What Is A Blog?

Succinctly, it is the official publication of whoever publishes it.  That is a matter of record -- of their thoughts, and how they think.  As such, there are no "shoulds" as to how it should be, or must be -- but is, whatever one can imagine it to be -- good or bad.  One cannot "fake" a blog.  It is, what the person is -- really, and for that reason, many do not blog -- because it would reveal their true thoughts.  Many others will start blogs, and then erase everything they previously published, because they don't want to be known by it.

Many, instead of telling you what they think -- tell you what you ought to think -- about them, that they are "award-winning," "world-acclaimed" and some such.  They have merely taken a page from the "mainstream mass media" in that way -- of telling us what we ought to think, and not just laying out the facts of how they came to think as they do, and letting us think for ourselves, and come to our own conclusions.

Instead, they claim to do all the thinking for us, or know those people who should, and are duly-authorized to do so exclusively for everyone else. So once we are aware of all these deceptions, intimidations and manipulations, we can read any blog (publication), and learn the true intent of the authors -- which may range from the genuine desire to share information (discoveries), or reveal the single-minded (and shameless) intention to exploit all those less competent, or attentive than themselves -- as the continuation of the primitive struggles of a more brutal and ruthless times.

Thus some blogs will stand the test of time, and endure, while many will be disowned and purged, as soon as the authors themselves realize the folly in revealing everything they know, and how they are undone at their own hands.  It further reveals, what they think of those they have written these words for -- whether for the most unwary, or for the most diligent, aware and attentive -- or the supreme intelligence in the universe, ie., God, and therefore is their ultimate dedication to the greatest they are capable of.

In this way, it becomes their fullest and greatest expression of who they are, and what they know -- as the achievement of their worthiness for entrance to even higher callings.  They have demonstrated in this very obvious expression -- the highest intelligence they are capable of understanding -- and expressing, and there is no other -- if the truth be known.  There is not some vast storehouse of wisdom and knowledge that they know -- but cannot express, communicate, and demonstrate palpably to another -- though they may claim to possess it -- known only to themselves.

Conveniently, a group known in former times as the Scribes, would offer to bridge this chasm of what such people claimed to know (Pharisees), and how they could convince the masses that they actually knew something, and were in direct communication with the highest authorities, and spoke for them, on every matter.  They later became institutionalized as the "academics," and then with the printing press, the "publishers" and "the media" -- or those who had the means or access to these presses.  

Undoubtedly, information was more widely available than it ever was before -- when all writing had to be individually hand-transcribed by people largely dedicated to that purpose.  That was the creation of the original universities -- when one person in authority and presumably knew, would lecture to a roomful of students (novitiates), to copy word for word as they spoke -- as best they could. Even then, all books did not come out identically.  Many had fancy doodlings in the margin -- waiting for the rest to catch up, so everybody could move on -- to the next passage, in this lockstep fashion.

So the printing press was quite an advancement in the production and reproduction of the original ideas -- as true to how they were originally expressed.  The next advance is in distribution -- because even if one has mass quantities of anything -- getting them to the right people who can use and appreciate them, is another matter entirely -- or at least, used to be.  The revolution in any field, is when the many things, become only one thing -- subsuming all the others.  In writing, that is when the printing becomes the distribution in the same act -- and not that one has warehouses of books one wonders what to do with, and how to market, and manifest value from them.

Probably the great majority of words printed, did not find find the proper targets -- as they were randomly and broadly distributed, hoping to find the few, and hopefully the many, who would value that information greatly, if not desperately.  But even the most valuable, gets drowned out by the sheer mass of the offerings and appeals -- thinking to achieve their own agendas, whatever that may be.  Many hope to leave their mark in the world, in this way.  Simply that they existed -- even if for no good reason or purpose.  Wild animals do the same -- by urinating and defecating to mark their territory, and let the world know they are there -- and claim the turf.

Presumably, they communicate a lot of information in that way -- about what they eat, and importantly, how much they eat -- so that one knows what they are dealing with, and whether one should throw their lot with that pack, and whether they are the prey or predator.  Written communications do the same -- much more efficiently, because no physical material is actually needed to represent it as they are in words, images and symbols denoting that -- to those who have learned those tools of language -- and how to use them expertly precisely -- to express all they know.

Better or Worse?

Better or worse?

That is always the question.

In everything one does, the measure of what one is doing, and how well they are doing, is whether they are better or worse for their efforts.  If they continue to get worse, then they should do something else, and not just continue what they are doing, hoping the results will be different.  However, if they get better, one should continue with what one is doing, until one gets worse.  That seems to be an infallible guide in life.

That is true at anytime in life, but particularly so when there seems to be irreversible worsening with no cessation in sight.  At that point, one should be desperate for any other solution -- but the course they have been traveling.  That should be obvious to anyone, doing anything -- but especially so to those who are overwhelmed by their difficulties.

Just as obvious, should be the advice -- to make things even more difficult and complicated -- because what is needed first, is the return to simplicity, and the simple.

Most people's poor health is caused by the fact that they do nothing to promote their own good health -- while doing many things, to subvert that good health -- such as overeating, and no longer exercising any of their faculties except their imaginations that they are doing everything possible, and even that they are the ONLY person in the world doing anything -- by worrying and complaining about it.  In their world, somebody else should do something to make them healthy again -- and not that they can ever do anything for themselves anymore.  That is at the root of most health problems -- that just get worse, if nothing is done, to alter that course.  

Decline, deterioration, injury and death, are inevitable and predictable, and not merely a cruel twist of fate -- that everyone is as equally vulnerable to, despite what they do.  That way of thinking, and perceiving the world and all that happens, is the cause of most of the problems people feel afflicted with, and not realizing they are bringing upon themselves -- often with "expert" and "professional" help.

Most people don't have to consult their physician or registered dietician, to eat less or change their diet for the better.  Neither do they have to consult their physician or "certified" personal trainer to take a walk -- or join a gym, and then exercise in whatever manner gives them the best results -- even without personal supervision and instruction.  Most of what they need to know, they can just learn by observing others, and deducing what is appropriate to do.  That is a time-honored tradition of learning anything -- that one has a chance to first observe and see if anything being done makes sense, and decide whether they also want to do it -- instead of being driven to it from the moment one enters, to the moment one cannot go on any longer -- as though there was some kind of ancient wisdom in that.

Actually, the best learning, is just to observe, without any compulsion or coercion to join in and go along, but if things make sense and people seem to be enjoying what they are doing, to join in on whatever level one feels up to, and desires to continue.  That usually indicates that one feels better, and is getting better, and to other observers, look better doing so.  So there is this immediate confirmation of reality and sensation coming together in a comprehensive and integrated whole -- observable and verifiable by everyone, and not just a few self-designated experts.

Even doctors and athletes die or get injured (most do), which may indicate their fallibility as experts on health matters.  Some doctors smoke, and many athletes will take drugs to improve their short-term (one-time) performance -- at the risk of their longterm health and well-being -- that invariably shows up and impacts their health in later life.  Often for that reason, many die prematurely, before they can fully manifest the devastating, detrimental results.  Most of the time, it is obvious -- in painful movement that eventually results in minimal movements -- and when that happens, the prognosis for recovery is not good, because it is the proper functioning and exercise of one's capacities, that maintain and increase their capabilities.

That is the value of exercise -- and conditioning oneself to get better -- that becomes a way one does everything, including getting older.  The problem is that many get older, but they do not get better, or wiser -- but seem to spend a prolonged period in life, getting worse -- which is not inevitable, obviously, for everyone.  A few do defy the familiar pattern of aging -- which is unfortunately associated with getting older -- because everyone gets older, but only a rare few, get better as they get older -- in most of the ways we are used to assessing such changes.

It's no longer enough that a person can perform amazing feats while seeming to be in aging or declining health and appearance.  The next wave of improvement, is that many people don't exhibit most of the signs associated with growing older, and continue to get better -- with age.  That possibility exists because one has never attained their fullest actualization yet -- and not that they peaked at 18, or 28, and have been in a free fall decline ever since, which is a long time to fall, if people now live to 90 routinely.

That being the case, we have to manage life much more wisely, so that longevity represents many more opportunities to get better -- not necessarily in the same way one did in their younger years.  But that means the discovery, of ways they were not aware of before -- before they grew so wise.  That used to be the meaning of age -- the wisdom obtained in that longevity, and not just minimal vital signs maintained for as long as possible -- with no other consideration for these quality of life issues, and their measurement.

But now that many, if not most, live to a ripe old age because there are no wars, famines, diseases, disasters and hardships to cut down vast swaths of the most vulnerable, individuals have to take it upon themselves to define a higher meaning and purpose for their own lives -- beyond being kept alive at the most minimal levels of that possibility, and when it is the proper time to move on also.

The Noncomformist

The objective of mass societies and mass media, is to get everybody thinking and doing the same thing -- as ends in themselves, whether those activities and values are productive and effective or not.  The sole objective, is that everyone is onboard with it -- because that is what determines "right," and not any other truth or measurement.

That also is what exhibits the power of mass media and mass societies -- that they can get everybody to go along with that "consensus" -- as that agreement becomes the truth, despite any other indications otherwise.  That is the power of the socialization (indoctrination) to go along, to get along -- that many are convinced, is the "only game in town."  One simply must go along with what everybody else thinks -- and there is no else.

That's unfortunately the way exercise and conditioning activities have ridden to their popularity -- not that it works and is beneficial to their practitioners -- but that it has sold the most books and products advocating their approach, and recruited many more to their marketing scheme -- one hopes to be at the top of the pyramid in.  Whatever sells, is what they're going to do -- and there is no higher calling beyond that.

But for those for whom health matters critically and urgently, one has to distinguish commercial success and its popularity -- from the actual success of making that critical life and death difference, that profoundly alters the course of their lives -- even if seen only in retrospect.  Some of the most monumental and life-changing decisions one will make, will not appear to be so at the time of that momentous and fateful choice.  It will appear often as what one had to do -- because they had no other choice -- that turns out to be the best "decision" they ever made -- even if not meaning to.

Rather, it was the summation of all the other choices before then -- that made the present course inevitable, and irreversible -- good or bad.  It may have been the decision to never walk again -- because one felt too lazy to, and therefore lost that capacity entirely.  Conversely, one often realizes one has movement and that capacity, when one tries it for the first time and amazes themselves that they just performed the "impossible" -- as though that movement was made for them.  Shortly, they did not want to do anything else -- as their favorite activity.  It seemed so right, even if nobody else felt that way too.

In time, many others will feel that way also, but initially, one doesn't need that validation from others to know the joy and truth of such a discovery.  It is enough that one has discovered it for themselves, and for that, one is a very fortunate person in the world -- because they know that feeling and experience.  Many others unfortunately, do not grow up experiencing such a moment in their lives -- of utter fulfillment, but instead go through life in a perpetual haze, of never knowing anything for sure -- in the murky soup that has become their lives.

Nothing is ever as it seems, or so they were led to believe -- and they are always led, never being at the forefront of these discoveries.  They are always the last to know about anything, yet hope someday to be the first -- but that is all they can do -- is hope.  They are not out there, making the difference.  That is the consummate "organization man," though they fancy themselves as a swashbuckling independent.  They don't realize, all they have never questioned -- in their desire to believe, like everybody else does.  That, to them, is the promised land, the middle class paradise -- of being like everybody else, thinking like everybody else -- and to be precisely at the middle of every curve.

That is the tyranny of the masses -- and the mass society, that makes it clear, how one should be at every point and time.  Who determines that?  What does that matter?  It is enough, that everybody think it so -- for that is their only "truth," and not what each can discover for themselves, by themselves -- as the meaning and purpose of their own lives.

Survival of the Fitness

Most people are familiar with the term, "survival of the fittest," but few people are aware of the concept of "survival of the fitness" -- which has much greater long term impacts and implications -- that will stand the test of time as something wise to do, with survival throughout the ages, as its measure of validity -- rather than a short term battle over what seems to be the prize, which may be misguided.

It is when the two come together, that one can proceed with confidence, and put all their heart and chances into it -- because nothing else makes more sense, if any sense at all.  Throughout much of life though, it often seems that there is an eternal struggle of one against the other -- never seeming to align, and so one is never clear about staying on that path for long, but is quickly distracted onto another.  Life then seems to be endless distractions -- luring one this way and that, for the prize that seems to move further away, if not to reveal itself as merely an illusion and delusion -- in a life ticking down.

In past centuries, hundreds of millions never got a chance to live to a "ripe old age" -- being cut down by wars, famine, disease and natural disasters, and so we never had to ask that question, "What do we do when many do live to a ripe old age?"

That is uniquely the challenge of our times -- when wars and other calamities no longer eliminate the weak, and even the most vulnerable, can live to a ripe old age -- even at the expense of taking everyone down with them.  In many places, that has become the law -- that none can move any faster, than the slowest person in that society -- thinking that is what an enlightened and compassionate society must do.  People then, are even encouraged to become less able -- because that is what is rewarded, while stubborn independence and self-reliance, are no longer "tolerated."  That is the mandate of the new "tolerant" society -- everything is tolerated, except the deviance from that norm, and the conformity to the group-think, or what we call "popular."

That is to say, that nobody can have any idea, that isn't already held by everyone else -- as what everyone should think.  Therefore, nothing new can ever be thought, because the only thoughts that are allowed and approved, are those that already are popular -- even if they are totally wrong, because favorability is what makes them right, and not individuals thinking independently for themselves.  And because popularity rules the day, those who run the fastest in that crowd, will be proclaimed as the "fittest," while ideas that endure the ages, will demonstrate their "fitness" -- despite once being shunned and banned, as the ideas that should not be thought.

That has be true for as long as humans can remember -- and the cause of many wars, famines, diseases and disasters -- that no longer cull the population.  Yet many will fall victim to their own choices -- as their right to life -- and the ignorance perpetuated by others to keep them at that disadvantage, as a basic reflex in many people, despite their avowed "good intentions."  So the inquiring mind asks, when is the fittest, not necessarily the fitness in the long run, in the bigger picture of things?

That obviously, is when people risk their lives for a moment of glory and supremacy, only to perish in the next.