TATTOO OR NOT TATTOO

Tattoos suddenly started to show up on the arms of rock and roll artists. That created a new fad or really resurrected an old fad. Tattoos used to be seen on the bad boys of our society like bikers. They were like an anti-establishment symbolism. Of course, going way back, tattoos were seen on sailors. Now the tattoo fad has gone to the extreme with people covering a large part of their torsos, on the front and back and legs. Humans are Tribal, by nature and nothing confirms this more that the tattoo fad. It’s the old “monkey see, monkey do” idea. Humans are social creatures that want to be accepted by the community. Some primitive tribes in different parts of the world have tattoos and they have different symbolism. Tattoos are a personal form of artwork and have meanings for the persons that have them. I have considered a tattoo but that would mean that I have conformed to a fad and I don’t do that. I like to be a free thinker that is not motivated by what everyone else is doing. If I did get a tattoo, it would something that mocked the fad, like the words “tattoo” on the top of my hand. I am a very cynical thinker and that is one reason that I write and draw cartoons, to mock society and point out our silliness. It is interesting that people react to a fad and they think that they are doing something unique because it’s new. Fads are just a way to be a part of the community. It’s like showing up to a party and seeing that you are wearing what everyone else is, and feeling very satisfied. Society will actually mock people that are not conforming to the latest looks. Like the old British rule, that you cannot wear white after Labor Day. This is our Tribal nature and I am surprised that no one ever mentions it, when it is so painfully obvious. This whole issue of “racism” is based on the same thing. We naturally fear anyone that is different. It could be someone that is from a different ethnicity or religious belief or a different class. The wealthy have always treated the poor people differently and visa versa. The media keeps claiming that racism can be overcome with a different mind set but it’s fear of the diversity that creates it. It is politically incorrect to say that we are racist, so we all pretend that we are not. I claim that even if we were all identical clones, we would still single people out that have freckles or moles. Tribalism is not something that we can just pretend does not exist, it is a part of our survival mechanism.

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BORN DIFFERENT

Many people are born with handicaps. It could be a physical deformity like a birthmark or deformed limb or speech impediment. No one should be treated differently because of how they were born but our society doesn’t see it that way. I was born with red hair and I grew up in the 40’s. Girls with red hair were treated much differently than boys with red hair. Many males with red hair born in the 1940’s became comedians as a way to deal with their being different. Think about all the males with red hair, like Red Skeleton, Red buttons, Mickey Rooney, etc. Humor is a common way for people to deal with being different. Having red hair always made me feel odd and not part of the “tribe”. People would call me “red” or “carrot top”. Some people can use this difference as an advantage and pretend that they are unique and therefore better, but they never really believe that. Everyone wants to feel accepted. No one wants to be pointed at and criticized. At one time, in this country, people born left handed were treated at freaks. Schools used to force these kids to learn to write with their right hands to conform them to be like everyone else. Conformity seemed to be very important at one time. The LGBT community might seem like something new but there have always been people who were born homosexuals or bisexuals. It might seem more obvious now because these people use to conceal it before it was acceptable. I say “acceptable” but we all know that is not totally true. Society still whispers behind people’s backs that they are queer. We hear all the time that someone just did something notable and it’s pointed out that they are gay. There is a very good reason why society treats people differently if they are not conformed to what we think of as “normal”. Humans are TRIBAL by nature, something you will hear me talk about often. Being Tribal beings, we fear anyone that is different. People with a different shade of skin, something we refer to as a “color”. It really annoys me that we use the word “color” like someone has blue or green skin. Every single human has the same color skin, just in a variety of shades. Saying, “black” and “white” is a terrible way to describe people. No one has black or white skin. Eventually, everyone will be blended together and there will be just one shade of skin. But, I say that even if all humans were clones, that we would still find something like a mole or freckle to point at. This is just human nature. Since we fear anyone that is different, we do so because of our safety. We should be cautious around strangers. We teach our children to “never speak to strangers” for good reason. People often speak of “racism” like it’s a very terrible thing but because of our natural fear of strangers, we are all racists. It’s not something that we are comfortable with because it’s not politically correct. We often hear people speak about racism like it’s something that we can just “get over”. Speaking about it won’t change our natural human trait of, the fear of strangers. Humans, being tribal, are easily grouped by society. We choose a political party, usually based on where we were born, ( red state or blue state) or what party are parents or our peers like. There really isn’t all that much different between the parties, except what we have been coerced to believe by the media. There is a ” team” mentality, the “us vs them” attitude. The same can be said about religions. I have slightly drifted off topic of being born different. I tend to do that a lot. Wander off topic. But I try to make people see how humans treat one another and want people to realize why we do it. We are TRIBAL by nature. This doesn’t make us good or bad. It’s just how we are.

HOW MUCH DO WE CARE ?

When does politics stand in the way of common sense ? This is why I dislike the idea of political parties. I see no practical reason for having 2 parties at all. Why cannot we just choose politicians for their merits and not the “team” that they belong to. Humans are Tribal by nature, something you will see me write about a lot here. Humans naturally like to have a group to belong to because of our Tribal Nature. We pick our favorite sports teams and are very loyal to them. We belong to a certain religion and we are very loyal to them. Most people did not have the choice to be involved in their religion because their parents indoctrinated them. Religious connections are infected into our traditions. Parents think that it’s their duty to pass along their religious beliefs to their children. Most religious people never question their beliefs, they just adhere to the rules and follow along. I could talk all day on this subject but I don’t want to bore you. So I won’t. The pandemic has somehow, split people’s attitudes about getting the vaccine. The states that are lagging behind in people getting vaccines seem to be the “red” states. For some reason, the Conservatives have seen the vaccine as a political statement instead of a health issue. I can easily blame the last president, because he never took the pandemic seriously. The pandemic actually destroyed his chances of getting re-elected. If he would have acted like a mature adult when the pandemic first broke, he may have been re-elected. The pandemic put our economy into a recession and the past president could no longer brag about how great the economy was doing. Instead, he tried to pretend, that the Covid-19 was a hoax. So many Conservative Americans took cues from the past president and also tried to pretend that pandemic was not a serious threat. Even after all the time that has past, those people are still acting like children and refusing to get a vaccine, even though they know it can save lives. They care more about serving their party, then to save lives. America has totally lost the caring compassion it once had. America is divided along party lines. People will choose to put their own lives at risk and their families lives at risk, just out of party loyalty. This “team” mentality is very dangerous to this country. Team mentality is ruining the potential progress of this country. So many positive things could be accomplished if we all worked together. We are one people, no matter what shade of skin that you were born with or what fantasy God that you worship. It’s time to become responsible adults.

MAKE WAR OBSOLETE

We have been engaging in military offensives in the Middle East for 20 plus years. This all began as an act of revenge against the Taliban or Isis or whatever, we have forgotten by now. No one can say, definitively, what American military has been doing in the region. At one time we engaged private contract military forces, as well. Now, president Biden has come to his senses and is removing the military presence in Afghanistan. America has military presence in 150 countries around the world. This makes us an Offensive force not a Defensive force. We are occupiers. War is really an act of Insanity. No one can win a war since each side will sustain many deaths. War proves that “might is right”. The one with the most bombs wins. America is the only country to have ever used the Atom Bomb against another country and we did it twice to Japan. Some people will argue and claim this aggression saved lives because it ended the war. I guess we could use that method for every war going forward. Just completely destroy the enemy and all of it’s inhabitants. Just wipe them off the face of the map, like they never existed. We even have rules of engagement in wars. Think about how silly this is. Some people have even been sentenced because they went too far in cruelty. Why don’t we even be real civilized and only allow sticks and rocks as weapons. Even better, we could each choose one warrior to represent our side and have the 2 men fight it out to the death. War is like letting a wild animal loose that cannot be controlled. We humans could end all wars if we just changed our tolerances. Our soldiers could refuse to kill strangers in a foreign land. The public could refuse to cooperate in any wars whatsoever. During the Vietnam war, it ended because of the public outcry. It takes two, to have a fight. If one side refuses to engage then there is no war. There is much evidence to show that war is just a means for the Military Industrial Complex to make a ton of money. What happened to our country and our interest in cooperating goes back to WW2. When America was pulled into the war, the spirit that was created was amazing. Everyone in this country was motivated to win. Most of the the young men were drafted and the women left behind were hired to help build war machines. People everywhere had a single purpose to win. This amazing spirit was used by our Defense Dept to promote more wars like in Korea. The government used the public support and realized that spirit might not last and it didn’t by the 1960’s. They tried to get us into another war in Vietnam. It did work initially until young men were dying in huge numbers and the college age men got together and protested. We need to send a message to Washington that we will not support any more wars, ever. Wars are always an act of power grabbing. American must stop involving itself into the political affairs of other countries. There will always be some regime that we do not like. We have engaged into the power structures of other countries without actually going to war. We have helped to change to leadership of other countries using clandestine methods. Our CIA, has been involved all around the world to change election outcomes. Our Defense Dept has the biggest budget, that receives over 700 billion annually. We waste a great percentage of this in poor strategies and selections of unneeded, redundant equipment. Any person with a logical brain can see the folly in all of this. We literally are blowing up billions of dollars, in ruinations, that did not need to occur. We put thousands of military personnel’s lives in jeopardy, just to flex our military muscle and brag to the world that we are the best at war. We can stop this, all it takes is the will to do it.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

The day we kicked out the British rulers. The British, at one time, occupied 56 countries and territories across the globe. They had a slogan, “the British flag never sees the sunset” , because of the vast holdings that they had in all parts of the world. The interesting fact is that the world never held Great Britain accountable for all the areas they they once dominated by force. Americans like to celebrate July 4th by blowing things up and getting drunk and eating cheap food. Yes, we are so proud of kicking out the British, but those that did the fighting, were also British that came here to get away from their previous rulers. But the dark side of our occupation of this country is how we mistreated the Natives that were living here. The British immigrants acted like they found this unoccupied country and they could just move in and take over. They killed most of all the natives here over time. At one time there were over 500 different native tribes living here across the country. I used the word “mistreated”, but we tortured and killed them. I say “we” as meaning those that lived here at the time. We proud American immigrants. So proud that we built this country and then bought Negro slaves here to work our cotton fields and help build our important government buildings like the Capitol and the White House. We try to hide these facts in our history lessons, but the information is there for all to read. We should redirect our pride towards the facts of what happened in the beginnings of America. Slavery eventually became an issue that tore this country in two. We fought a very bloody war that still has political scars that show today. The people living in the south still have an attitude problem that lingers. Statues of Confederate generals are just now being removed and many are against even that. I am very much against our current political governing policies and the attitudes that surround them. Men love power and this shows in all of our governing. I dislike the political parties because they cause the divisions of our spirit. We are one country but politically, we act as two. Humans are Tribal by nature and we naturally group together with those that share our visions. Having two parties just enables two different opinions and actions. Two parties will always clash and fight each other so that it’s very difficult to get anything accomplished because of the “Us against Them” attitude. This is very much like people choosing a sports team and then showing blind loyalty to that team. This is also very much the same with religions. Blind faith and blind loyalty.

GUN MANIA

This country has something like 300 million guns. That is equivalent to a gun for everyone in the country. These numbers show why we have more gun related deaths than any other country in the world. There are over 5000 guns shows per month according to the National Firearms Association. Congress keeps trying to implement bills that would restrict guns sales and limit the distribution but they always fail because of the gun lobbyists. This means that gun manufacturers are bribing our politicians. So, we go on as usual. Men have been the number one killers using guns and that is white males. Every mass shooting has been by a white male that was born here. Men do love guns because a gun represents power and power is the main motivator for men. Men are obsessed with power. In a way, we cannot totally blame men for this, because nature gave them this motivation. There are 4 traits that humans were given by nature, these traits were ones that I identified when I was thinking of what traits define a human being. These traits are Tribal, Violent, Greedy and Predatory. I wrote a book about this called Human Nature and it’s available at Kindle under my name, David Michael Schmidt. It’s a cheap download of 3.99. Humans received these traits as a way to cope with surviving in a raw jungle situation. Humans are very Tribal as we easily group together in support of organizations that we identify with. We pick sports teams that we are loyal to and political parties that we are loyal to. We join clubs and committees and we all have family relationships. We belong to a religion that we are very loyal to and believe anything that they tell us with blind faith. We are used to having someone in charge that we take orders from. We easily follow along and we strive to be accepted by society. We are aware of what clothing styles are popular and hair styles and in the past 10 years many people got tattoos. Nothing shows a Tribal nature, more than tattoos. Most people look in the mirror before they leave the house to check their hair or straighten their tie. Humans do not function well when they are totally alone and cut off from society. Wealth in this world provides us with a certain level of respect and power. The very rich are treated like gods. But I digress, and have gotten off track. Back to the gun issue. I know that people always point to the Second Amendment as the reason that we are allowed to have guns. Most people have never really read the amendment which speaks of having a well regulated militia and therefore should bare arms. The wording here is hotly debated. The gun lovers focus only on the words that say we have a right to bare arms and dismiss the militia part. When mentally ill people get a semi-automatic military grade rifle and then break into a large group of people and start to kill people in mass, then the problem begins. We have so many shootings that we have become numb to them. We read that one just occurred and we shrug and say, “oh well” , and then ignore it by the next day. A civilized society should not even have guns at all. But then I am a pacifist and think that humans should not be killing each other.

NEW AGE

We should all be very concerned about our world because it’s our home. This planet will be here long after we have all left it, as it was here long before we arrived. We are so arrogant to think that our actions will ruin the planet, it won’t. We can pollute the air and trash out the oceans and lakes and water ways but this won’t destroy the planet. Earth is a rock floating in space and our actions will never harm it. Earthquakes and volcanoes have not been able to harm the planet and our trash certainly won’t. Humans are the ones in peril and all other life forms. We may very well destroy ourselves from our ignorant actions of pollution and garbage and chemical dumping. Humans think that they are very smart but our actions prove otherwise.

You may have some faith in a mythical god because you have been brain washed as a child to believe this nonsense. I was brain washed and sent to a Catholic grammar school for 8 years and was an altar boy and I had 2 aunts that were nuns and yet I managed to see the light. By the age of about 15 I realized that this was all nonsense because I have some level of common sense. In the 5000 year history of recorded history there has never been any conclusive evidence to support the validity of any gods or goddesses. Of the 2 largest religions, Muslims and Christians, they each boast a following of 2 billion. Religious dogma is traditionally passed on from parent to child like it’s a very serious requirement and we are told to never question this. Church and State have enjoyed a very friendly union for centuries because it serves to control the masses. The definition of a terrorist is someone or some organization that uses fear to control. This is exactly what religions do. I could write many pages about this as I have studied religions for many years. I have researched their origins and how they have been able to infiltrate society. Each one of you have to come this realization on your own as I am not going to attempt to convince you. Anyone that was brain washed is usually impossible to arouse to reality. Humans are Tribal by nature and we are very easily controlled by using this nature against us. We observe society and we emulate the actions of others as a group. Have you received a tattoo with the past 5 years or so ? Then you were a victim of our Tribal nature to want to fit in and be a part of the group. Do change your clothing styles over years or your hair styles because they have become “out dated ” then you are a victim of our Tribal nature. Did you buy jeans with holes in the knees because they were “cool” ? Do you watch the latest “fads” ? Do you buy books because they are “best sellers” ? See what I am talking about. If someone comes forward with a style or fashion that is very different , they are either branded as “weird” or a “trend setter”. This can go either way. It all depends on how famous people react to it. if the famous people like it, then we all like it. It’s the stamp of approval.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus your own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.