Chapter on Communication
Talking to ourselves27 total reviews
Comment from TKField
I can see you've had some of that there, book-learnin, sonny. Next thing you'll be informing me is that fire is hot, ice is cold, water is wet, shit stinks and the Cubs will never win the world series. I mean, tell me something I don't know. My point is C, some of this stuff is so obvious, self-evident and simple-minded, you come across as a condescending bore and pseudo-intellectual windbag. For example...
"The message before you is being carried by what we call language."
No shit, Sherlock! If I was just entering nursery school this might be earth shattering information, but at my age it's simply not necessary to reinvent the wheel to say something relevant about communication. In other words, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck last night. Get to the point before I decide to rearrange my sock drawer instead of wasting my precious time being told that language is a form of communication. I learned that with Goo-Goo Ga-Ga.
"Objective Mind looks outward for meaning and Subjective looks inward"
Now there's an exciting insight. Yawn. You couch a lot of your speculation (always stated as a given), in confusing, spaced out, profound-sounding jargon, such as...
"Vision gathers light vibrations from a tiny slice in the center of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call Visible Light to make us "see."
Say what? Honestly C, you call that effective communication? I needed a machete to hack my way through this tediously dense textbook chapter that's bursting with head-scratchers such as that.
Here's a nugget of wisdom...
"The depth of thought creates an "aura" that contains us."
I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to mean, but it sure sounds impressive.
Here's a few more of my favorites...
"We are creators existing in Creation."
Wow, that's deep, as is this keeper...
"We are always communicating with ourselves".
Again, no shit! Why waste the poor readers time with this? Let's move on. Here's a gem...
"It is not the physical universe that expands; it is the collection of thoughts within it."
Uh...come again? Ever heard of the Big-Bang? The Doppler shift? I guess that's just a bunch of dinosaurs thoughts rapidly traveling outward in all directions. I got news... it's the physical universe that's expanding, not the mental one. This essay alone proves that.
And the hits just keep on coming...
"Communication within ourselves is truly the only thing we do."
I admit, I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if all communication begins and ends within us, then what's the point of art, of all the great books, speeches and thinkers in history? Indeed, what is the point of this essay if that assertion is true? I'm wondering that anyway, since the obvious stuff goes without saying and the rest sounds like something L Ron Hubbard might have dreamed up after he ate a bad burrito. For example, this...
"For me, the idea of positive mental attitude automatically brings an equal and opposite negative mental attitude to mind. Trying to squelch one side of the brain will not work because it goes against Universal Law. Things must be in balance to exist. Much more effective in changing ourselves is the thought of Creative Mental Attitude."
Sounds oddly like all the horse-poop about the "reactive mind" and "engrams" Scientologists are always going on about. Get out the E-Meter. That should put us back in balance. I guess the trick is to think a negative thought for every positive one and vice-versa, but I can't help thinking this mental balancing act sounds more like a recipe for driving yourself crazy just trying to keep score.
Then we come to this....
"Whatever we think and feel is what creates our universe. Good, bad, or indifferent; Small, medium or large, is all up to each of us. Assigning responsibility for our lot in life is a copout. Until more people realize this fact, no great change will take place. We shape the future. We create different conditions. We allow governments to kill people. We watch and blame others for the vision. Let's wake up! Each one of us can be the captain of our ship and master of our fate. If we decide to simply be passengers, we have to choose the ship that can take us where we wish to be. "
Give me a pyramid of Cheops sized break. I suppose the facts of our birth and the circumstances of history are irrelevant. Since when? As if happening to be born a Jew in 1930's Germany would have had no bearing on that person eventually winding up in the gas chambers of the Third Reich, as opposed to being born a Kennedy in Boston. I suppose the problem the Jews had then, was they just didn't create the right universe in their minds to avoid being murdered by the Nazis, and were, in effect, responsible for their own deaths. They neglected to captain their own ships or just had the misfortune to get on one going in the wrong direction. Blaming the Nazis would be a cop out, right?
I find that way of thinking incredibly counter intuitive, intellectually dishonest and ridiculous on it's face. The point is, it matters a great deal where, when and to whom we are born. Children born in poverty who die of malnutrition or cholera or whatever, hardly have the opportunity to captain their own ships or get on one going in any direction, mental or physical. Could it be that being unlucky enough to be born to a poor family in a desperate place had everything to do with their deaths? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it did.
Sure, we create our own universe to a certain extent. That's why we get jobs, have kids, buy homes and try to control and better our lives the best we can. But life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Just ask the people on that Malaysian jet, or the teenagers who drowned on the Korean ferry, or the sixteen Sherpas who got wiped out on Everest this week...if you could, that is.
Fact is, we are to a large extent, subject to the random nature of reality, blind fate and circumstances beyond or control, mental and otherwise. We are not telekinetic and able to manipulate matter with our minds. If we could do that, all those people who jumped from the ninetieth floor of the World Trade Center on 9-11 would have just manifested themselves wings by creating the appropriate mental universe and flown safely to the ground. Instead they were subject to the laws of gravity which all our mental faculties put together can't alter one smidgen.
Furthermore, how do we "allow governments to kill people"? Are you saying that if I allow it, all I have to do is disallow it and the unnamed "governments" will stop killing people because I tell them to? That using only my brain I can get the Chinese to give back Tibet, stop Jihadis from blowing up a car bomb, stop the Civil war in Syria, the Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Nigeria, the Ukraine, Libya, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and on and on all over the planet? This assertion is so generalized and broad, it's meaningless. Who is "we", anyway? And what governments are you talking about? And exactly how are "We" to stop ourselves "allowing" these nameless "Governments" from all this killing? Unfortunately, none of this is explained. If that's what passes for communication then communication means reducing nuanced and highly complex subjects (like war), to a simplistic, unsupported, vague accusation against some unspecified, collective "We".
Instead of being an effective exercise in clear, concise communication, I found this to be a dense, generalized, humorless, dryly academic, confusing primer of obvious truisms drowning under a thick layer of quasi profound jargon and cosmic debris, that worked a lot better as a cure for insomnia than a guide to human communication.
I hope I've communicated my true feelings here. I think it's a given you have to have a busy, complex, seriously ambitious mind just to tackle these philosophical essays of yours, and maybe I'm just too thick to grok it, but my advice is to climb down off your high horse. You're not the last word on these subjects and you're certainly not the first. If you really want to communicate something worthwhile, write some funny jokes. Now THAT would be a real contribution to the human race....TKF
By the way...I knew Aristotle. Aristotle was a friend of mine. You sir, are no Aristotle. Then again...who is?
This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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I can see you've had some of that there, book-learnin, sonny. Next thing you'll be informing me is that fire is hot, ice is cold, water is wet, shit stinks and the Cubs will never win the world series. I mean, tell me something I don't know. My point is C, some of this stuff is so obvious, self-evident and simple-minded, you come across as a condescending bore and pseudo-intellectual windbag. For example...
"The message before you is being carried by what we call language."
No shit, Sherlock! If I was just entering nursery school this might be earth shattering information, but at my age it's simply not necessary to reinvent the wheel to say something relevant about communication. In other words, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck last night. Get to the point before I decide to rearrange my sock drawer instead of wasting my precious time being told that language is a form of communication. I learned that with Goo-Goo Ga-Ga.
"Objective Mind looks outward for meaning and Subjective looks inward"
Now there's an exciting insight. Yawn. You couch a lot of your speculation (always stated as a given), in confusing, spaced out, profound-sounding jargon, such as...
"Vision gathers light vibrations from a tiny slice in the center of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call Visible Light to make us "see."
Say what? Honestly C, you call that effective communication? I needed a machete to hack my way through this tediously dense textbook chapter that's bursting with head-scratchers such as that.
Here's a nugget of wisdom...
"The depth of thought creates an "aura" that contains us."
I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to mean, but it sure sounds impressive.
Here's a few more of my favorites...
"We are creators existing in Creation."
Wow, that's deep, as is this keeper...
"We are always communicating with ourselves".
Again, no shit! Why waste the poor readers time with this? Let's move on. Here's a gem...
"It is not the physical universe that expands; it is the collection of thoughts within it."
Uh...come again? Ever heard of the Big-Bang? The Doppler shift? I guess that's just a bunch of dinosaurs thoughts rapidly traveling outward in all directions. I got news... it's the physical universe that's expanding, not the mental one. This essay alone proves that.
And the hits just keep on coming...
"Communication within ourselves is truly the only thing we do."
I admit, I'm not sure exactly what that means, but if all communication begins and ends within us, then what's the point of art, of all the great books, speeches and thinkers in history? Indeed, what is the point of this essay if that assertion is true? I'm wondering that anyway, since the obvious stuff goes without saying and the rest sounds like something L Ron Hubbard might have dreamed up after he ate a bad burrito. For example, this...
"For me, the idea of positive mental attitude automatically brings an equal and opposite negative mental attitude to mind. Trying to squelch one side of the brain will not work because it goes against Universal Law. Things must be in balance to exist. Much more effective in changing ourselves is the thought of Creative Mental Attitude."
Sounds oddly like all the horse-poop about the "reactive mind" and "engrams" Scientologists are always going on about. Get out the E-Meter. That should put us back in balance. I guess the trick is to think a negative thought for every positive one and vice-versa, but I can't help thinking this mental balancing act sounds more like a recipe for driving yourself crazy just trying to keep score.
Then we come to this....
"Whatever we think and feel is what creates our universe. Good, bad, or indifferent; Small, medium or large, is all up to each of us. Assigning responsibility for our lot in life is a copout. Until more people realize this fact, no great change will take place. We shape the future. We create different conditions. We allow governments to kill people. We watch and blame others for the vision. Let's wake up! Each one of us can be the captain of our ship and master of our fate. If we decide to simply be passengers, we have to choose the ship that can take us where we wish to be. "
Give me a pyramid of Cheops sized break. I suppose the facts of our birth and the circumstances of history are irrelevant. Since when? As if happening to be born a Jew in 1930's Germany would have had no bearing on that person eventually winding up in the gas chambers of the Third Reich, as opposed to being born a Kennedy in Boston. I suppose the problem the Jews had then, was they just didn't create the right universe in their minds to avoid being murdered by the Nazis, and were, in effect, responsible for their own deaths. They neglected to captain their own ships or just had the misfortune to get on one going in the wrong direction. Blaming the Nazis would be a cop out, right?
I find that way of thinking incredibly counter intuitive, intellectually dishonest and ridiculous on it's face. The point is, it matters a great deal where, when and to whom we are born. Children born in poverty who die of malnutrition or cholera or whatever, hardly have the opportunity to captain their own ships or get on one going in any direction, mental or physical. Could it be that being unlucky enough to be born to a poor family in a desperate place had everything to do with their deaths? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it did.
Sure, we create our own universe to a certain extent. That's why we get jobs, have kids, buy homes and try to control and better our lives the best we can. But life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. Just ask the people on that Malaysian jet, or the teenagers who drowned on the Korean ferry, or the sixteen Sherpas who got wiped out on Everest this week...if you could, that is.
Fact is, we are to a large extent, subject to the random nature of reality, blind fate and circumstances beyond or control, mental and otherwise. We are not telekinetic and able to manipulate matter with our minds. If we could do that, all those people who jumped from the ninetieth floor of the World Trade Center on 9-11 would have just manifested themselves wings by creating the appropriate mental universe and flown safely to the ground. Instead they were subject to the laws of gravity which all our mental faculties put together can't alter one smidgen.
Furthermore, how do we "allow governments to kill people"? Are you saying that if I allow it, all I have to do is disallow it and the unnamed "governments" will stop killing people because I tell them to? That using only my brain I can get the Chinese to give back Tibet, stop Jihadis from blowing up a car bomb, stop the Civil war in Syria, the Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Nigeria, the Ukraine, Libya, Afghanistan, Chechnya, and on and on all over the planet? This assertion is so generalized and broad, it's meaningless. Who is "we", anyway? And what governments are you talking about? And exactly how are "We" to stop ourselves "allowing" these nameless "Governments" from all this killing? Unfortunately, none of this is explained. If that's what passes for communication then communication means reducing nuanced and highly complex subjects (like war), to a simplistic, unsupported, vague accusation against some unspecified, collective "We".
Instead of being an effective exercise in clear, concise communication, I found this to be a dense, generalized, humorless, dryly academic, confusing primer of obvious truisms drowning under a thick layer of quasi profound jargon and cosmic debris, that worked a lot better as a cure for insomnia than a guide to human communication.
I hope I've communicated my true feelings here. I think it's a given you have to have a busy, complex, seriously ambitious mind just to tackle these philosophical essays of yours, and maybe I'm just too thick to grok it, but my advice is to climb down off your high horse. You're not the last word on these subjects and you're certainly not the first. If you really want to communicate something worthwhile, write some funny jokes. Now THAT would be a real contribution to the human race....TKF
By the way...I knew Aristotle. Aristotle was a friend of mine. You sir, are no Aristotle. Then again...who is?
This rating does not count towards story rating or author rank.
The highest and the lowest rating are not included in calculations.
Comment Written 23-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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You're going to love my essay on humanity. Thanks for taking the time for this...John
Comment from Magpiemazy.
I have never heard communication communicated in a clearer way. You began at the tiniest of our forms, a simple letter, and brought it up to the computer communication of today. Excellent by every standard.
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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I have never heard communication communicated in a clearer way. You began at the tiniest of our forms, a simple letter, and brought it up to the computer communication of today. Excellent by every standard.
Comment Written 22-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 23-Apr-2014
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Thank you so much...John
Comment from thequeencatalyst
Hi there! I'm just leaving a review to say that I really enjoyed this piece and found it very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing :)
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Hi there! I'm just leaving a review to say that I really enjoyed this piece and found it very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing :)
Comment Written 21-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John
Comment from emrpoems
Communication is very crucial yet things we say can be so easily taken oust of context. It may do us well to be as simple as possible using words that appeal to the particular audience
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Communication is very crucial yet things we say can be so easily taken oust of context. It may do us well to be as simple as possible using words that appeal to the particular audience
Comment Written 21-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 21-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John
Comment from Sandra Stoner-Mitchell
Communication at any level can come across wrong if the individual has a different concept of the conversation in general. I have often said something that has been taken quite out of context, ending in an awkward misunderstanding. This is very well written and a very interesting read. Sandra
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Communication at any level can come across wrong if the individual has a different concept of the conversation in general. I have often said something that has been taken quite out of context, ending in an awkward misunderstanding. This is very well written and a very interesting read. Sandra
Comment Written 20-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Thank you...John
Comment from Phyllis Stewart
Good summary of how our minds work, how we perceive the world and how individual perceptions are different, person to person. That's the main reason it's hard to communicate with those who don't share our own perspective... a word or phrase means different things to different cultures, and foreign relations is bound to be harder. We say what we mean, and they hear what they assume we mean, and vice versa. No wonder people can't get along.
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Good summary of how our minds work, how we perceive the world and how individual perceptions are different, person to person. That's the main reason it's hard to communicate with those who don't share our own perspective... a word or phrase means different things to different cultures, and foreign relations is bound to be harder. We say what we mean, and they hear what they assume we mean, and vice versa. No wonder people can't get along.
Comment Written 20-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Good take. Thanks very much...John
Comment from Gloria ....
Language is the source of all misunderstandings. But sending and receiving a message that means the same (as much as that is possible) to both sender and receiver is the ultimate goal and so very rarely achieved. Our illusion of single mindedness is stellar.
Helen Keller is a fascinating study particularly as she relates to abstract concepts which she understood extraordinarily well. It is mind-boggling to me how she did it.
Excellent point that all decisions are made by emotion. We labour under the illusion that logic is divorced from emotion despite evidence that proves emotion plays a huge role in sound logic. Stupid emotions! :P
I agree we are co-creators existing in creation and as we think so there is.
Many don't appreciate the power of a thought, again labouring under the misconception that if something isn't said, or written, it isn't felt. Oh but yes it is, only then it's all fogged over with misunderstandings.
Anyway, lovely essay cogitator.
Gloria
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Language is the source of all misunderstandings. But sending and receiving a message that means the same (as much as that is possible) to both sender and receiver is the ultimate goal and so very rarely achieved. Our illusion of single mindedness is stellar.
Helen Keller is a fascinating study particularly as she relates to abstract concepts which she understood extraordinarily well. It is mind-boggling to me how she did it.
Excellent point that all decisions are made by emotion. We labour under the illusion that logic is divorced from emotion despite evidence that proves emotion plays a huge role in sound logic. Stupid emotions! :P
I agree we are co-creators existing in creation and as we think so there is.
Many don't appreciate the power of a thought, again labouring under the misconception that if something isn't said, or written, it isn't felt. Oh but yes it is, only then it's all fogged over with misunderstandings.
Anyway, lovely essay cogitator.
Gloria
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 20-Apr-2014
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Thanks, Gloria...John
Comment from EelanLogthorn
Very well written on a subject matter that is not so easily defined in terms that it has been here. Punctuation and sentences are well formed and executed. Great job!
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Very well written on a subject matter that is not so easily defined in terms that it has been here. Punctuation and sentences are well formed and executed. Great job!
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Thank you much...John
Comment from c_lucas
You have showed the complexity of communication by reducing it to its simplicity. This is very well written with a smooth flow of words, making for a very good read.
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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You have showed the complexity of communication by reducing it to its simplicity. This is very well written with a smooth flow of words, making for a very good read.
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Thanks...John
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You're welcome, John. Charlie
Comment from Ekim777
Your involvements are fascinating; your methods of communication are awesome. From all this the towers of society and civilization grow, blossom and extend to the heavens. You talk of truths. I talk of provisional truths. You hint at the communication of facts. I know only ideas and interpretations. Why does our world fall short of our ideals? Why is degeneration rampant in every society? Is there something more to our relationships than communication our ideas. We might bemoan conflicts and contradictions but we are those things and we need to relate to them. How we relate to our own shortcomings is what is important. Clear those in our relationships and it will have its own explosive reaction. So the wise say. Our relationships are the problem not the conflicts and that which divides us. Best wishes. --Ekim777
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Your involvements are fascinating; your methods of communication are awesome. From all this the towers of society and civilization grow, blossom and extend to the heavens. You talk of truths. I talk of provisional truths. You hint at the communication of facts. I know only ideas and interpretations. Why does our world fall short of our ideals? Why is degeneration rampant in every society? Is there something more to our relationships than communication our ideas. We might bemoan conflicts and contradictions but we are those things and we need to relate to them. How we relate to our own shortcomings is what is important. Clear those in our relationships and it will have its own explosive reaction. So the wise say. Our relationships are the problem not the conflicts and that which divides us. Best wishes. --Ekim777
Comment Written 19-Apr-2014
reply by the author on 19-Apr-2014
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Action, not thought of action, is what produces results. We must all agree on a common goal and communicate about how to achieve it...John
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We may strive to reach targets and we might achieve the results we want but is this enough. The problems and challenges are not outside ourselves but within us. It is not the problem that is everything but our relationship to it. -Ekim
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We may strive to reach targets and we might achieve the results we want but is this enough. The problems and challenges are not outside ourselves but within us. It is not the problem that is everything but our relationship to it. -Ekim
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It is understanding that separates us all...John