     (9) Culture arises from (intellectual and creative) individuals.  So we must preserve down to the individual level.  The good and new that each individual creates must be saved.     (10)  Just as there are no distinct races, so there are no distinct cultures.  Both races and cultures blur completely with their neighbors at their edges.  Both races and cultures also display within themselves much variation among individuals.  For these two reasons we can say there is no such thing as distinct races and cultures.	7/13/1998

Sociology, society.	Culture.  (1) Culture as meaningless and arbitrary.  Fads and fashions.  Frivolous and trivial.  No thought and no emotion.  (2) Culture as meaningful and rational.	7/18/2002

Sociology, society.	Culture.  (1) Language and culture.  To what extent is culture a result of language?  If a group of people speak the same language do they share the same culture?  (2) Law and culture.  To what extent is culture the result of a legal system?  If a group of people  use the same legal system do they have the same culture?	12/15/2005

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Components of culture.  (1) Knowledge.  Assumptions, conclusions, and implications.  (2) Technology.  The tools, the materials, and the products.  (3) Ethics.  The values.	5/15/2000

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Let's talk about small cultures.  (1) Personal culture:  Knowledge pool.  Attitude pool.  Technology.  Practices.  Activities.  (2)  Small group culture:  Example, the culture of a group of friends.  (3) So often we think of culture on a grand scale, but individual culture and small group culture is just as important.	1/30/2002

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Pop culture.  (1) Trivia: pop culture.  (2) Nostalgia: past trivia.  People who engage in it are daft.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Some would argue that the diversity of cultures, like the diversity of languages, is a rich repository that can teach us much.  Others would argue that the diversity of cultures is a distracting surface phenomenon.  That underneath the surface these cultures are all very similar.  Cultural diversity is like the vapid fads of the fashion industry.  Nothing new under the sun, from place to place and from time to time.  Cultural universals abound.  Which view is more justified?	7/10/2002

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Three ideas.  (1) Mainstream culture vs. counter culture (against mainstream).  (2) Sub-culture (below culture) vs. culture vs. super-culture (above culture).  An ethical judgment.  (3) Culture and sub-culture (culture within a culture).  A classification scheme.	9/15/1998

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Trends.  (1) Culture is becoming homogenized worldwide.  (2) A fading of style and subcultures is occurring.	12/29/1997

Sociology, society.	Culture.  Two views.  (1) We are all Americans now.  The entire world has gone American.  (2) America has become globalized.  America is now, more than ever, a bunch of croissant and sushi eating cultural sponges.  Which is a good thing.	4/6/2000

Sociology, society.	Culture.  What's going to happen to culture(s) is not the homogenization of world cultures in a melting pot.  Rather, it will be a beautiful mosaic.  Already you can get the building blocks (books, music, visual arts, movies) of different cultures from all over the world, at a local shop.  Never before have we had such access to other views and ways of life.  The local bookstore has literature from all over the world, either translated or in the original language.  That is no mere thing.	2/16/2000

Sociology, society.	Culture.  World homogenization and uniformity.  One culture vs. multiculturalism.  (1) Pro:  Increased understanding.  Increased cooperation.  (2) Contra:  Loss of diversity.  But not necessarily, since now we are aware of diversity, and we save it in books, but we agree on best things to do, and do them together.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Cultures.  Ways of life.  Lifestyles.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Elements.  Economic/business, science/technology, art/entertainment, political/law, geography/history, philosophy, math, logic, religion, military, education, language, reasoning (type, quality, quantity).	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	For any society group.  The x experience in the USA.  History: struggles and gains/losses.  The current situation.  Future prospects.  Studying it vs. experiencing it.  Variations by region.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Forming consent and forming desire in the public.  (1) The system builds desire vs. people are naturally full of desires vs. both.  The system builds desire with advertising, which beyond merely selling products, instills values, promotes lifestyles, and holds an implicit worldview and philosophy (metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics).  (2) People want to be rich so they do not have to work.  Fear of poverty and greed makes them want money.  Pride makes them want money.  Also, people want to appear rich, in order so that others know they are rich, and so they buy a lot of material things.  People are lazy, so they buy a lot of labor saving devices.  Many big houses, and many big cars.  Constantly having the newest stuff.  Pursuing riches means buying into the system, and playing it their way.  The rat race.  The typical life of a manager.  Living simple is more eco-friendly, ala Thoreau.  The system gives people the short-term view instead of the long-term big picture (earth for the next 10,000 years).  Advertisers preach a leisure ethic in which the ultimate goal is to do nothing.  Life on the beach, eat, drink, sleep, take booze and drugs.  Instead of a work ethic to solve problems.	9/15/1998

Sociology, society.	Global society.  A global society is slowly forming, for better or worse.  All the societies are slowly melding.  Transportation and communication make it possible, inevitable.  It may take a few hundred more years.	6/25/2004

Sociology, society.	Groups.  All possible combos of (1) Environment: urban, suburban, rural.  (2) Class: upper, middle, lower.  (3) Sex: male or female.  (4) Age: kid, teen, young adult, middle age, old age.  (5) Describe psychological effects of each combo.  (6) Describe how any person of one combo will interact with another combo.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Associations and organizations.  Size (people, dollars), goals, and power.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Hunter gatherers, agriculture, pastoralists, feudal, industrial, mass.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Pop, haute (rich), avante garde, intelligentsia.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Rich and poor.  What are their lives like?  What are their psychologies like?	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Society groups typed by leisure pursuit, work type, class, philosophy or religious beliefs.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Specific cultures, pros and cons.  (1) Urbanism: losing touch with nature.  The manmade environment, how does it affect people.  (2) Suburban: safe, peaceful, but boring, lifeless.  (3) Rural: in touch with nature, but lack of culture.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  Specific sub-cultures.  High school sociology.  (1) Heads.  (2) Head jocks.  (3) Jocks.  (4) Jock brains.  (5) Brains.  (6) Brain heads.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Groups.  The rich, the powerful, the intelligentsia, the pop masses, the avante garde.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Health of an society (see pathological sociology).	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Homogeneity vs. heterogeneity (better).  Of lifestyles.  Of views, attitudes, philosophies.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	How is society changing today?  What is the mood of the people?  What is the philosophical view of the people?  Society is about changes in family, city, nation, and organizations.  Organizations: Flatter, quicker.  Communication and transportation: more and faster.  Computers are good.  Computers let people organize faster and communicate easier.  Makes dictatorship tougher.  Standard language.  What will the future society be like?  Freedom vs. control.  Education: Computers make availability, organization, and storage of knowledge faster and more.  Nations: International cooperation becoming more important.  Standards: With government or computers, it helps for everyone to cooperate and agree to use same standards.  In education, standards can enforce a minimum level of performance.	9/30/1996

Sociology, society.	Humans are developing a "world society", but that does not mean all humans have to be exactly the same.  Toleration for freedom and diversity is a foundation for a world society.	11/20/2001

Sociology, society.	Ideal society.  Free food.  Free clothing.  Free shelter.  Free transportation.  Free communication.  Free information.  Free education.  Free healthcare.  Free sex and love.  Free friends.	4/7/2006

Sociology, society.	Individual and society.  (1) Slavery of individual to society.  (2) Independence of individual from society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Individual and society.  (1) Those caught up in society.  (A) And don't care.  (B) And want to understand it.  (2) Those who escape or transcend society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Individual and society.  Effects of society on your life, your head, and your behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Individual and society.  How much can you stay separate from society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Individual and society.  Slavery to society vs. independence from society.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Individual vs. society.  Acceptance or rejectance of each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Information society.  An information society requires two components.  (1) Mass media to let people find out about events.  (2) Educated, thinking people to figure out things by critical thinking, debate and reason.	8/9/2005

Sociology, society.	Level of development of theory or knowledge, and practice or use.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	One way to define the word "society" is a group of people.  (1) In a homogenous society everyone is very similar (ex. Japan).  In an extremely homogenous society everyone is the same, and the group is essentially acting as one big individual.  (2) A heterogeneous society contains many different groups (ex. USA). In an extremely heterogeneous society everyone is different and you have no commonality, you just have a bunch of individuals.  (3) So what is the big deal about a group of people?  Nothing.  The word "society" is bogus.	6/6/2000

Sociology, society.	PART ONE.  Possible definitions of society.  (1) Any group of individuals?  No, I don't think so.  (2) The citizens of a nation state?  No, I don't think so.  (3) Group of individuals physically near each other who interact?  (4) Group of individuals spread around the globe who don't even interact but who believe the same things and have similar attitudes?     PART TWO.  Possible definitions of culture.  (1) A set of attitudes (thoughts and emotions) such as found in magic, art, philosophy and science.  (2) Something that is taught and learned, rather than genetic heredity.  (3) Something that persists through time.  (4) By-products of a society.  Rather than the by-products of an individual?  Can we talk about the personal culture of an individual?  (5) Physical artifacts?  Technology and art.	7/18/2002

Sociology, society.	Philosophy of an society: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics (ideals, values, goals), aesthetics.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Problems faced by a society.  (1) Area.  (2) Degree of severity.  (3) Number of problems.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Products of society.  (1) 1% gold, 99% junk.  (2) Stuff and ideas.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Products of society.  (1) Material: manmade stuff.  (2) Immaterial: knowledge and beliefs in all areas.  Amount, accuracy, relevance, complexity.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Proposition One: Wherever there is a society there is a culture.  Proposition Two: A society and a culture exist anytime more than one person interact.  Question One: What if the two people have opposite attitudes and engage in conflict behavior?  Is that dyad a society and a culture?  Question Two: Can an individual have a personal culture?  Either a lifestyle or a set of learned behaviors capable of being transmitted to others?  Question Three: Can an individual have a personal society based on multiple selves (see Psychology, personality, self)?	6/22/2004

Sociology, society.	Relationships, effects of and on each other: individual, society, environment.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Societal change often occurs one small step at a time only.  The step can often only be taken once the old generation dies.  This is why societal progress is so slow.	12/26/1997

Sociology, society.	Society and individual.  (1) How much does society shape the individual?  100%?  50%?  0%?  (2) In what ways does society shape the individual?  Thinking.  Emotion.  Attitudes.  (3) By what mechanism does society shape the individual?  Family.  School.  Work.  Peers.  Media.  Government.  Shaping the views of the individual regarding what is (metaphysics).  Shaping the views of the individual regarding how we know (epistemology).  Shaping the views of the individual regarding what to do or how to behave (ethics).	7/31/2005

Sociology, society.	Society and individual.  Some try to argue that society can be reduced to the individual.  However, many psychologists will argue that there is no individual.  (See: Psychology, personality, self).	4/24/2005

Sociology, society.	Society and individual.  Some try to argue that society can be reduced to the individual.  They try to argue that society is a product of individuals.  However, others argue that the individual is a product of society.	4/24/2005

Sociology, society.	Society can be defined as a group of people having a distinct culture.  I argue that there really is no such thing as culture.  Thus, there really is no such thing as society.	11/1/1998

Sociology, society.	Society is a system composed of many subsystems.  Each subsystem is composed of further subsystems:  (1) Political and legal subsystems.  (2) Economics and business subsystems.  (3) Technology.  (4) Education, Media, Information subsystems.  (5) Health subsystems.     PART TWO.  The health, sustainability and justice of a society is comprised of the health, sustainability and justice of its subsystems.	5/22/2007

Sociology, society.	Socio-cultural systems, super and sub.  Types: individual, family, friends, peer groups.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Specific cultures.  Europe is overcivilized.  What have they lost touch with?  Freedom, wilderness, bravery, imagination, drive, will.  They are timid, restrained, corralled sheep.	9/30/1996

Sociology, society.	Statistics on society.  Crime, health, economic, politics.  Population statistics: birth, death, growth rates.	12/30/1992

Sociology, society.	Today's society.  (1) Television.  (2) Disposable.  (3) Plastic.  (4) Instant.  (5) Computers.  (6) It is not mass, it is a zillion fragments (ex. bulletin board groups).  (7) Space and time collapse (be anywhere instantly now).  (8) Association by interest, not family, not work, not religion.	12/12/1993

Sociology, society.	Types of society.  Literate vs. illiterate societies.  Democratic vs. undemocratic societies.  Agricultural, industrial, service, information societies.	8/9/2005

Sociology, society.	Types of society.  Societies described in terms of their political, economic and technological types.	10/17/2005

Sociology, society.	Various views that society is or is not going down the tubes, and why.  (1) Not enough religion argument (false).  (2) Breakdown of nuclear family.  Family values argument. (false).  (3) Religion is not important, but a good ethic system is important and is not in place yet well enough (true).  (4) Racism and poverty spur helplessness and hopelessness and anger and crime.  (true).  (5) Crime is rising, rise in violence (false).  (6) We all used to live on isolated farms, and there was little harm done.  (true).  (7) Crime rates rise proportionally with population rates (true).  (8) New pressures exist today, like the easy availability of drugs, and racial mixing (heterogeneity).  (true).  (9) There are new problems, but also many new gains in areas like civil rights, womens lib, and the environment. (true).	02/10/1994

Sociology, society.	What are the traits of all societies?  What are the traits of a specific society (a time and place)?  Especially post-modern society.  Communication: far, instant, visual and sound.  Transportation: quick, anywhere.  Military: power to destroy world instantly (bomb).  Global trade.  Knowledge growing, but wisdom decreasing.  Environment: pollution up, resources dwindling.  Political: power of state to control individual is great.	04/30/1993

Sociology, society.	What kind of society do we want?  What kind of society do we have?	10/10/2004

Sociology, society.	When does a group become a society?  (1) Enduring patterns of behavior.  (2) Organization.  (3) Rules.	11/20/2001

Sociology, solitude.	.This section is about solitude	1/24/2006

Sociology, solitude.	(1) Every human spends most of their time alone.  Every human is a loner.  Learn to be alone well.  (2) Discussions of solitude depend on how one defines the words "alone" and "not alone".  (A) One way to define the word "alone" is based on interaction.  For example, alone is when you are not talking to another person.  (B) Another way to define the word "alone" is based on physical proximity.  For example, when you are not within view of another person, or when you are not within the sound of voice of another person, then you are alone.  (C) Another way to define the word "alone" is by emotion.  For example, a person could be at a party, talking with other people, and still feel very much alone.	12/14/2005

Sociology, solitude.	A defense of solitude.  Look at the joiners.  Look at the lemmings.  Look at the sheep.  Look at the herd.  Groupthink can be a bad thing.	12/14/2005

Sociology, solitude.	Being alone is discouraged by the media and by society in general.  The phrase "he was a loner and a drifter" is often used to describe criminals, trouble makers and generally any negative trait.  This is a wrong, unfair view because, firstly, not everyone in a group is behaving ethically, and secondly, not everyone acting alone is acting unethically.	1/2/2004

Sociology, solitude.	If I withdraw into the wilderness, what difference is that from withdrawing into a mansion with a gate?	4/4/2001

Sociology, solitude.	If you decide to live your life in peaceful isolation in nature, not bothering to think, two things will happen.  (1) You are not going to help anyone other than yourself.  (2) The opposition, who is often evil and well organized, will mess with others and will eventually get to you and mess with you.	1/25/2004

Sociology, solitude.	Loner Zen.  Other people remind me of my own presence.  When I am alone I disappear.  I did not seek solitude because I was uncomfortable with other people.  I sought solitude because I was uncomfortable with myself.  And in the wilderness I did not come to terms with nature only.  In the wilderness I came to terms with myself.  What is it about me that bothers me?	7/11/2000

Sociology, solitude.	Lurking in broad daylight.  Sometimes it does a loner good to walk amongst the people.  Watch couples playing with their children.  Listen to singles flirting.  Follow a group of tourists.  It does a loner good.	9/12/2001

Sociology, solitude.	Me.  I lack social-ness.  I might not have what it takes to be a good friend, or to be a group member.  I am rebellious.  I am moody.  I am sometimes a bit of an egomaniac.  I am sometimes a bit of a megalomaniac.  I seek solitude.	5/25/2002

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude sum up.  (1) Definitions of solitude.  (A) Not even see people.  (B) Not talk to people.  (C) Not even use television, radio, Internet or books.  (D) No close friends.  No deep talks.  All shallow.  No lover.  No intimacy.  (E) Contact with only a small circle of homogenous people.  (2) Actual causes of solitude.  Biochemical causes.  Way you were raised.  Depression.  Paranoia.  Artist who dislikes society and people.  (3) Reasons loners give for being alone.  Loathes people.  Likes to be alone.  Too busy for friends.  Too lazy to socialize.  (4) Effects of solitude.  Good effects: Get work done.  Bad effects: Go crazy easier.  Lack of social skills development.	11/25/2001

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude vs. sociability.  Attention loners!  Being a loner is dangerous.  It is easy to slip away mentally, because you have no human "mirrors" to bounce stuff off of, and because it is plain lonely, and because there are no social connections to break which makes it easier to kill yourself.  And when you are a loner you have no support network in case of physical or economic breakdowns.	10/30/1997

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  (1) Individualism.  (A) Pros.  Think for self.  Develop a unique voice.  (B) Contra.  Isolation is unhealthy.  Lack of social skills development.  (2) Sociability.  (A) Pros.  Solidarity.  Cooperation.  Man is naturally social.  Multiplying work effort.  Exchange of new views.  (B) Contra.  Mindless conformity.  Blind obedience to group.  Herd mentality.	8/20/1999

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Arguments against solitude.  Living alone is risky and stupid.  There is no backup, there is no fault tolerance.	11/30/1997

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Being alone vs. with people.  Pros and cons of being alone vs. being with others.  (1) Too much with people.  (A) Contra.  Too socialized.  Socialized like shit.  No free thinking, speaking, or acting.  (B) Pro.  Support network.  (2) Too much without people.  (A) Contra.  Lack people skills for dealing with friends, neutrals, and enemies.  Lack social understanding.  (B) Pro.  Raises independence and freedom.  Raises self reliance.	12/30/1992

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  How much time to spend alone vs. with others (lovers, friends, strangers).	12/30/1992

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Introverts and extroverts.  Causes and effects.  Pros and cons.  (1) Hermits, monks, loners.  Causes: Fear of people (shyness).  Dislike of people (depression).  Uncomfortable with social interaction.  (2) Social butterfly, tons of friends, make friends easily, chatty and accepting.  Causes: Afraid to be alone.	4/14/1998

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Loners fear that others will corrupt and defile them.  Loners loathe others for being less than perfect.  Fear and loathing is the recipe to make a loner.	5/2/1999

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Loners.  (1) Arguments loners use.  (A) The other person is no good.  And I am no good.  (B) Self reliance and independence are virtues.  (2) All the loners I met did poorly, suffering alone, depressed, drugs, suicide.	08/17/1997

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Reasons people seek solitude.  (1) Paranoia, fear, mistrust, suspicion.  (2) Fragility, weak ego, weak sense of self.  (3) Fear of hurting others.  (4) Fear of being hurt.  (5) Rigidity.  Reluctance to change.  Fear of new ideas.  (6) Perfectionism.  Purity.  Superiority.  Cleanliness neurosis.	8/6/2001

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Self isolation by a person due to their thinking.  A person can develop pathological attitudes like (1) They think they know it all already.  (2) They think unknown things will hurt them.	09/10/1994

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  Social withdrawal and isolation (from x group).  Often done to stay ahead of them.  Sometimes end up behind them in development.	12/30/1992

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  The masses drag me down, depress me, devolve me.	12/30/1992

Sociology, solitude.	Solitude.  The price you pay for rejecting society's values: no friends, no woman, no money, no life.  But it can be worth it, given a crappy society, and having a great idea.	12/30/1992

Sociology, solitude.	The hostility of the group to toward the solitary individual is often caused by the group's fear of the unknown loner and often results in attempts at peer pressure to coerce conformity to group norms.	1/7/2004

Sociology, solitude.	The variables in the equation of solitude versus sociability.  (1)(A) Those who have trouble being alone.  Those who get lonely, and need someone to talk to.  Those who are stressed by solitude, and go crazy alone.  (B) Those who do well at being alone.  Those who enjoy being alone.  Those who don't mind being alone.  (2)(A) Those who have trouble interacting with others.  Those who are too passive with others.  Those who are too aggressive with others.  (B) Those who do well interacting with others.	8/8/2006

Sociology, solitude.	There is an argument that isolation is detrimental to an individual in the same way that the socio-economic-political policy of isolation is detrimental to a nation.	6/12/2005

Sociology, solitude.	Why am I a loner?  (1) Am I a loner because I dislike people?  (2) Am I a loner because people dislike me?	7/12/2002

Sociology, solitude.	Why I am a loner.  (1) Because no group will have me.  An outcast and a pariah.  (2) Because I will belong to no group.  A non-conformist, rebel, outsider.	10/5/2000

Sociology.	.This section is about various other thoughts on sociology.  Topics include: ( ) Behavior.  ( ) Change.  Social change.  ( ) Ethics and sociology.  ( ) Fame.  ( ) Holidays.  ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Manners.  ( ) Massage.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Social skills.  ( ) Techniques.	1/24/2006

Sociology.	"Sir" and "Ma'am" are baloney.  People who demand excessive social respect by demanding to be called "Sir" or "Ma'am" are people with power hoarding issues.  "Sir" and "Ma'am" are not common courtesy.  "Sir and Ma'am" are bogus.  Better to call people "Citizen" or "Comrade" than to call people "Sir" and "Ma'am".  Better to call people "Dude" than to call people "Sir" or "Ma'am".	6/5/2004

Sociology.	(1) Ideal: fair, friendly.  (2) Problems: bullies, cheaters, liars, unfriendly.	4/20/2001

Sociology.	(1) Loyalty: the notion of loyalty at all costs, loyalty above all else, is bullshit.  (2) Honor: the notion of honor at all costs, honor above all else, is bullshit.  (3) People who promote loyalty and honor at all costs, loyalty and honor above all else, often engage in criminal activities.	11/11/2005

Sociology.	(1) Minimal social interaction.  Two people see each other.  Two people nod or wave to each other.  (2) Maximal social interaction.  Two people spend hours discussing every topic under the sun.  A mind meld.  Two people work together for long hours.  Two people have sex.	8/31/2005

Sociology.	(1) Patterns of diversity, dissent, non-conformity and eccentricity.  These are good.  (2) Patterns of pressures of social conformity and repression:  Ignore; ostracism; cold shoulder; exclusion; shun; verbal attack; physical violence.  These are bad.	5/1/2000

Sociology.	(1) People can have a negative effect on a person.  People can hold back a person's development.  (2) People can have a positive effect on a  person.  People can advance a person's development.	10/17/2005

Sociology.	(1) Retreat; Withdraw; Disengage; Isolate; Ignore; Hide; Silence; Shy away.  Versus.  (2) Engage; Confront; Discuss; Look at; Face up to.	8/19/2004

Sociology.	(1) Role theory.  (2) Acting theory.  (3) Exchange theory.  Taking vs. being taken.  Getting, receiving vs. giving.  Stealing.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	(1) Signs of a healthy society or social life.  Freedom, justice, openness (Popper), human rights protected, minority rights protected.  Much, deep communication about important subjects.  Find the cool, avoid the assholes.  (2) Signs of an unhealthy society or social life.  Little communication, shallow communication.  Mixed up with schmucks.  Abusing or being abused.  Practices used by cults to brainwash and control minds.	04/24/1997

Sociology.	(1) Social philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics.  (2) Social Sciences: Sociology (macro, micro, historical, comparative).  Cultural anthropology.  Economics.  Political science.  Sociological jurisprudence.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	(1) Social structures: categories, aggregates, groups, institutions, organizations, socio-cultural systems (scs).  (2) Social mechanisms.  Interaction methods: exchange, scripts, masks, roles.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	(1) Social thought.  (A) Social folk wisdom.  (B) Social philosophy.  (C) Social science.  (2) Social practice, action and behavior.	5/1/2002

Sociology.	(1) Society's norms of social interaction influence the individual's norms, attitudes, and behaviors of social interaction.  (2) Variables.  (A) Talkitiveness, closeness, touching, gestures, eye contact.  (B) Frequency and length of interaction.  (C) Familiarity vs. privacy.  (D) Friendliness vs. cold.  (E) Emotional expression (true vs. faked).	12/30/1992

Sociology.	(1) The most common form of social interaction is the dyad.  Because it is the most common form of human social interaction, we can suppose that humans are most skilled at handling dyad interactions.  (2) Perhaps the next most common form of social interaction is the "one to many" interaction.  (Ex. boss to workers)  (3) Least common is the "many to many" form of social interaction, but it is the most important and the most difficult.  We need to develop in people better skills to deal with "many to many" social interactions (ex. group to group).	6/25/2001

Sociology.	(1) The primary factor in social organization, a just society, and a progressing society, is communication technology and information management technology (like language, writing, printing and computers).  (2) When people can not talk they fight.  When minorities can not speak up they get trampled.  (3) Education occurs via communication.  (4) Economics is not the primary factor like Marx thought.  Technology in general is not the primary factor.  (5) Any technology that increases a society's communication capabilities and information management capabilities will likely advance the society.	4/4/1999

Sociology.	(1) The study of social attitudes.  (2) The study of social interactions.	10/10/2004

Sociology.	(1) Trait (A) Pro: smooth, diplomat, negotiator.  Contra: phony, two faced, mealy mouthed, spineless, gutless, manipulator, operator, slick, fair weather friend, can't or won't take a stand.  (2) Trait (B) Pro: take a stand, courage of convictions.  Contra: pig headed, stubborn.	09/10/1994

Sociology.	(1) When person A feels an act (by person A toward person B) is less bad than it is, but B feels the act more bad than it is.  Then B responds, and A feels B's reaction is unprovoked and unwarranted.  (2) When B reacts as if A acted intentionally, vs. when A knows it was an accident.  (3) All this aside from purely arbitrary psychological or sociological standards/values/customs, i.e. cases of misunderstanding.  We are talking above about moral situations.  Is there such a thing as a purely moral situation (i.e. perfect understanding on both parts)?	10/20/1993

Sociology.	A formal analysis of a problem in sociology (and yet this is not a problem about people going to a formal, or to a social, or to analysis).     SECTION ONE.  Stating the situation.  (1) There are people.  There are issues.  There are views.  Each person has a view about each issue.  (2) In one version of the problem, (A) None of the people are the same.  No person has the exact same views on all the issues as any other person.    That is, no two people have the same views on all issues.    (B) None of the people are completely different.  That is, every person on each issue has a view in common with at least one other person.  (C) So, as a result, every person, on every issue, has agreements and disagreements with every other person.  That is, each person shares similar views and has dissimilar views with every other person.     SECTION TWO.  Posing the problems and questions.  (1) For any given number of people, issues and views, describe the complete system of all possible shifting social alliances and social conflicts described by the above parameters.  (2) For any given number of people, issues and views:  How many coalitions will form?  How many people will be in each coalition?   (3) For any number of people, issues and views, what is the mathematical formula that describes the situation?  What is the mathematical function that shows all the possible combinations of results?  What is the mathematical model that shows the most likely outcome?  (4) Lets define a coalition as a group of people with same view on a specific issue.  As a result, we can say that the number of coalitions per issue depends on the number of people and depends the number of views per issue.  What determines the exact number of people in a coalition?  (5) In what cases is this problem interesting?  In what cases is this problem not interesting?     SECTION THREE.  Examining the problem.    PART ONE.  Preliminaries.  (1) Let P stand for people.  Let I stand for issues.  Let V stand for views.  PART TWO. Describe all the possibilities of the problem from the simplest situations to the most complex situations.  First, formally define "simple" and "complex".  (1)(A) In a simple situation each issue has the same number of views as every other issue.  (B) In a complex situation there are a different number of views for every issue.  (C) In this paper I am investigating simple situations where every issue has the same number of views.  PART TWO.  (2)(A) A very simple situation has only two views per issue.  For example, one can only vote yes or no in a two view situation.  (B) A complex issue has more than two views per issue.  (3) In this paper I am investigating situations that have more than two views per issue.     SECTION FOUR.  Explore possibilities for one person, two persons and three persons.  PART ONE.  One person situations.  (1) One person holding one view.  1P, 1I, 1V.  (2) One person holding two views.  IP, 1I, 2V.  (3) Versions of the problem involving one person make no sense, unless you say that one person holding multiple views on an issue can be used to describe states of uncertainty, indecision or mental debate.  (4) By the way, in this paper, P, I and V equal a whole number greater than zero.  Neither P, I nor V equal zero, a fraction or a negative number.  PART TWO.  Two person situations.  (1) Two persons, one view.  2P, 1I, 1V.  This version has two people holding the same view on an issue.  Not very interesting.   (2) Two persons, two views.  2P, 1I, 2V.  In this version, there are two people and two possible views.  There are four possible voting outcomes are:  P1-V1, P2-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2.  The two people can agree by holding the same view on the issue, in two ways.  The two people can disagree by holding opposing views on the issue, in two ways.   (3) Two persons, three views.  2P, 1I, 3V.  There are nine possible voting outcomes are: P1-V1, P2-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2.  P1-V1, P2-V3.  P1-V2, P2-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V3.  P1-V3, P2-V1.  P1-V3, P2-V2.  P1-V3, P2-V3.  Two people discussing one issue that has three viewpoints can either agree in three ways, or they can disagree in six ways.     PART THREE.  Three person situations.  (1) Three people and one view.  3P, 1I, 1V. They must all agree.  Not very interesting.   (2) Three people and two views.  3P, 1I, 2V.  There are nine possible outcomes.  P1-V1, P2-V1, P3-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V1, P3-V2.  P1-V1, P2-V2, P3-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2, P3-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V1, P3-V1.  P1-V2, P1-V1, P1-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V2, P3-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2, P3-V2.   (3) Three people and three views.  3P, 1I, 3V.  There are 27 possible outcomes.      SECTION FIVE.  Lets summarize the above combinations.  (1) 2P x 1I x 2V = 4 possible outcomes.   (2) 2P x 1I x 3V = 9 possible outcomes.  (3) 3P x 1I x 2V = 8 possible outcomes.  (4) 3P, 1I, 3V = 27 possible outcomes.  (5) What is the pattern?  The pattern is: raise the number of views to the power of the number of people.  For example, in the preceding situations:  2 to the second power is 4.  3 to the second power is 9.  2 to the third power is 8.  3 to the third power 27.  SECTION SIX.  Conclusions.  The main conclusion is that: to determine the total number of possible outcomes take the number of views and raise it to the power of the number of people.     PART ONE.  Consider the following six possible cases.  When I is greater than P.   When P is greater than I.  When V is greater than P.  When P is greater than V.  When V is greater than I.  When I is greater than V.     PART TWO.  Consider the number of issues, views and people.   (1) Number of people.  Number of people, in and of itself, is inconsequential as long as it is two or more, because if the number of people is less than 2 then it is not a social situation.  The situation of one person having multiple views can be viewed as a situation of uncertainty, indecision or internal debate.  (2) Number of issues.  The number of issues, in and of itself, is inconsequential as long as it is 1 or more.  It does not matter how many issues there are.  There are an infinite number of issues in the universe.  Each issue is taken one at a time.  Therefore, the number of issues in this problem does not really correlate to anything.  So one might as well explore situations of one issue.  (3) Views.  If the number of views is 1 then everyone agrees.  If the number of views is two or more then coalitions can form.  If number of views that people can hold is greater than the number of people then it is possible that no majority may form because each person can hold a different view.    PART THREE.  (1) The number of ways to agree.  The number of views is the number of ways everyone can agree unanimously, because everyone can vote for any particular view.  (2) The number of ways to disagree.  If the number of views is equal or greater than the number of voters, and if everyone votes differently, then there can be as many different votes as there are people.  (3) If the number of views is less than the number of people then coalitions (i.e., groups of more than one person) must form.  (A) Number of coalitions depends on the number of views.  When will two coalitions form?  When there are two views.  When will three coalitions form?  When there are at least three views and three people.  When will four coalitions form?  When there are at least four views and at least four people.  (B) Number of people in each coalition depends on the number of people.  When will coalitions of two people form?  When will coalitions of at least three people form?  When must coalitions of at least four people form?  PART FOUR.  The question of number of coalitions is a question of number of combinations.  If you have four people, A B C and D,  the number of coalitions is the mathematical combinations of people.  One can have combinations of groups of one, two, three, four and five people.  Though, coalitions, by semantic definition, have more than one person and less than a unanimity, so some combinations are ruled out.  PART FIVE.  To determine the total number of possible outcomes take the number of views and raise it to the power of the number of people.     SECTION SEVEN.  Applications of the problem.  PART ONE. One way to look at this scenario is as a voting scenario.  In a two party system, a person can vote for one of two parties, so that is like having V equal two.  In a multiparty system one can vote for one of many parties, so that is like having V greater than two.  PART TWO. Another example of the problem. There is a series of protest marches for each issue, one march for each view on each issue, with view holders marching and with alternate view holders counter-protesting on the side lines.  For each issue, some people will hold the same view as you and will be your allies and fellow protest marcher, while other people will hold other views and will be your opponents and counter protester.  Thus, through the course of the series of protest marches, at some point each and every person will be your ally and fellow protester, and at some point each and every person will be your opponent and counter protester.	11/23/2004

Sociology.	A huge part of sociology is politics and economics.  So, if you study sociology you should also study politics and economics.  See also, Politics.  See also, Economics.	5/3/2007

Sociology.	Acting.  Social acting.  Two people meet for the first time.  Each person wants to please the other person, but each person does not know "how the other person likes it".  Each person likes their social relations a certain way, for example, varying degrees of formal politeness versus informal directness.  Additionally, each person does not know the specific role that the other person would like them to play, for example, friend or lover.  So people act to please others, and people play roles to please others.   (2) People also act when they do not like or do not trust the other person. (See also: Arts, movies > Acting.)	7/7/2005

Sociology.	An important part of social relationships is being on the same wavelength, being on the same page, seeing the same world, seeing the relationship the same way, speaking the same language.  Understanding each other, if not necessarily agreeing with each other.  A correspondence of views.  If not, then at least a tolerance of views.	3/11/2000

Sociology.	Analysis of an individual's total social condition.  (1) How big is your social network (everyone you know)?  How many people do you know?  How big is your support network (friends)?  (2) How close are they?  (3) How many different types of relationships do you have?  Example, friends, lovers, enemies, acquaintances.  (4) How varied are the people with whom you have relationships?	06/10/1997

Sociology.	Begging.  Various types of beggars.  Various phenomena of begging.  Various possible causes of begging.     PART ONE.  Begging terms.  All of the below are homeless.  (1) Beggar: no other means of subsistence than begging.  (2) Bum: has a means of subsistence (for example, canning or squeegee).  (3) Hobo: a traveling beggar.  (4) Tramp: a traveling bum.     PART TWO.  Types of Beggars.  (1) City beggar vs. wilderness beggar.  (2) Stationary beggar vs. traveling beggar.  (3) Young beggar vs. old beggars.  (4) Secular beggar vs. religious beggar.     PART THREE.  Possible psychological causes of begging.  (1) The beggar as an ascetic.  A person who renounces material possessions.  (2) The beggar as a contrary or rebel.  If society was ascetic then these contraries would be materialistic.  (3) The beggar as freedom monger.  A person who wants to be as free as can be.     PART FOUR.  Beggars and the link between rebellion and renunciation.  Rebel against everything.  Renounce everything.  Renounce material possessions (own nothing).  Renounce society (give up on society's goals).  Renounce activity (renounce work and renounce play, just sit around).  Renounce self (self destruction).     PART FIVE.  Two types of beggars:  The empty-headed beggars vs. the thinking beggar.  The question is whether the beggar renounces the mental world as well as the physical world.     PART SIX.  There is a similarity between beggars and other types of ascetics.  Beggars and the homeless.  Beggars and street kids (grunge style or punk style).     PART SEVEN.  Two key factors are escape and re-entry.  (1) Beggars can escape from society if they want to.  Begging offers an escape hatch.  Some people can't escape from their place in society.  (2) Some beggars can re-enter society if they want to.  Other beggars have difficulty re-entering society.     PART EIGHT.  (1) Related social types.  (A) The lazy (don't want to work).  (B) The crazy.  (C) The fakers (malingerers).  (2)  Other factors:  (A) Mental illness.  (B) Liquor and drug addiction.  (C) Loners who don't work well with others.     PART NINE.  Begging and societal outcasts, for example, the marginalized, the rejected, and the branded.  Some people beg because they have been cast out (ostracized) against their will, while other people beg because they have chosen to leave.     PART TEN.  The relationship of begging and nomadic cultures.  Some nomadic cultures beg for a living.  Other nomadic cultures support themselves through trade.     PART ELEVEN.  Begging and the free-rider problem.  Beggars are often criticized because they are free-riders who exist off the resources of other people.  However, beggars are small free-riders, and  they are often a target for criticism only because they visible.  There are many more hidden free-riders, who take many more resources from the system for free.  The result is that beggars are often scapegoated with excessive severity and in an unjust manner by society.	8/6/2000

Sociology.	Behavior.  (1) Conflict.  Types: inter-group, intra-group.  Causes.  Cures, ways of resolving: fighting.  (2) Competition: same.  (3) Cooperation: same.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  (1) Friendly vs. unfriendly.  (2) Social vs. anti-social.	9/20/1998

Sociology.	Behavior.  Active vs. passive.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Change, to build one thing you must destroy another.  Nurture, destroy.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Conflict, competition, cooperation (working together, trading, sharing).	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Cooperation vs. conflict.  When to, who to, how much to, how to, why to.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Dynamics.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Conflict vs. cooperate.  Aggressive vs. passive.  Dominant vs. submissive.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Eating, moving, communication, sex, struggling.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Friendly vs. not friendly.  Helpful vs. unhelpful.  Open vs. closed.  Honest vs. dishonest.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Helping, neutral, hurting.  Hurting: to protect, to assert, to attack.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Mean: destroy, dominate, compete, aggressive, assertive.  Nice: seduce, submit, ingratiate, kiss ass.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  People will treat you great one minute, and treat you like shit the next.  Consciously or unconsciously.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Picking on.  Disrespecting.  Bullying.	9/20/1998

Sociology.	Behavior.  Posing, pretending, falseness, disguises.  (1) The rich, sane, and smart pretending to be opposite.  Visa versa.  (2) Men pretending to be women, and visa versa.  (3) Pretending to be (fashion experimentation) vs. wanting to be.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Real, authentic, original vs. fakers, posers, b.s.-ers.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Social behavior.  Behavior analysis.  Types, causes, effects, purpose (conscious and unconscious).	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  The most common social behavior is doing what everyone else is doing.  It saves thinking things out.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Behavior.  Your goals.  Need others to do something.  Need others to not do something.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Causes of anger at my friend and his wife.  (1) Jealousy?  Self pity?  Anger at myself redirected towards another?  Fear that they are above us?  Or is it just their superior attitude?  (2) Doubts about them.  They are crazy.  They are beneath us.  They will hurt us.  (3) I should just enjoy their friendship.	12/20/1998

Sociology.	Causes of interpersonal interaction.  (1) Loneliness.  (2) Boredom.  (3) Pain.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Change.  Development of social nature of individual.  (1) Social development of individual.  Oriented toward (A) Parents.  (B) Nuclear family.  (C) Friends (teens).  (D) Significant other (late teens).  (E) New family (early adulthood). (2) Social development of a society.  (A) Generation.  Historical events that shape a generation.  Attitudes of a generation.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Change.  In some areas you are ahead of society.  In some areas you are behind society.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Change.  Social change.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Causes and effects.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Change.  Social change.  Sometimes behavior creates relationship.  Sometimes relationship creates the behavior.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Change.  Social change.  Structural change in society.  (1) Top down strategies.  Lobby lawmakers for political change.  (2) Bottom up strategies.  Grass roots movements.  Talk to everyone you meet.  Change minds through informing, reasoning, or emotional appeal.  Exhort them to take action.  The Internet is useful for this.	02/28/1998

Sociology.	Change.  Societal change.  Static societies vs. dynamic societies.  Society's attitude toward change (positive or negative). Change agents in a society.  Technological, economic, and political change, and their effects on each other.	9/20/1998

Sociology.	Charm.  The secret to charm is to believe (1) I am wonderful.  (2) You are wonderful.  (3) It is a wonderful world.  Thus no problems, no worries, just a calm, happy confidence and an interest in others.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Civilized.  (1) Those who closely follow meaningless arbitrary unimportant manners of an society.  (2) Those who blindly follow truth and justice systems.  (3) Those who understand truth and justice.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Cohesion and dispersion.  Things about me or you, or about our relationship or situation that keep us together or draw us apart.  Chosen freely or against our will.  In our control or beyond our control.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Computers are in many ways improving social relations.  (1) Physically dispersed individuals can meet online.  Group formation is not based on proximity or looks but by ideas.  This is an improvement.  (2) Anyone can participate.  It does not matter what color or age you are.  This is a very democratic improvement.	3/9/2000

Sociology.	Control vs. freedom.  Order vs. disorder.  See Politics.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Conversation seems impossible, even if you find someone who shares your area of interest.  Love seems equally impossible as conversation.  Yet people continue to converse, and people continue to fall in love.	12/21/2006

Sociology.	Crime.  See Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Describe and analyze in detail best and worst social states, in general and for me.  And how to get and avoid them.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Development of social nature.  (1) Development of social psychology and behavior of individual.  (2) Development of social psychology and behavior of humans.  (3) Development of social psychology and behavior of any group.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Dreck.  Round up the usual bullshitters, status seekers, show offs, and money grubbers.	7/23/2006

Sociology.	Dumb is annoying.  Smart with a superior attitude is annoying too.  But dumb with a superior attitude is annoying to the second power, annoying squared.  And these types of people are all over.	12/25/1998

Sociology.	Economic aspects: how much they give, for what cost.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Economics and sociology.  Comparisons of modes of consumption.  What mail order catalogs do you subscribe to?  Susan subscribes to LL Bean and Harry and Davids Fruits.  Sally subscribes to Williams and Sonoma, and Pottery Barn.  Susan forms an opinion about herself and about Sally, based on the mail orders catalogues each subscribes to.  Sally forms an opinion about herself and about Susan based on mail order catalog subscriptions.  For example, Susan and Sally meet.  What is the first thing they discuss?  The first thing they discuss is where each one shops.  Identity through consumption, its a bitch.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Economics of sociology.  All social interactions have an economic aspect.  Give and get.  Exchange.	11/25/2004

Sociology.	Emergentism vs. reductionism.  What phenomena emerge at the societal level that are not present at the psychological level?	10/10/2004

Sociology.	Environments and sociology: urban, suburban, rural, wild.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  A leader shows people the way.  A friend shows people the way.  A good person shows people the way.  You do not have to be a leader or a friend to show the way.  It is something people should just do for anyone.  The key is to do it subtley.	11/20/1997

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Game theory and ethics.  (1) Number of players.  Analysis of possible actions.  (2) Single person: doing a single action, or series of actions.  (3) Multiple player: each doing a single action, or multiple actions.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Geography and ethics.  (1) Scandinavian ethics vs. mediterranean ethics (ie. Polar vs. equatorial ethics).  (2) Rural ethics vs. urban ethics.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Justice outside of the formal legal system.  (1) Vendetta, feud, retaliation, revenge, retribution.  (2) Escalation.  (3) Getting your friends to gang up and beat up enemy.  (4) Public bitching and complaining.  (5) Talk it out calmly and rationally.  (6) Verbal fight vs. physical fight.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Justice: the big social question is how to get total, instant, catharsis?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Person X meets person Y.  Y treats X like A.  Should X treat Y like B?  See also: Philosophy, ethics.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Power.  How much power do you have?  How much freedom do you have?  What can you do (personal power)?  What can you make others do, or prevent others from doing (interpersonal power)?  How much can you curtail others freedom?  Political power: who gets how much freedom?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Relationships.  We affect each other.  They drag you down as much as you drag them up.  Purpose of love/sex relationships is to help each other.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Society's ethical system consists of laws and norms.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Ethics and sociology.  Struggling and ethics.  (1) Life is a struggle.  What, why, and how to struggle for and against?  (2) To conquer or not, achieve or not, success and failure.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Evolutionary psychologists suggest that most men fight over women, but one reason some males continue to relate to each other with attitudes of conflict and competition is because they fear that if they do not relate to other males in terms of either conflict or competition then the only other alternative is something that has a whiff of homo-erotica about it.  So they fight and compete to try to prove their heterosexuality.  Its interesting to observe that there are various additional tactics that some men use to deal with the above very narrow view of reality.  One way is to say that another man is not human, that is, call them an animal, which is an attitude some fearful men use to try to take the pressure off themselves.  Another tactic is to say that another man is human but not a man, that is, call them a woman.  However, to call another man a woman is a strange way to deal with one's own insecurity.  Yet another tactic is to call another adult a child.  And yet another tactic is to deny the existence of another person, i.e., to call them "nothing".  Are there any better ways than the above tactics?  Perhaps to call another person "human" or "citizen".	8/5/2000

Sociology.	Evolutionary sociology.  (1) Social behavior in animals.  Bees, ants and other insects.  Schools of fish.  Flocks of birds.  Herd mammals.  Social behaviors like mating, territory, communication, cooperation and conflict.  (2) Social behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Sociology.	Evolutionary sociology.  What was the evolution of human social nature?  How are humans similar and different from other social animals?  What are the good and bad aspects of man's social nature?	6/22/2004

Sociology.	Exchange theory.  Bargaining, negotiating, haggling, deal making, occurs everywhere and always.  You must be a politician, salesman, advertiser, even if your product is good.  Good things do not always sell themselves.  Good does not always conquer evil.  Not to lie, but to sell, push, advertise, pitch the truth.  See public relations and political campaigning.	04/23/1994

Sociology.	Extremism.  Violence, terror, harassment, invasion of privacy.  Instead of reason and dialogue.  Political extremism.  Religious extremism.  Corruption, injustice, unethical behavior.	12/2/2003

Sociology.	Faces.  Need to develop a game face that is friendly and relaxed, not tense, haughty, somber, etc., like it usually is.  Yet also strong, confident, and serious, for leadership.  The strength and competitiveness is what lets you put on an appearance of being friendly to others.	07/30/1996

Sociology.	Faces.  Poker faces and game faces (emotional expression).  Esp. for urban survival.  Don't give anything away vs. natural beatness.  Losing one's cool, head, composure, confidence.	05/30/1993

Sociology.	Fads.  (1) Fads are fleeting.  The fad is in the fading.  If it never fades then its not a fad.  (2) Fads are trivial.  If its important then its not a fad.  (3) Important and true ideas, actions, and things, are not fads.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  (1) Fads are, in part, about social imitation.  Fads are due to the desire of individual people to be like everyone else.  Some people have the desire to be trend setters, while other people have the desire to be trend followers.  (2) Fads are about what is popular.  Fads are a popularity contest.  (3) Fads are about what is in your face, ubiquitous, omnipresent.  (4) Fads are about trying to be "with it", current.  (5) Fads are, in part, about social coercion for conformity.  That is not a good thing.  Pressure to be like everyone else even when you do not want to be.  ( ) Fads are about aesthetics tastes.  Fads are not about ethics.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  All the rage.  Social manias.  Social contagions.  Social viruses.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Fads are a means of signifying, representing, and communicating.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Fads are a way that people try to add meaning to their lives.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Fads are memes.  There is a memetic nature to fads.  Fads are an example of how thoughts spread in a society.  Fads, gossip, and media are all about how thoughts spread amongst people.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Fads often return or reoccur.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Fads often take place along class lines.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  In large part, marketers create fads to sell products.  Advertisers create fads through media.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Popular culture.  Pop music.  Pop television.  Pop fashion.  Pop foods.  Pop fads.	4/27/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Somehow, fads connect to the zeitgeist, or the tenor of the times.  The zeitgeist is to some degree manufactured.  Fads are often a result of the battle for eyeballs.  Money is spent by corporations to advertise to create fads.  Fads are often the result of public relations campaigns.  Fads are the result of desires, and desires are to some degree artificially manufactured.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Types of fads.  (1) Food fads.  (2) Clothing fads.  (3) Shelter fads.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Types of fads.  Arts fads.  (1) Literary fads.  (2) Music fads.  (3) Visual arts fads.  (4) Movie fads.  (5) Is it a fad or a style?  The word "style" seems to have a more legitimate connotation than the word "fad".	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Types of fads.  Fads in academia.  Thought fads.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  Types of fads.  Fashion fads: Hair length.  Skirt length.  Bell bottom pants.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fads.  What is an example of a fad?  The hula hoop from the 1960's.  The pet rock from the 1970's.  Neon spandex pants from the 1980's.  The Macarena from the 1990's.  Ugh boots from the 2000's.	3/25/2006

Sociology.	Fairs, carnivals, circuses and farmers markets.  How did these social events shape our civilization?	7/30/2002

Sociology.	Fame is confusing and painful.  (1) Fame is confusing because one day you are nobody and the next day you are somebody.  And there is often no logic, reason or justice to it.  (2) Fame is painful because some people will dislike you for being a nobody and some people will dislike you for being a somebody.  There is always somebody who dislikes you for no good reason.	7/18/2000

Sociology.	Fame:  Cause of desire for it.  Effects of fame.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Fame.  (1) Paul Nervy, as a public persona, now exists.  He was created when I first published.  You have to watch what you say, and what you write.  Be professional.  People can take what you say out of context.  Your public personae, or public self, is more accurately termed the fame-self.  Fame defined as when a stranger recognizes you by name and face but you do not recognize them at all.  The fame-self must be distinguished from the public self that you use in social interactions with equal strangers.  The fame-self must also be distinguished from the social self that you use with friends.  Also from the private self that you show only to your loved ones.  Also from the private self that you keep to yourself.  (2) When you become a public persona you become a target for people's free-floating anger.  You have to protect yourself.  Be strong.  (3) Sometimes the news media will do anything for a story, including distorting facts, just so that they can keep bread on their tables and build their careers.  It sometimes does not pay to interact with them, even for a chance to promote your work in the media.  Let your work speak for itself.  (4) Its easy and natural for people to criticize, so there will always be critics, both for and against your work.  Do not pay them too much attention.  They are merely a distraction from your work.  (5) Critics will invariably misinterpret your work.  Communication is, by its nature, that difficult.  Do not let it bother you.  (6) Miscommunication (not saying what you mean) and misinterpretation (not understanding what was said) always occur.  You can try to minimize it by using exact language.  However, where does that leave a poet or artist?  (7) Fans.  Bless them.  They love your work, but they don't know you.  The relationship of you to your book is like the relationship of an actor to the character the actor portrays.  The fan knows the character, not the actor.  The fan knows the book, not the author.	3/1/2000

Sociology.	Fame.  Hero worship, sports and movie star worship, is it an indication of low self esteem (we're not worthy!)?  Or is it a form of religious worship?  Or is it submissiveness?	08/30/1996

Sociology.	Fame.  Once you publish, your fame-self exists whether you want it to or not.  The fame-self can drive you a little crazy if you are not able to integrate it well into your personality.  If you do integrate it well, the fame-self can be used to protect yourself from intended and unintended abuse from others.  The fame-self can also be used to protect others from intended and unintended attacks from yourself.	3/1/2000

Sociology.	Five dichotomies to describe people.  Ancient/modern.  Rich/poor.  City/country.  Young/old.  Male/female.	01/26/1994

Sociology.	Flame.  (1) Grice's principle of charity is not followed on the Internet.  Instead, the attitude of, "assume the worst" holds.  (2) In face to face conversation one often thinks, "I wish I had thought of that riposte sooner.", long after the fact.  Email gives you time to pick your barbs.  (3) Text is more difficult to interpret than face to face conversation.  Subtle non-verbal nuances are lost, even with the use of emoticons.	7/14/2002

Sociology.	Followers, types of.  (1) Those who let themselves be convinced that they are incapable.  (2) Those who let themselves be convinced that they should cede all their powers to others.	1/4/2004

Sociology.	Forgiveness.  See Philosophy, ethics.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Formal and polite vs. friendly and rough.  Pros and cons of each.  Mistakes of using one when should use the other.  When one person expects to receive one or other and doesn't, or wants to move into anothers formal or friendly zone and is rebuffed.	5/30/94

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  (1) How much does society, or any other social group, like family, friends, school, work or media, how much does it affect the development of the individual?  This question is about the nature-nurture debate.	1/1/2006

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  (1) Is sociology really a science?  How so?  Sociology is a science to the extent that it uses the scientific method.  Also, if psychology is a science then social psychology is a science, and sociology is a science.  (2) Does it make sense to talk about sociology as a field of inquiry distinct and separate from political science and economics?	1/1/2006

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  (1) It does not make sense to deny social and psychological phenomena and the study of them.  (2) People use the existence of psychological and sociological phenomena to attempt to validate a multitude of diverse, often opposing, attitudes and views.  (3) For example, the nature vs. nurture debate.  Some people say its all social.  Other people say its all individual, either genetic or experiential.  Actually its a combination of psychology and sociology.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  (1) Political views of social phenomena.  (2) Economic views of social phenomena.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  (1) Some who argue for sociology use it to argue for altruism and cooperation and communitarianism.  Those are good things.  It takes a village.  (2) Others who argue for sociology use it to argue for state totalitarianism.  Totalitarianism is a bad thing.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Do individual people act differently when in a group?  Yes.  Do people think differently when in a group?  Yes.  Human life is inherently group based, so in that way sociology is at least as important as psychology.  If humans were solitary animals then psychology would be more important than sociology	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Hypothetically, if humans were physically connected to other humans, like coral animals in a coral reef, then sociology would perhaps be more important than psychology.  Another hypothetical: If humans were mentally connected to other humans, for example, by the ability to read other people's minds, then life would be even more social.  Cellular phones are a technology that have the effect of making life more social.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Individuals exist as physical entities.  The group exists as an abstract entity.  Are abstract entities any less real than physical entities?	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Is sociology a valid science and philosophical pursuit?  Yes.  Sociological phenomena exist beyond psychology.  For example, social phenomena like group, cooperation, conflict, politics.  The phenomena and concepts of psychology are not sufficient to describe sociological phenomena and concepts.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Some criticize sociology based on the notion of the inalienable rights of the individual.  Liberalism.  Libertarians.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  The Social Science Model (SSM) has been criticized by Edward. O. Wilson and Stephen Pinker.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  The tendency to downplay the importance of social entities is wrongly used by some people to promote egoism and conservative political attitudes.  For example, Libertarians often criticize sociology in an attempt to wrongly disparage Communitarians.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Two opposing views of sociology.  (1) Sociology is a real science and an important subject.  (2) Sociology is not a real science and not an important subject.	7/20/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  Types of social inquiry or methodology.  (1) Social philosophy.  (2) Social science.	10/9/2005

Sociology.	Foundations of sociology.  What is more important, the individual or the group?  The individual cannot exist without the group, or can he?  The group cannot exist without the individual.  It appears the individual and group are equally important.  (2) The very concepts of individual and group can be critiqued.  One can argue that there is no individual.  One can argue that there is no group.  (3) What are the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical concepts and problems of social theory, social science and social technology?	1/1/2006

Sociology.	Friends and lovers appear and disappear.  Stick to your principles.	2/27/2005

Sociology.	Given the arbitrary prejudices of humans, there may one day be a war of people with long legs and short torsos against people with short legs and long torsos.	10/30/2005

Sociology.	Going native.  Lord of the Flies.  Apocalypse Now.  When civilization crumbles, socialization dissolves and people revert back to the law of the jungle.	11/30/1998

Sociology.	Gossip.  Gossip is a small group phenomenon.  Gossip is not a dyad phenomenon, because gossip always is about a third party.  Gossip is not a large group phenomenon, because in large groups people do not know each other enough to gossip.  (2) Gossip is a pejorative term.  Gossip is a term used to describe unethical, sleazy communication tactics.  (3) Gossip lowers the level of discourse.  People should be interested in raising the level of discourse.  (4) Gossip shows a lack of thought about the world at large.  Gossip typically involves name calling.  Gossip is often a type of verbal bullying.  I do not enjoy gossip.	11/25/2005

Sociology.	Gossip.  Gossip is often about sex.  Gossip often involves an attempt to promote oneself by putting down others.  Gossip is pathetic.  Gossip is for people who cannot think of anything better to talk about.  Mocking, scorn and derision.  Instigators, troublemakers and liars.  Trying to pit people against each other for amusement.  Petty and venal.  Gossip discusses who is sleeping with who.  Related phenomena: trivialities, small talk, empty talk, shallow talk, fluff.	11/23/2005

Sociology.	Gossip.  PART ONE.  What is gossip?  (1) Gossip is a social phenomenon.  Like most social phenomena, gossip is a communicative phenomenon.  Like most social phenomena, gossip is a power phenomenon.  (2) Gossip is more than speaking about other people.  Gossip is more than speaking negatively about people.  Gossip is more than lying about other people.    PART TWO.  Why do people gossip?  (1) Some people gossip as an outlet for free floating anxiety.  These people often gossip out of feelings of insecurity.  They feel a need to bolster themselves.  They feel a need to inflate themselves.  (2) Some people gossip as an outlet for free floating anger.  These people may even have their gossip devolve into hate speech.  (3) Some people gossip in order to gain power at the expense of other people.  (4) Some people gossip because they enjoy gossip.  Some people find gossip exciting.    PART THREE.  What is wrong with gossip.  There are several objections to gossip.  Gossip is unethical.  Gossip is a bore.  Gossip demeans the gossiper, not the gossipee.	11/25/2005

Sociology.	Groening style of analysis: adjective types.  (1) Brown nosing, ass kissing, boot licking, (2) Two faced, two timing, back stabbing, (3) Stickler, nit picker, fuss budget, picky, pest, (4) Ball busting, chop busting, back breaker, sadistic variety, anal rule following variety, (5) Lazy sack of shit, neer do well, sleepy, goof off, fu*k up, dizzy, fogg, (6) Leaders, followers, (7) Loners, independent free thinkers, misfits malcontents misanthropes, (8) Bohemians vs. straight laced, i.e. Layed back and loose vs. uptight.  (9) Rule breakers vs. rule followers.  (10) Eager beavers, industrious, ants, vs. lazy crazy boozy floozy.  (11) Boosters, go-getters, cheerleaders.  (12) Snitch, rat.  (13) Scapegoat, human sacrifice, low man on totem pole, kick me sign wearer.	03/26/1994

Sociology.	Heterogeneous societies vs. homogeneous societies.  Heterogeneous societies have diversity, pluralism, tolerance.  Homogeneous societies have uniformity.  How do societies achieve homogeneity?  Through coercion.  Through shunning and ostracizing outsiders.	10/10/2004

Sociology.	History, current and future of: (1) Social theory and social science.  (2) Social attitudes and social behaviors, in both animals and humans.	5/16/2001

Sociology.	Holidays are arbitrary social conventions.	6/5/2004

Sociology.	Holidays secular and religious.  (1) I do not believe any day is more less holy than then the next.  (2) If you want to remember or commemorate a person or event then do it everyday, not just one day a year, and especially not the same day every year.	12/26/1997

Sociology.	Holidays, birthdays, graduations, weddings.  I view these functions as essentially meaningless.  Yet 95% of people spend every free minute planning and attending these events.  They try to build meaning out of the meaningless.	6/4/2002

Sociology.	Holidays.  (1) Halloween is a holiday to let your subconscious arise and express itself.  You can act out your fantasy of who you want to be.  You can have anonymity behind a costume.  You can express your aggressive instincts safely.  Halloween is a psychologically healthy holiday.  (2) The many people wearing convict outfits on halloween is an expression of the subconscious existential feeling people have of being imprisoned by life.	10/30/1997

Sociology.	Holidays.  (1) Religious and secular holidays are b.s..  (2) It is a commercial excuse to make money.  (3) It is mindless ritual and blind obedience, following others because they say so or do so.  (4) You shouldn't do something if you don't feel like it just because society does it or says you should.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Holidays.  (1) Why New Years is our greatest holiday.  (A) It tolerates, nay, encourages you to run around like a drunken loon.  (B) Even if you are not drinking or drunk you can still act like it and it is ok.  It is the most Dionysian of all our holidays.  (2) Secular (ex. labor day) vs. pagan (ex. new years) vs. religious (ex. christmas) holidays.  (3) The whole concept of holiday is b.s.  Picking one day out of the year to honor or celebrate or mourn or remember, truly or falsely (whether you feel it or not), and then forgetting them for the rest of the year, is irrational.	12/01/1993

Sociology.	Holidays.  The christmas card controversy.  (1) Are they sending them to you out of friendship or out of ritual or out of perceived social obligation.  (2) Strategies.  (A) Send out none.  (B) Send on christmas eve, only to those who sent you.  (C) Send out on a one year delay.  (3) The core issue is (A) Unasked for gifts, and (B) Norms of reciprocation, and (C) Holidays.  I do not believe in holidays.  I do not want any gifts from anyone, and do not ask me to reciprocate.  (4) Also at issue is a billion dollar a year card industry, based on an inane social practice.  Like sending flowers.	01/01/1994

Sociology.	How can you tell if someone is being real (showing true thoughts and emotions) vs. acting for whatever reasons (1) Lies, deception, teasing, (2) Manners, (3) Cold, reserved, secretive, (4) Public relations or trying to get something.)?	11/20/1993

Sociology.	How much you choose to hang out with lessers or greaters (truly greater, or only greater status), and why you do so.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	How often you think of a person, and whether you think bad or good things about them.	11/30/1996

Sociology.	How to ensure positive social interaction, a situation where you are not hurting them and they are not hurting you?	4/26/2001

Sociology.	How to study sociology (from books)?  (2) How to do a sociological study (science research methods)?  (3) How to interact socially?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Humans may have developed an ability to spot other humans who are acting strangely (crazy).  Often humans are too quick on the draw to claim others crazy.	4/30/2005

Sociology.	Humans societies and social interaction.  Their structure and mechanism.  (1) Is it innate?  (2) Are there universals?  (3) Is it not innate, rather, determined by rules, mores, conventions and laws?	5/1/2002

Sociology.	Hypothetical.  Professional friends.  Someone to talk to.  $20 an hour.  No sex.  No therapy.  No psychic abilities.  Just a  warm body that listens in a public place.	8/25/2000

Sociology.	Hypotheticals.  Set up a situation.  Add personality types.  Describe the social dynamics that result.  Ala lifeboat.	03/26/1994

Sociology.	I am opposed to typical American weddings and funerals because they are bourgeoisie conventions and ostentatious displays of wealth.	10/27/2003

Sociology.	I love (hate?) watching those who are still within the system (consciously or unconsciously).  Meek, playing by the rules, not even daring to think a radical (political view), unholy (religious view), thought experiment (epistemology).  So good, so clean, so healthy.  Let them have many babies.  They follow a pre-set path.  They will never explore.  They will never discover.  They are tame, not wild.	11/10/1993

Sociology.	Ideal.  Dealing with people.  (1) Review the situation aloud to them.  Latest interaction and entire relationship.  (2) Reveal the problems. (3) Ask questions to them.  (4) Evaluate their answers out loud.  (5) Decide if it is good or not.  (6) Explain your judgment to them.  (7) It is catharsis and justice in action.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	If a person is ok when alone, but has problems when encountering others, then they need to (1) Develop social skills, or (2) Find healthier, better people.	11/04/1993

Sociology.	In my dealings with people, must I act like a therapist?  For their sake?  Or for my sake?	8/23/1998

Sociology.	Individual and society.  Are you going to do what you want to do, or are you going to do what others want you to do?  Do the former.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Individual and society.  Will you break free, totally or partially, mentally or physically, or will you remain unconsciously or consciously enslaved and bonded to it.  And once free, will you develop, stagnate or decay.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Individual versus group.  PART ONE. Individualism.  (1) Positive aspects of individualism.  (A) Think for self.  Do-it-yourself attitude.  Independence.  (2) Negative aspects of individualism.  (A) Egoism.  Selfishness.  (B) Narrow-mindedness.  Extreme parochialism.  Isolation.  PART TWO. Group mentality.  (1) Positive aspects of group mentality.  (A) Altruism.  Sharing.  (B) Cooperation.  (2) Negative aspects of group mentality.  (A) Group think.  (B) Peer pressure.	12/28/2006

Sociology.	Inevitably, someone will try to do you wrong in this life.  (1) Who will it be?  The obvious hostile people are easy to spot.  Much more destructive are people who appear to be friendly, neutral or uninvolved, yet who plot your grief.  (2) How will they try?  Here it pays to use your imagination and educate yourself.  (3) How can you stop them?  Protect yourself.	5/22/2003

Sociology.	Ingratiation.  Argument for kissing up, boot licking, and brown nosing.  People can be for you or against you.  They can help or hinder you.  It does not pay to stand on principle for a worthless inconsequential fight against a worthless inconsequential person.  Ninety percent of people do not value rational argument, they consider rational argument a personal attack.  All they want is to be confirmed, stroked, and saluted.  And they hold endless grudges.  Why get your chops busted forever for no good reason?  Yes them as long as the issue is inconsequential.  To do this you need a firm sense of who you are and what you stand for.  And also who the assholes are, what causes them, and how to pacify them.  Then lying and keeping silent in front of assholes will not bother you so much.	06/10/1994

Sociology.	Ingratiation.  Me vs. real brown nosers.  We both brown nose (lie, deny self).  But for different reasons.  I do it as little as possible, in order to survive.  They do it as much as possible, in order to get ahead.  My reasons are good, theirs are bad.  So I don't feel so bad.	06/17/1994

Sociology.	Instead of a business card, have a social card that has your name, phone number, email, and a list of your likes and dislikes.	1/25/2005

Sociology.	Know that others, on your track, with your beliefs and interests, are out there.  Keep it in mind.  The camaraderie should buoy you.  The competition should spur you.	08/15/1994

Sociology.	Leaders perform several functions.  (1) Leaders motivate people.  Leaders give encouragement to good efforts.  Leaders help steer the efforts of individuals and groups.  (2) Leaders gather together like-minded individuals.  Leaders get a conversation going.  Leaders keep communication lines open.  Leaders help build a community.  (3) Leaders help think up group projects.	2/6/2007

Sociology.	Leadership is not an "all or nothing" phenomena.  In an egalitarian group each person is sometimes a leader and sometimes a follower.  Everyone is a leader and a follower.  Or, no one is a leader nor a follower.	2/6/2007

Sociology.	Leadership.  See Politics, power, leadership.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Levels of sociology: number of individuals, and/or degree of organization.  (1) Social psychology.  (2) Interpersonal relationships.  (3) Society.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Levels of sociology.  (1) Personal level. Social psychology.  (2) Interpersonal levels.  Dyads.  (3) Group level.  (4) Societal level.  Cultural level.  We are immersed in culture.  We are surrounded by culture.	8/14/2004

Sociology.	Life is difficult and painful.  Free floating, generalized emotions like anger, fear and depression result.  (1) Some people look for scapegoats to unload on. Some people enjoy the bloodsport of character assassination.  That is a mistake.  (2) Some people try to protect themselves by being squeaky clean, uncontroversial, not expressing any views and not alienating anyone.  That is a mistake.  (3) Stand up for what you think is right.	9/29/2003

Sociology.	Living your own life vs. (1) Letting someone else live your life, or (2) Trying to live someone else's life.	06/17/1994

Sociology.	Manners are arbitrary social conventions.  Manners are often an example of blind conformity.  Doing something just because everyone else is doing it.  Doing something because someone told you to do it, even though you don't understand it and even though you don't know the reason why.  Doing things even though you know they are wrong and you disagree.  We have to end that kind of ignorant behavior.	6/25/2004

Sociology.	Manners are bullshit.  When you put on airs, or bow to social rules, you are repressing, you are corrupting yourself, you are lying to others and lying to yourself.  You are acting like an asshole, and eventually become an asshole.  It is healthier and more appealing to be open and honest with oneself and others.	02/01/1989

Sociology.	Manners are conventions or standardized behaviors, like driving on the right hand side of the road.  Manners help organize society.  Manners, on an individual level, help us predict societal behaviors.  They help us know what to expect when we interact with others.  So it turns out manners are helpful in one way.	06/10/1997

Sociology.	Manners with a real purpose vs. arbitrary and meaningless rituals.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Manners, customs, etc.  (1) At what point do they go from helping (greasing, smoothing) social relations to hindering (holding up, stagnating) social relations. (2) If two people have different manner systems, and both think the other person is using the same manner system that they are, then problems like misinterpretation and taking offense can result.	09/23/1993

Sociology.	Manners: habitual, pre-ordered social behaviors.  Manners with reason vs. manners without reason.  The former is better than the latter.	06/30/1993

Sociology.	Manners.  (1) Manners that have an intended meaning or purpose, and the meaning is clear, and fulfills a purpose vs. manners that do not.  (2) Manners that are socially useful vs. are not.  (3) Manners that a specific person does know the history, meaning or purpose of vs. does not.	11/20/1993

Sociology.	Manners.  (1) Saying grace before meals.  In the old days, the quality of food was so low that meals were a life or death proposition.  So before eating, people prayed for protection.  (2) Another time of vulnerability to danger was during sleep.  So people prayed before bed.	01/07/1997

Sociology.	Manners.  Four ways to look at manners.  (1) Manners are a type of exchange (economy) of gestures.  (2) Manners are a type of dealmaking of gestures.  (3) Manners are about giving and getting civil respect.  Civil respect is a base level of respect that we all deserve.  (4) Manners are about giving and getting reassurances.	11/20/2001

Sociology.	Manners.  Knowledge of manners, or societal norms or rules, gives you an idea how people will act under normal circumstances, and how far people will break the rules to survive and get what they want.  It gives you an idea how to fight guerrilla warfare with them.  It gives you an idea how far you can bend rules without breaking them and still stay in society.	02/14/1989

Sociology.	Manners.  Norms, rules, manners.  Manners are customs and habits.  For a reason vs. without a reason.  Or for a past reason now outdated.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Manners.  Polite society is anything but polite.	02/14/1989

Sociology.	Manners.  Politeness.  People quickly and easily take offense (pride), and are easily offended (hurt feelings).  Be explicitly and proactively polite.	12/12/1993

Sociology.	Massage is important because touch is important.  Babies die without touch, and so do adults.  Massage works not because of the rubbing or pressure on muscles, but because of the touch of another person.  A light touch massage from a person beats a deep rub massage from a machine.	3/30/1998

Sociology.	Massage.  (1) In our society, we only let total strangers, or good friends of the opposite sex, or lovers, touch us to the degree that massage involves.  (2) At what point in a relationship, starting from complete strangers, does enough trust build to let a massage take place?  How much time must be spent together?  What words must be said to each other?  (3) Massage is very trusting.  Very often you are naked, face down, with someone sitting on top of you, with their hands around your neck.  This seems too dangerous to me.  Should it be done in public?	2/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  (1) There is a need for touch beyond the need for occasional massages.  A need to touch and a need to be touched.  (2) Shaking hands may have started with a convention to hold the spear in the shield hand, but it continues to exist because it allows formalized (guided, rule based, safe) touching of a minimum sort (hand to hand).	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Arguments for massage.  (1) Strong view: you can't be healthy without touch or massage.  (2) Weak view: touch and massage improve your health (both psychological and physical).	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Importance of touch.  There is a lack of touch in current american society.  A degree of touch that exists in between common current conceptions of friendship and intimacy.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Part-time masseuse.  I am an artist, and I need to get inspired to do my best work.  I get inspired from seeing women, up close and nude.  So the person I am massaging benefits from the actual massage, I benefit from inspiration, and the world benefits from my art.  It is a win-win-win situation.  And it just took me to realize it.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Prostitute and Shrink are two occupations where you can pay for a person on demand.  But the shrink is all talk and no action.  And the prostitute is all action and no talk.  There should be a third occupation that you pay for on demand that is all talk and all action.  This job would be a massage therapist that also gives you talk therapy at the same time.  Sex would be optional.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  The massage project.  Why do it?  (1) Safety: sex risks diseases.  Need for safe sex or sex substitute.  (2) Ethics: I don't really want to cheat on girlfriend.  (3) There should be a level of intimacy between friendship and sex.  (4) There should be something between a date and a hooker.  (5) Power of touch, and the lack of touch in our society.  (6) My love of the female form.  Women inspire me as an artist.  (7) Helps me as an artist by giving me material.  I like hearing stories and talking to strangers.  I like to hear their dreams and goals, and experiences good and bad.  (8) Helps them as a form of touch therapy and talk therapy.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Touch is different from massage.  Massage is a technique used in special situations.  Touch, of various types, occurs all the time in social situations.  Touch is important.  Babies die without touch.  Adults do to.  There is no legitimate way to give adults the touch they need.  The loving touch.  Touch has also been associated through history with healing.  The healing touch.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Massage.  Types of touch: (1) Hand to hand.  (2) Face to face.  (3) Body to body (clothed and unclothed).  (4) Genital to genital.  (5) And various combonations of the above.	02/22/1997

Sociology.	Me.  I can't stand being offended.  I can't help being offensive.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Methodology of sociology.  (1) Philosophy methods.  See modes of thinking and philosophy.  (2) Science methods, see science.  (A) Comparative sociology: theoretical, and actual.  (B) Historical sociology.  (C) Facts, theories.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Methodology.  Major attempts to explain social phenomena.  (1) Psychology.  Freud.  Sociology is psychology on a larger scale.  (2) Evolution.  Sociobiology.  Animal studies.  (3) Economics.  Exchange theory.  Marx.  (4) Politics.  Power.  Conflict.  (5) Language.  Semiotics.  Symbolic interactionism.  Communication.  Information.  (6) Sex.  Gender.  Feminism.  (7) Post Modernism.  Functionalism.  Structuralism.  (8) Other.  System theory.  Network theory.  Game theory.	7/31/2005

Sociology.	Methodology.  The multiple methods of sociology (for example, communication studies, conflict studies, economics, and politics) point to different aspects of social phenomena.  An eclectic, multi-modal approach is needed.	7/20/2005

Sociology.	Micro level.  Different people desire different amounts of social interaction.  Different people desire different types of social interaction.  When people interact, sometimes one person expects the other person to act in a similar way.  Other times people recognize that the other person has their own way.  Many people, when their social expectations are not met by other people, are hurt or offended.  In fact, a common but unfortunate social phenomena is that when one person does not adhere to another person's arbitrary social convention, the other person often is hurt and angry, and attempts to ostracize the person by saying to others that there is something wrong with the person.  (2) Macro level.  A society develops customs of social interaction.  Some customs of social interaction are similar from society to society.  Other social customs vary widely from society to society.	11/23/2005

Sociology.	Modes of cultural criticism.  Literary criticism, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, Marx (economics and history), feminism, psychology, structuralism, post-structuralism, politics.	06/30/1993

Sociology.	Most important ideas.  (1) Finding and keeping a lover.  (2) Finding and keeping friends and allies.  People above and below you.  People similar and different from you.  (3) Fight or avoid enemies.  Stay away from enemies and assholes.  If you meet them, and they attack you, you must fight them.  If you meet them, and they attack others, you must decide in what cases to fight them in order to attain justice.	10/20/1997

Sociology.	Most important ideas.  (1) Know how to defend yourself.  (2) Know how to reach out to others.  (3) Find good friends, or else having friends become a boring waste of time.	10/30/1997

Sociology.	Most important ideas.  Treat people justly.  Know how to spot and deal with those who do not treat you or others justly.	10/05/1997

Sociology.	Most people need more attention and smiles than I do.  They are like children.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Neighbors.  (1) Definition of neighbors: to live next to each other.  (2) Types of neighbors.  Neighbors in the city, suburbs, rural and wilderness.  (3) Choices we make as neighbors: (A) To know or not to know your neighbor.  (B) To help or not to help your neighbor.	2/25/1999

Sociology.	Networking.  Old contacts, develop or cool them off.  New contacts, develop them.  What do I have that they want?  What do they have that I want?	07/30/1993

Sociology.	Networks are webs of power and communication.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Networks.  Types of social networks.  (1) Power networks.  (2) Information networks.  (3) Emotion networks.  (4) Human relationships are as much about emotion as they are about power and information.	6/3/2001

Sociology.	Non-negotiable things, i.e. things you won't change for no one.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Number one rule of social relations: do not freak people out too early in the relationship.  And do not challenge them too early either.	8/23/1998

Sociology.	Overcivilized.  To be overcivilized or oversocialized is to have an excessive superego, to defer always to others, especially to authority figures.  To have no independence or self reliance.  To have no feeling for the wilderness.  (2) To be undercivilized or undersocialized is to have no social skills.  To have no empathy, no feelings for others.  To not want to belong to any groups.  To not perceive the achievements of civilization, perhaps because one is ignorant or uneducated.	11/25/2001

Sociology.	Participants in society.  (1)(A) Knowledge creators: scientists.  (B) Knowledge distributors: publishers, bookstores, schools.  (2)(A) Agenda setters.  (B) Value setters.  (C) Goal setters.  (D) Trend setters.  (E) Taste makers.  (3) The latter group (group two) includes the legislators and the entertainment industry.  They ask questions like "What will we spend our time and money on?", and "What will we think about?"	5/15/2000

Sociology.	Party.  Wall to wall people.  Smiling, talking, dancing.  Looking to hook up.  Young, pretty, horny, and scantily clad.  Smoke, booze, and music.  Unscathed, happy, hopeful, hedonistic people.	11/16/1997

Sociology.	Patriarchy is bullshit.  Men who think that they are the boss of their wife and kids are wrong.  Men who think its okay to hit their wife and kids are wrong.  The people who promote patriarchy are wrong.	1/9/2006

Sociology.	People are cool vs. assholes by degree.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	People are starving for attention.	04/24/1997

Sociology.	People are treacherous.  Their feelings are easily hurt.  They take offense easily and then they lash out.  People are spiteful, vengeful, petty, vituperative.  See also: Philosophy, people.	11/29/2005

Sociology.	People don't want to see anyone get more than them, or get ahead of them.  They feel glad when people above them are laid low.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	People want to see that you are less happy than they.  And if you seem more happy, people will try to dig up dirt on you to feel better.	8/15/2005

Sociology.	People.  (1) People who can't stand each other due to set philosophical ideas.  (2) Can't relate to each others experiences.  (3) Don't understand each other.  (4) Have different likes and dislikes.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Person A is not interested in person B's life, because person A has a life of their own.  Person B is interested in person A's life, because person B has no life of their own.	4/25/2003

Sociology.	Personal ads and resumes are interesting social phenomena. Personal ads and resumes reflect the following: (1) Who we think we are.  (2) What we want.  What we are looking for.  Who we are looking for.  What we think we should do.  What we think is good and important.  (3) What we think is the case in the world.  What we think of life, reality, world.	8/25/2004

Sociology.	Personal space.  A seating problem.  Two versions.  PART ONE.  In the city, personal space is limited and human interaction is abundant, so it is an unspoken principle in the city that in many situations people take seats to maximize the distance between all sitters.  For example, as an empty subway car fills up with commuters, people often seat themselves to maximize the distance between themselves.  Or as a cafe' fills up with customers.  The problem can be formalized.  For any given seating pattern, and any given starting point of the first sitter, what is the function or equation that will maximize the distance between a series of sitters?     PART TWO.  In rural areas personal space is abundant but human interaction is scarce, so people often seat themselves to minimize the distance between themselves.  That is, in rural areas people often intentionally sit next to each other.  In many human situations the minimum distance version of the seating problem is uninteresting because the nearest seat is usually directly adjacent to the other seats.  That is, in many humans situations, the seating follows a regular pattern, such as a line of seats at a counter, or a grid of seats in a theater, and the seats are located on a flat plane.   But imagine if it was not easy to discern which was the nearest seat, for example, imagine if the seats were in a irregular pattern on an irregular polyhedron.  It is possible to formalize this problem.  For any given seating pattern, and any given starting position of the first sitter, what is the function or equation that will minimize the distance between a series of sitters?	12/12/2004

Sociology.	Polish.  (1) Style: a neutral term.  Style can be good or bad.  (2) Panache and elan: good style.  (3) Grace.  (4) Ease.	09/17/1994

Sociology.	Polish.  Physical traits: ease of movement, not wild, uncoordinated or restrained.  Nice face, body, clothes, graceful movement, voice, vocabulary.  Psychological traits: friendly, firm, fair, quick, not too giving or taking, not too superior or inferior, calm, not nervous, feel comfortable and confident.	09/15/1994

Sociology.	Politics of social relationships.  (1) Campaigning in social relationships.  People campaign for things in social relationships.  (2) Voting in social relationships.  There is a voting process in social relationships.  Sometimes its open voting.  Sometimes its private voting.	5/14/2006

Sociology.	Popularity contests.  Its unfortunate when social situations degenerate into popularity contests.  Some people will do anything to be popular.  Because popularity is a form of power.  And some people will do anything for power.  Popularity contests are for people interested in establishing a pecking order, aka, people interested in rigid social hierarchies.	12/5/2003

Sociology.	Popularity is a social phenomenon.  What does it mean to be popular?  Popularity means being liked.  Popularity means being admired.  Popularity means having many friends.  (1) Many people want to be popular.  For some people, the desire to be popular may be an expression of the survival urge.  For some people, the desire to be popular may stem from a desire to please people, a desire to ingratiate.  The things some people do in order to be popular is astounding.  (2) Other people do not want to be popular.  These people do not mind being unpopular.  These people are willing to be unpopular in order to stand up for principle.  (3) What happens when things turn into a popularity contest?  What makes a person popular?  Sometimes the most trivial traits can make a person popular if those traits are valued by the group.  Some people try to use money, looks, sex, etc. to become popular.	6/15/2007

Sociology.	Popularity seeking.  Dissing some, and kissing up to others (ingratiation).  Some people see life as a popularity contest.  Small town, high school mentality.	03/20/1997

Sociology.	Possible causes of, descriptions of, and techniques for dealing with, various types of assholes and asshole behaviors.	11/06/1993

Sociology.	Poverty.  See International development.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Primary social strategies.  (1) Warfare, conflict, force, threat.  (2) Exchange, deal making, bargaining, negotiation.  (3) Ingratiation, friendliness.  (4) Beg, whine.  (5) Con, manipulate, use.	2/25/1999

Sociology.	Problem.  (1) Social problems of individual.  (2) Social problems of society.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Problem.  (1) You are trying to change me.  (2) You are trying to limit me.  (3) You are calling me something I'm not.  (4) Defining, confining, controlling.  (5) Degree person A actually does above to person B.  Degree perceived by both.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Problem.  A relationship is a problem if it is sub-optimal for you, or if it is pathological for you.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Problem.  Cultures that promote and require excessive amounts of showing of interpersonal respect.  Example, the south.  Example, the mob.  Cultures of violence.	1/20/2004

Sociology.	Problems.  (1) People who believe that people who do not act like themselves are crazy.  (2) People who know another person is not crazy, but who will call that person crazy to make that person do what they want that person to do.  (3) The former is ignorance.  The latter is devious, totalitarian, planned evil by self righteous assholes.	11/24/1988

Sociology.	Problems.  How not to deal with people.  (1) Give in, give up, too passive.  (2) Not attacking enough, not defending enough.  (3) Too aggressive without reason.  (4) Too defensive without reason.  (5) Paranoid, withdrawal.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Problems.  Pathological sociology consists of things like the following: (1) Pathological social psychology.  (2) Pathological groups.  (3) Communication problems.  (4) Love relationship problems.  (5) Conflict resolution problems.	1/2/2001

Sociology.	Problems.  Social problems of an individual, or of a society.  (1) Does not work well with others.  (A) Withdrawn and uncommunicative.  (B) Combative, bossy, bully, argumentative; or suspicious, distrustful, paranoid; or bigoted.  (C) Screws others (sociopath): lies, cheats, steals, uses, abuses, confidence plays.	10/25/1997

Sociology.	Problems.  Some assholes believe their importance, and thus their worth as humans, is based on the number of people they can boss around, and who can not boss them around.  So they boss and jerk around as many as they can.  Bullies.  It makes them feel important and good.	07/01/1994

Sociology.	Problems.  Some people have trouble recognizing or knowing the following:  When to speak up?  When to act?  When am I hurting another?  When is another hurting me?  When am I being walked over?  When am I being taken advantage of?  When should I stand up for myself?  When should I fight for self?	6/23/2000

Sociology.	Problems.  Types of social interaction problems.  (1) Listening vs. speaking.  (2) Seeing vs. acting.  (3) Understanding vs. expressing.	6/23/2000

Sociology.	Promise, reciprocation and contract.  (1)(A) The promise: I will do x in the future.  Explicit verbal promises vs. implicit or implied promises.  (B) Reciprocation: if you do x then I will do y.  Or alternatively, if I do x for you, then I expect you to do y.  This is known as "the deal made".  Reciprocation is often implied by social norms.  Promise and reciprocation form the basis of the written contract, which is a signed promise you cannot back out of.  Promise and reciprocation are a basic way of viewing social relations, and are related to exchange theories of sociology.  Promise and reciprocation are the basis for cooperation.  The idea is "I give, you give".  Promise and reciprocation are type of rational social behavior.  (2)(A) Rational forms of social behavior.  Are based on communication.  Involve thinking, being cognizant of one's needs, aware of opportunity and threats in environment, aware of strengths and weaknesses of self and others, ability to form goals and strategies.  (B) Irrational forms of social behavior.  Are based on drive or emotion.  Action on impulse.  No foresight or planning.  (3) Besides promise and reciprocation, another form of rational social behavior is force and conflict.  I attack, you defend.  I take, you withhold.	4/15/1998

Sociology.	Rebellion.  See Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Rejection.  (1) Quitting vs. getting fired is like (2) Dumping a girl vs. getting dumped, which is like (3) Running away from home vs. being abandoned.	05/03/1994

Sociology.	Related subjects.  Psychology.  Emotional expression in social context.  Moods are contagious.  When I even just sound like I have lost hope, others lose hope.  When I sound weak, others become weak.  When I sound strong, confident and hopeful, others gain hope and become strong and confident and hopeful.  This is called leadership?  Ideally you feel confident and say you are confident, but if you feel unconfident and say you are confident, you are repressing your feelings, and lying to yourself and others, and also losing the personal and social benefits of talking honestly about your feelings with others, and they may think you are a bullshit artist, or they may think you are not showing the appropriate emotion.  So there are pros and cons to the issue.	02/09/1997

Sociology.	Related subjects.  Technology and society.  How does technology change society?	10/10/2004

Sociology.	Respect.  See Psychology, emotion, specific, respect dignity.	12/30/2000

Sociology.	Rigid class based societies with low social mobility are wrong.	3/30/1998

Sociology.	Sex segregated, uniform wearing groups  are not where its at (be it school, workplace, society, etc.).	11/20/2003

Sociology.	Situation, participants, relationships, interaction, and result.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Skills.  Create a social contacts networking database.  An annotated contacts list.  (1) Name.  Address.  Telephone.  Email address.  Web site.  (2) When and where I met them.  Date.  Place.  What was discussed.  Phone calls too.  (3) For anyone you meet: Who are they?  What are their values?  What do they want?  What are their goals?  (4) What do they do for a job?  (5) How can I help them, and how can they help me (favor trading).  Pessimistically, how can they hurt me, how can I defend myself, and how can they be hurt (threat, defense, and counter threat)?  (6) Why do I like or dislike them?	4/23/2006

Sociology.	So much of human social behavior is simple mimicry.  Mimicry is a low level animal behavior.	4/16/2006

Sociology.	Sociability: human interaction, friends, and love.  Can we live without them?  Can we live without them without feeling emotional pain, or without going completely neurotic?  How much do we need of each.  As love is to sex, friendship is to what?  Human touch?  Hugs?  Eye contact?  What?	11/30/1996

Sociology.	Sociability.  (1) Most people feel happy when they meet friends, or even when they meet acquaintances and strangers in social situations like parties.  (2) Some people feel happy when they mentally review the reasons why they should feel happy in social situations.  (3) Some people just never feel happy when they meet other humans.  Is this a genetic defect?  Is it the result of poor socialization?  One would think that a human would be happy to meet another of their kind.	10/31/1999

Sociology.	Sociability.  Easy to get along with means (1) Does not have a lot of demands.  Not picky.  Not many things you have to do.  (2) Is not bothered by much.  Puts up with a lot.  You can do what you want.  Not many things you must do.	12/30/1996

Sociology.	Social acting.  In society, no one says out loud everything that one thinks and feels.  It would be a cacophony.  Therefore, we all keep things secret.  One could therefore argue that (1) We are all repressed in the Freudian sense.  (2) We are all liars and actors.  (if one defines a liar as anyone not telling the "whole truth").	4/8/2001

Sociology.	Social acting.  Real life everyday acting involves lying (1) To fit into the group.  (2) For secrecy, privacy, freedom and self-protection.	4/8/2001

Sociology.	Social attitudes.  (1) Positive attitudes:  I am part of society.  We are all working together.  Strangers are my friends.  (2) Negative attitudes:  I am alone.  Its all conflict and struggle.  Strangers are my enemies.	12/5/1998

Sociology.	Social cognition.  Individual's perception of: (1) Why do I think social interaction is important?  (2) What groups am I a part of?  (3) What do I think is the nature of groups?  (4) How are groups in society related?  As friends or foes?  (5) What is the individual's mental map of the structure of groups in society.  How do they see the structure of society?	4/22/1999

Sociology.	Social game.  I won't call them, but if they call me I will talk to them.  It is a game people play to make themselves feel powerful and superior.	04/30/1993

Sociology.	Social heterogeneity and homogeneity and its effect on social tolerance and intolerance.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Social identity.  What others think you are, label you as, and treat you like.  It can affect your self identity if you let it.	06/30/1993

Sociology.	Social interaction is very important to psychological health.  Having access only to small, isolationist, homogenous, uncommunicative groups is bad.  Having access to many, varied, communicative groups is good.	1/22/1999

Sociology.	Social interaction.  (1) Define other by observing and guessing what groups they belong to, and who other is.  Agree or disagree, like or dislike.  Determine whether they are above or below you.  (2) Define how you are going to relate to them.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Social interaction.  (1) Whose calls will you return?  Who will you give the time of day?  Who will you associate with?  Who will you spend time with?  There are many "nice" people in the world.  There is an seemingly unlimited number of pleasant people.  You cannot hang out with them all, so many are their numbers.  (2) Who is going to return your calls?  Who is going to give you the time of day?  Who will associate with you?  Who will spend time with you?  You will quickly find, if you enter the world of people, that many people are too "busy" too see you.  (3) There is a peculiar absurdity to the entire affair of social interaction.  And yet, despite the absurdity, many people put a lot of time and emotional energy into thinking about their social lives. 	5/16/2007

Sociology.	Social interaction.  Ask them: How are you feeling?  What are you thinking?  What are your goals?  What are you doing to help the Progressive Cause?  Tell them the same about yourself.	6/15/2005

Sociology.	Social interaction.  It is not about popularity.  It is not about who is most popular.  It is about survival.  And it is about getting things done, solving problems, by gathering the talent and persuading them to action.	06/10/1997

Sociology.	Social networks.  (1) Who is talking to who?  Communication networks.  (2) Who is having sex with who?  Sexual intimacy networks.	2/25/2005

Sociology.	Social networks.  Types of social networks.  (1) Power networks.  (2) Communication networks or information networks.  (3) Favor swapping networks.  (4) Recommending people to friends.  Dis-recommending people.  (5) Kinship networks via marriages and births.  (6) See also: Philosophy, systems and networks.	5/23/2005

Sociology.	Social philosophy.  (1) Are humans basically social or non-social?  Social to what degree?  Chemical communication.  Physical links (like sponges).  No dissent allowed.  No free thinking allowed.  (2) Is there a human nature?  Is it the same as the nature of any living thing, i.e., to stay alive, get food and water, and reproduce?  (3) If there is a human nature, is it due to nature or nurture?  Or is it 50/50?  (4) Are humans basically good or evil.  That depends on how you define good and evil.	5/1/2002

Sociology.	Social philosophy.  (1) Those who see man as basically good or evil.  (2) Those who see social relationships as cooperation (doves) vs. conflict (hawks).  (3) Specific philosophies derived from these views.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Social pressures.  There are many types of social pressures besides peer pressure.  There are many types of social pressures to conform, for example, at school, at work, etc.  Every segment of society has some sort of norms that people are expected to adhere to.  Some people make the mistake of assuming all social pressures are peer pressures.	6/19/2006

Sociology.	Social problems.  Racism.  Classism.  Sexism.  Ageism.  (See: Sociology, discrimination).	5/15/2004

Sociology.	Social problems.  Sex problems.  (See: Sociology, sexuality).	5/15/2004

Sociology.	Social problems.  Social and psychological reasons for poverty, homelessness, drugs, crime, and other social ills.	11/06/1993

Sociology.	Social reassurance.  Kids (and grownups) need constant explicit reassurance.  People need to be reassured that you are not crazy, that you are not out to hurt them, that you care, that you want to help.  It is very important.	6/30/1998

Sociology.	Social situations, on a macro level and on a micro level, can be analyzed in terms of politics, economics and information.  (1) Politics.  Social power.  Soft power of influence.  Hard power of force.  (2) Economics.  Needs and wants.  Values.  Exchange.  Money and stuff.  (3) Information.  Communication.  (4) When we try to analyze social situations in terms of politics and economics and information we are applying abstract categories onto much more mercurial entities.	11/25/2004

Sociology.	Social skills to develop.  (1) Develop the ability to temporarily join, empathize and understand all people and groups.  (2) Develop the ability to separate and keep a healthy distance from all people and groups.  (3) Develop the ability to make quick strong connections and disconnections.  Fluid, changing.	9/17/2001

Sociology.	Social skills:  (1) Stand up for yourself.  (2) Work in a team.  (3) Conflict resolution skills.  (4) Persuasion, rhetoric, and communication skills.  (5) Team building, consensus building.  (6) Politics, Selling.  (7) Leadership and following.	1/25/2000

Sociology.	Social skills.  (1) Tact, subtlety, diplomacy.  (2) Combat model.  Fighting well.  (3) Competition model, win well, lose well.  (4) Politics model.  Politician, deal making (implicit, explicit, verbal contacts), bargaining, office politics, pecking orders.  (5) Business model.  Businessman, selling yourself and beliefs, public relations image.  (6) Nice model.  Making love well, making friends, contacts, schmoozing, networking, asskissing, ingratiation.  (7) Communication skills, propaganda, rhetoric, bluffing, saying nothing well (avoiding questions and issues, beating around bush, waffling, being noncommittal), euphemisms, vagueness, chit-chatting, small talk, asking questions indirectly, dodging questions, spy vs. spy, gathering information.  (8) Owing, favor granting, reciprocity, obligation.  (9) Not being ripped off, conned, taken advantage of, manipulated, used.  Knowing how to con, manipulate, sweet talk, etc.  (10) Playing the game, getting ahead, gaining power, climbing the ladder.  (11) Seeing how you appear to others.  Seeing how others see you.  Awareness of others thoughts and feelings.  Reading people.  (12) Understanding people.  (13) Negative acts.  Back stabbing, deception, mis-information, two facedness.  (14) Gaining trust, respect, admiration, impressing people.  (15) Figuring out and manipulating the system, picking up the culture, sizing up the situation and people.  Spotting the power hierarchy.  Spotting people's values.  Spotting people's agendas, spotting and avoiding assholes.  (16) Too strong, loud, dominating, overpowering, not mellow enough, self important, pompous, sanctimonious, know it all, diva complex, intolerant vs. too weak, timid, lax, loose, tolerant, ineffectual, spineless, passive, quiet, mellow, goalless, drifting, unfocused, no drive, too laid back, unconfident, panicky, wimpy.  (17) Neurotic, psychotic, loony, wild, wacky.  (18) Too right, straight, tight vs. too left.  (19) Fitting in, going with flow, finding a niche vs. loose cannon, wave maker, boat rocker, rebel, maverick, undependable, unstable.  (20) Not being or appearing jokey, sarcastic.  (21) Impolite, boorish.  (22) Boring.  (23) Hostile, angry, nasty, mean, bullying, uncooperative, inconsiderate, rude.  (24) Too distant vs. too close.  (25) Too far above (snooty) vs. below (we are not worthy).  (26) Slick, fake, bull-shit-artist, insincere.  (27) Geek, nerd, uncool, techno-dweeb, not a people person, no charisma, no charm.  (28) Greedy, power or money hungry, too driven.  Pushing enough vs. not pushing too hard.  (29) Loyalty vs. betraying confidences.  (30) Nosy vs. respecting others privacy.  (31) Knowing when to do what and why.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Social skills.  (1) The ability to make a good first impression vs. the ability to keep a relationship going long term.  (2) The ability to deal with people everyday, day after day, vs. the ability to keep a relationship going when the people rarely see each other.  (3) The ability to recognize words, gestures and noises of friendship vs. the ability to make and send noises, gestures and words of friendship.  (4) The ability to deal with conflict.  The ability to deal with differences of opinion.  Learning to defuse rather than escalate.  (5) The ability to deal with aggression.  (6) The ability to detect and deal with scammers.	7/14/2001

Sociology.	Social skills.  One on one campaigning, deal making, bargaining, haggling, negotiating, selling, conning, bullshitting, kissing up, putting down, schmoozing, networking, mixing, mingling, making contacts.	05/03/1994

Sociology.	Social skills.  Young kids must learn social skills from models.  Learning how to fight, when to fight (justice), levels of escalation.  Learning how to make friends, when to make friends, levels of friendship.	03/16/1997

Sociology.	Social theory.  PART ONE.  (1) Reductionist views.  Sociology reduces to psychology, which reduces to biology, which reduces to chemistry, which reduces to physics.  (2) Emergentist views.  Sociology deals with phenomena that are not reducible to psychology.  Supervenience.     PART TWO.  (1) Nature.  Innate.  Instinct.  vs. (2) Nurture.  Learned.  Culture.	5/13/2004

Sociology.	Social types.  Posseurs, fronts, bluffers, vs. real, authentic, true, honest natured people.  (See public relations.  See ethics, deception).	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Socialization.  People become socialized when they realize the survival of themselves is tied in some way to the survival of society.	03/15/1989

Sociology.	Socializing is serious and important.  We need good friends for physical survival and psychological health.	10/12/1999

Sociology.	Socializing though the Internet.  Is it a good thing?  What are its pros and cons?	3/11/2007

Sociology.	Socially recognized achievements that turn out to be hollow.  Illusionary achievements.	3/31/2006

Sociology.	Society and individual.  (1) To what extent does growing up in a social setting (ex. family, community, nation) affect your values, thoughts, personality, etc.?  (2) To what extent does living as an adult in a social situation affect your values, thoughts, personality, etc.?	5/23/2005

Sociology.	Society and individual.  100% control of the individual by society is wrong.  On the other hand, 100% freedom of the individual is also wrong.  A balance must be reached between control and freedom.	5/23/2005

Sociology.	Sociology at work and play, at home and abroad, in public and private.	03/26/1994

Sociology.	Sociology by the psychological model.  (1) Group drive: how the group forms its goals.  (2) Group memory: how the group keeps alive it memories.  (3) Group emotions: contagious moods.  (4) Group thinking: group decision making.  (5) Group attitudes.  (6) Group philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.	6/6/1999

Sociology.	Sociology by the psychology model.  Mood (emotional) of the group.  Knowledge of the group.  Memory of the group.  Attitude of the group.	8/6/2001

Sociology.	Some people use the social tactic of avoiding all controversy at all costs, including avoiding the controversy involved in pushing for progress, justice and ethical development.  It is a mistake to do so.	3/23/2004

Sociology.	Submissive vs. dominant.  Aggressive vs. passive.  Initiator vs. follower.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Taboos.  The hula hoop always existed.  What occurred in the 1950s and 1960s was a relaxation of taboos to the point where women could stand in front of you and gyrate their pelvis in a bikini.  That is why the hula hoop exploded as a fad at that point in time.	11/28/1998

Sociology.	Techniques.  (1) You have to know how to deal with them (bullshitting, conning, dealing, schmoozing, fitting in).  (2) You have to know how to deal without them (standing on own, going one's own way, knowing when you are not wanted).  If you can't do both you are sunk.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Techniques.  Be friendly and nice to people.  Smile.  Offer to do them some favors.  Imitate their style and philosophy.  You may need something from them.  Even if just their support or neutrality toward you in discussions about you that occur behind your back.	03/26/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Best principles and techniques to deal with people in general, specific types of people, and specific people.  Attitudes to take and why.  Communication to use and why.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  By taking the role of historian or sociologist/psychologist you can talk to anyone about anything.	10/01/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Get catharsis from thought and then action, not from relationships.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  Get in their faces (space), and jerk them around a little.  Make them think you are unpredictable (random) and wild (pushing norms, breaking taboos).  Make them think you are dangerous, so that they will fear and respect you.	06/05/1997

Sociology.	Techniques.  Get what you want, satisfy drives by any and all legal means.  Don't get hurt, fight hard and smart.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  I want to become the consummate bullshit artist and confidence man: self assured, confident, sophisticated, never caught off guard, have an answer for everything.  My professional image and personal image: polished, tactful, diplomatic, showman, actor, chutzpah, ham, comic.	04/04/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Keep the opposition stupid, enslaved, happy sheep.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  Kick ass.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  Practice politeness and bullshitting.	01/20/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Protect yourself, get what you want, never give anyone an edge, reveal nothing.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Techniques.  Public relations.  How to make everyone feel like they are the greatest, smartest, most interesting person you ever met, and that you want to be in their presence all the time.  What to say?  How to act?	04/30/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Public relations.  You've worked hard to build an illusion for others to see.  It is not a bad thing.  It is a public relations image to get ahead, not a lie, but rather the best side.  One wrong word can destroy all you have built.  Don't show them your bad side or even the parts of your good side that they can't handle.  We are all actors always.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Techniques.  Schmoozing and networking, with who?  To offer what?  To get what?  What should you not offer, and what should you not accept?  How to pitch things to people.  How to turn people down, and reject others pitches.	04/30/1993

Sociology.	Techniques.  Schmoozing, networking, brown nosing.  Play up what you have in common, values and agendas.  Play down what you disagree on.	02/07/1994

Sociology.	Techniques.  Social skill.  (1) Learn how interact with, and yet not let morons, assholes, and nuts drive you crazy or make you a withdrawn recluse.  (2) Learn how to put up with those who are smarter, richer, better looking, etc.	12/26/1997

Sociology.	Techniques.  Social skills.  Things to keep in mind when you interact with people.  (1) Everyone has value, current value and potential future value.  Value meaning what they can accomplish now and in later years, at their present and future level of development.  (2) Everyone is fragile psychologically, and has feelings.  They can decay if neglected or abused.  (3) Everyone can grow and improve, and you can help them do so.	12/29/1997

Sociology.	Techniques.  Stay squeaky clean and be friendly to everyone.  Reassure people because otherwise their fears will make them lash out at you.	5/20/1999

Sociology.	Techniques.  Tactics sheet.  For each person you interact with, figure out what you want to remember and think about them, say to them, and do about them.  List various contingencies and your options for each.  Develop the message.  Get the message out.  Repeat the message often, at least once a week.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Techniques.  The way to deal with people is to always ask how they are, and ask how you can help them.  Pay them respect, and look at them like they are pretty, interesting and smart.  Even though you are smarter than them and superior in character.  It makes them feel good and safe and secure.  Kiss up to them.	12/30/1995

Sociology.	Techniques.  We should develop both social skills.  (1) Defense:  Protect.  Distance.  Repel.  (2) Offense:  Approach.  Attract.  (3) That is, we should learn to set boundaries.  We should develop the ability to let close and push away.	3/30/2000

Sociology.	Technology and sociology.  Technology makes possible new forms of society.  Technology makes possible new social phenomena.  Technology makes possible new forms of social interaction.  (1) Agricultural technology.  Domestication of plants and animals let population densities increase, which let cities develop.  The city as a sociological phenomenon.  (2) Communication technology.  (A) Internet sociology.  Chat rooms.  Message boards.  Email.  Text messaging.  (B) Phone sociology.  Talk to people far away.  Party lines.  (3) Transportation technology.  (A) Automobile and sociology.  People driving to visit each other.  The suburbs as a sociological phenomenon.  (B) Airplane and sociology.  Cultural mixing.  Cultural exchange of ideas.	1/15/2006

Sociology.	The basic nature of social relationships is power.  The basic behaviors of social relationships is cooperation, competition, and conflict.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	The big sociological question: what is it that happens between people?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	The chain puke phenomenon: One kid in a classroom pukes from eating a sandwich he brought from home and it sets off a domino effect of children puking even though they ate their own sandwiches from home.  Why should seeing someone puke make me want to puke if I did not eat what they ate?  The cause is a reflex that evolved from natural selection.  It is based on two facts.  (1) A tribe of cave people all ate from the same "pot" or food source.  (2) The food that they ate was often half spoiled because they had poor preservation methods.  (3) Therefore evolution would favor a tribe that all puked whenever one person ate bad food and puked.  Tribes that kept eating spoiled food whenever one person puked soon died out from food poisoning.  (4) You do not even need to see, smell or hear the puke.  Just having someone tell you that someone puked should be enough to make you puke.	8/15/1998

Sociology.	The effects of social interaction.  (1) Effects of positive social interaction:  Feeling safe and secure.  Feel relaxed.  High sense of self-esteem.  (2) Effects of negative social interaction:  Feeling threatened.  Feel tense.  Low self-esteem.	11/15/2000

Sociology.	The quality of individual psychologies yields the quality of society (?).  You want all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of the brains (conformist brain), the heads (nonconformist), and the jocks (conformist physical).	09/15/1993

Sociology.	Their false sense of superiority.  My false sense of inferiority.  Which is worse?	4/11/2000

Sociology.	There are some people who will stoop very low in order to win.  They play dirty.  They don't mind destroying other people's lives.  They actually enjoy it.  Some people will resort to dirty tactics.  So one has to go through life with that fact in mind.  Protect yourself.	5/22/2003

Sociology.	Think of an idea for a social organization.  The goals of the organization should be good for the natural environment, healthy for humans, socially responsible, and promote social justice by promoting economic justice and political justice.	3/3/2007

Sociology.	To steer a group or a relationship you must change attitudes.  You must persuade, convince, remind and get them to agree.  It is social psychology.	12/15/1998

Sociology.	To what degree can one recognize the implicit assumptions in a society's attitudes?  To what degree can one think outside the framework of societal attitudes in which one was raised?  Some cultures encourage diversity and creativity, which are healthy much like biodiversity is healthy.  Other cultures discourage creativity and diversity, and they become sparse and non-variegated, which is unhealthy.	6/8/2001

Sociology.	To what degree do bar regulars (i.e., barflys) become a family?	4/4/2001

Sociology.	Too much or too little resources (time, money, energy (physical or psychological)) spent on socializing, love or sex.	8/26/2000

Sociology.	Tribalism.  Religion and politics, and why it does not pay to talk to people about them.  Their response is involuntary.  Their response is not rational, nor is it based on issues or views on issues.  It is all tribal instinct.  In order to have a "we" that sticks together in friendship, there must be a "they" to hate.  In and out groups.  The only alternative is to be a cosmopolitan, world citizen, which is what I am.	06/10/1994

Sociology.	Two major social strategies.  (1) Pleasing.  Conforming.  Cute.  Ingratiating.  Complying.  Agreeing.  Doing what others do.  Going with the system.  Joiners.  (2) Thorny.  Prickly.  Criticize.  Take a stand.  Aloof.  (3) You can use both, in varying situations.	10/30/2005

Sociology.	Two opposing social forces.  (1) People want to be distinctive, unique, special, individuals.  People want to create a self-identity for themselves.  People are sometimes non-conformists and contrarians.  (2) People want to belong to a group.  People want to do what everyone else is doing.  People are sometimes conformists.	8/8/2006

Sociology.	Two types of subversion.  People who publicly denounce you, yet who secretly support you.  People who publicly support you, yet secretly denounce you.	12/28/2003

Sociology.	Types.  (1) Individual to individual interactions.  (2) Individual to group interactions. (3) Group intra-actions.  (4) Group to group interactions.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Understanding.  Degree of understanding or misunderstanding.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Unique vs. common, the conundrums of.  (1) Everyone is unique, with a unique mind and a unique body, yet we all share common human traits.  (2) Everyone wants to feel unique and special, yet we all want to feel like part of the group.     PART TWO.  (1) Unique.  We view "Mao jacket" conformity as bad.  Americans see independence  and individualism as good.  Lack of human diversity, like lack of biodiversity, is bad.  (2) Commonality.  Americans see the community as good and important.  Having a basis for unity is good when trying to resolve conflicts.	11/20/2001

Sociology.	Us vs. them mentality.  Exclusivity vs. inclusivity.	10/10/2003

Sociology.	Vocabulary.  Elements or factors and variations.  Social complex.  Social environment, social situation.  Social elements.  Social meetings.  Social relationship.  Social forces, social pressures.  Social interaction.  Social event.  Social phenomena.  Social theories.  Social institutions.  Social skills.  Social position.  Social change.  Social thinking, social communication, and social action.  Social psychology.  Abnormal sociology, pathological sociology.  Power: authority, leadership.  Obedience and rebellion.  Conformity vs. non-conformity.  Deviance.  Race (color), ethnicity (nation), creed (belief, religion).  Class, status, prestige, snobs.  Majorities, minorities.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Waffling.  Standing up for what you believe in (idealistic) vs. blowing with breeze (pragmatic).  Pros and cons of each.  Where is the balance between two?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	What are some of the values that humans transfer to each other?  Physical things.  Money.  Power.  Information, ideas, thoughts, words.  Emotions.	5/30/2005

Sociology.	What can change the attitude of the masses?  Better communication and transportation technologies.  Better information technologies.  Better thinking technologies.	5/23/2005

Sociology.	What causes one to feel more or less sociable?  What combination of neurotransmitters and hormones can it be?	4/11/2000

Sociology.	What is sociology?  Study of human interactions.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	What percentage of the population is (potentially vs. actually)  (1) Really good helpers (great idea people, great action makers).  (2) Helpers, solution makers.  (3) Do nothings: lazy, waste of life, couch potatoes.  (4) Somewhat bad:   (5) Really bad destroyers: murderers, robbers, child or spouse abusers, etc.	10/30/1996

Sociology.	What to do with people?  How to organize, direct and control people?  The answers have been government and laws.  Also, influence via public relations, advertisement, propaganda and the media.  Also, incentives like wages.  Also, education systems.	5/23/2005

Sociology.	What.  Psychology kicks sociology's ass.  Psychology has accomplished so much more than sociology.  Sociology is reducible to psychology.	7/28/1998

Sociology.	When a democratic personality meets an authoritarian personality.  (1) Authoritarian feels (A) If the democrat is below the authoritarian, the authoritarian feels the democrat is not showing enough respect to him.  (B) If the authoritarian is below the democrat, the authoritarian feels the democrat is wishy washy.  (2) Democratic feels (A) If the authoritarian is above the democrat, the democrat feels the authoritarian is bossy.  (B) If the authoritarian is below the democrat, the democrat feels the authoritarian is a brown nosing asskisser.  (3) What if both are equals?  What is each point of view in each situation or case?	10/20/1993

Sociology.	When they try to stop you from publishing, they try to stop you from writing, they try to stop you from talking, they try to stop you from thinking.  They want to disempower you.  They want to hog all the power.  (2) They try to stop you from surfing, reading and listening.  They try to stop you from talking, writing and publishing.	9/12/2003

Sociology.	Whether you approach or avoid a person depends on if you think they can help you or hurt you.  And if you see them as above you or below you.	02/04/1994

Sociology.	While going for a run, I felt a feeling of connectedness to everyone in the world.  We are all in the same situation, with the same needs and problems, and we are all working together.  I could imagine I was anyone, anyplace.  Physical isolation with psychological connectedness is better than being with people yet being psychologically isolated.  I could relate to people.  We are all a group, whether you are conscious of it or not.	09/01/1994

Sociology.	Why be nice?  (1) Some people want to use you up and throw you away.  Abuse, hurt, mock and belittle.  (2) Some people need nurturance, honesty, feedback, kindness, love, civility.  Consciously looking for and unconsciously looking for.  (3) Most people are on both the first and second list at once.	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Why study sociology?  (1) Get goals.  (2) Solve problems, avoid mistakes.  (3) Less pain, more success.  (4) Improve relationships, interact better.  (5) Why interact socially?	12/30/1992

Sociology.	Why.  (1) Why be social?  If you want to get good stuff done for the world, it pays to be social.  To get people to see and do things your way in order to multiply the good you do is thus one reason to be social.  To learn from others is another reason to be social.  To avoid loneliness.  To shmooze and cheese your way ahead.  (2) Why be isolationist?  To avoid the assholes who will try to hurt you for not thinking like them or doing things like them.  To avoid assholes who are trying to help you, but who actually hurt you.  To avoid wasting time talking to morons.	02/09/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	.This section is about the Internet.  Topics include: ( ) Positive views.  ( ) Negative views.	1/24/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	(1) Internet as a network in three ways: a network of computers, a network of information, and a network of people.  (2) Size of network.  The network has a size in terms of number of nodes.  The network has a size in terms of physical area covered.  The network has a size in terms of number of links connecting nodes.  (3) Distance.  Number of links or hops it takes to get from one node to another node determines the link distance.  Amount of time it takes to get from one node to another node determines the time distance.  (4) Internet has two types of nodes.  Web surfer nodes, the computers of the users.  Web site nodes, the computers of the hosts.	5/12/2005

Technology, computers, Internet.	(1) Negative uses of the Internet:  Some see the Internet as a way to make a quick buck.  Some see the Internet as a way to spread hate.  (2) Positive uses of the Internet:  Some see the Internet as a way to share information.  Some see the Internet as a way to empower people.	6/10/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	(1) No operating system is secure.  (2) The Internet is not secure.  (3) Internet anonymity is not possible.  (4) Internet privacy is not possible.  (5) When you go on the Internet, your information is being gathered by various groups such as the government, big business, and various individuals.  (6) That information is for sale, even back to you.  (Its like the old lame joke, "Do you have any pictures of yourself naked?  Would you like to buy some?")	9/19/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	(1) Why I thought computers and the Internet was it.  Computers and Internet as grass roots, voice of the people.  Computers and Internet as populist and pro-democracy.  It was a revolution, man.  It was going to change the world.  (2) Why the Internet may have been it.  Working as a techie for the cause is good.  Working as a techie for the corporations is bad.  (3) Why computers and Internet is not it.  I'm not a techie.  I'm an ideaman, not a tech man.  Tech is only part of the solution.  Tech is abused by bastards as much as it helps the struggle for good.  Thankfully, there are fewer bastards than good people.  (Major bastards 1%.  Minor bastards 10%).	6/10/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	A bad vision of the Internet.  The Internet is just another means to make money by dumbing things down and by pandering to people's base desires for sex and violence.  Internet as entertainment.  Internet as business, money.  Internet to promote a right wing agenda of dumbing down, and of disempowering people.	11/28/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	A good vision of the Internet.  If we give everyone access to information, and if we give everyone access to communication tools, then people will use it wisely and the world will improve, thus the Internet can change the world for the better.  Internet to empower the masses.	11/28/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Computer magazines recommend adding the following software to your computer to make it "totally safe": anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, anti-spam software, anti-pop-up-ad software, firewall software, etc.  If you need to add all that software to your computer then the Internet is not totally safe.	9/28/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Cool applications online.  (1) Personal apps:  Bookmarks.  Contacts.  Schedules.  Notes.  File Storage.  Webpages.  (2) Social apps: Message boards.  E-groups.  Webrings.  Chat.	11/15/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Each person gets a website.  The website has three different zones.  (1) Public zone for all to see.  (2) Semi-private zone for friends to see.  (3) Private zone for the person only to see.	8/8/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	Gossip.  Internet as gossip patch.  There are a lot of yentas on the Intenet.	5/11/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Gossip.  The Internet, much like the telephone, is primarily a medium for gossip.  Gossip is mostly about name calling and rumor mongering.	2/14/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Growth of the Internet.  Compare the Internet 1995-1999 to the Internet 2000-2004.  Even though the Internet continues to grow in size, as measured by the number of users on the Internet and the number of web pages they post, the rapid technological development of the Internet has slowed.	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	How big is the Internet?  Approximately 500 billion web pages are on the Internet.  That's almost a hundred pages for every person on earth.	1/28/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	How big is the Internet?  How many web sites?  How many web pages?  How much data in terabytes?  How many people visiting those websites?  People spending how much time on the Internet?  How many dollars involved?  How much stuff purchased on the Internet?  How much free stuff on the Internet?	1/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	How many people are on the Internet?  How much time do people spend on the Internet?  What percentage of time are people using the Internet for gaining knowledge and information versus mindless entertainment?	11/9/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	How to surf the Internet.  The art of finding useful things that you did not know you were looking for.  Directed wandering.  How to find things previously unknown to you.	3/15/2007

Technology, computers, Internet.	Idea for a web site called "I forget how old I am."  People often forget their age.  This web site has a text box that says, "Enter the year of your birth".  The user picks their year of birth from a drop down list.  Then a second field says, "The current year is 2006.  You are X years old."	5/20/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet 2.0?  Google maps.  Flickr.  Del.icio.us.  Not very impressive.	4/27/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet as download (transfer data) vs. Internet as dialogue (combine brain power).	6/28/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet as library.  (1) Saves a trip to the library.  A library on your desktop.  (2) Bigger than any library.  More information.  More authors.  More subjects.  More points of view.	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet as newspaper.  Is there more to do online than just reading the news?	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet as:  One big mind.  One big library.  One big conversation.  One big marketplace.	3/15/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet business.  (1) Internet Marketing:  Buzz.  Word of mouth.  Cluetrain Manifesto, by Doc Searls.  Idea Virus, by Seth Godin.  Memes.  (2) Internet Finance:  IPO's.  Venture capitalists.  (3) Internet management:  Keep team small.  Outsource tasks that are not core.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet economy.  (1) Dream turned to nightmare.  (2) Manic depressive economy.  (3) Put yourself on a pedestal, have the pedestal knocked from under you, and then get up and start walking again.  (4) A once in a lifetime opportunity to lose all your money.  (5) It was the Woodstock of today's younger generation.  (6) The Internet continues on.  It is not about money, stocks or big business.  Its about individuals talking with each other on the web.	8/2/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet is 2 billion web pages that nobody cares about.	9/19/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet is a big brain.	11/30/1996

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet is an incredible resource.  Two keys to using the Internet are browser bookmarks and the e-library.  The e-library is a collection of digital information.  The key to the e-library is mass storage.	12/27/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet is geek country.	8/30/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet is more about content than software.  That is, the Internet is more about writing than coding.	9/19/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet issues.  (1) Spying.  That is, loss of privacy.  (2) Censorship.  (3) Propaganda.  (4) Access.  There should be free access for all people to the Internet.  When a computer and Internet access is too expensive for the poor then that is injustice.	5/29/2007

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet model is strangers collaborating for free and for fun.	8/5/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet nineties (1995-1999) was a combination of the hippie sixties (1965-1969) and the jazz-age twenties (1925-1929).	9/19/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet raises the level of ethical responsibility because it is so accessible.  You do not have to go to the library or the bookstore.  You have a greater obligation to learn because the Internet is available from your desk top.	12/26/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet will probably have public, free programs for K-12.  Private, pay programs for leisure things like virtual golf.  The government can set standards, provide funding, and make it come about more quickly, but it will be sub-optimal and expensive.  Private competition battles take longer but the product is perfected and given to the public at lowest cost.  The big questions are how soon, how much money, how quick and easy to use, how much useful information available.  Problems: copyright and intellectual property.  The Internet can make learning more stuff easier, faster, with less pain and more fun.  Fewer kids will be less turned off, less curiosity destroyed, which will mean less social problems and less social costs, and more money put to better uses, and more social advances.  Destruction of curiosity is a big, quiet, hard to see, problem for myself and others.  People could graduate sooner (phd at age 12?).  Less wasted lives, and more happy people in a better world.	08/31/1993

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  (1) Internet as a connection between brains.  (2) Internet as one big brain that we all share.	9/1/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  (1) What is good on the Internet?  The Internet has a lot of good stuff on it.  News.  Dating.  Encyclopedias.  Music.  Movies.  All this despite the fact that there are also a relatively few bad apples on the Internet.  (2) What is not good about the Internet?  Viruses, trojans, and worms.  Hacker/crackers.  Spam.  Internet harassment, Internet stalking, Internet threats.  Invasion of privacy.	11/12/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  (see also: Sociology, communications, media, Internet).  Brains unite!  Brains speak!  For a long time brains were kept silent and kept isolated from each other.  The technology was not available for brains to unite and speak easily.  In the resulting vacum, bodies, stuff and money became the popular preoccupations.  Now that computers and the Internet let brains unite and speak more easily, there is a de-emphasis on stuff and a re-emphasis on ideas, emotions and attitudes.  As far as the other playing fields go, body-people play sports, stuff-people go shopping at the mall, and money-people go gambling in casinos.  Now, with the Internet, the brains have their own playing field, and balance in the world is thus restored.	8/18/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  Best and worst case scenarios for the Internet.  Worst case: Internet is totally controlled by government or totally controlled by big corporations.  Charge for use.  Totally commercial.  Totally proprietary.	3/15/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  Evolution of Web pages.  (1) Text and photo.  (2) Audio and video.  (This is the point we are at present)  (3) Holographic 3D images, with interactive question and answer.  At this stage your descendants could visit you after you are dead and interact with you.  You could also visit and talk to your young self fifty years later.  (4) A computer that continues to learn and think and produce new ideas even after you are dead.	10/30/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  First step is easy web writing.  Then easy and cheap web posting by anyone.  Then everyone will have their own web page.  Then they should start organizing and posting their ideas.  Then all the individuals webs sites will be searchable quickly.  Like you could put in a key word like "motivation" and it will search everyone's public notes to see what has been thought on motivation.	01/08/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  How much of an effect did, does and will the Internet have?  I say the most important role of the Internet boom of the late 1990's was its role as an ideal dream.  It was a dream age, and dream ages are important.  For example, it seems difficult to imagine that the invention of the telephone had a dream or ideal attached to it, but I'm sure it did, probably most keenly felt by bored housewives.  The technology does not have to deliver on the dream.  The important thing is that the technology lets us see the dream in our heads.  Technology lets us dream or imagine a new ideal.  Imagining new ideals is an important yet often underrated mental activity.	8/4/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  Its all part of my Internet fantasy.  Its all part of my Internet dream.  (to paraphrase the song).	7/25/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  PART ONE.  Pro Internet.  Internet provides information.  Internet enables communication.  Internet provides recreation and entertainment.   Internet provides a voice for those with less power and less money, and thus, the Internet is an equalizer.  PART TWO.  Con Internet.  Internet access is expensive (but the price is dropping).  Internet provides a medium for online bullying, harassment, threats, abuse, etc.  Internet is a medium for invasion of privacy, like the monitoring of individuals by the government, corporations, and other groups and individuals.	6/25/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  The Web.  People may deride the Web for its crass commercialism, the porn, the mindless video games, the hate spewing sites, and the unorganized mediocre content in general.  But there is still an enormous amount of excellent information available to anyone immediately.  It is, all things considered, a great thing that is getting better at a quick pace (safe surf, video/audio, 3D, etc.).	11/30/1996

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  We are all writers now, leaving tracks and traces.  Comments, opinions, two cents, remarks, observations, quips.	8/5/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  Web has a million times more content than television.  It has proportionally as much good stuff and bad stuff, but since it is bigger you get more quantity of good stuff than television.	2/15/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Internet.  Who will build it, who will run it, what information available, at what cost, to who?  How will we access it, what will it look like, what will the technology be?	10/01/1993

Technology, computers, Internet.	Negative side of the Internet.  (1) Spies.  Information for money.  Information for power.  (2) Paparazzi.  Hollywood.  (3) Dirty tricks.  Political, like Watergate burglars. (4) Self appointed.  Sanctimonious.  Moral arbiters.  (5) Crazies.  Wackos.  (6) Sophmoronic, sadistic, practical jokers.	9/12/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Negative side of the Internet.  Internet abuse.  Malicious mocking.  Lying.  Threats.  Bullying.  Why?  Because people mistakenly take things as personal attacks or ideological attacks.  Because they are full of anger.  Or because they think its fun to abuse.  Or because they are crazy.  Or they like to fight.	7/1/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Negative views of the Internet.  Internet as a trap.  Those who say, "Feel free to surf the Internet.  OBTW, we are watching your every move, waiting for you to make one false move, and we may even try to bait you or entrap you."	10/27/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	New media online.  Weblogs.  Webrings.  Message boards.  Online text chats.  Wikis.	8/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  (1) Invent a cool web site.  Develop a bunch of web sites based on a bunch of ideas.  Put all the web sites online.  See which web sites succeed and fail.  The criteria for success being what?  See which become popular and not.  See which make money and not.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Brainstorming software ideas.  (1) People have trouble thinking.   Let people pick words of a list or web.  Take those words and tag them.  Fill in the blanks.  The way I feel about (word) is (what).  Turn words into sentences.  Turn sentences into paragraphs.  Tags the paragraphs.  Link the paragraphs in new ways.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Do something creative with code.  Find or create various cool hardware and link it together.  Find or create various cool software code and link it together.  Link together cool hardware and cool software.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Find some cool, under-utilized hardware.  Find a new use for the hardware.  Develop some cool software for it.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Internet was supposed to empower people.  Internet was supposed to let small companies compete against large corporations.  Internet was supposed to let people get educated.  Internet was supposed to let people communicate.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Mad libs, computerized.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Magic eight ball, computerized.  Have about eight standard answers.  Associate those eight standard responses with eight numbers.  Have the computer randomly pick one of those eight numbers in order to randomly present one of the eight standard answers in response to any question asked.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Memory Lane.  People write their memories.  People give their memories a workout.  People integrate their past in a psychologically healthy, therapeutic way.  Sortable by date.  Sortable by author.  Searchable by keyword.	2/16/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Notes machine for people to do their own notes.	2/16/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  PART ONE.  Models of e-commerce, e-business  (1) Clicks and mortar.  Web site as adjunct to physical store.  (2) Web site as adjunct to a catalog driven business.  Ex. LL Bean.  (3) Payment over Internet for an object delivered.  (4) Payment over Internet for a service delivered.  (5) Internet based media companies: Text.  Music.  Movies.  Visual arts.     PART TWO.  E-business examples.  (1) Internet makes finding a date easier.  Ex. Match.com.  (2) Internet makes trading online easier.  Ex. Ameritrade.  No need stock broker.  (3) Internet makes finding plane fairs easier.  Ex. Priceline.  No need travel agent.     PART THREE.  Principles of website design and e-business.  Best practices.  (1) User friendly.  Intuitive.  (2) Use pre-made software.  Don't reinvent the wheel.  Keep coding to a minimum.  (3) Use free, open source software, so that you don't have to keep paying licensing fees to Microsoft.  (4) Don't use components that are too big for the project.  Don't use components that are too small for the project.  (5) Maintainable.  Easily maintainable.  Maintainable by end users.  For example, CMS that user can update easily.  (6) Scalable.  Easily scalable.  Can grow, or shrink.  Can be extended.  (7) Secure.  Not easily hacked by crackers.  (8) Documented.  Well documented.  (9) Sit down with customer.  Explain alternatives.  Give your recommendation.  (10) Low cost.  Not too expensive for customer.  (11) Quick and easy.  (12) Pricing.  Get clear with customer what is expected to be delivered and when.  Get payment up front.	2/16/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Philosophy.  Question asker.  Answer gatherer.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  The Notes organizer.  Sync notes with people.  Combine notes with people.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Things people do on web interfaces.  (1) People type in search term and get a static web page back.  (2) People type in a search term and get a record(s) from database back, presented in a dynamic web page.  (3) People create an anonymous login on the website, by creating a user name and user password.  (4) People create a non-anonymous login on the website by giving their real name and email.  (5) People use credit card to buy access to the site.  (6) People use credit card to buy something physical.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	New web site ideas.  Website idea: People making stuff     PART ONE.  Features.  (1) Spaces.  Many people log in, get their own space that you provide.  What kind of space?  Their own web page.  (2) Tools.  People get their own tools that you provide.  What kind of tools?  Text editing.  (3) Multimedia.  Its multimedia, text, photos and image files, music files.  Its like a blog.  Examples, Wiki, My Space.  (4) Searchable.  There is a bunch of different searches.  (5) Sortable.  The output can be sorted by the web users.  (6) Zones.  Everyone gets private, semi-private and public spaces.  There is chat?  (7) Lists.  People can see who else is logged on.  People can IM other people online.  (8) Lists.  People can see list of other peoples sites.  Lists are sortable.  (9) Lists.  Latest additions.  Newest.  Most recent.  (10) User accounts.  User creates a user account.  User deletes their account.  Sign in.  Sign out.  (11) Upload a file.  Download a file.  Example, browse and upload button and field.  (12) Create a doc.  Edit a doc.  Delete a doc.  Keep doc as draft.  Publish a doc.     PART TWO.  General principles.  (1) Making stuff.  People start making their own stuff.  What kind of stuff?  (2) Sharing.  Everyone can see everyone else's stuff.  Increased sharing capability.  The whole is greater than sum of parts.  Synergy.  (3) Its informative.  Its entertaining.  Its fun.  Its easy.  Its quick.  (4) The more people participating, the better the entire project.  (5) Its creative expression.  Its growthful.  (6) How is it different?  How is it unique?  How is it good?  (7) What aspects of basic human nature does it make use of?  Basic human needs, food, clothing, shelter, social, creative.  (8) Examples.  Wikipedia.  Everything2.  My Space.  Friendster.  (9) Finances.  Who pays for the hosting?  Who pays for the bandwidth.  (10) Marketing.  How to market it?     PART THREE.  Strategies.  (1) Provide Services, Tools and Information.  (2) Idea.  Most websites try to provide practical services and information, like about job, health, etc.  I will provide philosophical and psychological tools, services and information.  (3) Become a portal.  Build a community.  Fill a niche.  (4) Examples.  Wikis.  Blogs.  CMS's like PHP Nuke.  (5) Pieces.  Web server: you host a main website.  Database: you hold it all in a database.	2/15/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Online porn.  Online gambling.  Online shopping.  The Internet is an addiction enabler.	12/14/2005

Technology, computers, Internet.	Politics and Internet.  Has the Internet helped the political left or right more?  Has technology helped the political left or right more?  Is the Internet, and technology in general, politically neutral?  Or is it biased towards the political left or right?  Power holders abuse technology to their advantage.  The standard thinking is that the Internet is a democratic force.  However, the Internet is also a platform for fringe hate groups and violent extremists and fanatics.	5/12/2005

Technology, computers, Internet.	Psychology and Internet.  How do computers, and specifically the Internet, change the way that humans "mind", and, more specifically, "think"?  Do we begin to think more "hypertexty" and more "web-like" as a result of using the Internet?	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Social software:  Friendster.  Facebook.  My Space.	8/31/2005

Technology, computers, Internet.	Sociology and the Internet.  How does socializing on the Internet (email, chat, text) differ from socializing face to face?	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Surfing the Internet is like going to the library and having a group of strange people reading over your shoulder.	7/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The computer software manufacturers encourage people to buy computers.  They encourage people to put personal data on computers.  They encourage people to connect computers to the Internet.  And they encourage people that their software products are secure.  Yet they know the network is not secure.  The entire thing has a sleazy air to it.	9/14/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The discussions on some Internet message boards are much more creative than the software that runs the message boards themselves.	8/10/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet changes people's basic attitudes.  (1) "I am stuck" becomes "I can go anywhere on the Internet".  (2) "I have no voice.  I have no say." becomes "I have a voice.  I can speak my mind on my home page."  (3) "I feel no connection to others." becomes "We are all connected on the Internet."	9/25/2000

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet is a culture of spies and targets.	3/24/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet is being used by bullies to identify and harass their ideological opponents.	12/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet is just a means to track people.  When you logon, almost anyone can tell where you are and what you are doing.	3/24/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet is not "about" business.  The Internet is "about" free information.  The Internet is like a big public library.	12/30/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet is your window on the world.  The Internet is the world's window on you.	7/7/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The Internet makes it easier for people to work in groups.  The Internet makes it easier for people to work in secret.  The Internet makes it easier to work in secret groups.  Thus, the Internet makes group bullying easier to do.  Bullying is unethical.  The Internet makes some unethical actions easier to perpetrate.	12/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	The key is not to give everyone a computer.  The key is to give everyone access to the Internet.	11/15/2001

Technology, computers, Internet.	Think of ideas for web sites that should be created.  Then create the web site.  For example, web sites to advance the progressive agenda.	3/25/2006

Technology, computers, Internet.	Trends.  The Internet as media, marketplace, and community.	12/29/1997

Technology, computers, Internet.	Two phenomena.  (1) The Internet stock bubble was due to the stock prices of Internet companies being overvalued.  (2) The Internet expectations bubble.  This was due to several attitudes.  (A) We can spend all our time on the Internet.  (B) The Internet, or technology in general, will solve all our problems.  (C) All that exists is technology.  (D) Technology is the most important thing.	3/20/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Two questions.  How much time does one, and should one, spend online?  What does one, and what should one, accomplish with the time one spends online?	8/19/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Two views of the Internet.  (1) Internet as a virtual community, town, city, nation, world.  (2) Internet as a virtual reality unto itself, not merely a digitized copy of this world.	9/12/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Various topics in Computers and the Internet.  PART ONE.  Shiny metal boxes.  (1) Personal computing.  Personal computing involved making computers small enough and inexpensive enough for individuals to own.  The development of personal computers took computing out of the hands of governments and corporations and gave computers to the people.  Personal computers empower the public.  (2) Computer networking.  Computer networking connects computers together.  TCP/IP is a large-network protocol that helped build the Internet.  Ethernet is a small-network protocol.  Computer networking led to the Internet which is a world wide computer network.  (3) Wireless computing.  Wireless computing enables people to use computers away from phone line outlets and Ethernet cord outlets.  (4) Mobile computing.  Laptops enabled people to use computers away from their desks and away from electrical power outlets.     PART TWO.  (1) Search.  Why is search so fascinating?  Why not sort the Internet instead of search the Internet?  To sort by category requires that each web site and web page be categorized.  How to categorize?  Let people create their own categories.  Folks-onomy.  (2) Google.  Google started as a search engine and later added other features.  Google is a popular search engine because it searches many pages quickly and returns accurate results.  Google is branching out to other projects.  Google is trying to get a "full text search" project going.  (3) Yahoo started as a human-compiled directory of the Internet.   Yahoo developed into a popular Internet portal.  An Internet portal is a web site that provides a variety of services, such as news, email, groups, etc.  People often use an Internet portal as their home page when surfing the Internet.     PART THREE.  (1) File sharing - music, movies.  Napster.  Kaaza.  Livewire.  File sharing lets people quickly and easily find and transfer data.  (2) Mp3 is a format that lets people share music online.  (4) Ipod.  Ipod is Apple's music player and online music downloading service.  Ipod is what drove Tower Records out of business.  (5) YouTube lets people share video online.  Youtube lets people easily upload and download digital videos.     PART FOUR.  Where are you?  (1) Map services on the Internet, like Google Earth, combine satellite photos and drawn maps.  Google Earth lets a person easily and quickly zoom in, zoom out, and search through maps.  Google Earth presents a realistic, three dimensional, dynamic picture of the Earth.  (2) GPS.  Global Positioning System.  Always know where you are.  Never get lost.  Find your way to a destination.     PART FIVE.  Buying and selling.  (1) Amazon lets you buy books and other stuff online.  Amazon is essentially a large, easy to use, popular online store.  (2) Ebay is an online worldwide garage sale.  Initially Amazon let you buy new things, and Ebay let you buy and sell used things.  However, now that distinction is fading, because Amazon is branching out to the used things market, and Ebay is selling a lot of new things.     PART SIX.  Open Source.  (1) Creative Commons.  Creative Commons provides a variety of ways to license your content for public use.  Creative Commons also functions as a repository for open source content.  (2) XML is a way to create structured information.  XML is a more general form of HTML.  XML lets you create custom tags.  DocBook is a type of XML that makes it easier to format digital books.  (3) Linux is a free operating system created by people around the world donating their time and cooperating.  (4) GNU License was created by the Free Software Foundation and is used to protect Free and Open Source Software for public use.  (5) Open Source Software.  Examples of open source software: Open Office, LAMP (LInux, Apache, MySQL and Perl or PHP).  (6)  Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute.  Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is created using Wiki software.  Wiki software is a type of group collaboration software.     PART SEVEN.  Other.  (1) One Laptop Per Child - An initiative to create low cost laptop computers for use by poor children worldwide.  (2) Blogs - online journals written by individuals.  Blogs are a form of independent media.  A blog is a webpage that can be easily be updated and formatted from a web browser.     PART EIGHT.  Social networks.  Social networking software.  My Space.  Friendster.  Makes it easier for people to surf networks of people.     PART NINE.  (1) Online dating takes personal ads and puts them on the Internet.  (2) Online gambling makes it even easier to lose your money.  (3) Online pornography.  People like sex.  Get over it.  People also like erotic stories, pictures and movies, which can also be called pornography.  Pornography has moved off the printed page and onto the Internt.  (4) Computer games are a very engrossing form of entertainment.  PART TEN. Let's talk.  (1) Email was one of the earliest forms on Internet communication.  (2) Chat is like real-time email.  Chat is also known as instant messaging.  (3) Text messaging lets people send and receive short text messages on cell phones.  PART ELEVEN.  (1) Hypertext.  The World Wide Web.  HTTP and HTML.  (2) Databases.    PART TWELVE.  (1) Translation software - translates text from one language to another.  Not perfected, but its useful.  (2) Voice recognition software - converts your spoken words to text.  Not perfected yet, but its useful.  PART THIRTEEN.  (1) Digital cryptography.  PGP and GPG.  Privacy issues.     PART FOURTEEN.  (1) Digital photography, digital cameras.  (2) Cell phones are even more popular than computers.  (3) Digital surveillance is a trend that involves small, inexpensive, networked digital cameras that often record 24x7.	2/10/2007

Technology, computers, Internet.	Viruses, worms, crackers and snoops.  The Internet should be called spookville because of the vile spooks on it.	9/28/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Weblog popularity.  Most linked to.  Most read.  Most in favorites lists.	8/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	Weblogs.  Some weblogs are personal diaries that describe each day.  Some weblogs are pointing to other articles.  Where is the thinking?	8/20/2003

Technology, computers, Internet.	What is good about the Internet?  (1) Lets people communicate.  Lets people email and chat.  (2) Provides access to information.  A library on your desktop.  (3) Lets people voice their opinions.  Lets anyone publish a web page.  Lets anyone read that web page.	6/30/2004

Technology, computers, Internet.	Wikipedia is now better than Encyclopedia Britannica, in terms of the number of articles (breadth or scope), and in terms of average article length (depth).	3/11/2007

Technology, computers, Internet.	World free Internet.  Free information for free people.  Information liberation.	12/17/2000

Technology, computers.	.This section is about computers.  Topics include: ( ) Artifical Intelligence.	1/24/2006

Technology, computers.	(1) A book provides access to information.  A computer provides access to information (via the Internet) and it also is a powerful creative tool that lets you write a book, compose music, paint a painting, develop software and many other things.  (2) Access to books raises one's ethical responsibility.  Access to computers raises one's ethical responsibility even further.  Ignoring access to both books and computers is an ethical injustice.	6/20/2001

Technology, computers.	(1) A computer program that can bust up a non-fiction book by subject, view and argument.  (2) A computer program that sorts all fiction literature by plot, theme, settings, character, etc.	11/30/1999

Technology, computers.	(1) Computer program that can take a natural language sentence (ex. English) and put it in formal symbolic language.  (2) Be able to convert between historical, logical, importance, and alphabetical formats.  (3) Translate to any level of difficulty (ex. grade school, high school, and graduate school), and to any length (ex. 1, 10, and 100 pages).	3/10/1999

Technology, computers.	(1) Computers are the biggest thing since sliced bread.  E-library.  E-education.  E-commerce.  E-communication.  E-psychologists.  Stock market trading.  E-entertainment.  E-social communities.  (2) Math and science using computers for statistics.  Computers to monitor the environment.  Simulation and modeling of experiments.  Handling large masses of data quickly.  Arts: e-painting, midi music, speech recognition.  Politics: voting from PC, computer census.  Law: police crime statistics, tracking of license plates and fingerprints and bullets, camera monitoring.  Business: JIT, CAD/CAM, office automation.  (3) How many people have computers?  How many people are on the Internet?	09/26/1997

Technology, computers.	(1) Computers that handle quantitative data: calculators.  (2) Computers that communicate information: word processors, imaging applications. (3) Computers that deduce and learn: that sort your logic, do math proofs,  Expert Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Decision Support Systems.	01/23/1997

Technology, computers.	(1) Examples of increasing computer capabilities.  Computers can land a plane.  Computers can play chess and win against the world chess champion.  (2) Developing computers sense capabilities of sight and sound.  (A) Sight capabilities.  Telling light from dark.  Discerning a gray scale.  Discerning colors. Discerning patterns.  (B) Sound capabilities: Discerning sound from silence.  Discerning directions of sounds.  Discerning patterns of sound like speech or music.  (C) Logical capabilities: examples.	12/29/2003

Technology, computers.	(1) Home computerized psychological therapy is important.  (2) Computerized philosophy therapy using a virtual philosopher or mentor is important.  (3) Knowledge organization therapy using the notes is important.  (4) Home computerized virtual sex is important.  Only when people's love and sex needs are met will they pursue education.  (5) Virtual social interactions for practice for growth purposes are important.  (6) The Internet connects lonely rural  populations.  Internet will also let crowded city populations escape to virtual countryside to enjoy nature and privacy.	1/30/1998

Technology, computers.	(1) It's all going to be recorded, by everyone, each person having a camera either on their laptop pc, or each person having a wearable PC with camera attached. (2) It will all be uploaded to a peer to peer network.  (3) Face recognition software will be ubiquitous.  It will scan files on network drives to search for any person's face.  (4) It will scan for voices too.  It can even scan for verbal strings.  (5) The result is that anyone, anywhere can scan for you and what you said on any given day.  The result is like the "This Is Your Life" television show for every person, and it is on all the time.  (6) It will be able to recognize emotion by using the universal facial expressions that all humans exhibit.  Thus, it will be able to search for your moods.  (7) You will be judged, by everyone, based on how you live your entire life.  That is a situation that is very close to traditional conceptions of judgment by god in the afterlife.  Now it is possible here on earth.  Heaven on earth.  Or hell.	1/9/2002

Technology, computers.	(1) Personal computers are revolutionary in a good way because it empowers individuals.  (2) The Internet is revolutionary in a good way because it gives people access to information.  (3) Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is revolutionary is a good way because it gives people access to code.	5/29/2007

Technology, computers.	(1) Pro computers.  Computers save time, money and human labor.  (2) Con computers.  Computers are expensive (but the price is dropping).	6/25/2004

Technology, computers.	(1) Programmers solution: Read the code.  Edit the code.  Recompile the code.  (2) LAN admin solution:  Reboot the machine.  Reinstall the application or operating system.  Replace the physical parts.	1/4/2002

Technology, computers.	(1) They should make natural language searches on the web (like some application help files have), instead of just keyword searches.  (2) The next big thing: solar powered wireless laptops in Africa, India and China.	9/15/1998

Technology, computers.	(1) What can't computers do (Now or ever.  Partially or completely.)?  (A) Be conscious?  (B) Be creative thinkers?  (C) Feel emotion?  (D) Raise our young?  (E) Be a friend?  (F) Cyborg humans?  (G) Teach themselves?  (H) Reason from natural language?     (2) What can't humans do (Now or ever.  Partially or completely.)?  (A) Read minds?  (B) Predict the future?  (C) Live forever?  (D) Time travel?  (E) Travel at speed of light?  (F) Learn in sleep?  (G) Teleportation (beam up)?  (H) Fusion power?	4/17/2001

Technology, computers.	A computer sage would give short (1-3 paragraphs) and long (1-3 pages) length explanations, and at easy (elementary), middle (high school), and advanced (grad school) level of difficulty.  A person could ask it a question and the computer could clarify the question by repeating back a matching or similar question from its question bank, and then provide an answer which would include alternate viewpoints.	12/30/1995

Technology, computers.	A generalized view of the future of computing.  There are three main components: humans, machines and nature.  The goal is to: (1) Connect machines to machines.  (2) Connect machines to humans.  (3) Connect humans to humans.  (4) Connect machines to nature.  (5) Connect humans to nature.  (6) Connect nature to nature.     PART TWO.  How to do the 4, 5 and 6?  Firstly, use video cameras.  Secondly, use audio-video cameras.  Thirdly use virtual reality 3D holographic audio/video cameras.	9/17/2001

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) Build a computer that can imagine.  (2) Build a computer that can question.  (3) Build a computer that can do logic.  (4)(A) Build a computer that knows when to do each of the above tasks.  Build a computer that knows when to switch tasks.  (B) Build a computer that can multi-task.  That is, build a computer that can perform many tasks at one time.  (C) Build a computer that can move tasks from foreground to background.	1/2/2005

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) Can humans build a brain?  Can humans build a simple brain?  Can humans build a complex brain?  Can humans build a brain more complex than the human brain?  Can humans build conscious brains?  (2) What have humans accomplished so far in the area of artificial intelligence?  What kind have artificial systems have been built to emulate senses, memory, emotion and thought?	2/27/2005

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) Could we make AI?  (A) Now? No.  (B) In 200 years?  Maybe.  (2) Should we make AI?  Yes.	8/8/2001

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) New language learners, whether they be ancient humans, young children, or intelligent computers, probably start with single word utterances.     (2) A random word generator is easy to build from an online dictionary.  A random sentence generator is easy to build from a group of sentence patterns such as SV, SVO, etc.	12/23/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) One potential problem with a brain-computer linkup is that if it relies on a physical wire connection then electrical shock would harm the brain.  A wireless connection might help avoid this.  (2) Another thing to look forward to is human-human linkups for data transfer.  Wired or wireless.  Transfer the contents of one brain to another.	6/29/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  (1) To what extent are the Notes like a computer?  (A) Storage (encyclopedic database).  (B) Organization (hierarchical).  (C) Discrete or atomic, not analog or linear.  (2) To what extent is the Notes like a brain?  (A) The Notes are not moving around on the page.  They are not dynamic.  Actually, they are when you sort it by field.  (B) The Notes are alive only when a person reads it.  The Notes work symbiotically with the person.  It fits into the virus-like description of memes.  (C) The Notes are more than a traditional book.  Each idea is more alive on their own than the ideas in a traditional book where one idea is dependent on the next.  (D) Can the Notes generate new knowledge on its own?  (E) What would happen if I put the Notes into an AI program?	6/25/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  A method for AI.  (1) Develop a computer that generates questions on every subject.  (2) Develop a computer that performs logic operations.  For example, generates all valid syllogisms.  (3) Combine the above two machines to make a machine that asks questions and then performs logical operations to generate possible answers.  (4) Have humans sift through the results.	10/13/2004

Technology, computers.	AI.  A really smart system you would be able to ask questions and it would respond to them.  It would be like a computer philosopher.  Teaching you one step ahead of your level.	01/01/1993

Technology, computers.	AI.  An "Idea Generator" would have the following parts: (1) Expert modules in all major subject areas.  (2) Guided tutorials in all major subject areas.  (3) Natural language search engine to answer questions.  (4) A natural language logic tester to help test the logic of any argument you come up with.  (5) FAQs.  (6) Plus the kicker: a question generator and an idea generator.	8/30/2001

Technology, computers.	AI.  Artificial intelligence, two approaches.  PART ONE.  The language approach.  (1) Load a dictionary into the computer.  Make sure each word in the dictionary is identified by its part of speech (noun, verb, etc.).  (2) Create variables for the parts of a sentence.  Create a variable called "noun", "verb", "adjective", "adverb", etc.  (3) Tell the computer which are the valid sentence structures.  For example, "Subject-Verb-Object".  (4) Have the computer randomly select words to fill the variables to create sentence structures.     PART TWO.  The logic approach.  (1) Make sure the computer knows which logical structures are valid and invalid.  For example, make sure the computer knows which syllogism forms that are valid and invalid.  (2) Have the computer randomly select words to create valid logical structures like syllogisms.	3/5/2007

Technology, computers.	AI.  Artificial intelligence.  (1) It depends on how you define intelligence.  Intelligent as an adult human?  Intelligent as a newborn child?  Intelligent as an animal?  (2) It also depends on how you define consciousness.  Conscious as an adult human?  Conscious as a newborn child?  Conscious as an animal?  (3)  Currently, computers are algorithmic and preprogrammed.  How will that change in the future? Computer processing power increases with Moore's law.  (4) Computer learning.  How intelligent are computers today?  Animals have intelligences and consciousnesses that humans do not.  For example, flight and sonar capabilities.	12/29/2003

Technology, computers.	AI.  Artificial intelligence.  What is needed is an intelligent computer program that can be used when two people meet, to exchange their notes electronically.  The software would compare the other person's notes to your notes.  It would make a list of new ideas that the person had that you never had.  It would skip over or filter out ideas you have rejected as false or sub-optimal.	11/22/1998

Technology, computers.	AI.  At first computers will become conscious using a "one computer equals one mind" scenario.  But eventually one computer will be able to host multiple virtual minds who will then be able to engage in a roundtable discussion in order to brainstorm new ideas in an idea generation phase.  They will then be able to debate these new ideas in an idea evaluation phase.  They will then report the results to a living person.  It is not necessary to build one computer for each virtual mind or person.  You can fit a community on a computer.	6/1/2001

Technology, computers.	AI.  Can humans build a robot that has imagination?  For any statement, the robot evaluates the statement as true or false.  If the statement is false, the robot has an imagination function to imagine it as true.  If the statement is true, the robot has an imagination function to imagine it as false.  Use conditional "if, then" statements to build an imagination function.	11/13/2005

Technology, computers.	AI.  Does the limitations of the Emacs Therapist program reflect the limitations of computer AI programs, or does it reflect the limitations of most psychotherapists?	3/18/2006

Technology, computers.	AI.  Multi-tasking in humans.  The problem is that humans tend to use their brains for serial processing, not parallel processing.  However, parallel multi-tasking is potentially much more productive than serial processing.  How to do parallel processing in humans?  (1) Multi-tasking while asleep.  (2) Multi-tasking in our subconscious mind when awake.  (3) Make a list of problems and questions to work on in spare time.  (4) Develop your multiple intelligences.  (i.e., Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences).  (5) Develop multiple selves (i.e., multiple roles).  Multiple selves does not have to be labeled as crazy (ex. Multiple Personality Disorder).  (6) Get many people working together on a problem.	6/28/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  One way to do artificial intelligence is the Question and Answer method.  You make a list of potential questions a user may ask.  Then you make a corresponding list of answers.  Then invite the user to ask questions and provide the user with answers.	11/8/2004

Technology, computers.	AI.  PART ONE.  Simple minds do only a few things, and take only a few steps to accomplish tasks.  Build a simple mind using silicon.  Build a simple mind using nerve fiber.     PART TWO.  Complex minds can do many things.  Complex minds can take many steps to accomplish a task.  Complex minds can do many things at one time (multi-tasking).  Complex minds have many subsystems.  Complex minds have many interacting subsystems.  Build a complex mind.	3/18/2006

Technology, computers.	AI.  Philosophy.  Artificial Intelligence (AI).  At what point do we call something (1) Alive, (2) Reasoning, thinking, (3) Human equivalent, (4) Super-human.	06/10/1994

Technology, computers.	AI.  The next big step after speech recognition is thinking computers.  How to build a thinking computer. (1) First have available a general encyclopedia, updated continuously by Internet, that can handle natural language queries.  (2) Another component would be general data about your life, in natural language form, from your notes or from filled out questionnaires.  Example, my name is Paul and I am 33 years old.  (3) The above two databases would then be combined, so you would be able to ask your computer specific or general natural language questions, and it can generate answers.  (4) The computer would also be able take all the above facts in the database and apply logic to them in order to come up with new conclusions, some of which are useful.  It would create many new ideas that you can sift through and take what is useful.  (5) Allow computers to share their knowledge.	10/30/1997

Technology, computers.	AI.  Thoughts on computers.  (1) Levels of computer power.  (A) Getting the computer to do what humans can do themselves.  For example, schedules, address books, word processing.  (B) Getting computers to do what humans can do, only faster and longer.  For example, spreadsheets and databases.  (C) Getting computers to do what human's can't do themselves.  For example, what?     (2) The goal is not necessarily to make computers think.  The goals may be to make computers help people think better.  For example, make people more creative, with better insights.  Make people more rigorous in their logic.  Make people more aware of the assumptions and implications of their thoughts.     (3) Computers are about symbol representation.  The symbols involved can be symbols like words, numbers, images or software code.  What are our options?  Develop new symbol systems?  Develop new logical operations?	11/23/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  Two approaches to artificial intelligence.  (1) Making the human brain more like a computer by implanting silicon computer chips in the brain to give the brain more computing power.  (2) Making computers more like the human brain by developing artificial intelligence that is modeled on the human brain (ex. neural nets).  (3) A third approach is to facilitate human-computer interactions.  Rather than have a computer chip implanted in the brain, have a port in the head which you could attach to a computer to download or upload data.  The key is to develop the ability to move data from the form it exists in the brain to digital form that can be put in a computer.  And visa versa.	6/23/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  Two big questions.  (1) What can the human mind do that computers currently can not do?  How can we get computers to do these things better?  (A) Syllogisms.  (B) Creativity.  Invention.  (C) Emotion.  (D) Problem solving.  (E) Decision making.  (F) Artistic thinking: analogical, figurative.  For example, can computers create novels, poetry, paintings and music?     (2) What can computers do well that the human mind can not currently do well?  How can we get humans to do these things better?  (A) Multi-tasking.  (B) Massive storage.  Memory and hard drive.  Quick access.  (C) Networking or clustering.  Full time, direct connections.  Constant flow of data between computers.  (D) Constantly work to full capacity 24x7.	6/28/2000

Technology, computers.	AI.  Two types of artificial intelligence.  (1) AI that mimics human mind and behavior in a natural earthly environment.  (2) AI that exhibits non-human mind and behavior in non-earthly environments.  For example, aliens, mythical beings, imaginary beings, etc.  (3) It may be that AI that is not modeled on humans will help us more than AI that is modeled on humans.  Why?  Because we already have humans.	6/3/2001

Technology, computers.	AI.  Way to grow an artificial intelligence.   Take an inference engine that can do syllogisms.  Set it loose on the Internet, where it can absorb information like a search engine robot.  Have it come up with new inferences from the information that it gathers.	4/17/1999

Technology, computers.	AI.  Way to grow an artificial intelligence.  Funnel to the robot all the data that you take in through the course of a life.  Everything that you see, hear, read and say would be transferred to the robot and be used as raw data to train the digital mind.  You end up with a digital clone of yourself.	4/17/1999

Technology, computers.	AI.  What does the human brain have that a computer might need?  (1) Logic ability.  (2) Math ability (numbers).  (3) Language ability (letters, meaning).  (4) An initial fact database.  And an ability to add to the initial database, for example, by scanning the Internet news.  (5) Memory.  Short term memory (RAM), and long term memory (hard drive).  (6) Ethical ability.  (7) Hypothetical posing ability (imagination).  (8) Counter-example posing ability.  (9) Question posing ability.  (10) Curiosity.  (11) Social ability.  It may seem like the great human geniuses act alone, but they do not.  Einstein, for example, made use of the work of Riemann, and created an alternative to the work of Newton.  The story of human civilization is the story of many people putting their heads together.  One big mind.  Communication lets humans put their heads together.  Computers need to be able to do the same.  A society of computers.  Computers will need social skills, to interact both with other computers and with humans.  (12) Senses.  The human mind evolved from simple nerves.  First came nerves, then ganglia, then the brain.  Computers should have senses like sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch.  (13) It may take sixteen years for the computer to grow up, just like a human child.  (14) The computer will need to be able to ask questions, just like a small child does.  (15) The computer may need to sleep and dream, just like humans do.  (16) The computer may have a nervous breakdown, just like humans do.	8/10/1999

Technology, computers.	Apparently, there are a lot of people whose technological dreams involve talking to their household appliances.  Why are so many people so enraptured with communicating with their refrigerators?  This phenomenon is something that I had not anticipated.  My refrigerator is empty and quiet.  My technological dreams are not centered around the toaster.	7/31/2001

Technology, computers.	Apps by functional area.  (1) Finance: put all short and long loans and capital investment projects on computer.  Also, put accounting leger and journal on computer.  Produce financial statements on computer.  Cost accounting on computer.  All transaction update in real time or overnight downloads.  (2) Marketing.  Online Internet sales.  Put catalog online.  Do transactions online.  Advertise on line (www pages).  Also, use computers for demographic survey statistical analysis (multiple regression software).  (3) Production.  CAD engineering.  CAM bots.  Project management budgeting and scheduling.  (4) Distribution.  Computerize delivery schedules (transportation problem).  Know stock levels of vendors, auto-restock amounts and time periods.  (5) Customer service.  Computerize complaints and repair order schedule.	08/30/1996

Technology, computers.	Business will use computers to make business more efficient (reduce friction).  Science will use computers to make new discoveries.  Technology will use it to make new stuff (CAD/CAM, etc.).  But the Internet will be used by the masses mainly for entertainment.  The Internet is not a change agent, for the most part.  Like TV, the Internet progresses at the rate of culture, but does not advance culture, due to the fact that it responds to market forces of the wants of the masses.	01/08/1997

Technology, computers.	Cellphones are more popular than computers.  Computer games and video games are more popular than computers.	4/24/2005

Technology, computers.	Combine the concept of a computer game with the concept of an computer operating system.  Create a computer operating system that immerses the user in a virtual world containing challenges, goals, obstacles, etc.  When you login to the operating system you become a player in the game.  A game in which you will occasionally write letters, balance your check book, do your taxes, and surf the Internet.	2/7/2007

Technology, computers.	Computerized universal language translator that can translate from any language into any language.	5/26/1999

Technology, computers.	Computers and human minds can both be evaluated in terms of the number of tasks they perform and the complexity of the tasks they perform.	12/23/2000

Technology, computers.	Computers change how we write and think.  (1) Computers change the way we exchange information (i.e., write) and communicate information.  For example, we use databases more now, we use word processors more now and we use e-mail more now.  Computers change the way we write.  Since language is so closely related to thinking, the changes on our writing caused by using computers also causes a change in our thinking.  This is an indirect effect.  (2) More importantly, computers directly change the way we think.  Its not just that we think more algorithmically or more logically, as a result of being influenced by the practice of programming or writing code.  We also think in terms of "How am I going to organize and communicate massive amounts of information now that I have the tools to do so?"  The presence of new tools changes what we think about things (i.e., our views of subjects), and even changes the ways in which we think (i.e., the methods we use to think).  Technology changes thinking.  The effects are generally good.  We expand rather than replace our kit of tools.	10/1/2001

Technology, computers.	Computers will infiltrate and improve every area of life.  But computers will not be a panacea; computers will not be a solution to all of life's problems.  (1) Computers will make us more efficient, faster, and with less waste.  (2) Computers will allow more communication, which will create a tighter social fabric.  (3) Computers will create more data, yielding more information, yielding more knowledge, yielding more wisdom.	5/30/1998

Technology, computers.	Computers.  (1) What can we get computers to do?  (2) What do we need done (our big problems)?  (3) How can we get the computers to solve our big problems?	01/26/1994

Technology, computers.	CPU transistors double every two years.  The current chips have approximately 5 million transistors.  By 2010 they may have 200 million transistors.  You can make the computer faster, or you can make it smaller for the same speed.  The goal will be to have voice recognition (small headset with microphone and earphones).  Computer will be able to talk back to you.  A wallet size CPU, hard disk, and memory unit, with huge capacity to handle multimedia, teleconferencing, voice recognition and voice emulation.  Wireless WAN antennae.  Monitor: A fold out monitor you keep in you shirt pocket, or one that is flat like a piece of paper, or one that attaches to the corner or top of eyeglass frames that you can see from corner of eye.  Camera:  a camera the size of a pen cap, that sits on a swivel arm on the eyeglass frame, that you can point outwards to scan materials or video/audio record what you see, and that you can point at your own face when you want to teleconference with someone.  No keyboards.  No extension cords.	02/09/1997

Technology, computers.	Develop a Note Combiner program.  A more powerful tool than mere file compare.  It would take two bodies of text.  (1) Read both.  (2) Compare both.  Locate the excess (ideas you have that they don't) and the gaps (ideas they have that you don't).  Not just text strings, but actual ideas no matter what synonym vocabulary or alternate syntax they are written in.  (3) Generate new inferences.  Come up with new ideas.	6/28/2000

Technology, computers.	Ecological computing.  What would a more ecological model of computing look like?  One related technology we can look to is the small hand-crank, solar-powered radios that are on the market today.  A more ecological computer would have similarities with these radios.  (1) Get rid of the floppy drive, the hard drive and the cdrom drive.  PDA's manage to live without these drives.  Floppy drives, hard drives and cdrom drives use up a lot of power.  Instead use RAM and flash memory sticks.  (2) Get rid of the batteries altogether.  Have the PDA connect to a small hand crank generator, with optional solar power, or just have a rechargeable battery for backup power or power away from the hand-crank generator.  (3) Smaller chips create less pollution when they are produced and create less pollution when they are disposed of.  Use smaller chips.  (4) Make the entire PDA recyclable.  This PDA would be good for third world countries where they do not have batteries.  Batteries are full of toxic chemicals, so the less we use the better.  Batteries only end up in the landfill, where they leach into the groundwater.  Wireless connection to the Internet.  Smaller footprint applications to run on smaller chips and use less memory.  Applications on the network.  Storage on the network.        PART TWO.  The principles of ecological computing will be similar to the principles of ecology in general.  (1) Use fewer resources.  (2) Create less pollution in the production process.  (3) Create less pollution in the post-consumption stage.  (4) Recycle.  (5) Use friendlier materials.     PART THREE.  Use more ecological forms of power (ex. Human power, solar power, wind power, etc.).  Do this by making things smaller.  Computing is the perfect medium for smallness.  We now have PDA's with more computing power than the first enormous computers.  Smaller also means less expensive, which means more people will be able to afford them.  Develop a more energy efficient CPU chip (ex. Transmeta Crusoe).  Develop a more energy efficient screen (ex. LCD).	1/1/2001

Technology, computers.	Ethics and computers.  PART ONE.  Positive uses of computers.  (1) Information, learning, thinking.  (2) Promote communication.  (3) Promote social involvement.  Connect people.  (4) Empower people.  (5) Promote social justice and ecological sustainability.  Help the poor, oppressed and exploited.  PART TWO.  Negative uses of computer.  (1) Consumerism.  Shopping.  (2) Mindless, vacuous entertainment.  (3) Social isolation.  (4) Dis empower the masses of people.  (5) Medium of disinformation and propaganda.  (6) Corporate owned and controlled.  Used to benefit corporations.  (7) Tool to spy on people.  Tool to harass people.  Tool of oppression and exploitation.	10/16/2005

Technology, computers.	Every 2 years the number of transistors on a chip doubles.  And speed doubles.  Current chips have approximately 5 million.  1997 10 million.  2000 20 million.  2002 40 million.  2005 80 million.  2007 160 million.  2010 300 million.  Will that be the end?  Even if chip speeds stop advancing, the number of chips per computer can increase from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8, pushing total chip speed from 300 to 600 to 1200 to 2400 million.	01/23/1997

Technology, computers.	Everyone will have a lifetime library of books on a computerized hand held book player, to which they can add and delete books.	12/01/1993

Technology, computers.	Future of computers.  Unlimited bandwidth.  Unlimited storage.  Unlimited processing power.  What are the implications?	3/1/2000

Technology, computers.	Future.  Will networked PC's take off, hooking us into a huge client server network?  Digital cash and online commerce.  Thin screens will get rid of huge, heavy monitors.  Video and audio will be common.  Thick pipe bandwidth, huge CPU's.  Moores Law will hold for 15 more years before quantum effects begin interfering with chip construction.  Voice recognition.  Computer video/audio personal ads and phone calls.  Integrated phone, fax, stereo, vcr, television, radio, computer, Internet browser, etc.  Nanotechnology.  Three dimensional, and all five senses involved.  Hook up and then educate Africa, India, China, and other underdeveloped, overpopulated areas.  Active, smart machines.  Bio-computer technology.  Tele-commuting for education, and tele-commuting for work.	11/30/1996

Technology, computers.	Get an overhead projector to project computer screen onto wall or ceiling, so you can lie in bed comfortably and dictate into a voice recognition system.	03/16/1997

Technology, computers.	Get text to speech software just like Stephen Hawkings, so that if you die you can give your kid a sound message like superman got from Jorel in the movie.  Let it use a sample of your voice though, not a synthesized voice like Hawkings.	1/6/1998

Technology, computers.	GNU/Linux rocks.  Try GNU/Linux today.	11/9/2004

Technology, computers.	Handwriting recognition software.  Print on graph paper, one character per square.  Then scan it into the computer.	12/17/2000

Technology, computers.	Have two computers.  An offline computer for personal data.  An online, vanilla computer exposed to hacker/crackers.	1/2/2004

Technology, computers.	How can computers and other technologies change the way we think?  (1)  New technologies enable us to think of new solutions to problems.  (2) New technologies provide us with new ways of working.  A new way of working with information amounts to a new way of thinking.  (3)  Computer languages are new languages, new symbol systems which allow new ways of thinking.  (4) Computers give us the ability to create: (A) New data types.  (B) New data sets, classes or categories.  (C) The new operations on data classes.	1/1/2002

Technology, computers.	How I kicked the Microsoft habit.  (1) Back up all your data.  (2) Install a copy of Linux.  Pick any distribution.  For example, Debian, Slackware, SUSE, Mandrake, RedHat, etc.  (3) When Linux asks if you want to dual boot with Microsoft, say no.	10/2/2004

Technology, computers.	How much time, computing power and storage space would it take to produce a concordance of the entire Internet?  How much would having a concordance of the entire Internet speed up web searches?	12/14/2005

Technology, computers.	How much work have computers saved us?  How much have they speeded up change?  How much progress have they let us make?  What does the future hold?  Will the current rate of progress hold?	08/15/1993

Technology, computers.	I can't wait for the day when I can carry all my books, all my personal notes and papers, and all my music and paintings on one portable disk.	12/30/1996

Technology, computers.	Idea for computer software called "Who do you look like?"  Its a website where people upload photos of their faces.  A face recognition program would figure out who in the database they look the most like.  You get back a web page that displays your photo and the nearest match of who looks the most like you.	6/20/2002

Technology, computers.	Imagine greater degrees of connectivity between humans.  (1) Email, instant messaging and wireless telephones let us communicate electronically and digitally.  Imagine if the chip was in our brain and we had wireless communication between a group of people.  (2) Imagine if the sense data of one individual was available to the other individuals in the group via a wireless connection.  Sense data from an artificial digital eye and ear, technology which currently exists, could be broadcast to other people.  (3) Sharing of emotions.  Extreme empathy.  This may be more difficult because emotions are something we have barely come to grips with using standard computers, smiley faces notwithstanding.  (4) What if the memories, knowledge base and thinking abilities of one person were available for others to use.  That would be even cooler.  It would be like a Napster peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system.  It would also be like the SETI P2P system that distributes processing power.  (5) Remote control.  Imagine if, through this wireless digital connection, one person could let another person make use of their body.  Who would be in charge in such a scenario?  Could a malicious take-over occur?  What would be the benefits of such a system?	5/25/2002

Technology, computers.	Imagine when you meet a person for the first time at a party, you pull up their resume or curriculum vitae on a screen near your eye or in your artificial eye, or you hear it in an ear piece or in an artificial ear.  You can also pull up their medical records, school grades, etc.  You can also access what other people have said about this person (much like an Amazon.com reader's review of a book).  You would know who you are talking to.  You would know what their views and attitudes are.  You would know what you have in common and where you differ.	5/25/2002

Technology, computers.	Linux.  Run Linux.  (1) Linux is an alternative to Microsoft.  Microsoft funtions as a monopoly, and monopolies are not good.  (2) Linux is available at no cost.  (3) Linux is built by a diverse group of programmers from around the world.  (4) Run Linux instead of Microsoft.  Support Linux.  Support the GNU project.  More generally, support Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).	6/23/2007

Technology, computers.	Linux.  Why install Linux?  The screen savers.	7/7/2005

Technology, computers.	Linux.  Why run Linux?  Run Linux for the screen savers.  Multi-colored, three dimensional, freaktastic light shows.  Today I am running Ubuntu, a distribution of Linux that can be either installed to the hard drive or run as a live cdrom. The colors, the colors.	2/7/2007

Technology, computers.	Most important idea about computers is potential of computers to aid personal development and societal development.  The use of computers to make money and to entertain is less important.	5/10/2007

Technology, computers.	My motto: A personal computer on every desk, and a robot sitting at every desk to run that computer.	1/13/1999

Technology, computers.	Nerds like computers because computers give nerds control.  And nerds are used to having no power, and being picked on by bullies.  With computers they have power, and can get back at the bullies.	07/30/1996

Technology, computers.	Not only can we totally control computers, which is great for people with control hang-ups, but in addition, computers are also blameless, and thus do not warrant an emotional response, unlike people, who do.  In a way computers are much simpler to deal with than people.  The whole realm of ethical evaluation of responses to the thing one interacts with, is done away with.  And the whole realm of emotional evaluations and responses to the thing one interacts with is done away with too.  Working with computers you don't have to deal with ethics or emotions, as much as you have to when you deal with people.  It is simpler, it is easier.	07/30/1996

Technology, computers.	OLPC project.  The One Laptop Per Child project wants to build low cost laptop computers and distribute the computers to poor children around the world.  See the website www.laptop.org.  (1) Contra OLPC.  OLPC is a technological fix.  How is handing kids a laptop going to help the world?  Do not the kids need guidance in using the laptop?  Are these kids really going to grow up to be computer programmers, and will an abundance of computer programmers help the world?  (2) Pro OLPC.  Still, what better ideas are there?  Many people in the first world own and use a laptop, so it would be hypocritical to deny a laptop to others.  Leap frogging technology is a good way to help develop Third World countries.  Computers and the Internet help empower people.  (3) Conclusion: The pros of the OLPC project outweigh the cons of the project.  I support the OLPC project and I encourage you to support the OLPC project.	5/27/2007

Technology, computers.	Politics and Internet.  (1) Computers and Internet used as a tool to support the establishment and prevent progress.  That is bad.  (2) Computers and Internet used as a tool to challenge the powers that be, to achieve progress, social justice and ecological sustainability.  That is good	10/16/2005

Technology, computers.	Programmer: artist or inventor?  There has been a lot of talk about computer programmers as artists.  The claim is that computer programmers are creative in the same way that artists are creative.  I disagree.  From what I have seen, programmers are technologists who invent things.  Whether the things invented be databases, the Internet, operating systems, etc., in my opinion, computer programmers are "building machines" and not "creating ideas".  Programmers figure out new ways to handle information, but they do not create new information.  Programmers are closer to mechanic than artist.  Programmers work with symbols, its true, but all they create is tools.  PART TWO.  More abstractly, my claim is that technical invention and artistic creation are both creative acts that share some common attributes, but technical invention and artistic creation are not the same thing.  Artists use symbols to transmit meaning, whereas programmers use symbols to build machines.  PART THREE.   If you look closely at programming languages like C++ or Java they are more like math than they are like natural languages like English.  Programming languages today deal with variables, operators and for-next loops.  PART FOUR.   In the future, computers having evolved further, the situation may be different, but today I see programmers claiming to be artists but actually being skilled technicians.  PART FIVE.  Various somewhat analogous occupations.  A doctor is a very skilled technologist whom we hold in high regard.  A librarian is a technologist who deals with information.  An engine mechanic is a technologist who maintains and troubleshoots existing technology.   An engine designer is a technologist who invents new technology.	8/7/2001

Technology, computers.	Progressivism and computers.  How can computers be used to advance the Progressive cause?  Get computers into the hands of the people, for example through the One Laptop Per Child Project.  Get Internet access for people.  Get people running Linux, and also Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).	3/20/2007

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  (1) Give them a list of keywords to work on.  (2) Give them structures or frameworks to work with.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  (1) Make it fun.  Make it a fun game for adults to do in their spare time.  Less wasted time.  (2) Make it free software, open source.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  (1) Word association module:  Avatar says, "I'm going to say a word, and you tell me what you think."  (2) Rorschach module:  Avatar says, "I'm going to show you a picture, and you tell me what you think of."	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Audio versions.  (1) Ask them spoken questions.  Record their spoken thoughts.  (2) Convert notes to audio format.  Make notes an audio-book.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Avatar questions:  (1) What are we going to talk about today?  (answer in keyword).  (2) What do you think about x subject?  (answer in sentence).  (3) Why do you think that?  (answer in paragraph).	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Brain dump.  Brain munge.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create open source, creativity software.  (1) Brainstorming software to capture word association webs.  (2) Visual mind-map software.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create psychotherapy software.  Create philosophy software.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software that has multimedia modules.  (1) Shows you words, asks you questions, records answers.  (2) Shows you pictures, asks you questions, records answers.  (3) Plays you music, asks you questions, records answers.  (4) Shows you movies, asks you questions, records answers.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software that has various mental modules.  (1) Question generator module.  A list or database of questions.  Let them add their own questions.  With or without blanks.  Example, what is the most important thing to think about x.  Swap in new keywords.  Kind of like Madlibs.  (2) Emotion module.  How do you feel about x?  (3) Thinking module.  (4) Memory module.  What do you remember about x?  (5) Social module.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software that lets you create your own dictionary or glossary, thesaurus and encyclopedia.  (1) Index.  Produce an index of the notes.  An alphabetical list of keywords.  Create your own dictionary.  (2) Lists of related words.  List which words are higher and lower on the outline tree.  Create your own thesaurus.  (3) Then create your own encyclopedia.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software that provides a daily exercise for the brain.  Software that asks the user questions everyday.  Have the user write everyday.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software that will scan what a person has written.  Split it up by keyword.  Categorize it different ways, by date, by keywords, by importance.  Ask them questions about it, like a shrink, like a philosopher.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software to let a person take their own diary journal blog, mine it, and reshape it.  Apply a philosopher/shrink/artist to it.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Create software.  Something related to Notes.  (1) Software to help the user create and organize their own notes.  (2) Software to present my notes in a more user friendly way.  (3) A notes combiner that lets two people combine their notes.  (4) A notes machine to automate the creation of notes.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Gather data.  First gather a list of words.  Then gather a list of sentences.  Then gather a list of paragraphs.  Group them in blocks as word, sentence, paragraph.  View by word, sentence or paragraph.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Give the avatar emotions.  Give the avatar a romantic side.  Give the avatar a perturbed side.  Give the avatar many, changing emotions, moods, faces and vocabulary.  Give the avatar different roles like friend, shrink, philosopher, artist.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  It needs to be fun.  Create an avatar guide that is a comedian, philosopher, shrink.  The screen saver is this avatar dude who asks questions like, "What are you thinking?", and you type in an answer.  The user can add their own questions too.  Develop an AI component for the avatar.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  It will be creativity software, therapy software, philosophy software, knowledge capture software, figuring out software.  So much of the Internet is about finding out.  This will be about figuring out.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  List of keywords.  Alphabetical list.  Outline format.  Groups of related terms.  For example, job, friends, goals, values, etc.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  People feel locked into roles of job, family, society.  Create software that helps a person unlock, unblock, bust out, break out of roles.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Possible technologies to apply to the notes.  (1) RSS to gather notes.  (2) Wiki.  (3) Database.  (4) XML.  (5) HTML.  Keywords hyper-linked in a network.  (F) Search engines like Htdig.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Translate it into many languages, so everyone can use it.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  Variables.  (1) Personal versus social.  (2) Facts versus theory.  Facts (Wikipedia's province).  Theory (potential for development).  (3) Loose versus tight writing styles.  Lead them from loose formats to tight formats. (4) Figuring out versus finding out.  Figuring out is as important as finding out.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Project ideas.  When a person uses a new word, the software takes notice.	3/1/2006

Technology, computers.	Put the screen in a corner of a pair of eyeglasses.  Get rid of hard drive, and have wireless access to a network where you store you data and apps.  Instead of keyboard, have either voice recognition, or a pair of keyboard gloves.  Keyboard gloves are an idea I thought of.  By touching the fingers to the thumb you can get eight characters.  By using the opposite thumb and fingers as a shift keys you can get 32 characters.	12/30/1996

Technology, computers.	Really useful Internet technology.  (1) E-mail that you can access from any online computer (ex. Yahoo email).  (2) Bookmarks that you can access from any online computer (ex. Yahoo bookmarks).  (3) Files that you can access from any online computer (ex. X-drive).  (4) Office tools that you can access from any online computer.  (5) Address book that you can access from any online computer.  (6) Group-work sites that you can access from any online computer.	12/5/2000

Technology, computers.	Related subjects.  (1) Business and computers: Online shopping.  Online stock trading.  (2) Politics and computers:  Computer voting.  (3) Technology and computers:  CAD/CAM.  Computer robots increase production and decrease human labor demand.  (4) Math and computers:  Mathematica.  (5) Society and computers:  Virtual communities and families.  (6) Art and computers.  (7) Literature and computers:  Ebooks.  Hypertext books.  Database books.  (8) Music and computers:  Online music sharing.  Digital recording.  Cdroms.  Mp3s.  (9) Visual art and computers.  (10) Movies and computers:  Digital cameras.  Digital playback.  Handheld cams.  (11) Religion and computers.  (12) Psychology and computers:  Online psychotherapy.  (13) Education and computers.  (14) Work and computers:  Work from home.   Telecommuting.  Robotics.  Downsizing.  Office automation.  (15) Leisure and computers:  Cyber dating.  Cyber sex.  Computer games.  (16) Philosophy and computers:  Metaphysics and computers.  Artificial life.  Artificial intelligence.  Ethics and computers.  Computer ethics.  (17) Economics and computers:  Computers used to create economic models.	4/24/2005

Technology, computers.	Related subjects.  (1) Business and computers.  Office automation.  Ecommerce.  Electronic data processing.  (2) Society and computers.  Communication: email.  Audio/video.  Drawing people closer vs. isolating people in front of their computer screens.  DIY, Open Source, GNU, Linux.  (3) Science and computers.  Computerized telescopes.  Computerized DNA mapping.  (4) Technology and computers.  Computerized robots.  Computer aided design and manufacture.  (5) Education and computers.  Distance learning.	1/4/2004

Technology, computers.	Sharing data between any computer languages, any platform (operating system), and any application.	05/18/1997

Technology, computers.	Small operating systems.  Stripped down.  Very small.  Fits on a USB drive, or a small cdrom, or a floppy disk.  Runs on old computers.  Concise code.  Economical.  Simple.  No wasted effort.  Small but powerful.  Nano sized with mega capabilities.  Like haiku.  Like minimalist decor.  No frills.	2/7/2007

Technology, computers.	Software that can, from an informal spoken conversation or written text, abstract and diagram the formal argument structure.	8/20/2004

Technology, computers.	Some cool technologies.  (1) A device that records everything you say and converts it to text.  (2) A device that records all your conversations with other people.  (3) A device that records your thoughts directly.  (4) A device that records what you read or see.	1/1/2002

Technology, computers.	Sum up.  (1) Make computers more ecological.  Make the out of less toxic materials.  Make them more biodegradable.  (2) Make Internet access easier and cheaper.  Solar-powered computers with wireless connectivity to a free Internet provider.  (3) Have better content online.  Have more free content online.	4/23/2002

Technology, computers.	The computer has made painting on canvas frames and music bands obsolete.  You can do the same thing on a computer more quickly, more easily, and easier to store and send to others.	01/23/1997

Technology, computers.	The computer is the current technological opportunity most poised to make advances.  The question is: How can computers be used in all subject areas?  For example, in the sociology note experiment, the computer is used for printing quickly, cheaply, and tiny-ly.	03/16/1997

Technology, computers.	The grand achievement of the latest operating system is translucent windows.  The development of translucent windows is a sign that there is an excess of processing power with little use for it.	3/18/2006

Technology, computers.	There are many different meanings and uses of the terms geek, nerd, hacker, etc.  However, there are concepts that we can discern that these terms share.  (1) Technophiles.  The geek, nerd and hacker are generally pro technology.  (A) In the strong version of the term the person may see themselves as an inventor.  (B) In the weak version of the term the person is merely a gadget collector.  (C) Other versions:  The person may think technology is ultimately good.  The person may think that technology is all we need.  The person may think that technology can solve all problems.  (2) Emotions.  (A) The strong version of the term involves a lack of emotion.  The person is like Spock the Vulcan.  (B) In the weaker version, the person is highly intelligent, highly logical and highly rational but still possesses an emotional side.  However, it is not entirely accurate to claim anyone who is smart is a geek.  That is, they may be a brain but that does not make them a geek.  (C) Other versions: the persons admires intellect even if they do not actually posses it.  (3) Lack of social skills.  The person has impaired social skills.  (4) Another definition of hacker is an amateur who works for free and fun as opposed to professionals who are paid to work whether they like it or not.     PART TWO.  Other people's less accurate definitions of geek, nerd, hacker, etc.  (1) Some people, perhaps in an effort to rehabilitate the topic, define geeks, nerds and hackers as passionate, claiming that these people love what they do.  However, passion has a strong emotional component, which would seem to contradict traditional conceptions of the geek.  (2) Some people define geek as anyone who is creative.  However, geeks, nerds and hacker are generally technicians.  The people who define geek in terms of creativity are trying to coop the role of the artist.	8/8/2001

Technology, computers.	Three principles for computers:  (1) Natural language is as important as computer languages.  (2)  Emotion is as important as a reason.  (3) People are as important as machines and money.	1/10/2002

Technology, computers.	Two big questions.  (1) Is it possible to do anything creative with computers that you cannot do any other way?  Artificial Intelligence.  Artificial Life.  (2) Is it possible to make money with computers that you cannot do any other way?  Especially with the Internet.	6/26/2001

Technology, computers.	Two questions.  (1) How long does it take a person to move from Microsoft to Linux?  (2) How long does it take a person to move from the Linux GUI to the Linux command line?	9/12/2004

Technology, computers.	Two spectrums for computers to compare the subject and view of ideas.  (1) There should be a way for a computer to compare two ideas and determine where on the spectrum they lie in terms of being about the same subject, similar subjects or different subjects.  (2) If two ideas are on the same subject, there should be a way for a computer to determine if the two ideas espouse the same view, similar views, different views, or opposite views.	9/17/2001

Technology, computers.	Upgrade lock-in.  Locked into a cycle of upgrades.  The old operating systems do not contain the new hardware drivers, so it becomes impossible to run old operating systems on new computers.  The new operating systems require lots of memory and processing power, so you cannot run the new operating systems on the old hardware.  As a result, one is forced to continually acquire new operating systems and new hardware.	12/28/2006

Technology, computers.	Virtual reality.     PART ONE.  Television is a type of virtual reality.  A step backward in virtual reality technology before television is the novel.  A step forward in virtual reality technology beyond television is something like the Matrix (see movie of same name).  Many people think that there is something necessarily good about reality and something necessarily bad about virtual reality.  Yet consider the following: one person might live without television, radio, books, etc., in a small town and never have any idea what is going on in the rest of the world.  Another person might use virtual reality technology (i.e., books, television, matrix) to find out what is happening elsewhere in the world.  The first person is isolated, ignorant and even worse, might be living in a mental fantasy world from which they cannot escape.     PART TWO.  The important factors are: (1) Can you unplug from the virtual reality?  (2) Can you tell what is real from what is fantasy or lies?  (3) Do you endeavor or to find out all of what is real?  (4) Even fantasy has its uses.  One can learn from imaginary worlds (for example, in sci-fi novels) as long as one recognizes that it is a fantasy.     PART THREE.  The important issue is not whether you are living in virtual reality or not.  The important issue is whether your virtual reality accurately reflects the real world or not, and if you can tell when it reflects the real world, and if you use it to explore the real world.     PART FOUR.  Virtual reality is merely a model of reality.  Many important pursuits make use of models of reality, for example, the sciences, philosophy, the arts, mathematicians, linguists, engineers, etc.  Total immersion in virtual reality is similar to building a full-scale working model.  We use models to forecast, understand and monitor our environment.  In fact, the use of models is so prevalent among all occupations that we can infer that everyone of us makes extensive use of model testing in everyday life, and in fact, the use of modeling (i.e., virtual reality) has been hard-wired or  bio-engineered into our  brains through evolution.      PART FIVE.  People who fear and mistrust the notion of a computerized virtual reality are people who perhaps mistrust and fear the notion of models in general.  These are people who want or need to be able to put their hands on something to know that it is real.  These are people who do not take kindly to the idea world.  On the other hand, people who are enraptured by the notion of virtual reality are perhaps people who have an affinity for the concept of models in general, and mental models in particular.  These are people who enjoy working with ideas.     PART SIX.  Once an accurate working model of reality has been constructed, one of the most useful uses of models is to explore "what if" situations, hypotheticals, or alternative realities.  In essence, to run experiments in a virtual world in order to gain knowledge that can be applied to the real world.     PART SEVEN.  (A) Truth.  The topic of virtual reality boils down to whether we can trust our senses.  People want very much to be able to trust their senses.  People don't want to be lied to.  People want the truth because truth increases survival.  (B) Power.  The other big issue with virtual reality is the issue of power.  People don't want to be jerked around.  People want to have freewill.  People want to be in control of themselves in an environment that either (i) they can control, (ii) is random, (iii) follows natural laws, or (iv) follows agreed upon social laws.  What most people fear about virtual reality is that they will become someone's puppet, pawn or dupe.     PART EIGHT.  Comparing models and virtual reality.  (A) Power.  One comforting notion about a model is that a model is something over which we have complete control.  However, a scary notion about virtual reality is that virtual reality is something that can conceivably control us completely.  (B) Truth.  A comforting notion of a model is that a model (especially as used in science) helps us find out what is true.  However, a scary notion about virtual reality is that in virtual reality we can't tell if anything is really true.	1/7/2001

Technology, computers.	What aspect or phase (period) of computers has had what effect on what areas of life?  Time saved, money saved, lives improved (psychological and physical health), education improved, etc.  Computers are the future.  The future is good (better than the past).  Be on the cutting edge.  Get into the game.	06/30/1996

Technology, computers.	What computers still cannot do.  Surprise me.  Amaze me.  Sure, you can crunch your numbers, fill your databases, program your spreadsheets, build your spiffy websites, it does not impress me.  Do your taxes.  Sell your wares.  Computers are still in the "clever" stage.  I cannot devote my life to a machine.  I will not give myself to the system.	2/18/2006

Technology, computers.	What is a computer?  Computer as numerical calculator.  Computer as verbal communication device.  Computer as visual image processor.  Computer as music device.  Computer as movie maker.	6/12/2005

Technology, computers.	What is a computer?  Multipurpose machines.  Programmable machines.  With memory.  Symbol manipulating machine.	5/1/2005

Technology, computers.	What is a computer?  What can a computer do?	10/16/2005

Technology, computers.	What is needed is an online library of video programs.  Like the Museum of Broadcasting, except online for all to use.  This will speed up education greatly.	11/24/1998

Technology, computers.	When everyone has a small camera attached to their wearable computer which is loaded with face recognition software that is wirelessly connected to a peer-to-peer network, then everyone will be able to find out where everyone else is, and everyone will be able to tell who everyone else it.	8/31/2001

Technology, computers.	When everyone has a tiny 360 degree video/audio camera attached to themselves, recording 24 hours a day, crime will go way down.  Too many witnesses.  Tiny eyes and brains everywhere.	06/10/1997

Technology, computers.	When you have a head mounted audio/video camera recording and storing everything that you experience you essentially have a photographic memory.  You can go back and review every day of your life.  This is a tremendous advance because it will obliviate the notion of lost time.  When you ask, "Where did the time go?", you will have an answer.  The contribution this will make to the fields of history, art and psychological health is immense.     PART TWO.  It will aid art because it will provide a vast storehouse of experience.  It will aid history by providing a record of fact.  It will aid psychological health because it will help us organize our experience and it will help us avoid repressing our memories.  Psychological problems result from disorganization and forgetting.  It will aid the field of education by letting students review their classes.  It will aid sociology by letting us review or social interactions.  PART THREE.  A head mounted cam will follow our head.  A step up will be an eye mounted cam that follows our eye movements.  Another step up will be an eye cam that tracks our focus on depth of field from close to far.	7/30/2002

Technology, information theory.	.This section is about information theory.  Topics include: ( ) Abstracting.  ( ) Catalog.  ( ) Comments.  ( ) Communal vs. personal.  ( ) Content management systems.  ( ) Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Trademark.  Patent.  ( ) Formats of information.  List.  Outline.  Database.  Web.  ( ) Found information.  ( ) Free Software.  Open Source.  ( ) Index.  ( ) Information.  ( ) Keywords.  ( ) Library.  ( ) Linking.  ( ) Ratings.  ( ) Searching.  ( ) Sorting.	1/24/2006

Technology, information theory.	.This section is about information, what it is and how we deal with it.	12/30/2003

Technology, information theory.	(1) Economics of information.  See: Economics, of information.  (2) Politics of information.  See: Copyright, Patents and Trademarks.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	(1) Everything ever written.  How many terabytes of information is that?  (2) Everything ever said.  How many terabytes of information is that?  (3) Everything ever thought.  How many terabytes of information is that?	3/25/2006

Technology, information theory.	(1) Person as manager of their own life.  Time management.  Money management.  Information management.  (2) Information management means gathering, organizing, storing and reviewing information.  (3) Information management techniques include thinking, talking, writing, etc.  (4) Information management mistakes.  Not gathering information is a mistake.  Not thinking is a mistake.  Not storing information is a mistake.  Not reviewing information is a mistake.  Not communicating information is a mistake.	3/19/2006

Technology, information theory.	(1) What to do with information?  Gather information.  Store information.  Organize information.  Share information.  (2) Why work with information?  Information can help save lives.  Information can help gain justice.  Information can save the world.	3/13/2007

Technology, information theory.	Abstract.  (1) In one sense, an encyclopedia is an abstract or summary of all the books that it cites.  How much meaning is lost when we read the encyclopedia in lieu of reading the works it cites?  How much time and energy is saved when we read the encyclopedia instead of the works it cites?  Is the time saved greater than the information lost?  (2) In another sense the encyclopedia is a work in and of itself.	7/4/2002

Technology, information theory.	Abstracting is like zipping or compressing a digital file.  If we abstracted, or zipped, all the information in the Library of Congress, how much space would we save?  90%?     PART TWO.  Abstracting is a case of reductionism(?).  How much meaning or information is lost when you abstract?  How much meaning or information is lost when you merely rephrase?	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Abstracting.  (1) Let a symbol stand for a word.  (2) Let a word stand for a sentence.  (3) Let a sentence stand for a paragraph.  (4) Examples.  AI stands for artificial intelligence.  Artificial intelligence stands for the study of computers which mimic human intelligence.	3/3/1999

Technology, information theory.	Abstracting.  Also known as "condensation".  (1) A table of contents is a type of abstraction of a text.  (2) The homework notes you take when reading a book is a type of abstraction of a text.  (3) An index is a types of abstraction of a text.  (4) Abridged versions of novels are a type of abstraction.  (5) Summary, synopsis, outlines, are all types of abstracts.  (6) Can we say that natural laws and principles are abstracts of nature?  If you can abstract nature can you also abstract a man made work of art?  (7) Statistical graphs are abstracts of data sets.  Can a text that we call "artistic literature" on the one hand be called a "data set" on the other hand, and then be abstracted using the tools of statistical analysis?  Yes, it is done regularly with surprising results.  (8) What else can you do to a text beside abstracting it?  (A) Burroughs would say cut it up.  A computerized randomizer could do the same thing.  (B) You could also translate it into another language.  (C) You could also put it through a computerized "synonym-izer".  (D) A computerized "theme-izer" could extract the theme.  A computerized "moral-izer" could extract the moral.  A computerized "plot-izer" could extract the plot.  A computerized "logic-izer" could extract the logical arguments in the text.	9/26/2002

Technology, information theory.	Abstracting.  Most books (and libraries) could be reduced by 90% without much loss by using short synopses.	2/19/1999

Technology, information theory.	Abstracting.  Use 1:10 ratio abstracting.  Example, a one page summary for a ten page work; and a ten page summary for a 100 page work.	3/3/1999

Technology, information theory.	Abstraction.  Is it just as impossible to abstract or condense a text as it is to expand or enlarge a text?	9/26/2002

Technology, information theory.	Abstracts.  An abstract is a summary or a brief synopsis of the full text.  Abstraction means to have less detail than the original.  Less detail is not always a bad thing.  For example, a summary report can be a good thing.	9/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Abstracts.  Three types of abstracts.  (1) A summary is a type of an abstract.  (2) The "sum up" notes are a type of an abstract.  (3) An "introduction" is a type of an abstract.	6/25/2004

Technology, information theory.	All information is inextricably mixed with emotion.  All information is inextricably mixed with ethics views.  Information management systems must have the means to handle emotions and ethics.	4/17/2006

Technology, information theory.	Blogs.  Blog readers often expect daily blog updates.  One result of the reader's expectation for daily updates is that blog writers sometimes write when they have nothing to say.  Another result of the reader's expectation for daily updates is that blog writers sometimes do not rewrite.  Although its true that the beatnik writers had a view of "first thought, best thought", it is also true that the beat writers reread and rewrote their work.	2/10/2005

Technology, information theory.	Buried data.  Ideas buried in books.  Using ratings to bring buried data to the surface.  (1) Searching.  The problem with using searching to bring buried data to the surface is that with searching you have to know what you are looking for.  (2) Sorting by ratings.  Sorting by ratings requires that you have sorting capability and rating capability.	5/8/2002

Technology, information theory.	Catalog of ideas showing logical relationships of ideas and historical relationships of ideas.	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Catalog.  (1) A catalog of books in a library is similar to an inventory of products in a store.  An inventory of products in a store lists each type of product and the number of each product.  (2) A catalog of a library is also similar to an index of a book.  Catalog, inventory and index all are simplified lists of sets of objects.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Catalog.  Five levels of catalog complexity.  (1) Catalog as an alphabetical list of books.  (2) Catalog as an alphabetical list of book titles, subject matter and physical location in a library.  (3) Catalog as a database of all the bibliographic information about a book, sortable by any field.  (4) Catalog as not only about books, but also other media like periodical articles, music, websites, etc.  (5) Catalog as a database of ideas rather than a database of media.	6/21/2004

Technology, information theory.	Catalog.  Types of catalogs.  (1) The catalog of books in a library is like the index of ideas at the end of a book.   (2) The catalog of websites on the Internet.  Human-created web catalogs (ex. DMOZ and Yahoo).  Machine-created web catalogs.	6/21/2004

Technology, information theory.	Catalog.  What would a catalog of the Internet look like?  Would it look like a directory like DMOZ or Yahoo (i.e., a hierarchical classification system)?  Or would it also include full bibliographic information for each link (ex. author, date of origin, etc.)?	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Cataloging.  (1) A logically outlined catalog.  (2) A catalog that tells you not just what book to look for, but also catalogs the ideas within books.	08/04/1993

Technology, information theory.	Categorizing information (see Psychology, thinking, category and classification).	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Citation.  A citation is a reference to an information claim.  One can give an information claim a name, like the title of a book or article.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Citation.  A problem with the Internet is that web sites and web pages are moved, deleted, have their content changed, or become pay-per-view after once being free, so how can one reference a web site accurately in scholarly papers?  It is like sort of like the situation with out-of-print books, only more complicated.	1/4/2002

Technology, information theory.	Citing works.  The performer of a work can be different from the author of a work.  The date of a performance can be different from the date of authorship.	1/15/2005

Technology, information theory.	Comments about Comments.  A lengthy, well thought out, critical comment can often be more insightful than the work its comments upon.  Comments are the property of the commentor, not the property of the site on which they are posted.  Nor should a reader's comments be allowed to be deleted by an author who disagrees with them, nor anyone else.  To sum up, the commentor has the right to free expression.  And the commentor has the right to own and copyright their comments.  The commentor has the right to not have their comments be edited.  Some websites claim the right to own, edit and delete reader's comments, however, I think that is not the ideal mode.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Comments on Comments.  A cogent comment on a note or idea amounts to another note.  A cogent comment can thus stand alone.  There is no need to consider a comment to be "appended" to an idea.  (2) You can comment about a book, for example, its style, organization, price, typeface, etc.  Or you can comment about the ideas in a book.  The latter is much more fruitful.  (3) Anyone can comment on anything.  One simply quotes a source, makes a comment, and then calls it "a comment on so and so".  Its been done in texts for thousands of years and does not require complicated computer software.  You can then find the comments on an idea by using a search engine to search the Internet for "comments on so and so".  (4) Comments from readers can be placed in various locations.  (A) They can be located within the text itself.  (B) They can be located at the end of a text.  (C) They can be located on the website of the commentator.  Since it is the commentator's comment I think the latter is best.  (5) Whether to let the author edit the reader's comments or not.  The author has the right to choose the content on their own website.  But the author has less of a right to delete the expression of a reader who makes a comment.  For this reason I think the reader's comment should be placed on the reader's website where they are safe and retain the right to free speech.  (6) Alternatives:  You can have ratings alone.  You can have comments alone.  You can have ratings and comments.  And, one step further, rating the comments themselves is also important.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Communal vs. personal.  In what ways is Notes a personal website and what ways is Notes a communal website?  (1) Notes is communal in that everyone and anyone online can read it.  (2) To some degree Notes is personal.  Notes is personal in that it is just one individual recording their thoughts.  Notes is not a debate or even a conversation.  Not every website needs to be communal.  There is just as much a need for personal websites as there is a need for communal websites, maybe even more.	8/18/2001

Technology, information theory.	Compare.  The logic of textual comparison.  (1) Compare.  Show the entire text and highlight the differences vs. show only the differences.  That is, show the text from document A that is not in document B, and show the text from document B that is not in document A.  (2) Synchronize.  Add to document A the differences from document B.  Add to document B the differences from document A.	1/4/2004

Technology, information theory.	Content Management Systems.  (1) Php-Nuke (Php based).  (2) Post-Nuke (Php based).  (3) Scoop (Perl based.  Runs the Kuro5hin.org web site).  (4) Slashcode (Perl based.  Runs the Slashdot.com web site).	5/24/2002

Technology, information theory.	Content Management Systems.  (1) Posting policies: anyone can post vs. only registered users can post.  (2) Editing policies: anyone can alter (edit or delete) a posting vs. only editors can alter a posting vs. postings are not alterable by anyone.  (3) Structural issues: hierarchical structure like a message board vs. non-hierarchical structure like a web of links.	9/19/2001

Technology, information theory.	Content Management Systems.  Paul Nervy Notes vs. the others (i.e., Wikipedia, Everything2, Slashdot, message boards, newsgroups, etc.).  Describe each of them and how they differ from Paul Nervy Notes.  Describe each one in regard to how communal vs. personal it is.  Describe each on in terms of the types and degrees of freedom it makes use of.   PART ONE.  Wikipedia.  (1) Wikipedia is not really "art" as defined in some circles, rather, it is a pure encyclopedia in that it aims to gather "just the facts".  Paul Nervy Notes, on the other hand, is more like art in that, like poetry and painting, it aims to gather other things than "just the facts".  (2) In a similar way, the focus of Wikipedia is not to gather personal opinions primarily (although there is a section of their site for opinions), rather, once again, they want "just the facts".  Paul Nervy Notes is more about personal opinion than it is about fact gathering.  (3) One question I have about Wikipedia is whose version of a topic gets officially accepted, since anyone is able to modify any entry, and multiple individuals could get into an editing war on any topic.  (4) A positive point about Wikipedia is that at least its popular, it gets a lot of hits everyday, and it gets read by many people.  That is enviable.  (5) Wikipedia is a communal site.  Paul Nervy Notes is more a personal site.  (6) Contra Wikipedia.  On Wikipedia anyone can change anyone else's work.  Wikipedians endeavor to "keep a vigilant watch over the recent changes page", but is that a workable solution for individuals who do not have time to watch the change logs full time?  In addition, I object based on the grounds that, at some level, everyone has a right to express their opinion without it being deleted when they are not looking.     PART TWO.  Everything2.  Everything2 has a more artistic feel than Wikipedia which deals with "just the facts".  The organization of Everything2 is more web-like than Wikipedia's hierarchical classification system.  On Everything2 people cannot edit other people's contributions like they can on Wikipedia.     PART THREE.  Slashdot.  Slashdot is more like a message board.  Slashdot classifies stories by subject.  Slashdot has an interesting rating system that combines number ratings and comment ratings.     PART FOUR.  (1) Searching.  Many of the sites have site-specific search engines to search their sites.  However, some of the sites store their data in formats that cannot currently be indexed by Internet search engines.  (2) Rating.  Many of the sites have systems to let either moderators, registered users or any user rate contributions by using a quantitative method (ex. 1 to 5) and a qualitative method (ex. "Funny", "Informative", "Troll", etc.).     PART FIVE. Paul Nervy Notes can be transferred easily onto paper.  Many of the other sites, be they html or databases, are less easily converted to printout, thus they have to be on the web.  They only exist on the web.  In that respect Paul Nervy Notes is more book-like than the others, in a good way.  (2) Many of the others use traditional paragraph formatting.  Paul Nervy Notes uses short, modular notes.  In that respect the others are more book-like, in a bad way.	8/18/2001

Technology, information theory.	Cool idea.  A database that can find questions in a text (i.e., find all sentences ending in a question mark), extract the questions, and then sort questions by subject (i.e., sort questions by keyword).	2/4/2005

Technology, information theory.	Create a list of words and phrases.  Alphabetize the list.  Categorize the words.  Create a one line, dictionary definition of each word.  Create an encyclopedia entry for each word.	1/22/2005

Technology, information theory.	Definitions of information.  (1) Information defined as a meaningful statement.  A grammatical, meaningful sentence, even if its not true.  (2) Information defined as a meaningful and true statement.  (3) Information defined as a signal.  For example, the crying of a baby is information that the baby needs to be fed or changed.	6/10/2006

Technology, information theory.	Definitions of information.  (1) Information defined as an attempt at meaning, even if not coherent.  (2) Information defined as an attempt at truth, even if wrong or false.  (3) Information defined as any kind of order, the opposite of entropy or randomness.	4/16/2006

Technology, information theory.	Economics and politics of information.  (1) In pure capitalism, if all information was privatized, then whoever first thought of any idea could claim ownership of that idea and try to prevent others from thinking of that idea.  That would be a bad situation.  That would also be impossible.  (2) In pure capitalism, if all information was privately owned and controlled, then every word in the dictionary would be privately owned and you would be charged a royalty fee for every word you spoke or thought.  That would be a bad situation.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	Formats for written information: text, docbook, Wiki, database, and HTML.  Describe each format and list the pros and cons of each format.  (1) Text is basic writing.  Pro: ease of typing.  Cons: unstructured.  (2) Docbook is a subset of XML.  Pro: easy presentation.  Converts easily to html or text.  Con: annoying tags.  (3) Wiki is a collaborative, easy to edit, web site.  Pros. Ease of use.  Internet friendly.  Cons: requires wiki software.  (4) Database is a collection of structured data.  Pro: structured.  Con: not so flexible.  (5) HTML is a formatting language to create web pages.  Pro: easy to put on Internet.  Con: annoying formatting tags.	3/13/2007

Technology, information theory.	Formats of information.  A web is a loose association of ideas, as opposed to a database, which is a tightly structured set of information.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Formats of information.  Come up with a way to combine outline form and database form.  How can one convert back and forth between outline and database?  How can one put an outline in a database?  How can one put a database in an outline?	7/15/2004

Technology, information theory.	Formats of information.  PART ONE.  Three formats for information.  (1) Database format is arranged in rows and columns.  (2) Outline format is arranged in a hierarchical tree.  (3) Web format is arranged in a network of nodes and links.     PART TWO.  How to inter-convert the formats of database, outline and web?  That is to say: (A) How to convert database to web?  How to convert web to database?  (B) How to convert web to outline?  How to convert outline to web?  (C) How to convert outline to database?  How to convert database to outline?    (1) Converting database to web: If your database has fields for related keywords then each entry in the database forms a web with each of the keywords associated with that entry.  (2) Converting database to outline: If the database has a field for outline levels (ex. 1, 1.1, 1.2.1, etc.) then sorting by that field will put everything in an outline format.	12/1/2004

Technology, information theory.	Formats of information.  Ways of storing information.  (1) Lists.  (2) Ordered lists (numerical order, alphabetical order).  (3) Outlines.  (4) Spreadsheet or database.	7/15/2004

Technology, information theory.	Formats.  A related question is how do you connect a database to a web page?  The answer for most people is to use PHP or Perl.	1/25/2005

Technology, information theory.	Formats.  Be able to convert between text, database and html.  This leads to three pairs of questions.  (1)(A) How do you convert from database to text?  Export database tables as tab-separated or comma-separated files.  (B) How do you convert from text to database?  The text must be structured as records consisting of fields.  (2)(A) How do you convert from text to html?  Paste the text into a web editor and save as html.  (B) How do you convert from html to text?  Paste from a browser window into a text editor.  (3)(A) How do you convert from database to html?  Separate the content from the presentation.  For example, separate the database records from the html page headers and footers.  (B) How do you convert from html to database?  Use XML to create tags that define records and fields in the html source code.	1/25/2005

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.     PART ONE.  One of my interests is distinguishing between how humans deal with the ideas they figure-out for themselves and how humans deal with information they find-out from sources outside their own heads (ex. newspapers, books, websites).  My personal solution to deal with ideas I figure-out is to write these Notes.  This particular note deals with possible ways to deal with the vast amount of information we find out there.     PART TWO.  There are basically two types of information, figured-out and found-out.  There are basically two types of found-out information, digital information and information on paper.     PART THREE.  Some people store their found, digital information on their local hard drive, but that is not optimal.  It does not really pay to put all your found digital information on your local hard drive for several reasons: (A) Space becomes an issue as information fills your hard drive.  (B) Copyright becomes an issue when you take copyrighted information without license.  (C) Sharing becomes an issue when your local hard drive is not on the network and thus unable to share.  (D) So the basic idea is that we point to found information on the Internet network.  This "pointing to information" is what the Internet is all about.  (It is also what library science is all about, coincidentally).  The big question becomes, how does one organize all the pointers that they have to information that is out there.     PART FOUR.  There are several basic ways that we point to information, listed in increasing complexity.  (A) Links Page:  Usually gives a very short name for the information that is linked to.  Usually points only to a web page.  Links pages are usually organized by subject, although one does see links pages organized chronologically, alphabetically or by various quality rating systems.  (B) A more detailed link page eventually develops into something that resembles a bibliography, like those at the end of research papers.  A bibliography gives more complete bibliographic information of a work, including title, author, publisher, publication date, etc.  (C) A more structured version of a bibliography is one that is formatted into a flat-file text database.  A flat-file uses tab-delimiters to create a table of columns and rows.  More complete bibliographic information can be included such as media type and comments.  This is the level of complexity that I think is perhaps most useful.     PART FIVE.  The basic idea is that you want a bibliographic information format that you can share (i.e., swap) easily with other people, and you want a bibliographic information format that you can merge (i.e., combine) easily with other people.  Let's explore a number of methods that people commonly used to organize the information they find.  (A) Web-browser bookmarks or favorites lists:  A web-browser bookmark (or favorite) is a link to a website.  The main problem with web-browser bookmarks is that they usually do not include full bibliographic information about a link.  Another problem with web-browser bookmarks is that they are not always in a well structured format that is easily shared between users and between media.  (B) There are proprietary bookmark organizers, but even if they are free of charge one has to have a copy of the software on hand.  (C) There are proprietary databases that can structure bibliographic information, but they face the same problems of proprietary bookmark organizers in that one has to have a copy of the software on hand.  (D) Non-proprietary databases still require one to have a copy of software.     PART SIX.  What I prefer for organizing bibliographic information is a character-delimited text file, because it can be imported into any database, spreadsheet, or text editor (word processor or html editor).  There are two common types of character-delimited text files: comma-delimited and tab-delimited.  I prefer tab-delimited because commas are a commonly used character in bibliographic information itself.     PART SEVEN.  (A) One objection is that information goes out of date so quickly today that it does not pay to gather bibliographic data.  My response is that ideally one is assembling a list of "classic", high-quality works, that will be useful for years to come, even if only for historical purposes.  (B) Another objection is some people will say that gathering full bibliographic data about their personal e-library is too much work.  Fine, they can keep it as simple as they like.  For those who see the usefulness of gathering, organizing and sharing information with the help of bibliographic data, I hope some of these thoughts are helpful.     PART EIGHT.  So, to sum up this essay: the problem of dealing with all the information you find-out is essentially the problem of dealing with bibliographic information.  One solution to this problem is the tab-delimited text bookmark file.	12/7/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  Steps toward a solution of dealing with found information.  (1) Come up with an international, generally accepted ideas of what is complete bibliographic information.  This step has basically been accomplished with things like the Library of Congress catalog system.  (2) Have each webpage and link on the Internet (whether it be to a text file, image file or sound file) include its complete bibliographic information.  This step has been accomplished halfway through the use of html meta-tags for title, author, etc.  (3) Create web-browsers that grab and incorporate this bibliographic information whenever the browser creates a bookmark.  Be able to export bookmarks in well structured tab-delimited text format.  And find a way for for browsers to update bad links in bookmark lists.	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  The problem of bibliographic data consists of two parts:  (1) Bibliographic data about online information which anyone can access free of charge.  (2) Bibliographic data about physical (non-digital) objects, such as books on paper, paintings on canvas, and music on vinyl, which only a few people can get to and its a pain in the neck even for them.  (3) Frankly, the sooner we start focusing on and dealing with free online information, the better.	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  The question of how to deal with information overflow is the question of how to easily and efficiently gather, store, organize and share information.  What we need to do is combine the world of the Internet and the world of the library.  Combine the world of websites and the world of books.  For example, when you right click on a web-browser bookmark you should be able to see the full bibliographic data of the information it links to, not just the URL.  Be able to export this data in a well-structured, tabular, database-friendly format.	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  Types of access to information.  (1) Free access.  (A) Paper books at public libraries.  (B) Internet access at public libraries.  (C) Internet access via "free PC's".  (2) Pay access.  (A) Buying paper books, magazines, newspapers, etc.  (B) Buying Internet access.	12/5/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  Types of bibliographic data: author, date, title, length, level, and rating.  (1) Length: Bibliographic data should include the length or size of a work because that can help tell how much time it will take to learn the information in the work.     (2) Levels:  Bibliographic data should include the level of the work because that can help a person pick something easy enough to understand yet not so easy they don't get any new information.  An example of a level of difficulty rating system is: beginner, intermediate, advanced.     (3) Ratings: (see ratings).     (4) Media type:  Bibliographic data should include media type, such as music, film, visual art, book, magazine, newspaper or website.  Many media today are mixed-media, which only complicates matters.  (5) Style or subject.  Works of art are usually categorized by style.  Works of non-fiction are usually categorized by subject.  (6) Comments:  Description of the item.  Evaluation of the item can go in the rating section.  (7)  Online or offline.  If online, what is the URL.  If offline, where is it located or where can it be purchased.	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, how to deal with it.  What to do about information overflow?  The answer is for each person to assemble their own electronic library.  I call it the personal e-library.  The personal e-library will consist of a collection of links to information.  The information can be in a variety of forms (ex. text, music, visual arts, film, etc.).  The links to the information will be supported by full bibliographic data (ex. title, author, date, and also more subjective information such as rating of quality, level of difficulty and description).	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Found information, introduction to.  (See also: Psychology, thinking, figure out and find out).  Humans find out or gather information claims from the media like books, newspapers, radio, television, Internet.  Sometimes those information claims are true and sometimes those information claims are false.  Humans store information claims in memory and writing.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Found information, other ways to deal.  Articles.  (1) Find the best, free, online (and paper) journals for all subjects, in order to stay up to date on all subjects.  Find your best websites for all subjects.  Online is better because you can save articles in digital form.  Instead of cutting out and cataloging newspaper articles, just copy Internet pages.  (2) Read on-line magazines and book reviews.  (3) Build a huge keyword index for all terms (and ideas).  Do this by alphabetizing the keyword outline, and throwing in terms from the found maps.	10/10/1997

Technology, information theory.	Found information, other ways to deal.  Build an e-library of digital images.  Both photographs and paintings.  When your computer goes into screen saver, have the images pan by every minute or so.  Use the Internet to gather images.  Images like forest, ocean, mountains, etc.	11/11/1998

Technology, information theory.	Found information, outline of.     PART ONE.  Why do it?  (1) The knowledge is there so I might as well type it up.  (2) Figured out information (i.e., Notes) plus Found out information (this outline) equals a total download of mind.  (3) It will help me to summarize the stuff I found out.  (4) Open Source it because no one owns it.     PART TWO.  Why to not do it.  (1) Found-out information is not the focus of the Paul Nervy Notes.  The Paul Nervy Notes is about Figured-out information.  My focus is on the Paul Nervy Notes.  (2) Its a bore to type up found information.  (3) Its a waste of time, energy and wrists.	7/10/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found information, outline of.  .The outline provides background information or contextual information to the Notes.	7/12/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found information, outline of.  Alternatives of how to structure the found information.  (1) Structure it like the Notes, in distinct paragraphs.  Each paragraph being a record in a database.  The database being a vocabulary or glossary of a subject area.  Nah, maybe not.  (2) Structure the found information in a rough outline form?  Yeah, probably.  (3) Use text format, or perhaps hypertext format, and maybe even database format.  Text for now.  (4) Use one file or use many files.  One file is what I prefer.	7/10/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found information, outline of.  Caveats for an outline of Found information.  (1) This information is not free of mistakes.  There may be information here that is not factually accurate.  (2) This information is not complete.  This is not all you need to know.  (3) This are not necessarily the best ideas.  (4) This information is not everything I know.  It is not even everything I found out.  (5) I did not get the Paul Nervy Notes from the Found stuff, rather I figured it out.	7/10/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found information, ways how to deal with it.  Various paper and digital methods.  (1) Libraries.  Collections of books.  (2) Links pages.  Favorites lists.  (3) Blogs.  A link page with commentary, organized chronologically and by subject.  (4) Footnotes and endnotes.  (5) Abstracts.  (6) Catalogs.  Ex., card catalogs.  (7) Encyclopedias.  (8) Dictionaries.  Glossaries.  (9) Content Management Systems.  (10) Databases.  (11) Graphys.  Bibliography - book list.  Discography - music list.  Filmography - movie list.  Pictureography - visual art list.  Webography - website list.  (12) Newspaper and magazine clippings in file cabinets.  (13) Professional journals.	8/5/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found notes.  Four types of taking notes on books: (1) Lifting direct quotes and putting them in order of importance.  (2) Paraphrasing the author.  (3) Your interpretations and criticisms of the author.  "She is saying..."  (4) Your own ideas on the subject.	5/10/1999

Technology, information theory.	Found notes.  How to organize the Found notes?  By book?  By subject?  (A) E-books (from project Gutenburg).  E-magazines (articles clipped).  E-newspapers (articles clipped).  (B) Physical books.  Physical magazine clippings.  Physical newspaper clippings.  (C) My found notes.  (D) Web favorites list.	10/16/1999

Technology, information theory.	Found outline fields.  Keyword > category > definition > date.  Or Category > keyword > definition > date.  Or just use doc book xml tags for <keyword> <subject> <definition>.	2/28/2004

Technology, information theory.	Found outline.  (1) Contra.  People might mistake a found outline for the Notes.  (2) Pro.  I'm not going to let the world go to hell because I failed to put an outline online for free.	7/8/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found outline.  Its an outline of concept words.  (1) No one can own a concept word.  You can't copyright, trademark or patent a concept word.  (2) No one can plagiarize a concept word.  Anyone can use any concept word.	7/25/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found outline.  Nobody owns a word (unless they trademark it).  You can't copyright a word.  So an outline of single words is okay, theoretically.	7/8/2002

Technology, information theory.	Found outline.  PART ONE.  Reasons not to do it.  (1) Its kind of a bore repeating the textbooks.  (2) If you put up an outline then people will mistakenly believe its all you know.     PART TWO.  Reasons to do it.  (1) Its kind of a waste not to do it.  (2) Someone will find it useful.  (3) Meld the figured-out data and the found-out data.  (4) Nobody owns ideas.  Copyright only covers the written expression of ideas.  (5) Hack the textbooks.  What Linux is to Unix, an outline of ideas can be to a textbook.	6/26/2002	

Technology, information theory.	Found stuff, other ways to deal.  Book list.  Include (1) Basic idea of book.  (2) Why book is important.  (3) My impressions of the book.	10/26/1999

Technology, information theory.	Found stuff, other ways to deal.  Book ratings.  (1) A classic: of historical significance.  (2) A cutting edge classic: the best of the new.	10/26/1999

Technology, information theory.	Found stuff, other ways to deal.  Why the booklist?  (1) Part of being educated is knowing good books.  (2) Part of communicating knowledge is telling good books you have found.	1/6/1998

Technology, information theory.	Four kinds of indexes.  (1) Keyword index: There is a set of keywords associated with every area of knowledge.  (2) Question index: There is a set of questions associated with every keyword.  (3) Answer index: There is a set of answers for each question.  (4) Argument index: There is a set of arguments for each answer.	4/11/06

Technology, information theory.	Free Software and Open Source.  PART ONE.  Contra Open Source.  (1) One reason that some individuals dislike Linux is because they are too lazy to learn a new operating system.  One reason that some big businesses loathe Linux is because some people really resent having to learn a new operating system.  PART TWO.  Pro Open Source.  Linux on at the desktop. (1)  The tipping point is not when more than half of computer users are using Linux.  That is, the tipping point is not when the majority use Linux.  The tipping point is the point when enough users adopt the product to cause and inexorable, unavoidable slide (slow or fast) of people adopting the product.  The tipping point can be at 5% adoption or it can be at the 75% adoption level.  Hopefully Linux on the desktop will have a low tipping point.  (2) Like the adoption of scientific ideas (see Kuhn) the adoption of Linux may require the older generation to die before a new generation advances.  It may take 20 years.  It may require teaching Linux to our kids in school.  It may require raising a generation on Linux.	1/1/2002

Technology, information theory.	Free Software and Open Source.  Views contra Open Source.  One major reason why many corporate business people fear Linux and other Open Source and Free Software is that they fear losing their jobs.  It is not merely a general fear that if we switch from Microsoft to Linux some people (example, Microsoft support techs) will lose jobs while other people (example, Linux support techs) will gain jobs.  There is a more specific fear business managers have that they as individuals will lose their jobs.  As a result, not only do business managers oppose a change to Open Source and Free Software, they also oppose any change whatsoever.	1/1/2002

Technology, information theory.	Free software.  Linux.  (1) Nobody owns Linux.  No one restricts the public from installing or modifying Linux.  (2) Linux can be installed for no cost.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	Free.  How free to be?  Notes is not free for others to alter like some websites are, nor is it free for all to participate in, like some websites are, because Notes is me and I am an individual, and every individual has the right to express themselves without having their words interrupted or altered.     PART TWO.  Two problems.  (1) The problem with allowing anyone to make their own entry is that you get a high "noise to signal" ratio when a great many nonsense, off-topic or fanatical entries are posted, and thus many sites use editors combined with user registration.  (2) The problem with allowing anyone to alter anyone else's entry is that one can take away someone else's right to comment.     PART THREE.  There is no reason it should not be free.  Types of free websites include: (1) Free and open, like Wikipedia.  (2) Free of charge, yet copyrighted, like Paul Nervy Notes.  (3) Free with advertisements, like radio, television, and online newspapers.	8/18/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  How free to be?  Why keep the Notes copyrighted?  Why not GPL (Gnu Public License) it?  (1) I want the credit even if its available to read online for free.  (2) I do not want other people using my work without attributing it to me.  (3) I do not want others selling my ideas.  (4) And anyway, in my defense, the Notes are available for reading right now on the Internet.  I am just waiting.	8/18/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Content issues.  (1) The author may or may not want payment for the work.  He may want others to be able to read it for free.  (2) The author may or may not want credit for the work (i.e., attribution vs. anonymous).  (3) The author may or may not mind if other people claim the work as their own.  (4) The author may or may not mind other people modifying the work. He may or may not mind modification in the form of annotations vs. actual change of content.   He may or may not mind anonymous annotations.  There may or may not be a filter or moderator on annotations of content.  (5) The author may or may not mind other people selling his work for their own profit.  (6)  The author may or may not mind reprinting, reposting or mirroring by other people.       PART TWO.  Three main issues:  (1) Credit where due.  (2) Recompense or payment.  (3) Change management.     PART THREE.  Free, definitions of.  Free vs. owned.  Free vs. payment.     PART FOUR.  What is the difference between patent vs. copyright?  Protecting an idea (patent) vs. protecting the expression of an idea (copyright).   Should we patent or copyright software?  Which do we currently do?     PART FIVE.  Really you need a license for every combination of the above factors.  That would be how many licenses?  You could even put a checklist at the start of each document that lists each factor and whether it is licensed yes or no.	2/3/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Content issues.  We must keep in mind that simultaneous discovery of ideas often occurs.  If this is the case, then it is unjust to give ownership of the idea to the person who runs fastest to the patent office.	1/31/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Content licenses.  (1) GPL for Documentation (www.gpl.org).  (2) Open Content License (www.opencontent.org).  (3) LDP boilerplate (www.ldp.org).	1/31/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Content model.  If an author starts a book using the Open Content model and accepts contributions and comments from other people, then, to be fair, the author ceases to be the author and becomes one of multiple authors.  At best the author can call himself an editor, but, to be fair, when multiple authors are involved they each deserve a vote as to what content will be included in the book.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Content projects.  Examples of open content groupware, version management, and websites:  Twiki.  Wiki.  Amandooka.  Freebook project.  Nupedia.  Gnupedia.	1/31/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Open Source.  Criticisms of the Notes.  (1) Devotees of the Open Content model (ex. Linux) might criticize my method (i.e., the Notes) saying, "He does not work well with others.  He does not share with others."  In response I say that my work is formatted in such a way that a giant database can easily be created by combining the notes of many people.  (2) Another criticism of the Notes by Open Source types is that , "He does not listen to others."  My response is that the Notes are about helping people develop their ability to figure out their lives for themselves.  The Open Source model has many positive points, however, when you borrow a module from someone else you are finding out rather than figuring out.  That works for computer software but when it comes to examining one's own life figuring out is also required.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  The phrase "Open Source" is just as ambiguous as the phrase "Free Software".	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Free.  Types of free.  (1) Free to add your thoughts, with or without being edited.  (2) Free for anyone to change anyone else's writings.	9/17/2001

Technology, information theory.	History of information.  In the history of information there is a pattern of people trying to unjustly withhold information from other people.  Information is power.  People use secrets, lies, censorship and propaganda to reduce or distort the information available to other people.  They want all of your information and they don't want you to have any information about them.  Just like they want all of your money and they don't want you to have any of their money.	4/28/2005

Technology, information theory.	Idea for a computer program that compares two databases of information based on vocabulary words.  The two databases have identical structure (fields) with different content (records).  The structure of the database is three fields: Firstly, a vocabulary world (or phrase) field that is the primary key.  Secondly, a category field.  Thirdly, a definition field.  The software will be able to compare vocabulary words, compare categories, and compare definitions.  Lets you automatically compare your vocabulary to someone else's vocabulary.  A vocabulary being a type of body of information or knowledge, this software will let two people compare and share their knowledge with each other.  PART TWO.  Compare vocabulary words.  (1) Shows words that their database has that your database does not have.  Gives you the option to view the word's category and definition.  Gives you the option to decide if you want to add the word to your database.   (2) Shows vocabulary words that you both have.  Gives you the option to compare your word category and definition to their word category and definition side by side.  Gives you the option to replace your entry with their entry.  Gives you the option to add their entry.  Gives you the option to keep your entry without adding their entry.  (3) Gives you the option to compare categories and perform the same operations of replace, add, or let stand as is.  That is, lets you perform the same operations on the categories and definitions as you can perform on the words.  (4) Lets you show words that you have that they do not have.  Ego booster!     PART THREE.  Assumptions of the above software system.  (1) Multi-word phrases are treated the same as single words.  For example, you can have an entry for "Venus" and also for "The Evening Star".  (2) The information in the database is Open Source, and not strictly protected by copyright, so that everyone can share their information with everyone.  (3) Any two databases that are compared to each other are identical in structure even though not identical in content.  Identical structure lets you compare databases more easily.  (4) The databases are structured in a cross-platform language like XML.  With XML tags for <word>, <category>, and <definition>.  (5) More than one person is doing it.  So people are not left alone.  (6) Assumes that much of the information in this world is contained in domain-specific jargons which are comprised of unique vocabulary words.  This is not completely true but it is true enough to make this project worthwhile.  (7) This project also assumes category systems that themselves are made of vocabulary words, which is an interesting thought.  And the category systems are flexible, which is also interesting.  So that any vocabulary word can be promoted to a category and any category can be demoted to a vocabulary word, which is even more interesting.	7/12/2002

Technology, information theory.	Index.  (1) An index is an alphabetically ordered list of keywords, and their location in a book, website, Internet or any other collection of data.  (2) An index can also be an ordering (alphabetical, numerical, rating) by any field of the records in a database.  (3) A table of contents is a numerically ordered list of the chapters in a book.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Index.  An index is a list of every subject or topic in a work.	4/3/2005

Technology, information theory.	Index.  Concordance.  A concordance is an index of every word in a text.  A concordance describes where every instance of every word occurs in the text.	4/3/2005

Technology, information theory.	Index.  Concordance.  Easy concordance creation.  Take a text.  Replace each whites space with a new line, so that every word is on a new line.  Sort it alphabetically.  Use uniq to count the number of occurrences of each word.  Do the same for another text.  Compare both lists using compare.  Show words they have in common.  Show words in only each text.	1/22/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information can be defined broadly as intellectual information and emotional information.  This information can be transmitted in the form of text, music, visual arts, or movies.  This information can all be put in digitized form.  The cost to the consumer is significantly lower (up to 75% lower) when information is in digitized form.	1/28/1999

Technology, information theory.	Information defined as knowledge instantiated.  You know a piece of information.	3/18/2007

Technology, information theory.	Information in forms of words, numbers, pictures, sounds.	07/08/1994

Technology, information theory.	Information is a series of symbols that communicates.  Information can be true or false.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information management.  Personal information.  Personal history.  Personal goals.  Personal abilities.	3/19/2006

Technology, information theory.	Information need.  (1) Objective vs. subjective views of what individual needs what information.  The subjective view can be on the part of the sender or receiver.  (2) What information is needed most, vs. what information is needed next.  A person may need one bit of information most, but may need to learn other information first (next), in order to understand the information they need most.	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information or order vs. disorder or entropy.  Chemical compounds represent an increase in order.  Life (DNA) is an increase in order.  Information (ex. written information) is an increase in order.	1/7/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information problems: ambiguity, vagueness, noise, pollution, junk, garbage, excess verbiage, obviousness, redundancy, trivialness, lies, outdated, unneeded, disorganized, nonsense (words or logic).	08/24/1994

Technology, information theory.	Information production (figure), accumulation (found), transmission, and consumption (get them to read) is key.	12/31/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information sum up.  (1) Definitions of information.  (2) Types of information.  (3) Needs for information.	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information technology deals with libraries and computers.  Information theory deals with ideas that apply to both libraries and computers.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information tells you something you don't already know.  Knowledge that helps you survive or live better, and that improves your life.  Useless information (to you, or to society) is gaining knowledge of a fact that does not help you.	01/23/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information transmitted via writing, printing and computers.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information, definitions of.  (1) Information defined as what we think with.  (2) Information defined as what we communicate with.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information, definitons of.  (1) Information defined as true statements.  (2) Information defined as statements that can be proven true or disproven as false.  For example, a person makes an information claim, regardless of wether their claim is actually true or false.  This definition of information is wider in scope, admiting "informtion claims" even if the person making the claim is wrong or lying.  (3) Information defined as including statements that are not necessarily true or false.  This definition of information is even wider, admiting things like emotional claims and statements of personal opinion regarding matters of taste.  For example, the statement, "Oranges taste good.", is informative even though not neccesarily true or false.  Another example, a painting in the style of abstract expressionism in not neccesariy true or false.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information, various definitions of: (1) Anything you didn't know before.  News.  (2) Anything that helps you reach a goal.  Useful  (3) Any true statement.  True.  (4)  Any data about the environment including sense data.  PART TWO. Musings about above views of information  (1) Does it have to be new to be information?  If you know it already, is it still not information?  (2)  Does it have to be useful to be information?  If its useless to you but useful to another person, is it still information to you?  (3) Does it have to be true to be information?  (A) What about truth in art?  Can a fictional story be true, and thus be information?  Even if a fictional story is not considered to be truth, can it still be information?  (B) A tautology is true, but is a tautology information?  (4)  Does it have to be sense data to be information?  Are there any other types of information?  Is it information only if there is a sentient perceiver?	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) Corporate data is mostly quantitative.  But personal data is mostly verbal.  We need better software to handle verbal data.  (2) Types of verbal data.  (A) Scientific: Based on empirical evidence.  Uses exact language.  (B) Philosophical: Based on argument.  Uses exact language.  (C) Artistic: Uses allusive and figurative language.	4/25/1999

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) How cheap to deliver information?  (2) How quick to deliver information?  (3) How accurate and truthful?  (4) How useful?	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) How much is information going to help?  How much can ideas help?  How much can thinking help?  How much can knowledge help?  (2) How much information do I need?  How much should I read?  How much should I think?  (3) How much information is there?  How many terabytes?  How much information has been created by humans in letter, number or image form?  How much information has been digitized and is available on the Internet?  How much information remains in paper format?  How much information is there in the universe?  For example, the information in DNA.  How much information is possible?  Including past and future information.	9/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) How to handle complicated data?  Break it down into simple data.  (2) How to handle much data?  How to handle large quantities of data?  Structure the data.  Then organize the structured data.	1/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) In the old days information was rare.  The point of reading was to fill up time.  Longer books were better.  (2) Nowadays information is everywhere.  The point of view toward information is "You're taking up my time.  Don't waste my time."  Shorter is better.  (3) Many people have not unconsciously understood this transition yet.	7/21/2000

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) Information is a crucial component of systems, be the systems of economies, individual humans or even cells in the body which use the information of DNA.  (2) Information has economic, political and technological dimensions.  (3) There is a need for information.  Problems occur when there is a lack of information.  There is a need for public information.  Disruptions in the flow of information can occur on the supply side (people who do not want to supply information) or the demand side (people who do not want to absorb information.  (4) Share information.  Do not hoard information.	4/29/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) Information you can remember.  Facts.  Views, principles and theories.  Emotions.  Thoughts to boot up with.  (2) Information you have on hand.  Information you have gathered.  Information you have written down.	10/5/2004

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) The information universe, or media sphere, is the sum total of recorded human knowledge.  (2) Each of us takes a path through the information universe.  We linger here or there and then move on.  (3) I can show you the path I took through the information universe, the books I read, the music I listened to, the visual arts I saw, the movies I saw, the web sites I surfed, the ideas I created.	1/15/2005

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) The metaphysics of information.  Definition of information.  (A) Information is not just text, it can be pictures, sounds, etc.  (B) Information is not just ideas, it is emotions too, and thus attitudes.  (C) Power of information.  An individual's attitude changing for the better can yield better mental health.  Mass attitude change yields culture change.  (2) The ethics of information.  The ethics of information production, distribution, consumption and management is also the ethics of learning, education, etc.  (A) Right to information.  Right to know about your government, corporations, your child molesting neighbor, etc.  (B) Right to a free public education.  (3) Cost of information, ease of access.  (4) Consumption of information.  (A) Sometimes hearing a lecture or seeing a multi-media presentation is quicker and easier than reading one.  (B) How much information can you consume in a life?  How much can you read, watch, hear or experience in a life?  (5) Production of information.  How much information can an individual produce in a life?  A person can produce about 15MB of text in a life.  (6) Methods of production.  (A) Information can be recorded with voice recognition software and played back with voice response software.  (B) It should be easily convertible to a database, and easily searchable on the Web for all generations.	12/29/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) The organization of knowledge in the human mind is not like the organization of information in traditional libraries which use hierarchical classification systems and centralized databases.  The organization of knowledge in the human mind is like the organization of knowledge on the Internet which uses keyword search engines  and has no centralized database.  (2) The key issues are: (A) Hierarchical organization vs. web organization.  (B) Centralized information vs. distributed information.	12/23/2000

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) To what extent are libraries (and bookstores, and book reviewers) judges of quality (esp. truth)?  Do we listen to what the experts like, what the masses like, or what we ourselves like?  (2) How can we search ideas out of the middle of books, especially when they are phrased in words other than the keywords we would suspect.  Example: All of what author x says about subject y in book z, even if he does not use the word sex but instead uses some other words like screw.  Full text search is not sufficient.  (3) How much something is "said" (verbally or written).  How much something (an idea) is repeated (on lips or in print or in any media).  This is akin to how much an author or article is cited in scholarly journals, but on a wider scale.  Presence of an idea in the media, versus how many people agree with an idea, consciously or unconsciously, but just never say (articulate, express) it.  That is, an idea, whether true or false, may be held by many people, and yet this fact may never be reflected in the media of a culture.  Underlying assumptions, etc.  (4) How many great ideas are never printed because people did not know that the idea was new, or important, or needed desperately by someone else.  Ideas can die this way, and people can die for lack of ideas this way.  The idea may have never gotten a historical, logical, importance, or originality placement/rating.  Bull shit ideas can be endlessly repeated for the same reasons.	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  (1) Vocabulary definitions: information, thinking, ideas, data, knowledge, wisdom.  (2) Information activities or tasks: production (creation), distribution (transmission, communication), consumption, selection (based on evaluation, which includes rating), organization, preservation.  (3) Actors or participants.  Industries involved: publishing, information retailing, education, libraries, media (print, audio/visual, digital).  Which of above tasks fall to publishers (distribution), educators (selection), academia (production, evaluation), students (consumption), media (distribution) , professional writers and authors (production), consumers (selection and consumption), libraries (selection, preservation).  (4) Information theory and various subject areas.  (A) Psychology: thinking.  (B) Technology: language, writing, printing, computer.  (C) Economics: cost of production, price to consumer.  Value (economic vs. utilitarian), quality, how useful is it (enlightening, healthy)  (D) Political: censorship vs. free speech.  Obscenity, pornography.  Hate and violence literature.  Personal privacy vs. public knowledge.  Government secrecy vs. openness.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  A big problem in life is information overload.  There is too much to know, too much to think about.  A solution will be new tools of information management (ex. writing, printing, computers, and what's next).  The answer is not ignorance, withdrawal and isolation.	8/27/2004

Technology, information theory.	Information.  As information explodes in quantity, the limits of the human mind and the limits of the amount of time available will require shorter and better organized information (and minds!).	2/19/1999

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Definitions of information: (1) Anything that tells us something about our environment.  Which can be anything.  (2) Natural information systems like DNA.  (3) Semiotic systems like signs, signals, and symbols.  This definition assumes conscious beings are involved.  (4) Any statement or proposition, of any type, even if it is not new and not useful.  (5) Any statement or proposition, that we previously had no knowledge of (new), and that helps us solve problems in our situation (useful).	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Definitions.  Information vs. entertainment, there is no difference.  Entertainment is when it pleases, and you learn nothing new.  When it does not please, and you learn nothing new, it is junk.  If it is above you, it informs.  If you got nothing new out of it, it does not inform.  Emotional information vs. factual information vs. skill or behavior information.  See art.  See information theory.	01/23/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Does information have to be storable?  What do we call information that cannot be stored?	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Emotion and information.  PART ONE.  Emotions are information.  Emotional expression adds information to a statement.  (1) Not all information is expressed verbally.  For example, sometimes information is expressed through facial expressions.  (2)  Not all information is expressed through words, be they spoken words or written words.  For example, emotions are information that is often expressed without words, but rather with a look or a tone.  (3) And not all information using words is symbolic.  That is, you can express information through words in a way that is non-symbolic, for example by adding emotional overtones to words.  (4) And regardless, emotions can be expressed verbally with words.  For example, by saying explicitly stating "I am angry".  (5) And emotions can even be expressed symbolically by using emoticons.     PART TWO.  Can emotions be represented symbolically?  Yes, with emoticons like the smiley, " :) ".     PART THREE.  When you add emotion to a statement it adds information.  Consider, three examples:  (1) "I loathe you", he said.  (2) "I loathe you", he said smiling.  (3) "I loathe you :) ", he wrote.  The last two statements contain more information than the first statement.	1/1/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Emotional information vs. thought (sentential) information.	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Examples of information management.  Underlining texts.  Highlighting texts.  Margin noting texts.	1/2/2004

Technology, information theory.	Information.  For society and for the individual, gathering information is important.  Free access to information is important.  The media is important.  Libraries are important.  The Internet is important.	12/26/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Forms of information.  Information as words and language.  Information as numbers and math.  Information as pictures and visual arts.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Gather, organize, store, and send words, numbers, pictures, and sounds.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  How much information do people really need?  How much can they really absorb and use?  How much can information really help the world situation?	11/30/1996

Technology, information theory.	Information.  It should be a right, like free public schooling, to have a computer and access to the Internet.  Information should be a right, or at least very cheap like water, or else free like commercial television.	12/26/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Limits of the information age.  Most people tend not to get excited about pure symbolic information (for example, text).  Most people tend to like their information embodied (for example, most people like text with pictures).  Most people like spoken language accompanied by facial expression.  Most people like interacting with real objects rather than abstract ideas.  This is in part a result of the way humans evolved, as embodied animals in a physical environment.  The result is that most people are biased toward stuff.  The more life-like the information, the more interesting and fun it is.  This is the argument for virtual reality, which photographs and movies are just steps toward.  This is also the argument for incorporating information into real life: embed information in real life and people will absorb it faster.  On a baser level, one could argue that the real problem is that people are basically lazy and don't want to learn, regardless of information format.	12/9/2000

Technology, information theory.	Information.  More people suffer from information underload than information overload.	8/30/1998

Technology, information theory.	Information.  People suffer, go crazy, and die, for lack of (1) Best information (found or figured), and (2) Best emotional love.  (3) I help with the information side.	10/10/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  People's needs for goods and services is not that great.  We do not need that much physical stuff.  But people's needs for information, in order to develop and grow, is endless.	1/28/1999

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Quantity vs. quality of information.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  The amount of views, both true and false, good and bad, that exist in the atmosphere, not written down, not accessible by others, is large.	07/08/1994

Technology, information theory.	Information.  There is a huge amount of information or knowledge (ex. attitude criticism) that academia, artists, journalists, etc. don't touch (because it does not fit into their fields or job descriptions), that I mine.  It is mine.	12/31/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  They say information wants to be free.  Free in terms of price.  Free in terms of ability to move through space.	10/16/1999

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Thinking and speaking are natural information technologies.  Speaking and writing are communication technologies, but they are also information technologies in that they make it easier to store and manipulate information, as well as communicate it.  Communication technology relays information.  Information technology processes information.	01/23/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Thinking over stuff you already know is manipulating information.  To suddenly think of a good new idea, or to slowly work an idea out, are both creation of information.  Gathering (measuring) and interpreting quantitative or qualitative data is another way to create information.	01/23/1997

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Two types of information.  (1) Personal information (figured out notes).  (A) By you.  (B) About you.  (2) Non-personal information (found out notes).  (A) Not by you.  (B) Not about you.	4/17/2001

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Types of information.  (1) Spoken.  Written.  Printed.  Digital electronic.  (2) Information categorized by modes of thought.  (A) Magic, myth and religion.  (B) Art (lit, music, visual arts, etc.).  (C) Philosophy.  (D) Science.  (3) Verbal.  Visual.  Musical.  Speaking uses the mouth, listening uses the ear.  Writing uses the hand, reading uses sight.  (4) Information by the senses involved.  Taste.  Smell.  Touch.  Sight.  Sound.  (5) Information classified by the psychological level it takes place at.  (A) Sensory and perceptual information.  (B) Emotional information.  (C) Thought information.  (D) Attitude information (a combination of emotional and thought information).  (E) BTW, memory can be of sense, emotion, thought or attitude.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Uses of information.  Good uses: science, health, justice.  Bad uses: abuse of power, etc.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Information.  What information they need.  Cheapest, fastest, easiest way to get it.  In what form to give it to them.	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Information.  What is information?     PART ONE. (1) Information to a computer.  To a computer, a series of symbols means one thing only.  (A) A word means on thing only.  Thus, a sentence (a collection of words) means one thing only.  Thus, a book (a collection of sentences) means one thing only.  (B) An icon means one thing only.  Thus a picture (a collection of icons) means one thing only.  Thus, a movie (a collection of pictures) means one thing only.  (C) A number means one thing only.  Thus a mathematical expression (a series of numbers) means one thing only.  (2) Information to a human.  (A) A word can mean many things.  Thus, a sentence (a collection of words) can mean many things.  Thus, a book (a collection of sentences) can mean many things.  (B) An icon can mean many things.  Thus, a picture (a collection of icons) can mean many things.  Thus a movie (a collection of pictures) can mean many things.  (C) A number still means just one thing.  A mathematical expression (a series of numbers) still means just one thing.     PART TWO.  If we say a piece of music (without words) means something, and if music conveys emotion, then music is informational and emotions are informational.     PART THREE.  If we say an icon symbol means something then a picture (collection of icons) means something, and then a movie (a collection of pictures) means something, and then our perception of real life, much akin to a movie, means something.	12/22/2000

Technology, information theory.	Information.  What is information?  (1) Forms of information by the media in which they are transmitted: words, pictures, numbers, music.  (2) For each of Howard Gardner's eight types of intelligence I say there is probably a corresponding form of information.  (ex. kinesthetic, social, verbal, etc.)	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Where is the border between information (ex. symbolically coded facts) and experience (ex. real life, virtual reality, movies, written fiction, etc.)?  We read facts.   We experience life.  There is not clear border between the two.  They are a spectrum.	6/3/2001

Technology, information theory.	Information.  Who wants to know what, and why?  Who should know what, and why?	07/08/1994

Technology, information theory.	Instead of Christmas cards, give a cd-rom with your public notes for the year on it.  Give it to your friends.  Give it to all major public libraries.  Give it to the Internet.  Eventually the Internet should let you search by keyword (or question) across many people's notes.	02/15/1997

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual freedom issues.  (1) National security.  (2) Individual privacy.  (3) Morals.  (4) Hate literature that is offensive or injurious to individuals or groups.  (5) Libel and slander.  (6) Free speech, first amendment.  (7) Yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.  (8) Cost.  (9) Censorship (of what, by who).	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.   Patents were designed to protect ideas.  Copyright protects the expression of ideas.  Trademarks protect the names of products, companies, etc.	5/17/2004

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  (1) Copyright of a book, a piece of music, a painting, a movie.  (2) Patent of an invention, or of software code.  (3) Trademark of a business name or a business slogan.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright hinders the development of intellectual property as much as it promotes the development of intellectual property because copyright can cause the average individual to develop an attitude of "learned helplessness" toward intellectual property.  Their attitude may be "Anything that I can think of somebody else thought of before and copyrighted or patented it and thus owns it.  And I would just by thinking be infringing on someone else's property so why bother thinking at all?"  This is an unhealthy yet widely occurring unconscious attitude.	1/24/2002

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright, intellectual property, and other issues.  Copyright as a means to protect the expression of an idea.  Patents as a means to protect the invention of a process.  Trademarks as a means to protect a logo or slogan.  Patents and copyrights are used to protect the rights to the work, in order to spur invention and creativity by giving people monetary incentive to invent and create.  No one says you have to patent or copyright an idea.  Also, patents and copyrights do no last forever.  So what's the problem?  (1) Big companies use patent as a monopoly.  Big companies then raise prices and exclude people from having the product.  (2) A basic philosophical objection is that no one can own an idea, since anyone can think of an idea.  History is full of chronologically simultaneous yet geographically separate creations of an idea (ex. Newton and Liebneiz discovering calculus.  Darwin and Wallace discovering evolution).	12/1/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  (1) First we must insist on the right to keep a single primary copy of a item that we paid for, even if its just for backup purposes.  (For example, photocopy a book.  Tape a music album.  Download a web page.  Download an mp3).  (2) The next issue is whether to allow a secondary copy, or a copy of a copy.  (For example, allow a student to photocopy their friends photocopy of a book.  Tape a friend's tape of an album.  Download a friend's download of web page.  Copy a friend's mp3).  (3)  We must fight for the right to use photocopies in the classroom. (4)  The next question is about Napster and other P2P peer file sharing networks.  Should it be legal or should it be stopped?  Can it be stopped?	1/9/2002

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  By the time copyrights and patents expire the idea is usually stale and outdated, such is the speed of change today.	12/30/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Hack the textbooks.  (1) In the USA, most of the school textbooks are the same.  (2) The specific prose, the exact wording, of the textbooks is copyrighted, but the general ideas are not.  (3) Therefore, anyone can write an "Intro to x" textbook, using the dozens of existing textbooks on the subject as a rough outline of the material, and then make it freely available on the Internet.	8/30/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Just because someone is rewarded (paid) for creating something does not mean the resulting product should not be free for all to use.	12/2/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Some weak arguments for private property (including intellectual property).  (1) You invested your capital in it, therefore you have a claim to it.  A counter-argument is that in the realm of ideas people often get ideas out of the blue, so they can't say they invested capital in it.  An idea can occur to anyone at anytime.  (2) Someone has to be responsible for "this thing x".  This is the "Plight of the Commons" argument, which says that if we have a public commons then no one will take care of it.  However, a counter-arguments is that in today's society, there are many publicly owned commons that we take care of, like public parks, public libraries, etc.  (3) Private property serves as a monetary incentive to invent and create.   One counter-argument to the money incentive argument is that people often create just for the enjoyment of it.  Another counter-argument to the money incentive argument is that people think of ideas in the shower and on the subway.  Ideas just pop in your head naturally.	12/2/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  The whole idea of intellectual property is perverted when the creators are forced to sell the rights to their work to publishers for a pittance royalty, and then the publisher owns the rights and makes all the money.  That is no longer an incentive to create, rather, that is exploitation of the creator and extortion of the consumer.	12/2/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Theoretically, how could one legally work around the copyright laws that protects most current hardcover fiction?  Well, no one can stop you from writing a thoroughly researched book report about a book, one which discusses in depth the plot, theme, settings, characters, etc.  And you can post your book report for free on the web.  Some may argue that this approach is not the same thing as the novel itself.  However, what if you added a discussion forum to your website.  And what if many readers posted comments about the book.  Each person can legally quote a paragraph from the book, with proper attribution, according to the "fair use" copyright laws.  And if a few thousand users each quote a paragraph then you will have, in effect, legally recreated the book online for all to view.  Scary.	8/26/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  To discuss ideas being free, one should discuss other resources that are free, or that were once free.  Land, water and air are all finite resources.  (1) Land.  When the pilgrims first arrived in the Americas there was a seemingly unlimited supply of land.  Today, every piece of land is owned by someone, even if its the government.  (2) Water.  Water was free in the past, but now fresh drinking water is becoming scarce and people are starting to charge for it.  The ocean was once considered limitless and free to plunder, but now the ocean is more closely managed so that we do not pollute it nor fish it out completely.  (3) Air.  The air is free, for now, some people say.  However, someday fresh air may not be free.  PART TWO.  Land, water and air are all finite, physical resources.  Ideas are infinite, non-physical resources.  Since no one can own them, they are not property.  Some people go so far as to say that since no one can own the land or water or air there is no such thing as private property of those natural resources.  The final category is the physical things that we make.  Things that we put our time, energy and money into.  Some would say that since they come from the land no one owns them.  Others would say that since you built it, its yours.  (See the note on American Indians, Communitarianism and Buddhism).	12/2/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Copyright.  Two extreme examples: To force everyone to make everything available for free is as bad as having everything privatized into private property.	12/2/2001

Technology, information theory.	Intellectual property.  Limits of intellectual property.  (1) One can't patent ordinary, everyday, commonplace procedures, like, for example, tying shoelaces.  (2) You can't trademark the language out of existence by trademarking each individual word of the language.  (3) One can't copyright concepts out of existence.	5/17/2004

Technology, information theory.	It is everyone's duty to think.  It is everyone's duty to write down every decent idea they get, for their own good and for others.  This would be made easier with small, voice recognizing, wireless computers.  It is everyone's duty to act on their ideas.  It is everyone's duty to explore (learn) the idea world.	07/22/1993

Technology, information theory.	Keywords.  (1) Taking keywords from the text automatically, for example, based on frequency of occurrence.  Vs.  (2) Adding keywords by hand outside of the main text.  (3) This is a consideration of organizing information by "keywords" vs. "categories".  However, the issue of keywords seems to be sidestepped when a technology like the Google search engine lets you search any webpages for any keywords.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Keywords.  A library catalog categorizes information at the book level.  It is possible to categorize on the idea level (be those ideas on the word level, sentence level or paragraph level) in addition to the book level.  On the word level, to the extent that important concepts are given single word names, to that extent you can have a domain of information on a subject consisting of only single words.  With such a vocabulary, you can build a machine to compare (calculate, cogitate) one body of knowledge to another body of knowledge.  You can compare vocabularies or glossaries from specific subject areas.  These subject vocabularies can be combined into a total vocabulary.  You can create a vocabulary database that has the word as the primary key and has additional fields for the definition of the word and for the category that the word is in.  Adding new information is as easy as adding new words.  This is somewhat similar to a dictionary.	7/8/2002

Technology, information theory.	Keywords.  Problems with keywords.  (1) One problem with keywords is that a word can have multiple meanings.  Some classification systems deal with this problem by assigning numbers to keywords.  (2) A second problem with keywords.  Library catalogs are based on classification systems (Ex. Dewey, LOC) that attempt to assign a subject to a book, as if that is possible.  Books are often around 200 pages long, and typically contain ideas on many subjects.  Better to assign a subject at the chapter or paragraph level.  (3) Another problem is that as knowledge grows, classification systems change.  Some concepts go out of date.  New concepts are formed.  New relationships form between concepts.  Pre-set classification systems can't handle this well.	6/21/2004

Technology, information theory.	Keywords.  The subjects in a classification system are often denoted by keywords.	6/21/2004

Technology, information theory.	Language and information.  Can you put natural language in symbolic form so that a computer can manipulate it?  Ideas toward a natural human language that computers can work with: (1) Use exact words.  Not metaphorical language.  One word having only one meaning.  (2) Get rid of pronouns.  Get rid of contractions.  Get rid of abbreviations.  (3) Use S-V-O sentence structure.  Do not use compound sentence structures having multiple clauses or phrases.  (4) Use syllogistic structure whenever possible.  One idea per paragraph.	3/3/1999

Technology, information theory.	Levels of information description.  There are several levels of information description.  (1) Index: an index is a list of words.  (2) Glossary: a glossary is list of words along with a short description of each word.  (3) Encyclopedia: an encyclopedia is a list of words along with a full discussion of each word.	3/13/2007

Technology, information theory.	Libraries have electronic catalogs of books.  Online bookstores have electronic catalogs of books.  But what we really need is an electronic catalog of ideas.  Finer granularity, from the book to the idea level.  (1) Every idea gets a synopsis or abstract.  (2) Every idea gets a list of keywords.  (3) Keywords linked in web shaped concept map.  (4) Ideas will be: logically explicit; short as possible; exact language; no figurative language; no esoteric words; plain speak.	7/21/2000

Technology, information theory.	Library (the right answers) has latest and best information.  Archive (all the wrong answers and reasons why wrong?) has old information and wrong information.	11/01/1994

Technology, information theory.	Library catalogs should have book reviews, and "see also" entries.  They should have a thesaurus of logical subject categories, both within the catalog and at the start.	01/24/1994

Technology, information theory.	Library of future.  Library in palm of hand.  Modem hook up anywhere, or wireless.  Links between libraries.  Hypertext and hypermedia.	08/20/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  (1) Cost to acquire information vs. speed of obsolescence of information.  (2) Commercial vendors of information vs. free to public information.  (3) Goal: much, cheap, easily accessible, high quality, up to date, information.  (4) Recommendations of quality works by subject and level of difficulty (elementary, high school, college, graduate school).	12/06/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  (1) Order:  (A) Catalog (ID number order).  (B) Index (alpha order).  (C) Thesaurus (logical subject order).  (2) Level:  (A) Super-book level.  (B) Book level.  (C) Sub-book level.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  (1) Political issues: obscenity and pornography.  Free speech vs. censorship.  (2) Economic issues: costs, prices.  (3) Technological issues: digital vs. paper.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  (1) Pro library work.  Information management is important for good education, for mental health, and for societal advancement.  Knowledge of principles of information management is important.  Organization, criticism, rating.  Quick, easy retrieval and access.  (2) Contra library work.  It is not a profession.  Professions deal with people's lives.  Ex. Doctor, lawyer, accountant.  It is not a science.  It is a technology.	08/24/1994

Technology, information theory.	Library.  A complete library.  One can hypothesize a complete library.  Everything that exists (every person, place, thing, event, idea) has at least one work created about it in every form of media (print, music, visual art, etc.).  Everything that exists has a book written about it, a song played about it, a visual artwork painted about it, a movie filmed about it.  And all that information is available on the Internet at no cost to the web surfer.	12/16/2004

Technology, information theory.	Library.  Computerization of catalogs, indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, circulation, networks to other libraries, and full text.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  Four rules of library acquisitions.  Don't acquire junk.  Don't not acquire good stuff.  Don't pitch (throw out) good stuff.  Don't not pitch (throw out) junk.	07/30/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  How computerized will libraries become?  Citation only vs. full text (journals and books).  Full text with words vs. full text with images vs. multimedia.  Local vs. network anywhere.  What technological, economic ($), and political resources must be developed to make the change to online libraries?  How best to convert to digital?  Who will pay for the conversion to digital?  Will "the library" be replaced by "the web"?	11/20/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  How much will libraries become computerized, and how soon?  (full text dbases).  How much will libraries be replaced by the Internet to houses?  How will number of librarians, users and books change?	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  Instead of building and maintaining a 10 million dollar library building and book collection for a community of 100,000 people, give everyone a computer and Internet access.	12/26/1997

Technology, information theory.	Library.  Print vs. digital.  Cost to create, decay time, space it occupies, etc.	10/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  The library is basically technology, not science or philosophy.	08/20/1993

Technology, information theory.	Library.  The new model for a library.  No paper books on shelves at all.  An Internet PC at every seat, with all the books online in digital format.  Print on demand book-making machines to print books as needed.	5/29/2001

Technology, information theory.	Library.  Virtual library: anything (words, pictures, sound, film) available anywhere, anytime, to anyone.	08/31/1993

Technology, information theory.	Linking.  "See also" cross references are passive links in that they require you spend time following them.  Hyperlinks are active links in that they take you there quickly.	6/25/2004

Technology, information theory.	Linking.  The phrase "see also" in a text document functions much like a hyperlink in an HTML document.  Linking is a way of cross referencing.  The Internet is one big cross-referenced text.	6/25/2004

Technology, information theory.	Linking.  You can show the text only.  Or you can show the links only.  Or you can show the text and the links.	6/25/2004

Technology, information theory.	Links.  Links are connections.  Links are tangents.	4/3/2005

Technology, information theory.	Lists, types of.  (1) Lists of random things.  (2) Lists of related ideas.  (3) List of steps in an argument.  (4) Lists in order.  Numerical order.  Alphabetical order.	10/5/2004

Technology, information theory.	Most important ideas on history, present, probable future, and ideal future of publishing, book retailing, education, libraries, media.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	One part of the solution is making information available.  One part of that is making machines and systems that handle information, for example, computers and the Internet.  Another part of that is gathering and presenting factual information, for example, in encyclopedias.  Another part of that is creating and presenting theories and arguments.  That is what I do.	1/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Outline.  An outline is an ordering of information by set and subset.  One indicates the levels of an outline by using numbers, letters or icons (Example: 1.A. 2.B.) (Another example is: 1.  1.2.  1.2.1.).	8/14/2004

Technology, information theory.	PART ONE.  How to create structured text?  (1) Each field element is put on a new line.  (2) Double space between records.  PART TWO.  How to converted structured text to database format?  (1) Replace double paragraph marks with a tilde character.  (2) Replace remaining paragraph marks with tabs.  (3) Then replace the tildes with paragraph marks.  (4) Now you have a tab delimited text file that you can import into a database.	11/9/2004

Technology, information theory.	Personal e-library.  One big web page, with all web favorites on it, organized by subject, with bibliographic information for each item, plus your comments, plus a link to that site.	12/5/2000

Technology, information theory.	Personal information management (PIM).     PART ONE.  In the age of paper, people had various tools to organize their personal information.  People used diaries to record the details of their day, and to keep a personal history.  People had address books containing contact information such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.  People made "to do" lists to organize their goals.  People wrote on calendars in order to schedule appointments.  Sometimes people combined the above functions in something called a daytimer.  In addition, people kept newspaper clippings, and old correspondence, filed away in file cabinets.  And people kept track of their finances with ledgers.  PART TWO.  In the age of the computer, people have digital counterparts to the paper tools of personal information management.  In the age of the computers, people keep their diary, address book, appointment calendar, and to do lists on the computer.     PART THREE.  The computer age offers people more options to manage their personal information.  People can save all their emails, and then sort or search.  People can save all their instant messaging chats.  People can save all their web surfing tracks.  People can save all their google searches.  People can save all their Wikipedia searches.  People can save all their bookmarks.     PART FOUR.  People using the above tools often feel satisfied that they are managing their most important information.  However, I think they are managing their least important information.  People have in their brains much more important information than schedules and appointments.  How to record and manage the truly important information?  I feel the Notes method is a useful way to generate and organize important ideas.  The Notes is a personal information management system that goes beyond what most people envision.	2/18/2007

Technology, information theory.	Philosophy of information.  (1) When we ask, "What is information?", we are asking about the metaphysics of information.  (2) When we ask, "How should we act in regard any particular piece of information?", we are asking about the ethics of information.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	Publishing, retail books, libraries, education.  How big: people and money, producers and consumers.  Temporal development, major players, technological development.	01/01/1993

Technology, information theory.	Random information generators.  (1) Create a random number generator.  (2) Create a random word generator by listing all the words in the dictionary, assigning a number to each word, and then using the random number generator to pick a number associated with each word.  (3) Create a random Noun-Verb-Noun sentence generator by listing the parts of speech associated with each word and then picking a noun, a verb, and then another noun.  (4) Create an Adjective-Noun-Adverb-Verb-Adjective-Noun sentence generator by expanding the parts of speech to include adjectives and adverbs.	1/15/2005

Technology, information theory.	Rating information as a way of organizing information by importance or quality.  For example, is a four star movie about an important subject, or does it say an important view, or does it have high quality directing, or high quality acting, etc.?	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Rating of thoughts should capture the quantity and quality of thoughts produced.  Quality of thoughts can be rated on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being low quality, 3 being average, 5 being exceptionally good.  Quantity can be captured by assigning one point per thought.  Overall rating of thought = quantity times quality.  For example:  Ten exceptionally good thought = fifty points.  Fifty low quality thoughts = fifty points.	8/5/2002

Technology, information theory.	Rating options.  (1) Letting the "masses" do the rating (ex. Measuring box office returns of a film).  (2) Letting the "so called experts" do the rating (ex. Measuring how the professional critics review a film).  (3) The Internet is more geared toward letting the masses do the rating.  (4) One example of a rating system is the Bloghop.com website rating method.  Another example of a rating system is the Amazon.com book rating method.  I would say that ideally we want to be able to rate at the individual note level, not just the book or website level.  For example, was this note helpful to you?  Y/N.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Rating systems.  (1) A basic rating system puts a check mark next to good notes.  This is a "0 or 1" rating system.  (2) A step up in complexity is to put a check mark on good notes and a "x" on bad notes.  This is a "-1, 0, 1" rating system.  (3) The next step is the "-2, -1, 0, 1, 2" system that uses double check marks and double x's.  This is akin to the "one to five stars" rating system.  (4) The next step is the "on a scale from 1 to 10" rating system.	6/2/2004

Technology, information theory.	Rating.  A rating of the importance of an event can describe both the magnitude of the event and also how good or bad the event was, for example, by using an integer rating scale of negative five to positive five.	9/7/2005

Technology, information theory.	Rating.  A rating system of one star for my goals, two stars for ideas that are important to me, three stars for ideas I think would be important to anyone.	9/12/2005

Technology, information theory.	Rating.  The challenge of rating is to sort more useful information from less useful information.  That is the purpose of ratings.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Ratings.  Bibliographic data should include ratings of its quality.  For example, on Amazon.com individual reader ratings are averaged to produce a consensus rating.  There are several types of commonly used rating systems and I will point out problems with each.  (A) The "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" rating system, also known as the "star" rating system (usually one to five stars):  The problem with star rating systems is that a bad website gets one star, yet many people associate a star with merit, so they see a star as meaning a work has merit.  (B) The "-2, -1, 0, +1, +2" rating system:  The problem with this system is that an average site gets a zero rating, yet many people associate a zero with worthlessness and so they interpret an average site as being worthless.  (C) Natural language rating systems (ex. "Bad; Below average; Average; Above average; Excellent.").  The problem with natural language rating systems is that one person may not speak another persons language.  (D) Smiley face rating system (ex. Frown; Neutral face; Smiley face.) is perhaps the best rating system because it relies on universal human facial expressions of emotion.	12/8/2000

Technology, information theory.	Ratings.  Problems with ratings.  If you put a five star rating on a note it can have many different meanings including: (1) Its an idea I like.  (2) Its an idea I think is original, new, useful and important.  (3) Its an idea I think you will like.  (4) Its an idea I think you will find to be new, useful and important.     PART TWO. Another problem with ratings is that I don't know who you are so how do I give ratings based on you rather than me?  (6) I don't know what the "next step" is for you or me.	4/15/2002

Technology, information theory.	Ratings.  Ratings can say various things: (1)(A) I think these ideas are my own best, original, new ideas.  (B) I think these ideas, from whatever source, are most important.  (2)(A) I think these ideas are good for me.  (B) I think these ideas are good for everyone.	5/8/2002

Technology, information theory.	Related areas.  (1) Technology and information. Abstracts.  Searching.  Rating.  Categorizing.  (2) Economics and information.  Costs to gather, store, manipulate organize, transmit and dispense information.  In oral, handwritten, printed and digital form.  (3) Politics and information.  Privacy issues. Secrecy issues.  What information about an individual or group is available to who. Government (or anyone else) gathering information on its citizens.  Government (or anyone else) withholding information from its citizens.  Politics of spying, encryption, censorship, propaganda, and the free press.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Related areas.  Relationship of information and mind, thinking and learning.	12/26/2003

Technology, information theory.	Reviews.  A book review is an information claim about another information claim.  Review, aka criticism, is a second level information claim, or meta-information.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Search engines.  A search can be done for a word, a series of words, or a specific phrase.  Boolean operators can be used to refine searches, much like using regular expressions.  Searches can be limited or filtered by language, date, etc.  The authors of web pages decide what subjects their web page is about and they include that information in meta-tags.  Search engine robots or spiders automatically gather web page meta data.  The authors of web pages decide if they want their web pages visited by robots and spiders.  Search engines also do full text indexing of web pages, so that any word on any page can be searched.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Search engines.  Some search engines let you type a natural language query or question.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Search engines.  Two ways.  A search engine can search the Internet at the time of the search.  This is the slow way.  Alternatively, a search engine can search an index or database of the Internet created before the search is initiated.  This is faster.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Search or find.  Search directories and file names.  Search for strings within files.	8/20/2004

Technology, information theory.	Search.  Its all about easier access to information.  Find information quicker and more accurately.  Information in the form of words, pictures, sounds, movies, etc.  Collections of information like a book, a library, a database, a website, the Internet, etc.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Searching and Rating.  So the big picture is (tbpi) everyone puts their notes online.  That is a ton of information to sort through.  Two problems occur.  (1) Finding the information relevant to a topic.  A solution is to organize information by either hierarchical categories or by keywords.  Luckily, web search engines organize the entire Internet by keywords.  (2) Finding the high quality material, which is a matter of rating information.  A solution is to build rating systems into search engines.	2/10/2001

Technology, information theory.	Searching text databases.  Searching large text fields is slow.  Create an alphabetized keyword index.  List every word in the text in alphabetical order, and then list each page or note that has the word in it (i.e., a concordance).  Weed out the prepositions  and articles (a, the, for, etc.).  Leave only nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.	12/17/2000

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  (1) A poem about equality or liberty may not contain the words "equality" or "liberty".  And as a result, a keyword search of online texts for the words "equality" and "liberty" will not return that poem as a hit.  Yet that poem may express crucial ideas about those subjects.  This presents a problem for information management.  (2) Even worse, certain attitudes (thoughts and emotions) can only be captured by that precise poem.  You cannot always "translate" a poem into a philosophical argument.	7/13/2000

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  (1) Standard searches.  (A) Searching for a keyword.  (B) Searching for a series of keywords.  (C) Searching for a phrase.  (2) Versus, searching for an idea regardless of the synonyms uses.	4/23/2002

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  (1) Synonym search.  (2) Antonym search.  (3) Thesaurus search (i.e., related categories).	5/2/2002

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  A search engine that can automatically identify successful searches from unsuccessful searches and then incorporate that information to increase its accuracy will be way ahead of the game.	6/22/2004

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  An important principle is that whatever you throw onto the web should be searchable by the current popular web search engines.  If your data is locked up in a database, unsearchable by current popular search engines, in the hopes that future search engines will be able to find it, you have defeated yourself.  In this respect, Paul Nervy Notes succeeds where Slashdot and Everything2 fail.	9/9/2001

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  Creating a concordance or index for a text was a labor intensive activity when done by humans.  However, computers make it a trivial task.  Thus, when we once had concordances for only a few books we can now have concordances for every book.  (Search engines also make it possible to search all texts quickly and easily).  A modern electronic concordance or index could show not only the page number that a word occurs in (page numbers being relatively useless because they vary from edition to edition), but also the complete sentence a word occurs in, and also the compete paragraph a word occurs in.  Thus if you want to see every thought an author had on any subject you can just search the electronic digitized complete works of the author for all sentences or paragraphs containing the keyword (and their synonyms) in question.  PART TWO.  One problem would be if the author wrote a statement on a topic without using the keyword.  Another problem is media, like the visual arts, that do not use words.  PART THREE.  This would help only if all texts were digitized and if all texts were open to searching, instead of being available only in paper formats for a cover price.	9/19/2001

Technology, information theory.	Searching.  Thesaurus searching.  (1) Searching by synonym, related terms or associated terms.  (2) Searching by antonym, opposite idea.  (3) Thesaurus searching by level.  Find word.  Find word and synonyms.  Find word and any other words in same Roget's category.  Find word and any other words in next higher Roget's category.	2/10/2005

Technology, information theory.	Sociology of knowledge.  (1) Knowledge is political and social power.  (2) What a group agrees is true and important.  What they teach and not.  What books they carry in library and not.  (3) Social mechanisms to produce and inhibit knowledge.  Ex. first amendment.  (4) Ideas have to be pushed or sold to conquer.  How far an idea gets with how much of a push.	12/30/1992

Technology, information theory.	Sociology of knowledge.  See:  Philosophy, epistemology. > Sociology of knowledge.	12/15/2004

Technology, information theory.	Sort or order.  Sort by alphabetical order.  Sort by numerical order.  Filter results.	8/20/2004

Technology, information theory.	Statistical analysis of texts.  PART ONE.  (1) What is a statistical analysis of a text?  A statistical analysis of a text, at the most basic level, measures the frequency of occurrence of words.  (2) Why would anyone do a statistical analysis of a text?  Performing a statistical analysis of a text can provide useful information about the text.  Statistical analysis of texts can help you measure the quantity of your output.  Statistical analysis of texts, when combined with a rating system, can help you measure the quality of your output.  Statistical analysis of texts can help you keep track of data, by functioning as a rudimentary text accounting system.  (3) How does one do a statistical analysis of texts?  A statistical analysis of texts is performed much like how a statistical analysis is performed on any set of data, that is, by counting objects and analyzing the frequency of the occurrence of the objects.  Texts can be analyzed on the level of letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs.  There are similar questions to be asked at each level of text analysis.  The GNU/Linux computer operating system has several useful tools for the statistical analysis of texts.     PART TWO.  GNU/Linux tools for the statistical analysis of texts.  (1) "wc" is a word counting program that returns the number of paragraphs, words, and characters in a text file.  (2) "ls" is a listing program that returns the number of bytes of file, in addition to providing information about characters, words, and paragraphs.  (3) "uniq" is a program that returns the unique lines in a text file.  "uniq" also gives the number of times a line occurs.  (4) A concordance can be built using a combination of the above GNU/Linux tools.  A concordance lists each word in the text, and lists the number of times each word occurs in the text.     PART THREE.  Letter level text analysis.  Definition: a letter is a single character.  (1) What is the most commonly occurring letter in the text?  (2) What is the least commonly occurring letter in the text?  (3) Present the letters of the alphabet in the order of their frequency of occurrence.  (4) How do letter frequencies in the text compare to the statistical average of letter frequencies in a large group of randomly selected texts.     PART FOUR.  Word level text analysis.  Definition: a word is comprised of a series of letters.  Words are separated by a single white space.  (1) Number of words.  What is the total number of words in the entire text, all years combined?  What is the number of words per year?  What is the number of words for any particular subject or category?  (2) Word length.  The length of a word is measured by the number of letters in the word.  What is the shortest word used?  What is the longest word used?  What is the average word length?  How many big words do you use?  Do you use short or long words compared to the average writer?  That is, how does the average word length in the text compare to the average word length in a large number of randomly selected texts?  (3) Word location.  Create a concordance, that is, a list of all the words used in the text, and how many times each words is used, and the location in the text that the word occurs.  Location in the text can be described several ways.  Location can be described by numbering pages and giving the words location on each page, but that is not optimal.  Location can be described by numbering the paragraphs and giving the words location in each paragraph, and that is a better approach.  Word location can be described by numbering each word in the text and using that number to give the words location.  (4) Word frequencies.  How many times is a particular word used?  Order the words from most used to least used.  Give the frequency that any particular word is used.  Which word is used most frequently?  Which word is least frequently used?  What do you write most about most?  What do you think about most?     PART FIVE.  Sentence level text analysis.  Definition: A sentence is a string of words that ends with a period followed by two blank spaces.  Questions: (1) Number of sentences.  What is the number of sentences in the text?  (2) Sentence length.  What is the shortest sentence in the text?  What is the longest sentence in the text?  What is the average sentence length in the text?  Do you write short or long sentences compared to the average writer?  That is, what is your average sentence length compared to the average sentence length in a large number of randomly selected texts?     PART SIX.  Paragraphs level text analysis.  Definition of terms: To the average person, a line is a sentence that ends with a period.  However, to a computer, a line is what humans would call a paragraph, because to a computer a line is something that ends in a line break character, not something that ends with a period.  And in the Notes, a paragraph is a note.  Questions: (1) Number of paragraphs.  What is the total number of paragraphs in the text?  What is the number of paragraphs per year?  What is the number of paragraphs for any particular subject or category?  (2) Length of paragraphs.  What is the shortest paragraph?  What is the longest paragraph?  What is the average paragraph length in the text?  How does your average paragraph length compare to the average paragraph length in a large number of randomly selected texts?     PART SEVEN.  Subjects, categories, or keyword phrases.  Definition of terms: In the Notes, the words "subject", "category", and "keyword phrase", are sometimes used interchangeably.  Each paragraph has a keyword phrase at its start.  In the Notes, a category or subject is comprised of a group of paragraphs.  In the Notes, the categories represent a level of organization above the level of paragraphs.  The categories or keywords are arranged in an outline format.  Questions: (1) Number of categories.  How many categories are there?  If the categories are organized in an outline format, then how many categories are there at each level of the outline.  And how many sub-categories does any particular category contain if one counts the sub-categories recursively?  Which categories have the most subcategories?  Which categories have the most notes?    Which keyword phrases appear most often?     PART EIGHT.  Time analysis, or dynamic analysis.  It is useful to analyze a text as it develops through time.  Do a statistical analysis for each year of the text.  Do a statistical analysis for the entire set of years of the text.     PART NINE.  Grammar analysis.  A dictionary often includes the part of speech of a word.  A dictionary will say whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.  A text analysis could count the number of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and other parts of speech in a text, and compute the frequency or percentage that each part of speech is used.  A text analysis could go a step further and diagram the grammar of each sentence, and then count the number of each type of sentence construction, and then compute the frequency or percentage that each sentence type is used.  PART TEN.  Text analysis can be used to do many things.  (1) Time analysis.  Compare an author to his past self or future self.  Track changes in an author's style and subject matter over time.  (2) Compare one work to another work.  Identify similarities and differences between two works.  (3) Compare one author to another author by analyzing the lifetime output of each author.  (4) Compare a work by an author to a statistical average of that author's entire works.  Compare a work by an author to a statistical average of many author's works.     PART ELEVEN.  (1) Level of difficulty.  Some people argue that the longer the words, sentences and paragraphs, the more difficult a text is to read.  Some people argue that the longer the words, sentences, and paragraphs, the more intelligent the author.  The problem with that is when authors write long to try to appear intelligent.  Verbosity in a vain attempt to appear intelligent is a mistake.  PART TWELVE.  Voice or style.  The vocabulary and grammar that an author uses leaves a thumb print of the authors style.  The lifetime written output of an individual can be run through a concordance to produce a lifetime vocabulary of the individual.     This can help in the attribution of texts, because the presence of vocabulary and grammar that was infrequently or never used by a specific author means that an unattributed text is less likely to have been written by a specific author.   PART THIRTEEN.  Summary.  Statistical text analysis is a useful tool that can help answer questions about texts.  Questions like: "What subjects do I tend to think and write about?", and "How much writing do I tend to do?"  The GNU/Linux computer operating system provides several useful tools to help perform statistical analysis of a text.  Statistical analysis of a text can be done on the level of letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and larger levels of organization.  Statistical analysis of a large number of texts can be useful for the comparison of a single text to the average of a group of texts.  Statistical text analysis is just one method to analyze and understand texts.  There are many other methods besides statistical analysis which can be used to analyze and understand texts.  Have a nice day.	3/14/2007

Technology, information theory.	Summary.  (1) Summarize the keyword using a number.  Summarize the sentence using a keyword.  Summarize the paragraph using a sentence.  Summarize the article using a paragraph.  Summarize the book using an article.  (2) Summary is a form of reduction.  Summary is a form of simplification.  Summary is a form of abstraction.  (3) Search by any level of summary: number, word, sentence, paragraph, article.	1/28/2005

Technology, information theory.	Take someone's entire life's thoughts, words, writings, and then digitize it into text, pictures, sounds, etc.  Then use text analysis and data mining tools to find recurring topics, statements, etc.	2/18/2007

Technology, information theory.	Technology of information:  Language.  Writing.  Printing.  Computers.	9/11/2005

Technology, information theory.	Text analysis.  Instead of having a list of titles only, or, a step further, a list of titles and their abstracts, one can have the full text of the works.  Full text is preferable to have.  Google, Amazon and Project Gutenberg are all headed toward full text whenever possible.	9/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Text analysis.  Take a big chunk of text.  Number the paragraphs.  Number the sentences.  Make a concordance that lists every single word in alphabetical order and shows the paragraph number and sentence number that the word occurs in.  Find out how many times each word occurs, from most to least.  Find out what percent of time each word is used.	1/25/2005

Technology, information theory.	Text analysis.  Take an entire library of books.  Digitize them so they exist as full text on a computer.  Then make a concordance for the set of words of all the books in the library.  Determine with what frequency each word occurs for the set of the entire library.  Then see with what frequency a word occurs in a specific book.  If a word occurs much more often in a specific book than in the entire library then that is what the book is about.  One can thus automatically create an abstract of a book by listing the keywords that make that book unique relative to all the other books in the library.	8/31/2005

Technology, information theory.	Text analysis.  Text statistics.  (1) Word count.  Paragraphs (also called lines) (separated by carriage return).  Words (separated by white space)  Characters.  (2) Concordance.  List of number of occurances of each word in text.  List of location of each word in text.	9/10/2005

Technology, information theory.	Text analysis.  What does each word mean in each instance it is used?  Because words can have multiple meanings.  What does each sentence mean?  What does each paragraph mean?  What does each chapter mean?  What does the entire text mean?	1/25/2005

Technology, information theory.	The Internet is surpassing libraries and bookstores.  Web searching is cool.  Building an e-library.  Ramp up.	11/30/1997

Technology, information theory.	The phone book has a lot of information.  How much will it help you to read the phone book?  The dictionary has a lot of information.  How much will it help you to read the dictionary?  More than the phone book.  The encyclopedia has a lot of information.  How much will it help you to read the encyclopedia?  More than the dictionary.	1/22/2005

Technology, information theory.	The steps along the way.  Learning, like growing up, is a series of steps.  There is an end goal, but also many necessary intermediate phases.	9/15/1998

Technology, information theory.	Three types of text tags.  One could use a markup language (ex. SGML, XML) to create attribution tags for every sentence or paragraph.  The tags would  describe the following types of attributions   (1) The idea is quoted from another person.  (2) The idea is by the author.  (3) The idea is common knowledge or public domain.	5/16/2004

Technology, information theory.	Types of information.  Personal information.  Group information.  World information.	3/19/2006

Technology, information theory.	Various topics in computers and Internet.  PART ONE.  (1) Text analysis.  Text mining.  Data mining.  Concept mining.  These are terms that refer to the process of munging and crunching data to extract useful information.  Summarizing, searching, and sorting large sets of data.  Humans do better with small sets of data, like sentences and paragraphs.  Computers do better with large sets of data, like databases containing millions of records.  The data can be in the form of words, numbers, images, sounds, etc.  (2) Knowledge discovery.  The hope is that data mining will lead to knowledge discovery.  Computers can help people draw conclusions about large sets of data.  Or perhaps computers can eventually draw the conclusions.  (3) Personal information system refers to a set of information that is somehow personal, and the tools used to record, process, store and retrieve that information.  Perhaps the above tools of data mining and knowledge discovery can be applied to personal information.     PART TWO.  (1) Machine learning: if we are going to have artificial intelligence then at some point machines will have to learn.  How do you make a machine learn?  (2) Natural language processing refers to the hope that eventually machines can process and learn from information that is in the form of human natural language.  Instead of making a language that is easy for computers to use, make computers that can understand human language.  (3) Knowledge representation refers to the process by which the knowledge in the heads of humans is put into a format that can be used by machines.  PART THREE.  (1) Semantic web refers to an Internet containing information that machines find meaningful.  (2) Taxonomy is a term meaning classification and categorization.  (3) Tags are labels used to describe data, and to classify and categorize data.  (4) XML is an example of a Web 2.0 technology.  XML refers to eXtensible Markup Language.  XML lets people create custom tags to describe data, similar to the way that HTML lets people use pre-defined tags to format the content of a web page.  (5) Web 2.0 is a term used to describe technologies like XML that extend the capabilities of the web beyond HTML.   (6) Collaboration: XML makes it easier for people to work together because XML lets people transfer data more easily between computers.  (6) Metadata refers to data about data.  XML lets people tag their data with metadata.  (7) RDF stands for Resource Description Framework, which is an attempt to create a standard format for describing resources on the Internet.  (8) OWL is an twisted acronym for Web Ontology Language, which is a set of terms used to describe Internet resources or objects in the world.  (9) There is a debate between two methods of resource description.  One view involves using pre-set tags to create a formal taxonomy to describe data, in order to create a standard that makes it easier for machines to exchange data.  Another view involves letting people create their own tags to describe data, and this method is known as "folksonomy".  Taxonomy versus folksonomy.  Regimentation versus creativity.  Machine orietnation versus people orientation.  (9) Objects, attributes, and relationships.  Objects exist in the world of computer programming as well as the real world.  Objects have attributes.  Objects stand in logical relationship to each other.	2/18/2007

Technology, information theory.	Versions.  Multiple versions of a work can exist.  Which is the original version?  Which is the best version?  What are the differences between the versions?	9/1/2005

Technology, information theory.	Web 2.0, take two.  (1) Definition: Web 2.0 refers to the latest iteration of the Internet, in which data is tagged to provide metadata.  XML is the technology used to tag data with metadata.  XML also provides structure to data so that data is more easily processed by computers.  AJAX is a technology that allows web browsers to quickly present XML tagged data, for example when one uses the Google Earth web site.   (2) Advantages.  One advantage of Web 2.0 is that computers can transfer and process data automatically.  Another advantage of Web 2.0 is that tagging data with metadata leads to a richer, more informative Internet experience for Internet users.  (3) Examples of Web 2.0 websites:  Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that lets people tag their bookmarks to that other people can find relevant bookmarks more quickly.  Flikr.com is a website that lets people put their photos online, and lets people tag their photos with metadata, so that other people can search for photographs by topic.  Google Earth lets people views detailed maps of the Earth in a format that is quick and easy.     PART BLAH.  Criticism of Web 2.0.  (1) How rich are you if you are merely throwing single word tags onto objects?  You are about as rich as a graffiti artist.  (2) One can argue that Web 2.0 has been vastly over-hyped so that a few people can try to make a quick buck.  (3) Do not I tag my notes with a keyword phrase?  Have not librarians been tagging books by using catalogs that contain a keywords field?  Keywords have been around for a long time.  If you make it easy to for people to attach keywords to their data, and if you make it easier to search and sort by keywords, then that is helpful.	2/18/2007

Technology, philosophy of.	.This section is about the philosophy of technology.  Topics include: ( ) Ethics of technology.  ( ) Metaphysics of technology.	1/24/2006

Technology, philosophy of.	(1) Technology makes our life easier.  (2) Technology extends our abilities and powers, to let us do what we could not previously do.  (3) Technology often has unintended consequences.	11/7/2006

Technology, philosophy of.	Aesthetics and art vs. technology: form follows function vs. function follows form.  Technology vs. aesthetics, pros and cons of each.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Epistemology: knowledge of technology (epistemology).  Know if it works or not.  Know how it works or don't.  Know why it works or don't.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) Development of new technologies requires revised ethical views.  (2) Especially new tools of observation and measurement, which cause changes in our epistemological abilities.  Any change in epistemology (epistemological tools, epistemological method, or epistemological knowledge) causes a change in metaphysics, which causes a change in ethics. (3) Not only does our moral reasoning change (hopefully for the better), but so does our metaphysical situation change (natural environment and manmade environment).	09/15/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) Don't acquire what you don't need.  (2) Don't fail to acquire what you need.  Stay aware of the latest stuff coming out.  Don't ditch technologies that are still useful (esp. historically useful).	07/30/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) Quality of life.  (2) Environment (degradation or restoration).  (3) Struggling and technology (arms race).	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) Technology enables ethics.  Technology brings more power, which enables us to do more good (and bad).  (2) Technology also raises new ethical questions.  New technologies create new ethical issues.	5/15/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) The computer notches up our level of ethical responsibility.  Due to computers, our level of responsibility to gather information, to store information, to organize information, and to disseminate information are all much higher.  (2) The above is an example of the following principle: Technology gives us more power.  Technology thus gives us more ethical responsibility.  Because more power means more responsibility.	6/10/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  (1) Use vs. un-use.  (2) Use vs. abuse of technologies.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Best and worst technologies, for any goal, in any situation, and why.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Can get, will get, could get, should get, or not.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Choosing from among available technologies.  Advantages and disadvantages.  Pro and contra of using x technology rather than y technology in z situation.  How to improve the drawbacks or bad side effects.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Costs of technology.  Technologies shape our environment for better and/or worse.  Technology controls our behavior as much as it frees us.  Technology may change the ways and amounts we are free.  Technology may make us trapped and enslaved.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Economic considerations, political considerations.  Considerations through time, now and later.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Ethical imperative: develop and apply best technologies towards best goals.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Ethics in a world of much, cheap, disposable stuff and garbage vs. few, rare, expensive things and little garbage.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Ethics of artificial intelligence.  A machine that can feel deserves human rights?  No.  Animals that feel deserve animal rights.  Machines that feel deserve machine rights.	5/30/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Four situations: (1) Means good, ends good.  (2) Means good, ends bad.  (3) Means bad, ends good.  (4) Means bad, ends bad.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Freedom.  Slavery to a technology vs. independence from a technology.  Can you get away from it if you desire?	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Freedom.  Technology that decreases freedom vs. increases freedom.  Amount a technology enslaves you vs. amount a technology frees you.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  It will be a human right to have a website.  To have a web presence.  To have a virtual self.  To exist as a virtual person in virtual reality.	10/17/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Planned vs. unplanned uses and effects of a technology.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Quality of life may increase in some areas and decrease in others, or for some and less others.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Sometimes we can not do good until we have the tools to do good.  Example, communication across large distances.  So ethical development can depend on technological development.	3/30/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technologies you  (1) Have/don't (can use/can't use).  (2) Can get/can't get.  (3) Should get/shouldn't get.  (4) Could get/couldn't get.  (5) Get/get rid of.  (6) Use.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology and goals, problems and solutions.  To do x (x actually is a variety of goals you want to reach, whether you realize it consciously or not).  Best vs. worst technologies and why.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology can be used for evil instead of good, and that is a problem.  Technology can be used to decrease productivity instead of increase productivity.  Technology can be used to distract instead of focus.  Technology can be used to disempower instead of empower.  On the personal and social level, technology can be used for good or evil, unwittingly or wittingly on the part of those people who deploy technologies, and with or without the awareness of those people who use the technology.  Therefore, an analysis of the ethical implications of technology is the first thing that should be done.  Every technology should be subjected to ethical scrutiny, on both the personal level and the societal level.	5/16/2007

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology can be used for good or bad.  Technology can be used BY individuals and groups for good or bad.  Technology can be used ON individuals and groups for good or bad.  That is, people can be actuators and recipients of technology that is used for good and bad purposes.     PART TWO.  (1) Technology can be used to facilitate social interaction (good).  Or technology can be used to isolate and alienate people (bad).  (2) Technology can be used to empower people (good).  Or technology can be used to oppress and exploit people (bad).  (3) Technology can be used to explore the world and learn about the world (good).  Or technology can be used to avoid, ignore and escape from the world (bad).	11/9/2004

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology can evolve, stagnate or devolve.  Its use or abuse can lead to evolution, stagnation, or devolution of society.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology choices: pros and cons.  Advantages and disadvantages.  Strengths and weaknesses.  Costs and benefits.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology increases our power, but it also raises the level to which we have an ethical responsibility.  For example, a hundred thousand years ago, if someone said, "Og, go fly a plane halfway around the world to deliver food for famine relief".  Og could say, "Hey, I've only got two hands.  And the airplane will not be invented for a long time".  However, today we have airplanes and we can provide famine relief.  In a similar way, the computer is another technology that raises our level of ethical responsibility.  The desktop computer is both a communication tool and a tool to store and organize ideas.  Wearable computers with voice recognition will raise our level of ethical responsibility even further.  No more excuses like "I cannot type" or "I do not have time".  To ignore the full implications of technology is to feign ignorance and to abdicate your ethical responsibility.  For example, if Og killed a fellow person and people said to him "Don't act like an animal", meaning, "Don't act like you don't have a brain" or "Don't pretend like you don't know better."  Do not feign ignorance.	10/19/2000

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology increases the number of possible courses of action available.  Ethics is all about possible courses of action available.  Freedom is about gaining more possible courses of action.  Power is about having more possible courses of action available.  Thus technology is directly related to ethics, freedom and power.	5/10/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology is a means.  Means (strategies, tactics) vs. ends (goals, objectives).  Mean/end: use what means for what ends (good/bad).	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology is neither good nor bad (except as viewed as a means to an end).  Technology can be used, abused, or not used, and not abused.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Technology that helps situation vs. hurts more than helps.  Obviously vs. inobviously.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  The moral imperative: invent stuff.	9/30/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  To say technology is neither good nor evil is not accurate.  To say technology can be used for both good and evil is more accurate.	3/30/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Usefulness of a technology.  How useful for who, useful for what?  Psychologically useful, thus art is a technology.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Using what, how well, for what.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  Ways that humans try to control technology.  (1) Legal measures.  (A) Limit who can make it.  (B) Limit who can sell it.  (C) Limit who can buy it.	11/9/2004

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  What to make?  How to make it?	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Ethics of technology.  What you need vs. what you actually make.	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology: how does a technology change world, and us?	12/30/1992

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  (1) Dystopian visions.  Technology leads to leisure time that we waste, lazy.  Technology makes us so comfortable that we become mentally soft, physically soft, out of condition.  Loss of god makes us immoral.  (2) Utopian visions.  Technology lets us push farther ahead.  Food, free time, good information make us more productive.  Loss of god makes us more responsible and self reliant.	11/30/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  (1) People can feel dependent on technology.  (2) People can feel slaves of technology.  Individuals (and society) can feel controlled by technology.  (3) Worse still, the individual (and society) can be shaped by technology.  So, not only does technology control our actions and shape our environment, it also shapes who we are.  (4) On the other hand, technology can increase our abilities, increase our choices (options, alternatives), and increase our freedoms.  (5) The question is, are you free to choose the technology you use?  The answer is yes.  You can live like a primitive in the wilderness, or you can live like the Amish in low tech villages, or you can live in the high tech digital city.  (6) Two important points to make sure of: (A) We save the knowledge and skills of low tech lifestyles (ex. Foxfire books).  (B) We still have the freedom of choice to leave "the system" and "get off the grid".  (C) This knowledge and freedom help ensure that technology does not have too strong a power over us.	5/30/2000

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  (1)(A) The anthropocentric view.  It is all about man.  (B) The biocentric view.  Nature and its parts is as important as man.  (2)(A) The mechanistic view.  Nature can be analyzed like a machines and its parts.  (B) The organic view.  Holistic.  Gaia.  Nature is an organism.	06/10/1997

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  As our technological power grows, philosophy of technology becomes more important.  Today, our technological power is developing rapidly, therefore philosophy of technology is very important today.  (2) Today technology has increased effects, both good and bad, on several areas.  Examples, (A) Effect of technology on the environment.  (B) Effect of technology on individuals.  (C) Effect of technology on society.	2/23/2001

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Effect of x invention on individual, social, nature, total, 26 subjects.  Ways and degrees it helps, and hurts.  Degree and speed of change it makes.  History and future trends.	01/01/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  How is technology like math, philosophy and art?  (1) Writing code is like building a machine.  Optimizing code is like building a hot rod.  So writing software code is a technological pursuit.  ?  (2) Is doing math like building a machine?  Yes it is.  (3) Is doing philosophy like building a machine?  Yes, somewhat.  (4) How about the arts?  Is creating art like building a machine?  No, not really.  (1/4/2002).     PART TWO.  To what degree are software code, mathematics, logic, philosophy, science and art like machines?  That depends how we define the term "machine".  Machine defined as:  (1) Parts fit.  (2) Standardized parts.  Reusable modules.  (3) Inexorable logic drives it.  Cause and effect processes.  (4) Each function does one thing.  No ambiguity.  No variation.  (5) No creativity.  No intelligence.  Robotic.  Algorithmic.	1/10/2002

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  In the future there will be at least two you's.  The real you and the virtual you that resides in cyberspace.  The virtual you will be the you that has a choice of being born.  And the virtual you will be the you that has a choice of living forever.	10/19/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Knowledge technology is best.  Science technology is good.  Manufacturing technology is okay.  War technology is bad.	02/28/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Morph society.  (1) Once, hundreds of years ago, we lived in a society where the physical object was a rare and precious object.  Then we entered the industrial age and mass production made physical objects widely available at a low cost.  In the future, we will have improved control over matter and objects at the physical level and at the design level.  The primary objective of such a future society is sustainability in the form of a healthy, ecologically diverse and balanced environment.  We will acheive conservation of resources and reduction of pollution.  Potential positive side effects of having improved control of the physical level include lower prices; greater supply; less conflict over scarce resources; less poverty; less deprivation; less waste; greater efficiency; more health, happiness, democracy, peace, justice, etc.  (2) Post 1950, the rise of the "disposable product" society was merely a step toward the rise of the "recyclable product" society.  The "recyclable product" society is merely a step toward the "morph product" society, in which anything can turn into anything else.  In a "morph product" society there are no fixed, static things.  There is only fluid stuff that can take any form.  (3) There are analogies to this idea in the arts.  (A) Books have evolved from written manuscripts to printed books to digital books.  (B) Paintings have evolved from physical paintings to printed reproductions to digital art.  (C) Movies have evolved from theater to film movies to digital movies.  (D) Music has evolved from musical performances to records to digital music.	7/18/2000

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Once something is thought of it needs to be made.  Once it is made it changes our perception of the world, and our perception of what we can accomplish, and thus it changes the goals we set.	1/30/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Technology and ecology.  (1) What percentage of the population are luddites?  What percentage of the population are bleak future, armageddon, no hopers?  What percentage are ecologically clueless?  What percentage are ecology haters?  (2) Here is an argument against the luddites.  The good ideas we have learned about organic farming ("natural") we have learned in part through good scientific research and technological application.  From discovering things like the nitrogen cycle, etc.  High tech does not mean unhealthy.  Advanced scientific and technological knowledge does not mean a high tech solution will always be applied.  (3) Technological growth and development.  (A) How static and conservative a society is vs. how dynamic and pro-change they are.  The above is an argument against conservative traditional views.  (B) How competitive the society is, and whether this is due to the presence of a free market.  This is an argument for capitalism.	03/01/1997

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Technology assessment.  The sum of economic costs, environmental costs, and psychological/sociological costs as compared to the sum of economic benefits, environmental benefits, and psychological/sociological benefits.	10/3/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Technology has improved the human condition greatly in terms of knowledge and education, and physical and psychological health.  Sustainable technology will be even better.  There have been unintentional mistakes, evil abuses, and careless excesses of technology, but more people have been helped than hurt by technology.  War is bad, but overall mortality is down due to technology.  Technology helps bring civilization, freedom, equality, and justice.	02/28/1998

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  The essence of the engineer, mechanic, techie, tool man, car guy, technological man.  Know your machine so well that it becomes a person for you.  So it breathes for you.  Know how it works, know its parts and how they interact.  Know it so well that you can tell its health by the noises it makes.  Know its symptoms of distress.  Know how to fix it when it breaks.  Care for your machine (maintenance).  Know your machines limits, and do not ask it to do more than it can.	03/08/1997

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  The human-machine relationship can be difficult because we expect humanity in our relationships.  Two ways people deal with the difficulties of the human-machine interaction.  (1) Humanize the machine.  Treat the machine like a person.  It becomes a human-human relationship.  Doing this is ok.  (2) Turn yourself into a machine: unfeeling, logical.  It becomes a machine-machine relationship.  Doing this is bad because you lose your humanity, and then have trouble dealing with other humans, and also make poor decisions about technology issues that affect the masses.  (3) Perhaps the best thing to do is realize that the human-machine relationship can be inherently difficult, recognize it for what it is, and leave it as such.	03/08/1997

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Three phenomena of technology:  (1) Technology as an extension of the self.  (2) Technology as an increase in our power, freedom and responsibility.  (3) Embedding technology in the human body.  PART ONE.  Technology as an extension of the self.  Intuitive technologies are indistinguishable from the self.  Technology, when it is easy to use, often feels like an extension of the self.  For example, when we look through a telescope it feels like our eyes have become more powerful.  This is technology enabling us to do what we can already do, only better.  (2) What's more, when we use a technology that gives us a power which we normally do not possess, we become a different being, and that is a difference of kind not just of degree.  For example when we use a telescope that lets us see X-ray radiation rather than visible light, we begin to see in a way that we never had before.    PART TWO.  Technology as an increase in power, freedom and responsibility.  When we use technology we increase our power, freedom and responsibility.  Do we, or can we even, ever use technology to decrease our power, freedom and responsibility?  Do oppressive regimes do so?     PART THREE.  When we embed technologies in the human body it becomes a different situation from that of humans using tools located outside the human body.  When we embed technology inside the human body we become a new type of human being.  For example, artificial hearts, cochlear implants for a hearing, artificial eyes, etc., are all cases where the technology is embedded in the human body.  PART FOUR.  The above phenomena are all issues in what could be called the metaphysics or ontology of technology.     PART FIVE.  When we talk about embedding technology in the body, some traditional people would argue against it.  However, many of the so-called "handicapped" people would argue for it.  The politically correct term for "handicapped" is "differently-abled" and I think it is a better term because in the future when more and more people decide to embed technology in their bodies in order to increase their abilities, we will have an even greater spectrum of "differently-abled" people.     PART SIX.  Two issues: (1)  Using technology to increase our physical abilities verses using technology to increase our mental abilities.  (2)  Maintaining the ability to "turn off" or "take-off" the technology, versus full-time, 24 x 7, perhaps irreversibly permanent, additions of technology to the body.     PART SEVEN.  A person who can, with the aid of technology, see farther and run faster is a difference of degree.   A person who can, with the aid of technology, fly through the air and breathe underwater is a difference of kind.	1/4/2002

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  Two phenomena of technology.  (1) Unintended consequences.  Negative side effects.  (2) Unforeseen applications.  New uses that were never imagined.  Positive side effects.	11/9/2004

Technology, philosophy of.	Metaphysics of technology.  When we make a "new thing" we add to the metaphysical complexity of the world.  Technology and the arts are about making things that never existed before; new things.	11/9/2004

Technology, philosophy of.	PART ONE. Technological determinism.  (1) Technology makes possible the economic system.  For example, it is difficult to have efficient markets on a large scale if there is no communication technology.  (2) Technology makes possible the political system.  For example, it is difficult to have democracy on a large scale if there is no communication technology.     PART TWO.  The opposite view of technological determinism is that technology does not determine the structure of society.  (1) Perhaps things other than technology determine what happens in the world, for example, economic determinism, political determinism, or historical determinism.  (2) Yet another view is that perhaps nothing determines the shape of society.  Perhaps no individual factor necessarily determines how a person or a society lives.  That view can be called "anti-determinism".	5/22/2007

Technology, philosophy of.	Philosophical perspectives to analyze technology.  Marxist, existential, analytic, linguistic, deconstruction.  Technology and metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetic (form follows function)?	07/14/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Philosophy of technology.  (1) Metaphysics and technology: definitions of technology.  (2) Technology and epistemology: development of epistemological knowledge due to technology.  Technology aids development of science, and science aids development of technology.  (3) Technology and ethics: Arms race, technological development at any cost?  Technology as a means vs. ends.  (4) Technology and aesthetics: New technology produces new art.  Some people think technology ugly, others think it beautiful.  Function over form completely leads to ugliness.	02/01/1994

Technology, philosophy of.	Philosophy of technology.  Ethics of technology choices (ways use technology) vs. metaphysics of technology (what is technology).	05/30/1993

Technology, philosophy of.	Philosophy of technology.  If philosophers spent as much time thinking about technology as they do thinking about art the world would be better off.	08/24/1994

Technology, philosophy of.	Philosophy of technology.  Should focus on (1) The power of technology.  Technology increases man's powers.  We measure the power of technology using terms like horsepower, manpower, etc.  (2) Technology and the environment.  (3) Technology as promoting or hindering freedom, equality and justice.	8/15/1999

Technology, philosophy of.	Technologies that pose a challenge to the philosophy of technology, whether those challenges be in the area of ethics or metaphysics.  (1) Nuclear technology.  Nuclear weapons can destroy the earth.  Nuclear power waste products remain radioactive for a very long time.  (2) Genetic engineering.  Genetically modified humans.  Genetically modified plants and animals other than humans.  (3) Nanotechnology.  Too small to see with naked eye.  (5) Artificial intelligence.  Do we give rights to a computer than has the same cognitive capacities as humans?  Can a human become smarter than humans?  (6) Artificial life.  Self replicating machines can run amok.	5/23/2005

Technology, privacy.	.Introduction or sum up.  (1) Types of privacy:  Private property.  Private time.  Private space.  Private conversations.  Private thoughts.  (2) Problems of privacy:  Invasion of privacy.  Loss of privacy to government, to corporations, to paparazzi, to stalkers, to the public, to employers.  (3) Related subjects:  Ethical dimensions of privacy.  Legal dimensions of privacy.  Technological dimensions of privacy.  Psychological dimensions of privacy.  Sociological dimensions of privacy.	6/5/2004

Technology, privacy.	.Introduction or sum up.  PART ONE.  When surveillance technology becomes easier to obtain, there is an increase in the ways and amounts of surveillance, and an increase in the abuse of surveillance technology.  PART TWO.  Types of invasion of privacy.  (1) Location: (A) Public places.  (B) Work place.  (C) Home.  (2) Media:  (A) Telephone.  (B) Computers and Internet.  (C) Visual.  Cameras.  (D) Audio.  Microphones.  (3) Those surveiling:  Any person.  (A) Individuals.  (B) Corporations.  (C) Governments.  (4) Those being surveilled:  (A) Any person.	12/15/2004

Technology, privacy.	.This section is about privacy.	1/24/2006

Technology, privacy.	(1)  In the past there were a few corporate and government computers with a few talented hackers trying to compromise them.  (2) Today there are many home pc's with many script kiddy crackers compromising them.	11/8/2003

Technology, privacy.	(1) Cams are ubiquitous (ex. wireless video cams).  (2) Listening devices are inexpensive and easily available (ex. parabolic mics).  (3) Thus, audio/video surveillance is increasingly common.     PART TWO.  Some surveil.  Some surveil and interfere.  Some surveil, interfere and do damage.  One needs to be aware of the nefarious.	8/20/2004

Technology, privacy.	(1) Cams are ubiquitous.  Even on cellphones.  (2) Parabolic mics are being sold as children's toys.  (3) Everybody's watching and listening to everyone else.  Voyeurs and gossips.	8/25/2004

Technology, privacy.	(1) Communication networks exist.  (2) Communication networks are being hacked/cracked by a variety of individuals and groups, not only the government.  (3) These networks include the telephone networks, cable networks, Internet networks, wireless networks.  (4) Some of the activity is benign, some is malicious.  Some of the activity is official, some is unofficial.  Some of the people are profiteers, some are ideologically motivated.	1/10/2004

Technology, privacy.	(1) Email is becoming less private, as this years business scandals alert us.  (2) Surfing habits are becoming less private, as many Internet pop-up ads alert us.  (3) Personal data on pc's connected to the Internet is becoming less private, as an endless succession of operating system patches indicates.	12/15/2002

Technology, privacy.	(1) Invasion of privacy is often used as a means to coerce people into silence and conformity.  (2) Invasion of privacy today is technically easy and economically affordable so much so that most invasion of privacy is being done by public citizens against public citizens, rather than by the government against public citizens.  (3) The US government has some legal regulations limiting the extent to which the US government can invade the privacy of public citizens.  But private individuals and groups have much fewer explicit limitations on invading the privacy of other individuals, and therefore are more likely to attempt to blackmail, coerce or otherwise abuse privacy.	4/16/2004

Technology, privacy.	(1) Its a false claim that hacker/crackers only go after corporation's computers and not individual's computers because individual's computers don't have anything that hacker/crackers want.  (2) What's true is that increasingly people are putting much of their personal information, such as photos, music and text, onto computers that are connected to the Internet.  Hacker/crackers want to obtain and exploit any information they can.	1/4/2004

Technology, privacy.	(1) Technology and privacy.  (A) Technologies that increase privacy.  Locks and vaults.  Encryption.  (B) Technologies that decrease privacy.  Surveillance technologies.  (2) Politics and privacy.  Four situations.  (A) Individual choosing to increase privacy.  I.e., having the right to increase privacy.  For example, copyrighting your work.  (B) Individual choosing to decrease privacy.  I.e., having the right to decrease privacy.  For example, releasing your work under an open source license.  (C) Individual forced to increase privacy.  For example, things you cannot do in public, like having sex.  (D) Individual forced to decrease privacy.  For example, when the police have a search warrant for your home.	10/9/2005

Technology, privacy.	Another example, Computer viruses that automatically forward the contents of your mailbox to strangers.	1/26/2003

Technology, privacy.	Anything on a network can be hacked.  Example, wired phones can be hacked into and listened to.	10/12/2003

Technology, privacy.	As the tools of invasion of privacy becomes cheaper and easier to use, more people will have their privacy invaded.	10/7/2003

Technology, privacy.	Best Buy asks for my phone number whenever I buy at their store.  Another store asks for my last name whenever I make a purchase.  Are we going on a date?  Am I dating the corporations now?  If not, then why do they ask me for my name and number?  Do the corporations want to get in your wallet, in your head, or in your pants?	10/5/2006

Technology, privacy.	Beware self appointed monitors out to "protect" the Internet, who say they are doing good, but who use it as an excuse to hack people's computers and computer connections and thus invade people's privacy.	10/28/2003

Technology, privacy.	Camera trends.  (1) Cameras in public places.  (2) Cameras in work places.  (3) Cameras in home places.  (3) Pop up ads for X10 cameras.  Ex. Nanny cams.  Security cams.  (5) Cellphone cams.  (6) Unannounced cams.  (7) Invasion of privacy cams.	11/7/2002

Technology, privacy.	Cameras almost everywhere.  Cameras in cellphones.  Cameras in cars.  Cameras in laptops and pda's.	8/4/2004

Technology, privacy.	Computer software patches have been released on a weekly basis for as long as computer software has been around.  The only conclusion is that computer operating systems and the Internet are not secure.	1/3/2003

Technology, privacy.	Coworkers hacking each other's work and home computers for competitive advantage.  A sad state of affairs.  Very difficult for the average computer user to detect.  Reading emails.  Watching when you surf.  Watching your keystrokes.  Copying your files.  Altering or destroying data.  Very easy to do.  They hack each other at work and also Internet connections at home.	8/20/2002

Technology, privacy.	Databases are automatically collecting data about individual web surfing habits, online shopping habits, etc.	4/15/2005

Technology, privacy.	Due to the ease and availability of technology, it is no longer only the government who invades privacy.  It is also entities in the corporate and private sectors who will invade your privacy.	9/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	Eavesdropping and hacking has become so cheap and easy and undetectably small that it has become a sport done for fun and competition, except that it is done on unwitting victims.  Anyplace can be bugged and cammed, including your home.  Any computer can be hacked, including your computer.  The endgame is that all places that can be compromised will be compromised.  It will be automated, for example, voice activated mics and motion activated cams.  It will be digitized and stored, to be used against you at a later date.  Or it will be put on the Internet for all to see, or for someone to pay for.  At first it will be used by private investigators and spies.  Then it will be a teenage prank.  Then it will be an unavoidable annoyance like mosquitoes.	8/15/2002

Technology, privacy.	Ethics and privacy.  (1) In order to monitor and manage the earth, and in order to monitor and manage the people who pollute the earth, there will be a certain degree of lack of privacy and lack of freedom.  (2) In this life there is no 100% privacy for all acts, just as there is no 100% freedom to commit all acts.  You are not free to destroy other people or destroy the earth.  (3) 100% privacy = 100% secrecy = 100% freedom, and that is a wrong state to have.  (4) Types of privacy.  (A) Privacy of thought.  (B) Privacy of action (i.e. secrecy).  (C) Privacy of stuff (i.e. private property).	4/22/1999

Technology, privacy.	Ethics and privacy.  Many view a lack of privacy as a lack of freedom.  In a hypothetical world, (1) How you spent every minute of every day of your life would be public knowledge.  (2) Every view you hold would be public knowledge.  (3) But others would be powerless to act against you.  Perhaps because your views would be public but anonymous.  (4) People would have to account for their time, actions and views.  People would have to defend their time spent, actions performed, and views held.  (5) Your abilities would be public knowledge.  Your situation would be public knowledge.  Your history would be public knowledge.	3/1/1999

Technology, privacy.	Ethics and privacy.  When there is no privacy all your actions will be recorded.  Anyone will be able to look up any of your past actions on the Internet.  Will this create more or less crime?  Will others try to influence and control your behavior or curtail your freedom?  Will people go nuts?	9/15/1998

Technology, privacy.	Ethics and privacy.  When we start to require or force all people to wear a camera so that we can track where they go, then things will get weird.  Too little individual freedom, too much social control.	10/1/1998

Technology, privacy.	Every diary eventually gets read.  So don't write while thinking that you have total privacy.  Every house will be broken into eventually and diaries read.	10/20/2002

Technology, privacy.	Everyone should have two computers, a private offline computer for personal data and a public online computer to connect to the Internet.  Why?  Because there is no privacy online.	11/12/2003

Technology, privacy.	Examples of invasion of privacy at home and work.  1) Home.  Many cordless phones and cell phones are subject to interception.  (2) Work.  Many employers monitor and record employee phone calls in customer service settings.	1/3/2003

Technology, privacy.	Fame for everyone today.  (1) Invasion of privacy.  Lack of privacy.  (2) Public postings on the Internet.  Web pages of individuals.  Newsgroups.  Chat rooms.  (3) Heading towards everyone knowing everything about everyone else.  (4) The result is everyone is famous but not rich.  The bad side of fame include rumor, gossip, paparazzi, stalking, etc.	12/2/2003

Technology, privacy.	Fame vs. privacy.  For example, when you tell someone that your journal is on the Internet, you don't become famous but you do have a lack of anonymity or a lack of privacy, even if you gain communicative ability.	12/17/2002

Technology, privacy.	Fame.  If a central component of fame is a lack of privacy then its not so much Warhol's idea that, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes".  Rather, its that everyone will be famous their entire lives.	9/28/2003

Technology, privacy.	Fame.  In a world of digital web cams there are many more paparazzi and almost everyone is a star.  Don't be surprised to see your name in lights.	4/10/2003

Technology, privacy.	Fame.  There is a difference between Hollywood fame where we recognize the face and name yet don't know what they are thinking, versus those who make their thoughts known.  It is easier to object to thoughts than faces.  Those who take a stand on issues are those who express their thoughts.  Most people who take a stand do so on single issues.  There is a difference between single issue view holders versus those who take a stand on many issues.  Single issues form groups.  Multiple issues are less cohesive.	12/17/2002

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/cracker.  Its a pathological power trip that makes the hacker/cracker feel better by believing he is smarter than his target.	10/5/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/cracker.  Many who claim to be "protecting" the Internet are only intent on harassing their ideological opponents.  They try to scare people off the Internet anyway they can.	12/18/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/cracker.  The hacker/cracker is a spy who wants to invade your privacy, not only to get information about you, but more importantly, to make you feel violated, insecure and anxious.	12/23/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers are about invasion of privacy.  Hacker/crackers are not innocuous.  Hacker/crackers often harass, coerce and terrorize.	11/16/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers want any information that they can get their hands on.  Not just corporate information.  Because information is power, and hacking/cracking is a form of power addiction and power abuse.	1/7/2004

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers, three lame excuses of.  (1) If you still have your data then how can it be stealing to take a copy of it?  (2) If you don't know the hacking is occurring then how is it invasion of privacy?  (3) If you are not doing anything wrong then you won't mind being monitored?  (4) These excuses don't hold water.     PART TWO.  Hackers think they are smart because they can harass and exploit people without being traced.  Its not smart, its merely clever.  Its often malicious.  Its often done in the name of "practical joking".  Its often bullying.  Its peeping toms.  Its voyeurism.  Its an attempt to exercise inordinate power and control.	11/16/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers.  Internet hacker/crackers are the virtual equivalent of peeping toms and second-story burglars.	10/8/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers.  On the ludicrous pretext that they are protecting the Internet, they don't announce their presence.  Rather, they stock the Internet with blind alleys and then wait for you to walk up them.  Its entrapment and blackmail.  Done in the hypocritical name of doing good.	9/14/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers.  Rather than call them hackers or crackers, which are terms with ambiguous meanings that most people are not familiar with, why not call them spies and burglars, which are terms that most people understand the meanings of.	9/16/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacker/crackers.  Some hackers are ethical hackers.  Some hackers are unethical hackers.  Some hackers are unethical hackers trying to pose as ethical hackers.  These hackers claim to be monitoring the network for evil but actually intend to harass, threaten and intimidate other people.	8/18/2002

Technology, privacy.	Hacking/cracking computers has become a trivial exercise requiring little skill.	10/27/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacking/cracking does not only occur on the PC side.  Hacking also occurs on the network itself and also on the server side.  The network itself is sniffed.  The server side is hacked (for example, ISP web logs).  (2) Other networks that can be hacked or surveiled by anyone who has the technology: cell phones, cordless phones, email, cams and bugs, spooks, etc.	7/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	Hacking/cracking is a form of technological bullying.	1/3/2004

Technology, privacy.	Hacking/cracking when used to harass other people is a form of technological bullying.  They are messing with you because they know how and you don't.  They often try to excuse it by falsely calling it justice or smarts, but it is only abuse of technological power.	1/4/2004

Technology, privacy.	Hacking/cracking, or malicious hacking, is a form of terrorism.  When people decide not to go on the Internet because of malicious hacking then the terrorists, bullies and spies are influencing society.	12/30/2003

Technology, privacy.	Human vacuum cleaners gathering dirt.	10/14/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the near future every web site you visit is public information.  Everything you type or email is public information.	9/30/2002

Technology, privacy.	In the near future everyone will be hacked and tracked by so many people that one's life will become a public show.	4/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the near future you will be able to look at someone, identify who they are via face recognition software, and then lookup their entire past from a public database. In this way we will have achieved the power to see the past, but we will not yet have the power to see the future.	9/26/2002

Technology, privacy.	In the news: Loverspy, a company that let's suspicious lovers spy on their partners by sending an e-greeting card that contains a hidden program that records and transmits computer activity across the Internet.  This type of technology will let anyone spy on anyone.	10/5/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the not too distant future, almost every networked computer will be compromised by almost everyone.  Almost all the data on those computers will be viewable by almost everyone.	5/3/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the not too distant future.  (1) (Almost) every computer will be hacked.  (2) (Almost) all the data on those computers will be available to (almost) everyone else.	6/4/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the not too distant future.  Cams and bugs will be (almost) everywhere.  (Almost) everyone will be cammed and bugged 24x7.  A police state situation, except not limited only to the police.  Why say it?  Because it is difficult to conceive it.	6/4/2003

Technology, privacy.	In the past, the gathering of information was labor intensive and expensive, and it was mostly the rich and powerful who were able to gather information on a few activities of a few people.  Today, due to technology advances, information gathering is much easier, quicker and less expensive, and information gathering can be done by anyone about any of the activities of any person.	11/27/2003

Technology, privacy.	Info-shock.  I use the term "info-shock" to refer to the psychological trauma that can occur when one realizes one's personal information has been, is, or will be public knowledge or for sale.	11/27/2003

Technology, privacy.	Info-shock.  Info-shock is the trauma when you realize your information or data (ex. text, photos, movies, music) has been lost (ex. lost laptop), destroyed in fire or flood, stolen (ex. robbery), hacked - invasion of privacy (ex. diary read), or plagiarized.	12/2/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy via phones.  Phone tapping and cellular phone scanning. Its becoming easier and more people are doing it.  Why?  They think its fun and entertaining.  They mistakenly think its just, right and good.  They want to use it as a weapon.	12/2/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy via wireless mics and cams.  Its becoming cheaper, easier and more people are doing it besides the government.  Why?  They think its fun and entertaining.  They think its just, right and good.  They use it as a weapon, to terrorize.  They mistakenly think that if its not illegal then its not unethical.	12/2/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy, spying, snooping, eavesdropping, etc.  Invasion of privacy has become inexpensive, easy to do, and difficult to detect.  It is often combined with gossip, harassment and threat.  Unfortunately, some people consider it fun and it is becoming a form of recreation and entertainment.  Technology makes widespread spying possible.  Commercial television, in its hunger for audiences, promotes it.  It is becoming socially condoned or at least tolerated.  It is actually vicious bullying and creates an oppressed, stressed people like in KGB Russia.	11/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy.  Excuses hackers/crackers use for snooping your computer, email and websurfing.  "We are trying to protect the Internet".  This is not a valid reason.  Just like the desire to protect does not justify peeping toms.  (2) Even if its technologically possible to snoop, and even if the chance of getting caught is low, and even if there is no law against it, hacking/cracking is still unethical.	11/8/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy.  The hacker/cracker is all about invasion of privacy.  He wants to get inside your computer.  He wants to mess with your head.  He wants you to feel that there is nothing that you can do online that he can't see.  Web surfing, email, or hard drive, he wants you to feel loss of control and loss of freedom, fear and anxiety, depression and anger. Hacker/crackers claim to be keeping corporations honest.  Hacker/crackers claim to be promoting security.  But increasingly hacking is being used to harass everyday individuals.  Hacking/cracking is a form of anonymous online bullying.  The hacker/cracker initially wants you to have no clue you are being hacked.  Then the hacker/cracker wants you to slowly realize you are being hacked.  The hacker/cracker wants to induce terror.	11/6/2003

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of privacy.  Types of spying.  (1) Visual.  Visual assisted with cameras.  Visual assisted with heat sensor cameras.  (2) Audio.  Audio assisted with tape recordings.  Audio assisted with parabolic microphones.  (3) Network spying.  (A) Wired networks:  Computer networks like the Internet.  Phone networks.  Cable television networks.  (B) Wireless networks.	3/7/2004

Technology, privacy.	Invasion of the privacy of everyone, by everyone, on the pretext of catching a few individuals inevitably leads to the harassment, coercion and intimidation of innocent everyday citizens.	11/15/2003

Technology, privacy.	Is there is a big difference between the typical, average, anonymous, private, citizen and those who are public citizens?	12/17/2002

Technology, privacy.	Life in the not so distant future.  Every move you make, every word you say, is being recorded.  That information is available to anyone.  Without your knowledge and without any recourse on your part.  The illusion of privacy is maintained because it keeps people working.  The people are in denial because they don't want to believe what their lives have become.	5/29/2003

Technology, privacy.	Now that its technologically easier for people to spy, spying is attracting people who like to spy, people who think its their right to spy, and people who think its their duty to spy.	2/28/2004

Technology, privacy.	Pakwould's maxim: Every private diary will eventually be read and published online against the authors wishes.	10/14/2003

Technology, privacy.	Privacy and the evolution of web cam systems.  (1) First there were large, obvious cameras.  Expensive and thus few in number, owned mostly by the government.  Stand-alone cameras, not networked.  Wired cameras, not wireless.  Human monitored, not recorded.  (2)  Then small, inobvious cameras, not easily detectable.  Low cost, and thus many in number, ubiquitous, owned by just about anyone.  Cameras networked together.  Wireless technology enables wireless networks.  Constant 24x7 recording.  Unlimited searchable storage.  Audio as well as video recording.  (3) In the near future:  Face recognition software with "search" capability.  Search the network to find where a person is at any moment.  Search the storage to find what the person has done that day, week, month or year.     PART TWO.  One can hypothesize that the evolution of listening devices will follow the same path as the evolution of cams, and will be combined with cams to provide audio/video surveillance.	12/8/2003

Technology, privacy.	Privacy as a technological issue (locks vs. cameras).  (2) Privacy as a political issue (total freedom vs. limited freedom).  (3) Privacy as an economic issue (Private property.  Capitalism vs. communism).  (4) Privacy as a psychological issue (when they start reading minds and controlling thoughts beware).	5/2/2002

Technology, privacy.	Privacy endgame, in the not so distant future, every device (pc, phone, toaster) hacked by everybody.	10/7/2003

Technology, privacy.	Privacy is a phenomena where the ideal amount is a balance, because 100% privacy is bad and 0% privacy is bad.  Thus, unethical and illegal transgressions of privacy rights can occur in two directions, too much privacy and too little privacy.  For example: (1) Invasion of privacy.  (2) Denying requests under the freedom of information act.	10/9/2005

Technology, privacy.	Privacy is a social phenomenon in that at least two people are involved.  During invasion of privacy those two people are a voyeur and a victim  During non-invasion of privacy those two people are a non-voyeur person and a person with privacy.  Yet privacy is essentially a psychological condition in that it is an individual who either has privacy or not.     PART TWO.  Types of privacy.  Private time.  Private space.  Privacy of thought.  Privacy of word.  Privacy of action.  Private property.     PART THREE.  The philosophy of privacy.  (1) The ethics of privacy.  (2) The epistemology of privacy.  Privacy is about others not knowing.  Privacy is a type of secrecy.  Privacy vs. a forced open society.  (3) The metaphysics of privacy.     PART FOUR.  Privacy and economics.  Capitalism and private property.     PART FIVE.  Privacy as anonymity.  Anonymous speech as a type of free speech.	8/18/2002

Technology, privacy.	Privacy principles.  (1) You would be surprised how interested some people are in your life, even if its just to gossip about you or to mock you.  (Why would it surprise you?  Because most people are decent).  (2)  You would be surprised how easy it is for people to obtain information about you.	10/14/2003

Technology, privacy.	Privacy used to be primarily a political issue because it was mainly the government who could set its boundaries.  Today, privacy has become primarily a technological issues because the tools to invade privacy (audio bugs, video cams, computer hacking, etc.) are numerous, inexpensive and easily available to everyone.  Today the situation is unfair because only a few know this fact and they exploit it to their advantage.  It will only be fair when everyone knows this fact.	8/20/2002

Technology, privacy.	Privacy.  (1) Historical development of the notions of privacy, private space, private time, and private (personal) property.  (2) How much personal space does a person need to live?  And how much public space does a person need to live?  (3) How much indoor time and space does a person need to live, and how much outdoor time and space?	6/26/1998

Technology, privacy.	Privacy.  (1) Privacy as a political issue.  Privacy as related to freedom.  (2) Privacy as a technological issue.  (A) Tools to ensure privacy: locks, codes, privacy laws.  (B) Tools to deny privacy: bolt cutters, code breaking, laws for openness.	5/1/2002

Technology, privacy.	Privacy.  How much private space, private time and private property do people deserve.  None?  All?  Somewhere in between?	11/15/2001

Technology, privacy.	Privacy.  PART ONE.  Privacy defined as a form of freedom.  Society does no tolerate 100% freedom, so society does not tolerate 100% privacy.     PART TWO. Private property.  There is something about private property, about capitalism, about privacy in general, that smacks of domination, control and patrimony.  Ownership smacks of chauvinism and hegemony.  Its a guy thing, in the worst sense.  A macho thing, to try to unethically exert power over another.     PART THREE. Attitudes about private property that can be problematic:  Its mine.  I own it.  I can do whatever I want with it.  I can do whatever I want to it.   PART FOUR.  Four types of privacy.  (1) Private property: to own.  (2) Private time: to be left alone for.  (3) Private space: to be left alone in.  (4) Private information: about your condition.     PART FOUR.  More questions.  (1) What is the opposite of privacy?  Openness?  Public-ness?  (2) Will privacy be possible in the future, when monitors are everywhere, when all will be revealed?	5/4/2002

Technology, privacy.	Privacy.  What if everyone knew everything about you, including where you are, what you are doing, your entire history, everywhere you worked, everyone you ever talked to and what was said.  What kind of world would that be, with no privacy?  If there ever comes a time when technology lets us read minds and control thoughts then the tinfoil-hat-wearing paranoids will be vindicated.	6/17/2001

Technology, privacy.	Privately owned video recorders have been a big boost for justice.  It is not, "Big brother is watching you", it is, "Little brother is watching you".	12/01/1994

Technology, privacy.	Reality spycam television.  Culture of spies.  Deceit.  Lies and secrets.  (2) Culture of hyenas.  Malicious mocking without improving.  (3) Culture of spy victims.  Paranoia.  Non-thinking, non-speaking, non-writing.  (4) Culture of practical jokes.  Cruelty.  Malicious.  Sophmoronic humor.  (5) This is the worst side of technology.	4/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	Reasons why lame individuals want to steal your private data.  Some lame individuals will try to hack your pc.  Some lame individuals will use your Internet connection to try to grab the contents of your hard drive.  Some lame individuals will try to gain physical access to your computer to grab the contents of your hard drive.  Why?  (1) For political ammunition.  To try to publically embarrass and humiliate you, to discredit you.  To try to get you to take your website down, through blackmail.  ( ) To try to make you feel like your privacy has been invaded.  ( ) They try to use the excuse of war to try to justify doing whatever they want to do.  ( ) To try to dig up some dirt to try to have you arrested.  ( ) They don't want you to think.  They don't want you to write.  They don't want you to publish.  So they will try to make it difficult for you.  ( ) For their own twisted personal amusement.  ( ) To feel powerful.  Just because they can.  Just to see if they can.  ( ) Because they have been enculturated to do so.  Because someone told them to.  ( ) To try to make money.  They think that the information may be worth something today or someday.  ( ) Its so easy to take data, technologically.  ( ) They have an ideological view that nothing should be private.  ( ) They think god told them to do it.  ( ) To try to accuse you of plagarism.  ( ) Any other number of twisted reasons.  ( ) Writers write, and crackers try to crack the pc's of writers.     PART TWO.  What to do?  ( ) Keep on thinking, writing and publishing.  (1) Publish early and often.  Make public and publish as much as possible.  (2) Don't write anything in your diary that you would not mind being made public.  (3) Take extra precautions with your data and computer.  ( ) Be comfortable with nakedness.  Like John Lennon and Yoko Ono comfortable being naked on their album cover.  So to, be comfortable being naked in your writing.	6/8/2006

Technology, privacy.	RFID tags.  Radio frequency identification tags.  If objects are tagged with RFID tags that the owner cannot see, then anyone with an RFID tag reader can see all the nearby objects.	10/9/2005

Technology, privacy.	Saw a television show where the army has infrared goggles that see through brick walls.  If the army has them it won't be long before the public has them.  Then what nefarious uses will they be put to?	9/20/2003

Technology, privacy.	Secrecy vs. privacy.  Some people want to keep their views to themselves to avoid being attacked for their views.	11/23/2003

Technology, privacy.	Sex videos released against people's will.  Examples, Pam Anderson, Paris Hilton.  Its possible that, in the future, due to technology reducing privacy, almost everyone will be surreptitiously filmed having sex and it will be broadcast to the world against their will.	8/4/2004

Technology, privacy.	Since all diaries are eventually read by all, you are not so much writing a diary as an autobiography.	11/7/2002

Technology, privacy.	Sleazy tactics.  (1) Creation of the illusion of privacy.  Not telling people when they are being surveilled.  Denying that you are surveilling when people ask.  Telling people that everything is fine.  Spinning comforting illusions to create a false sense of security in people.  (2) Revealing to people that they have been surveilled all along, and that their every word and action has been recorded for years.  (3) Threatening to go public.  Threatening to release information about the person to the press or the masses.  And using that threat to try to gain a measure of control over the person.  (4) For example:  People who are famous experience steps 2 and 3.  The paparazzi invades their privacy.  The paparazzi then make public the invasion of privacy.  More and more people are experiencing this type of invasion of privacy.  Everyday, average people who are not famous are beginning to experience the downside of invasion of privacy without any of the upside of being famous.	1/19/2004

Technology, privacy.	Sleazy tactics.  Lulling people into a false sense of privacy.  Lulling people into a false sense of security.  Then harassing, threatening and blackmailing people.	6/10/2004

Technology, privacy.	Sneak a peek.  The US government sneaks a peek on citizens.  US citizens also sneak a peek on each other.  Everyone thinks its okay because the US is in a Bush-proclaimed never-ending war, and everyone thinks all is fair in war.  Its a sad situation.  War does not justify any and every action, otherwise there would be no concept of a just war and no concept of war crimes.	6/24/2006

Technology, privacy.	Some people feel that a complete lack of privacy will lead to increased tolerance.  Others feel that a complete lack of privacy will lead to coerced conformity.	5/14/2004

Technology, privacy.	Some people say, "There is no such thing as privacy anymore, so get over it."  That is different from saying whether there can or cannot be privacy in the future, due to the technology we create, or due to the laws we pass, if we set our mind to it.  That is also different from saying whether there should or should not be any privacy if we decide it should be that way.	1/17/2004

Technology, privacy.	Spying can be a dirty, treacherous business.	10/5/2003

Technology, privacy.	Spying, various definitions of.  Someone watching and listening, or intercepting communications on the phone or Internet.  (1) Whether you are in public or private.  (2) Whether you know it or not.  (3) With or without telling you.  (4) For example, If a company puts up a web cam on their private property and alerts the public with a sign, is that spying?	12/24/2003

Technology, privacy.	Surfing the Internet is like sitting on a park bench reading the newspaper; everyone can see what you are doing.	6/2/2004

Technology, privacy.	Technological, legal and ethical issues associated with invasion of privacy.  Just because you can spy (technologically), and just because you may spy (legally), does not mean you should spy (ethically).	3/7/2004

Technology, privacy.	The Internet is a playground for the spy and the bully to invade people's privacy and mess with people's heads.  The Internet lets the spy and the bully target a greater number of people with less chance of getting caught.	12/23/2003

Technology, privacy.	There is a common saying, "The walls have ears."  The walls have eyes now too.  How to balance the proliferation of surveillance technology with society's justified concerns, creeping anxieties and raging paranoias?	1/12/2004

Technology, privacy.	There once was a notion of talking "on the record" vs. "off the record".  Today, it seems like there is no "off the record".  It seems like everything we say or do is "on the record".	12/19/2003

Technology, privacy.	Three sets of variables.  (1) Spying on people in public places.  vs.  Spying on people in their homes.  (2) Letting people know you are spying.  I.e., telling people you are spying.  vs.  Not letting people know you are spying.  I.e., not telling people you are spying.  (3) Spying by the government on its own people.  Spying by corporations on its employees and customers.  Spying by individuals on individuals.	3/7/2004

Technology, privacy.	Two extremes.  (1) One hundred percent privacy: is it possible for anyone?  For everyone?  (2) One hundred percent lack of privacy; is it possible for anyone?  For everyone?	1/17/2004

Technology, privacy.	Two extremes.  (1) Total secrecy does not work.  (2) Total lack of privacy does not work.	1/28/2004

Technology, privacy.	Two postulates.  (1) Anyone who is anybody is subject to invasion of privacy.  (I.e., Anyone who is worthy of attention is subject to invasion of privacy).  (2) In today's world everybody is somebody.   (I.e., In today's world everyone is famous and thus subject to invasion of privacy).	10/12/2003

Technology, privacy.	Types of lack of privacy.  (1) Government invading the privacy of individuals.  (2) Business invading the privacy of individuals.  (3) Individuals invading the privacy of individuals.	12/15/2002

Technology, privacy.	What is next?  Lack of privacy of thought?  Enabled by technology.  At that point we are less individuals that a global social superorganism.	12/15/2002

Technology, privacy.	When computerized face recognition advances to the point where you can webcam someone and then search a database for their private information, at that point many self-styled psychics are going to make a lot of money because it will appear they have psychic abilities that enable them to obtain information about people, even though its just technology-aided charlatanism.  They may even get their own television shows.	8/20/2002

Technology, privacy.	When privacy is lost.  When spying becomes inexpensive, easy, undetectable and fun, then many people will become spies.  Spying can be a sleazy business.  The sleazy tactics will be (1) Gather dirt on people over a long period of time without them knowing it.  (2) Anonymously post this dirt on the public Internet to embarrass the person.  (3) Use the dirt to blackmail the person by threatening its release.  (4) Sell or swap the dirt to other people who can use the information for character assassination.  (5) Otherwise use the dirt for their own chuckles.  (6) That is an ugly world to live in.	9/28/2002

Technology, privacy.	When the technology of spying becomes inexpensive, easy and fun, America will become a nation of spies much like Stalinist Russia.  This is bad because people will live lives full of suspicion, paranoia and mistrust.  People will gather information on each other and use it to extort each other.  People will sell information about other people for malicious purposes.  In an ideal world a nation of spies would police each other and keep each other in line.  But in the actual world a nation of spies will be repressive, oppressive, unjust, malicious, etc.  People will blackmail each other.  People will frame each other.  Personal privacy, personal freedom, dissent and creativity will suffer.  It will be a McCarthyist society.  A witch hunt society.	9/15/2002

Technology, privacy.	Work place privacy issues.  At work they will cam you, monitor your calls, keystroke record your computer and screen shot your computer.	8/20/2002

Technology, privacy.	Work place privacy issues.  Phone calls recorded for training purposes.  Conversations recorded.	8/25/2004

Technology, related subjects.	.This section is about related subjects on technology.  Topics include: ( ) Economics, business and technology.  ( ) Ecology and technology.  ( ) Politics, law and technology.  ( ) Psychology and technology.  ( ) Sociology and technology.	1/24/2006

Technology, related subjects.	(1) Economics: how much does technology cost, how does cost drop with development?  (2) Technology: how good will the technology get how soon?  (3) Psychological/social: new groups forming not on proximity but on interests and values, haves vs. have nots.  (4) Political/law: patent, how hard a government supports technology development.  How much a government controls a technology.	11/15/1994

Technology, related subjects.	(1) Psychological aspects: invention, creativity.  (2) Behavior: making and using.  (3) Social: technology and culture.  (4) Metaphysics: the invented thing itself.	01/01/1993

Technology, related subjects.	Art and technology.  (1) New technology yields new forms of media, which yields new forms of art.  (2) New technology yields new views of the world, which yields new forms of art.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Art and technology.  New technologies yield new forms of art.  Examples from history include, canvas painting, celluloid movies, and computer video games.	11/9/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Business runs off of technology.  Business spreads technology by using technology.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Business.  Free market competition is a spur to invention.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Business.  Single independent inventor vs. many person big business, government, or university labs.  Who gets more done for less money?	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Do only humans make extensive use of technology?  Not animals?  Not robots?	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology and technology.  Development of an ecologically sustainable technology is important.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology and technology.  Pro-environment technologies.  Anti-environment technologies.	10/9/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology and technology.  Sustainable technologies are most important.	4/11/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology and technology.  Technology can change the environment, for better or worse.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology: how harmoniously to live with nature and why.  Reasons: pollution, aesthetics, peace of mind.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology.  How simply/complexly to live and why.  Reasons: mental health.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology.  Nature and technology (see biology).  Resource depletion, pollution, ozone depletion, green - house effect, acid rain, etc.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Ecology.  Technology vs. biology (see also ecology).  Pros and cons.  Effects of technology on ecology.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Economics and technology.  Cost of a technology to produce and use.	4/11/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Economics and technology.  Technology increases economic efficiency.  Technology changes the structure of the work system.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Economics and technology.  Technology increases economic efficiency.  Technology lets one accomplish a task in fewer person-hours.	10/9/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Economics: (1) Technology advantage yields economic advantage.  (2) Utility, quality, productivity, efficient, effective.  (3) How long a tool lasts.  (4) Advances in technology increase productivity.  (5) Government industrial policy.  (6) Business spending on research and design.  (7) Number and skill of private inventors, resources spent.  (8) How easy is it to get idea protection, physical development of idea?  (9) High tech vs. low technology.  (10) Costs and benefits of each.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Evolution of humans and technology.  Stone tools.  Civilization.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Evolutionary technology.  (1) Technological behavior in animals.  (2) Technological behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).	5/16/2005

Technology, related subjects.	History and technology.  The historian often makes new archaeological discoveries with the help of new technologies.  For example, carbon dating, the global positioning system and ground imaging technologies.	11/9/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Individual and technology.	10/9/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Individual and technology.  (1) Appropriation of technology by individual.  Use of technology by individual by free choice. vs. (2) Subjection of individual to technology against the individual's will.  Exposure of individual to technology of others, against the wishes of the individual.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Laws: promoting technology vs. prohibiting technology.  Laws to limit use of a technology vs. increase us of a technology.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Leisure: technology causes increases leisure time and increases leisure opportunities.  Is this true?	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Math: quantitative methods and technological development.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Politics and technology.  (1) Technology in democracies.  Technology used to empower people.  (2) Technology in totalitarian states.  Technology used to enslave people.	11/9/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Politics and technology.  (A) Technology can be  used for or against democracy.  Pro-democracy technologies.  Anti-democratic technologies.  (B) Laws can promote science and technology, or laws can demote science and technology.	10/9/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Politics and technology.  Good technology is technology that promotes justice, equality and liberty.  Bad technology promotes injustice, inequality, slavery, crime, torture, terrorism.	4/10/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Politics and technology.  Technology can be used for justice, equality and freedom, or technology can be used for injustice, crime, oppression and exploitation.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Politics: (1) Technological advantage yields political advantage (power).  (2) Regulation of technology by government.  (3) Promotion vs. discouragement of technology by government.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Politics.  Advances in technology require new laws for control (greater complexity in world).	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Politics.  How political groups use technology to exercise power by gaining or squelching freedoms.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Politics.  Technological advantages yield advantages in subject areas, which yield political or power advantages.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Politics.  Will a technology promote or hinder democracy?	08/14/1994

Technology, related subjects.	Psychological: (1) How free thinking and individualistic people are?  (2) Biological, psychological, social factors that form a creative person.  (3) Imagination, perseverance, curiosity, drive.  (4) Affects of technology on personality.  (5) Ideas are tools.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Psychology and technology.  (1) Perception and technology.  Technology changes our perception of the world.  Ex. telescopes and microscopes.  (2) Behavior and technology.  Technology changes our power to act on the world.  Technology increases our abilities.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Psychology and technology.  Technology changes the way you see yourself and changes the way you see the world.  Technology makes yourself seem bigger (and faster and stronger) and technology makes the world seem smaller.	11/9/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Religion and technology: technology decreases belief in god.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Religion and technology.  Religion typically objects to new technologies on the grounds that it enables humans to "play god".  Objecting to new technology on the grounds that the new technology "lets humans play god" is one way how religion impedes progress and keeps people backward.  Really now, humans invented god, so why shouldn't humans play god?	11/9/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Science and technology: how development of each promotes other.  Science contributes to technology, and technology contributes to science.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Social attitudes towards change.  (1) Is change possible or not?  Man can effect change vs. only god can effect change.  (2) Is change good or not?	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Social effects of technology.  Technology changes the way we organize, and changes the way we interact, especially communication and transportation technologies.	08/25/1994

Technology, related subjects.	Social technologies:  (1) Personal social skills.  (2) Techniques for organizing a society.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Society and technology.	10/9/2005

Technology, related subjects.	Society and technology.  (1) Amount of technology in a society.  A little vs. a lot.  (2) Level of technology in a society.  High or low.  Amount of technology is not the same as level of technology.  (3) Technology changes our social practices.  Ex. telephone, Internet.	9/1/2004

Technology, related subjects.	Sociology: (1) Public opinion pro technology and anti technology.  (2) Affects of technology on social institutions.  Technology changes how we behave.  Technology changes society and culture.	12/30/1992

Technology, related subjects.	Work: technology changes how we work.	12/30/1992

Technology.	.This section is about various other thoughts on technology.  Topics include: ( ) Engineering.  ( ) Invention.  ( ) History current future.  ( ) Personal technologies.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Resources and waste  ( ) Technological development.  ( ) Types of technology.  ( ) What is technology.	1/24/2006

Technology.	(1) Abuse of technology, and how to stop it.  Make laws, monitor situation, and enforce laws.  (2) Power of technology equals the number of people effected and the degree of change to the people and their lives.  (3) A problem today is very powerful technology in individual hands.	9/15/1998

Technology.	(1) Combinations of technology.  Sometimes several technologies combine synergistically to produce new capabilities.  (2) Systems of technology.  A technology system is when several technologies are combined to perform a function.	4/3/2005

Technology.	(1) How much has technology helped humans in the entire history of the world?  How much has technology hurt humans in the entire history of the world?  (2) How much can technology help humans in the future?  How much can technology hurt humans in the future?	7/12/2001

Technology.	(1) Inventors create new technologies.  Either new to themselves, or new to us all.  (2) Everyone is a technologist.  I.e., everyone uses technology.  Everyone is a technologist in that they create or buy tools and then use them, on the job and at home, at work and at play.  Your expertise as a technologist is determined by what technologies you can find, acquire (buy) and use.  (3) You ignore the technological aspect of yourself at your peril. Some of the problems people have with their attitude toward technology include:  (A) Many people love ideas or spirit and are disdainful of material stuff.  (B) Many people love simplicity and are disdainful of complexity beyond hand tools.  (4) Ideally you want to acquire tools and techniques to accomplish useful ends, rather that just to pursue entertainment.	1/6/1999

Technology.	(1) People live in a technological environment that makes possible various forms of psychological activity and social interaction.  (2) There is no human life without some type and level of technology.  Humans are technology users.  (3) Technology shapes human life.  Technology shapes humans.  Humans make technology that shapes human life, and that shapes humans, and thus humans shape themselves.  (4) An individual can choose what types and levels of technology to use.  A person can consciously and deliberately decide what technologies to leave in and leave out of their life.  However, most of the time, most people are mostly unaware of the way technology is present in shaping their life.	1/15/2006

Technology.	(1) Psychological aspects: invention.  (2) Behavior aspects: making and using technology.  (3) Social aspects: technology and culture.  (4) Nature aspects: thing invented themselves.	01/08/1994

Technology.	(1) Sunset web site.  Twelve web cams placed every two hours to encircle the entire globe.  The web page has two windows, one for the current two hour sunset and one for the next two hour sunset.  (2) Sunrise web site.  Same idea, except with sunrises.	3/7/2000

Technology.	(1) The technology race (a political phenomenon) is the race to gain technological advantage.  (2) The technological advantage is the edge having a technology gives you, which lets you win or dominate.	12/30/1992

Technology.	(1) Who invents or creates the technology: individual, group, or government?  Resources invested in r&d program, and effectiveness and efficiency of r&d program.  (2) Who controls the technology: individual, business, or government?  How should the technology be controlled?  (3) What do we really need materially?  What would world be like if we added or took away x tool or technique?	02/07/1994

Technology.	After we make technology smaller, lighter, more efficient and ecologically sustainable, the next step is to do the same to humans.  For example, a billion humans living in a petri dish, uploading their intellectual creations to our full size world, would we call that a computer?	2/20/2002

Technology.	Analysis.  For any quantity of a technology.  What are the total effects?  (1) Environmental.  Resources used.  Pollution created in manufacturing the technology.  Garbage created after the technology is finished being used.  Impact on biosphere.  Impact on humans.  (2) Political effects.  Does the technology promote freedom, equality, justice, and peace, or does it hinder?  (3) Psychological effects.  Is it healthy for people?  (4) Social effects.  (5) Economic costs.  (6) Ethical effects.	1/30/1998

Technology.	Better to have knowledge, skills and tools than to rely on things.	6/14/2000

Technology.	Cars are like iron lungs.  If, in order to live and move, I have to own 2000 pounds of steel, I would rather die.  I think cars suck.  The necessity of owning a car is bullshit.	4/15/1998

Technology.	Choosing not to use a technology is as important a decision as choosing to use a technology.  There are many technologies that exist that we choose not to use.	11/15/2001

Technology.	Choosing what technology to use depends on situation you are in, problem you are faced with, goals you want, and the tools and resources you have.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Contra high tech: high tech makes you soft, makes you a slave instead of hard and free.	08/16/1993

Technology.	Contra high technology.  A problem with high tech is we often become dependent on it.  We forget how to use low tech methods that are often preferable because they are ingenious, cheap, effective, and useful when high tech methods are not available.  We should record everyway we know to do everything, and keep looking for better ways.  Examples of low tech are the survivalist books, handy household hints, etc., which display a certain admirable ingenuity or cleverness.  A problem people develop is that they become exclusively high tech or low tech centered.  One has to be adaptable.	08/07/1993

Technology.	Desire with skill/talent/ability vs. either desire without skill, or skill without desire.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Develop many technological alternatives.  Analyze pros and cons, costs and benefits of each.  Choose the best for changing situation.	9/15/1998

Technology.	Ecological sustainability technologies.  List of technologies that provide ecological sustainability: Green power.  Green food.  Green clothing.  Green shelter.  Green transportation.  Green communication.	5/21/2006

Technology.	Effect of x invention on individual, society, nature, total, in all 26 subject areas.  Ways and degrees it helps and hurts.  Types, degrees, and speed of change it makes.  History and future trends of the invention.	11/10/1993

Technology.	Effects of technology.  (1) Social: changes the way we organize and interact.  (2) Psychological: changes the way we think, feel, what we think about, etc.  (3) Ethics: changes our means and ends.  New goals, and new methods.  (4) Political: political changes due to changes in society and ethics.  (5) Economic: changes productivity.  Ethic changes affect economic values.	06/15/1994

Technology.	Engineering factors: cost, time, quality, waste.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering goals.  (1) Quick.  Time saving.  (2) Easy to use.  User friendly.  (3) Energy efficient.  (4) Less prone to breaking.  Robust, hardy, dependable, durable and reliable.  (5) Easy to repair.  Replaceable parts.  (6) Smaller, lighter, quieter.  (7) More ecologically sustainable.  Recyclable.  Uses less resources.  Creates less pollution.  (8) Less expensive.  Lower price.	4/17/2001

Technology.	Engineering of a tech or a product.  (1) Broad/general to specific/detailed terms.  (2) Scientific tests to pick from alternatives.  (3) Mathematical methods to analyze combos and tradeoffs.  (4) Philosophical methods to analyze ethical factors.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering, design, research and development, science of technology.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  Can the built object withstand the stress of use, and for how long?  How long will it last, how soon will it break?  How well does it work, what does it produce vs. consume?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  Design goals: practical, functional, beautiful.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  Fields of engineering.  (1) Research, development.  (2) Design: aesthetic (form) vs. functional aspects.  Design initial and final tools, techniques, and product.  (3) Construction, maintenance, and repair.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  Imagine needs, invent solution, build a model, test a model.	11/01/1994

Technology.	Engineering.  Inventing: techniques how to.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  Technology development method.  (1) Plan.  Goals to achieve.  Limits or parameters.  (2) Design (on paper).  (3) Develop (physical).  (4) Test.  (5) Pilot rollout.  (6) General rollout.  (8) Maintain.  (9) Troubleshooting and repair.	3/30/1998

Technology.	Engineering.  Tools and techniques to make the thing, to use the thing, and to repair the thing.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Engineering.  What is the state of art?  What are we trying to do, build, make, improve or accomplish?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Entertainment vs. contribution to society.  We are becoming experts at entertaining.  How much does this actually help society?  Entertainers argue that we all need a break occasionally and that they provide a useful service.  But at what point is this too much?  Eventually we become couch potatoes, lazy, soft, unproductive, hedonists.  There is a balance point, and we may have exceeded it as a society.	01/01/1993

Technology.	Environmental sustainability and information technology.  (1) Can we live without pencils and paper?  Yes, we could.  Should we live without pencils and paper?  No, we should not.  Can we make our paper more environmentally sustainable?  Yes, by making hemp paper and by recycling.  (2) Could we live without books and printing?  Yes, we could.  Should we?  No, we should not.  Can we make books and printing more sustainable?  Yes, use hemp based paper and natural inks.  (3)  Can we live without the Internet?  Yes, we could.  Should we live without the Internet?  No, we should not.  Can we make the Internet more sustainable?  Yes we can, by beginning to design a soy-based Internet.	4/25/2007

Technology.	Equipment freaks.  (1) Sometimes a piece of equipment can come between you and an experience.  Just like sometimes a thought can come between you and an experience.  (2) We are becoming a species of equipment freaks.  Seems like you can't do anything these days without carrying a bulky piece of plastic along.  And to think plastic did not exist 150 years ago.  (3) What activities require no equipment?  Walking and talking (my two favorites).  Yoga, stretching, exercise.  Eating, sleeping, fucking.  Barefoot bouldering.  Swimming, body surfing.  Meditating, thinking.  Sandcastles.  Dance.  Skip rocks.  Catch fireflies.  Chase your tail (if you have one).  Stand on your head.  Hop, skip and jump.	8/26/2000

Technology.	Five levels: dying, decaying, survival, evolving, prospering.  Levels and types of technology needed to do above in any environment.	12/30/1992

Technology.	For any technology.  (1) How many people use it, how often?  (2) Economic supply curve and demand curve.  How does it change people's uses of resources?  How many will buy it at any given price?  (3) Political: any legal restrictions?  (4) What kind of change chains (webs) does it set off?  What does it effect?  (5) How beautiful is it?  How fun is it?  Is it addictive?  (6) Does it control people's minds?  How does it change people's metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics systems?	04/01/1994

Technology.	Four big areas of technology.  Human minds and human actions.  Stuff that is natural, and stuff that is manmade.	10/15/1993

Technology.	Fun and technology.   People do not willingly do things that are not fun.  If you do not make it fun they will not do it even if it is healthy for them (ex. flossing).  If you make it fun the will do it even if it is unhealthy for them (ex. booze).	11/15/2001

Technology.	Goals.  (1) Sustainable society.  (2) Fusion.  (3) One world: political system, economic system, language and culture (optimal ethics).  (4) Bring up the third world: education.  (5) Genetically improved humans, more geniuses, less nuts and dopes.  (6) Better child raising.  (7) Less poverty, unemployment, crime, discrimination, terrorism, war, dictatorship, less religious differences (i.e. less religion).	09/01/1994

Technology.	History and technology.  The history of technology has been an increase in technology.  An increase of more power, less expensive and easier to use.	1/4/2006

Technology.	History current future.  Importance format.  How much was the technology used?  How big a change did it cause through rest of history?	12/30/1992

Technology.	History current future.  Printing.  Industrial revolution: More people.  More free time, Better educated.  Age of steel: internal combustion.  Age of plastic and transistors: computers.	09/01/1994

Technology.	History current future.  State of art, cutting edge, frontiers vs. old technologies that are still good, cheap, yet inefficient.	12/30/1992

Technology.	History current future.  Straight chronological list of earliest to latest technologies.  Date, invention, inventor.  (ex. for fire, wheel, writing, agriculture, etc.).	12/30/1992

Technology.	History current future.  Technology list by major functional areas: power, tools, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, communication, electricity, chemistry, medicine, etc.	12/30/1992

Technology.	History current future.  What does an invention do?  Why is an invention important, how much better, and why better than predecessor?  How does it work (parts and mechanisms)?  How to make it?  Effect it had on world.	12/30/1992

Technology.	History of technology.  Evolutionary vs. revolutionary developments.	12/30/1992

Technology.	How many people, where, use what technologies?	12/30/1992

Technology.	How much do we need vs. how much can we make with x resources?	12/30/1992

Technology.	How much stuff does the average American own?  How much stuff does the average American actually need?	4/17/2001

Technology.	How to (1) Research and invent, (2) Design and develop, (3) Construct or make, (4) Maintain, and (5) Repair it best.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Humans are technological animals.  Everyone is an inventor.  Everyone is a mechanic.	4/3/2005

Technology.	Hypothetical cases and futurology.  If we could invent a machine that would do such and such.  What would the effects be on individual, society, nature?	08/10/1993

Technology.	Idea for cooling the house with windows.  Have a motor that opens and closes the windows.  Attached that motor to a thermometer.  When the temperature inside the house goes above or below a certain point the window automatically closes or opens.	1/1/2002

Technology.	Ideal approach.  We want technologies that are sustainable, renewable, pollution free, politically peaceful, ethical, economically efficient, effective, and practical.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Ideal techs.  Problems with techs.  Techs for techs.	4/10/2005

Technology.	Ideal.  The ideal is technology that promotes social justice and environmental sustainability.	11/9/2004

Technology.	If you have the technology you can get something done.  If you don't you can't.	12/30/1992

Technology.	In any situation.  What tools and techniques do I need?  What does the tool and technique do?  How do I use it?  How does it work?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Individuals should have access to tools.	5/21/2005

Technology.	Invention vs. adoption.  Technological adoption is a cultural issue and it can take much longer to occur than the invention of a technology.	11/15/2001

Technology.	Invention.  (1) The pen light so that you can write in the dark.  (2) The pen fork so that you can the eat and write at the same time.  (3) A device like a pocket knife that has a pen, a fork, a light, etc.	11/30/1997

Technology.	Invention.  (1) Things that anyone could invent (think of) and make (produce).  These are usually things that exist on the scale of the person.  Or things that are made with commonly available materials.  (2) Things that only a specialist could invent and make.  These are usually things that exist on either a very small or very large scale.  Or things that are made from special materials.	4/24/1999

Technology.	Invention.  Computerized air fresheners.  One way to build a computerized air freshener is to have it automatically spray at pre-set intervals of time.  Another way to build a computerized air freshener is to have it automatically spray whenever stink molecules make contact with a sensor.  A third way is to just open a window.	2/19/2007

Technology.	Invention.  Two ideas are involved in invention.  (1) The "need or want" idea.  An individual recognizes that a need or want exists.  (2) The invention idea.  This is the solution to the need.  (3) To be a good inventor you should be good at both of the above steps.	4/24/1999

Technology.	Just as important as computers and biotech are the technologies of environmental sustainability and social justice.	6/12/2005

Technology.	Know more than one way to accomplish a task.  Know when one method is preferable to another.	1/1/2006

Technology.	Knowledge of technology vs. use of technology.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Make things that are (1) Greener.  Ecologically sustainable.  (2) Promote social justice.  (3) Healthier.  (4) Smaller.  Lighter.  (5) Less expensive.	5/22/2007

Technology.	Man is a technological animal.  Humans make things naturally.  Humans make new things naturally.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Me.  My personal technology list.  (1) Psychological: tools, techniques.  (2) Physical: tools, techniques.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Me.  Reasons for technologies, critique it, ways to improve them.  See also current and old gstr lists.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Me.  Technology and me.  (1) Development (in thought and actuality) and use.  (2) Best tools and techniques.  (3) To get best goals best.	12/30/1992

Technology.	More knowledge and more skills let you live more comfortably with less stuff.  Example, a smart woodsman can camp more comfortably without any gear than a novice can with a pack full of gear.  Therefore, knowledge and skills are critical for sustainability.	4/17/2001

Technology.	Most important idea in food, clothing, and shelter is to be ecological.	11/10/1997

Technology.	Most important idea is technologies for social justice and ecological sustainability.  Beware tools that degrade and destroy both people and the environment.  Beware tools of slavery.	10/2/1999

Technology.	Most important ideas about technology.  Green, environmentally sustainable technologies.  Technologies for social justice.	4/15/2007

Technology.	Most important ideas.  (1) Make every areas of technology more green and more sustainable.  (2) Computers seems like a hot area for the next 25 years.  Work on computer applications in all areas.  Especially the Internet.  (3) Genome seems hot.  Work on genetic applications.	11/23/2000

Technology.	Most important topics in technology are sustainable technologies and technologies for social justice.  Sustainable power, sustainable materials, sustainable tools.  Technologies that empower the masses and that promote social justice.	3/25/2007

Technology.	Now, or in the future, can technology provide all individual and societal needs?  What can't technology do?	3/9/2001

Technology.	Number of patents issued per year.  What is the rate of increase?	04/30/1994

Technology.	Optimal technology: level of advancement, amount, types.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Optimum types of technology, level of development, and quantity of technology for a population level, in an environment of any size and type.	12/30/1992

Technology.	People's needs drive technology, and technology drives business.	08/24/1994

Technology.	Personal technologies.  (1) Personal invention (technology) and personal discovery (science) are both very important.  (2) Problem solving.  (3) Resource gathering and managing.  Information gathering and managing.  Time, money, materials, tools/techniques.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Personal technologies.  Development of personal techniques, skills, and tactics.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Personal technologies.  Psychological technologies: techniques to deal with parts of mind, sub-optimal problems, pathological psychological problems.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Personal technologies.  What making, how making it, what using up, what waste producing?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Physical technology objects lead to physical technology activities, which lead to mental technology states.  For example, the physical technology object called the scythe leads to a physical activity of swinging the scythe, which leads to a mental technology state of feeling like the grim reaper.	5/23/2005

Technology.	Politics, law and technology.  (1) Which technologies to outlaw or make illegal?  Things one may not do.  (2) Which technologies to require by law. Mandatory.  Have to do.  (3) Which technologies to allow.  May do.  (4) Which technologies to not require.  Do not have to do.	1/4/2006

Technology.	Power of a technology: capacity to change things per input of resources.  Much or little, for better or worse, etc.  Power of a technology or impact of technology on situation.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Principles of technology.  (1) Know many ways of accomplishing a task.  (2) Pick the right tools and techniques for the job.  (3) Keep your tools in good condition (ex. keep saws sharp).  (4) Keep your skills in good condition through practice.  (5) Automate the process to save time and energy, by making flexible, programmable robots.  (6) Keep spare parts on hand.  (7) Know how to operate the machines.  (8) Know how to repair the machines.  (9) Know how the machine works.  (10) Make an assembly line where each worker does one task well.  (11) Produce many items to take advantage of economies of scale.	1/2/2005

Technology.	Problem of too many people (over population).  Problem of too few people.  Too few geniuses produced (planning).  Society breaks down for lack of workers (control).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Problem solving: when to use which available technology for what solution?.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Problems with technology.  (1) Unsustainable technologies.  (2) Technologies against social justice.	4/15/2005

Technology.	Problems.  (1) Lack knowledge of solution.  (2) Lack knowledge of means of solution.  (3) Lack resources for solution.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Problems.  (1) Not having knowledge of a technology.  (2) Not having tools to make a technology.  (3) Not knowing importance of a technology. (4) Not having resources to make tools.  (5) Abuse of a technology.  (6) Not knowing where to get a technology.  (7) Not knowing where to get knowledge of a technology.  (8) Not being able to get a technology.  (9) Not being able to get knowledge of a technology. (10) Impact of a technology on environment.  Costs of use.  Sub-optimal use: wrong situation, wrong time; not using it often enough, not using best technique.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Problems.  (1) Tools beyond our control.  We can not control the tool.  (2) Unforeseen, unintended negative consequences.  (3) Lack of best tools.  Sub-par tools.  (4) Abuse of the power of tools.  Abuse of nature, abuse of others, and abuse of self.	6/6/1999

Technology.	Problems.  What to avoid.  (1) Crass commercialism.  (2) Mindless consumption.  (3) Blind materialism.	10/3/1999

Technology.	Progressivism and technology.  Develop and use technology that promotes Progressivism.  Develop technology for environmental sustainability and social justice.	5/5/2007

Technology.	Resources and waste.  .See also: Philosophy, ethics, waste.  See also: Science, ecology.	12/31/2000

Technology.	Resources and waste.  (1) Resources a technology uses up: types and amounts, renewable vs. nonrenewable.  (2) Waste created: amounts, types, biodegradable vs. non-biodegradable.  (3) Effects of 1 and 2 on environment and people.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  Amounts resources are  (1) Used, utilized.  (2) Unused: left to rot, or left for future generations.  (3) Wasted, destroyed.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  Junk is useless, low quality, or mediocre ideas, processes, and products.  Types and amounts of junk we are producing.  Affects of junk on environment, social, and individual.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  Junk is waste of resources (time, energy, money, materials).  Things that are not useful (now nor never), and things that are not art.  It is all a matter of degrees.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  Materials lost in production.  Pollution made during use.  Garbage left after use.  Opportunity cost.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  One mans junk is another mans treasure.  Depends how deprived you are, and also depends on your situation.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources and waste.  Waste: average an individual, country, world produces in x time period.  Types of waste: how fast degradable/nondegradeable, how poisonous in what concentrations, to man and to environment.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Resources: time, energy, money, materials.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Scope of technology notes.  Technology notes cover specific work areas.  Work notes cover only ideas on work in general.	12/30/1996

Technology.	Side effects of technology.  (1) Before the invention of air conditioning, people drove their cars with the windows down, and talked to each other at stop lights, said hello.  Today people are hermetically sealed in their cars.  (2) Before the invention of air conditioning, people sat on their porches in the summer heat, and talked to passersby, said hello.  Today people are hermetically sealed in their houses.  (3) The invention of air conditioning, a supposedly good thing, had some bad side effects after all.  (4) For each and every technology, always check for negative side effects in all areas.	7/25/2006

Technology.	Simplicity vs. complexity.  (1) A few, small things vs. many big things.  (2) Low tech (simple) vs. high tech (complex).  (3) The two pairs are not the same.  (4) Does low tech mean few parts?  Does low tech mean natural materials?  Does high tech mean many parts?  Does high tech mean manmade materials?	4/17/2001

Technology.	Skills learnable vs. skills unlearnable.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Social justice technology.  List of technologies that provide social justice: Peace techs.  Democracy government techs.  Legal system.  Press.  Education.  Nonviolent passive resistance protest tactics.	5/21/2006

Technology.	Solutions.  How simple vs. complex.  Works well vs. works poorly.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Strategies for materials, energy and tools.  (1) Materials.  (A) Invent new materials.  (B) Invent new uses for existing materials.  (C) Use renewable, recyclable, biodegradable, natural materials.  (2) Energy.  (A) Use renewable, natural forms of energy.  (B) Make energy conversion more efficient.  (3) Tools.  (A) Use simple tools.  Use energy efficient tools.  (B) Invent new tools.	1/9/2006

Technology.	Technique and attitude.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Techno-dystopia future scenario: serving our computer overlords.  Every minute of everyday of every person is monitored and controlled by computer programs.	3/2/2006

Technology.	Technological development for individual or sociology.  Growth, stagnation, shrink.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Degree and rate.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development: buy, trade, borrow, steal, gift, invent, make.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development: gain, stagnation, or loss of (1) The making of the actual thing, the object or process.  (2) The ways to make it, the tools to make it.  (3) The knowledge of thing, the idea of the thing.  (4) The idea how to make it, the knowledge of tools, techniques.  (5) The stuff to make it, the materials.  (6) The techniques to use it.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development: think about problems and solutions.  Goals and antigoals: alternatives, pros and cons.  Strategies and tactics: alternatives, pros and cons.  Find best combos and tradeoffs.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Best method to develop a technology is the problem method.  Analyze problem, hypothesize answer, test answer, and record mistakes.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Change and development of technology.  (1) Causes of development of technology.  Factors that help and hinder development.  (2) Effects of presence, or lack of technology.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  For any technology type or level.  What tools need, and how get or make the tools.  What resources (time, energy, money, materials) need to make tools and final product.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  How to develop a technology.  What do we need?  What will help us most?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  List the ways, from general to specific, a technological development changes or influences (1) Other technologies,  (2) The rest of the world,  (3) The way we think.	07/30/1993

Technology.	Technological development.  New technology vs. old technology.  How much more and what type resources saved/spent total?  Ways to measure.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  One genius heeded is all it takes to kick ass for society.  One great idea heeded is all it takes to kick ass for individual.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Planning technology for present and future situations.  How long will it last?  How easy quick and cheap is it to change?  How will the situation change into future?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Speed it takes to develop how good a technology.  Cost it takes to develop how good a technology (cost in money and human effort).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Technology depends on what you got, what you can get, and what you can make.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Technology trains: simple tools make more complex tools.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Technology we should install, alter, or remove.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  Theories of technological development.  (1) Sociological/Psychological theories of technological development.  The society and the individuals in the society must have a positive attitude toward technological development in order for technological development to occur.  Attitudes are the most important factor.  (2) Economic theories of technological development.  (A) Capitalist version:  The more money you pay people to solve a problem, the quicker it will be solved.  (B) Socialist version:  Everyone should have access to education, technology, and the means to produce technology.  (3) Free Software / Open Source model of technological development (ex. GNU/Linux).  People are naturally creative and will often work for free or fun.  The more people you have working on a problem the faster it will be solved.  It helps to give these people both access to information and a means to communicate with each other.  The Internet provides both of these.	2/10/2001

Technology.	Technological development.  Types of technology development methods for individual or group.  Better vs. worse.  Intuitive vs. methodical.  Lone vs. group.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  What areas are developing, and how fast?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technological development.  What is the rate of change of technological development?  How fast is technological change accelerating?	7/12/2001

Technology.	Technological development.  What promotes technological advancement?  (1) Competition and reward (patents and free enterprise).  (2) Access to information.	7/14/1998

Technology.	Technological systems of a person or group.  (1) All the technologies being used.  (2) All the technologies you know about.  (3) All the technologies you are developing.	4/10/2005

Technology.	Technological variables.  (1) Environmentally friendly.  Is the technology environmentally friendly?  Made of renewable, biodegradable materials.  Uses little energy to produce and operate.  Produces little pollution to produce and operate.  Produces little pollution to dispose of after use.  (2) Social justice.  Does the technology promote social justice?  (3) Durability.  Lasts a long time.  Does not break down easily.  Reliable.  Works every time.  (4) Time.  Quick and easy to make.  Quick and easy to use.  Quick and easy to maintain.  Quick and easy to dispose of.  (5) Efficiency.  Efficiency of use.  (A) Energy efficient.  Requires little energy.  (B) Material efficient.  Requires few materials.  (C) Production efficient.  Easy to make.  Requires few steps to produce.  (5) Small size.  Light weight.  Simple, few parts.  (6) Economic costs in dollars.  Cost to produce.  Cost to operate, including maintenance costs.  Cost to dispose of.  Is the technology a good bargain?  Is it inexpensive?	1/15/2006

Technology.	Technology analogies.     PART ONE.  What is important about technology is not what it does for us but how it enables us to see ourselves and life.  Technology gives us analogies for life and for ourselves.  More advanced technologies yield more advanced analogies for life and ourselves.     (1) For example, the earliest analogies that humans used were animal analogies.  Humans would say one person is like a fox, another person is like a lion, and life is like a race between a tortoise and a hare.  (2)  With the rise of farming technologies came farm analogies such as explaining life in terms of harvests and shepherds.     (3) With the invention of machine technologies came analogies that explained humans and the world in mechanical terms.     (4) With the rise of the computer came analogies to explain people and life in computer terms.     (5) With the rise of the Internet came analogies that explain people and life in terms of a network.     PART TWO.  (1) These technology analogies do not supersede each other.  Each technology analogy does not negate or nullify the preceding analogy.  Rather, technology analogies build upon each other, layer by layer, to give ups a better and better picture of ourselves and the world.     (2) Technology analogies are a type of subconscious knowledge that pervades society.  Technology surrounds us and we come to understand technology analogies without consciously thinking about them.  We understand ourselves and life in terms of technology analogies without consciously thinking about them.     (3) Why are technology analogies so popular and pervasive?  Because technology is something you can put your hands on.  You can see and feel technology, which allows people to get a better grasp of technology than they can grasp pure ideas.  Humans may have evolved over millions of years to deal better with technology and technology analogies than they can deal with abstract ideas and formal symbolic modes of thinking.	9/3/2000

Technology.	Technology and (1) Humans: mind, body and actions.  (2) Stuff: (A) Man-made: objects.  Man-used: resources.  Man-affected: the environment.  (B) Natural: the environment.	01/01/1993

Technology.	Technology as slavery to technology vs. technology as independence from drudgery.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technology convergences.  Phone, videocam and email.  Computer, stereo, television, video games.	5/16/2004

Technology.	Technology race or technology competition.  There is always a technology race or competition.  The technology race is not only about military technology.  The technology race is in every area of technology.  Even in peace time, there is a technology race for money.	5/17/2005

Technology.	Technology skills.  (1) Imagine an invention to fill a need or accomplish a task.  (2) Invent something for real.  (3) Take something apart and rebuild it.  (4) Repair something that is broken.	5/23/2005

Technology.	Technology systems (see also pom).  Organizing tools, techniques, people, materials, and money.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technology that you personally control vs. technology that you are subjected to as part of the system, and that you have no choice but to use it.	6/8/2002

Technology.	Technology.  Knowing whether you have it or not vs. don't know you have it or not.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Technophiles.  Assumptions of the technophile.  (1) Technology will solve all human problems.  Specifically, computers will solve all human problems.  (2) People are computers.  (3) Nature is a computer.	5/15/2004

Technology.	Technophiles.  Two mistakes technophiles make.  (1) Mistake of thinking that every problem has a purely technological solution.  (2) Mistaking of thinking a technological solution is the best solution for every problem.	10/10/2004

Technology.	Ten million years ago, nothing was technological.  Animals scampered through the natural world.  Then human beings appeared and began to alter the environment.  Today, the area of the world untouched by humans is decreasing.  At some point in the future, all the world will be touched by humans.  Human footprints will be everywhere.  And humans will alter every last square inch of earth.  At some point in the future, the entire world will be man-made.  Technology is having an increasing influence on the world.  In the future, everything will be technological.	7/31/2006

Technology.	Testing is an important step in technological development.  Example, the FDA.  Search for unexpected uses and unintended results or side effects.  Untested technology is bad.	9/15/1998

Technology.	The ability to test, monitor and control technology is very important.  (1) Testing technology is important, especially to discover unforeseen side effects.  (2) Monitoring technology is important.  We need to monitor technology as it is released into the environment.  This is especially important in areas such as nanotechnology and genetically engineered foods.  (3) Control of technology is important.  The ability to undo what we do with technology is critical.  Should any shortsighted individual damage the environment, we need a way to restore back to original condition.	2/23/2001

Technology.	The current US energy industry is entrenched in a non-ecological, "profit first" methods of production.  The current US energy industry should be more ecological.  A variety of sticks and carrots (incentives and penalties) should be used to get energy producers and energy consumers to be more ecological.	10/12/2005

Technology.	The current US transportation industry is entrenched in non-ecological, "profit first" methods of production.  The current US transportation industry should be more ecological.  A variety of carrots and sticks (incentives and penalties) should be used to get energy producers and energy consumers to be more ecological.	10/12/2005

Technology.	The knowledge side of technology is more important than the physical stuff side of technology.  Technology is not about tools; technology is about the knowledge of tools.	2/28/2002

Technology.	The phrase, "Reinventing the wheel", is often used in a pejorative sense, however, it is not always a bad thing.  After all, the person who invented pneumatic tires made an improvement over wagon wheels.	8/18/2001

Technology.	The products we create are just as much part of our technology as the tools and processes we use to create them.	2/20/2002

Technology.	The technophile.  (1) The technophile is interested in technology for technology's sake.  (2) The technophile is easily impressed with technological gadgets.  (3) The technophile is captivated by displays of technological power, similar to thw way that a politician is captivated by displays of social power.	3/25/2006

Technology.	There is a difference between high tech vs. low tech, and sustainable tech vs. non-sustainable tech.  Low tech means created from natural materials and simple processes.  High tech means created from manmade materials and advanced processes.  Sustainable means ecologically viable.  Non-sustainable means using up natural resources and creating pollution.  You can have high tech or low tech that is sustainable or that is unsustainable.  Any combo is possible.	11/10/2001

Technology.	To what extent, and in what ways, does living in a technological environment affect your way of thinking?  (1) Technology shapes society directly and thus the individual indirectly.  Society builds a technology system.  The technology system is comprised of all the technologies the society puts into use.  The individual lives within the technology system of the society.  (2) Technology also shapes the individual directly.  The individual builds a technology system by choosing the technology with which to surround themselves.	5/23/2005

Technology.	Tools.  PART ONE.  (1)  Tools are useless without the knowledge of how to use them. (2)  Knowledge greatly increases the number of things you can do with a tool (example, a knife).     PART TWO. (1) The most efficient tools perform multiple functions.  (2) The most efficient tools let you create multiple products.  (3) Three examples:  Single function, single product tools.  Single function, multiple product tools.  Multiple function, multiple product tools.	2/20/2002

Technology.	Total technology complex, for individual and for society.  What you are getting done, and how.  Tools, techniques.  Resources, products.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Tradeoffs of the solution.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Trends.  (1) What's the cutting edge area of technology at the moment?  (2) What is the fastest growing and developing areas of technology?  (3) Which area of technology has the potential in your life to do the most good?  Should you put your energies there?	06/30/1996

Technology.	Trends.  The big issues in technology today are computers and the environment.	09/15/1993

Technology.	Two problems.  (1) Technology with a mind of its own.  Technology that runs amok.  You can't control it.  (2) Technology that controls your mind.  It controls you, but you can't control it.	6/8/2002

Technology.	Types of Art/entertainment technologies (see specific arts, see leisure).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  (1) Technology of physical stuff.  (2) Technology of the mental.  (A) Technology of information.  (B) Technology of emotion.  Up till now the technology of emotion has been known as art.  (C) Technology of memory.  (D) Technology of drives.	10/3/1999

Technology.	Types of technology.  Biology bio-engineering.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Chemistry.  What chemicals make, for what purposes?  How much are we making?  How poisonous, to what?  How dispose of, laws in effect controlling it?  Producing pure, cheap elements and compounds, mixing and making.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Clothing.  (1) Material type.  Natural: skins: leather, woven: cotton, wool.  Manmade: skins (rubber and plastics), and woven (polyester). (2) Sew: pins, thread, hand, machine.  (3) Knit: hand, machine, material type, knit type.  (4) Garment type and use, see fashion.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Communication.  (1) Speaking, writing and reading.  (2) Pencil/pen and paper, printing, typewriting.  (3) Computers.  Storage, manipulation, analysis, retrieval.  (4) Libraries: catalogs, indexes, abstracts, bibliographies.  Books, journals, magazines, news.  (5) Lines.  Telegraph, telephone (co-ax, fiber optic), fax, modem, computer networks.  Radio, TV: cable, satellite.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Food.  (1) Growing/raising it.  Plants: grains, vegetables.  Animals: beef, chicken, pork, fish, lamb/goat.  (2) Process it: clean, cook, freeze, package it.  (3) Preparing it: see gastronomy.  (4) Serving/eating it.  (5) Plants are bred to be (A) Nutritious, productive, require little care.  (B) Pest and disease resistant.  (C) Short wide growing season.  (D) Hardy to weather fluctuations.  (E) Last long on shelf.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Food.  Feed the world fantasy.  How to solve the world food problem.  Make an enzyme to add to cooking food that would make leaves and grass edible.  Or genetically engineer cow stomachs for humans to consume and derive complete proteins from leaves and grass.  Far fetched I know.	12/30/1996

Technology.	Types of technology.  Materials.  (1) Questions for each.  (2) Strength, flexibility, density, cost, durability, reliability.  (3) Advantages and disadvantages.  (4) Ways to do what for each type.  (5) Sources, characteristics.  (6) Natural materials: wood, stone, plant/fiber.  (7) Manmade: plastic, leather, metal.  (8) Methods: lathe, cut, caste, carve, nail, sand, glue.  (9) Producing materials.  (10) Testing materials for purity, strength, uniformity.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Medicine technologies (see Medicine).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Operations.  Organization of work: operations management, operations research, systems engineering, production and operations management, scientific management.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Physics.  Electrical vs. electronics.  Electricity in nature vs. manmade electricity (lines or air).  Primary parts: resistor, capacitor, transistor, integrated circuit.  Secondary products.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Power.  (1) Source, generation, conversion.  (2) Types of energy.  Electro-magnetic, solar, chemical (batteries), heat, electrical, kinetic (wind, water).  (3) Types of conversion.  Steam to electrical or heat.  Water to mechanical or electricity.  Wind to mechanical or electricity.  Solar to heat or electricity.  Oil, gasoline, natural gas combusts to heat or motion.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Psychological or mental technologies (i.e., applied psychology).  (1) Thinking technologies: x in general.  (2) Learning technologies.  Educational technologies.  Information technologies: libraries, the notes.  (3) Emotional technologies: count to ten, psychoanalysis.  (4) Memory technologies: lists, organized lists.  (5) Behavior technologies.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Questions for specific areas of technology.  (1) History, state of art and future trends.  (2) Problems, solutions.  (3) Structure: parts, systems, machines.  (4) Mechanism: machine systems, subtypes.  (5) How does it work (structure and mechanism)?  (6) What does it do (function)?  (7) Purpose, function.  (8) Tools, techniques.  (9) Why is it important?  (10) Can we improve it, how?  (11) Can we get goal done better by some other means?  (12) How efficient is it: time, energy money materials wasted vs. converted?  (13) How effective is it: does it get all of the job done?  (15) How productive is it?  (16) Laws and regulative agencies called for given a technological level, a situation, and a sociology.  (17) What works and not and why?  (18) What doesn't work, what works ok, what works best and why?  (19) Costs, durability, efficiency, waste.  (20) Primitive/crude to modern/excellent technologies.  (21) Best technology for a situation and its constraints/limitations.  (22) Best uses for a technology.  Best ways to use a technology.  (23) Knowing how it works vs. knowing how to work it.  (24) Knowing when to use it.  (25) For each invention in history, list (A) Cost to make it, cost to use it.  (B) Resources uses up, efficiency, pollution makes.  (C) Compare to previous and next inventions in same area.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Science.  Technology of science: measurement, observation, control.  (1) Time: hour glass, sundial, clock; watch (mechanical, electric, analog, digital).  (2) Weight: balance, scale.  (3) Length: ruler, trig measurement.  (4) Space: length measurements, liquid measurements.  (5) Position: compass, stellar trigonometry, longitude and lattitude maps.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Shelter.  See architecture.  Sticks and skins, cloth tents, brush and log shelters, clay brick, stone brick, wood frame, steel frame.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Social technologies: see government, law, business.  Community design: electricity, water, sludge, trash, parks, roads, communication, and gas.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Specific areas of technology.  General technology areas (list here), business industries lists (see Business).  Work jobs lists (see Work).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Technologies for practical living.  (1) People in general, and specific individuals.  (2) Around the house and on the job.  (3) Dealing with self and other people.  (4) See health and welfare.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Three types of technology.  (1) Mental techniques (attitudes).  (2) Behavioral techniques (skills).  (3) Object technologies (stuff).	11/30/1999

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools and machines.  (1) Hand tools, power tools.  (2) Simple machines: screw, lever, plane.  (3) Machines: run by themselves, many moving parts.  Building them, running them, repairing them.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools.  (1) Simple hand tools (ex. rake, hoe, shovel, knife) no moving parts, work on muscle power.  (2) Machines: moving parts, work on non-muscle power.	01/01/1993

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools.  Analyzing a tool or machine.  (1) Purpose, structure, mechanism.  (2) Parts: what do, how fit and work together.  (3) Costs: to make or buy, to use, to replace, past/now/projected.  (4) Use the systems approach.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools.  How many techniques can you get out of a tool?  How many goals can you get out of a tool?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools.  Machine definition: machines do not operate on muscle power, or convert muscle power.	06/01/1993

Technology.	Types of technology.  Tools.  The brain is the most powerful tool we have.	11/23/2000

Technology.	Types of technology.  Transportation.  (1) Land.  Walking, running, bicycles.  Wheels: rails, free.  Steam, gasoline, diesel, electrical: solar and battery.  Cars, trucks, motorcycles.  (2) Sea: sail, motors, subs. (3) Air: no motor, motor: internal combustion, jet, rockets (-lox, gunpowder).	12/30/1992

Technology.	Types of.  (1)(A) Technology that you are aware of vs. (B) technology that you are unaware of.  Can't be seen.  You don't know when its working.  (2)(A) Technology you can control vs. (B) technology you can't control.  Can't turn it on or off.  (3) If you are unaware of it then you can't control it.	6/8/2002

Technology.	Use and abuse of technology.  Technologies of peace.  Technologies of war.  Technologies of crime prevention.  Technologies of crime commission.	4/11/2005

Technology.	What is technology?  (1) Technology defined as anything man made.  That is, technology defined as anything that is not nature.  (2) Technology defined as any utilitarian man made thing.  That is, technology defined as a man made thing that is not art, and that is not junk.  Art defined as non-utilitarian man made things that are not junk.  Junk defined as man made things that are neither technology nor art.  Technology as useful objects, in contrast to junk which is useless.  (3) Technology as human shaped objects, in contrast to objects picked up off the ground, like sticks and stones.  (4) Technology as objects, in contrast to skills which are physical actions or ways of using objects, and in contrast to ideas or other mental phenomena.  Although the technology exists as both a physical object and also the idea of the physical object.	12/15/2005

Technology.	What is technology?  Four definitions of technology.  (1) Technology defined as objects.  (2) Technology defined as objects and actions.  (3) Technology defined as objects, actions and thoughts.  Knowledge that is practical and useful.  (4) Technology defined as a complex of tools, power, materials and the objects produced from same.	12/5/2005

Technology.	What is technology?  Machine.  A machine is a physical object.  A machine has moving parts.  A machine performs a function.  A function takes an input, performs an operation, and produces and output.  The brain is a machine.  The body is a machine.  The universe is a machine.	1/2/2005

Technology.	What is technology? (1) Tools and techniques.  (2) Strategies and tactics.  (3) Means (goals = ends).  (4) Technology as applied science.  (5) Technology as skill.  (6) What isn't a tool or technique?  (7) Anything you do is a technique, everything is a tool.  (8) There's a technique (best/worst) for everything.  (9) Technology = problem solving in action.  (10)  Anything manmade is either technology, art, or junk.	12/30/1992

Technology.	What is technology.  (1) Ideas are tools.  (2) Your mind is a tool.  Mind defined as a collection of ideas.  (3) Your brain is a tool.  Brain defined as an organ of the body.  (4) Your body is a tool.  Athletes know this fact.	10/3/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  (1) Products.  New things.  (2) Tools.  New things.  (3) Techniques.  New actions.  (4) Attitudes.  New ideas and emotions.  (5) Attitudes are mental technology.	4/24/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  A technique is a physical motion to use a tool.  Are there mental techniques?	2/28/2002

Technology.	What is technology.  Definition.  (1) Narrow definition.  (A) Manmade physical tools.  (B) Techniques for using same tools.  (2) Broad definition.  (A) Natural tools like our brain, body, language.  (B) Techniques for using same tools, like martial arts, thinking, etc.	11/16/1997

Technology.	What is technology.  Definition.  Natural technologies (developed without us trying?): thinking, language,.	12/30/1992

Technology.	What is technology.  Definition.  Skills defined as technologies.  (1) For example, martial arts are a tool.  Therefore, physical skills are a tool.  (2) For example, mnemonics are a tool.  Therefore, mental skills are a tool.	6/6/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  Definitions of technology.  (1) Technology as tools and techniques used to create an end product.  (2) A broader definition says everything is a technology.  There are no end products.  Every product we create, and every state that we get to, is a tool and a step toward a greater thing and state.	1/6/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  Definitions of technology.  (1) Technology defined as making things.  (2) Technology defined as transforming materials.  (3) Technology defined as inventing.  (4) Technology defined as machines.  (5) Technology defined as tools.	9/1/2004

Technology.	What is technology.  Non-material technologies.  Examples: social skills and psychological skills (psychotherapy, etc.).	6/30/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  Technology includes learning a skill.  Learning a skill means learning a technique, which is a technology.  (1) Mental techniques used in self psychotherapy (mantras and affirmations).  (2) Physical techniques (yoga).  (3) Social techniques.	9/15/1998

Technology.	What is technology.  Technology usually occurs as a complex of physical tools, behavioral techniques, and knowledge ideas, as applied against a resource.	10/3/1999

Technology.	What is technology.  What is not a tool?  Everything is a tool (except things that are ends?).  What is not a means?  Everything is a means (except things that are ends?).  All tools are means?  All means are tools?	6/6/1999

Technology.	What make?  How make?  How use?	12/30/1992

Technology.	Who has it, who controls it?  What do they do with it?  How powerful is it?	01/01/1993

Technology.	Why pursue technology?  Technology produces more leisure time, more variety of goods for more people, lower cost (more people buy), and better quality goods.	12/30/1992

Technology.	Why study technology?  (1) Get goals, solve problems, avoid mistakes, avoid pain.  (2) Fulfill needs and wants and drives.  (3) Make things healthier.  (4) Create free time, freedom, less toil, more easy.  (5) Save resources: time, energy, money, materials.  (6) Smaller, cheaper, lighter, faster.  (7) More powerful, more efficient.	12/30/1992

Technology.	With the microscope and telescope man extends his sensory powers, and thus changes the boundaries of the world he knows of and lives in.  Through the manmade object (technology) man changes his environment, body, behavior, and mind.	03/01/1994

Work, ideal.	.This section is about the ideal work situation.	1/24/2006

Work, ideal.	"An honest days work for an honest days pay."  "Pride in workmanship."  "Interesting work.  Useful work.  Meaningful work.  Satisfying work."  Are these work related concepts irrevocably lost to the past?  Did these concepts ever exist as anything more than an ideal?  Don't these things matter anymore?  I'm not ready to give up on the hopes for better work.	12/22/2006

Work, ideal.	Any job that does not make you suicidal is a good job.	6/23/2006

Work, ideal.	Ideal (best vs. worst) job and worker.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal job.  Ideal company.  Ideal boss.  Ideal work environment.  Ideal co-workers.	5/30/1998

Work, ideal.	Ideal work situation.  Working with people you get along with.  Doing work you believe in.  Its possible.  I've seen it.  I've done it.  You may even find the work interesting and challenging.	6/20/2004	*

Work, ideal.	Ideal work.  (1) Fun and enjoyable.  (2) Makes a difference in the world.  Doing something good, useful and important.	11/15/2001

Work, ideal.	Ideal work.  Ideal job: imaginable; in this world; and in my life.  Ideal job for x person in y situation.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal worker: polite, dependable, responsible, ambitious, brown nose, consistency, stability, productivity.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal worker.  Brilliant, creative, temperamental, sensitive, problem solvers vs. droning, hard workers.  Those who can do both are rare.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal: own boss, time free, mind free, body free, energy.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal.  (1) Much done, high quality, quickly done.  (2) Psychological and physical power and endurance.  (3) Focus, drive, clear head, creativity.  (4) Efficiency, effectiveness.  (5) Productivity, quality.  (6) Speed, amount.  (7) Importance, value.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideal.  Business attitude and behavior.  Mature, business like, professional, serious, confident.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideally a person both thinks and does on the job.  Today some think and some do, few do both, and few are happy.	12/30/1992

Work, ideal.	Ideally, one wants to do work that makes a unique contribution.  One does not want to work a job where one can say, "Well, anyone could have done that."	7/22/2006

Work, ideal.	Ideals.  (1) Ideal boss.  Fair.  (2) Ideal subordinate.  Loyal.  (3) Ideal customer.  Calm.  (4) Ideal working environment.  Interesting.  (5) Ideal job culture.  Relaxed.	10/4/1999

Work, ideal.	In an ideal world work would be interesting and challenging.  You would make progress.  Your accomplishments would remain useful over time.  You would be well rewarded.  You would do what you like to do.  Be your own boss.  Cool co-workers.  Flexible tasks and hours.  Job security.  Short hours.  Safe environment.	5/17/2002	*

Work, ideal.	The ideal job is a job that promotes social justice and environmental sustainability.	12/15/2005

Work, ideal.	The ideal work situation: No need to work on anything but your projects.  No need to waste time slaving for wages.	12/16/2006

Work, ideal.	Work at its best.  Provides a productive outlet for people.  A win-win situation that rewards the worker, employer, consumer, society and the earth.	4/4/2004

Work, ideal.	Work, ideal and actual.  (1) Ideally, work is a chance to help the world and make a living.  (2) In actuality, it is possible that one's work might enable an unjust system, and one might be exploited for low pay.	7/25/2006

Work, philosophy, ethics.	.This section is about the ethics of work.	1/24/2006

Work, philosophy, ethics.	(1) Can vs. can't (present ability).  (2) Could vs. couldn't (past or future ability).  (3) Want vs. don't (desire).  (4) Would vs. wouldn't (intention).  (5) Will vs. won't (intention).  (6) Should vs. shouldn't (ethical obligation).  (7) Do vs. don't (actual).	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Do you pick as a job, (1) What you want to do now, or (2) What you think you'll want to do in future?  Things change.	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Ethics.  Good job vs. bad job.  Good work done vs. bad work done.	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	How much freedom and how much life experience will you give up for how much security?	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Is it possible to get rich honestly, and without wasting your life?	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Job (see work).  Mindless physically destructive striving (for example, working till you have a heart attack) for material pleasures is bad.  Rejection of striving for above reasons is bad.  Thoughtful striving in an atmosphere of health is good.	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Job should not be an end in itself, rather it should be a springboard to understanding the world in general.  Do not specialize.	04/28/1989

Work, philosophy, ethics.	What do (ends), how do (means), why do (reasons)?	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	What jobs in what society are considered good vs. bad, or cool vs. uncool, etc?	12/30/1992

Work, philosophy, ethics.	Work ethics for, job, school, personal life, social life.  (1) Do what you want vs. do what they want you to do.  (2) Do as much as you can vs. do what you can get away with.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	.This section is about problems related to work.	1/24/2006

Work, problems.	(1) Not qualified (education).  (2) Not available (recession).  (3) Can't do (ability).	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	A problem is work that does not promote social justice and environmental sustainability.	12/15/2005

Work, problems.	Demotivating thoughts.  Distractions, mental and physical.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Exploitation, oppression.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Getting tired and becoming depressed, hopeless, low self esteem, unable to think, loss of vision, lazy, rushing, overlooking details, antisocial, snapping.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Increasingly limited and prescribed patterns of behavior in more and more areas of life.  Restrictive standards of dress and speech.  Lack of freedom and individuality expression.  Similar things happening in law.  How far can it all go?  What negative affects does it have on one psychologically?	04/30/1993

Work, problems.	Low productivity, low quality, can't concentrate.  Unmotivated, not driven, inertia.  Too emotional to work: depressed, angry, nervous.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Mistakes due to ignorance, inattentiveness, laziness, or fatigue.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Morning mania, mid-day realism, evening pessimism.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	One job pays $5/hr.  Another job pays $10/hr.  A third job pays $20/hr.  Sometimes the amount of physical and mental work involved in each of them is the same, yet the pay is drastically different.  No justice.	11/30/1996

Work, problems.	People who (1) Live for their job.  (2) Allow job to define them.  (3) Think work will be the answer.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problem of overwork.  (1) Culturally induced overwork.  (2) Psychologically induced workaholics.  Needs to feel superior.  Fears job loss.	6/4/2004

Work, problems.	Problem of overwork.  (1) Hyper-competition in the workplace.  Corporate cultures of overwork.  (2) Workaholics avoiding life and its emotionally painful issues through overwork.  (3) People who love their work and want to do it all the time?	1/22/2004

Work, problems.	Problems of overwork.  (1) The company demands more than 40 hours of work a week.  (2) The workplace culture coerces more than 40 hours of work a week.  (3) The individual has a pathological compulsion to work more than 40 hours a week doing unredeeming work for the company.  Workaholic.  (4) The individual, in order to make enough money to live, has to work more than 40 hours a week.  (5) The individual, in order to assuage a money-lust, works more than 40 hours a week.  (6) The individual, patho-socialized by a hyper-competitive culture, works more than 40 hours a week.  (7) The individual, with absolutely no clue how to productively use free time, works more than 40 hours a week.	4/8/2004

Work, problems.	Problems of task vs. problems with people.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problems that are part of job vs. run of mill problems vs. exceptional problems.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problems with the US work system.  See: Business > Critiques of big business.  See: Economics > Critiques of capitalism.	12/15/2005

Work, problems.	Problems with work in USA.  Many US workplaces are hyper-competitive.  Productivity at any cost.  Profit at any cost.  Success by any means.  Company vs. company competition.  Worker vs. worker competition.  With no limit.  Work the employees ragged.  Drive the competition out of business.	9/2/2004

Work, problems.	Problems with work.  (1) Task: boring or tough.  (2) People: superiors, co-workers, subordinates; incompetent, bitchy, bossy, whiny, pita.  (3) Outside problems in your life interfering with work.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problems, symptoms, causes, effects, epidemiology, mechanism, solutions/techniques/therapies.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problems: unrecognized work, unrewarded work, unadvancing, un-pay-raised.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Problems.  (1) People raise their kids to do well in the work world.  The work world is repressed.  People thus raise repressed kids.  (2) Work is the primary force that shapes society and culture.  The work world is pathological.  Thus, work warps society.	1/4/1999

Work, problems.	Problems.  (1) Problems with boss.  (2) Problems with subordinates.  (3) Problems with customers.  (4) Problems with working environment.  (5) Problems with the work culture.	10/4/1999

Work, problems.	Problems.  (1) Too much work vs. too little work.  (2) Too difficult work vs. too easy work.	4/17/2001

Work, problems.	Thank god I took five years off.  Ordinary work is so very (1) Boring and soul destroying (draws you away from your interests and concerns).  (2) Mind warping and socializing (draws you into a world that is fu*ked up).  (3) Resource draining (time and energy).	08/12/1993

Work, problems.	The modern american work world.  People screwing each other left and right.  People working their whole lives to come up with nothing.  It happens too often.	07/03/1994

Work, problems.	The problem with work in today's society is: (1) Your occupation determines who you are.  (2) All occupations have been dumbed down to robot level.  (3) The resulting message sent to workers is that we are all dummies and robots.  (4) Many people believe the above message and consequently waste their lives away.  (4) Therefore, it is crucial to develop a life outside one's occupation.	6/25/2001

Work, problems.	They try every way to get you to conform: through persuasion, coercion, etc.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Two big issues: boredom and wimp work.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Two big issues.  Expectations not paying off.  Neglecting other important areas in pursuit of money.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Two mistakes.  Calling for help when you shouldn't.  Not calling for help when you should.	01/11/1997

Work, problems.	Two problems.  (1) Passive monopolization by work of your time and energy available for thought and action prevents your development.  (2) Active change of your mind or physical condition for worse due to work.	12/30/1992

Work, problems.	Two work problems.  (1) Merely making a living versus doing something with your life.  Instead of working to pay your bills, find meaningful work that is in line with your highest ideals.  (2) Cost of living versus wages.  In a fair work system, wages keep up with the cost of living.	12/1/2006

Work, problems.	Work at its worst.  People feeling held hostage by their jobs and by the requirements of an overconsumptive society.  So afraid of losing their job that they compromise their principles and lose their ideals.  Boring work.  Unchallenging work.  Meaningless work.  Unproductive work.  Counterproductive work.  Work that does not help the individual, employer, consumer, society or earth.  Pay that does not provide a decent standard of living or quality of life.  Pay at the poverty level.  Pay that provides a poor quality of life.	4/4/2004

Work, problems.	Work problems.  Can not take authority.  Can not take criticism.  Can not handle subordinates: treats them either too tight (bossy) or too lax.  Does not work well with others.	10/25/1997

Work, psychology.	.This section is about the psychology of work.	1/24/2006

Work, psychology.	(1) How personality affects job choice.  (2) How job you choose affects your personality, for better or worse.	07/30/1993

Work, psychology.	Can I handle it (all aspects of job), and the rest of my life too?  For how long?	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Change in psychology and behavior caused by job, woman, and school.  Better or worse.  Conscious or unconscious.  Chose or unchosen.  Control or uncontrolled.  Mind or behavior.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	How survival work affects a person.  Degree of effect, positive or negative, over time, of environment (natural and social) and work behavior the individual must perform.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Jobs you (1) Can get vs. can't.  (2) Can hold vs. can't.  (3) Want vs. don't.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Process: find out, choose, apply, get, keep, advance, change.  (1) Looking, finding, researching.  Learn about the job.  Find what is available at the moment.  (2) Choosing, deciding.  Use want ads to figure out what you do and don't want to do.  Doing what you like vs. what you are good at vs. selling out for the money.  (3) Applying: get there first.  (4) Resume: contents and information vs. structure and arrangement.  (5) Cover letters.  (6) Interviews.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Questions for specific jobs.  (1) Technology.  How do the job best.  (2) Ethical.  (A) What they want you to do.  Is it ethical vs. unethical, legal vs. illegal, you like vs. you don't, obey vs. disobey.  (B) What you want to do.  (C) How much freedom and what types.  (D) Why do the job: pros and cons.  (E) Ethical requirements of the job.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Some people just like/hate work more than others.  Due to personality type.  Two key elements are freedom-drive and sociability?	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Some think that work-like and business-like means solemn, serious, honest as a judge 100% of the time.  Never a smirk, grin, smile, laugh or joke.  No expression or acknowledgment of humor.	08/31/1993

Work, psychology.	Suitability of a job to a person.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Three levels of work.  (1) Tasks: of a job.  (2) Job: position.  (3) Career: job track, series of advancing jobs.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	What predisposes an individual for an occupation?	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	What survival work do, why?  How do it, why?  How much time spend on survival work, why?	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	What weights do you put on various job factors.  (1) Pay, perks, benefits.  (2) The work itself: tasks.  (A) How tough: complexity, pace.  (B) How fun, how interesting, how good are you at it.  (3) The people.  (4) Corporate culture: rules, competition, conflict.  (5) Natural environment: location, transportation.	12/30/1992

Work, psychology.	Which job you hate the least.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	.This section is about searching for a job.	1/24/2006

Work, search.	A lot of getting a job is luck: being in the right place at the right time.  A lot of getting a job is persistence: its a numbers game.  Often they don't want the best person in the world.  They want the first person who can do the job.  Or they want the best person they interview, and they only have time to interview so many.	9/9/2003

Work, search.	Choosing a job should be based on life principles.  Choosing a job should not be based on money.  Eight hours a day, five days a week is too much time to spend doing any task that compromises your principles, values and ideals.  If you have any.	12/15/2005

Work, search.	Continually look for other better jobs, the next step up, better position, more money.  It can take a year to find a better spot and land a job.	08/31/1993

Work, search.	Factors in getting a job.  (1) Luck.  (2) Learned skills (books) (finding out).  (3) Intelligence (figuring out).  (4) Effort, hard work.	11/02/1993

Work, search.	Find a job.  (1) Find a job that you like, that you enjoy, and that you can put up with.  (2) Find a job that you can do, that you are good at doing.  (3) Find a job that can support you, that you can make a living at.  (4) Find a job that is ethical, useful, meaningful, progressive.	7/2/2006

Work, search.	Finding a job in an economic boom is easy.  Finding a job during a recession is not easy.  Business cycle booms and busts occur every few years.	3/9/2001

Work, search.	If you take any job on a whim (spontaneous, do anything) you won't have a career path.  There are a lot of shitty jobs out there, where they will take anyone off the street.  Know yourself better (needs, wants, likes, dislikes).  Know what is out there better (job tasks, requirements, pay, pros and cons).  Choose what you hate least or you will never be satisfied.  If you keep a job till you can't stand it another day, without looking for a better move up, you will bail into another shitty job.  Good jobs (good pay, good work, good people) take a long effort to get.  Get a career path you can live with.	12/01/1993

Work, search.	Interview questions.  Is the work pace and pressure fast and heavy, or slow and light, or stop and go?  Is the management style authoritarian or egalitarian?  Is the organizational culture cutthroat or laid back?  Is the work micro-managed or is one free to set one's own pace?	12/30/1996

Work, search.	Interview: act superior, like you are above them and the job applying for.  Take a John Gielgud attitude.	05/30/1993

Work, search.	Interview: treat it as if, and prepare for it as if, you were giving a lecture on who you are, what you are looking for, and what you know about the business.  Make it good.  Public speaking.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Interview.  Ask to walk around the workplace at your own pace, and in your own direction.  Ask your questions about the job.  See if it is what you want.	08/30/1996

Work, search.	Interview.  At job interview, boss wants to find out (1) Can you think and talk with manners.  (2) Can you b.s?  (3) Can you handle interrogation pressure well?  (4) Do you have a nice personality?	04/04/1994

Work, search.	Interview.  Be prepared to discuss all aspects of your current job, past career path, and future career path, as well as the business world, and world in general.	10/30/1994

Work, search.	Interview.  Do's and don'ts.  Clothes, behavior, speaking.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Interview.  Questions asked by interviewer: why this position, why this company.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Interview.  Questions for the boss.  Do you consider yourself and the corporate culture here to be egalitarian or authoritarian?	07/10/1994

Work, search.	Interview.  Questions to ask.  (1) How big is company: employees, gross?  (2) How old is company?  (3) What does company do?  (4) What does job entail?  (5) Who's my boss, coworkers, and subordinates?  Where work?  (6) Pay, benefits, advancement?  (7) How much time to decide?	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Interview.  School shows dedication and responsibility and competence in your job and career.  Shows knowledge of current business world.  Develops conceptual knowledge and technical skills.	04/04/1994

Work, search.	Interviews.  They ask idiotic questions to see how well you deal with idiots.	06/30/1993

Work, search.	Job interview.  (1) Q: Why do you want to work for this company?  A: It beats homelessness.  (2) Q: What can you bring to this company?  A: My lunch pail.  (3) Q: Where do you see yourself in five years.  A: If I ever see myself anywhere remind me to call my shrink.  (4) Q: What is your ideal job?  A: I don't know, but it involves several naked secretaries.  (5) Q:  How much do you want this job?  A: I am not going to use the word "bribe" or "kickback", but I will use the word "baksheesh" which is Arabic for "gift".  (6) Q: What is your current financial situation?  A: Well, I am not going to starve.  But my children are going to starve, quite frankly.  If I had kids.  Which I don't.	4/26/2001

Work, search.	Job searching and job finding.  Its luck.  Its a numbers game.  Its persistence.  Its getting to know people.	10/7/2003

Work, search.	Job want vs. job get.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Jobs are like colleges.  The good ones do not advertise.	05/12/1994

Work, search.	Looking for a job is like looking for a girlfriend.  (1) Never stop looking.  (2) Different companies (like girls) require different approaches.  (3) It may take a while to learn to develop the right strategy for success.	08/30/1996

Work, search.	Pros and cons of jobs.  When picking a job, (1) The pros of a job should outweigh the cons of a job.  (2) The pros and cons of one job should outweigh the pros and cons of other jobs.	7/25/2006

Work, search.	Quitting.  Reasons a person would quit.  Hate job or feel they have more important things to do.	12/30/1992

Work, search.	Quitting.  There is nothing like quitting and getting fired.  Both are good experiences to do at least once.  The former shows you your independence, the latter shows you your limits.	06/30/1993

Work, search.	Research career fields (industries), paths in fields, specific jobs, and specific companies.	08/31/1993

Work, search.	Spend a few hours a week on the job search.  Reading newspapers, job search books, your notes, drum up new ideas.  Work on the resume, cover letters, new potential employers, and interview skills.	12/30/1996

Work, search.	Ways to get a job.  (1) Want ads.  (2) Pick your industry and company (small, growing company in growing industry), send out a resume directly.	04/30/1993

Work, search.	What are you willing to do?  What are you not willing to do under any circumstances?	7/25/2006

Work, search.	Work search strategies.  There are various work search strategies that people use to pick a job.  Some strategies are better than others.  (1) Take the job that pays the most, regardless of the type of work it is.  (2) Take the job that is in most demand.  (3) Take the job that you like most.  (4) Take the job your are best at doing.  (5) Take the job that is most needed to be done.  This I think is the best strategy.	12/27/2006

Work, search.	Write a list of jobs that you would like to try and why.  Write a list of jobs that you would not like to try and why.	10/12/2006

Work, search.	Write a list of traits that you like to see in a job.  Write a list of traits that you do not like to see in a job.	10/12/2006

Work, search.	Write a summary of your work career.  List the jobs you had.  Write why you picked the job.  Write why you left the job.	8/9/2006

Work, sociology.	.This section is about the sociology of work.	1/24/2006

Work, sociology.	(1) Current U.S. work environment.  OSHA laws.  No child labor.  Medical and dental insurance.  Sex harassment laws.  Non-discriminatory hiring.  Mandatory retirement.  Sick leave.  Vacation.  Pensions.  Temporary workers.  Part-time workers.  Women can work.  Glass ceiling.  Inequitable pay between sexes.  Buyers vs. sellers market's where employees are courted or abused.  Blue vs. white-collar.  Service vs. manufacturing vs. agriculture.  Illegal aliens working off the books.  Black market.  Gray market.  Internet commerce.  Sex workers.  (2) Work environment in the other places and times, better and worse.  (A) Better.  Guaranteed employment.  Lifetime employment.  (B) Worse.  Women must stay at home.  No pensions.  Indiscriminate firing.  No vacation.  No sick leave.  Nepotism.  Child labor.  24x7 work week.  No medical or dental insurance.  Slavery.  Indentured servants, sharecropper.	4/15/1998

Work, sociology.	(1) Social aspects of work systems (see business and technology too).  (2) Work system: history of, purposes, structure, and mechanisms.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	(1) The most you can reasonably expect from a co-worker is to not bust your chops to your face, and to not backstab you.  (2) You can't really expect them to be your good friend (supporter, confessor, etc.).  (3) And you can't really expect them to believe what you believe ideologically, or to agree with your views.  If you can just get "1" you are doing the best that can be done in the work world.	12/30/1995

Work, sociology.	Areas, careers, job titles, tasks, tools, techniques.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Average citizen in an society.  How many years must they work?  What type of job do they have?  What pay earn?  What conditions work under?  How much leisure do they have?  What leisure choices available?	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Gossip.  Beware gossips, who are not team players.  Beware those who covet your present and future power and position.  They may try to get you fired, for whatever reason, whether it be purely machiavellian power grubbing, or actual personal dislike.  Regardless of whether their views against you are true or false, and regardless of whether their actions against you are just or unjust.  Fight them to protect yourself, your turf, and your customers.	10/30/1997

Work, sociology.	Gossip.  Everyone talks about everyone.	12/01/1993

Work, sociology.	Gossip.  Excessive bitching or gossiping or joking about co-workers destroys trust, and communication, and team spirit, and team work, and is not the best or most mature way to do business.  We should be trying to build trust and communication and teamwork.	01/23/1997

Work, sociology.	Gossip.  Teamwork vs. gossip.  (1) Talking about people negatively, behind their backs, destroys group trust, team spirit and team work.  People do it though, because it is fun, and it makes them feel better.  They do it to tear down their enemies, and to grab power by gaining allies.  They do it because they think others are doing it to them, out of paranoia.  (2) Sniping is a similar phenomenon.  The first snipe comes out of playfulness, but it hurts feelings, and causes counterattacks.  Or the first snipe may come from someone who just doesn't like you for a reason you can't control (religion, race, sex, etc.).  Or they may have wrongly taken an accidental incident as an intentional slight.  (3) When people start sniping, don't snipe back.  Sniping back only escalates it, and brings more on you.  Better to defuse the situation with humor, and say something like sarcastic like "What a sense of humor".  Better also to calmly point out your strengths and their weaknesses.  You can get them back later by ignoring them, or not giving them a favor.	10/30/1996

Work, sociology.	Job: total number of people employed at a job, % of population, and growth/decline change.  For every x people in modern american society we need y number of z occupation.  Current number of x's: total, and per x number of people, too many or too few.  Future: number of x jobs being produced.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Office politics, in-fighting, psychological warfare, psy ops.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	People don't want to lose position, power and money, at all.  Especially if they think they earned or deserve it.  They are scared and defensive.	09/26/1993

Work, sociology.	People judge you on your worst as well as best.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	People: cool, assholes, wimps, noble, morons.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	U.S.  (1) US population vs. US population growth rate.  (2) US work force vs. US work force growth rate.  (3) US college grads total, per year.  (4) US high school grads total, per year.  (5) US birth rate, and US death rate.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	U.S. work system.  Job name and description, pay, number of individual employed.  % of population, % to subordinates and superiors.  Rates of change: glut or shortage.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	U.S..  Modern american society's work system.  (1) Need x amount of any occupation per z people.  (2) Relationship to economic forces, political forces, social forces, technological forces.  (3) Areas: Power, Food, Clothing, Shelter, Transportation, Communication, Insurance, Government, Science, Arts, Ed, Religion, Military.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Work is set up, by and large, in a way that precludes friendship formation.  (1) You are there to work, not chat.  (2) You have to leverage each other in dastardly ways.  Rat out.  Use power plays.  Etc.  So given that real, human relationships are difficult or impossible at work, the normal typologies we group people by and judge people by don't apply.  There exists two kinds of people at work (1) Shit talkers who talk shit about their coworkers for fun, or out of fear, or to gain power, or just plain immature, or just plain mean.  (2) People who don't talk shit about their coworkers, on the principle of teamwork, in order to promote the economic prosperity of the firm, or just for ethical reasons.	02/22/1997

Work, sociology.	Work system = a combonation of technological, economic, political, and social forces.  Work system depends on needs, situation, technology, politics, and economics.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Work system.  Salaries, qualifications.  Number out there, growth rates, and where located.	12/30/1992

Work, sociology.	Work world: conservative, competitive, conformist, fat, contented, consumerist, dogmatic, unthinking, followers, specialists.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, mental.	.This section is about psychological techniques for work.	1/24/2006

Work, technique, mental.	(1) Get motivated.  (2) Find your likes and dislikes.  (3) Gain knowledge of job.  (4) Develop a career path.	11/15/2001

Work, technique, mental.	(1) Head: clear, confident, directed, motivated, inspired, focused, calm, importance, urgency.  (2) To get into that state of mind use: diet, exercise, meditation on notes.  Environment: music, temperature, humidity, images, clothes.	12/30/1992	*

Work, technique, mental.	(1) Job work (occupation).  How to get motivated to get the job?  How to get motivated to do the job?  How to get motivated to pursue a career?  (2) Leisure work (hobby).  How to get motivated to do work?  How to figure out what work to do?	4/17/2001

Work, technique, mental.	Anyone could do my job.  I am easily replaceable.  What lets me keep my job is my ability to be friendly and cooperative (team player myth, colleague myth).	01/07/1997

Work, technique, mental.	Attack things quickly.  There is usually learning and debugging to be done along the way.	11/30/1996

Work, technique, mental.	Attitude: develop a Zen like calm; you are elite, Teflon.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, mental.	Attitude.  Going to the very top.  Know everything, and do everything right.  Handle all types of problems well.  Deserve a spot at top.  But not bossy.  Treat everyone like gold.  So polite.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Attitude.  Happy to be working.  I need the money.  Got to get a real pad, woman, education, job and career.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Be a heads up, on balls of feet, on toes, positive kind of guy.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Be friendly, energetic, and attentive to people and procedures.	12/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Creating atmosphere to work (head, body, surroundings, life).	12/30/1992

Work, technique, mental.	Do not settle for a job that compromises your progressive principles.	12/15/2005

Work, technique, mental.	Don't think of yourself as a lazy bum, an incompetent fu*kup, or a depressed blob.  Put energy into it.	11/20/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Effort.  Develop the ability to push yourself and work hard without burning out.  Know when to push and when to let off.	10/15/1994

Work, technique, mental.	How can I do my job better?  Focus more on it (on and off job).  Prepare self for it in off time better (sleep, food, meditation, looks).	12/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	How to look at the situation.  We all work hard so that we all can succeed.  If one doesn't work hard and do a good job, he hurts the others.  Must grab the business while it is there.  Must beat competing companies.	11/30/1996

Work, technique, mental.	If I do nothing except play it safe, stay out of trouble, and do my job (without stress of competition to excel), then I will do well in my job, and career, and I will advance and make money.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, mental.	If you do all your tasks immediately and kiss ass they will overlook your inevitable mistakes.  If you do not, they will harp on them.	01/20/1994

Work, technique, mental.	If you do your work then things will go right.  If you don't do your work then things won't be all right.  So relax and do your work.	10/05/1994

Work, technique, mental.	Job comes first.  100% job focused.  Please the bosses.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Keep that "looking for a job desperately" attitude in mind.	12/12/1993

Work, technique, mental.	Most of this shit is easy.  You just have to attack it.  Do it quick.  The higher the position of the person who needs it done, the quicker you should get it done.  Be proactive in action and communication.  If you wait to be told what to do, and take forever to do it, you will lose your job.	04/24/1997

Work, technique, mental.	Repeat positive aspects of job to self.  Analyze and deal with negative aspects.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, mental.	Solutions: relax, mellow out, get focused, get psyched, pace self, keep up morale, keep track of work done, work harder, work smarter, work longer.	12/30/1992	*

Work, technique, mental.	Take care of business quickly and completely.  Keep the customer and bosses happy.  New problems come up quickly.	01/08/1997

Work, technique, mental.	Techniques to work longer and more efficiently.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, mental.	Thing of stuff to learn, and questions to ask.  Think of ways to take on more responsibility.  Keep track of what you do each day, to have proof for your performance review.  Make a list of stuff to do.	11/30/1996

Work, technique, mental.	Write, study, and practice strong work habits and goals tactics reasons.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, mental.	You have to really understand yourself and your co-workers, in general, in specific situation types, and in specific instances or moments.  What were you and they thinking, feeling, expecting, wanting, and needing from each other?  Who is more right and more wrong?	12/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	.This section is about social techniques at work.	1/24/2006

Work, technique, social.	(1) Do not look or act smart alecky or nonchalant (my natural pre-disposition).  Money, job, and future are on the line.  (2) Professional managerial polish: smile, calm, serious, well dressed, polite, look like you know the important problems and answers, issues and views.  Never let them see you sweat.  Sell yourself and your company through your dress, behavior, vocabulary, accent, grammar, and tone.	10/30/1994

Work, technique, social.	(1) Know when to press, push, and exert power or authority.  Know when to kowtow and defer.  (2) When to be friendly vs. reserved vs. cold.  (3) When to be direct and confrontational vs. indirect.	09/26/1993

Work, technique, social.	(1) Pick a career.  Learn about yourself: continuously, as you grow and change.  Learn about careers: what type of work is involved, pros and cons, and whether the job outlook is fading or growing.  (2) Prepare for a career.  Keep your job-related education going your whole life.  (3) Find a job.  Be persistent.  Go where the jobs are; be willing to change field or geographic location.  (4) Keep job.  Doing a good job.  Customer service is key to all who you deal with.  Be friendly.  Treat them like people.  Make them think you are dependable and on their side.  Learn to be friendly, or at least civil and cooperative to those giving you grief.  (5) Leave job: Know when it is time to move on.  Plan and prepare for your advancement.  Make your next job a step up.	11/30/1996

Work, technique, social.	(1) Work on public relations in word and action.  (2) Industrious (faster, longer), detail oriented, accurate, no mistakes, friendly, knowledgeable, goal minded, sharp, heads up, team player (protects other, not stupid or evil).	08/20/1993

Work, technique, social.	Are you kissing ass or building a relationship?	10/15/1994

Work, technique, social.	Armor, defenses, supports.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Ask boss for more information about the job, and for more responsibilities on the job.	02/01/1994

Work, technique, social.	Ask your boss how you are doing.  Ask them how to improve.  Tell them you like it there, and that you like them.  It is time to play the big scam.  Get them to like you and believe in you.  Suck ass.	01/10/1994

Work, technique, social.	Attitude.  Polite, stroke them, never offensive mean or brusk, polish and poise, serious, brass tacks, bottom line.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Avoid looks that say "I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what to do".	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Be early, smile, be friendly, be optimistic, be not too jokey, be focused on the job, sharp, industrious, attentive to details, look like you are working hard, look like a leader, appealing face posture and clothes.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, social.	Be fair and friendly, politician and salesman.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	Be formal and professional.  Fake, trivial, bland, and quiet.  Do not be informal, jokey, confidential, hypothetical, musing, or off color, to any degree, with anyone on the job.  Do not be excessively informal off the job either.  Because unknown strangers could be your ideological enemies.  Friends can turn into enemies.  Friends can be spies.  People could have mistaken or incomplete views of you, derived from themselves or others.  And they all could try, to any degree, to hurt or shit-can you.	10/30/1994

Work, technique, social.	Do everything right (procedures).  Be nice to everyone.  Work hard, and thus get out in one piece.	02/24/1994

Work, technique, social.	Do not act tired, lazy, confused, and dumb.  Do act sharp, energetic, knowledgeable, and accurate.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, social.	Do not be mean, or even cold (neutral).  Be fake friendly.  Tell them that united we stand, divided we fall.  How can I help you get ahead?  How can I make your life easier?  I appreciate you as a co-worker.  Calm and rational I am.  I would not screw you.	12/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	Do not give them any fodder, and do not reveal your weak spots.  Be bland and even handed.  They are gossip hounds.  Confess nothing, confide nothing, reveal nothing.  They just want to dish, they need to talk, and they'll talk about anything.  A men doll is all they want, and all they deserve.  They deserve no more.  Be cool as a cucumber, charming, sophisticated, and polite.  Give sympathy and help.  Do not take sympathy and help.	11/15/1994

Work, technique, social.	Don't act crazy, stupid, and low class, even if you are.  Put out good public relations.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Don't beg, whine, or kiss up.  If they want to fire you, fine, big deal, I wasn't that impressed by the company anyway.  Fight for your rights.	01/08/1997	*

Work, technique, social.	Don't just keep your beliefs a secret (rock n' roll, democracy, humor, etc.).  Lie like hell to make them think you hold their beliefs.	05/30/1994

Work, technique, social.	Don't talk to them about anything not shallow.  You will dislike them if you find out about them.  They will dislike you if they find out about you.  They will dislike you for political reasons (being a democrat), or they will be jealous (of your brains, humor, girlfriend, etc.), or they will think you are crazy (for being poetic, or humorous).	11/30/1996

Work, technique, social.	Excellent performance at work can help cut you slack when you fu*k up.	07/25/1993

Work, technique, social.	Find cool people/friends (similar interests or points of view).  Get and give references.  Do favors, receive favors.  Build bridges.  Keep gates open.  Build networks.  Get/give jobs or job opportunity information.  Build a big brain by putting heads together.  Get new ideas.	06/30/1993

Work, technique, social.	Give in on the inconsequential things so that you can stand your ground and get your way on important issues.  This is the difference between brown nose ass kisser and healthy.	10/27/1993

Work, technique, social.	I am tired of being nice, and I am tired of taking shit.	12/01/1993	*

Work, technique, social.	I don't want to be Mr. Gossip, Mr. Leering, Mr. Popular, Mr. Jokey, Mr. Friendly, or Mr. Flirty.  Friendliness and flirtiness only creates jealousy and misunderstanding.  Gossip creates fear of betrayal.  Jokiness makes people think you are insincere, untrustworthy, sarcastic, not serious.  She is way too jokey and informal.  Let her tell the jokes and talk about others.  I will be serious and mild mannered.	10/01/1994

Work, technique, social.	I enjoy challenging people, socially and intellectually.  However, on my job, it works better for me if I reassure and praise them instead.  Oh well.  I enjoy challenging myself, physically with rock climbing, and intellectually with philosophy.	02/04/1994

Work, technique, social.	I need them to be nice to me, and to not harass me, so that I have no worries, and so I can do well on the job and in school.  So do not be sarcastic, and do not act patronizing, condescending, or superior.  Be supportive.	12/15/1994

Work, technique, social.	Keep kissing ass your whole work life.  Don't make people feel threatened by trying to usurp their power.  Keep kissing butt.  Never let them know how much you look down on them.  Don't mention your knowledge.  Never reveal to them that you are superior.  Don't try to make decisions, they will only pick at them.  Don't joke around, they will think you are unstable and unworthy of leading.  Don't test their limits, do the opposite, reassure them constantly that they are valuable.  Work is beyond a game (spy vs. spy), it is a joke (illogical, unethical), it is also a role that you perform.  You entertain them.  Keep them feeling secure and happy.  Look at the world from their eyes.  See what they want and give it to them.  Make your real life and real accomplishments in the non-work world.  Never appear angry at anyone.  Never be forceful or forthright.  Do not gossip or ridicule.  Build team spirit.  Avoid power plays and power struggles.  Accept power only if offered.  If there is a duplicitous, lying, cheating, back stabber, manipulator in your midsts, be careful how you react.  They will blab badly of you if you do not cater to their whims.  They will ruin you by intimation.  Keep them all happy.  Give them attention and attentiveness.  Warmth and kindness.  They can squash you like a bug.	11/15/1994

Work, technique, social.	Kiss ass for (1) Good raise, (2) Good recommendation, (3) Easy time on the job.  Look good, and look like you are working hard, and look like you are into the job, because your bosses raise depends on how well you do your job.	07/27/1993

Work, technique, social.	Licking ass vs. kicking ass.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Make contacts, network, schmooze, brown nose.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, social.	Never be mean, or even sarcastic, or even talk about them when they are not there.  For any of them.  Be politeness man.	12/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	Not real.  Politeness man.  Mr. Friendly.  That is all.	10/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	On the job, give them what they want (like a retailer, or an entertainer).  Give them plenty of warm smiles, kind words, and soulful looks.  Reassure them.	10/30/1994

Work, technique, social.	On the job, people look for (1) Scapegoats to blame when they want to avoid blaming themselves.  So it pays to develop many, very close, devoted, powerful allies.  (2) Human sacrifices to blame when they don't know who to blame, or just as an outlet for their general frustrations (misdirected anger), or for their prejudices against your type, or what they mistakenly believe about you specifically.  So it pays to have absolutely no dirt of any type on you.  Squeaky clean.  (3) Also, look out for those who need to prove to themselves or others that they are rooting out and nailing the incompetent or immoral.  God forbid they think you are stupid, crazy, or evil.  They may also be like some cops: ticket fanatics.  (4) These above two phenomena happen in all social situations.	09/01/1994

Work, technique, social.	Positive attitude can keep you employed.  If they like you because you are friendly, funny, and interesting, they will keep you around, even if you are not completely competent.  If they dislike you because you are unfriendly, depressed, angry, or boring, they will fire you even if you are competent.	11/30/1996

Work, technique, social.	Practice kissing up, even if they get cold or antagonistic.  "Yes" them.  Do not fight them openly.	12/06/1993

Work, technique, social.	Prepare a spiel of statements and answers, about my work, school, and philosophy, to put on resume and say at interviews.	06/10/1994

Work, technique, social.	Professional behavior.  Not mean, not jokey, not immature.  Respectable, hard working, well educated, career man.  Going legitimate means giving up certain detestable behavior that (1) Ruins your career socially, (2) Destroys your psychological state for your work and leisure, and (3) Sets a bad example.	08/31/1993

Work, technique, social.	Public relations: what you do vs. what they think your doing.	12/30/1992

Work, technique, social.	Resolve interpersonal conflicts completely without destroying or giving up everything you have worked (long and hard and lucky) for: goals, social relationships, etc.	12/01/1993

Work, technique, social.	Strategies.  Pros and cons of each.  Ingratiation vs. separation.  Ingratiation: contra: lose self, turn into wimp.  Separation: contra: conflict breaks out easily.  Degrees and forms of ingratiation: talk everyday, compliment often.	12/06/1993

Work, technique, social.	Techniques.  (1) Techniques to deal with bosses.  Techniques for bosses to use. (2) Techniques to deal with subordinates.  Techniques for subordinates to use.  (3) Techniques to deal with customers.  Techniques for customers to use.  (4) Techniques to deal with the work environment.  (5) Techniques to deal with the work culture.	10/4/1999

Work, technique, social.	Work on pitches and lines to describe and sell self in work marketplace.  Strong yet sensitive.  Rowdy with soulful eyes.  Tough yet sweet.  Academic with a wild side.  James Dean.  Johnny Depp.  Make them see (recall, recognize, remember) something good and rare.  Something they know is right, but lost sight of a long time ago.  Something archetypal, mythical, superhuman, godly, golden.  The key is to get them psyched, and sell your vision.  My pitch: I care about ideas, truth, learning, and the advancement of individuals and society.	06/10/1994

Work.	.This section is about various other thoughts on work.  Topics include: ( ) Related subjects.  ( ) The big question is.  ( ) The search for meaningful work.  ( ) Types of work.  ( ) What is work.	1/24/2006

Work.	"Be part of the solution, not part of the problem", so the saying goes.  Do work that helps the world.  Don't sell out for a buck.	3/30/2007	*

Work.	(1) Argument to do what you value.  You will be interested in it.  You will work hard at it.  You will enjoy it and be happy.  (2) Arguments to not do what you value.  It will become like work.  You will begin to despise it.	1/28/2005

Work.	(1) Change in person's: needs, desires, and abilities.  (2) Change in businesses.  (3) Change in economy.	12/30/1992

Work.	(1) Do not focus on how to make a living.  That is to say, do not focus on simply making money.  (2) Focus on figuring out what are the problems in the world.  Focus on figuring out what you can do to help solve the problems of the world.  Find a worthy cause.	11/22/2005

Work.	(1) Everyone should be doing something useful.  (2) Everyone should be doing something they enjoy.  (3) Two problems:  (A) People doing things they enjoy but that are not useful.  (B) People doing things that are useful but that they do not enjoy.	5/30/2005

Work.	(1) In work, and in life generally, doing what you think is enjoyable versus doing what you think needs to be done.  At some point the latter outweighs the former.  (2) Doing what you think needs to be done, even if no one pays you for it.  At some point you may feel that it is worthwhile to do something even if no one pays you for it.  This is the crux of the matter.  The question is not what would you continue to do if you were rich and had a million dollars.  The question is not what would you do if someone paid you.  The question is what would you continue to do even if you were not getting paid.  The question is what would you continue to do even if you were poor.	2/10/2007	*

Work.	(1) Making a living (making money) versus (2) Enjoying life versus (3) Making a difference (doing some good).  The third is most important.	5/15/2007

Work.	(1) The males who dislike working with women dislike it because (A) They only like hanging out with male co-workers, or (B) Because they resent being ruled over by women.  (2) The males who like working with women like it because  (A) They like hanging out with women co-workers, (i) Because they are effeminate, or (ii) Because they are heterosexual wolves, or (iii) Because they are wimps who want mommies, or (iv) Because they are submissive to women.  (B) Because they like being ruled over by a woman boss, because they are submissive.	01/01/1994

Work.	(1) They do not like you.  (2) You do not do a good job.  (3) If 1 and 2 are the case, then you are fired.  If only 1 is the case, then you are fired.  If only 2 is the case, then you are fired.  That is, you only keep your job if they like you and you do a good job.  Do not make mistakes.  If you do, you set yourself up for periodic sacrifice.  All organizations have scapegoats.  Fu*k up, and you risk losing job, school, career, and life.	06/10/1994

Work.	(1) What is the study of work?  (2) Why do work?  To get goals, solve problems, avoid mistakes, survive better.  (3) Why study work?  (4) How do work?  (5) How study work?	12/30/1992

Work.	(1) Willing to do or not.  (2) Want to do or don't.  (3) Actually do or don't.  (4) Enjoy or don't.	12/30/1992

Work.	(1) Work at its best: Choosing to produce useful goods and services to further environmental sustainability and social justice.  (2) Work at its worst: Forced to produce useless junk and toxic poisons.	6/12/2005

Work.	(1) Work is dangerous: we put ourselves on line everyday.  Work is exhausting: giving your all, going all out, is tiring.  (2) Check every detail like it was a knot holding your life.  Your job and life may depend on it.	12/30/1992

Work.	(1) Work is sometimes used by a government or a corporation as a form of mind control to prevent people from thinking.  For example, work till exhaustion.  (2) Work is sometimes used by an individual as a form of mind control to prevent themselves from thinking.  For example, avoidance via workaholism.  (3) Do you want to be a mindless, obedient cog in the system, avoiding the responsibility of leading a thoughtful, engaged life?  No.	6/12/2005

Work.	(1) You become what you do.  (2) Do something that you believe in.  (3) Do what you like most and what you believe in most.	8/20/2003	*

Work.	(1) You may not be able to get the job you want.  (2) You may not be able to get the job you deserve based on your abilities.  (3) You may not be able to get the job you are qualified for by academic or occupational credentials.  (4) You may not be able to get any job.	6/15/2001

Work.	(1) Your talents and capabilities vs. (2) your likes and dislikes vs. (3) your wants and needs.	12/27/2003	*

Work.	A common work quandary: prostitution vs. destitution.	5/8/2002	*

Work.	A large part of work in corporate America is pretending to look busy.  Is this how you want to spend your life?  Pretending to look busy?  Another large part of work in corporate America is pretending to look important.  Is this how you want to spend your life?  Pretending to be important?  If not, then maybe corporate non-life is not for you.	11/8/2004	*

Work.	Abuse not to take: bossing, discrimination, unfair competition.	12/30/1992

Work.	Advancement by luck, nepotism, favors, looks, sex, seniority, merit, discrimination (age sex ethnic race religion), favoritism.	12/30/1992

Work.	Age.  The young kids, feeling full of energy, optimistic, looking forward to work, happy and glad to work.  The old timers, tired, bitter, hate work.  Who's right?	08/30/1996

Work.	An important question regarding work is, "Who is more annoying, coworkers, managers or customers?"	4/21/2005

Work.	Any work is physically and mentally demanding because you don't want to be there.	12/30/1992

Work.	Anything more than 40 hours a week enslaves people by denying them the time to educate themselves to get out of the job.	1/2/2005

Work.	At some jobs there are a few people who feel compelled to work longer hours than anyone else.  They also feel the need to know more about the business than anyone else.  They claim to be dedicated.  Yet sometimes people act this way because they are so afraid of losing their job they want to feel irreplaceable.  Another reason can be they have such low self esteem they have a need to feel superior to others. They have low self worth and they have the need to prove their self worth by being better than everyone else.	12/28/2003

Work.	At some point you will be put on a project that is completely useless and a total waste of time and money.  How much this bothers you will depend in part on how valuable you consider your time to be, that is, how valuable you consider yourself to be.  If you cannot tolerate it at all perhaps you are too self-important.	5/26/2001

Work.	At work, should I spend every minute working as hard as I can for the company?  Some say yes.  Some say no.  Some jobs involve waiting.  I.e., sitting around doing nothing, not working.	10/31/1999

Work.	Attitudes towards work.  Rebel, rock and roll (confrontational) vs. cowering fear (obedient, conforming).	12/30/1992

Work.	Big question.  In any culture or time, the question is how odious work, and how much work gets you how good a life and how long a life?  Will it pay for the things a person feels they need and want (stuff and experiences)?  Today you need ten dollars an hour at forty hours a week, minimum, in NYC area to survive meagerly and save meagerly.	09/15/1993

Work.	Bitter work rant.  (1) There are no jobs today that require intelligence and creativity.  Almost every job has been specialized and dumbed down to a robotic level.  (2) Therefore, there is no job that will satisfy me, make me happy, or make the most of my talents.  (3) Money is not a lure for me.  Prestige is not a lure for me.  (4) The work world lies when it says that smart, creative, joyful work awaits.  Most people believe this lie and waste all their time and all their lives for a false promise.  Of the rest, many of the few who can see the predicament cannot see any escape, their lack of imagination prevents them from envisioning a better alternative.  Many of the few who can see the predicament are too apathetic to care if they are fodder for the system.  I feel particularly for the bright and sensitive minds lured into becoming doctors, lawyers, mba's, and programmers.  How strongly did you believe?  How completely were you used?  Is there anything left?	10/28/2001

Work.	By rebelling you risk losing livelihood.  By kissing ass you risk losing soul, self.	12/30/1992

Work.	Can you do it?  For how long?  With what effects: (1) Adverse effects, (2) Stagnate, (3) Grow?	12/30/1992

Work.	Change in work through the centuries.  (1) Self sustainability.  Be your own boss.  Set your own hours.  See the results of your labor.  (2) Industrialization.  Factories.  Assembly lines.  Be at work on time.  Work long hours for little pay.  (3) Service economies.  Knowledge economies.  Work products increasingly intangible.	10/30/2005

Work.	Company man vs. union man.	12/30/1992	*

Work.	Computer model: boot up, load up software, run.	12/30/1992

Work.	Conservative stuffy businesses vs. liberal hip businesses.	12/30/1992

Work.	Corporate life is an oxymoron.	11/8/2004	*

Work.	Corporate life.  Ninety percent of corporate America is a joke.  Its just a cushy pillow for a few, not particularly impressive, people, who do not particularly impressive work.  Of that ninety percent, those who take corporate life very seriously, making it into a lifestyle or even a religion, we can only pity those self-important true-believers.	6/17/2001

Work.	Corporate types who work more than 8 hours a day are like scabs.  Unions fought hard to get an eight hour workday.  Anything more is being a scab.	6/24/2002

Work.	Could do vs. couldn't.  (1) Innate limits and abilities, psychological and physical, now and future.  Environmental limits, personal and societal.  (2) Interest: things like and don't.  (3) Talent: things good at and not.	12/30/1992

Work.	Critique of the modern American work system.  Crud jobs in crud companies in a crud system.  People take these jobs because they are up to their eyeballs in debt, the result of a lifetime of consumer spending due to brainwashing by advertisers.  People take these jobs because they cannot think critically about work.  People take these jobs because they can not envision an alternative.  People give up, people give in.  People do what everyone else is doing.  People do what advertisers tell them to do.  Trapped in crud jobs because they want to pay their mortgages and put their kids through college.  Trapped in crud jobs because the cost of housing is so high.     PART TWO.  Do not get a mortgage, and do not have kids.  Do not buy a lot of things, do not get yourself into credit card debt.  Have minimal expenses.  Be a Progressive activist.  Save the world.	5/10/2007

Work.	Critique of work.  Fewer corporations are paying a living wage.  Fewer and fewer corporations are offering a benefits plan or a pension.  Meanwhile CEO's are getting paid higher salaries.  Meanwhile corporations are getting richer and more powerful.  Down with multinationals.  Down with corpratocracy.	5/13/2007

Work.	Critique of work.  Wages are too low compared to the cost of living.  People are forced to work two jobs, giving workers less time for education to improve their life chances, and giving workers less time to raise their children.  Too many workers have no health benefits.  Meanwhile corporations report higher profits than ever, at the expense of workers and consumers.	1/2/2007

Work.	Crunching numbers on the cube farm.  Where is nature?  Where is the sensory overload of a walk down an autumn lane?	1/14/2002

Work.	Customers.  Customers are like bombs ready to go off.  Customers are like spoiled children.	12/30/1992

Work.	Definition of work: People doing tasks they don't enjoy with people they don't like.	2/24/2003	*

Work.	Do not go for the easiest job.  Do not go for the highest paying job.  Do some good.	5/9/2007	*

Work.	Do something that you can put your entire self into.  All your time and energy.  All your thought and emotion.  Something you believe in.  A big challenge.  Something to obsess about.  Something good, ethical.  Solve a problem.  Don't settle.  Don't sell out.	11/14/2005

Work.	Do what you love.  Because, like Maslow hierarchy of needs, once you have solved all you practical needs, you turn to self-actualization needs.	8/25/2006

Work.	Do what you love.  My work experiences have shown me that Abraham Maslow's theory of a "hierarchy of needs" seems to apply to the world of work, in that once you get a job that satisfies your survival needs, you start itching for a job that satisfies your self-actualization needs.  This is an argument for doing what you love, rather than doing what is practical.	12/16/2006

Work.	Eight hours a day at work is too much time to spend working on anything other than projects that uphold your highest ideals.	12/16/2006

Work.	Elements that affect how well you work.  (1) Environment: natural or manmade environment.  (2) Social: people you encounter.  (3) Individual: psychological factors: high t, brain chemicals; physical factors (like diet, sleep, etc).  (4) How they affect productivity (quantity, speed), quality, efficiency, and effectiveness.	12/30/1992

Work.	Elements.  (1) Tasks.  (2) Decisions: power, freedom.  (3) Responsibility.	12/30/1992

Work.	Elements.  Job requirements: mental, emotional, and physical energy.	12/30/1992

Work.	Elements.  Money, social status, fame.  Do you like the activity?  Can anyone do it or just a few (psychological and physical ability)?  Who likes x activity well enough to do it long and well enough to excel at it and get paid for it?  Others may do it poorly because they don't like it, or have no talent for it (ex. research).	07/30/1996

Work.	Elements.  Power over, power under, independence.	12/30/1992

Work.	Elements.  Stress vs. peace, caused by task, risk, customers, intra-competition, inter-competition.	12/30/1992

Work.	Elements.  Talent vs. effort vs. accomplishment.	12/30/1992

Work.	Employers should cut some slack for employees who quit coffee if they fall asleep at work.	10/27/2003

Work.	Ethics of work.  It matters what you do for a living.  Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.  Working to earn a living occupies a large portion of your life, so make sure that what you are doing is worthy of you.  Money is not the ultimate value.	5/29/2007	*

Work.	Everyone dislikes their jobs and coworkers.  Everyone gets home pissed off at the end of day.  Deal with it.  Make the best of it.  Make the most of the situation.	3/2/2006

Work.	Fears of robots ruling the world in the near future?  Get a clue.  Ass-kissing, workaholic robots already run the earth; they are called "managers".	8/31/2001	*

Work.	Feeling doubly bad about a job.  Sitting at a job feeling bad that you are wasting your life, time and abilities on a lame job, AND feeling bad that you are enabling an unjust system, industry or company.  That is to say, doing work that I do not like for a company that I do not agree with.	3/2/2006

Work.	Few people in the work world really care what college you went to or what grades you earned in college.  What matters is how you perform in the work world.	3/18/2006

Work.	Good job vs. bad job (traits).  Good worker vs. bad worker (traits).  Good boss vs. bad boss (traits).	12/30/1992

Work.	Headset headaches.  Some people are forced to wear wireless headsets at work.  For example, employees at Borders Books and Office Depot.  The headsets let the employees speak to each other.  Being required to wear a headset at work is a nuisance.  While wearing a headset, a person is constantly interrupted.  While wearing a headset, a person cannot be alone with their thoughts.  While wearing a headset, a person cannot talk to customers without interruption.	11/10/2006

Work.	High school interns.  I have confidence that, if need be, high school interns can work every job in this country.  Just give them the weekend to cram.  Those kids are smart.  And the jobs out there in the work world have been dumbed way down.  The adults in the workplace who consider themselves to be irreplaceable are woefully self-deceived.	4/29/2001	*

Work.	Hours * effort = results.  Hours is what counts.  Effort is always maximum.	4/22/1999

Work.	How many people are doing jobs they do not like for companies with whom they do not agree?  Many people are in this difficult situation.	2/28/2006

Work.	How many people will say to their employer, "This job is a waste of my time and ability."?	12/6/2005

Work.	How much can you, and should you, relax on the job?  Stay competitive, driven, focused.  Anyone can screw you, including yourself.  Chit chat and sitting around, how much and how far to stray from work subjects?	10/25/1993

Work.	How much shit to take and why?  None, ever.  What can they do to you, and can't?  What can you do back, and can't?   Capable vs. legal.	12/30/1992

Work.	How much shit will you put up with for how much money if you are in x situation or lifeshape.	12/30/1992

Work.	How to improve the world?  Make it green, environmentally sustainable.  Pursue social justice.  Ensure worker rights and consumer rights against exploitation by corporations.	4/15/2007

Work.	I do not call it my "job".  I call it my "chore", because it is repetitive, mindless and daily.	8/10/2001	*

Work.	I don't have a career; I have a calling.  I like having a calling more than having a career.	1/15/2006

Work.	I want to do something useful, valuable, lasting, enduring, appreciated, respected, valued, admired.	6/23/2006

Work.	I'm becoming more of a serious, dedicated artist philosopher as I get older.  I am also becoming more of a Progressive leftist.  And that is affecting the types of jobs I feel comforatable doing.  I am less business oriented.  I am less computer oriented.  I am taking more "artist's day job" type of work.	6/10/2006

Work.	I'm taking bets on how log I will last at this job.  Will I last a week, a month, a year?  Also, I'm taking bets on how will I leave the job?  Will I be laid off, will I be fired, will I quit, or will I give two weeks notice?  Combine the two bets.  When you guess correctly about the cause of my departure, it will reduce by half the number of days between my actual departure date and your guess at my departure date.  When you guess incorrectly about the cause of my departure, it will double the number of days between my actual departure date and your guess at my departure date.	5/20/2006

Work.	I've combined work and Zen practice so now I can sit eight hours a day doing nothing.	6/24/2002	*

Work.	If you give "nap" and "snack" to kids in school then you should also give "nap" and "snack" to workers on the job.	9/11/2005

Work.	If you work non-stop you are not a workaholic unless you are (A) Hurting yourself, (B) Ignoring, avoiding, or escaping important issues.  In fact, it is an ethical imperative to work non-stop if you are able to produce original and useful work (as opposed to unoriginal and non-useful work), and if you have a goal and it is reachable.	10/10/1994

Work.	Improving working conditions.  The owners and bosses have a tendency or temptation to oppress and exploit the workers.  Its a continual struggle to protect the rights of workers.  Problems include: Excessive control of workers.  Money gained at workers expense.  Dictatorial abuse of workers by bosses.  Safety conditions.  Child labor.  Women getting less pay.  Indentured servitude, sweatshops.  Triangle shirtwaist fire.  Invasion of privacy in work place.  Computers monitored.  Phone monitored.  Microphone monitors.  Camera monitors.	5/12/2005

Work.	In a situation where people are competing for position, some will try to compete unfairly by: (1) Harassing or annoying or provoking you.  Trying to get you to explode.  (2) Putting you down to other people behind your back.  Or unfairly taking credit behind your back.  (3) How to deal with these people?	1/1/2002

Work.	In cold climates work was viewed as good because back then work was physical activity and kept a person warm.  In the tropics work was viewed as bad because it overheated a person.  Thus you get an industrious northern culture and a lazy tropic culture, both acting out of survival instinct.	3/30/1998

Work.	In corporate America, you will be rewarded with money for following orders.  You will be rewarded with money for making money for the corporation.  You will be rewarded with money for throwing your life away.	12/28/2006

Work.	In the future everyone will have a Ph.D. level education and everyone will work fast-food level jobs.	8/2/2001	*

Work.	In today's work world, specialization of labor is used to increase efficiency but it also increases worker boredom.	9/12/2000

Work.	Instead of saying "Do what you love.", one could also say, "Do what has meaning and value to you; so you don't feel like you wasted your life."	3/20/2004	*

Work.	Is holding a job a satisfying end in itself?  Well, it is a good thing to manage to make use of some of your potential.  It requires effort.  So it is ok.  All some people have is their job, with no close relationships, kids, or extra-occupational goals.	11/30/1996

Work.	It boils down to this: when some people go to work they feel like they are making the most of their life and perhaps they are.  However, when other people (myself included) go to work they feel like they are wasting their life.	9/17/2001

Work.	It is a big mistake, and a common mistake, to think that a job is important if someone is paying you a lot of money to do the job.	11/18/2005

Work.	Its a mistake for people to let money decide what they will do with their lives.  People make the mistake of thinking that if they are paid to perform a task then the task must be a worthy pursuit.  People make the mistake of thinking that the more they get paid to do a task, the more worthy a pursuit is the task.  That is a big mistake.  That is a mistake quite often made by free market advocates.  People forget that other people will pay you to waste your life.	10/30/2005

Work.	Its exciting when you are doing what you are interested in, following your interests, following your dreams.	4/3/2005

Work.	Job principles.  (1) Almost all conventional jobs are boring bullshit.  And almost all conventional jobs support a bullshit corporate system that oppresses and exploits workers, customers, public, and the environment.  (2) Get a progressive job.  Make up your own job.  Do useful progressive stuff in your free time.	8/9/2006

Work.	Job.  Is the job (1) In sync vs. out of sync with your personality?  (2) Helping vs. hurting you overall?  (3) A breeze vs. can you barely hold it.	12/30/1992

Work.	Jobs list.  (1) Shelter:  Electrician.  Plumber.  Carpenter.  Cabinet maker.  Hotel manager.  Hotel worker.  Campsite manager.  (2) Clothing:  Fashion designer.  Clothes factory worker.  Retail clothes sales.  Wholesale clothes sales.  Fiber farmer.  (3) Food:  Chef.  Restaurant owner.  Restaurant manager.  Cook.  Food factory worker.  Animal farmer.  (4) Transportation:  Cars, trucks, buses.  Bus driver.  Car factory worker.  Car mechanic.  Trains.  Train conductor.  Train factory worker.  Train mechanic.  Planes.  Airline pilot.  Airline stewardess.  Airplane factory worker.  Airplane mechanic.  Bicycle factory worker.  Bicycle mechanic.  Bicycle sales.  (5) Finances:  Stock brokers.  Investment bankers.  (6) Legal.  Lawyers.  Judges.  Paralegals.  (7) Medical:  Doctors.  Dentists.  Nurses.  Receptionists.  Orderlies.  (8) Communication:  Movies, television and radio.  Writers.  Directors.  Actors.  Books, magazines, journals, newspapers.  Writers.  Editors.  Printers.  (9) Computers and Internet:  Programmer.  Systems administrator.  Tech support.	8/9/2006

Work.	Jobs that I might have had if I was born years ago.  (1) I might have been a hunter had I been born 10,000 years ago.  (2) I might have been a farmer had I been born 1000 years ago.  (3) I might have been a factory work had I been born 100 years ago.  (4) I might be a computer worker today.  (5) What is next, in 100 years?	5/6/2002

Work.	Labor unions need to be effective.  Uncorrupted by organized crime.  Unsmashed by corporate power.  People need to be aware of arguments for labor unions.	4/15/2005

Work.	Life is priceless.  Therefore, my time is priceless.  Therefore, any wage paid by an employer for my time is underpay.	1/7/2007	*

Work.	Looking for job.  "You have to market yourself.", they say.  "You have to sell yourself.", they say.  "You have to sell your soul", they risk.  I don't want to pimp myself to the highest bidder.	4/24/2004	*

Work.	Management is out to get you fired.  Coworkers are out to get you fired.  Customers are out to get you fired.	4/20/2006

Work.	Management.  Don't let the responsibility (pressure) go to your head.  Don't let the power go to your head.  Don't become paranoid.  Don't underestimate rival threats.	12/30/1992

Work.	Management.  Have a vision, and be able to enact it (ex. lower costs, improve services).  A vision that jibes with the organization, for the most part.  Overcome problems: yours and others, natural, psychological, and social problems.  Overcome opposition and obstacles.  Steer the ship for years.	10/01/1993

Work.	Management.  Leadership.  I am in charge.  Act like a leader.  Subordinates, customers, and competition must know the leader is (1) Sharp (knows what is going on), (2) Will take action against any bull shit.  You have to reflect these two things in your words and behavior.  Key question to ask, "How is everything going?".	08/31/1993

Work.	Management.  Responsibility for money, stuff, and people.	12/30/1992

Work.	Management.  The performance appraisal evaluates your knowledge of job, accuracy, attitude, appearance, performance, and leadership skills.	12/30/1992

Work.	Management.  When you are in charge, you are responsible for any mistakes or problems by anyone under you.  It is your job and career on the line.  We sink or swim together.	08/31/1993

Work.	Management.  Whips: driven to produce vs. chains: freedom on job.	12/30/1992

Work.	Management's perception of worker vs. worker perception of management.	12/30/1992

Work.	Me and Audrey are not in danger of losing our souls at work.  Rather the opposite extreme, we got so much soul we have to avoid being fired for it.	09/20/1994	*

Work.	Me and work.  They want me.  The corporate world wants my talent, time, energy and mind.  They are not going to get it.	6/7/2004	*

Work.	Me.  History of practice and attitudes.  Attitudes: (1) Can vs. can't do and why.  (2) Will do vs. won't do and why.  (3) Want to do vs. don't want to do and why.	12/30/1992

Work.	Me.  If I have a good attitude, and work hard, then I can do well and move up and on.  If I flip out, or take poor attitude, then my career gets hurt.	10/30/1996

Work.	Me.  My attitude towards survival work.  (1) Boring, degrading, destroys spirit.  (2) Waste of time, energy, youth.  (3) Mind limiting, narrowing, and destroying.	12/30/1992

Work.	Me.  My work history.  How hired, where hired, how long there.  How I liked it, how they liked me.  How I left place (fired, laid off, quit, gave notice).	12/30/1992

Work.	Meaning, fun and money.  PART ONE.  Three career choices:  (1) Make money.  (2) Have fun.  (3) Do something meaningful and useful.  (4) The right answer is to do something meaningful and useful.  PART TWO.  Fun hogs make the mistake of thinking that if 1 alone is wrong then 2 alone is right.  That is to say, fun hogs realize that merely making money is wrong.  However, fun hogs do not realize that merely having fun is also wrong.  Fun hogs realize that fun is a crucial element for life.  However, fun hogs do not realize that fun is necessary but not sufficient.  PART THREE.  Money hogs make the mistake of thinking that if 2 alone is wrong then 1 alone is right.  That is to say, money hogs realize that merely having fun is wrong.  However, money hogs do not realize that merely making money is also wrong.  Money hogs realize that money is a crucial element of life.  However, money hogs do not realize that money is necessary but not sufficient.	10/17/2005

Work.	Meaning, fun, and money.  (1) Work and money.  A person needs to make a living.  But it is a mistake when money becomes the overriding concern.    (2) Work and fun.  A person wants to enjoy making a living.  But its is a mistake when unproductive leisure becomes an overriding concern.  (2) Work and purpose.  A person wants to work for a good cause.  A person wants their work to be meaningful.	10/30/2005

Work.	Mind-numbing, mind-deadening work, versus, mind-nourishing, mind-expanding work.  The latter is better.	12/22/2006

Work.	Modern Work World.  Stupid Projects Department.  (1) People protecting their fiefdoms, job, money, or power.  (2) Wasted time doing nothing or doing useless make work.  (3) Feuds, vendettas and sniping.	6/8/2001

Work.	Money is a carrot.  Why spend all day chasing after a carrot?  Why not grow carrots instead?	5/29/2007

Work.	More differences in the nature of work.  (1) Being your own boss vs. working for others.  (2) Making the entire product yourself (craftsman) vs. making only a piece of the product.  (3) Meeting the customer face to face vs. never meeting the customer.	5/20/2004

Work.	Most important idea about work.  Pursue your ethical ideals even if it means low pay or no pay.  Pursue your ethical ideals even if you are unsuccessful in your efforts and do not achieve what you set out to do.	5/27/2007	*

Work.	Most important ideas about work.  Do not sacrifice your principles and ideals for a buck.  Do not compromise.  Do not settle.  Do not sell out.  Learn to live on very little money.	4/30/2007	*

Work.	Most important ideas.  (1) Most work is boring.  Most jobs are retard jobs.  (2) There are some tough jobs that entail big responsibility for others, complicated thinking, high pressure (time), and long work hours.  Examples, criminal lawyers, doctors.	02/28/1998

Work.	Most important ideas.  (1) You can make your job the focus of your life if you want, but it does not have to be, especially if you cannot find satisfying work.  (2) Continuing formal education is a great way to get a good job.  It does not matter how easy the school you go to in order to do it.	10/30/1997

Work.	Most important ideas.  Get a good education.  Get good pay, by finding fields with high demand and high pay.  Get a good boss, in a good company.  Know how to deal with assholes.	10/05/1997

Work.	Most important things I learned (1) About job in general.  (2) About job for me.  (3) In order to answer the interview question "What did you do and learn there?  Why did you leave?"	04/04/1994

Work.	Most people have their jobs by sheer luck.  Many other people can do your job just as well as you.	3/18/2006

Work.	Much white collar stress comes from knowing you are sitting on your butt doing nothing, and holding back the system with a "cover your ass", "status quo" attitude, while many others work long and hard, in poor physical environments, for shit pay, and have crap lives.  I believe in an honest days work for an honest days pay.  This attitude is healthy (psychologically and physically) and it feels good.  Less guilt, less repression, and less stress.	10/30/1996

Work.	No one can express all of their human potential through a job, because the nature of work today is specialization in one area, and you have human potential in many diverse areas.  Even creative workers, such as artists, get locked into professional styles and routines.  You have to work on your own to develop all your human potentials.  You have an obligation to yourself to do so.  This is an argument for a shorter work week.  If you rely on your job to maximize your potential then you will be sorely disappointed with work and with life in general.	4/20/2000

Work.	Occupational structure in a society.  (1) The number of different types of jobs in a society varies with the size of the population.  (2) The percentage of the work force that each occupation employs varies with the level of technology.  For examples, less developed technology necessitated that half the population work as farmers in America in 1900.  (3) This depends on how difficult each job is.  Depends on how much knowledge is required to do each job.  Depends on the knowledge ability of the workers.  Depends on how much time it takes to do each job.  (4) The number of occupations depends on how complex the society is, which depends on how many different problems and needs the society has.  For example, few needs and few problems creates a simple society with few types of jobs.	7/30/2002

Work.	Occupational typecasting is a common problem.  Many people think that your previous job experience determines your future job experience.	8/5/2001

Work.	Of course its boring.  Of course its too easy.  Of course its beneath you.  Its work.	1/1/2002	*

Work.	One of the two is always the case:  Someone wants to get your job.  Or someone wants to eliminate your job.  Some unscrupulous types will try almost any dirty trick to do so.	12/21/2002

Work.	One problem is when a person cannot determine whether what one is doing for eight hours a day is worthwhile, or if it is a useless meaningless waste, or if it is counterproductive and harmful.	4/2/2006

Work.	One stupid slip up or mistake or ignorance or inattention can cost you your job or advancement or someone else's.	08/20/1993

Work.	Other job stresses.  (1) Personal life: health, girlfriend, the world.  (2) The job tasks: difficulty, complexity, amount.  (3) The people at the job: bosses, coworkers, customers.  (4) How to deal with those?	1/1/2002

Work.	Overemployed vs. underemployed.	12/30/1992

Work.	Paradox.  The stuff I like to do I am not able to do.  The stuff I am able to do I don't like to do.	3/29/2002	*

Work.	Part of work is learning and training.  It is part of the job.  We should all spend a small portion of our time learning, and it deserves to be done on work time, not just after work on your free time, not just a week a year at a training session.  As computers replace human workers and as humans become "knowledge workers", if you don't want to layoff people or have a four day work week then we should spend a day a week or an hour a day teaching, training and developing workers.	5/26/2001

Work.	PART ONE.  A new job title: Organizational philosopher, psychologist, sociologist.  PART TWO.  Organizational philosophy.  What is philosophy?  What is organizational philosophy?  What does an organizational philosopher do?  An organizational philosopher deals with philosophical issues, using philosophical methods, in an organizational environment.  PART THREE.  Organizational psychology.  What is psychology?  What is organizational psychology?  What does an organizational psychologist do?  Talks with individuals.  ( ) Gets to know individuals.  Learns the motivations of individuals.  Helps optimize individuals.  Gets people happier and healthier.  Spots problems.  Gets to know types.  It takes various types of people to make an organization work.     PART FOUR.  Organizational sociology.  (1) What is sociology?  What is organizational sociology?  What does an organizational sociologist do?  Helps optimize the organizational culture.  Spots problems in the organizational culture.  (2) Side questions.  What is sociology?  What is culture?  (3) Culture.  Culture is a social phenomenon.  Culture consists of a set of ideas, actions, values that are transmitted from human to human by the process of communication.  (4) Organizational culture.  Organizational culture is the culture that develops in an organization.  Every organization has a culture.  Some organizations have cultures that are healthier, and more ethical than others.  What determines the culture that emerges in an organization?  The culture that emerges in an organization is a result of many social forces.  Every person has an effect.  Every person has power.  People form into various cliques of various views and powers.  Actively build a organizational culture.  Instead of taking the default.  Instead of accepting the culture that spontaneously occurs, or mutates.  Steer the direction of the organizational culture.  Organizational culture is a result of the mix of people, but it is also a result of the ideas, the values, transmitted to those people.  Building an optimal organizational culture takes work because there are many obstacles.     PART FOUR.  Things an organizatonal philosopher, psychologist, sociologist can do on every job.  (1) Organizational philosopher - help lay a solid foundation for company.  Develop company philosophy.  (2) Organizational psychologist, sociologist, therapist - talk with people,  Help improve people's outlook, attitude and mental health.  Help develop a better organizational culture.  More enlightened.	4/15/2006

Work.	PART ONE.  How does unemployment feel?  (1) You feel devalued.  (2) You are healthy, able and willing to work, yet you are denied the opportunity to work.  (3) When you cannot find work you cannot find money, the means of subsistence, which is like not being able to find water or being deprived oxygen.     PART TWO.  How does employment feel?  (1) There is a tendency for a person to become what they do for a living.  Do any job for long enough and there is a tendency to become just that.  It goes way beyond self-labeling.  (2) There is a tendency for society to label you according to your job.  It is a form of stereotyping and prejudice.	8/2/2001

Work.	Pay rates.  How is it determined who gets paid what in the work system?  Free market vs. command system.  Ball players make millions while teachers make nothing.  Doctors and lawyers get high pay while store clerks get low paid.	9/18/1998

Work.	People mistakenly think that what you do is who you are, and that what you do is all that you are.	7/25/2001

Work.	People who are not particularly smart, nor particularly ethical, are making lots of money.  Riches are no guarantee of intelligence nor refined ethics.	12/28/2006

Work.	Perhaps the big question is how many people feel satisfied with their job.  (1) I suppose "satisfaction" is a relative term, varying with one's expectations of work and life.  (2) There are various kinds of satisfaction.  (A) Intellectual satisfaction: does the job provide tasks that challenge one's thinking abilities.  (B) Emotional satisfaction: does the job leave you feeling good about the tasks you do all day.  Feeling like you made a worthwhile contribution to society.  (C) Financial satisfaction.  Does the job pay you what you think the job is worth or what you think you are worth?  (3) The question becomes: what percentage of American workers feel either intellectually, emotionally or financially satisfied with their job?  That is, what percentage of workers feel satisfied in at least one of the above ways?  (4) Other types of job satisfaction include: (A) Happy just to have a job.  Happy just to be alive, buy food, pay rent.  (B) Happy because they do not feel exploited or oppressed or otherwise taken advantage of or mistreated.  (C) Although they may find the work neither intellectually, emotionally or financially satisfying, they do not find it especially irksome or annoying either.	4/9/2001

Work.	Philosophy.  (1) Metaphysics: what is work?  A behavior of goal getting, need filling.  (2) Ethics: (A) How organize the work system fairly?  (B) What job to pick (personal ethics)?	07/22/1993

Work.	Philosophy.  Epistemology.  Science of work.  Observe, experiment, measure, explain.  Theories and facts.	12/30/1992

Work.	Possible retirement plan: shoot self in head.  (That's a joke.  Seriously, do not kill yourself)	8/31/2001

Work.	Power and endurance, physical and mental.  Effort: duration, intensity vs. accomplishments, results.	12/30/1992

Work.	Problem.  People pursue career paths but only 1 in 10 get promoted from worker to the first level of management and only 1 in 100 get promoted to the second level of management.  Thus, approximately ninety percent of people have their career hopes dashed.	4/1/2005

Work.	Problems with work systems.  Criticisms of work systems.  (1) Exploitation of workers.  Wages too low.  No health care.  Need for labor unions.  (2) Exploitation of the natural environment.  (3) Unsatisfying work.  Meaningless work.	4/15/2005

Work.	Problems with work today.  (1) Corporations are reneging on pensions.  (2) Corporations are reneging on health benefits.  (3) Many jobs today are part time, not full time, so that corporations can avoid paying health benefits and other benefits.  (4) Corporations are trying to stifle labor unions.  Less unions means lower wages and fewer benefits.  (5) Psychological testing on job applications.  (6) Drug testing, even for ordinary jobs.  (7) Job applications make you sign forms that give them the employer the right to hire private investigators who gather information about the employee, including credit reports, criminal reports, etc.  (8) Computerized job applications take 30 minutes to an hour or more to fill out.  (9) Job applications make you take reading and math tests.  (10) To summarize, job applications, even for the most basic jobs, make you take a barrage of tests, including reading tests, psychological tests.  Also, they make you sign waivers to gather data on you.  Its wrong.	2/15/2006

Work.	Progressivism and work.  The struggle for higher wages for low paid workers.  The struggle for more benefits.  Wrest resources from rich employers.	5/29/2007

Work.	Progressivism and work.  Worker's rights.  Consumer rights.  Save the environment.  Less corporate power.	5/5/2007

Work.	Psychologically healthy workplaces vs. psychologically unhealthy workplaces or pathological workplaces.  Some workplaces are rife with suspicion, duplicity, envy, etc.  Some workplaces allow or even encourage a type of socio-pathology.	11/17/2004

Work.	Quick and easy jobs are called tasks.  Multiple tasks are given to workers and called occupations.	7/30/2002

Work.	Related subjects: effects of and on politics/law, science/technology, economic/business.	12/30/1992

Work.	Related subjects.  (1) Philosophy of work.  (2) Psychology of work.  (3) Sociology of work.  (4) Politics of work.  (5) History of work.  (6) Arts and work.	11/12/2004

Work.	Related subjects.  (1) Sociology of work.  Work is usually not a solitary activity.  (2) Technology of work.  We usually use tools, materials and techniques to do work.  (3) Economics of work.  Most people work to earn money.	11/12/2004

Work.	Related subjects.  Economics and work.  (1) Labor economics.  Is the worker paid a fair wage or is the corportion exploiting the worker?  Are working conditions fair?  Is the corporation exploiting the public and the environment?  What is the unemployment rate?    (2) Development economics.  (See: Economics, development).	6/12/2005

Work.	Related subjects.  History.  History of work in human race.  History of specific work systems (in any economic system).	12/30/1992

Work.	Related subjects.  Information technology.  Stay aware of (1) What the visions are.  (2) What the set plans and timetables for them are.  Example: government or business switching to another standard or platform.  (3) What is available now.  (4) When to buy technology for your organization.	10/01/1993

Work.	Related subjects.  Law: Anti-trust laws (protect consumer).  Labor laws (protect employee).  Employee work history inquiry laws (protect employer).	12/30/1992

Work.	Related subjects.  Political aspects of work, jobs, and organizations.  People have power, position, egos, and interests.  You have to balance their interests without offending or bruising egos.  You have to sell people stuff.  Campaigning and marketing.	07/03/1994

Work.	Related subjects.  Politics and work.  (1) Laws to protect workers.  Minimum wage for workers.  Maximum wage for CEO's.  Worker safety laws.  (2) Laws to limit the power of corporations.  Laws to prevent corporate fraud.	6/12/2005

Work.	Related subjects.  Technology and work.  (1) Technology increases production capacity.  (2) Luddites feared technology would put people out of work.  (3) Technology was suppossed to decrease the amount of hours worked.  (4) Technology, in the form of the assembly line, can make work very boring.	6/12/2005

Work.	Rewards for work.  Pay systems and status systems.  High pay and high status (ex. doctor or lawyer).  High pay and low status (ex. garbage collector).  Low pay and high status (ex. college professor).  Low pay and low status (ex. fast food worker).	10/6/1999

Work.	She skips from job to job.  Is she shiftless and aimless, or is she growing and evolving?  Does she get bored easily because she burns out easily, or because she outgrows jobs easily?  Some people never change jobs (whether they like the job or not).  They know right away, or early on, what they want to do.  Others do not.  What she used to settle for, and what used to satisfy her, does not anymore.	12/01/1993

Work.	Should I spend my days doing boring, stupid work for a ruthless corporation merely to have social status and a big fancy house?  No, I should not.  What should I do?  I should help the oppressed and exploited.  How should I do that?  There are many ethical ways how.	9/11/2005

Work.	Society has created a work system of job titles and corresponding pay rates.  This work system can be critiqued in many ways.  Economically.  Politically.  Psychologically.  Problems, actual and potential, exist in the work system.  Problems relating to the exploitation of the worker, consumer, public, and environment.	12/22/2006

Work.	Some people should work a series of varied jobs, just for the experience.  Because, frankly, most jobs are simple, dull, monotonous, boring, and most people sacrifice their lives for a buck, power, status, or their families, or for the illusionary prizes of a bogus competition.	6/13/2004	*

Work.	Some people, a few people, are making a living in an authentic, meaningful, purposeful, ethical way.  More people need to find meaningful work.	12/22/2006

Work.	Sometimes the more important an occupation is, the less society recognizes and rewards the worker by providing the values of wealth and status to that person.  For example, (1) A nanny is a very important occupation because nannies care for infants who are very impressionable and in the most formative years of their lives.  But many nannies earn only minimum wage.  (2) College professors are given slightly more wealth and status than nannies, yet they are often not considered to be well paid despite the fact that they teach the young.  (3) Occupations that are not in any way related to the raising, caring or educating of children are often rewarded with the highest levels of wealth and status.  (4) Why is this so?  (A) One reason may be that children have no voice in the political process.  And to have no voice means to not be able to speak up for yourself, and to be taken advantage of by others.  (B) Another example of this phenomena is animals and the natural environment in general.  The earth has no voice and so people end up trashing the earth.  (C) Yet another example of this phenomena is disenfranchised minorities.  In the past (and even continuing today), many minorities had no voice.  They had no political power.  They were not participants in the political process.  Consequently they received poor treatment at the hands of the power holders.	7/13/2000

Work.	Surrendering your self to the company, in body and mind, in time and energy, is the loss of self and the death of self.	6/20/1999	*

Work.	Tech support.  The big problem of tech support, the real problem, is "A person is having a problem with their machine, which also has a problem."  You have to treat the person and you have to treat the machine.	9/21/1999

Work.	The big question is, how easy or difficult is it to make a decent, comfortable living by doing what you most enjoy doing?	12/27/2003

Work.	The big question is: Choosing work. (1) What do I like to do? There are things I like to do that might not be useful or needed by society.  (2) What am I best at doing?  There are things I do well that I might not like doing for a job.  (3) What is needed most by society?  There may be things that anyone can do.  (4) What is most needed by society but has the least people able to do it, and thus the highest demand and highest pay?.	1/1/2002	*

Work.	The big question is: Sum up of some of the ways people pick their job or career. (1)  "What do I like to do?"  Doing what you like even if it does not pay well.  (2) "What am I good at?"  Doing what you are good at even if you do not like it. (3) "What needs to be done?"  What are the most pressing problems?  What are the pressing yet underfunded problems?  Sometimes people put up with burdensome work and low pay because they think it is the ethical thing to do.  (4) "What can I do that is in high demand and thus will pay well?"  These are the people who become doctors or lawyers just to make a dollar.  (5) "What can I do that no one else can do?"  An artist takes this point of view, even for low pay.  (6) "How can I make the most of my life?  How can I avoid wasting my life?" You might be interested in what it takes to develop a complete person, and you thus might work a series of unrelated jobs to get a variety of experiences, even though employers often look for an orderly, logical resume.	1/17/2002	*

Work.	The big question is: Whether to work at (1) What pays most.  (2) What you enjoy most.  (3) What you are good at.  (4) What is hot.  Quickest advancing, most potential for change.  (5) What you think you should do.  What the world really needs.  World's worst problems.	02/24/1994	*

Work.	The question is not whether you like/hate job, the question is whether and how much a job drives you nuts least or grows you most.	12/30/1992

Work.	The question is, what do you want your resume to look like in ten years?  What do you want to be able to put on your resume?   What do you want do with your life?  Why do you want to do what you want to do?  What are your reasons?	11/12/2006

Work.	The question, "What should I do?", is a question that concerns ethics.  Work is an ethics issue.  Therefore, work is a philosophical issue.	1/28/2005

Work.	The search for meaningful work, ethical work, useful work, constructive work.  The opposite being meaningless work, unethical work, useless work, empty, junk, poison, destructive.  Its part of the search for a meaningful life.  "No money without meaning.", I say.	5/14/2004	*

Work.	The search for meaningful work.  Find jobs that work toward ecological sustainability and social justice.  Find jobs that help people and help the earth.  Instead of blindly pursuing money for personal security or hedonistic pleasure.	6/20/2004	*

Work.	The search for meaningful work.  Its difficult to find meaningful work.  Many people today work jobs that are either meaningless or that actually are counterproductive (ex. pollute the earth).  Often one has to find meaning outside of work.	9/14/2004	*

Work.	The search for meaningful work.  What percentage of people are making a living by doing work that they actually enjoy, care about, and think is useful and meaningful?  Five percent?  One percent?	6/24/2004	*

Work.	The search for meaningful, purposeful, useful work continues.	1/15/2004	*

Work.	The way to get a job and keep a job is to just keep smiling.  People like a friendly, happy people.  It puts you in a good mood.  It puts them in a good mood.	1/1/2002

Work.	The work system of a society depends on the economic system, the technology system and the social system of a society.	1/16/2003

Work.	The work world is a joke.  First of all, there are no jobs.  Second, living to please your boss or the public is death.	8/8/2001	*

Work.	The world of work turned out to be nothing I thought it would be, and less.	6/5/2006

Work.	The worst attitude is brass balls, swelled head, affront to my dignity, socially uncooperative, lazy, complaining, bitching, moaning, feeling exploited by others, feeling cheated by life.  People want someone who is friendly, social and hardworking.	3/20/2001

Work.	There are more qualified people available than there are jobs.  That means jobs will necessarily be dispersed based on values other than merit.  Jobs will be dispersed to friends, relatives, based on whim, political affiliation, as favors, etc.	9/9/2001

Work.	There is good, useful work that no one will pay you to do.  There is bad, useless and hurtful work that people will pay you to do.  Few people will explain the difference to you.  You need to figure it out.	6/1/2007	*

Work.	These days you have to look hard to find moron, monkey, robot work for low pay.	07/30/1996

Work.	They are all competing.  Competing within departments to advance.  Competing between departments to look good and gain power.  The competition often gets fierce and nasty.  Unethical dirty tricks.  Ruthless.	9/19/1998

Work.	They dumb down work into simple, repetitive, methodical, routine algorithms.  They do this for several reasons.  For efficiency.  For accuracy.  For low wages.  They purposefully take creativity, fun and challenge out of work.	6/17/2001

Work.	Three questions.  (1) What if you can't get a job doing what you love?  (2) What if you don't know what you love to do?  (3) What if you don't know (realize) that you would like another job better?	4/13/2001

Work.	Time.  Four day week.  4 days of work, 3 days off.  One more day a week to work on (1) Physical health, at gym.  (2) Psychological health, with shrink.  (3) Social health.  Help others.  Be with your loved ones.  (4) Environmental health.  Help earth.	04/24/1997

Work.	Time.  We used to work 6 days a week.  Now we work five days a week.  Hopefully soon we will work only 4 days a week.  (1) If you want a life long educated workforce, you have to give them time to go to class.  (2) If you want a mentally healthy workforce, especially in today's high-stress thinking jobs, you have to give them time to meditate, see their shrinks, and work on their Notes, etc.  (3) Thus, employers should give anyone who is in a growth program (shrink, Notes, etc.) a day off.  Or everyone should just get an extra day, with the understanding that it is to be used for growth.  Or just give them the day and let them decide how to use or waste it.	01/23/1997

Work.	To what should I give my life?  To what should I devote my life?  Do what you value.  Do what you believe in.  Instead of doing what you like, do what you think is most just.	3/7/2004	*

Work.	Tom Peters says people get promoted to their level of incompetence.  I say no one gets jobs that makes full use of their abilities.	4/28/2001

Work.	Tradeoffs.  (1) Doing it for the money vs. doing what you love.  (2) Doing it for the stability (can never get fired) vs. doing what you love.  (3) Doing it for the demand (can always get hired) vs. doing what you love.	4/13/2001

Work.	Two phenomena of work today.  (1) Home offices: filled with computers, faxes, copiers, and printers.  (2) Office homes: filled with kitchens, cots, exercise equipment and showers.	8/18/2000

Work.	Two phenomena.  (1) Cannot find any job.  (2) Cannot find a job you like.	8/30/2001

Work.	Two phenomena.  (1) Home as work.  The home as office.  The home-based piece-work system.  (2) Work as home.  Workers dormitories at the factory.  (3) Piece-work and worker dormitories are examples how it can be a problem when a person cannot get away from work.  It is a problem when a person is always at work.	4/24/2005

Work.	Two types of people: (1) Those who like work (i.e., job, occupation) most of the time.  They like the structure, order, routine and ritual.  They like well defined goals and tasks.  They like people.  They have a generally positive frame of mind anywhere and everywhere.  (2) Those who dislike work (i.e., job, occupation) most of the time.  They feel constrained, bored, unsettled, unchallenged.  They may have a generally negative frame of mind anywhere and everywhere.	9/12/2000

Work.	Two work phenomena.  (1) At work (the place) but not working (the activity).  (2) Working (the activity) but not at work (the place).	11/15/2001

Work.	Types of jobs.  (1) High pay vs. low pay (money).  (2) Slaves vs. free (control, power).  (3) Do shit vs. do much (contribution).  (4) Get much vs. get shit (rewards).	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work: classified by object, function, qualities.  (1) Mental.  (A) Creative vs. noncreative droneing.  (B) Numbers vs. words vs. images.  (C) Solitary vs. in a group or around people.  (2) Physical: back breaking.  (3) Difficult vs. easy.  (4) Simple vs. complex.  (5) Variety vs. repetitive.  (6) Boring vs. interesting.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Fast track vs. slow track.  (2) Far track vs. short track.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Indoor vs. outdoor.  (2) White vs. blue.  (3) Pencil pushing vs. making things with hands.  (4) Attention to details vs. broad scope work.  (5) Generalizing vs. specializing.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Interesting vs. boring.  (2) Moral vs. immoral.  (3) Money vs. no money.  (4) Varied vs. repetitive.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Quick vs. long.  (2) Easy vs. arduous.  (3) Worth it vs. not worth it.  (4) No problems vs. problems.  (5) No drawbacks vs. drawbacks.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Task freedom (what do, how do, when do).  (2) People freedom (% own boss).  (3) Time freedom (choose hours, and amount of free time).	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  (1) Working primarily with physical objects (ex. carpentry).  (2) Working primarily with people (ex. sales).  (3) Working primarily with ideas (ex. words, images, numbers).	5/1/2006

Work.	Types of work.  Creating vs. thinking vs. unthinking.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Enjoyable (fun vs. no fun) is different from productive (work vs. play).	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Four different types of work.  (1) Doing what you must do (have to, forced to).  (2) Doing what you should do (ethics).  (3) Doing what you like to do (desire).  (4) Doing what you are good at (talent).	6/15/1999	*

Work.	Types of work.  Four types of job pressure.  (1) Pace pressures (how busy).  (2) Time deadline pressures.  (3) Competitive pressures.  (4) Standards pressures (for speed, quality, consistency, and endurance).	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Four types of jobs.  (1) Lotta work, lotta pay vs. (2) Lotta work, little pay vs. (3) Little work, lotta pay vs. (4) Little work, little pay.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Most thought vs. least thought.  Most structured vs. least structured.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Survival work vs. leisure work.	12/30/1992

Work.	Types of work.  Working alone vs. working with others.  Work is perhaps the premier social activity of humanity.  Let's face it, if none of us had to work our social interaction experience would be much less in quantity.  Very few people work completely alone.  For most of us, we work together, to get things done that need to be done, and to solve problems and to improve our lot.  We work together to accomplish what we alone cannot.	11/13/1999

Work.	Wages.  A living wage is a wage that lets you pay for housing, food, health care, education, and transportation.  Fewer and fewer jobs today pay a living wage, and that is a bad thing.	1/7/2007

Work.	We can't all be doctors and lawyers, simply because, firstly, there is not a need for more than a certain number of doctors and lawyers, and secondly, many people are needed to do all the other tasks in society.  If doctor and lawyer are the only high paying jobs then we cannot all be rich.	9/9/2001

Work.	What do you want to do with your life?  What do you want to do with your day?  What do you want to do with your time?  What should you do?  Discussions of work boil down to discussions of ethics.  Do not get suckered into mediocrity and idiocy just to make a buck.  Do not waste your life.  Do something useful.  Solve the world's problems.  Save the world.	4/25/2007	*

Work.	What do you want to give yourself to?  Because working 40 hours a week is giving a lot of yourself to something.	7/1/2003	*

Work.	What if they started a for-profit corporation and no one would work for it?  What if everyone worked for non-profit organizations?	3/12/2005

Work.	What is work?  (1) Narrow definition: your job to earn a buck.  (2) Wide definition: your life's purpose.	3/13/2005

Work.	What is work?  (1) Work as a place.  (2) Work as a time period.  (3) Work as a task, activity or behavior.  (4) Work as people.	4/24/2005

Work.	What is work?  Jobs are a learning experience.  One learns that one does not want to do a particular job.	4/1/2005

Work.	What is work?  Two definitions of work.  (1) Work defined as what you do to make money to live.  Your job.  (2) Work defined as what you do to give your life meaning.  Your life's work.  (3) Try to pick for your job something that's related to your life's work.	4/3/2005

Work.	What is work?  Work is an activity that is productive, meaningful, worthwhile, useful, valuable.	4/16/2006

Work.	What is work.  (1) Positive views of work.  (A) Work is an opportunity to grow and excel.  (B) You get to meet your friends.  (2) Negative views of work.  (A) Work = hell.  (B) Work is an unreedemming waste of time.  (C) Work = slavery 8 hrs/day, 1/3 life.  (D) Work = one half our conscious life spent in slave labor.  (E) Stuck with your enemies.  (F) Work is inescapable, you have to do it.  (G) Work is struggle and pain.  (H) Work is a rough, nasty, tough, drag.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  (1) Survival work: your job.  (2) Leisure time.  (A) Leisure work: productive.  (i) Need to do (ex. chores).  (ii) Free to do or not (ex. charity work).  (B) Leisure non-work: non-productive, play, loafing.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  90% of jobs out there, even the high paying ones, are moron jobs that use standard operating procedures and require no creativity.	12/12/1993

Work.	What is work.  99% of the work world is either shit work (truly mindless and loathsome) or monkey work (repetitive, boring, yet not as hideous as shit work, with better pay and position)  Even the "good" jobs are mostly monkey work.  The work world consists of people fighting to gain power to avoid the shit work and grab the monkey work.	07/30/1996

Work.	What is work.  All that schooling for jobs that require no thinking.  It pisses me off.  What a waste.	06/30/1993

Work.	What is work.  At work you are always selling yourself to the boss, and selling your company to the customers.  And the other person is always buying.  This even if you are both unconscious of it, or even if you both consciously think you are not.  Creating impressions to send out, and forming impressions of what you have seen.	06/17/1994

Work.	What is work.  At work, most people use about 50% of the power of their brain, in one narrow area of work.  They almost never use all of their brain power, in all areas.  This is a tremendous waste of human mind power.  And when they get home, they want to relax and use 0% of their brain power.	7/30/1996

Work.	What is work.  I thought the work world would be more interesting, and more harmonious, not so boring and conflict ridden.  Everyday takes all my physical and psychological effort.  Even when I am in top physical and psychological shape.	04/30/1993

Work.	What is work.  It is not how much you work, it is how much you get done.	06/30/1993

Work.	What is work.  Just as school destroys the desire to learn, job destroys the desire to work.  Especially in me.	04/30/1993	*

Work.	What is work.  Most jobs are deadly repetition, boring, robot, monkey work.	08/30/1996

Work.	What is work.  Survival work means you have to show up.  If you don't have to show up, it is not really survival work.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  Work = behavior that creates or does something useful.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  Work and leisure vs. fun, satisfaction, enjoyment, pleasure.  (1) You can be working (productive) and be having fun.  (2) You can be playing (unproductive) and not be having fun.	08/20/1994

Work.	What is work.  Work definitions: (1) Paid for.  (2) Productive.  (3) Not fun.  (4) Effort filled (not easy).	09/10/1994

Work.	What is work.  Work is rarely friendship, respect, and cooperation.  Work is often war.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  Work socializes people.	12/30/1992

Work.	What is work.  Work vs. leisure.  Work vs. play.  Work vs. rest.	12/30/1992

Work.	When work monopolizes your mind constantly.  When you think about your job 24x7.  There is no escape.  Your life is over.	8/4/2001	*

Work.	When you are forced to spend the majority of your waking hours doing something that is (1) Useless: not contributing to humanity.  (2) Stupid: wasting your brain power.  (3) Something you dislike intensely.  (4) That is, when you are forced to waste your life just to stay alive, then you know the system has you by the balls.	6/17/2001	*

Work.	When you take a job that requires that you shut up in order to receive a paycheck, you have taken an informal payoff or bribe.  When you work against your principles to get a paycheck, you have prostituted yourself.	1/26/2004	*

Work.	When, on the one hand, the tasks of your job are slowly killing you, and on the other hand, the money you earn on the job is barely keeping you alive, then you have entered the interesting territory of existential irony.	6/17/2001	*

Work.	Which is worse?  (1) Years ago, most people worked at tasks that involved mindless, repetitive physical labor while at work.  Yet their minds were free to contemplate their lives or to mull over their experiences or to integrate their lives.  This is psychologically healthy.  However, the actual circumstances of their lives had limiting and unhealthy aspects such as a lack of freedom and mobility.  (2) Today we work jobs that require constant mental effort and little physical effort.  Today, after work, there is very little time to ponder one's life.  This is psychologically unhealthy.  However, there are other aspects of today's work that are psychologically healthy, such as increased freedom to choose your job and increased educational opportunities.	6/15/2002

Work.	Why do people hire their friends?  Its to collect a favor later on.  Nepotism (i.e., the hiring of one's relatives) may be illegal in some places, but the hiring of friends is rampant everywhere.  What a better way to collect coup.  Its almost as good as saving someone's life.  The phrase "How can I ever repay you.", is not funny.  You owe and owe and owe and owe and owe...	8/26/2001

Work.	Why do we work?  We work so that we can go home, eat, sleep and wake up the next day and go to work again.  That is, we work to work.	4/29/2001

Work.	Why work?  (1) Work to have a life's purpose.  (2) Work to make a living.	4/16/2006

Work.	Work (survival and leisure) depends on time, effort, and ability to produce a given quantity and quality of accomplishment or result.  Ability depends on psychological and physical preparation (study and practice) as well as tools and techniques, and strategy and tactics used.	02/28/1998

Work.	Work complex.  How long, how hard, on what, for who (self, others)?  Why, how (tech), strategies and tactics.  Mental vs. physical.  Forced vs. chosen.  Gains, stagnation, losses.	12/30/1992

Work.	Work defined as what we do all day.  The nature of work has changed over the millenia.  (1) Hunter - gatherers.  (2) Agrarian farmers.  (3) Industrial workers.  Time clocks.  Shift work.  Mass production.  Assembly lines.  (4) Service economies.  Office cubicles.  (5) Information workers.  Computers.	5/20/2004

Work.	Work environment types.  Exploitive, abusive, oppressive, unsafe vs. growthful, challenging, caring.	5/30/1998

Work.	Work is repressive because: (1) No one talks about anything except work.  People are discouraged from talking about subjects other than work.  (2) People are discouraged from expressing how they really feel.  Everyone is supposed to act happy even if they feel angry, sad, anxious, etc.	2/1/2002

Work.	Work system structure:  Number of industries.  Number of companies.  Number of jobs.  Number of tasks.	9/18/1998

Work.	Work today in the United States.  (1) There is too much corporatism today in the United States.  Corporation have to much political influence.  Corporations pay to little tax and have too few regulations.  (2) Unions are in decline.  There should be a more unions.  There should be less corruption in Unions.  (3) Worker ennui and alienation.  Workers often do not see the final product.  Workers often do not see the customer.  Workers often do not see the product in use.	10/30/2005

Work.	Work vs. freedom.  Money vs. poverty.  Work vs. spirit, soul, and mind.	12/30/1992

Work.	Work vs. other areas of life: like/lust, kids, society, leisure.	12/30/1992

Work.	Your wants vs. society's wants.	12/30/1992