More info: The term did not originally refer to a unified continent but was gradually expanded by Greek geographers and historians like Herodotus to distinguish the western lands from Asia and Libya (Africa). It was not until the Middle Ages and the Carolingian Renaissance that “Europe” solidified as a distinct cultural and political identity linked to Christianity and the former Western Roman Empire, evolving from a vague regional descriptor into the modern continental concept.
Probably people who are curious and want to learn how the universe really is, who climb to the highest levels of Perry’s scheme of cognition, who use Sagan’s baloney detection kit, rather than supernatural and unfalsifiable excuses, to understand the cosmos. It’s part of the scientific method and great to learn new things, not mistakes but data for next experiment, and big claims require big proof, like defending a thesis should require. We are all waves of one ocean made of stardust, observing the universe, conscious elements billions of years old. DNA that survived all the extinctions so far, on the one habitable planet, and nothing to rescue us, but human cooperation.
If you want faith, it must allow room for doubt and mystery, rather than twisted to demand certainty and remain in Perry’s low levels overall. They could study the neurochemical ways high-control groups hook people and keep them with unhealthy shame/blame/guilt, threat of exile, conditional belonging, solution for invented problem, punish/reward cycles, and maybe choose to escape. Good luck!
The best states have healthcare for all incomes, as best they can in the current broken system. They also have other healthy values like school meals for all, right to repair laws, and paid sick and family leave. Once people are not trapped by the artificial scarcity, or even understand it all better, we can make better decisions and be happier, healthier, which improves society overall.
Check out Mr. Money Mustache and related resources, like this one, https://livingafi.com/2014/01/21/how-to-live-in-corporate-prison/. That guy did go back to work, due to unexpected divorce and health issues that changed the math. Still lots of good posts on bad workplaces, how to deal with work in healthier ways, and navigating stages of his life was relatable.
With a do-over, I would have picked 100% growth fund in the 401k from the start. If you want some bond funds too, buy them separate, not the target-date or other mixed funds, so you decide which fund type to sell when you want to. Good luck!
Language is the framework of thought. By controlling, twisting, and restricting vocabulary, high-control systems directly restrict what people are capable of thinking. High-control systems maintain power by manipulating fundamental human biology, cognitive architecture, and language. They actively work against societal advancement because their primary goal is self-preservation and the consolidation of status. High-control systems shut down critical analysis, nuance, and long-term planning, trapping individuals in primitive, survival-driven cognitive states. Learn more and ask further questions here: share.google/aimode/A07xJDl8zEiKH71NI
Glad to be here and not on that bot-run place!
Here’s some more info and ask more questions to better understand it all, check sources of course to ensure accuracy. share.google/aimode/m9pcjKzfhtWExb89T
Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development is a framework mapping how human thinking evolves from rigid, absolute black-and-white beliefs to nuanced, context-dependent personal commitments. Developed by William G. Perry Jr., it outlines nine sequential positions grouped into four core stages
Same, seems like a basic thing to block the noise.
Would be nice but the wealthy won’t allow it. You can trace back to when the wealth/power inequality ramped up and those with the power will never let it go, and worse with their propaganda on all the socials most scroll mindlessly. The same methods to keep people going along with the flow was used way back then and still today. Keep people in low-level thinking, don’t question, just obey supernatural explanations, Perry’s scheme 1-3 of 9, they use all the neurological tricks like fear, reward, belonging, etc so people comply and conform, just what the owners and those who also benefit from the high-control systems want.
If convictions are backed up by best knowledge we have and stand up to scrutiny then they are good until new information is discovered that updates the old. Don’t fall for the ego control, be aware it wants to be right and fights new information, but shouldn’t, learning new things is fun! Follow Sagan’s baloney detection kit, and scientific method, and one part is don’t get attached to a theory. To combine Sagan and Watts, we’re all waves of one ocean, made of stardust, the cosmos observing itself, that’s the truth that sets us free, test it :)
Edit: Convictions are part of Perry’s scheme of cognition, and to get there it requires the skepticism to understand what is peer-reviewed and data backed and what is not.