I just want a little time off

Just a little time off, is that too much to ask for? We all need some down time, lay back in the hammock and read a book, lay back in a hammock and day dream. Sleep late and then walk around your neighborhood talking to anyone you meet. Turn off the cell phone, the cable TV and the laptop. Get reacquainted with yourself and to use a common adage “stop and smell the roses”. Create your own aphorism, have an original thought, it isn’t possible to think of nothing but it is possible to think for yourself. Reading a Huff Post titled “Are you good at hammocks” got me thinking about this.

We are constantly bombarded by messages carefully crafted by excellent professional marketing research groups. All these messages have a self serving purpose, whether to buy a specific soap or vote for a specific politician. The purpose is to brain wash the public. A scientifically based manipulation of individuals and they are really good at their craft, constantly improving their techniques. We have an unarmed civilian population being assaulted by professional storm troopers using advanced weaponry. From bumper stickers to infomercials all have the same brain washing objective. The storm troopers are winning; the middle class now supports banking practices that are destroying the middle class. That is just one example from dozens.

Our plight is not hopeless. We can defeat profession brain washing. We have bought the rationalization that we perform careful cerebral calculations creating fully thought out positions. This is the brain washing in practice. We are mentally replaying the cable TV commercial, internalizing the message as our own. Our salvation lies in the hammock.

Get comfortable in your hammock and day dream. Let your subconscious do some of the work. Don’t pretend that you are engaging in cerebral calculations, instead relax and let the mind wander. That entire information overload is stored somewhere in your brain. The information overload has been contextualized by learned talking heads, pundits and gurus with targeted messages. Believe me on this, you are smarter than the marketing research predicts.

Get comfortable in the hammock and day dream. The homily to “sleep on it” doesn’t require that you sleep. A relaxed mentally open state allowing our full brain to ponder the problem will lead to an original thought. Without strain or stress the mind will collimate and evaluate, the resulting insight is hugely gratifying. Although sometimes I get angry when I realize that I have been scammed, the freedom I get by understanding the scam more than offsets the negative feelings.

One note of caution, you can still be wrong. At least you will be wrong based on your own independent thinking.