Despite our problems, things have never been better, materially and technologically. Yet things have rarely, if ever, been worse psychologically and intellectually.

The material and economic comforts of today are not the result of the culture. The culture is frankly insane. We still enjoy comfort today because of the sanity, rationality, self-responsibility and economic freedom that dominated earlier eras. Not today’s era of snowflakery, faux science, group hysteria, paranoia and an unrelenting pathological need to control others.

If we’re to preserve, sustain and expand the wonderful world we have created, it’s imperative we fix our mental and intellectual states. On our present road of insanity, few of us will even want freedom, much less be able to handle it.

Your leftist, statist neighbor is happy to vote for someone who will force you, at gunpoint if necessary, to do something you would not otherwise do. It’s so easy! No blood, no unpleasantness. Just raw coercion and total control.

Yet it can’t last forever. And we are very near the endpoint. Trump’s movement was when it first became overt.

As our government becomes more and more corrupt, unstable and unsustainable, the question now is:

Will that same neighbor be PERSONALLY prepared to hold you up at gunpoint to force you to do what he/she wants you to do? Or hire an armed thug to do so? We are all gangsters now, especially since politicians no longer conceal their rotten, hollow, amoral natures.

Increasingly, the mask is off. Governments fall apart and collapse. That’s when you find out what people REALLY believe.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Written by Jeanie D’Amico, sent to me by Judith A. McDonald

I’m old enough to remember the results of WWII. My dad was a war hero, he was muscular, strong, silent and wounded in his right hand but more damaged in his mind. I think he lived with the sound of war replaying in his head every day of his life after he came home. He had a group of army buddies who would come over to drink beer and reminisce about the war, I adored those men, but didn’t understand a bit.

What I remember is their bravado and optimism, one had a metal hook in place of a hand, I liked watching him open bottles and cans with his hook, he never complained. One had an artificial leg, I never heard him complain.

These young men were filled with pride and optimism, they had just defeated an impossible enemy that would have enslaved the world if it had been given the opportunity. Those men were heroes and knew it, they rejected the idea that they were individual heroes, but as a force, they were heroes. America was filled with optimism, there was nothing we couldn’t do or accomplish.

Those men and women built a new, urban America filled with innovation, nothing was out of reach. My generation grew up believing in American superiority, of accomplishment, nothing was impossible, anything could be accomplished. But, we were sheltered from the hard work, determination and drive that made our parents successful.

They assumed that if we were well educated, we could accomplish more than they did. But we sat in classrooms at a time in life when they were doing farm chores, chopping wood, caring for animals, canning and preserving food for winter. We became soft, but we still wanted the success that hard work brought our parents’ generation. Each generation since has become softer and softer to the point that young people need stuffed animals and safe spaces to cope with minor disagreements. We are not the same people who won two world wars, we are not the people who built skyscrapers, or invented all of our modern conveniences.

We must take off the blinders and see the world as it is, not the way my dad saw it, but the reality of the world of today. We forfeited my dad’s America, it’s time we recognize that. If we want an America like my parents’ generation, but an America with greater sensitivity to minorities and the disabled, we MUST first see the reality of where we are TODAY, not where we were in 1950.

We won’t do that listening to the mockingbird media and the corrupt looters and moochers, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start to do the hard labor to restore the country, politicians won’t do it for us and it won’t happen if we are sending our youth and treasure into another losing war or locking ourselves in our houses because we’re afraid of each other. Be like my dad, don’t be like the college student protesting about pronouns.

“The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd.”

African proverb

If you want to change the world, then stop tolerating the intolerable.

Resist, complain, detach, scream, fight, withdraw — or simply refuse to participate.

Put bad people on the defensive and demand THEY explain why THEY are such terrible people.

Doing all this may or may not change the world. But it will definitely change YOUR world.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

A reader sent me a comment about one of my columns where I suggested that the biggest mistake people make is to try to change others. She agrees that the choice of what to think and do will always be that of the individual. But then she makes an interesting point: Can people can be changed or otherwise affected by factors beyond their control, like advertising, education and other outside influences? Can these factors lead people to a particular belief and perhaps direct their actions?

Our subconscious mind responds to ideas, language and physical cues before we form a fully conscious concept. Countless books have been written about how to generate sales, manage employees, sway voters, improve teamwork, etc. All of these fall under “influence” as defined above, and can indeed change behaviors – under certain conditions that vary with the individual.

For example, one person will respond to an ad for an expensive automobile by thinking, “Wow, that car looks nice!” He might even buy it. Did the ad make him do it? Of course not. The ad merely tapped into a value he already held. The fact that he likes nice cars was already present in his subconscious. The ad came along and reminded him of what he subconsciously values. This is neither control, deception, nor undue influence.

A different person will see the ad and not care. He’s content with his average car. Another man might react to the ad with anger. “I can’t believe people spend that kind of money on cars! That money should be given to poor people for health care.” Another might experience envy. “I hate people who can afford those cars. They don’t deserve them.”

The commercial generated an array of emotions based on the values and beliefs of each viewer. When the subconscious responds to ideas, it’s actually responding to stored values that were previously perceived and then internalized by the conscious mind. The ad brought that subconsciously stored value to the surface where we may, or may not, act on it.

Of course, different tactics will generate varying degrees of influence, depending on the person. Some people respond primarily to reason and are disgusted by intimidation or shouting. Others may respond only to the threat of force. Most of these types use force and intimidation themselves, with no concern for reason.

The famous cognitive psychotherapist Albert Ellis correctly pointed out that emotions have three parts. He dubbed them “A-B-C.” First, there is “A,” the activating event (the car ad, for example). Second, there is “B,” the belief the person holds (this could also be called the premise). Third, “C,” is the emotional consequence (did he like the ad?).

People do what they do because of the beliefs and values they hold, and there can be a multitude of emotional responses to the same influence. Some beliefs can be erroneous, some correct, some irrational or half-truths, and some might be a matter of debate.

This is why you can’t control other people. Their minds already control them. They can be influenced though education and logic, but they will only change if they believe that it’s worthwhile to do so.

Try telling an Islamic terrorist that he should listen to reason. You won’t get anywhere, because he’s firmly convinced that faith supersedes reason — in fact, it’s immoral to even listen to reason from an “infidel.” The same thing applies to cults. Some members will figuratively (or literally) drink the Kool-Aid, while others will eventually leave. Again: Some people hold viewpoints that forbid questioning, while others retain the willingness to question and think – even in the face of undue influence.

Thinking trumps influence. You can try to influence all you want, but in the end, it’s ideas and the willingness to think that determine the actions a person will ultimately take.

Michael J. Hurd, Life’s a Beach

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/wayne-root-biden-not-charge-exactly-happening/