December 8th [1.0]

Table of Contents

• 1.0
• Retroactive Clairvoyance
• "Middle Mind" excerpts (pt. 1)
• End Quote

1.0
I say 1.0 because this a quick snip of stuff before I eventually come back later on tonight (hopefully) and write some shit down more thoroughly so I don't go too insane with the two double shifts in a row. Time for even semi-intellectual thought and otherwise a normal social life outside of school simple rarely exists in the home environment, and when it does, I'm too fucked up to enjoy it for long -- as in too "tired" / fatigued, and like today.

I'm long past my "prime brain activity time" which for some reason seems to be around the very middle of the day, and the very middle of the night... if at all (when working there is little stimulus for intelligent growth... just, humor and time to unfortunately dumb down).

*Though these "prime brain activity times" are probably just some bullshit that is just a recent temporary pattern that I've vaguely noticed and presumed to be consistent.*

Though it may remain "December 8th [1.0]" if I have nothing to add. (Next question that comes to my mind is whether I'll institutionalize the [1.0] designator for all posts as a quickly visible gauge of whether or not its been added to later on? Doubtful, at least in use all across the board for every single post from here on out).

Retroactive Clairvoyance
Mike found this when browsing through pages on Wikipedia involving philosophy and such afterschool in Mrs. Minute's room when we managed to jump from theology and philosophy to... Nostradamus. The subjectivity of his often vague "prophecies" can be easily mimiced and manipulated. But what took the cake was when Mike followed the link to the entry about retroactive clairvoyance -- more specifically its definition:

Retroactive Clairvoyance is the ability to use hindsight to predict what happened after it has happened.

It's an attempted rationalization of the "predictions" when its been "determined" as to what was "predicted" that has come true. I predict Mike found something about retroactive clairvoyance because he did find it.

Heh. Zack, when we showed him and Glenn that he turned to Glenn and went "I predict America becomes a country..." Melodramatically, Glenn staggers back as if in shock, and points to the door, implying that Zack leave.

"Middle Mind" excerpts (pt. 1)
The whole book, "The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think For Thermselves" is just a bunch of intellectual rambles by the author that interconnect, probably why I like it even though I don't agree with all of it. But what's best about the premise of it is how it doesn't blame the "stupidizing" of America I guess you could say on the government or the corporations. It instead blames the individuals of the public.

The Middle Mind assumes that the people it takes as its audience don't know anything; it assumes that most people are benevolently stupid.
- pg 31

At one point he goes into detail ranting about "Saving Private Ryan"... Oh man, I'll have to cite that some other time on the several things he goes on about shortly after he goes on about Clinton's state terrorism by sending cruise missiles into what turned out to be a pharmecutical plant in Sudan.

One subtle note within one of the many excerpts of others works amid his rants is how "half the world's inhabitants have never made a phone call, yet Internet traffic doubles every 100 days."

More later on that, possibly.

End Quote

"In short, forget the Emersonian tradition of Self-Reliance. We're no even Do-It-Yourself Hobbyists. We're a Done-Elsewhere-by-Somebody-Else Culture."
- "Middle Mind", pg 10