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Brainy Thoughts

Today I chose to share one of my recent poems…I have written 100’s of them and some are published in Kindle …

Anger is an emotion that can twist our sensibilities. Anger can cloud our judgements. Anger can turn a normal person into a monster. Anger can be like letting a wild animal loose. Anger can make us hate. Hate is an emotion that binds us to the one that we hate. We are angry at the virus that kills at random. We are angry at politicians that lie and cheat and are greedy. We are angry at all the bad decisions being made in our name. We are angry that we cannot do a damn thing about it. Too many things in life create anger. Usually it’s a result of the frustrations that we feel, because we are so helpless. The world can be a very angry place. The results of religious beliefs can create so much anger and twist someone’s thoughts to the point that they are willing to kill themselves and kill other people at the same time. Imagine how much anger that must take. In that person’s mind, they believe in some fantasy afterlife that they will enjoy. We get angry at some mythical god that we imagine is real. We watch the terrible results of some natural disasters and wonder why that god did not stop it. Then we get angry. Our lives are filled with angry moments.

PUTTING ON AIRS

Our grandparents or maybe your great grandparents generation, were all about presenting the “perfect self”. When ever they went out in public they cared, excessively, about their appearance. There was always a mirror near the front door to check their face and hair and a hat, if they were wearing one. Women always had a pocket mirror to check their make up, through out the day. Hairdos had to be perfect. Men used to get their hair cut every 2-3 weeks. Men were always closely shaven unless they had a beard or moustache. There were no 3 day old beard looks back then. Mothers always carefully checked over their children’s appearance before going outdoors. If a little cowlick ( weird word) was sticking up, mother would lick her own hand to wet down any stubborn lock of hair that was out of place. If there was a little food on the children’s face, mother’s always carried a handkerchief to remove any such little issues. Public appearance was very important, and having that perfect look was important. Women wore nylon stockings and they obsessed over their seams being straight. Blue jeans were not usually considered proper wear out in public. People dressed up for even going out shopping. When commercial airplane travel became popular, people always dressed up for that. Back then, people cared a lot more about how they appeared out in public. Not only how they were dressed but just how they presented themselves in any public way. Proper language was important, slang words were discouraged and using the correct forms of speech was watched carefully . Being polite was very important and children were often corrected for not addressing adults in a proper manner. As I am writing this, I am getting images in my mind of just how different things were back then. I was born in 1942, so I became a teen in the 50’s, a very fun time. The 50’s gave us so many new and fun products, like cars with huge tailfins and gaudy chrome grills and bumpers. The introduction of rock and roll music had a huge influence on everything. That is when everything changed. People became a lot less concerned about their public appearances, everything was more casual. What created this change was the Youth Market that was quickly emerging. The beginnings of the Baby Boomers happened. Clothing became a lot more casual and blue jeans became the status quo of daily wear. People were experimenting with styling and have a great time. The economy grew by 37% in the 50’s and personal income grew by 30%, this must have been our best decade.

Truth Is Hard To Find

We listen to the news and we know there is always bias. MSNBC and CNN have decent employees that have won broadcasting awards but they lean to the left. They willingly mock the Republicans as much as they can. Fox News, which is not allowed to call themselves a “news station” by the FCC is called “infotainment”. They do, however, pretend that they are reporting news. They are totally focused on ratings and they will say whatever stirs their audience. I really do not know where to go for honest, unbiased news, anymore. The government is totally biased and their reporting is never trustworthy. They tell us what they think, that we should know. The Pentagon is the worst. Their agenda is to promote wars and keep the military contractors happy. They are constantly focused on recruitment and they have their ubiquitous talking points, like killing strangers in foreign lands is heroic and patriotic and this is serving their country. Murder in a war zone is never considered to be breaking the law. Young people subjected to a war are never going to remain the same, mentally. Unfortunately, the veterans are not treated with the respect that they thought they would and should receive. Lies are freely tossed around by politicians that are constantly having to campaign and try to promote donations, to keep their jobs. They will say whatever they think, that their base will respond to. They watch the polls after they have been speaking at a rally, to see “how the wind blows”. They will adjust their positions depending on their poll ratings, sometimes it requires a complete reversal. No one trusts politicians as a whole, yet loyal party supporters, often believe what they hear, because it supports their ideas. The Right and Left play this silly game of “tossing rocks” at each other and get all excited over certain movements in the political wave. It’s very easy to observe and then guess what everyone’s reactions will be, after some disaster. The politicians want us to be divided and they will say whatever is needed to promote divisions. It’s the old concept of “divide and conquer”. This is why I am totally against having any political parties, what so ever.

PEACE NOT WAR

For too long a time us humans have engaged in so many wars and battles. Students are taught history and the important moments are delineated by the dates of wars and battles. My book, Human Nature/Kindle/davidmichaelschmidt , speaks about the 4 humans traits that define us, Tribal, Violent, Greed and Predatory. Wars employ all of these traits and force humans to expose their very worst angry beast. Wars are fought to defend attackers or to invade for increased power. Before countries had definite borders, armies invaded neighboring regions to gain more land for their Kings. Everything was up for grabs. Now that we have borders and armies to defend invasions, countries struggle for political and monetary reasons. The most countries with the largest military can boast that they are not likely to be invaded. America, however, has used our army to invade countries that pose no direct threats, and have used this for monetary and political reasons. America sees itself as the “worlds police”. Wars have become a “business model”. Military contractors are making trillions. Members of Congress get paid to encourage these wars and to keep them going. These poor excuses for human being, sit back and watch our soldiers die to that they can maintain their profits. If anyone remembers the cartoon, Little Orphan Annie, her daddy that adopted her was Oliver ( Daddy) Warbucks. His name was satire, for something very real, during the Second World War, getting rich off the war. President Dwight Eisenhower, warned us about the Military Industrial Complex. War profiteers have been criticized for a very long time but it still goes on. I am a Pacifist. I am against all war. Wars never have to happen anymore if people would simply refuse to support them. This includes soldiers. Everyone needs to accept a change in attitudes about war. War is simply insanity and no one wins in a war, everyone suffers death, expenses and destruction and the affects on the military after the war and the morality of mass murders. War is like letting a wild, vicious, uncontrollable monster loose. Men and women in a war, will do horrible things and see terrible things, that will change their lives forever. No human could survive a war and not be changed. We need to ask ourselves. “is this what we want to be ? ” . The world can change this, we just need the will power and strength and vision..

THANK YOU !

We have finally ended the GW Bush debacle know as the Afghanistan War. The longest running military action in American history. Thanks to Joe Biden for having the courage to finally remove all of our troops, despite a LOT of negative criticism. He knew that his popularity would take a hit. Sometimes a man has to have the knowledge that doing the right thing, over shadows, doing the popular thing. Politics is a very tricky game, because every major action will bring about a negative and a positive reaction. The public is always ready to jump onboard the internet postings. We are all scanning our social media websites and looking for something that we can post. It’s like a million people all screaming at once. We all want to be seen and we want to push out our viewpoint. Not only did Biden remove all of our troops, he rescued more than 106,000 evacuees. Too many people on FB want to only focus on the unfortunate deaths of 18 young Marines that were victims of a suicide bomber. Of course this negative posting was done by RepublicanTs. They were extremely all “cocked” and ready to shoot. Because of so much negative press against the many right wing errors lately, they were more than ready to seek something to hit back against the Biden administration. The hypocritical perceptions when balanced against the attack against the WTC on 9/11, when no one from the RepublicanT party, criticized Bush and said that it was all his mistake and wanted him to resign. This is exactly why I dislike political parties. This just sets us the “team mentality” and we humans, are ready to attack the other side. American people should work together to solve our problems, not fight against each other over ideologies. Wars are always wrong and my wish for the world is to end all wars. Wars could end tomorrow if humans refused to participate against the wishes of our leaders. Soldiers would refuse to fight and all citizens could refuse to support any part of war. This would take a major mind shift. Back in the mid 1960’s, there was a great shift in American thinking against wars. The great slogans like, “make love not war” , were a terrific beginning in changing the mind set. Another slogan I liked was, ” what if they gave a war and no body came”. It is not difficult to change the thinking process if it is energized by influential people. Unfortunately, in the 60’s, this change in thinking only happened because of the Vietnam War and so many young men were killed. Humans tend to avoid any major changes until something tragic occurs, then we react like it had to change immediately and we wondered why it was taking so long.

No One Knows Anything

All through our lives we hear things and read things but we really do not know all that much. We have enough info to get through our lives and that’s about it. Because of the internet, we read things and we pass that info on but it is not verified. For centuries people have feared the number 13 for absolutely no reason at all. This is superstition. We just pass it along from generation to generation and no one questions it. The beginning of the 13 fear began when the Vatican decided that the Knights Templar were just too powerful and the pope wanted them gone. On a Friday, Jan 13th, 1128, he ordered his army ( yes the Vatican had an army) or at least the pope had trusted men that were trained to carry out this task. They went out in one night and killed as many of the Knights Templar as they could find and this date stuck in the minds of people. From that time forward, Friday the 13th has been passed on as an “unlucky” date. We can say that this is totally silly but yet buildings were constructed without a 13th floor, at least as far as the numbering was concerned. Of course if a building was 30 stories tall, there was a 13th floor but that never numbered it as such. Fear of a number is mass hysteria. This is exactly what I am writing about. We all love to pass along the silly stories and fears and assorted nonsense like it’s factual, when it isn’t. This is obviously evident when it come to religions. No one in the history of civilization has ever proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, using conclusive evidence that we can witness with our 5 senses, that any Gods or Goddesses have ever existed. Regardless of the lack of verification, religions prosper on a grand scale. “Belief” is the word that is used. Belief simply means “pretend”. Humans have killed one another over a belief, a fantasy. I do not want to ruffle feathers so I won’t say anymore about religions. I know how serious some people take this. Fear is simply a lack of knowledge. We only fear the unknown. I think of fear as our brake pedal. If we are driving and we approach a blind curve, we slow down and apply the brake pedal lightly. Fear keeps us from doing stupid things like walking across a busy intersection when the light is red. People like to regard fear as negative but it isn’t. If anyone wants to overcome a fear, they just need to become educated about the subject. Learn as much info as you can. This current pandemic situation is so filled with mis-information, that people read on some social media website, that it’s literally killing us. People are so ready to pass along something they just heard or read, like they will get a reward for being the first. News is now treated like something that you just cannot wait to share, regardless of it’s veracity. The amount of lies is compounded by more lies until the actual “truth” is buried somewhere between the lines or totally hidden. The last president treated the “truth” like it didn’t really matter. He regarded anything that he said was now the “truth” because he said it. Humanity is suffering from a “truth” gap. The internet takes info and polishes it and shines it and holds it up like it’s a prize for all to see. Facts don’t seem to matter anymore. Info is a toy that we play with and bounce around and watch were it lands.

The Blame Game

Funny that after all this time that Joe Biden has been the president, the crazy people in the GOP party have refused to accept this. You know the ones, the people that refuse to accept the outcome of the election. WELL, now that there is something to bitch about, these people are suddenly calling Biden, the president. Very amusing. This is why I dislike political parties, it just turns people into ignorant trolls. We pick the “team” and start throwing rocks over the fence and we don’t really care who we hit. Humans are TRIBAL by nature and we easily find a group to identify with. Most political party choices depend on where you live in the country. There are states that have very loyal party members. We identify certain states by being Red or Blue. Splitting the country into 2 sides is what the politicians want. The old idea of “divide and conquer”. It is so much easier to control us when we are busy blaming each other for the countries woes. You see it just scrolling though social media. People posting memes, blaming the president, whoever that may be at the time. I admit to being guilty of this. It’s too compelling to want to join into the game. We all have something that we are angry about, when it comes to politics and the people that control us. No matter who is the president, around 50% of the country will love or hate that person. Most of this vitriol is driven by party politics. I would rather have a country that works together and tries to get a compromise on issues that concern us the most. Our system has many flaws in how we govern. I would rather elect people that we think will do the best job, based on their qualifications, not on the “team” that they represent. We spend so much time hating the other team, then we do, trying to find ways to get things done. We need to drop our flags and hats and t-shirts with the “team” logo. Let’s just all be Americans for a change. Our Tribal nature is always looking for a “side” to belong to. If “our side” was the whole country, we would all prosper.

Freedom Isn’t Free

We have certain freedoms but what we choose to express may impact someone else. Some people are selfish and greedy and they want to have their freedoms even if it affects others. Freedom isn’t free, there is always a price to be paid. We want to be able to wander through life and not be interfered with. If we choose to live within a social structure in a city controlled by government, then we have to live within the rules. Freedoms often conflict with the rules of government, even when they gave us freedoms. Government creates rules that will save lives and also impacts your freedoms. One example of this is wearing a seatbelt when you are driving. People do not like being told what to do. There are times when your freedom has to be balanced with what is best for all. Wearing a mask, to help prevent the transmissions of the Covid virus and the many variants, affects your freedom. This is a time when your freedom is challenged. Being selfish can cause the deaths or serious illness of others. Government is not the right body to control a health crisis. However, this is what has occurred. Politicians ceased this opportunity to press their agenda. The two different political parties have chosen sides. One party has the power and the popular opinion, and, obviously has science on their side. The other party decided to be the antagonist, because this is the only choice that they had. This is exactly why I dislike political parties and I think that we should eliminate them all. There is a strong Tribal trait within humankind to choose a side and be loyal to that team. Common sense is usually ignored and what is best for all, is tossed aside. People know that a mask can help to prevent the airborne transmissions of the virus, but out of a sense of team loyalty, they refuse to wear the mask. People go to the extreme of passing faulty information about vaccines and mask wearing, on social media. These people are simply lying to support their team agenda, to disrupt what is the correct path to controlling the virus. These people do not seem to care that people are dying all around them, as long as their team position is promoted. Vaccines have helped control many other diseases over decades and even totally eliminated them. The team mentality caused people to invent bogus negative reasons to refuse to get vaccinated. Common sense is superseded by lies and made up comments. If you scroll through Facebook you will quickly see many posts against receiving a vaccine just because their team has chosen to resist it. The logic behind the negativity is extremely harmful. Going back to the freedom issue, this reminds me of people that choose to drive a very loud, obviously annoying, car. They want to use their freedom to drive this car even though they know it will bother people. They either are seeking attention, or just don’t care at all. It is the same when people are playing very loud music, even when, they know that it will bother other people. This is just plain selfishness.