Referring to the important matter of stopping online discrimination against shut-ins
Dearest glorious Facebook (FB) leaders, (without whom we would be knocked back to stone age tribalism)
I have now received 2 gentle warnings from you that I have many outstanding friend requests and should cancel them all and that I should only be friending people I know well offline. Um, Why? I'm not a scammer or a spammer just a stammerer.
Please stop discrimination towards people like me with social anxiety. I can't meet people offline. The non-techno-phobes in my mental health team tell me it can be great for my psyche to interact with people and if it is mainly online, then that is far better than depressing loneliness.
Do I friend people on FB I don't know offline? Yes, yes, yes! Is it against Facebook policies? I don't know, because like most, I have not read the terms & conditions. And I think that you can just shut down my page without giving me any warning or fair trial. It is guilty without any ability to be proven innocent. Perhaps there is an appeals system I'm not aware of; but I have heard from some of my more extreme FB friends that they have been just shut down. They of course just set up another account under a false name!
I do like regulated capitalism, but one of the biggest problems with multi-national mega-corporations who don't really answer to anyone is that they are amoral and have no imperative to care about their customers unless it hurts their business model. But wait; I'm not even a customer of Facebook. It's a free service and I am merely a tool for the real customers, right?
When I see people on Facebook spewing out hate speech like the frigging Shermon Tank from UPF, it's a bit rich to tell me to stop friending people I don't know in the real world, no? I won't read your T&Cs or your T&As so I don't expect you to read my draft manifesto.
I promote Peace, love, harmony, humility & kindness. But I am a nobody. A mostly benevolent microscopic bacterium that you can easily eradicate with your mega-corp anti-septic and anti-skeptic chemical spray.
I have had a great experience overall on Facebook so I will like, comment, share and poke you all and would love to send some of the FB elites friend requests too! There is always the block button if I am not following my own guidelines. Facebook is a great platform and, along with the even more glorious Google, the closest thing that we currently have to a global consciousness.
Partly because of technology, I am greatly optimistic about the future and with your purchase of the Oculus Rift, you too are visionaries! So please don't delete my account! As per your recommendation, I have set up a FB group page to promote my philosophy.
If you have an answer to the question of why it's worth attempting to triumph over adversity, please comment below. Thanks :)
As well as sitting here with a toilet paper nun's habit on my head, I'm trying
to compile a wide range of views for the last chapter of my book about my nihilistic obsession with the greatest Wheel of Fortune co-host called: Vanna White: What's the frigging point when I don't even turn the frigging letters anymore?
Disclaimer & Apologies
Speak no Dave. See no Dave. Hear no Dave.
My thoughts on this topic will be filtered through my depression lobe so probably won't be too uplifting but what are you gonna do? This is not a rhetorical question. What are YOU going to do? If you think you can edit this finger banging jumble of symbols into something worth reading, then please get in touch!
I'm deeply sorry about how Benji Madden-ly long this article got. Don't read it; I implore you. I might Bed Periscope a 5 minute version as I know how much everyone loves my high-energy inspirational presentational Muppet-ational style...
I make no claims on Truth and try to remain open to changing my mind; but I accept that I may have locked myself into justifying my current inability to work in order to soothe my brain. This mindset may also ironically make it very difficult to climb up the depression spiral ladder abyss hole; smothered by a comforting Blanket Jackson. This doesn't make any sense. So don't integrate anything I have to say because mental illness is contagious! Run away!!! "Running away will make you free" Kenny Loggins mis-quote.
Would you prefer to have Michael Jackson, Kurt Cobain or Bill Cosby as your father?
Trudi: "Why not attempt to triumph over adversity? The
way I see it is there are two sides to this. 1. yes when bad things happen we
can accept its fate and allow them to either affect our stability or not."
Dave: I don't think we have full control over how adversity
will affect our stability. It's not a mostly inconsequential and easy 'choice' like
whether to watch The Bachelor, The Bachelorette or The Baby Bachelor. A certain percentage of
individuals will crumble under adversity and I think it's best to comfort them
rather than victim-blame them. Do we really think that on some level they have allowed this to happen to
them and somehow made a choice to be miserable? I totally love wallowing in misery by listening to the Starlight Express soundtrack on repeat, but most don't.
Trudi: "We can adopt the attitude that everything
happens for a reason and that reason is to learn and to grow from the
experience."
Dave: This is a comforting probable delusion for lots of people, but not
me. In the Universe, it appears that shyte just happens; some good and
some bad; and that consciousness is likely just an accident rather than a
certainty. As 'Scary Spice' Connor knifed on the picnic table "No Fate." Spiritual growth is mostly a construct to convince ourselves that we are
constantly leveling up in the RPG of life. Sure, life can still be full of joy and
hope and sugar and spice once we reach the level cap, but some of us will be force-fed our internal snails and external puppy
dogs' asses. I prefer to think in terms of change rather than growth.
This was right before she tried to murder a mad & evil scientist for being not at all evil & mad
Trudi: "2. we have the power to change our life and
make it which we wish it to be."
Dave: To an extent I'd agree but we should support and help
those that can't do this without any victim blaming or demonisation.
Trudi: "The shame of it is most people do not believe
in their own power the power of their thoughts and wishes and desires to come
true and to manifest into reality they do not have this faith in themselves
they think they are helpless and victims of fate. The truth is the mind is a
tremendously powerful tool and our focused intent provides the fuel."
Dave: I would agree to some extent but we need to be very
careful that we're not victim blaming. Being born a poor crack baby is very
different to my privileged upbringing where I was fed only the best crack that boosted my immune system. But absolutely some people do and can
change to an extent and then help others. As long as we keep the thinking 'pulling up'
rather than 'pushing down'. The language of the self-help new age movement to
me often seems like I'm being blamed for not trying hard enough.
Trudi: "The physical body is the final instrument of
all the other planes, the end result as it were, and it is of this fact that we
do not know how to take full advantage of! It is on the physical plane that we
can reap the advantage of things started on the inner planes and can enjoy them
fully.
One of the Occult teachings regarding the planes is that a
man cannot take fullest advantage of any one plane until he has gained some
knowledge, and CONTROL, of the plane above that one – we cannot fully use any
one plane until we have some power on the plane above it.
Another thing you should acquire is that you should be able
to explore and map out the inner planes, or rather set up your own paths thru
these inner planes as there is nothing there now."
My control over my inner planes
Dave: Whether big T True or little t true or not T&A true, some
would agree with this general idea while others not. This, to me, is part of
in-group / out-group jargon displayed by pretty much all
ideologies; even people from something seemingly innocuous yet fabulous like the Salsa dancing scene do the same thing to keep me out.
Human flourishing should be possible no matter what mostly
harmless unfalsifiable claims are added on top. Jew,
Buddhist, Muslim, Bad Religion fan club member. All these people should be able to
lead reasonably happy lives without having to even know about other ideologies.
And if my brain adds no extra planes to existence, then some level of 'happiness' should still
be possible for me. Remember that I don't think I'm fully in control of
what I believe in anyway. Humans will be way better off if we keep reminding
ourselves about what we have in common rather than the fact that others believe in
fairy godmothers while I believe in Marlon Brando godfathers...
Trudi: " This physical world is the tail end of a
number of other “worlds” as you know and the CAUSES OF THE END RESULTS on this
plane are in those inner planes. When you know how to penetrate them and study
the causes of coming events you can alter those events somewhat depending on
your power to do so. These things are not trivial believe me and their
acquirement will give you a sense of power and peace that will go a long way to
make up for what you may have suffered in this past mixed-up life."
Dave: Again, if these ideas help you in your Semi-Charmed Life and harm no one, great.
To me, a sense of peace should be possible by thinking about nothing. No gods,
no dimensions, no quantum foam; just calming the brain and trying to minimise the harmful
delusions rattling around our heads. If others need to add on harmless probable fantasies in order to achieve this, then that's fine.
Trudi: "The most important thing, that can be achieved,
is to learn, in a positive way, how to contact your Inner Powers, or Forces, or
whatever name you feel like giving them and, which is still more important of
all, learn how to USE your Inner Powers in a positive manner. You have them,
you know, but as long as you do not use them, by being ignorant of them, they
stand there, doing nothing to protect you, while you suffer the “slings and
arrows of outrageous
fortune”
Dave: I'm a negative person by nature. It's like Batman's
Joker is constantly cracking wise that I'm no darn good and that hurting others
will make me feel better. I mostly compensate for this but I've been like this
my whole adult life. Some might just label this as a metaphor for depression
and perhaps that's exactly what it is but it could also be just part of my core
personality. Again, ignorant people can flourish without caring about any of the stuff
we're talking about. I've written before about my happy bogan model.
I, of course, am not a happy bogan and need to justify my own existence in a convoluted quasi-philosophical way to protect
my ego. I'll claim that I'm trying my best and unable at the moment to
engage my inner goddess powers as much as I'd like to. I have been a bit mean
about my mother publicly but she's doing the best she can too. I seriously
don't believe that she has the ability to act like a supportive mother to me.
And just like Candy and Tori Spelling, the only answer is to minimise the harm
and try to deal with Tatum O'Neal when she crashes the party.
Trudi: "You are incarnated in a physical body for the
purpose of learning how to conquer matter – (thy kingdom come, thy will be done
ON EARTH as it is in heaven) – and if you do not start to learn how to conquer
matter you will have to come back time and time again, over and over, until you
do learn this lesson to overcome the illusion of matter."
Dave: It would be cool if this were true but what do I do if
I can't believe it? I have no memory of past lives and am not convinced by all the evidence that I am the reincarnation of Joan Rivers & Hop-Frog. I don't even believe in a Hey Soul Sister! So yes, the
Universe for me is a lot more bleak without the band Train. But I still should be able to do something
useful with my life. And if I'm wrong, that's cool too, but this shouldn't hinder me
from engaging as positively with JW and Mormon door knockers as I am able. Does that make any
sense?
Trudi: "Actually you know all this unconsciously and
instinctively, deep down inside of you, but there is so much confusion in this
life about what our aims are really supposed to be, due to the petty
distractions of everyday living, and a deep outer ignorance of fundamental
facts about the occult significance of physical life, that it is very hard for
the ordinary person, until he begins to study the occult, to find out what the
exact goal of living should be, and to get some idea of what the exact process
should be to achieve this goal."
Dave: I enjoy many of the petty life distractions like Facebook,
Tweets complaining about Facebook, Instagram photos of cats trolling the dogs of Facebook, rich hippie posers boasting about living off the grid on Facebook while burning coal to produce the electricity to boast about their delusions of living off the grid, Tumblr posts moaning about how the idiots have taken over Facebook, S&M Lego Facebook groups, 6 second Vines showing Facebook trolling keyboard warrior World Record attempts, Facebook posts quoting lines from The Social Network, Periscope live streams of me reading out my World famous Facebook posts about Bronies, the sexy witches of Facebook, Pinterest boards collecting the best abusive Facebook comments directed at me, Ashley Madison forums dedicated to tips on how to be an anonymous catfish on Facebook, Blogger blog posts about Mark Zuckerberg's dog Beast, the extremist anti-vaccers of Facebook who want the 'weak' children to die, the Unicorns of Facebook who are waging wars on boring brown vanilla horses, ironic posts against capitalism on Facebook tapped out from Apple smartphones, and laughing at poor people who can't afford Facebook.
This got me to the 5000 friend limit in 12 hours
Most big World Views claim to provide some meaning to the lives
of their adherents. These World Views usually contradict on major things.
They can't possibly all be correct even for the foolish Post-Modernist, right? But they
can give people comfort and don't need to be True.
For me, the goal is Peace, Love & Harmony through
Humility, Kindness, Technology & Humour. This is compatible with all
moderates and it's only the fundamentalists and extremists that get uppity
really about all of humanity coming together as one. But one could definitely
ask why this is a worthy goal for an absurdist de facto atheist like me! Why
should I care when I don't think that the Universe has any grand meaning at all? It's
a good question and one that I should be able to answer without needing to add
on unfalsifiable claims or using a single reference to Star Wars or Star Trek. I want humanity to evolve into something better: a new
emergent property that some call the singularity but I call the tech hive mind. Why
bother with this futuristic possible fantasy? Because it's sci-fi cool, it should
reduce human suffering and it is the only chance we've got in my opinion of
breaking away from our current Universe that will eventually give in to entropy. If this
sounds similar to you to New Age fluff stuff, then it makes sense to me that many
people have similar goals but are walking different paths. I think that the old
religions and spiritual movements have had their chance and not brought about
the new age. If it hasn't happened already, it won't no matter how much wishful
thinking the various adherents have to their favourite flavour of ice cream
deity. Even the peppermint choc-chip ice-cream monster hasn't managed to bring humanity together and reduce IBS symptoms.
So Lucas sells the franchise to Disney in the hope that they don't Jar Jar Binks it up too
Science & Technology is the only thing that is advancing
I think. That's the biggest difference for me and why I am a scientific
materialist to the core. Even better is that none of us have to believe in anything to make
this happen. We're all along for the ride whether we like it or not. Have I
justified my World View and explained why I sort of bother to attempt to triumph over
my current adversity? Probably not. But the future will happen whether I'm living
in a tent or a deluxe G-pod storage container or a padded cell with Geoffrey 'no fate' Connor or inside my fantasy
Ball World where I've cut myself off from the rest of the Universe.
Trudi: "A start has to be made somewhere to learn about
the other bodies you possess, and to learn how to use them. To learn how to
transfer your consciousness, from the physical body to these other bodies at
will, is just about the best and most pleasant rewarding type of growth that
you could find to advance along the path leading to Illumination. These powers
can come only with use and not by talking about them."
Dave: Whether this is reality or fantasy doesn't really
matter as no harm is done either way. If my consciousness is locked inside my
brain, then so be it. Technological advances could actually unlock for all what
the Spiritualists claim they can currently achieve. As Olivier Newton John sang, in her song 'Culture Shock', about the singularity: "it's the only hope we've got."
Trudi: "For example to be more specific – can you set
or lie down and bring up images of persons or things into your mind mirror? Can
you see, perhaps dimly, these figures and shapes? Can you then use your
will-imagination to move them about and place them in different positions and
make them do different things? Everyone can do this to some extent. Do you know
what these images really are? These images are Etheric-Astral matter images and
you are seeing them with the third eye. The single eye mentioned in the
bible."
Dave: Etheric-Astral Platonic matter images they could be sure. I'll
stick with the materialistic explanation until such time as I'm convinced by
any evidence to the contrary. Again, whether this claim is True or Not
shouldn't make a difference to whether we can lead flourishing lives. The Fast & Furious movies are just as entertaining either way.
Trudi: "As I said we all have this power, in some
degree, and it only remains to give it careful attention to develop it and thus
double your abilities and talents to be able to handle life’s tough problems.
Do you want to have less?"
I get sent this stuff and I feel guilty because I'm not impressed or awe-struck...
Summary?
Building mental resilience or toughness seems to be talked
about a lot at the moment and I think this is great. But some people will be
crushed temporarily or even permanently by adversity and we currently have no way
to fix them all. As I've said before, if you are functional, then it is your
responsibility to help out those who are struggling. If you know 5 people, about 1 will be having major mental
troubles for whatever reason this year and just being there and supporting them through
this can help a lot. No Judgment Day. No Machine Gun Preaching. No The Secret self-help BS positivity especially if you're talking with me. Just kind & humble human interaction. This is what I enjoy the most
about my online interactions. That and getting abused by extremists to fulfill
my masochistic quota...
Say yes to bene-violently trolling extremists in the name of World Peace
So can I summarise any of this? The Universe likely just is. Donald Trump's Miss Universe doesn't seem to care about you or me or even Oprah's best super-friend Gayle. There are probably no
deities or higher dimensions of existence. We are all alone like ET with the burden of
consciousness and the cutest Drew Barrymore. It's just us and it just is. We puny & deluded humans are merely trying to work out
what we can do with our lives to give us our own meaning and work together to
improve humanity.
Find some meaning to your life. It could be a harmless
delusion or deluxe tin-foil suite of delusions. Use this to flourish as best you can.
When the pus storms hit, ride the phlegm waves, punch the great green discharge sharks and ask for help. Then make sure to help others when they
are getting pus pooped on by the random absurdity of life and the nastiness of their mother complexes.
In conclusion:
Don't take my advice on anything as I'm a life drop-out and widely regarded as spiritual garbage... Remember that humour serves no purpose in our multi-dimensional super-string computer powered simulation.
Successful guy gloating about not having depression
I genuinely like hearing that others are doing better than me and more importantly are being more productive. I'd be even more depressed if everyone else did as little as me. And society would crumble too in about a day and it wouldn't be Fallout fun.
Today I slept. Had 2 panic attacks. Wife had more. And I played with Lego because I seem to have regressed into childhood. Rather than returning to work, perhaps Billy Madison schooling is required. I would pay more attention in English the second time around and Chris Farley would come back to life to be my bus driver.
Melanie Shaw is bravely speaking out about her suicide attempt. Source: News.com.au
It's so fantastic and encouraging for people like Melanie Shaw to be speaking out about their experiences and then get published on mainstream news websites! Borat-style high fives all round!!!
I'll try and shock you with some numbers. Something like twice as many people are victims of suicide than currently die on the roads in Australia. And if my source (and memory) is correct, roughly 7 people are suicide victims every day on average in Australia. Every day you consume the news, there could be a story about another tragedy of someone taking their own life. And there could be many more uplifting stories like Melanie's too where they have come through the other side. The survival stories fit perfectly into the triumph-over-adversity narrative template that we are all completely addicted to (think Rocky rather than Million Dollar Baby as an example). I realise that the footage for many of these stories would not be anywhere near as good tragedy-porn as a fire or a multi-car pile up or a story about Gina Reinhart, but even Nick Xenophon manages to make himself news worthy.
We need to talk about it way more. I know it's so incredibly painful that our natural reaction is denial (it would never happen to someone like me) or good old victim-blaming (if they were so desperate to end their life, then... I won't even say it because this kind of thinking is so abhorrent). My understanding is that it can happen to anyone (yes, even you!) and many suicides are impulse decisions; contrary to popular belief. And victim blaming doesn't help with domestic violence so why should suicide be any different? The vast majority of suicide victims don't really 'choose' to end their lives in the same way as you choose which shade of Oompa Loompa orange you want your spray-tan to be.
Are we still concerned that talking about it more will encourage those that are fixated on suicide ideation to take the next possibly fatal step? Considering how isolating suicide typically is, how could talking about it more be worse than keeping it a secret? I really wish that we were at a point now that if any of my family and friends were feeling this way, they would get professional help, but we've got a way to go. I'm feeling queasy just writing this so I can understand why for many, it's the last thing that they want to think about; until it happens to them and they are desperate to get help.
If you want to experience how it might feel to have choice and free will taken away from you, first do any crappy IQ test online and don't feel bad if you score 70. (My favourite comedian, Karl Pilkington, got about the same score and he is now so rich that he can afford as much grouting and adhesive and as many pikelets and congress tarts that a person could need for 100 lifetimes.) Then get drunk enough that you'll end up with the worst hangover you've ever had. Then get your mates to wake you up at sunrise, then it's time to take the test again, except this time your mates will all yell the questions at you. Will you be able to get the same score as before? If not, why not? Surely you can 'choose' to buck yourself up and score even better than before! No? Actually, thinking about it some more, you could do this experiment with extreme sleep deprivation rather than binge drinking if you want to be responsible.
The latest science on free will suggests that it can take up to 7 seconds between your brain unconsciously making a decision and you becoming consciously aware. While I'm still skeptical and am pretty sure that there will be lots of new revelations in this field, if I were to speculate, then if the final step in your method of choice to take your life takes less than 7 seconds, then your conscious mind hasn't even had a chance to show up to their son's Corey Worthington-style party and kick every spoilt dipsh*t out. If someone says that for the brief time that it took, they felt they had no control over their actions, there is some science to back this up.
It may be that some recommendations may come out by mental health professionals with practical tips for greatly reducing the chance of the worst happening to you or your loved ones. I'd be guessing that this could include recommendations like not walking over high bridges, not driving by yourself, and not having guns in the house. But don't take anything I say as professional advice because I don't know shit. Go and see someone who knows what they're actually talking about!
To end on a brighter note with a conclusion that has little to do with the rest of the article, ISIS are a terrible doomsday cult, sure, but how many Australians have been killed by ISIS this year? And Jaws is a great movie and all, but sharks only kill somewhere between 1 and 4 people a year in Australia, so should we really be so afraid that the media feels the need to report on every shark attack, even where there have been no injuries! I'm not saying that we can only care about one issue at a time, but can we possibly be a bit more balanced and actually dish out news with at least a hint of proportionality to risk and relevance to the public?
What about an IS laser shark?
It seems to be the done thing to put numbers at the end of these kinds of musings, so I'll copy from the linked article. Should we also do the same for lots of other stories where it might encourage victims, and perhaps even perpetrators, to get help? "If you would like to speak to someone about depression or mental health call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or visit the Headspace website."
