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.
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